Hey guys! So i totally apoligize for getting this chapter out so late (by like a month)... but i had to corn detassle so i never had time... and then AFTER the corn season was done i had some HUGE writers block. It took me 4EVER to finish this. So i do sincerely apoligize :P BUT i hope u can forgive me! <3

PS- i dedicated this to marilcat for making my amazing new cover! I love it, thankyou so much :)

PPS- this is not edited unfortunately, so i apoligize for the mistakes as well. As soon as i finish this book i will send it to an editor.

enjoy!

*vote, comment, fan, tweet, like*

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I managed to get to the hospital within minutes. It’s not like I was speeding or anything. After all, I did just get my liscence last week and I'm not about to lose it just yet.

I waited a few seconds so I could compose myself before going in. Veronica waited patiently before I walked in with her.

Now, I know this is going to sound bad- but I'm not even really here for Lola. More or less for Matt. But why would i even come for her? I mean, I can't stand being around her.

I noticed Matt standing in a group with some of his friends. He looked like he was in a very serious conversation with one of them but he grinned when he noticed me standing awkwardly in the entrance.

“Hey, Mel,” greeted Matt, “I'm glad you’re here.”

It wasn’t hard to hear the sadness in his voice. I’ve known him forever and I can tell whenever he’s discouraged about something. His eyes normally reflect the mood he’s in.

“How is she?” I asked, trying to sound worried.

“Still unconscious... but at least she’s stable.”

I turned to look at Veronica, until I realized she wasn’t even there. I looked around some more until I realized she wasn’t even in the room at all. I swear she came inside with me.

“What are you looking for?” asked a confused looking Matthew.

“Oh, uh, Veronica,” I smiled sheepishly, “she came inside with me, but I can’t seem to find her now.”

“Really, I thought she left to go back to... wherever?”

“No- I mean- well, she did, but she came to visit me for a while,” I explained in a rush, tripping and stumbling over my every word.

“That explains it,” he laughed, “I hope I get to meet her one of these days.”

“Maybe you will,” I smiled.

“I hope so,” he smirked, “so did you want to go see Lola or what?”

I paused for a second. To be honest, I really don’t want to see her, or even care really. But he’s going to think I'm a total butt wipe if I don’t say yes... so I nodded cautiously.

He smiled and grabbed my hand. It sent butterflies flying crazily in my stomach, until I realized that he was only leading me towards Lola’s room.

It was just down the hall, not too far away from where we were just standing. So unfortunately, he let go of my hand sooner then I wanted him to. I just stood there for a while, staring at the door, not exactly wanting to go inside. But he started to nudge me forward, urging me to open the door. And then he left.

I sighed unhappily. Why couldn’t he just stay with me? I mean, what if she randomly died with me in the room. That would be terrifying! I don’t do well with dead people... if you haven’t noticed already.

I opened the door and walked inside, surprised to see veronica already inside the room. When did she have the time to find the room without me? She truly boggles my mind sometimes.

“What are you doing in here?” I asked her.

“Just visiting the girl who seems to make your life miserable,” she answered with a grimace.

I cocked my head. When did she get so defensive over me? And besides, Lola doesn’t exactly make my life miserable... she just flirts with my crush way more often than she should.

“Oh how’d you know this was Lola’s room?” I wondered.

“She has her name on the door, smart one,” she said in a duh tone.

“Right...” I muttered awkwardly.

“So why are we here exactly?” she asked after a small period of silence.

“Because Matt asked me to,” I stated.

“But you don’t even like her!” she exclaimed.

“I don’t have to like her to visit her at the hospital,” I stated again, more annoyed this time. She glared at me for a while, making me nervous. I suddenly felt a pain in my arm. I looked down at the scarr still on my arm. it was red and I could feel it pulsing.

“Let’s just get out of here,” I finally managed to say without wincing from the pain.

“Whatever. You can go on; I just want to stay here for a few more seconds.”

“Okay...” I agreed as I walked out slowly, “do you still need a ride back?”

“No, I’ll call my mom or something.”

“Alright.”

I walked back to where Matt was waiting for me. He smiled at me when he noticed me heading towards him.

“Did she wake up at all?”

“No, sorry,” I replied.

“It’s alright, she’s bound to wake up soon anyways,” he smiled happily at me, “do you need a ride back home at all?”

“I- um- actually,” I stuttered, “I drove here myself... but I don’t want to drive by myself again.” I said sheepishly. He looked at me for a while, without saying anything to me.

“I could come with.”

“What about your car?”

“Don't worry, my friend gave me a lift. So it'll be fine.”

We walked out of the Hospital and headed over to the car and got in. I started the engine and we were now headed onto the road. We were silent for a long while but soon Matthew spoke up. “So how’ve you been lately?”

