Souls Of The Innocent

Chapter Three: Nightmare at school

Amber sat down in the school cafeteria with her hoodie pulled over her head. Her eyes were focused on her lunch which had been left untouched in front of her on the table. She sat all alone in a corner of the school cafeteria and since she had come back to school, she felt like that place had been reserved only for her and no one else wanted to sit at the same table as her, even if there were four empty sits. They were all avoiding her as if she had the plague.

Two weeks ago when she had walked down the school hallway, it was the first time that she had gotten so much attention in all of her school years. Everyone stopped minding their own business just to stare at her and she could hear her name floating in their whispers. She felt like everything had been put in slow motion, even if she had wanted to move a little faster she couldn't even lift her feet as she dragged herself down the school corridor to her history class. The students were not the only ones who had been giving her the weird look, she was even getting the same unpleasant attention from her teachers. The only person who had been nice to her up to now was the school Principal, Mrs. May. She had sent the school counselor to check up on her every now and then to make sure that she was coping with all the weirdness around her. Two weeks later, today, nothing had changed, she was still getting the same pleasant treatment from everyone.

Amber slowly lifted her head and glanced around the cafeteria. She didn't like the way the other students kept glancing in her direction and they had been doing that for over two weeks and she was actually fed up! She felt as if they were judging her with their eyes. She could hear them whispering amongst themselves and most of the time the whispering ended up in echoes of laughter or name-calling. When she came back to school, until today, she would have found dozens of sticky notes and n different colors stuck on her locker. It wasn't pleasant to read hate messages every single day! Notes accusing her of being responsible for her sister's disappearance, for being jealous of Nora, and because of her jealousy she got rid of her sister. She would even read some nasty comments which state that they wish that she had been the one who had disappeared instead of Nora. At first, those words had hurt her so much that she had walked around the school with her head bowed and tears tickling her eyes.It took a while for her to get over those hurtful words and she kept saying to herself that no one had a clue about what she was going through, no one could feel the excruciating pain in her heart. Her whole life was a mess now, her home was no longer the same...her world was upside down, nothing was the same and it will NEVER go back to the way it used to be.

Grabbing her meal, Amber walked outside hoping to find a quiet spot for her to eat in peace, without judging eyes staring at her. She walked with her head bowed and hurried out as the murmurs became louder followed by the echoes of laughter and name-calling. As she walked out of the school compound she took in a deep breath and exhaled deeply. She glanced around and Amber was glad to spot an empty bench under a tree and she hurried before anyone could take the seat. As she sat down, she closed her eyes and then slowly opened them, tears rolled down her face and she wiped them with the back of her hands. She couldn't face the situation anymore, she felt alone and had no one to talk to. Even if she was seeing a psychologist it wasn't helping because she couldn't tell her everything.

There were so many things that were still tormenting her. For instance, the fact that she did see her sister on that dreadful day going to her dance class, the message that her sister had left on the answering machine, and most of all what had happened last night. She had woken up from the usual nightmare and when she had turned around to switch on the lamp on her bedside table, in the dim light coming from outside, she had noticed a girl sitting on the edge of her bed. Her back was turned towards her , she had slowly pulled herself in a sitting position and with trembling hands she had reached out to touch her . Before her hand even reached the girl , she had turned around and she was looking in her direction but her eyes were no longer there! She had shouted as loud as her throat could permit as fear spiraled through her entire body that she nearly threw up. Some things were not adding up and were scaring her out of her skin. But, she had no one whom she trusted enough to talk about what she was going through ,because she was sure they if she ever tells her parents or her psychologist about those things , they will think that she was losing her mind.

A leaf fell on her hand, she picked it up and slowly twirled it around her fingers as she got lost in her thoughts. She remembered last autumn how Nora and her had fooled around in the piles of autumn leaves which had piled up in front of their house. Nora's favorite time of the year, autumn, where she gets to dress up as anything she wanted for Halloween. " Pumpkin spice and everything nice", her favorite words when she would be standing in front of the mirror getting ready for the annual Halloween dance. She smiled and glanced over her shoulder and her smile faded away when she noticed a police car pulling up in front of the school. She stood up and watched as the police officers spoke to the security guards and then they walked inside the school through the main entrance. She grabbed her untouched lunch and put it in the waste bin and hurried towards the school’s main entrance . As she entered the hall Amber saw Eva, Nora's best friend, going towards the Principal's office and she was being accompanied by a female police officer. She wondered what was going on, why were they questioning Eva again. She tried to walk faster to catch up with them but they walked inside the Principal's office and Amber didn't dare to go inside. She checked her watch, she was already ten minutes late to her drama class and she hurried to her locker when a pair of hands grabbed her by the arms and pinned her against the lockers. She looks at the pair of hands on her shoulders and then looked up at the person's face and she was shocked to see a pair of pale green eyes staring at her angrily.

