The Corner (2 page)

I didn’t want to sit there.

Cindy took a quick glance at my
name tag before asking, “Natalie. Are you okay?”

I had no idea on how to look at
her in the face and tell her the truth.

What if I was seeing things
only? Who would believe me? Would they mock at me? Would I be
ostracized again? How was I going to make it through the rest of my
high school days as a laughing stock?

Deciding not to mention my
sighting, I shook my head and forced myself to walk towards that
corner.

And there she was, still not
moving, staring at the walls with an unnatural devotion. I wondered
if she would suddenly spin around to stare at me.

It was okay. She wasn’t doing
anything. I would be fine. I just had to pretend that I couldn’t
see her.

In spite of the tons of
assurances I had come up with, that coldness was drilling into my
skin. I bowed down my head in order to keep that girl out of my
sight. The nearer I got to my seat, the further that coldness had
tunnelled into my flesh.

By the time I had reached my
seat, my limbs had gone numb from the coldness invading them.
Stinging sensations were assaulting my eyes as I tried to fight
back the tears.

I couldn’t let them know. I was
all alone in facing that. I couldn’t crumble.

“Argh!” a classmate screamed,
sending me into panic mode.

“What? What?” I scanned the
classroom in frenzy.

“Eeks, it’s filled with
termites. And there’s a nest underneath!” remarked Kelly who had
rushed up to check the bug infested table.

“Relax, everything’s fine,”
chirped Mandy, smiling at me. She was seated diagonally to my
place.

A student turned to look at
Mandy. “Not really. If there’s a termite infestation in one spot,
most probably the whole place have been affected. They’re very
effective in multiplying and expanding their territories.”

A bunch of girls grimaced and
stepped away from their own tables. Some went up to that particular
table to analyse if those creepy crawlies were, in fact,
termites.

“I get a table from another
class,” remarked Cindy before heading to Class 1/1.

That sounded like a blessing in
disguise for the girl who had ended up with the termite-ridden
table.

Glad to be distracted by the
bugs’ incident, I breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded to sit
down, not concerning myself with the girls’ active extermination of
those insects. Then the corner of my eye caught the standing girl’s
head whirling back to stare at the wall.

Was she looking at me?

It would be better if I didn’t
know the answer. I tried to keep my mind blank, not thinking of
anything.

Soon, the form teacher came into
the classroom and was prompt in advising on the corrective actions
to be taken. Kelly and another two girls went on to push that
decomposing furniture out to the corridor to be taken care of by
the janitor.

I wanted to help but was afraid
to do so.

“
Get your hands off my stuff.
Your clumsiness only makes things worse!”

They didn’t need me to mess
things up anyway. My past encounters had taught me well on the
importance of not poking my nose into others’ matters. Otherwise,
it just brought embarrassment onto myself.

The teacher gave a short
introduction of herself before getting down to business. The same
went for the other teachers. The educators there were more into
reciting what were written in the textbooks, rather than caring
about whether we were listening. I guessed it was because they had
assumed that we could figure things out by ourselves. High
possibility that they wouldn’t throw a hissy fit when they caught
me sleeping during class, unlike my previous teachers.

However, throughout the entire
day, I couldn’t concentrate on the lessons, nor could I fall asleep
like I usually did. The presence of that strange girl could be felt
every second. At least, I couldn’t see her from my sitting
position. Yet I was bugged by a constant fear of that girl coming
up to me.

Needless to say, I rushed out of
the classroom the second the bell rang.

When Mandy bade farewell to me,
I hastily responded, “Bye!” I didn’t even make an effort to look at
her when I said that.

During the forty-five-minute bus
trip to home, I was searching for a reason to explain why I was the
only one who could see that strange girl. Was there a way to
eliminate my
ghost eye
? Even in the crowded bus, I felt
alone. There was no one there to help me.

Words couldn’t describe the
relief I felt when I reached home in the late afternoon—to be back
in my safe, familiar den where there was no strangers … or strange
happenings. I chose to lie to mum and dad, telling them that I had
a great time in school. I was officially a teenager already, thus I
needed to be independent and handled the problems by myself.

After a nice relaxing shower, I
spent an hour to read up on the history of Sixteen Kingdoms on my
computer. Dinnertime was next—home cooked food was the best, and I
felt really uncomfortable dining in those eateries, in front of so
many unfamiliar faces. Then I headed back to my bedroom to finish
up my homework for the day. When all was done, it was time to hit
the sack. I was so bummed out from the stressful day.

While lying on my bed, I felt
something feathery brushing against my nose. I ignored it, hoping
that the ticklish feeling would go off so that I could drift back
into dreamland. The brushing persisted. In irritation, my eyes
snapped open to see what was bothering me.

Long hair was
dangling right above my face. A girl, whose face was obscured by
her mane, was staring down at me.

I shouted for help, but no sound
came out. I kept on trying and trying. The girl kept on glaring at
me.

Then I woke up gasping for air.
A thin film of sweat was coating my skin and absorbing the cold air
to impart a chill into my system. There was nothing in front of me.
Stoned and stunned, I lay on the bed for a while before sitting up,
with reluctance, to survey my room, particularly the corners.

There was a moving shadow at one
of the corners. Startled by that, I quickly brought up my knees to
my chest to bury my face in between them. I couldn’t stop the
involuntary quivering of my body.

How did
she follow me to my home? It was my turf! Shouldn’t she be stuck
staring at the wall in school?

I wanted to call for mum and
dad.
But it was the middle of the night; I
would disturb their sleep. Would they find me a nuisance for waking
them up over something that didn’t seem to exist? They wouldn’t
scold me for it, but they might think that I hadn’t grown up
yet—still a baby girl who cried for her parents at the slightest
setback.

