After Life

by Jacquie Underdown

  “I know. I didn’t think they were like that. They seem so straitlaced. And it makes it almost impossible now to know who my real parents are because I can’t even go digging as it could raise suspicion.”

  Theron rubbed his cheek with his palm. “I didn’t think of that. They must have had a life of looking over their shoulder.”

  “They did. In hindsight, I can see that clearly. They sheltered me so much, and now I know why. They were scared of getting caught.”

  He pulled her closer to him, until her head rested on his shoulder, and kissed her cheek. The brief intimacy stole her breath.

  “I didn’t anticipate that the bad news would be this,” he said.

  She managed a nervous laugh. “That’s me. Full of surprises. Not a dull moment here.”

  He chuckled too, though it was strained. Fair enough, because how was one supposed to react to hearing what Theron just heard? Zoe didn’t know whether to cry or laugh herself.

  “So you had another black out?” he asked.

  Images of that strange night stuttered through her mind. She shuddered to recall the moment the lightning cracked, and she saw all those shadowy figures of people staggering across the dark landscape.

  She was nervous to tell him because this could secure her a place on the planet’s Most Crazy List.

  “I saw Nan’s spirit at the funeral.”

  Theron nodded slowly.

  “She was the one who told me about the family secret. But she also said the same thing your brother said, that I could take her. And I didn’t know what she was talking about until later when our hands touched and…” She lifted her head from his shoulder and gazed at him.

  He narrowed his eyes. “And you blacked out?”

  “Not exactly. It was different this time.” She told him about what she saw, each word difficult to get out because the voice in the back of her head was telling her how crazy she sounded.

  “And you think this is where you took Barkley?”

  Zoe nodded.

  “What…” he shook his head, mouth flapping open and shut as he fought to find words. “I don’t get it.”

  “Neither do I. It could have all been a hallucination. But it felt so real. I can recall every sensation. I can feel the atmosphere on my skin. Taste the metallic scent of the river. Yet, when I was there, no physical senses seemed to exist. It was like I was experiencing all those things with another part of me.” She lowered her head in her hands and groaned. “I sound like a nutcase, I’m sorry.”

  “Zoe?”

  She straightened up and looked at him.

  His eyes held hers unfalteringly. “I believe you. I saw what you did with Barkley. I felt it deep in my bones when he left. I can’t dispute any of it or anything else you tell me.”

  “You don’t think I’m nuts?”

  He shook his head hard. “I think we just need to find some answers. How about we go to the library after class on Monday. There have to be accounts of other people who have experienced similar things.”

  Her shoulders rolled back, and she lifted her chin. “Yeah. You’re right. I can’t be the only one. I just can’t be.”

  He nodded. “Exactly.”

  ◆◆◆

  After Zoe had purged all her angst, the night was hers. She had drunk so much that her head was light and her body numb; she felt energised and carefree. She had even danced on the makeshift dance floor in the centre of the shed. And as the night wore on, nobody laughed at her behind her back or whispered snarky secrets; she blended in with the forty or so other students.

  Rhianna gripped her hand and led her off the dance floor to the bar. She grabbed two plastic cups and filled them both with shots of vodka then topped the glass up with Coke.

  “Having a good time?” Rhianna asked.

  Despite all her good feels, Zoe couldn’t one-hundred percent trust Rhianna. Not after what she did to her in the library, then the way she called her a freak.

  “I’m having a great time.”

  “You and Theron are pretty cosy together.” There was a hidden bitterness behind Rhianna’s smile.

  “He’s a good friend,” was Zoe’s socially acceptable answer. And despite wanting more from Theron, it was the truth. They were only friends.

  Rhianna laughed and handed Zoe her cup. “But you want to be more than that, don’t you?”

  Zoe sipped her drink, buying time to think of an appropriate way to respond. But the alcohol had slowed her mind. “What answer do you want to hear?”

  Rhianna narrowed her eyes. “The truth. I’m just trying to make conversation.”

