All right on we go!
Chapter Two – When the Sun Goes Down
"…Can see it in his eyes
Yeah, that he's got a nasty plan
I hope you're not involved at all"
– Arctic Monkeys
Nora was running late again. It hadn't been her fault. Again, she had left before anyone had woken up on that morning. But the community centre had felt further away than it had the day before. She hadn't slept well, all throughout the night she had this feeling of a weird pull at her middle and though she couldn't remember them, Nora knew that her dreams had been restless. Especially judging by how tired she was on her walk to the community centre… exhausted enough to take, what was meant to be, a small rest on some outdoor steps by the community centre. She must have dozed off against the wall bordering the staircase because the next thing she heard was her phone vibrating in her bag.
She snatched it out, thinking it must have been the probation worker, considering how late she might have been "Hi… oh Rosie?" Nora checked on the screen '8:24… damn it!' She stood up and rushed towards the community centre "What are you doing up so early?... no, no don't wakeup Granny. Just… Oh, the bed's wet?..." Nora felt a stab of guilt at not being there to help. "Ok, go get Granma. Yes, see you later. Love you too." She finished the phone call. 'Crap!'
The other five were already changed, outside with sponges and buckets. A part from Alisha, who was sunbathing, everyone was washing the large words that had been spray painted on the side of the community centre… Nora had to stop to make sure that she had read them properly 'does that say "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU"?'
"Tardy, tardy" the Irish boy tsked at her with a grin, shaking a disapproving finger at Nora when he spotted her.
"Right." Nora shook her head and made her way to the change room, noticing that someone had made a mess of the hallway as she hurried by some wrecked chairs. After changing she grabbed a sponge and bucket from the stack by the door, she got a whiff of a blunt as she left the room. 'Yum.'
"You're late..." the probation worker, 'um…Tony?', called from behind her when she walked out into the hall "… again…"
"Sorr…" Nora began, but Tony jerked out his hand.
"Phone!" he demanded so abruptly, it nearly made Nora jump. She inched closer to him and gave him her mobile phone. Something about him had changed, he twitched a little. "Go!" he practically shouted. Nora didn't need telling twice, the probation worker went off in a different direction as she left.
"Are you a virgin?... High Five!" she could hear the Irish boy's voice. Nora rounded the corner of the entrance to see Kelly suddenly push the curly haired boy into his individual bucket of water. As Kelly walked past her Nora could see that the blonde girl was clearly distracted "What was that for?" The Irish guy shouted after her, "Jesus" his eyes landed on Nora, he shrugged at her innocently, looking for someone to agree with his confusion. Though she was really quite confused, she was more worried about Kelly than anything, Nora put down her pail and sponge to go after the blonde haired girl.
She walked back around the corner of the building. The sound of shouting was coming from around the next corner. "Ge' off!" she heard Kelly yell.
"Hey!" Nora could see the back of some man who was struggling with Kelly "Get off her!" It all happened so quickly, she into slammed the guy's side, just as Kelly head-butted him. "Run!"
She and Kelly ran as fast as they could towards the paint chipped walls of the pathetic skate park next door to the community centre. They pounded to a stop, catching their breath and checking to be sure that no one was behind them.
Kelly shakily pulled out and lit a cigarette from her jumpsuit, she took a puff as she slid down one of the walls to sit on the pavement. Nora had a stitch that was pinching at her side, she hugged her stomach, still standing and panting she asked "Are you all right?"
The blonde girl nodded, taking another wobbly drag of her cigarette, her gaze pointed inattentively at some vague space before her.
"Who was that?" Nora asked, sliding down the wall to sit by Kelly.
"The probation worka'…"
Nora turned her to look at the side of Kelly's tear and eyeliner smeared face, she opened and closed her mouth in disbelief, shifting her light brown eyes to stare at the same vague place as Kelly. "No shit…" she muttered. Kelly was still sniffing, drawing Nora's attention again "Listen… if you wanna talk…" Nora shrugged, giving Kelly's arm a reassuring pat, "… either way I'll just sit here…" both of the girls ended up keeping their eyes directed forward in silence while Kelly finished her smoke.
Kelly started to break the quiet "Thank y…" a scraping noise cut her off, her face lined with worry as she looked over Nora's shoulder towards the origin of the odd sound. With a reluctant dread Nora turned her head to look as well "… the fuck?" Kelly asked out loud exactly what Nora had just been thinking. "Jesus…" Kelly muttered, "Run!" suddenly she was shoving for Nora to stand up "Fucking run!"
