A Pocket Full of Posies (Book 1)

Chapter Eighteen (Part 1)

By the time we arrive back at the flat, I feel like a spring chicken again. That was by far the most extreme reaction I'd had to one of those things--I assume because I had physical contact with the creep--and I was a little anxious I'd end up maimed for life. But hey, I feel fine.

Carmen's eyes were glued to me the whole walk home, and I almost had to physically restrain her from calling a cab to take us back because she was worried I would, I don't know, start foaming from the mouth or something. Once we're inside I flop myself onto one of the sofas, which is now ten times lumpier than it was at the beginning of the academic year, while Carmen stands over the kitchen island. She's still watching me carefully.

"I'm not gonna die, I promise," I joke, to which she rolls her eyes.

"Have you been to the doctors about these migraines?" she questions, half ignoring my comment.

I shrug, but follow it with a yeah because I figure that's probably the best response to give. Carmen nods, but her lip twitches slightly while her eyes narrow. I'm pretty sure she doesn't believe me, which unnerves me a bit because I'm usually quite the liar.

After pouring a glass of water, she wanders over and sits beside me on the sofa, then gestures it to me. I raise my eyebrows at her, which she challenges with a smirk and another shove of the glass in my direction. I decide to humour her, so take it from her hands, and down the water in the matter of seconds.

"You should've done a medical degree, you're on the way to curing cancer here, mate," I say with the cheesiest of grins, ensuring to make my sarcasm obvious.

"Oh, piss off." Carmen punches my side.

"Hey, screw you, I take that back," I mutter, rubbing my ribs.

"Seriously, Felix, you should get it checked out," she replies, the joking tone in her voice having disappeared completely. "Even if you have genuinely been before. It's not right."

Annabel has appeared by now, and probably for the first time ever, I actually want Carmen to be the one to leave. I say something about going to have a nap, which seems to please Carmen, and head into my bedroom. Once inside, Annabel hits me with the avalanche of questions I expected.

She asks what I saw in the vision, if what was happening was before or after my previous visions, how she saved my arse, what I saw of Dad, of Mum. Everything, really. Once answered, Annabel is quiet for a long time. So long, in fact, that by the time she speaks again, I'm lying on my bed on the edge of sleep.

"Good and bad spirits," she says, snapping me out of my doze.

"Huh?" I question, still lying down.

"The light and darkness you see in your visions. It's obvious. We're imbeciles for not realising it before."

"What, you think it was some kind of battle between good and bad dead guys?" I ask, to which Annabel nods. "That's some Harry Potter type shit. Why though?"

"That I don't know."

Annabel opens her mouth and looks like she's about to say something else, but quickly snaps it shut. Her eyebrows furrow, and her thinking face is switched on. I'm still feeling kind of hazy after my partial nap, so shut my eyes again without really thinking much about what Annabel just said. In fact, after a minute or two, I start forgetting what it was she even said. Something about dead people, I don't know.

"What if you could always do this?" she pipes up again, and this time, I sit up.

"Huh?"

Annabel rolls her eyes at me. "See spirits," she replies like I'm dumb. "We've always assumed the crash is what sparked your abilities, but what if it's your abilities that sparked the crash?"