 I remembered the face I saw in the door before I left and shuttered. “Decent I suppose... how about you?”

“Pretty good actually,” he smiled. I couldn’t help but smile back. His award winning grin was just so contagious I couldn’t help myself.

“Is it okay if I ask you something?” he asked suddenly.

“Of course!”

“Has anything been bugging you lately?” he asked with concern in his voice, “You’ve been acting kind of... weird.”

“Weird?”

“Different, is what I mean,” he corrected himself. I thought about it for a second. Should I tell him about everything that’s been happening, about seeing my sister, having those strange dreams, and about that crazy cat that started it all? No, I decided. He’ll think I'm crazy.

"I don't know what your talking about," I lied, "I've always acted this way..."

"Melody, I've known you since grade four. You have never acted this way before."

 "People change," I stated firmly.

 "Just stop it!" he finally shouted. I was about to open my mouth to say something but stopped myself when I realized he was absolutely serious. I then realized how serious he really was, because he pulled over to the side of the road.

"You are such a terrible lier. I know for a fact that there's something wrong. I mean, half the time we're together you look like you've seen a freaking ghost! You aren't the same anymore. And don't you tell me that nothing's wrong because I KNOW there is. I-"

And then I kissed him. To be honest, I think the only reason i had the courage to do it was because... well, he was getting boring to tell you the truth. I can't stand it when people rant like that. It drives me crazy!

It took me a second to realize what I was just doing. Since when have I been the daring type? I pulled away quickly. Trying not to look him in the eyes.

"Oh my gosh. I am so sorry! I have no idea why I just did that. That's not who i am. Please pretend it never happened. I seriously don't know why I..."

"Mel?"

"Yeah?" I stuttered.

"Shut up."

I looked at him, confused. scared that he was angry with me... until i realized he was smiling. I laughed and looked away when I felt my face getting warm.

"But seriously, Melody- what's wrong?" he asked.

"You wouldn't believe me." I laughed, looking down at my hands in embarrassment.

"I could try."

I looked at him with hope. The hope that I'd be able to confide in someone who wouldn't call me crazy. It was worth a shot... right?

                                                                          ***

We stopped in my driveway and looked at each other nervously. So, I guess it wasn't actually that hard to believe that I constantly see my dead sister and see strange figures in the mirror and in my room. He believed every word that came out of my mouth without me having to beg him to believe me.

"Do you need me to come inside with you?" he inquired, "it looks like it might get kind of stormy..."

"Only if you want to..." I trailed off, opening the door.

He got out almost as quickly as I did and met me at the front door, opening it before i could manage to.

 "Let's do this..." he muttered under his breath. The house was quiet as we entered. I could hear the soft murmurs from my parents who seemed to be watching TV in the living room.

"Hey guys, I'm home!" i shouted into the darkness of the house.

"Welcome back, sweetie!" my mom called back.

 Matt and I tiptoed our way to the living room where we could see my parents draped in each others arms. I didn't really want to disturb them, but I doubt they wanted anyone coming over without permission.

"Hey, can Matt stay over for a while?" I asked quietly.

Both my parents looked at me and then looked at each other, "I don't see why not."

I smiled at them in thanks and walked up stairs with Matthew close behind me.I shivered as I walked past the bathroom, causing Matt to raise a questioning eyebrow at me.

I slowly opened my bedroom door and peeked inside; making sure everything was alright before actually entering the dark room.

When everything seemed clear I turned on the lights and cautiously made my way towards the bed.

I could hear the sound of the rain against the windowpane and the sound of the wind whistling against the roof. I’m sure there was a branch knocking against the window as well, but I chose not to acknowledge its existence.

"Looks like it was planning on storming after all,” Matt pointed out diligently. I nodded nervously. Storms always made me so extremely on edge. For a good reason of course, but to be honest- I was starting to get sick of it. I just wanted these weird happenings to come to a halt.  I didn’t want to do this anymore.

“So, when exactly did all of that weird stuff start happening?” asked Matthew as he took a seat on the chair sitting at my desk.

“About three days before my sister was murdered,” I replied quietly.

"So Thats about two and a half months," he concluded.

We were silent for a while. I don’t know about him, but I was waiting for something strange to happen right about now. The winds were most definitely getting stronger, and the rain was pelting strongly against the glass now.

I stared out the darkened window. The clouds were hanging low, casting a deep shadow against the ground, leaving only the street lights visible.

I blinked a few times, trying to get a glimpse of the road through the blinding wind and rain. The visibility was awful outside and even though it was nearly impossible to see anything I was able to see only the dark figures of the mailbox across the street and the neighbour’s dog whom they had forgotten outside in the pouring rain.

Then, I blinked a few more times as a new shadow had appeared. It seemed to be that of a small girl. She was on the street and stood, staring out at the dark sky, waiting for something to happen. And as a large clap of thunder roared through the clouds and the lightning struck she danced around in glee.

