Baseball Jerseys

Meghan, the final chapter

Meghan, the final chapter

"I...I don't understand. You can't be Mel and T.J. because they're dead!" I say.

"We were brought back to life to get our revenge," Tyo states simply. "We had twelve months since we were brought to life until we get sent back to heaven. Twelve months to get our revenge."
"R-Revenge? On me and our family? But why?"

Tyo's voice becomes angry. "You know why! That skiing accident? When I was going down that giant hill? You were right in the middle of the hill, and...well, you know that skier that ran you over? That was me. I lost control and broke every bone in my body. I yelled and yelled for help, but no one ever came to help me. So I was left there, in the snow, left to die by everyone I loved."

Emi clears her throat. "And you crashed that car," she snaps. "You killed me, Meghan. You killed me. And when I saw Tyo, we were both sent back here. I didn't want to kill everyone else in our family. But I had to. It was the only way to make both me and Tyo happy. And it broke my heart to have to kill YOU. I loved you so dearly. But how you killed me, Meghan, is unforgivable. So here we are."

My insides turned to ice and I can barely breathe. I feel like fainting, but I can't. I need answers.

"But...th-the evidence that it was OTHER people!" I stammer.

"When you're smart like us, Meg," Emi scoffs, "It's easy to FRAME PEOPLE. All that "evidence" we found were all STAGE PROPS."

"And I was overjoyed to learn we were able to come back to earth," Tyo continues. "We could only come back alive for a year under one condition: we can't change our names."

"But you did!" I protest.

Emi snorts. "No. Emi is short for Melissa, duh. And how can you not remember T.J's full name?"

My eyes widen and my jaw drops. Tyo James. That was T.J's full name. I wasn't done with the questions, though.

"But...your "Allergic reaction" that one day! How did you do that?"

"Easy!" Tyo snorts. "We put a lethal powder with a super strong lemon powder in my water!"
"Wouldn't that kill you?"

"Kid, you can't kill a ghost. I'm already dead, thanks to you."

"But...Chloe wasn't even there at the skiing accident!" I say. "Why'd you have to kill HER??"

"We had no choice," Emi sighs. "I accidentally sent her a text that was meant for T.J, so she figured out our entire plan. She was trying to tell you, but you weren't listening."

A pang of shame hits me. Hello, guilt trip.

"And you almost died, the night of the crash," Tyo says. "I could choose to only save one person. I could see my plan crumbling away in my hands, I wanted to be the one to kill you. So I saved you. So I could kill you myself.

"Mel was upset I didn't save her. But then she understood. I had to be the one to see you die."

"But why did you choose to kill me last?" I yell. "Why did you play around with me until the last few hours?"

"We wanted to gain your trust," Tyo laughs. "It made it easier to kill everyone else."

"You're heartless," I whisper angrily, "To pose as a sixth grader and pretend to be my friend just to kill me and my family! And you toyed around with me for so long, making me so scared!"

"Oh, but it worked!" Emi cackled. "Time to die, Meghan."

Emi swings a giant steak knife at me, and I duck just in time. A grab the knife from her hands and stab her in the chest. She sits back up and pulls it from her body.

"Remember," She laughs. "You can't kill a ghost."

Tyo lunges at me with a knife in his hand and holds it to my head. I scream in horror, trying to push it away, but it was too late. Tyo stabs me with the knife. Emi and Tyo laugh hysterically as I lie down motionless on the ground.

As they were celebrating, the SWAT team burst into the room. Emi and Tyo gasp in surprise as I sit back up. This time I laugh.

"You might want to check that knife again," I snicker. "It's a stage prop. See, the blade slides into the handle. I switched your knife out when you weren't looking. I always carry it around. It was supposed to be for our investigation, but it works here, too."

"Tell me how this happened!" Emi demanded. "How did the SWAT team know to come here?"
"See this in my purse?" I explain. "My phone. It's an app called FaceTime, and my sister Dee is on the other side."

"Deanna!" My brother shrieks, furious, swinging his fists in the air.

I look at my siblings. I watched as they faded away. I glanced at my watch. It has been exactly 12 months since I met them.Their time was up. The twelve months have passed, and they are gone forever.

*

Days have passed since Mel and T.J. disappeared. The police found dad. Mel and T.J. kidnapped him and held him captive in their basement. As soon as he walked through the front door, his clothes torn up, his hair a ruffled mess, his face covered in scars and dirt, me and Deanna ran into his arms and hugged him as tight as we could. I was happy to see him, and I could tell her felt the same way about us.

Let's say the McArty family certainly shrunk. It used to be Mom, Dad, Chloe, T.J, Melissa, Julia, Maria, Laurie, Deanna, and me--that was ten people! Now it's just Dad, Deanna, Laurie and me. Four people.

Allie, Bri, and Lexi are nicer now. Not super duper extremely nice, of course. It would take years for THAT big of an improvement. But they are nicer than before. Nice enough, and that works for me just fine. Any 'nice' is an improvement from before.

Dad and Deanna didn't understand everything, even though Deanna was listening when Tyo and Emi were explaining. I guess it was too much to process. I explained everything in detail from start to finish, and they were shocked. Very shocked, and also still super confused. Laurie is still too young to remember any of this, and I do not look forward to the day we have to tell him about his five other siblings and mother.

Other than all that, I'm doing good. Well, not totally good. I miss the rest of my family so very much. Chloe was a good sister, but I wasn't.

Allie, Bri, and Lexi surprisingly invited me to the beach to hang out. I wasn't thrilled at first, but they were trying to be nice. This time for real.

Also, Austin Eaglewood asked me out. Austin, the boy I liked since I was seven, was now my steady boyfriend. I was so happy. Of course, Lexi was extremely jealous that I was now Austin's girlfriend. She even threw a hissy fit and listed about seventy reasons why SHE should be his girlfriend. Eventually, though, she cooled off and "apologized" for her jealous behaviour. But some things never change, like when she rolls her eyes and glares when me and Austin hold hands or kiss.

Life was finally going my way--I wasn't being bullied. The Bears were my friends now. I had a boyfriend--not just any boyfriend, but Austin Eaglewood. Even better, no one was murdered.

My siblings and I got along better now. I guess after all this, it's hard to fight over silly, petty little things.

I was sitting on my bed, when my phone buzzed. A text.

It isn't the end, Meg. I'll be back. You can join me up in heaven. We can be twinsies. XOXO, Chloe