Jai paused briefly in his washing. He remembered of course the ordeal that happened several years ago, and all the events from it to now; the testing, the camps, everything. But most importantly, he remembered it made him feel less alone about his own abilities. Most humans, including his own birth parents, were the cruel ones, the ones who rejected him or treated him badly. Romano not being human, couldn’t be further from being a problem. Jai offered a soft and sincere smile, the dimple in his cheek deepening.
“The best people often aren’t.” He said before continuing in his washing. “My moms the only human I’ve ever like anyways.” He added.
“Yeah, but still not like the others. Not special, but I am different.” Jai shrugged gently.
He wasn’t sure where he fell in with his mediumship, after everything had happened, his Mother suggested taking him to the Society to see if there was some help or resources for him. But much like Romano was briefly from the strangers, Jai was self conscious. When he was very small, Jai was subject to a lot of abuse for his gift. Being the child of immigrants from a country that had more...old school, views on that sort of thing meant he would have the evil spirits tortured out of him. Which of course didn’t work, so they would turn to western medicine, medicating Jai until the ghosts could only reach him at night; waking him screaming.
Verona had her work cut out for her, her first foster child was one who was afraid of everything. Going to sleep now was still a bit hard, but he copes.
“It’s difficult for me to talk about it, only my mom really knows. I guess I’m scared people will call me a monster too.” He admitted.
“I mean, I wouldn’t think you were a monster, but you also don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to.” Romano assured, relaxing some and going back to scrubbing at the car. “I mentioned it before that we were taken out of school because of an incident. Someone attacked my sister because of what we are. So...this isn’t the first time we’ve been treated like monsters.” _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“My moms talked about the Society before...Is there anything they can do to help with things like this?” Jai asked, opting to conceal his abilities for now.
“I mean, they can help some when something happens, but it’s hard to prevent it, you know? I feel like we already get a lot of extra help because we have family in the ranks, but it doesn’t do us that much good apparently.” Romano explained. “Mostly it just makes Mom crazy because then Uncle JJ starts henpecking and it annoys her.” _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Jai’s birth Mother would insist. Before Jai had transitioned, before Jai knew he was a boy, before Jai knew he could see ghosts, Jai was a scared and anxious little ‘girl’. Sitting at the foot of their bed, tormented for several nights by ‘ghosts.’ Their eyes were bloodshot and had dark circles around them, they were trembling and their hair was falling out in thin clumps from stress. Doctors would insist it was a behavioral problem, ADHD or something of that kinship. Jai’s grandparents from across the ocean diagnosed that Jai was possessed by a demon. But not just any demon, the spirit Phi Pob. It is thought that Phi Pob attaches to people who leave their homeland, mainly, refugee’s. While Jai was born in the states, it was thought that their parents were the case and Jai was being punished for it.
The cleansing ceremony is long and arduous, ideally they’d have to return to Laos. But that was easier said than done, still they made an effort. With help from the rest of the immigrant community, half assed cleansing ceremony was done in Queen’s. Which mostly consisted of being confined, waterboarded and listening to random and abundant party crackers (traditionally guns are used, but that wasn’t happening) for several hours. This only exhausted Jai more.
Tired and wet, laying naked and crying on the cement square of the communal back yard to their apartment building, they sobbed. The last part of the cleaning ceremony was to admit to being possessed.
“I’m possessed! I’m possessed by Phi Pob!” Jai screamed. Their eyes were fixated though, on something entered the yard from the alley. A young man stumbling forward, littered with gunshot wounds; he coughed and spit up blood as he shambled toward Jai. This was one of hundred apparitions that would haunt Jai.
“I’m possessed! I’m possessed! Please!” Jai would continued to scream as the corporeal figure only drew closer.
“Help...Help...Me...” The figure would gasp, toppling down on top of Jai. The sensation of blood dripping on their face, their breath blowing in Jai’s face in strangled but rapid succession. Jai would continue to scream and cry as the invisible man would evaporate into him.
Inconsolable, Jai would continued to cry and scream in the middle of the yard. The cleansing ceremony didn’t work. Jai did what they were told and suffered through hours of torment, only to somehow, be worse off than before.
~~
But nearly ten years later, thing’s were okay. Jai’s quality of life had definitely improved tenfold. Verona never gave up on Jai, she never hurt him or accused him of being possessed or making it up. She acclimated, because she was committed to being a good Mom, and because she loved Jai with her whole heart. Instead of enduring hours of torment or being doped up with pills, when the ghosts would seek Jai out at night and he would wake up screaming, Verona would hold him. She would pet his hair and squeeze him tight so her embrace was all his could feel. Sometimes she would cry too. But she would sit through the whole thing with Jai, and when the apparitions would vanish, Verona would pour them a glass of water to rehydrate, and they’d fall asleep in each other's arms; embraced tightly in Verona’s bed.
Nights were still hard. But Jai’s bedroom was sort of his, ‘sleepy time sanctuary,’ decked out with all things that made Jai feel safe and happy. Fairy lights braided into tulle that hung over his bed. The mattress was layered with weighted quilts and plush pillows. Even the floor was covered with a fluffy rug, clean and soft under his feet. There was a Himalayan salt lamp and a white noise machine, a diffuser and an incense burner. The room would always light up with a warm glow as soon as the sun went down. He had a lot of comfortable nights where he was rested, but not always, not even in his sleepy time sanctuary, and especially not in the living room.
