Death on the Net

Chapter 10

My alarm clock woke me up and I stared at it in disbelief, Monday morning already?

I had slept all day, well I had woken up a lot but it wasn't long till I had fallen back into sleep.

I laid my head down onto the pillow, but something deep inside of me, was telling me to get up, I knew it was right because if I kept doing this, I would never get out of bed again and I would never find Grace's killer.

The only reason I wasn't dead was because I had a duty to full fill as Grace's sister.

I dressed in a daze and grabbed my bag, it felt extremely light without Graces huge over the top lunches, I didn't feel hungry, so didn't bother putting anything but an apple into my bag, before sweeping out of the open door.

When I looked at the time, which was 7.22, I decided on walking, I would be late for lesson 1, but who really cared, I know I didn't, I didn't give two tics about anything right now.

I just knew that I couldn't sit in an overcrowded bus, filled with my friends, who were all concerned about me and people who didn't even know me look at me pitifully, it happened when my parents died and Grace and I hated gaining the sympathy off everyone, it just made the wounds deeper.

I started to hum and before to long sing the words of the song I knew all to well;

"There is a castle on a cloud,

I like to go there in my sleep,

Aren't any floor for me to sweep,

Not in my castle on a cloud"

The verses dripped off the end of my tongue like liquid, the words that had been sung to me my whole life, still had the voices of my sister and mother, trapped within the lines.

I heard the school bell ring in the distance and I turned the corner to face the school.

I couldn't go into lessons looking like this, I decided finally.

I took a detour to the bathroom and splash some cool water on my face, and put some concealer over the black circles beneath my eyes, I had been asleep for 2 bloody days and my body still said I was tired!

By the end of my makeover I looked 2% better than I had before, my eyes were still bloodshot and my lips were cracked and marked from where my teeth had broken the skin.

New tear streaks were being made as we speak and there was nothing I could do to contain them, so I make my way to my first class, a handful of tissues situated in my pocket.

When I entered the room after knocking, I took in all of the shocked expressions, especially miss's, obviously she had just told the class I would be taking time off, no doubt she knew about my sister.

"Sorry I'm late" I muttered as I walked to my seat in the back row, everyone's eyes were on me, and as soon as miss had taken her attention off me and turned to the computer screen, groups of small conversations began, knowing that I was the topic of many, I decided not to join in.

I sat back in my chair and stare out the window across from me, dark clouds were beginning to form, giving us all a warning that winter was on its way.

But winter meant snow and snow meant Christmas, and this Christmas will be the Christmas I spent alone, the Christmas my sister died.

A telephone rang out and Miss Harper ventured to pick it up, the pupils continued to chat and I let the background blur into nothing but sound around me, as my focus was back outside.

"Miss Smith? Are you with us?" the usual mean teacher asked me sympathetically, I stretched out of my slumped position on the chair and replied, "yes, sorry miss" I yawned into the back of her hand and tried to pay attention to the teacher.