Veronica locked the coffee shop's door as Evan shuffled nervously, waiting for her. She had given him the entire speal about working there until closing time.

"Care to walk a girl back to her dorm?" She teased, turning to him.

There was a pinkish hue to his cheeks, but Veronica wasn't sure whether that was due to the cold or her question. "I-ah-sure!" He smiled with a nod.

She smiled back at him. She held out her bent arm. "My hero, and coworker."

His arm shook as he looped it with hers. They set off in silence. The sky was dark and the chill in the air seemed to have worsened with the lack of light. Veronica shivered.

"If I had brought my jacket, I would have let you borrow it."

"How nobel, Evan." She squeezed his arm with here, "I think I'll manage, though."

"Quite the cute loser you've picked up for yourself."

Veronica ignored the ghostly taunt. She also ignored the figures that materialized next to her.

"Nerd alert!" Kurt laughed, zooming to hover in front of Evan. His empty eyes bore into Evan, who couldn't have been more oblivious to the spirit. "Hey, Ram, get a load of this one."

"He's kinda hot, though."

Veronica cursed inwardly. Did these three have to show up now? She glared towards Heather, but the ghost just smiled wickedly with the cascading wave of her fingers.

"Sorry, sweetheart. If you think we're so inconvenient you shouldn't have let us die." A ghostly fire flared in her eyes.

Veronica wanted to argue, but she couldn't do it in front of Evan. She had just met the guy, and he was pretty nice. She didn't want to scare him off with a dose of crazy so soon after meeting.

Evan shivered next to her.

"Seems like you could use my jacket." Veronica teased with a soft nudge to Evan's side.

He laughed nervously, turning away from her to hide his reddening cheeks. If she asked, he'd blame the cold.

Veronica laughed too, though hers was more soft and playful. She had marked down a number when she was passing out room assignments, the first time she had allowed herself to dare toy with the idea of dating since highschool, but maybe she should have held off on it. Maybe Evan was a guy that she'd kind of be into... Nice and dorky... Though the guy she had slipped her number to was pretty cute too.

She was turning to spike a conversation with Evan, but something caught the corner of Veronica's eye. She turned, inhaling a sharp breath as panic spread across her chest.

There was nothing there.

"Jumpy, are we?" Heather asked with the quirk of an eyebrow and a growing smirk. "What are you so afraid of, Veronica? You killed all your enemies with psycho trenchcoat boy, remember?"

"Shut up." Veronica muttered under her breath, feeling her breathing rate begin to accelerate. She had seen something. There was something there.

"Hey, are you okay?" Evan sounded worried. It was only when he spoke that Veronica realized that their pace had stopped. She shook her head, pulling her arm out of his.

"No, I... Yes, I..." Veronica bit her lip. She needed to go back to her dorm.

Evan stepped in front of her. His face was lined with worry. "Just breathe, okay?" He instructed, "In, one, two three. Out, one, two, three."

Veronica nodded. She shakily followed his instructions, scooting closer to him. She didn't feel safe out here. "Can we hurry to my dorm?"

"Are you okay to go?"

Veronica nodded. She tried to ignore her fear, as well as, the laughing of her taunting spirits, lead by Heather.

"Poor little Veronica's scared of a shadow." She sneered.

"What a pussy!" Kurt laughed.

"Can girls be called a pussy?" a confused expression crossed over Ram's face.

"You can get called a pussy."

"Shut up!" Heather demanded her fellow spectors.

Veronica ignored their bickering. They were just echoes. Ghosts. Something that couldn't hurt her.

She saw the possible ghost of something that could hurt her. She knew she had. The swish of the dark coat as it flared from a turn. The night they danced, wishing to just be seventeen just days before...

"Veronica?"

She was snapped out of her thoughts by Evan's voice. He looked at her with worry.

"We're at your dorm." He rubbed his wrist nervously, "No guys allowed inside."

