Alisa's Death

Heaven's Dust

The next day in school as Azul was making her way through the packs of wolves people referred to as teenagers she went to her locker slightly paranoid at the though of what Paul had in store for her as her payment to him. Alas he did not arrive to torment her further but as she made her way to her first period class in the sea of teenage hormone driven beasts she saw a familiar pair of eyes. That same dark brown with the same hair color staring straight at her with that piercing gaze that made chills tear through skin down her spine. Her breathing came in small puffs of insecurity and the sense of dread. The room had changed to that of black and white and everything seemed to zone into this one person and as soon as it had come it was gone. She was gone and everything regained it’s color as she shook her head clear.

She wasn’t there, Azul told herself. Paul’s being here is making you paranoid, she’s gone and what you saw was a hallucination in response to the pressure arising in your life. That’s what she told herself but she knew that she was never one to get PTSD or anything of the sort. If she hadn’t began to see her wandering around before why would she start now?

She sat in her seat seeking comfort from the lesson Mr. P was so expertly revising to the class ignoring the mop of blond hair and ice blue eyes. Finding no comfort in this once she was out of class she waited for everyone to be gone then walked out towards her next class but once again was pulled into a dark hallway that lead to the dean’s office. She met those eyes but this time there was a tight warped grip on her neck, her lungs suddenly deprived of their natural right.

“Hey,” he greeted, his grip didn’t ease even with his light tone. “Remember yesterday’s little chat? Of course you do, knowing you, you didn’t sleep all night because of it. Well you see I have this little delivery coming in and I need someone to pick it up and it oh so happens you’re the only one I trust who won’t try to sneak a line.”

“Fuck off!”

“Watch your mouth,” he growled, squeezing my throat tighter then easing enough so I could force some air down the nearly closed area. “Now I need you to get this delivery before five today and I need it in my hands by five thirty. Can you do that?”

She didn’t answer as she steered her eyes away from his angry with herself for letting herself be so weak and letting this guy push her around.

“Azul.” He used her name for the first time and that threw her off.

“Don’t say my name with that crap mouth of yours,” she splat.

“I need you to answer the question to see you understand,” he said with a hard stare.

“I understand,” she gritted out.

“Very well.” He pulled his hand away like it had suddenly been burned by her skin and she fell to the ground coughing and gripping her neck hoping the bruises weren’t too visible. “Here.”

To the ground fell two things. One was a red scarf and the other was a folded piece of paper with a name and address. She hated the tacky scarf but it wasn’t like she had much of an option but to wear it or have the billions of questions thrown at her at once. She grudgingly wrapped the rag around her neck and then held the paper tightly in her hand until it was crumpled but refused to throw it away. When she turned she saw a girl eyeing her strangely before she continued walking. She looked similar to...

Stop thinking about it, Azul ordered herself. She’s dead! Stop letting her corpse come to haunt you. Dead man tells no tale. She repeated the old saying over and over until she had forgotten about the girl and the corpse. She sat in her desk and tugged at the scarf every few seconds as if it caused her pain to wear it but did not remove it. She was caught in a daze until the loud ringing in her ears made her jerk suddenly and she realized it wasn’t a ringing in her ears more than just the loud shattering sound of the bell informing all that it was time to move on. If only she could move on, in more than one sense of course. She wasn’t approached by Paul for the rest of the day and discovered she had a single class with the girl from earlier in the day. Her name was Aby Quates, of the same age and school year. She wasn’t anything special, not an honor student or even some math whiz. Everything about her was far too average that it had Azul on the edge. She knew that she should be happy that there was someone in this world that offered the comfort of not knowing what happened in this school nearly a year ago. Someone who could offer the comfort of being normal and not sneering at the sight of her or giving that nostalgic look of pity. Yet this girl threw off the feeling of familiarity in this school, she made everything around her seem alien. Arid. As if her presence itself required to suck the life out of everything around her to keep her form.