Jess watched her sleeping sister. She monitored Ash's every movement, and the little puffs of air that blew her fringe out of the way. Every now and again Ash would sigh in her sleep or shift positions. Jess relaxed at every little thing that showed that her sister was still a part of the living world.

'More tea?' Tabitha said, breaking her out of her thoughts.

'No thanks.' Jess tried to smile, but it was half hearted and didn't reach her eyes.

Tabitha patted her shoulder. 'Your sister is doing fine.'

'She really is,' Julia, the pathologist, reassured her. 'Her vitals are all normal.'

'But nothing about this is normal,' muttered Jess, drawing her knees up to her chest.

She felt someone brushing the back of her head.

'Normal is overrated,' Ash croaked.

Jess looked around and was so pleased to see her sister's warm brown eyes staring back at her, and not the cold white that they'd been in the morgue.

'How are you feeling?'

'Like I took a sledgehammer to the head,' Ash admitted. She blinked a couple of times and lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the light. 'What happened at the end?'

'You don't remember?'

'Not much. I remember Darcy disappearing, and after that, everything is blank.'

'You passed out,' Jess explained.

'That much I gathered.'

Jess helped her into a sitting position, and for a few seconds, Ash had to close her eyes to stop her vision from spinning. When she opened them again, it was to see many concerned faces watching her. Three she'd been expecting; her sister, the Deputy, and Tabitha. What she hadn't been expecting was the pathologists to be sat in Tabitha's velvet swivel chair, and a smartly dressed man in his 80s sipping brandy and watching them all like they were a soap opera.

'Don't mind the Colonel,' Tabitha waved at her, 'he's been brought up to speed.'

'We ruined your backgammon game,' Ash realised with a groan.

'Nonsense. This had been much more intriguing than a game of backgammon. Murders, ghosts, gifted young women,' he listed, his beard practically quivering with excitement.

'If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd never have believed it,' Julia agreed.

'I don't mean to be rude, but how are you here?' Ash asked, as her brain struggled to piece together how everyone ended up squeezed in Tabitha's sitting room.

'Elijah came back after making sure you were okay and got me. He and your sister have been informing us about everything that's been happening.'

'Awful business, how you and your sister have been treated,' the Colonel bristled.

'It's this government. They're setting women's rights back decades,' ranted Tabitha.

'At least we got a few more answers,' Ash said, trying to cut off Tabitha's monologue before she could really start.

'But does it really help us?' the Deputy wondered aloud.

Ash frowned at him, but Jess agreed.

'We know that there is a connection between the murders now, but we're no closer to proving who did it. And I still don't understand why Darcy is obsessed with her killer's son, if her killer is still out there,' summed up Jess.

'Unless he's not,' the Deputy said.

'Do serial killers usually just stop?' The Colonel asked.

'No. Usually they only stop when they get caught,' the Deputy explained. 'But the officers at the station have already checked, and no one has been arrested for murders like these.'

'Henry thinks the man was a possessive, who enjoyed inflicting pain on those he designated as his victims,' Julia added.

'That I can attest to.' Ash rubbed at her throat. The bruises had faded hours before they'd gone to the morgue, but she could still feel the man's hands around her throat.

'He bound them. Most likely sexually assaulted them. And then he strangled them,' the Deputy murmured.

'Everything except the strangling part matches Charity's murder,' said Jess.

'At least that is starting to make sense,' he said.

'And how do you figure that?' Ash asked.

'The similarities but subtly different M.O.s. We're looking at two killers, not just one,' he said, like it was obvious.

'A father and son,' Julia clarified.

'Either working together now or else Darcy's killer showed his son how to kill,' the Deputy said, making everyone shake their heads.

'What sick bastard would teach his son to kill?' Ash demanded.

'The same sick bastard that's killed at least three women. For all we know, there could be more bodies.'

'Jess, you said that you'd been to the frat house. What are the boys there like?' Ash asked.

All eyes turned to her, and Jess shrunk a little under their gaze.

'They're just normal?' she said it like a question, now wondering if she'd been in the presence of a killer without ever realising it.

'Killers don't just go around announcing that they're killers. Most are extremely good at hiding what they've done. There was no way you'd just be able to spot them,' the Deputy reassured her.

But Jess just looked down at her shoes. Surely she'd have known?

