The millisecond Oliver blipped from the back seat, I shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat. It'd been years since anyone had been forced to bare witness to my episodes, and the first person just happened to be the arrogant, irritable older brother of my new ghost sidekick.

Axel, catching me looking over my shoulder and at the vacant back seat, internally pleading for Oliver to return, raised a dark brow and asked, "He gone?"

"Yeah." I answered quietly, then, having enough of my anxiety, I blurted, "Can we just pretend what happened at the party didn't happen?"

He shrugged a shoulder, oblivious to the intense amount of anxiety and embarrassment that was rushing through me at that very moment. "Sure."

"Thanks."

I leaned over and rested my head against the cold window, eyes fluttering shut as I tried to compose myself. It took less than a minute before every hair on my body stood up and all air was momentarily sucked from my lungs.

"Axel, stop the car." I managed to get out, afraid I'd be putting both of our lives at risk if I allowed him to drive while a ghost entered the chat without his knowledge.

"What?" he snapped, throwing a quick, confused look my way. "I'm driving, Ophelia. I can't just—"

"Stop the car!"

My shout earned me a soul piercing glare, but he switched lanes until he was pulled off on to the side of the road, the branches of a tree reaching out and touching the roof of the car.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he growled angrily, looking a little shook by my outburst.

I touched my hand to his tensed bicep, about to explain, when the sound of crashing sounded through the silent night. His head immediately whipped to look out his window and he threw his door open and stepped out for a second.

"Oh God." He breathed, pulling his phone from the console as he climbed back in and dialed 911. I sat silently as he spoke into the phone, eyeing the car around me, my skin still crawling, as if a ghost were going to cause a jump scare any second.

"How'd you know that was going to happen?" he asked me once he'd hung up, shaking his head in disbelief.

I felt my entire body beginning to tremble; it wasn't from the cold air spreading through the car from his open door either. "I didn't. I thought. . . I felt like a ghost was going to appear."

He looked away from the accident out of my line of sight and back to me again. "Stay in the car. I'm going to go see if I can help at all."

Before he left, he tossed his jacket back on to my lap and disappeared into the dark night. I sat there for about five minutes before I couldn't stand the eerie silence and goosebumps and stepped out. I walked around the car and immediately saw the accident.

It was at the stoplight; a semi had side swiped a small sedan. Axel was crouched in front of the turned over sedan. I felt a hand brush against mine and jumped into self defense mode and nearly whacked Oliver upside the head. He was leaning against the car, arms crossed as he stared at his older brother's back.

Finally, he looked to me and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay, Oliver?"

Oliver opened his mouth to respond, but Axel had joined us again, wearing blood like a glove on both hands. It isn't until he's approached and I see the sad look in his eyes and feel the coldness starting to gnaw at my insides that I realized what was happening. "No, no. Oh God, no."

Though they were completely oblivious to the other saying it, both boys said, "what?" at the same time as they eyed me worriedly.

A little girl, no older than seven or eight steps out from behind Axel, blood still trickling from her head on to her little rosy cheeks.

"No." I repeated breathlessly as the girl stopped in front of me, her blonde hair matted to her forehead with blood. I tried to back away, to dodge her small hand as she extended it, but she slowly nodded and pressed her palm flat against my chest.

"I'm okay." The girl says, and before I can comprehend that like Oliver, she'd spoke to me, she steps through me and I let out an agonizing, blood curling scream and fall to my knees on the asphalt. Though Oliver leaped forward to try and catch me before my face could hit the street, it was Axel that caught me and grasped my waist to keep me upright.

"What's going on?" Axel asked, shaking me. "Should I go get a paramedic?"

He's horrified and confused, but when I looked to Oliver he's staring at me in awe, so completely shocked over what he'd just witnessed that he was speechless.

"Do that," I finally managed to force, touching my hand to the back of my throbbing head. "and I'll make sure you end up in that hospital room next to me, St. James."

Oliver must have recollected himself because he fell into a crouch beside his brother and me, then asked, "Did she just step through you in order to move on?"

"Yes." I nodded. "That's why you showed up on my bed too. Because I'm supposed to be your door. But because you don't know where your body is or if you're actually dead, I think it's impossible for you to move on."

Axel stared at me in horror hearing only one part of the two sided conversation. Oliver's emotions must have overwhelmed him as he disappeared again, leaving me to face Axel.

His face doubles before I feel the sensation of swinging, kicking my feet with an overwhelming sense of joy. Then a dark haired man is smiling down, cradling me to his chest as he coos, as if talking to a baby. But when I blink again, I'm in Axel's arms still, though I'd leaned in a little closer in the few seconds I'd been forced to relieve the poor girls memories.

"You're freezing." Axel said, yanking me to my feet in a quick movement. "Let's get you in the car."

*

My eyes were everywhere in the restaurant except for Axel opposite me. I'd been stirring the same French fry in ketchup for the last five minutes, and he seemed to finally take notice of it.

"The color is coming back to your face." he said, breaking the silence after swallowing his second cheeseburger. "But you need to eat."

I shrugged a shoulder, wishing he could feel half of the pain throughout my body right now. "I'm good."

"Ophelia, I'm not good with this kind of shit." he said with a pleading look, blue eyes mirroring his younger brother's for a moment. "Please eat."

I grabbed a handful of fries and stuffed them into my mouth before opening a ketchup packet and squirting it in my mouth. Once I'd finished, I shot him a dark look. "Happy?"

He smirked, "Yes, thank you."

There was another long bout of silence as I picked at the French fries before he broke it once more.

"So, uh, do we need to find a Priest or something?" he asked.

I would have laughed at the question if I weren't so mentally and emotionally exhausted "Why?"

"Because I've seen enough horror movies to know you were acting like you were possessed or something earlier. Thought we might need to do an exorcism or something."

I wasn't sure if he were being serious or not, but I felt a smile tugging at the corners of my lips as I pointed a fry at him accusingly and said, "Hilarious."

*

My exhaustion must have gotten the best of me at some point during the drive back to my house because I was shook awake by Axel as he turned the key in the ignition.

"It's like three in the morning. I let you sleep for a while, but I remembered you mentioned your father was strict and I kind of enjoy being part of the land of the living."

I rubbed the sleepiness from my eyes and unbuckled my seatbelt, "Thanks."

"Yeah." He said, then yawned before adding, "I. . . I believe you, Ghost Girl. It's bat shit crazy, but you can't fake what happened tonight. Any of it."

"Good." I said, stepping out on to the curb. "I'm glad I don't have to continue to convince you, Car Boy."

He cracked the slightest of a smile before it faltered altogether and he asked what it was he really wanted to know.

"Do you. . . do you think he's actually dead? Like gone for good?"

I shifted on my feet, "I was never able to hear the ghosts before Oliver. Sometimes I can touch him like he's actually physically here too. I don't know if he's still alive barely breathing somewhere but something is different this time."

"But is that a good thing?"

The vulnerability in his expression had me wanting to tell him what it was that he wanted to hear, but I knew that would only end up hurting him more in the long run.

Instead, I met his eyes and responded with a hundred percent honesty.

"I don't know."