The next morning Ella awoke with the sun's rays in her eyes as she got up from the bed. She gave a quick yawn and looked around. She then remembered the album from her mother's visit and immediately grabbed it from the table next to her.
She began flicking through the pages, skimming the pictures. In every picture, it was of her as a child and her parents with her smiling away. A perfect family, however, she could tell something was off.
Her dad, even though he smiled at the first couple of pictures, soon began faking and Ella could see the pain in his eyes. There was an additional member of the family as the pictures continued.
A little boy with black hair and brown eyes. He would never smile in any of the pictures but when the little girl clung to him his eyes were gentler than before.
The ripped pages at the beginning weren't the only ones, there were some pages which seemed like it had pictures that were glued on and then ripped out. Ella didn't know what to think of this.
There were obviously secrets within this family and she was determined to find out. Just then the ghost boy entered the room without making a sound. He went over to her and looked at what she was looking at. He immediately froze at the sight.
"Hey, w-what are you looking at?" He asked nervously.
"Just my family's album," Ella said casually, she wasn't as freaked out as before and could talk to the boy normally.
"Neat." He said then moved over to the other side of her desk. "By the way, it says here your name is Ella. What's your last name?" The boy asked looking at the clipboard on a desk.
"I don't know, they told me but I forgot." She said still analysing the album. "Speaking of names, I still don't know yours," Ella said looking at him.
"My name?" The boy repeated.
"Yeah, I mean I can't keep calling you 'you' or 'hey' or something like that."
"I guess you can just call me Otto for now." The boy said awkwardly.
"Aww, that's a cute name." Ella smiled.
"Don't call me cute, I'm older than you!" He shouted with rosy cheeks.
"But- you look twelve," Ella said in confusion. "I'm fourteen."
"Well, I'm sixteen. I died at the age of twelve that's why I haven't aged physically. So you shouldn't assume." He said with an annoyed expression.
"You've been here for four years? That must have been lonely..." Ella said with a sympathetic voice.
"Yeah... to be honest, I envy you. You may be weak but you can still leave this hospital if you wanted to. And people can actually see you so that's another thing that I hate about being a ghost." Otto said with a regretful voice staring out the window.
"I didn't think of it that way. Sorry." Ella said with a shrinking tone.
"Don't worry about it. You didn't know." He said with a smile. Just then there was a knock on the door. In came a young man escorted by a nurse into the room. He had pitch-black eyes and blonde hair.
He wore a suit and seemed very sophisticated. Ella and Otto immediately froze at the sight. He walked in and looked around the room before addressing her.
"Who were you talking to?" He asked with a tense gaze. Ella glanced over at Otto who was standing by the window then awkwardly replied.
"M-myself?"
"I guess you're still as strange as ever." He said.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Ella asked not taking his criticism before even knowing his name.
"I am your cousin, Callum. You probably don't remember me but we grew up together. You were very attached to me when you were a child so your mum thought you would remember something if I came." He said sitting in front of her.
"R-really?"