Phantom

Chapter 17: Return
We were only one person away from the desk when I heard the screaming and the sharp sounds.
“Natalia!” The familiar voice screamed from far away. “Nathan!” The voice screamed.
I became still and my crying ceased when I heard the voice. At first I thought it was just my mind playing games with me but when I heard the sharp “ping” sounds against the tile floor, I knew that it wasn’t my mind playing games.
“Nathan!” Sarah screamed again from far away.
Nathan froze when he heard Sarah call his name. Now I knew for sure that I wasn’t just hearing things.
“Sir, ma’am?” The lady of the desk called.
The sound of stilletoes hitting the floor grew louder.
“C’mon!” Nathan pulled me by my hand and dropped his plane ticket. We ran the direction to where we heard the sharp sound. I made sure to not let go of the manila envelope that held our credit cards and passports.
“Natalia!” Sarah screamed again. Her voice was much more clearer and louder. We were getting closer.
Sarah’s bright orange hair made it easy for us to find her. She was running through a crowd of people toward the New Zealand gate.
“Sarah!” I screamed as loud as I was able to as we ran toward her.
Sarah heard my scream and ran toward us. She broke through the crowd and threw her arms around the both of Nathan and I and quickly let go of us.
“I thought you two already left,” Sarah said in surprise.
“What are you doing here?” I cried and wiped away my tears of joy.
“I’ll explain later. Let’s get home,” Sarah said and started to walk away.
“Is Keith back? Is he alright?” Nathan asked.
“Keith’s fine.”
I sighed in relief.
Nathan and I stopped where we were and shared a kiss.
“What did I tell you?” He asked and laughed.
“I never doubted you for a second.”
On our way back to Nathans’ house, I constantly asked sarah questions but the only answer I got out of her was “I’ll tell you later”. If I wasn’t so happy, I’d be frustrated.
When we got to Nathans’ house, there stood Keith in front of the door waiting for us. I jumped out of the car while it was still driving. Luckily I didn’t fall face flat. I ran to Keith and gave him a long, tight hug.
“Have you always been so elated?” Keith asked and laughed.
“Not lately,” I admitted. “I’m so happy you guys are safe! Did you do it? Did you kill the Vanburens’?”
“We’ll actually talk about that when we get inside.”
“Keith!” Nathan said and gave Keith and hug.
“C’mon, let’s go inside and settle ourselves in settled and relaxed,” Keith said and led us inside.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this relieved in my entire life,” I said and laughed as we walked through the wide hallway.
We walked into the dining room to talk about the past couple of months but there were already people sitting in the seats.
Sitting at the end of the table was a woman who had long light brown hair with a tint of strawberry blonde pulled into a braid. Her eyes were grey and friendly. Her skin was just a shade lighter than her hair. She had a smile on her face and for some reason I already felt somewhat comfortable with her.
The man sitting at the other end of the table had shiny black hair that was pulled into a pony tail. His eyes were a grey-blue color and his skin was pallid.
There were three kids sitting across from where I was standing. Two of them were twin boys. The twins had blonde hair and eyes that closely matched the color of their almond skin tone. They looked around the age of eleven to fourteen.
The little girl that sat between them had black hair hair pulled into two piggy tails that were curled perfectly to her hips. Her eyes were a dark brown and her skin was a creamy caramel color. She was about the age of Jonathon.
“Natalia, Nathan, this is the Scarboroughs’,” Keith introduced. “Petronella.” He waved at the women sitting at the end of the table. So she was Keith and Sarah’s mother. “Leonardo.” He gestured towards the man. I was guessing he was their step-father. “Luke and Lyle.” The twins. “And little Charlotte.” He waved to the little girl between Luke and Lyle.
“The Scarboroughs’ are a ghost family just like we are,” Keith explained. “But they are more closer to us than most ghost families since Petronella is my biological mother and Sarahs’ foster mother.”
“That explains it,” I said to myself. I knew Sarah and Keith couldn’t be blood related since they looked nothing alike. But Petronella and Keith on the other hand looked very much alike.
“Why don’t we all take a seat,” Keith suggested.
Once we took our seats I asked Keith, “What happened on your trip? Are the Vanburens’ gone?”
“You do know how Roberts’ visions aren’t always clear, right?” Keith asked rhetorically. “Well, Robert saw a ghost family coming to us. But he didn’t know which ghost family so he assumed it was the Vanburens’. He knew the family was powerful because of what Leonardo is able to do. Leonardo is immune to all powers. Robert knew something was wrong so who wouldn’t have thought that it was the Vanburens’ trying to cover themselves up?”
“So all this time we were worrying over a mistake?” I asked a bit frustrated.
“Robert’s visions are almost never clear. He can still see the future but it’s always blurry,” Lenoardo explained.
“So why were you two gone for so long?” I asked. “Shouldn’t you have realized that Robert made a mistake a whole lot earlier?”
“Ella is my and Sarah’s mother and we would do anything for her,” Keith started. “She knew that someday the Vanburens’ would be coming for her family but the thing was that she was missing parts of her family that was Luke and Lyle. She needed Sarah and I to help her find them because without them, the Scarborough patteren would live on; which according to ghost history has been happening for quite a while. So we went on the hunt that did take us a while.”
“Negotiating with their parents to let us keep them safe took even longer!” Sarah sighed. “That’s what happens when you don’t tell your parents that you’re a ghost.” She turned her attention to Nathan when she said the last part.
Nathan glared at her. It looked like he wanted to say something but instead, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“We’re sorry we didn’t call you but with little Charlotte here we basically had to live like Amish people,” Ella said with a delightful chortle.
Nathan stood up and tried to turn on the chandelier but when he flicked on the switch, the chandelier remained off. “That’s amazing!” He said with a chuckle.
“So all this time…,” I groaned. “I was worrying about… nothing!” I finally exploded. “Do you not understand how worried I was?”
“Natalia, calm down,” Nathan said and tried to set me back down on my chair. “You’re turning livid.”
“I just can’t believe how ridiculous the past months have been over a mistake I didn’t know about!” I groaned once more. “You know, I broke a hip and three parts of my leg just so I was capable of protecting myself?”
“How’d that happen?” Keith asked in shock.
“My one day of training that I begged and pleaded for,” I mumbled angrily.
“You don’t have to beg and plead no longer,” Keith responded. “The Vanburens’ might not be coming for us today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday our battle against them will come and when that day comes, we’ll be ready.”