I woke up in the cabin again, lying on the floor and staring up at the ceiling. I didn't understand how I'd got back there… but then again, I could walk through walls and fly, who was I to question? For all I knew about real ghosts, I was haunting this cabin and had to stay near it or something…

Part of me wanted to hope it was a dream again, but now I knew better. Now I was cynical about it. Now I knew the difference—how it felt, both ways. For one thing, I couldn't feel the floor beneath me.

I leapt lightly up and drifted to my bunk, sitting in the air above it. It was highly depressing. There was still a dent in the sheets from… from the body. Where I'd been laying. There was my backpack, and sticking out of the top was the notebook my parents had sent with me to write letters home with, the cover filled with doodles of my fairies.

No—no more crying. Not anymore. You finished that last night. Think about revenge.

Yes, revenge. I relaxed. I wanted to torment Vicky, to make her cry, to make her wish she would die. That's all I wanted to hear—Vicky wishing she was dead. See how she likes it. I grinned before remembering the huge failure I'd had the night before. Couldn't touch anything properly. Couldn't scream at Vicky. Couldn't scare her with flames.

I scowled, and glared at the chipper drawing of Cosmo, beaming at me off the notebook. I bet it was him who granted my wish. He'd be dumb enough to do that…

Another snarl, and I'd kicked my backpack onto the floor with a thunk. Being able to touch something made me smile again—maybe I just needed practice.

Silently, I apologized to Cosmo. I didn't mean it… then, remembering I was alone and no one could hear me, I added out loud, "I know you'd never have done it on purpose. I'm sorry…"

"Timmy?"

…except one person, the one person I now really, really wished couldn't hear me. Crud. I forgot Danny slept in the cabin with us—all the other kids were still out camping, I guessed, the sunlight had that early-morning kind of look to it. "Leave me alone," I said sulkily, flopping onto my side. But I just gave myself away… "Uh, and anyway, I'm not Timmy. I'm… um… Chester. And I don't want to talk to anyone, because I'm hiding!" Praying it would still work, I seized my blanket and hurled it over my head. Unfortunately, only my hands could touch it, and the dumb blanket fell right through me. Some hiding place that was. Lucky for my pathetic little act, Danny's bunk was off in the corner where neither of us could see each other.

I heard Danny sigh. "You want me to leave you alone. You and every other ghost in the world. If I thought I had any choice about it, I would. Believe me. All I wanted was a vacation, as much as you must have. Worked out great for us, huh?"

I wondered how long he'd been planning that little speech. Who did he think he was, The Crimson Chin? Some hero Danny made, crushing all the hopes of a sad little ghost boy. "I don't know what you're talking about," I replied shortly. "I told you, my name's Chester. I'm not a ghost."

"There's no Chester in this cabin," he retorted coolly. "I'm not stupid, you know."

"Could have fooled me…" Sighing, I tried again—I had to, putting up a fight let me believe I was alive. "Besides, I'm actually in cabin 14. I'm just hiding in here." I'd like to see him reply to that.

"Oh, well then, maybe I should take you back to your cabin." I could just picture the smirk on his face.

"No way!" I yelled back at him, tugging at my blanket again—it still refused to touch any part of me but my hands.

The door slammed open. I sat stark upright and stared at Vicky, framed in the door. They weren't supposed to get back until noon… maybe it was later than I thought?

"There!" Vicky screeched. "We're back! Now go to bed!"

The kids poured back inside after her, piling into their beds, just like she told them to. Good for them—was Vicky being extra mean, or just losing it? Sending them to bed at—what time was it—in the morning?

"What happened? What's going on?" I asked hurriedly, but the other kids couldn't hear me, of course.

"Vicky?" I heard Danny climb out of his bed, and peeked over the side to watch him approach her, hiding as much as I could.

"Danny!" she cried back, switching to a perkier tone. "How are you this morning? Me and the kids, we're exhausted, up all night, uh… singing songs! And telling ghost stories." She faked a big yawn. "Oh, now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to my cabin. I have got to get some sleep." She did look kind of tired, but what did I care? She killed me.

"Uh, wait!" Danny darted forward and grabbed her arm before she could escape. "I need to ask you—what happened to Timmy?"

Vicky froze and glared at him. "Serve you right, you evil witch," I muttered at her. The ability to talk back to her without danger kinda gave me a head rush. "Way to go, Danny, trap her with her lies!"

It was pretty funny watching Danny try to ignore me. "Uh, because you said he stayed behind, right?" he went on, pointedly not looking around for me. "But he—well, you can see he's not here. He hasn't been here all night."

Wrenching out of his grip, Vicky turned the tables and seized him by his collar. "Listen, dweeb, in case you've forgotten, I'm in charge! That means you do what I say, and I say FORGET THE TWERP! Got it?"

"Threatening me won't make it go away!" Danny managed, despite the fact that he was cowering in the face of her fury. "Timmy's still not here and my question still stands!"

Despite myself, I was impressed. Not many people can stand up to her in the slightest way. Unfortunately for him, that seemed to only make her madder. With a snarl, she pulled him in close to her face.

"He's in the infirmary," she lied without any qualms, "where you'll end up if you don't learn respect."

With that, she let go of him so suddenly he fell back against a bunk bed, and stormed out of the cabin.

Utter silence followed. Every kid in the cabin was staring at Danny with awe, owl-eyed and far from sleepy.

"Dude," the kid in the bunk across from mine, who I didn't know, piped up "you stood up to her and survived,"

Danny did not look pleased with the attention. "Yeah, I guess I did…" he said sheepishly.

"She's evil!" another kid I couldn't see cried fervently, only to be shushed by someone else.

"I'm starting to see what you mean…"He looked right at me as he said that, and stooped to pick up my backpack and return it to its rightful place. "What happened last night?"

"She couldn't sleep," the first kid replied, eyes darting around like he expected Vicky to pop up out of nowhere and set him on fire. I could hardly blame him. "She kept accusing us of making noise to keep her awake. But we didn't do anything!"

"We had to sleep out on the ground, and we slept just fine," chimed in Ryan, the only kid in the cabin whose name I knew. "She was in a tent."

"I didn't hear any noises," yet another kid added. "I think she was trying to scare us. She's got it in for us."

"If Vicky was trying to scare you, you'd know it," I told the kid firmly, even though I knew he couldn't hear me.

"What—what sort of noises?" Danny asked, looking around from kid to kid. I took the opportunity to inch backwards towards the wall. Hopefully I could slip through it without any problems.

"Crying," Ryan told him matter-of-factly. "She said she heard someone crying."