Eventually Ciara had to leave Sophie's side to go make dinner and after she had promised the little girl to make her favorite Ciara-made meal, a mac and cheese chicken casserole that Ciara had long perfected. It was just the right amount of cheesy and Ciara had yet to meet a kid that didn't love it, well except for that one kid who had been lactose intolerant. Mrs. Bennett had told her that they had stocked up the kitchen the day before so anything that Ciara would need for food should be available but Mr. Bennett had added that they left a hundred dollars in a cookie jar above the fridge just in case they ran out of anything.
After popping the casserole into the oven, Ciara began to rinse the dishes that she had used before putting them into the mostly empty dish washer. Just as she was about to walk back to the family room to rejoin Sophie, she decided that it maybe it would be a good idea to cook some green beans to go with the casserole because the kids weren't getting out of eating vegetables just because their parents were gone.
"Ara! Ara, look!" Sophie exclaimed, holding up the picture that she had been coloring. It was a picture of the Disney fairies all together, it was exceptionally colorful, and Sophie had colored inside all of the lines.
"Wow, we should put that on the fridge so that when your parents get home you can show them," Ciara led Sophie over to the fridge that was already covered in masterpieces from both kids. Sophie picked out a magnet and Ciara placed it at the top of the picture. She admired the picture for a few more seconds before opening the fridge to take out the soda that she had seen in there earlier. There was just enough for all three of them to have a full glass each. The oven timer beeped and Ciara sighed knowing that cooking green beans was out of the question now that the casserole was done.
"Soph, you wanna set the table for dinner?" Ciara asked, already pulling out plates and glasses from the cabinets. Sophie bounced in place before taking the plates that Ciara handed her. Soon after the cups followed suit and then the forks, Ciara trailed after Sophie on the last trip to the table with the casserole dish in hand. One last trip brought the bottle of soda to the table. Ciara served Sophie and plated some for Jaime as well before taking the dish back into the kitchen. She had kept her own plate on the counter, thinking that she would clean up the kitchen a bit while eating but now she wasn't so sure about that decision. But first, she had to call Jaime in for dinner so she embarked on the small trek to the front door.
"Jaime! Time for dinner!" she called out, noting that almost all of the kids had already been called in for dinner; only Jaime and his friend Pippa remained, well so did the spirit but he didn't exactly count. Jaime turned to acknowledge that he had heard her before turning back to say goodbye to Pippa who followed suit by going back to her own home as well. With that out of the way, Jaime began the short trip to his house and Ciara went back to the kitchen to serve herself before her stomach decided to start eating itself. From the kitchen she heard the front door close along with the locks being locked so she went about getting her food.
"Hey, Jaime, who's the girl?" a voice brought Ciara out of her own head and she looked towards the breakfast nook where the kids were eating. Sophie had already dived right in but since she had had to call Jaime inside he had to put all of his winter gear away first.
"Oh that's our babysitter, Ciara," Jaime answered quietly, obviously trying not to grab Ciara's attention, before taking a seat across from his sister and digging into his own plate of food. The kid looked beat from all of the playing in the snow and she really couldn't blame him seeing as they had been outside for hours. It was amazing that none of the kids had frostbite!
Ciara narrowed her eyes at the sight of the boy who had spoken before though, she recognized him as the older boy from earlier and she hadn't invited him in so why did he follow Jaime inside? He wasn't floating anymore at least and he had a wooden staff in the shape of a shepherd's crook balanced on one shoulder and that's when it hit her; this boy wasn't Dark, he wasn't Light either, he was a spirit and spirits were invisible to humans unless you believed in them. She felt stupid for not figuring it out earlier; the white hair honestly should've been a dead giveaway to be honest along with the floating without wings and she was kicking herself for not paying attention to the details before. Well that settled that then, she would just continue to ignore him like he wasn't there because technically he wasn't thus she couldn't see him.
Spirit Boy took a seat at the table and made some small talk with both Jaime and Sophie, mostly making them laugh by making silly faces. Ciara was torn between wanting to roll her eyes and yelling at him to let the kids eat, she settled for neither though.
"Jaime, after you're finished I want you to help me wash dishes, okay?" Ciara smiled at him after he nodded before turning back to the stove to serve herself before her stomach decided to start talking. Then she went to go sit next to Sophie which meant that coincidentally she sat across from this mysterious spirit. She only hoped that he wasn't a mischievous one or she'd have a hard time ignoring him. So she tried to eat, making some small talk with the siblings but from the corner of her eye she could see the spirit staring at her intently and it was getting on her nerves. Didn't it know that it wasn't nice to stare at people?
