One moment Marco felt nothing but numb, the next all feeling returned. He wasn't in pain, though. Just cold. Very very cold. But he could breathe again. Rather, he realized, he wasn't breathing, but it didn't matter that he wasn't. That was weird, but he wasn't going to complain; it hurt not being able to breathe. "Dylan, it's okay. I'm all right now," he told Dylan, seeing the striken face on his boyfriend's face. Dylan's expression doesn't change, other than for eyes to well up with tears.

And then Ellie was on top of Marco, blocking his view of Dylan.

"El, it's okay. I'm fine now," he whispered, wrapping his arm around her. Rather, he tried to. He yelped as his arm went right through her. What happened? He rolled onto his feet and looked down to see that she was still there. On top of…him. What was going on?

Marco watched for a few moments, completely stunned.

Dylan said that he was dead, but he couldn't be. He didn't feel dead. At least he didn't think he did. He'd never been dead before, so he guessed he couldn't say for sure, but really, he couldn't be dead. He had far too much yet to do. And Nana told him that he was to be part of the opposition of the darkness. How could he be if he was dead? He was just…knocked out of his body. That's all. He needed to get back to it.

Ellie said he wasn't dead, too. She said he'd be fine.

"Listen to her, I'm not dead!" Marco told Dylan, but he didn't reply. He only told Ellie that they needed to go. "No! Not yet! Don't leave me here," Marco protested. Fortunately Dylan agreed and announced that they would take him with them.

But then Ellie was leaving. Without Marco. He was torn whether to go with her or stay with Dylan and his body. He was afraid to be separated from it--what if he couldn't find his way back? But Ellie was so upset. She shouldn't be alone. Especially with all those things out there.

"Ellie, wait! Don't go!" he yelled after her. "Don't leave me!"

He started to go after her, panicking. He didn't want her out there alone to die. "Ellie, please!" He felt colder the farther he got from his body. It became almost unbearable, hurting as he went after her. But he had to. He couldn't let her die!

The solution came in the form of Jimmy Brooks. Marco stopped going after Ellie as he saw Jimmy go. He heard Jimmy agree to walk her home, so feeling a slight bit better, Marco returned to Dylan. He felt better the closer he got to his body, which Dylan had now gathered into his arms. Dylan was sobbing inconsolably. Marco tried to comfort him, but it was clear that Dylan could neither see nor hear him. Figuring that it would all just be okay if he could get back into his body, he tried to figure out how. But nothing seemed to work.

Jimmy watched Ellie go inside and even lingered for a minute or so longer, making sure that she didn't change her mind. But it became apparent that she wouldn't, and he needed to get back and make sure that everyone else was okay. He also realized that he needed to follow his own advice as he heard a scream from a few blocks away. Nobody should be out alone, including him. He turned and ran back to the school.

When he got there, he discovered that Hazel had awakened. She and Craig had located Ashley and they were trying to wake her up. When Hazel saw Jimmy, she lit up and jumped up to go to him. He hugged her, relieved that she was alright. But his mind was elsewhere. He looked over her shoulder and saw Dylan Michalchuk sitting on the gym floor clutching what Jimmy now knew to be Marco's body. Somebody should really go help him, Jimmy thought. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure that he would do much good; he barely knew the guy.

He kissed Hazel and released her from the hug. "We should get out of here. We'll go to Craig's, like we were going to for the after party," he started to organize. "Start getting everyone together," he directed before starting toward Dylan.

Marco was still trying when he saw Jimmy return. Without Ellie.

He left her alone!

Marco headed toward him, ignoring the cold that seeps in as he does. "Jimmy? Where's Ellie? Why'd you leave her?" But Jimmy didn't answer, he only hugged Hazel then turned and walked right through Marco. It felt something like having a thousand needles prick him all at once for just a moment, then just tickled. Marco didn't think it was a pleasant feeling at all. He shuddered and looked back toward Jimm.

Before Jimmy reached Dylan, he noticed Spinner and Paige off to the side and he went there instead. He didn't know Dylan, and Paige was a much better bet for being a comfort to him.

