Chapter 8

AN: I'm so sorry for not updating lately! I've had school and a whole bunch of other crap. I really want to thank everyone who is reading this, especially those who review. I also know (or think) that not everybody who reads my story reviews, which is ok, I'm guilty of doing the same thing. But it is nice to know that you guys are there and I really want to say thanks to everybody who reads, reviews, favorites, or story alerts my story! You guys rock! Now enough of my excessive thanking and on with the story!

There was an eerie feeling in Lyle House. And everyone knew it had to do with the latest of Liz's episodes. It was almost as if everyone was waiting for something else to happen. Like a boat entering the eye of a hurricane. After storming, tumultuous weather, you enter a calm area where it's blue skies and eerie, strange silence. But only for a short time. Before you know it you're back to being battered by waves and wind. Everyone was waiting for the storm to arrive again.

When dinner came around I just ate my food. Didn't bother to make Liz feel better, there was no point anyway. Why would I tell her it would get better? If I did I'd be lying. Nothing good could happen from here. Elizabeth Delaney was a ticking time bomb and it was only a matter of time until she went off.

While I may have not tried to cheer Liz up, it seemed like everyone else was. Simon, Tori, and even Rae and Peter attempted to cheer her up. The only people who didn't try were Chloe and yours truly. It puzzled me a little as to why she didn't, but not enough to dwell on it. It wasn't my problem.

After eating I hung out with Simon in our room, trying to figure out a fool-proof way to get him out of here. It wouldn't be easy, but it was possible. But something was missing, motivation for Simon to go. He wouldn't leave me here, no matter how much I told him to, without a solid reason. So it was up to me to find one, while I had ideas, I didn't have an excellent one…yet.

While I was pondering the answer to this question on my way to the bathroom, I saw Chloe and Rae head into the room Rae shared with Queen Victoria with a basket full of laundry. Curious, I hid behind the corner of the hallway and waited for them to enter the room and then crept up to the wall next to the door.

I was hoping Chloe would maybe tell Rae exactly how she landed herself here. It would help me decide whether she was a necromancer, attention seeking, or just plain unstable. And for once, did fortune smile upon me.

I heard a muffled thump, which I took was one of the girls dropping the laundry basket down on one of the beds. Then I heard Rae's voice saying, "Okay, I could beat around the bush, but I hate that, so I'm going to come right out and ask. Did I hear right? That you're here because you see ghosts?"

Thank God it wasn't girly talk. If I had to hear another conversation like the ones with Tori and Liz I was going to snap. There's only so many times a person can take hearing 'Oh Mi God, that shirt is so cute is it from Hollister?" or "Yeah totally he is so totally hot!"

Chloe was silent for a moment as if debating whether to say something or not, but she must have decided to because she soon launched into her story.

As I listened, I became more and more certain that Chloe Saunders was a necromancer. Things were adding up and making more sense. If her sudden power development was hormonal, then it explained a lot. After all, the same thing had happened to me.

Once puberty hit me, and let me tell you it hit me hard, everything started to change- mentally, emotionally, and especially physically. I went from being a normal sized and normal looking kid to what I am today, which is anything but normal.

I also couldn't help but feel a little bit sorry for Chloe. She made a complete spectacle of herself at her school, and there really is no way to fix it. She ran through the hallways of her school screaming about dead, disfigured janitors and had to be taken out of said school sedated and strapped to a stretcher, if that doesn't label her different then I don't know what does. If she ever chooses to go back, things would be completely changed. No one would see Chloe Saunders anymore; they would see a crazy freak girl who had a meltdown. One little occurrence had possibly ruined her life. A lot like with what happened to me…

I was shaken out of my thoughts by Rae's voice asking if Chloe had ever looked up the janitor. Apparently she hadn't since Rae said "You got chased by a guy in a custodian's uniform, right? And he was burned, like he died in some fire or explosion. If it really happened, it would have made the papers. You could look it up online."

I was thinking along the same lines. If what Chloe said was true and she really did see a dead janitor, then perhaps he really did exist. If there was veritable evidence that the janitor did really die at her school, then Chloe was a necromancer. I left them to finish folding the laundry and headed down the hallway to the bathroom. I had a lot of thinking to still do and a lot of planning to begin.