Sorry to all for the wait, twas the season and writing anything had to take second place to other things. Thanks again to all reviewers, may your microwaves remain free of explosives.

Replies are at the end of the chapter,

Chapter 9: Rest

The Manipulated Living are often the close friends and neighbours of the Living Receiver. – From the philosophy of Time Travel

Almost an hour passed before Kelly woke. After blinking and uttering a few pained, weary groans, she pushed herself into a more upright seated position and gazed around her.

The first thing she noticed were the pedestrians moving back and forth, some casting a quasi-interested glance in her direction. She became more alert when the realisation that she was outside as well as the memories leading up to her passing out in exhaustion came to her.

Her half closed eyes shot open and immediately her head snapped from side to side, her eyes soon found Seachnall's face. He was sitting next to her and staring at her with an expression that merged anger and concern.

"How long was…"

"An hour." Seachnall said quickly, he was trying to make his voice sound deadpan, but the feelings shown on his face were mirrored in his voice.

There was a moment of silence after this, in which Kelly felt a sudden surge of embarrassment. She had always attempted to maintain an image of respectability and dignity wherever she went, part of this included not passing out on busy streets and having to be dragged to a park bench to sleep.

Then again, these were special circumstances; the ghost of a guy in a bunny costume was haunting her.

And once I explain that to Seachnall and all the nice people they'll understand why I felt the need to take a nap in the middle of the street.

She shook her head and almost smiled at the thought. The seemingly insane situation, for the moment at least, didn't have the same daunting, soul crushing feel to it that it had an hour ago. It would probably return before too long.

"Are you alright?" Seachnall asked, stopping Kelly's train of thought. He knew that this was a stupid question; after all, if she were all right she wouldn't be passing out in the middle of the high street. Nevertheless, he felt he should ask.

Kelly didn't reply directly, she only looked at him, her face now alternating between deadpan and haunted. After a few seconds she stood up.

Her back and legs felt sore from her nap on the hard, jagged bench, she stretched herself slightly and tried to shake the feeling away.

"Are you alright?" Seachnall replied, his voice sterner this time, he stood up next to her and began to extend a hand to her shoulder before hastily changing his mind and returning it to its side.

"Yes." Kelly replied in a tone of voice that screamed the opposite.

"Good," Seachnall didn't believe her, but he said 'good' anyway, "Now what's going on?"

She looked at him again, trying to find some clue hidden amongst his facial features as to how she could tell him what had happened in a way that wouldn't make her sound like a nutcase.

There was nothing, but she soon found that she no longer cared, pride was a thing for those with no experience with terror.

So she told him everything.

They walked as she told him the story, as she did so, Seachnall didn't speak out in disbelief at this unexpected ghost story, he didn't actually speak at all, he simply nodded and cast the occasional surprised facial expression in Kelly's direction.

After she had finished explaining, there was a moment of silence. Seachnall stared at the floor, clearly lost in thought. For a moment, Kelly thought she could see a glimmer of fear on his face, but it soon faded.

When the silence went on for a longer period of time then she'd have liked she decided to break it.

"You think I'm crazy don't you?"

He didn't, throughout the story, Kelly had sounded like her usual, quasi-sane self would if frightened. The fear and frustration in her voice couldn't be fake, and that meant she couldn't have made that story up, what she claimed to have happened had to have happened, or at least she had to believe it had happened.

"No." He said simply.

Relief flooded through Kelly, she had been counting on Seachnall to help her figure all this madness out, and she'd half expected him to dismiss her instantly as one deserving of a straint jacket, or worse, as simply joking with him. If he had come to that conclusion then convincing him what he said was the truth would be next to impossible.

They walked on in silence for a few more minutes, Kelly turned her head to take in the details of her surroundings as she waited for Seachnall to say something, it was his turn to break the silence. For now, she was happy to enjoy the quiet of her surroundings.

Not long after, she noticed the kid with the large hole in his chest.

He was walking towards her, and passing straight through lines of pedestrians as he did so. No one seemed to notice as this person, who judging be the gaping hole in his gut should have bled to death.

There was less fear this time. This was due partially to experience with supernatural occurrences, plus the fact that she no longer felt that she was alone in her experiences with the dead, and also because this disembowelled male teenager did not look overly daunting or threatening.

She was about to point out his presence to Seachnall, but he wouldn't see him either she guessed, and if she started pointing out invisible phantoms, what little credibility she had was likely to vanish.

She also considered trying to avoid this new spectre, but running would have an equally disastrous effect on her story, and maybe her sanity. Also, it seemed as if she might finally get some answers.

Donnie moved next to Kelly and began to walk next to her. She kept her head facing forward, not addressing this newcomer. She also tried, with limited success, to maintain an appearance of calm that she did not feel.

"He won't come tonight." He said suddenly, his sounded almost sad, "Try and get some sleep."

There was nothing but the noise of pedestrians after that, after roughly two minutes, Kelly risked a sideways glance, the ghost or whatever it was, was gone.

To be continued

Right, now for replies,

CaptainLonestarUSA: In answer to your question, yeah pretty much. I'm trying to make the characters different from the movie types however as you probably noticed, I don't want to end up cloning the film. Anyway, thanks for reviewing.

Vampyre-Goddess-Lavine: I can't think of anything to write other then a simple thanks for reviewing and that I can't think of anything to write apart from a simple 'thanks for reviewing', ah well, thanks for reviewing and glad you've enjoyed thus far.

sYnergY's Duality: Kelly's role in the whole thing should be pointed out before too long, I think, I'm currently debating how long to make this story, whether I should get to the point quickly or flesh it out with more chapters like chapter 5. Ah well, thanks for reviewing.

PennyLane125: I did send that link didn't I? I can't for the life of me remember, oh well, if I haven't then let me know, I think I did, ah well anyway, thanks for reviewing and glad you've enjoyed this fic.