Sawyer

"Ugh! My head hurts!" Alyssan complains for the umpteenth time. She stomps away from my desk or, it would be stomping if it weren't for the fact that she makes absolutely no noise. It's something that I find very unsettling.

I turn and watch as she flops back on my bed, arms outspread as if she were diving off of a cliff. The corners of my lips tip up slightly at that. Despite Alyssan being completely annoying, it's actually been pretty funny watching and listening to her. She's nothing like Jack or I had previously perceived her to be.

"You're head can't hurt, Alyssan. You're dead. You don't even have a head, technically speaking." Alyssan only rolls her eyes at that, not bothering to look at me. She continues to stare up at my white ceiling.

"Shut up, you don't know that for a fact." It's my turn to roll my eyes now.

Typical, childish response.

We both fall into a silence, me watching her, her watching my ceiling. I can tell she's not here with me, though. Her mind is off elsewhere. I can see it in her eyes and the distant look within them. So, I do what anyone would do in my situation.

I study her. Like, really study her. Ever since I met the chick earlier this morning I haven't gotten to actually look at her carefully. Given, I spent most of the day fainting from shock.

The first thing I notice is that she's not just pretty, she's gorgeous. Her auburn waves rest over her shoulders, looking like a calm, fiery ocean. It's a bright color that only compliments her pale complexion, though she might only be so pale since she's technically dead. I'm pretty sure the dead aren't exactly the tannest people in the world.

I try to recall if Alyssan was this pale when she was alive. I never really payed enough attention to her to remember something like that. Sure, I glanced at her every once in a while and we shared a class or two together, but I hadn't been overly interested in the girl back then.

Now, as I look at the dead chick sprawled on my comforter, I can understand why she's been called the 'unattainable' at our school. Her legs go on for miles. She's got curves in all the right places. Her eyes are a deep set brown that could hold any man captive for hours on end. I don't think I could ever get bored looking into them. They're a stark contrast to her skin and it only seems to make her hair brighter.

Alyssan bolts up into a sitting position, startling me. Those captivating eyes land on mine and there's a determination in them that wasn't evident a few minutes ago.

Alyssan nibbles on her lip for a minute and my eyes are drawn south a few inches, past her cute button nose and landing on her full lips.

"Do you really think we can do this?" Her question pulls me from my obvious staring and my quickly spiraling thoughts.

"What?" I asked. Alyssan sighs, quickly losing any patience she may have.

"Find my body. Figure out what actually happened. Do you really think it's possible?" She asked once more and I can see the worry in her eyes. The fear that she'll never know what happened to her.

"We'll figure it out, Alyssan." She nods and nibbles on her bottom lip once more, clearly not too sure about whether she should believe me or not. In all honestly, I'm not even sure I believe myself. I mean, how am I supposed to find the body of a dead girl who's been missing for three months and people don't even know is dead? I may be the son of the chief of police, but damn, even I have some limitations and they go about as far as solving a crossword puzzle and even that's on a good day.

I don't let her see my uncertainty, though. It's the last thing she needs right now. She's finally got some hope again after three months.

Three months.

The thought has me thinking back to what she told me earlier.

Three months of not being able to interact with anyone. I can't even imagine it.

I look back to the notebook laid out on my desk. There's not as much as I hope would be written in it. We've been at this for the last few hours and we don't even have half a page. When Alyssan told me she didn't remember anything, I thought she'd been exaggerating. Turns out, she hadn't been.

So far, all we've got is that she had gone out to the library to study some and get out of the house. She talked to a few people, studied some more, went home, went to sleep, woke up the next, did the normal routine and then, nothing. Her memory just stops completely.

I sigh, frustration leaking in. I turn back around to look at Alyssan and flinch when I realize that she's standing right next to me. Again. The whole no noise thing is creepy. Then again, so is being able to see the ghost of a dead chick.

"Are you absolutely sure you don't remember anything else that happened? Like, maybe it has something to do with one of the people you talked with at the library? Or, maybe something with you're normal routine the next morning? Did you absolutely do everything like you normally would?" I send question after question her way like she's my suspect and we're in the interrogation room. Dad would be proud...maybe.

Alyssan scrunches her nose and she gets a wrinkle between her eyebrows that's pretty adorable as she concentrates. After a minute of silence she sighs in frustration and shakes her head.

"Nothing! There's nothing!" Now I scrunch my nose, only it's in annoyance. I'm starting to lose my own patience.

