A/N: This is my sequel to "Another Haunted." After reading the sample chapter in Seventeen magazine, I now know that I was way off base. But I'm still writing this story according to the "plot" I set up in "Another Haunted," based, of course, on Cabot's first chapter of "Haunted."

Disclaimer: I don't own The Mediator. I do not own the characters or much of the basic storyline (mediator stuff, Suze's life before this story takes place, etc.) but I did make up the plot, which is, as I said, the sequel to my fanfic that is loosely based on Meg Cabot's book "The Mediator." Please do not sue me.

Chapter 1



Here's the thing about being in love with a ghost: It can get very messy.

I mean, okay, I knew that, when I started getting involved with Jesse, that things weren't going to be easy. He is dead, after all. It's not like I could change that. But still, it definitely had a lot of perks.

However, hearing daily lectures on the "delicate" relationship between mediators and ghosts from Father Dominic-fellow mediator and principal of my school, Junipero Serra Academy-was not one of them. You'd think that, coming from a guy who apparently had some sort of thing going with a ghost when he was my age, he'd be a little more open minded about the whole thing.

But no. From the moment I walked into his office the Monday after Jesse and I had decided to start going out-or at least, whatever it is you want to call it when your boyfriend is a ghost-Father D made it very clear that he was against it. I mean it, he practically went ballistic, going on and on about what a mediator should and should not do.

And, okay, can I just point out that I am not like most mediators? I mean, most mediators, I'd like you to note, cannot send ghosts on to Heaven or Hell or whatever just by wanting it, or however it works. Most mediators can't control minds.

I'm serious. Just a month before, I'd learned from Paul Slater-fellow mediator and psycho killer-that I was not like other mediators. And I knew for a fact that I could do all that-at least, I could do the mind control thing. I'd only tried it once, and that was because Jesse-who's mind was being controlled by Paul-was trying to strangle me.

Apparently, though, Father Dominic didn't see things my way. Which is why I was sitting in his office on that particular day, listening to his usual tirade.

"Susannah," Father Dominic said, "as mediators, we are supposed to be helping ghosts to move on. We're not supposed to be having. er." "Romantic relations?" I supplied.

Father D frowned.

I waved my hand dismissively. "Just kidding. Go on."

Father Dom sighed. "We aren't supposed to be having, as you jokingly put it, romantic relations with them."

"Father Dom," I said, irritated, "I'm not a regular mediator, though. Don't you think that the rules are a bit different for me?" I had, of course, told Father Dominic about what Paul had told me. I figured that, since Father D had been around a lot longer than I had, that he would have heard of that sort of thing.

It turned out, actually, that he hadn't, which just had me confused, really. Since Paul had, according to Jesse, died in what was apparently a pretty nasty fire, I really had no one to explain any of this to me. I mean, I didn't really know what I was supposed to do for most of my new found "powers."

It almost made me sorry that Paul had died in the fire. Almost.

While Father Dominic went off on another tangent, I sunk down into my chair, pretending to listen, but really trying to remember the night before.

Jesse had been exceptionally wonderful since Paul had forced him to nearly kill me. It was almost like the whole fact that that had happened was making him realize how much he actually liked me-or maybe, I'd often mused, it made him finally decide to show it. Either way, I liked the change quite a bit.

I was sitting in my window seat, reading Seventeen magazine (A/N: Notice how I managed to slip it in there?) when Jesse showed up.

I glanced up at him, smiling. "Hey," I greeted, setting down my magazine.

Jesse smiled back at me, coming to sit down beside me. I swear, in the past month, that smile of his-which, I might add, would make any girl's knees go weak-was having even more of an effect on me.

Like right then, I could practically feel my insides turn to mush as he pulled me into his arms and kissed me.

I sighed contentedly. Oh, yes, there definitely were some perks to having Jesse as my boyfriend.

"Susannah," Father Dom said, interrupting my thoughts. "Susannah, are you listening to me?" I nodded, even though I really hadn't been.

Father Dominic sighed. "I was saying that-oh, for goodness sake, never mind. You need to get back to class." He quickly signed my pass, and I was out the door before he could change his mind.

It was as I was walking back to class that I noticed someone in the shadows. I squinted, trying to see their face, but I couldn't. I walked toward him.

I stopped when I finally saw his face. I sucked in a breath. It couldn't be.

Paul Slater stepped from the shadow, looking very much the way I'd last seen him-save a bit of goatee growing on his face-and, I might add, very much alive.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed, not caring how much my voice was shaking.

Paul didn't answer. He merely slipped a piece of folded up paper from his pocket and jabbed it into my hand. Then he disappeared down the hallway.

I was shaking the whole way back to class. How could Paul still be alive? Jesse had said that he'd died in the fire at the warehouse.

I didn't get a chance to look at what Paul gave me until lunch. When I opened it, I realized that it was a note:

Suze,

You might think you escaped me at the warehouse, but you were very wrong. I'll be watching you. Don't do anything too stupid.

Paul