Ash tapped her leg. 'Can you help me to the kitchen? I want to stretch my legs, but I don't trust myself not to pass out again.'

Jess shrugged and helped Ash shuffle to the kitchen. Only Tabitha watched them as they passed. The others were too busy discussing the killer.

'You okay?' Ash asked Jess as she too, a seat.

'Fine. Did you want tea?'

'Sure.' Ash watched Jess rattled the mugs and tins. 'Are you okay?'

'Not really.' Jess placed her palms on the counter. 'I spent so much time there, Ash. And what if there is a killer there, and I didn't know?'

'Jesse, you can't think like that.'

'But that's the truth!' Jess shouted. 'Someone in that house killed Charity. That's what Darcy was trying to tell us.'

'We don't know for sure.'

'Oh, come on Ash. What other explanation is there? You feel it right? You know that it's the truth.'

Ash would have liked to deny it, but she couldn't. Her gut told her they were dealing with something much worse than just a murderer, if such a thing existed.

She stood and wrapped her arms around her sister's middle, resting her head between Jess' shoulder blades.

'We'll solve this.'

'It's not just Charity,' Jess admitted.

'Your gift?'

'Can we really call what we have gifts? They feel like a curse.'

'We wouldn't be so close to figuring out who killed Charity without them,' Ash reminded her gently.

Jess poured the boiling water into the mugs and passed one to her sister.

'I feel different,' she said slowly, looking at her hands so as not to see her sister's reaction.

'We got more than just answers tonight.'

Jess lifted her head. 'I've never felt like that before. I could really feel Darcy.'

'It was your gift that made her visible.'

'I could feel her ghost zapping me of all my energy. I didn't know what to do and she could have hurt us.' She lifted her hand and went to touch the graze on Ash's cheek, but dropped it before she could. 'Shit Ash, you got hurt.'

Hot tears slipped down Jess' cheeks. She slid down the kitchen cabinets until her bum met the wooden flooring.

'It was my fault. I suggested going. It was my gift that got you hurt.'

'Hey, you can't think like that,' insisted Ash. 'You didn't make Darcy into a poltergeist. That's on her.'

'I just feel like a freak.'

Ash smiled and flicked the side of her head. 'Then I think you're in good company. I wasn't exactly normal tonight.'

'That's true. Since when can you levitate stuff?'

Ash fiddled with her necklace. 'My gift has been getting stronger all year, but something happened a few months ago. That was the first time. And it's not levitating. It's more I'm using the emotions around me. Anger. Terror. They're powerful.'

'What happened a few months ago?'

'Jesse, it's a long story.'

'But I can see that it's affecting you.'

'I thought I was the psychic one.' She sighed. 'A group of guys were hassling me. They went too far.'

'They didn't...'

'Rape me? No, but I think the one guy would have if his friend hadn't stepped in.' Ash winced at the memory. 'The guy tried to talk some sense into his friend, but the guy was just pissed that his fun had been ruined. He beat the shit out of him. I thought he'd kill him.'

'But he didn't?'

Ash closed her eyes. 'I can't explain what happened, but it was the same way I felt tonight. It was like suddenly the world turned on and I could feel everything. There was this rush, and the guy was tossed through the air like a fucking rag doll.'

'Why didn't you tell me?'

'I wanted to, but I was still figuring things out. I didn't know what was going on with me, and you were going through so much. I figured you needed something solid, so I kept quiet.'

Jess nudged her shoulder, and Ash nudged her back.

'You realise that I'm technically an adult? You don't have to protect me. You should have told me.'

'I know you are Jesse. But knowing it and accepting it are two entirely different things. I would do anything to protect you.'

'I know you would, but I don't want you to have that weight on your shoulder. You've protected me my entire life. Maybe it's time that you let me look out for you.'

Ash discretely wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. 'Since when did you get so wise?'

'Hanging around a psychic was bound to rub off on me,' Jess joked.

Ash laughed. 'I like this. Us talking. Not just arguing all the time. I feel like I got my sister back.'

'I'm sorry for all the years that I gave you a hard time. I never would have guessed what you were going through.'

'Shush. Don't be stupid. You were going through your own stuff.'

'But the things I said-'

'Jesse, you're the most important person in my life. Our connection is deep. No bad words can break that. You'll always be my little sister.'

Jess placed her head on Ash's shoulder. 'I love you, Ash.'

'Love you too, Jesse.'