7.

The bad thing about being arrested and being brought down to the station, other than the fact that you are being arrested, is the fact that after a few similar incidents everyone at the station remembers you and makes pleasantries and bad jokes regarding the situation. Different cops walked past him down the hall and at his jail cell, talking with humor what he have done now and stuff like that. Alan could only roll his eyes and wave his hand awkwardly as a response since he thought the whole thing was a huge embarrassment. And honestly, it wasn't like it was entirely his fault what happened at the church, but then again he couldn't exactly tell the truth either because the truth would only give him a first class ticket back to the loony bin.

Alan leaned back against the jail cell wall, his head staring up at the ceiling before he closed his eyes and sighed tiredly. He had been behind these bars before, but never has he felt this tired and disappointed in himself over how much lack of control he had like he did back there. And now he had to face the priest as well as his dad and deal with the consequences of his actions as well as being the huge disappointment he always has been, especially in his family.

Both Meru and Yoru was hovering in front of him, expressing guilt and remorse, before they floated and sat on the top of his head and looked down at him.

"We're sorry," They muttered quietly and Alan could only nod his head slowly, not really listening to them since he was too consumed by his own disappointed thoughts. He sighed once again before his eyes lifted up towards them, "It's fine. I'm used to it, I mean I'm used to getting almost killed my malevolent ghosts and arrested by the local police for things that ghosts have caused or my own involvement with them. The thing that bothers me the most about my 'gift' is that in order to protect the people I care about I need to keep it a secret from them and lie about the whole thing. Which automatically result in me being unable to connect and have that good relationship with them you know."

They nodded and waited for him to continue, knowing that he probably had a lot on his chest and being locked behind bars was more than anything a good place to talk since they really didn't have anything else to do and no one really cared what he did at the moment. At least until his dad got here that is.

"You might not see it now, but I used to have a good and close relationship with my family, especially my older brothers. However that changed once this whole ability started to kick in and pull me into situations that I couldn't explain without receiving doubtful or exasperated glances at me. And if you add that with the whole 'family business' then you have a complete recipe for how to estrange family bonds. Sometimes I just wish that I could walk away from all of this and that I never received this 'gift' of mine, but then I think about if it wasn't me then it would be some other unfortunate kid. And no one deserves to be handed with such ability that doesn't give you a lot of happiness and joy."

They didn't answer, knowing that empty reassuring words wouldn't mean much to him and certainly not going to help the situation. Based on the short time knowing him they realized that there was no way he was going to tell his friends and family the truth, so he would have to carry the burden alone so they wouldn't have to do it. Completely selfless, but it was also very lonely and was destroying his soul little by little by going against his wishes by trying to protect his family. Too bad that he couldn't exactly protect them from himself.

They talked between themselves for a while until one of the officers came to inform him that the priest wanted to speak with him before he was going to decide if he wanted to press charges against him for the destruction inside the church. Alan was actually surprised that the priest had not made a decision already and the fact that he wanted to talk to him about it. What would the priest want to talk to him about? Wasn't this an open-and-shut case? Apparently not, Alan thought to himself before he nodded his head reluctantly to agree to talk. The officer disappeared for a moment and then reentered the room with the priest behind him. Alan looked up, expecting to see the same disappointed or angry expression on the man's face except it wasn't there. Instead the man froze up and simply stared at him with huge eyes like he saw a ghost or something. And he guessed the staring made both Yoru and Meru uncomfortable since they said awkwardly, "Can you get him to stop doing that? It is seriously creepy, Alan."

He didn't respond only focusing on the priest who looked even more shocked now after the their comment. It was almost like he heard what they had just said to him, but that was ridiculous since no one except him saw them and everything that came along with communicating with them. However the priest's demeanor and attitude told him otherwise, so it was possible that he did indeed see and hear them perfectly, which would mean that this priest might have the same ability as him. Alan's eyes widened by the realization and murmured annoyed, "Oh crap, just when I thought I have seen everything I just happen to stumble upon a guy who is just as crazy as I am, who can see and talk with the dead. What are the odds?"

The priest didn't comment on his reply, but he shifted the coat collar slightly in an awkward and uncomfortable manner. Then he coughed and said, "Apparently we have a lot more to talk about than your breaking-and-entering and vandalism in the church."

Alan shrugged his shoulder and said simply, "I guess we do, but I will only do it with you in the room." His eyes moved towards the officer before they focused back on him, signaling that the cop needed to go if they were to talk privately about this. The priest understood and asked the officer politely to leave, which surprisingly he did after a light argument, and left the four of them (Meru and Yoru included) alone on each side of the cell. Alan only hoped that he wasn't wrong with his assumption and that this talk wouldn't lead him back to the mad house again.

