Darkness Watching

Chapter Two: Growing Cold

Chapter Two

Growing Cold

 

One month later

"Ash! You've got something in the post!"

Groaning, I pulled the covers up over my head. Not now. Any time but now. I knew the rejection letter was coming, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with.

“Ash!”

I sighed and pushed the covers back. Thirty days to the day of that disastrous interview—and here was my future, signed and stamped in a shiny envelope. I went through the motions of pulling on clothes and getting ready for school, dragging it out as long as possible. When I stepped out of my room, Mum hovered near the door.

"Later," I told her when she showed me the three large envelopes, all addressed to Miss Ashlyn Temple. "Why three? Isn't one rejection letter enough?"

"It might not be a rejection," Mum said, trying to console me. "This one's from your Aunt Eve, anyway."

"But it's not my birthday," I said. "She's either five months too late or seven too early. Can I go to school now?"

"I’m not stopping you." Mum stepped back into the kitchen, a touch of reproach on her face.

"Right. Sorry."

I was sorry, but God, was it hard pretending to be a normal daughter when “normal”had disappeared down the rabbit hole over a month ago. Besides, I ranked today’s exam next to the Oxford interview in the enjoyment factor category. At least I had Milton down now. No light, only darkness visible. How appropriate.

I saw another one on the way to school—a dark space, as I called them now. A square-ish patch, no more than half a metre either way but enough to block my path. And within, a pair of eyes glinted. Purple, as usual. Bigger than human eyes, narrowed, with vertical pupils like a cat's―and watching me.

Closing my eyes, I tried to ignore the prickling fear. I shivered, feeling the customary coldness intensify as it always did when I saw a dark space. Sometimes I felt like I could never get warm again. Nothing's going to stop me from passing this exam. Not even evil manifestations of my subconscious.

Drawing in a deep breath, I opened my eyes and veered across the road like I’d intended to walk that way all along. Ignoring them didn’t help, but it made me feel a little better. Talking back to one would bring me to a whole new level of crazy.

A car horn beeped as I narrowly avoided walking right into it. The driver swore colourfully, jolting me back to reality. My feet hit the pavement on the other side. I resisted the urge to turn back and check if the dark space was still there. Maybe my luck would hold, and they'd stay out of the exam hall.

Yeah, right.

Mum and Dad wanted to send me to therapy. Like that would help. I think I have a problem. Is this a demon I see before me? Not that they knew about the demons, of course – they thought my nightmares and constant jumpiness were caused by stress.

If only it was that simple.

I didn’t see anything else unusual on the last of the walk to school. I glanced at the clock as I entered the school building. One hour to fit in some last-minute revision in the library.

To my relief, the library was open. My phone buzzed as I made my way between the shelves. Cara had sent me a text saying she'd join me in a bit. "It's bad luck to revise on the day of an exam," she scolded me.