Chapter Two
After a half a dozen trips up the stairs to bring all her black rubbish bags filled with clothes and boxes of books, cd’s, and movies up to her room, Shannon collapsed on the couch next to her father who was flipping through the local phone book looking for a pizza place that delivered, because apparently Northwood doesn’t have a Pizza Hut.
“Where are the sheets?” Shannon asked her father after he found one that met his requirements.
He pointed behind him to the large pile of boxes stacked against the wall. “Thanks,” Shannon muttered sarcastically. “You’re a lot of help, old man.”
“Always ready to do my bit.” He said as he dialled the phone.
Shannon paused. When her father was distracted it was like he forgot he was mad at her, or disappointed in her, and it felt like it did before Jess and all the crap that came along with it.
Shannon continued over to the boxes and started sorting through them with a sigh.
Why the hell aren’t any of these labelled? She asked herself half an hour later when someone began knocking on the door half-heartedly, probably expecting it to be a prank.
Her father passed her money as she stood up and walked over to the door. When she opened it she saw a kid about her age standing there shivering in the cold breeze. He wore nothing but a red t-shirt with Tony’s written on it and a matching red visor. The boy was short, almost as short as her, which was saying something, because Shannon was little.
“Hey,” he said, a grin forming on his face when he saw who opened the door. “That’s $32. You guys just move in?”
“Yeah,” Shannon replied, handing over two twenties.
He handed over the pizza’s and gave her another once over. “Are you going to Northwood?” he asked, meaning the high school Shannon supposed.
Shannon shook her head. “No, I’m going to Andrew Whiting.” She answered.
“That’s too bad; we could have had some fun.” He said while wiggling his eyebrows dramatically, telling Shannon that he was only half serious at most. He jumped up and down briefly, running his hands up his arms. “I’m Jordan.” He said, holding out her change.
“Keep it,” she told him. “And I’m Shannon.”
“It was lovely meeting you, Shannon.” Jordan called as she closed the door in his face. Ind of rudely, but that was her style.
“Pizza’s here!” Shannon called out, and she heard two pairs of footsteps come racing down the stairs and into the living room.
Kelly and Missy took the pizzas from her hands and sat down on the scuffed floor boards in the living room in front of Harrison. Shannon shook her head at the two little pigs and grabbed a slice of her veggie pizza. It wasn’t half bad. The pizza that is, the conversation sucked.
After dinner Shannon finally found the bedding and took hers upstairs to make her bed.
After the ordeal of making her bed Shannon frowned. The bed was facing the fireplace and the last thing she wanted was to fall asleep thinking of demon Santas climbing down the chimney so they could eat her brains. She heaved a sigh and began moving her bed next to the door so that she could see out her window while lying in bed. After some, okay much, struggling Shannon finally had it where she wanted. She moved back to examine her handy work and saw a weird stain on the wooden floorboards.
“Dad!” Shannon yelled down the stairs.
“Yes Shannon?”
“There’s a weird stain on my floor.”
“I’m coming.” Harrison groaned. The floorboards creaked as he reluctantly headed his daughters call.
“It’s over here.” She told her father when he opened her door and stuck his head inside.
Her dad threw open the door and the hinges creaked so loudly that Shannon swore she saw the windows rattle in their frames. Harrison walked to the corner next to her bed and leaned over the round stain. “It’s just a spill that wasn’t cleaned up.” He decided after scuffing the stain with his shoe.
“Are you sure?” Shannon asked, wrinkling her nose and the dark brown discolouration. “You’re sure it’s not mould or anything? Because I really don’t want to die from inhaling poisonous mould.”
“Yes Shannon, I am sure that it’s not mould, poisonous or otherwise.” He reassured his daughter and huffed, rolling his eyes. The exasperation was clear in his voice. Not long ago Harrison would have been rolling his arms and laughing at his daughter, not finding dealing with his daughter a chore. “Someone just spilled something, a long time ago. Probably booze.” He decided after a short pause, examining the large darkened patch of floor board.
Shannon laughed out loud. “Okay Dad, I’m going to shower and then go to bed, I have school in the morning.” She told Harrison before shooing him out of the room. Tomorrow was the first day after winter break and Shannon was not looking forward to it.
“Do the showers even work?” She asked her father, pausing in front of her bathroom door.
“Yes they work,” Harrison said in exasperation. “Not well, mind you, but you will get clean.”
