2. New Family

It was still dark when I suddenly had the urge to pee. As pink as my room was, I knew that they could still sense me. That they would come for me, I stood up from the bed, grabbed my teddy, and was about to start walking to the bathroom, when a hand holds me from under the bed.

I screamed, and not a minute later Anthony burst through my door, his wild eyes were searching the cause of my scream. He instinctively pulled me into his chest, then caressing my hair trying to calm me down.

Then he pushed me away abruptly, hearing his parents coming down from the hallway. The lights were immediately switched on, Janet and David embrace me right away. And Anthony slowly retreated to his room. Our eyes met for the first time, then he walked away.

The next morning at breakfast Janet and David told me to try and call them mom and dad, just like Anthony. I just nod, but it was hard for me to do so. Feeling that my previous parents had died and abandoned me, and having another would give me the feeling that they might do that one day too.

"I'll try Janet, maybe one day. I just feel that you and David might one day leave me too. So if I don't call you that, you might just stay longer with me?" I pleaded to them, and they just hugged me, knowing that I was just trying to protect my feelings.

I met Janet's sister Annie that afternoon. "Hey Lilian, I'm Annie, you can call me Ann. Janet told me that you can see things just like me?" Then she saw the marks left on my calf from last night, where the thing grabbed my leg from under the bed.

"Oh poor Lilian, I understand it's your first night?" She started talking to me, sitting next to me on the sofa, by the window.

"...some beings are intrigued by our ability. They can sense that we can see them, and they want us to acknowledge that. Although we sometimes don't want to, because of their hideous features." She hugged me, then saw my drawings on my lap.

"These are really good for your age Lilian. It is good that you have an outlet for your dark experience." She told me in confidence.

"Look, Janet invite me to stay here, to accompany you for your few first nights here, is that okay with you? would you like my company?" she asked me, rubbing my arms while still hugging me. 

I've never been loved this much before.

I thought to myself.

It was late night when I suddenly was awoken by the screeching sound, it was coming from inside the closet door. It sounded like something was trying to get out.

I didn't want to open my eyes, knowing that I would see the thing that was causing the noise. But the thing wouldn't stop, and I finally gave up. I couldn't go to sleep anyway with that screeching sound. So I woke up and opened my eyes.

        

I saw it by the crack of the closet door, the teeth, the eyes. I screamed and Anthony was in the doorway, but Ann beat him to me as she hugs me, and told Anthony to get back to his room and go back to sleep.

She embraced me, told me to close my eyes, and say a prayer, to wish all the spirits away. I did, as I was told. She also saw it, then she gently closes the closet door.

"It's okay Lilian, she's gone now. Just remember that you are stronger than all of them. Did you know that it will drain their energy, just to pop into your face? That's why when they do scare you, they would feed off your energy for being scared. But if you're brave they would go away in no time." She was calming me down, talking, and soothing me.

"...They might spook you but that's about it. Just ignore them, they would usually go away. I would usually see them, acknowledge them telling them that I know that they existed, then they would usually go away." She holds me in my bed while telling her stories until I fall asleep.

She stayed with us for a whole week, until she said that she has to go out of the country for a while. But would come and visit me again as soonest she gets back. By this time I had already opened up to her and the rest of the family, excluding Anthony. He still remains distant, but he never really bothered me.

One day Ann told me that Anthony had lost his little sister when she was around eight years old and that I reminded him of her. Janet and David had been searching for the perfect daughter for years until they fall in love with me, watching my little brave self at the orphanage that Sunday, Ann had said.

Janet and David were arranging, all my paperwork for school. They were still considering me to be homeschooled but decided to put me in a private school first, if it didn't work out then I would be homeschooled. I agreed with them, smiling.

Anthony had gone to a boarding school last week, David had administered him to his Alma mater, and was very proud when Anthony got accepted. He would come back twice maybe once a month, they said.

It had been one month when Ms. Margaret came to visit me, and she was really happy to see me. She said that I was more chatty, and I laughed at her. Then she hugged me tight and shed a happy tear for me.

The school was great, I made friends quite fast, everybody was friendly there. Maybe because I was more open to them since Ann had helped me a lot on how to cope with my ability. I would still see them, even at school but now I could handle myself better.

My life was going so great, I've friends and family, Janet, David whom I still couldn't call mom and dad. Then there was Ann my trusty ally, and even Anthony my stepbrother, though I didn't see him that much anymore, since he was in boarding school.

I was hoping for a happy ever after, deep down inside I really did. Maybe if I wish hard enough, it would come true. I started kneeling by the foot of the bed and pray. For the first time in eight years of my life, I prayed for my new family.