When Suzanne finished talking, Fred allowed himself a moment to let it all sink in. The silence in the room was thick enough to be almost oppressive, but Fred took comfort in it. It gave him time to think.

It was surprisingly easy to accept the reality of what she could do, the things she could see, and the existence of ghosts as well. Perhaps it had something to do with the concept of impressionable young minds, he was only nineteen, after all. Or maybe it was because it all made too much sense to reject. Maybe a little of both even.

How long had it taken her to explain everything? To answer their million questions? To tell them what she knew of the ghost because of her abilities? An hour? Two? Maybe less? He didn't really know for sure, nor did he care.

She was... Well, even she didn't know exactly what she was. An empath, a psychic, both... Maybe something else entirely that mankind had yet to put a name to.

"What's so fragile that saying its name is enough to break it?" Eddie asked abruptly.

They all turned to stare at him. "What are you talking about?" Fred said.

Eddie shrugged. "It's a riddle. You're s'posed to figure out the answer."

"What does that have to do with Suzanne's mind-powers?" Syd demanded.

"Silence." They all looked at Tom, who mimicked Eddie's shrug. "What?" He said. "That's the answer."

Fred glanced at Suzanne, but she was still staring at her hands. She'd been staring at her hands almost since she sat down. What was she thinking? How did she feel? Could she feel on her own? If she was always feeling what others felt... How did she know how she felt about anything? He hadn't asked, nor did he plan to. He wasn't that insensitive.

"So what do we do now?" He asked. "We can't exactly just stay here, we need to get help."

"Why?" Tom countered. "We're safe here, the ghost obviously can't get to us. Someone should notice we're gone eventually, and the police will come check it out." Though from the look on his face, it was more wishful thinking than actual belief. And judging by the looks on the others' faces, Fred wasn't the only one who noticed it.

"I'm with Fred," Syd said. "Who knows how long it'll take for the police to get here? And I don't know about you guys, but I doubt my dad'll even notice I'm gone. We could starve to death in the time it would take anyone to notice anything."

No one said anything for a while. Fred knew where Syd was coming from. His mother had never given much of a shit about him. Especially not after his dad's death.

There was a sudden spike of pain in his head, and he couldn't stop a wince. Really? He thought. A headache? I guess it makes sense, though. My brain is undergoing a pretty serious workout right now.

"I'm... human... Right?" Fred glanced at Suzanne. She'd barely muttered it, but in the silence, it was impossible to miss.

"Yeah," he said without thinking. "You're human."

More silence.

After a bit, Fred realized he was sweating, and that he was still wearing his scarf and coat. He unwrapped the former and unzipped the latter, taking them both off. "Damn," he cursed. "Why's it so hot in here all of a sudden?"

{ { o } }

Eddie followed Fred's example, shedding his winter layers. He hadn't even noticed the heat, he'd been too preoccupied with his own thoughts.

Around him, the others also stripped out of their jackets.

He frowned around them. Something about the smoky darkness outside their little circle had changed. Where before it had churned and pressed against the invisible wall protecting them, it now seemed calmer. In fact, if he was guessing, he'd say it was now pulling away from them.

He glanced at the line of chalk on the floor. The blurred edge of it seemed sharper, more visible than it had been before. Something had changed, something was... off. "Is it just me, or is that funky black stuff up to something?" He asked.

The more he stared at it, the more sure he became of it. The ghost — Suzanne had said that its name was Melody — was up to something. And that didn't sit well with him. In fact it set his teeth on edge, and made the space between his shoulder blades itch furiously.

No, it definitely didn't sit well with him. Or stand well, or do anything else well.

"Do you see that?" Syd asked, pointing to something in the dark. Eddie followed her line of sight to where something was flickering. A faint light, glowing a dark orange-ish red.

The source of the light got closer, and a humanoid figure seemed to solidify just outside the edge of Suzanne's circle. The light came from the figure's eyes, the glow something akin to hellfire, if such a thing existed.

Hell, Eddie thought. I'll believe just about anything at this point.

The figure with hellfire eyes was shorter than he expected, and it held a distinctly feminine shape. Melody. Of course. Suzanne had referred to the ghost as a 'she', so he really shouldn't be surprised.

A dead psycho chick. Fabulous.

Eddie had heard the phrase 'staring death in the face' on numerous occasions, though he'd never really put much thought into it beyond simply hearing it. Though if one were to stare death in the face, he imagined that face would look an awful lot like Melody's.

It was both terrifying, and thrilling.

Terrifying, because the thing outside the seemingly thin layer of protection provided by the circle would happily rip him to shreds. And if the screams from earlier were anything to go by, that thing would also be sure to keep him alive for most of it.

But it was thrilling because, as deadly dangerous as it was, it couldn't touch any of them.

Because of some damn chalk.

It was like standing on the edge of a cliff, but having a parachute on your back just in case. Or just out of reach of a chained, snarling, vicious dog. That was a better comparison.

A maniacal grin split his face, and Eddie flipped it off with both hands. You can't get me! Nah na-nah na-nah, nah!

