,,Breakfast is the most important part of the day!” Erika raised a fork in the air.
,,Not when you’re dead” Mily argued.
,,Especially when you’re dead. C’mon Mily cheer up! What’s with the frowny face again?” Erika pocked her cheek with a finger.
,,I always have this face whenever I see you. And whenever I have to eat breakfast with all of you” Mily replied and pushed Erika away.
,,Even me?” Saki asked.
,,No, not you, you’re ok” Mily said and Saki sighed in relief.
,,Just ok? Saki’s your best friend!”
,,Lord, shut up and eat your food. If you talk while you eat, you might choke and come back to life.”
Lord copied Mily’s frowny face and ate his cereal.
Midari came up to the table shaking an empty box of cereal and looking very displeased. Before she could ask who ate all her food, she noticed Lord eating.
,,Hey Lord, these were mine! Why don’t you buy yourself your own food?”
,,First because I don’t have money, second because I don’t know where to buy them. I don’t understand where mom gets them.”
,,Mom?”
,,Mily I mean” he explained.
,,In any case, Midari there’s another box of cereal in the upper cabinet” Mily gave her directions. She nodded and opened the cabinet.
,,Reese’s puffs? What kind of cereal is this?” Midari shook the box violently.
,,I wanna try them!” Wendy snatched the box from Midari and ran towards the table. Her cousin scooted over so she can fit next to him and Millie.
,,I love mornings like these!” Erika cheered ,,Hey Edgar what does the horoscope for this month say?”
Edgar was reading his newspaper as usual. He looked at Erika, a bit angry that she interrupted his reading time.
,,What zodiac?”
,,Taurus!” Edgar then proceeded to read Erika the horoscope: something about money and lots of friends.
,,I’m a Taurus too!” Midari exclaimed as she got her cereal box back from Wendy.
,,We know” Mily commented. Pff, and she told me not to comment anymore.
,,Mily stop commenting your comments” I quoted her.
,,Luna when are you and Millie leaving? You’re starting to get annoying.”
,,When I’m finished with breakfast” Millie told her.
I still did not understand why she was so focused on seeing the place where we were buried. Like c’mon, I know graveyards are cool, but why would one see the place where their corpse lies 6 feet under?
I glanced at Millie. I knew she was one to love morbid stuff, just like me, but sometimes her obsession could be very scary.
Not as scary as me eating souls tho.
Even so, if Millie was a big horror and gore fan, why wasn’t she a fan of me eating the primary source of energy for ghosts?
Plus, eating souls is absolutely necessary! If a ghost/spectre/reaper or whatever doesn’t eat at least 5 a month, their soul starts deteriorating and they enter that coma-like state we all know and hate.
I personally have never entered that state. But I was used to Saki entering it a lot, because when Mily did her spells she used his energy.
Which reminds me of the conversation we had last night and questions started flowing through my head.
,,Hey Millie you got a pen? And a paper?” I asked her. She swallowed, as she was eating bread with peanut butter. Nodding, she pointed towards the kitchen counter, where Mily had, conveniently, placed some paper and pens.
,,What do you want to write down?” my sibling asked.
,,Questions” I told her, went to the counter and showed aside a shopping list. Mily probably placed the paper and pens there in case anyone would ever want to go shopping and needed to write down what they were shopping for.
I quickly wrote down some of the questions I had, so I wouldn’t forget anything. Turning around, I presented Mily the paper.
,,Luna, we’re in the middle of breakfast. I don’t have time for this” she said but still took the paper. After giving it a quick read, she looked disappointed.
,,For question one, I think the answer is obvious. For questions two and three, I don’t want to explain. For question four, go read a book about it. For question five, I do not know how you could become a librarian. For question six, Elizabeth is just annoying. Question seven, I will not answer.”
,,And question eight and nine?”
,,I’ll tell you another time.”
,,I wonder what I’d look like as a librarian” Midari was still thinking about Mily’s answer to question five.
,,You’d look the same as always, but with a beret” my sister told her ,,Honestly, who even gave Elizabeth that hat? It looks terrible.”
,,She always wears it. When I was a librarian, she wouldn’t allow anyone to touch it” Edgar explained.
,,Oh right!” I snatched the question paper from Mily ,,How about you answer these questions for me?”
Mily gave Edgar the most threatening look ever. He didn’t seem to mind.