"Say, Jaime," the boy started, waiting for Jaime to glance at him before continuing. "What would you say to a quick prank for your babysitter? I could just freeze her drink before she grabs it again and we can watch her freak out, what do you say?" Ciara let out a snort of laughter before realizing her mistake and covered it up with a quick cough before turning to Sophie who had an empty plate in front of her.
"Sophie, are you done?" When the little girl nodded, Ciara picked up her plate and headed for the kitchen pointedly looking anywhere but the seat where the mysterious spirit that seemed to be haunting the house was occupying. "You wanna go get ready for bed then? While your brother helps me with the loading of the dish washer?" Sophie bounded for the stairs to go to her room Ciara before pausing at turning back to the oldest living person in the house.
"Sing me to sleep again?" Sophie asked, a pout already forming on her face. Ciara let out a quiet laugh before answering the little munchkin's request.
"Yes, of course, now go get ready for bed. Jaime, can you rinse off these plates and then I'll put them in the dish washer," Ciara said, opening said dish washer before grabbing the plate that Jaime held out for her. In less than ten minutes they had everything in the washer and Ciara turned to smirk at Jaime.
"And now you can go get ready for bed too." Jaime let out a groan before dragging himself to the stairs. Ciara cackled at his disdain, enforcing bedtime was always the best thing about babysitting because kids always tried to fight you on it but you had all of the authority. She started for the stairs as well, knowing that Sophie would already be ready for bed meaning that it was time for a goodnight song. Suddenly a body was blocking her way and it took all of Ciara's willpower to not show any kind of reaction but it was a close call because how many people can hold back a reaction when someone randomly appears right in your face? She did flinch back for a second though and she hoped that it didn't give her away because it was already annoying just having to listen to him.
"Awww come on, Ciara, can't Jaime play for a few more hours?" Mystery Spirit asked mockingly, still thinking that she couldn't see him which meant he hadn't noticed her flinch. Ciara took this opportunity subtly study the boy still blocking her view. He was around her age, had white hair that looked just the right amount of ruffled, bright blue eyes, and he was exceptionally pale. He was wearing a blue hoodie that had frost around the edges, brown pants that were cut off just above the ankle, and no shoes because he wasn't odd enough already. Once they both reached the top of the stairs he finally left her, walking over to Jaime's room and going in through the still open door. Ciara rolled her eyes once he was out of sight and went into the guest room where all of her stuff was, she had an idea of what Sophie would want her to sing and she would need her guitar. Once she grabbed it she went to Sophie's room where the little girl was already dressed for bed. The little girl's eyes brightened when she saw Ciara step into the room.
"Sing, sing, sing!" Sophie bounced on the bed in excitement. Ciara quietly laughed before walking over to sit on the edge of the bed. She motioned for Sophie to get under the covers and the girl did so quickly.
"What should I sing, huh?" Ciara asked.
"Brave song!" Sophie was still wiggling around and Ciara had to hold back her laughter. It was always the same song with Sophie; she never got tired of it which amused Ciara because it wasn't even a song in English but ever since the kid had seen Brave, she had been in love with the song and as soon as she knew that Ciara could sing it, it was all over.
"Okay, but you have to calm down and go to sleep okay?" Sophie nodded and snuggled deeper under the covers. Ciara set her guitar on her knee and began playing the melody.
A naoidhean bhig, cluinn mo ghuth
Mise ri d' thaobh, O mhaighdean bhan
Ar righinn oig, fas as faic
Do thir, dileas Fein
A ghrian a's a ghealaich, stuir sinn
Gu uair ar cliu 's ar gloire
Naoidhean bhig, ar righinn go
Mhaighdean uashaill bhan
Ciara let the last note waver in the air before looking up to see Sophie fast asleep, the song had worked like a charm yet again; she smiled before getting up and shouldered her guitar. Slowly she left the room, leaving the door cracked open just in case, and walked over to Jaime's room. She paused right outside though because she could hear quiet talking and she just knew that Jaime was talking to Spirit Boy. Someone had to tell him how creepy it was to hang out in a little kid's room so late at night. She knocked on the door lightly and the talking stopped.
"Jaime, go to sleep, you've got school in the morning and I'd hate to get a call from your teacher saying that you fell asleep in class," Ciara said before turning to walk to the guest room. She could faintly hear Jaime grumbling in response and then the sound of a window being closed. Now it was time to watch some crappy TV in the hopes that she'll knock out sometime before midnight.
Ciara quickly changed into her pajamas and sat on the bed before checking under her pillow to make sure her dagger was still under it. Not that it would've been moved since no one had been in the room but she always felt better if she checked. The ivory handle felt cool in her hand even in the chill that was present throughout the house and if she were to take it out from under the pillow the five inch blade would shine in the light that filled the room. Shaking her head Ciara let go of the handle and grabbed the TV remote from the night stand, it was time for terrible television.
