Despite Scott's misgivings about discussing Amy, Ty moved closer to Mallory. Her deep brown eyes were sad as she began to speak.

"Amy is … was Lou's younger sister. She was out for a ride one day with her friend and she heard a horse, one who needed her help." Mallory's eyes bounced from Ty's face to just over his shoulder, and without looking himself, Ty knew that she was glancing at Spartan. "She couldn't help him then, but she rode home and convinced Marion that they should go and get him, even though it was storming out. She and Marion managed to load the horse safely but on the drive back, a tree fell on the road in front of them. Marion swerved to avoid it but she went off the road, down a steep hill. When they crashed at the bottom, Marion and the horse were alive, but Amy wasn't."

Mallory's eyes were overflowing with grief as she related the story of Amy's final hours, her child's voice becoming slow and soft as she thought back to the friend that, not so long ago, had been alive and vibrant, on a mission to save a horse because that's who Amy was.

"Marion's locked herself up ever since," Mallory whispered. "Lou moved back, apparently temporarily, until Marion gets better. Jack … I know he seems like a grumpy old man but you wouldn't believe how different he was." She swallowed. "Spartan was the horse. Scott says the accident traumatized him, and he was really hurt afterward, wasn't he?"

Scott nodded. "I was going to put him out of his misery. I didn't think it was fair to make him continue to live. But Jack … Jack said that Marion needed him, so I brought him here, and I've been tending to him as best as he can, but he's just going to stay like this until someone helps him."

"Mallory," Ty began, beginning to put the pieces together. "What did Amy look like?"

"Taller than me, blonde, really pretty," Mallory described wistfully. "Do you want to see her?"

Ty nodded and Mallory let herself out of Copper's stall. Ty stepped out of the way as she flitted passed him, into the barn office that Ty had never really stepped foot in. He followed her inside now, though, eyes tracing over the papers that he'd glanced at on his first day. Covering the walls were photographs of horses, ribbons, achievements, and diagrams of horses. Mallory went over to the desk, reaching into the top drawer. She pulled out a silver frame, passing it over to Ty.

"This was taken in August," she explained hoarsely.

Ty took the picture, feeling his heart sink into his stomach as he stared at the image of the pretty blonde girl, sitting double astride Pegasus, an older blonde woman who looked just like her sitting behind her. The girl, Amy, was the girl that he had seen twice in the barn now and she was dead. With this revelation came confusion. If Amy were dead, he should be able to tell. He'd always been able to tell, what with the black film that would drift over people's skin, broken dots that looked like stars woven into the darkness. She didn't have that. If she was dead and he was seeing her, he should have been able to tell that she was so.

"She looks … really nice," Ty finally said, handing the picture back to Mallory. It would be creepy if he stood there for too long, staring at a deceased stranger.

"She was," Mallory assured him confidently. "She was basically like my sister."

"It must be hard," Ty commented.

Mallory nodded, her face seeming to cave in on itself. "I'm going to take Copper out now … Want to come?" She offered.

Ty shook his head. "I have chores to do."

Never mind the fact that he couldn't ride.

"Okay. Well, I'll see you around!" She crept back to Copper, expertly putting a bridle around his head. She led him out of the stall and into the yard.

As he heard her ride away, Ty went back out into the barn, where Scott was still in a stare down with Spartan. The horse slammed his foot down against the stall floor every time Scott got close.

"We need to get him out of there," Scott decided.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Ty asked, and, after seeing the look on Scott's face, Ty wished he hadn't said a damn thing.

After setting up a makeshift chute, Ty was standing ready by Spartan's stall door, somehow ending up the one to open it and let the angry gelding out. Scott was standing along the side of the chute that opened into the yard, just in case Spartan decided to break free instead of heading straight to the round pen that Scott and Ty were trying to herd him into.

"Now!" Scott called, and Ty pulled the door open.

Spartan darted forward immediately, stopping as his feet clattered on the barn floor. Ty slammed the stall door shut, both so that Spartan couldn't go backward into it and so that the noise would spur the horse on. Just as Scott had predicted, Spartan shied from the noise, his flight response kicking in. He barreled down the chute. For a moment, it looked like he would break free toward Scott, but the young vet made a loud noise, trumpeting from the back of his throat. Spartan tossed his head, and danced forward. Scott shut the gate to the round pen, immediately climbing the slats to see Spartan better. After a moment of hesitation, Ty joined him, sitting at the top of the fence with Scott.

Spartan looked even worse in the daylight than he did in the dark light of his stall. The bright death spots gleamed even bright under the sun. Ty was sure the horse looked blacker to him than he did to Scott, because of the way Amy's death had affected his appearance.

"Scott!"

Both vet and boy turned at the sound of the shout. Jack was storming across the yard, eyes bulging with anger.

