Chapter Five

The next time the world decided to turn itself upside down, Phil sincerely hoped it would think to send him a memo in advance. The resulting chaos wasn't something he would have normally minded—being in on it would have probably been fun! Being suddenly thrust into the role of the voice of reason, however, was anything but.

Phil sighed, tugging on the strap of his backpack as he walked alongside Lil towards his first period class. All around him people were talking, blissfully oblivious to the danger they were in. He waved off those who chose to speak to him, flashing the best grin he was able to muster. He knew they wanted to ask him questions about Lil, and he wouldn't have known how to answer them even if he'd wanted to.

As worried as he'd been about his sister, Phil had to admit he was glad he was finally about to get a break from watching over her. He'd been at her side all Tuesday evening, trying every technique he could think of to get her back to her old self. His attempts at humor had failed miserably, she seemed to have no interest in soccer, and trying to annoy her had only made the fights between them escalate. The argument they'd had over breakfast that morning had gotten so intense that their father had been forced to drive them to school to keep them from being late. He dreaded seeing how his mother would react to that little incident once they returned home.

"Get out of my way, Phillip!" Lil's shoulder clashed with his in a rough shove as they reached the doorway of Mr. Shackley's classroom.

Phil ground his teeth together and suppressed a growl, stepping back to let her pass before following. It would have been pointless to start another fight with her over something so trivial; he'd had more than enough of that already. Besides, by now they were halfway through the week and he'd become almost used to her new attitude. It was one of many things he'd had to adjust to these last few days, along with Kimi acting equally strange, Chuckie's state of perpetual panic, Dil's new determination to prove that they were constantly surrounded by ghosts, and the way the entire school was suddenly always freezing cold despite the lingering warmth of the summer weather.

What he wasn't prepared for was seeing Tommy slumped forward on his desk, staring at the wall with an expression that rivaled the one they'd seen on Trevor just yesterday. Phil shuddered at the memory, noting with a pang of guilt that Trevor's seat was conspicuously empty.

Phil ignored the way Lil was glaring at him from the back of the room and headed over to Tommy. He dropped his bag onto the table with a heavy thud. "Oh man, T, not you too!"

Startled by the noise, Tommy looked up and blinked as if he had only just noticed Phil's presence. "Huh? Nah, I'm fine."

Phil yanked a chair over from a neighboring table and whirled it around backwards before plopping down in it and draping his arms across the chair's back. Leaning forward, he fixed his eyes on Tommy and said, "Really? 'Cause you sure don't look it."

Though he'd tried to keep his tone light, he hadn't been joking. Tommy looked pale and tired and Phil wondered if he'd gotten any sleep at all. Though he was glad that Tommy was taking the situation seriously, he couldn't help but be a little annoyed. It wasn't like Tommy was the one with a sister in mortal danger—if even Chuckie could hold himself together then Tommy certainly had no right to break down.

Tommy's mouth quirked into a slight smirk that said he was far too used to Phil's bluntness to be offended by it. "Yeah, I'm just tired, I guess. Any luck with Lil?"

"Just the usual," Phil answered with a humorless laugh. He was about to launch into the story of their latest fight, but stopped when he noticed that Tommy was staring down with that dazed look on his face again instead of paying attention. With the way his friend was acting, Phil had to wonder if Tommy had even noticed the twins hadn't made it to the bus this morning. "Okay, Tommy, spill. What's goin' on with you today?"

Tommy sighed and gave a conspiratorial look over his shoulders as if to see if anyone was listening.

"There's something really weird going on around here," he said finally, leaning forward and speaking in a low voice.

"Um… yeah, I kinda figured that much out already, T."

"I mean something else…" Tommy sighed and ran a hand through his hair, seemingly struggling for words. "See, I've been having this dream… and well, there's this…girl and she—"

"Whoa!" Phil held up a hand. "You might wanna keep this one to yourself, Tommy."

