A/N: Sorry it took so long…I know it shouldn't have, as I'd promised you chapter 10 by October 27th (eep….) I had a few unscheduled problems. First off, Nova didn't realize that I'd written two chapters in one go (something very usual for me—I normally only finish one at a time. ^__^) So that set me back a bit. Next issue: my computer somehow got a virus that totally incapacitated me so that I wasn't able to get on the internet. Kinda dumb, eh? Yah, so I just recently got that fixed, and Nova finally (yes, finally…as in today, 12/2/03) finished editing. She just kinda forgot she had it, and then finished editing. Then I gave it back to Ash for more editing (I have two betas now—isn't that nice?!), and got it back yesterday…so, hopefully chapter 11 will go faster. Oh, yeah: I combined 10 and 11 (the old 11) together, because they were both slightly short….Heh. So, enjoy! No flames, please.
Oh, Ash being a new beta means, more funny comments!! Mwahaha….
D/C: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
[See new list of characters, now posted and updated in chapter 5] are based upon actual people, but their names have been changed to protect the actual persons from a life of fame and wealth (hah! You wish…).
"Talking inside of each other's heads" was made up by the real Kirsten and Inad. They came up with it freshman year. I have yet to figure out whether they actually do it or not.
The majority of the comments in this story actually came from the people that are said to have said them. A few were added by me, but I won't tell you which ones, 'cuz that would spoil the whole story. ~*sticks out tongue*~
//…\\ means that it's a memory…
Chapter Ten – Hearing A Scandalous Ghost Affair*
"It's all sunny and happy outside!"
~Jessakah "Jack" Gilligan
Lia pulled her coat tighter around her body as tears dripped down her face. This shouldn't have happened—it couldn't have happened. Inad and Kirsten would walk down the empty street any moment, giggling and holding up the bag of Skittles that they had just bought.
The wind blew in her face, causing her curls to fly back away from it so that her eyes could be seen more clearly. She was alone there, now, as Pyro had gone home and the police were still debriefing Jack. Jack was all right, thankfully…too bad Kirsten and Inad….
Lia shivered hard under her letterman's jacket as more tears fell from her eyes. They were so young—too young—and now they were gone….
And it was her fault, too.
Lia began to sing quietly, a slight quaver in her voice. She continued to cry until it took over voice entirely and she sat down on the frigid pavement and wrapped her arms around herself, still shaking, although this time from both cold and sadness.
~&~
Zack looked up at the sound of giggling. "Did you hear that?" he asked Chris.
Chris looked up from his drumming. "Huh?"
"That laughing."
"What laughing? Are you hearing things again?"
Zack looked down at his geometry book. "I guess so."
"Maybe it's the math," Chris suggested.
"Maybe."
Zack continued to work on his homework. Five minutes later, he heard the giggles again, and he knew he wasn't imagining things.
"I just heard it again!"
"What?"
"That laughing!" Chris gave him a look of disbelief. "How can you not hear it?!"
"Zack, I didn't hear any laughing. Are you sure it's not coming from Matt's room?"
The Brit sighed. "No, it was in here. I know I heard it."
"Zack, it's just you and me in here. Perhaps they should have checked your head for brain damage rather than lack of memory."
Zack smirked, something he'd picked up from Jack as a way of expressing sarcasm. "Perhaps."
The phone rang suddenly, and almost absently Chris reached over and picked it up out of the cradle.
"Haa-lo?"
Zack watched him pause, the color draining from Chris's face. "A-are you sure?" He paused again, and then buried his face in one hand. "Oh, my God. I'll be right there."
"What is it?" Zack asked.
"It's about Jack... I'm off to the police station. Stay here and…I'll call later…if…." He trailed off, and ran to go pick up his coat.
~&~
Jack felt like she was floating. The pounding in her head was excruciating, causing a myriad of colors to flash in front of her eyes. The shouts all around her only made the pain worse, and for the second time that day she wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and rock back and forth.
She felt someone lifting her body from the ground and placing her on a flat, slightly cushy object. Jack opened her eyes for a moment, trying to see through the flashes of light. Daniel's body was lying on the ground, a pool of blood expanding out from beneath him.
