I had woken up in Kaki’s lap, with Aisling’s mother smiling at me from a cross the table. I jumped up, and Kaki gave me a wounded puppy dog look, “did I do something wrong?”
I patted his head, “no, no. Everything’s fine!” He smiled at me.
“Aw, aren’t you two just the cutest thing! Are you a couple?” Aisling’s mother smiled. I blushed, and was about to tell her that Kaki was just a baby, when she skipped out of the room.
“Ah, she’s a lively one.” I turned to see Aisling’s grandfather standing there. “Let me tell you a story…” He then proceeded to tell us about something about a band he had been in. I was thankful when Aisling walked in.
"Hey Mari, hey Kaki how are you doing did you sleep well?" she grinned. I blushed and nodded, her mother must have told her what she’d seen.
"Hello sleeping beauty," her grandfather said. "I was telling them about my days in the band."
Aisling cringed and turned towards us. "I am SO sorry," she sighed.
"Hey!" her grandfather looked a bit upset
Aisling shrugged and went to the fridge to get something to drink, "Mari are you planning on going back to the school tonight?" I though about it for a second, then nodded.
"Yeah, it's my school I need to protect the ghosts from the demons,” I told her determinedly, even though I felt really scared. I had never thought that there were really such things as demons.
"If your going I'm going to," Kaki said. At first I went to object, but then I decided against it. It would be better if he was with me.
"Alright but you stay close to me," I told him and he nodded.
"Can you see spirits Kaki?" Aisling asked him sitting at the table as she ripping the skin of an orange. Kaki blinked and nodded, going quiet.
"It's weird, you’re so shy now," she commented, "When you were a baby not long ago you were different." Kaki looked uncomfortable, and instead of saying anything, he looked at the juice box he was holding. I had been thinking the same thing, it was really weird how different he was now, even though he looked older, I hadn’t expected a complete personality change.
"I think I understand why." Aisling’s grandfather said and I turned to look at him, curious.
"What do you think?" Aisling said putting a slice of orange in her mouth.
"Babies need to learn to socialize," her grandfather said, chiseling a piece of wood that was no bigger than his thumb. "They need to learn to get used to people but with Kaki's case he took a huge step and there's a lot of things he skipped that takes years to learn. The only one Kaki is comfortable is Mari and that could be because she took him under her wing and see's her as a mother figure or big sister and I right?" He looked up at Kaki and he slowly nodded. That seemed to make a lot of sense to me. It was still kind of weird though, I’d have to help him feel more comfortable.
"I guess it makes sense," Aisling said as she glanced at me. She looked at the clock on the wall, "We have a few hours." She looked at both of us, "Have you been given a tour of the house?" I shook my head, and saw Kaki had done the same thing.
Aisling stood, "Come on or would you rather listen to granddad's band stories." I stood up quickly, and Kaki followed.
"What?" Granddad said as Aisling led us out of the out of the kitchen. "Are they really that bad?"
Aisling looked back, "Yes." She shut the door before her grandfather could say anything. "Okay out here is the garden where some of the good neighbors live," she said as they walked out on the back porch.
"Neighbors?" I asked. In the garden? Aisling pointed at a woman sitting up in a beach tree brushing her long shaggy hair. She looked like a ghost, and I took a step forward.
"That's not a ghost that's a banshee," Aisling said to us. "We call her Silvia."
I stared at the banshee and remembered something I had once heard about them. I quickly stepped backwards. "Doesn't the banshee's scream kill people?" I whispered, not wanting it to hear me.
"No, banshee's scream when someone is about to die they do not cause death they are harbingers of death. Silvia is our family’s banshee."I looked blankly at Aisling blankly and she shrugged, "She sort of made an attachment to us when we moved here form Ireland. Okay moving on."
Aisling showed us a tree house. I thought it was cute, until the knot on the trunk opened and blinked like a giant eye. I screamed. I had definitely not been expecting that."I guess I should of mention that first." Aisling said, and I could tell she was trying not to laugh.
We were about to go back inside, when Aisling’s phone rang. She picked it up, and stared at the screen, shocked. "What's wrong?" I asked her, worried.
"...everything's in Spanish." Aisling said staring at the phone. "How did this..." she paused then yelled at the top of her voice. "PUCK!!!!"
Puck came flying as fast as humming bird and stopped in mid air in front of Aisling. "You called M' lady?" He stood in a ten hut position.
"Look at this," she faced the screen to Puck. "Why is it in Spanish?"
Puck blinked and shrugged, "No comprende." Aisling glared at him and he said quickly. "I have no idea!" She continued to glare and then he sighed with sagging shoulders. "You always saw right through me." He pointed at the phone and it made little beeping noises.
Aisling looked at the phone, “How long will it take to go back to normal?"
"Dunno," Puck said. He looked over at us, and did a double take. "Whoa! You remind me of the babe!" He said pointing at Kaki who looked surprised. I blinked at him, was he talking about Kaki when he was a baby?
"What babe?" Aisling asked, and then slapped her forehead.
"How did you get from this big?" Puck used his hands and set them a few centimeters apart, "To this big!" He stretched out his arms as wide as he could.
"I don't know," Kaki mumbled and stepped closer to me. I couldn’t help thinking it was cute. He was like a baby chick!
"So instead of baby and teen mama," I glared at Puck. Teen mama? "It's more like brother and sister." He nodded at Kaki, "From the looks of it you could be the big brother." I clenched my fist, this fairy was getting on my nerves.