So she did, the stitch was starting to come back, though she still able to keep ahead of Kelly for some reason that innocently wide-eyed shrug from early at the community centre filled her mind 'the others…'
"Where yah goin'?"
"We have to warn others!" Nora called back, over the thumping in her ears.
"Yea, yea, yea!" Kelly urged her on.
'Almost there…'
"Wait! Back 'ere!" Kelly called when Nora ran past the door. She skidded to a stop and spun around to follow the blonde inside. She just managed to leap over Kelly, who had tripped just inside the door "Nice entrance," Irish boy applauded from a wheelchair, "Very dramatic."
Nora bent down to help Kelly up "The probation worka's gone mental," Kelly gasped " 'e's just tried to attack os!"
"It's true…" Nora tried, as Kelly went on, moving around frantically.
"Somefin' really weird is 'appenin'. I'm 'earing these voices in me 'ead… it's like I can 'ear wot people are finking!"
That stopped Nora from nodding along 'Wait. What?' she looked at the blonde girl beside her with the same disbelief as the other four young offenders now.
"Have you been sniffing glue?" Alisha questioned dismissively.
Kelly held to her story "The storm… the lightnin'! It's done somefin' tah os!"
"Yeah!" The Irish guy suddenly agreed "… that's why I'm in this chair, the tingling sensation in my anus spread to my legs…"
'Huh?'
Kelly kicked his shin "Seriously Nathan!" she shouted.
"Okay," the irritating Irish boy, evidently named Nathan, stated "If you can hear our thoughts, what am I thinking now?"
"You fink it's bullshit!" she answered.
"Of course I think it's bullshit!" Nathan replied, "You don't need to be a mind reader to know that!"
"Something's happened to me, too," the quiet kid's sulky voice entered the conversation, drawing all of their focus.
"Did you pop your cherry? Aw, we're all very happy for you!" Nathan teased meanly.
"Earlier on, when we were in the locker room…" the boy continued nervously. "I was invisible…"
Nora moved from Kelly's side by the door towards the boy, he looked to be on the verge of a breakdown "What was your name?" she asked, in a weak attempt to relieve some of his anxiety.
His pale blue eyes flicked to her "Simon", he went back to addressing the rest of the room in a firmer tone "I was invisible."
"Yeah? And did anyone witness this miraculous disappearance?" Nathan asked mockingly, moving… well, wheeling himself closer to Simon as well.
"You were all there." The quiet boy pressed on. "I guess you weren't…" he jerked his chin at Nora "…but…" he looked pleadingly at the others in the room.
"I think we would have noticed you vanishing into thin air," Alisha bit out impatiently.
"You didn't," Simon insisted, "You were standing right there. You couldn't see me."
"Prove it" Nathan wheeled even closer, jutting his face up defiantly at Simon "Go on then, do it. Turn invisible" Simon made a really weird face that reminded Nora of Rosie's when she sometimes sat on the potty for too long. "Oh my God. He's disappeared" Nathan poked fun at Simon, who waved his very visible hand in front of the curly haired guy's face.
"You can't see me?" Simon looked happy, which filled Nora with guilt.
"Can you quit it?" Nora irritably asked Nathan, but not in enough time to stop him from throwing an empty pop can at the shaky boy's forehead.
"You lot are hilarious, really," Nathan scoffed, wheeling towards the door. "Keep taking that medication."
Nora's heart sped up, she ran in front of him, "Don't go out there!" bracing her weight on either of the arm rests, stopping him. It didn't matter that Kelly and Simon might have been going crazy in here, because Nora was definitely sure that the probation worker had lost it out there.
Nathan's bluish green gaze was skimming over her face from where he sat, he was wearing a soft strange expression. "And you are?" he asked putting on that same smooth playful voice as he had yesterday.
"Nora. And you can't go out there!" she tried to convince him again.
"They're telling the truth!" the tall athletic guy in group shouted, all of a sudden all sweaty and struggling to catch his breath, drawing everyone's attention.
"And you know this how?" Nathan asked unmoved in his doubt, though still evidently amused by what was happening "I suppose you're psychic now, too!"
"All this," the athletic guy panted, "It's already happened once. I opened the door… the probation worker… he killed you," he pointed to Kelly. "You were right there. You were dead. Everything froze. You were all just standing there. Time went backwards!"
"Curtis, you're seriously saying that you can turn back time?" Alisha asked.
"This just gets better by the second!" Nathan stood up from the wheelchair and walked by Nora towards the door.
"Don't!" There was a yell when his hand touched the latch.