Jack accepted the darkness that rapidly claimed her.
~&~
Lia had felt rather than heard the gunshot, and now that she was inside she wished more than anything she hadn't.
"No…not Jack too," she whispered. She'd had enough. She'd cried enough.
Running to the stretcher on which her motionless friend was lying, Lia let out a yell of rage and leapt over one of the benches with such enthusiasm that her foot caught on it, causing her to pitch forward and hit the ground with a sickening smack.
"Lia…are you okay?"
Lia groaned dizzily and looked up into the light Chris's light blue eyes. They looked red and slightly puffy, as though he too had been crying. Lia winced inwardly, hoping feverishly that she didn't look the same.
"Is she—"
"I don't know." Chris tugged Lia ungracefully to her feet and they sat down on the bench that she'd managed to not tip over.
Jack looked so pale, her skin almost blue in the florescent light of the police station. Lia closed her eyes in an attempt to erase the image of her laying there, as though dead, her hair pillowed around her head, the cut from God-only-knew what shining, a droplet of blood threatening to drip down her face and mar her falsely peaceful expression. The smells of the police station invaded her senses instead, the scent of burnt coffee flooding her nose. Lia wrinkled the appendage in distaste and opened her eyes again to see Chris giving her a strange look. She shook her head in answer, and tried not to watch as Jack was wheeled through the doors of the police station and loaded into an ambulance.
~&~
Daniel felt trapped, panicked. He believed that he had only worsened the whole situation by cussing fluently at his captors in Welsh. It was a big mistake, it seemed, as one of the men was from England and understood enough Welsh to understand the gist of what Daniel was calling his mother.
"Let me get this straight," the leader said. Daniel was sure he was the leader because of the disgusting stench that was emanating from his clothes. Also, he was the ugliest out of the group of men, and the ugliest one was always the leader in all the old movies. "You killed two of them, lost the third, and nearly let this one ruin the plan?"
"No, not exact—"
The leader kneed the man who spoke in the stomach. He coughed, leaned over, and dry-retched a few times, which made Daniel want to do the same. Then again, Daniel also wanted to hurt the guy who had grinned so wretchedly at him when they told him what they were planning to do with Jack while she was in the supposed safety of the police.
"Any comment, boy?"
Daniel glared at him, his blue eyes flashing dangerously.
"Well, we have a feisty one here," said another one of the men. Daniel resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "What can we do with him?"
"Nothing," said the leader, implacable. "I thought that I made myself quite clear when I said that I needed the girl."
"What do you need her for, anyway?"
The leader clucked his tongue at the little man who asked the question. "Not when we have a visitor…"
The teen glared.
"Perhaps we need to teach him a lesson…" The leader grinned evilly. Daniel swallowed. He realized that perhaps glaring wasn't the best way to improve his situation, after all….
~&~
Lia walked over to her car and inserted the key in the door. The lock clicked, and she pulled it open.
"Are you sure you should be driving yourself home?" Chris asked her.
Lia turned to look at him. A tear dripped down her cheek, which she absently brushed away. "I'm fine."
"You're obviously not fine. I'm not going to let you get in a wreck. Let my mom drive you home."
"What about my car?!"
"Call one of your parents…I'm sure they'll come and pick it up."
"And who'll drive the car that they bring?"
Chris leaned against Lia's car and thought for a moment. "Both of them come, one drives your car, the other drives the initial car."
"No, Chris…" Lia trailed off and started to get in her car again. "I need to think, anyway."
"It's after dark."
"I know. I've been driving for a few months, I'll be okay."
Chris looked worried still.
"I'm touched by your concern, but…I just…" Lia ran a hair through her curls, catching one or two knots with her fingers and ripping them out. "You don't understand…"
"You'll get in another car wreck."
"I don't have four other people coming with me in my brother's Saab going to Seattle." She squeezed her eyes shut, remembering the trip.
"Lia…"
"Chris, I'm leaving now. If I run over your foot, I'm not paying for the hospital fee, for the sole reason that I warned you." She stepped into the car and went through the motions of starting it.
