Doctors and psychiatrists came regularly over the next few days to speak with Kasey. They asked her never ending questions Kasey gave empty answers. She knew no more than they did. After a while it became exhausting and ridiculous. It was as if Kasey could read their mind. No one believed her and they thought Kasey was hiding away dozens of secrets. They were all wrong.

Kasey would have given anything to remember a clue to her past. She strained her mind to the breaking point but nothing seemed to work. Nothing came back to her. It was as if someone had pushed "Delete" on her memory. She was actually amazed she could even speak.

A week after Kasey woke up in the hospital, she made a plan. Sick of the endless questions, forced smiles, and light conversations around her Kasey wanted to be treated like a person, not like some freak. So she decided she had to leave. If Kasey wanted answers she couldn't stay in the hospital, she already hated it enough. Kasey would just have to go out on her own.

By now she knew what time the nurses and doctors made their rounds. At 10:15 in the morning, Kasey slid out of her bed and stuck her head out of the room to look down at the nurse's station. The hospital was surprisingly quiet, even for a Tuesday.
Silently Kasey made her way down the hall. She looked around the corner and saw only one nurse at the small station. She was facing away, working with something on the computer.

The hallway Kasey was in led down to more rooms. She had to turn down the hallway at the nurse's station to get anywhere.

Making sure the nurse was still looking away; Kasey got down on her knees and crawled next to the desk of the nurse's station, just out of view.

Kasey heard the nurse suddenly get up and she froze. Waiting for the sound of a creaking chair, Kasey looked around to make sure no one see her and started moving again.

Once Kasey was certain they couldn't stop her, she walked quickly down the hallway, looking for the employee's locker room.

Luckily the door was unlocked. Searching around she found a shirt, jacket, and a pair of sweatpants, and sneakers.

Kasey had almost walked out of the small locker room when she caught her reflection in a mirror.

Kasey had brunette hair that was long and had a wild look to it. Her eyes were a warm almond color and she had naturally arched eyebrows. A slender face, high cheekbones, and smooth lips added to give Kasey a look of natural beauty. She also had a lean body with toned arms and powerful legs. Overall, Kasey liked the way she looked.

Snapping her attention back to getting out, Kasey pushed open her door and walked to the front entrance. A few nurses gave her a smile as if she was a visitor. Kasey smiled and kept her head down as she walked out of the hospital that had become more of a prison.

Finally she was outside and took a deep breath of clean air. It felt invigorating, unlike the super clean scent of the hospital. Kasey was overcome with a sense of freedom.

Kasey walked to the library and got on a computer. She searched through as many missing person reports matching her description, as she could. None of them looked like her or fit Kasey's profile. To say she was disappointed was an understatement. Kasey was hoping to find some answers. Instead she only found more dead ends.

With no money and nothing on her, Kasey decided to just take a walk and clear her head. She didn't know where she was going; Kasey just had to go somewhere.

For a few blocks, Kasey walked with her hands in her pockets, thinking about the past week: waking up completely lost the kind nurse, the tiresome question, the charming and tall insurance man, and his cute, persistent partner.

The more Kasey thought about it, the more she came to the conclusion that neither of the two guys seemed to fit their parts. They both appeared uncomfortable in their business suits and the questions they asked didn't really pertain to an insurance claim. Maybe Kasey was being paranoid having her circumstances but she didn't think either one of them was an insurance investigator.

Something brushed against Kasey's leg in the breeze.

It was yellow police tape, the stuff they used around crime scenes to keep people back. Kasey's eyes followed the tape and she saw that it was wrapped around a large tree that stood in front of what was once a white wooden church. It didn't seem anything special, just the average one story small town church that every family packed themselves into on Sunday mornings.

Now it was gone, almost completely from the fire. It seemed only the bare frame of the church stood, if even that. Most of the roof was gone, except for a section in the back, some of the exterior walls stood. Burned pews filled the church. Kasey looked around to make sure no one was watching and she stepped inside the church to see more of the wreckage.

She had just stepped though the doorway when she heard a firm voice say, "Can I ask you what you're doing in here miss?"

Turning around casually, Kasey stayed calm as she looked at the face of an older police officer. He stood at the base of the steps, looking up at Kasey, with his thumbs hooked into his belt.

Kasey put on her best "innocent" act, which was like playing dumb. "Oh I was just seeing how bad the church burned," she explained.

"Well you might get hurt around here," the officer told her as he gestured for Kasey to come down.

"Okay," Kasey said as she smiled and walked past the officer and the church without looking back.

Guess I'll just have to come back tonight, Kasey resolved in her mind.
Kasey slipped back into the hospital and noticed that three hours after she had left it was back to its usual busy routine, making it harder for Kasey to sneak in unnoticed. Putting on the different change of clothes she had been given form the hospital, Kasey stored the regular set under he bend and laid down as if she had been there the entire time. It seemed that her absence had gone unnoticed after Kasey waited twenty minutes for someone to come in and yell at her but it never happened. Kasey smiled at her stealth.

Since there was nothing else to do, Kasey took a nap. She ate dinner when it was brought to her and waited until just after 11:30 that night to sneak out again. Kasey got dressed and left without anyone noticing. Before she left, Kasey found a janitor's closet and "borrowed" a large flashlight to see in the dark.

Staying mostly in the shadows as Kasey walked, she made her way back to the church. The back door, or what was left of it, was her best option for entry if she didn't want to get caught, so Kasey went around and found a side door away from prying eyes.

Lucky for her the door was unlocked and Kasey silently crept inside.

