Chapter Six: Are You Delusional?

Suze stopped when she could see her house again. She walked very slowly, quietly, tiptoeing to the front door.

She opened it as silently as possible and shut it noiselessly. She walked with a gait that made the average mime sound like a brass band.

Halfway up the stairs, her mother yelled, "Susannah Jane Carducci, it is an hour past your curfew!"

Crud, Suze thought miserably, stomping up to her room, now no longer bothering to be quiet.

She slammed her door behind her, turned, and promptly banged into Dallas. She scowled at him. "You've got a lot of explaining to do!" she yelled, remembering too late that Jan, Ryan and Charlie could all hear her.

Dally shrugged, rummaging in his pockets for a cigarette and cursing when he couldn't find any. Suze wanted to punch him. "Don't you realize what you've done?" she hissed.

Dally smirked. "Yeah," he said loftily. "I scared I bunch of freaks with a bag of popcorn. Big deal."

"Actually, yeah, it is a big deal! Real people aren't supposed to know about ghosts!" Suze whispered, wishing she could scream. "Why not?" Dally demanded.

"Because of the parallel universe!" Dally stared at her. "What parallel universe?" he demanded. Suze sighed.

"The parallel universe, as you might have guessed, is a universe parallel to our own. The…ghost universe. Instead of carbon-based life forms, there are ectoplasm-based undead forms."

Dally stared at her. "What the hell does that mean?" he blurted in disgust. Suze took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "It means the afterlife. Where you're supposed to go when you die."

"So why can't humans know about it?" Dally wanted to know.

"Because it would throw off the balance of the two universes. Humans would want to know more about this universe, start killing off people to send them there and bring back results. There aren't enough mediators to take care of that. The harmonious balance of the two universes would be thrown off because there won't be enough carbon to match the ectoplasm," Suze explained. "The Chinese mediators knew about this a long time ago. It's yin and yang."

Dally's face cleared with comprehension. "Oh," was all he could say. "What happens if it's thrown off?"

"No one knows, or particularly wants to find out. Some mediators wanted to find out, but they ended up in the loony bin." Suze shook her head. "Now buzz off. I'm tired."

Dally smirked wider than ever and rested his arm on Suze's shoulder. "Can I watch you undress?" he teased, glancing up and down at her. Suze shifted so his arm slipped off her shoulder and gave him a hard shove.

Dally laughed hysterically, fading as he did so. Suze growled at him as he vanished. She pulled off her jacket and started to change, then thought better of it. Dally could just have turned invisible. She hopped into bed fully dressed.

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Johnny appeared a few seconds later next to her. "Suze?" Suze opened her eyes, and upon seeing him next to her, shrieked and rolled off the bed, falling with a thump on the floor.

Straightening up, she glared at him. "Jeez, Johnny, scare me to death why don'tcha?" Johnny looked embarrassed and blushed.

"Sorry. I just found out something that I thought might help." Suze perked up, interested. "What?" she asked curiously.

"It's about Tim Shepard. You know that gang leader?" Suze nodded. "Well," Johnny continued hesitantly. "He's down at the park right now and, uh…"

Suze was impatient. "Johnny, there's no time for this. What's going on?"

Johnny took her hand. "You'd better see for yourself," he said. As he said those words, the room distorted and Suze felt like she was on a rollercoaster. She was falling, and landed hard on the ground.

The night air was chilly and stars winked from above. Oh, no, Suze thought. Dally, I am going to kill you!

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Dally stopped messing around and dropped Curly to the ground when he saw Suze coming. "Shit," he muttered, fading.

He reappeared and immediately got a mouthful of soapsuds. He heard voices as he spat out the soap only to get another mouthful, while being sloshed around in what appeared to be dirty bathwater.

"Soda, you just had to make orange spaghetti tonight! Heavy dishwashing liquid doesn't come cheap, you know!"

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Curly rubbed his painful ears, which he swore had stretched. Tim was swearing enough to turn the air blue, most of the gang had scattered, and beside Suze, Johnny was trembling.

"What happened?" Suze asked breathlessly. Tim turned on her. "Who the hell are you?" he snarled. Suze matched his stare with her own and snapped, "I heard screaming and came to see what was wrong."

"I wasn't screaming," Curly protested. Tim and Suze ignored him. Tim glanced at Suze. "What's a nice girl like you doing out late at night?"

"First of all, I'm not nice," Suze spat out the last word like it was poisonous. "Second of all, what happened? Just out of curiosity," she added hastily, seeing Tim's look.

"I dunno, man. Something freaky. We was just goofing around, when Curly gets lifted by his ears about ten feet in the air. Everybody scatters, and Juan is screamin' about 'el Diablo' or something like that. Then you come along, and Curly falls back down."

Suze frowned. "Lifted up in the air?" she repeated disbelievingly. "Are you sure you ain't just delusional? Do you have a fever?" Tim scowled and snapped, "I'm fine!"

Suze shrugged. "Whatever," she said, turning to leave. Tim grabbed her arm. "Don't you believe me?" he demanded. Suze wrenched her arm out of his grasp. "I don't know what to believe," she said darkly.

She ran back to where Johnny was standing behind a tree. She could hear Tim coming behind her. Johnny took her hand and the world started spinning…Suze landed on her soft bed.

Johnny was swooping around the room. "Look at me, I can fly!" he cheered. He turned and smashed into Dallas. Suze burst out laughing at the two of them.

Dally glared at her. "Shut up," he complained. Suze stopped laughing and threw her pillow at him. It hit the wall.

"You moron!" she yelled. "You keep this up, I'm going to exorcise you!" She could. Technically, it was only Johnny she had to help. He had never meant to die. Dallas, on the other hand…

She picked up her pillow and flopped down on her bed, burying her head under it. "Shove off. I'm tired…" she was almost asleep by the time she finished her sentence.

Dallas shrugged, fading. Johnny covered her with a blanket and whispered, "Goodnight," before fading. Suze barely heard him before she fell deeply asleep. Little did she know that with the new day came new surprises and danger.

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