The Shadow Sisters

[E2] Chapter 5 - Hannah Cole

The world resumed as abruptly as an unpaused video. The firework, which had been frozen, popped with an almost deafening sound that nearly startled Hannah from her skin.

The rest of the show commenced, with fireworks continuing to fizz and pop as those gathered on the pier clapped and cheered.

When the show was over, Hannah remained right where she stood, even as everyone around her began to disperse. Her feet felt embedded into the wooden planks, like soft concrete had hardened around her.

She wondered what she'd just seen, what she'd just experienced.

Had she completely lost it?

Jasmine turned to her, grinning, but when she noticed her expression, she asked, "Hannah, is everything okay?"

Hannah gazed at her friends, who were all looking at her now. How did she phrase this without coming across like an absolute lunatic? "Did anything really weird just happen?"

"Anything weird?" Joe asked, puzzled.

And she could see, from the mystified faces of each of them, that whatever she'd just experienced had either been in her own head or entirely individual to her. She'd have to look it up online when she returned home.

Maybe it was perfectly normal to see the sky light up, to hear voices in your head, and have everyone around you freeze.

Maybe it was just hormonal, another part of being a teen, like spots or leg hair.

Hannah waved them off. "Never mind. It's nothing."

The others were appeased by this, but Alex, as usual, saw much more than everyone else. They approached Hannah confidentially and whispered, "Are you sure everything's okay?"

"Yeah."

"You look a little shaken."

"The fireworks were just louder than I realised. I'll be fine."

"Do you have a lift home?"

"Yeah, my Mum is going to lift my sister and I from the boardwalk, just over there."

"Well, we're going to go to the taxi stand. My Dad gave me money to see us all back. You're welcome to come too, if you like. We can request a seven-seater."

"I'd better wait for Marie. She'll be annoyed if I wander off without her."

"Understandable."

"See you at school," Stick called.

"Yeah. I'll see you at school."

Hannah waited on a bench at the very edge of the boardwalk while she contemplated the thing she'd just experienced. No matter how she angled it, it made little sense.

As the crowd continued to disperse and there became less and less people, she scanned for her sister, but there was no sign of her amongst them, nor was there any sign of her Mother on the road.

It began to grow cold, so she wrapped her arms about herself and tried to rub the heat back into them.

Finally, a familiar car pulled up, but it was not the one she'd been expecting.

It was the Black Golf that she could usually see from her bedroom window. As the car window rolled down, she saw the face of their neighbour. Robert, wasn't it?

"Hannah, isn't it?" he asked.

"Yeah. What's going on?"

He licked his lips, as if he didn't want to say, until he finally forced it out. "Your Mum's gone into hospital."