Marco couldn't believe Jimmy just left Ellie alone. He looked back at Dylan and wished there was some way that he could let Dylan know that he was okay. He should be able to get back in his body. He just needed a little help to do it. Right then, though, he was more concerned about Ellie being out there by herself.

He ignored the cold and headed to her apartment. He tried to knock on the door, but it didn't make a sound. So he tried to turn the knob, but his hand went right through it.

His hand could go through the door. Testing a theory, he did it again, this time stepping through. If Jimmy walking through him felt awful, walking through the door was a thousand times worse. He couldn't help but scream as the pain hit him. But just as quickly as the pain started, it was gone, and he found himself inside Ellie's apartment.

She was crying so hard.

Marco knelt down next to her. "Ellie, it's okay. I'm here," he whispered in her ear. "Shh..." he tried to soothe. It seemed to work. Either that or she had cried herself to sleep.

He sat back and watched her for a few minutes, unsure what he should do. He really needed to find a way back into his body, but he didn't even know how to start. And he couldn't even ask Ellie for help because she couldn't hear him. It was so frustrating! And he was so cold. He shivered as he sat against the couch, drawing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them, huddling to try and warm up and to keep himself calm. "Please help me, Ellie," he asked softly, even though he knew she couldn't hear him. "I have to get back."

Ellie woke up after she wasn't sure how long she'd slept. It seemed as though her electric had been shut off. She sat up slowly and allowed her eyes to adjust to the pitch blackness that surrounded her. She could hear all sorts of creepy noises coming from outside…or perhaps a few inside.

She could have sworn that she heard someone say her name. She wiped away smeared mascara and sat up to listen closer. She found herself fumbling for Jimmy's phone in the dark as it occurred to her that it could be one of the creatures that attacked earlier. No, that didn't seem right somehow, she thought as she realized the voice was softer…more familiar.

She could barely make out a silhouette not far from where she sat, but she couldn't make out who it was. She could feel it though. She could feel him.

It took her a moment to speak. "Who's there?" she asked fearfully, knowing what her senses were telling her, but knowing that it was impossible.

Marco looked up as Ellie spoke. She sounded so afraid. He knew she couldn't hear him, so he listened, trying to figure out what she was hearing. He didn't hear anything, though, and she was looking straight toward him. "Ellie? You can't hear me, can you?" he asked, hoping that somehow she could.

Ellie jumped back when she heard his voice. "Whatever the hell you think you are doing, just stay away from me!" she shouted, suddenly very terrified. She grabbed Jimmy's phone and began searching it for Craig's number. She began to push buttons frantically and ended up dropping the phone because her hand was shaking so badly. She had to grab her wrist with her other hand to steady it. "You are dead…you can't be here," she said weakly as she backed away from him farther, slowly making her way toward the door.

"N-no! Ellie, it's okay; it's me!" Marco protested, scrambling to his feet. He didn't know how she couldh ear him, but if she could, she might be his only hope of getting back into his body. "Ellie, wait! Please. I'm not…I'm not dead." He stepped toward her, but she seemed so frightened that he stopped, frightened more for her safety than himself at the moment. "Please don't go out there, El. It's too dangerous."

"What are you?" she asked, staring at him, confused. She was preparing to run out the door if he took one more step near him. "If you come near me, I will run," she declared. She allowed her eyes to dart quickly to Jimmy's cell that was lying on the floor between them. If only she could reach it without having to walk closer to…whatever he was, she thought with a shudder. "How did you find me? How did you even get into my house?"

Marco backed away from her, hoping it would make her feel a little better. "I-I heard Jimmy tell you he would walk you home, so I came here…I don't know what I am. I can't get back into my body. Please, I need you to help me get back. It's cold…" He winced when he said that. He sounded like such a whiner…

Ellie wanted to run away from him, but there was something that kept her there. Maybe it was the fact that even though she didn't know what he was, he did look and sound just like her best friend. Besides that, he sounded just as confused as she felt. No way, though. It was just too much to take. First she lost her soulmate, then he suddenly appeared in her living room in the middle of the night. This was just too much to take. "Marco…is it really you?" she asked desperately wanting to believe yet at the same time far too scared to. She looked again at Jimmy's phone and quickly darted toward it, hoping he wouldn't try to stop her.

