Worlds Beyond: Shattered (ON HOLD)

Chapter Eight

"You saw Adrian's ghost?!"

I sighed in exasperation, trying to explain what I had seen for the tenth time.

Cain, Cecil, Jaden and I were sitting down one of the garden trees outside our building. I figured I had to tell them about it, because what I saw yesterday was more than just something I thought I saw in the middle of the dance floor with a couple shots down my throat.

No, I saw Adrian's ghost as clear as water, and sober. It didn't matter if they thought I was insane by now. I couldn't keep something like this from them. I sent them a text to meet up an hour before our usual meeting time, as I was unsure it'd be safe to tell this to Mike or not.

"Are you sure it wasn't just the aftermath of the event getting to you?" Cecil asked warily, clearly not believing a word I was saying. He sat opposite to me wearing his usual snug jeans and brown dress shoes with a black-navy sweater under a brown coat, given the air felt extremely cold still. His platinum hair was loose today, falling down his back in silky locks and for once, his bangs weren't hiding his right eye. He held them back with two hairclips, those celestial blue eyes of his looking at me skeptically.

Cain sat at his right, elbow on his knee and cheek resting against his knuckles. He wore a white turtleneck under a black coat, brown boots, black snug jeans and a matching beanie over his messy auburn hair finishing off his attire. Jaden sat right next to me in utter silence, wearing his usual black on black outfit, a long sleeved shirt under his silver snakes-decorated sleeveless hoodie, black leather pants and buckled boots. I decided to go with a red knitted sweater over a long white shirt, a black jacket, tight black jeans and my usual ankle boots that added just a little to my height.

"Yes, Cecil, I'm positive," I grunted tightly to his question, taking a deep breath to regain my temper, because snapping at them wouldn't help at all, pausing for a moment to rub at my arms nervously, "Uhm... there's something else. Just the other day, at Garry's memorial, I heard something. I thought it was just someone pranking me, but it's obvious now things happen for a reason, it wasn't a coincidence. Uhm, I heard a male voice. He said, someone was coming, to run and get away from here."

There was a short silence afterwards and I allowed them to let that information sink in. Cain looked more serious now, frowning thoughtfully. Cecil seemed to be thinking hard about it too, rubbing at his chin with his arms folded over his chest. Jaden was awfully quiet though, his gaze downcast, glaring at the orange leaves-filled grass. His amber eyes had darkened considerably, as if remembering something awful. His face was stoic apart from that, no emotions showing on his handsome greek face.

"Well that's weird," Jaden said at last, his serious tone present, meaning he wasn't in the mood to mess around at a time like this, "Since when can you see dead people?"

"Mmm... since that frat party. Although, it was probably the alcohol back then. I saw a boy with Cain but, that's about it. Adrian was the second one."

"Dude, I'm getting the chills here," Cain drawled with an exaggerated shiver, "You saw like, what, a boy creeping on me?" I hesitated at that. I remembered the way that boy had looked at Cain, the way he watched him with love and admiration, and the way he kissed his cheek... I could faintly remember his pretty features, his dark chestnut hair, soft blue eyes the same shade as Cain's, and the way he looked so similar to him.

"Uhm, yes. Some random boy that watched us and then he left," I lied, deciding it was best not to explain my vision in case it triggered something inside Cain, and who knew who that boy even was, "Nothing else happened." Cain narrowed his eyes slightly at my brief words and I hoped he didn't see through my lie.

"Any other weird things you've experienced lately?" Jaden asked me. I frowned.

"Well, now that you mention it, this is probably nothing either but, you know about my nightmares Jay. I had a new one the day classes started. It was different, and it felt odd..."