Wide Awake - Academy of the Fallen Series

by Daniele Lanzarotta

  We were all working on what could have been the most boring assignment ever, when I felt as if someone was watching me. I just hated to be the topic of gossip. That had happened a few times before, and there were always those few people who were just so curious that they couldn’t help but to stare… Totally annoying!

  I turned to my right to find that as I had anticipated, someone was staring. I was surprised at first that it was actually a guy, which was unusual. Girls are the ones famous for that type of thing.

  I had actually never noticed this guy before. He looked a little older, maybe a senior. There was something weird about him. His eyes were just dark and cold… just meeting his gaze made my stomach turn. He was definitely not my type!

  Anyway, girls were usually the ones doing that type of thing, and my usual ‘what-is-your-problem’ look did not faze him at all. He just grinned and kept staring.

  He then waved at me and I was just wondering what in the world was wrong with that guy. I turned around to face Mr. Keenan, and somehow he missed that, which was totally weird. Mr. Keenan always kept a close eye on the class and at any sign of disruption he would give us a whole lecture on respect, and blah… blah… blah.

  I waited until Mr. Keenan turned around, and looked to my right. The guy was still there and he was still staring.

  This time, Mr. Keenan caught me. “Is there a problem Miss Gallagher?”

  I faced the front of the class again, “No, Sir.”

  Mr. Keenan gave a quick nod and then started walking around while everyone else worked on their assignments.

  I discreetly glanced to my right, and he was still staring. That is enough! I wondered how come Mr. Keenan wasn’t saying anything to him.

  I was just about to get Mr. Keenan’s attention; although I wasn’t even sure what exactly I was going to say. I was starting to raise my hand when I heard a familiar voice coming from my left side, warning me. “Don’t. You shouldn’t talk to him. He is not really here and that will only get you in trouble.”

  As I turned to my left, Carolyn materialized right in front of me. That scared me enough to make me jump.

  “Miss Gallagher, are we not done with the interruptions for the day?” Mr. Keenan asked in an annoyed tone.

  I knew I must have looked pale; I was shaking all over and I felt really hot.

  Emily interrupted before I could answer. “Mr. Keenan, I don’t think she feels well. She looks kinda pale.”

  Mr. Keenan approached my desk, took one look at me and said, “I’m going to write you a pass. You need to go see the nurse. Do you need anyone to accompany you?”

  For Mr. Keenan to act like that, I assumed that I must have looked awful. I just shook my head, and said the pass would be enough, no need for an escort to go two rooms down the hall.

  As I walked to Mr. Keenan’s desk, I noticed that everyone was staring at me. Everyone, except for Carolyn and the guy who had both just faded away.

  I rushed out of the classroom and instead of going to the nurse; I went straight to the bathroom. I was shaking and I felt as if I was going to pass out.

  Just as my breathing got under control and I thought about how glad I was to be alone in the bathroom, I looked at the mirror and I saw Carolyn materialize right behind me.

  I quickly turned around and started to back away from her. I closed my eyes hoping she would disappear, but when I reopened my eyes, she was still there watching me. I wanted to just turn around and run, but I needed answers.

  “What are you?” I asked her.

  Then the bathroom door opened and Ashley, the boyfriend stealing skank came in and Carolyn was gone.

  “You don’t look good,” Ashley said in an indifferent tone.

  “Yeah, well, neither do you.”

  I turned around and left the bathroom.

  This time, I did go to the nurse, and managed to convince her that I was sick enough to where I needed to be dismissed from school.

  The nurse called Kelly and after much convincing, I talked Kelly into believing that I was okay to drive home; promising that I would call her as soon as I got there.

  I took my time walking to the parking lot. I kept glancing around, expecting to see Carolyn or even the guy from class, but there was no one.

  I was just getting in my car when I heard someone asking me to wait. The voice was coming from right behind me. Fortunately, this voice wasn’t spooky at all.

  I turned around to see none other than Hunter Chambers standing behind me. I assumed he had followed me out of my History class and I wondered what he could possibly want.

  Hunter used to be pretty cool, I mean… back in middle school he was friends’ with everyone, but then he left for a year or so and after he got back he just kept his distance from everyone. He was cute. He didn’t play any sports, but he definitely looked like he worked out. He was tall, broad shoulders, brown hair with natural highlights that wouldn’t look right on just any guy, brown eyes… Literally the only thing he had going against him was that he was rude to everyone. He acted as if he just wanted to be alone all the time.

  “Umm. I need to get going… Can I help you with something?”

  “No, but I can help you,” he said.