His half-assed assurances didn’t help Shannon’s trepidation in the slightest. If anything it made it worse.
When Shannon finally settled into bed she felt a cold breeze travel across her face. It was probably the window, I’m gonna have to do something about that, she thought to herself as she drifted off to sleep.
The soft lips on mine disappeared; the gentle hands were torn from my waist. I knew I shouldn’t be doing it; it was a sin, no doubt one of the worst. He was my husband and I should love only him, physically and emotionally, but I couldn’t control myself. How could something so wrong feel so right?
When my husband lay upon me it hurt and I had to bite down on the inside of my cheeks to stop myself from crying out in pain. I now knew that it didn’t have to feel like that, so intrusive and wrong, but I was never going to experience that pleasure that had been hinted at this night.
From the look in my husband’s eyes as he stood over me, I knew I wasn’t going to see the sun rise from the ocean in the morning. Never again would I wake to the blinding morning sunlight streaming in through the window, or the screaming of gulls outside. I was never going to wake up again. This time when I went to sleep it would be my last.
Shannon woke with a start and a massive pounding inside her skull. It felt as though someone bashed her over the head with a lamp while she slept.
Opening her eyes Shannon was pleased to see the beginning of the sun rising from the ocean. She sat up in bed and watched the sky change from a deep blue to a pale crystal blue.
Any thoughts of her mysterious dream were forgotten as Shannon sat enthralled by the rising sun. It was a sight she never planned on forgetting.
When the sun rose above the horizon Shannon rolled out of bed and walked over to her bag full of clothes. She rooted around in the black trash bags until she found her new school uniform. It consisted of a green and black plaid skirt, a white dress shirt, green blazer and an optional tie. It was terrible; no one looks good in that shade of green.
Both her skirt and her shirt were wrinkled, but it really didn’t bother Shannon enough to pull out the iron, she would get Fiona to iron them today while she was at school.
Shannon untied her braid and brushed out her long brown/black curls and let them hang around her face in an unruly mop. When she shook them free, Shannon felt an odd sensation, as though someone was running their fingers through her hair. She twisted around but she was still alone, all she saw was some silver wisps that disappeared before she could even register that she saw them.
She pulled on her boots and her blazer and finished getting ready before trekking down stairs for breakfast. When she reached the poky little kitchen Shannon saw Fiona moping around, grumbling about the old appliances.
“All right Fi?” Shannon asked the hormonal woman who was pacing through the kitchen.
“No,” Fiona said adamantly, looking up from the small electric oven in the corner. “No I’m not. If your father hasn’t torn out this crap by Friday I’m just going to have to divorce him.”
Shannon laughed at Fiona’s dramatics. She always lost her mind a little bit when she was pregnant. Shannon opened the door to the ancient fridge and pulled out a slice of last night’s pizza and took a massive, unladylike bite before plucking her car keys off the bench.
“Well, have fun with that,” Shannon mumbled around her mouthful of cold pizza, “but I have a school to go to. I’ll see you later.” Shannon walked out into the living room where she saw her father furiously tapping on his computer.
“You can’t go to school looking like that.” Her father told her has she walked past him.
Shannon raised one eyebrow. “Well I wouldn’t have to if you let me stay home.”
“Yeah, nice try grass hopper,” her father said without looking up. “Get your butt to school.”
Shannon gave her father a salute before marching out the door.
Shannon was happy that she had gone out of her way to drive past Andrew Whiting High School on her way into town yesterday or she never would have made it to school on time.
When Shannon pulled up to the ivy covered gates, she had to flash her new student ID, which she received in the mail over winter break, before the board-looking security guards would open the gates and let her drive up into the student parking lot.
She parked in an empty spot between a shiny new Mercedes and a shinier, newer BMW, and made her way to the main office.
The woman sitting behind the desk had a look on her face like she was the queen of England, and not a lowly receptionist at a high school, even one of the most prestigious high schools in the country.
“What can I do for you?” She asked haughtily.
“I’m new.” Shannon replied.
“Name?”
“Shannon King.” She said to the rude woman.
“Fill these out.” she passed some papers over the desk and turned back to her computer, where she was probably playing solitaire.
Shannon picked them up and quickly filled them out before handing them back. After a few minutes the woman handed over a timetable and shooed Shannon from the office.
