As they drove back to the cabin, Juliette and Cynthia both confirmed that Lucas was beginning to fade from their view. He was translucent now, the way ghosts often looked in TV shows and movies, but not invisible. His voice was quieter now too, as if distant, but even after they returned to the cabin, they could still make him out if they focused just a bit. Apparently, their brush with the spirit world had resulted in a permanent change. Alex wasn't entirely certain that was a good thing.

By the time they arrived, it was late in the afternoon, nearing sunset, and Alex felt completely depleted. Extended use of her eidolon had left her feeling faint and fatigued, and her injuries weren't helping things much. She climbed out of the car and immediately stumbled, slumping up against the side of the vehicle to avoid losing her balance.

"You alright?" Lucas asked.

Alex nodded slowly. "Yeah, just tired. All that fighting really took it out of me."

"I'll go find us something to eat," Juliette said helpfully. Lucas followed her inside while Cynthia retrieved the duffle bag from the trunk.

"How's your head?" she asked, gesturing towards the gash Alex had received when one of the wraiths had knocked her to the ground. Her hand went up to her temple reflexively. The bleeding had stopped some time ago, but they still probably needed to put something on it to keep it from getting infected. She had nearly forgotten about it.

"Not that bad," she replied. "It's my arms and my chest that really hurt."

Cynthia looked confused. "What happened to your arms and chest?"

"It was that shadow thing in the science lab," Alex explained. "When it attacked my eidolon, I felt it too. It was the first time a wraith was actually been able to harm her."

"Let me see," Cynthia sat down the duffle bag and used both hands to help Alex remove her hoodie. She winced as the fabric pulled over her battered forearms. There were dark purple bruises already forming where the creature had struck.

"Holy hell," Cynthia hissed under her breath. "Alex, this is pretty bad. Come on, let's go see if Juliette has something to treat it." Gently placing a hand on Alex's back, she guided her inside. Alex let herself slump up against Cynthia's shoulder for support, still a bit woozy.

Juliette was in the kitchen preparing snacks when they entered, chatting with Lucas. There were sodas set out on the table, and she was pouring a bag of trail mix into a large bowl. Cynthia held one of Alex's arms up for display, holding it gently at the wrist. "You guys got a first aid kit in here?"

Juliette gasped, hurriedly setting down the bag and rushing to the pantry. "Yeah, hold on. Alex, what happened?"

"The wraith in the science lab," she mumbled vaguely. "He hit my eidolon so hard I felt it. Literally."

"Can you do anything for her?" Cynthia asked. "You're studying to become a nurse, right?"

"Well, I plan to go to school for it," Juliette confirmed, bringing the first aid kit back to the table. "But that's next year. I've taken a basic first aid course, but..." she trailed off, pulling an ace bandage from the small plastic box. "Cynthia, there's a cold pack in the freezer. Can you get it for me? Alex, this doesn't look good. You could have a fracture. We should probably really take you to a hospital."

"No way," Alex said, shaking her head. "Even if we come up with a convincing story, my dad would totally freak out. He wasn't that keen on letting me come in the first place. Besides, I really don't think anything's broken."

"Yeah, I figured you were going to say that," Juliette replied as she accepted the cold pack from Cynthia and pressed it against Alex's left arm. "We only have the one cold pack. Sorry, Cynthia, do you think you can maybe wrap some ice cubes up in a towel for her other arm?"

Cynthia gave a mock salute of affirmation. "Aye-aye, captain."

"You really need to be more careful, Alex," Lucas admonished. "You can't just keep charging headlong into trouble like that."

"I'm the best prepared to take those things on," Alex said firmly. "I can't let you guys get hurt because of me."

Or killed, she added mentally. One ghost friend is enough.

Lucas gave her a sympathetic look, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking her directly in the eyes. She could feel the strange tingling sensation that occurred every time she made contact with his ghostly form. "You can't keep getting yourself hurt instead. We're all in this together. Alex, you can't blame yourself for what happened to me. I was already dead by the time you even got there."

"I know," Alex mumbled. It didn't really make her feel any better, though.

"She said she got hit in the chest, too," Cynthia said, holding the improvised cold pack against Alex's right arm as Juliette bandaged up the left.

Alex grimaced. "Um, it's okay, it's not that bad."

"Let me see," Juliette insisted. She turned to her ghostly brother. "Lucas, we're going to need a little privacy."

He nodded. "Gotcha. I'll be out back," he departed through the wall, leaving the three girls alone.

"Alright, take off your shirt," Juliette said.

"I don't know, this is only our first date," Alex replied, jokingly.

Juliette rewarded the wisecrack with a wry smile. "Cynthia, you want to help her so she doesn't do anything to her arms?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

Alex lifted her hands over her head, and Cynthia compliantly pulled the shirt off of her. Sure enough, there was a fist-sized bruise blossoming on her chest, just above her heart. She tried not to blush, but failed.

"Well, we don't have a long enough bandage to wrap all the way around your chest," Juliette concluded. "All we can really do is put the compress on it."

"Here," Cynthia said, handing Alex a small bottle of pills.

"What are these?" she asked absently, opening the childproof cap.

"Just over-the-counter painkillers," Cynthia replied. "I'm sure you could use a few right now."

Alex nodded dumbly. "How many should I take?"

"I don't know, like four."

"Are you crazy?" Juliette interrupted.

"What? That's how many I take when I get a really bad headache," Cynthia replied defensively. "I figure she's right around that same level of pain."

"No offense, but you're a bigger girl, Cynthia," Juliette said, filling a glass of water from the sink and bringing it to Alex. "Alex is like ninety pounds. Two should be fine."

"Okay, I am not twice her weight," Cynthia sneered.

