My head is pounding, and light invades my eyes as I attempt to open them. I'm all alone in the room I adored as a child, still decorated precisely how I remember it, except the once bright blue paint has faded into a dull blue color. Pictures of ocean landscapes adorn the walls. My hand mindlessly traces over the seashell quilt. The realization hits me that it was all just a dream.

My door screeches open, and my breath catches in my throat as Eliza peaks her head around it. A smile creeps across her beautiful alabaster face when she sees I'm awake. I release the breath I was holding.

"How are you feeling?" she asks as she approaches the bed with a glass of water.

I scootch up and sit against the headboard. "You would not believe the dream I just had. Did I ever tell you that I had a twin sister who died during our birth?"

Eliza's face scrunched up, perplexed. My mouth gaped open as a woman appeared at the door.

She holds her hands up in defense. "I can explain." Her voice sounded eerily like my own.

Eliza places the water on the old oak table next to me and then sits by me, taking my hand into hers. There is no evidence of fear in her eyes. I blink, thinking that I must be seeing and hearing things.

The woman hesitantly enters the room. " My name is Faith, and while I'm your sister, you're correct; I'm not alive."

My brows skyrocket up my forehead. "What?" My eyes darted between my friend and my dead sister.

"What the hell is going on? If she's dead, why is she here? It doesn't make sense." I stare at Eliza expectantly.

She nods. "It's true, your sister is a ghost. Please let her explain."

I take a deep breath and turn my eyes back to my apparent ghostly sister. She sits at the foot of the bed, her body not moving the mattress or indenting with the weight of her body.

"I became a ghost the day we, well, you were born. Our parents named me Faith, trusting the angels to care for me. Instead, I became your guardian angel; I'm not exactly an angel, but I've been watching over you since birth. I changed my appearance to match you as you grew older. It wasn't until Grandma passed that I realized someone could see me." She chuckles before continuing her tale. "Imagine my surprise when your friend said hello to me. It caught me off guard. I didn't know what to say, so I introduced myself as your sister. I was not expecting her to hear me and was astonished when she said she was pleased to meet me."

She stands and begins pacing back and forth. "I'm as shocked as you are about all of this."

Eliza jumps up excitedly. "Check this out," she says as she walks by the ghost and waves her hand through my sister's body. "How cool is that?"

"I don't understand, why now?" I whisper almost to myself, but the ghost hears me and shrugs her shoulders.

"Something tells me that this box holds the answer," she says while waving her hand towards a familiar wooded box on the oak desk facing the window into the backyard.

Moving the quilt off of my body, I place my feet onto the outdated shag carpet and walk over to where the ghost is standing and pick up the wooden box. Engraved on the lid is an image that has always mystified me: a sun surrounded by stars.

My hand runs over the image as it has done so many times since I was a small girl. "Grandma always told me that someday, the secrets in this box would be revealed to me."

It's at this moment I remember the skeleton key found in the envelope with the house keys that the lawyer handed me when I discovered Grandma's house belonged to me. Reaching into my pocket, I pull out the key. Both Eliza's and my sister's eyes widen in awe. My hand trembles as the key slips effortlessly into the lock. The lid opens, and I gaze upon a leather pouch with the same emblem as the box's. Looking up and seeing my sister's round eyes staring back at me causes my hands to shake nervously as I slowly open the pouch.