"I—it's not like that!" Tommy hissed, his face flushed in shocked embarrassment.

Phil grinned, happy that he'd finally managed to get a decent reaction out of him. Maybe his teasing could break his friend out of his stupor yet.

"I… I can't really explain it," Tommy continued, clasping his hands together and looking down. "But she wants something from us—from me. I know it has something to do with Bean. If we could just figure out what it is…"

"We've all had it pretty rough this week, T. No reason to let some dream get to ya." Phil smiled again, hoping make Tommy relax.

"I guess you're right…"

"So anyway, what's the plan for the day?" asked Phil. If some stupid nightmare was the reason behind T's behavior, then they just needed to get his mind off of it.

"Not a clue…" Tommy shrugged, obviously unconvinced but too tired to push the subject further.

Phil bit back on his irritation at Tommy's indifference. Didn't he realize how much they were all counting on him? This was no time for Tommy to let himself be distracted with some meaningless dream; his help was essential to getting them through this.

"Then I guess we should just keep it simple, y'know? We stick with Lil and Kimi and keep 'em away from that guy."

"Yeah," Tommy said, "I guess that's the best we can do for now."

Even though Tommy had agreed to help them, the far off look in his eyes made Phil wonder if he was going to end up alone in this one after all.

x x x

Normally the heat of the ovens and the bodies of hundreds of students gathered in one room could be counted on to make the cafeteria seem stuffy no matter how high the staff bothered to crank up the air conditioning. Today, however, it was so cold that Tommy could barely restrain himself from shivering. He'd noticed the abnormal temperatures earlier in the week of course; but now, tired and weak, he felt its presence more acutely. Somehow it even seemed to be more than purely physical, as if the air was seeping through his skin and freezing him from the inside out.

Determined to block out his discomfort, Tommy drew his arms closer to himself and idly twirled his fork around in his food. He wasn't feeling very hungry, and the strange, sugary substance Pepe was trying to pass off as spaghetti certainly wasn't helping matters.

"I can never show my face at soccer practice again," Phil moaned from across the table, burying his head in his hands.

Tommy winced sympathetically, looking over to the table where Lil and Kimi were sitting with some of Lil's friends from the soccer team. He had no idea what the girls had told them, but if the way Wally was glaring at them was any indication, it certainly hadn't been flattering. He may not have known her as well as Phil did, but it was obvious that Wally was not the sort of girl you wanted to have angry at you. Much like Lil herself, actually.

At least things had been working out for them so far—the safety of their friends was more than worth a little ridicule. Chuckie had sat beside Kimi in every class and the others practically ran to the girls' sides and began chatting them up at every free moment. The boys had left them no choice but to accept the new arrangement, despite how unhappy they obviously were with it. Dil and Phil dragging them into an impromptu "spy mission" on the way to lunch seemed to have been the last straw. Tommy could swear his ears were still ringing from the way Lil shrieked when they had accidentally tipped a garbage can over on her.

Only when Tommy and the others were certain Bean was in no danger of coming near them had they allowed Lil and Kimi to break free in the lunchroom. Annoyed with the loss of their new friend, they'd settled in with some of Lil's teammates and began whispering and throwing accusatory glances at the boys' table.

In spite of their current good fortune, they all knew it couldn't last. Bean had been shying away from their presence so far, but it was only a matter time before he lost patience with their games and condemned them all to the same fate as Trevor. He'd shown up in the cafeteria only long enough to stare at Angelica's "in" table for a few disturbing moments before disappearing, apparently not ready to face the challenge of getting past Tommy's group to get to Lil and Kimi.

With a sigh, Phil sat back up and regarded the other three more seriously. "So, you think he'll be back?"

"Bet on it," Tommy said. "He won't hide from us forever."

"So why's he doing it now?" asked Chuckie, finally giving a voice to the question that had been hanging over them all day.

