by Shaine Lake
When all was over, Mrs. Clarkson, who was standing in for the principal on certain matters, went up to the microphone to address us, “Good morning, students. I’ve a special announcement to make today.”
Oh no, was it my case?
The pudgy teacher continued, “A student of our school had been suspended after receiving three warnings for disgracing the good name of our school on several occasions. This student had hung out with quite a number of boys from St. Andrew Institution and failed to watch her behaviour when in the public.”
What exactly had she done to warrant those warnings? Talking loudly? Laughing loudly? Intimate actions? Not sitting properly? What?
“Let me remind all of you that even when outside of school grounds, you’re supposed to uphold the image of the school, especially when you’re in uniform. Please don’t forget to take note of your actions at all times. And I strongly advise against going out on dates with boys. Definitely not when you’re wearing the school uniform,” emphasized Mrs. Clarkson.
Would I get a warning if caught going out with Jareth? Should I just don’t turn up? However, it would be mean of me to make him wait. He had helped me after all. But a lot of my schoolmates knew me for my notoriety; they would surely report it to the school’s authority. Big trouble was awaiting me. Unlike that girl, I wouldn’t be slapped with the punishment of suspension only. It wouldn’t be long before I accumulated enough warnings to get expelled from Lawson. I was screwed, really screwed.
Boys are bad news. Boys are bad news.
My legs went weak. I felt sick in the stomach. There was a bitter taste in my parched mouth. Should I throw up? My body seemed to tell me to do so.
Be here for me. Help me. Please.…
I repeated those words non-stop as all of us marched to our respective classrooms after the announcements were done. To my disappointment, she wasn’t there for me at her usual spot. Even a ghost wouldn’t want to be associated with a detestable individual like me.
I was alone. I wanted to curl up in a corner until all problems resolved by themselves.
The moment I truly dreaded came during the first recess. When Kelly and Alice were getting ready to go to the canteen, Mandy informed the two that she would catch up to them later. Then she strutted over to my side. With my elbows propped on the table, I was resting my temple in my palms while wishing that she could leave me alone.
However, she didn’t. “Natalie, we need to talk.”
I looked up at her and nodded with reluctance.
She heaved a loud sigh. “Why are you avoiding me? Is it because of Anton?”
It was tiny part of the truth. But how did I break it to her that a boy had caused a rift in our friendship?
“You like him too, yes?” The tone of her voice had changed to a critical one.
With my peepers on the table, I didn’t rely her.
Then she spoke in anguish, “You should have told me! Aren’t we friends? Shouldn’t we trust each other? You thought that it was noble of you to give him up to me? Have you ever considered how unfair it is to me? Making yourself look like an angel while I appear to be the self-centred demon.”
“No …” I never foresaw that I had hurt her feelings that much. Why was I so dense?
“No? Do you mean that’s not the case? I don’t know whether to take your words for it. You didn’t even tell me that he has a girlfriend already.”
“Huh?” My head snapped up, and I regarded Mandy with popped-out eyes. It had never come across my mind that he was attached. How did she find out?
“Surprised?” A cynical smile spread across her lips. “Never guessed that he would reveal the truth when I messaged him?”
“Are you sure?” Maybe there was a misunderstanding. I didn’t want to be a despicable being who introduced a friend to an attached guy.
With a scowl on her face, Mandy took out her handphone to scroll through the items in it. Five seconds later, she put the device on my table and curtly told me to take a good look at it.
His reply to her suggestion to have lunch together was, “Sorry. Busy. The only spare time I’ve is for family or girlfriend.”
When Mandy asked him about his girlfriend, he answered she was a fourth year student in Oxland High. Dating an older girl? Perhaps only a senior could match him in his intelligence. I felt my heart plummeting to the bottom of my stomach.
Then Mandy snatched the phone away. “I didn’t believe them when they said that you schemed to use me to estrange Anton and his girlfriend while you sneaked in for a chance with him.”
That was the last idea I could think of. I didn’t know that things would turn out to be that way.
A slight harshness laced her voice when she said, “Even when I saw you getting all friendly with him, with a big smile on your face, I wanted to believe that you were just trying to be nice to me, in a misguided way. But when I knew more, I realized that you’re as deceiving as they’d claimed. No wonder you avoided talking to me for the past few days.”
“I never thought of being with him,” I spluttered.
Folding her arms, she sneered. “It’s hard to believe you anymore when you chose to hide the truth about Jareth and Brian.”
“Brian?” When did Brian come into the picture?
Bobbing her head in mock approval, my soon-to-be ex-friend scorned, “We overheard Brian commenting to Jareth that he needed to focus hard to catch what you were saying. And Fiona didn’t get the chance to talk to him despite her efforts! She was so upset about it. How did you achieve that?”
“Coincidence.” There was so much explaining to do, and I didn’t know where to start from.
“Was it coincidence that you gave a love letter to Jareth?”
I inhaled sharply. When did things spiral out of control? “It’s not—”
Mandy refused to listen, shutting me off by retorting, “It must be. Why would the boys be teasing Jareth about getting love letters from a weird girl?” She shook her head. “Sorry … it’s not that I’m saying you’re weird, but … you were there. Who else could it be? They were nattering so loudly about it. Jareth was so secretive about it, refusing to reveal anything to anyone.”
He should have told them the truth. But would they believe that it was just a gift of gratitude? Or would they speculate that I wanted to impress him? Nothing I said could clear my name. Nothing.… They had condemned me already.
My eyes were hurting from the strain of holding back the tears.
“Why? I trusted you,” Mandy questioned as dejection cloaked her face.
“I’m sorry.” Stumped over the table and burying my face in my hands, I was too tired to deal with those accusations anymore. I just screwed up the only friendship I had.
