I pushed Lyla away. She stared at me in disappointment and then confusion.

,,Hey why did you do that…?”

I looked at Millie who was just as confused as I was. She tried approaching the girl in a friendly manner.

,,Your name is Lyla, right? So…uhm…who are you?” she tried sounding as friendly as possible, though Lyla wasn’t convinced that my sister meant no harm.

,,Oh. Right…you probably don’t know me. That means I have to properly introduce myself!” Lyla stood up and placed her right hand over her heart.

,,The name’s Lyla Taylor. I’m 11 years old, though I probably look younger than that. My soul age is around 70 in case you’re wondering. I am your sister!”

I looked at Lyla, then at Millie, then at Lyla and then back at Millie.

,,Listen kid, I don’t know where you know all those stuff about soul age and such but you aren’t our sibling” Millie was getting serious, not in the mood for jokes.

,,But I am not lying, that I can assure you of! You two are Millie and Luna, right?”

,,Yeah and we don’t believe every random person whom we meet to be our sibling. It is simply not possible.”

,,Listen kid” I tried ,,I don’t know how you’re able to see us, who, or what exactly you are and what you are doing on our grave, but we aren’t related.” What I said came out harsher than intended and it upset her.

,,But…but…”

,,Kid, no buts. I do not intend to waste my time with every person that claims to be related to me” Millie glared at her. Lyla lowered her head in shame.

,,But I am telling the truth!” she said, angry this time ,,I am no liar!”

,,Unless you can prove it to us…and we do not have any memories of you, right Millie?” My sister nodded. Lyla looked anxious.

,,Do you want me to bring my birth certificate?!”

,,No. Listen kid, stop wasting our time. Just because I saved you from creepy-ghost-dude that doesn’t mean you have to lie…!” Millie tried to continue, but Lyla smashed her fist into our grave, breaking it. The cold stone shattered and Lyla looked at us.

,,Are you even human?” I found myself asking. Mily was right, I had the talent for asking stupid questions.

,,Yes, I am. And I hate it” Lyla said ,,And I hate you, both of you! You want proof? PROOF?! Well get your memories back and that’ll be enough. I should have listened to him. I shouldn’t have come to look for you in the first place. You’re worse than mom and dad. Worse than my classmates, worse than HIM! But what does it matter to you if someone is suffering. Even if I weren’t your sister, which I clearly am, you should have at least tried to understand me!” Lyla yelled at us.

,,Lyla, we can’t go trusting every person we see and besides you don’t even look like us…”

,,Why not? Because my eyes are blue?! Because my hair is darker than yours? Because I’m not pale?! Because I’m alive?!”

,,Kid, you aren’t our sibling and that’s final. Do not make me repeat myself” Millie threatened her. I truly believe that because I angered her this morning she was pouring all her anger and unspoken feelings onto poor Lyla now.

,,Why don’t we all calm down…?” I suggested, in an attempt to make peace.

,,Calm down? I’m done talking to you. I’d rather live alone than with two selfish sisters who won’t even use basic logic to make a decision!” Lyla shouted and then turned away, running toward the graveyard exit.

,,At least be grateful that we saved you!” my sister yelled after her, but Lyla didn’t turn around.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

,,So you’re telling me that you met a random girl in the cemetery who claimed to be your sister?” Saki was very confused. Adjusting his glasses he then added: ,,I come back from shopping and the first thing I hear is this.”

,,I’ve heard worse” Mily was humming a song while cooking soup for Lord to eat later. He was sitting at the table and I’m telling you, he was not thrilled.

,,My sister is weird too” he said and munched on a paper straw.

,,Hey don’t eat that!” Saki warned, pulling the straw out of his mouth and throwing it away ,,I know you’re hungry but wait till you get your food.”

,,What did you guys do today?” Millie took a seat next to Lord.

,,The original plan was to go shopping. But Lord decided that it was best to come with us. We bought him a rubber duck.”

