Author's Note: This chapter is making my fanfic as long as my other one. But I'm not done with this fanfic yet, so it'll be longer than my other one =)

Thunder rolled out my window that night and I knew it had to be one of those summer storms. Lightning flashed and rain pounded on the roof of my lab. But I heard footsteps even through the rain and thunder. There were defiantly footsteps. I sat up in bed and looked around the room. Then I got out of bed and slipped my lab coat over my sleeping shirt. I felt cold in my shorts, so I slipped into a pair of sweatpants.

"Steve, I'm gonna see who is out there." I told Steve and left the room and into the purple tunnel. There was no one in the tunnel. But I had just heard footsteps coming from here. My heart in my throat, I moved into my elevator and soon came to ground level. I came out of the elevator and into the pouring rain. Instantly I was soaked.

"Great. I'm wet and hearing noises that aren't even there." I muttered under my breath and walked across the backyard and around the house. I stood on the driveway glancing down the street. The streetlamps seemed dimmer because of the pouring rain. I began to walk down the street and heard loud footsteps again. I spun around and saw no one.

"Either I'm insane or I just need to get more sleep. But if someone is out there, they better not give me a heart attack." I gulped and turned around the corner and onto Main Street. The street was empty. I stood right in the middle of the road and looked down the empty. No wait, there was someone there. They stood at the other end of the street.

That's not the Mayor. They look a bit slimmer and taller. I thought to myself. Something red glowed in their hand. I took a step back and they took a step forward. I backed up some more and they came closer. When they came into the light of the streetlamp, I froze.

It was Marie.

Alive.

I was seriously seeing things. But she looked dead. Her beautiful wavy hair was messed up and billowed behind her. Her clear blue eyes shown with a dark hue and they didn't blink once. Her face was screwed up with scratches and deep wounds. Her smile was bloody. Was I dreaming? Or was this real? Where was I? I suddenly wanted my mom.

A glowing red cherry bomb was gripped in her hand. I took a step back and she took a step forward and her mouth opened to say something,

"You." She rasped and I was freaking out. Her voice wasn't silky anymore. It sounded cracked and as if someone was running nails down a chalkboard. Please tell this isn't real. Please tell this isn't real. Please tell this isn't real. I repeated in my head.

Marie was coming closer and when she reached me, she stared straight into my eyes. I was scared. Her eyes were glazed over. She didn't blink once. Then she slapped me across the face and I fell back. She raised the cherry bomb over her head and threw it at my feet.

"It's too late." She snapped in her steel voice. Too late about what? I wailed in my mind. The bomb fell beside me and I felt the bomb pierce into my side and I flew into the air and landed a few feet away. I heard Marie coming again. I lifted my head of the ground and glanced down on my legs. I couldn't feel them, even if they were there.

"What's going on? You're not Marie Oreant!" I screamed and she took out a sharp dagger. The initials M.S. were engraved in the dagger blade.

"No I'm, not. I'm Marie Shelbourne." She snapped and the dagger came down on me.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! MOM!" I shrieked at the top of lungs.

I woke up sweating in bed and screaming. Then I stopped. My bed? Did someone find me on the street and bring me to my lab?

Wait, was it a dream? A dream? A DREAM? THAT WAS MORE LIKE A NIGHTMARE! I glanced under the covers at my feet. They were still there. But the question was: how come I was having a dream about Marie killing me? Was she some kind of android in the dream? I gripped my covers and then began to cry like I was some 5 year old.

"What is wrong with me?" I cried and I heard Steve shift in his bed. After a few more minutes of calming down, I lay back down.

I lay in bed trembling. The Mayor was defiantly going to get me. He was going to blow me up or lock me up in his closet. If I hadn't told you, earlier today (after the rocket incident) I took Steve and taught him, how to hit unwanted people who enter my lab, in the head with a metal rod. It made me feel better, but now I was still afraid. But what if the Mayor didn't suspect me? That was possible too. Maybe he just glared at me because he hates me.

"Steve, are you still there?" I hissed through the darkness and sat up in my bed. I had taken Steve's pillow and put it at the foot of my bed. A sleepy "Steve." was whispered from the end of my bed and I relaxed. My eyes began to close, but I thought about the nightmare coming back to me, and haunting me all night long.

"It was just a dream. It's not real." I convinced myself and my eyes finally closed.

xxx

A sign had been nailed into the ground, on a patch of grass near the spot where the Mayor fell yesterday. I stood in front of it the next morning with my hands on my hips. The sign stated a new rule, but I guess you can call it a law. Here's what it said: No rockets are allowed in Swallow Falls. Any type of rocket flown or seen, will be taken away and the rocket's owner will pay a fine of $500 ~Mayor Shelbourne

"I bet you anything, he'll make me pay the $500." I told Steve; who sat on my shoulder. But Steve didn't exactly know what I was saying, so he just blinked in confusion. Wish he could understand everything I said.