,,Well” he read question number two ,,I don’t know the answer to that one either.”
Well if Edgar and Mily didn’t know, then no one knew. Except, probably, Elizabeth.
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,,Oh but to question number eight, the answer is very simple!” he cheered ,,Mily died in Salem in May, 1693. Contrary to popular belief, she was the only one who was actually burned alive, because, well, from all the people they accused of witchcraft, Mily here was actually a witch.” He calmly explained. Mily looked like she was about to strangle him.
I had heard from Erika that Mily was afraid of fire but I didn’t know why. Erika never bothered to explain that.
,,But if Mily was a witch and she used to learn from your wife, does that mean your wife was also a witch and that Mily was learning how to do spells?” I said, connecting the dots ,,Does that mean that Betty died because they caught her too?”
Edgar didn’t answer and just stared at me. Everyone suddenly stopped talking and the room would have been in complete silence, if it wasn’t for Lord’s loud chewing.
,,You’re only half right” Edgar then decided to speak ,,Yes, she was Mily’s teacher and a witch. Yes, she was accused of witchcraft. Yes, she was killed by people. But it all happened for a reason and that reason’s name is Elizabeth.”
,,What does she have to do with this? I mean I heard that she arranged the whole thing but…how does that make sense?”
,,Oh” Millie suddenly stood up ,,Luna it’s time to go!” she grabbed my arm and dragged me outside, waving at the people. Wendy had a worried look on her face as she waved back to us.
My sister dragged me outside, closing the door behind us.
,,Stop asking questions” she said ,,If they want to tell you about it, they will. There’s no reason to make them uncomfortable.”
Not going to lie, I was kind of angry with her because she had pulled me aside.
,,Oh yeah? I should stop asking questions? Well then, tell me Millie, what did you do after you threw yourself off of the school roof? Where were you? How did you not die? Did Misaki really save you? Or did someone else save you?”
Millie stared at me and then looked at the ground.
,,I have the right not to answer any of your questions. We should get going…”
,,I’m not going anywhere until one of you actually answers me.”
,,You want answers?”
,,That’s what I said.”
,,Alright” she didn’t seem happy about this ,,Ask me a question again and I’ll do my best to answer.”
,,If you didn’t die the first time, why try to kill yourself again?”
She raised an eyebrow.
,,Isn’t it obvious?”
,,No?”
,,Well, you already have the answer to that question.”
,,No I don’t.”
She turned around.
,,Well then, because you already have the answer, we should get going.”
,,Wait Millie, this isn’t fair…!” I yelled but she already left, so I had no choice but to follow.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆
,,Well…this is boring…” I said, as my sister and I were walking towards the graveyard. I have to admit, she looked beautiful. Plus she matched the cemetery atmosphere.
We left our companions behind because Wendy and Kevin were still planning their trip and Edgar said he wasn’t interested in our activity, so we just let everyone do their thing.
Millie was walking in front of me, leading the way. I had no idea how she figured out where our grave was, but, for once, I decided it was best not to question her.
Maybe I was finally bonding with her? When we were little we weren’t that close. I was doing my own thing and she was doing hers. Most of the time we ignored eachother, her staying inside and me going to play outside.
One thing that I recall, is that our mother scolded her once. I can’t tell you the details, but they had a big big fight and Millie came back to our room crying. It was the only moment in our childhood where we actually acted like sisters. She cried the whole evening and our mother wouldn’t let her have dinner. I stole some for her and she looked happier.
Wait. Our mother didn’t give her dinner…? What kind of toxic behavior is that? Now that I thought about it, she wasn’t the best mom. Maybe that’s why our so called brother wasn’t around. He probably ran away from home before we even got the chance to meet him.
In any case, I had the same bonding feeling again. When she killed herself I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t feel remorse or anything like that. But I was feeling something now and I truly believe I was happy to be able to spend time with her, even if it meant to go in a cemetery together.
,,This is nice” she said, looking around. Surprisinly, the place didn’t look dark and gloomy at all. Instead, it had a very comforting aura. I swear that if I closed my eyes, the place would have smelled like Christmas cookies.
,,Yeah” I agreed ,,It is.”
,,Feels like home” she said.
,,We are ghosts after all. Being around the dead, is home.”
,,Indeed…” she walked through the graves, looking for ours. I quietly followed her. At some point she shrieked, because the ghost of a bird flew in front of her.