"Lia—"
"Chris, do you like your feet the way they are, or do they need to be a little flatter?!"
He got the point—quickly.
Lia backed the car with painstaking care, but it still meandered slightly along the parking spot. Lia stepped on the brake, closed her eyes in annoyance, and pulled into the spot again. Chris was right; she was in no shape to drive tonight.
[Ash: No wonder you crashed the car back in August!]
[Lia: not my fault—distractions in the car!! This is why we have the six month law, in real life!!]
[Ash: Suuuure….]
They walked over to where his mother was sitting in her car, the thick clouds that had been threatening to spill open on them finally releasing their downpour, like tears from heaven.
Perhaps they were.
~&~
Jack was unsure about her situation at that moment. The siren's wail echoed through the night like a seagull in the quiet dawn. Something was stuck in her arm—she was sure of it, because every time the ambulance turned, a plastic tube gently brushed the inside of her elbow.
This is really tedious, she thought. She was feeling better; she didn't see why they still had to take her to the hospital. They could just drive her home…right?
~Well, yes, but what's the fun in that?!~
Jack, if she had been standing, would have fallen down.
What the hell?!
~Bad word!~
Jack attempted to sit up. You're dead! You're both dead!
~Not really, no.~
~Kirsten, you're confusing her.~
~So what else is new?!~
"No, please, no," Jack muttered.
A cool hand touched her forehead. "I think she's delirious, although she has no reason to be. She didn't experience that much head trauma."
The teen ignored the nurse and the noise that began to rise up from the front as someone called in the report.
I'm not hearing the voices of my two dead friends, Jack thought, nearly paranoid. No way.
~You're not?~ Kirsten sounded crestfallen. ~Are you sure? I'm pretty sure that we're here, in your head.~
No!! I'm not hearing ghosts of my two dead friends!
~You're not hearing ghosts!~ Inad said indignantly. ~And we're not dead!~
Yes, you are. I saw you! If you're not breathing, and your hearts aren't beating, you're not living!
~Quit being stupid, Jessakah,~ Kirsten scolded her.
I'm not being stupid!!
~Yes, you are.~
Don't argue with me! What am I saying—you can't argue with me! You're dead!
~No,~ Inad corrected her. ~Actually, we're trapped.~
Two insane giggles echoed uncomfortably inside Jack's head.
~&~
Lia wasn't talking. That scared Chris more than anything. Lia had been an avid talker since he met her, and the only bout of silence he had witnessed was when she had been sleeping, although she didn't know. It had happened a long time ago, when she had fallen asleep in the back of Jack's mother's van on the way to a swim meet that neither of the teens could compete in.
He heard her sigh and he glanced at her: her chin was cupped in her hand, her gaze focused on the pouring rain beyond the window.
"Lia?"
She didn't answer, except to shiver with the cold of the car.
Chris decided to leave her alone with her thoughts and turned towards his window, watching the rain as well.
"I can't believe they're gone," she said in a choked and trembling voice.
Chris turned back, and saw that she was looking at him, her eyes bright, a tear tracing a trail down her cheek. "What?"
Lia shut her eyes tightly and shuddered, her hair slipping from where she had tucked it behind her ears and falling in front of her face. She sniffed loudly, and then wiped her face, as though ashamed of her tears. "Th-they're gone. Kirsten and Inad."
Chris felt confused. Gone? As in…
"And now Daniel, and Jack so damn close to it."
Dead?
~&~
No, Jack thought wildly.
~Yup! Please, get us out!~
~Although, we're not really in much of a hurry,~ Inad added. ~I mean, it's not so bad here…~
Um…Jack thought. Well, where are you, exactly, if you're "trapped"?
~Our world!~
Jack resisted the urge to groan. I'm hearing ghosts, she thought.
~Again, we're not dead, so you're not hearing ghosts,~ Kirsten told her.
Just figments of my imagination—that's it! When I hit my head, I must have been knocked out, and this is just God's joke on me, letting me hear the voices of my dead and decaying friends whom my mind won't let me forget! [Ash: Lovely image there.] She was very close to tears now, and didn't realize that she was being moved again.
