“Hey, Abby,” a male voice greeted me from behind.
I turned around from the table to find Derrick standing behind me,
holding his lunch tray.
“Hey, Derrick,” I replied, smiling shyly.
“Mind if I sit down?” he asked, motioning to the empty spot next to
me at the lunch table.
“Sure, go ahead,” I said.
I felt a kick underneath the table and glanced across at Jess, who
was grinning widely at me. Sean, who
was sitting next to her, gave her a strange look.
“What?” he asked.
Jess elbowed him and shot him a meaningful glare. Sean got the hint and shut up. I just rolled my eyes. Guys were so not with it sometimes.
“So, what’s up?” Derrick asked, as he got situated next to me.
“Not much,” I replied.
“So, did you guys get in a lot of trouble for the whole séance
thing last night? Your parents sounded
pretty pissed, Jess,” he commented.
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah,
they were. But then the whole Sonny
thing happened, and they pretty much forgot about it. I don’t know why they were getting so anal
about it anyway. We didn’t do anything
wrong.”
“Except maybe call back the spirit of a psycho killer,” I
countered.
Jess looked at me skeptically.
“Come on, Abs, you don’t really believe that, do you?” she laughed.
I shrugged, embarrassed to admit that I actually kind of did
believe it. After all, that pointer had
moved. And none of it had moved
it. What else could it have been but
Justin Timberlake, back from the dead?
“Well, I dunno,” I said meekly.
“I know it sounds stupid, but what if really did do it? What if we really called him back?”
Sean chuckled and rolled his eyes.
“Abby, that’s not possible,” he said.
“You can’t really do that. It’s
just a game.”
“Then how do you explain the pointer moving?” I shot back.
“I don’t know. But it
wasn’t Justin, I know that much,” he replied.
“You can’t be sure of that though,” Derrick stated, adding to the
conversation for the first time. “How
can you really prove that there’s no way to call back spirits, or that Justin
wasn’t the one that moved the pointer?
It sounds pretty far-fetched, but it could happen.”
“Whatever,” Jess scoffed.
“I don’t believe it. It was just
some kind of illusion. Either that, or
someone moved it and isn’t telling the truth.”
“I didn’t,” I immediately said.
“Neither did I,” Sean and Derrick added in unison.
Jess shrugged. “Well, there
has to be some kind of trick to it. Once
people die, they die and move on.
There’s no such thing as ghosts.”
Days ago, I would have agreed with my best friend on that
one. But after what had happened last
night, I wasn’t so sure anymore.
***
The five-minute countdown until the end of the day was finally on. I
sighed impatiently as the clock on the front wall of Ms. Taylor’s Senior
English class seemed to countdown the seconds painfully slow. When Ms.
Taylor walked to the other side of the room towards her desk, I quickly turned
around in my seat and snuck a longing glace at the empty seat three seats
behind and a row over from mine. Right as I was turning around, Erik
waved at me from the seat next to Sonny’s and I quickly waved back and gave him
a smile.
“Miss Benton? Are you still with us?” the soft southern voice of Ms. Taylor
asked.
Too embarrassed to answer at the moment, I just nodded my head and looked down.
“Please stay after class, Hallie. I need to speak with you.”
I nodded again, but before Ms. Taylor could say anything else, the final bell
rang, and my classmates quickly exited the room, except for Erik, who stayed
behind to tell him me would call me when he got home from work.
“Hallie, I heard many things about what happened to Sonny last night, and I
know you would be able to tell the real story. Is he all right?”
I nodded in understanding for I have also heard many rumors about what had
happened to Sonny, ranging from a car accident, to being murdered, and to
outrageous things, like being abducted by aliens, of all things.
After I explained the events from the night before, Ms. Taylor dismissed me,
after telling me she wished Sonny well and to be careful. When I was just
down the hall from my locker, I saw a familiar figure standing nearby.
“Hey, Abs,” I greeted Abby, once I was at my locker.
“Hey, Hallie. Is there anyway you can give me a ride home today?
Mom was going to pick me up but something happened, and she can’t get
here, and neither can Dad, and I missed the bus.”
“Sure,” I agreed. “What happened?”
“They had to rush Sonny to St. Joseph’s this morning,” she whispered.