"I'm sixteen," I huffed, "So no matter what I'm still older."
Puck gaped, "Sixteen?! I thought you were at least Lady Aisling's age." Hah, stupid fairy.
I sighed and shrugged, "Yeah people make mistakes about my age a lot but I usually don't mind." Unless they’re an annoying little pixie.
"I thought you were younger then me, and skipped a couple of grades which would explain why your in high school," Aisling said amazed.
"So it didn't seem wrong to call you teen mom. Whoop!" That was the last straw. I tried to whacked Puck but he dodged and moved higher until he was out of my reach.
"Will you stop with this teen mom stuff!" I snapped at him.
"I only call 'em like I see 'em," Puck said. I was wondering how I could get him down, when I noticed a rock on the ground. I bent down to pick up it up, but before I could straighten up, he had flown off. Coward.
"He is a real pain!" I complained. I contemplated keeping the rock incase he came back, but dropped it on the ground instead.
"I'm sorry," Aisling said rubbing the back of her head and she laughed sheepishly. "Let's go back inside."
They spent the rest of the day touring around the house and Aisling showed us the library and the rest of the house. She showed us the secret passage ways, and behind a tapestry, she showed us a secret door. I looked up as I heard someone singing “The Bird.”
"Hold on a minute," Aisling opened the door and stepped inside. "Don't tell him I'm in here." She smiled mischievously and closed the door. What was she up too?
"Hi says the leather bat, I'll tell you the reason that---oh hello." A man smiled as he noticed me and Kaki. "Are you two enjoying your stay here?" He must be Aisling’s father.
"Yes sir," I said, hoping I sounded polite..
"Good to hear," he said happily. "Is Aisling around?"
"HERE I AM!" Aisling said slamming the door open and her father jumped a foot in the air. Ah, so that’s why she was hiding. I had to suppress a laugh.
"Oh Aisling! Haha I fell for it again," he patted his chest. Again? "Who's brilliant idea was it to put in secret passages?"
"You." Aisling said. "Where have you been?"
"I got lost." Her father laughed sheepishly. Lost, but this was his house, wasn’t it?
"Figures," Aisling laughed with him. Wait, so this was normal?
"You get lost in your house?" I wanted to make sure I’d heard right.
"Yes stupid isn't it? I even had a hand in building this place but I can hardly find my way around here. But I always manage to find a bath room if I needed it." He grinned and Aisling shook her head. This time I let myself laugh, and heard Kaki giggling softly behind me.
"Isn't it almost time to get back to the school?" Aisling’s father asked suddenly. "It's an hour till night fall."
"Oh right," Aisling said. "Should we get ready for school?"
I nodded. I was ready for whatever e were about to face. A few minutes later we were ready to leave. I saw Aisling try to call someone, but it looked as though they weren’t answering.
"How about I drive you three?” her father suggested.
"Yeah it seems like Emiko's tied up or something," Aisling nodded. Emiko? Oh, the girl from earlier.
When we go into the car, I remembered about what had happened with Emiko and the other girl. I turned to Aisling, "What happened to Emiko's cousin?"
"I think she's staying with Emiko." Aisling replied.
Aisling’s father drove us to the school, singing the Beatle’s "Drive My Car" He was so far off key, I contemplated getting out of the car and walking. Luckily, Aisling turned on the radio.
"Thanks da," Aisling said waving good bye as her father dropped us off, and then drove off. I turned to the school. For some reason I couldn’t think about it as just a school anymore. "I think they might be back," Aisling said after the moment.
I turned to her, "The demons?" Great, just what we needed as soon as we arrived.
"Don't know yet. It could be Nino scaring them off," said Aisling with a half smile. "Let's go, I think Emiko could be in the classroom that we made our home base." I nodded, and we walked inside.
For a second, everything seemed to go black. “Aisling? Kaki?” I called out. I felt a tugging on the back of my dress. I was about to scream, when I looked back and saw that it was just Kaki. I sighed, “You scared me.”
“Sorry,” he moved closer to me, and I realized he must have been even more scared than I was.
I looked around, and my eyes widened in shock. “Where’s Aisling?” I couldn’t see her anywhere. I continued to walk forward, hoping that she had just gone ahead. I heard laughing, and Kaki pressed his body closer to me, I could feel him shaking. I up to see the little girls running towards us. I looked at Kaki, who was still shaking, “Don’t worry it’s ok, they’re friends.”
He didn’t look convinced, and shook his head. “Bad,” he said as he looked at the girls again. I blinked at him, what did he mean bad? I looked back at the girls, they seemed fine to me. I didn’t realize until they were closer what had really happened. Even though they were laughing, their clothes were ripped and stained with blood. One of them was missing an eye, and the other was missing a hand. I was too scared to scream.
They looked up as they noticed us. “Mari Onee-chan! Have you come to join ussssssss?” they hissed when they hit the s, and their faces peeled off all together. I didn’t think of anything else. I grabbed Kaki’s hand, and ran as fast as I could. I looked behind us, they weren’t chasing us, but I didn’t feel safe. I kept running, and ran smack into Aisling.
“Mari? Where were you?” she looked shocked, and a little scared. I guessed something had happened to her too.
***
Bleh, total suckiness. Forgive me.
O.O Creepy little girls.
