Possession Powers Gained by Chance

There were three of them, Rachel, Elizabeth, and Susan. Susan was the shortest of them, with tanned skin and dark hair. Elizabeth was the tallest, standing taller than even some of the boys at their school. Unlike Susan and Rachel, Elizabeth had lean muscles all along her body, although most people wouldn’t notice as she kept her clothes on the baggier side. And then there was Rachel who stood shorter than Elizabeth, but taller than Susan. Rachel’s red hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail and she was laughing at a joke Susan said.

They had taken a break from studying for their upcoming tests when Rachel noticed a yard sale in their neighborhood run by an old woman. When asked, the woman gave them a sad smile and told them most of these things belonged to either her late husband or her daughter, both of whom sadly passed away in a car accident a few weeks back.

While Elizabeth was consoling the woman, Rachel decided to look through some of the belongings that were up for sale. Some old clothes, a few sports equipment, and some books. Rachel paused when she noticed a box of books mostly hidden behind some golf clubs. She peered over the top, and nearly squealed when she saw they were first edition copies of Jane Smith’s Dearest Diary series. Is this the whole collection? Rachel wondered, flipping through some of the books in the box. It was indeed.

“Excuse me?” Rachel asked, “How much for the box of them?”

The old woman gave a small smile and walked closer, examining the thing that caught Rachel’s eye, “For the set, I’d say twenty dollars should do the trick,” the woman replied, “Hazel loved this when she was a kid.”

Rachel eagerly handed the woman the money and as soon as she took the box in her hands the woman piped up again, “Oh, I think my dear Tom might’ve left something in one of those books. He always liked getting into some trouble, if you find it it’s yours to keep!”

Trouble? Rachel smiled and waved for Elizabeth and Susan to follow her as they went back to her house. Once they were in his room, Rachel immediately got to work making room in her bookshelf to store those books. While she was doing so, Elizabeth and Susan were making light jokes at her expense, out of all the things in that yard sale, Rachel got books, most of which she already owned.

Of course you wouldn't understand this kind of joy, Rachel thought, placing five of the twelve books in her bookcase. Something slipped out from between the pages of book six though. Rachel frowned, and bent down to pick it up, “What’s that?” Susan asked, as she and Elizabeth got closer.

“It looks like a letter,” Rachel replied, picking it up in her hands.

“Should we open it?” Susan asked.

“We probably shouldn’t,” Elizabeth replied, “it’s not ours.”

“That old lady said we could have whatever we find inside.” Rachel reminded her, getting ready to open it.

Elizabeth stepped forward and made a swipe for the letter, “What if it’s something dangerous? Like… **** or something?”

Rachel managed to fend her off and Susan helped hold Elizabeth back, “We won’t know until we try. Besides, aren’t you two just the tiniest bit curious?”

Elizabeth swallowed, but didn’t answer. Susan, however, was nodding her head enthusiastically. That was all Rachel needed and she opened the envelope, not sure what might be inside.

To little fanfare, all that was inside was just a letter, “It looks like a simple letter,” Rachel revealed with a sigh.

“What’s it say?” Susan asked.

Rachel held the letter up, the handwriting wasn’t the greatest, and neither was the paper quality, but eventually she managed to work out the words. She read aloud:

To Hazel,

I want you to have something of mine. It’s a little trick I’ve picked up from my travels when I was younger. Maybe one day I’ll tell you where I found it, but until that day comes, I will leave with this and this alone.

Now, I don’t want to tell you much of the details of what I got up to with this little trick of mine, but just know that I know what to look for so don’t you think about causing any trouble with this, alright?

Rachel frowned when she tried to read beyond that point. She wasn’t sure if maybe the old man’s writing got particularly bad or if he was writing in another language, but she couldn’t make heads or tails of what was written after. It all just looked like a bunch of squiggly symbols.

“What’s wrong?” Susan asked.

“I can’t read anything else,” Rachel replied.

“Well maybe that’s for the best then,” Elizabeth said as Rachel stared harder at the words, “afterall, this seems like something intimate between a dad and his daughter, I don’t think it’s really our place to - OH MY GOD!”