Ever since Liz was taken away to be killed by the Edison Group, I had been plagued with nightmares. Somehow the worst nightmares were the ones where she would comfort me and tell me that she was okay. They left me feeling unsettled and restless, because when I'd wake up, I could always sense her next to me.

I suppose that I should be used to it by now, considering that I was a necromancer, but when you could feel the presence of somebody you were so incredibly close to, that was when you would become overwhelmed with emotion and unable to function. When I saw the ghosts of people I didn't know, it didn't bother me as much because they would disappear once they had gotten what they wanted from me.

But Liz? She was everywhere. I'd see her, feel her, hear her, and even smell her. It was disturbing.

Even on this particular night, when I woke up shaking, crying, screaming, she was right in my peripheral vision. And just like that, she disappeared.

I couldn't try and be strong on my own anymore.

"Are you for real, Chloe?" Derek asked in a sleepy daze. "It's 3AM."

I hadn't seen Derek in two weeks. The last time I spoke to him was when he walked me home.

"Please? It's really cold out here."

He rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes and opened the door fully to let me in. "You're nuts. This had better be worth it."

Realising that I had no idea what I was doing at Derek's house in the middle of the night, I resorted to a meek, "How are you?"

"You seriously did not come here just to ask me that." He scoffed.

I sighed. "I keep seeing Liz."

"And?"

I glared at him. "You've obviously never had a close friend before, have you?"

He shrugged in response.

I let out another sigh. "Look, I've seen and spoken to hundreds of ghosts before and none of them have ever phased me. But now that Liz is trying to reach me, well I don't know if I can keep myself together." I paused. "I need to get out of Blackbridge."

Derek went wide eyed. "You can't be serious."

"I want to go home." I said, crossing my arms.

"That's stupid. You know that they'd kill you on the spot if you were caught."

He was right. So many people had already tried to escape from Blackbridge. The old policy was that if you were caught escaping, you'd be brought to the town square to be executed in front of whoever was there at the time, regardless of who you were or how much money you had. Now they just executed you on the spot. No excuses, no getting around it. You had a bullet through your head before you could even climb half way up that fence that separated Blackbridge from the rest of the world – normal society.

"I don't care. I want to see my mom again and have my life back." I sobbed. "I can't even afford to call her." Sinking into his couch, I hugged a pillow close to my chest. "She doesn't know if I'm alive or dead by this point."

Derek frowned. "You won't have a life at all if you pull anything like that." He paused and his face softened. "I'll take you tomorrow to call her."

"Didn't you just hear me?" I asked in disbelief. "I can't afford it." The town officials made calls to home expensive, so most of the people who lived here couldn't call their loved ones. They didn't like us giving people on the outside world too much information.

"It's okay. I'll help you out."

I surveyed his face to see if I could find a hint of humour in it – just in case he was pulling my leg.

"Seriously?" I whispered, ready to get on the offense if he thought he was being funny.

"I'm serious, Chloe."

Again, I observed his face. He was being sincere. I launched myself at him and trapped him in a hug. I could tell by the way he tensed up that he wasn't used to human contact.

"Thank you so much, Derek." I sobbed – from happiness this time. "You have no idea what this means to me."

By now it had started raining buckets and there was no way I'd get back to my house dry. I offered to leave Derek alone in peace so he could sleep, but he insisted that I stay over to keep myself from catching a cold. He showed me to the guest bedroom that had an adjacent bathroom and told me to make myself comfortable for what was left of the night.

Of course, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep until the sun came up. The moment that I fell into a slumber was the moment that Derek barged into the room.

"It's eight o'clock, why aren't you up?" He asked.

"Ugh, you're obviously a morning person, aren't you?"

"Come on, go and get ready." He ordered.

We walked back to my house where Derek made himself some breakfast while I showered and got dressed. I came downstairs to no bread and no eggs, which was strange because I had just bought a whole loaf of bread and a full carton of eggs two days before.

"You ate all my food?" I asked, incredulously. "How did you manage that?"

He shrugged. "Not all of your food, just the bread and eggs." Derek proceeded to pull out a carton of milk and some cereal.

I quickly snatched up the cereal box and the milk and poured myself a bowl before he could get to it. After eating a few spoonfuls I left the bowl to go and apply my makeup, but not before warning him not to eat any of mine, because I was going to finish it off when I got back. I went to put on some light makeup as I did every day, and surely enough when I came back, my cereal was gone.

"Don't turn this into a problem." I glared at him, and he shrugged.

"Let's get going." He rumbled.

I had barely eaten. What a selfish bastard.

Derek and I walked through the corridors of the Edison facility. I had only been there three times before; the first time was when the Edison group captured me and had to bring me in for testing and a psychological evaluation and the other two times were when I was able to save up the money to call home. The building had changed dramatically since the last time I had visited. They seemed to have ceased effort in making the building look cheery. The walls were a dull off-white and there wasn't a single window to be found. How boring.

Derek led me into one of the rooms where a receptionist sat behind a desk. She perked up as we entered the room and smoothed over her lavender hair.

"Phone call." Derek rumbled to the receptionist, who introduced herself as Leila.

