A/N:  Ahhhh, and the story continues.  I tried to get this up as soon as possible, but, hey, homework calls.  Must…..get…..another…….chapter…….up.  (opens new document and starts writing with much gusto)  To all you people out there who read this but DON'T REVIEW………….PLEASE DO! (meheheh) Also to everyone else………thanks soooo much for your reviews!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, I am just a poor writer who makes nothing and writes with a shriveled pencil on napkins in grimy corners of alleys in the city.  Meg Cabot owns everything you recognize and makes all the money.

~*The Undoing of the Mediator*~

Chapter 8: I'm Still Here

~*Jesse*~

I heard her scream, and I, once again, materialized next to her bed.  Susannah was sitting up in her bed, dripping seat and breathing hard.  There was only one person or thing in the world who scared Susannah, and at this moment in time, I was seriously about to run out the door with a knife.  That boy was dead.  I dematerialized into the kitchen, grabbed a glass of water, and ran back up the stairs to her room.  You can't dematerialize with object in your hands; they'll be left behind.  So I brought it over to her bed.

~*Suze*~

My hands were shaking and my sheets were all wet from sweat.  I had never had a nightmare like that in my life………was he about to kill me?  Kiss me?  God, I thought I was about to throw up.  That's when (oddly enough), I saw a floating glass of water coming my way.  It found it's way into my hands.

"Jesse," I whispered, emitting squeaks.  I didn't really know what else to say.  I drank the water and lay back down on my bed, staring at the window seat where I thought Jesse would be sitting.  I fell back asleep like that.

~*~*~*~*~

The next morning I looked like crap.  My eyes were all baggy and my hair was all gross, even after I washed it.  I looked like a hag, what with my messed up eyes and shakiness.  I dragged myself out of my shower and downstairs to eat breakfast.  Brad caught one look at me and started laughing.

"Look who got up on the wrong side of the bed today!" he wailed, clutching his stomach.

I wasn't in the mood. "Shut up, punk," I said, and with that I sucker-punched him.  Hard.  His laughing turned to complaining.

"Dad!" he yelled, even though Andy was right there, "she punched me!  Did you see that?"

"Well, Brad, it was provoked.  But Suze, you really shouldn't use violence to solve things," Andy said.  That was odd. Usually he would just ground both of us, but he looked extremely happy.  I put it in the back of my mind and grabbed a pop-tart and dragged myself out the door to Sleepy's car.

At school, things were not going well.  CeeCee and Adam took one look at me and were immediately asking me what happened, and when CeeCee was about to ask me if it was because Jesse had dumped me or something like that, I said, "I gotta get to class, bye."  She looked extraordinarily disappointed. 

I made a pit-stop at Father D's office.  He was looking over a huge pile of papers when I walked in.  He looked up in surprise at me.

"Susannah, aren't you supposed to be in history right now?" he fiddled with a pen he was holding.

"Yeah, but I have a question," I said, shifting between feet nervously.  I wasn't really sure if it was a good thing to tell Father D what I was about to.

"What's on your mind," he said, looking at me.

I fiddled with my thumbs and took a deep breath. "It's Paul Slater," I said with reluctance.

Father D's eyebrows went up………way up.  "What about him?"

"I………I think he seriously wants to kill me, Father D.  I've never gotten this type of feeling about someone before.  I mean, even when Michael Meducci wanted to kill me and the RLS Angels and everything, I never quite felt that at the same time I was being stalked," I rambled on, "And last night he sent me a dream, and I think he was about to kill me in it, but my eyes just kept being averted to this boat, even when he was about to………kiss me in it."  I involuntarily blushed.  I really didn't like discussing my horror/love life with priests.  Especially ones who are the principal of your school.  Suddenly, I remembered something that happened in my dream that I had completely forgotten about.  The glinting, a golden glinting coming from his wall.  The thought nagged at my brain.

Father D stood up so quickly some of the papers fell to the ground.  "He sent you a dream? Good heavens, it that possible?"

"Well, obviously it is because he told me he did this morning, and there was no other way he could have known," I replied simply.

"He told you this?  Why?" Father D asked, rubbing his forehead in confusion.

"Well, I think that he thought the dream I would get would be good.  I don't think he expected to murder or jump me in it," I said, "I got the feeling that he didn't know what the dream would contain, only that he could send me one--"

At that moment, a nun popped her head in and said, "Father Dominic, Mrs. Wells is on line one, she says it's urgent."

Father D looked at me pointedly, "We'll continue this later Susannah.  I need to think about this dream thing."  Taking that as a dismissal, I left the office.

~*Jesse*~

I found the book underneath her bed.  I hated snooping around like this, but it was urgent.  I opened the book and caught a few browning pages as they slipped out of it and onto the floor.  I neatly tucked them back inside and flipped to the first post-it I had put in.  "Shifters," the section was entitled.  I started flipping through the pages………Mind and body control, Dimension Traveling, Exorcisms, Dream Transfers, Spirit Melding ( I flipped past that one in horror), Body-Swapping……….and with two chapters left I found it. It was hidden in a little footnote on the bottom of the page.  It said, "Reincarnation:  Unfortunately, the shifter is unable to perform this task.  The ghost must do it by himself or herself.  The only way reincarnation is done is by the use of the Medallion of Life.  There are only a few of these left in the world, for they can only be used once, and they are often just mistaken for worthless pieces of jewelry because of their appearance.  While incredibly shiny, they are just a rough cutting of metal, bound to a cord usually.  The metal they are made of, however, is not of this world and it allows a spirit, at the right time, to use it to reincarnate oneself.  The spirit will know when that time comes."  A sketch of a medallion was next to the explanation, and it appeared just as ugly as the explanation described it. 

My heart sunk as I read the passage.  How would I ever find on of these?  I reread the passage again and closed the book with a sigh.  I had better put it away before Susannah got home from school and saw me reading it.  I placed it under her bed again and picked up "Romeo and Juliet" right as Susannah walked in.  She looked distressed and I wished with all my heart that I could hold her and tell her that everything would be all right.  She must have seen the book floating in the air because she looked straight at me and said, "He sent it, Jesse.  He sent me the dream."  I dropped the book in surprise and it fell to the floor with a thump.

She fell backwards onto her bed and let out a long sigh, "What am I going to do, Jesse?"  Her hair was spread out around her like a halo.  I longed to touch it.  "But the glint! What was the glinting thing? And the boat?"

I looked around the room and found what I was searching for.  I wrote carefully on the piece of paper, "Tell me about the dream."  I brought it over to her and dropped it into her hand.  She looked at it in surprise and quickly read it.  She opened her mouth and sighed.  I saw this intense battle going on in her mind, and I snatched the paper back up.  "I promise I will not hunt down Paul," I scribbled.  She read it and then opened her mouth.

When she was done explaining she sat up and pulled her knees up to her chest on her bed.  "But the glinting thing on the wall! And the boat!  I can't even get those two images out of my mind.  At first I completely forgot the shiny thing was there; I don't even remember dreaming it.  But it's pulling at my brain like a tug-of-war now."

My eyes opened wide in surprise.  Glinting thing?  But—the book.  A shiny metal—a glinting thing on Paul's wall.  It didn't take that long for me to put two and two together, and I walked over to the windowsill and began planning the long night ahead. 

A/N:  Sorry! I know this chapter's somewhat short (again), and sorry for the wait (major writer's block)!  Hey, I really want to know if you guys know what's going to happen.  Tell me if you think you do! Also, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!  Thanks for reading people! I love you all!