I have nothing left now...(Chapter 2)

I stared at the windows, smirking easily at little Elizabeth playing by herself with her eyes caught in a forlorn state. I simply stared, my eyes catching the slow flowing grass as I let the sunlight stream through me. I cast no shadow but still Elizabeth could feel my boring eyes. I saw her face suddenly light up with a dazzling smile as she leaped away from her window and raced from the confines of the house. I watched her streak like a colorful bullet across the grass before coming to a jerky and very un-graceful stop before me.

“Hello, Elizabeth and how have you been?” I asked, letting a smile paint my lips as I brushed her hair from her face. The feel of her hair was incredible, as soft as mine had once been but a different color all together. Her body shivered at my cool touch, but she smiled wider as if I was the only one whose touch soothed her.

“Will you play with me today?” she asked in a high voice laced with innocence as she stared up at me. I let her lead me forward, my eyes staring ahead and watching her mother pass and then her father.

Her brother did not see me but when I passed his doorway it was clear he could feel my presence. I smiled easily at the baby, and eyebrow raised and enjoying how her high pitched giggle made the air vibrate in surprise. I let Elizabeth pull me forward until she closed the room to her door.

I went forward, picking up a little doll I had said my favorite. I smiled easily, looking at Elizabeth before her eyes went wide. “What’s wrong with your neck Aria?” she said, coming forward. I frowned at her, touching the high lace concealing my neck.

“Whatever do you mean Elizabeth? My neck is not exposed.” I said in confusion. She reached up, tugging down the high collar before holding the mirror in front of me. I closed my eyes, sucking heat in from the air around me and building up power as much as I could. I opened my eyes, staring at the half translucent figure that was surprisingly my own face and body. I touched my neck, surprised at the heavy bruises in the shape of hands…

“What happened?” Elizabeth repeated, looking up at me with those innocent eyes. I stared back at her, before I felt my mouth moving without my permission.

“My brother strangled me in my own bed when I was just a child.” I said, blinking slowly. I stared at Elizabeth as she stared at me, confused at the process and speech of true Death. We simply stared at one another till she turned away slowly and looked at her dolls.

“What’s it like to die?” she finally asked, brushing her fingers gently along the wooden table that held her dolls tea party set. I bent beside her, pulling my collar up close. “For me it was very painful, but I imagine the way your life is before you die, the minutes before, is how it feels to die for that person. I was strangled, my brother’s fingers constricting around my throat until I could not breathe. But you…I feel as if you will die in peace at a ripe age. I know you will be married, with a loving family and future in Heaven.” I said with a smile. Her returning smile was dazzling, teeth shining white and straight as her eyes glittered like little jewels.

I watched her set up everything, pretend to cook and clean and I was surprised at how happy she was.Memories of lessons as a child, strict rules and very heavy discipline, popped into my distracted mind. I watched her smile happily even though moments ago I had told her of how I had died, gruesome and at the hands of a family member. My eyes closed for a moment,  and I took a shaky breath before I heard a gasp. I spun around, watching her brother step into the room and come towards me. Still, there was an odd look in his eyes, a blankness that set my skin on edge. I let out a little his and then I saw the look in those familiar eyes. Cruelty, with a lace lining that was a sadist streak. He was filled with insanity before I felt the waves of power coming off him. His voice mouthed one word and me and Elizabeth screamed in time.

“I’m back.” His voice echoed like a scream in a large and hollow tunnel. I turned, gathering up my skirts and racing past him. Still, I felt my ankle caught before my face met the floor with a large thud. I was listening closely, but still heard pots and pans drop in the kitchen. I let out a desperate scream, Elizabeth once more following my own terror. I frantically gripped the floorboards, leaving marks in the wood as the spirit overcoming Elizabeth’s brother dragged me toward him.

I frantically twisted and turned, looking up into the cruel eyes of my brother. I felt tears well up in my own brown ones as I let out a soft wail and I struggled again. He would never let me go now because he would torture me endlessly forever as I stayed stuck to the land. I watched his spirit step from the boy as I heard Elizabeth scream out his name as she raced forward.

Our eyes, identical down to the very last detail, stayed locked as my brother bent to my level. I watched him, my black hair hanging down my back and his hanging into his cruel brown eyes. His voice repeated his words, his sneer evil and terrible as he were Lucifer himself. “I’m back.” He had barely said but it had distracted him when the parents burst in and went to help their baby boy who has fallen limp on the ground when my brother has emerged from him.. I heard the mother frantically calling out to her husband as she spoke to the boy like only a mother could, murmuring his name over and over.

I turned, racing out of the hallway and simply a spirit surging as I reached the first landing. I could feel him collect power, feel all the air in the house grow cold. My essence surged faster, my ghostly voice screaming when I felt his roar. I felt no approach to me, but I also felt no simple thing of him leaving.

Then I ran right into him.

His body, solid for now, threw me back a good number of yards. I scrambled back, turning to crawl when he caught my ankle and flung me across a field and right into something hard. What a bastard, he threw me right into Mother’s tombstone! I was standing on her grave like a demon and he was laughing at my fright.

“You fucking bastard! How dare you throw me onto out life givers resting spot! She gave me life, and somehow made you come into this world! You killed her and I bet you killed our father as well!” I screamed in agony. There was a feeling of protection in this little space on her grave site, overrun with weeds and grass but it was warm from beneath. I watched him circle me, his eyes traveling up and down my thin frame.

“You are a bitch, a harlot who was too weak to fight against someone half your age. I mean, how could someone not pry off a set of childish hands? It is not that hard, at least not in my opinion.” His voice was cold and smooth, like glass or water that is stagnant.

I watched him, frowning and shaking my head. “I was a girl, with a mother who was so impressed by the fact I had a 16’’ waist in a corset. There was no muscle on me whatsoever and I was nothing but skin and bone.” My voice shot back and giving him the evidence of the wrongs he'd done to me. Instead of listening, though I did not expect him too, he scoffed. I felt him step close, reach a hand toward me.

“I will kill you so many more times I will be your Lucifer, you Satan, the Lord of Hell himself and set you on fire every night for the rest of eternity.” He said with a little smirk.

I gasped, but when his hand was barely an inch from my arm he screaming in agony, tearing his hand back and curling his hand into a fist. However, he was not fast enough to cover the burn scarring his palm. It was red and beginning to blister, in the shape of a cross. I stared, my eyes wide and my breathing heavy. When I looked up, curling into a little ball in the safe zone on my mother’s burial site. I watched him circle me hungrily before looking up with a smirk. “If I cannot reach you, then I shall reach you’re little child friend. I will do very many things.” His grin was now perverted and I screamed, struggling against the fear of stepping away from the protection and the instinct to protect Elizabeth.

My brother was already gone. Where had he gone so wrong? How could my mother have given birth to such a monster…? He was so terrible, down to his soulless and his silent heart as well as his detached feelings. I cried, hard and long. “Mamma? How could you have given birth to Alex? How could someone so dear to the world give life to something so awful?” I cried out.