There is a couple of things you should know about the ability to see the ghosts and spirits. Like every other ability and talent a person can possess, there are also limits and/or weaknesses that comes along with it for example pushing yourself and going over your personal limit and such things. Being able to see ghosts has its limits as well like he can't directly see a ghost unless it choses to appear in front of him, which is why he could only sense a malevolent presence in the church when it happened and not directly see it like Meru and Yoru would, but there is another thing that limits him from seeing ghosts or rather makes it impossible to see or contact them at all. You can't see the ghost or spirit of a family member or someone with a very close personal connection to like a wife or girlfriend and such. That is the main reason why the priest couldn't see his wife Susannah and daughter Ava back at the church when they first met and he could. It was also the main reason why no matter how much he wanted to see and know her he couldn't see his deceased mother, who died when he was three years old in an avalanche accident. His dad or brothers suffered greatly with her death, so they never talked about her or told him much about her either. And he learned quickly not to ask since neither of them could handle the other ones reaction to talk about, so he let it drop even though he had always wanted to know something about his mother at least.

Anyways he and the priest or what he was usually called Father Dominick talked about everything that happened inside the church as well as his history with the ability to see ghosts, although he kept out the part about seeing his wife and daughter as well as his current problem with the mysterious texts to himself. The man might be a priest and a man of the cloth, but that didn't mean Alan trusted to give up everything he knew. Father Dominick was quite fascinated by his story and was pleased to finally meet a fellow gifted person and Alan was slightly relieved that he wasn't the only one, but unfortunately they both learned quickly that they had very different views on the whole ability.

"So you think this ability is a gift from God," Alan said shocked. He leaned forward in his seat, but didn't remove his gaze away from Father Dominick. "Seriously?"

His personal view and opinion on God and religion have always been reluctant and skeptical at best, especially considering what he saw dead people on a daily basis, so his faith in it is completely shattered at this point and he found it hard to believe that the explanation behind his gift came from someone or something he didn't believe in.

"Well, of course I do," Father Dominick found his reaction clearly odd, since his face expressed confusion. "Where else would we receive a gift like this? Our duty is to help those troubled spirits move on and give them peace."

Alan nodded, but still remained unconvinced the whole thing. "Right. At least now I have someone to complain to for sticking me with this crappy gift in the first place, but can we move on to another topic since we are clearly not getting anywhere with this."

"Yes, I agree," Father Dominick stated quietly and changed the subject to what was going to happen now with the whole arrest and criminal charges issue. "So I'm going to assume what happened tonight wasn't an act of rebellion or a mental break down like the officers told me."

Alan nodded once again, while refraining himself from rolling his eyes after hearing the cops assumption in all of this, and waited for him to continued his hypothesis about the situation.

"And from what you told me from your history dealing with ghosts I also figure this is sort of an regular occurrence with you," Father Dominick explained. "Which is why I have decided not to press charges, however I do believe that you need to face the consequences and learn more about how to deal with them in a more peaceful manner instead of making it a circus. So you are going to continue work at the church as my handyman and pay for the damages that were caused."

Alan wanted to argue. He couldn't work a debt like that forever, being back home and here on the main island was only temporarily until his personal mystery was resolved and he had some idea what he was going to do with his life. And besides he had money and could easily pay back the money, however when he thought about it he didn't want to burden his family even more with his problems and messes as it is so he might as well just go along with it for now at least until he had a better idea how to get out of repaying the debt for something a ghost did and not him.

So he reluctantly agreed and simply hoped that he was doing the right thing, even though at this point he was certain that he was taking every wrong turn he could find.

A few hours later, after paper works were done and everything was settled the officers released him from his jail cell. In many ways he was actually happy to be out, but the happiness diminished the opened he stepped out side the room and saw his dad hanging out in the waiting area. He stopped on his path and almost wanted to turn around and return back to the cell where he was safe from his family, especially when his dad looked up and saw him. The disappointed and exasperated expression on his face was as clear as day and he didn't exactly lighten it up by saying simple and guilty, "Hey Dad."

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Thanks for the love and support of this story, hope you like this chapter. Honestly I don't think this one was very good, and felt sort of uninspired to write, but I pushed through to do it. So I'll let you guys be the judges if you like it or not.

Like always the next chapter will be here next week, and for those of you who cares my birthday is this week, but I wouldn't be telling which date since I kind of value my privacy a little too much. So consider this as a prior birthday gift from me, although you normally don't give others things on your own birthday :p

Please give me reviews, favorite and/or followings, and the next chapter will be out when is its done.

xXrebelgirl07Xx