~Figments?~ Kirsten choked out.
~God's joke?!~
~NOT IN OUR WORLD!~ they yelled in unison, and everything went dark again.
~&~
"What do we do with him?"
"He can't stay here."
Daniel struggled to see who was talking, but the near-darkness of the room made it impossible. All of the men who had been there had left, except for the man who understood Welsh and the so-called "leader". Not only did both of them have that damned British accent, they sounded so much alike that Daniel couldn't tell who was who, though he had been able to with the rest.
"Well, what do you want me to do with him? I can't very well kill him, can I?"
They laughed, one low and rumbling, the other scratchy.
"Drive him out to that shed back in the Battleground area. They're still investigating the first one where the two girls were murdered and the third found, so it's relatively safe—for now. Don't forget to keep moving."
"D'you think I'm stupid, Malfoy?"
[Ash: Lucky for him, you weren't there.]
[QoC: Now why would you say that???]
Daniel's heart leapt; a name!
"Yes, quite." Daniel jumped as the sound of someone being punched broke the brief silence in speech, and a groan that punctuated the thump of someone hitting the floor.
"Now get him out of here."
~&~
Lia and Chris rushed into the main lobby of the hospital, their clothes soaked and sticking to their bodies.
"Can you tell me where Jack Gilligan is roomed?" Lia panted.
The orderly glanced at them through her glasses and then at her computer monitor. The keys on the keyboard clicked as her manicured nails hit them.
"No Jack Gilligan on record."
Lia felt as though she had been hit with a sledgehammer. Shit! She thought, her mind racing. She's been kidnapped again! She's dead for sure—
"How about Jessakah Gilligan?" Chris asked, breaking her train of thought.
"Spell the first name, please."
Chris did so. The keys clicked again.
"Nope."
Lia tugged anxiously on her stringy curls, which were starting to frizz up in a halo of hair.
"Jessica Gilligan. Jessica Ashley."
The orderly rolled her eyes, obviously thinking it a hopeless task to keep searching, and typed it in.
The computer beeped.
"Oh…room 335, second floor."
"Thank you," Chris said eagerly, relief flooding into his voice. They began to walk quickly towards the elevator when Lia spun on her toes.
"By the way, her name's Jessakah, not Jessica. HUGE difference."
~&~
Zack furrowed his brow in an attempt to quell the almost incessant giggling. Finally, in an act of desperation, he yelled, "Quit it!"
The giggling stopped almost immediately. ~You didn't have to yell, you know.~
Zack felt the blood drain from his face. "What?"
~And you don't have to speak out loud, either. It echoes awfully when you do that.~
"What do you mean, not speak out loud? How else am I to talk to you? And how are you talking to me!" The Brit glanced around the room, and leaned over to peek into the closet. There was no one else in the room, just as he'd suspected. "There's no one else in here!"
~Well, physically, no.~
~But otherwise, yup!~
Zack suddenly recognized the voices. "Kirsten? Inad? What are you doing in here? And what do you mean?!"
~Well…~ Inad started to say.
~To put it bluntly….~
They both giggled. ~We're in our world, which is somehow linked to your head.~
Our world? he thought, bewildered.
~Yes, our world.~
Zack felt just about to pass out. You…you can hear me?
~Well, why not?!~ Inad asked.
~I mean, we are in your head, technically…~
~&~
They stood in the doorway, Lia hugging her arms around her trembling body, Chris just staring at the motionless figure on the bed.
"Go in," Lia said in a hushed voice, as though she were afraid that she would wake the apparently slumbering teen. She shivered, and her teeth began to chatter. Why did they have to keep the hospital so damn cold?!
"After you."
Lia turned, shaking harder, to face Chris.
"Go!"
"Ladies first." He caught her gaze and Lia fixed him with a stare that was so unfriendly that he raised his eyebrows. "Okay, then…." He walked over the threshold, leaving Lia alone in the doorway, listening to the soft pats of dripping water as they hit the ground, and the sound of Chris' shoes as he walked towards the bed.