,,Hey don’t tell them that!”

,,You’re almost thirteen years old and you still play with rubber ducks?” Millie asked ,,Me too!”

Lord’s face lit up.

,,Really?? When you’re not busy can we play together?”

Lord was a child, as I’ve mentioned countless times before. I was told that some Spectres found him after he died as a baby and handed him to Erika. Erika then handed him to Mily and Saki which resulted in him seeing the two as his parent figures. Recently he got attached to Millie, whom he viewed as his sister, because, apparently, she read him bedtime storied in the evening.

The kid had gotten attached to basically everyone, even Wendy and Kevin, the cousin duo that never did anything significant. Apparently the two of them build Lord a blanket fort and they had a movie night together. I hoped they’d bring souvenirs when they returned from Salem.

,,Oh, right, Mily! What does ‘soul age’ mean?” I remembered Lyla mentioned that her soul age was seventy.

,,Soul age means soul age” Mily didn’t even bother to explain and instead stirred the soup.

,,I know what that means. I learned that when I was experimenting on souls.” Lord seemed a bit excited to be the one who knew the answer, but alas, that’s how kids are. And of course I remembered the event. I almost lost my friendship with Midari that day. Oh and Midari almost lost her room too.

,,Soul age means the age of your soul. During your lives you go to countless of reincarnations until your soul runs out of energy. At the very end, your soul either turns to nothing or goes to Heaven or Hell. Basically your soul age is the age your soul has…uhm…Mily how should I explain this?” Lord asked his mom. Scratch that, I meant his caretaker.

,,What Lord wants to say is that it’s the age your soul has after multiple reincarnations. So, take your kid Lyla for example. She said her soul age is 70. That mean’s her soul is pretty young. If she was eleven, then she probably died at 59 in her past life. Add those ages up and you get your soul age.”

,,So what’s your soul age then Mily?” I asked her.

,,My soul age is exactly 345. I’m turning 346 this year.”

,,That can’t be right because you are 345. What happened to calculating the past lives ages too?” Millie asked. Sometimes I forget that our witch is that old.

,,This is my first life” she explains and then turns off the stove.

,,How do you know?” I asked ,,And how can I find out my soul age as well?”

,,Well there are two or three methods. The first one is using a spell. The second one is using Tarot cards. The third one is using a Pendulum. I prefer the first one since it’s more accurate, but only witches can perform that spell. In any case, that’s how I found out that this was my first life.”

,,This is pretty cool. Then I assume that this is how ghost relationships work?” Millie was curious to know ,,We ghosts use our soul age not our actual age right?”

,,Exactly” Mily agreed and pour Lord some vegetable soup. He didn’t really like it.

,,Hold on I believe Saki told me something else when I asked the same question” I turned to him. He shrugged.

,,I just didn’t want to explain the term to you. In any case, it’s true. Our age equals our soul age. Humans age equal their body age. Easy.”

,,Well I want to know my soul age too” I said. Mily tensed but then relaxed.

,,Alright I’ll perform the spell and tell you. Now let’s change the subject to the girl you met today.”

,,I am honestly sick of her” Millie scoffed ,,Listen I’ve had enough. I can’t stand long lost siblings anymore.”

,,C’mon Millie don’t be mean, she was just a kid” Saki tried to brighten her mood. It did not work.

,,Watcha guys talking about?” Edgar entered wearing a new vest.

,,Where did you get that from? The vest I mean” Millie asked him. She was a big fan of vests too.

,,There’s a ghost store nearby. I can take you there if you want.”

,,If they sell vests like that one, then yes please!” Edgar smiled at her.

,,Where are Wendy and Kevin? They already left?” he asked Mily.

,,They left a couple of hours ago. Wendy said something about getting me a witch hat. I didn’t argue with her.”

Mily sat down next to Millie and Lord.

,,In any case, we were talking about this random girl we met at the cemetery today” I informed my companion ,,She claimed to be our sister.”