  Guilt stirred in the pit of Zoe’s stomach. She never could handle being nasty.

  Perhaps Rhianna was only trying to be friendly.

  But she also knew that Rhianna had feelings for Theron that extended beyond friendship, and if she saw Zoe as competition, she could kiss all that so-called friendliness goodbye. She’d seen how nasty Rhianna could get.

  “I’m sorry,” Zoe said. “But to answer your question, no I don’t want anything more than friendship from Theron. He’s been a good sounding board for me at the moment.”

  Rhianna nodded slowly, assessing her with that probing gaze Zoe was beginning to detest.

  Zoe drunk deeply from her cup again. This girl was like a rattlesnake, one wrong move and she would bite, fangs, venom and all.

  “Why don’t I believe you?” asked Rhianna, one eyebrow arching. Her tone had sting.

  Zoe tried to suppress the growing resentment she felt for this girl. Her muscles were twitching. But she couldn’t squash the before-forgotten memory that was stirring and flashed like strobe lights behind her eyes.

  Zoe was at school. Grade ten. She screamed as she sprinted down the main hallway, the linoleum floor squeaking under her quick feet.

  The rotting spirit was behind her, breathing down her neck with his foul breath.

  The fear was fierce, greater than she had ever felt. She needed it gone. She couldn’t take this anymore.

  Zoe’s gaze flittered around for help, for anyone to rid her of this ghost with his flaking flesh and dead white eyes. Her gaze met Rhianna’s. She screamed for help, but Rhianna merely laughed and looked away.

  The press of Rhianna’s finger against Zoe’s chest snapped her out of her reverie. Zoe blinked. Anger stirred in the depths of her cells to remember the ridiculing curve of Rhianna’s lips.

  Zoe tried to restrain herself, but her words came out in a low hiss as two years of being the victim of behind-the-back teasing morphed into fury and dripped from each clipped syllable.

  “You know what, Rhianna. Yes, I do like Theron. And, from what I can sense, he likes me too. So deal with it!” She thrust her cup down onto the bench and shoved past Rhianna with her shoulder, ignoring her aghast expression, and strode away to find Theron, so she could tell him she was getting out of there.

  She saw Daniel near the dance floor, went to him, touched his shoulder and asked him where Theron was.

  He pointed out the back where she and Theron had their deep and meaningful earlier.

  She nodded and headed to the small clearing. She was vibrating from adrenalin—anger roiling in her guts and blood. She eyed the darkened circle of empty logs lined by a wall of trees.

  What the hell would Theron be doing out here? Perhaps he was pissing.

  She marched a few paces ahead and whispered his name when a strong arm gripped around her armpits from behind. Two hands found her ankles. A firm palm squashed her lips, so her scream found no escape past her throat.

  Her heart hammered like the bass of the music thumping inside the shed; her chest burned with fear. And then the world went black when a cloth was thrust over her head, and she was hoisted into the air. The scent of hessian rushed her nostrils.

  Violent screams spilled from her lips, scorching her throat, as soon as the palm lifted from her mouth.

  “Shut up, freak,” came Rhianna’s tell-tale nasal whine and the sound of electrical tape. Th
en there came a pressure around Zoe’s head and mouth, clamping her lips together until her screams became muffled murmurs.

  She couldn’t take enough air through her nose and twisted and turned, but the big hands gripped firmly.

  Speckles of light formed behind her eyes as she dizzied. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. There was jerking movement, the shuffling of feet, heavy breathing. Clop, crunch across sticks and rocks. And then roars of laughter and clapping as her captor yelled, “We’re taking her to the haunted hospital.”

  Zoe screamed, “No, no, please.” But it was useless, her words were indecipherable. Tears and snot smudged across her face and made it hard for her to draw breaths.

  Her muscles twitched then convulsed in long-lasting trembles and her teeth chattered against each other painfully.

  Why were they doing this? Rhianna was wretched, but surely she wasn’t this evil as to have Zoe bodily stolen, blindfolded and her mouth taped shut so as to take her to some haunted place?

