I'm groggy, but the steady drip, drip, drip wakes me. It must be either a sink or the water hose. I hurt everywhere. I try to move, but I'm tied down too tight. I listen for Mr. Olson, but I can't hear anything. He might be gone, but then again he might be waiting. The ghost cold is still here, so I know I'm not alone at least. I still can't believe they are here for me, trying to comfort me after the way I've treated them all these years. They actually give me strength.

The knife had reduced me to a blubbering fool. I can still feel it against my skin, slicing here and there. As much as I hate admitting the weakness, I can't stop the shudder from running through me. I have to get out of here before he uses that knife again. I need help, though.

I try to speak, but can't. My throat is too swollen. I can barely draw in a breath. So not good. Think, Mattie. Dr. Olivet said I was connected to them, that my energy was a beacon for them. Thoughts are a form of energy. Maybe I don't have to speak for them to hear me. Ridiculous, but who knows?

"Emma, Eric, can you hear me?" my mind sends.

Silence. I try again. "Can any of you hear me? I can't speak, but know you're here. I can feel you. Please say you can hear me."

The cold presses closer. I can feel it start to crystalize on me. Maybe they can hear me after all. "I know you're scared. I'm scared. Will you talk to me? Please?"

"We tried to warn you, to stop you." was the answer.

Yes! They can hear me. I don't recognize the voice though. It's no one I've talked to before. "What's your name?"

"I'm Tina." She sounded older.

"Tina, I need you to help me get out of here," I begin.

"How?" was her tentative question.

I had nothing to lose. Just tell her. "I need to get the ropes loosened enough so that I can work my hands free. Can you do that? I know it's hard, that it requires a lot of energy to make things move, but together, can you do it?" If I could get enough breath, I'd be holding it, waiting for the answer.

"I have tried, but I can't. We all have tried so many times for so many others. We can't."

I groan – very softly, since my throat hurts. So, they're ghosts. I can't expect much from them because they're confused and scared. Asking them to move something would be hard, let alone trying to untie me. It would probably require more energy than they all had put together. Okay, so there went plan A. On to plan B. What is plan B? I don't have a clue.

"Do you see us? Emma said you could."  It is a little boy this time, but I don't know how old he is." She said you saw the scary place, the white place."

Right. The Between? I saw it once.Where is the kid going with this? Dr. Olivet told me to run from it if I ever saw it again, that there were things in it that were not so nice. Then again, I'm trapped in a place that's not so nice at the moment too. I thought back to when I'd seen it. I'd fallen from the upstairs down to the basement. Literally went through the floor. Could I do that again? Could I move from one place to another by going into all that white fuzz? It might get me out of the bonds holding me too. Then again, I might get trapped in the dirt. I'd fallen before and am pretty sure I'm in the basement. Crap. There's nowhere else to fall.

"No, Bobby, she'll get hurt," That was Tina. "There are things there, things that will hurt us. Eric said so."

Oh, really? Mirror Boy told them not to go there? They have to go there to cross over to the other side. He has no right denying them their right to cross over. I'll tell them.

"Bobby, Tina, the white place is scary, but someone is there to help you, to guide you," I tell them, remembering what I'd learned from Dr. Olivet. "Did you see someone waiting for you?"

"I thought I saw my Grandma," Bobby said, "but Eric said it was a trick. He said the bad things wanted to eat us."

I couldn't argue with Bobby there. The bad things might want to eat us, but his guide would have protected him. At least if I believe the Doc's theory. Maybe I do. All I want is to get these kids to cross over, to give them some peace. Well, I want that after I get out of here. Next question.

"Bobby, how do I find the scary place?"

"Don't tell her anything," Tina hisses. "Eric will be mad."

Oh, yeah? Good. "Where is Eric?" I ask them.

"He went to find your friend, the one that's a cop." I catalogue the new voice. It's a guy, in his late teens maybe. His voice is deeper than some of the other kids. He also sounds like he has an attitude.

"Who are you?" and hoped I had some attitude left.

