Chapter One

When I awoke, it was late. The room was a deathly silent, and pitch black. Moonlight flooded the room from a fairly largely sized window. I blinked slowly, clearing up my blurred eyes.

For a moment, I couldn't remember where I was. I didn't know anything, why I was here, what had happened, nothing. Their was only blissful ignorance for the faintest of seconds. A smile formed on my lips. Then, reality set in. I sprung up from my bed and looked around the room for the first time.

It was pleasant enough considering I was seeing it through moonlight. Their was a small chair in the corner of the room near the window. There was another bed beside mine, Tori slept in it, snoring.

Then I remembered what had woken me up in the first place. The noise shattered the deathly silence again.

It was a terrible sound, like nails on a chalkboard and it wasn't just one thing making the noise, it was a lot.

I gave a small yelp, clasped my hand over my mouth, and then looked over to Tori who was undeterred by my girlie cry. Mind reeling, I searched for the source of the noise.

Outside of my window I saw figures. Mangled bodies, with bits and pieces of flesh falling from the body. Dirt encased nails scratched down the window. The zombie-like creatures gave a low, guttural moan. About ten undead bodies were outside my window. My heart pounded as I saw them.

I hadn't even dreamt of raising anyone. To my knowledge, I had slept dreamlessly. Obviously that didn't stop me from raising the dead, again.

My lungs filled with air, I exhaled slowly trying to calm myself down. I swallowed back a scream.

Oh God, oh God, oh God… I pushed my eyes closed. I inhaled and began to visualize tugging the spirits out. It wasn't as easy as before, and before hadn't been very easy.

There were ten distinct spirits, I could feel it. Immediately, I attempted to pull all of the souls out at once. That had no effect whatsoever; It was like trying to fit an apple through a keyhole.

Wake up Derek, I thought. He had told me to wake him up if something like this happened, but what if I woke up Simon? And, simultaneously, Tori would almost inevitably wake up if everyone else was awake. Derek would probably yell at me in the morning, but I would just have to get over that.

In my head I imagined Derek's voice since I wouldn't wake him up. "Take it one at a time.. Don't rush it."

Taking my imaginary Derek's advice, I began to pluck the souls from their corpses. One by one, the souls were released from their bodies. Their spirits left to do whatever they do after death.

I sighed in relief and fell back to my bed. My breathing slowed from the relief, and I had to admit I was a bit proud of myself. I hadn't woken up anyone with my yelp - or at least not that I knew of - and I released at least ten spirits from their corpses.

My pride faded quickly. I had put the spirits back in the bodies. It was my fault in the first place that were summoned back. For the shortest time I had actually thought I was safe here. I know knew that I couldn't be safe. It was stupid to think that I could be safe. I could never let down my guard again. I needed to be cautious - more careful, always careful.

I slid back unto my bed and leaned against the wall, not trusting myself to fall back asleep.

I pulled my knees up to my chin and rested it there as I began to think. Obviously, I had to go to sleep sometime. But how could I without raising the dead? And speaking of the dead, it would look odd to see a bunch of dead corpses at my window once day broke. I pulled on a jacket and shoes, and headed out of my room.

Everyone else was sleeping, even Derek, to my relief. I sighed and slowly moved past the hallway in front of me, careful not to stumble.

The house was bigger than I imagined. So it took me a minute before I could find the doors that led outside. I pushed on them. Locked. I swore under my breath. There was a code on the door, and I hadn't the faintest clue of what it was.

"It's zero, zero, seven. You know like double-oh-seven. James Bond?" A voice chimed through the darkness.

I jumped and choked back a yelp. "L-l-liz?"

She stood beside me, eyes glowing. She cocked her head to the side. "Well, you going to open it?" I punched in the code, still shocked, and walked outside. "What are you doing here? I thought you were going to visit your Nana."

"I did." She followed close behind. "It was nice. Felt bad though, she was so upset about my death." She shook her head. "And I told you that I would be back, didn't I?"

"Yes, you-"

"But you didn't believe me." Her face fell. "If I said that I was coming back, I meant it."

"I k-k-k-know y-y-you did. I j-just w-w-wasn't expecting you t-t-tonight." I sighed at my stutter. "Sorry, just been a weird night."

"I saw," Liz muttered and shivered slightly. "You did that on accident?"

I nodded. "I didn't even know there were any dead bodies here."

"Not just a few bodies. I've seen them around here." She lowered her voice to a barely audible whisper. "They're weird. I don't like them to much. Not the best group in the world. You must have risen them from that small graveyard. See it?"

She motioned with her hand and I did see it. It was a graveyard, and luckily not a very big one. It went along perfectly with the Goth-like theme of the house. I suppressed a shiver thinking of hundreds of zombies crawling, undead and…

I walked over towards the pile of dead bodies on the ground. I first noticed them, not by seeing them, but by there smell. They had obviously been dead for a while. Rotting in the damp ground for a few years, most of the flesh decomposed..

Teeth chattering slightly, I began to pick up the bodies and move them back into their graves. Liz looked down at them in disgust. "How can you stand touching them?" She asked.

I just laughed and continued to move the bodies trying not to think about how cold, lifeless and discombobulated the bodies were.

"Oh no," Liz murmured.

I turned to face her. "Liz? What's-"

"They're back."

"They" apparently meaning the ghosts from the graveyard. They came into vision slowly. Angry expressions were plastered onto their face. All of them were men - gruff looking men. Irritable. I couldn't blame them of course, I did shove them back into their rotting remains of a body.

"You," one said, voice contorting with infuriated rage. "Think it's funny dontcha'? Havin' a good laugh at me huh? Little ignorant fool!"

"Shut up!" Liz defended me loyally, rocking on her heels ready to pounce. "She didn't mean to. Chloe was sleeping. What do you expect her to do? Stay awake for the rest of her life just to spare you the trouble?"

The man scrunched up his face looking pig-like. "Might as well." He turned back to me. "D'you know what it's like to be shoved back into ya' body af'ta ten 'hole 'ears of being dead?"

"I-I-I'm s-sorry." I stuttered.

"That won't-" Another man began

Liz shut the man up with a glare. "Get out of here! All of you! Don't make me come over there!"

They backed up grunting. I raised my eyebrows and she explained. "Apparently, I have some sort of authority over the rest of the ghosts being a poltergeist and all."

I nodded and looked over at the retreating figures. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." She smiled. "Good thing I'm here huh? They would be badgering you all night if I hadn't."

"Right. Uh, Liz? Could you help me move these bodies?" I asked her.

She looked down, eyes wide but agreed to help despite her fear. We rolled the bodies into their graves.

After about thirty to forty minutes, I wiped my hands on my jeans, finally finished. I turned around and headed back to the house.