Exactly two weeks had passed since the incident at Cottonwood. Coincidentally, it had also been two weeks since I slept an entire night without waking up in a cold sweat.

On the plus side, at least I was back in my own home, and waking up disoriented and panicked gave me extra time to shower before I was forced to face the world again.

I tried to relax, to let the gentle stream of warm water trickle down the back of my neck til it reached my toes. I knew Wyatt was out there somewhere, but I needed time to recover. Without any vengeful spirits around, trying to find him would have been wasted time anyway.

All I really wanted was to forget about what happened to me over the last three weeks.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. While I stood there staring at the empty white wall, every detail came flooding back into my head like some fucked up recap on a television show.

It was only around an hour after we found Aubry, that word spread about the murders at Cottonwood. Once that happened, all hell broke loose.

As expected, reporters from all over showed up with hopes that this story would be their big breaks. On top of that, the parking lot across the street also flooded with parents and loved ones from all over town. That only added fuel to the chaos.

I remembered the relief I had the moment my mom and dad pulled up in their old red ford. It was a sentiment that I’m not sure anyone from the staff reciprocated. Once they saw the fury in my dads eyes, they knew how fucked they were.

The public, my dad included, were demanding answers. Unfortunately, instead of actually doing their jobs, the police were surprisingly quick to pin everything on Josiah.

They quickly released some bullshit story about a deranged patient who got hold of a knife and apparently stabbed the doctor six separate times, before turning the blade onto himself. They played the whole thing off as some sort of twisted murder suicide.

Considering that I knew for a fact Josiah had no knife and the doctor had no stab wounds when we left, it was clear someone had pulled strings in order to twist the narrative.

I tried to ask Naomi about it, but she told me to keep my mouth shut for the time being. My best guess was that she didn’t want them to be able to place me anywhere near the incident. I had to appreciate her looking out for me.

Ugh, fuck this. I still had to get ready. I didn’t have the time to relive all this crap.

I stepped out of the shower, then grabbed a towel to wipe down my body. There was still some occasional pain in my leg, but I had to admit it felt good to finally get rid of that wheelchair. Man, If I never stepped foot again in that facility, it would have still been too soon.

At least for the time being, no one was getting into that building without a badge. Hell, even some with a badge had been told to stay away, including Naomi. Once her superiors found out about Aubry and her sudden transformation into an eloper, they quickly pulled her off the case.

On top of that, the binder I told Naomi about was apparently missing, and along with it, a bunch of the other pieces of evidence we had collected from the scene.

Someone on the force was clearly trying their best to conceal what really happened there. Luckily for me, Naomi had vowed to unravel it all, and if there was one detective in this town that could pull it off, it was her.

“Hey Joe Joe, are you almost ready?” my mom’s voice called from down the hall. Shit, I had zoned out.

“Almost!” I shouted back, though in truth, I wasn’t remotely ready. Physically, or mentally.

I was about to return to Ravenwood high for the first time since becoming a Cottonhead. With only a week left, I wanted to just say fuck it, but if I wanted to convince my parents I was fine, this was step one.

As I started down the hallway, the nerves started to kick in. Oh god, this was going to be a disaster.

###

As far as first days back went, this one had started better than expected. I had successfully made it through the first four periods of the day and outside of the occasional whispers, everyone had more or less left me alone.

Maybe they thought crazy was contagious. That was fine by me. I only had to get through one week of this hell before graduation. After that, I didn’t give a fuck what anyone here thought about me.

At least my classes were more entertaining with Josiah here. It turns out the dead can be distractingly entertaining. In my first period, he spent a good five minutes trying to snatch a blueberry muffin off Mr. Whittaker’s desk, his hand passing through it repeatedly. It was like he had no idea he was really dead.

By the third period, he’d redeemed himself by using his hands to help me solve some of the more complicated questions on Ms. Thompson’s surprise math quiz. It confirmed any feelings I had that he was different from any other ghost I had met.

I had a theory that Josiah flitted in and out of lucidity, like a radio station with spotty reception. It tracked with what I saw from him when we were inside Cottonwood. Perhaps there was something botched with his procedure, I wasn't really sure.

It was definitely an intriguing contrast to Nicole and the other ghosts I had seen, who felt more distant and unreal by comparison. I wasn’t sure yet what to make of that.

