Haunting

Panic and Memories

Hello! I know that this chapter is really late, but it's extra long to make up for that. I haven't really gotten much feedback for this story on this site yet (I also post this on Fictionpress under a different username), so I'd really love some. Votes/comments would be very inspiring!

Enjoy the chapter :)

Pic is of Evan Crowley -->

Tally was catatonic, Evan realized. He was intimately familiar with the sensation and the types of situations that could lead to it- he’d dealt with it himself many times before. Whoever this Callan person she had heard about on the phone was obviously important, but just in what way Evan wasn’t sure. Why did Tally seem so afraid of seeing Callan? Then Evan shook his head. He knew there could be numerous reasons a person could be terrified of someone else- again, an area he himself had plenty of experience in. The difference was that Evan had managed to physically leave those people behind him in London, whereas the people Tally was afraid of appeared to be unwilling to be left behind.

“Is she okay? Oh my God, she’s barely even breathing, and she won’t snap out of it!”

Mia was frantic, flapping around Tally like the mother hen Evan knew her to be. Shay was pacing too, his face a mask of twisted anxiety, Toby was kneeling in front of Tally trying to catch her attention with claps and waves. Nat and Eimear seemed worried too, discussing with anyone who would listen whether or not they should get help from the school. Nick and Kit stood side by side, identical expressions of morbid curiosity painted on their faces. Evan thought for a moment that he glimpsed a flicker of something in their eyes, and a shiver ran down his spine. It was…sympathy. Like they too knew what it was like to carry so much on your shoulders that you just fell apart for a while.

That disturbed Evan. For so long, for so many years, that had been his life- bearing numerous burdens and regularly falling apart because he just hadn’t been able to take it any more. He had been so close to suicide, to just ending it all in one beautiful fall from a busy bridge, but others had taken that choice from him and decided to kill him themselves, or at least take a serious stab at it. That turn of phrase amused Evan no end- one of them had literally taken a stab at murdering Evan, and had been damn close to succeeding. But then Nat and his father had adopted him, taken him away to a safe place and given him a fresh start.

It didn’t look like Nick or Kit had gotten much of a chance to get over whatever it was that had happened to them. Evan just had a radar for these kinds of things, and he hated it. He cared for Nick enough to want the best for him, and Kit was a good friend who protected Evan and Toby from bullies, so he deserved the best as well. However, this wasn’t something Evan should be thinking about- wasn’t something he should dwell on. There were some things that had to remain buried, things Evan could only allow himself to remember in his dreams. Being a strong person only worked for him if he could try to pretend to be a completely new person, one that came to be only about nine months ago. He had to stay calm, focus on something else. Life sucked.

Tally, finally snapping out of her catatonic state, much to Mia’s obvious relief, appeared to share that sentiment. “Fuck my life,” she groaned, covering her face with her hands as she knelt on the grass, the phone lying forgotten at her knees, having slipped from her grasp. It was an odd choice of phone for a girl, Evan thought absentmindedly- black body with a navy back cover, complete with obviously old skull-and-crossbones sticker that were half-scraped off. The screen was also badly damaged and cracked in several places, suggesting that it had been stepped on more than once, which struck Evan as odd, seeing as how tally always appeared to be very careful with her possessions. It very much resembled a boy’s phone.