I'll Wait Here for You in My Time of Dying

Matt’s P.O.V

I haven’t been to a library in a good number of years so I had no clue where to start when Sarah dragged me into the local one. She, though, had evidently been here a good few times as she sauntered over to the information desk and greeted the older woman behind the desk by first name.

“Good afternoon Gill,” Sarah smiled.

“Hello dear,” Gill replied with a smile. “And how are you? Haven’t seen you in a while.”

Sarah nodded as she leant against the desk slightly. “I’ve been a bit busy. Got to try and keep the husband in line.”

Gill chuckled and shook her head before realising that I was standing, somewhat uneasily, behind Sarah.

“And who might this be?”

Sarah glanced at me and rolled her eyes as she saw the uncomfortable stance I was holding. She grabbed my arm and yanked me forward a few steps.

“This is my big brother Matt,” Sarah greeted. “Matt, this is Gill.”

I smiled in greeting and tuned out a bit as Sarah began to explain why we were here. I heard various words, ‘computer’, ‘newspaper’...and then ‘haunted’. I clocked in more at that point and looked at Gill to see if she thought I was insane for thinking these things. From the way she was still talking to Sarah, I presumed she didn’t.

“Do you know how to use the newspaper archives?”

Sarah shook her head and glanced at me. I shook my head and watched as Gill took Sarah and I to where these machines were. I followed silently and stood behind Sarah as Gill ran through how to use the machine and what newspapers we should probably look through. We thanked her and I sat down at the one beside Sarah before running my hand down my face.

“This is going to take forever,” I groaned as I glanced at my baby sister.

She simply grinned at me before facing the machine and beginning to skim through some old newspapers.

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I rested my chin on my hand as I let my eyes skim over the various articles flicking across the screen. As I thought it would, this whole thing was taking forever. Sarah and I had so far been here for an hour and a half and I was slowly losing hope that we’d find anything. I glanced at her for a moment to see her still looking pretty lively, though it shouldn’t have surprised me. A real life haunting to Sarah would probably feel like Christmas.

“What’s your house number again?”

“78,” I muttered and carried on reading the article I had been half-heartedly looking at.

“Then I think I may have found your ghost,” Sarah declared excitedly.

My head snapped up and I looked over at her. She grinned at me and nodded at her screen so I got up and stood behind her, bending down slightly so I could read the screen even though Sarah was now reciting it to me.

“Girl murdered in home,” Sarah began. “Last night, the residents of Hawthorne Avenue were faced with a tragedy. Lesia Amor, 22, was home alone when a burglar broke in. It is thought that the burglar was startled by her presence. Amor was killed using one of her own kitchen knives, suggesting that the burglar had not intended on it being an armed robbery. Amor, much like many people these days, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. As of the moment this newspaper is going to print, the burglar has yet to be caught.”

Sarah glanced up at me but I ignored her for a moment as I reread what she’d just told me. It wasn’t really sinking in that someone had actually been killed in the house that I was living in now.

“When was this dated?”

Sarah flicked back a few pages before finding the front page of the newspaper.

“5th May 2006,” Sarah read. “So this happened three years ago.”

I nodded and sank down into the chair beside Sarah. She looked at me for a second as if studying me.

“So?” She asked after a while.

“What?”

“Well what are you going to do?”

My eyebrows rose slightly as she asked that and I watched as Sarah calmly stood up and switched her machine off before reaching around me and switching the machine off that I had been using. Sarah’s gaze remained on me as she picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder.

“Well?” She questioned.

“What do you mean?” I countered. “What can I do?”

Sarah shrugged. “You said that you can feel her around you right? Why not try and talk to her? You even said that you thought you saw her.”

“Do you know how crazy that sounds?” I asked as I followed my baby sister out of the library.

“Says the boy that thinks his house is haunted?”

“You believe in that crap too,” I pointed out, somewhat defensively. “Does that make you crazy?”

Sarah laughed as she began to walk backwards for a moment.

“Matt, think about it okay? I’m a complete nutcase. Lyndsey is bonkers too. You’re pretty insane as well. We went through this before. We are Sanders’. We are lunatics.”

I rolled my eyes as Sarah skipped off towards the front desk and heard her begin to talk to Gill. I ran my hand down my face before dropping my hands down and shoving them in my pockets.

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“And where have you two been?” Jason asked Sarah as we walked over to where our group was sitting in Johnny’s.

I say we walked...I walked. Sarah skipped, like she often does.

Sarah plopped herself down on her husband’s lap and pressed her lips to his quickly before pulling away to explain.

“We were at the library.”

I groaned and sat down beside Lyndsey who looked at me like I had suddenly grown another head.

“You...library?” Lyndsey questioned. “I’m surprised you knew we had one.”

I playfully narrowed my eyes at her and growled, “watch it”.

Lyndsey laughed before looking between Sarah and I. “But seriously...Sarah I get. She’s a nerd.”

“Hey!” Sarah protested loudly. “I am not a nerd! I’m more of a geek.”

“But you?” Lyndsey questioned, looking at me and completely ignoring our sister. “Why were you in the library?”

I shrugged, not really wanting to admit what I thought about the house to everyone else. It had been hard enough telling Sarah, and she believed in this sort of stuff. Everyone else would just rip it out of me.

“I wanted to pick up something,” Sarah explained and I looked up at her. “And since I was at Matt’s anyway and we were both coming here to meet you lot, I got him to swing by the library.”

Everyone nodded, accepting this reason since it had happened a lot before.

“Come on Matt, come buy me a drink,” Sarah grinned as she slid off of Jason’s lap.

I would have protested but she had just saved my ass from being ridiculed so I stood up without a word.

“Okay, so something is going on. He didn’t say no,” Lyndsey muttered as we walked to the bar. “He always says no to me.”

I chuckled and as soon as I reached the bar I bought a Malibu 7 for Lyndsey before buying a beer for myself and a vodka and lemonade for Sarah.

“So how come you didn’t tell them why we were really at the library?” I asked Sarah as we waited for our drinks.

Sarah shrugged and bumped her shoulder against mine slightly.

“They would have just made fun of you, and that is my job,” she teased before smiling. “Besides, I quite like the fact that one of you lot believes my crazy talk. And I won’t let that lot ruin it.”

I laughed and nodded, wrapping my arm around Sarah’s shoulders and kissing the side of her head.

“Love you baby sis.”

“Love you too big brother,” Sarah grinned.

I paid for our drinks and then grabbed my bottle and Lyndsey’s drink, waiting for Sarah to start walking over before I did. I slid back in beside Lyndsey and placed her drink in front of her. Lyndsey stared at it for a second and then looked at Sarah before looking at me and then looking at her drink again.

“Brian,” she whispered as she scooted a little closer to him. “Matt bought me a drink without me badgering him for one...should I be scared?”