Jesse's POV

"Jesse," someone whispered as they gently shook my arm, "Jesse, wake up."

"Mm?" I said groggily as I barely opened my eyes. Lukas was leaning over me.

"Come on! We have to go!" he said.

"Where?" I asked, sitting up and stretching. My body felt achy and sore like I had been working hard.

"To the hospital, to see Petra," he said. That name triggered memories of the entire night to return.

"Lukas," I began, "I don't think..."

"Come on," he insisted.

I got up carefully from the couch and looked across the room out the window.

"The sun isn't even out yet," I said as I walked over.

"That's fine," Lukas said, "We won't be late for school."

I was going to argue that it might be pointless to go to the hospital now, but he was already heading out the door. I sighed and followed.

Outside, I noticed that the clouds were starting to roll in.

"Looks like it's gonna rain later," Lukas said, looking up.

"Mm-hmm," I nodded.

"I sure hope Petra's okay," he sighed, "She will be. That was all a dream. Erin even said so. Well, sort of."

"Yeah, me too," I agreed, "but, Lukas? What if she isn't?"

He didn't respond for a while.

"I don't know."

We made it to the hospital just as it started to drizzle. Lukas and I hurried inside and waited for someone to say it was okay for us to see Petra.

Thinking about Petra made me feel uneasy; it felt like something was blocking the blood flow to my head. My stomach was in knots, like something was trying to be free.

Finally, a nurse with a dull facial expression and a clipboard in her arms came out to us. I was on the edge on my seat waiting for her to give us the news.

"Well, the good news is, her body returned this morning, right back in bed where she was."

"Body?" Lukas choked.

"Ah, yes. Uh, Petra..." the nurse began, "she didn't make it." She cleared her throat, "Uh, we did everything we could, but it was already too late. The examination proved her dead. I, uh, I'm deeply sorry."

That word "dead" pounded into my chest. A silence filled the room.

"Miss?"

"Yeah," I said, "Thanks for trying, ma'am."

As I was about to walk out, she added,

"Wait."

I looked back.

"May I get your address before you go?"

I turned to Lukas, hoping he knew the address to our apartment.

"Uh, yeah," he said. She handed him a slip of paper and pen. He scribbled something onto it and handed it back.

"Thank you. We'll do what we can to help you cope with your loss. I know what it's like," the nurse said, "just... take it easy. We'll just keep her in the mortuary for now until you're ready for the next step."

We stepped outside the hospital with heavy shoulders. The rain wasn't that bad, still very slight.

"Darn it," Lukas murmured. He grabbed his head, "Darn it!"

"Let's go," I said in a soft voice. He followed as we began to walk back home. My throat was tightened and hands shaking. Tears began to spill out of my eyes, unable to be contained any longer.

I threw my arms around Lukas's shoulders and held on tightly. I wept harder this time, burying my face into his jacket. He wrapped his arms around me. We both cried, the rain collecting in our hair.

---

We stayed home from school that day and just laid in our apartment.

A few hours later, I heard a sobbing outside the room. I lifted my head up and saw Aiden and Maya walk in. When they saw the room, Maya only started crying harder.

"You came," I said.

"Yeah," Aiden said, "We found the hospital and they told us where you were. They also gave us the news about Petra."

The rest of the day was spent in silence. We didn't go anywhere, didn't eat anything. We didn't need to.

The rain continued through the day, but it still wasn't bad. Just a little fell, even though it persisted for long. In fact, it sustained all day and into the night.

I laid flat on my back on the couch with my eyes wide open. A cold sweat covered me. Usually the sound of rain at night calms me down, but with every sound it made I was only more conscious.

The next morning, it was still raining. We huddled together as we walked to school. It was lucky that the apartment was so close by.

Aiden's POV

As we were walking, I heard an awful noise. It came from an alley we were passing while we walked. Someone exclaimed, "HUMPH!" followed by a thud. A higher pitched thud came afterward. We stopped in our tracks to listen. I peered carefully around the corner to see what was going on.

"Someone's in trouble," murmured Maya.

"You don't have it either," someone whispered from the alley. A dark figure darted out and raced past us down the sidewalk.

"Lukas, Maya," commanded Jesse, "You two help that guy back there. Aiden—you and me are gonna catch that other guy!"

"Come on!" I said, sprinting after the figure. Jesse ran after.

"I'll cut 'em off!" said Katcha as she flew up next to me.

"I'll be no use; they'll run right through you!" I said.

"At least I can try to slow him down."

The culprit dashed around the corner of a building and Katcha sped up ahead of him.

"This guy... how is he so agile?" Jesse panted.

