Woo-hoo! This is it (I think)! The second-to-last chapter! Chaptah 19! The 1500-word slammer! Yeah... I'll just stop now.

Tamara wiped her eyes on her shirt and got back to business. "Okay," she said. "Let's return to the matter at hand, as my mother would say."

Evan tilted his head. He'd never heard her voluntarily speak about her mother.

The Hollow's shadow (barely seven feet away from him!) shifted slightly. Evan unconsciously scooted farther away from it.

"Tamara?" he said. "What exactly is the 'matter at hand'?"

She frowned at him. "I need to know why I can talk to Peter, of course. It just… it doesn't make sense. There's got to be a reason I can read minds. I just have this feeling."

She looked so determined to believe it, that Evan couldn't argue.

"All right," he sighed. "But –"

And then both of them heard a voice, not the Hollow's, not their own.

You are right, it said.

Evan's jaw didn't have time to drop. Suddenly the world was spinning, Tamara was shuddering, dropping to the floor, and Evan immediately began to lose consciousness.

He managed to scream right before everything turned black.

His POV

I had been trying to pull myself together before the chaos happened.

I just couldn't get over it. Peter. That was my name. And I couldn't thank the girl, Tamara, enough.

She was talking again, back to the so-called mystery of her telekinetic powers, but I wasn't really paying attention. The euphoria of having an actual identity was running circles in my mind.

Join the conversation, Tamara coaxed. I only nodded absently.

And then, of course, things went wrong.

I noticed it only because the talking, like gnats in my ears, had stopped. Tamara suddenly began to shudder uncontrollably, falling to the floor, and I realized she had fainted. But she continued to shake on the ground.

The boy, Evan, collapsed as well, but he wasn't shaking like her. His eyes had rolled up into his head, and he let out a scream that petered out when he fell unconscious.

I watched in horror as Tamara quaked on the sodden floor of the abandoned room, until she stopped so suddenly I thought for one terrible moment that she had died.

Then she began to speak.

"Stop it," she gasped, muscles rigid. "Please."

There was a pause, and while I was deciding how to help her, she shuddered once more, and whispered, "Evan?"

I glanced nervously at the crumpled boy. He didn't move.

Tamara's eyes squeezed shut. "I did it," she said, her voice strained. "I did it like you said. Please let go."

I felt a shiver. The part of my brain that wasn't a Hollow knew that something fishy was going on.

What was it? I thought as hard as possible until my head hurt. Meanwhile, Tamara suddenly relaxed like a weight had been taken off her shoulders.

"Thank you," she murmured, and said no more.

Other POV

What exactly was going on inside Tamara's brain, you wonder? Evan knew.

He knew because he solidified inside her dreamscape.

At first he was confused. Then he remembered what had happened. And then he cursed very colorfully.

What the heck made him and Tamara pass out like that? Was some stupid supernatural power at work? What if the Hollow had somehow lulled them into a false sense of security, made them fall unconscious, and was now feasting on their souls?

No, Evan realized, Hollows were too brainless to pull that off. So something else was going on.

He took stock of the area around him. It was a literal blank canvass. The entire space was empty.

Well, except for the two people, lying motionless in midair.

The first Evan recognized instantly: Tamara. But the second, who was floating right above her, looked like no human he'd ever seen before.

Its appearance was strangely blank, like their surroundings. Sure, it had normal features, but they seemed almost… too normal. Evan felt as though he could see it, but he couldn't see it. He couldn't tell if it had brown hair, blonde hair, or no hair, but at the same time he was looking right at it.

At that moment, the figure sat up. Come, it said, seemingly to Evan.

Evan wasn't sure how he could come. After all, technically there was no floor to walk on.

The figure seemed to chuckle. It is quite a puzzle, it said, but that is the nature of the peculiar mind. Ignore the set rules of the universe, and you can successfully navigate this realm.

Evan wasn't eager to disregard everything he knew. And he definitely wasn't eager to trust this strange being.