Despite my curiosity, every attempt to uncover Josiah’s backstory had been a bust. From what I had found online, he basically didn’t exist. Hell, he didn’t even have a myspace account. He seemed to be a ghost in both the literal and physical sense. I asked Murph to keep looking, but for now it seemed the mystery man would continue to stay a mystery.

I sat in my fifth period class, feeling relieved that the day was almost over.

Today was Monday, which meant my fifth period was gym class. More specifically, the final fitness test of our high school careers. Coach Jameson, an ex hockey player who had been forced to retire after one too many head injuries, had scheduled the classic rope climb.

Lucky for me, my parents had written a note excusing me on account of my injury and delivered it to the front office.

Now all I had to do was sit back and watch as others humiliated themselves trying to scale the fucking doom noodle.

Man, I hated that fucking thing, after three years, I still had yet to reach the halfway mark. I was positive my body wasn’t built to climb ropes.

The only benefit of gym class was that it was the one class with Murph, who I hadn’t seen in person since he had called in that bomb threat.

“Hey,” I said, leaning over to him as we watched one of my classmates, James Mcrill, plummet from the rope with a resounding thud.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Are you ready to climb?” he asked.

“Not today, I got out of it,” I said.

Murph turned to me, his expression a mix of envy and suspicion. “How’d you get out of this?”

“I can stab you if you want,” I offered.

He snickered, then shook his head. “Oh right. Tempting, but I think I’ll pass.”

We watched in companionable silence as Mr. Jameson barked at James to “walk it off.”

Murph shifted uneasily. I wasn’t sure why. He was an expert at climbing these stupid ropes, so something else must have been bothering him.

He took a breath, then shot me a grin. “So, is Courtney still over in West Lexington?”

“Yeah.” my sad tone carried more weight than I intended, and Murph picked up on it.

“Man, that’s rough,” he said. Despite his initial interaction with Courtney, his sympathy still seemed genuine.

“Yeah, well, at least she gave me her AIM username,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. “If all goes well, she’ll be out in a week or two.”

“That’s not too bad, at least you might see her over the summer.”

“In that place, it’s an eternity,” I said. “Naomi’s checking in on her, though, so that helps. Oh, hey, weird question, do you know where I can find a pink monkey?”

Murph blinked at me. “A pink monkey?”

“Forget it,” I muttered. “Not important.”

Before he could press me, a familiar voice cut through the gym. “Joseph Raymond,” Coach Jameson called out, clipboard in hand.

I froze. “You were supposed to receive a note,” I said quickly.

Coach gave his clipboard a cursory glance. “I received nothing. It says here on the clipboard that you’re up.”

Behind me, Kevin and Will, two of Ravenwood highs less than stellar students, snickered loud enough for everyone to hear. Kevin jabbed Will in the ribs and grinned. “Hey, it’s dangerous to let the tards climb ropes,” Will yelled out.

Coach shot Will and Kevin a stern glance, “There will be none of that in my dojo, Mr. Laughton! Don’t make me call your parents.”

Great, apparently we were skipping right over the cotton head nickname. Still, I wasn’t about to give them more ammunition. “I really do have a note,” I tried again, but Coach wasn’t having it.

“Climb or don’t climb, Mr. Raymond. It’s your grade,” he said, his patience clearly wearing thin.

I glanced at the rope, at the snickering crowd, and at Josiah, who had wandered over to the rope and was staring at it with a strange level of amazement and wonder.

This honestly felt like a lose lose situation. There was no way I was going to make it up, but if I didn’t give it a try, I would fail the test. Damnit, this sucked.

With a resigned sigh, I approached the rope. The moment I grabbed it, I knew I’d made a mistake. My arms ached almost immediately, and yet the ceiling appeared miles away. I had barely even made it up and I was already about to give up.

And then, suddenly, I was moving. No, we were moving. Josiah had taken over, pulling us up the rope with the speed and grace of a Navy Seal. The ceiling rushed closer, and all I could do was watch.

We reached the top, and for one glorious moment, I was literally on top of the world.

So Josiah was apparently an expert climber. That answered one question about him, but sadly, it also added about a million more about how this power worked.

