I reached home not long after that and went straight to my room.
I didn't bother changing or turning on the lights. I just dropped my bag near the door and lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
The house was quiet.
Too quiet.
Her words kept repeating in my head.
'But you can.'
I would have brushed it off as one of Selena's random ideas. She often said strange things when she was scared or upset. But this time felt different.
Her face had been too serious.
Her sunken eyes had been fixed on me.
Not drifting. Not unfocused.
She had been looking straight at me.
Right into me.
I had wanted to ask her what she meant, but before I could, a group of children had come running through the corridor, laughing loudly.
Selena had panicked and vanished in an instant, leaving me standing there with unfinished words.
Now that I was alone in the house, those thoughts only grew louder.
'Is there something about me that I don't know?'
'But Grandma never said anything like that.'
Grandma had never said anything about it. She had always been honest with me.
At least, I thought she was.
She taught me how to stay calm, how to ignore ghosts that wanted attention, and how to protect myself in small ways.
She never once hinted that I could do anything more.
Unless she was hiding it.
Maybe she didn't tell me because she wanted to protect me.
That sounded like something she would do.
She knew how curious I was.
If she told me I could do something unusual, I would try to test it the very same day.
Just like when I was younger.
Back then, I wasn't okay with ghosts at all.
Sometime I would think they are real and if I recognized them then I would cry and scream like there's no tomorrow.
I couldn't sleep properly, and I was always scared to be alone.
Grandma stayed with me through all of that.
Maybe now she would tell me.
"...."
I exhaled slowly and sat up.
"Are you all still here?" I asked quietly.
The moment the words left my mouth, three figures gathered near my bed.
I wanted to distract my mind from all that and they seem to be the only one present in this lonely house beside me
They hadn't left.
A child, a woman, and a man.
They stood close together.
After that first day, we hadn't really crossed paths again, but it seemed like they had never left the house. They were always somewhere nearby, silent and still.
I got up from the bed and looked at them properly.
Nothing had really changed.
"Are you all family?" I asked.
They didn't respond.
Even the first time I saw them, they hadn't made a single sound.
'There's no way they remember their lives now,.'
Ghosts like them had usually lost most of their memories. Sometimes they remembered small things. Sometimes nothing at all.
The child suddenly stepped forward.
He was still holding his head slightly down. Dark lines stained the area under his eyes, like he had cried for a long time.
I stiffened slightly but didn't move.
He held out his hand.
There was a ball resting in his palm.
I frowned. "Where did you get that?"
The last time I saw him, he hadn't been holding anything.
The child looked at me, then at the ball, as if he was unsure himself. He pushed it toward me again.
I hesitated before gently taking it.
It was a real object. Not something he died with.
This time I looked at the child, then at the ball.
'He must be able to speak,' I thought.
They are different.
I looked at them again.
'They must have died in different periods,' I realized.
Then why were they together?
I still didn't know much about ghosts. I only knew enough to avoid trouble. And honestly, I didn't even know everything about myself.
Before I could think further, my phone buzzed loudly on the bed.
I flinched and turned around.
I picked it up and saw Grandma's name on the screen.
"How does she know I was thinking about her?" I chuckled softly.
"Hey, Grandma," I answered.
"Hey, my sweet little cutiepie," her cheerful voice came through the speaker.
"Grandma," I said, sighing, "I'm not six anymore. I'm sixteen."
"Yes, sweetheart, you are," she replied warmly. "So, how are you doing? Have you heard anything from your mom or dad?"
My smile faded slightly.
My parents were divorced.
Both of them had already remarried.
They had their own lives now, lives that didn't really include me.
For a long time, I thought it was my fault.
I thought that me seeing ghosts, me being strange, was what pushed them apart. But as I grew older, I realized that was just an excuse. They simply didn't care enough to stay.
What they left me with was this empty house, some money, and silence.
Grandma was the only one who stayed.
She was like me.
She could see ghosts too.
"…No," I replied after a pause. "I haven't heard from them."
"I see," she said gently. "Are you eating properly?"
"Yes," I lied easily. "Grandma, I want to ask you something."
Her tone became attentive. "Go on."
"Can normal people exorcise ghosts or send them to the afterlife?"
There was silence on the line.
Just long enough to make my chest feel tight.
"…Some can," she finally said. "Most can't."
I gripped the phone a little harder. "Can I do that?"
"You can't," she answered without hesitation.
The words hit harder than I expected.
"Oh," I said quietly.
For a moment, I had hoped.
I didn't know what I was hoping for exactly, but it felt like something slipped out of my hands.
"Okay then," I continued, forcing my voice to sound light. "I should go now. I have a lot of homework."
"Alright, sweetheart," Grandma said. "Don't stay up too late."
"I won't," I replied, then ended the call.
I stared at the phone screen until it went dark.
I let out a slow breath.
'That was stupid of me.'
Getting my hopes up over something Selena said.
And yet, another thought rose quietly in my mind.
'Some can. Most can't.'
That was what Grandma had said.
Who were these people who could?
And what made them different from me?