The Flames

Chapter Eleven

Jayse slept for a long time. My guess is he didn't get much sleep when he was in captivity. When he woke up, he was the happiest I'd ever seen him. He wasn't quiet because he didn't like to talk, he was silent because he was scared. I wondered if he really could talk to spirits. I got my answer the next day.

I woke up and went to go to the bathroom. When I got in the doorway, Jayse was sitting on the edge of the bathtub smiling and staring at the wall. He whispered something, waited, and began to giggle. "Jayse? H-who are you talking to?" I stammered. Please don't be something evil, I prayed. Jayse started laughing out loud.

"Show him!" he said to the wall. Celia materialized in the bathtub. I breathed a sigh of relief at the strangely welcome sight. Ghosts can't hurt you, only scare you a bit, and Celia had never even tried to do that. "This is my new friend!" he rushed out excitedly, "Isn't she cool? She gets to choose who can see her. I wish I could do that!"

"What's your friend's name?" I asked sweetly.

"She said her name's Celia. I told her it's a very pretty name. Do you think so too Cole?" he looked up at me, batting his eyelashes, and I couldn't help but think he was adorable. In the beginning I was a little afraid of the child, because of his alarming strength and eyes that seemed to look directly into your soul. Now, in my eyes, he was a normal kid with a gift like no other who is in an unfortunate situation.

"Yes, it is," I replied. "Jayse, why don't you go play with Celia in the other room?"

"Okay. C'mon CeCe!" Celia disappeared again. I found myself smiling at his nickname for her. Maybe he can help us, after all, I remember thinking.

I told Luke and Uncle Rich about my encounter with Celia. We had an agreement: everybody tells the others everything and we always stick together.

"So Mrs. Childs wasn't lying," Luke said.

"Well, not about Jayse being able to talk to spirits. She lied about pretty much everything else," Uncle Rich said.

"Question is, how do we use him?" Luke asked, eyebrows raised. I punched him. He laughed, "When did you get so sensitive?" He saw my scowl and said, "Chill out! I was just kidding! But seriously, how do we use Jayse to figure this thing out?"

"Well... First we need to find his parents."

"No!" I heard a small voice behind me say, "I don't wanna go home. I wanna stay and help you!"

I thought for a moment and told the others we needed to interrogate him, using that word because I didn't want Jayse to know what I was doing and figured he wouldn't know what it meant.

"Interrogate?" he said the word slowly, "like a cop does?" He was getting agitated. "But I'm not a bad guy!"

"I didn't say you were a bad guy, 'interrogate' just means we need to ask you a bunch of questions."