Ignoring the Asian stereotype, Jai wasn’t an especially good student. He wasn’t terrible though, he wasn’t failing at all. But there were subjects he was weak in, chemistry being the worst. So Jai’s new friend and neighbor was over to study with him, much to Jai’s surprise, Romano was a good student. But their study session was running late, not that Jai had anywhere to be and Verona may not even be home tonight. They were in the living room, which was nice enough but no sleepy time sanctuary. The overhead light looked like a boob and was armed with a bright fluorescent light, which Jai didn’t mind until he had been sitting under it for a couple hours. He found himself squinted and shutting his eyes on and off, one to take a break from the light, and two, because he was always tired, duh. There was a nice leather sectional centered in the middle of the living room, accompanied on either end by matching tub chairs. But because he was Lao, Jai was squatted comfortable on the floor, with his cheek rested on his knee and his back pressed against the entertainment center. He was trying to focus on the equation scribbled out in his composition notebook, but the light was blinding and his eyes felt so dry. One eye was already shut, the other lazily trying to focus on the page.
Romano had always had a penchant for trouble. He and his twin were practically infamous in the neighborhood for being cohorts if not leaders to the neighborhood kids and all of their shenanigans. He liked to pull pranks on the unexpected, albeit mostly harmless, and he liked to make others laugh. So it was quite shocking to everyone really that despite his class clown reputation and attitude that he was actually... well... smart.
He was, surprisingly, always ahead of his classmates and peers when it came to learning things and he was the sort who retained information the first time it was said (though, whenever in a bind, he often liked to insist that that wasn't true and he'd like to see his father prove that he'd been told not to do something). When they were all still in public school, Romano was in all college prep courses and was even taking college courses though he still wasn't sure he even wanted to go to college. So when his new friend, Jai, approached him about needing help with schoolwork, he was more than happy to share his gift and help out.
The twosome worked through the more intensive of Jai's work before he popped back over to the house and grabbed some money (surely from extorting Cal and Han both) so he and Jai could order pizza, not from Giovanni's. They had scarfed down their individual pies and Romano even finished off the gluten-free chicken alfredo plate he'd ordered. He had sprawled out on the floor near Jai, reading over his own notes for his Government course and feeling quite sleepy and content himself. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Both of Jai’s eyes were closed now, he was trying hard to follow the words Romano was saying. He was trying to absorb each word with intent but somewhere along the way his train of thought completely dissipated into nothingness. His head lolled to the side lazily, and his pencil dropped from his hand and rolled under the table, and a gentle, sleepy snore escaped him.
Romano looked up when he heard the pencil drop, followed by the soft sound of Jai's snoring. He grinned a little to himself and went to sit up, grabbing the pencil from under the table as he did so. He set it down on the table in front of Jai and took a pause to look at his friend, craning his neck to do so.
Romano had to admit, Jai was awfully cute, especially in this moment. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
The bad thing, about fighting sleep like this, once asleep Jai was...vulnerable . In real time, Jai was blissfully asleep, but already ‘dreaming,’ he was awake, sitting on the floor still but alone? He blinked and looked around for his friend, he stood up and something pulled him to look out the front window. Directly across the street, a neighboring house had a large dead tree in it’s front yard. A lot of the houses in this neighborhood had one. But this one was most irregular...A girl was hanging from a branch, swaying slightly in the wind. Jai yelled and jumped back from the window, in real time he yelled as well. Though he was still perched on the floor, eyes were twitching and half lidded as his body began to jerk and shake. He yelped and whimpered in his place on the floor.
In his dream, though the girl dropped down from the tree, the noose still hanging loosely around her neck as she jogged across the street.
“No no no!” Jai exclaimed, in both wake and sleep.
The ghostly girl ran right up the porch, the noose trailing behind her like a heavy scarf. She peered into the front window, tapping urgently on it’s glass.
The bad thing, about fighting sleep like this, once asleep Jai was...vulnerable . In real time, Jai was blissfully asleep, but already ‘dreaming,’ he was awake, sitting on the floor still but alone? He blinked and looked around for his friend, he stood up and something pulled him to look out the front window. Directly across the street, a neighboring house had a large dead tree in it’s front yard. A lot of the houses in this neighborhood had one. But this one was most irregular...A girl was hanging from a branch, swaying slightly in the wind. Jai yelled and jumped back from the window, in real time he yelled as well. Though he was still perched on the floor, eyes were twitching and half lidded as his body began to jerk and shake. He yelped and whimpered in his place on the floor.
In his dream, though the girl dropped down from the tree, the noose still hanging loosely around her neck as she jogged across the street.
“No no no!” Jai exclaimed, in both wake and sleep.
The ghostly girl ran right up the porch, the noose trailing behind her like a heavy scarf. She peered into the front window, tapping urgently on it’s glass.
Romano jolted back when Jai started screaming in panic. He wasn't sure what to do at first, he wasn't even sure what was happening, but then he reached out to grab Jai's hand, shaking it in his grasp.
"Jai! Jai! Wake up! You're okay!" He called out. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“I need your help, please!” The girl continued to plead.
Jai squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his eyes with vigor, “Stop! Go away!” He continued to yell in both sleep and real time. His own yelling was enough to wake him up, but that doesn’t make the ghosts disappear. His eyes snapped open and he dared not look at the window, Romano was there and shaking his hand. On complete impulse, he scrambled forward, pulling on Romano’s hand to meet him before releasing it to wrap his arms tightly around his middle.
Still, a tapping on the window.
“Go away! I can’t help you!” Jai cried out, though muffled in Romano’s shirt.
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