It started with a bad feeling, intuition, I'd call it. It was the feeling you get as you're about to trip, or the sense of unease that fills your mind when you realize someone's watching you. A bitter unpleasant, sour, taste flooded my mouth.

"Does anyone have any gum?" I asked no one in particular. George handed me a stick. Once I was snapping semi-peacefully on the spearmint gum, I felt marginally better..

"Are you almost done?" George asked Lockwood, and I.

"George, we've been at this for fifteen minutes." Lockwood replied patiently,

"If you were hurrying we could already be done." He sulked.

"Maybe the same result could be achieved if you actually helped us." I snapped back. My nightmare had rattled me, and my (debatable) patience was running thin.

Before we really got going Lockwood stopped us. George mumbled something intelligible under his breath.

"Be quiet George." I said, irritably, "You aren't even scrubbing."

"I didn't say anything." I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah right."

"NO, seriously, I didn't say anything." His voice was low, but even I could tell he was being honest.

"Well, I definitely heard something, and there it is again!" the mumbling had returned, and with it a steady thudding noise, as if someone was repeatedly jumping. Then a few light taps accompanied the thuds, then silence.

Lockwood stood up, wet rag hanging limply from one hand. He was facing away from us, towards the basketball hoop at the other end of the room.

"What was that?' he asked. Since neither me, nor George had seen anything we shook our heads dumbly.

The dark gym seemed even darker now. I stood up next to Lockwood, and every sound I made seemed magnified, until it was unbearably loud.

"George," I whispered, "you don't happen to have any iron, or silver on you, do you?"

"No." He hissed back."Didn't have time to find anything."

There was something next to the basketball hoop. It pulsed faintly in the darkness. The shape was vaguely humanoid.

"I see it." I stated quietly. Lockwood nodded tensely, and George rose to his feet as well. A faint breeze blew around us, stirring clothes, hair, and fears. The shiny, newly mopped, hardwood floor we were standing on was covered by ankle deep fog. The figure on the other side of the gymnasium moved towards us. The thudding had resumed, I could now tell it was coming from something in our guests hands, every few seconds whatever it was would hit the floor, and bounce right back up again. The light tapping noise was the footsteps. It began to move fast, as it got closer my feeling of dread grew.

All of the sudden the figure flared brightly, and I could see it clearly. It was a girl, she looked to be a little older then me. Her long hair was tied back, but a few strands had escaped, and hung limply about her face. She was wearing the PE uniform that I had received earlier that day, and she was dribbling a basketball.

I also began to hear panting, an uneven wheezing sound, unpleasant on the ears.

Suddenly there was a massive gust of wind. I screwed my eyes shut tight, and stumbled blindly backwards until I hit the rapier racks at my back. A sword clattered to the ground behind me.

In front of me, Lockwood dived out of the way as the figure rushed forwards suddenly aggressive. He lay on his side, pale face illuminated in the faint glow of the girl. Once it had missed Lockwood, it decided to attack George. The basketball she was holding shot out of her hands, and zoomed towards him at a ferocious rate. He ducked just in time. The ball vanished.

I grabbed the blade at my feet, and held it out in front of me, as if it might ward away the thing in front of me. The thin in question was directly in front of me. The dribbling noises had stopped, but I could hear her ragged breathing.

"Don't let it touch you!" Lockwood said from behind it. He had gotten to his feet, and was watching the girl attentively. I nodded, and clutched my sword tighter.

"What do you want?" I asked cautiously, and held out the blade. The girl didn't respond to my words, but when the tip of the blade got close she backed away.

Feeling slightly more confident, I advanced, holding the sword before m. She backed away.

"It doesn't like the sword!" George cried, "It must be silver, or iron!" Silver, or iron! That was it.. I reached behind me with my left hand, while keeping my sword up with my right. ONce I had grabbed hold of the hilt of another sword, I pulled it free, and slid it across the floor towards George. The ghost (I was on board with George's theory now) had a basketball again, my heart beat in time with the ball. I pulled another rapier of the stand, and tossed it at Lockwood, who caught it deftly with one hand.

"Move towards the door." He said tightly, "Take the sabres with you, we can put them back later." So we began inching towards the door, George was out first. He packed out into the hallway, clutching his sword in front of him. Lockwood waited in the doorway for me. I moved towards the hall, and then several things happened at once.

The thudding stopped to be replaced by a quick swish, and Lockwood yelled, and took a step towards me. I had the privilege of watching a luminescent, blue tinged basketball come out of my chest. It's an experience I never want to repeat.

At first I didn't feel anything. Then I felt unbearably cold, as if my very heard was freezing solid inside of me. I cried out in surprise, and staggered forwards a few steps.

Then Lockwood was grabbing my hand, and we were running, racing through the halls. George in front of us. My chest hurt, as if a clawed hand was trying to luck my frozen heart right out of my ribcage. I was gasping, and tripping, and my sword was hanging limply in one hand. I was finding it hard to get enough air.

We stopped running near the library. AS soon as Lockwood let go of me I fell to my knees, and clutched my chest. I shivered.

"Lucy!" Lockwood cried anxiously. I opened my eyes, then wondered when I had shut them in the first place.

Lockwood was crouching in front of me, he looked a little fuzzy, but I was pretty sure he looked concerned.

"Lucy, are you alright?" I opened my mouth to speak, and toppled sideways, onto the floor.

What happens next is a little blurry. But I'll do my best to recount it as accurately as possible. First there was nothing. Then in the nothing there was a great pain. I couldn't quite place what hurt. Then something was pounding me on the chest rhythmically. And then there was something soft on my face, and a tremendous feeling of relief. Then there was nothing.