Episode 18: Cluster spirits

Kacey was startled out of sleep by the pitter-patter of footsteps that led to her bedroom door. 

"Kacey Nee, can I sleep with you?" Jiro asks in the middle of the night through a slit of her bedroom door.

"Huh- wait- where's Akira?" she stumbles on her words still half asleep.

"He went to visit Kaida- Nee," he says and she tells him to come in.

Jiro shuffles over to her bed, he gets in between the sheets next to her and says good night.

"Yamete!" Jiro groans under his breath, Kacey hears this and grips his shoulder to wake him up.

[Translation; Stop it]

Just as she calls out his name, he begins screaming at the top of his lungs, not sure of what to do Kacey wraps her arms around him and whispers that it was okay. This startles him awake and he sobs in her embrace.

"Can you tell me what you were dreaming about?" she asks with a gentle coercing.

"It wasn't a dream," he simply states and Kacey asks what he means.

"It was voices," Jiro tells her.

"Sometimes they soft and whisper but tonight they started yelling and screaming at me," a tear makes its way down his cheek.

"It's okay, Jiro, it's going to be okay," she hugs him once more.

The next morning at breakfast, Jiro explains what has been happening to him and Mandisa says suggests that it may be Cluster Rukha.

"Rukha means spirit; after you die you take on a spiritual form and dwell in the spiritual realm. Some people have the ability to hear beyond the physical realm to the spiritual realm," she explains to them.

"Why call them Cluster ru- rukha or spirits?" Eliza questions and Mandisa explains to her that after death for fear of being alone these beings form groups.

"So are these Cluster spirits harmful?" Fitz queried.

"No, not exactly, since they bound by the spiritual realm they can't interfere with the physical world," Mandisa says and Jiro's face lights up.

"I hope they can't hurt me because they say really scary things sometime-," he begins to says though cut off by a whisper calling his name.

"They spies trying to kill you," a strained voice tells him.

"No they not," Jiro responds in defensive.

"Who are you talking to Jiro?" Colchester asks him and he tells him what the voice had said.

"Spies?" Fitz repeats in confusion.

"They not real, they trying to kill you," the voice clearer this time, of a young boy says to Jiro.

"No they not, they are my friends, go away" Jiro yells and covers his ears with his hands.

"Are the voices still there?" Mandisa asks and he replied that they have quieted down.

The rest of their day was spent lounging around in their respective rooms, all except, Jiro. He found himself being drawn to the attic.

"There, open it, your mom's up there," the voice enticed him and just as he was about to pull on the cord to the attic, he froze.

"My mom's not up there," Jiro said to himself and let go of the cord.

"Why do you keep lying to me?" he runs both hands through his messy hair.

"I'm not lying, I'm helping you," it said, defiantly.

"No you not helping, you want me to get in trouble," Jiro replies just as defiantly.

"Maybe," he whispered with a horrendous cackle.

Jiro made his way to his room while Akira was through the portal with Kaida, he sat by the table and laid his head down.

"Jiro," the whisper came to him from the back of his head as he dozed off to sleep.

In his dream, the walls were black and several eyes could be seen darting back and forth as he tried escaping. His arms and legs were longer than usual; he felt taller and could hear the distant cry of his mother calling his name. 

"It has been almost a year since I last saw your smile, my dear child," a woman's voice coerced from far away.

"Oka-san!" Jiro cried out while his head rested on the table.

[Translation; Mom]

He woke up with tears in his eyes, sobbing, he called after his mother alone in the dark as the night blanketed the sky. 

A soft knock came from the door and Kacey's voice asked for him. He rushed to open the door, turning the doorknob and placing his arms around her waist.

"Jiro, are you okay?" Kacey asked softly patting his back while in her embrace. She escorted him to the dining area and he ate in silence.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Akira walks in with a strangely shaped object in hand.

"Hey, what's in your hand?" Fitz asks him stuffing her face with a fork full of spaghetti.

"Oh this, it's a club, Kaida's family made it for me" he sets it down on the table and sits down; Kacey passes him a plate of food.

"Jiro, what's wrong?" Akira asks and the residents explain his situation with the voices.

"How long has this been going on?" he asks Jiro though he simply looks away, avoidant of any questions about it.

As the residents make their way up the stairs, Jiro informs them that he heard his voice when he was sleeping.

"How's that possible?" Fitz asks, rounding the top of the staircase.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and says that Jiro is in a coma," Kacey says and Gherro appears at the bottom of the stairs.

"Correct," he calls out and the residents turn around to face him.

"Why didn't you just tell us that?" Colchester asks, peeved.

"Where's the fun in that my dear children?" Gherro asks them and they give him a puzzled look.

"Ngoba?" Mandisa asks him and he shrugs his shoulders.

[Translation; Why in Xhosa] 

"Like I said my dear, where's the fun in that?" a rhetorical question this time.

"How did you figure out Jiro's in a coma?" Eliza questions Kacey.

"Look at it this way, Jiro's been hearing voices so somehow his tapped into the spiritual realm and putting him in a coma would make him tethered to both physical and spiritual worlds," she tells him and they agree with her.

"Clearly Gherro is not interested in helping any of us, so we gotta put our heads together and figure it out," Fitz announces and the residents head to her room to speak about it.

Jiro explained to the residents, a dream he had where he heard his mother's voice.

"You must have heard her voice at the hospital where your body is," Akira tells him and Kacey's voice chimes in.

"That means my theory is right, now we just have to figure out how to use it to our advantage," she says and Eliza asks her why.

"Don't you see what it means?" Kacey's face lights up as she adds, "We have a connection to the outside world," 

"So sort of like a Wifi hotspot with different means of connections, if that makes any sense," Fitz says and Colchester says he understands what she means. 

