"Ezra," I repeated. "Why are you inside of my sister's body?"

Using Kass's body, she sat on the bed, looking around and feeling my sheets and blanket with her hand. I didn't want to admit it out loud, but I was a bit scared and worried. I didn't know what this ghost would do to me, or my sister's body. In all my years of living, never did I actually think I'd meet a ghost.

 I wanted to be amazed, but I was frightened.

She looked at me with hard glaring eyes. "You have a lot of nice things," she pointed to one of my guitars. "can you teach me how to play? My dad would never teach me."

I looked at the guitar then over back at her. Sighing, I walked over to the bed and nervously sat down next to her. "I'll teach you how to play if you leave my sister's body and tell me who you are."

Her stern face only got sterner. She was mad. "I can't play without this body. I can't do anything fun."

"Why?" I asked in my calmest voice.

"Just teach me!" She said in a loud voice.

"Esther! Kass!" My mother yelled. "What are you two doing? Come downstairs now!"

We looked at each other. "Look, just act normal okay?"

She laughed. I was relieved by her laughing. "They think you're crazy not me."

She got up and I followed behind her. When she opened the door we saw mom and dad standing right there. Mother had her hand resting on her head while dad looked really upset. They stepped inside. We took a few steps back then sat on the bed.

"You two have going back and fourth since we got here," she said. "Esther, you with your silly jokes and pranks. Kassandra, you with your smoking and mood swings. I thought we could start over here? There's more space. There's more people. More life. What's the issue?"

Ghost. I thought.

"I'm sorry," Kass said.

Both mom and dad wasn't expecting an apology from Kass. Neither was I. I forgot that wasn't Kass for a moment. Dad looked at me.

"Okay..." he said slowly. "as for your punishments-"

"Punishments?" I said.

"Yes," dad crossed his arms. "you two are acting like kids. Anyways, it's not too bad of a punishment."

"Fine, what is it?" I asked.

"There's a horrible smell coming from the basement," he went on. "and there's a pipe that keeps banging against something at night. I was going to look for both the smell and the pipe but I'll leave it to you two."

Kass gripped my sheets and then let go. I looked at her. She tensed up and got really fidgety. I nodded at my dad. "Okay, we're coming," I said.

As soon as mom and dad left the room, Kass stood up. "I'm not going in there," she said. She began sobbing uncontrollably to a point I didn't even know what to say. Before I knew it, she was passed out on the floor.

*PLOP*

I just stared at her, waiting for her to get back up. "Kass?" I whispered.

Her eyes shot open. She looked up at me then quickly sat up. "What the hell?" She looked around. "Why am I in your room?"

I smiled and hugged her. "It's you!"

She pushed me away. "Get off me, loser." She was about to walk out of my room before I stopped her. "Mom and dad said we have to find out where that weird smell in the basement is coming from. Then find the broken pipe."

She shut my door. "You do it!" I heard her say from outside of my door.

I sighed but was relief. That was crazy.

***

I went down to the basement by myself, wondering why Ezra didn't want to come down. I started coming up with theories. Maybe something bad happened to her in the basement. She did mention someone named Isabell. Something definitely happened in there. And that smell...where did it come from?

I walked around. The wooden floors were uneven, the walls not correctly painted and chipped, the ceiling showing the wood and foamy stuff on in. It needed some fixing. But where was the smell coming from? 

I started over by where I had fell into the wood that one time. The wood that was lifted up in the floor. I had seen a mouse come out of there before. Walking towards it, I used my hands to lift it up. It wouldn't budge all the way. However, the smell seemed much stronger over there. Way stronger. I almost gagged.

"Hey!" Kass walked in.

Before I could say hey, she tackled me to the ground and held a knife to my throat.

"I can't let you do that," she said.

It was Ezra. I could hear her little trembling voice.

"Okay, okay! Ezra put the knife down," I said in the most calm voice. All her weight pressed against me made it hard to breathe.

With her still on me, the two of us heard a knocking sound. It wasn't mom or dad. It was coming from the floor below us.

"Shhhh," Ezra said. Tears rolled down Kass's cheeks. "Don't Wake Isabell."

"Okay," I said softly.

The knocking continued...until it stopped.

Kass sighed in relief. "Let's go." She put the knife down slowly.

We walked out of the basement then turned back to look at the wood. "Is that where Isabell is?" I asked her.

"Yes," she nodded.