Misguided Ghosts

Chapter Two

PIC OF EMILIE ON THE SIDE --->

Two – Emilie

You’d think that when someone is in a car crash and has been stuck in a coma for the past two months, there’d be sympathy. Not here. Here, Tay Woodson was dismissed as one of the music freaks who was lost in her own little world, despite her amazing A* grades. But when she got into the car accident, BAM – instant sainthood. Within five days of the accident, I’d heard about ten different rumours about how the accident had happened.  Some said that she had been driving illegally and didn’t know what she was doing, while others said that she had been with her parents, and they had caused the crash. But the worst rumour? Apparently, she was killed by one of the people who hated her, which was a lot.

In the October of Year Twelve, I just simply… floated through my classes, paying less and less attention each time. All I could think about was how and why Tay Woodson was in a car crash. She was on the swimming team, and I’d been sort of friends with her. She was nice, if a little strange, but she wasn’t the kind to go out driving drunk. However, I did snap to attention when Mrs Hall, the head of Sixth Form, led a Police Officer into the common room. She walked off and left him alone, which seemed pretty cruel, especially seeing as we had this one lesson to get through, and then we could escape. Maybe she thought that an officer of the law could handle a bunch of seventeen year olds, but we weren’t criminals. He couldn’t shoot us.

“Hi,” he said nervously. Beneath a stab vest, a truncheon and some pepper spray, along with his police radio, he looked young. He glanced towards the doorway, as if someone would magically reappear. Fingering his radio, he cleared his throat nervously. “I’m PC Barlow. Your head of Sixth – Mrs Hall – asked me to come in here today and talk to you guys about law enforcement. Is anyone considering that as a, uh, as a career path?”

It was the ‘uh’ that ruined him. If he hadn’t have hesitated, then we might have behaved.

A hand whipped up. It belonged to Lizzie, one of the conspiracy theorists whenever Tay Woodson was concerned. “Is it true that Tay Woodson’s condition hasn’t changed, so they’re going to try and take her off life support?”

We erupted into whispers at her daring. PC Barlow glared at her as if he might actually shoot her. Then he remembered that she was a seventeen year-old student, who hadn’t committed a crime, yet. 

“I’m not really supposed to talk about details of a patient who is currently in a coma, along with the fact that Tay Woodson’s case is currently under investigation,” PC Barlow said in a very serve-and-protect way.

“It’s an investigation?” A boy called out from the front of the room.

Lizzie interrupted him. “My mum heard it from her friend, who’s a nurse at the hospital. Is it true? Why hasn’t her condition changed?”

Theories flew around the room in quick succession.

“It’s a cover up! Government conspiracy!”

 “Drug smuggling! Wait, how would that work? She’s not even dead yet!”

“Medical experiments!”

Some guy said, “I heard that the Woodsons are related to a taxidermist. Maybe they’re going to get Tay stuffed.” Some guy took a swat at the back of his head. It was still taboo to say anything bad about Tay or her family, even two months later.

PC Barlow looked desperately at the doorway, where Miss Danby, the deputy head of Sixth Form, was now standing. She regarded him sternly, and then she turned to the class. “Quieten down!”