All The Lonely People - David Owen Page 0,22

poisoning that made him so pale.

‘What’s he doing here?’ said Kat.

Safa shrugged. ‘I didn’t invite him.’

Yesterday, when he had come looking for her in the toilets, he had taken her laptop. He could only know about this meeting if he had read her email. When the whole school – when everybody – had forgotten her existence, he was suddenly interested when he had never been before. Something wasn’t right, and it was more than the invasion of her privacy.

‘I thought if anybody might be able to see us it would be these guys,’ said Safa, waving her arms in front of the group as they tucked in to the snacks. ‘But I guess not.’

‘They don’t seem to miss you.’

‘Yeah, I taught them well.’ Safa pinched a Bourbon biscuit and shoved the whole thing into her mouth, spraying crumbs when she spoke again. ‘In hindsight it’s a bit counter-intuitive to run a support group to help people disappear.’

Kat moved to stand right in front of them, but the group just kept eating and talking about nothing in particular. Watching Wesley closely, she could see him growing tense with frustration, hands curling into fists pressed on top of his bouncing knees.

Safa began jumping up and down on the spot. ‘If I could just show them it’s actually possible, it might be the push they need. Then we could have a whole crew of faders.’

‘Do you think Safa has actually done it?’ said Aoife, lowering her voice as if spilling the latest scandalous gossip.

‘MY DUDES, I HAVE DEFINITELY ACTUALLY DONE IT.’

‘She was always the most serious about it,’ said Jae.

Robbie scowled at him. ‘I’m serious about it.’

‘You know what I mean though.’

‘At least they haven’t forgotten me yet.’ Safa gave up her jumping and grinned at Kat. ‘I’m a role model to these kids, like an athlete, or a YouTuber.’

‘What has she done?’ said Wesley, finally losing patience. ‘You said you want to achieve the fade – what does that mean?’

They all looked to each other before fixing their eyes on him. It was Aoife who spoke. ‘Do you remember Aaron Musley?’

Wesley shook his head.

Reluctantly, as if she was revealing a government secret, Aoife said, ‘He was in the year above you, tall with . . . short hair, I think? Even we have to make a real effort to remember him sometimes.’

There had never been anybody in the year above called Aaron, she was sure of it. Kat may not have been friends with anybody at school, but she paid enough attention to know most people from a distance. The look on his face suggested Wesley was drawing a similar blank.

‘Aaron used to be one of us, sort of our leader for a while,’ said Aoife. ‘He believed in the fade so much, but he couldn’t make it happen. Until one day he just stopped showing up to school, and he never came to a meeting again.’

‘So he might have just run away?’ said Wesley.

Dread was walking its fingers across Kat’s chest, like she was listening to a horror story over a campfire. Aoife seemed exhausted by what she’d said, and Robbie was busy blowing up an empty crisp packet with his mouth, so Jae took over.

‘He was never declared missing, no police looking for him or anything. Almost nobody at school remembers him unless we really work hard to jog their memory, and even then they don’t think there’s anything strange about it. He’s just gone, and everybody accepts it. We even went to his house once, just to see . . .’

Wesley was leaning forward in his chair. ‘And?’

Smashing it between his hands, Robbie burst the crisp packet, making all of them jump. ‘His family didn’t care. We saw them just going about their day like Aaron never existed.’

Kat kept her eyes fixed on Wesley’s face. Any normal person would refuse to believe them, call them freaks and storm off. Instead she saw his jaw squeeze, the colour drain from his skin. He believed every word of it was true.

Somehow, he was tied up in everything that had happened. She just needed to work out how.

It was his fault.

Wesley really had seen through her after she’d deleted her website and rushed from the room. He hadn’t seen her since, despite finding her bag on the toilet floor. A shiver went down his spine; had she been there the whole time? It wasn’t possible – it couldn’t be.

‘Why do you remember Aaron if nobody else does?’

‘We think it’s because we knew