,,What?” Edgar suddenly became all serious. I patiently told him the whole story (even though Millie told me to speed up the storytelling because it was getting boring).

Edgar was very shocked for some reason, but I imagine he was like that because of the part with the evil ghost harassing Lyla.

,,Well” Millie concluded ,,If she really was our sister then…I don’t know. I mean, I don’t want any other siblings, Luna is already a handful, I cannot deal with others too.”

,,Hey that’s mean.”

,,Luna how many more long lost siblings do you even have? I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d told me that you have like ten more brothers and sisters” Edgar said.

,,Well how am I supposed to know?” I responded. I felt like going after Lyla, to search, find and comfort her. To tell her that if she needed a family she could always come live with us. We should have asked her to tell us about her (or our) mother. Millie shouldn’t have yelled at her and I should’ve stopped her, but it was too late to regret anything anyway.

,,By the way Mily” my sister asked ,,Why was Lyla able to hug and touch us? It’s been bugging me ever since she hugged Luna.”

,,Well…I honestly don’t know” Mily lied. It’s so obvious when she lies.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

,,You don’t know?” Millie repeated ,,How odd. You always have the answers to every question of ours. Except Luna’s, but her questions are impossible.”

,,I don’t know this time” Mily stood up, taking Lord’s plate and placing it in the sink. Lord asked for dessert but Mily ignored him, walking away with Saki who ran after her.

,,Here we go again with her tantrums. She hasn’t changed one bit in three hundred years” Edgar scoffed.

,,Hey she still has to tell me what my soul age is!” I ran after Mily and Saki. Half of me wanted to know what my soul age was, the other half wanted to ask Mily why she lied.

And then I felt it for the first time.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

I must’ve fainted or something. The moment I opened my eyes I couldn’t see. Actually pretend that the previous thing I said doesn’t exist. In any case, I really couldn’t see because it was dark.

Imagine you’re standing in a room with no windows and no doors. There’s no light, it’s dark and you’re having a panic attack because you don’t understand where you are. That’s exactly how I felt in the moment.

I looked around me, trying to comprehend the space I found myself in. I felt worse then I felt when I died. I felt worse than the moment Lord played a prank on me when I was in the shower (yes, we do take baths. If we don’t, we start smelling like corpses and believe me it’s not fun. Plus, we don’t actually wash ourselves with water, but with another soul’s energy) by turning my light off. What I’m trying to say is, it felt horrible.

Taking a step forward I tripped. The I decided not to walk anymore and to simply float around like the ghost I was and still am. Surprisingly I didn’t hit any walls or something. After floating around for a bit, I remembered I could generate fire, which meant that I could just summon some and make myself a floating fire light.

But it did not work.

I tried to summon it like I usually did but nothing happened so I tried again and again. Maybe Elizabeth had brought me to that dark place to take revenge on me and she had cancelled my ability with her oh-so-wonderful librarian grace.

But that wasn’t the case. In fact, after what happened next I wholeheartedly wished Elizabeth were there.

Floating around a little longer, I started noticing something. A blue fire, in the exact shade I liked.

I looked up and noticed fire orbs floating in the air, serving as a handrail for some stairs. Atop of the said stairs, there was a lovely decorated throne. My first thought was that it was Elizabeth’s secret throne in her dark and creepy library cellar (do libraries even have that?). Or maybe it was Hell’s ruler throne room and she had brought me here to tell me that my sister absolutely needed to work for her.

I was, obviously, wrong.

On the throne stood the most bored person ever. She was playing with a yo-yo, bouncing it up and down. Noticing me, she placed her yo-yo aside and leaned forward to take a better look at me.

,,Well well, look what the cat brought in” she said, attempting to sound scary.

I then recognized her, because I had seen her in the bathroom mirror a hundred times before and every time I got scared and smashed the mirror, because I did not want to look at her anymore.

