Centre of the Storm

Chapter Two: The Mysterious Girl

A/N: And that was the first chapter done! Hope you all stuck around for the second one lol

Usually, during a storm, the sound of the rain steadily drumming on the roof would get me nodding off rather quickly, but tonight nothing was able to to lull me to sleep. When I wasn't tossing and turning, I was replaying what had happened earlier, in my mind.

The storm had been completely frozen for about twenty seconds, then it had continued as if nothing had happened. And to make things even weirder, while the storm had been immobile, there had been this strange buzzing in my head.

No, buzzing wasn't the right word. I couldn't explain it, but it had felt as if power was surging through my veins, electrifying my nerves, and when it reached the tips of my fingers it had disappeared, and the storm had carried on.

It didn't seem anyone else in the building had noticed the sudden changes in the weather, they were all asleep. This I knew, because after it was over I had spent twenty minutes or so, with my ear pressed to the door of my tiny room, listening for footsteps or voices.

Without even that to distract me, my brain bought up thoughts that couldn't be ignored, memories that reminded me, strange things like these had happened to me before.

Like the time when I was maybe nine, and some of the staff took about a dozen of us to the little playground down the street, and one of the other kids had been making fun of me for something, I couldn't remember what. I think he just liked to feel superior, which was understandable, everyone wanted to feel that way when they were in the situations we were in.

He always swore that I did something to the slide, but no one believed her. I mean, I was nine, how could I possible have rigged a slide to break clean over just as he was going down it?

And then there was the time when I was fourteen, and one of the cafeteria ladies, Sheila, refused to give me anything to eat after I was three minutes late for lunch-time. A few minutes after that, when she was walking outside to smoke her hourly cigarette, the door suddenly swung back, like it wanted to gain momentum, then foreward again, slamming into her and breaking her nose.

People still talked about that, but at least this time no one thought I had anything to do with it. I had always assumed those two events were just freak accidents, the fact that they had happened to two people I had felt fury towards at that exact moment, just coincidences.
But this I couldn't ignore.

There was no way, a storm could just freeze entirely for twenty seconds, then continue as if nothing had happened. And I knew I hadn't imagined it.

After having lain in bed unable to sleep for a few hours, I heard noises that distracted me from rain stopping in mid-air and doors moving on their own. There were the familiar pitter-patter of footsteps in the hall, and I could hear voices. Was it morning already?
I heaved a sigh, and forced myself to get out of bed.

The rain had stopped about thirty minutes ago, but there had been enough of it to turn the dirt outside into mud. There were rivers of water running down the pavement and into the gutters, and even the still living trees had been bent over by the wind.

As I changed out of my pajamas and put some day clothes on, I tried to listen to some of the conversations I heard through the thin walls. I didn't hear anything exciting, but that wasn't what I wanted. I needed to know if anyone had been awake last night when storm stopped. Thankfully it didn't seem anyone had noticed.