Introducing Cassie

White Noise

Keira sat with her back pressed against the wall, the cold seeping through her thin shirt. She held the blinds open with one hand, her chin resting on the other as she watched the storm rage through the night. The rain slammed into her window, and every time the was a flash of lightening, Keira would see her own face staring back at her in the window, pale against the black night. She slid her hand along the window pane and forced the window open a few inches, allowing the cold water to splash against her skin, and the wind to howl in her ears. Sheets of paper rustled on the floor, their whispered secrets drowned out by the unyielding crashes of thunder. Her dark eyes scanned the night sky, as though she searched for something among the stars. She closed her eyes and for a moment she was back on the sidewalk all those years ago, walking with Ritchie and their mother. But that memory soon faded and her tears merged with the rain on her cheeks. She slammed her window closed and stood up stiffly, shivering. Her bare feet travelled slowly across the cold floor as she moved back to her bed, collapsing into its familiar embrace and closing her eyes. A restless and sleepless night followed. Flashes of lightening danced across her closed eyelids, and the penetrating chill kept her awake well into the morning hours.

Keira rolled out of bed the next morning into a bitterly cold day, and pulled her jumper on over her pajamas before cracking her blinds open and allowing the dull morning light to wash the room with a grey blue haze. She shuffled to the kitchen, and made a coffee, sipping it slowly as she walked back to her room. She set the coffee on the window sill with a sigh and started rummaging through the piles on the floor, looking for a clean pair of clothes, finally settling for her dark wash jeans and an old hoody. By the time she was dressed, her coffee was cold and bitter, like the oncoming day.

Keira grabbed her bag from the floor and pulled out her iPod as she headed downstairs. The building was strangely quiet, and her footsteps echoed on the stairwell as she scurried towards ground floor. Once she was outside, she could appreciate in full the intensity of the winter. An icy breeze buffeted her, pushing her back every time she tried to step forward, and the trees on the side of the road shivered, dew drops falling from their leaves and splashing onto the pavement. Keira pulled her jacket tighter against the wind and hurried down the street toward the bus stop. She got there before anyone else did, and sat alone on the cold bench staring across the busy road. A small tabby cat slunk out of the bushes near her, and darted down the footpath to some unknown destination.

Within the next eight minutes, an array of people emerged from the morning mist, and huddled inside the bus shelter, neither acknowledging nor ignoring Keira, as they waited for their bus. By the time it arrived (late, as usual) over a dozen people were loitering by the road, impatiently waiting. Everyone pushed and shoved up the steps onto the bus, wet rain coats brushing against Keira 's arms, and muddied shoes treading on her feet. As the bus jolted closer to the school, Keira's gazed out into the rainy sky, her wind wandering. A sharp turn in the road brought her back into the moment as a stranger lurched ungracefully into her space before regaining his grip on the seat in front of him. Keira edged away uneasily and it was then that she first noticed it. Her eyes hazily scanned her surroundings, and she saw people's mouths moving, but no words coming out. Traffic outside rushed by and yet Keira heard no horns or tires. People on the bus shuffled their feet restlessly, or rummaged through the contents of their bags but no sound reached her ears except for a continuous fuzzy ringing, almost like static, except that nothing was causing it. Keira licked her lips nervously and focused on two younger girls sitting close to her. She vaguely recognised them from previous bus trips. She often sent sideways glares their way as their high pitched voices were so piercing that even when she was listening to music, she could hear them giggling. Today though, she would have been thankful to pick up on those squeaky voices just for the sake of hearing something apart from her quickened heartbeat, shaky breathing, and that unrelenting buzz.

As quickly as it started, the noise cut off, and the regular background clamor met Keira's ears again. She blinked, surprised, just as Cassie slid into the seat next to her, eyes smiling from behind her wet hair.

"When did you get on?"

"Same stop as you silly, it's the only one."

"No...no you weren't there when I got on... I looked around for you but the only other students were juniors."

"Nah, I was there too,..." Cassie trailed off, gesturing with her slim hand to no where in particular.

"Uh huh..." Keira mumbled, still slightly fazed. She saw Cassie raise her eyebrows and shook her head dismissively, "I've just got a headache." She shut her eyes and leant against the cool glass of the window for the rest of the drive.