Shannon walked through the halls until she found herself in a courtyard filled with perfectly coifed students milling around and bragging about their winter vacations. The buildings surrounding the quad were huge and stunningly beautiful. It was criminal for this place to be used as a high school where the only people who saw it couldn’t give a shit. The building in front of her was all columns and arches and gargoyles. Actual gargoyles. It made Shannon wonder what kind of evil they were supposed to be keeping out. And by the look of the kids around her they weren’t really doing their jobs.
“Wow.” Shannon whispered to herself before she saw a red headed boy sitting alone who was obviously wearing a second hand uniform. The boy had the exact same shade of red curls that Joanie did yesterday, she supposed it was her younger brother, the one with the scholarship. Caleb, she thought his name was.
Shannon walked over to the boy and sat next to him on the low brick wall he was perched on. “Caleb right?” she asked him and he looked up in surprise, a blush appearing on his pale skin. Shannon’s eyes widened slightly; that boy has a nose on him. Jeepers.
“Um yeah,” he said uncertainly. “Do I know you?”
Shannon laughed at his awkwardness. “No, I met Joanie yesterday. She told me you go here, and I recognised the hair.” She explained and tugged on one of his curls.
“Oh,” he said, burying his face in his biology text book. “She didn’t mention you.”
“Well I’m mentioning me. I’m Shannon.” She said.
“Sorry.” He said again.
“Doesn’t matter, cutie.” Shannon told him just to see him blush. From spending five minutes in his company she could tell the boy lied to blush. “But you could always show me to my next class to make up for it.”
“Sure, I can do that.” Caleb said with far too much enthusiasm to be considered in any way cool. It was endearing.
Shannon laughed at him. “Any way, it says I have English in C3.” Shannon waved her timetable in Caleb’s face, “only, I have no idea what that is.”
“Carroll building, room three.” He explained. “It’s just behind us.” He indicated to the large, red brick building behind them. Not the one with the gargoyles, Shannon was disappointed.
“Well that was easy.”
“Yeah, all the classrooms surround the quad.”
“Well thanks for the advice. See ya.” She said, getting up and she walked into the Carroll building. When she found the classroom there were a couple of very poised and beautiful girls perched on desks, flipping their hair and flirting with one reasonably attractive boy and one super-hot boy.
When Shannon walked into the classroom four pairs of eyes fell on her. She tried to smile but it came out as more of a grimace.
“Hey,” the blond girl said and she looked Shannon over like she was a cow being inspected for slaughter. “I’m Monique. Are you new?” Prime beef or sausage meat? That is the question.
The brunette nudged her with her elbow and put her arm around the beautiful boy with shaggy blond hair. “Don’t be rude.” She admonished. “I’m Flick, and these are both Ben.” She pointed at each one. “This is Ben Pow,” she ruffled the blond boy’s hair, “and that’s Ben Russell.” She gestured to the other boy. His hair was cut so short that you could hardly tell what colour it was, although Shannon guessed brown.
“I’m Shannon,” she introduced herself and took the seat that Flick gestured to next to her.
“So,” Monique drawled, a smirk forming on her face. “What dorm are you staying in?”
Shannon frowned at her, she knew where it was going, and she didn’t doubt Joanie’s claim that they didn’t much like “townies” here. “I’m not, I live in town.” Shannon explained casually.
Monique looked like she was ready to pounce, but before she could say anything Ben Pow, the sexy blond one, cut in. “You moved into the Oswald place yesterday, right?” He asked curiously and Shannon remembered that Joanie had told her about the boy who lived on her street. She supposed this was him.
“Yeah,” Shannon confirmed and the others raised their eyebrows. “My dad wants to re-do it completely. I just hope it gets done soon. I don’t fancy living in a construction site”
“Yeah, neither would I.” Flick agreed. “Is it true that it’s haunted?”
Shannon laughed at Flick’s hushed tone. “Well, I’ve only been there one night, but I don’t think so.”
“I respectfully disagree,” Ben said waving his hands around dramatically. “When me and Joanie stayed there the summer before high school, there was definite ghostly activity.”
“Like what?” Shannon asked, curious about her new home.
“Like cold spots.” He replied. “In the big bedroom, the one that looks over the cliffs, there was a definite cold spot in the corner, everyone felt it.”
Shannon thought about it for a second. “Where that stain is.” She concluded.
“The Blood stain.”