Haunt || Matty Healy

Nine.

        

Matty Healy has injected himself into my group of friends and no one is saying a word about this, in fact, this is apparently completely normal. He follows me to each of my classes and while I'm still on edge, I'm more annoyed than anything. None of my teachers seem to notice him, and if they do, they don't seem to care. He even raises his hands and answers some of the questions while I gape at him and his stupid glittery hair.

"Hey Matty," Zack, or Zane or whatever his name is who sits behind me in my English class, greets casually, "I can't wait to see your set on Friday!"

Matty smirks, draping his arm over the back of my chair, "Yeah? It's going to be killer." I roll my eyes, and huff, slumping in my seat. Somehow, when Matty had been scaring me repeatedly throughout the day seemed better than him trailing me nonchalantly.

"Tubby," Seven greets when he arrives to class. He lifts his hand for a high-five and I almost miss. He nods his head at the demon next to me, "Matty, what's up."

I respond before Matty can because quite frankly, I'm tired of his stupid voice. "Nothing, we're good; how are you feeling?"

"Better," he smiles and sits in front of me, twisting his body slightly to face us. Zane/Zack prattles lightly to Matty about his band and I try to have a normal conversation with one of my best friends. My best friend who tried to kill me while under the influence of the thing beside me, and coincidentally, while he can't remember that day, I can remember it all too clearly. Ironic, seeing as I don't even know what happened yesterday. Did I even show up to school? What was it that was so frightening that I begged Matty Healy to erase my memory? Was it that bad if he's now my bodyguard?

"Bodyguard?" Matty muses lightly, leaning forward on his desk to see me more properly. His conversation with Zane/Zack is long done and Seven has turned his head. Seven stretches in front of me and I make a show of ignoring Matty, paying attention to the blurred vision of Seven pulling his hoody up and leaning against his desk. "Hmm," Matty hums, and I jump when his frigid fingers trail up my arm, "I like that, princess."

I shrug his fingers off of me and hold my elbows to my body, fighting to stay warm, as it seems his touch has stolen the heat from me. "What else are you doing here," I whisper-yell at him, not daring to look at him. He shrugs.

Our teacher finally walks in and I feel just slightly at ease, knowing there was some sort of authoritative figure watching over us. Although, I'm sure Matty can kill him by just blinking, but I like to believe he wouldn't try to freak me out today.

"Not today, Satan," Matty agrees, chuckling. He snickers and I watch when he leans back, eyes alight as our teacher sets up.

"Matty!" My teacher, Mr. Cohen, exclaims and I'm ready to stab my eyeballs out with my pen. "It's so good to see you, my daughter loves your band."

Matty nods, "I know, she sure showed us some love this summer."

I scrunch my nose up when I realize what he was insinuating. Mr. Cohen chuckles heartily, "Right on," he laughs, turning the SMART board on.

"Head's up, she's gonna die in thirty-eight days."

"I'll keep that in mind, now did everyone do the reading?"

I whip my head to Matty, "What do you mean she's going to die in thirty-eight days? How do you know? Are you going to kill her?"

"Nila," Matty sighs, reaching over to stroke my hair back. I'm too stunned to move away from him, "Nila, Nila, Nila, my sweet, beautiful Nila."

"What?" I say hoarsely, trying not to be affected by his sweet talk.

"Everyone's going to die," he explains. "Some people have a fixed time, as in there's absolutely nothing to stop their deaths. There might be variations of said death, but nothing will stop it from happening, hence Jennifer Cohen's set death in thirty-eight days. I knew the moment I saw her," he confesses, his story sounding morbid but his voice so whimsical. "She stood beside our tour bus and offered a 'fun' time. I'll spare you the details, but she definitely knew what she was doing," he chuckles. I cringe away from him.