"You scared me, man!" Morgan exclaimed, his voice croaking. His clothes were entirely wet as he sat on the tiled floor of the shower cubicle.

"There's a murderer on the loose, and you're asking, 'Who's there?' to an empty locker room. Boy, you're gonna get yourself killed." Matt dove into his bag of chips and scooped a handful into his mouth.

"I said I’m almost done. You could’ve just waited for me outside," Morgan said, but Matt seemed confused.

"I just arrived," Matt replied, stuffing a handful of potato chips into his mouth.

It was not Matt who was here earlier, calling out to him. Who could it be? There might be someone else in the shower room waiting to jump out and surprise them, but he looked around, and it was entirely empty. He must have been hallucinating again. "Well, aren’t you early for tomorrow’s classes?"

"Only if I’m coming to school tomorrow," Matt said, confident in his statement.

"You’re not skipping another day," Morgan said as he changed into his school pants now that the pair of shorts he changed into were wet. "Do so, and I will tell your uncle."

Matt gasped before dumping another handful of chips into his mouth. "Traitor!"

"You bet I am. How was your day? Did you find what you were looking for?" Matt's eyes kept dancing as if trying to look for something that was not there at all. "And what’s going on with you?"

"What? Just because I’m being flaky and weird, lurking around town during school hours in particularly interesting, in a suspicious kind of way, spots like the town hall or the ruins of the Beacon Lodge, looking all suspicious in my all-black get-up like I’m trying to hide something, you think that already means there’s a problem?"

Morgan sneered at him. "Spit it out."

"Yeah, that sounds like the behavior of someone up to no good, isn’t it? It just might get me arrested." Matt popped the empty wrapper he was holding and shook his head, falling to one of the benches. "I’ll attend classes tomorrow." He paused for a moment, then sighed. "Are they still talking about me? About the arrest?" Matt may not be as apathetic to people’s opinions about him after all. "I mean, I don’t really care about what they say. It’s always been the same. Always negative. I don’t expect to see a change at all. I just don’t wanna hear them gossiping when I’m not looking because I know they know I can still hear them."

Matt was never afraid to talk about those days, so Morgan assumed that he was already over them. It’s not farfetched, especially with the kind of person Matt is—always smiling and not taking anything too seriously, ready to crack a joke any time.

The sneering from his teammates already gets under his skin, so Morgan is not sure how he'd be able to handle what happened to Matt—an entire town turning against him.

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"There’s a rumor Mina did a live show on Yahoo Messenger. That’s the talk of the campus since lunch," Morgan said, hoping to steer away from the depressing conversation. "I didn’t even know you could do that on YM."

Matt shot up with a smile. "Well, that definitely tops mine. I’m all good." It was a quick recovery, though not unexpected from Matt. "Let’s hurry up. Some animal must’ve strayed here from the forest. I’ve been hearing it howling. Don’t want to be something’s chow. And I’m really hungry so let’s go chow. I’m thinking of grilled pork or maybe just cake. Maybe both. Or we could get pizza and let’s just go to the store. I don’t want to get a delivery. The last time was a traumatic experience. What if another officer’s waiting at the door again, and they take me in for questioning again and I have to get home to a cold pizza. Maybe we’ll stick to the grilled pork then. Watcha think?"

"Matt."

"Yep?"

"How many bottles of Venom did you drink today?"

Matt stared at him and smiled. "Yep."

"We’re definitely walking home. Let’s shake that Venom out of your system before Doc sees you."

"Let’s climb the basketball ring!" Matt positioned himself for a jump towards the basket.

"No!" Morgan said, pulling Matt by the hood of his jacket before he did anything stupid and hurt himself. He was able to pin him down when he told him about what Cedric and the team did to him earlier during practice. Matt suggested he put laxative in Cedric’s drink, and Morgan took it as a joke at first. "Wait. Where did you say you were? Did you say Beacon Lodge?" Matt nodded and asked Morgan not to tell Doc.

"The photograph I showed you. The note at the back. I had a feeling I saw it somewhere before," Matt said. "I thought it was at the Beacon Lodge, but I was mistaken."

"You skipped a day in school for a 'feeling'?"

"Haven’t we already established that I am a messed-up kid with messed-up priorities?" Matt sighed. "But while I was there, I… I don’t know, but I think I saw visions. You know, like when pieces of your memory start coming back. Remember that night at the cemetery when you got bit. I don’t think I would have been able to bring you back to the tombs by myself. I can’t even finish five laps at the quadrangle. And you were knocked out cold. Full body dead weight. You know what I’m saying? "

"Oh yeah. I remember last year’s fun run."

"That was no fun run. No run should ever be called fun." Matt's eyes were erratic. "That night at the forest and then at the mausoleum, there was a girl. I can’t see her face very well. It’s all blurry." On any other day, Morgan would just dismiss everything Matt just said as some weird story he is creating, but normal has not meant the same since that night at the cemetery. "The only thing I can remember about her is that she has really long hair. Tight braid too."

"Really?" Morgan exclaimed in surprise, knowing exactly who Matt was talking about. Now may not be the best time to tell Matt about her.

Questions just keep coming. Even the answers only lead to more head-scratchers troubling them. Whoever she is, she is not from town, and she first appeared that night that Sara was killed. She is very suspicious, but Morgan is certain she is not the killer. It’s the words she exchanged with the mayor that assure him. This girl with the long braid and high heels was giving a warning.

"The first thing we need is her name," Matt suggested, after calming down a bit. The energy drink’s effects have worn off.

That is definitely the best place to start, but Morgan does not want to be bothered with that for now. He has a basketball game to worry about by the end of the week, and he is all hyped up for it. He spent the next few days holding back from starting a fight with Cedric or anyone else on the team. He still feels guilty for what he did to their teammate the other day. The match is set for Friday, and both teams from Lawton High School and Sentra High School are making plans to win. Morgan has no plans of losing.