Ethereal

Chapter 29

As I walked through them, I looked over to the spot near the doors where the angels had once stood – the second time we met, when Noah had first formally spoken to me. It felt like I could still see them standing there – like they were ghosts, haunting me.

Walking through the hallways, a hush seemed to follow me round. The students waiting at the sides quietened at my presence, and I could feel their stares, following me with every step.

I did my best to ignore them, heading straight for the principal's office. I knocked on the door and waited.

"Come in." A voice called out, hoarse from years of smoking. I could smell it before I even opened the door.

Sat behind a large, mahogany desk, sat Principal Wilson, an aging man who had been working at the school for many years. His eyes widened when he saw me at the door.

"Emilia!" He stood up, looking flustered. "Er, why don't you take a seat?" He gestured to the chair in front of the desk. I sat down obligingly. "You've been gone for a week."

"Yeah, um." I nodded. "There was an emergency, with a relative. My, um, mother's aunt. We both had to leave right away, and, um, she lives on a farm up north with no signal, so neither of us could call to explain."

He sighed, leaning back in his chair. It squeaked uncomfortably as he did so, though either he didn't notice, or he didn't care. "I see. Well, I suppose you ought to return to lessons as soon as possible. Though I'm sure you'll have a lot to catch up on... talk to your teachers about that. In future, do try to let us know in advance..."

"Right, um. I might be having to go back and forth for a while, to try and help her out." I told him.

He shook his head, turning to look out of the dirty window. "Is this really your responsibility, Emilia?"

"She doesn't have anyone else." I felt uncomfortable, having to lie so directly to him, but it wasn't like I could just tell him the truth.

I left soon after that, having been dismissed to go speak to my teachers about catching up. I did just that, slowly collecting a pile of missed work that I needed to complete as soon as possible. I hoped it wouldn't take too long, but school hadn't seemed such a big challenge ever since meeting the angels.

I went through the rest of the day numbly, the absence of the angels felt very clear – it had been a while since I'd gone through a day of school all on my own. I was of course sad because of their betrayal, but mostly it was because they had been my only friends. Without them I truly had no one, at least in school – I had my mother at home now.

Sure, things were different now. People didn't ignore me in the same way – in fact, people had been coming up to me all day asking where I had been. I couldn't tell any of them the truth, so I kept repeating the excuse about a family member. The problem was that they always wanted more detail, that I was having to make up. My great aunt was now supposedly a eighty one year old named Barbara who needed my help in organising someone to come and look after her farm, which was originally her husband Ted's farm but was left to her when he died of a heart attack a few years back.

It was a little exhausting having to come up with all of this, and I had worried that I'd struggle to remember it all, but so far that hadn't been an issue.

I'd finally managed to find a small amount of peace, sat alone in the cafeteria, a book borrowed from the library in my hands, in an attempt to drown out the voices around me.

I heard she was recruited by some modelling agency, and that's where she's been this week. Her contract just says she's not allowed to talk about it.