‘Can you take your foot off of my phone?’ I said trying to sound normal but inside I was a wreck. My stomach was churning, my chest felt tight and my head was pounding.
‘You forgot to say please.’ TJ laughed as a crowd circled us.
‘TJ, he’s my brother. Now give him his phone,’ Theo said, and instantly TJ lifted his foot off the phone and backed away a few inches.
‘Hey, I’m sorry, man—I didn’t know,’ he said with a nervous laugh. ‘Just tell him to stay out of my way, yeah?’
My face felt like it was on flames as I reached down to grab my phone only to watch someone else pick up. I followed the hand until I found the face it belonged to.
‘Here.’ A girl with dark hair and the greenest eyes I had ever seen said handing me the phone. She flashed me a smile but I didn’t return it instead, I grabbed the phone and pushed past the crowd, desperate to get home.
When we had finally parked outside the house, Mum called me back once Theo had taken Maia into the house.
‘Look, it’s a brand new school, maybe if you try a little it could be a better place for you,’ she said, and though I knew she was just trying to be nice, I couldn’t control my earlier anger.
‘Mum, just stay out of it,’ I said before storming off into the house and up to my room.
I walked in and was instantly overcome with rage as I read the word ‘LOSER’ written on the window using the dirt that had settled on it.
‘Stay out of my room!’ I yelled as I attempted to push Theo in the chest but barely causing him to take a step back.
‘What are you on about, you idiot? I haven’t been in your room.’ He rolled his eyes at me.
‘Will you boys ever just stop!’ Mum sighed in the hallway.
‘Tell your son to stop accusing me of going into his room then.’ Theo pulled a face.
Mum looked over at me. ‘How on earth could he get into your room when he was at school with you the whole day?’
Theo shook his head and walked off back into his room, closing the door behind him as I stormed off into my room.
‘Then who did that?’ I said pointing to the window.
Before Mum could think up an excuse, Maia walked past her into the room and gave me a look.
‘It was AB.’
11
Ab
Hey, you little rat. I thought we were pals,’ I said, but Maia ignored me.
‘Maia, you really need to stop with this AB thing.’ Cait sighed as she picked up one of the used towels on Finn’s floor and wiped my handiwork off the window.
‘Fine, don’t believe me.’ Maia stormed out of the room past me and into her room.
I felt a twinge of regret as I watched Cait look at her son sadly before leaving him to sulk in his room. I poked my head into Maia’s room, quietly watching her set up an evening of ‘tea with teds’.
‘You’re not invited,’ she said as she roughly forced her teddy, Jam Jam, to sit at the table.
‘Are you mad at me?’ I cautiously stepped into the room.
She spun on her heel and looked at me with low eyebrows and crossed arms. ‘You’re a bad person, AB.’
‘Hey, I’m not a bad person.’ I sighed. ‘It was just a joke.’
‘I don’t think you’re funny. You were mean to my brother, and I don’t want to be your friend anymore.’ She sat at her table, waiting for me to leave.
‘I’m sorry, kid.’ I weakly smiled feeling as though I had been told off by a parent. I left the room and made my way back to the library feeling disappointed in myself for upsetting my only friend.
Hours later, once the sun had long gone and most of the house had fallen asleep, I heard what sounded like Maia crying. Quickly, I left the library, leaving Mitzi asleep beside me and made my way to her room to find Finn had beaten me there. He was sitting on Maia’s bed, gently brushing the stray hairs out of her face. I hid in the poorly lit corner and watched as she reached out for his arm and hugged it like a soft toy.
‘What was your bad dream about?’ he whispered.
She looked up at him and whispered, ‘That AB kept being mean to you.’
Argh, I’m giving the kid nightmares.
Finn nodded. ‘Who is AB, Maia?’
She sighed, and I knew it was because she was frustrated that no one else could see me. ‘She’s a girl that lives here.’
‘You mean, like a ghost?’ he said calmly, and Maia nodded.
‘I think so. She said she died a long time ago.’
Finn stayed quiet for a moment before whispering, ‘Is she here now?’
Maia shook her head. ‘No, I told her I didn’t want to be her friend because she was mean to you.’
‘Thank you.’ Finn smiled before tucking her in. ‘Ok, no more nightmares, right?’
She smiled and nodded confidently. ‘Goodnight, Finn.’
He stood up and watched her turn onto her side before he left the room with me following behind. Back in his room, he switched off his light and climbed into bed. Just as I was about to leave the room, he turned over and pulled his laptop out.
‘You really should listen to your mum. Those dark circles are worthy of an award,’ I said walking over to look at his screen. With no mistakes, he quickly typed out a street name before the screen displayed lots of words and pictures.
He clicked a few times and brought up what looked like a newspaper.
‘A petition signed by the locals of Newberry Village has been dismissed by the council on the agreement that the owner will refurbish the abandoned house which has been deemed a hazard to locals. Locals say that the house, which has been unoccupied for over thirty years, should be turned into flats for prospective tenants but instead has become a place for teens to hang out.’
I stopped reading out loud as Finn changed the page again.
‘What teens? I wish there were teens. Maybe I wouldn’t have gotten so bored all these years,’ I said. I stopped caring once Finn typed ‘AB’ alongside the street name. After a few seconds of scrolling, he stopped leaving us both a little disappointed at the lack of results it showed. He then began typing once again, this time removing my name and replacing it with the word ‘haunted’.
Clicking again, suddenly the screen was colourful with a bright green background and looked like a conversation between people with strange names, such as ‘NewlyBerry1000’.
‘Anyone actually been to the house? I went in the mid-1990s and there was definitely some crazy stuff going on. Doors banging and footsteps coming from upstairs. Anyone been recently?’
‘My son went a few years ago and said the same thing, but he seemed to think someone was living there and just getting off on scaring people.’
‘I went last year and there’s no way someone is living there. The place is haunted. It’s not right they’ve left it to rot like that.’
‘My uncle reckons there’s an old pervert that lives there.’
Growing angry at the comments, I quickly got to my feet with a face of thunder. They were wrong. They had no idea what they were talking about.
In the corner of my eye, as I threw a tantrum, I noticed Finn shiver and begin looking around his room. I felt a boost of energy, but Finn wasn’t frightened. He just seemed curious. Like it was not impossible for him to believe that I could exist. I couldn’t leave the house earlier but maybe that was because relying on Maia wasn’t enough. Maybe I needed to feed off another person. How much stronger could I be if Finn believed in me too? Maybe, just maybe, that would be enough for me to leave.