  I gave him a puzzled look and laughed. “Please, amuse me! What do you think you can possibly help me with? All I need is to go home and rest.”

  This time, he was the one laughing. “I know you see them too. I can help you.”

  I felt sick to my stomach. “See who?”

  He sighed. “You know...them,” he said as he looked toward Carolyn, and then the one guy from class who had suddenly appeared a couple of steps behind Hunter.

  I tried to put on an act as if everything was normal, and I wasn’t sure it worked. “Look Hunter, I really don’t feel good and I need to get going… and I’m thinking that maybe you should get seen by a doctor or nurse too.”

  I got in my car, and drove off. As I looked in the reviewer mirror, all three of them stood there, watching me drive off. Hunter and Carolyn, side-by-side, and a few steps back there stood the guy from my History class, but it wasn’t long before Carolyn was no longer with them.

  I slammed on the brakes when I realized that Carolyn was now sitting right next to me. There was a car behind me, the driver honking the horn, so I managed to drive until I found the first empty parking lot and that is where I parked the car.

  “What the hell are you? How did you get in here?” I asked.

  Carolyn started to fade again.

  “Oh, no! You are not doing that again!”

  My warning did no good. She disappeared.

  I punched the steering wheel, said a couple of not so nice words and took off. When I got home, I went straight to my room.

  I realized that Carolyn disappeared every time I started to attack her with questions, so I knew I had to prepare myself not to do that next time she decided to show up.

  I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths and then I heard her voice.

  “Who taught you that?” she asked.

  I opened my eyes and tried to remember to stay calm.

  “Taught me to do what?” I asked in a calm voice.

  “To summon me.”

  “I – I’m not…sure.”

  I assumed I had done that accidently when I was trying to focus on staying calm. I took a deep breath.

  “What are you, Carolyn?”

  She now seemed much more relaxed. She smiled. “I’m a ghost. Isn’t that obvious?”

  “But why is it that I can see you?”

  She shrugged. “Some people just can. Usually little kids and pets are good at seeing us, but I never met one like you before.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “No one could summon me before.” She wasn’t smiling anymore. “I don’t like it. It makes me feel like I’m being ordered around.”

  I looked at her, puzzled. “You couldn’t just, not come?”

  “No. Not when you summoned me like that.”

&
nbsp; “… but I didn’t… never mind. You can go whenever you want.”

  She thanked me but she didn’t leave, which I was glad because I wanted to know more. At the same time, I was afraid that the wrong questions would send her away.

  “Can I ask you a question?” I asked, assuming that she would feel in control if she had given me her permission.

  She looked around, nervously. “Sure.”

  “Why are you here? I mean, aren’t you supposed to be in heaven or something like that?”

  She laughed. “I have no idea. I’ve been trapped since I died. It’s been a couple of years and I lost track of time.”

  “And you can’t just leave?”

  “I can, but the farthest I can go is into the Otherworld, but I don’t like it there. Here is better.”

  “Why don’t you like it there?”

  Her expression was overtaken by sadness. “There are just too many lost and sad souls.” She looked away and her tone was now tense. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  “Umm, okay.” I agreed being that I got more answers than I expected.

  “So, that guy in my class; the one that you warned me about. Who is he?”

  “I don’t know. What I do know is that he is no good. You need to stay away.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Before she could answer, I heard Kelly’s voice coming from the hallway. She had left work early. That was when I realized that I forgot to call Kelly when I got home, and I never took my phone off silent, so even if Kelly had called, I wouldn’t have known.

  “Kayla, honey? Are you feeling better?”

  “Umm Yeah!” I yelled out.

  “I need to go. I will be back,” said Carolyn without giving me a chance to say anything, and then she was gone.

  “Carolyn?” I called, just seconds before I heard Kelly open my door.

  SIX

  I did end up going to dinner with Kelly and it was dreadful. Don’t get me wrong, the place was great and Kelly was always good company. She always kept herself in check with stuff that teenagers are into, movies, music… just so we had stuff to talk about. But at dinner, she was still worried about my reaction to her being pregnant, even though I assured her that I was happy. And I was just too distracted, unable to keep my mind off Carolyn and that creepy guy from class, who I assumed was also a ghost, and then there was Hunter.

  I wondered if Hunter could really see them. After contemplating it for a while, I convinced myself that he could. How else could he have known?

  “Kayla? Are you okay? You seem distracted.”

  “Yeah, I’m good. Just tired, you know…didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  “Right.”

  “And are you sure you are fine with the baby? I’m truly sorry that we didn’t tell you right away…”

  I knew she would keep bringing that up, so I had to put an end to it.

