Second chapter of "time ghost"

When people first found out about us there was an outcry of panic. It was understandable though - to many people ghosts were the evidence that there was life after death, a small bit of hope in a way that death wasn’t the end. So to then be told that ghosts were just in fact humans travelling back in time would most certainly cause panic.
People started to have those deep thoughts that are pushed to the back of the mind, that there was no life after death just an empty pit of nothingness and darkness. And once those thoughts enter a persons mind it’s extremely difficult to forget about them and let them go and, if thought about too much and too deeply, those dark thoughts are the kind that can easily turn a person insane.
And it was all thanks to us, the time ghosts, the people that were meant to save the world not slowly destroy it but all was well once again. The church had somehow managed to convince everyone that there was still an afterlife and we were sent on this earth by God to undo the mess that the people from the past had left us in.
It was just as I had started to read the second page of my assignment that there was a knock at the door. “Come in” I called out though the door had already begun to open before I'd even opened my mouth. A man in his early twenties walked in wearing a smart, black business suit, it was Jack. He was tall with dark hair, pale skin and blue eyes. Those eyes, they always took my breath away no matter how many times I saw them. My heart was beating so fast, I thought I'd never have the pleasure to set my eyes on his perfect face ever again. As soon as our eyes met he smiled at me and strode across the room to hold me in a tight embrace, was this his way of showing me he was worried about me?
To anyone just walking in Jack would have seemed like an equal to me, an acquaintance, with the manner in which he was acting but he was my boss and the person that would take over the organisation once his father wasn't able to do any more.
“Alana my dear, I am ever so sorry for what happened to you.” he came out of the embrace and glanced at me from arms length with both his hands on my shoulders my stomach turned to jelly when he referred to me as his “dear”. “Are you okay? Does it still hurt?” he lifted one of his hands off my shoulder to touch my neck.
The sudden bolt of pain that passed through my body caused me to wince away, leaving his hand hanging in mid-air where my neck just was. He let out an awkward laugh which I took as an apology for hurting me. “I'll take that as a yes then”. It was the only type of apology I expected from him as he had never been one to show his more apologetic side, his Father had brainwashed him into believing it made him look weak, I on the other hand thought it made him seem less human. But all the same I trusted him and knew I could ask him anything and he wouldn't tell me to mind my own business like everyone else seemed to.
“They're getting stronger, aren't they?” I asked looking directly into his striking blue eyes. He turned away from me and strolled across the room to where my only mirror was placed on the wall, to stare vainly into it.
“I'm afraid so. I mean making contact with objects is one thing but to actual know you're there as well and to be able to interact with you!” He let out a deep breath. “We're trying our hardest to avoid them but it seems as though they know our every move. Everywhere we go they're there waiting.” for some reason his voice sounded strained as though there was more behind what he was saying but I had more pressing issues to ask about.
“Wait so this isn't the first time it's happened?” He turned away from the mirror making eye contact with me before dropping his gaze, I knew that look all too well and it didn't ever mean anything positive. I felt sorry for him though, I could see the pain in his face, the bags under his eyes revealing sleepless nights. It was his responsibility to look after us after all and they weren't exactly helping matters. I felt fury at the fact that I could have quite easily been killed and the fact that it could have been avoided had I been warned but when I looked at him all of this anger I felt burning inside me subsided and I wanted to do anything to see that smile on his face and hear his perfect laugh once more.
“I read the next assignment you left me. China- sounds interesting, Can't say I've ever been there! Or anywhere out of this place to be honest!” I shot him a quick smile laughed the perfect laugh setting fireworks off inside me, it felt good to know that I'd achieved my goal.
“I don't think anyone's been there for a few decades, well ever since the numerous nuclear meltdowns they had making it inhabitable. But, I'm sure you'll enjoy it there. They used some pretty good techniques to get the population down but I fear that what knowledge has been passed down to us is very different to what actually happened that's why my Father gave you this assignment.” I simply nodded, he was right though I was excited to see a land that not many people alive had seen.
And then a short silence followed in which neither of us said a word but it wasn't awkward we were just too deep in our thoughts, well I was anyway a trait which could be a blessing or a curse at the same time.
My stomach on the other hand disagreed and decided to fill the silence with a timely rumble. I let out an awkward giggle as I rubbed my stomach trying to calm the growling beast inside before Jack heard. Jack raised an eyebrow clearly I didn't tame the beast in time.
“I'm feeling a little hungry myself, haven't had chance to eat with all that's been going on. How about we head down to the canteen?” I couldn't have agreed more, but then the fact that he said he hadn't had chance to eat raised my hopes that he had actually been worried about me though somehow there was something beneath the tone in his voice that told me there was more to it than just that.
I politely asked him to wait for me outside my room for a few minutes while I got changed into some more suitable attire. A dressing gown didn't really seem appropriate to eat in and I highly doubted that any of my co-workers would appreciate me wearing such clothing in an openly public space. My dark, oak wardrobe was just to the right of my bed and was overly large for the small amount of garments that lay within its compounds. The doors were stiff as I opened them, not surprising really as my wardrobe wasn't used as often as it should be especially considering I was of the female gender but I had never been one for material goods. Inside few clothes hung, all lacking fruitful colours and baring the same shapelessness. They were more like a uniform than a fashion statement but it was what I was used to fashion was the least of everyone's worries in my world.
I would have taken more time to decide on what to wear but with Jack continuously pestering me to hurry up from outside my door I had to make a quick decision on a plain black dress that hung loosely on me and fell just below the knees. Jack gave me an look of annoyance when I finally exited but didn't say anything.
