A Lost Memory: Alitheia

Episode 21: Cluster spirits

Kacey was startled out of sleep by the pitter-patter of footsteps that led to her bedroom door.

"Kacey Nee, can I sleep with you?" Jiro asks in the middle of the night through a slit of her bedroom door.

"Huh- wait- where's Akira?" she stumbles on her words still half asleep.

"He went to visit Kaida- Nee," he says and she tells him to come in.

Jiro shuffles over to her bed, he gets in between the sheets next to her and says good night.

"Yamete!" Jiro groans under his breath, Kacey hears this and grips his shoulder to wake him up.

[Translation; Stop it]

Just as she calls out his name, he begins screaming at the top of his lungs, not sure of what to do Kacey wraps her arms around him and whispers that it was okay. This startles him awake and he sobs in her embrace.

"Can you tell me what you were dreaming about?" she asks with a gentle coercing.

"It wasn't a dream," he simply states and Kacey asks what he means.

"It was voices," Jiro tells her.

"Sometimes they soft and whisper but tonight they started yelling and screaming at me," a tear makes its way down his cheek.

"It's okay, Jiro, it's going to be okay," she hugs him once more.

The next morning at breakfast, Jiro explains what has been happening to him and Mandisa says suggests that it may be Cluster Rukha.

"Rukha means spirit; after you die you take on a spiritual form and dwell in the spiritual realm. Some people have the ability to hear beyond the physical realm to the spiritual realm," she explains to them.

"Why call them Cluster ru- rukha or spirits?" Eliza questions and Mandisa explains to her that after death for fear of being alone these beings form groups.

"So are these Cluster spirits harmful?" Fitz queried.

"No, not exactly, since they bound by the spiritual realm they can't interfere with the physical world," Mandisa says and Jiro's face lights up.

"I hope they can't hurt me because they say really scary things sometime-," he begins to says though cut off by a whisper calling his name.

"They spies trying to kill you," a strained voice tells him.

"No they not," Jiro responds in defensive.

"Who are you talking to Jiro?" Colchester asks him and he tells him what the voice had said.

"Spies?" Fitz repeats in confusion.

"They not real, they trying to kill you," the voice clearer this time, of a young boy says to Jiro.

"No they not, they are my friends, go away" Jiro yells and covers his ears with his hands.

"Are the voices still there?" Mandisa asks and he replied that they have quieted down.

The rest of their day was spent lounging around in their respective rooms, all except, Jiro. He found himself being drawn to the attic.

"There, open it, your mom's up there," the voice enticed him and just as he was about to pull on the cord to the attic, he froze.

"My mom's not up there," Jiro said to himself and let go of the cord.

"Why do you keep lying to me?" he runs both hands through his messy hair.

"I'm not lying, I'm helping you," it said, defiantly.

"No you not helping, you want me to get in trouble," Jiro replies just as defiantly.