"Why can't I remember where I live?" Emily was starting to panic again as they sat on the front steps leading in to the college. It had taken several attempts to get her out of the building. She was emotional and unfocussed. It took energy for spirits to move; and concentration. Naomi had ordered Emily to concentrate on her; to focus on following her out of the building. It had finally worked, but they had quickly been faced with their next challenge when Emily admitted she couldn't remember where she lived. It was not uncommon for some new spirits to be confused for a while. It was sometimes hard to make connections to the world they had been torn from.

"Things will be fuzzy for a while. It'll come back to you…look why don't we try using the computers in the library to see if anything comes up about what happened to you? Maybe it was in the news?" Naomi had spent the weekend recovering in bed and could quite easily have missed the news of Emily's death, though she would be surprised no one had told JJ or Kieran. Surely if a student died they would announce it? Or have some sort of assembly and offer counselling and stuff? Emily was quite quiet but she belonged to a popular crowd, a lot of people would mourn her, and just as many would use it as an excuse to get out of coursework. Naomi could just see the airhead beauty students crying in to their hankies as they told the school councillor how traumatised they were by the death of a girl they had never known.

Emily was getting good at focusing on moving around and managed to follow Naomi back in to the college with ease. The library was relatively deserted and the two girls managed to get one of the computer terminals. Emily hovered behind her as Naomi took a seat at the computer and ran a search on Emily Fitch. Apart from her Facebook page and a few articles she had written for her high school paper nothing turned up. Emily frowned at the screen, unhappy with not finding anything.
"Are you sure I'm dead?"
"You're standing through a chair." Naomi snapped, her patience wearing thin. They had already established Emily was definitely dead. If the death of an attractive eighteen year old girl hadn't made the news then it must not have been foul play. She was about to ask Emily if she had any medical conditions when Cook popped out from behind one of the book stacks.
"You talking to yourself again Blondie? Who's standing through a chair?" His tone was light and teasing, though he was giving her a wary expression as though talking to herself was only one step away from throwing an imaginary tea party and insisting Cook attend wearing a dress.

"Computer game." She lied and thrashed the keyboard. "One of those stupid RPG things JJ plays. I can't get the hang of it anyway." She closed down her browsing window and logged off the terminal.
"Thought you hated those things."
"I do that's why I stopped playing." Naomi loved her best friend dearly, but she was not prepared to let someone else in on her secret. The last thing she needed was her closest friend looking at her like she was a not job; or worse actually believing her. She didn't want another twenty questions about what she could do. She simply wanted Emily to be at peace so she could move on with her own life and once again bury her gifts and ignore the lingering spirits on Bristol's streets. "I've got to go Cook, I'll see you later yeah." She rushed out of the library before he could get another word out.

"Why didn't you just tell him what you were doing?" Emily quizzed when she finally caught up to the blonde.
"I don't just tell everyone what I can do you know!"
"I'm the first person you've told?" The smaller girl was quick to catch on as they made their way out of the college and through the car park. The sky was overcast and gloomy, perfectly matching the blonde's mood.
"Yes." She grumbled in response, trying not to make a big thing out of it. "Do you have any idea where you live?"
"In a house?"

Naomi tired not to remark on Emily's answer. They were both stressed and the little redhead had more reason than most to be snappy. She sighed in to her hand and silently counted to ten before trying again. "Ok, what about Effy? I think I remember where she lives from the house parties she's had. We could try there first? She's your girlfriend, if anyone should know what's happened…" She trailed off as she realised Emily wasn't listening to her. Katie Fitch and Effy Stonem were walking up the road towards the college.

"We'll try Cook and JJ, and Freddie too. Maybe one of them saw her-" The oldest Fitch twin caught Naomi looking at them and scowled. "Why don't you take a fucking picture dy-"
"Katie." Effy scorned, though her voice was low like she couldn't be bothered to put any weight behind her words. "Maybe Naomi's seen her?" There was an edge to Effy's voice, something Naomi had never heard in it before; fear.
"Emily?" Naomi caught on to what they had been discussing. They were looking for Emily.
"How do you know we're looking for Ems?" All of Katie's anger and grief was channelled in to her words as she rounded on the blonde. She didn't know her sister was dead. And Naomi couldn't tell her. There was no way she would be able to explain how she knew the youngest twin was dead if her own sister only thought she was missing.

The blonde was like a psychic sponge thanks to how much energy she had used saving herself at the weekend, she could feel the emotions coming from the other girls. Anger, fear, desperation. Guilt. One or both of them felt guilty about something. "She wasn't in class." Naomi answered the other girl's question. "Besides, if she's not with Effy she's usually your second shadow." She added, because bitchiness was expected from her and she needed to act as normal as possible. The last thing she wanted was to be the focus of attention in Emily's disappearance.
"Well she wouldn't be with you, would she freak?" Katie spat back, her anger overtaking the rest of her emotions and subsequently feeding Naomi's.
"Katie." Effy repeated, this time her voice was firmer and she put a hand on the smaller girl's arm. "Leave it."

She turned her attention back to Naomi. "No one's seen Emily since Friday night. If you see her or you hear anything call me ok?" Naomi nodded, not trusting herself to speak with Emily's ghost lingering so close to her. Katie gave her a final glare before carrying on to the college to speak to the others. Emily had begun immediately shouting the second Effy had mentioned she was missing. Demanding to know why Naomi had not told them she was dead. The blonde waited until they were clear from the college grounds before finally turning to answer her.

