“What is taking them so long?” Hannah asked with an audible tone of anger.
“Agreed,” Doug said. “I don’t like this. Sorry to be so blunt, but our mom and dad should have been back here sitting in the living room by now. Not even…what’s her name?…Emily, not even she’s back.”
“I wanna go find them,” Hannah said urgently, rising from her chair.
“No,” Al said with even more urgency. “Stay here.”
“Why?” she asked, glaring at him, suspecting he knew something she didn’t.
“Because,” he said, squirming in his chair and searching for a plausible excuse. “I-I just want you here with me.”
“I agree,” Doug said, getting up from the sofa. “I’ll go find them. I don’t like you going up there, Hannah.” He was looking at Al’s family with suspicious eyes as he said that last sentence.
“I’ll take you upstairs and help you look for them,” Mr. Dan said, getting up from his chair.
“Yeah, sure,” Doug said. “I can take you in a fight, if necessary.”
Hannah scowled at her brother for his rudeness while Mr. Dan laughed. “I assure you, young man, that won’t be necessary. I’m sure there’s a simple explanation for all of this. Come with me.”
Al continued to squirm in his chair as his father led Doug out of the living room and towards the stairs. Hannah was watching her boyfriend’s nervousness with some worry of her own.
The sprits have killed Hannah’s parents, Al thought. I’m sure of it. Po, Meng, and the other spirits are possessing my family members’ bodies and killing off Hannah’s family. Her brother is next to die, and Dad’s going to be his murderer this time. Emily is probably still cleaning up the mess after killing Hannah’s mother. In any case, if Emily came down now without Mrs. Sandy, she’d have a hard time explaining why neither Hannah’s mom nor her dad are back. I’m gonna have to intervene, as nasty as Po and the other spirits are gonna be to me. I should never have agreed to giving Hannah’s family to the ancestors. I won’t be able to live with myself if I just sit idly by while her whole family is murdered.
Al jumped up from his chair all of a sudden.
“What’s your problem, loser?” Freddie asked, sneering.
“I gotta use the bathroom,” Al said, glaring back at his smart-ass brother.
“Ooh, dirty look,” Freddie said, smirking.
“My boyfriend is not a ‘loser,’ Freddie,” Hannah said, looking coolly into his eyes.
“Are you sure about that?” Freddie said with a smug grin.
“Yes, I am,” she said, still looking straight in his eyes. Her voice would rise in a crescendo as she stood up. “And I’m also sure that you have a really offensive attitude. It’s bad enough that my parents are mysteriously missing, and you’re only making things harder with your abusive remarks. Why can’t you just love your brother? Now I understand why Al was so uncomfortable about me meeting his family!”
Freddie was laughing now. “Whoa!”
Mrs. Dan wasn’t so impressed, though.
You will pay for making my family lose face, girl, she thought as she frowned at Hannah.
Hannah saw the angry look on Mrs. Dan’s face and realized she’d crossed over the line.
“Oh, uh…” she stammered. “I…w-wasn’t directing that at…all of your family, Ms. Dan, just…”
“At Freddie,” Mrs. Dan said with a grin as Hannah sheepishly sat back down. “I will admit that he does need to mind his manners.” Now she was glaring at him. His smart-ass smile faded.
“Anyway,” Al said in a wobbly voice. “I gotta use the bathroom.” He was walking toward the exit that led to the stairs.
“Why are you going that way, Al?” his mother asked. “The way to the first-floor bathroom is out the other way.” She pointed to the exit at the opposite side of the living room. “You’re not thinking of using one of the upstairs bathrooms, are you?”
“Of course I am,” Al said. “You yourself told Mr. Sandy that the ground floor toilet is broken. We all know that. How could you forget, Ma?”
“Oh, old age must be making me scatterbrained,” she said, giggling and tapping her head. “I just find it odd that you have to go upstairs so soon after your father took her brother up there.” She was now glaring at him, as if something supernatural inside her body could read his mind. “You don’t by chance have some other reason for going up there, do you, Al?” She took a sip of her tea.
“I just need to pee, Mama,” Al said, then went out for the stairs. I hope that was just her being suspicious, and not Po, he thought.
“Don’t piss your life away,” Freddie said in a deep voice. “Loser.”
He looked right at frowning Hannah and grinned.
She saw a devil in his eyes.
Al thought he had heard Meng in his brother’s voice.
Infinite Ocean 