The Angels are Talking to You

Chapter 1 New Term Claudia raced to the bus stop after school to avoid sharing her journey with those unmanly kids from the neighbouring school who always misbehaved and spoke about their personal business in front of all the passengers. It was a bright afternoon and the last of the English summer was quickly coming to an end. Claudia had just celebrated her 13th birthday and although a new school term had begun, she was still in holiday mode. Claudia made her way upstairs and sat at the back of the double decker bus. While she rummaged through her school bag to find her chewing gum, a strange thing happened to her. Claudia heard a softly spoken voice, which said, “You are going to find it hard to meet a boyfriend in the future”. But actually, it was more like a premonition that she got. Claudia quickly jumped out of her thoughts and for a moment, she wondered why she would get this message at all. A relationship was the last thing on her mind, not to mention the fact that her parents would hit the roof if they knew she had a boyfriend at her age. The bus soon arrived at Claudia’s stop; she jumped off and walked the short distance home. After letting herself in, she made her way to the dining area where she saw her mother and Miss Gloria watching a black and white movie. Her mother was peeling the vegetables for dinner and Miss Gloria was helping her. “You’re home already?” Claudia’s mother, Maureen asked. “Yes mum, I got the early bus. Hello Miss Gloria.” Miss Gloria did not reply she just smiled at Claudia. “Miss Gloria, as I was saying, when I was in labour with Claudia, the doctors realised that she was a breech baby, so her feet were down instead of her head” Maureen explained “The doctors turned her 3 times and each time she turned herself back the other way.” Claudia’s mother said proudly. Claudia sighed; she had heard this same story time and time again and it definitely wasn’t the first time Miss Gloria was hearing it either. “She was so determined to be born feet first” Claudia’s mother continued” , So eventually the doctors gave up and let her have her way.” “Seems like you gave your mother a lot of trouble,” Miss Gloria said to Claudia as she patted her on the head. Claudia responded with a fake smile. Miss Gloria was not Claudia’s favourite person. There was something about her mothers’ friend that Claudia didn’t like, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Anyway, Claudia tried to be polite and pretend to smile whenever Miss Gloria graced them with her presence. “You know, Claudia’s Godmother, who herself was born feet first, told me that it’s supposed to be harder for curses to harm you if you are born in this way,” Claudia’s mother revealed “Really” Miss Gloria’s eyebrows rose. Claudia left the pair laughing and joking, she couldn’t bear to hear anymore. She didn’t believe in curses and much of the things her mother had told her, she put it down to old wives tales. In Claudia’s opinion, such stories should be prohibited in these modern days. The weekend quickly arrived and Claudia was home alone on a rainy Saturday afternoon. She decided to switch on the video recorder to watch a movie. But, before that, she went to arm herself with enough snacks to serve her throughout the film. As she headed towards the kitchen, she noticed a small shadow on the wall in the hallway. Claudia immediately stopped, then the shadow began to move slowly along the wall. Claudia continued to watch this shadow travel down the hallway and enter her parent’s bedroom. However, Claudia didn’t run way; she was more puzzled and bemused, than scared, as she tried to comprehend what she had just seen. Claudia’s eyes followed the shadow into the bedroom until the image stopped beside the radio. Claudia’s father always had the radio switched on low, but all of a sudden, this thing appeared to have turned up the volume of the radio until it was blaring loud and then it disappeared. Still at this point, Claudia did not run away but instead she calmly walked up to the radio and turned it down. Although it seemed like something had turned up the radio , as far as Claudia was concerned, this could not possibly happen in real life. She thought that her eyes were just playing tricks on her. Claudia shrugged and thought nothing of it. She casually returned to the front room to watch her movie. By the time the film had ended, Claudia’s brother, Clint had arrived home. “Hi sis” Clint said as he poked his head into the front room “Alright bruv” Claudia responded. She dare not tell Clint about the shadow, he would definitely ridicule her and accuse her of being crazy. Claudia decided to wait until her parents came home. A short while later her mother arrived. “Hi Claudia, is Clint home?” Claudia's mother asked. “Yes.” Claudia replied. “Good, that boy is always hanging about on the street with his friends. He’s treating this place like a hotel,” Her mother mumbled to herself as she put her apron on to prepare the dinner. Claudia followed her mother into the kitchen. “Mum, can I tell you something?” Claudia asked, feeling a bit silly “What is it?” her mother said curiously. “Well this afternoon, I saw a shadow on the wall and it moved towards your bedroom and then the radio went loud,” explained Claudia all flustered. “What?” her mother said in horror. “Yes mum, why do you sound so shocked?” asked Claudia, oblivious to the meaning of what she had just witnessed. “Because sweetheart, that shadow you saw was an evil spirit,” her mother revealed.