  The mere thought of where they were taking her made her guts churn. Asher had spoken about it—a hospital left in ruins for more than twenty years—the place she was going to spend the night to gather video content for her website.

  Asher had told her of the many stories that circulated Hampshire of ghost sightings and strange happenings.

  Zoe couldn’t go there.

  She writhed and struggled and screamed until all the air was depleted from her lungs and unconsciousness wrapped around her mind, wrenching her down into its deep, tar-like depths.

  Chapter 16

  Zoe woke with a deep inhalation through her snot-crusted nose.

  Silence.

  Gloom.

  Suffocating.

  She tugged at the cloth over her head, but it didn’t budge. She clawed at the tape with trembling fingers, picking and tearing, until she could rip it enough to pull the cover off.

  Free from the damp cloth, she sucked in sharp breaths, trying to replenish her pained lungs with beautiful oxygen.

  Her eyes flickered around—she was alone among her dark surroundings. Sensations filled her awareness—the scent of damp earth, the cold press of grass beneath her legs, the thick fog that floated upon the ground.

  Zoe lifted her gaze to the looming façade of the hospital that grimaced down at her. In a row were big vacant windows, darkened like rotten teeth. Wild trees that rocked with the wind scratched against the flaking timber.

  A shudder crawled up her back as though the gangrenous nail of a long-dead corpse had dragged along her spine. Her heart violently banged at her ribs. She kicked her legs to find purchase on the ground, but her legs wouldn’t move.

  She looked down. Her feet were bound and tied to a tree. Zoe screamed and screamed, fracturing the silence.

  When her throat was raw, she finally stopped.

  No one would hear her here.

  She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, seeking calm, salvation, anything but this place and what may still exist here.

  And that’s when she felt it—hatred, thick and rancid like toxic plumes of smoke as it pooled above her head. A presence that deepened the darkness.

  The night turned to glass as a chill descended and splintered across her burning flesh. She breathed it in, broken shards piercing her already ragged throat.

  The cold leached into her bones, and she trembled. The presence squeezed tightly around her throat with long claws until she was red in the face, eyes bulging from their sockets.

  It let go. She gulped for air, and warm piss flooded the front of her jeans.

  The spirit’s shrieking laughter sounded and echoed around the garden and joined the darkness and the cold. Its laughter hacked at her ears.

  She lowered her head and wrapped her arms around her head. She jerked her legs up, trying to free them until her skin was grazed and bruised from the tight ropes that bound her there.

  Hands pressed on her shoulders. She flinched back and screamed.

  “Zoe. Zoe!”

  Familiar.

  She snapped her head up. Theron—his eyes wide, mouth slanting into a deep frown. Asher was beside him.

  Relief was the only feeling she had. Sweet, delectable relief. Every muscle in her body relaxed.

  “What did they do to you? Fuck. That’s it. They’ve gone too far this time.”

  “Get me out of here,” she croaked, words trapped by the pain in her throat.

  “I’m going to. They’ve tied your legs. I need something to cut it.” He turned to Asher.

  Asher slid a pocket knife out from a pouch in her boot and handed it to Theron.

  “I’m not even going to ask why you have that there,” Theron said with a shake of his head.

  “Don’t leave me.” Zoe tugged again at her legs, blood now seeping onto her jeans.

  “It’s okay. I’m here. I’m going to cut through the…stop moving your feet…you’ll hurt yourself more. Please, Zoe, stop. I’m here. I’m not leaving. Just let me get you free.”

  His words broke through her fear, and she stopped. He crawled to her feet, sawed through the fibres and unravelled the ropes.

  With protective arms, Theron lifted her up and cradled her against him. She nestled into his neck and warmth as he carried her to a car that was parked a little further away.

  She didn’t know where or how they got a car, or if either of them had a licence. She didn’t care, just grateful that she was going to get as far away from here as quickly as possible.

  Theron bundled her into the passenger seat and jumped in behind the wheel, cranking the heat. Asher hopped in the back.