I raised an eyebrow at her and as I continued to watch her attention was drawn away from the sky and towards me. Even though it was dark, and it was almost impossible to see anything through the low visibility of the rain, I could see that she her mouth was turned upward in a crooked grin.

My heart sunk, knowing that she wasn’t just another girl, she was something else. But what I didn’t expect was that she raised her hand to wave at me. But as soon as she did there was a large rush of wind and suddenly a car came out of nowhere, running over the little girl as if she hadn’t existed in the first place.

My heart was pounding inside of my chest faster and harder than before. Matt must have seen the panic crawling all over my face because he walked over casually and closed the curtains, drawing my attention away from the flooding streets and towards him instead.

“What were you looking at?” he asked suspiciously. I shook my head; I didn’t want to tell him. If I did I’m sure he would become just as paranoid as I; and then what? We need at least one of us not to worry about what might happen next. He was always the one who was brave, so it had to be him. He was the one who had to stay strong... for the both of us.

“Mel, I know that there was something out there,” he said seriously, “but I can’t help you if I don’t know what it was.”

I gave a small sigh, he was so difficult... why couldn’t he just believe me when I said that there wasn’t anything? I suppose I might as well tell him now...

“Well, there was a girl standing on the street,” I started, “and at first she was looking up at the storm... but then she looked at me and waved...”

“And then?” he pushed.

“She got run over...”

His face went blank as he scrutinized me. He was obviously at a loss for words... I doubt he had expected that out of all things that I could’ve possibly seen.

“I expected you to see your sister or something...” he finally admitted.

“She doesn’t always show up. Only in dreams or whenever I’m looking in the mirror,” I stated, “I see this girl a lot. She was the first one that showed up when I started to see things.”

He nodded slowly, trying to take it all in as I explained everything. I could see on his expression that he was worried, either that or he was just thinking too hard.

 Suddenly there was a loud ringing noise, making us both jump out of our socks. It wasn’t too long after that we realized it was just the telephone that was ringing. It stopped quickly after, signalling that my mom or dad had picked it up.

There was a strong tension that filled the room afterwards that made me want to laugh. It was the awkward kind of tension that made you want to run straight out of the room, but there was just no way that I was going anywhere without Matt at my side. If anything happened while he wasn’t there, I’m not sure what I would have done with myself. Probably faint, if anything...

I could hear my mom’s light footsteps trotting up the stairs delicately and she opened the door, the phone still in her hand. A worrisome expression had taken over her face mixed with some confusion and panic.

“Hey mom, what’s up?” I asked, trying to hide the confusion in my voice.

“Some lady’s on the phone... she said she’s Lola’s mother,” she informed, “she also said she wants to talk to Matthew.”

I glanced over at Matt whose face had gone white as soon as my mom had mentioned Lola’s name. He reluctantly reached for the phone and answered with an awkward sounding hello.

I reached for the phone on my desk and pressed the talk button. This way I’d be able to hear they’re conversation.

I could hear a sobbing woman on the other end. Obviously something bad had happened if she was crying this hard.

“Lola,” she managed to croak out, “she’s... she’s dead!”

“What?” exclaimed Matt, “but I thought she was stable?” 

Matt and I glanced at each other in complete horror... why was this happening again? I can’t believe that anyone would want to kill anyone so innocent... okay maybe she wasn’t that innocent. After all, she was crushing on my man.

But even so, I doubt she deserved to die... no matter how horrible she was. It just wasn’t right. Why was everyone suddenly getting murdered? This had to end at some point. And why in the world was it only the people that I knew who were suffering such terrible deaths? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.

Then the line was cut off. Matthew looked down at the phone and gave it back to my mom who was still waiting by the door.

“Huh, that was weird. Must have been the storm,” muttered Matt doubtfully.

This was suddenly making me rather nervous. The storm was getting worse and now the telephones lines were down; great. Just what I needed when I was on the edge of breaking down.

“Hey Matthew,” my mom suddenly spoke up, “do you think you’d want to stay for the night if this storm doesn’t die down? I don’t want you getting into any accidents on your way home or anything.”

“Sure,” he smiled gratefully.

“Okay, I’ll call your parents and I’ll get you some extra blankets so you can sleep on the floor,” she nodded. then she walked out hurriedly.

“Is it just me or is this storm just getting worse and worse?” Matt laughed.

“It is definitely just you,” I joked sarcastically.

The door opened again and in came my mom with an arm full of blankets. She set them on the floor and walked back out the door again.

“Thank you!” Matt and I both called after her.

“So, Mel,” Matt began, “Want to tell scary stories?”

And with that, I threw a pillow at his face before laughing, “Go to sleep, stupid.”