"Hey Flint!" I heard Brent call my name from somewhere. I spun around in a circle and saw him coming over.

"What do you want from me?" I asked. Brent passed me, but as he did I heard the words escaping his mouth.

"I know it was your rocket." He sneered as he walked by. I groaned and as he walked by, I kicked him 'by accident'. He howled in pain and I just walked away slowly. Smiling to myself I walked down to the docks. But my smile wavered away when I remembered that Brent told the Mayor everything and that he might tell him that it was my rocket.

Gasping, I began to run away from the docks and back to where Brent had been. But he was nowhere. Steve held on tight as we ran down the side of Main Street.

"Steve! Which way did Brent go?" I asked the monkey. Steve processed my words through his head and then looked around. Then he sniffed the air like some kind of dog, and pointed down the right side of Main Street. I sprinted that way, with Steve gripping my shoulder tightly as we ran.

Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of Brent walking toward City Hall. My legs propelled me up and I raced after him even faster. If only I could stop him! I didn't want to pay a $500 fine or get the Mayor to hunt me down! I now ran up the City Hall steps and Brent reaching for the door. He opened the door and I was now right behind him.

The moment he stepped into the City Hall building, I ran faster and crashed into him. When I did so, he tripped and fell to the ground. I tripped over him and fell too. Then he looked up to see me. His face showed anger.

"What was that all about?" he demanded. Slowly he got to his feet and brushed himself off. I got up and Steve got up too. Steve glared at me, because I had almost squished him when I had fallen.

"Are you going to tell the Mayor that it was my rocket?" I asked quietly. Brent raised an eyebrow at me.

"Well, yeah!" he threw his hands helplessly into the air.

"Why do you hate me so much?" I asked and narrowed my eyes at him. He blinked at me. Then he stood there thinking about it.

"Well… because you're weird and well… you…" Brent scratched the back of his head. I could tell he couldn't find any reasons to hate me. This made me smiled a little. Then he sighed and pushed me aside as he walked by me.

"There are reasons. Just leave me alone." Brent sighed and I watched him walk up the stairs. Up there was the Mayor's office. Groaning I left City Hall. Today was a bad day already. I was the first one to break the Mayor's new law, Dad made sardine muffins for breakfast, and my nightmare from last night was still replaying in my mind.

Plus I didn't know how to begin on Marie's Ratbirds. I wanted to mix a colorful bird with the rat. Like a macaw (type of parrot). But where was I supposed to get a macaw? Rats were easy to find, because they always rummaged through people's garbage bins.

"Rats and birds share nothing in common! I might screw the product up and then what will I do?" I grumbled to myself as I made my way to the docks again. Their DNA was nowhere close to each other! What was I supposed to do? I came over to the docks and came over to the edge of the dock. Then I climbed down the ladder at the dock and sat on the third step of the ladder. Steve sat down on the second step and we both sighed at the same time.

I thought about Marie. How I saw her ghost at graduation. She had come because she cared. Because she remembered. What if her ghost had made that nightmare for me last night? Maybe she was trying to tell my something. What if she was angry at me about something?

I remembered how cold and dead her voice was when she spoke to me in my dream. How she had said "It's too late."

But too late for what? Was I supposed to do something? I wished her ghost could come down again and I could talk to her. I gripped the cold steel of the ladder and pressed my cheek against the cold steel. Maybe one day I'll die too and see her once again.

"Steve, do you ever have nightmares?" I asked him. A sad look came to Steve's face and he hung his head. I understood. He probably did. I mean I didn't even know where Steve was born or from where he had come from. He had no parents at the moment.

"Storm." Steve whispered and I glanced at him. He had nightmares about storms. The poor guy.

"I had a thunder storm in my dream last night." I told Steve. He bit his lip and then a tear rolled out of his eye. Then he looked at me and his orange eyes widened. I took him into my arms and gave him a comforting hug. I didn't know monkeys could cry, but they were living creatures too. They had feelings too.

"Dead." I heard say and I felt a tear squeeze from my eyes too. We both had nightmares about loved ones. I remember when mom died, I had nightmares after that. They were horrible. Some as bad as the one about Marie. But not as violent.

"Be grateful that you're not the dead one." came a misty voice. I felt cold all over when I heard the voice and shivers raced down my spine. The voice was filled with warmth, but steel too.

I turned around and saw a pale hand on my shoulder. Slowly I reached out to hold it. When I did the hand held mine back. Then the hand disappeared.

Instead of feeling happy that Marie was watching over me, I clutched my head and sighed, "I need to see a doctor. Seeing ghosts isn't normal."

Marie behind me frowned and vanished for good. She won't return anymore.