ReincarnatedPoet: Hello all, this is the aforementioned update that I promised in the last chapter. I hope you all enjoyed the previous chapter. This story can go one of two ways, and I would appreciate any feed back that you may have upon which direction you want to see this story going in. Basically here's the skinny:

Good strong ending to a story with no possibility of a sequel. Sad, but fitting.

Weaker ending to a story that leaves a possibility of a sequel. Happier, less fitting ending to the story.

Let me know!!! Or my evil mind pixies will take the path that they see fit.

~R.P.~

Oh god, just let it end. Just let me curl up into a ball and die. It's over anyway, I'm in too much pain to ever live again. Just let me—

"Marietta, knock it the fuck off!" Owwie. Owie. Owwie. I'm sorry Mommy…wait…Tyler? I cracked my eyes open for a moment, trying to keep the swirl of light from blinding me, but it was no use. All I could see was a faint set of shadows looming in the light. God Tyler, get over here so I can hit you for being loud.

"Zee?" Ughh…Axel, please come give me a hug, please, please, please? Oh, come give me a hug, please? "Zee!" Ouch, owwie. Don't yell, just hug me. "Zee, come on baby girl." I cracked my eyes again and it was just Axel there, crouched over me. "There you are, come on." He put his hand on the side of my face.

"Where's?" I sat up slightly, searching the room. Where was…

"Where's who Zee?" He asked, propping me up on his knee.

"Wasn't…" Ugh, I am not pulling a fucking Twilight.

"I haven't seen your ghost friend since I came up the stairs." Axel tried to decipher my broken thoughts. "Did he hurt you?" Oh silly boy, Chase wasn't even…wait…

"He's not here?" I tried sitting up on my own. Ooohhh, bad idea. The fire in my head had lessened to a slightly annoying burn, almost a tingle, but I was achy.

"Haven't seen him." Axel rubbed a hand over his face with a sigh. "You're killin' me here, Zee-zee." I smiled a bit between throbs of pain. "You wanna tell me why you were on the floor?" He asked after a short silence.

"I was going to ask you if you were in the habit of sneaking up on girls and bashing them over the head, but I guess that's a no then." He clipped my shoulder with the back of his hand and glared at me.

"If you hadn't have just fainted, I would have hit you in the head." He helped me to my feet and I stared out the window, glaring at the sun as it sank to just the angle that would shine through my window and blind me.

"Where is he, Marietta?" He asked finally. Hmm…He should be here. He was going walking. Walking about somewhere while I sat idly up in my room talking to…wait…I was talking to someone. Reid. I was talking to Reid. And Tyler. And Pogue…and Caleb. Caleb told me to…

"I was talking to Caleb, and he knew…he knew I was in my room." I trailed off and leaned against the window sill, bracing my head against the wall. If it was against something that didn't move, maybe the world would stop spinning like it did.

"Mhmm." Axel said, sitting down on the edge of my bed as if he'd finally decided I wasn't going to collapse. "I have a theory." He cocked an eyebrow and waited for me to reopen the eyes I wasn't aware I'd closed.

"Go on." I reclosed my eyes and hummed under my breath, trying to erase the sound of Tyler yelling at me from my mind. He'd been here. I'd heard him. I could have smelt him had the damned boy been closer.

"When you research those names together, Garwin, Simms, Danvers, Parry, and Putnam, you come up with quite a few different sources, but they all tell the same story." He paused a moment, and his silence made me crack my eyes. He was staring up at the ceiling, eyes searching back and forth as if trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle by just watching. "You know, some people ignore the things that are in the shadows." He stared at his hands now.

"Mmm…" I sighed when it because clear that he wasn't going to continue. "Like ghosts." He glanced at me a moment before going back to the ceiling.

"They ignore what they deem impossible." He said it quickly. "But it's impossible for me to be able to completely erase any record that you exist with a low speed internet connection and a used laptop, but I can." He glared hard at the ceiling. "It's difficult, for someone as rooted in science as I am, to believe in things that aren't real, and the only reason I think I do believe is because of you all those years ago, with your tales of epic battles and demon lords." He smiled over and I cracked a smirk back.

"Yu Yu Hakusho is real, damn it and if anyone tells you any different, they're lying." He smiled over at me and I sighed. "Continue."

"You're friends, they keep coming up with a different type of…lore." He paused a moment. "Witchcraft of the real world. I work magic on the computer pathways, they work it in the air and of the flesh." He leaned back against the mattress. "And your Chase is the same. That's why he has the ability to stick around, but I think the reason he needs you around is because you still believe in the stupid little stories."

"Plausible." I hummed and tried to stand up. "Where's Chase?" I asked finally, gaining purchase in my efforts.

"If I had to guess?" I managed a nod and a few weak steps toward him. "Ipswich. When you passed out, I think he would have been forced back to where his body rests." It made sense, in that odd, horror film kind of way. Hmm…I could check. It wouldn't be right to leave him to haunt my boys…the boys, not my boys…leave him to haunt the boys. He'd wanted to kill them before, but I'm not sure if he still…what if he killed them? What if they died? A cold, angry shiver ran up my spine at the thought. I didn't want them dead. I didn't want that weight back in Ares' eyes.

I'd seen in there, the first time I saw him, but since it had left, as though he were lighter for it. Killing them would put it back there. "Can we—"

"Yeah." Axel whispered and ducked his head. "We're going." He sighed. "You couldn't let it go?" I shook my head and he sighed again, as though the decision hurt him somehow.

"You don't have to come." I supplied but he stared at me as though I were insane.

"Yeah, and then I'd be sitting here, on your bed, waiting to hear if my theories are based completely on conjecture." He smiled down at me a moment and I glanced out of the corner of my eye at him. It was easy, with Axel, sometimes, just like it was easy with the others. It had always been easy with him, and that was the reason we were still friends. He didn't even have to ask what to pack as he threw a set of clothes into my bag and grabbed my journal. He knew I needed it. He knew it would be with me for the rest of my life, always did, and he always would.