Lia was confused by the emotions she felt in her body. She had, momentarily, forgotten the deaths of Kirsten and Inad, yet a lurking sadness in the depth of her stomach made her feel as though she should have tears streaming from her eyes, that she should be wrapped tightly in the arms of….
Lia shook her head mentally. No. She wasn't supposed to do that. It wasn't right! He was a year, three months, and seven days younger than her!
[Ash: Wow…down to the day! She must like him!]
[QoC: …yah…about that….]
A burning sensation began to build up in her nose, and a sneeze exploded from her, knocking her backwards and into the far wall.
Chris's sniggering met her ears. "You butt," she accused him, and then her eyes widened. A flurry of curses left her mouth, and she turned to leave.
"Where are you going?"
"To report you to the cops." Lia turned just in time to see the bewildered and surprised look on Chris' face. "I'm joking…I left my purse at the police station…."
"Mother Dearest will take you," Chris offered eloquently.
Lia turned once more, rolling her eyes, and sprinted down the hallway, her sneakers squelching with every step.
~&~
Daniel felt himself being lifted off of the chair (although how, he didn't know, as he couldn't feel anyone touching him), and soon felt the cool air of the outdoors on his skin, mingled with the light spitting of rain. He had no idea where he was, nor could he see anything. Somehow, his kidnappers had made it so he couldn't open his eyes, yet nothing was touching them.
Whatever had lifted him into the air abruptly dropped him. He was dragged to his feet so fast that he felt a muscle in his neck tense up in protest.
"Hurry up and get in the car!"
Daniel dug his feet into the ground in an attempt to stop himself from being shoved any further, and his head was hit hard by his captor's hand. His ears ringing, Daniel felt himself being shoved into what felt like a car to his shins. He heard another car's horn honked loudly, and then a resounding smack! Daniel supposed that Malfoy was tired of waiting and had leaned on his own car horn.
When the door opened again, Daniel was surprised. He was even more surprised that he was suddenly able to see once more. He squinted as he tried to get his eyes to adjust to the semi-darkness. Lia's pale and startled face swam into view.
"What the hell?!" she yelled, leaping back. Daniel struggled to sit up and only succeeded in falling off of the back seat. Face down with his nose stuffed in the carpet of the nasty smelling car, the teen groaned: Now what?
He let out a muffled yell as he felt Lia's hand rummaging over his butt and into his pockets, but relaxed as she pulled out his knife; how she knew that he kept it there was beyond him, but it was the only way to loosen the ropes around his wrists. Once he was free, he pulled himself gingerly to his feet and shook his hands to get the circulation to return. "How did—what—"
"What are you doing alive?!" Lia burst out, and then her cheeks began to redden. "Sorry…that sounded really ungracious…"
"Yes, it did," Daniel said sarcastically. Annoyed with himself, he shivered, and then blinked confusedly as Lia thrust a large coat at him. He found as he put it on that it belonged to Chris. "In any case, I hope that Jack was smart enough to recognize the man who tried to impersonate me."
"What?" Lia looked confused.
Daniel's half grin vanished from his face. "She didn't? Shit!" He began to walk, and then realized that he had absolutely no idea where he was. Then he remembered the car horn and the smack, and looked around. Chris' mother was standing over a body that looked as though it wasn't in very good condition, and saw her car a few feet further on.
"Impersonate? All I know is that you're supposed to be dead!"
"Uh…Lia, you know what, we might want to get out of here."
[Ash: Hit and run! Cool!!]
"Hello! Daniel, Mrs. Graham hit that man! I mean, he was trying to kidnap you, or something—wait, you are Daniel, aren't you? You aren't some, I dunno, doppelganger or something, are you?"
[Nova: It's doppelgänger.]
[QoC: Really? I've never seen it spelled that way.]
[Nova: Germans like little dotty things. Americans, not so much. Too bad for us, it's a German word.]
[QoC: Too bad for me, M.W. says that there's no dotty thing….]
Daniel raised an eyebrow. "I would hope not. Are you feeling okay?"
