"There you are!"
It was my twin sister & our friends.
"You had me worried!" she said, sounding really scared. "Why did just run off like that?"
I didn't respond. I didn't wanna tell them about what I saw. They might think I was going crazy or something.
"We followed you all the way to this..." Gail said, thinking what word would she use to describe where they are. "...dump."
"Why would you even think of going here?!?" said Dawn in a disgusted tone. (the usual tone.) "Look at this place! It's so disgusting in here! It smells so bad! This is not good for me!"
"Will you quit thinking about yourself?" Taylor said, irritated at Dawn's pretentious ways. It has been always like this. When Dawn opens her mouth to say something & Taylor contradicts it, there will be trouble.
"How dare you..." Dawn said, her brown eyes widening with anger. "You have no right to tell me to shut up!"
"Whatever." Taylor said back. See, I've told you. They always fight whenever they're together. Our job is to stop them from fighting before it gets worse. (Or rather, it was Gail's job. We just sit back & watch.)
"Okay, okay!" Gail said, forcing herself between into the opposing forces. "Let's all get along, shall we girls?" Then, she distanced the two from each other.
"Ya know what? I don't really think you should be fighting all the time. I mean, we're all friends, right? How 'bout it? Truce?"
Dawn tossed her head. "Hmph!"
Taylor just rolled her eyes & crossed her arms.
"Oh, come on! Pleeaazzze????" said Gail, doing the puppy-dog pout.
The two girls looked horrified.
"Oh no! Not the puppy-dog pout!"
The puppy-dog pout: Gail's specialty. She always work things out with that. I wonder how she does it?
Gail kept doing the puppy-dog pout until the two finally gave in.
"Fine!" They said, & held out their hands to each other & shook it.
"YAY!" Gail squealed out loud. "Group hug!"
We did a group hug, much to the dismay of Taylor, who isn't really into sentimentality.
"Ugh, sentiment! It's bad for the image!" she said, half-jokingly & we laughed.
"Okay, can we get out of here now?" Dawn asked, not in her usual tone (so she can avoid Taylor's counter-attack.)
We descended the broken staircase carefully & finally made it outside. The others were bugging about why did I even think of going here.
"Nothing." I said. "It was nothing." I tried to think of something to reason about. A cat was the only thing I could think of.
"I saw a cat running towards here. It was injured."
Obviously, they didn't believe me; I wasn't very good at lying. Even I thought that was stupid. An injured cat, running?
"Haylie, that's the stupidest thing I have ever heard." My twin sister said. "How can a cat run that fast when it has an injury?"
"Well, I...I..." I was running out of excuses. Should I tell them the truth?
"C'mon, Lee, tell us." Gail said, her baby-blue eyes focused on me.
"Whatever it is, we'll believe you." Dawn said, looking at me with her eyebrows partially raised.
"What did you see anyway?" Taylor asked.
It took me a while to think if I should tell them about it. I decided to tell them.
"...and that's what happened before you guys came."
I'm not sure if they believed me, from the look on their faces.
"Haylie, please stop lying to us." Hallie said in a casual tone, which annoyed me a bit.
"I'm not! You wanted me to tell the truth, well, there it is!" I said back.
"Lee, c'mon. I mean, it's Frank. I know you're hurt about what happened in the past but you've gotta let it go." Gail said, sounding concerned, but that didn't comfort me.
"Don't you think I'm trying to do that?!? Do you how hard it is to let go of something like that?"
My eyes were starting to flood again, but I stopped it from pouring down like a faucet.
"You said you found a key." Taylor said. "Where is it?"
That's it! That's the proof I need! I dug deep into my pocket, felt its smooth handle & took it out. They were absolutely shocked when they saw it & realized I was telling the truth.
"Oh my freakin' God!" Gail exclaimed. "So it's true? You did see Frank's ghost!"
"Oh my..." Hallie said, looking at the key, amazed.
Taylor took the key & examined it intently.
"How can it be, that this key is inside that building when it's abandoned?" she said.
"Well, someone who used the building as a hiding place could've accidentally dropped it & left the place." Dawn said, looking at the key with great interest. Maybe, I thought. That could have been possible. But why would Frank's ghost show himself to me just for a key? What should I do with it? There IS a connection between him & that key...but what?
"Let's go to Frank's house, guys." I said firmly, without a single doubt on my head.
Hallie, of course, didn't approve of it.
"Are you out of your mind?!? That house is abandoned! What, are you suggesting we break into that house?"
I looked straight into her eyes & said, "What would you do, Hallie, if you were in my situation?"
She paused, looking for the right words to say.
"I...I...You're really not serious about this?"
I didn't respond, just gave her an eye contact to let her know that I am serious about this.
"Haylie, you have to think about what you're saying!" said Dawn. "You can't just rush us into this."
I shifted my eyes into hers.
"I already made up my mind."
"But Haylie..." Gail whined.
"You heard me, Gail." I said, in a soft tone.
Taylor handed me the key.
"Aren't you going to say something just to change my mind?" I asked. That was a stupid question, I thought. She barely says anything at all. She just gave me a short phrase.
"No, I'm not."
We went inside Dawn's car, not talking to each other, & drove on to Frank's house. It was an abandoned residence, with walls broken, windows shattered, & it has been covered by long blades of grass & weeds. From the outside, it looks so creepy that no one even dared to go near it. I also have heard rumors from several people I know that whenever they pass through the house, they always felt a cold wind rushing behind them. Others felt an unearthly presence around it. But others said that they saw a faint image of a boy walking around the house. If I'm correct, it must have been him, still unable to leave this world...
