The Attached

Chapter Two

The sun was slowly rising up the sapphire sky and turning it to gold. The birds awakened and began to chirp while somewhere in the distance an adolescent boy tossed a newspaper at someone's door.

The whole world was awakening around her, but Pia had never been asleep. She tapped a pencil on her textbook and then turned to look back at her house. It was too quiet inside and not a single light had been turned on yet. That meant her parents were still asleep. Her Mother would no doubt wake up in an hour or so to make breakfast for her.

After what she had seen last night, Pia thought she would never have an appetite. The second he had shown his true self, she had fled her room, burst through the door and spent the rest of the night on the garden bench.

Then when the sky had started to blue, she had crept inside, grabbed her books from the floor and ran back outside. Her hands clasped around her phone and she considered calling up Trina and telling her what had happened.

She would know what to do. But today was exam day and she didn't want to rile up her friend just before it.

The phone buzzed in her hands and Pia let out a cry.

"Shit." she said and then saw it was Trina.

"Hey!" Trina said on the other line.

Pia could only hear her own heart pulsating loudly in her chest. Then taking a deep breath she answered. "Hey, I was just thinking about you."

"All ready for the exam today?" her friend asked.

"Yeah, just have a chapter left to go through again." Pia said and then paused. "Listen...last night...I...he...."

"Spill it Pia." Trina said and then Pia heard a thud.

"What was that?"

"Dropped my textbook." Trina said. "Damn, these things are so heavy. I can't wait until the Finals are over and done with."

"A few more months." Pia said dryly. "Look, I wanted to tell you something. This thing....this entity, he showed himself last night."

There was no sound from the other end and Pia dropped her pencil on the table. "Trina?"

"Okay...what did he look like?"

Pia closed her eyes and saw the face of her tormentor. "Scary. Young. About my age."

"Did he seem familiar to you?" Trina asked. "Was it someone you knew?"

"No." Pia said. "Your grandmother said that if I keep telling him to go, he would. Well he hasn't. And yesterday night, he frightened me to the extent that I don't want to go back in my own house."

She heard Trina take a deep breath. "Pia...the ghost revealing himself to you, may not be such a good thing." she said. "I don't want to scare you, but if he's still around you, then that means he's getting stronger."

Pia rubbed her forehead. "Could you ask your grandmother what I should do?"

"She's out of town for a week." Trina replied. "Don't worry, I'll give her a call and ask her what you should do until she comes back."

"Thanks." Pia said. "I just don't want to worry my family about it. They were sleeping pretty tight for them not to hear my scream."

"Or they thought you were reading the chapter on the digestive system." Trina joked.

Pia smiled. "Gross."

Trina laughed. "Hey, future doctor, you're not allowed to say that."

"Fine." Pia smiled.

"Good." Trina said. "I'm glad I managed to cheer you up a little. Look, just concentrate on your exam okay? We'll deal with your poltergeist problem later."

"Okay." Pia said. "See you in school."

"Bye." Trina said, ending the call.

Pia put down the phone and then at the house. She saw her Mother through the window setting down cups on the counter. Trina's grandmother had assured her that the ghost was harmless, but should she continue to hide this secret from her family?

*****

With a pen in her hand, Pia looked straight at the blackboard without even realizing it. Her thoughts were not on the paper before her, but the events of last night.

Instead of answering the questions and recalling what she had learned, she kept seeing the dark eyes that had bored into her. He had looked so ordinary; dark tousled hair, pallid skin, his eyes dark and his mouth pressed together as if he were trying to stifle an outburst.

What she couldn't stop thinking about was his eyes. They were angry, but there was something in the depths- in the dark pits that were his pupils- that had left her staggering and breathless.

He had made it clear that he didn't like her by tormenting her day after day, but at that moment, he had looked at her-looked into her- as if she was the one that had wronged him.

"Thirty minutes left." Mrs. Mitta announced and commenced walking around the classroom with her hands folded behind her back.

That jolted Pia back into reality. Tucking the lock of her long dark hair behind her ear, she looked down at her paper and saw that she hadn't answered any of the questions yet.

Thirty minutes! That was all she had left and she hadn't even begun....what had she been thinking about?

Tightening her grip around her pen, she read the first question. The words from the nervous system stuck out and she tried to remember everything she could about that chapter.

Just write, she screamed at herself. She wrote as fast as she could, aware of the numerous spelling mistakes she was making. But those she could correct later on. Right now all that mattered was that she answer as many questions as she could.

In the next page she had to label a diagram. Without missing a beat, she named it all. Her handwriting was a mess and there were more spelling mistakes being made.

Later, I'll rectify them later.

She turned the pages of the question paper and jotted down the answer, trying hard to forget those eyes that had burned with such hatred for her...and something else...but what?

Concentrate Pia!

Rubbing her eyes, she started writing again, partly aware that she was holding her breath.

When Mrs. Mitta spoke again, her heart leapt to her throat.

"Put down your pens and pencils." she said in a stern voice. "Time's up!"

Pia looked down at her paper. She had yet to answer two more questions which carried ten marks each.

While the teacher collected the papers, Pia wrote as fast as she could. Almost...she was almost done...

"Pia!" Mrs. Mitta screamed. "Put down your pen this instead!"

Pia froze. All she could hear was the sound of Mrs. Mitta's sandals hitting the floor as she drew nearer. She was done for. Mrs. Mitta was known for her furious and strict demeanor. When she asked for the pens to be put down, she meant it or else she would tear the student's paper right before their eyes- or so she had heard.

Nevertheless, as Mrs. Mitta came before her, Pia realized that the ghost was not the most terrifying sighting she had seen.