Lia set her face stubbornly. "When's my birthday?"
"November eighth."
"Wait, anyone could find that out," Lia said out loud to nobody in particular. "How many schools have I gone to?"
"Nine, and it would have been ten had you moved your sophomore year to Arizona, or New York, or wherever, and right now I wish that you had!"
[Ash: Sure she just saved his life practically.]
Lia looked satisfied, if a little hurt. "Okay, I believe you…but you didn't have to be so blunt."
Daniel glanced towards the shack. "Uh, we'd better go…"
"You keep saying that, but it would be a hit-and-run!"
"Not if we're trying to get away from some particularly evil and sadistic people!"
"Well…when you put it that way…" Lia tugged him over to the car and convinced Mrs. Graham to leave the now groaning man, who appeared to be waking up.
"So, where's Jack?"
"At the hospital."
"What?!"
"She was kidnapped, we found her, and then she was nearly killed by you, who's now dead—uh, I mean, by…dammit, I don't know anything anymore!"
Neither do I, Daniel thought darkly. "Anyways, why is she at the hospital?"
"She hit her head, or something…I dunno, something left over from earlier, in any case. That's where we're going now; we left Chris there."
Oh, I see the way things are, Daniel thought bitterly. Leave her with the hospital while the boyfriend is locked in a dark and smelly room with nobody but crazy men to talk to…if you could even describe it like that.
~&~
A strange noise met Jack's ears. She didn't move, for fear that it was someone who meant her harm. She strained her ears, trying to pick up more of what it was.
She finally realized that it was the sound of someone crying.
Jack opened her eyes and rolled her head slightly to the side. For some reason, it was difficult to do so, and she was having trouble keeping her eyelids open.
Chris was sitting in a chair, by the bed, shaking. As Jack became more and more aware of her surroundings, she realized it was mostly because his clothes appeared to be quite wet, and the room was chilly. Jack licked her cracked lips to return some moisture to them and spoke: "What's the matter?" Her own voice shocked her; it was crackly and low, as though she had been sick for a long time and was only just recovering. Chris' head shot up in surprise. He stood quickly and turned away, looking out the window. Jack followed his gaze and saw that the skies had darkened considerably; a light tap, tap sound against the window announced that it was raining.
Chris cleared his throat but didn't turn around. "You okay?"
"I don't know, really." Slowly, as though someone had turned on a tap, Jack felt her energy returning to her. Unfortunately, as her energy level increased, so did the pain in her head and leg. She haltingly pulled herself up into a sitting position against the pillows of her bed. "I feel really weak…"
"They had you drugged." Jack found it disturbing to hear the tremor in his voice. She wished that the light were on, so that she could see his reflection on the window. "Someone came in here a few minutes ago and stopped the flow from the IV so that you would wake up; they said that you had started to freak out in the ambulance and they had to knock you out…that you were screaming about ghosts, or something like that."
Jack turned her head away and shut her eyes tightly. All the pain of the day, both emotional and physical, returned full force. The sight of Kirsten and Inad's bodies flooded into view, quickly followed by Daniel's hollow, sadistic laugh echoing in her ears.
There was a squeak, and then another, and then the squeaks were lost in the rush of memories, of blood pounding in her ears. She couldn't help the sobs that racked her body, and when the cold, wet form embraced her, she yelled and pulled away from him. The teen opened her eyes and saw Chris quickly retreating, his eyes holding a hurt look.
"I'm sorry," Jack choked out, hugging herself. "I just…I can't…."
"It's okay," Chris said quickly. Jack looked at him, her sight blurry from the tears that were coursing down her cheeks, and saw that he couldn't even look her in the eye.
She looked down at her hands twisting on top of the sheets, her hair falling across her face. "I just don't know who to trust anymore," she said in a whisper.
Chris came over and sat down on the side of the bed, and she looked up at him. "You can trust me," he whispered. She looked into his blue eyes, so much brighter than Daniel's had ever been. She closed her eyes again and shook with sobs again. This time she accepted Chris's hug, and the dampness that came with it. It soaked through the thin hospital gown and made her skin clammy, yet the feeling told her that she was still alive, that this wasn't just some strange demented dream designed to terrorize her.