  “I’m fine ‘mom’. In fact, can I go with you whenever you go shopping for baby stuff? I want to help you picking stuff out… if you don’t mind.” I smiled.

  That was finally enough to convince her. Kelly smiled, and went back to her usual cheerful mood. She started talking about stores that she was planning on going to, and how much help it would be to have my opinion on everything.

  After a while I got distracted again. It was only for a split second, but long enough for Kelly to notice.

  “Enough with the baby talk, let’s talk about you… anything new going on? How is the Justin problem?”

  “There is no Justin problem. We are not together.”

  Kelly said she was sorry to hear that, even though she didn’t mean a word. She really couldn’t stand Justin.

  We spent the rest of dinner talking about movies that were about to come out. Kelly wanted to go to the mall when we finished dinner, but I used that same tired excuse to talk her out of it, and we went home right away.

  ***

  I walked into my room and immediately looked for signs of Carolyn being there, only she wasn’t.

  My room was cold, colder than the rest of the house. In movies that was sometimes associated with ghosts being around, and I was just convincing myself that I was getting paranoid when I went to get something out of my closet and saw him standing there… the creepy guy from class. I was really starting to hate that closet.

  I started to open my mouth to scream, but was able to stop before I made a fool of myself. I knew no one would be able to see him and I definitely didn’t want to repeat the situation with Carolyn and the cops.

  I whispered so Kelly and Andrew wouldn’t hear me. “What are you doing here? Who are you?”

  He smiled, a creepy smile. “Just checking out my new home…. And you know very well who I am.”

  I snapped. “First of all, this is NOT your home and secondly, I know what you are and not who you are.”

  He laughed. “Huh. I’m surprised and disappointed that you don’t remember me. You want a name? Benjamin.”

  I didn’t even care what he meant by that. “I want you out!”

  He laughed again. “Sorry. I’m not going anywhere.” He stood there, arms crossed.

  I needed help.

  I closed my eyes and summoned Carolyn.

  She showed up right away. Benjamin looked at her, then back at me and actually seemed surprised.

  “Well, well, aren’t we talented?” He said in a sarcastic tone.

  I ignored him and met Carolyn’s gaze. “I want him gone!”

  Carolyn said, “Only you can do that.”

  “How?” My voice started to rise.

  Benjamin, in a more serious tone, looked at me. “Don’t listen to her. I’ve been a part of the Otherworld for much longer than she has and I assure you, there is no getting rid of me.”

  I was shaking. Carolyn focused on me. “He is right, I don’t know much, but try to do the same thing you did to summon me, but reverse it.”

  It took me a second to understand what she meant. It actually made sense. I closed my eyes and focused on Benjamin and after I pushed everything else out of my mind, including the sound of his voice telling me it wouldn’t work, I was able to mentally order him out of my room…. out of the house.

  “He is gone,” Carolyn said. “You can stop now.”

  When I did open my eyes, I realized how much I was sweating. That wasn’t as easy as summoning Carolyn. I was exhausted, drained of any speck of energy. I was even too tired to ask her any questions.

  I lay down on my bed. My head really hurt.

  “I know you need to rest, but this might not keep him away for long,” she warned me.

  That got me to sit back up.

  “What do you mean? He can just pop in here whenever he wants?” I knew I wouldn’t be able to just keep kicking him out over and over.

  She looked away, avoiding my gaze.

  “He is right. I don’t know much about this stuff. I didn’t spend too much time in the Otherworld; I mostly stayed trapped in that house, until my family moved a while back. You should talk to your friend. He should know what to do.”

  “Who are you talking about?”

  “Your friend…from school.”

  “Hunter?” I asked in an alarmed tone.

  “If he was the one standing outside today when you left, then yes, Hunter. He can see us and I can sense that he knows what to do. You need to talk to him.”

  I laughed. “That is not going to happen.”

  Carolyn looked disappointed, sad.

  “What is wrong?” I asked her.

  “I can’t talk to him like I talk to you. He can see me, but I can’t fully communicate with anyone but you.” She sighed. “I just hoped that he could help.”

  “Help with what?”

  “Help me find out why I got trapped… why I can’t get through any farther than the Otherworld… I just… I just want to find my family again. I don’t know why this happened to me.”

  Carolyn started crying, she looked terrified, and I had
no choice other than to agree to talk to Hunter.

  SEVEN

  Morning came and I had it all figured out. Clearly I wasn’t some kind of necromancer; otherwise, I would have seen ghosts all my life. So this had to just be related to Carolyn and Benjamin. Unless something else had triggered this… me seeing them… I needed to find out how to help Carolyn so that she could leave and everything would go back to normal.