Translucent

Chapter 3: Suspicious Friend

Take Lisa with you. She'll be happier with you and him.

The faint scream echoed in the darkness. Another one followed until the two intertwined and formed an overlapping string of noises. Each noise rose higher than the other. It was a competition, a quarrel, that ended with.

I gazed at the familiar door that barred me from the heated arguments. I was safe in my own space, in my bedroom in my London flat while holding the tears. But the door disappeared, and instead, morphed into a strange ceiling–that of my new bedroom. 

The dream had recurred ever since the divorce. Nights at Nathan's London residence didn't prove to be a safer place. At this point, hearing the mysterious soft hiss calling for Aileana sounded a lot better than having to see my parents quarrelling in my dream.

The next morning, Nathan offered to drop me off at my new school. He didn't want me to get lost on the commute on the first day. Honestly, having spent almost an entire lifetime in a big city had trained me to a skilled commuter and navigate directions quickly or used a spare car of his with my newly-obtained driver's licence. But I knew he just wanted to bond with me.

I could choose to be anywhere but his car now.

The sight of Aberfeldy City Centre on the way to my new school amused me more than Nathan's babbles. To say that the City Centre was bustling was an overstatement. At least despite the quaintness and exoticism spotted in every corner, this city had a life.

Worthington Academy was a private local school in the area. Its location in the lower ground allowed warmer weather compared to up on a hill where my house stood. When I walked into the class–English class, being the first one of the day–every glance darted towards me in curiosity. I recoiled in my seat while flattening any visible creases on my uniform. I couldn't afford to look like a shame on my first day.

I had been a mess since my parents' divorce and nothing now could ever help me cope. I could only rely on my social life now.

"Hello." a blonde girl sitting in front of me turned her seat around–freckles adorned her pale face."You jist moved from London eh?"

Her Scottish accent sounded sweet.

"Yeah. How do you know?" I smiled.

"Words spread, 'f course!" she said rather excitedly. "Sae when did you arrive?"

"Yesterday."

"A Sassenach, eh?" a girl with curly black hair snapped excitedly. She had a subtler accent. "Tell me what's it like? I haven't been there though but I heard London has a lot of cute lads and cool fashion like Camden market..."

"Phoebe, please..." the blonde girl cut off. "Och ne'er mind about her, we got carried away easily talkin' about London. We've ne'er been there or seen what it's like. You should talk more about that place, alright? Anyway, I'm Lorelai, and this is Phoebe."

"Hi!" Phoebe raised her arm. "You are..."

"I'm Lisa."

"Nice tae meet you, Lisa." Lorelai said. "Hope the highland's been treatin' you well! If ye bored, we can always go tae Perth or Pitlochry just nearby."

We chatted, but it wasn't until I felt someone was noticing me from the distance, and it was quite distracting. I turned my head around, only to see a pretty yet mysterious looking girl with a jet black hair darting her glance towards me sharply. Her face was half-hidden by the English textbook in front of her, revealing only her blue eyes. Full dark bangs line up perfectly at her eyebrows. She sat in the last row at the corner. I looked back at her and it seemed she felt it. Quickly she buried her face behind her book again.

"Och, ignore her, she always does that." Lorelai whispered.

"Who?" I asked.

"Sophie Murray."

"Yeah, and she doesn't have any friends," Phoebe added, taking a glance at Sophie to make sure she didn't jerk her head out of the book. "You know what people say about her? She's pretty creepy."

Creepy? Yes, her face looked as though she kept thousands of secrets, but other than that, she was quite pretty.

"Too bad, eh? she's quite bonnie. I mean, look at 'er flawless hair! And how does she even manage to pull off those...perfect bangs!" Lorelai chirped, flicking her own hair.

"I'm sure the boys would certainly fall for her, if only she hadn't been a psychic." Phoebe scoffed.

"Psychic?" I blurted out. "As in, she can see..."

"Aye, the dead," Lorelai whispered.

"She can detect and see 'things', you know – ghosts," Phoebe whispered by the end of the sentence. "It freaks people out. One lad, Harry was walking down the quiet hallway when he came across Sophie. And you know, it was quiet and suddenly Sophie just stared at the empty space behind Harry and mouthed something to nothing. Poor Harry. He couldn't sleep for days."

"Same thin' has happened tae th' others." Lorelai added. "So I try nae to pass 'er anywhere or even look at 'er eyes."

I scoffed. Superstition was ridiculous. It's bizarre how people still believed it these days. In the twentieth-century, anything far-fetched always had a scientific explanation. Otherwise, fancy technology wouldn't have had existed.

"Well, maybe she just needs some attention." I reasoned.

Lorelai sighed. "Lis, just don't come any closer to 'er, even if you come across 'er, pretend if you don't know she's there. Well, for your goodness sake, if you don't want tae get yourself freaked out by what she could've possibly seen – somethin' that you don't."

"Yeah," Phoebe added. "And you do want to sleep at night, don't you?"

"You believe that ghosts exist?" I asked.

"Well you can say so." Phoebe shrugged.

"Has she ever scared you before with her 'sightings'?" I made apostrophe signs with my fingers in the air.

"God no!" they said at the same time again.

"Pray it ne'er happens." Lorelai said.

I cracked up. "Ghosts are a figment of people's imagination, fueled by the curiosity of how dead people would look like."

"How can you be so sure?" Phoebe asked.

"Because I've simply never seen any. Well, I would believe in ghosts if only I met one, which I'm sure it would never happen." I pointed out. "I don't believe in superstitions, so even if she tries to scare me, it won't just work on me. That lass is just desperate for attention."

I stole a look at Sophie. She returned my glance, but when she realized I was still looking at her, she quickly hid her face behind the book again.

Ghosts. Bollocks!

The class began as the bell rang. Introduction after the introduction passed as the next classes rolled by. The warm vibe this school and its people had given me a new hope – that Aberfeldy would be home. It might not be now but soon. As I walked with Phoebe and Lorelai as we quickly got closer on the break time, the dark-haired girl caught my glance across the distance. She sat down at the quiet place of the schoolyard, eating her lunch. Our gazes met briefly, except her eyes were elsewhere. She didn't look right at me.

She looked past me–and there was nothing but thin air.