They sat there like that for what felt like an eternity, Jack crying into his shoulder, their bodies shaking with the effort of trying to stay warm. Finally, Jack felt that she could cry no more. She looked up into Chris's face, which held a softness that quieted her even more, so that only the occasional hiccough broke the silence.
Jack felt herself leaning forward, her mind focused on one thing.
~&~
"What made you think to come back for your purse?" Daniel asked as they pulled into the hospital parking lot.
"Just the fact that I remembered that it might be a good idea to call my mother and let her know where I was going."
"Well, thank you for being absentminded."
Lia turned to look at him, sure that her face was contorted in confusion. Why is he thanking me for forgetting stuff? she wondered. Most people just yell at me…
"I mean, if you hadn't, you and Mrs. Graham wouldn't have found me."
"Oh. That's what you meant."
"Yeah…so, continue to forget things when people are missing, please. You might end up helping them escape."
Lia grinned sheepishly, and then remembered what had happened with Kirsten and Inad. Her smile disappeared. "Are you saying that it's my fault that Kirsten and Inad are dead?"
[QoC: Phh…silly girl…'course not!!]
Daniel looked shocked. "Dead?" he spluttered. "Lia—no, I had no idea!"
Lia looked out the window. "I thought they might have told you."
"All they kept saying was that the 'other two were dead', and that their deaths were a mistake."
Lia laughed bitterly. "Well this is one mistake that they can't undo."
The car was silent the rest of the way to the hospital.
~&~
Chris' brain was left in a whirl. He had kissed Jack, one of his best friends. He had kissed his friend's girlfriend. Dammit, he'd kissed someone who had a boyfriend who was two years older than him!
[Nova: Hehe! So funny, the Liz…so funny….]
[QoC: …Have you been eating ice cream before editing again? I don't see how it's funny…but that's just me….]
They pulled away, Jack looking startled and Chris feeling embarrassed. "Jack, I'm—"
The look in her eyes stopped him, and he no longer cared.
~&~
"Which room was it again? Three-thirty-three, I think…" Lia continued to talk to herself all the way down the hallway, yanking on her yet again soaked curls, which for some reason remained limp. Daniel was growing bored of her talk, so he hushed her until they reached the door. Lia knocked three times and then pushed it open. Four unfamiliar faces stared at them.
"Uhh," Daniel whispered in her ear. "I don't think this is the right room."
"Oops!" Lia said in a silly voice. "Wrong door!" She shut it quickly and leaned into her hands. "Damn! Which one is it…?" She stared at the rest of the identical doors in the hall, as though trying to see a landmark that would remind her of Jack's room.
"Could she have been taken home?" Daniel asked, putting his hand in his pocket. He winced, realizing that his wallet and cell phone were not there, and lamented the fact that the kidnappers had probably taken them from him.
"No, I remember now—it's three-thirty-five, not three-three-three…."
[Ash: Don't multiply that by two.]
They walked to the right door and Lia opened it.
Two figures were sitting on the bed, one of them actually under the covers, although the other was pretty close. The lights were turned off, though Daniel couldn't see why. It looked like they were kissing.
"Dammit, not again!" Lia growled, angry that she couldn't be depended on for remembering a room number. Daniel didn't think so, and as dread filled his stomach, he turned on the lights.
Jack and Chris sprang apart from each other like startled rabbits.
Daniel gaped at them. "What the f—!"
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Mwahaha!! It just gets better and better, doesn't it!!
* Originally, this chapter was in two sections, Hearing Ghosts and Scandalous Affairs. I was so angry when I found out that I couldn't keep both of them, that there was a small accident in the WP, resulting in the formation of Hearing Scandalous Ghost Affairs. Okay, so it's not the same. But what can you do?!
Okay, next chapter: we find out what Lia and Daniel do to Chris and Jack, the Hogwarts gang comes to Skyview, and a dance is announced. Whoopie!! Perhaps you should hope we have more snow days, because then I could have more time to write….::evil grin::