Why? Why did everyone think the worst of me? Why couldn’t I find the strength to defend myself? Why couldn’t I do anything right? Why?
When I heard Mandy storming out of the classroom, a strange relief washed over me. At least, I was spared of any further interrogations.
I was always alone. Nothing had changed since elementary school. Was there anyone who understood me? I yearned for someone to assure me that everything would be alright.
As if fulfilling my wish, a pair of warm arms embraced me from behind. There was no else in the classroom, so I knew who it was.
So you’re finally here. Only you understand me.
I didn’t resist when those arms sank into my body.
During that moment, I lived through her life in a fast forward motion. A top student in her elementary school, her fate was sealed when she realized that she had gotten into the fifth class instead of the first. The girl studied non-stop with a fanatic passion, striving to maintain her position at the top of the class and get into Class 2/1 in the next year. Her scores were good enough to justify the transfer, but that wasn’t enough for her. Her fragile world crashed when she found out that she was second in class.
Unable to take the blow, the girl decided to end it all. She hung a noose from an
overhead wooden beam at that special corner before putting her head through the loop—another pair of hands was holding onto the ropes. Then without hesitation, she kicked away the chair she was standing on. The wooden beam began croaking under the stress from the weight of the lifeless body swinging back and forth.
Epilogue
Sadness, uncertainty, desperation, anger, depression, hopelessness, anguish … they are all around us. My craving for those negative feelings intensifies as I feel them emanating from the humans.
The woes and wrath of those slain souls do well to sustain me. However, the stale and cold energy tastes unpalatable. Just like food, the raw and fresh ones have the most exquisite flavour. I hunger for those, for I want to gain enough strength to face the world, get my currently immobile astral body moving and manipulate everything under the sun to my will. I’m getting sick of huddling in the corner and scavenging for scraps.
Now, all thoughts of humans are laid out openly in my mind, ready for me to exploit. All have their insecurities. Some are more adversely affected than others. How foolish I was to let such petty insecurities overwhelmed me, allowing her to lure me into stabbing my throat with a pen knife. I did see my body rising up after that, and the wound had healed rapidly.
It’s none of my concern anymore. Nor do I care about what she will do to hurt others to generate the emotions she seeks for, so as to keep her soul from being ejected from the body. Mandy, Jareth, Kelly, Alice, the schoolmates, the teachers—all may become her target.
I do hope that she’ll leave Mrs. Olsen alone, as the old wretch is mine to torment. The pleasures of thrusting her into utter devastation by destroying her reputation, career and status … I long to enjoy every silver of those. I can’t let her get away with just a broken arm.
Only Anton will be left untouched. That girl is terrified of the powerful entity guarding over him. Even the slightest bit of ill intent held towards Anton will hit back at her. I cursed endlessly when I knew that I was being fooled into thinking that she might harm him. Yet there is nothing I can do about it, for now, until I acquire a vessel, one that contains an abundance of negativity.
Such a shame that I can’t just rip out the host from the body. The three spiritual links can’t be severed cleanly through this way. Only death—not by the hands of those belonging to the spectral dimension—can render the shell usable. And only the blast of power forged by the pain and sorrow of death can fuse another soul to the corpse.
I can’t wait to get mine.
When that happens, I’ve to get used to the new name, abandoning my original one: Natalie Blythe.
The End
Extra Story: The Mess
Do you have any idea how depressing is it to come home after work and find the place to be in a huge mess? And for every single weekday, with no one else to help me! I wish I’ve a roommate … it’s lonely to live by myself in this apartment.
So basically, after clearing up everything and getting a quick bath, I’ve no time for anything else, other than hitting the sack straight away. When morning comes, I get into the routine of five-minute wash-up and dress-up before heading out to catch the bus that arrives every thirty minutes. Thanks to that stupid bus’ schedule, I’ve to settle my breakfast in my office’s canteen instead.
Geez, I wish I can spend more time in my cosy home.
***
What’s wrong with the above account?
Afterword
Thank you very much for reading this book.
You may be wondering about what’s up with Natalie. Well, she may have Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), Anxiety Disorder and Attention Deficient Disorder (ADD). The main problem in her case is that the symptoms are mild enough to go unnoticed. So many will assume that she behaves differently because of her personality. I do know of cases where the teachers complained about the kids not paying attention in classes, without knowing that they have AS or ADD. In addition, she still has not recovered from the damaging effects of the bullying she had gone through.
When the creepy idea of a girl staring at the wall sprang into my mind, the desire to write about it was not that strong at all. Since I am not the kind who writes horror stories for the sake of horror, or romance stories for the sake of romance. The real motivation came to me after the protagonist’s characteristics started to develop in my mind: a girl with lots of issues that most do not understand.
I wrote this book with minimum blood and gore because of my influences and tendency to come up with stories that are different from the conventional ones in their respective genres. In fact, my romance novel, Blood or Flesh, is so gory that the amount of blood shed in there can drown all the characters in The Corner.
As for the entity watching over Anton … he will be featured in the last book of The Custodians Trilogy: Chains of Condemnation. It is a romance novel about soul reapers, but Anton will not be in it. If you are interested, stay tuned for its release.
About the Author
Shaine Lake’s primary influences stem from Dungeons and Dragons books, HP Lovecraft’s novels, Junji Ito’s works, heart-warming stories about animals and news regarding politics, culture and science.
She ventured into novel writing, not only seeking to inject refreshing concepts into the various genres, and also to fulfil her desire:
To incite intense emotions in readers. To make them swoon, laugh, cringe, sob and ponder.
For latest news, check out her website: http://shainelake.tumblr.com/
