Ghosts of the Future

A Tortured Mind

Lily's POV

Something is wrong with Max.

He keeps flinching and grabbing for his head. He cries, making the entire class turn towards him. He keeps muttering, and it's making me worry.

Saira seems perfectly okay with this. Once, I saw her smile as Max broke down sobbing. Her eyes glinted with bolts of red lightning, and I'm reminded of the first day I truly met her, when her eyes had turned blue-white and red-black. The color of ghosts and demons.

This goes on for three days before I confront Saira. She's sitting in her red pickup truck, looking through papers. She glances at me when I appear in her passenger seat, then looks back at the papers in her hand. I recognize them as college application papers.

I open my mouth to speak, but Saira beats me to it by saying, "I thought you wanted him to suffer." I blink at her, at a loss for words now. She glances at me again, and holds my gaze. Her right iris is threaded with a lot of red, making her eye seem like it's celebrating Christmas.

"I didn't mean like this. I want him to suffer, yes, but not embarrass himself. You're making him ball his eyes out in the middle of class. He's muttering things, things he said after he killed me. What are you doing to him?" I ask, and I'm shocked by the amount of pain and worry in my voice.

Saira smiles and laughs, which startles me. She turns to face me fully, and I see that her left iris is threaded with red as well. Her face seems alive for once, practically glowing with hate and hunger for pain.

"I'm not doing anything, Lily. My associates are simply keeping Max occupied while I do recon," Saira says, the sly smile still on her face. I flatten myself against the door, fear and anger roiling through me. Saira's eyes watch my face, picking out my thoughts and emotions like a bird with sticks.

"You wanted him gone. I am helping you do that," Saira says, her voice low and angry now. The smile is gone, replaced by a scowl. This Saira scares me even more. This Saira has a plan, a devilish plan that could get herself hurt as well as Max.

Saira's scowl deepens, and in the backseat a demon forms from the shadows. I yelp and press myself even further against the passenger door. Saira keeps her eyes on me but addresses the demon by saying, "Stop torturing Max Sello. That's an order, diavol. Tell your brothers. Until I give a new command, you will stop your harassment of your assigned target."

The demon hisses and bows its wolf-like head before disappearing into smoke that quickly disperses.

Saira is staring at me, so I say, "Thanks, I guess. You should've told me what you were doing. It's not right to use demons to torture someone, Saira. A tortured mind is no good mind."

The red fades from Saira's eyes, but thin streaks are still there. They must be the thin strings she has to control the demons. Saira stares at me for a couple more heartbeats, then says quietly, "I have been tortured by demons, Lily. They cut scars across my back and made me watch my family suffocate on smoke. As for a tortured mind not being a good mind."

Saira turns the key in the ignition, and the truck starts up. She looks at me, and I see pain and sorrow in her eyes. "Tortured minds are normally the strongest minds. Tortured minds have felt pain and suffering, so they are more accustomed to it."

I shake my head, and say, "But you shouldn't be accustomed to it, Saira. You shouldn't put others through pain just because you feel sorry for yourself." Saira's eyes flash white, and I feel my body responding. It drifts closer to her even as my mind screams at it to stop moving.

It finally does stop, leaving my eyes an inch from Saira's. She looks at me, and says, "I do not feel sorry for myself, Lily Northwoods. I feel guilty that I did not prevent numerous deaths. That I killed people without a second thought. That I've watched horrors and did not stop them from happening. I have never felt sorry. Not a single moment in my life have I felt sorry for causing pain, suffering, and death. So why would I feel it now, when Max deserves it?"

Saira pulls out of the parking lot, and I'm forced to stay at the school. At the place where my body is buried. 

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Days pass by slowly. The only interesting thing that happens is when Mikayla Sanchez and Miley Cher got into a fight over Kaleb, who was apparently dating both of them. Throughout the entire fight in the lunchroom, Saira sits at her table, nose in a book written in French.

Max watches her. Ever since the day in the truck, Max hasn't cried or shown any emotion. He simply watches Saira at every opportunity. She ignores him, though I fear that she has another plan. One that doesn't involve demons harassing my ex boyfriend.

My guess is proven right when Max walks up to Saira's truck one day after school. He leans against her door, but she ignores him for a few minutes. She's busy reading through an application to Missouri Southern.

"I have an idea. Are you willing to come?" Max finally says. Saira huffs, and says, "Maybe. Depends on how stupid the idea is." Max smiles like it's a joke, but I can see the glimmer of red in Saira's eyes.

"Me and a couple of buddies are heading to Miss Andromeda's Bar. You know, the one said to be haunted. I was wondering if you'd like to come," Max says. Saira finally looks up at him, a smile across her face. I think I'm the only one that sees her fist clench around the MSSU application.

Saira's eyes are almost purely green, though two thin strands of red lace her irises. She's still communing with the demons, holding them in check with only her will. "I'll go so long as it's only you. No one else," Saira says, the honey in her words sending shivers down my spine.

Max grins hugely, and I feel a stab of jealousy. He nods and hits the door of Saira's truck happily. Saira's face flashes with anger, but smooths out into a smile when Max looks back at her. "Ten o' clock. Deal?" he asks. Saira nods, her eyes like chips of steel.

The boy walks off, a slight skip in his step. Saira growls like a wolf, and turns on her truck. "You ever hit my brother's truck again, and I'll kill you with my bare hands," she mutters, glaring off in the direction of Max.

I want to appear to her, but she pulls out of the parking lot too quickly. I want to know what's going to go down in Miss Andromeda's Bar, but I can't leave the school. I hate being a ghost sometimes.