At 12:30am, after making sure my parents were asleep— they were— I snuck outside and went to the woods. There, I saw Luna. She told me that she was going to come back and see if that girl will be there again and asked me to join her. I said yes.

"I'm here," I said.

"Finally, you took forever," she said.

I rolled my eyes, smiling. We climbed over the gate and walked down the pathway. We kept going further and further, searching for the girl. Good thing Luna brought a flashlight, or else I'd half to share mine with her. It'd not that I'm not into sharing things, it's just, one I had to share a flashlight with her, and she kept trying to take it away from my hands because she wanted to get a better view of something and eventually… she broke it by tugging it so hard out of my hands it flew onto a big rock. She had to buy me a new one. I'm using the one she bought me right now. We were just walking when we heard a small voice say, "What're you doing here at night?" We casted our lights from our flashlight onto the girl, who was looking the same way she did when we first saw her. "What're you doing here at night," Luna asked the girl. The girl said nothing. "Hello?" asked Luna. Still, she said nothing. "Okay, we're leaving. C'mon Callie," she said.

"What's that?" The girl pointed to my neck. I was wearing my necklace.

"Oh, my necklace," I answered. The girl moved towards me and looked at my necklace, and she gasped. "What's wrong?" I asked. She held the heart up and turned it around and saw the name. "Tara…" she said sadly. I turned my head around and looked at Luna. She just shrugged. "Are you okay?" I asked. She shook her head. "No. I'm not okay," she said. Then it hit me. "Do you know Tara?" I asked.

She looked up at me, big-eyed and sad. "Do you?" asked Luna.

"You must leave," she said, "and now." Me and Luna exchanged confused glances, thinking: what's she talking about?

"Why?" asked Luna. The girl shook her head. "I now know. You guys are in danger." Again, we exchanged confused glances, but this time, with a hint of suspicion and worry. "Danger?" I asked.

All she did was nod, and turned away. Soon, she disappeared into the darkness of the night.

I, Luna, and Brandon were sitting underneath a huge tree in the park, telling him about last night. "You're in danger?" he asked when they finished telling him. "We don't know," I said with a shrug. I looked down, seeing my necklace, remembering how she was sad after she looked at it. "Something made us think she knew Tara," I added. Brandon looked like it didn't matter, even though it did. It did matter. It mattered a lot, very much. I wanted to know Tara, and if she died or was killed. It seems so interesting, and I know Luna wants to know the same; she likes mysteries. I feel like part of me is gone without Tara, even though I didn't even know her. "I want to find her dad," I said. I looked at Luna who nodded in agreement. "Me too," she said, "Because this… this is a very big mystery." I took off my necklace and put it in my shirt pocket. "You guys ready to find him?" I asked. They both nodded, which made me smile. We were going to find him. I know it. We were going to find Tara's dad.

We looked through bunches of newspapers seeing if they said anything about Tara; it should, but we couldn't find any articles about her. We wanted to see if she was in a newspaper, because if she was, it might say her dad's name. Then we could look him up in the address/phone book, and see where he lives. But there weren't any articles, so we've failed. Or that's what I thought before a garbage man came up to us.

"What do you guys think you're doing?" he asked. "This is a junkyard."

"We're trying to find anything on Tara," I said.

"Yeah, she was a girl who either died or was killed. No one's sure, yet," said Luna. The man's neutral face turned into a small— a very small— and sad smile. "Tara Harris, girl who died about 2 months ago?" he asked. We nodded, smiling, because this guy knew about her.

"Yeah, they were going to put the story in the paper, but the father wouldn't let them. I mean, really, everyone heard about it, so a newspaper wouldn't give more information than they already knew," he explained. I thought about how sad and shocking it was to know a sweet and innocent girl died, or was killed, somehow in the woods. "Yeah, poor Nate," he said. "Nate?" I asked. I already knew that Nate was the dad. "Her father," he said. I widen my eyes at Luna giving some sort of signal to let her know that we need to go now; she understood it.

She looked at her watch. "Oh, look at the time. We better go now. Thanks, mister," she said. We followed her down side of the road to my house. We have his name. Now, we need his address.

We looked him up, found him, and now we're on our way to his house, which isn't far down the road from Luna's house.

We made it. We're there. Luna knocked on the door, and a man answered it. His mouth was drooping downwards and in a sad way, and he has baggy eyes. "Excuse me? Are you Nate Harris?" Luna asked.

He nodded. "Yeah I am. Why?"

Luna looked at me as if asking me if she should or shouldn't mention his daughter. I didn't know. Why was she asking me? I started walking in circles, while Nate just sighed as if we were wasting his time.

I should've watched where I was walking, because on my 3rd time around in circles, I tripped a bit, and my necklace fell out of my shirt pocket onto the porch floor. "Oh, whoops," I said, sort of embarrassed. "Um… we'd like to ask you about…"

"Where'd you get that?" Nate was pointing at my necklace that I was holding in my hand, which was flipped onto the side that had "Tara" carved into it. "Uh, it's mine," I said turning the necklace over.

