Upstairs, Darry, Soda, and Two-Bit had separated to different rooms. Darry took his bedroom, Soda took his, and Two-Bit took the bathroom. Darry flipped the covers around on his bed and looked under. Nothing. Not much else seemed out of the ordinary in his room. He approached his closet and ruffled through his shirts and dirty laundry. Again, nothing.

"Come on Ponyboy," Darry muttered, "Where are you?"

Going around his room more, he continued to call out, "Ponyboy? Come on buddy, come on out. I want to get you out of here and get you some help Pony. Please."

In the bathroom, Two-Bit checked under the sink with caution, but nothing happened. He tried the light switch a few times, but they didn't work. He groaned and peered out the bathroom window. All the neighbor's houses were lit. Even the street lights were lighting up as the storm made the sky dim. He wasn't surprised. It was exactly what he expected. "Of fucking course," he whispered to himself, "Only this house."

He swung the shower curtain open and nearly screamed. He had been so angry at the situation, he hadn't prepared himself to find anything behind the curtain. In the dark, Two-Bit could tell the bathtub was full of water. Flashing his light at it though, he could see the liquid wasn't water. It was a darker color, like dark red almost black. Two-Bit bent over and looked closer. He was scared to say if it was blood for sure.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep swallow, Two-Bit groaned, "I'll regret this. Pony you better be in here to make this worth it."

Reaching down without watching, he put a finger in the liquid and pulled it out fast. It was thicker than just water. Hell, Two-Bit didn't think there was any water at all in the tub. After examining it a little longer, he nearly vomited. It was blood. A tub full of pure blood.

"Oh man," Two-Bit said grabbing a towel and wiping his finger off. He put his flash light on the sink and reached to turn the faucet on. He placed his hand under the faucet, but once the sink turned on, blood poured out and got all over his hand. Immediately, he turned the sink off and began cursing to himself.

Grabbing the towel again, he rubbed the blood off as hard as he could. Pointing the light at his hand, he could still see a slight layer of blood that was dried upon his hand.

"Damnit, seriously?" Two-Bit sat on the toilet to get his act together. "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy," he repeated over and over, trying to shake it off.

Soda didn't have to do much searching in his bedroom. The bed was empty, like it was when he tried checking on Pony before the power went out. The rest of the room appeared empty too. There was only one spot he hadn't checked, and he wasn't expecting much. It was the closet. Once he opened the closet, he jumped back. There was Ponyboy. His body was crouched in the closet with his face buried in his knees. His shoulders were shaking. He was crying.

"Pony?" Soda asked quietly. He was standing there, not going down to Pony just yet.

"Soda," he whimpered back, not looking up.

"Oh Ponyboy," Soda rushed in, grabbing his little brother, and pulling him into his arms. He dropped his flashlight and held his little brother tight. "Ponyboy, it's going to be okay. I promise."

"Soda," he continued to whimper.

"Yeah it's okay buddy," Soda began to cry too. He continued to hold his brother as he sobbed into his shoulder. He didn't want to let go of Pony. Not the real Pony. "Let's get out of here, okay? Come on, let's go."

"Okay," Pony said as Soda picked him up, getting to his feet.

"Darry! Two-Bit! Somebody!" Soda yelled out, "I got him!"

Darry hurried into the bedroom and took Ponyboy from Soda's arms. "Ponyboy, are you okay?" Pony whimpered softly in response. "Okay, let's go. He needs help."

"He needs spiritual help," Soda said.

"First the hospital."

"Darry, what are they going to do?" Soda argued, "They can't fix this."

"I don't know, but Pony is obviously not well. He's freezing, he's shaking, he's delusional. He needs medical attention right away."

Soda hurried downstairs with Two-Bit. Dally, Steve, and Johnny had returned inside to the relieving news Pony was found.

"Okay, everyone just stay here. No one should be alone right now," Darry said, "I'm taking him to the hospital."

"I'm coming with you," Soda said.

"No you're not. I want everyone to stay here with each other. Just try to get some rest." Soda left it at that, knowing Pony needed to be seen immediately. Darry hurried out of the house and got into the truck. Ponyboy was upset in the passenger seat the whole ride. He cried, moaned, and kept talking about wanting to be better. Darry took deep breaths, knowing he couldn't say anything to fix it, and that was killing him.

At one point during the ride, the steering wheel yanked towards one direction, nearly causing the truck to crash.

"Oh shit!" Darry yelled as he steered back onto the road.

"Darry, what's happening to me?" Pony cried, catching on to the strange happenings linking to him.

"It's okay Pony, it's okay," Darry grabbed Pony's hand and holding on tight, trying to ignore the chill it sent through him.

As he parked the truck at the hospital, Darry picked Pony up in his arms, "Come on buddy."

The receptionist barely had to ask what was wrong, Pony's appearance was enough. Darry didn't realize it at first, but seeing Pony in a lit room made him believe they'd be calling authorities, because Pony was skinny, pale, and bruised. And Darry had no explanation for any of it.