"Please." I added, pointedly.

"No problem, guys. Are you both making one call each today?" Leila asked.

"Just her." Derek jabbed his finger towards me.

Leila put through our transaction on her computer and accepted Derek's payment. My stomach dropped once I heard about how much it was, but he didn't even flinch as he picked the cash out of his pocket.

Leila took me into a sound proof room where a mediator in his bright yellow uniform stood in the corner. She went over the rules as to what I could and couldn't say. It wasn't a very long list, but it was strict. Eventually I was left alone with the authority who introduced himself as Rob.

This was happening.

My fingers trembled as I dialled the familiar phone number.

Three rings. That's all it took before I heard her voice.

"Hello?" My mom's chirpy voice sounded through the phone.

"Hi, mom. It's Chloe."

My mom had some kind of idea as to why I left. Her brother was a necromancer too, so the idea of the paranormal wasn't entirely foreign to her. Of course, I wasn't allowed to tell her too much.

"Chloe, baby? Oh my god." She paused. "Steve!" She yelled out to my dad. "I'm going to put you on loudspeaker, okay?"

I told my parents what I could. When I began to mention Liz, Rob nudged me with his baton as a warning. "…but she had to move away. I'll see her soon, I'm sure. She didn't go too far" I recovered. It wasn't a complete lie. She was still around; just this time she was a ghost. "I've uh… got a new friend though. His name is Derek."

"Derek? A boy?" My dad asked.

"Well, yeah."

My parents continued to grill me as if Derek was a potential new love interest, but that wasn't exactly the case. He was merely a friend.

Forty minutes into our call, Rob sent me another nudge to warn me that I only had five minutes left. I tried to squeeze every story I had left to tell in those five minutes, and when the line was finally cut by an automated timer, I began to sob uncontrollably.

Rob gave a small smile. "Hopefully you can talk to them again sometime soon."

I left the room and met back up with Derek who was waiting for me in the lobby. I put on a brave face but he could tell that I was emotional. He ushered me back to his car where he drove me back to my house. By the time we got back, I was crying so hard that my vision was blurry and he had to walk me to the door.

I invited Derek inside where I sat down on my couch and left him in the doorway. He stared me down, not having a clue on what he was supposed to do with a sobbing girl.

"You can make yourself comfortable." I whispered to him as I went upstairs to change into a pair of sweatpants and a shirt. After washing my face of my makeup and dried tears, I returned to Derek sitting on the couch.

"They know you're okay now." He told me. "They won't have to worry."

"Yeah." I muttered. "I just wish it wasn't like this. It was good to talk to my mom again though." I paused and turned to Derek. "You have no idea how much that meant to me."

"It's okay, Chloe. I'm glad you had a chance to talk to them again."

"What about your family?" I asked.

"What about them?" He tensed, and then relaxed with a sigh. "It's a long story."

I urged him to continue.

"They're out there somewhere." He added. "They know why I'm here and what this place is."

"Why are you here? I mean, you know I'm a necromancer and well… I don't know anything about you."

"I should get going." Derek stood up. "You know where I am if you need me." And with that, he left me behind with my thoughts and curiosity.

He was mysterious, I'd give him that, but at the same time, the thought of him was the glue that was holding me together after Liz.

"Thinking about me?" A voice behind me chimed.

I whipped my head around so fast that I strained my neck. "Liz!" I cried, not knowing what else to say.

She looked so real as she glided towards me and sat down on the couch. The only way I could tell that she was a ghost was the way that the couch didn't dip when she plonked herself down next to me.

"I can't stay long, Chloe; I need to check in on my grandma and my brother. But I'm watching over you too, and I know that you're strong and that you'll be okay." I felt a slight cold breeze as her ghostly hand brushed over mine. I nodded; dumbfounded that she was actually speaking to me. She gave a slight chuckle as my mouth gaped open. "You could at least squeak out a reply." She giggled. "You've seen plenty of ghosts and I'm no different."

"You have no idea." I whispered. "It's different when it's somebody you know."

Liz's expression turned sad. "There are some things you can't change, Chloe. But you've got Derek now and he cares about you. He's going to be the one to look out for you now."

She let out a shaky breath. Did ghosts even need to breathe?

"I love you Chloe. I'll see you soon."

I can't even describe how she disappeared. It wasn't a slow fade like you see in the movies, it was a matter of me blinking once and then she was gone.

After that I rushed straight to the cupboard above my stove where what was once my holy grail resided – wine. I wasn't proud of it, believe me. When I first came here, greasy food and lack of exercise weren't my only weaknesses. I would drink myself into oblivion every other night and often go to work hung over.

I had been clean for a while now where I would only have a glass every now and then, but after seeing Liz, I didn't need the glass. Straight from the bottle it was.

I sat myself down in front of the television and simultaneously flicked through channels of infomercials while taking swigs from the bottle of red wine. It didn't take me long to numb myself – I was tiny and had barely eaten.

Being numb was comforting. It was what I needed after such an emotional and overwhelming day. Deep down, I knew it wasn't healthy, but when I dozed off into a slumber, nothing else mattered anymore.