VOICE
Flora abruptly woke up in a sitting position with her head on a music stand, she noticed that she was clutching on to her phone, and couldn't make herself let go of it. She checked her messages: five missed calls from Helia. She checked the time: nine o'clock exactly. She was just in time for class. It was a strange dream that she'd had last night; it was terrifying, as if it were real, and her neck was still stinging. She gently touched where the wound would have been. Not there. She sighed with relief and stood up. She would've called Helia, back but this was the time when he usually arrived at school, so she decided that she'd just wait for him outside. She spotted her gym teacher walking along the corridor, politeness was compulsory at her high school so she stopped.
"Good morning sir," She said. He carried on walking. "Err, good morning sir!" No response. This was strange, it was obviously mandatory for teachers as well. She shrugged and walked quickly down the hall and to the main entrance, where she saw Helia approaching with his friends, Riven and Timmy, and some other people, she couldn't remember their names. She walked outside, only for the scene to change back into the entrance hall.
"What?" She tried to walk outside again, but it wouldn't work, it was just like she was entering the building. She tried again, and again, but nothing worked. Her heart pounded, and her neck stung. She screamed at the very top of her lungs. What was going on? Was she invisible or something? And why couldn't she leave the school? Helia came into the building at that point. Flora followed him; she had nothing else to do.
"You're hearing things."
"What? No, I swear, I just heard a really loud scream from inside the school! I'm willing to stake my life on it!" Said Helia. Flora stiffened. Helia could hear her?
"Okay, if you're willing to die for that fact, then I'll happily prove you wrong, maybe I'll even be as kind as to kill you myself." Riven laughed.
"How would you prove it?"
"A simple survey." Timmy laughed.
"Nah, I'm not going to go to all that trouble just to kill a friend," Riven said, putting an arm around Helia. She followed him into their homeroom, Helia sat in his usual seat and Flora would normally sit next to him. But she couldn't.
"Last night wasn't a dream... I really am dead..." She said to herself quietly. "What am I going to do?" She stood behind Helia, and the noise that the class was making scaled down for the register. The teacher mumbled on, and could only hear clearly was he got to her name.
"Present." She said quietly.
"Flora?" He said again. Helia was looking round anxiously. He put his hand up.
"What is it Helia?"
"Didn't you hear someone answer for her?" He said.
"No... Don't worry, I'll call up her house later and tell you what they say,"
"There's no point, her dad's on a business trip. Again."
"Oh, then we'll try his mobile, Helia I appreciate that you and Flora are close but there's no need to worry," The teacher carried on with the register and Helia sighed.
"I need to talk to you; can you meet me in the boiler room? We can talk there." She whispered in his ear. He stood up and looked around, then left the room as discreetly as possible, Timmy and Riven turned a blind eye to whatever he was doing, as usual. Flora followed him, and sure enough, he went into the boiler room. It was cold and damp, and the only light was an emergency light bulb, so the room was very red and dim.
Flora was speechless. She had Helia alone, but she didn't even know what to say.
"What do you want?" He said quietly.
"Helia..." She said. He stiffened once again, and attempted to look in the direction of the voice, but failed. "It's me."
"Flora? Where are you?" He said, calming down, even though he had no reason too.
"I... It..." Flora sighed, "It happened last night."
"What happened last night?"
"I wasn't imagining anything, and when you left I went to the... Lift... I think... I'm sorry, Helia, but it's just too distant," Flora sobbed.
"What happened?" He repeated.
"Paper... I think... This other voice, static, nothing was real... Err... I'm sorry, you probably think you're dreaming or something, aren't you?"
"Flora, I don't know what's going on. But I can tell that I'm not dreaming. I know that this is incredibly weird, unbelievable and all of the above, but when you come across a situation like this, it's better to think it through before you lose your mind." He said. "So, just tell me what happened."
"I... I think I'm dead Helia, I can't leave the school, and no-one can see or hear me... But I don't know what's going to happen... Or why I'm still here." Helia was silent. The prospect of being followed around by a ghost was completely ridiculous... But he knew when Flora was being sincere. She couldn't lie to save her life.
"How... How do you know?" He said.
"When I woke up this morning... I thought that I was alive but then no-one could see... Or hear me. I was surprised when you heard me though, but I don't know why you can..."
"Hey Stell! Look, my dad bought me a new iPod! 25GB! Amazing right?" Helia heard Bloom, one of his classmates say. He quickly hid behind a cupboard, but there was no need for Flora to hide.
"Ooh! Let me listen!" Stella grabbed the MP4 player off of Bloom and stuck an earpiece in her ear. "... This is rubbish! Nothing but static, it's obviously broken." Helia looked up.
"Stella, if you're lying I'm totally going to kill you!" Helia walked into view and out of the room.
"Helia...? What are you doing in here?" Asked Bloom.
"Oh... I left my... Err... Toothbrush behind the cupboard... But it's not here anymore, oh well, bye!" He quickly left.
"Helia, you have to believe me." Flora said once she was sure that there was no-one else around.
"Flora, I believe that it's you, but I can't believe that you're dead. It's too much too take in."
"Why? It's just one fact."
"Flora, you mean everything to me, I can't accept this that easily."
