Chapter 16

“So what happened after that?” Tyler leaned forward as Zach leaned back in the chair next to her. Blue floated over the two, watching the two with a smirk.

“Well you kind of saw, Andrew grilled me until I explained what happened, and then we went home for the night.” Zach looked up at Blue. “And we’re still in the same boat we started in.”

It was the day after the exorcism of Jackson Smiles, and Zach was back in the hospital. But this time, he was only there to visit a friend. Well it was less of a visit and more of a summons. As soon as Jackson was dealt with, Tyler had basically forced Zach into coming back and explaining everything. A process which had taken even longer when Doctor Lekli popped in halfway through with his own questions. Apparently the rushed walkthrough he’d gotten on the day of wasn’t enough to tide him over until his meeting with Andrew and Lady Gray later in the week.

At least he’d left just as quickly, leaving the three teenagers on their own again.

“It’s still hard to imagine though,” Tyler giggled while starring at an empty spot in the room. Blue, seeing where this was going, floated over to the spot. “You actually managed to find a real ghost. And then you went the extra step and made friends with her. She’s in the room right?”

“You’re looking right at her,” Zach nodded before pointing right at Blue. “She’s floating right beneath the ceiling.”

Tyler narrowed her eyes as Blue awkwardly shuffled around in the air for a while. After several seconds of silence, she shook her head.

“Nope, can’t see her.” She frowned before looking of at Zach. “Still, it makes sense you were the one to find something like this. If I had to guess which of our friends would end up getting weird ghost powers, you’d definitely be at the top of the list.”

“Yeah I’ll take that. Could you imagine George trying to befriend a ghost?” Zach started to laugh as Tyler giggled along.

“Forgot the ghost, he would have run away from the cabin screaming. Or how about Ashly?” Tyler pointed out, getting another round of laughter out of Zach.

“Hello miss ghost, please don’t eat me.” He said in a voice clearly trying to mimic someone else’s. Blue starred down at the two laughing heads, wondering just what they were talking about.

“Wait a second,” Blue cut in, stifling one set of laughter. “You have other friends?”

“What… what do you mean ‘you have other friends? I have plenty of other friends,” his laughter died quick just as Tyler went for another round. She sat back in her hospital bed to watch half of the show playing out in front of her. “I just haven’t been able to hand out with them yet this summer because I’ve been a little busy.”

“Oh yeah, busy with what?” Blue crossed her arms, clearly not believing a word Zach had to say.

“Busy with you,” he fired back, trying to keep his volume under control, “everything I’ve done since coming back from Green Brook has been for you.”

Blue floated in silence for a few seconds before quickly averting her eyes.

“Oh right, I forgot about that.” She finally admitted as Zach smirked at her.

“Well you to admit Zach, you’re not exactly the most sociable person out there,” Tyler cut in, “most of my friends just think of you as ‘Tyler’s weird goth friend’.”

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Blue erupted into laughter, not needing to worry about her volume.

“I want to argue back, but I know better.” Zach groaned as he looked out the window. “Just because I wear all black, and watch horror movies all the time, and got to weird stores, doesn’t mean…”

He couldn’t even manage to finish the sentence.

The three of them kept talking for a while until the subject of Blue’s identity came up again.

“I feel like we’ve tried everything at this rate.” Zach grumbled as Tyler read through the folder of all the information they’d figured out about Blue’s life. He kept a careful eye on her as she did, in case the now armed one girl needed help. Despite his expectations, she was managing the folder surprisingly well.

“Maybe… maybe she was never declared dead?” Both Blue and Zach blinked before turning to her. The girl kept staring at the papers, unaware of the two sets of eyes on her. “You guy’s only ever looked at deaths, maybe she was only ever declared missing?”

She set her eyes off the paper and flinched at Zach’s stare. If she could, she would have also see Blue staring at her just as intently.

“Zach, tell Tyler she’s a genius.” Blue commanded.

“Tyler, Blue wants you to now you’re a genius.” Zach climbed out of his chair and started pacing around the room. “It makes so much sense. We only ever looked into death records. If Blue was kidnapped or… or vanished, it would make sense we couldn’t find her.”

“The view of the city from the road. Maybe I was already kidnapped at that point.” Blue added as she started floating aimlessly, all of her focus spent on thinking things over. “Either way, I think the path from here is clear.”

“Yeah, we need to start looking into cases of missing or disappeared girls from that time. The ones they never found.” Zach nodded as Tyler started looking at her friend with a worried gaze.

“Are you sure that’s the best idea Zach?” Tyler interjected as both exorcist looked her way. “No offense, but you’re going to be looking into some dark stuff. I know I joke about you being my weird goth friend, but maybe this is a little too much? Are you sure you’re going to be okay with all this?”

Zach sat back as Blue looked at him slightly worried.

“I mean you have a point. But I’ve already come this far, and I owe it to Blue to see this thing through.”

“Oh come on. Don’t put it like that, it’ll make me feel guilty.” Blue argued back as she playful punched Zach in the arm.

“Alright fine,” he rolled his eyes, “plus I don’t like the feeling of leaving a project like this unfinished. I started this thing I’m going to see it through.”

“Alright just… don’t be afraid of reaching out if you need it…” Tyler let her face fall into a slight frown, “Actually, no. Zach, I want you to promise me that you’ll talk to someone if looking into this becomes too much for you.”

“Don’t worry, I will.” Zach promised only to be met with two sets of disbelieving eyes. Blue looked over at Tyler and put her hand on the living girl’s shoulder. She flinched from the sudden chill on her body.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he takes care of himself.” Blue promised which Zach quickly translated. Tyler still looked a bit unsatisfied about the whole thing until a sudden smile came to her face.

“Oh I just thought of something. In one week, Ashly going’s to have a beach party to celebrate me finally getting out of the hospital,” she raised her arm and pointed right at Zach. “You’re going.”

“Ah come on, do I have to? You know I don’t go for those kinds of things,” He whined as Blue’s eyes flew open. She flew over and gripped Zach’ arm.

“Well think of it this way. You’re probably going to be stuck indoors the whole time you do your research. At least this way you’ll get some sun.”

Zach’s eyes narrowed at the grinning girl while Blue excitedly moved his arm around.

“Come on, we’ve only ever been to a beach like one time. And that was for training. I want to go. Come on, take me.”

“Fine, you two win. I’ll go the beach party and take you with me Blue.” The ghost in question let out a strong cheer, shooting her hands in the air. A small burst of ghost energy fired from her hands and hit the ceiling lights, causing them to flicker for a second.

“Well looks like she’s excited,” Tyler giggled as Blue brought her hands back down and tucked them in. If Zach had to guess, her face would have been beet red if it still had blood running through it.

“Can’t believe I’m going to one of these things.” Zach muttered as Blue recovered from the earlier incident and was now wiggling in excitement. He gave her a dull stare before crossing his arms. “Hey Blue, don’t get too excited. We still have a lot of work before the party.”

“Uh, you mean you have a lot of work. I can’t really type on a computer with these hands you know.” She held her arms out as a stray thought crossed Zach’s mind. “You’re going to be looking through those ten year old news articles all by yourself.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” he snickered as his eyes narrowed. “I think I have an idea that can speed things up for us. All I need is one phone call.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Tyler grumbled as Zach and Blue made their leave.