"What are you doing with that horse?"

"Nothing!" Scott cried out, jumping down to the ground. "I just let him out of his stall. You can't keep him cooped up forever."

"It's not for forever," Jack spat, and then his eyes locked on Ty. "Find something else to do," he growled at the teenager.

Ty was taken aback for a moment, but then he jumped down from the fence as well. He gave Scott a sympathetic glance and then sidled over to the house. Lou was standing in the kitchen window, gazing out over the yard, an unreadable expression on her face. But she nearly jumped out of her skin as Ty slipped into the kitchen.

"Do you mind if I use the phone?" Ty asked.

Lou shrugged. "Go for it."

Ty located the phone and then sequestered himself in the bathroom – a place where he knew no one would interrupt him. This wasn't the kind of conversation that Ty wanted anyone to overhear. He had never told anyone about his ability, not outside of his family. It wasn't something that he wanted to put on display, because he knew that not a lot of people would understand it, and would probably call him a phony or a manipulator. The issue was that Ty had no one to turn to when it came to his dealings with the dead, except for one person: Grandmother.

Grandmother was his father's mother. After his parents had divorced, she had barely spoken to Ty. He had reached out to her once or twice, usually for the same reasons: the death that they could both see. When he was young, Ty had half expected Grandmother to take him in. She knew that Brad, his father, was a mean drunk and that his mother's new boyfriend like to hit more than walls. But Grandmother had turned a blind eye to it. And once, when Ty had called to tell her that he was in trouble (the only time he had reached out to her for something like that) she had scoffed and said that she had expected it – after all, look at his parents.

Even so, he hoped her number hadn't changed.

"Borden residence."

"Grandmother," Ty said quickly. "It's Ty."

"Having only one grandson, I know exactly who you are," Grandmother said coldly. "What do you want? If it's bail money, I don't have it."

"It's not about bail money," Ty ground out, already feeling the impulse to hang up on her. "I have a question."

"So ask it."

"What if a person is dead but doesn't look it? You know how ghosts always have that black thing around them … What if they don't?"

Grandmother sighed. "Do you know for sure they're dead?"

"Yes."

"Do they know they're dead?"

Ty stopped. "I don't … I don't know."

He could almost hear Grandmother's eye roll. "Have you made contact?"

"No …"

"Then do that! The goal here is to get people to cross over, Ty."

"I know!"

"Then do that," Grandmother suggested.

And then, before Ty could even get another word in edgewise, he heard the click of the phone. She'd hung up on him! He wasn't surprised; maybe a little disappointed, though. Still, he opened the door to the bathroom, walking out and returning the phone to its charging station. Amy not knowing she was dead would explain it – and he should have thought of it himself, instead of calling her. He was sure that she'd be annoyed about that phone call into the next century … so maybe it was good that they weren't close.

He didn't see anyone in the house, so he stepped out on the porch, wondering if he was allowed back outside yet or if Jack would banish him. There was no sign of anyone in the yard either, though. Scott's truck was gone, but Spartan was still doing laps around the pen. Ty thought that the horse seemed a little happier to be outside, but then he thought he saw a pair of human legs standing inside the pen, belonging to someone that Spartan wouldn't charge at or retreat from. Ty knew there was only one person – only one ghost – that Spartan wouldn't lash out at.

He crossed the yard, checking over his shoulders for Jack and Lou, even Marion, as he went. But there was no one. He approached the boards of the pen slowly, trying not to attract attention to himself, but Spartan noticed him. The horse's ears went flat against his head and he took a few steps backward, trying to get away from the spot Ty was now leaning against. Amy, as predicted, was standing in the pen with him, wearing the same black outfit, the outfit she was buried in, that she had been the few other times he had seen her.

"What's going on?" He heard her ask the horse, her voice holding a lyrical quality. "Don't act sassy."

Spartan raised his head and bared his teeth at Ty, and Amy finally turned around to face him. Ty felt his heart skip a beat as he finally got a good look at her face under the sunlight. Even though he knew who she was, he couldn't deny that Amy was beautiful.

"Who are you?" She asked, her voice taking on a heated quality that reminded Ty of Jack. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here," Ty said quietly, not sure how he could go about breaking the news to her. He'd never had to do this before. All of the other ghosts that he'd met before had already known about their condition, and were mostly happy to receive his help.

"No you don't," Amy argued, putting her hands on her hips. "I live here. I would know if you worked here."

"That's the thing –" Ty started, but was interrupted by a shout.

"Ty! Ty! Can you come in here please?" Lou's voice erupted from the barn.

"Coming!" Ty called, turning his head in the direction of the barn. When he finally looked back to where Amy was standing, she was already gone.

I don't own anything recognizable.

~TLL~