Excerpt: The City of Secrets

As I have said, it was a sunny day. I was in Math class, and as usual I was alone. We were doing group work and like every other time, I was working on my own. I never really minded, because I always understood it fine and Lily had told me about the strange effect we had on the Sleepers. I did sometimes feel lonely, but there were usually enough ghosts in the school to keep me company.

But that day, something happened. I felt a horrible, jolting sensation, and then there was a sensation being dunked into ice water. I started shaking, both from cold and from the horrible sense that something was wrong that suddenly invaded my mind. Two people floated into my mind. It was not like I saw their faces or thought their names, really, because I knew them better than I knew myself. I simply knew, without a doubt, that something horrible had happened to Lily and Nate.

I don't quite remember what happened, but I suspect I fell out of my seat, because the next thing I knew I was on the floor, the students crowded around me in a loose and far away circle, and the teacher had braved my aura in order to come check on me, as per her job.

"Matthew, are you alright?" Mrs Pringle - for that was her name - asked me. I was certainly not, and for once I nearly lost my grip on my temper and said something nasty. Matthew was what Lily called me, I hated it when others called me that.