"Okay, thank you, Rhonda." Mr. Martin thanked. "Though maybe 23 narrow it down a bit, I'm afraid reciting all Ginsburg might have us Howl-ing by the end." Fae's face pulled up looking at the teacher with concern. While everyone around her shares looks of confusion and embarrassment for the man. "Because," Mr. Martin tried to explain. "Maddie, hi! Nice of you to join us. We're brainstorming fun things we could all do this weekend."

Fae watches Maddie in the corner of her eye as the girl rushes to sit in her chair and starts talking. "I'll tell you what I wanna do. I wanna figure out why Mr. Anderson was talking to someone on his phone about giving me money last night." Maddie angrily rants.

"Okay." Mr. Martin stares at the girl for a moment. "I'm not sure how to board that, but-"

"Can I leave yet?" Fae questions raising her her hand. Rhonda points at the girl nodding along to her question.

"Wait, who was he talking to?" Wally questions turning his attention to Maddie. "That's what I'm trying to figure out. So I need to know if anyone here has seen anything."

Fae shrugs not having seen anything out of the usual. "Seriously?" Maddie exclaims. "All we do is haunt the halls of the stupid school, and none of you have seen anything suspicious from Anderson?"

"Oh, okay, well." Wally shuffles in his chair slightly. "One time I saw Mr. Anderson misspell the word "fundraiser" on a Boosters Club poster. And I- He forgot the D I feel like that's pretty suspicious coming from an English teacher." Wally reasons.

"How odd," Fae mutters.

"Wally, I'm pretty sure that was a pun." Charlie breaks the news to the boy. "So I'm assuming he probably did that on purpose."

"Sorry, sweets, we don't just stand around staring at the living all day."

"Most of us have been here for decades Maddie. Including when we all walked these halls living trust me we've had enough of stalking people." Fae smiles sarcastically at the girl.

"No." Maddie disagrees. "You plan weekend fun like movie nights."

"Well, we do what we can to break up the monotony, Maddie." Mr. Martin's chimes in. "That's all."

"If you think you're the only person here who wants to escape." Fae gestures towards the group and building around her. "This you're deathly wrong," Fae smirks a little at her joke.

After a few moments of silence, Charlie speaks up. "To be fair, watching the same five sports movies over and over again is kind of, monotonous, Mr. Martin."

"I thought you loved Rudy." Wally looks shocked.

"No."

"Wow." Wally shakes his head. "Just w- I can't even."

"Okay," Maddie looks at Wally with a weird look. "So if none of you have seen anything then what about the others?" Wally shares a look with Fae. "Maybe one of the other ghosts has seen something." Maddie looks around while everyone avoids her eyes.

── ❀*̥˚ ── ❀*̥˚──

"But I don't understand." Maddie complained, "What would be so bad talking to them?"

"Maddie, they're replaying their last days on Earth." Rhonda looked at the girl as if she was stupid. "Like they're still living them, spinning like tops and you don't wanna be there when they finally spiral out."

"Why?"

"Haven't you ever heard you're not supposed to wake a sleepwalker? They can mistake you as part of their nightmare or worse." Rhonda explains.

"What would be worse than that?"

"You get trapped in a nightmare of your own," Rhonda stutters. "You start looping yourself." Rhonda looks at Wally "Speaking of looping."

After a few moments of listening to Wally and Charlie's conversation, a person catches her eye. "What about her? Dawn." Maddie nods towards the girl. "She goes through people's things and lives in the halls, maybe she knows something."

"Good luck with that!" Rhonda laughs. "The only thing Dawn could scratch that would even get to tell you is your horoscope from 1972. Fae wouldn't let you drag her into your little cat chase."

"Rhonda is right even if she could tell you she's a dead end." Charlie agrees.

"Mm, more like a cul-de-sac."

"Well, you know what? So are you guys right now." Maddie commented. "I mean, I'm not afraid of the walking dead. Okay? So talk." The girl begged. "I need names." Rhonda doesn't answer the girl instead taking a drink from her cup.

── ❀*̥˚ ── ❀*̥˚──

Fae was between Rhonda and Charlie in the lunch line grabbing a PB&J sandwich for her lunch. "Then there's Mina." Charlie listed.

"And what happened to her?" Maddie Inquires.

"She was crushed by a stage light in '87," Rhonda told the story. "Hasn't left the theater since."

"Our very own Phantom of Split River." Charlie jokes.

"Such a good movie." Fae reminisces, Charlie agreeing.

"Okay, who else?"

"Uh, Yuri," Wally calls from the other lunch line. "He hangs out by the litter wheel all the time, but he only speaks Russian so."

"Don't forget the bus crash kids." Fae chimes in.

"Tyler, Rachel, Jacqueline, Jonah, Srjn, Marci, Zach, and Stephanie." Charlie lists the names of the kids.

"We need to talk." Maddie's friend says walking up to them. "Bus stop now." Maddie nervously smiles at the ghost around her before she darts off to follow her friend. Fae looks between Rhonda and Wally trying to decipher their reactions. For a moment there was silence as Rhonda and Wally tried to wrap their head around what they just saw.