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"Are you really going to watch that?" Spirit Boy muttered, staring at the TV screen in disdain. Ciara felt her eye twitch in response and thankfully the spirit wasn't looking at her so he didn't notice it. He had shown up in the guest room minutes after she had settled down onto the bed to watch some late night TV. She flipped through the channels again and stopped on ABC Family where the wonderful sounds of yet another Christmas movie was playing. Spirit Boy had set his stupid wooden staff against the bed frame and it was blocking her view of the screen and oh how she wanted to knock it down.
"Ugh, too many Christmas movies on nowadays, where are all the Jack Frost movies?" He flopped down onto the bed and turned onto his side to face Ciara. She did her best to pretend that she wasn't being stared at but she did slightly narrow her eyes at the TV. "I think there should be a Jack Frost movie, don't you? It'd be much better than another Santa Claus movie, that's for sure. Are there movies about the Easter Bunny out there? I hope not, that kangaroo doesn't need a movie based on him; he's already hard enough to put up with. The Tooth Fairy is okay though, are there movies about her? "
"Oh my God, would you just shut up already?!" Ciara threw the remote to the foot of the bed and glared at the infuriating spirit in front of her. There was only so much she could take and she had just hit her limit. He shot up into a sitting position and stared at her in shock, finally quiet for longer than a minute. Of course the magical moment couldn't last forever.
"Wait, you can see me?" he asked, eyes wide and mouth open.
"Yeah, I can see you, whoop-di-freakin'-doo," Ciara said sarcastically, leaning forward on the bed to grab the remote again. She shut off the TV and tossed the remote onto the floor, nothing was on anyway, and turned back to glare at the boy. "Now, do you wanna tell me who the hell you are and why you're here?"
"You can see meā¦but you don't know who I am?"
"If I knew who you were, I wouldn't have asked you that." Ciara sighed before lying back down on the bed, covering her face with one hand while she snuck her other hand under her pillow to lightly grasp at her dagger again. She still didn't know who this guy was therefore she had to be cautious so if that meant using her dagger on him, so be it. Why was this her life? Was it so hard for the universe to let her stay off the radar for at least a year? That was all she asked for, some peace and quiet for at least twelve months, then she could go back to running for her life and avoiding getting attached to people.
"But you shouldn't be able to see me if you don't believe."
"Who are you? Tinkerbell? You do kinda look like her winter twin though," Spirit Boy's jaw dropped open and he stared at her in shock. "Hey, I call it like I see it and this is getting a little too 'clap your hands if you believe' even for me."
Before he could respond, a child's scream echoed throughout the house; Jaime. Ciara tensed up before pulling her dagger out from under her pillow and taking off for Jaime's room, pushing Spirit Boy out of the way.
"Jaime!" Ciara threw open the boy's bedroom door and froze at the sight in front of her. A black horse stood by the bed and there was black sand floating above Jaime's head. He was still asleep but he looked to be having a terrible nightmare by the look of pain on his sleeping face. Somewhere in her brain Ciara knew that the horse had something to do with the bad dream so she had to get rid of it. Spirit Boy ran in behind her and froze in shock when he took in the sight before them.
"That's impossible," he said. Finally Ciara did the only thing she could think of, get the attention off of Jaime and onto her.
"Get the hell away from him!" Ciara shouted. The horse turned to face her and she was almost positive that it narrowed its eyes at her but that would be dumb because it was a horse. Well if Ciara was being honest, she was almost sure that it was a Kelpie so it wasn't exactly stupid and it was probably Dark because Lights never went after children even if they had a grudge against the parents of said child. But Kelpies shouldn't be able to cause bad dreams nor should they look to be made of black sand so what the hell was this thing and who would she have to talk to figure it out? Maybe she could talk to N-
Suddenly it reared up, startling Ciara out of her thoughts, but before it could do anything to either her or Jaime she gathered her wits and threw her dagger straight for the horse's weak spot. At the same time Spirit Boy used his staff to toss a wave of ice towards the horse. A bright light filled the room and the horse turned from black to gold before exiting through the open window with a trail of gold dust following after it, leaving both Ciara and Spirit Boy in a state of confusion. Ciara because she hadn't expected that and Spirit Boy because Ciara presumed that he had been expecting to freeze it.
"What the fu-"
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Okay so I know at least part of this will make no sense but that's what I get for not having an editor and also for writing when half asleep/running on empty. But it all looks good to me so here it is! Also this chapter might help with the challenge I set up in the last chapter, you remember that right? The whole 'guess what show I'm borrowing elements from and you get a free one shot/graphic/whatever' thing? Yeah, that's still up for grabs. I would give a hint if I could but all of the ones I can think of would make the answer too obvious. Hopefully I'll get started on the next chapter soon but until then...
