"Goodness, look at that weather. Lira, I don't think your mother's going to be able to get back…" Marie was staring out of the window at the heavily rising storm clouds.

"Maybe you should call her cell phone and tell her to get you tomorrow, when the weather calms down," Lydia suggested.

My mind went blank. Stay overnight…in a house I had never been to before today…among the company of a dozen ghosts…one of which is particularly skilled in freaking me out royally…

I shook my head vigorously.

"Oh Lira, don't be a 'fraidy-cat!" Dale demanded.

"Yeah. You're not afraid of ghosts, are you?" Dan cried. Everyone in the room cracked up.

I laughed a little bit at his remark. Of course, what did I have to be scared of, besides Briana's wrath? And from what I could tell, a stern word from Lydia would put that girl in her place.

I nodded and let Lydia hand me the phone. Stepping out of the room, I dialed my mother and claimed that she needn't brave the storm tonight; that Lydia had invited me for the night and that she should try tomorrow evening around six if it cleared up. She sounded apprehensive, but agreed, claiming she had to bed down in a local hotel because of the terrible rain. We wished each other sweet dreams and I hung up.

"Good all around?" Lydia inquired when I reentered.

"Yeah. Good all around."

"Goody then. Let's get you to the guestroom. Ariel will have to sleep somewhere else tonight, just like everyone else."

Lydia led me to a room off of the tearoom. It was charmingly decorated with a white-painted iron bed, topped with a twin-sized mattress and cushy, downy comforters. Lydia set some extra fluffy pillow on top and showed me the small private bathroom off to the side. She explained that dinner would be small, probably Ramen and some meat. Finally, she said there were some of her old teenage clothes in the closet and that I was welcome to rifle through and keep what I found cool.

I thanked her and she left me. Inspecting the inner parts of the bedroom, I realized I was overdue for a shower.

Considering my position, I should have been content to think that I could take one tomorrow, at home, far away from prying eyes. But my hair felt and looked filthy to me, so I began running hot water in the claw-footed tub.

Looking around for any lone wanderer, I quickly undressed and covered myself in a white towel I found under the sink. As I waited for the water to come to the right temperature, I let my ponytail down and smoothed out my hair.

Most of my features favored my father's side of the family: shoulder-length light brown hair, mud-brown eyes, tan with no burn, no acne, and little freckles. I criticized my eyebrows, obviously not approving of the care I took yesterday to shape them. Finally, I realized the water had been running hot for a few minutes and, slipping into the tub and drawing the curtain around me, I relished the warm liquid falling steadily around me.

A new bar of soap sat on the ledge. "Oh well. Bar soap is better than no shampoo," I muttered to myself, lathering up my tresses and beginning to wash them clean.

It was then that I noticed a strange shadow on the other side of the curtain. It hadn't been there when I stepped in. Suddenly it moved!

My mind raced. My worst fear had come true: someone was in the bathroom. For all I knew, it could have been that Ariel, the girl I had replaced in the room, it could have been Briana, it could even be one of the males I saw earlier. The latter scared me the most. Who knew what these people were capable of?

Shrinking against the wall-curtain, I covered what I could with a small washcloth I had brought in and prepared to fire the bar of soap at whomever dared look in.

Finally, rallying all my mother's Scottish blood in my veins, I let out a cry and flung the curtain open far enough to let fly the soap in the direction of the invader.

"Ouch! Holy Christ! What was that for?"

It had been Chris! I couldn't believe it; on top of everything else, I had to sleep in the same house as a peeping tom! That was it; I resolved to bundle up like a Russian grandmother for bed tonight!

"What in the name of all that's sacred are you doing in here?" I demanded, clutching the shower curtain closer.

"I just poked my head in just now to tell you that dinner's going to be pizza. Lydia called and it'll be here in fifteen minutes. How'd you aim so fast when I was just opening the door?"

"What? But…you couldn't have…you were in the room! You were standing right next to the sink…" I looked over across the room. From where the light was coming from, he had to have been standing opposite the door, all the way on the other side of the bathroom.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I told you, I just came in; sorry for not knocking. Here's your soap, and you're letting a lake drip on the floor."

He tossed me the bar and walked out, closing the door behind him. I realized he was right; there was water all over the linoleum. Rinsing out the rest of my hair, I stepped out, dried off, and mopped up the floor.

Emerging from the steamy bathroom with half-dry hair and a hurt pride, I eyed the pile of clothes in Lydia's closet. Finally, I gave in and began to rifle through them, finally digging up a black T-shirt that was made of some kind of Spandex-like material, which hugged my body and outlined every detail of my torso, including my medium-sized chest and thin midriff. To match, I settled on a pair of olive-green cargo pants with straps and buttonholes all over them.

Tying up my hair in its ponytail, I walked out of the room playing with my hair and came face to face with a rather short but nonetheless intimidating girl, sporting glasses and fuzzy brown hair.

"I hope you enjoy my room tonight. Just make sure I have it back tomorrow. I don't like sleeping out here with all of those cretins. Besides, Briana keeps us up all night with her stupid pranks. I need my room. Lydia promises I can sleep with her tonight. But she won't let me tomorrow."

So this was Ariel. I wondered how such a little girl who seemed so dependant could die. But, ours not to question why…

I nodded and reassured her. "Don't worry, I'm going home tomorrow. You'll have it back. Thanks, though."

She smiled and disappeared. Before long, I realized I didn't know where the dining room was. I decided not to wander down the hallway, trying doors and such, for fear of finding something like one of Briana's tricks behind a door or attracting the attention of that one ghost who had spoken to me earlier. I wasn't comfortable around him; he had a kind of aura around him that could be felt rather than seen, an unbalanced one that had the tendency to snap once in awhile.

Finally, I called out.

"Lydia? Chris? Ariel? Marie? I'm lost! Oh crap…" I mentally punished myself. I shouldn't have claimed that out loud. Now instead of meeting me by chance, any of those possibilities I had imagined earlier could come straight to me!

Which, one did.

"Lost, are we?"

He was back. That unbalanced ghost.