Toby ended up staying the night. He worried for Jim, because he didn't wake up except for his mom to feed him a few spoonfuls of soup. Toby was afraid that when Jim woke up for real it would not be pretty. So he called his Nana, and made up a bed on Jim's floor with an old sleeping bag.

Lying on the floor in the dark, Toby sighed. He didn't know what was going to happen next. He tried so hard to think about the logistics of the accident - what caused everything to happen, why Jim's hair color and clothes changed one way and then back again.

Online, his research had turned up articles that labeled the Ghost Zone as "superstition" or "unconfirmed theories." The most research that was available was actually stuff Jim's mom had turned up, though; she was the leading scientist on ghost research in the world, even if the majority of people thought she was crazy.

The Ghost Zone, Dr. Lake had theorized, was a dimension where the ghosts of the dead materialized when they "passed over." She said there was a physical, real energy that left the body when a person died, and if one got lucky, the energy could travel to the other dimension somehow and gain a partially-physical form again. These ghosts, made of energy, most likely wouldn't age, according to her, and would float through the space in the Ghost Zone, "living" forever. She proposed that the Ghost Zone and the dimension Earth exists in are neighbors, and that sometimes the two overlap, which is what causes hauntings. Maybe someone would die, and their energy of their self would reach out to the other dimension - catching an edge, getting a hand inside - and gain that physicality, but be unable to reach the Ghost Zone before they tumble back to Earth. Those ones become stuck, the corporeal ghosts which have been told stories of since humans came into existence. She always mentioned that this was all theory, but that she believed it to be true. She referred to things as if she'd seen it with her two eyes quite often, although how she knew all this before even finishing her portal was perplexing.

It was all some pretty intense information to take in. Toby wondered exactly how much of it was true, if any of it. He'd also found some older papers that were published by Jim's dad, James. Toby had heard about James before, but didn't know much about him… other than that he had disappeared in some kind of science-related accident. He never knew what exactly happened, because Jim's dad was a sore spot for both Jim and Mrs. Lake, and he didn't want to bother them. Toby knew how uncomfortable it was when someone asked him about his own parents.

Toby yawned. His eyes were already drooping closed… today had been an exhausting and stressful day. He relaxed the best he could, and tried to fall asleep.

Half an hour later, Jim's eyes fluttered open. Something wasn't right. What time was it? He sat up, panicked, but he realized he was just in bed. There was a glowing light in the room. The moon must be really bright, thought Jim.

He looked over to his left, on the floor. There was Toby, lying in a sleeping bag, asleep but not looking like he was enjoying it. His face was scrunched up a bit, and he was lying in a kind of weird position. Jim wondered if Toby had stayed the night because he was worried about him… but he felt fine, now. The tingling, the headache, the pain - everything was gone. He didn't feel a thing!

Jim gasped as he realized he really couldn't feel anything at all. He rustled his blankets, but his hands were numbed like they were thawing from being out in a cold winter - except it had been a nice, sunny California day. Jim felt himself start to hyperventilate, and he opened his eyes as wide as he could, pulling up his own hands to examine them. He struggled to get the gloves of the jumpsuit off. Maybe there was a lot more nerve damage than he thought. Could he tell just by looking at his palms?

Toby heard the rustling of blankets and homework papers, the heavy breathing coming from Jim, and bolted upright. "Jim?" he said, turning towards the bed. "Are you awake?"

And there Jim was. He stood there, hair as white as snow, eyes glowing white like the moon. Jim's irises seemed gray and glossed over, almost as if he were a blind old man with eyes full of cataracts. He was wearing the pink suit again, even though Toby had taken it off, and his frame seemed to sag underneath the vinyl. Jim looked up from his hands, eyes eerily piercing through the dark, and said, "Toby… something's wrong."

"I'll say," said Toby. "Salmon really isn't your color."

By the next morning, they had figured out two things. One, that the weird glowy-eyed thing Jim kept doing was temporary, and two, that it for sure went away whenever he went back to sleep. The problem then became: how could they control it?

Toby came out of Jim's room quietly, and tiptoed downstairs where Mrs. Lake was drinking some horribly-made coffee. It even smelled burnt. As he came into the dining room behind where she sat, he said, "Uh, sorry to bother you, Dr. Lake-"

"Oh, goodness!" shouted Jim's mom. She nearly jumped straight out of her chair, coming close to spilling her coffee. "You startled me!" She turned in her chair to face Toby. "How are you, Toby? You gave me quite the scare!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Lake," said Toby, looking at the ground. "Uh, I talked to Jim and he said he's still not feeling so well. I think he might have to stay home today."

"Oh, shoot," said Jim's mom, standing up immediately. She turned in a full circle, looking for something, and then located what she was looking for: her phone, which had been in front of her on the table the whole time. "I had been scheduled to go to a conference today. I was going to give a talk on the possibility of parallel dimensions and the realities of the physical world- but if he's too sick, I don't want to leave him here alone. What if it's worse than just some bad food?" She typed frantically on her phone while she spoke, and then put it up to her ear. Toby could hear the ringtone buzzing on the other end.

