When we had realised that there's no way that we could possibly climb up the dirty slope to the hatch, we thought we'd go round and see if there was another way.

Actually Paul suggested it, and since I couldn't think of a better idea, I just nodded dumbly and went along with it.

5 hours later I could've sworn we'd walked past the same jagged rocks about a thousand times.

And also, those 5 hours we'd been walking? They seemed like a hundred. Courtesy of Paul.

And even though I didn't know what it was exactly that he had done, I knew that it was totally his fault.

Seriously, in these last 5 hours I'd seen a side of him I never had before. Could be because he didn't have it before.

You know, the decent side of him. He must've banged his head hard. Really hard.

"Uh, Suze?' Paul's voice warned.

I looked up just in time for my vision to see blurred greyness (cause that's all this place was) and to feel a sharp pain on my head.

I thought she might b getting tired. We had been walking for quite a bit. I looked back to her, she was a few paces behind me, and I saw that she was in deep thought. So I turned back round and continued trying to think logically about where the way out could be.

I kept checking up on her though, to see how she was holding up, but I didn't bother asking her. I knew what the answer would be.

Suze is pretty tough. Not just physically but mentally. She's also stubborn. She'd never admit that she was tired. Especially to me.

It was when I looked for her once again and saw that she wasn't behind me when I got worried.

I quickly retraced my steps and saw her a bit off track and millimetres from walking into a rock. A massive one.

"Uh, Suze?"

She looked up, eyes widening and walked right into it. It was actually quite funny, but I knew she'd get mad if I laughed.

I walked to where she was sitting down, I think she was still shocked.

"Are you ok?"

I blushed a deep red. How stupid could I get?

Walking into a bloody rock. One that was two metres high as well.

I could've kicked myself if it wasn't for that fact that I didn't know how to and that Paul was crouched next to me asking if I was ok.

"Yeah,"I mumbled, avoiding his gaze and looking down at my hands. "I just think I'm a little tired.

I nodded understandingly and asked, "Do you want some water?"

"Nah, forget it." I said. "I can't be arsed to walk all the way over there.

I'll carry you, was what I was about to say. I didn't though.

"Besides, how are we going to find the…erm…water thingy?"

I smiled inwardly. "The spring?"

"Yeah, that's it," I replied, feeling stupid. "We've been walking for ages, and I haven't seen another one so far."

"I wouldn't worry about that."

I didn't say that. I whipped my head round in the direction it came from.

I saw that it was that guy that we had seen earlier; you know the Jesse look alike plus a hat.

I suppressed a groan, not another cowboy!

"There's another spring further up," he said.

I was stunned.

"You-you're a ghost," I said incredulously. I started out as a question but then turned into a statement.

"Really?" he asked, in a kind of duh-you-don't-say kind of way. But he didn't say it in a mean way, in fact he sounded kind of…amused. I noticed his eyes were twinkling.

I felt embarrassed all of a sudden, making such an obvious remark.

"Erm yeah, but what are you doing here?" I asked him.

"I could ask you the same question, pretty little girl like you shouldn't be here either."

"She's not exactly here by choice," I said angrily.

He just shrugged and carried on walking. "So, you're looking for water then?"

"Yeah," I said coldly, (hey! I was mad alright? He shouldn't have been hitting on my girl) as he led us back in the direction we had just come from.

I shot Paul a warning look.

"What's your problem?" I whispered harshly.

"Nothing," he said distractedly. I noticed he was glaring…in the direction that the ghost' retreating back went.

"Well, whatever it is, stop it!" I snapped. "He saved us remember? The least you can do is be nice."

"And I saved you right before he did. What do I get?"

"Just say thanks to him alright?"

He looked as if he was going to argue back, but then changed his mind.

What was the point? I didn't want to deal with a mad Suzie.

"Okay," he said in a resigned way sort of way. I looked at him for a moment.

Avoiding the questioning I knew was going to come, I walked a bit faster, catching up with the cowboy.

"Look, er…,"he turned around. "Thanks for...you know…helping us." I swallowed. Wow, that was hard to get out.

"S'alright…"

"Paul," I said.

"Right Paul, what are you doing here anyway?" he asked. "Before the wall decided to collapse that is."

"School trip!" Suze replied, far too happily than required.

What? I was glad to be finally having a decent conversation.

"Did you find it interesting?" he asked.

"Err…" I desperately tried to come up with something.

I just gave him a weird look.

He laughed and led us to the right.

"Alright, well I suppose I can understand why being stuck with your teachers in a cave on a sunny Friday afternoon could be slightly annoying."

