The Underworld Crown (Series)

Chapter 4

I'd never believed in the afterlife, heaven or hell. Nor did I believe in ghosts, ghouls, vampires, fairies or gods, much to my father's distaste. From my view, anything that hadn't been seen and proven with scientific clarity just didn't exist. Easy. Straightforward.

It was for this reason that by the following Monday I'd managed to convince myself the séance was all a hoax orchestrated by Sarah. I hadn't managed to speak to her about it yet since she was pulling a sick day, but I had cornered Dani and Ashley earlier this morning before school started. They were adamant Sarah had no hand in the night's events, but with the three of them being such close friends, I knew I couldn't trust their words with complete certainty.

Another part of the mind – where I filed away the memories of flying tree branches and supernatural ghosts – couldn't imagine the three of them working together to organise the séance. Sure, they were gossipers and quite exclusive at school, but they weren't creative enough to pull a stunt like this.

I didn't even want to think about how the 'spirit' could have known about the Mickey Mouse costume. Not even Cammy had been inside my parents' bedroom. Since her passing, my dad had turned it into a shrine for my mother.

I looked over my reflection in the mirror of the school bathroom, desperately wishing I hadn't. My amber hair had lost all its fieriness and was matted against my pale forehead. I'd lost all of the colour from my face and my lips were dry and pallid. Even my eyes, that were so usually a bright and inquisitive blue, had lost their vibrancy.

The thin red scars on my arm from the lanterns' shattering glass caught my attention. They taunted me, daring me to believe the séance had been real.

The bell for first period rung overhead and I ran some water over my face in the hope that it would wake me up. I'd been sleeping terribly the past couple of nights, never getting more than a couple hours' of shut eye at a time. I'd resorted to staring at my laptop screen instead, going back and forth between researching spirits, and then throwing my laptop away from me.

With some reluctance, I collected my books before heading to English. I spied Cammy sitting near the back in our usual spot, not too close to the teacher, but not far enough that you couldn't see the white board.

It wasn't surprising that we had most classes together. Milton was so small it was rarer to not be in the same class. New students were hard to come by. Most people who lived in Milton only did so because the generations before them had.

Besides the Town Centre that held the necessities such as supermarkets, the mall and local stores, there weren't many hangout spots around town. That was of course, if you excluded the numerous hiking trails and outdoor scenery. 

"Hey," I whispered to Cammy, sliding into my seat. I tried to be as quiet as possible. The teacher was already scrawling something across the whiteboard. "Did I miss anything?"

"Besides the other students teasing me about the supposed 'séance' prank? Nothing." She exchanged an annoyed look with me. Since Friday night, the story had spread like wildfire, with non-believers laughing at our supposed attempts to scare the rest of the student body.

I settled in my seat and started copying down what was written on the whiteboard, feeling the curious glances of other students settle on me. By the time class finished, I was so sick of everyone's gazes and shushed whispering as they threw us secretive looks that I barrelled out of my seat and out the door with Camilla, towards our lockers.

At least I have P.E. next and I can get out some of my anger with some much-needed exercise, I thought.

I entered the code to my lock and heard it click open. I reached to open the locker, but the door swung open of its own accord, banging into the locker next to mine. I gasped and almost dropped the books clutched in my arms, looking around to see if anyone else had seen the same thing as me. No one else was around, I'd been too quick to get to my locker and Camilla's was in a different hall.