"Did he just-? She just-" Wally cuts himself off.

"Yeah." Rhonda looks off into the cafeteria. "They did."

── ❀*̥˚ ── ❀*̥˚──

Fae had left the group as they made their way to confront Maddie. The girl did not want to be there as she knew Rhonda and Wally would be furious at both her and Charlie for not telling them.

Instead, she chose to go sit on the bleachers looking over the football field. Fae didn't know what was wrong with her anymore. Why couldn't she cross over? It's like she wanted to leave Wally or Dawn but she was at peace she was content and knew that this was going to be the rest of her life. All she wanted to do was rest.

Fae had been on this mission of finding out what or who wasn't allowing the girl to cross over. What was holding her back?

── ❀*̥˚ ── ❀*̥˚──

Fae sat on a chair behind Maddie peering over the girl's shoulder as Rhonda explained the history of the school's student name. "After the bus crash, people started getting these ideas that the Devil's mascot was partly to blame instead of y'know the black ice."

"Plus none of the survivors wanted to wear their uniforms anymore," Wally added.

"So they chose the mascot and became the bandits?" Maddie questions.

"Yeah." Wally and the others nod at her question.

"Thank you guys." Maddie thanks. "For everything. I'll tell everyone the truth tomorrow. Mr. Martin, everyone."

Fae, Wally, and Rhonda all share a look. "Maybe don't," Wally whispers.

"Really?" Charlie looks up from his lap.

"I think he's right. I think we should keep this contained you know, for now." Rhonda agrees.

"What do we do now?" Fae looks around at the group. Maddie smacks her lips. "Now we have to find some flowers."

── ❀*̥˚ ── ❀*̥˚──

Fae and the rest of the group stand back watching as Maddie hands the theater tech the flowers and as the girl sniffs them.

"I've never seen her on ground level before." "I've never seen her not scream at us before."
"I've never seen her interact with anyone other than the dress mannequins and they're not even real people."
"I've actually never seen "Waiting for Godot" before."

"These smell stolen." The girl says.

"More like borrowed." Maddie shrugs it off. "But you know, you deserve some recognition too, a thank you for keeping us all safe."

"Well, it's not about me." The girl explains. "It's about the work. But I appreciate it."

"You know, we're not that different. I'm trying to prevent what happened to me from happening to someone else too." Maddie reaches into her pocket. "I found this on the floor earlier." Maddie hands the girl the object. "Does this mean anything to you?"

"Yeah." The girl nods. "Your Hawaiian shirt guy, he's always banging around here interrupting my work."

Maddie gasps slightly. "Sorry, banging?"

The girl gets up walks over to a spot on the stage and then opens up the floorboard. Fae raises a brow at this.

── ❀*̥˚ ── ❀*̥˚──

The group of dead teenagers walk down the steps leading to the room under the stage. Fae rubs her nose as it starts to tingle from the dust. Looking around the blonde's hand gently gazes over the pile of old play scripts. "Uh... does this mean anything?" Wally hands a paper over to Maddie.

"What is it?" Fae questions. The question is ignored by Maddie.

"Did Mr. Anderson even pay this?" Maddie mutters. "We need Simon to call this place." Fae looks over Maddie's shoulder eyes widening at the price listed on the paper.

"Damn."

── ❀*̥˚ ── ❀*̥˚──

Fae watches the movie bordely fiddling with Wally's shoelaces glancing at Maddie who sinks into the Charlie with Charlie. Fae could feel Dawn leaving on her shoulder causing the girl's lips to twitch in a small smile. Fae could hear Dawn typing away on a phone that she most likely found somewhere around the school.

Fae looked at Dawn when she felt a nudge on her arm. "Let's take a selfie!" Dawn smiles. Fae quickly smiles for the camera when Dawn takes the photo.

"Where'd you get the phone?" Maddie looks over at Dawn.

"Some pimply freshman left it in the theater last period." Dawn continues to scrolling through the phone. "Told you it's a gold mine."

"Was it unlocked or...?"

"I used her passcode." Dawn still does not look up from the phone.

Maddie leans forward in her seat. "How did you know her passcode?"

Dawn finally looks up at Maddie. "I know everyone's passcodes. How else would I keep up with my socials." Dawn says like it's the most casual thing on earth.

"Wait, what do you mean everyone's?"

Instead of answering Dawn just giggles.

"Dawn. What do you mean everyone's?"

Fae looks over at Maddie. "It means she can get into any device she wants." Fae shrugs.

uthors note!

hi guys! i am very very sorry it took a few months to update again but hopefully i am able to start updating my books again. the last few months i have been struggling mentally and have also been having various health issues and on top of that i'm going into my last year of high school so the stress has been on.

at the end of the day while i enjoy writing and and reading stories my health does come first! i hope you all understand and be patient as i work my way back into writing/updating books! thank you! :)