As soon as he opened the door he slammed it shut and locked it "They're right, the probation worker's gone mental!" he exclaimed. Squealing and jumping away from the entrance when the probation worker smacked into the door trying desperately to get in. He pounded against the glass, 'It could crack…' Nora couldn't really focus on what the others were saying.
She picked up Alisha saying something about meth and then getting angry at Kelly, the others talked too but with the glass doors shaking all Nora could think to say was "… Gotta get out of here."
"Good idea new girl." The Irish boy snapped his fingers, and with that they were all off, racing to the back of the community centre, looking for another way out.
There was a thwack as Nathan slipped on something, causing the rest of them to turn back around and look at him, "My poor sweet rear" seeming to forget that they were running for their lives, he comically groaned on the floor until he realised what he had slipped in.
"B… blood?" Nora's voice sounded as fuzzy as her head felt, her light brown gaze followed the puddle of red to its origin, which appeared to be a leaky locker.
"Ah! Fucking get it off me!" Nathan gagged, scrambling up to stand next to Nora, frenziedly trying to wipe his red stained hands off on his jumpsuit. "Jesus!"
The time turner… Curtis swallowed audibly and reached to open the locker. Though the jumpsuit already gave away who it might have been that was mutilated and shoved into the locker, Simon's muffled voice spoke, "It's that boy… Gary"
"I did wonder what had happened to him" Nathan squeaked, before he raised his voice "Turn back time! Stop this from happening" he demanded from Curtis.
"I don't know how it works!"
Nora wasn't really pay attention she felt numb, blinking at the body 'Is this happening?'
"Oh, well, that's great! That's really useful!" Nathan spat in sarcastic fright.
"Gonna ki- kill us…" Nora began to splutter, when she felt fingers clasp around her orange covered shoulders.
"New girl! Just calm down!" Nathan shook her roughly. Judging by his out of whack reaction to her relative cool, Nora could tell that his outburst had more to do with him dealing with his own fear.
"Stop it…" she heard Kelly shout.
Remembering herself Nora protested as well "Stop… Stop!" she felt heat rush through her, a light sparked somewhere, bright enough to stop his shaking. 'Is that coming from…' she looked down at her hands, holding them up between herself and Nathan, who was still gripping on to her shoulders. They both gawked, eyes wide, mouths open. She was holding light in her palms 'like that fairy shit in that vampire show?'
"Yea'…" she was vaguely aware of Kelly's comment "tha's righ' messed up…"
"Wha- wha…" Nora stuttered. Nathan lifted one of his hands off of her shoulders, he squinted his blue green eyes as he moved his index finger towards the light in her right palm.
"It's warm" he sort of smiled.
"Don't… it might bur…" Nora tried warning him off, but he touched anyway.
Her gaze locked on blue green before her, there was something about them that held Nora's attention. They seemed to hold a consuming message that she couldn't quite decipher. As she looked into them, a light warmth filled her with a sense of safety and peace that she had never felt before. It scared her, how overwhelming the feeling was.
Someone knocked against Nora's back, jarring her out of her daze, the light in her hands went out and she pulled away from Nathan.
"Get off me you freak!" Alisha was yelling, Nora turned to that it had been Curtis who had been pushed into her back, very likely by Alisha, who had raised her hand to slap Curtis. However, Curtis had caught her wrist before the slap made contact.
His breath seized and his started craning over Alisha aggressively "You're so hot. I'm gonna bone you. I'm gonna shag you senseless."
Alisha pulled away from him before anyone else could interfere.
"What'd I do?" Curtis asked in confusion, gasping for air. In disgust, Nora wondered how he could forget nearly sexually assaulting another person.
"Uh, you said you was gonna shag 'er," Kelly stated with unhidden distaste in her tone.
"And you were getting your chap out!" Nathan added unhelpfully.
The Irish boy's proximity was rather unnerving to Nora, especially after what had happened with that touch. 'Did he feel that too?' she curled her hands into fists, rubbing her fingertips against the soft skin of her palms.
"Yeah" Kelly stated with her blue stare still stuck on Curtis making it so that Nora couldn't tell if she was answering her mental question or just agreeing with Nathan.
"It was when you were touching her…" Simon pointed out.
Alisha promptly tested his theory by touching Simon's neck. He gasped and heaved himself over towards her "I'm so hard for you!" he moaned, "I want to rip your clothes off and piss on your tits!"
"No!" she exclaimed, pulling back Simon fell to his knees "What's happening to me?"
"You sick bastard," Nathan remarked to Simon.
Nora moved to help the nervous boy up. He accepted her hand, but they both quickly dropped to the floor at the sound of the glass door behind them shattering. Nora crawled back, away from the commotion, Simon grabbed her shoulders helping her to scamper across the ground.
