Gemini Falling Read Free Page B

past on her way out; Mel follows behind her without saying a word. She looks back at me once over her shoulder, before following Elyse out into the hallway.
    I find myself lingering behind them, at a distance. I am practically hiding in my own home and I hate myself for it. I jump as Elyse slams the door behind them.
    I should be glad they’ve gone, but I can hardly register what has just happened. Suddenly I am alone in the silent hallway. I just stand still for a moment, like I am lost – the same feeling as when you walk into a room and instantly forget why you went in there.
    Eventually I go into the kitchen and pick up a cloth, and start cleaning up the family room. Robotically, I mop everything up and wrap the broken glass in newspaper before I put it in the bin.
    On the table, damp and transparent, there is a piece of paper. It’s covered with symbols and scratchy line drawings – it looks like something out of
The Blair Witch Project
or something, and I don’t even want to touch it. I can’t stop myself from looking at it more closely and I see some words in there, hidden away and tiny. They are not only weird but they feel threatening, even though they are only isolated words – flashes of death and destruction. I assume that Elyse wrote this and left it here for me to see. I suppose it must be some kind of message. I don’t know what, but it’s nothing good. When did she even write it – was she planning this all along?
    I shouldn’t be bothered by any of this, but Elyse’s words are still ringing in my head. I don’t know why I can’t just forget the whole thing. I’m still sitting on the sofa and gazing into space, replaying it again and again, when I hear a key in the door and know my brother must be home. I scrabble up the stairs before he has even got the door open and luckily he doesn’t spot me.
    I run up to my room, close the door and throw myself on the bed. I know I won’t move all evening, even though it’s still early. I’m also pretty sure that I won’t sleep tonight. I can’t shake the feeling that Elyse was right – something very bad is going to happen.
    *  *  *
    The feeling of doom is still there when I wake up. It’s stuck in the back of my throat and it won’t go away.
    I’m not exactly in the habit of bouncing out of bed with joy in the mornings, but I’m not used to dreading going to school. Suddenly I wonder if this is what some people – some losers – feel like every day. I can’t even secretly congratulate myself on being on the winning side any more – I’m not sure I still am.
    All night, I couldn’t get Elyse’s face, and her words, out of my head. Just those last words, before she left, about some terrible accident – I don’t know if it was a warning or a threat. Before then I hadn’t taken any of what she said seriously, but there was something about it I still can’t shake off.
    The piece of paper, now dried out and brittle, with its evil message – whatever it is supposed to be – is now tucked away in a side pocket of my Cath Kidston schoolbag. I want to get rid of it and I know I should probably throw it away, but the paranoid part of my brain says I should keep it. As evidence – like ‘if I die, I know who did it’. Melodramatic, much? Maybe. Maybe not.
    Despite the feeling in my stomach that I have swallowed a bowling ball of doom, I know I have to go to school and face up. I might be a lot of things – stone-cold bitch according to half of my best friends – but I’m not a coward. I need to be there so I can take control, not hide away like some loser.
    I’m out of the door and on my way to school even earlier than usual, unheard of when my parents are away. Of course, I realise too late: the downside of this is that Sorana bloody Salem is the only other person there. This is a regular occurrence so I should have thought it through; if I’d been on it as usual, I’d have gone into town and got myself a coffee or something. Too