"Ricky," he tells me. "Tina's right. You need to stay out of the Between. Bad stuff in there."

And bad stuff isn't here? "I will take my chances, Ricky. I just need to be there long enough to take a couple steps and move away from the table."

"No, no. You gots no idea what's in there, chica. A few seconds is all it takes for them to eat your soul. That's what they want, you know. Your soul. I tried to go in once, to leave this place, but those... things... they almost got me. Eric saved me. He saved us all. You need to listen to Tina."

"Noted," I tell him. "I am still going to try it.  Can you tell me how to find it?"

Silence. No one wants to tell me. Maybe if I can make them remember what happened here, they'll start talking.

"You guys are scared of Mr. Olson, right?" I feel the cold burn my skin, it intensifies so fast. "You remember sitting in that chair, being tied to this table? You remember not being able to see what he was doing, waiting to feel what new horror he'd think of? You remember what he did to you while you were tied up and helpless? Do you? What if someone gave you a choice of escaping, even if it meant you might find something just as deadly waiting for you? Would you choose to fight or just sit here and wait to die? I don't want to die. Please, please help me."

A chorus of voices starts hammering away at me. My head hurts and it makes it harder to filter them. I think they're arguing, but I can't tell. I can feel their terror. I made them think about things they didn't want to and it hurts to remember those things. I hate that I did that to them, but I need to get out of here.

"BE QUIET!" The awful screeching of nails on chalkboards assaults us all.

Oh goody, Mirror Boy is back. My head hurts enough without his particular brand of torture. It scatters my thoughts and the pain is almost as unbearable as the pain in my hands.

Silence settles once more and the nails stop raking hot coals across my battered mind and I can think again. "Eric, did you find Dan?"

"Yes, but I don't know if it helped. I did everything I could, Mattie. He doesn't believe in us like you do." Eric did not sound happy.

I sigh, knowing it had been a long shot to begin with. Dan would refuse to see anything supernatural if it hit him in the face with a big neon sign that said GHOST. Back to plan B where I save myself with a little ghostly help. Here goes. "How do I get to the Between?"

"Mattie..." The screeching edged into Eric's voice.

"No," I cut off Mirror Boy. "I am not just going to lie here and die if I can do something about it. I know the risks, I know what's in there and I'm willing to take that chance, Eric. I need to-to find it."

"Okay. It's the cold," he says at last. "Concentrate on the cold, on looking for where it comes from and it will find you. You have to want to see it."

I think back to my one encounter with it. I hadn't been feeling cold at all. What is Eric talking about? Well, fudgepops! I know for a fact I hadn't felt any ghost cold when I'd seen it. What had I felt? We'd been talking about my extra-curricular criminal activities. I remember he'd felt sorry for me and it brought back a lot of memories too. I'd been scared and alone, trying to survive. I'd lived in a cold harsh world then...cold. He's not talking about ghost cold. He's talking about emotions. Ghost manifests emotions with the cold. Eric said I had to really want it. I want it. So I force myself to think back to my time as a thief. I remember how I'd gone to bed hungry almost every night until I started stealing. I'd hated doing it, but it had been me or them back then. Shame also floods through me. What I'd done wasn't right, still isn't. I haven't ever done it since, but the guilt is something I can't shake.

"It's working," Eric hisses." I see it coming. Everyone get out of here now!"

The ghost cold dissipates, all except for one. "Eric?"

"I'm here," he whispers. "I won't leave you, Mattie. It's at your feet. Can you feel it?"

I concentrate, trying to sense anything but Eric and my own fear. There. The pain I remember is starting to eat its way up my body, like a live flame is burning me from my toes up. It hurts so much, but I welcome it this time, I don't try to fight it. I can't breathe when it reaches my face, its burning me alive. The pain goes up my arms and then I hear the door open. No...

The feeling of the snow goes away and I groan in frustration. Eric does the same. So close, we were so close.

The door closes with a bang and my body focuses on that one sound. Fear pushes every other thought out of my mind.

He's back.