"Can you try?" Kacey asks Jiro in a soft voice.

"But I'm scared," he replies while shuffling over towards them in his white socks.

"Don't worry we'll be here with you," Mandisa tells him and he nods in agreement.

"So close your eyes and concentrate on the voices you hear," she says and slowly guides him to sit on Fitz's pink sheets on her bed.

"I'll kill you!" Jiro hears a voice of a man screech to him and the lights begin to flicker on and off.

"They going to kill you, run!" a woman's cry.

"Help me!" someone cried out in agony.

"Who are you?" a little girl's voice asks.

"Jiro," a feint voice calls out to him and he recognizes it.

"Oka- san!" Jiro calls out and the residents eye each other.

"What now?" Fitz asks and Akira explains to Jiro that he should focus on their mother's voice and tell them what she says and he agrees.

"It's been almost a year since you've been in this coma, my sweet son," Jiro says and continues to say that they can't find his brother.

"What?" Akira questions and this snaps Jiro out of concentration.

"I can't hear anything anymore," he tells them.

"I'm lost?" Akira confused and asks them where his body might be.

"I have no clue where to begin because you don't have any memories from when you got lost in the first place," Kacey tells him.

"I know where he is," a boisterous voice calls out to Jiro.

"That little boy I was speaking to last time says he knows where Aniki's body is," Jiro says to them and Colchester is skeptical on whether or not they should believe what he has to say.

"Okay, so, let him tell you where his body is but we'll take it with a grain of salt," Kacey tells them and the boy explains to Jiro the location and he relays the message.

"I know where that is," Akira affirms.

"Write it down over here and when we get out we can find you," Kacey hands him a piece of paper from the journal.

"If we ever get out," Fitz repeats despondent.

"Let's not think about that, for now, Jiro practice listening to the voices, I know it's scary but maybe they'll give information that can help us," Kacey says to him and plants a reassuring hand on his shoulder though reluctant at first, he agrees.

At night, Jiro tossed and turned beside Akira unable to fall asleep as the voices of dozens of Cluster Spirits whispered threats to him though by morning the voices died down and he was left with a headache.

"My head hurts," he whined to Akira while they sat around the dining table for breakfast.

"I know, there's nothing I can do about it, just eat your natto for now," Akira tells him tossing his natto into his rice bowl.

"You want some monggo instead, it's good for you," Eliza says to him and he nods a 'yes'.

"Don't eat it, you'll die!" the voice of the familiar boy screeched into his ears.

"Shizukana!" Jiro screamed and the room fell silent.

[Translation; Quiet]

"Minna, I got it to stop-" he began to say though paused at how everyone had their hands at their throats and mouthed their words.

[Translation; Everyone in Japanese]

"What happened?" he asked them though none of them could respond as their voices were gone. 

At this moment, Jiro felt a sensation he has never felt before, power. It coursed through his veins leading up to his throat, he touch his lips and said one word that would fix this mess.

"Speak!" he commanded and the residents regained their voices. 

"How- how- did you do that?" Kacey verbalizes in a fit of coughing.

"I don't know," he answers.

"I think something like this happened already," Fitz says still shocked.

"The day Kacey got attacked, he screamed and the door burst open," Colchester informs.

"I think this is called a Voice Krowix," Mandisa tells them and gets up to clear the table of their dishes.

"What's that?" Jiro asks still beaming with excitement.

"It's typically a voice 'spell' where you can use your voice to cast spells, it's very rare but not unheard of," she says and begins to wash the dishes at the sink and informs Fitz that it is her turn to help with the dishes.

"Ahh, I don't wanna," she complains though takes clothe and proceeds to dry off the wet dishes.

"I have something weird to show you too," Akira tells them, gets up from his seat and turns his back towards them.

"What the-?" Fitz begins to say though halted by flames coming through Akira's pants

"I fart flames," he says with pride.

"We could have lived without seeing that," Colchester deadpans, Eliza and Kacey begin laughing.

"That's a cool party trick," Kacey says still laughing.

"It must be the after effects of you staying in the portal," Mandisa sheds light on the situation and turns her attention back to the dishes.

Outside the mansion, a black taxi cab parks in front of the large building. A woman steps out of it and the driver rushes to the back of the car to get her suitcases. She wore a long brown coat that had white fur on her shoulders, black pointed heels and deep red lipstick. 

"Hurry up," she called out to the driver in a husky British accent.

"Yes, ma'am," he hurried along with two large burgundy suitcases up the stairs while she has her hand on the door handle, he asks her whether she should knock.

"I don't knock for anyone," she simply stated and walked into Newman Heights.

The residents walked through the double doors of the kitchen and stumbled up the woman eyeing them at the front door.

"Who are-?" Eliza begins to ask though cut off by a hand held up in front of her.

"Why are you guys stopping, I thought we were going up to Mandisa's room?" Kaceys asks making her way through the residents.

"Kacey!" the woman's voice took on a jolly tone.

"Grand Aunt Elizabeth!" Kacey replied in startled at hearing her name from the familiar voice of her childhood.

"How do we know she's not another Kapnos demon?" Akira whispers to them and they hush him.

"What are you doing here?" still in shock, Kacey asks.

"Well, don't just stand there, come and greet me," she told her and Kacey nervously shuffled over to her, planting two kisses on each cheek.

"I haven't heard of you for how many months, I thought something terrible had become of you," Elizabeth says returning her kisses.

"What about the car that just dropped you?" Mandisa asks and Elizabeth tells her that it left and the residents sigh in disappointment.

"You still have that odd fashion sense," she motioned a hand to Kacey's baggy blue jeans, red graphic- tee that had a silhouette of a bunny and red sneakers with a messy bun of golden locks.