Age nineteen

Chapter seven

My father had struggled to explain why he had said it would be our last picnic, and he had eventually sent me out of his bedroom. "I will explain what I meant during the picnic, baby." He motioned for me to leave. "I have to plan for it now, go on to your bedroom princess, I will send for you when I need you." I couldn't be more grateful. I felt a heavy weight off my chest. I had forgiven him. All I had to do was to forgive my mother, and I would be ready to move on to the next task, or challenge.  I was also happy that I was out of his sight. I put my hand in the pocket of my bunny pants and brought out a little photo album, it looked like it was a pocket album anyways. I had stolen it from his study desk when I heard him coming, it was the only thing I hadn't looked at, I needed to know what was inside of it.

Settling down on the porch, I began to gaze at the pictures. There were all pictures of my sisters and e when I was younger, one of which my brother had been part of.

I took some of the pictures, which I assumed that I'd need in the future, from the album, and began to look for the best way to take it back to his bedroom without getting caught.

Ever since this whole episode had begun, I had forgotten completely that there was an app called I*******m, in fact, I barely ever checked my phone again. I spent most of my time thinking about the fix I was in, and possible ways to get out of it, but that evening, I felt so calm, I didn't care if I died, and if I did, I doubted if they'd be social media in the place where dead people were, so I decided to make the most out of my short life.

I uploaded my recent selfies that I had been too "busy." to upload, got back with friends, and had a good time chatting away my challenges. I tweeted on recent issues and retweeted trending matters. I had an inbox filled with messages, and I couldn't respond to over four hundred messages instantly, so I decided to sort them in order of relevance. I spotted one of the messages that seemed urgent, and I opened it. "Good morning, Kerah! I hope you had a great rest. This is Beaula, and I have been following you here for weeks. I am a strong believer in the no-ghost movement, and I even have all the customized t-shirts." I was impressed by her followership, and usually, I would have wanted to connect with her, but there was so much on my plate, that was the last thing on my mind. Especially now that I know that ghosts do exist. she continued. "Kerah, lately I think I have been seeing ghosts." I read that with a slight gasp and hoped she wasn't seeking my advice. I got worried about what my response would be, but read on."What do I do to get rid of this illusion?" I held my phone and stared at it without having anything come to mind, I was confused. I needed to tell her the truth because in the few days I have known Annie, I have learned that ghosts were never after anyone if there isn't an important message that they wanted to pass, but I was scared of what was going to happen to my twenty-three thousand followers.

She sent another message. "Kerah, are you there?" My heart raced, and my head felt light, I was frustrated.

I started typing. "You see dear, there is a slight tendency that ghosts exist, so I want you to be more open-minded, as they may have a piece of important information to convey to you. The next time you have those "illusions" pay attention to what they have to say." I held my breath and sent the message. It showed that she had seen the message, I shut my eyes, and waited. A few minutes later, I opened my eyes and saw her message. "This explains why she hasn't been active, it's obvious that Kerah's account has been hacked." Before I could respond to her, she blocked me. Her last message read, "I will tell the world about you evil hacker. Why would you blackmail kerah? She will never say a thing like this. Karma will catch up with you." then she blocked me. I slapped the wall beside me, I was dumbfounded by her reaction.

"Now what?" I was speaking to no one in particular. After this, all my followers were going to either unfollow me or blackmail me. If they believed I was hacked, it wasn't going to help matters because I would need to clear my name eventually. And it didn't make sense that the hacker had uploaded my recent pictures a few minutes ago. I disabled my I*******m account. "don't overthink it Kerah," I comforted myself, and then I went inside. I had so much to think about, and adding this to it was the last thing I wanted to do.

With a tiptoe, I made it to my father's bedroom and peeped inside. I heard him showering in his bathroom, and I snuck in. cautiously, I ambled to the study table. He had removed all other books that were on the table. If I dropped the photo album casually, he might have suspected that I had seen it, so I put it into the bedside drawer, and walked out as I had come in.

I joined Kain in the living room, he was playing video games on his play station.

"Heyy, Kain!" I sat next to him.

"Kerah, are you better now?" He paused the game and focused on me. I nodded.

"I'm sorry about what happened earlier, how I sounded rude to you earlier..." I made a puppy face, ad opened my arms for a hug. He giggled in response.

"It's okay, sis. I am not mad at you, anyways. But, I will appreciate it if you 

answered my question." He rejected the hug I had offered, I frowned at that and thought of a response. I knew what he was talking about. He continued, "Kerah, I can help you. All you have to do is to tell me what's going on. What did Anabel tell you? You are no longer your old self."

I sighed, not this again."Kain, do you love me?" I asked in a surprisingly severe tone.

"You know that I love you fish brain." He rubbed my shoulder and hugged me lightly.

I continued, trying not to be moved by the affection he was showing me."If you love me then never talk about Annie or any other ghost to me. Just mind your business, I'm begging you, Kain." He looked hurt, and I wished I could change things, but I was acting strictly on instructions. He nodded. "If it makes you happy Kerah, then I won't. I have heard you."