For a while, no one seemed to know what to say. Tommy was sure his dream held the answers they were seeking, but decided that now was not the right time for him to voice his concerns. His confession that morning had already made Phil think he was crazy, and telling Chuckie would only cause his friend to panic more than he already was. Dil would listen to him, but Dil was, well…Dil. He'd probably attribute Tommy's problems to some conspiracy being masterminded by polka dot covered penguins from Venus. Tommy would just have to wait until he had more proof.

"Maybe," Dil began, leaning over the table and arching his eyebrows mischievously," he's waiting for the right time to drag them into the netherworld to join his harem of the undead!"

Chuckie yelped and paled, and Tommy knew the situation must be dire indeed for him to be taking Dil so seriously.

"I hate to say it, but he does have a point," Phil said. "It is kind of like he's waiting for something…"

"I'm telling you guys—zombie love slaves—"

"Dil!" Tommy glared warningly.

Though it had been enough to effectively silence Dil for the time being; his last words about zombies repeated themselves in Tommy's mind over the silence, triggering memories from their summer at Camp Everwood. Recollection quickly bloomed into realization as what Bean could be waiting for became all too apparent.

The others must have reached a similar epiphany, for they quickly turned to Tommy with expressions as excited as his own and gasped practically in unison, "The zombie moon!" No more words were needed.

Metal scraped harshly against the tiled floor as they pushed their chairs back and shot to their feet, running pell-mell through the double doors and out into the hallway. Finding a calendar had suddenly become a matter of life and death.

They dashed for the first open classroom they saw, nearly getting stuck in the doorway as the four of them hurried to push past each other.

Miss O'Keats was sitting at her desk, picking listlessly at a salad and staring out the window. She looked up in shock as the boys charged into the room and gathered around the calendar tacked onto the bulletin board. "Why, children! Whatever are you—"

Tommy paid no attention to her, unable to tear his eyes away from the sight in front of him. Somehow two simple words on a page had managed to confirm his greatest fears. Full moon.

"Friday!" Chuckie cried. "The full moon is on Friday!"

"That's gotta be it," Phil said with a grim nod.

"Two days!" Chuckie's hysteria was building. "Two days, Tommy!"

"We know, Chuckie, just calm down—"

"I will not 'calm down'! We have two days before some crazy, brain-eating ghost is gonna try to turn Kimi and Lil into his zombie concubines!" Tommy heard Miss O'Keats gasp and drop her fork.

"He's not going to do anything!" Tommy put one hand on Chuckie's shoulder. "At least we know what we're up against now, right? We have the advantage here."

The others visibly relaxed as Tommy turned to regard them with his best 'serious leader' face, despite the fact that he himself did not believe a word he was saying. In actuality, this new clue only made the big picture become even more of a blur to him. So what if the full moon was near? That hadn't stopped Bean from doing whatever it was he had done to Trevor. And more importantly, they'd been alone with him during the zombie moon that summer. If he'd wanted to hurt them, wouldn't it have been easier to do it then? Why would he wait to follow them to school and parade Lil and Kimi around days before he intended to strike? In spite of how strange and scary the whole experience had been, Bean had been something of a friend to them and the sudden change of heart simply made no sense. Tommy was convinced other forces were at play here.

"T's right—now's the time to amp it up and take this guy down." Phil slammed his fist against his palm for emphasis.

"But how?" Chuckie asked miserably.

"We'll think of something," Tommy lied. "But come on guys, we'd better get back before anyone notices we're gone."

He started towards the door, doing his best to ignore the voices of his friends as they followed along behind him, enthusiastically discussing potential strategies.

Tommy knew none of them would work, and the deadline of the approaching full moon only made the situation all the more desperate. His friends seemed to feel comforted by this new information, though, and that would have to be enough for now.

Behind them Miss O'Keats muttered something indistinct, but Tommy was pretty sure he could make out the words "such imaginations" and "psychiatric help."

x x x

Long overdue, but written for Arte-chan, who reminded me that this thing existed. ;)