Monday, October 10th, 2016

Sid had told most of his friends what Angie had shown the night before, on Saturday during a videocall. It stung that both Amara and Edward had denied the call, and Sid had eventually sent Edward another text, asking him why he was acting so weird. Amara wasn't really his friend. She was Annika's and Amber's friend. And according to them, Amara acted normal whenever Davy, Sid and Cory weren't around.

Sid was already getting sick of Edward's behaviour, though. They never had been the kind of friends who weren't able to tell what was bothering them. They had a healthy friendship in which they talked about their issues. So why not now?

Mostly, since Sid felt like he needed his friends. He was in big trouble, and only a ghost he just met was currently shielding him from it.

Apparently, opening up in real life, asking her to talk in his sleep, had strengthened their connection further, and when he woke up the next morning, he thought he was still dreaming when he found Angie curiously looking at the stuff on his bookshelves. She assured him he wasn't dreaming, and then did a little victory dance because he was the first to see her while being awake.

Sid eventually bought her a cupcake that same afternoon, to celebrate the fact she had finally succeeded; even though it was probably weird to celebrate it on her behalf. He didn't know why he felt the need to do so, but it seemed to make her happy. And keeping Angie happy was a good thing, because he really needed her around. When he had the house to himself on Sunday, he even played a videogame she picked, and explained her all about the Sims and what the goal was; re-enact life.

He built a tiny home, made himself, Annika, Cory, Davy and Angie as characters, and allowed Angie to decide what they would have as careers and such.

But bonding with Angie over the weekend, had caused him to forget about a Math quiz they would be having on Monday, which was why he cursed when Davy reminded him of it.

"Did you not study?" Annika asked with a worried frown, "is it because of everything that is going on?"

"I was just busy getting to know Angie," Sid mumbled, looking at his notes during their lunch break.

"I can help you again, if you want," Angie suggested, as she bopped up and down behind Edward, constantly causing his hair to stand up and his phone to go back into sleeping mode. It was entertaining, how she was frustrating him while he knew far from enough to realize what was going on.

"I need a new phone," Edward grumbled, throwing it on the table in frustration, "the screen keeps shutting off and it's glitchy as hell."

Sid tried to fight back a smirk, which in response caused Cory to snort, and Davy to elbow him between his ribs.

"Why are you looking at us? I don't care if you get a new phone. You're not using it to contact us anyway," Davy said while Edward sent an annoyed look at Sid and Cory, both barely able to keep themselves from laughing.

"Because I'm sick and tired of feeling left out! You two have your little fucked up bromance. You always pick each other's sides, and I could handle it because you two were at least aware of it and tried to meet me in the middle. But you just replaced me, you know? I'm sick of it," he spat, getting up from his seat while snatching the phone from the table. "Leave me alone."

"Boom," Sid mumbled.

"goes the dynamite," Davy muttered, trying to ignore the angry looks Amara was sending them.

But since Sid, Davy and Cory started laughing, she too got up from her seat to follow after her boyfriend, and Annika clicked her tongue, shaking her head to tell them she disapproved of their laughter.

"He kinda asked for it, Anni," Amber said with a shrug of her shoulder, "he blames them, but he's the unsupportive one. I mean, we weren't even there to witness any of it and we're still here, helping them. He just abandoned ship as soon as he learned he wasn't gonna be haunted by Angela."

"Thank you!" Davy said, gesturing at her while looking at Annika. "The guy is just childish most of the time. We'll be good soon enough, don't worry. But he just needs to have his hissy fit and cool down first. Besides, he's been ignoring us all week, and when he can't text Amara to gossip about us, we're suddenly good enough to complain to?"

"I really didn't mean to laugh," Cory explained apologetically, "but Angie was causing his issues and Sid made me snort because he witnessed it."

"How'd you know it was Angie, though?" Sid curiously asked.

"I've known her for two years. We might not have been able to communicate, and I was scared of her. But I wasn't blind. Whenever I had issues with a doctor, or another patient, she would mess with them."

"Why do I feel the need to know more about that?" Amber asked, leaning forwards while Angie proudly took a seat beside Annika. One thing Sid caught onto quick; Angie took pride in her ability to mess with people.