After a minute or so, I heard
the rustling of the leaves and realized that the shadow could be
that of the willow tree outside my window. I stole a peek at that
corner to confirm my suspicions, which were proven right. My
tensed-up muscles relaxed a bit, and I sank back into my bed.

She was
still grounded to that spot.... She couldn’t touch me when I wasn’t
there.

***

The disturbed sleep caused me to
wake up later than usual. Even the alarm clock had failed to
perform its function. I grabbed a sandwich and then charged out of
the house to sprint towards the bus stop. The bread, stuffed with
ham, tomatoes, cheese and lettuce, was gobbled up just before the
bus arrived. I got up the vehicle and went straight for the back
rows on the upper deck. I felt awkward to be sitting at the front,
in the full view of everyone.

Would she
appear in the bus? Most probably not.…

Though I still felt a lump in my
throat and a pressure pressing down on my chest.

After the bus halted at the
second stop after mine, a boy, probably one or two years older than
me, came up onto the upper deck. My physical discomfort gradually
eased off the moment I took note of his presence. I immediately
recognized the uniform he was wearing: the distinctive dull green
shirt and trousers of St. Andrew’s Institution. The crest he had on
his chest further confirmed he was a student from there. It was a
shield with three objects adorning its surface: a book, a cross and
a burning touch. My guess was the three signified the school’s
mission, origins and motto.

Frankly speaking, their uniform
design was ugly. Green was one of the most awful colours to be used
for clothes, cars and hair. Not that white was great either since
it couldn’t conceal the colourful underwear that some of my
schoolmates wore. So to be on the safe side, I always had my
school’s blazer on.

I was surprised that there was
someone else from my neighbourhood attending one of those
prestigious high schools. My district was mainly occupied by the
middle class families. Most of the kids here were able to get into
decent high schools and then moved on to enrol in quite reputable
universities. However, only a handful of us could get into the best
schools.

Notwithstanding the epic fail
uniform, he still looked pretty good due to his clean, boyish
appearance and scholastic air. It helped that he was carrying a
guitar case, adding a mysterious element to his outlook.

When he turned towards me, I
wasted no time to shift my attention to whatever that lay outside
the window. Still, I could see him from the corner of my eyes. He
was heading for the back rows. My mind went into panic mode when I
noticed that almost all the seats were taken. Only few, including
the one beside me, were available.

I was
hoping that he wouldn’t sit with me. I couldn’t deal with
it.

Ended up that he did not. I
couldn’t thank my lucky stars enough for that. However, another
thought surfaced.
Was I so repulsive that he
didn’t want to sit with me?

Throughout the journey, I stared
out of the window, wondering what was wrong with me.

At least,
that standing girl didn’t move away when I sat near
her.

Maybe she was the manifestation
of my anxiety over the need to adjust to a new environment. She
might be gone already.

When I reached my classroom in a
considerably lighter mood, the first thing that caught my eyes was
the girl standing in the corner.

Why?

Chapter 4 Ghost?

Another question sprang into my
mind: should I just ask for a change of seats?

Who would be willing to do so?
Was ghost sighting even a valid reason?

The girl just stood there,
looking at the corner as if it was her only friend. Her
surroundings seemed to get darker by the seconds.

As I trudged through the dense,
stale air to get to my seat, my molars were grinding against each
other, and that familiar yet unwelcomed coldness enveloped me
again. There was an unseen force crushing my heart, which fought
back by pounding harder. My legs felt weak. I almost couldn’t walk
properly by the time I passed by Mandy’s table.

Mandy stood up to hold me
steady. “Are you okay? Your face is all pale. I know where the
nurse’s room is.”

“I’m fine,” I gave the most
appropriate answer since I couldn’t be telling her that I was
seeing a ghost.

Then the corner girl’s fingers
twitched for a split second before going limp again.

I swallowed a gulp of air and
turned to Mandy. “Had you seen any supernatural stuff around here?”
I was expecting her to laugh at my question.

Blinking her eyes in confusion,
she gave it a thought before answering, “This place is very old.
And I heard that mass executions were performed on these grounds
before. So I’m not surprised if there’re ghosts hanging around
here.”

I gave a weak smile in
appreciation of her analysis. Mandy did seem like a genuine nice
girl. But she couldn’t understand what I had been going
through.

Overhearing our conversation,
Kelly came over and chirped, “A senior told me that during the
night, you can see a headless apparition looking for his head in
LT2! He must be one of the guerrilla guys who got killed during the
Thirteen-Day War.”

The fact that my school was
associated with the Thirteen-Day War just upped the creepiness. It
was the bloodiest war in the history of Accastle, where a third of
the population was wiped out within the first ten days of the
invasion. Yet it ended three days after the National Army of
Accastle sent out its troops. I first knew of it through a
documentary. Intrigued by the mysteries surrounding that war, I
went on to google on the subject.

That kick-started my great
interest in history, namely the parts that involved wars and times
of turmoil. I began to study the other significant events of my
country. After that, I continued to feed my curiosity by looking up
on topics related to the history of Iceland and United Kingdom.

Those countries are the closest
neighbours of Accastle, not taking Mercales into account. Vast,
wide stretches of sea stand between my country and the others.
Well, maybe most countries won’t want to be connected to Accastle
by land due to the reputation of being the accursed land borne from
the corpses of demons.

In the quest to expand my
knowledge, I also explored the past of the other countries in
Europe, followed by that of Russia and China. Japan’s history would
be next, after I had finished reading up on China’s.

I had developed a morbid
fascination with the cruelty of humans. Why would people want to
hurt others? Did they derive happiness and satisfaction from doing
that? Did Carmen feel the same way when she edged on everyone to
tease me and step on my shoes as often as possible?