Veronica nodded. She was almost safe. She wanted to bolt into the building and immediately hide in her room to fully go over what she saw, but she stopped herself. Instead, she smiled at Evan.

"Thank you." She tried to play it off with a casual laugh, "You're a real... Swell guy, Evan." She stepped forward and planted a kiss on his cheek before quickly backpedaling. "Be safe on the way back to your dorm!" She waved as she inched closer and closer to safety. Away from a new ghost she hoped was really just another student.

She had to be overreacting.

She watched him blow up herself.

Evan's eyes were wide. He seemed frozen, but managed to thaw enough to nod. "Uhh, yea! W-will do. I'll see you... Later?"

"Later." Veronica repeated his question as a statement before slipping inside of her dorm building. Immediate relief followed the action. She was safe. This place was safe.

"Don't be so sure." Heather cackled in her ear. Veronica turned to face her, but was met by just the fading smoke of the apparition. What was the use of these constantly present ghosts?

---

"It's been two weeks." Jeremy whined, falling back on his bed with his arms held out to his sides. "I don't feel any smarter. I definitely don't feel any cooler, and some dude stole my wallet."

"Don't be sexist! It could have been a chick."

"Michael!"

"Sorry." Michael apologized with a shrug. He was sitting on the floor along the side of his bed reading one of his old comic books. Jeremy wasn't sure which hero, or universe, it was, but he also wasn't too interested at the moment.

"You know, Christine already moved up in her drama class and club. In just two weeks!"

Michael sighed. "That's nice, Jer."

Jeremy continued, "The gaming club here doesn't even have retro systems. I mean, the new shit is neat, but it's no apocalypse of the damned."

"What do you wanna do?" Michael brought his comic book down to look at his friend. "We could hit up some parties. Rich already has a hookup."

"How the hell does Rich already have a hookup!?"

"That girl he swapped numbers with when we got our rooms, dude!" Michael closed his comic book and set it carefully on the bed behind him. He then crawled across the floor and leaned his upper body against Jeremy's bed. "She's been here longer and she said Rich could bring people. You wanna hang?"

Yes.

"Yea." Jeremy answered without really thinking about it. Woah, spontaneous decisions... Maybe some things had changed.

Michael grinned. "I'll tell Rich!" He pushed himself up to his feet. "You coming?"

Jeremy opened his mouth to say yes, but his eyelids drooped. He suddenly felt extremely tired. "Uuuhh..." He tightly shut his eyes. "I think I'll wait here, man."

"You sure?"

Jeremy nodded, keeping his eyes closed. He could feel himself already drifting to sleep. He had never felt sleep come on so quickly. Faintly, he could hear Michael move around the room before there was silence.

Not even the voices in your head to keep you company?

Jeremy shot upright. He was absolutely drenched in sweat. His breaths came in rapid bursts, causing him to break down in coughs. Once he could gasp air back into his lungs, he focused on calming himself.

How had Michael shown him? Count backwards? Sure.

He counted silently to himself, feeling slightly dizzy. What the hell had he been dreaming about to feak him out so bad? Trying to think back to the dream brought nothing but blank spaces.

Whatever his dream had been, it was gone now.

Next came the question of how long he had been asleep for. He looked across the room, noting the way Michael's leg dangled off the side of his bed with the sock just barely hanging onto his foot. He could hear Michael's soft snores when he listened.

Jeremy patted his pockets, looking for his phone. it took him a few minutes to realize that the device was actually sitting next to his pillow. He silently scolded himself as he pulled it close. Checking the time, he was surprised to see the time stamp as 11:52.

Michael was asleep before midnight? Maybe he had smoked some of his 'sleepy time shit' as he referred to it.

You should be asleep too.

Jeremy yawned. He should go back to sleep. It was pointless to stay up without Michael to talk to, and it was way too late to ring up Christine.

He adjusted himself back into a comfortable position on his mattress. He let his eyes drop shut, swearing he heard something almost familiar before falling back into unconsciousness.