And then I saw them. Countless of colorless ghosts, floating through the air. Some of them were yelling and crying. Some of them were quiet, looking, well, dead. The quiet ones were staring at the ground as if waiting for something.
My sister stopped and then grabbed my hand, intertwining her fingers with mine. Her expression was one of worry.
,,There shouldn’t be so many souls here. There’s more souls than corpses” she looked around her, pulling me closer to her.
,,How do you know?” I asked, staring at all the souls in the area. I saw around two Spectres. They looked scary, because they weren’t in their other form, like Erika.
,,I just know. And most of the souls don’t belong to anyone here. Something’s off. This isn’t right.”
Millie started walking and pulled me towards her. I followed quietly. Even though the other ghosts wouldn’t hurt us, I still felt scared. I was glad that Millie was with me.
She then pulled my hand and we hid behind a tree. She made a ‘shh’ sound and told me to be quiet.
,,This was a waste of time. I told you they wouldn’t be here, but you never listen!” a what I assumed was a male voice yelled.
Millie pulled my tie and forced me to look at the scene in front of us.
Next to a beautiful grave, there stood a little girl, no older than ten years old. She was crouched next to the grave, her head laid down on the cold stone. She had tears in her eyes.
,,But I thought they’d be here…” she responded.
Next to her, on the grave, was this weird ghost guy. He looked like me but evil version and red.
,,Why are you even trying? This is boring and useless!” he yelled. The little girl flinched.
,,I thought they could help me…”
The most shocking detail about this, was that the girl, was in fact, alive. The guy was a ghost though, and a very corrupted one.
,,Why are we watching this?” I whispered to Millie.
,,Because” she whispered aggressively ,,that’s our grave!”
And indeed, Millie was right, as usual. The grave did belong to us. Hey, at least the place was pretty.
,,In any case, why aren’t we leaving?” the ghost dude commented. His comments were worse than mine.
,,Because they might appear.”
,,Well they certainly aren’t! So let’s go!” he yelled again, but the girl was unbothered, not flinching like last time.
,,I’m not leaving.”
My sister gasped.
,,Why are you gasping all of a sudden?” I asked her. She gripped my tie more tightly.
,,Because that guy shouldn’t be here!”
,,Yeah I can see that, he’s getting on my nerves” I told her.
,,No I mean, he should be in Hell right now.”
I had just realized why my sister could see things I couldn’t. I was a high ranked ghost, but she was a Reaper.
,,Well let’s go send him straight there!” I said, a little louder than intended. Sadly, the guy noticed us.
,,Who’s there?!” he shouted angrily. The little girl didn’t even bother to raise her head.
Millie took a step, making me follow her. The unknown ghost stared at us in disappointment. My sister didn’t like his expression and pulled out her weapon out of thin air.
,,Why are you tormenting this girl?!” she asked him ,,You shouldn’t be here right now.”
He looked very unimpressed.
,,I know that” he responded ,,And I am not tormenting her. She’s working with me willingly, aren’t you, Lyla?”
The girl wasn’t paying attention anymore, probably thinking about the people, or ghosts she wanted to see.
,,I am no Reaper, but I’ll send you back to where you belong” my sister told him. Little did she know, she was actually a Reaper and her…uh…send-people-to-Hell instincts were probably kicking in, because no normal ghost would have said that.
,,Oh stop it. Tell Tsuki that I’ll go back myself once I’m done here” he yawned.
Millie and I blinked at him.
,,What?” he said.
Millie had probably lost her patience because she sliced him in half using her weapon. The little girl was about to look at her ghost pal being cut in half, but I covered her eyes with my hand, trying to shield her vision from the unfolding scene.
,,You’ll pay for this” the corrupted ghost told Millie, who couldn’t care less. He disappeared and the girl, so Lyla, screamed in horror. I probably didn’t cover her eyes fast enough.
,,Are you alright?” I asked her ,,Was he bothering you?”
,,Luna you have a talent for asking questions with obvious answers” Millie chuckled. I ought to tell her to do that more often.
,,Luna?” Lyla asked ,,are you Luna?” She stared at me with big eyes.
,,Yeah? What are you doing alone in a graveyard kiddo? How come you can see ghosts? Why were you hanging out with him?”
,,Luna!” she yelled and then hugged me. I could feel Millie’s gaze on us. I could feel my own eyes widen. Humans weren’t supposed to be able to hug us.