I am not all that strange. I have been communicating with young Tamara for quite a while. She does not find me strange, only peculiar.

It chuckled again at its little joke. Evan was starting to really not like this thing.

"What did you do to her?" he asked angrily.

The person turned serious. I assure you, I did not harm her. She was merely following what I say to her.

"You've – you've possessed her?"

In a way, it responded. But it was for an important cause.

"Yeah, like what?" Evan snapped.

Justice, my dear boy. Don't you care about justice?

Evan pretended to think. "No, not really."

The figure was not amused. Yes, you do. I can see it in your mind.

Evan's heart stopped beating while he processed this. "Wait. You can read minds?"

The person seemed to smile, but it might have been a trick of the dreamscape. Yes.

"And – and did you give Tamara that power?"

Yes.

Evan blinked a few times. Wow. That answered that question.

But there was something else he had to ask. "Why?"

The entity took a deep breath, and for a moment, it seemed to grow clearer. Hm. Why? Well, we spirits are meant to help the world.

Spirits? Evan wondered.

Yes, spirits. I was tasked with serving justice. I put criminals away, brought evidence to light in court, yada, yada, yada. But I have had trouble working to help the syndrigast community. Wights are… a powerful force.

But then I overheard the story of your Hollowgast. Tragic, it was. A young boy, at least a century ago, forced to work with the rogue peculiars in the creation of those demons.

I was not able to help until recent years. And then I found young Tamara. She was unwilling, with an irrational fear of Hollowgasts. But I managed to… convince her to help. I guided her, despite her feelings on the matter. I gave her strength. And it was all for justice, for a boy who had not done anything wrong.

Evan floated in the dreamscape, stunned. He felt overloaded. The backstory of the Hollow, the revelation that ghosts existed, and the answers to Tamara's questions were doing back-flips in his head.

"But… is she okay?" he managed, eyes glazed over.

The spirit nodded. Of course. But now I must leave. Fate decrees that things must take their own course from now on. It is no longer in my hands if your Hollowgast lives or dies. But I desire for appropriate justice to be served.

"Okay…" Evan murmured.

Take care of Tamara, it added as its voice began to fade away. And live to serve justice….

And then it was gone. Evan snapped out of his trance, glancing around. He didn't have to wait in silence for too long, though. The sleeping form of Tamara suddenly sat upright, eyes wide.

"Is it gone?" she quavered, staring straight at Evan.

"Yeah," he stammered. "Are you okay?"

Tamara took deep breaths. "I was listening, you know," she said.

"To… to our conversation?" Evan asked.

Tamara's eyes filled with tears. "Sort of," she said. "I was asleep, but also… not. And Evan, I just want to say, I'm so sorry!"

Although there was technically no floor (to Evan's irritation), she ran over to him and hugged him tightly.

"Uh, sorry for what?" he inquired, trying to keep his footing (even though there was no floor).

Tamara blinked back the tears. "Everything," she breathed. "Not really knowing about the ghost, not noticing what I was doing, not wanting to help poor Peter. But I do now. I just –"

"It's okay," Evan said soothingly, patting her hair. "It's okay."

After a while, when Tamara's sobs had eased into sniffles, he asked, "Was it really you, though? I mean, on this whole adventure, were you really you, or the ghost?" He didn't want to sound afraid of the answer, but he was.

Tamara noticed. Somehow, though, she managed not to burst into tears again. "It was sort of half and half, but I swear it was me, even if I was being influenced. I promise, Evan. Don't worry. I was always there with you. Don't worry."

Both of them were shaking, but while they embraced each other, everything seemed all right.

Evan smiled. "Should we try and wake up now, then?" he asked.

Tamara nodded, closing her eyes. "Yes, we should."

Sorry if this was a confusing chapter, or not very canon, or whatever. And I hope I answered any questions you may or may not have had.

Also, about the ghost: is the description confusing? Well, think of it as picturing a book character in your mind. You don't know what they look like, only they look like them. That's what the ghost looked like to Evan.