Abbie glanced down at her fading feet. They had become infinitely more interesting than the sights around her. Same store here, same unoccupied house there, same empty park, same everything devoid of life. The park was always strange to her. Why was there a playground for children if there were none? It was pointless, save as a reminder of the true desolation of complete and constant silence.

What she would give for bustling streets, for fighting against evil, for Joe, for Jenny, for Crane. She needed excitement. She needed the constant chase. Yet, all she had was a ghost town to herself. She smiled wryly, thinking of how she wanted peace for years. Oh, how life has such a funny way of giving you what you want. 

This was a hell of a way to get it. Still, she hoped that Crane and that girl would get her back. There had to be some way to go back to the way things were. There had to be some way to get home. She felt guilty, being unable to help them from where she was. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to find information that could help Crane and Sarafina. 

A bee buzzed by Abbie's ear. It was the first sound she had hears in quite a while. The sound gave her joy, and she laughed gleefully. She didn't know why, but she walked to the abandoned park and sat in the swing as a child would. The creaking of rusted chains only furthered her happiness at hearing anything. 

She closed her eyes and was suddenly a little girl. Her mother pushed her in the swing, clapping and laughing along with the child's innocent squeals. She grew older and older and older, never leaving the swing. And then, she was the mother, standing behind the swing and pushing a little boy with her same dark skin, her black hair and brown eyes. The smile that he smiled was not her own, but still entirely familiar. 

She dug her heels into the ground and stopped the gentle swaying, opening her eyes once more. There was no time to daydream like tat, she should be trying to help.

Abbie stood and walked away to continue her search for something useful to her. She didn't know how long she'd have to save herself. 

________________________________________________________________________________

Sarafina gingerly lifted a volume from the shelf. In nearly two hours, they had not found a single scrap of useful knowledge. Crane's hair was already disheveled,, and the table in front of him as littered with books and pages that had failed to yield what he was looking for.  

Sarafina attempted her best to assist hi, but she was a stranger to this. She did not understand what they were looking for. She had only managed to skim through a small book on mythology in the time that they had been searching. 

Gripping the frail binding, she slid the book from it's spot. Once it was in her hands, the other books fell in its place and disrupted the silence. Sarafina jumped in surprise, but Crane stayed still in his seat, eyes fixated on the page. Sarafina shrugged and slumped over to her chair. Heer neck ached from looking down for so long. 

As she opened the heavy cover, she thought that she'd like to have someone care for her so much that nothing could draw their attention from helping her. She would like to have someone care for her to the extent that Crane cared about his partner. Sarafina figured it would be a complete waste of time to read the entire book, only to find that it was once again useless. She gripped the pages and fanned through, trying to see if there was anything they might need.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, until a page with a large heading caught her eye. She dropped the book open and slammed her hand on the page. 

The text had gained her attention, not because it seemed to make sense, but for the complete opposite reason.

It made no sense whatsoever. The entire page was full of nonsense, just completely scrambled letters. On the top of the page, proudly displayed were the letters,

GMRXIQCIQ

The rest of the page had similar random letters. Nothing was in any order. It puzzled Sarafina so much so that she remained on the page for quite some time. She read each line, looking for any hidden words in the page at all.

There was no pattern, no words, it was actually just a completely useless page. Sarafina snorted, it was almost like something that Lemony Snickett would pull. A page filled with nonsense was right up there with a page filled with "ever" or two full pages of black. She groaned and stood up.

"Ugh, just when something finally looked like it might be important," she turned towards Crane, "Guess big headings can't always be trusted, huh?"

Crane did not acknowledge her. Sarafina sighed and stood up, pushing the chair back. He finally noticed and looked up, "Is something wrong, Miss George?"

"Yes, I am getting incredibly frustrated with having no information. I'm going to head out and take a break. Maybe just get tea or coffee or something hot to drink," she felt to extend a hand of kindness, "Do you want anything?"

"No, thank you."

"Alright then, I'll be back." Sarafina grabbed her keys.

Once in her car, she pulled out and navigated her car to a small café a couple miles away.

How was she even dragged into this? She just wanted to pass her final exams and graduate high school, an now she was in Sleepy Hollow, of all places. Instead of studying, she was helping a man bring his dead partner back to the world of the living. Or back from a supernatural holding area or whatever it was. Oh, and the whole part of suddenly having another person in her own mind. Yeah, not what she had planned.

She walked into the café pondering these things. It was now Saturday, and final exams began on Monday. There wasn't much time. If she couldn't be home by that time, not only would her family be worried, but she would also have an uncertain future.

"Hi. What can I get you today?"

A barista that obviously wished to be anywhere but where she was looked at Sarafina expectantly.

"Um, could I get a large chai?"

"Anything else?

"No...wait. Actually,  could you get me one of those donuts?" She pointed to a rack behind the barista.

"Okay, that comes out to $8.69."

Sarafina paid the amount that was due and took her drink as well as the bag containing the donut. Despite her reluctance to help earlier, she was suddenly very eager to return and aid Crane in his search. It may have been this newfound eagerness that caused it, or perhaps the other driver was neglecting to pay attention.

Either way, it still happened. Not knowing how, she had a near head-on collision with another driver. When she thought that the cars would hit, Sarafina could see a life flash before her eyes, but it was not her own.

She saw a father leaving, she saw the awkward years of being a teenager. She witnessed a glimpse of a fling in Quantico. She met Crane, stumbling on the road.

And then it was all over. She was safely around the turn and on her way to the Archives.

________________________________________________________________

Abbie had experienced the images of a girl's life flashing before her. She had been doing nothing, only sitting in the house that mirrored her own. She suddenly felt a spasm in her chest.  And then the memories came, an ideal childhood, dates with boys, a town she'd never seen, a house she'd never lived in.

She was pulled back to her current just as suddenly as she was taken from it. She tried to place her hand on a wall to steady herself, but fell through, up to her elbows. She pulled back to see that her forearm and hand had now become ghostly.

Come on Crane, she thought, Hurry.