Haunting
Chapter two: Sister
Summary: You grew up on them...whether to scare you or intrigue you. Ghost stories, chilling and mysterious. Some people don't believe in them..and those are the people that come to find out, first hand...That they're true. -Not a Mary-Sue, and is really interesting. PLZ read.-
A/N: This is an odd idea in and of itself, and I realize this. But its October, and its getting near to Halloween...and I just got this idea. I hope you all will like it...after all, this is a challenging thing to write if I still want it to be legit. -grin- I hope I manage it all right.
BTW: There is no romance in this. At least not between any female and any newsie. Just to set that straight. This isn't a Mary-Sue.
Disclaimer: No, I do not own newsies. Thank you.
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"No ghost was ever seen by two pairs of eyes."
-Thomas Carlyle
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"She didn't undahstand."
Race sat, if you could call the floating he was doing as sitting, on the roof, long after Elizabeth had said her good-nights and descended down to her bed, looking down at his hands, listening to the whispering breeze.
"I would nevah hurt anyone." His voice was tinged with sorrow, regret, and pain, as he slid from his perch, drifting back in through the open window, paying no attention to the fluttering curtains.
Moonlight cast silver light across Elizabeth's face as she slept soundly, unaware of what she had brought up in the age old ghost. Race closed his eyes briefly, and the next second flesh and blood feet were touching the carpet, and flesh and blood hands began to pull her blanket up around her bare shoulders.
"I won't hurt you, Liz." It astonished him...How such a question could ever come up. They were the best of friends, always laughing and joking around. She was the first friend he had had in a long while. So why...?
No, that wasn't right. She wasn't a friend, she was a sister. That's what she was to him, a beloved sister he felt the need to protect, to care for, and to guide. And through it all, she had asked him if he would deliberately hurt her. Like he was those poltergeists she researched on her computer at night.
Some sort of...of monster stuck between worlds, unable to leave-
A light flickered on outside the door.
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Turning the knob with one hand, Mrs. Miller took a silent step into her daughter's room, and then another. And another. Lips turning up into a tired smile, she held tight to a cup of tea in one hand, using the other to tuck the blankets around her sleeping child.
Elizabeth had a habit of kicking the blankets to the opposite wall on a calm night. Heaven forbid she have a nightmare...The entire room would be trashed and of course the little troublemaker wouldn't remember a lick of it come morning.
Mrs. Miller didn't even notice the cold until she brushed her hand along the topmost edge of the blanket, near Elizabeth's shoulder. Shivering, she looked toward the window, and was amazed to see it wide open.
Shaking her head, she set her cup on the desk, and moved toward the window, pushing in the springs and lowering it slowly until she heard the soft click. Satisfied, she moved to pick her cup back up, and had almost made it to the door before a cold breeze ruffled her bangs and a chill ran up her spine.
She turned back towards the window.
But it was still closed.
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"Liz..."
Mumble.
"Liz..."
Mumble.
"Elizabeth!"
Shriek.
Leaping at least a foot in the air, the young girl sat bolt upright, pulling the blanket around her until the only thing visible was a mop of dark brown hair and those flickering, flashing, hazel eyes.
"That was NOT funny."
Hardly fazed by the growl, Race's lips curled into an amused smirk. "Oh, I think it was."
"Did I ask you?" She snapped, trying to get her spine under control and her body at a normal temperature. Or semi-normal. Anything was better then the cold running through her veins.
However it may have seemed, she couldn't stay mad at him for all that long. He was, after all, her alarm clock. On the other hand, though, she could have done very well without the freezing cold hand that had run down her spine.
Sure, it was an affective way to wake her up, even she knew she was difficult, but she was pretty sure she was going to be shivering with cold for at least a few more minutes. It was bone chilling, mind numbing cold.
"Your mother was in here, last night."
Her head snapped around and something heavy settled itself in her stomach. "Did she see you?" It was a whisper.
Even though, at the moment, Race was nothing more than a ripple in the air, she could tell she shook his head. "Im fast."
"Yes you are." She didn't doubt that. It was something she had noticed right off. Race wasn't fast...He was fast. "But that didn't answer my question."
"No, it did not." A semi-corporeal form shimmered to life, perched next to her on the edge of the bed. Race turned his head to the side and grinned slightly. "But ta save myself from da horrible glare I am currently receiving, I'll be nice dis one time and tell ya. No, she didn't see me."
Tension eased from her shoulders and she let a soft sigh escape her lips. Her parents were devout Catholics, and it wouldn't have been a problem for them to call in say, an exorcist...Being who they were, she was sure they knew someone who could do it.
Following her thoughts, Race turned toward her closet, eyes narrowing slightly before he vanished from view. A moment later, the door flew open, startling poor Elizabeth, who jumped to her feet, dropping the blanket back on the bed.
"Race!" She hissed as her clothes began to move. "What are you doing?" Her jaw dropped as an armful of clothes moved from her closet to her bed, forming into a rather bizarre outfit of fluorescent oranges and reds, dark blues and purples.
"Im dressin ya." It was said simply, and only with a hint of amusement in his voice. He was trying to be serious.
What else could she do but laugh?
Which was, of course, the only thing Race had been trying to accomplish. He hadn't, however, expected her to agree to wearing it.
"All right." She smiled, picking up the bright orange blouse and holding it to her chest experimentally. "You did pick clothes that fit me, didn't you?"
"I...Yes, but...What?"
Even as she skipped off with her outfit in hand, Elizabeth couldn't suppress the joy-filled laugh. It was always fun to surprise a ghost.
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"Here's your lunch, honey." Mrs. Miller kissed her husband on the cheek as he raced out toward his car, heading off to work for the day. She could strangle her daughter, for making them live so far away from work...They had to start so early.
"Liza!"
"Comin, ma!" Elizabeth nearly jumped the last two stairs, moving to grab the brown-bagged lunch from her mother's slack hand, not even noticing the stunned look on her face. Setting the bag in her teeth, she hopped into a pair of slick black boots, all the while looking for her bag.
"...What...are you...wearing?" Mrs. Miller's voice resonated pure unadulterated shock, as she gazed at her seventeen year old daughter. "That...You can't...I can't let you out of the house like that!"
Smiling, and conveniently going deaf at that last statement, Elizabeth grabbed her off the shoulder bag, kissed her mother on the cheek and raced out, calling behind her. "Love ya, mom! See you after work!"
Raising a hand to her forehead, a soft breath eased from Mrs. Miller's lips.
Dear lord...Had her daughter just left the house wearing half her closet?
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Hitting the ground running, Elizabeth tried to shove her lunch bag into her bag and search for the bus with the other. So far she was having quite a difficult time with it, and her shoes didn't help either.
Stumbling over a rock, she was shocked, but not surprised to feel a cold hand steady her by her arm. Smiling, she finished jamming her bag in the backpack, and zipped it up.
Not wanting her mother to see anything unusual if she happened to look out the window, Elizabeth just grinned, "See you after school, Race!" and ran down the road.
But if anyone had been outside at the exact moment Elizabeth Miller disappeared from view, they would have heard a soft laugh, followed by a string of fond Italian...
And then silence.
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Longer chapter this time folks! And a swift update.
So, tell me whatcha think, ya? -grin-
Read and review, thats the trick!