Walking through the Fire

Chapter Five

Delilah entered the sanctuary of her room, and closed the door firmly behind her. She took a few steps forward, and dumped her bags at the end of the bed, before flopping her small, tired, body on top of her white duvet. Closing her eyes, Delilah thought of the day she had had. After filling in Charlie on her strange afternoon - Charlie, who had a million and one questions, and of course who had heard from Peter, who had heard from Sammy, who had heard from Danica, that Jasper had not only sat with Delilah at lunchtime, but had practically dragged Delilah out of the cafeteria to spend more time with Delilah, while rejecting Maddison - Delilah had finished the day with her Honors English class, had gone to swim training and then come home after dropping Charlie off. Delilah was quick to correct Charlie that Jasper had not dragged Delilah out of the cafeteria, they had simply walked out and spent some time on the field together. Of course, Charlie had basically exploded in fits of squeals when Delilah shared that not only had Jasper wanted to watch a movie together, they had exchanged phone numbers. Delilah smiled at the memory of Charlie's reaction, knowing that Charlie reacted that way because Charlie knew that for a long time Delilah had a bit of a growing crush on Jasper - as did most of the females who attended St. Agatha's. However, Delilah couldn't quite enjoy or savor the fact that she spent time with Jasper, because her mind was filled with the strange things that occurred throughout the day. First, the incident with the truck, closely followed by the feeling that someone was watching her (or reaching out to her?) in the corridor. Then there was the fact that it felt like Jasper was reading her mind, but none of these things trumped what had happened this afternoon - where she had seemingly managed to leave her body on the field, and transport herself to where Charlie was. Without no way of knowing, Delilah knew exactly where Charlie was and what she was wearing after doing whatever she did. And how could that even be possible? Delilah knew the answer to that: it wasn't possible. There was no way that Delilah was able to jump to where Charlie was, and Charlie didn't even seem to see Delilah at all. So, was it just Delilah's spirit then? Delilah sighed and rolled onto her back, whipping herself in the face with her wet hair. Spirit? Delilah didn't even know if she believed in God, let alone that she had a spirit. Delilah closed her eyes, and started to rub her temple with her hand. At least nothing weird had happened after that; swimming practice had seemed to go well, and Delilah had even got a new personal best in freestyle. There was a soft knock at the door, followed by Delilah's father's gruff but gentle voice,

"Dinner time Lilah, come on down."

"Be there soon, Dad." Delilah responded, as she dragged herself off the bed and made her way across the room. Delilah quickly put on her slippers, and left her room, padding down the stairs to the dining room. Her mother was bustling in the kitchen, and her father was wrestling with Joey and Lucas in the living room. Delilah noticed that her father must have been half-way through setting the table before he was attacked by her little brothers, so Delilah finished the job, and then took her usual seat at the table - always to the right of her mother.

"Come on boys, come sit." Samara called, as she took her seat at one end of the table, after placing down an oven dish full of macaroni cheese, and a large bowl of salad. Samara squeezed Delilah's hand, and began serving up Delilah's plate before doing Joey's, who sat on her left, and then her own. Delilah's father, Moses, came over and kissed his wife on the head, before sitting in his own seat,

"Smells delicious love." Moses said, as he gratefully took the serving spoon from Samara, and started to serve up Lucas's plate, before doing his own. At that point, Samara had already dumped a large amount of salad on her plate, before passing the bowl to her mother, who made sure to distribute a large amount to Joey.

"I don't need any salad, thanks." Lucas said, preempting Moses putting some on his plate.

"You will need salad, if you want dessert." Samara said, giving her youngest born a wicked grin. Lucas pouted in response, but did not say anything further as Moses chucked and put a small helping of salad on Lucas' plate. It did not escape Samara's notice that Lucas certainly had the least amount of salad on his plate than anyone else at the table, however she decided not to make a fuss of it.

"Dig in guys." Samara said, as she lifted her own fork and began to spear macaroni pieces.

"How was school today, sweetie?" Moses asked, peering over his glasses at Delilah. Delilah was in the middle of chewing her mouthful, but once finished she said,

"It was good, and swim practice went well too, I get a new PB."

"That's great, well done Lilah." Samara said, giving her daughter a warm smile, which Moses echoed as well.

"And my terrors - how was school for you? I hope you didn't get into too much mischief." Moses said, turning his attention to his twin boys. Lucas and Joey began to howl with laughter, as they launched into how they had found a newt in the playground, and thought it was a good idea to put it on their teacher's desk. Both Moses and Samara tried not to choke on their food, as they found themselves laughing. Delilah found herself smiling too, as both boys went on about their day. Joey and Lucas (born no less than two minutes apart!) were the spitting image of their father, Moses, who had a kind gentle face, and jet black hair that framed his face. Where Samara and Delilah had hazelly brown eyes - Joey and Lucas had Moses' eye color, which was so brown it was almost black. Conversation easily flowed with the Woods family, and after dessert Delilah got up and began to do the dishes. Her mother came up behind her, and asked,

"You okay Lilah? You seem a bit distracted, or...off?" Samara asked, as she scrapped leftovers into tupperware containers. In a fraction of a second, Delilah weighed up whether it was worth confiding in her mother the strange events of the day - but in the end, Delilah decided not to. Samara and Moses had enough on their plates, and Delilah didn't want to worry them unnecessarily. Delilah turned from sink, and smiled at her mother,

"I'm fine, just tired. Just need a good night's sleep."

Samara came over and gave her daughter a hug, and Delilah breathed in her mother's scent of coffee and cinnamon.

"Well, know that if it is anything, I am always here to talk to." Samara said, and Delilah nodded in response. After Delilah finished the dishes she said goodnight to her family, and made her way back to her room. She quickly changed into her pyjamas, grabbed her phone from her school bag, and hopped into bed. As she turned her phone off 'Do Not Disturb', she noticed she had a few notifications. It was several messages, from someone on her phone saved as, "Saviour." With Delilah's heartbeat hammering in her eyes, she opened the message, and knew instantly who it was:

3:01pm - Well, listen, I waited at least until after 3pm (just, I know). But let me know when would suit for that movie date!

3:04pm - Shameless I know, but this is Jasper. Just in case you have multiple people messaging you about watching movies together.

3:8pm - Wouldn't want you to think this was someone else!

3:15pm - Okay, I'm going to stop messaging you now. See you at school tomorrow (or you could put me out of my misery and reply, but only if you want to).

Delilah started to type a response, and then backspaced it. What should she say back? While she was musing, her phone vibrated. It was Jasper:

8:42pm - Not being weird, but I did just see those dots indicating you were writing something? Of course I am not actively watching this conversation to see if you will reply.

Delilah laughed out loud and felt her whole body tingle in response. She quickly typed back,

8:44pm - Sorry! I was wanting to put you out of your misery but didn't know what to say.

Delilah waited anxiously, wanting Jasper to respond as soon as possible. The three dots appeared, and sure enough a message popped up soon after:

8:46pm - Mission accomplished, I am officially no longer miserable. You have my sincere gratitude. Now: me, you, old movie - does this Saturday work?

Delilah bit her lip, and typed back:

8:49pm - Sure, that works for me.

8:51pm - Perfect! I’ll pick you up at 4pm? We can watch it at mine and have dinner. Just send through your address.

Delilah could feel butterflies in her stomach as she quickly texted back her address. She was too excited and anxious to have dinner and watch a movie with Jasper, that she had forgotten about the weird incidents throughout the day, as she fell into a blissful sleep.