We walked in silence side by side through the dark corridors dimly lit by few candles that hung irregularly on the stone walls. Our feet hitting the floor simultaneously causing an eerie noise that echoed on the wall around us. The only other noise from that was the sound of the church organs coming from the distance which told me that it was around 6pm as that was when the service was held.
It was unusual, even though people knew ghosts weren't the dead coming back the belief in God was as strong as ever. Some people even went as far to believing that what was happening to the world was punishment from him for humans sleeping around not thinking about the consequences and now we were the ones having to suffer.
I put all the guilt about not attending the service to the back of my mind after all the smell of food was growing stronger and stronger causing the beast in my stomach to do somersaults in excitement. Finally we reached the doors where many voices could be heard coming from beyond, the only room in this place where people could actually relax and enjoy themselves. Jack stepped to the side of one of the doors “after you” he said stretching his arms out and moving them toward the doors as a sort of signal. I rolled my eyes, why did he bother to play the role of a gentleman when I knew every single one of his flaws and how he really viewed women?
I marched past him not hesitating or even stopping to thank him as I pushed the door open, the voices that were once so loud a moment ago had hushed to complete silence, so silent that if someone were to drop a pin on the floor no matter where it was in the spacious room everyone would here it as clear as if it were next to them. All eyes were on me, some people pointed and others whispered to the person next to them, clearly word had got out about what had happened.
The room itself looked like a school canteen, I had only the images in my mind of schools that I'd seen when I travelled back in time to base my opinion on since I had never set foot in a school. I would have gone had they not discovered what I could do before I could barely walk and then, my parents willingly allowed me to be to be taken from their comforting arms and into an unknown environment where everyone was strangers. I'd never had a say in it, no choice, it was my duty to be a time ghost whether I liked the responsibility or not.
I'd got so lost in my thoughts that I hadn't realised that everyone was still staring at me though. Unfortunately Jack decided to take matters into his own hands, I knew he didn't realise the reason they were staring at me was because of him. He presumed that they were staring because of what had happened. “ALL RIGHT PEOPLE NOTHING TO SEE HERE, NOW KEEP ON EATING!” he yelled scaring me half to death, it was very rare that I heard him yell only because he knew how to gain authority by other means. The room remained silent for a split second before everyone created spontaneous conversations in fear of being punished. There were a few people that still couldn't resist a quick sly glance in my direction some people even appeared to have a sneer across their face.
Jack started to walk over to the food counter and I, not wanting to be left on my own, followed suit. The woman behind the counter put on a fake smile for Jack whilst she was serving him and Jack, being the Casanova couldn't resist flashing her his cheeky smile back make her cheeks glow red. The smile faded when it came to my turn. She pretty much threw the food on my plate before slamming it down on the counter at the end. I'm sure Jack would have said something had he noticed but he was far to busy trying to find us an empty table to sit at.
“Thank you” I said flashing her a grin like Jacks just to annoy her that little bit more and then walked over to Jacks side. I pointed to an empty table in the corner, he nodded in response and allowed me to take the lead. I still felt as though everyone was staring at us. We both sat down simultaneously and started to dig into the only food we would be receiving for the remainder of the day, well what I would be receiving Jack was waited on hand and foot back where he lived, where I had once lived.
The food itself wasn't exactly exciting, mainly made up of vegetables with a small piece of chicken to accompany them. It wasn't the most tasteful of meals but it had been proven to provide the most energy and with food being very limited in our world due to restrictions on water and land you had to be thankful for what you got. I'd heard rumours that in many countries people were on the streets starving because the people in power were far too selfish to share the food out equally.
“So I see word still gets around fast” Jack said to me in between shovelling food into his mouth like a pig.
“Yes unfortunately it means you can't keep any secrets though” he suddenly stopped eating and glanced at me”
“They don't know about you know?” he asked me, something which would have confused almost anyone but I knew exactly what he was talking about and just thinking about it made me blush almost as bad as the woman who had served us our food.
“Of course not!” Jack smiled and sighed in relief. The way he was acting about it hurt me slightly but I had to pass it off I knew what he was like.
“Good and well ignore the way everyone is with you now from my experience they'll have forgotten about it within a week when some new hot gossip comes out” he said with confidence but he couldn't have been more wrong. He hadn't realised every time he came to the canteen I was always sat on my own, didn't notice the glares I got when he waved at me and came to sit with me. “Spoilt bitch”, “Pretentious whore” some of the phrases he'd never heard even when people had been saying them within earshot of him. No that was Jack gullible as ever into believing everyone here got along with each other not realising that the reason most people hated me here was because of him.
He was my senior by four years and since his Father was the one who had brought me here at such a young age I had lived with him for a while to grow in in a “normal family atmosphere” whatever that was. So when I had finally had enough of living with them and wanted to be more independent I chose to move into the actual base with all the other time ghosts, thinking they may see me as one of their equals but I was wrong. For some reason everyone turned against me they believed that because I was still close with Jack and his parents that I wasn't ready for independence and even worse thinking I was just using him for more privileges, to go to more interesting scenes and the worst one I heard was that I was just using him to get more than my fair share of rations. I didn't know if Jack had actually listened to all the names they called me but if he had surely he would push me away rather than pulling me closer to him more than ever?
I looked around and saw that everyone was sat on their usual tables just like what I imagined a school canteen to look like. They were all split into different department staff for what job they had. On one table I saw the people whose job it was to look at ways to get new energy resources, another the people who looked at what food had the most nutritional values then you had the table with the people from my department on it. Our job was to go back in time and see why the earth had become so over populated in the first place and if there were any way to prevent it something that was proving to be more and more difficult by the day thanks to our common enemy. I'd been doing this for the past ten years of my seventeen year of existence on this over-crowded planet and in that time I had seen wars, death, life and some things that no-one should see but I'd taken it all in my stride, anything that could help this hopeless world.