Just In Time

Chapter Three

Time is what we want the most, Death is what we want the least.

Aubrey eased up after Sarah left.

Michael and Gabby were surprisingly easy to talk to. They talked about everything from the school to the quaint little town that they had been living in since their birth.

They asked her the standard questions

Why did you move here?
How do you like it here?
How was your first day so far?

They said sorry like everyone else had when they heard about her parents death but they didn't look even the least bit startled, in fact they looked like they had been expecting it.

Aubrey was confused at first but then again she realised it had been all over the papers in town that summer.

It wasn't surprising that when they heard her aunts name they both nodded in agreement after all it was a small town, everyone knew everyone.

Aubrey asked some questions too surprisingly. She asked them about the classes, the teachers and all those small irrelevant things.

Aubrey knew better than to ask about the voices, the storm and the flower.

For all she knew it was yet another one of her pills that made the voices suddenly stop.

As for the flower she could have just imagined it like that.

Although she highly doubted it.

But Aubrey had perfected the art of ignorance. Strange things happened wherever she went and mulling over them anxiously had always proved to be pointless, so she ignored them.

The sudden onslaught of the voices had been strange though, usually they used to whisper but they had seemed genuinely panicked and scared.

Declan.

That's strange she'd heard the name before. She put her mind to it and then remembered that he was the boy whose seat she wanted to take during history.

But there was something more to his name than that.

Another thing that puzzled her was as to why on earth Michael and Gabby would sit with her. They seemed popular, Michael definitely did and Aubrey refused to believe that Gabby had no friends.

She was likeable and chirpy and couldn't be more different than Aubrey I. that way. Michael and Gabby been the same school since kindergarten, but it was a small town and that was the case with everybody.

Sarah was much more interesting, she sat with all her friends and a boy who was presumably her boyfriend but her eyes were trained on the table where all of them sat. Aubrey caught her staring a few times but she didn't look away ashamed she just stared back.

By the time lunch was over both Michael and Gabby had given her their numbers with a promise that they'll show her the entire place tomorrow.

The rest of the day passed without incident which Aubrey found relieving as well as extremely unsettling.

That night the phone rang again.

This time Aubrey didn't hesitate she jumped out of bed, she had been awake almost expecting it to ring.

She ran out to the backyard and yanked the door open and in an instant it stopped ringing.

What the hell?

She stood their staring at the phone echoing it's loud piercing ring in her head.

Why had it stopped so soon? It had barely rung four times.