A/N: All right, all right, I'm making an effort to write Chapter 3! Yeeey! Pretend to be super happy about this, okay?

Oh, the first part of the chapter kind of sucks, lol. Because mostly when I came up with this chapter, I focused on the second half of it. Though the first half of it features a character from my old series (Think "Secrets Revealed" and "Revelations" lol). I don't actually tell you his name in Part 1, or at all till Part 3, but if you've read my old series, and you happen to remember which character had dimples...

Chapter 3

I was in a daze for pretty much the rest of the day.

Honestly. You'd think that after nearly drowning to death in my school's pool that I'd do something like burst into tears. Well, okay, I don't generally do that. Cry, I mean. But you'd think that I'd at least do something. But I guess I was in shock. Or something.

Anyway, I let the guy—Kevin, I guess his name was. You'd think I'd know the name of the guy who'd just saved my life—take me home because Eric had apparently left at some point.

He didn't say anything as we walked out to his car. Which was fine with me. He kept asking me, while we were at the pool, if I was okay, if I needed anything. It was kind of sweet, you know, for a guy who didn't actually know me.

Yeah, I know, I shouldn't have been getting into a car with someone I'd just met, but I figured that he couldn't be that bad—I mean, he'd pulled me from certain death. So it wasn't like he was a complete stranger.

Sort of.

But when he pulled up in front of my house, I just thanked him—again—you know, for the ride, and saving my life. I didn't really give him a chance to answer. He opened his mouth to say something, but I just sort of slammed the door and ran into my house.

Yeah, I know, I'm the most gracious person on earth. Sue me.

But by the time I got up to my bedroom I saw that there was already someone up there. I didn't have to wonder too long how he'd gotten there, because it became pretty obvious that he was no longer among the living.

Might have something to do with the fact that he was sitting on my bed, and was amusing himself by sticking his hand through the mattress.

"What the hell are you doing?"

He looked up, and grinned at me, causing a little dimple to appear on his cheek. "Anna Foster, I presume."

I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling a little uncomfortable. You would too if you'd just been attacked by a ghost—probably a ghost, anyway—and had nearly died. So some guy showing up in my room, announcing, basically, that he knew exactly who I was, not just what I was, made me feel a bit uneasy. "What do you want?"

"Came to warn you," he said, his smile fading a little.

A little late for that, buster. "About what?"

"You're about to get in the middle of something very dangerous," the nameless ghost informed me. "You have to be careful who you trust. There are a lot of old bonds that could get in your way."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" I demanded.

Unfortunately, before I could even finish my sentence, he was gone.

A/N: Don't you hate it when they do that? Anyway, for future reference: Alex and Kevin, although they don't tend to take their anger out by hitting people (except on the occasions that the person has done bodily harm/threatened to do bodily harm to someone they care about) they tend to take their anger out on inanimate objects. Like doors. And shoes.

You'll see what I mean.

The entire way home after dropping off Anna, Kevin was kicking himself for being such an idiot. He'd finally had his chance to talk to her, and he'd blown it. Yes, she'd just gone through one hell of an ordeal, but still. He could have said something.

But of course, he couldn't say everything he wanted to, because certain people were too intent on keeping their secrets.

At the thought of Alex, Kevin felt the anger well up inside him. This was all his fault, Kevin was almost sure of it. If he'd be perfectly honest with Anna for a minute, this wouldn't be happening.

Or maybe it had all been inevitable. Kevin didn't care. He was still furious.

That was why when he got into the house, he slammed open the door (A/N: See? What'd I tell you?) and yelled, "ALEX!"

Thank God no one was home, otherwise they might start to wonder why he was standing in the front hall yelling the name of a dead man at the top of his lungs.

Alex materialized in front of him, looking a little annoyed. "What—"

But Kevin didn't let him finish his sentence. He just barreled right along, demanding, "What the hell have you been doing?"

Alex stopped looking annoyed and started looking confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Nevermind." That wasn't a question Kevin generally asked. He didn't really care for what Alex tended to do in his spare time. "You know what happened today?" When Alex shook his head, Kevin went on, "Anna almost died."

That got Alex's attention all right. "What?"

"Somebody tried to drown her in the pool. And I think it's fairly safe to say whoever did it was a ghost. No one can hold their breath that long."

Alex had stopped listening about halfway through what Kevin had said. "Is she okay? Where is she?" He was starting to get that panicked look on his face. Kevin probably shouldn't have been happy about that, but a part of him was anyway. The other part, though, had just gotten started.

"She's at home, she's fine. But I want to know where the hell you were." Alex just stared at him for a long time. "You were with her, weren't you?" It wasn't really a question. Kevin knew the answer already.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Alex demanded, getting defensive now.

Kevin leaned against the wall, looking far calmer than he felt. "I just think that it's a little too convenient that she just happened to need you right when all of this was happening."

Alex advanced on him, looking more than a little angry now. Kevin didn't budge. He wasn't too afraid of Alex's reaction. They both knew he wasn't going to try and hurt him. "She has nothing to do with this."

"I can't live in your dream world, Alex. You have to face up to the fact she's dangerous, and one of these days she's going to go off and you're not going to be able to save her from all the consequences."

Kevin almost expected Alex to argue with him. For a minute he just stood there, looking like he very much wanted to rip Kevin's head off for the things he'd said, but suddenly it was like all the energy just drained out of him. Finally, Alex sighed. "I know," he said, a little hoarsely. "But she didn't have anything to do with this."

When Kevin opened his mouth to say something, Alex broke in, "She didn't." Then he dematerialized, presumably to go check on Anna.

Kevin just slumped against the wall, closing his eyes. Anna didn't deserve to be dragged into this, he knew that from the short time he was with her, and everything Alex had ever said about her. She didn't deserve to dragged into a family feud.

Especially not considering the kind of family he had, anyway.

A/N: Eh. It didn't turn out quite as well as I wanted it to, but I like it. My brain's too focused currently on other things. Lol. I need to get back into fanfic writing mode. Or at least "finish the current story so you can move onto the other ones you want to write" mode. Hehe. You know the drill; read and review.