‘Don’t forget to read the next chapter of Wuthering Heights before tomorrow,’ said Mrs Mitchell. ‘We’ll be discussing Nelly’s unreliable narration, and how that affects the reader’s experience of the story.’
‘Sounds fascinating,’ mumbled Tessa. Well, sort-of mumbled. She did it loud enough that the rest of the class could hear.
‘If you don’t want to analyse the book, you can always pick a different subject to fail at,’ said Mrs Mitchell.
I suppressed a laugh as the rest of the room broke out into ‘oooh’ and ‘oh no she didn’t’. I liked Mrs Mitchell. She was a good English Literature teacher. Unlike a lot of the ones I’d met, she actually liked analysing stories – and even better, poetry – rather than going through the motions just because she had to.
The bell rang, indicating it was time to head to the next lesson.
‘See you tomorrow, folks,’ said Mrs Mitchell, turning away from us to clean the whiteboard.
Josh sidled up to me as I shoved my stuff into my bag. ‘Any luck with the cameras yet?’
‘I think so,’ I said. ‘When I was getting ready this morning, I checked it, and it looks like it took a photo early this morning of someone with a black heat signature. Or rather, a lack of a heat signature.’
‘Does that mean what I think it means?’
I zipped my bag up and stood up. ‘Think so. I haven’t had time to check the footage yet, though.’
‘We could catch up after school, order pizza?’ he suggested.
‘With ice cream?’
‘Duh.’
‘It’s a date.’
Well, not a date. Not that kind of date. Whatever.
Josh had Geography over the other side of campus, so he scurried off, while I dawdled since I was in Chemistry, just down the corridor.
As I stepped out of the room, I felt something hit my foot. I stumbled. If it hadn’t been for my chunky shoes, I probably would’ve fallen over. Score one for Doc Martens.
I turned around to see Tessa, Melanie, and Laura giggling. They’d tried to trip me up. Unbelievable.
‘You should be more careful where you’re walking, fire crotch,’ said Tessa. ‘Wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.’
I curled my hands into fists, muttering swear words to myself as I marched down the corridor towards Chemistry. At least there I could throw things together and make them blow up in a controlled environment, all in the name of science.
*
By the time Josh came over after college, I’d mostly calmed down. Mr Mitchell – yes, he was married to my English Literature teacher – had sensed I was in a bad mood, so he let me blow a couple of things up. It was surprisingly therapeutic.
‘How was Chemistry?’ Josh asked as he walked in the door, carrying a bag of takeaway pizza and ice cream.
Tilly ran over, jumping up at the food bag. I scooped her up before her claws ripped through the flimsy plastic, and the three of us went into the kitchen.
‘Explosive,’ I said with a devilish grin.
‘Are you just in that class for the experiments?’ He put the bag onto the breakfast bar, then took the ice cream from it and put it into the freezer.
‘Mostly. It’s helpful when it comes to making potions.’
‘You make potions? I thought you were a ghost hunter?’
I scoffed. ‘I wish I was a ghost hunter. Potions are just another weapon to help us fight them, same as spells or iron. Iron repels evil, for the record.’
‘Useful to know. Do you make potions using the elements on the Periodic Table, then?’
‘Sometimes. Depends what they’re for. I mean, it’s not like Mum lets me make potions anyway, but I’m hoping that will change now.’
‘Do you think it will?’ He pulled out one of the chairs, then opened the pizza box. Ham and pineapple. Our favourite.
I put Tilly on the floor, washed my hands, then tucked into the pizza. ‘I don’t see why not. I mean, she doesn’t have much for potion making, but that can be changed. I can’t see her kinds of potions blowing up like stuff in the lab does either.’
‘You never know,’ said Josh, waving his slice of pizza in my face.
‘You’re such an idiot,’ I said as I pushed it away. ‘The biggest hurdle isn’t what works and what doesn’t work. It’s getting Mum to let me do stuff in the first place.’
‘Do you think the video footage will help?’
‘Depends what we’ve found. It might be nothing. Might be something. I mean, it’s just one image.’
‘Will you be able to tell if it’s someone possessed, as opposed to just a ghost?’
I shrugged. ‘We’re about to find out.’
*
After eating pizza, we got the ice cream out of the freezer, then sat on the sofa with my laptop and the ice cream. Tilly curled up on Josh’s left, leaning over to get to the ice cream. He had to keep nudging her out of the way since it was cookie dough, but of course she didn’t know the chocolate in it could kill her. She just thought it smelled nice. Oh, to be that oblivious about the dangers of life.
I opened the app I’d installed to track the camera footage and showed Josh the photo. It showed two black figures walking across the car park, and according to the timestamp, it was taken at one in the morning.
I leaned in closer. ‘Do you see that?’
‘See what?’ said Josh, doing the same.
‘I think there’s a red outline on one of them.’ I zoomed into the edge of one of the figures. Yep, one of them had a red outline. But the inside of it was so cold, it was black.
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means we have an answer to your question about whether or not we can tell if someone is possessed by tracking their thermal imaging. Look at the ghost they’re standing with.’ I moved the angle slightly, so that we could see both figures. ‘The one on the left is pure black. No red or yellow. The other one has the red outline.’
‘That’s so creepy,’ said Josh.
‘It is,’ I said. ‘But what do we do with it?’