"Yeah, El. It's me. I swear it is." He felt terrible as he watched her grab for the phone. He didn't mean to scare her. He needed some way to assure her. "Just…ask me something only I would know. Or…if you want, I'll just go. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I just don't know where else to go. No one else can hear me."

In his voice, Ellie could hear the same sincerity and open emotion that she had come to love so well, and she believed him. It scared the hell out of her, but she believed him. She felt tears starting to fill her eyes again, but cautiously stepped toward him. She tried to speak, but her throat was too sticky to manage anything other than his name; half-sob, half-word. "You really are here," she said, smiling through more tears, when at last she could speak. "You didn't leave me after all?" She knew that the question was kind of pointless considering that he was standing in front of her, but a part of her…a very raw and emotional part of her, needed his confirmation.

Marco let out a relieved little laugh. "I'm here. I wouldn't leave. Not on purpose. I just…can't get back." He shivered again, but moved closer, not want wanting to scare her away, but wanting to comfort her. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"I just can't believe that you're actually here," she said, suppressing a pained giggle with her hand. She slowly walked forward, one step at a time until she was right in front of him. "Do you remember anything? How you died? How you got here?"

"I'm not dead!" he insisted. "I don't know what happened, but I'm fine. I just can't get back into my body. That thing…it must have…thrown me out somehow. I just need help figuring out how to get back. It's…really cold here."

Ellie wanted to believe that too, so she could understand why he was in such denial. Maybe he really wasn't dead. "Marco, there has to be something that we can do. Tell me everything that you remember. Maybe it will help us think of something."

"I don't know. Just one moment I was lying there trying to breathe, and then I could but Dylan was saying I was dead. And I tried to tell him I wasn't--you knew I wasn't, you told him I was okay. But you guys couldn't hear me and my arm went right through Dylan when I tried to touch him, and then you left and I….I tried to get back into my body, but I don't know how. You have to help me," he babbled out quickly. All in one breath--if he had one.

"But how do I do that, Marco? I don't even know how it's possible that you're here." She stepped up to him completely and tried to take his hand, but felt a strange wind develop between their bodies that held her back. Marco slowly started to disappear s the wind howled all around them. She reached out more desperate now, trying to grab a hold of him. The wind only grew stronger. "Marco," she called to him, barely able to hear herself over the frantic sounds of the wind.

Marco stared at Ellie, horrified that they were so close, yet couldn't touch. He tried to reach for her, but couldn't breach the mere inch between them. He felt a strange discomfort and had to draw back to make it stop. He had to get back to his body--he couldn't live like this. "Ellie, please help me. I don't know how, but we have to figure it out. I can't live like this!" he cried out desperately, suddenly really needing physical contact. Ignoring the discomfort he tried to reach for her again.

Ellie screamed Marco's name, but it was barely audible over the sound of the wind that was tearing her away from him. She grew frustrated as her fingertips managed to slightly graze his as he vainly attempted to reach her as well. The sound reaches a deafening roar as everything around her went black and she suddenly found herself sitting up on the couch in a cold sweat with tears once again rolling down her face…and Marco was gone.

It took Ellie a moment to realize that it had been a dream. But it had felt so real! If it wasn't real, the phone would still be on the coffee table. It wasn't. Ellie threw back the covers from her feverish body and scrambled from the couch, and to the spot on the floor where she had dropped Jimmy's cell phone in her dream. Sure enough, it was right there. She picked it up and quickly pressed redial. It dialed Craig's number. She remembered calling to Craig's house when Marco first appeared. It couldn't have been a dream after all. She began to tremble violently as she realized that Marco must be trapped somehow. She had to find a way to help him. But first, she needed to talk to Jimmy.

All at one the wind stopped and Marco fell forward, but Ellie wasn't right in front of him anymore. Instead she was scrambling for the phone. He narrowed his eyes in confusuion. "Ellie?"