Nathan!... Amber silently said to herself.

" Why did the police asked to see my sister? Aren't they tired of questioning her ?", he tightened his grip on her shoulders as he looked down at her angrily.

Amber winced in pain but she only stared back at him in silence. She was so gobsmacked with Nathan's behavior that no words escaped her lips not even a sigh. Nathan squeezed her shoulders even harder making her come back to reality and this time a groan escaped her lips.

" Ouch!!... Can you please stop...I don't know why they are questioning her !! I am as surprised as you are to see the police here at school .. let me go you are hurting me!", she shouted at Nathan.

Nathan was the same age as her and was Eva's older brother. Yes, the same Nathan whom she had a crush on since Kindergarten and who had barely exchanged a word with her since primary school. He was now standing in front of her with anger written all over his face as he pressed her against the locker.

He gazed down at her and for a moment she noticed his expression was slowly softening and he slowly released his grip on her shoulders, but then he grabbed her again and slightly shook her as he called her a liar and she squeezed her eyes shut praying that he will stop.

Footsteps coming down the hall made Nathan release his grip on her shoulders, but before he walked away he whispered in her ears,

" I'll catch you later", he then quickly walked down the hall.

Amber slowly sat down on the floor and bowed her head, tears rolled down her cheeks and slowly dripped onto the floor. She couldn't understand why everyone was against her as if she was the one who did something to her sister. If only they knew how she missed her little sister and it hurt even more since no one had a clue about what could have happened to Nora.

" Miss Jones?", someone said her surname and she looked up to see her geography teacher looking down at her.

" Shouldn't you be in class? Is something the matter ?", she asked looking at her over her glasses.

Amber quickly stood up and shook her head indicating no . She completely ignored the teacher as she walked towards her locker to grab her history books. It was too late for her to go to her drama class hence absence without a valid excuse, she will end up in detention after school. Which was nothing new as it's been happening quite often for the past two weeks. Amber walked inside the girl's restroom and slammed her books down on the metal table which was close to the door. She flung her backpack over her shoulder and left it there on the table as well. She glanced at her watch, soon her history class would start but for her, the day has already ended. She would end up in detention for more than two hours today but she didn't care, who wanted to go home? The place didn't even feel like home anymore.

Amber looked at her reflection in the mirror and then she splashed some water on her face and neck. She had been neglecting her studies but she couldn't be bothered, life's goals had no importance for her anymore. At the moment graduating and moving on to college were the last things on her mind. All she wanted to do was skip school and without anyone knowing, try to find her sister wherever she may be. A smile slowly crept up on her lips, that what exactly she was going to do. If no one could give her answers, then she had no other choice but to find the answers herself. She glanced at her watch again and decided that she was going to stay inside the girl's restroom and then take herself to the detention class.

Amber raised her head and glanced at the old clock on the wall above the blackboard in the detention room. She find it weird that the room was awfully quiet, the only sound that could be heard was the ticking sound of that old clock’s hands . The last time that she had glanced at the clock it indicated four-thirty and she was perplexed to see it was still the same time. She turned and glanced around her. She was all alone in the room and though it was still early the room looked peculiarly dark. She stood up grabbed her bag and noticed that the teacher was still there but his chair was turned from her.

" May I leave?", she said ,but it looked like the teacher didn't seem to hear her.

" Excuse me, Mr. Fred. I'm leaving the others have gone already. I’m not staying to keep you company”, she said as she put the book that she was reading inside her backpack. She heard the sound of the chair slowly turning. She zipped her backpack and glanced up expecting to see Mr. Fred to sitting there looking at her with his usual grumpy face, but instead, she was surprised to find that the chair was empty. She moved a step backward as her heart beat faster.

" I'm still here", someone whispered in her ears and a cold shiver went down her spine.

She slowly turned around and shouted as fear clutched at her heart.