Her hair was black and short. She wore the most exquisite dress, a dress that rivaled Mily’s. A dress made for a queen, like the queen she probably was, because unlike the time I saw her in the mirror, she now wore a crown atop of her head.

The most disturbing detail about her were her eyes. Black with shiny turquoise irises, they looked like mine when I got angry or used my ability a bit too much.

And that is because, she was me.

I stared at her for some time. She was me and she was beautiful. The dress fit her perfectly. The crown matched her whole outfit. The gloves she wore were nothing but amazing.

And yet, she was my nightmare. Around a few months ago my eyes started turning black and such without me using my ability or being angry. The hair changed in her color when I first fought Mily, but now it would turn black without me doing anything.

The first time I saw her was in the bathroom one day. I was washing my hands because I had painted and believe me, ghost paint is very hard to wash off. After I scrubbed my hands I looked up in the mirror and froze. I looked like her not myself. She was smiling at me even though I wasn’t smiling. Her eyes were wide open, while I wanted to close mine to not see her anymore. But she was there and I couldn’t escape her.

At that time I had splashed my face with some random person’s soul energy and she was gone but I still had the feeling that somewhere, in the back of my mind, she was still watching me.

“Maybe that’s where I am. The back of my mind.” I what I told myself when I saw her face to face.

Because of my silence she now looked more bored than ever.

,,If you have come here, at least entertain me” she said, grabbing her yo=yo again and rolling the yo-yo thread around the toy and then making it bounce again. She looked mesmerized by the toy.

,,Why are you playing with that?” I tried not to sound scared. She shifted her attention towards me.

,,Oh? You’re finally speaking. Well, I am playing with it because it’s interesting. You know the yo-yo reminds me of you. Your feelings of hatred and love bounce up and down, just like this. One day you love yourself, the other you hate who you are. One day, your sister is your best friend, the next you are plotting her death. One day, you hang out with Lord, thinking of him as your brother, the other day you want to slit his throat. And the list goes on and on…”

I did not deny what she said.

,,Who are you? What do you want from me?”

She laughed and asked me to guess. This was all just a game for her.

,,I don’t know” I responded ,,You are me.”

,,Hmm…” she hummed playing with the thread of the yo-yo ,,Indeed, I am you and you are me. I was born when you became a ghost. I am your anger and your power at the same time.”

,,Why do you act like a queen?” I asked, fidgeting my fingers. She placed the toy back on the table next to her throne and leaned her head on her left hand.

,,Because that’s the way you act. Do you not act like you are deserving of everything?”

,,I do not” I deny.

,,At least don’t deny that you made Millie kill herself because you couldn’t let her go. Let’s be real Luna Taylor. You are lonely. You don’t have any friends. That’s why you wanted your sister to follow you in the afterlife, not because you actually cared about her well being. Millie is better than you and you know it.”

,,You’re talking crazy. Why did you bring me here?”

She shrugged.

,,I did no such thing. Do you actually think I would want to see your miserable face? I see it enough when you look into the mirror. I see your face when I look at Millie.”

,,Stop talking nonsense” I told her ,,And tell me how I can leave this place.”

,,Well” she leaned back on her throne and placed her arm on her forehead ,,There is no way. Once you’re stuck in your own mind, you can’t escape.”

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

,,Luna! Luna wake up! Mily? Mily do something, why isn’t she waking up?!” my twin yelled as loud as she could.

,,Calm down, she’ll wake up…eventually.”

I did not like how this ‘eventually’ sounded. It seemed like Mily was very happy that I fainted.

,,But alas, if you really do want to return then I suppose I could do something about it. Though you have to promise not to tell them about my existence.” My evil version had said.

I obviously listened to her, but I didn’t expect her to actually do as promised.

When I opened my eyes I saw Mily trying to chant a spell but she stopped when she noticed that I was awake.

,,What happened?” I asked both of them. Saki was also there, looking very wise. He was the one that replied:

,,You followed us yelling about your soul age. Millie, your sister, followed you, but you collapsed in the middle of the hallway. What happened?”

