Chapter 6: Ignorance is His New Best Friend

Jackie waited patiently as Sam examined the photos carefully. His eyes darted quickly over the image in his hand for 10 seconds then he flipped to the next image. She could feel her breath slowing as she waited for him to say something about the images. Because, after all Edie wasn't real and for Sam to become infatuated with a spirit wasn't healthy at all. It was just plain weird. After 3 minutes of silence, Sam put the photos down on the table in front of them and looked up at Jackie. She folded her arms across her chest and took a deep breath.

"Well?" Jackie began, "What do think of them?" Sam ran a hand through his hair and he frowned. He didn't even know where to begin with this. Either Jackie was terrible at taking pictures at the beach or she was incredibly good at PhotoShop.

"Jackie," he slowly replied, "I don't know how to tell you this but, these pictures aren't really that great." He handed them back to her and she sighed unhappily. He wasn't getting it at all. He thought that she was asking for photography criticism not confirmation that his dream girl was dead.

"I'm not asking whether the pictures are well taken," Jackie patiently remarked, "I'm asking if you get what I was trying to tell you earlier about Edie's abnormal behaviors." Sam groaned as he held his head in his hands. It wasn't bad photography but a really bad case of jealousy.

"Jackie," he started gently. Jackie lost her patience with him once he switched tones. She wasn't crazy or a child! She knew what she saw was completely wrong.

"I knew you were going to be stubborn," Jackie burst out irritably, "I'm not crazy-I can see these things clearly. You're so blinded by love that you can't even see what's wrong with the picture. She's not alive anymore Sam! She's been dead for 4 years!"

"Jackie, are you sure that you're not acting out of jealousy?" Sam cautiously offered. Her face reddened and she angrily placed her palm down on the table.

"I'm not telling you this out of jealousy Sam!" she snapped angrily, "Why can't you see that I'm telling you the truth."

"I'm sorry Jackie, but you're asking me to believe that for the past few days, I've been talking to a very clear physical representation of a spirit," Sam stiffly remarked. Jackie opened her mouth to say something else but closed it. She could feel her blood boiling furiously just by looking at Sam's reaction.

How could he just brush those photos off like that? All she could do was move to another chair and sit facing away from Sam as K.C. came into the room. She opened up her laptop and started pulling up the name of the school where the body was found.

"Hey guys!" greeted K.C., "What's up?" Sam gave her a forced smile and Jackie briskly waved to K.C. while continuing to look up the credible places of investigation that week. K.C. frowned as she took a seat at the head of the table and watched both of her fellow Othersiders ignore each other. Something was up.

"Come on guys, someone's got to tell me what happened," coaxed K.C. She waited to see if anyone would speak up to tell their side of the story. Neither one of them even acknowledged her question. Zack joined the trio in the room and took a seat next to K.C. After saying a friendly hello to both Jackie and Sam, he received the same responses.

"What's eating them today?" whispered Zack anxiously. K.C. shrugged. She wished that they would just talk instead of sitting there in silence. Riley came in and cheerfully said a good morning to the group. He too, received the same cold replies but they didn't break his good mood.

"All right guys," he announced as he rubbed his hands together, "It's time to choose our next place to investigate." He motioned for everyone to gather around Jackie's laptop to look at the credible places to investigate. Sam stood farther away from the group so to avoid being too close to Jackie.

"Ooh how about this abandoned passenger train car?" K.C. mused out loud as she pointed to the image on the screen.

"I don't think that has enough information to research credibility-wise," Riley argued as he shot down the place. Jackie cleared her throat to offer a suggestion. It was now or never.

"What about this school?" she offered, breaking the silence. Riley leaned forward as he read the screen.

"Fallen Pike High School," he read out loud, "Hmmm...hey listen to this! There was a student who committed suicide in the gym locker room and sometimes you can hear his footsteps in there. The showers are known to turn on by themselves, screams can be heard in the locker room-"

"Whoa!" gasped Zack, "And a murder that happened in 2005 in their courtyard! Wow, what bad luck this school had! People say that the murdered victim wanders the courtyard and some have heard crying."

"And there have been reports of people hearing segments of Numb in that area but there's no music system installed there!" cried out K.C., "This is perfect! We have to check this out guys!"

Riley looked around at the group before announcing, "That settles it. This week, we're investigating Fallen Pike High School."