"And I am not ninety pounds," Alex added.

Juliette frowned. "Please just trust me on this, okay?"

Cynthia rolled her eyes. "Fine, two pills, and take a sip of this." She produced a two liter Dr. Pepper bottle from her duffle bag, uncapping it and handing it over.

Alex took a quick gulp, and very nearly spit it back out. The liquid burned her throat and nasal passage, resulting in a sputtering coughing fit. "Gah! Oh god, what was that!?"

Cynthia patted her back roughly. "Damn girl, I said to take a sip, not chug it."

Juliette looked livid. "Are you seriously giving her painkillers and alcohol?"

"Oh, calm down," Cynthia said. "Alex spent the whole afternoon slaughtering evil spirits. I don't think a little Peppermint Schnapps is going to kill her."

"We should play a game," Alex interrupted, hoping to break up their bickering. Tensions were high, and it was clear that everyone was a little bit stressed out.

Cynthia raised an eyebrow. "A drinking game?"

Alex considered the idea. After all she had been through today, it almost sounded like a good idea. She already had a bit of a headrush from the first drink, however, and she could see the disapproving look on Juliette's face, so she decided not to say so. "Well first, I'm going to change into my pajamas. Juliette, can you let Lucas know that it's okay to come inside, now? I feel bad leaving him out there."

Juliette did so, and Alex and Cynthia both changed into their bed clothes. In Cynthia's case, that was just a pair of gym shorts and an Avenged Sevenfold T-shirt. Alex had opted to bring a pair of sweatpants and a white tank top. She actually kind of regretted not bringing the goofy lavender pajamas. At least that would have covered the massive bruises on her chest.

"Oh my god, Alex, are you okay?" Lucas said again immediately upon return.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, averting her eyes.

"Lucas, stop staring at her chest," Juliette snapped, moving to smack him in the back of the head. Her hand passed through him, but it got the point across.

Lucas turned bright red immediately. Apparently, ghosts can blush. "I-I wasn't! Well, I mean, obviously I was but, but... it was just the bruise. I wasn't looking at her... her..."

"Her boobs?" Cynthia suggested helpfully.

"Can we please not talk about my boobs?" Alex pleaded, crossing her arms across her chest in an effort to cover herself. Just then, her cell phone went off, vibrating loudly on the kitchen counter.

"Crap, I have to answer that. It might be my dad. He'll be pissed if I don't answer." Hopefully, he hadn't tried to call while they were still in Blackhaven.

"For someone who just fought a small army of wraiths, you sure are afraid of your own father," Juliette commented. "Is he really that bad?"

Cynthia made a noncommittal gesture. "Eh. He can be pretty overbearing sometimes, but he's not too bad."

"It's Spooky Jay!" Alex said, having retrieved the buzzing device. She swiped the green phone icon and held it to her ear. "Spooky! Are you okay?"

She heard him chuckle into the receiver, and could immediately picture that damn grin of his. "Yeah, yeah, I'm cool. I spent one night in jail, they slapped me with a fine and a little community service, like I said. I think they were actually pretty embarrassed about how that one detective overreacted."

"But we haven't heard from you in over three days," Alex objected. "Where have you been all this time?"

"Well, my mom was pretty pissed about the whole thing," he said. "They called her to pick me up. I've been kind of laying low since then, trying not to piss her off. Had to sneak into her room while she was out to get my phone back."

"Yeah, I get how that is," Alex said sympathetically.

"So how are things going for you guys? You find out anything from those files?"

"Yeah, we did. We actually just got back from Blackhaven, and found out that--"

"You went to Blackhaven!?" Jay sputtered, disbelieving.

"I take it you've heard of the place?"

"Yeah, it's pretty freakin' infamous," he said, sounding almost gleeful. "What the hell possessed you to go there?"

"Possessed. Ha."

"You know what I mean."

Alex took a deep breath, then tried to give him the Cliff Notes version of what had happened, explaining how John Ferguson's books had led them to investigate here, how Juliette had wound up getting involved, and how they were staying in a cabin her parents owned nearby. Finally, she told him about how the curse prevented the numerous wraiths from being exorcised, their encounter with the shadow wraith, and meeting Frank.

"...so then we found this tape recorder, and it turns out that the guy who was in charge of the experiment was a certain Dr. Franklin Richter."

"I get it," Spooky said. "So we think this guy is related to your professor, right? And now he's trying to recreate the experiment to make Arcadia City like Blackhaven."

"I don't know," Alex said. Something about that didn't quite sound right, but she couldn't put her finger on it. "But I definitely think we need to take a closer look at him."

"So what's the plan? I say we get the drop on him, take him by surprise," Jay said. "No telling what tricks he has up his sleeve."

Alex looked down at the bandages on her arms and her bruised chest. They needed every advantage they could get. "Yeah, I think that's best."

"Well, then, the only question is when you want to strike."

Alex bit her bottom lip. She was wounded and exhausted, but she didn't want to waste time and risk anyone else getting hurt.

"The sooner the better. I think... I think we should go tonight. The middle of the night. Let's say... 3 A.M.?" That would give them time to rest and recover a bit, and be early enough to be unexpected and have the cover of darkness, in case things went awry. They had managed to avoid getting arrested so far--well, most of them, anyway--but now was no time to break that streak.

She looked up at her friends gathered around the table, who all nodded their heads with grim resolution.

"Okay," Spooky said, "I managed to track down his address online. I'll text it to you. There's a bus stop just down the street, I think we should rendezvous there."

"Sounds like a plan," Alex agreed. "I'll call you before we leave here." She hung up the phone, set it back down on the counter, and turned to face her friends.

"We need to get ready."