Lost Soul by Forest Ostrander (red queen free ebook txt) 📖

"Yes she is. She spoke through the TV!" Crystal was now beginning to fully wake up.

"Crystal, it was probably just a video," Aaron said trying to reassure her sister. Crystal sat up.

"No it wasn't and I can prove it!" Crystal looked around the room and said.

"Forest, if you are still here turns the TV on!" I sighed, show time. I went over to the TV and pushed the power button, the TV came to life with the still static sound. I looked back and watched as Aaron’s eyes went wide with fright. I shut the TV off.

"See? She's here!" Crystal said, pleading with her sister to believe her.

"But how?" Aaron asked. I could tell she was close to hysterics. Looking at Sandy I nodded and she and Tigers stood next to me as I turned the TV back on and touched it.

"Don't even think of fainting on me again," I said through the speakers. Both sisters screamed. Crystal more in glee then Aaron.

"How are you doing that?" She asked Crystal. I could tell she was now getting mad at her, thinking this as some prank. I touched the TV again.

"Don't blame here. She's not doing anything." I took my hand away and laughed as Aaron’s face went white. Crystal beamed.

"Oh Forest! I miss you!" I smiled. Touching the TV again I thought. I should just keep my hand on this stupid thing.

"I miss you too Crissy." Crystal looked over at Aaron and said.

"See? Only Forest uses that nickname with me."

"I'm not alone you know," I said. Crystal turned to me.

"Who is with you?" She asked, looking around the room.

"Sandy and Tigers," I said. Crystal went white as well. Oh Geeze. I hope I didn't over do it.

"Crissy?" I asked concerned. I didn't like how they bother were pale white. Shaking her head, she soon snapped out of it and made her sister come out of it as well. I watched as color flooded back into their cheeks but they still had fear in their eyes.

"Are they next to you right now?" Aaron asked.

"Actually, they were here the entire time. I only came here to see Cuddles but I saw grandma took her away a few moments when you got back Crissy." I said.

"You were here?"

"Ya. You know, you should move your shoes out of the doorway more. You're going to trip someone someday," I said with a laugh in my voice. I looked down at Tigers and Sandy and winked. Sandy wagged her tail and Tigers mewed.

"Forest, I can hear a mewing," Aaron said.

"Tigers is mewing." I said. "Want to talk with him?" Both girls nodded vigorously. I put a hand on Tigers and nodded to him.

"Go for it," I said to Crystal and Aaron.

"Tigers?" Crystal asked. Tigers mewed in reply. Both girls were near to tearing up now.

"Oh Tigers! We love you!" Aaron said. Crystal couldn't say anything, I could tell her throat was clogged with compressed tears.

"He's purring," I told them.

"I hear him," Crystal finally choked out. "I hear my Tigers." Sandy then butted in with a loud bark. Both girls jumped.

"Well, looks like Sandy wishes’ for a turn now." I said. I reached out and touched Sandy's head, she licked my hand. I smiled and said.

"Go for it." This time Crystal spoke.

"Sandy? Can you hear us?" Sandy let out a slight whine. Both girls were now openly weeping. I watched them, glad I was helping them share this special time with each other.

"Oh Sandy. I'm so sorry I didn't get to say goodbye to you!" Crystal blurted out through her tears.

"We never wanted you to leave!" Aaron added. They were both hugging each other close. I longed to be able to do that, to hug the ones I love once more. Sandy whined again, this time it was a heart breaking whine.

"She's sad." I told them. "She didn't want to leave either." I was going to say more but all of a sudden my body began to grow tired.

"I got to let go now. I can't keep this up. I'm exhausted." I told them and took my hand off of the TV shutting it off. The girls screamed for me to not leave but I couldn't leave them. I couldn't even move, even Tigers and Sandy plopped down exhausted. Wow, that took a lot of energy.

"No duh." I heard a voice come from the side of me. I looked over to notice a blonde haired boy with green eyes.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Names Nathan. And I take it you are Forest?"

"Yes," I said.

"Well Forest. Obviously you have a lot to learn about modern day objects now and spirits. First off, it takes way too much energy to do what you did, especially for the length of time you did it."

"How was I able to keep it going?" I asked. Who was this boy to tell me what to do?

"I would assume it was because of the love they share for you," he said pointing to Crystal and Aaron who were still crying, "Otherwise you would have never kept going passed a minute. I'd watch it though, you could kill them by draining their life's energy away."

