"Wake up," a voice whispers from nearby.

I jolt awake a second before a set of headlights take up my vision and my pulse fizzles at the memory of the dream that was almost a reality earlier today. I sit up, my head feeling fuzzy and strange as I blink a few times to clear the haziness from my eyes.

Astrid, Tessa, and I had been waiting for the lights out announcement and I must have fallen asleep between then because the room is now lit by a glowing orb that Tessa has summoned, the white light nestled in her palm as it casts shadows across everything in the room.

I can feel strange patterns imprinted on my face from lying on my quilt and I rub at them as I let out a slow, even breath to calm myself.

"Ready to go?" Tessa asks in a soft voice.

I nod and as a trio, we silently leave our room as Astrid carefully shuts the door behind us. The hallway is dark and silent, though I can still see the faint outline of Luke waiting for us at the end of the hall. He falls into line behind me, like a shadow as we quietly file down the stairs and cross the deserted lobby.

Nothing moves and there is no sound as we trek across the grass lawn toward the fence line that is obscured among the trees. Astrid motions for us to slow down as she leads us there before she points to Luke as we come to a stop.

"You first," she hisses.

"Me? What-?" he lets out a soft yelp as he is suddenly catapulted through the air like he's been tossed by a massive, invisible hand before he lands on the other side with a thump.

Tessa is next, her landing more graceful since she knows what to expect before Astrid launches me over the fence as well. She follows me soon afterwards, dropping into a roll before she bounces to her feet and grins as she dusts at her tattered, Pink Floyd t-shirt.

"See? That wasn't so bad, now come on, we need to go," she assures us.

With that said, she turns and sprints into the woods and I leap into a run after her. I feel clumsy and loud in the darkness as leaves crunch under my shoes and I swat branches out of my face. I can hear Tessa and Luke smashing through the underbrush behind me, their footsteps just as noisy as we stumble after Astrid in the dark.

There's the barest hint of headlights shimmering through the trees ahead of us, lighting up the leaves as I note that a few of them have begun to turn red, the first sign of fall. Astrid makes it to the road first, her sneakered feet tapping softly on the pavement like a doe's hooves as she hurries over to the car.

She opens the door and ushers for us to get in before she squeezes herself into the backseat with us and shuts the door. The driver, a college-aged guy with dark hair glances back a few times before he grins as he pulls the car onto the road. Maybe he thinks that we're a couple of high schoolers out messing around in the woods hoping to scare up some ghosts.

If only he knew the truth that we are really planning on bringing someone back from the dead, but no, not here, not a long dead witch from the Salem witch trials, instead, an innocent boy who was murdered and now rests locked up in a police station morgue.

I shudder at the idea of what's to come.

It doesn't take long for the police station to come into view as the Uber pulls over a dozen yards away down the street from it and we get out onto the dark and abandoned sidewalk that has cracks spidering across the concrete. We pause for a moment as the Uber drives off and Astrid motions for us to stop before she makes a hand motion and a coolness sweeps across my skin.

"Come on, we're invisible," Astrid whispers as she starts up the walkway for the police station.

I feel fully visible in the lights surrounding the building, even though I have no shadow and I know that I'm not visible in the slightest. I can feel Tessa following a few steps behind and past her I know that Luke is bringing up the back of the line.

Astrid hits the handicap button for the doors and they swing open silently as the grizzled secretary at the counter looks up in surprise.

"Hello?" he asks in a low voice as he stares right through us.

Astrid is quick to make it over to an elevator hub without hesitation as she hails one for us. The secretary has already looked down at his papers again as the elevator dings when it arrives and he glances back up.

"If that's you Janice, I'm getting real tired of you pranking me," the secretary mutters as we step into the elevator and Astrid hits the button for the basement as the doors shut.

The elevator lurches before it makes its slow descent into the basement and the doors roll open to reveal an empty, tiled hallway. Astrid gestures for us to follow her as she turns down the hall and heads for a set of steel swinging doors.

I can feel the coolness on my skin fade as we step into the room, the doors swinging shut behind us. There's a snick as Tessa reaches into her pocket and turns on her flashlight and stainless-steel, fridge doors no bigger than textbooks gleam coldly in the glow, like frost on a window. We stand in a row, all of us staring at the doors before Tessa clears her throat.

"So...which one do we open first?" she asks in a timid voice.

"We might as well start at the edge," Astrid mutters as she walks over to the first door in the right-hand corner.

She opens it and switches on her flashlight before she shines it inside as she pulls out the tray. The doors are small and pulling on them is much like pulling out a filing cabinet drawer. Except that there are bodies inside instead of files.

Astrid steps back and shuts the door as she shakes her head, "Not him," she glances in our direction and frowns, "are you guys going to help or am I going to have to check all of these fridges by myself?"

I step forward hesitantly as my stomach curdles at the thought of seeing a dead body, but I'm going to see one tonight anyways since we're going to talk to Finn. I grab the handle on one of the doors and pop it open and, after a moment, I look inside.

It's empty.

I let out the breath I didn't know I had been holding as I shut the door and move on to the next one. I open this one more quickly and immediately regret it when I see a white sheet covering a lump inside of the drawer. I hold my breath and step back to gather my courage before I tuck the sheet back.

It's Finn.

"I found him," I call to the others and Astrid hurries to my side.

"Okay, we're going to have to work fast, like I said, the black moonstone isn't big so it doesn't have much of a charge, it's not going to last long," she warns as she pulls a fabric pouch out of her bag.

She places several, small bones around Finn's forehead, which is a sickly shade of white. His hair looks like it's been dipped in grease and his lips are a dark shade of purple-blue. I shudder as I watch Astrid place a small, black stone the size of a dime on the tray a few inches above his head.

She shuts her eyes then as her eyebrows furrow, "Whatever any of you do, do not speak or move, I need all of the concentration I can get," she warns as she reaches down and touches the chicken foot necklace around her throat. 

I don't say anything, I just nod mutely even though she can't see the motion.

We wait for a long time, Astrid not moving or speaking as she hovers a hand next to his temple. The only indication that she hasn't become a statue is the flicker of her eyes under her eyelids.

The stone begins to glow suddenly, like it's been lit from within as it becomes a light shade of grey that shimmers and pulses. The bones surrounding Finn's head begin to crack, one by one as they glow a similar shade of grey and light pours from them. His right hand twitches all of a sudden, the muscles pulling and releasing as his fingers clench.

The last bone cracks and his eyes open as he sits bolt upright, startling myself and the others as we stagger backwards all except for Astrid, who stands at the head of the table with her eyes still closed.

Her eyes open as she breathes out a shaky breath, her gaze focusing on Finn, who is looking around in dazed confusion. Luckily he still has the sheet covering from his waist down as he sits on the tray and I realize then that he's naked. I shudder when I spot the wound over his heart, which has been stitched together with a heavy, black thread that looks even darker against his pale skin.

"Hello, Finn," Astrid says in a low voice.

He turns his head to look at her, his dazed eyes clearing as he blinks.

"Please help me," he whispers, his voice sounding hoarse and rough, like there's phlegm blocking his lungs.

"We are, can you-," Astrid begins to say, but he cuts her off as his eyes become unfocused.

"Please stop," he rasps, like he isn't here and is talking to someone else entirely, "please stop him!"

I cringe as his voice rises in pitch and tone. Astrid puts out a hand to steady him, but he shrugs off her hand and opens his mouth.

I can only watch as he takes a deep breath and screams.