"Before you cancel everything," Toby suggested, "I could stay here instead. I don't want you to have to cancel - I remember Jim mentioning how important those conferences are, both to the continuation of your research, and uh… other stuff. My point is, I don't want to be an inconvenience. You already let me stay the night - I feel like I should help out a bit more!" He knew he was laying it on thick while also making everything up as he went along, and he hoped it wasn't showing.

Mrs. Lake's hand lowered as the ringtone continued. "You're sure?" she asked. "Have you missed much school this year?"

"Only as much as Jim has," said Toby. "So no, not very much at all. We're stuck together like two peas in a pod, you know." He half-chuckled. It was the best he could do as he was silently having a panic attack. "Listen, I just want to make sure he's safe. The conference is important, it makes you money, and if you don't get paid for those talks how are you gonna take care of us?" Toby's smile twitched. "I mean Jim!"

Mrs. Lake nodded with a small smile. The person on the other end finally picked up, complaining about the early hour, and she hung up. "I know Jim and I are almost like a second family to you, Toby… Okay. If this really is that important to you. But if anything goes wrong, if he starts getting a fever, take him to the doctor, okay? Call a cab or a friend. Make sure Jim is safe."

Toby nodded. "I'll do everything I can, Mrs. Lake." Which as far as Toby knew, wasn't a lot. But he'd try. If worse came to worse they could tell Mrs Lake about the whole thing when she got home from the conference. They'd be in trouble, but she'd probably be able to help.

Jim looked up at the door from where he was sitting on his bed. "Okay, Toby. Question number one: What is going on?!"

Toby glanced down at Jim's feet in the pink jumpsuit, and noticed a new alarming development. "You don't have any feet, Jimbo," said Toby, panicking.

Jim looked at him, brows furrowing. "Yes, I know, thank you. I'm freaking out." He realized he wasn't really touching the bed, either. He let out a frustrated huff of air. "AHHH!" He flopped backwards, aiming to collapse on his bed, but once again, he didn't make contact. He kept falling backwards, spinning out of control, and he couldn't see where he was going. Everything moved around him so fast, it was a blur. He wanted to scream, to yell - the tension in his body built as he curled up, closing his eyes.

Jim realized that spinning into forever probably wouldn't end well. But he couldn't think straight. His head buzzed and throbbed with stress. He had to calm down.

Slowly, he started breathing in. And he breathed out. He imagined his stress around him. With each inhale pretended he was sucking it up. As he breathed out, he imagined the stress flying away, dissipating like hot breath on a cold night. He thought about the muscles he was holding so tight, and let them relax with each breath, until he was flying through the air limp. He opened his eyes, and suddenly jolted to a stop.

He was hovering, in control. And he was in the sewer. In the distance, down the large pipe corridor, he saw a light. It was green, small enough to just be a pinprick at the end of the long tunnel. Jim wondered if it should even be there, but he wasn't sure how to float forward to check.

The good news was he didn't have to go towards it, because the longer he looked the more he realized that whatever the green light thing was, it was heading directly towards him. He felt his heart sink in fear. It had been a very rough 24 hours, and he had a feeling that this green light could be dangerous. But he knew he couldn't defend himself against anything…

Suddenly his phone buzzed in his pocket, making him yelp. It kept buzzing: a phone call. It was Toby. "Uh, hi Tobes," said Jim, answering.

"Dude, where are you?" asked Toby on the other line. "Are you okay? What just happened?! Where are you?"

"You already asked that," said Jim in a lowered voice. "I'm in the sewers. Uh, don't know where in the sewers, though. Please come find me," he pleaded. "There's this thing running at me and I don't know how to move."

"Okay," said Toby. "Find you in the sewers, which are underground, and span miles under Arcadia. Find you in the sewers even though you don't know where you are. Easy."

"Okay, look, I'll turn my location on," asid Jim, pulling his phone from his ear to change his settings. "Find me that way. I gotta go. Get here two minutes ago."

Jim turned his focus back to the green light, which was now much closer, and he could make out that it had a form of some kind, like it was a glowing animal. A few seconds later, he could tell that it was running towards him. As he squinted, he noticed the movements of two legs - and two arms. It wasn't an animal at all. It was a person.

Jim frantically tried to figure out how to move. He still was just hanging in the air, stuck without any control. Soon he heard the breath of the person running. A light huffing. "You!" called the person. His voice was a little gravelly, which wasn't soothing at all. In one swift movement, the figure jumped - and didn't come back down. He put two arms out forward. He was flying at Jim now.

His eyes glowed red.

"I don't know who you are, but even a newbie should know not to bother me down here!" yelled the glowing man. Jim gasped in fear, trying desperately to do anything, to move, to drop out of the sky. With open palms, the man approached quickly, and he was almost there.

In a split second, Jim realized he was about to be grabbed, or punched, or otherwise injured. He had to fly up, through the ground. He had to escape. There was no way that Toby could help, even if he were here with Jim. He was on his own. He had to do it, on his own. He concentrated.

The man let out a cackle as he reached Jim, ready to do whatever it was this man in the sewers did. He swung forward, grabbing for Jim's collar.

But there was nothing there. Nothing at all but thin air and the glowing green man.