Dawn parked the car in front of it & we went outside. Suddenly, I felt that eerie unearthly presence.
"He's here." I said. "I can feel him."
I heard Gail whined. She's very afraid of these kinds of things.
We walked towards the house, slowly & cautiously. I saw Gail's face marked with terror. Dawn was in the same state as well. The color has been drained away from their faces, replacing it with chalk-white. Taylor doesn't seem to be scared at all. She was very calm & isn't bothered by anything at all. Hallie was scared. I can see it in her eyes, but tried to look calm. The door was locked, of course, but it's a good thing it's not boarded up. Taylor took a strong piece of wood & tried to open the front door.
"Great, I've always wanted to break into an abandoned house & look like a criminal." She said in a tone of sarcasm.
Finally, the door swung open. We entered it & saw how dark, creepy & unnerving it was to be inside an abandoned house. Nothing has really changed in it (the furniture & other stuff were left untouched), except that it's creepy, everything is covered in dust & the walls were rotting from old age. I even asked myself why did I think of coming here. I might find nothing at all. But still...I want to know. Shortly, a few days after Frank's burial, his parents mysteriously disappeared without a trace. I remembered their faces when they saw his body inside the coffin. Tears kept gushing out of his mother's eyes, grieving for the loss of her son. His father, though he wasn't crying, I knew that he was hurting inside too. I just don't understand why would they just disappear like that, without a single trace. Police investigation plagued the whole house, endlessly searching for clues that might lead them to the reason of their disappearance. Questions here & there, which lead to nothing. Finally, when they realized that they will never solve the mystery, the police had no choice but to close the case.
"Okay, this is really freakin' scary." Gail whimpered, cowering behind Taylor.
"Will you please get off me?!?"
We walked through the dark hallways of the house & upstairs through the old staircase. Holding to each other, we checked every room upstairs. I know that what I'm doing is wrong, but this is the only way I can think of solving the mystery haunting me. We went first into the room, which used to be Frank's. All of his things, the ones he considered his treasure, were still there, slowly being eaten by dust. I found a picture frame on top of his bedside table & sat at the dusty chair near his study table. I brushed the dust away from frame. My eyes started to form tears when I stared at the picture. It was a picture of us, goofing around, happy smiles across our faces. Why is it that I didn't tell you what I really felt? That I don't think of you as my big brother anymore? That I ...really...loved you from the start?
"Haylie..."
I felt my sister's hand on my shoulder. I looked at her, & she gave me a smile to comfort me. My friends also gave me smiles of comfort.
"You really loved him that much, didn't you?" Dawn asked, her eyes giving a sign of concern.
I nodded. Gail kneeled down & looked at me.
"Don't worry, Lee." She said. "We're always here for you."
"Thanks, Gail." I responded in a soft tone. I knew that all along. My sister & my friends are always there whenever I needed them.
Taylor just looked at me, but not with her usual stare. But I know what she's trying to say. She doesn't have to use words to express what she wants to say. After all, that's the way she is.
I opened the drawer in the table. It was filled of Frank's cowboy toys he used to play with when he was little. Along with those, there was a red bandanna, dusty & old of age. I remember that he used to like wearing this when we were playing & we end up laughing about it because he looks funny. There was also his toy pistols, his sheriff pin, a little toy horse, pictures of cowboys & horses, &...a photo torn in the middle.
"Whose photo is this?"
The photograph was in black & white, almost disfigured because of old age. The only thing that the torn picture shows is someone's upper body. The part that was torn was the head. Did he do this? But why? Whose picture is this?
"Hey guys." I said, in a solemn tone. "I found something."
They moved towards me & looked at the torn photo.
"What's that?" Gail asked curiously.
"A photo of someone." I replied.
Gail eyed the photo curiously. She smirked afterwards.
"Why is his head missing? Who took it off?"
"Who would know who tore this in half?" Taylor asked her in a kinda fake serious tone.
Gail looked at her, trying to find the words to say. After a moment, she gave up.
"Oh, poopie!"
We laughed, although not in an insulting manner. It's just that Gail's habit of blurting out something pointless is kinda adorable.
"Okay, Haylie, why don't we just find the missing half?" Hallie said, drawing a smile upon her face.
"Okay." I said & we started searching for the other half. I looked through his belongings again, dug deep in every corner I can see in the room. I can hear Dawn complaining again in the other room.
"OMIGOD! I am not, I repeat, I am not gonna touch that!"
"Shut up."
That would be Taylor, saying one of her favorite phrases to the one she likes to say it the most.
"Why you...You shut yourself up!" Dawn countered her.
Suddenly, I heard my sister's voice call out to me from the other room.
"HAYLIE! OMIGOD, YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!"
Feeling my pulse getting faster, I stood up & ran to the room where she is. The others ran to the room as well. As I've entered the room, I saw Hallie, shaking from head to toe, her face white as chalk, holding something in her hand. She handed it to me; I felt her hand as cold as ice. I took it, the pulse throbbing in my ears. It was the missing half of the photo. But I experienced the same state my twin is in right now. The missing half, the face of the person was finally revealed. But I realized who it was. It was the young man in my dreams!
"T-turn it over." Hallie stuttered.
I did what she told me to do. Something in the upper left part of it was inscribed. I read it with my voice shaking.
"Leader of the New York Newsboys Strike of 1899:
Jack Kelly."
