• It’s been a year now, but I, Dialla, still miss him. I still remember his little face looking up at me for comfort, for protection, and love. A year ago, he was murdered. His face is still in my nightmares. I can hear his voice repeating the same words over and over again. “Sissy…Sissy… why do I feel so light?” I cried until my eyes began to lose themselves. At first the pain was too much. I tried to tell myself he wasn’t dead. That maybe it was just another nightmare, but it wasn’t. We all knew that it wasn’t a nightmare that would just vanish in the morning; it was real. Our parents died in a car crash when he was only three years old. We had been living with my best friend, Lily, ever since then. Nick was the only brother or family I had left. That’s all in the past now. I have to keep focus, wipe my eyes, and move on, but that’s not as easy as it sounds. For now, I have school, and if I’m late my teacher will freak. Lily was arguing with the teacher, great…. After a long day at school, we finally reach home. While she starts her homework I walk straight into my bedroom. First thing I notice are lilies in my room. Everywhere I look I see lilies. I think at first that it was Lily who put them there, but how could she have? I was with her all day. Her mom isn’t home when were at school, so who could it have been? That’s when I see it. The little baseball was sitting on my bed. I hear laughter in the distance. A young boy, I think. A kid maybe five or so just laughing; about the same age as Nick. I pick the ball up knowing full well whose it is. Its Nick’s little ball that I had bought him. It even had both our names on it. I sit a moment trying to digest all of this. When I see the whole room turns black. At first, I can’t feel the floor. It feels like I’m trying to kick at nothing. I see the little person walk up again. They are still holding the lilies. Not a second has passed before I see him drop to the floor and his hood fly up. It was Nick! I feel my feet hit the floor as if my heart had fallen along with. I reach out to feel him but it is as if someone is holding me back. It looks as if he is dead, but soon enough I see him open his dark brown eyes. His long dirty blonde hair had fallen to one side. He begins to talk in a low voice. “Sissy…sissy… why do I feel so light?” then he begins to chant something. “Lily, lilies, lily, lilies…” I cry out to him, “Brother! Please stop!!! Brother!!” he slowly stops, but then he closes his eyes again. He starts to look whiter each second. I think I can almost see him…decaying! I close my eyes wishing to see no more. I’m back in my room. It was not a dream though because I soon hear a sound. “Sissy, please help me. I know who murdered me.” Before I can answer I hear the door open, and Lily steps inside. “What happened???” she asks. All I can make out is, “My brother….” Lily then puts a hand on my shoulder and tells me that he is gone and there is nothing she, I, or anyone can do about it. I know she is right, and I didn’t want to tell her the rest, so I just lie down in bed and try to dream. Lily leaves the room and I quickly fall fast asleep. “Sissy she did it… Lily did it!” I wake up instantly. I don’t believe what I had just heard. I notice days past as this continues. It’s a Saturday morning and Lily’s mom is out at work. Few hours after watching TV I walk up to Lily and, trusting my brother’s word, say, “Why?” she responds with half her face with luck charms spread evenly across it, “Why what?” I look at her strange for a moment, but I see this new look in her eye like she’s hiding something. “Why did u kill my brother?” I respond. She sits still for a moment, and then gives me this “what are you talking about” stare. “He said you killed him. He told me you murdered him!” I yell back. It’s already past noon by now maybe even near 7:00 but I still don’t feel tired. We used to always eat cereal before bed. “You better get some rest we’re going to church tomorrow.” She simply says. I gawked at how she simply just changed the subject. This wasn’t like her, but before I knew it, I was too tired to respond. I simply went to bed without saying another word. Few hours into the night I hear footsteps coming in my room. Beside me I see Lily. She has something behind her back. “I’m so sorry Dialla, but I have no choice.” She says. I see the knife in her hand. “What are you doing?!” I question. She pauses. I feel as if this is one huge nightmare, but… “Why?” I ask. “I killed him because I had to! He was and would always be first to you! I couldn’t let that continue.” She replies. “I wasn’t talking to you; I was talking to brother.” I state. I leap for the knife in her hand, and I manage to swipe it away from Lily. I turn it toward her and say, “He was telling me that the only way for this to end, for his soul to be happy, and so I can live is to kill you!” I yell. “Hahaha…HAHAHA!!! Fool! Don’t you know you can’t kill a deamon with a mere knife!?” she replies. I stammer backwards. “What? How cans this b—’’ Lily leaps toward me, steals the knife, and plunges it right at me. I begin to see darkness everywhere. I see someone walking towards me. They are holding out their hand to me. I can see it’s my brother, but when I reach up to grave his hand he begins to cry. “Do not cry little brother. We are together again.” I say. He stops then we stand up together. I have to wonder, though, what happened to Lily. Did she stay in the human world? My brother sees me thinking to myself and says, “Sissy, do not worry anymore. Lily was merely a deamon sent to kill hope in that world. Now she is probably ruining someone else’s life and love.” I pause to look at him. He and I were now, I’m guessing, dead, but he had been a ghost already when he told me about Lily. I question him one last time. “How do you know all this?” I ask finally. “Because that’s what happens to demons like us when they turn bad.”