A/N: Well, it's Wednesday, which means update day! :) A HUGE thank you to all you who have reviewed! It means a lot! Enjoy this one and review! ;)

The Ghost of Emerson Campus

Chapter Ten

Images, floating images...they swam around aimlessly in Ned Nickerson's head, threatening to drive him to insanity...An e-mail from Nancy...she wasn't coming to see him. Why wasn't she coming to see him? But he could come and see her. That was good. Getting into his car, driving down the road. A girl, a beautiful girl-an angel?-standing in the middle of the road. What was she doing? She was going to get hurt! Swerving so he wouldn't hit her, trying to gain control of his vehicle...The crunching of metal, the aroma of smoke, the searing pain as his world went black...And screams...fog...Waking up in a hospital...Getting a phone call on his hospital room phone from Zapp Crosson, vowing his revenge...Warning Nancy...Wanting Nancy...Blackness...Distant, evil, laughter...A man with red hair...then nothing...

Ned opened his eyes for a short moment. They focused on the red-haired man standing over him, the evil smile on his face glinting like a knife. Then pain overtook him again and he felt himself falling...falling...falling. The black abyss took over and he was alone with his nightmares once more.

The sound of a persistently ringing phone roused Nancy from her uncomfortable slumber. She sat up straight, a stiff pain in her neck, and opened her eyes. She was in a chair in the police station, her father, whose shoulder had served as a pillow, in the chair beside her. She had fallen asleep reluctantly after she had told the police all she knew about Zapp Crosson and his relationship with Ned. The police had promised to get back with them as soon as they could dig up something, and told them to stay put in the meantime. Nancy glanced at her watch. 5:00 PM. It had been two hours, and still nothing.

The officer at the desk picked up the phone and said, "Hello?"

He listened intently to someone on the other line, the frown lines on his face getting deeper by the second. "Someone is calling for a 'Ms. Nancy Drew. She doesn't work here, does she?"

Nancy leapt out of her seat hastily. "I'm Nancy Drew!"

The officer gave her an odd look before passing the phone to the anxious teen.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Ms. Drew." Nancy recognized the voice of Zapp Crosson instantly.

"Crosson!" she spat, venom in her voice. "What do you want? What have you done with Ned?"

"Patience, child," the villain said in a sickeningly calm voice. "I thought I might find you here. Funny, though, I thought a sleuth like you would be ready to take some action right about now. I thought you'd be out looking for your little boyfriend. But I guess you're not the great detective everyone thinks you are."

"Where is Ned?" Nancy demanded, ignoring the worried stares of the police officers and her father.

"He's alive...and I intend to nurse him back to health. You see Nancy...my revenge cannot fully be complete until he has suffered even more than he is now. But I must go, Nancy, before the police have time to trace this call. I'll be getting in touch with you later to tell you about Ned's recovery process."

There was a click, and the line went dead.

"That was Zapp Crosson," Nancy informed the onlookers, her bottom lip trembling. "He's going to nurse Ned back to health just so that he can kill him in an even more painful way. But I'm not letting that happen. I'm not sitting in the police office anymore. I'm going to find Ned, and no one is going to stop me."

With that, she turned on her heel and raced out of the PD. She had a plan.

A/N: Chapter eleven will be here in a week! Until then, please review! :)

~Emachinescat ^..^