Everything was badly burned. Kasey also knew nothing about the layout of churches, which only added to the list of things she currently knew nothing about.
She was in a hallway; Kasey knew that much by the length and width of it. Kasey walked though a doorway into a charred office. Everything in it had burned up. Nothing was useful in the back of the church, as if it had been before the accident.

Off to the side of the room, Kasey saw a door, mostly burned off.

She pushed it open and it crumbled but led her to the main room of the church where services were held. Ash littered the floor. Wooden pews had been reduced to harmless crumbling embers. Even the decorated glass windows had broken under the heat. It was a sad sight to behold.

Kasey heard a muffled crunch behind her and whirled around to see what it was.
Instead of flashing her light on a skittish animal like Kasey expected, she found herself staring down the double barrel of a shotgun. The blond insurance guy quickly lowered the gun.

"What the hell are you thinking?" Kasey demanded. She saw his partner standing tall as always, a few feet behind him. He held a large, dangerous gun at his side. A confused look was on his face, accompanying his partner's angered one.

"What am I thinking? What are you thinking, walking around at night in a dangerous building?"

"It looks like I'd have a better chance of getting shot!" Kasey returned, and then she looked down and lowered her voice. Both guys waited for her explanation.

"I had to see this place for myself, she what happened here," Kasey said. She moved her flashlight around and wasn't surprised to see even more destruction.

There was sadness in Kasey's voice when she spoke.

"I just...I didn't think it would be this bad," Kasey told them.

She looked around a bit more but brought her attention back to the guys, who she knew by now weren't even close to being insurance workers.

"And what are you two doing here at night, in the dark, walking around with guns?" Kasey asked, punctuating the last part.

The two guys exchanged a quick look.

"We're checking to see if it was arson," the blond guy said casually.

"With guns?" Kasey pointed out.

"You can never be too careful," he said sarcastically and with a smile.

She decided to lay it all out. "Seriously," she said. "Look I know there is no way either of you two are insurance guys. That much is obvious. Your questions, your
cheap suits, the car-"

"Excuse me?" the blond guy interrupted. Kasey saw his partner roll his eyes like he had already heard what was coming. "What about the car?"

Kasey sighed. Obviously the car was his pride and joy.

"I'm just saying it doesn't look typical," she explained.

"How would you know?" said the blond guy suspiciously.

"You watch enough daytime TV. in that hospital and you learn a few things," said Kasey. The dark haired guy grinned.

"You're not insurance agents," said Kasey. "Just at least tell me your names."
The dark haired guy stepped forward. "My name is Johnny Morran and this is my big brother Aiden."

Then Kasey noticed the moonlight flickering off of matching silver crosses the guys both carried in their hands. "What, are you hunting for ghosts?" Kasey joked.

The two brothers exchanged a look but didn't laugh. Kasey's smile faded from her face to become a look of disbelief.

"You guys are serious?" Kasey asked, extremely confused.

Johnny didn't look at her but nodded his head.

"Wow, are you guys off your meds?" Kasey asked sarcastically.

She turned around to walk away from the two nut jobs. If they were crazy, she

didn't want any part of it.

"Kasey wait!" Johnny called as he followed her.

Stopping, Kasey took and deep breath and turned to face him. Aiden had walked up to them, and stood next to Johnny.

"Look," said Aiden. "It's not as simple or crazy as it sounds."
Kasey raised an eyebrow. "Oh really, because I would say this is definitely white padded room and straight jacket kind of material," she told them.

"Look you've just gotta trust us," Aiden said bluntly. "We've been doing this for a while so when generally know when something isn't right. And from what we've heard from you and police reports, something isn't adding up. Johnny and I aren't exactly sure what is going on but we mean to find out what."

To her, both Aiden and Johnny sounded crazy, but Aiden did have a point. Something didn't feel right about anything and there was enough evidence to back it up. She couldn't call the cops. Kasey knew if she did that, the answers she had been looking for would be gone. They didn't seem exactly like the crazy kind of people who lived in fantasy worlds all the time so Kasey decided to listen to them. If they had leads about what was actually was happening, Kasey wanted to know all of it.

"Fine," she said, looking Aiden directly in the eyes.
"You're not going to walk out and call the cops?" Aiden asked, surprised by her sudden change of faith.

"Not yet," Kasey answered. "If you guys have a clue about what is going on, then I want to be in on this too. And I don't really think the cops are going to work hard to try and solve this."

Aiden chuckled to himself. "Yeah we know what you mean. Most of the stuff we do has been a lot of 'been there, done that' with the police in small towns. If it doesn't seem real, they don't bother."

"Do you trust us?" Johnny asked Kasey.

She looked into his eyes and saw the truth. He wasn't lying to her or playing games. Kasey knew she could trust him, it was almost a given. Kasey could put her faith in Johnny and she knew it wouldn't be misplaced. Johnny was one of those people who seemed like Kasey could trust her life with him.

"Yes," she answered.

Aiden saw whatever passed between them and rolled his eyes. Johnny had that sort of puppy dog eyes look that he gave people so they would trust him. It was always guaranteed to work. Personally it annoyed Aiden. He was more of the ''shoot first, questions later" type of guy.

Kasey took a deep breath. "So what are you guys doing here?" she asked.
Aiden looked at Johnny then back to Kasey. "Basically we're look for anything that can give us a clue to what we're dealing with."

"Like what?" Kasey asked, completely lost.

"Anything that looks like it doesn't belong," Johnny told her.

"Strange burn marks, weird signs, salt smell, odd spots of blood," Aiden said. "Things like that."

It all sounded weird Kasey, but she went along anyway. She followed the brothers around as they checked through the different burns piles, looking for any signs of something that didn't look right. Eventually Kasey began to look on her own, though she was sure that if something that was evil or whatever was right in front of her, she would miss it completely.