Just slightly.

We didn't say anything.

He led us down a path walk excruciatingly slow. I realised I really was thirsty.

Finally, we turned left and saw a …dead end? He noticed my confused expression and laughed.

He sure laughed a lot for someone who was dead.

"Don't worry," he said with a wink to me. "I wouldn't do that to you."

And with that he walked further up to the wall, and beckoned me to come closer. I did.

I tried not to notice that she had just left me behind.

I grinned as I saw that a bit of the wall had caved in to reveal a fresh flowing spring. It was bigger than the other one and the water looked much cleaner.

Ecstatic with joy, I immediately dropped my bag pack, cupped some water into my hand and lapped up as much water as I could, pleased at the comfort the cold refreshing water gave my throat as it swished down.

After a few thirsty gulps I sat back, a bit embarrassed about being so greedy, but not being able to hide the grin that had appeared on my face.

"Paul?"

I went and had a few sips of water myself, filling up my water bottle in the process and then walked back to Suze and the ghost.

We sat ourselves down on some rocks, the ghost sitting opposite me, and when Paul came back he sat on a rock a couple of feet to my right.

"So…what's your name?" I asked, conversationally.

"Mike," he replied.

"Short for Michael?" I asked.

"Yeah. What about you?"

I studied his attire. He looked as if he was from the 1850's or something. He also had a hint of a distinctive accent but I couldn't quite place it.

"Suze. Short for Susannah," I added quickly before he could ask.

"Susannah." He said the name as if he was testing it out; turned out he approved because just a couple of seconds later he goes. "It's a very pretty name Susannah."

I nodded slowly, remembering what my mom had told me back in Brooklyn once, while we were sitting on the couch binge-ing on Ben & Jerry's.

Voicing my thoughts, I said, "My dad wanted to call me Sonia and my mom wanted Jasmine. In the end, my grandma sorted it all out by introducing the name Susannah. The both loved it."

Why hadn't she ever told me that?

There was a bit of a silence after that. I almost regretted saying that much. And also, Paul was looking at me really strangely.

Fortunately for me, Mike broke the silence.

"Well…there's a bit of a history behind the name, isn't there?"

I cracked a smile.

"Why, did yours get picked from a hat?" I asked, still smiling.

"No," he said, almost smugly. "Mine was chosen for it's meaning."

"Which is?"

He answered, "Michael, from the Hebrew name, Who is like God."

I don't know if my ears were deceiving me but I'm pretty sure he sounded like he had rehearsed that particular information a few times.

Err…what was I supposed to say to that?

"So, do you know what your name means?" he asked me.

Lily.

No. How was I meant to know what it means?

That's what her name meant.

Lily.

Personally, I think her grandma couldn't have chosen a prettier name.

I think mom once mentioned that I was named after a flower…

Chilout! I wasn't obsessed or anything. It was only when I was once doing translation work and I thought I'd check out what the name meant.

But…Suze does remind me of this lily I once saw in a park back in Seattle. Our parents thought we should celebrate Dad's promotion with dinner at a top-notch restaurant and we were walking through the park to get there; it was a beautiful night, the sun was just starting to set and the evening had a warm glow to it.

My keys dropped to the floor as I was walking and when I bent down to get them, I came eye to eye with the flower.

It was light pink coloured and had a beautiful scent to it. The flower was closed but really intrigued me. My route to school was through the walk so I walked past the flower everyday but it never opened up to me.

After months of persistence the flower finally opened up, and it's beauty really was worth the wait. Seriously, I'm not camp or anything, the flower really just was that beautiful. It could've just been a coincidence that I met Suze a week later.

But I like to think it wasn't.

"Lily," I whispered, subconsciously.

Did I just…? I swear I just heard…? I turned around in the direction the voice came from and I saw Paul sitting there. But he didn't look as if he'd said something.

I turned back to Mike and listened to him carry on talking.

But I suppose after 10 minutes of pointless chatter Paul had had enough.

"Quit talking for a second and just tell us how to get out of here would you?"

Ok, I tried to write a longer chapter but unfortunately I'm not that good a writer so I'm thinking about not pushing myself too hard since I'll probably just blow up. Sorry about breaking the whole 'quicker and longer chapter' promise.

I've started working on the next chapter.

Please review!

Aneesa

P.S Can you please comment on Paul's behaviour in this chapter? I want ot show that he cares about Suze but I'm worried I made him look a bit too sensitive and un-Paul like.

And don't worry, in couple of chapter Paul will be back as his normal cocky arrogant smirking self, he's just going through a phase right now.