"There has to be something, Alyssan!" I said, my voice steadily rising.

"Well, there's not! I don't know what you want me to do, Sawyer. I'm trying!"

"Then try harder!"

"Why don't you try to not be such an asshole!" Her own voice is getting heated and I start grinding my teeth together, getting ready to unleash my own wrath on this girl. Thankfully, my step-mom chooses that moment to yell up,

"Sawyer, dinner!" My eyes stay locked on Alyssan's for another long, silent moment before I close my eyes and sigh, forcing myself to get control of my frustration. It won't get us anywhere. At least, not anywhere fast anyway. As soon as I know I'm okay I open my eyes and stand up. As I do my body brushes against the front of Alyssan. Apparently, she'd been standing a lot closer than I thought.

We're both taken by surprise at this and quickly jump apart, only I've got a chair behind me and I, ungracefully mind you, flail my arms around me, pinwheeling them to try and catch my balance before I land on the floor for the third time today.

Alyssan reaches out and wraps her delicate and slender pale fingers around my wrist, trying to help in some way. It does, and I manage to catch my balance. She drops my wrist quickly after that, like I have the plague.

"Sawyer!" Lynn called once more and I could kiss her for giving me an escape.

"I need to go. When I get back we can continue this." Alyssan only nods, not looking at me. Instead, she's staring at her hand in wonder. Apparently, the fact that she's able to touch me at all or vice versa is still a wonder to her. I leave her to her staring and head out of my room, closing the door behind me.

Downstairs, my father sit's at the dinner table with my younger brother and sister. Lynn is nowhere to be seen, but the telltale noises of plates and pots and pans clinking in the kitchen tell me she's there.

"Glad to see you're finally gracing us with your presence." My dad said, not looking up from the papers and files he has sprawled out in front of him on the table. I ignore him and take my seat beside my younger brother, Darren.

A few minutes later, Lynn comes out with dinner. Meatloaf. My absolute least favorite food.

"Come on, not at the dinner table, Ned." Lynn said, annoyance in her voice. My father pays her about as much mind as I payed him only minutes ago. She huffs in annoyance as she sets the pan on the table. When my dad still makes no move to clean up his mess she places her hands on her hips. "I mean it. Get that stuff out of here. It's nothing for a child to look at." She said, refering to my siblings.

"What is it?" I'm unable to stop myself from asking the question and that pulls both their gazes to me. After a moment of silence, my father sighs and starts shuffling the papers together.

"Just some things for the new case."

"The new case?" Lynn huffs again in annoyance since neither my father nor I are listening to her at this point. She starts serving the kids.

"Yeah, that killer that's been going around, we thought they might be done since they've been so quiet the last few months. Turns out we were wrong." Movement out of the corner of my eye has me looking to my fathers left.

Alyssan stands beside my father, looking over his shoulder at the papers, interested in them.

"There's a new victim?" I asked and my father nods.

"So it would appear." Alyssan's face scrunches up and I can see her brow twitch. It almost looks as if she's just tasted something extrememly sour. I look back at my father since I'm pretty sure she's just trying to screw with me again.

"How do you know it's related?"

"Both of you are ridiculous!" Lynn said, getting fed up with us still talking about the killer.

"Usually, we wouldn't, but so far, there's one thing that connects the victims with the killer." My father searches through his papers until he gets to the one he's looking for. When he turns it away from himself Alyssan walks over to me so that she can get a clear look at it as well. "Each victim has a carving on some part of their body." Before I can really get a look at the picture I hear Alyssan gasp at the same time Lynn yells,

"NED! Not at the table!" I look over at Alyssan, but she's no longer beside me. A quick scan of the room tells me she's not anywhere around. My stomach turns unevenly at that and I look at the picture my father is holding up.

The picture is of a woman and I can feel my stomach just plummet at the sight. She's bloody, her blonde hair stained red there's so much of it. Her neck is twisted in an ungodly manner, almost like she tried to mimic an owl and failed miserably. Her face is twisted in horror and pain. The clothing she wears is shredded and I have to force myself to look away or risk puking.

I push out from the table, nearly toppling my chair behind me.

"Excuse me." I said and rush out of the room, without waiting to be excused. I vaguley hear my father and Lynn call after me. As I rush out of the room, my thoughts shift to Alyssan. "Oh god, it must have freaked her out more." As I'm hurrying up the stairs, taking them two at a time, I hear her shrieks of pain outside.