The red in the eyes became brighter, blotting out any hint of orange, and for a split second Eddie was sure there were actual sparks coming from them.

Then the darkness that had swallowed them less than an hour before decided to spit them out. The ghost didn't so much fade as she did disintegrate, taking the smoky black with it — or her. Whatever.

But the light that now revealed the rest of the classroom didn't come from the fluorescents on the ceiling. Suddenly Eddie understood why it was so hot in there.

{ { o } }

At first, Suzanne could only gape in stunned horror.

The room is on fire...

The motherfucking room is on fire!? How!? When!?

She'd leapt to her feet, though she honestly didn't remember doing so. The others soon joined her, standing. She couldn't hear the crackling of the flames, couldn't smell the smoke... Was it an illusion? Was it like the darkness that Melody had first used to frighten them? But then they wouldn't be able to feel the heat, would they?

Suzanne kicked blindly at the line of the chalk circle, trying to break it. She must've been successful, because the lack of sound and smell was instantly remedied. The roar of the fire filled her ears, the smoke trying to choke her as the flames tried to burn her.

"The door!" Someone shouted, she didn't know who.

The door was the only way out, but it too was engulfed in the searing flames.

Suzanne cried out as sudden indescribable pain erupted along the side of her right foot, causing her to stumble. Her snow boot had caught fire, and in a panic she wildly tried to kick it off.

At some point she had landed on the floor, flailing around, as she tried to escape the blinding white hot agony. She heard screaming, only later realizing that it was her own.

A distant voice reached her ears, but she couldn't focus on what it was saying through the pain.

Then Fred slammed a jacket down on her foot, suffocating the flames. But she could still feel the heat, so she kicked her boot off. Her foot was red as a lobster, a few blisters further scaring the skin, but the damage didn't go beyond that.

Still, it burned. She wasn't sure if the tears in her eyes were from the heat or the pain or both.

Fred grabbed her by the arms and dragged her to her feet, a disjointed flow of curses fell from his lips as he pulled her out of the room.

The hallway just outside the classroom was mostly empty, save for broken bits of what must've been the classroom door. Some of the pieces were still smoldering.

Suzanne was too disoriented to wonder about what had happened to said-door, which had before been ablaze like the rest of the room. All she could really manage to do was allow Fred to pull her along, one arm slung over his shoulders. Her burned foot came down on the cold tile, but the pain wasn't enough to stop the memory from sneaking up behind her and grabbing her by the throat.

{ { o } }

It was very strange, Melody decided. When she was alive, she'd never felt so powerful. Even after her first kill (which no one had ever found), she hadn't felt like this.

Of course, no one had even missed her father, who had the honor of being her first. Her mother never even noticed the difference. Sort of difficult to find something when no one knows it's gone.

But still, the rush she felt when she finally set her plan in motion... When that old teacher's blood had soaked her fingers... God, but it was intoxicating!

Who knew that being dead could make one feel so alive?

Sure, she'd needed practice — lots and lots of practice — but Melody had always been a fast learner. Though people would always be more fun than the animals she'd experimented on in the woods. Not that it seemed she could go that far into them. For some reason, she felt weaker outside the school. But she would worry about that later.

In the meantime, her months of practice had paid off.

Well, for the most part. There was just one thing that no amount of practice could've prepared her for.

And it was such a small thing really. Something that she definitely should've noticed, but had been too arrogant to pay attention to.

That thing was a medium. A witch, her mother would've called it. Spawn of the Devil, not that Melody believed in such nonsense.

Suzanne Rath wasn't like the others. It somehow knew Melody was there. Melody had caught it watching her.

It wasn't s'posed to work like that.

Melody was the watcher. She was the one pulling all the strings.

But Rath, it seemed, was not very good at doing what it was supposed to.

Melody paced around the clear space in the darkness she had practiced so hard to make. She could see those five brats sitting in a circle, all their attention on Rath. They were still wearing their coats, though it seemed they had discarded their backpacks. Rath and Frederick had left theirs on the roof. The others, Melody didn't know what happened to theirs. She didn't particularly care, either.

She stopped directly behind one of them, a pretty black girl. Sydney was her name, but Melody wasn't there for her.

She stood directly across from Rath, trying to read what it was saying. Unfortunately, Melody had never learned to lipread.

Then something tugged at her attention.

Alan had just found Cliff. Melody focused all her attention on the scene, delighting in Alan's screams as he realized what he'd tripped over.

After all, she thought, I can't let Rath ruin all my fun.

And speaking of Rath... She still had to figure out what to do with it. But for some inexplicable reason, she couldn't get past that idiotic loop of chalk on the floor.

Then she froze, her gaze fixing on Alan's quivering form.

Melody smiled as a sudden idea coalesced in the back of her mind as she recalled a previous thought she'd had regarding her mother. That's right. She'd have called Rath a witch, Spawn of the Devil...

And everyone knows what people used to do to witches.

Who'd have thought that the wooden desks and ever-present chalk-dust she had once hated would come in so handy? Starting a fire would be easy.