"Same," Davy said, turning to Cory, "what's the funniest thing she's ever done, in hindsight?"

"Uh," Cory said, staring at the ceiling while thinking of the best joke.

"Tell him it was that doctor who said I was imaginary," Angie told Sid, waving her hand at Cory in the same time, pretending to lean on the table.

"She said it was with a doctor who said she was imaginary," he said, passing on her message. While Cory smirked and took a breath to tell the story, Sid didn't miss the fact Annika was sending him a worried look. He just wondered why; because he was passing on Angie's messages, or because he was being haunted by something else, and she was just worried about him every second.

"Oh, that was a good one, though it scared the shit out of me as well. It happened fairly early during my stay. I was still telling people about Angela and they kept telling me I was just imagining things. Basically, the guy claimed she was imaginary and whenever someone called her that, she, well, went full on ghost-mode, I guess. When he walked me out of the office, telling me to stop feeding my imagination with lies, she turned his entire office upside down. Like, everything, including the paintings, were upside down. Drawers were open, the computer was freaking out, his chair was spinning circles. The guy quit that very same day, and nobody spoke of what had happened and I was still called a liar for claiming it was Angela."

Sid snorted, sending Angie an amused look.

"The least he could've done was tell everyone that you weren't lying, before he left," Amber said, rolling her eyes, "that would've saved the boys a trip into the woods as well."

"But then Cory wouldn't have known that Angie isn't evil, and we wouldn't have been friends," Sid countered, patting Cory's shoulders a few times, "so in hindsight, some things had to happen. I just wish it wouldn't include a dark shadow haunting me, but we'll figure it out, right?"

"We will," Annika said, though she didn't sound as self-assured as usual when it came to solving things. "starting by looking more into the patterns we found last week. There has to be a way to figure out how to get rid of it."

"We should look into rituals to end an infestation or attachment," Amber suggested, "since this all turns out to be real, like, ghosts and demons, those exorcisms should too."

"Exorcisms only work when someone is possessed, and Sid isn't possessed." Davy was swiping on his phone, apparently already googling on possible solutions.

"In that case, we should look more into rituals and spells that help protecting us from that dark thing," Amber replied, gesturing at Sid. "Not just you, but all of you boys, and sadly, that includes Edward. Even though he isn't doing anything to help us."

"I still don't want him to become a victim once we managed to protect ourselves from it," Sid mumbled, sighing deeply before he looked up at Angie, "don't you have any useful information?"

"Plenty. But right now, I think you should listen to Amber. She knows plenty about this stuff."

Sid frowned at Angie, before he looked at Amber with a weird look on his face.

"Well, does she?" Cory asked before he looked up from his phone.

"She'll help us during research," Sid said, twisting her words, "but Amber is right, and we need to look into spells and rituals for protection. Any idea where to start?"

Amber and Sid looked at each other for a while, in silence, as the rest was looking confused at their staring contest. Sid tried his best to tell her he knew she knew more, while she seemed to be asking him something; though he had no idea what.

"Do you know?" Amber eventually asked with a careless attitude.

"No more than you, I assume."

Amber smirked, Sid glared back in annoyance, Angie giggled, and the rest was exchanging looks in question.

"Can we join in on the conversation? This is confusing as fuck," Davy complained, waving back and forth between them. "Does Sid know what? And what do you know that Sid assumes to know as well?"

"Nothing," Amber and Sid replied in unison, both backing down out of their weird conversation at the same time. Not that Sid was going to let it slide, especially not when Angie perked up and said:

"She knows way more than you, fool. She'll know where to look for these spells and rituals. Just don't ask her about her ways, she's not supposed to tell you."

"I'm sorry, what now?" Sid asked, turning back to Angie with a frown.

"You heard me, follow her lead, just don't ask any questions."

"Fine," Sid grumbled, turning back to Amber, "I suggest you look into rituals and spells, Annika looks into the patterns we found, Davy can look for more information on possible suspects, Cory focuses on the locations that might seem important, and I'll talk to Angie and see if she has more to say."

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