Waiting For The Beast (Lucifer's Clock Series, Book 1)

The Supernatural

Forgetting the bizarre dream, Angelica settled in nicely at Blue Ridge over the next few weeks. There were still the occasional stares and whispers, but most of the students actually knew her by name and would speak to her. The professors doted on her. They considered her as one of their stellar students. By her second day of attendance she had received an invitation from every club in the school. If she could have joined them all, she would've, but she knew that was impossible; instead she happily joined the chess, math and science club, once again shocking Nala.

Nala didn't understand how Angelica had time to participate in the clubs, and have straight A's in honor classes when she didn't study nearly as much as Nala. Angelica would have added to Nala's disbelief if she told her the truth, she didn't study at all. Once she was taught something in class she grasped it easily and understood it from there on out. That's how it had been her whole life, but there was no way she could explain that logically to Nala.

For most of her life she had felt like she was abnormal and different from everyone else. People's reactions to her had nothing to do with her feelings of abnormality. It was just something she had felt inside of her.

She didn't know if it was a good or bad thing. All that she knew was that she was somehow different from everyone else. She had never confided in anyone about this, not even Connie who she trusted with her life. Probably because she wondered at times if she was nuts and maybe needed meds for feeling this way, but since she had been at Blue Ridge everything had felt right.

At least up until today. It started when she woke up to the sound of footsteps in her bedroom. She woke up in a daze expecting to see Connie or Gabriel. When she didn't see anyone she assumed she was hearing things. Then, when she was eating breakfast in the dining room, she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around in her chair, but no one was there. Again, she reasoned with herself that she was simply hearing things.

On the way to school she had the feeling that someone was staring at her. She knew the notion was ridiculous because Gabriel was the only other person in the car and she was looking straight at the road; but she couldn't shake the feeling. Angelica was starting to think that maybe their house and Gabriel's car was haunted. She'd seen enough of Ghost Hunter's and American Horror Story to believe in that type of stuff.

In Physics class she was listening to Professor Klug lecture about Newton's Laws of Motion. She sat up front on the last row closest to the window, so at times it was easy for her to look out the window and enjoy the scenery; especially when she heard a lecture that she was all too familiar with. As she stared out the window she watched the sunlight beam through the window. She remembered as a child she used to be obsessed with playing with the particles in the air. She was so amazed at how they were invisible to her until light was shed on them.

Angelica played with the particles in the sunlight and that's when she saw it. The sunlight was not only illuminating air particles, but also an outline of a person. She couldn't see any details as to whether or not it was a woman or man, but it was definitely something. Was she seeing a ghost? She blinked a couple of times thinking this would make it disappear, but instead the figure moved. Angelica would've freaked out if she wasn't in the middle of class. Instead she tried to get Nala's attention. If Nala could see it then it would prove she wasn't crazy.

"Nala," she whispered.

Nala was furiously taking down notes and ignoring her. When Angelica looked back at where the apparition had been it was gone. What was happening to her? Was she being haunted? How else could she explain the strange things occurring around her that no one else noticed? Angelica went through the rest of the day paranoid. She was constantly looking for anything remotely out of the ordinary. When it was time for her chess club meeting she looked forward to it. She frankly didn't feel like going home. She wanted to be surrounded with people.