A Pocket Full of Posies (Book 1)

Chapter Three

If I didn't know any better, I'd honestly think I spent last night ingesting acid, not alcohol. My throat is killing me. I'm graced by the presence of Annabel at the end of my bed, who doesn't look the slightest bit like she wants to brutally murder me. I'm about to roll my eyes at her and tell her to relax when the events of last night flood my mind. Seeing my mother's face, hearing her voice, Ava, that--that thing. I jump up in my bed, and all at once I'm fully awake.

"Did you see that thing last night?" is the first thought I manage to transfer into words. "And Mum, she--I, what was that thing?"

Annabel narrows her eyes at me. "What the hell are you on about? You went haywire last night, y'know?"

In an attempt to straighten out my thoughts, I get out of bed and sit down onto the chair beside my desk. Everything still makes no sense. I spin around so I'm facing Annabel, whose big eyes and white face look the most perplexed I've ever seen them.

"Sorry," I finally say. "I--When I was at the party, when I was talking to Carmen, there was this thing in the corner of the room and--I--I don't even know, it was freaky as shit, Annabel. Its eyes were black and it was following me. Didn't you see it?"

She slowly shakes her head. "I'm beginning to wonder if you actually just had a psychotic episode here, Felix."

I'm barely making any sense, am I? I shake my head. If Annabel didn't see that thing, then it can't have been real. If it had any relation to the spirit world, she would've been aware of it, and it sure as hell wasn't related to the living one. Maybe I just drunk something bad, or someone thought it would be funny to spike my drink. But then what about my mum?

"Were you there when Ava was doing her mystic mumbo-jumbo with me?" I ask, to which Annabel nods. "Okay, so this'll sound crazy but I saw something. It was like a dream, except I was fully awake, and--"

"So like a vision? Oh, awesome, maybe you're getting superpowers."

"Stop making it sound all fun and exciting, it was creepy as shit," I mutter. "Whatever it was, I saw our mum. I heard--"

"You saw Mum?" Annabel's eyes are huge, practically the size of her head.

Her memory of life before the accident is just as bad as mine, so it doesn't surprise me that this amazes her. It was a bit odd for Annabel to have forgotten everything; while the majority of spirits aren't aware they're dead at first, they rarely forget who they are.

I nod. "Yeah, I heard her speak, she was... Shit, what was she saying?" I struggle to bring the memory to the surface. "She was telling me not to look at something."

"How sure are you that you weren't hallucinating?"

"Honestly, not very."

Annabel goes to say something else, but is interrupted by a swooshing sound. It isn't until Tom is standing in front of me with an enormous smirk slapped on his unshaven face that I realise the sound was my door opening. A knock would've, y'know, been nice. He has a red apple in his hand, and he's wearing nothing but a pair of white briefs. Annabel is gawking at him, while I'm trying not to throw up.

"Hey mate! Heard you freaked out last night," he says. He bites into the apple, and it's really damn loud. "A few of us are heading over to campus to check out the freshers' fair in half an hour or so, if you fancy it."

"Dress code isn't strict, I take it," I attempt to joke, motioning to his underwear.

He doesn't get it.

It's an unusually warm September morning, and the university has an alluring charm I couldn't see in the February rain when I visited on an open day. A few of my flatmates have sunglasses perched on their noses, and Ava has even brought along what she referred to as a parasol, but I think it's just a fancy umbrella. She's walking ahead of us, almost skipping slightly, and it's clear no one knows what to really make of her.