Soul Salvation

The entire rest of the day at school, Rania tried to figure out exactly how to go about suggesting they install a security system. Surely her parents would think it silly, since they lived so far from anyone. That and they probably thought she was going crazy, saying she was seeing people in their home. It would be hard to convince them, but Rania knew that for her own sanity, and safety, she had to do it.

She wasn't much of herself the entire day, causing her friends Samantha and Mariah to worry about her. After hearing about Rania's night and the tale of the intruder, they were equally as shocked as their fellow classmates had been that morning.

So once Rania was home, she hurried up to her room to work on her homework, rehearsing what she was going to discuss with her parents later that night at dinner. It wasn't going to be easy, as Rania sometimes felt it difficult to discuss serious topics with her parents. But she knew she had to try.

"So, Rani, how was school today?" Amrita asked as the Lone family was settled at the dinner table.

"It was okay..." Rania answered, haphazardly poking at her food with her fork. Noticing the way her daughter was exceptionally quiet, Amrita grew concerned.

"Sweetie, is everything alright?" she asked, sharing a nervous glance at Saied. They'd been worried about her ever since she'd come trampling into their room the night before.

"Uh...well..." Rania began, clearing her throat before she slowly looked up. "About last night..."

"Honey, there was no one here. We even checked this morning, and nothing was out of place. The door hadn't even been unlocked," Saied pressed.

Hearing this, Rania's brain began to think in overdrive. If no one had really broken in...then maybe the stories were true.

"Then maybe what I saw was a--"

"Don't. Don't say it. We've told you before, there's no such thing as ghosts," Amrita cut in, wanting the nonsense about the house being haunted to just disappear.

"But weird things have been happening!" Rania insisted, feeling frustrated.

"I'm sure it's just the house shifting, making all these noises. Lord knows it's been here at least ten years--houses take awhile to shift into place," Saied tried to explain, but Rania didn't feel any better about the noises, knowing what she saw.

"I don't feel safe here," Rania finally admitted, her voice dropping down to nearly a whisper. "I know what I saw. Someone was here last night."

Sighing, Amrita looked between her husband and her daughter.

"Will it make you feel better if we put in a security system?" she asked, and Rania felt a sense of relief wash over her, that her mother had brought it up first. Nodding, she slowly began eating again.

And so that weekend, the Lone family called up the local security company to have a personal system put into the Manor. Saied was quite perplexed when it took a bit of persuasion to get the crew up to his house. It was like they were trying to avoid it at all costs. It seemed like most everyone in that little suburb of Huntington Beach avoided his home, or any mention of it, at all costs.

Needless to say, Rania felt a little safer at night, knowing that she wouldn't have to deal with intruders. But after hearing those noises on the stairs before the security system was installed, Rania decided she'd start sleeping with headphones on, listening to her iPod throughout the night. The tactic seemed to work, blocking out all the night sounds from Rania's hearing. And for one of the first times since moving in, Rania was sleeping peacefully.