Back at the house, the remaining greasers were laying around the living room trying to sleep, but they did a lot of shuffling around. They couldn't even keep a lighthearted conversation going. Some of the time they expected something weird to happen. Their anxiety levels were on the rise. The other time they were waiting for the phone to ring or the duo to be back. Either way, the gang was not getting much sleep tonight.

At one point, Steve gave up on sleep and got up to go into the kitchen. He grabbed himself a beer and sat at the kitchen table. Looking out the window, he was oddly relieved to be seeing no clouds. Just the moon and the stars. It was a little calming. Another figure entered the kitchen. It was Soda.

"Can't sleep?" Soda asked.

Steve shook his head in response.

"Me either." Soda walked to the cupboard, grabbed a bag of chips, and sat back down at the table. He began eating them while Steve joined in.

"These taste surprisingly amazing right now," Steve chuckled.

"Yes they do," Soda laughed along. They ate in silence, just the sound of crunching chips, and that was perfectly fine with them.

At some point throughout the night, each greaser slowly fell asleep. They all needed rest bad, to the point where some sprawled on the couch, a chair, or even the floor without a second thought. At the hospital, Darry was slightly worried no one was answering the phone, but tried telling himself they were all asleep. He didn't want to keep trying if that was the case.

"Darry?" Pony mumbled from the bed. Pony had a few monitors hooked up to him. The doctors were testing heart activity, brain activity, and took blood samples, but weren't sure what more to do, which Darry had suspected would happen.

"What is it buddy?" Darry asked. He was starting to relax whenever Pony talked, now that he could tell the difference between Pony and the other thing's voice and attitude. He was uneasy about the fact he could tell the difference so well, but tried not to think about it too much.

"I just thought of something," Pony said with a hard swallow.

"What's that?"

"What if the doctor's are calling the police? And they find out about mom and dad, and then try to take me away thinking you did this to me?"

Darry looked at the floor. Of course he had thought about that. That scenario ran through his head a million times. Darry couldn't hide that worry from Pony. He knew Pony was too smart for his own good. He couldn't let that fear keep him from getting Pony help either though. He finally sighed, "Maybe they will and maybe they won't. All I can do is tell them the truth and hope they realize the truth. Hopefully they realize it wasn't me or Soda."

Pony nodded, "Am I going to die?"

Darry nearly jumped. It was a very abrupt question. Sure that had run through Darry's head too, but he hadn't realized Pony was thinking about it.

"No Ponyboy. I won't let it. This thing will have to kill me first. He can have me before he has you." Darry was shocked he actually referred to this spiritual thing as a being out loud.

"Don't say that," Pony whimpered slightly, "That doesn't make me feel better.

"I'm serious though. I will do everything in my power to keep that from happening. I will do everything I can to keep him from getting you or Soda or anyone else. Period."

There was a knock on the door and the doctor walked in with the nurse.

"Hello," the nurse greeted with a smile, "I'm just going to check on his vitals again." She walked towards the machines to read the records as the doctor pulled Darry to the side. "Mr. Curtis, do you mind if we talk in the hall?"

"Of course not," Darry gave Pony's shoulder a squeeze and left the room.

"Darry, I'm deeply concerned," the doctor began.

"Me too," Darry firmly stated, "I want to know what's wrong."

The doctor sighed, "Well, his body temperature doesn't just happen for no reason. Something has to cause it. Your temperature doesn't just decide to drop. Also, his blood tests came back surprising. Well, everything came back surprising."

"As in?" Darry asked.

The doctor's mouth open and closed, as if trying to figure out what to say, "To be bluntly honest, he should be dead right now."

"Wh-What?" Darry took a step back.

"I'm baffled Mr. Curtis. I have no idea what is keeping him alive right now, but his body is just...useless."

Darry shook his head, "I'm...I'm not understanding how..."

The doctor scratched his head, "Imagine this. His organs, bodily fluids, blood count, everything is not in working mode right now. Not normally anyway, not like how our organs are working." The doctor sighed, struggling to find an explanation as this was just as baffling to him. "It's almost as if a machine is working his organs to keep him alive. His organs are at a point right now where they shouldn't be able to function on their own as ours do."

"So, you're saying if Pony gets unplugged, he's just...he's gone?"

"Not exactly," the doctor said, "This is the part that I'm struggling to understand. His body has been like this for at least a few days."

"What do you mean?"

"His organs should have been long shut off way before tonight. It's not adding up at all."

"But...no idea what's causing it?" Darry groaned.

"No, unfortunately not. The nurse is going to take a few more samples so we can look at it some more," the doctor said, "But for now, if you have any questions or if any changes need to be noted, just give me a call down."

The nurse walked out of the room as Darry stood in the hall lost.

"Hi Mr. Curtis, did the doctor explain everything?"

Darry nodded, looking to the floor.

The nurse walked closer to Darry and got inches from him as she spoke in a low voice, "I have something to tell you, but we have to talk in private."