"No it's not! That's my daughter's! The only way you could've gotten it is if you stole it! She had it on the night she died! You…"

Oh no, I thought, was he going to say what I think he's going to say?

"… You killed her!" That'd be a 'yes'. "What?" I asked shocked.

"We don't even know her!" said Luna.

"Shush, you killer! All 3 of you killed her!" He started screaming and cussing at us and just acting like a maniac. We were actually getting kind of petrified. Soon, neighbors and our parents came and had to calm him down and call the police. We were going to be talked to, because we're being blamed.

"You're kidding! You're taking his side? He's crazy!" Luna argued with a cop for about 5 minutes before her mom made her walk away. "What's wrong with you people?" Luna yelled right before she was shoved into her mom's car by her mom.

I just stayed calm. I knew we weren't going to get in trouble. We didn't even know Tara.

Then I saw her. I actually saw her. I saw the girl from the woods. She was standing next to a lady cop, staring right at me. The lady cop didn't even notice her, didn't even seem to know she was there. It was like she was invisible.

I just stood where I was, staring right back at her. I was about 10-15 feet away from her. She just stood there motionless, like she was frozen. Then it hit me. The reasons for why no one could see her or no one knew she was there. The little girl is a ghost. She's Tara.

I asked my mom if I could go to the bathroom and she let me, and I had Tara follow me. When we got to the woods, we hid near the gate.

"Are you Tara?" I asked, just making sure I was right.

She nodded. "I am Tara. I died. My father is losing it."

"How come Brandon, Luna, and I can see you, but no one else can?" I asked, because it didn't make sense.

"I don't know."

"Did you die? Or did you get killed?" I asked.

"I don't remember," she answered. I was shocked. She didn't remember is she died or was killed. Why not? "Were you attacked?" I had so many questions to ask; so many. But I knew it would probably bother her.

Before she could answer, a voice stopped her. "Who are you talking to?" it was a harsh voice, so it could only mean it was…

"To myself, Mr. Harris," I lied. If I said I was talking to his daughter's ghost, he'd go out of control.

"Yourself, eh?" he said, still cruelly. "I don't believe you." I went cold. Did he hear everything? Was he here the whole time? Hope not.

"You don't? I'm telling the truth." My voice was a bit shaky, I'll admit, but I kept it together the best I could. "Who else would I be talking to?" He just stared at me with cold, hard eyes. I froze in my place. I knew that Tara was still there, sitting across from me, even when I was facing Mr. Harris, who was behind me. "Are you going to accuse me and Luna for anything else?" I asked. He smiled, but it wasn't a nice smile that you would get from a friend; no. It was a devious grin. He turned away and left me and Tara. I turned to Tara, seeing that she was staring at the ground with a glum look on her face. "I'm sorry," she said to me. I gave her a confused look.

"Why?" I asked. "You didn't do anything." That was true. She didn't tell him to accuse me, or go along with thinking I and Luna killed her. "Because, I didn't warn you all well enough."
I stumbled back a bit, although I was sitting. "You knew this would happen?" How would she know? Could she see into the future since she's a ghost? "Not exactly knew. I should've told you to put the necklace away. But I didn't. Now you all may get in trouble."

I shook my head in disagreement. "No, no, no, don't feel that way. You didn't do anything. And…" I took my_ well, her_ necklace off and handed it to her. "… I think you should have this."

Now, it was her who looked stunned. "I can't." My mouth trembled in disbelief. "But it's yours." She smiled at me. She smiled. "You have it, to remember me by." And with that, she disappeared into thin air.

I clutched the necklace in my hand as I was running back to where all the fuss was about us being accused. I noticed Luna wasn't here, and remembered how her mom took her home. I didn't see Brandon, neither. He wasn't here. My mom took me home soon afterwards. We ate in silence the whole time, which really bugged me. What if they believe that we killed Mr. Harris's daughter? That was a thought I shouldn't think about, but I couldn't help thinking about it.

I went to sleep with the necklace on for good luck in case something berserk might happen tomorrow.

The next morning, I realized it was the 1st day of school. Oh joy, I thought, more things to care and worry about. I got out of bed, got dressed into a shirt and skirt, and went downstairs for breakfast.

Once I got to school, the same school I had for 7th and 8th grade, I met up with Luna and Brandon.

"I'm really not enjoying this; we didn't kill his daughter," I said. Luna nodded in agreement. "I know, right?" she said. Then she added, in a snobby voice, "We didn't do anything to that guy, but here he is, accusing us of something REALLY dumb." Brandon just stared at the 2 of us, like we had something really weird on our faces. I just sighed heavily and told them I'll see them later.