"I know, it's hard to keep up!" I said. We rounded the bend and the offender was in sight. Katcha flew up to try to stop him with her body. The criminal stumbled slightly, but picked up the pace and kept going.

Eventually, Jesse and I had to slow to a walk, doubling over with our hands on our knees, gasping for air.

"Okay," Jesse said, "We'll... we'll get him... next time."

"Aiden!" Katcha exclaimed excitedly as she rushed over to me, "I pulled this off 'em!" She held a strand of hair in her hands, but after she spoke it fell through them onto the ground. "Oops."

"Awesome!" I said as I picked it off the sidewalk.

"What is?" Jesse asked.

"They must have dropped this while they were running," I said as I held the hair out for Jesse to see. Looking closely, I saw that it was long and red.

"Okay, this is good," Jesse said, "Huh. Ever see anyone around here with long red hair?"

"I can't say I have," I said, "I just got here yesterday."

"Right. Okay, let's go back to get Lukas and Maya."

As we were walking, Katcha came to me and said,

"Kind of reminds me of Petra, you know, the hair."

I didn't respond.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up," she said, "How... how're you doing?"

"Let's not talk about it now," I murmured, "Besides, I'm around other people."

"Oh, right. Right."

When we returned to the alley, Lukas and Maya were tending to a young man who looked slightly older than us. He had a black eye and by now he was starting to wake up.

"How is he?" Jesse asked as we approached.

"We think he has a concussion," Maya said as she fanned him with her hands.

"How can you tell?" I asked.

"He woke up a little while ago and had trouble standing up. He said the light was too bright too," Maya explained.

"And... he threw up over there," Lukas said pointing his thumb at a pile of sick over to the side.

"Look, he's waking up again," Maya said. He coughed slightly as his eyes fluttered open.

"Sir," Jesse said as she walked over and keeled in front of him, "How do you feel? Do you remember what happened before you were unconscious?"

"I... was I? I was unconscious?" he asked. He burst into a coughing fit.

"Easy now, easy..." Lukas said as he put his hand on his back.

"Augh, my... head!" he groaned as he shielded his eyes.

"He's very sensitive right now, let's just give him a break," Maya said, "Hopefully he'll start remembering things soon."

"Maya, how do you know so much about concussions?" I asked.

"I pay attention in science," she shrugged, "The bad news is the symptoms might not wear off for a while, it could even be weeks."

"Well, great," Lukas said, "We don't have weeks!"

"No," the boy said, "I... I think I'm starting to—" He burst out coughing again, "Oww..." He took in a deep breath, then slowly let it out.

"That's it," Maya said, "There you go. Do you remember anything?"

"Ah, I-I uh, there was... someone a-attacking me," he began.

"Good," Lukas said, "And do you remember anything else?"

"Do you remember what they looked like?" I asked.

"They were mostly wearing black... and they... they knocked me down before I could... get a good look at them—him... or... her... I'm sorry, that's all I can remember."

"Did you see what color their hair was?" Jesse asked.

"I don't know... I'm—I'm sorry."

"Was it red? Red hair?" I asked.

"Aiden, don't push him too hard," Maya said, "Sir, do you remember your name?"

"Red..." he murmured.

"Red? Red is your name?"

"No... no, red hair... yes. They had red hair, I-I remember! I remember!" He looked like he was going to jump up right there, "Oh, ugh..." He pushed Lukas out of the way and leaned over to wretch.

"We need to get a doctor!" said Maya.

"I'm... fine..." he grunted.

"No, you're clearly not. You have a concussion."

"Wait a minute," Lukas began, putting his fist to his chin, "Red hair... Jesse, you remember when we were in detention together and Magnus was talking about how he didn't like Cherry?"

Jesse gasped. "Yeah! What if he saw Cherry committing a cri—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Maya said, "You're not seriously saying that was Cherry, my friend, are you?"

"It all makes sense," Lukas said, "Aiden found the hair..."

"Technically, I found the hair," Katcha muttered behind me.

"He said that he saw some red hair, and Magnus seems to really have some beef with Cherry for seemingly no reason," he finished.

"What? That's crazy! You haven't met her!" Maya argued, "Well, Jesse, you met her, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Jesse said, "She was pretty nice..."

"See? I hang out with her almost every day! There's no way she's hurt a fly!"

"Well, let's just not jump to conclusions and wait for more evidence to come around," Lukas said, "We can't just accuse someone of a crime just because we have a few pieces of evidence that seem to match. If Maya says that Cherry wouldn't do this, then she probably wouldn't. She knows better than any of us."

"That makes sense," Jesse said, "Let's just drop this for now."

Maya beamed.

"Thank you for taking me side."

"Well, how about we get this guy to the hospital, and make it to school," I said.

"Sounds good."