Diana had arrived and she listened to both Xander's report on the evidence that someone was living in the school and Faith's report that someone seem to be targeting people connected to Cordelia and then Cordelia confessed the strange 'feelings' she'd been having.
"Like when I was searching the Janitor's closet earlier and I felt like I wanted to start a fight with you." Xander offered. "And I have no idea why, but it felt familiar, like we'd had fights in the Janitor's closet before, but we haven't. And it's not the first time I've had a 'feeling' recently. Kendra seemed familiar and yet I know I'd never met her."
"Kendra?" Cordelia asked, frowning.
"The girl at the Bronze who died, that was her name."
Cordelia slammed a hand on the Library table. "That's when this all started, I felt like I knew her too! Even her name sounds familiar and yet, I don't think I know anyone named Kendra. The closest is Harmony Kendall and I've known her since third grade. What is going on?!"
"It sounds like deja vu." Diana said thoughtfully. "But deja vu is normally a vague, here and gone feeling and rarely occurs more then once or twice. This sounds like something deeper and the fact that it's affecting both of you suggests a shared experience or experiences. Once we've dealt with the current situation, we'll dig more into this. I think it might be important, at the very least something concerning that needs to be addressed."
"Like the fact that there's so many missing and dead kids from this school that the school paper has an obituary column?" Faith asked. "Jesse found that out earlier when he was putting together a list of possible ghost candidates."
"A High School paper tracking missing and dead kids?" Diana was startled. "How long has the school paper been putting out that column?"
"Since not long after Freddy became the Editor." Jesse answered. "A couple years now."
"Years?" Diana began to pace. "We thought this was a recent problem, but if it's been happening for a couple of years at least, then we've been ignorant of it for longer then we realized. How long?"
"I don't know." Jesse shrugged. "Freddy's the first to have that column in the paper. It's possible it goes back a long way. The Sunnydale paper should have its own obituary column, right? Where do we find old copies of the paper?"
"On microfiche at the Public Library." Mr. Giles answered.
"You're a researcher, Mr. Giles." Diana raised an eyebrow at him. "Seems like an avenue of research for you to explore."
"I'll begin as soon as we've dealt with this ghost."
"I don't think it's a ghost." Cordelia and Xander chorused.
"Okay, that's weird." Jesse stated, eying the two. "Why don't you think it's a ghost and is this another example of you both having these 'feelings'?"
"Yes." From Cordelia.
"I think so." From Xander. "And as for why I don't think it's a ghost, I heard her laughing after Harmony was pushed down the steps and Mitch heard a girl laughing just before he was attacked with a baseball bat. And there's evidence someone is living in the crawl space above the band room. I saw blankets and food wrappers up there and heard music coming from up there. Ghosts don't need blankets or food."
"And it all seems connected to me." Cordelia reminded him. "My date, my friend and Mrs. Miller attacked just seconds before I got to her classroom where we were scheduled to meet to discuss my paper for class. I'm the common denominator."
"A phrase that's starting to become familiar." Xander muttered, remembering him and Faith using it during their conversation about the baby.
"If it's a student than we need to identify her." Diana held her hand out. "Do you have the list, Jesse?"
"Yeah." He dug it out of his pocket and handed it her.
"Okay, this list is a starting point." She handed it to Cordelia. "Do any of these names seem familiar to either of you?" She indicated Xander. "Your feelings of familiarity may extend to this current situation."
"I've already figured that out." Cordelia told her. "Because I know that conversation I had with Faith earlier is a conversation I had with someone, but it wasn't with her, because I don't think she was here before. Someone else was and I was talking to them."
Diana tilted her head and turned that statement over in her head. "As though you've lived though today already, but with someone else here? Maybe even through the last few months. Has time been changed?"
"Is that even possible?" Jesse asked. "In real life, I mean. If this was Star Trek, of course it could be changed."
"It would take an extraordinary amount of power." Diana nodded. "But with Magic it is possible."
"I should be yelling, there's no such thing as Magic." Cordelia mumbled. "And yet I'm convinced Magic is real. Which means I was attacked by a vampire last week. One who knew who I was. Who is Angelus and why do I feel like I know who he is, even though I also know, I never saw him before?"
"And why do I feel like I hate him and want to set his overgelled head on fire?" Xander muttered. "And is he part of why I hate vampires, not just the bitch who tried to take a chunk out of my throat?"
"The scars on your throat are from a vampire too?" Cordelia touched the faint marks on her own throat. "And neither of these scars seem familiar, so things aren't all happening the same way. But if Faith is here now and I had that conversation with someone else originally, where is she?"
"Another good question. Let's start figuring out some answers." Diana said firmly and Xander and Cordelia bent their heads over the list.
"Her." They both pointed at a name.
