#14 THE END AND EVERYTHING AFTER, YA Contemp Fantasy

TITLE: The End and Everything After
GENRE: YA Contemporary Fantasy

When Aura Lea and her boyfriend attempted to take their own lives they never thought one of them would survive. As Aura Lea struggles to pick up the pieces of her life, she receives a cryptic message from her dead boyfriend, postmarked a few days before his death, leading her to believe that what happened that night was not a suicide pact, but something else.

Time. It's what I'd been told would make all of this bearable.

But time had moved forward and left me behind.

As I stood at the end of E Hall contemplating my limited options, I realized I only had two choices: go to class, present a brave facade and face my jury or hide. The bell rang and my feet remained planted hard in the ground. Maybe tomorrow.

As a stampede of people pushed their way past me, I let myself get caught up in the forward momentum. The crowd veered right toward the bungalows. I turned to the left and pushed my way out.

Knowing that I needed a place to hang out for the rest of the day, I took off toward the gym. At the end of the hall, just past the locker rooms, I came to the equipment room. It was the only place on campus where I could go and truly be by myself.  I tested the knob and then took out my keys from my backpack and found the one I'd painted burnt orange to match the door. I took one last look to make sure no one was coming and then slipped in. The fluorescent lights flickered as the small ten by ten foot room filled with light. The familiar smell of damp concrete and chalk made me uneasy, but I knew the alternative was much worse.

I looked around and quickly noticed things were different. The change was subtle, but for someone who spent as much time in here as I had, it was obvious.