“Oh my God! Is he going to be okay? What happened?” I started to
fire question at Abby, partly in fear and anxiety.
“Well, a few minutes before class ended, I was called down to the office
because I had an important phone call, and it was Dad. He didn’t really
say much, just basically that I had to either ride the bus or find a ride home
because he and Mom couldn’t come and pick me up.”
“And?” I said impatiently. “What happened to make him go to the hospital?”
“I’m getting to that,” Abby said with a huff. “Just wait a minute.
This morning when I woke up, Sonny woke up for a few minutes and needed a
painkiller, and he was also not feeling good. Dad said that soon after I
left Sonny got worse, and Mom took him to the hospital and called Dad at work.”
“Do they know what is wrong?” I interrupted again.
“Yeah. For one, they prescribed him a different pain killer than what he
was given in the ER, and he had an allergic reaction to it. And also the
ER physician didn’t take his case of hypothermia too seriously, and it
developed into a slight case of pneumonia.
“Damn,” I cursed. “Do you know who the physician was?”
“Um, a Dr. Randall or something like that I think. Hey I wonder if he is
related to Derrick and Erik?” she asked me with a sparkle in her eye when she
mentioned Derrick.
“I dunno. Mom has mentioned him before; he is fairly new to the staff.
C’mon, let’s go find Jess and take a visit to St. Joseph’s.
Abby nodded quickly and gathered up her book bag and jacket from the floor.
A few minutes later, all three of us piled into my Honda Civic, and we
were on our way to the hospital, having no clue we would be making many trips
there in the weeks to come.
***
Jess’s POV
“Thanks for the ride, Leighanne,” I
said to Sean’s mom, as we climbed out of her car.
“No problem, sweetie. Anytime,” Leighanne replied. “Have a good rehearsal.”
“Thanks, Mom. Bye,” Sean said, and shut the door. Together, we walked towards the entrance of
the school.
It was only 7:30, half an hour before
school was due to start, but we had to be there early that morning for a choir
rehearsal. Our choir director called
early rehearsals at least once a month.
He said it was for extra practice and to build discipline because we had
to get to school almost thirty minutes early.
And that meant getting up a whole half an hour earlier, something I
hated to do.
As Sean and I headed down the hall
towards the choir room, I passed one of the Randall twins in the hall.
“Hey, guys,” he said, smiling slightly
at us.
“Hey… Erik,” I replied, hesitating
only a moment so I could check his eye color.
Hallie had told me that Erik had blue eyes, while I knew that Derrick’s
were brown.
“You’re not in choir, are you?” Sean
asked.
“Choir? No, why?”
“Cause there’s an early practice this
morning. That’s why we’re here so
early,” Sean explained. “How come
you’re here already?”
“Oh, I have an art project to
finish. It’s due tomorrow, and I’m gonna
have to hurry to get it done in time,” he said.
“In fact, I need to go get to work right now. See you guys later.”
“Bye,” I called, as he made his way
down the hall, while Sean and I continued going the other way.
***
As soon as the rehearsal was done, I
went to my locker. As I opened the
door, a black piece of paper fell out, landing at my feet.
What’s this? I wondered, bending over to pick it up. I unfolded it and narrowed my eyes, as I read
it. It was a poem, typed in big red
font.
Blood is
red,
Corpses are
blue
I’m back
from the dead
And soon
I’ll kill you
You might
think this is fake
You might
have your doubts
But soon,
very soon
The truth
you’ll find out
I started to snicker as I read it. That was sure an original prank.
“Whatcha laughing at?” Abby asked, coming up beside me.
“Look what I found in my locker,” I said, handing her the
note. “Isn’t that hilarious?”
Abby’s eyes widened as she read the sick little poem. “Jess!” she cried. “That’s not funny at all! It’s freaky!”
“Aw, come on, lighten up, Abby.
It’s just some lame joke. You
can’t take everything so seriously, you know that?”
“Yeah, but remember what we were talking about yesterday? About Justin?
What if that’s from him, really back from the dead? Think of what he could do to us!”
Abby looked so scared, I thought she was about ready to cry. But I blew it off and just laughed.
“Seriously, Abby,” I said, “it’s just a joke. Sean probably did this. It’s only fake. Nothing’s going to happen.”
Later I would begin to wish I had listened to Abby.
***