The Sitter's Sister

Chapter 32

"Do you hear her voice now?" Sairah was asking on their way to the school gate.

Leigh-Anne sighed. Ever since she had explained to Sairah what had been happening with her in terms of hearing voices and seeing things, Sairah had been checking on her to find out if she was doing those things ever so often. "No. I can only hear you." She smiled tightly at her sister.

Sairah watched her closely. "It's really weird that that sort of stuff is happening to you. We're lucky that we got people looking into it this early. Otherwise you'd probably end up like mum. Talking to f*cking walls and having random outbursts. Did she ever brush your hair and then do it too hard and when you asked why she'd say 'they' told her to do it."

Leigh-Anne recalled an instance but there was no mention of a 'they'. "I only have one memory of our mum brushing my hair but she was just talking about how much she would hurt herself after dad hurt her and how we'd hurt her when we grew up. Something like that." She was in a bit of a trance as she recalled it.

"Yeah because 'they' told her that everyone was gonna turn on her. Only that 'they' wasn't real. It was all in her head." Sairah whistled low.

Leigh scratched her head. "How do you remember all this?"

"I don't have dissociative amnesia." Sairah told her confidently. "Who would have thought that all the odd things our mum did could be put into one category." She made motions with her hand as if a sign was in front of her. "Schizophrenia."

Leigh frowned before looking around to see if anyone heard. "Stop talking about all of that so casually."

"Oh right." Sairah shook her head. "Forgot you're real embarrassed about it." She patted Leigh's head. "Don't worry. If that's really what's going on then they'll give you medicine and you'll be fine."

Leigh exhaled as they stepped out of the gate. "I'll be spending the afternoon with Jade alright?"

"Yeah I remember. You told me already." Sairah adjusted her backpack on her back. From here they could see students from St Clement's walking down the street, leaving school for the day. The building was not in view though.

Leigh-Anne checked the time on her watch. Can't believe Jade has got to do all of that to stay alive. She supposed the same could be said about her deceased sister. She never did anything illegal though. At least . . . I don't think she did . . . I don't remember . . . She bit her lip then turned to Sairah. "Hey back when we used to live-"

"Would I get my ass handed to me if I said you looked nice today love?" A guy in a car called out his window to Leigh-Anne. He had some friends in the backseats with him and someone in the passenger seat. He slowed down his vehicle just to say this to her. They were laughing and jeering, wearing the uniform of the sister school.

Leigh-Anne had just been about to ask Sairah a question when she heard him. Was he talking to her or Sairah?

Sairah turned up her nose. "What the actual- who the f*ck are you?"

The boy smoked a small stick of a cigarette he held and then blew it out of his mouth. "Just someone who's interested." He winked at Leigh-Anne. "I won't mind getting punched in the face if-"

Sairah walked closer to him and punched him square in the nose.

His friends started laughing while he sat in stun, blood draining from his nostrils.

Sairah went back to stand next to Leigh-Anne. People who were leaving their school building saw that and laughed. "F*ck outta here."

He wiped at his blood then drove off.