"They think you're missing Emily, and there's no way I can tell them otherwise without them thinking I had something to do with it! We don't even know where your body is!" Her words seemed to sink in and Emily began crying again. She slumped down to the curb and covered her face with her hands as she sobbed. Naomi stood awkwardly over her. Even if she had been able to touch the other girl she wouldn't have been able to offer much comfort.
"What the hell happened to me?" Emily finally got a hold of herself enough to speak as she rubbed at her eyes. "Why can't they find me?"

"I don't know." Naomi admitted as she took a seat beside her on the curb. She pulled out a cigarette and took a long draw from it once it was lit. She exhaled the cloud of smoke as she shook her head. "Something happened to you Friday night. Maybe you fell and hit your head? Or walked in to traffic, were you drunk?"
"I don't know." Emily whined; her memories were still wrapped in a thick grey cloud, obscuring everything from her view. "I just don't fucking know! You said things would get clearer!"
"I've never spoken to new spirits!" Naomi objected defensively. "I'm not the fucking expert on all things supernatural. Your memories should get clearer…I just don't know how long it will take." The blonde admitted with a heavy sigh. Her mother was the one who usually counselled troubled spirits.

"So what? I just have to wait till they find me or till I remember what happened? What am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to go?" There was a desperation in the other girl's voice as she began to realise she hadn't considered being trapped as a ghost long term.
"You can attach yourself to Katie, or Effy, like you did with me. Maybe watch over them while you wait to be found-"
"But they won't be able to see me? Or hear me? I'll be on my own." The prospect of not being able to be seen or heard terrified her more than the prospect that her body was lying somewhere waiting to be found. She had lived her whole life being overlooked in favour of Katie, that was until Effy had come along last year at least, but she couldn't face never being seen or spoken to again. "Can't I stay with you? Please Naomi, I don't want to be on my own."
"I…" Naomi couldn't think of what to say. She didn't want to be exposed to the other world. She wanted to push her abilities deep down within herself and lock them away again. Having Emily around, having her energy charging her, just made her unstable. She was picking up on everyone else's moods, soaking them up like a sponge. But then Emily's big brown eyes were staring right at her and she couldn't say anything other than, "Ok. Just for now. They'll probably find you soon anyway."

She would take Emily home with her. At least there her mother could entertain the other girl while Naomi got some time to herself to unwind. The last time she had felt so wired and on edge she had sent a blackboard wiper hurtling across the classroom during one of her GCSE papers. Her abilities were linked to her emotions and the more anxious she got the less control she had. Having the ghost of Emily Fitch hovering around her was definitely making her anxious.

They took the bus back to Naomi's house, and the blonde almost kicked herself when she asked for two tickets and the driver stared at her like she was mad. She sat upstairs at the back so that if she spoke to Emily there would be no one there to observe her apparently talking to herself. She needn't have bothered though. Emily was silent the entire trip. She had managed to focus enough to take a seat beside the blonde and sat staring out of the window with an unreadable expression; lost in her own thoughts.

When they walked through Naomi's front door they were greeted by Gina, who, being the bohemian mother she was, didn't question what her daughter was doing home so early. Instead her attention was focused on the timid looking redhead standing beside her. "Oh, hello there. Does my daughter have a friend?" She grinned at the teenager, ignoring the way Naomi was glaring at her. Emily just looked at her with wide chocolate coloured eyes.
"You can see me too?" She blurted out, the small matter of her death overtaking her manners.
"Of course I can see…oh…oh, I'm so sorry dear." Gina's face fell as she took the time to really look at the other girl; there was a softly glowing edge to her form, as though she were standing in front of a spot light. It was the aura of the recently dead. "When did it happen?"
"She doesn't remember." Naomi answered for her. She could see the smaller girl was upset and the last thing she wanted was for her to start crying again. A crying Emily Fitch was something she had no idea what to do with. "She went missing Friday night, her family are still looking for her."
"Oh, you poor thing. This must all be very confusing to you." Gina fussed over the other girl, her natural motherly instincts making a rare appearance. Emily nodded meekly in response. She felt ready to burst in to tears again and wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around Gina and bury her head in her shoulder, but she knew she would pass straight through her.

"Mum, can you explain things to Emily? You know more about this stuff than me." Naomi felt light headed from the amount of energy she had been feeding on all morning. Spirits were pure energy and people like Naomi were able to harmlessly feed on that energy to heighten their abilities; whether they wanted to or not. Being exposed to such a new spirit after not using her abilities for years had left the blonde tired and dizzy. She just wanted to crawl back under her duvet until the migraine assaulting her head had passed. Of course her mother couldn't just agree without a dig at her.
"You'd know as much as me if you bloody listened! I told you you can't just shut this kind of thing out of your life! It's in your blood Naomi! It's who you are-"
"Yes mum, I'm a freak, I know! But right now I'm tired and I feel shitty and I'm going back to bed!" She stormed out of the kitchen leaving her mother to look after Emily.

The older blonde shook her head and scoffed. "She's a right huffy cow. Gets it from her father…right, now then, what are we going to do with you?"

So I've discovered a sure fire way to annoy Naomily fans, kill off Emily! ;) But seriously I've had this idea floating around in my head for a while and I'd say I've got about 90% of it planned out, and unfortunately Emily's spirit is a big part of it so it had to happen folks! Glad people are enjoying it and thanks for the reviews.