It all happened in a flash the probation worker was suddenly on the floor, with a bloodied paint tin next to his lifeless body. Kelly was standing over him.
'This isn't this happening…' Nora's hands were clamped over her mouth in horror as she took in the gory sight.
"What did you do?" Nathan panted, his hands tugging at his hair.
"Is he dead?"
Nathan moved to look over the body "Well, I'm no doctor, but… You see the way the back of his head is caved like that?"
The probation worker suddenly jolted with a scream. Everyone jumped back, except for Kelly, who screamed something in response and stomped on the man's head until he stopped moving. "That'll do it," Nathan wheezed once Kelly had stepped away.
'Oh god' A million thoughts raced through Nora's mind, Rosie, her mum, her future. Breaking and entering was one thing but murder… manslaughter or whatever it would be classified as, meant something else entirely.
She was fuzzily aware of Simon standing up and he may have offered her a hand up but she didn't notice. Nora had tried to force her mind back to the main goings-on in front of her, but it was as though cotton wool had shoved into her head. The others agreed to something and Nora nodded along blankly from the ground.
"Come on then" of anyone she had expected Simon or Kelly to get her up, but it was Nathan who was addressing her now, he gave her a meek smile "Can't expect us to do all the work…" gripping her orange sleeved arm, Nathan helped her stand 'is he avoiding my skin?'
Nora managed to mumble out a "thank you" and before she knew it, in another series of distorted happenings, all six of them were under the flyover, burying two bodies and agreeing to keep everything a secret.
"I'm pretty sure this breaches the terms of my ASBO…" Nora didn't know why but Nathan's statement made her smile, the edges of her blurry mind unclouded slightly.
Though Nathan spent most of the time teasing Simon, Nora found it difficult to even try to stop him. At that moment, she found that the more he spoke the easier it became for her to breathe and think.
"Each of you has some sort of power. He," Nathan pointed angrily to a sickly looking Simon, "can do something, and I can't? That's not right! I mean, look at him! How does that make any sense?"
"Maybe you just haven't found it yet" Simon offered as he flattened his short brown hair against his scalp.
"Yeah! Maybe I haven't found it yet." The Irish boy's manner grew excited "Hey! Maybe I can't feel pain?" Kelly whacked him on the arm. "Hey!"
"Did yah feel tha'?"
Nora wondered how she would face Rosie and her mum when she arrived back at the flat after what she had taken part in. 'Very easily' as it turned out. As soon as she saw her family, or more felt her mum brush by as she left for work, Nora actually found that it was much less difficult to deal with what had transpired. After a hot shower it was even effortless to pretend and remove herself from the grisly events of the day… Nora put an Elvis record that had belonged to her brother's father on to the old record player. Nora had commandeered the old player from her mother a few years ago and Rosie had subsequently stolen from her.
After reading the four year old a bedtime story Rosie tucked her in to her freshly changed sheets.
As Nora lay in her dark bedroom that night, she held her palm before eyes she wasn't sure how she was meant to feel. 'At least I'll keep be able to keep toasty…' she focused and held her breath but nothing that she tried worked 'maybe it's gone.' The blue green warmth wandered into her mind, there was a flicker of irritated heat and surprisingly a small splutter of light that sparked in her hand. It died out as fast as it came and concentrate as hard she might nothing happened. 'Maybe with practice' she thought with a weary sigh.
Nestling against her pillow she did all that she was able to do in lieu of taking it all back, she spoke honestly "I'm sorry Tony, but you were gonna kill us… you weren't yourself and… I- I'm sorry."
The following morning, after another unsettled night's sleep, Nora had thought she might have still been and dreaming with the way Nathan treated Sally, the new probation worker. The woman was obviously distraught over the seventh kid and last probation worker's 'disappearance'.
'He can't be human' she gaped at the Irish boy. The pads of her fingers traced her palms 'had to have been a fluke…'
At the end of the day, from the eclectically furnished roof of the community centre they watched while the distressed probation worker left. "You prick" Lighting a cigarette Nathan had quashed any supposition of Simon's about them being a group of superheroes as they looked out at the estate. Without a doubt still sore about not having a power.
Nora gave Simon a quick supportive pat on the arm, he gave a small smile when she rolled her eyes hoping he'd pick up on her disdain for the Irish shit disturber's mocking 'After everything all he's thinking of is his own lot.' Nathan glanced back at the sound of Nora's quiet scoff. She thought that he might call her out but he just rolled his own smug bluish green eyes at her, before turning back to look over the water. 'Definitely a fluke…'
Hope you like it so far!