Authors Note: I TOLD YOU I WOULD BE BACK!!!!!!! Were not starting TOTALLY over…I just need to tweak a few things. Like it says in the summary, now RYAN is in Colorado and SARAH is in Skeleton Creek. It makes more sense this way I think :) Anyways…please read and review!!!!!

Disclaimer- I don't own anything related to Skeleton Creek. Patrick Carman does.

* * *

Skeleton Creek, Oregon Monday 2:48am Sarah POV

It all started with a name. The name Skeleton Creek never failed to interest me. Why give such a sleepy and seemingly harmless town such a haunting name. I've always been curious in nature. I guess that's why I have a need to film everything. That's how it started. I met Ryan in 6th grade. We were eleven and both considered outcasts. We clicked right away and from then on were inseparable. We got into our share of trouble. I knew his parents didn't approve of him being friends with me, but he never complained and neither did I. Then that one day on the bus, roughly---was it only two months ago? I asked the million dollar question that pulled us into this mess.

"Why Skeleton Creek?"

We researched it, me more passionately than him and all roads led to the same place, the dredge

Oh god, the dredge. I don't want to think about it. Of course I, being the adventurous and painfully curious person that I was, needed to check it out. Ignoring the warnings of Ryan and all of the townspeople that we talked to I went there by myself. That's when I saw him and he saw me, the ghost of Old Joe Bush. I ran as fast as I could back to my house and uploaded what I saw onto my website. I sent Ryan the password and he watched it. At first he thought I was messing with him. That night we went back. I was filming, looking around trying to film as much of the dredge as I could. I should have stayed with Ryan. He went to one of the upper levels of the dredge. I heard him call out and then the deafening crash. Fear clogging my system I ran to where he had been seconds ago, only to see that he had flipped back over the railing and had fell a good 40 feet. He wasn't moving…

"RYAN!" Sarah's voice echoed around the empty dredge.

She ran down the wood steps and dropped to her knees next to her friend's prone form.

"Ryan! C'mon Ryan, get up! Talk to me! Ryan!"

At the frantic sound of her voice, Ryan's eyes open a little.

"Sarah?"

"Thank God, Ryan!" She said leaning over him.

Ryan was in so much pain, he felt like he was going to pass out.

"God, Sarah my leg."

She looked at his left leg and then quickly looked away. It was contorted at an odd angle and she thought she saw blood.

"It's ok. I'm gonna get you outta here. You're gonna be fine. I'm gonna call go get help and then we'll get you to a hospital."

Sarah made to get up, but Ryan grabbed her wrist painfully tight.

"Please don't leave."

Sarah sat kneeled back down next to him.

"No problem." She took checked her pockets frantically for her phone and when she finally found it, she made sure it was charged. Thanking God that it was she called 911, followed by calls to hers and Ryan's parents.

"Everything's gonna be fine Ryan. I promise." Sarah said trying to convince both of them.

After that night, our parents had flipped. It wasn't surprising really. We weren't allowed to see each other anymore. Both sets of parents put special filters on our computers, took away our cell phones, and watched us like we were lab rats. That didn't stop us though. We kept in touch. I remember the e-mails and the videos. I even remembered how good it felt to actually see him that night…

Sarah waited anxiously in the side alley behind Ryan's house. She shifted her weight from one foot to another and waited for her friend to emerge. They were going to the dredge. It was all set up. Her video camera was sending the feed straight to her computer. If they weren't back by 8:00 the next morning, her father, the local news station, and the sheriffs department would all know what happened to them. Ryan finally came out and Sarah helped him into her car (he was still in the cast from the broken leg) after throwing her arms around him. They drove into the familiar woods and started into the dredge.

It's all a blur to me from there, that is, until Ryan told me to turn off the flashlight…

"What was that? Ryan whispered as they walked through the dredge.

"What?" Sarah asked, stopping abruptly.

"Turn off the light!" Ryan hissed, pulling Sarah through a door and against a wall.

Sarah did so and the two of them listened in fear as the sound of footsteps drew nearer. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped in the doorway and the skeleton face of Old Joe Bush looked into the small room. They couldn't tell whether it had seen them or not. The ghost finally left, locking the door behind it. Ryan and Sarah glanced at each other, both of them wondering just how much oxygen they actually had in this tiny room. Sarah picked up her video camera and turned it toward her.

"This is Sarah Fincher and Ryan McCray. We're in a room inside the dredge. Something locked us in. If you're watching this, help us. Just—just help us. She pleaded. Then the battery on the camera went dead.

Sarah let out a shuddery breath and leaned back on the wall behind her, closing her eyes.

"This is all my fault." She said, rare tears slipping down her cheeks.

Ryan didn't agree or disagree with her; He pulled her over to him so she was leaning against his chest and hugged her.

"We'll get out of here" He whispered against her hair.

Sarah wished she could believe him.

Since we couldn't get out of the dredge, the sheriff and our parents came to get us right after they got the video. By the time they got there, according to Ryan I had already passed out from lack of oxygen and he hadn't been far behind. You could guess that although our parents had been ecstatic to see us alive, they were furious that we had disobeyed them and came to the dredge. For Ryan's parents, it was the last straw. When he was released from the hospital, they told him to pack his stuff. The McCray's left Skeleton Creek, Oregon that night. I never got to say goodbye to Ryan. They moved to Canon City, Colorado, and I've been miserable ever since. I miss Ryan so much that it's painful. As a plus, I constantly feel like I'm being watched, and not only by my parents. The ghost of Old Joe Bush is still watching Ryan and me. He won't give up and we have to stop him, whatever it takes.

My name is Sarah Fincher, and this is my story.