Thursday, October 6th, 2016

It wasn't hard to get his parents to agree to sleep over at Cory, after lying to them that they had to catch up on their project, since Sid had been at home for days. They allowed him to head over and stay there for the night, after shortly talking to Cory's father. The man had replied with yes or no a few times and told Sid he could stay over.

"He seems... approachable today." Sid commented when they eventually went to Cory's room—they had in fact caught up with their project but sat at the kitchen table because it offered more space.

"Good days and bad days," Cory replied with a shrug, dumping their schoolwork on his desk. "Do you wanna sleep in the bed?"

"What's the alternative?"

"I don't really know, I never had guests, so I don't really have anything to accommodate one."

"It's fine, your bed is wide enough for both of us."

Cory nodded in agreement, and they changed for bed in silence.

"Thanks, you know? For wanting to help me out as well. I know Dave's your best friend—"

"It's not important who my best friend is. You're a friend, and we help each other. I'm sure you would do the same."

"Yeah, if you ever need anything, just ask."

Sid contemplated on asking him about hearing Angela again now that there was nobody to eavesdrop in on them. But then he would have to acknowledge, out loud, that he was hearing her, and it was very likely she was in the room with them in that very moment.

"Cory?" Sid asked after a silence lingered for a while, and he had observed the small, dark room curiously.

"Hmm hmm?" Cory replied, noticeably sleepy already.

"Do you still see your mom? I know your parents are divorced, but like... how big was the impact of it? You know? You visiting the forest and spilling the truth about what happened? My parents keep asking questions."

"I don't see her anymore, no. The divorce wasn't pretty and honestly I was kind of glad I wasn't here for it. Apparently, it became violent on multiple occasions and mom just kind of lost it. She refuses help, though, and Dad doesn't have the heart to force help on her. So he cut her out of his life and she eventually wasn't allowed to see me anymore and I just left it at that. She wasn't helping my recovery anyway."

"Damn," Sid mumbled, turning around to face Cory, "I'm sorry you went through all that. But remember you're not alone any longer. We know you told the truth, and we will help you."

"It may sound harsh since this Angela girl is haunting you and Davy, but I'm sorta glad you guys went in there and witnessed it. It was weighing on me, not being able to tell the truth."

"At least something good came from it."

Cory chuckled and nodded with closed eyes. "Let's hope it'll help us sleep as well. If it does, we have a new issue to tackle."

"Which is?"

"How to never sleep alone, ever again, after this."

Sid snorted, realizing Cory was right, and if this worked it would be hard to spend as little nights alone as possible. But he didn't want to break his mind over that until they were sure it was indeed helping.

He didn't know how long it took for him to actually fall asleep. Cory didn't take long, but Sid assumed it was because he had a few rough nights in the past days. But something about the room felt off, and Sid couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was that felt off. He should've been alarmed, but by the time he realized it must have been Angela's lingering presence, he was too far gone to prevent himself from falling asleep.

When he did indeed wake up in bed beside Cory, he knew he wasn't really awake, because Cory was hiding under the cover, holding onto him, while Angela was seated on the desk chair, swinging it back and forth while humming this eery tune Sid recognized from a horror movie he watched a few weeks before.

"Cory, run," Sid mumbled, grabbing hold of Cory's hand to pull him out of the bed and away from her.

"Wait!" Angela called out, jumping up when she noticed movement.

"Fuck off," Sid grumbled, pulling Cory along and out of the room, shortly puzzled because he wasn't at home, or at Annika's.

"I don't want to play!" She called out behind them, sounding desperate like she had done before. "I'm not gonna ask!"

"The kitchen," Cory whispered, pulling Sid along towards the kitchen.

"Please, don't," Angela begged, lingering behind them, not following them into the kitchen. "We need to talk! Do you know how hurtful it is for you guys to wave knives around without knowing how painful they are?"

Sid bit his lip, and he stopped Cory from opening a drawer to retrieve a knife.

"What are you doing?" Cory hissed.

"I don't know, call it a hunch. But maybe we need to listen."

"Why would we do that!?" Cory angrily hissed at him, slapping his hand away, "she's given me nothing but trouble and nightmares and repeated fucking trips to the woods ever since I've been home."

"And she helped me pass a test and stay out of trouble by giving me the answer to Mr. Brightwater's question today," Sid told him, rolling his eyes, "she's been talking to me all week and she's mainly just... joking around."

"I'm not evil," Angela whispered, "I just want help. I've been stuck here for 54 years and it kinda gets boring so I messed around with the few people who could communicate with me. I'm sorry, okay?"

Cory's eyebrows rose slightly as his jaw dropped, hearing an apology from the little girl in front of them, keeping a safe distance by staying in the living room.

"I protected both of you, in the forest, though."

"I saw you, before I blacked out."

"I had to push you. You were running right at it." Angela cocked her head, taking him in curiously. "You're weird, you know that? You have this positive energy around you that just drew me in as soon as you entered the woods. It's been a dark and cold place for as long as I can remember. But then you, and Davy came in and it was slightly... less bad."

"What about Edward?"

"He's a pussy," Angela retorted, waving her hand dismissively, "he'd probably pee his pants if I'd haunt his dreams."

Sid couldn't help but snort, agreeing with her observation. Edward wasn't the bravest indeed.

"If you're not evil, why would you continue to ask us to go to the woods? You know we can't go in there."

"You know you could," Angela replied, sending him a glare, "you accidentally went in before they visited the woods. I didn't want that to happen, so I woke you up. See? I kept you safe by stopping in time. I'm not a bad person. I just want someone to find my body and bring it to my family. I want them to know for sure what happened. My mother never gave up hope to find me, my father is just sitting around, waiting for an answer. I want to give them an answer."

Sid swallowed, as he watched a tear trinkle down her cheek, and suddenly it hit him full force that this nine-year-old girl just wanted to have some fun while she was there, until someone would be able to find her for real and help her family.

"Okay, we can't go in and find your body. You said you protected us both, so there's more in that forest than you."

"Oh, there're probably tons of souls or spirits or ghosts or whatever you want to call them. You both know I wasn't the only victim. I wasn't the first, and I wasn't the last."

Sid frowned, looking at the little girl in front of him. Her dress looked dirty, with stains covering most of it, though it was still white; just multiple shades. She was translucent still, even though this was a dream and apparently she was able to present herself to them. But what made him wonder about her intentions, was the fact that she hadn't done anything to try and lure them into the woods. In fact, she specifically told them she wasn't going to ask them; and she didn't. How much evil could such a young girl hold, especially considering the fact she seemed to be one of many victims?

"If you're not evil, and you understand why we're not going in there again, then why do you keep asking?"

"Because sometimes people don't mind playing a game with a nine-year-old. But they never stop to listen. In fact, you two are to first who did." She shrugged a shoulder as if it wasn't a big deal, but it obviously hurt her that nobody ever talked to her before.

"I can't imagine how alone you must have been," Sid whispered, feeling the need to comfort her in any possible way.

"I guess... this isn't so bad," Cory mumbled, gesturing towards Angela, "and if you promise us not to lure us into the woods, we can talk more often?"

Angela's eyes grew wider in surprise, and her sad frown turned into an award-winning smile while she bounced up into the air, folding her hands together. "Does that mean we could be friends?"

"I guess that's what it means, yeah," Sid chuckled over her enthusiastic behavior. But he had to admit, 54 years all by himself sounded like Hell, so the relief she showed was very understandable. "We can be friends."

"In that case, only my mother called me Angela. My friends called me Angie."

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