I knew for a fact that my arms weren’t strong enough to pull up that rope, technique or not, so how had he done it so effortlessly?

Oh shit, he let go. I tried to scream, but nothing came out as we free falled toward the ground, but just before impact, Josiah grabbed the rope again, stopping us inches from disaster.

When we landed, I felt control return to my body. My heart was racing, my arms were jelly, and my hands were on fire, but one glance at Kevin’s stunned expression made it all worth it.

I started to make my way back to my spot, until I caught sight of a young woman at the end of the gym. She watched closely as I dismounted from the mat.

She was a short Asian woman, around five feet tall at the most, with long black hair.

She wore a low cut black lace dress, with large hoop earrings, and bright red lipstick that stood out nicely against her dark brown hair. She was dressed more for a night on the town than a high school gymnasium.

To make matters worse, she clearly looked distraught, like she had seen something horrible.

I waited for someone else to say something, but when no one else acknowledged her presence, I focused harder, trying to look for any signs that might explain what I was seeing. Barely noticeable from this distance was a small blue hue around her form.

I jumped back, startling a few of my classmates. What the hell was a dead woman doing at my school? It appeared I had found the next person that needed my help.

###

That night, I sat at my desk, trying desperately to find out anything I could on the young woman I saw today.

I searched for everything I could think of, from her appearance to obituaries. Sadly, the result was a whole lot of nothing.

Man, this was useless. All I had to go on was that she was dead and dressed nice. As if that wasn't bad enough, unlike Nicole, her look was timeless.

Outside of being too low cut to be from like the forties, I had no idea how long she had been dead for.

I knew Wyatt was still out there somewhere, and my time to stop whatever he was up to was running short, but for now I had no leads to go on. Without a lead from Murph, Naomi, or the vengeful spirits, I was stuck. Spinning my wheels. Waiting for something, anything, to happen.

As if a prayer had been answered, something did happen.

A buzz from the bottom drawer of my desk nearly made me jump out of my seat. My heart skipped a beat. I had almost forgotten that I had swiped Dr. Klanderman's phone from Cottonwood.

I hadn’t been proud of swiping it, but after finding out about the stolen binder and learning what was happening on the case, I decided to keep the phone for myself. I didn't trust it with anyone else.

I hoped it would help us in our investigation. Now it was buzzing, and the name that flashed on the screen said Wyatt.

Oh crap! He was calling me. I stared at the phone like it might explode. This was why I’d kept it, for a moment just like this. But now that it was here, my brain was doing a real convincing impression of a deer in headlights.

Josiah glided next to me, laying his arm on my shoulder. It radiated the same calming heat that I felt with Nicole.

Despite not saying a single word, I knew he was right. I had to answer. This might be my only shot at finding that bastard.

I picked up the phone, flipped it open, and pressed it to my ear. My voice came out steadier than I expected. “Hello?”

The reply was smooth, with a deep, masculine tone that didn’t match the woman’s voice I’d heard with Dr. Klanderman. “So, she was telling the truth. You do speak.”

Without hesitating, I yelled at back into the phone. “What were you doing in that building?”

The voice chuckled, a sound that made my skin crawl. “Me? Why, absolutely nothing, child.”

“That’s bullshit,” I snapped. “I saw the room. The torture stations. The cells. You and your friends ruined lives, countless lives.”

“Oh, reaper,” he said, almost fondly. “You have so much to learn about the world. One day, you’ll see we’re not so different, you and I. In due time. Oh, by the way, did you find the thank you gift we left for you?”

My stomach turned. “Gift?”

“What's that phrase you humans use? Snitches get stitches", he chuckled, "although in this case I assume silenced is the more appropriate term. I do apologize for the clumsy work, we were in a bit of a rush, but I do hope it worked to your satisfaction.”

The air turned ice-cold as realization hit. Aubry. I figured he had altered her. But why was he calling it a gift?

“I hope you’ll remember my kindness,” he continued. "Until we meet again, reaper.”

“NO!” I shouted. “What are you—”

The line went dead.

I slammed the phone down and punched the wall, hard enough to leave a dent and send a jolt of pain up my arm.

It didn’t matter. I’d already failed. He was ten steps ahead, and I was scrambling to catch up.

I had to catch up before it was too late.