Ashuri woke up to the sound of an alarm, which she didn't remember having. She sat up in her bed, letting the covers fall off of her. She looked at her blue plaid flannel pajamas and made a face. "What the flip am I wearing?" She reached over and picked up the digital clock, searching for a button to quiet the infernal noise. She found a switch and clicked it off before looking around at the room she was in. She went pale when she figured out where she was. "What am I doing here?" She asked herself quietly.
"Ash?" She heard a voice from outside of the bedroom door. Ash sighed in relief. She got up and walked to the door, opening it.
"Good, Keidence, you can tell me what's going--" she stopped when she saw Keidensu on the other side of the doorway, smiling at her. They were eye level, which was odd. Keidence was supposed to be shorter than her, even if she was seemingly standing straight. But even weirder, her skin wasn't the pale color Ashuri was used to. In fact, it was rather rosy. Like she'd just been sitting in front of a warm fire. Only that couldn't have been, because Keidensu was now a ghost. Fire shouldn't have had any effect on her complexion. Keidensu's face went from happy to confused.
"Why are you staring at me like that? You look kinda pale. You good?" Ash continued to stare at Keidensu's face for several more seconds before stepping back and looking her over. She looked normal, her hair was the same as usual, only she was wearing different clothes. And she was tall. And more importantly, she was actually standing, with her feet flat on the floor. If she hadn't enough already, Ash lost even more color in her face when she realized what was going on. Her sister was standing here, in the flesh, alive.
"K-Keidensu? What's g-going on?" Ash asked softly, voice wavering. Keidence looked worried now.
"Ashuri, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost!" Ash stepped back and sat on the bed she woke up in. She put her hand to her forehead and stared at her sister.
"H-how is this p-possible?" Ash began stuttering. Something she only did when she was incredibly emotional, which was practially never. She looked around again as Keidence walked over and sat next to her. "How old are you?"
"What?" Keidence looked at her with an odd expression.
"How old are y-you?" Ash asked again.
"... Nineteen," she replied. Ashuri gasped softly.
"W-why are we here? I sh-shouldn't be h-here. I need to g-go." Keidence put her hand on Ashuri's shoulder, causing her to jump to her feet. Keidence flinched at her reflex and now looked scared.
"Ashuri, what's wrong? Are you okay?" she asked with urgency in her voice. Ash turned to face her.
"A-am I-- No, I'm not okay! I h-have no idea what's g-going on! S-Seishin, you're alive!" Keidence was completely confused now, if she wasn't before.
"What? Why did you call me Seishin? Who's that? And what do you mean, 'alive?' Ash, are you okay?" Ash made a face of embarrassment.
"I'm sorry, f-f-force of habit. Keidence, do you not realize w-what's happening?" Keidence knew something was wrong with her sister, but in order to calm her down, she played along.
"No... Ashuri, what's happening?" She asked in the calmest voice she could manage. Ash sat back down next to Keidensu and sighed. She could tell that Keidence was only trying to calm her. She focused on her words and spoke slowly, so as not to stutter.
"I know that you think something is wrong with me... But you h-have to believe me. Something isn't right. Please, just answer any q-questions I have." Keidence held a firm expression and nodded. Ash sighed again, then looked her in the eyes. "Why are we here?"
"Because we live here," Keidence replied. Ash seemed to calm down quite a bit. Keidence hesitated first, but slowly put her hand on Ash's shoulder once more. Ash flinched, but remained still.
"K-Keidence, we don't. This isn't right. You've got to believe me, something has happened that changed us. That changed you. I m-mean, you were--" She stopped herself. Keidence regained her worried expression.
"I was... What?" Ash hesitated before answering.
"I don't know if this is some kind of parallel universe, or what, but... In the one that I know... that I'm from... You..."
"Ash, I what? What are you saying?" Ashuri hugged Keidensu. She hugged her tight and cried. Barely, but she did cry; something she'd not done since she was a girl, so many years before. Keidence could not have guessed what was going through Ash's head at that moment, but she held her sister's embrace without question. Ash whispered into Keidensu's ear the only thing that Keidence needed to understand what could make her big sister cry.
"You died."
Keidence gasped quietly. She hugged Ashuri ever tighter, not daring to let go and cause Ash to fear for her.
"Ash, it's okay," she said softly. "I'm here. I'm alive, just like you said."
"I know," Ash replied shakily, but this only made her cry harder. All of this pent up sadness she had never let out, not even when Keidensu had died, she finally let it go in her best friend's warm embrace. Keidence didn't dare question any of it, if it meant she could comfort her sister. "Y-you have no idea w-what it was like," Ash whispered through her sobs. "I didn't know how to d-deal with it. I ran away, and I haven't b-been here since then." Keidensu started tearing up at this, not knowing what to think of it, but she stayed quiet, letting Ash continue. "Y-you were only f-f-fifteen. W-when I saw that y-you..." She stopped when her tears got the best of her. Keidence didn't talk, and surely wouldn't let go. She only tried to make sense of her sister's words. How could Ash possibly believe all of this? How could it have happened? A simple nightmare wouldn't do this to her, not Ashuri. It had to have been real. Keidensu knew her sister, and a single fear wouldn't do this to her. No, something definitely had happened, and Keidence needed to find out what. She had to find out what could have given Ashuri such terrible memories, false or somehow true. Ash settled down a little, and slowly pulled away from Keidensu's arms. They were both teary-eyed, but neither of them cared. Keidence spoke as softly as she could manage.
"Ashuri... Are you sure that this wasn't a dream of some sort?" Ash shook her head after her tears stopped their course.
"No, Keidence, it c-couldn't have been. If anything, this is a dream. I have no memories of this life, with you and our aunt and uncle. I know my life. With Kieran, and that idiot Añero, and you! Well, ghost you, at least. I--" She paused. "That's it," she said, looking Keidence in the eyes once again. "Kieran and Añero! I need to find them. They'll know what's going on. I'm sure of it." Keidence looked confused once again. She wiped a stray tear from Ash's cheek with her sleeve, which Ash didn't seem to mind.
"What do you mean? Who are they?" She asked. "And did you say 'ghost me?' I was a ghost?!"
"Keidence! Calm down. Yes, you became a ghost. And only people with magic could see you. Which is why I only saw you when I got magic."
"Magic? Ash, there's no such thing as magic. Or ghosts. And I'm sorry, I want to help, but I just can't believe anything you're saying. It's all impossible! Alternate worlds, magic, ghost me, it's all impossible." Ash hugged Keidence once again, but only for a moment.
"I know you don't believe me, but I do. I have to figure out what's going on. As much as I would like your help, I can do without, if you're not willing." She got up and walked to the door, only to turn around once again. "Actually, can you tell me where I can find real clothes?" Keidence pointed her thumb behind her to a dresser, not taking her eyes off of Ashuri. She was serious. Keidence didn't want to think that her sister was going crazy, but she also couldn't help with something she didn't understand. Keidence got up and walked out the door with a sigh. She and Ash made eye contact once more before Keidence walked away. Ash thought about what had happened between them both. Of course she wanted things back to normal, but did she really want everything back? Could she really see her sister's 15-year-old ghost again after seeing her this way?
'Nineteen years old,' she thought to herself. 'My little sister is nineteen years old.' Her eyes started to water again.
