Facing The Reaper

V

There seemed to be something in the air, like a cloud floating through the neighbourhood. Two days after the boy stopped showing up by the side of the tree, one of the houses down the street started to become more and more decorated with a mass of flowers, sympathy cards and even little teddy bears. As I walked past on my way to school, I saw his photo amongst all the flowers that lined the gate. There was a card amongst it all as well, with a simple white flower on the front and a small message beneath it which read:

Dear Eddy,

You will be sadly missed, I hope you are out of pain, and that you are able to rest in peace now. We will always miss your smile and energy, and the way you lit up a room when you walked into it. You are with Suttie and Grandad now.

I hope the angels take good care of you,

Love always, Auntie Marnie.

I put the card back amongst the flowers and continued my way to school. I remembered the boy's face when I last saw him and compared it to the one in the photo. He looked so much frailer; his skin was almost translucent with how frail he was. The boy in the photo had rounded cheeks and thick curly brown hair. Nothing like the little bot with thinned out hair and prominent cheek bones that had stood staring up at the cat in the tree.

It was that face that haunted me as I reached the crossing, and it would no doubt stay buried in my mind for the rest of the day. The hair on my arms and the back of my neck were all standing on edge and a trail of Goosebumps ran along my skin. I almost forgot to check the roads before crossing over and could barely register the words coming out of my friend's mouths as I reached them. I was looking around everywhere for black cats and butterflies with bright red patches across them. I waited for the chill sweeping across me to fade away and for the feeling of being watched to pass, but neither of those happened.

As I got to the other's I noticed that Conner was looking more annoyed then usual and Dylan was just stood scuffing his shoos across the pavement. Scott was stood facing Dylan, his arm slung over Dylan's shoulder and as I approached them, Conner jumped down from his perch and we all walked towards are classed in silence. It was a tense and unnatural moment for our group, I waited until me and Conner got to our seats and the others had headed towards their own tutor groups before breaking the silence.

I turned in my seat to look Conner's way and punched him lightly on the arm to get his attention. "What was that about? It was like walking into a funeral home."

"Dylan found out about me and Lucy." Conner said shrugging his shoulders and flicking through a textbook that he obviously wasn't reading.

"How? Who told him?" Conner gave me a look and raised his eyebrows at me like it should be obvious, which I guess it was. "Morgan?" He gave a smirk as confirmation and continued to flick through his book.

"Not that were even a thing anymore. Once Morgan started poking her nose into everything, that pretty much concluded that relationship. Which is fine, she was getting kind of needy after the whole Leslie thing anyway."

I nodded my head in a silent understanding, which was pointless considering he wasn't even looking my way. I then turned my attention back to the front of the class. I felt a new shiver run down my spine, this one however was due to the death glare that Lucy was giving off as she walked into tutor right before the bell and took her usual spot next to Conner. The silence continued as we waited for tutor to end so we could head to our next class.

Mr Crossford stood waiting at the front of our history class. He was one of the oldest teachers at our school but had more energy than most of the students who took his class. As he walked around the room, He dumped a textbook on each table for us to pair up and read through.