Who Killed Sarah Foster?

17. Among Other Things

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"Why do you look like you saw a ghost or something?" Michael asked.

Leah gave him a "Really?" look while he guffawed out loud. The man-child had been using that same 'joke' for the past seven years of his bodiless existence.

"I can't believe there was a time when I looked up to you." She sighed at her own naiveness as she walked up the stairs to her room, a dull pain still coursing through her body.

"You went out so so happy and now you look like you got period cramps. What's going on? Because I know it isn't your periods. You had that two weeks ago."

Leah turned around and gave him a death glare. "UGH!! You know I hate it when you do that! It's personal business."

Brothers will always be annoying. Alive or dead.

"Yeah yeah, now tell me what's wrong." They made their way into her room.

"It's Sarah. Among other things."

"Did she possess someone already?" He sat down on the chair while Leah plopped down on the bed.

"Nope. Paul kept her away from live humans until I showed up and she tried to possess me so..."

"You stripped her off of her powers." Michael said, remembering how Leah always did that when he got on her nerves.

Leah nodded.

"So that's bothering you? You never had any problem doing that to me or Paul, so why sad now?"

"No, I am not sad or guilty or bothered about taking her powers away. She needs to know more about herself from her own memories and have to make the deal with me before I can give it all back to her." Leah said, knowing very well that her brother knew how all of it worked, but he was an i***t so she had to constantly remind him.

"Then?"

Leah shook her head, tying her hair back in a top knot and hopped off the bed. "She followed me halfway home."

"WHAT?" Michael was on his feet. "How is that possible??"

"I don't know, and that's what's bothering me."

"Among other things. What are the other things?"

"Well, I told Calum I was a vessel and an exorcist though I am not sure if he got what a vessel was." She said.

"Yeah, everyone's obsessed with the exorcism s**t. Little people know about vessels." He nodded to himself and added. "I am sure he believed you or at least is trying to believe you, while simultaneously questioning his sanity."

Leah nodded, letting out a chuckle. "Yeah, he saw my palm and eyes." She looked up at her brother and held her palm up for him to see.

"Don't our parents pay attention to your features or what?" He laughed. "You have walked around with blue light radiating out of your hand and eyes way too many times for them to notice."

She shrugged. "I think Dad has. But then again, he might have thought it was some family thing because grandpa never hid it and always called it 'hereditary uniqueness'."

"Though I like to call it hereditary freakiness." He laughed as he walked over towards the windows and looked out. "I don't know where Blacky went."

Leah pursed her lips, feeling sad for her brother. She knew he wanted to go out of their house. He had been locked up in here for seven years now. She was just glad that he was able to control his frustration and anger and not do anything destructive. She also knew that the idea of Sarah being able to walk around freely was not sitting well with him. If she could, why couldn't he?

"What is the other thing?" He asked, staring out at the neighborhood kids on their way to the park with their mommies. "Or are there more than one."

"Nope." She said. "Just one for now."

"And that is?"

"Attachment to the dead is a fallacy you will have to pay dearly with. You will have to pay with your body. Don't make that mistake my love."

Michael turned around, looking at his sister confused. Did she mean she didn't want to be around him anymore?

"What is that supposed to mean?" He could feel the sudden anger and abandonment within him. Was she really going to push him away? She could do it if she wanted to. She was an exorcist; she could trap him in some object if she wanted to.

"Those were Grandpa's words on one of the last days alive." She sighed as she took off her worn out sneakers and socks. "That was before I even knew about the powers. I guess he had said a lot of things along the line which I don't remember anymore."

"He was preparing you."

She nodded. "And today, as I watched Paul and Sarah walk back into the school after I walked her back because I am worried about other vessels, those words just resonated in my ears as this numbing, paralyzing pain coursed through me."

All anger and confusion disappeared as concern for his sister took over all his emotions. What was that supposed to mean?

"You didn't faint or anything, did you?"

"No, I didn't. It is still here..." She patted at her chest, where her heart was supposed to be, "...but I don't know why it happened in the first place."

"You know really need to make a trip down to grandma's and figure out what the f**k is going on because I am hella scared!" Michael was in full-on protective brother mode.

"I will I will. Now leave me alone. I need to take a hot bath and then a nap. I am so damn exhausted all of a sudden." Leah was becoming increasingly irritated with everything. It really felt like she was on her periods.

"Okay okay, get some rest. Do you have any homework that needs to be done or test or something?" He asked, blabbering on his way out.

"No." She breathed out.

"Then text Mom and say not to wake you up."

"I will."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

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Leah woke up at three in morning and she had a jump scare when she looked at the mirror and saw the swirling lights in her blue eyes.

She sighed and looked down at her nightstand. Her water bottle was missing.

She sighed again. She was too lazy to go to the bathroom and put on her contacts and then make her way downstairs to get water. She fussed around and found a small carton of fruit juice in her bag. She got out of bed as she tore the straw wrapper open and plunged it into the hole, taking a sip as she stationed herself beside the window, looking down.

Her brother stood there, a dark aura looming around him. Leah realized he had been trying to get out of the threshold of their home. He wanted to go out. For a moment she wondered if that was what he wanted the most before he died. Did he just want to leave? Their mother had put him under house arrest after his suicide attempt in his college dorms and monitored everything about him. He must have felt caged. She did not want to blame anyone but their parents never did anything right when it came to their children; maybe that was why even after so many years, they did not know about her abilities even though a kid with no relation to her did.

Leah just stood there and watched. She knew her brother did not want her to know, or did not want her to worry about this among the other things going on but she made up her mind to pay her grandmother a visit the next weekend and do some research. Maybe she will find out something that could be of significance.

"Everything I know is yours to know. Everything I know will be where it belongs."

Leah froze for a moment. How was this even possible? How come things she never remembered even hearing came back to her head now? She had started to doubt if she even had these conversations with her grandfather. For all she knew, he could have become a ghost himself though to her belief, a vessel could not be a ghost. They moved on to a happy carefree life right after their death. Vessels devote one whole lifetime of theirs helping deceased soul to fulfill the one reason that was strong enough to keep them in this world even after their deaths. They never really had any desires of their own, so it was impossible for them to become a ghost.

Leah paused her train of thoughts for a moment. What she thought just now contradicted what she thought Michael's reason could be. If it was freedom he wanted, then he would have gotten it by moving on to his next life. That was the whole reason he committed suicide in the first place – to be free from worries, the pain, and the sufferings. So, it couldn't be the reason why he was staying back when his freedom was at his arm's reach. But then what was it?

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