"What do you mean?" I asked frightened.

"To speak through to the living cause’s energy. You were getting energy from the TV yes but the most of it was coming from your two friends over there." I noticed the sisters looked more tired than usual.

"So what does that mean for me?" I asked. I didn't want to kill them.

"It means, you need to master your skills so you can take energy from the air and not other sources around you. Air has more than enough energy to take and in return, you won't hurt the people around you."

"How do you know all of this?" I asked him.

"I've been like this longer than you. I've had 100 years of experience on my side." 100 years? WTF?! I looked at him shocked at his age. Nathan smiled.

"Yup, to me, you are a baby."

"Hey!" I shouted. I never enjoyed being called a baby.

"Hey nothing. Don't be offended by it. Every new soul is known like that. I can teach you to learn how to communicate more and do way more cooler things like move objects around."

"You mean there's more?!" I couldn't believe it. Spirits had this much power?

"Yup. A whole lot more. I take it you are here because of some unfinished business?" He asked.

"Uh...ya, I guess." I said. I knew I needed to stop the boys but did that really count as unfinished? Thinking back to it, I guess it did.

"With my teachings, I can help you with your quest before you move on." He said, offering his hand out to me. I looked at it skeptically but he was the one who has more experience than me. I took his hand and he helped me up to my feet.

"Now shall I take you to the others?"

"The others?"

"Ya, in the basement. Surely you haven’t forgotten about us from your previous visits when you spent the night over."

"You mean you guys were watching us?!"

"Yup. You know, you drool," Nathan said laughing as he headed to the basement stairs. I blushed, my cheeks flushing a crimson red. I followed him leaving Sandy and Tigers to rest near their humans.

"So how did you die?" Nathan asked.

"I was shot after I refused to give up information," I told him. Why did he care? Nathan nodded, not turning to look back at me.

"I died from poisoning. My brother slipped a bottle of it in my food." I gasped. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to die from poisoning.

"How?" I asked. He shrugged.

"He must have done it when I turned my back away. It was only for a second but it must have been long enough for him to pour the whole bottle in. I only later found out after I did and saw him depositing it in a burial site near the house."

"I'm so sorry. You don't look like you've been poisoned."

"That's the only beauty of it, I will never show how I died unlike others."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying. Until you pass on to the other side, you will be stuck with how you died for all to see until you have finished what it is you were meant to do. I couldn't so I am stuck here but other's still have a chance. Since I couldn't pass on I devoted myself to helping those who can." I looked at him with different eyes now. Here I thought him stuck up, but really, he was a kind person.

"Why can't you finish?" I asked.

"My brother passed away before I could display the evidence. He was taken to hell seconds after leaving his body." I gulped. To think that could have been me if it had turned out the other way around.

"You mean, there is no going up to be tried?"

"You're tried every day of your life. It all depends on what you do. So the answer is no. Your trial is how you live your life and when you die, depending on how you live it depends on where you go right away."

"So is that why I didn't go to either?" Nathan finally stopped to look at me.

"You are only still here because you refuse to let go. You have made it your mission to vanquish these boys who killed you long before you left your body. It is because of that reason that you have not went to either place. You basically signed it away by vowing to get vengeance before you died."

"But I only vowed it after I died!" I exclaimed.

"No again. You're heart spoke it and your soul claimed it." I groaned. Great, so no matter what I was stuck here until I defeated them.

"How can I stop them?"

"I will teach you how to master the skills we all posses and then as to how you stop them is all on you."

I groaned inwardly as Nathan rambled on and on about how to manifest just enough for people to see you without taking too much energy away from either living or electronic. I never knew that there would be school once you died. I had hoped that you would just wonder around without a care in the world and the most important thing of all, no school. Sure I had wanted to go to college and learn to be an Animal Control Officer but hey? The cards were dealt to me by a whole different kind of hand...or gun. I watched Nathan as he focused on something in front of him. It used to have coffee in it, but from his recent escapade on 'teaching' me, the canister was now dumped all over the floor which caused me to go into a fit of laughter which had me rolling around on the basement floor. I couldn't help it, the kid was just too funny. Now, after what seemed like hours after I tried to catch myself with no success, I was now watching him practice with the same canister again, only this time, he will be moving it from one spot to the other way across the room. Today's lesson was something he liked to call The Art of Floating Objects, in other words?