Whispers of the Dead (Completed)

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"You'll do it? Really?" Alison leapt up and hugged me and as she pulled away I started to notice the physical changes in her body. She was younger, healthier and dressed like people these days would be. "How do you plan on doing this? I mean, the police won't let you on the crime scene and..."

"I won't have to. You can."

"What? I can't sneak on the crime scene..."

"And I know that you have been sneaking on to the crime scene every time a police car pulls up in your driveway. You are just as desperate as me to find Delphi and I need someone that can get onto the crime scene and take 'things' from it so I can find her."

"By 'things' do you mean important evidence?"

I nodded. "What else?"

"I guess I could, but you're going to have to wait a while. It takes a while to take things from the police and return them. I'll meet you at 'your tree' tomorrow at dawn."

She disappeared out the window before I had a chance to say goodbye and as I leaned out the window, I couldn't see anything but houses and forest. The silence that was all around me was only the third time this year that I have had complete silence surrounding me. I went over to my bookshelf and grabbed a random notebook off the top of it and a pen from my desk and walked back to my window and got up into the box that surrounded my window.

I began to write.

EVERYTHING THAT MAY BE IMPORTANT.

- I found out who my father is.

- My best friend is kidnapped.

- My biological mother is working too hard to talk to me.

- My other mother, Alison, has convinced me to find Alison.

- I can talk to ghosts.

- I don't know what to do.

Everything on that list related to my current situation and I really didn't know what to do. I told Alison that I would do it but I really didn't know. Risking my life to save Delphi's was what I both wanted to do and what I didn't want to do and everything that I had spent my whole life doing was almost coming down to this moment. I have kickboxing, karate & archery lessons on a Saturday and I still manage to fit in whatever homework and social life I have.

I know it sounds like I'm sporty and active and can easily defend myself but it isn't like that. I just had a feeling that those activities would come in handy one day. Well, in fact, Ada told me, but that doesn't count. I guess all those ghost knew what was going to happen to me.

And then I wondered about school. It was only two weeks till the end of the holidays and I can't really miss it so I guess that gives me a due date. It's not like I could miss school or anything, my mother would notice. And what about excuses? I mean, to find Delphi I would have to disappear constantly to both investigate and search for her. My mother would worry and perhaps we would have another missing persons case on our hands.

The more I thought about it, the more I found problems that stood in the way of me finding Delphi White. She was my best friend and all but if she died I would still be able to talk to her, even if it meant being called crazy for talking to myself in public. And Delphi would be able to see her mother. She can't see ghosts like me and it would be awkward to have to be the messenger in an intimate conversation between mother and daughter.

I knew it was pointless to try and talk to my mother about it. She wouldn't listen and would probably think that I was babbling on about something random and tune out when I was talking to her. Inside, she would worry about my mental health and contemplate whether she should take me to a doctor and then she would never go through it. I know she only wanted what was best for me but sometimes she needed to let me fly.

"Destyni? Are you in there?" My mother was lightly knocking on my door and I shut my notebook and moved it to the side of the window, behind the curtain, so she wouldn't see it.

"Yeah. What do you want?"

"I am going out for lunch with a friend. Are you OK here by yourself?"

I rolled my eyes. "Mum, I'll be fine. You go have fun."

"Ok. Well, see you later."

"Bye."

She walked off and it was then that I realized what she was doing. She was going out with a guy! I felt happy that she was going out with someone and finally starting to have fun. A twinge of sadness hit me when I realized what I might do I might not come back from.

My mother has gone and given so much up for me and done so much in order to support me that I feel bad that it has taken me this long to realize what she has done. I got up from my window and went down to the kitchen to leave a note for my mum telling her where I went.

***

The forest was our quiet place. Delphi and I would come here anytime when we had a bad day. It was our place but today, everything felt wrong. I could feel Alison was somewhere here but I just wanted to ignore her, to have some peace and quiet and just relax.

"There you are Destyni. I wanted to give you this." Alison materialized through the tree opposite to me and threw a bunch of files at my feet.

"What are they?"

"Files on a few un solved disappearances, plus Delphi's. All of them happened in the same circumstances and the man kidnapping them looks similar, based off eyewitness accounts."

"You've been doing your research."

"She's my daughter. What, you think I am going to sit around waiting for someone to pop out of the clouds with the research that I need to be doing."

I nodded at her statement and picked up the file. I began reading it and I could only pick up two similarities between every case. "Each one of them has one unidentified parent and is between the ages of 8 - 16."

"Yeah I saw that. I'm assuming that means that the missing parent is a god and the kids that have been kidnapped are right in their prime of being demigods."

I nodded. "Can I look over this tonight and get back to you tomorrow at the same time?"

She nodded. "Sure. See you then."

"Bye."