  Zoe closed her eyes and whispered. “Hurry. Get me away from here.”

  They drove back to the school in silence, and the further they got from the hospital, the calmer she felt.

  Though with the calm came a venomous anger.

  And judging by Theron’s chest expanding and retracting rapidly, and his white-knuckled death grip on the steering wheel, he was feeling the same too.

  As they pulled up a short distance from the school, so they wouldn’t be heard by any staff, though it was only a skeleton crew that remained over the weekends, Theron didn’t cut the engine, just left the car idling.

  He looked at her for the first time. His features were soft and his eyes full of sympathy. “Are you okay?”

  Zoe nodded.

  “Asher, take her in. I’ll be back in a little while. I need to drop the car back and pay Daniel a visit.”

  “You think that’s a wise move?” Asher asked.

  Theron didn’t answer. He reached over and stroked a finger down Zoe’s cheek. “I’ll be back soon to check on you.”

  Again Zoe nodded. Asher opened her door and helped her out. She was still shaking. Asher shut the door, and Theron sped away, tyres screeching.

  Only then did Zoe realise that a meeting between Theron, who was in such a rage that it visibly shook him from the inside out, with Daniel and Rhianna, would not end well.

  Chapter 17

  Zoe lingered in the shower, allowing the hot water to calm her. At this time of night, it was contra to the school rules, but she didn’t care. She needed this. As the streams flowed over her back and shoulders, the tension held tightly in her muscles eased.

  She still couldn’t quite believe that tonight had even happened. That Rhianna and Daniel, it was definitely Daniel’s voice she heard, could be so nasty. Beyond nasty. They were evil.

  And that presence at the abandoned hospital had chilled her. Not in all the time she’d been able to feel and see spirits had she encountered one quite so wicked.

  She shuddered and wrapped her arms around her middle. Each time her mind drifted back to the events of the evening, the trembles started again.

  Zoe looked around at the small shower cubicle and became all too aware that she was alone in the vast shower block in the middle of the night.

  Clearly asking for trouble.

  And when she thought about what Theron w
as doing back at the party, confronting Daniel, anxiety pulled in her stomach and worry needled at her chest.

  When Theron had sped away in the car, he was obviously furious. She just hoped he wouldn’t go too far. Daniel wasn’t a small guy. Neither was Theron for that matter. The damage they could do to each other…

  She shook her head. Worrying about possible events wasn’t going to change anything. She needed to get out of this shower block and back up to the safe confines of her dorm room with Asher.

  After her shower, Zoe changed into her pyjamas. She crept back to her room and shoved her dirty clothes in a garbage bag ready to be collected by the laundry crew tomorrow.

  How embarrassing that she had pissed herself, though Asher nor Theron seemed to have noticed or were too polite to say anything.

  Asher had made her a cup of herbal tea and had it waiting on the side table when she joined her in the lounge.

  Zoe’s mind was still fuzzy, balance a little off, and tongue thick from all the vodka she drank at the party.

  Her heart thumped as a thought came to her. Eyes wide, she looked at Asher. “Damn it, Theron is out there driving. He’s been drinking. A lot. Does he even have a licence?”

  Asher nodded. “I’ve already had that argument with him. But you were his number one priority. We just wanted to get to you as quickly as we could.”

  Zoe sighed. “Thank you so much.”

  Asher offered a sympathetic smile and waved her thanks away. “He cares for you. Did you know that?”

  “Theron?”

  “Yes Theron. He’s a good guy.”

  Despite the weight of the evening, her heart sung to hear this from Asher. She couldn’t understand why Theron would be inclined to feel as he did about her, but she was so grateful that he did.

  She managed a smile.

  “By the looks of you, I guess you feel the same about him?” Asher asked, restraining a cheeky smirk.

  Zoe looked at her hands that rested in her lap. Yes, she felt that way. But… “It would never work between us. So it doesn’t matter how I feel. After tonight, I’d be the most selfish person on the planet to drag him into my drama.”