,,I don’t know. I just fainted.” Mily did not seem convinced though.

,,Did you not eat enough souls this month? How many have you eaten up until now?”

I decided to play along and lie.

,,I ate four.”

,,Well then, come to my room and I’ll give you another one. Your soul is clearly out of energy” Mily invited me over.

,,Well, thank you.”

,,But how come you, the biggest soul eating enthusiast, has only eaten four souls?” my twin questioned. I gulped.

,,Well I guess I just wasn’t hungry” I told her, then stood up ,,Well then Mily, guide me to your precious soul collection.”

Mily sighed and then walked away to her room expecting me to follow. Saki frowned and then turned around, going after his friend.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

As I’ve probably mentioned before, Mily’s room was creepy. From her big book collection, to her table full of potions, the room looked like it had been decorated by a mad fantasy author who also had a part-time job as an interior designer.

Mily had a ladder which she used to reach the top shelves. Obviously, we could float but there was a certain height we could reach while doing so, and Mily’s shelves exceeded the limit.

She climbed up and opened a box on the top shelve, then took something from inside. She held it tight in her hand and then jumped down from the ladder, causing me a heart attack(or soul? I don’t have a heart).

,,There you go” she said and handed me a shiny yellow orb. I took it and without a second thought I swallowed it. My body glowed yellow for a moment, sign that the energy of the soul I just ate blended with the one of my own soul.

,,Yummy” I said. In fact, this was my seventh soul that month because I stole some from Mily when she wasn’t looking.

,,I hope you liked it. That was the soul of an 18 year old” Mily explained.

The younger the person was, soul age included, the better the soul tasted.

,,I’m guessing it was that 18 year olds first life?”

Saki sat on the sofa, probably disgusted. As a companion his energy source should also have been eating souls, but never in my death had I actually seen him eat one.

,,Yes” Mily answered and then motioned to the door ,,well time to get out.”

,,I still want to know my soul ago though. So…can you tell me?”

,,Yeah. Your soul age is 330, you’re turning 331 this summer.” I couldn’t believe I was that old.

,,Wait, what? How did you know without performing a spell?”

,,A skilled witch does not need a spell to know stuff” Saki rolled his eyes, probably trying to make Mily kick me out of the room faster. He probably wanted to talk to her in private. I did not play his game.

,,What about my sister’s soul age?”

,,The same as yours” Mily was also getting annoyed.

,,Oh and one more thing!”

,,What else could you possibly want?!” Mily yelled at me.

,,Why did you lie back there? Weren’t you supposed to not feel good when you lie?”

Mily froze but then quickly composed herself.

,,That really does not concern you. Now get out!” She grabbed my shoulder with one hand, turned me around and pushed me towards the door.

,,Ok fine I get the message” I then left, leaving the duo to discuss their problems without me snooping around.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

I went back to the living room. This had been just day one of our first week without the curse and I was already bored and Mily had already kicked me out of her room. On top of that, my evil version was now haunting my subconscious expecting me to change my ways.

It had been nice to see that my sister had been worried about me while I was unconscious. At least she still cared, even after what I did to her.

I went to sleep early that day, but Edgar didn’t join me because he spend time with Lord. The two of them stayed up all night playing Five Nights at Freddie’s. Lord was absolutely mesmerized by the game.

In the morning, after I grabbed a bowl of cereal and ate alone in my room (Edgar and Lord both fell asleep in the living room) I started thinking about things I could do.

Erika had told us that she was haunting teachers, so maybe I could go haunt students. Getting dressed, I left, going straight towards the main hallway.

The students were loud as always, talking and slamming the doors of their lockers. Class stared at eight am sharp and the students did not seem happy about it. If I were alive, I would have probably roamed the hallways with them.

I looked around to find my haunting target for the day. There was this certain group of students that all belonged to the same class. They were noisy, annoying, rude to teachers, but their fashion sense was chefs kiss. I then decided to go visit the ghost stores nearby tomorrow along with Millie.