Ellie didn't answer him, so he tried again. "Ellie?" He reached out to try and touch her, bracing himself for the wind. But it doesn't come. Instead his hand went right through her. It felt all prickly and he jerked his hand back quickly. No. Don't do this to me, he thought. This is just like with Dylan and he couldn't hear me. Couldn't see me. "Ellie, please! I know you can hear me!"

Ellie shivered violently as she waited for Craig to answer. How did it get so cold in the house all of a sudden? she wondered. Just twenty seconds ago, she felt like she was burning up.

Craig's cell phone was ringing. "It's the freaking apocalypse and Joey's still calling me to find out why I'm late for curfew?" he griped. They were on their way to his place now, a whole lot of survivors from the school.

He pulled his cell phone out and checked the display.

Jimmy? Craig raised his eyebrow and looked over to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating that Jimmy was walking only a few feet away from him. Jimmy was indeed there, which made this call really bizarro. Like Twilight Zone even. Given what had happened that night, though, he was betting that The Zone was real.

All right, then. He answered the phone. "Hello?"

When Craig answered his phone, Ellie had no idea what to say to him. "Um...It's Ellie Nash. I need to talk to Jimmy. Now Craig! Please?"

Ellie's calling Jimmy these days? Craig raised his eyebrows a little, but handed the phone to Jimmy anyway.

Marco saw Ellie shudder as he tried to touch her. Why was she acting like that? A minute ago, she was fine and talking to him, now she was ignoring him and acting like it's horrible just to be near him. "Ellie, please don't don this," He begged her, trying again to reach out to her.

Jimmy saw his own name on the display and was immediately concerned. "Ellie? Is everything okay?" he asked. It was a stupid question, he realized immediately. "Do you need me to come over?"

When Ellie heard Jimmy's voice, she instantly lost her well-established self control. She started crying and for at least a minute she couldn't speak. "Jimmy, I am scared," she admitted when she could get the words out. "Could you please come over here now?" She hung up the phone without saying another word. She was just too shaken up and didn't want to make Jimmy think that she was completely psycho before he came.

"I've got to get to Ellie's. I think she's in trouble," Jimmy told Craig quickly, shoving the phone back at him. Jimmy took off running back toward Ellie's apartment.

"Okay, so maybe Ellie really can't hear me," Marco thought. "Surely she wouldn't just keep ignoring me like this when I'm about a hair away from having a total nervous breakdown. So maybe…maybe I can talk to her some other way."

He spotted the phone message pad and hurried over to it, trying to pick up the pen. It didn't work. He couldn't pick it up--it seemed like he was so cold that he couldn't close his fingers on it.

Getting more frustrated, he looked for something else. Anything. But he couldn't pick anything up. It all just slid through his fingers.

"Ellie, please tell me you can hear me," he begged again, trying to talk to her. When it was apparent that she couldn't he started to lose it.

He tried one more time to grab the pen from the table, but was so reckless with frustration that he knocked into the table itself. He didn't know how, but somehow he did make a connection and the table tipped onto its side, throwing the pen, notepad, and phone to the ground.

"Oops. Sorry!" he apologized quickly and bent down to pick it all up. Except that he couldn't grab it! He let out a frustrated yell and just went to flop down on the couch, fuming for a few minutes.

Ellie looked up when the table suddenly fell over. There was only one explanation. She picked everything up and set the table back upright. "Marco," she said, more a statement than a question. "I can't see you, but I know that you're here. I promise that I will do whatever it takes to help you." She stopped crying and decided that she needed to toughen up if she was going to keep that promise. She walked over to the couch and sat down, feeling incredibly cold once again. She picked up her discarded blanket and huddled up on the couch as she waited for Jimmy. Now all she had to do was convince him that she wasn't insane when she told him that Marco was still there.

When Ellie told him that she was going to help him, Marco's foul mood lessened. He was still cold, though, and scooted closer to her on the couch, wanting to borrow part of the blanket. Unfortunately, he couldn't seem to grasp it. Rather than frustrate himself further, her sighed and gave up, hugging his knees to his chest hoping to lessen the chill.