I followed the students group into their class. They had chemistry first period and I couldn’t help but think of Midari who was probably exploring some unknown realms with her cousin.

The kids were supposed to work on an experiment with their assigned partner. I spotted a guy from that group I was telling you about earlier and went up to him. As he and his project partner, a girl that did not belong to said group, started mixing chemicals, some which I recognized because of Midari’s 1 am chemistry lessons, I extended my arm and touched the back of his neck, making him shiver and shriek.

That action caused him to drop the chemicals he was holding and break a glass beaker. The teacher yelled at him and he apologized. I was, obviously, laughing very hard at this. Erika told me that the guy I just scared was being rude to teachers and stuff like that, so he totally deserved being scolded for once.

,,Hey, Luna!”

I turned around to see a very angry Lord.

,,You’re awake?” I asked him. He rolled his eyes in the same manner as Saki. Like father like son.

,,Luna could you please stop bothering these two?” he pointed at the students.

,,Why though? I was just having fun? And I’m only bothering the guy…”

,,Listen” he sounded calmer now ,,Do everything you want to do to him. Kill him for all I care. But just this time don’t bother him, because his failure also equals the girl’s failure.”

,,Hm. I never thought you could be fair.”

,,I just don’t want her grade to get affected because you messed with the guy. Even so, do you know he actually bullies people?”

A memory of my poor sister getting bullied flashed before my eyes. No one should ever go through that. My sister had been beaten up, kicked, drugged (I mean they put some substance in her food at some point and she had to stay in the hospital for one week). They had written mean words on her desk. Stole her stuff. And all of that because they were probably jealous of her.

,,Then I have a right to make his life a living hell.”

,,Yes indeed but please” Lord sounded desperate ,,Don’t bother him now. Let the girl get a good grade, she worked hard for it.”

,,How do you know?”

Lord looked away then back at me.

,,I like her.”

My face dropped.

,,Aww…that’s sweet. You’ll get over it soon, don’t bother.”

Now Lord’s face dropped.

,,Just go away” he yelled at me. I was glad the students couldn’t hear us. I looked past him at the girl.

,,Isn’t she a bit too old for you?”

,,She’s one or two years older.”

,,And she’s a human” I reminded him ,,And you’re a ghost. I’m very sorry to disappoint kid, but she’ll never like you back.”

,,Just let me enjoy the I’m-in-love period ok? Now about the guy…”

,,He’s annoying” I told him ,,But I like his T-shirt, it’s very cool.”

,,Stop looking at his clothes and let’s focus on the real problem. He bullies her. The teacher didn’t make the groups for this project, they were allowed to choose who they’re working with. He chose her because she gets good grades, but he actually bullies her. The bullying isn’t as bad as it was when your sister was still alive, but it’s bad.”

,,Why don’t you do anything about it then?” I asked.

,,Because I’m just a kid! I don’t hurt people, but you…and your sister oh she’s definetly hurting people, you two could help me.”

I blinked. Did my sister have a secret killing business I didn’t know about?

,,And you want me to do what exactly…?”

,,Kill him, duh.”

,,I don’t kill people. Unless…” I looked over to the guy and then at the rest of their group.

,,I’ll consider helping you. Actually no, I’ll help you. You helped me with Millie too” I told him. Lord looked happy.

,,Do we have a deal then?”

,,Yeah. Just give me some time.”

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

The following week, I did as promised. I killed the guy then ate his soul. It’s not as bad as it sounds, I can guarantee. In any case, that is exactly how my killing business started.

Over the course of the next few years I would kill people for other ghosts. I got a free meal out of it and tons of ghost money.

Not everyone was happy with this, but I was.

I’ll make this short, Lord did not get to talk to the girl he liked. I believe Millie tried to help Lord with that, but they didn’t succeed. Lord was sad, but it didn’t really matter to me. In the end, I wouldn’t see him ever again.