“You can get some rest, if you need.” I said gently.

“No, no I can’t!” She protested heavily, but I could see her eyes starting to droop. We continued looking, till about 9 a.m. she was struggling keeping her eyes open even while standing.

“Paisley, get some rest. You can’t keep looking if you’re dead on your feet like this. Take a break, I’ll keep looking.” She shook her head.

“What about you?” She looked right at my tired eyes.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll get help.” I said.

“Who? Mom and Dad are on vacation, all our friends are over five hours away, and no one would believe this would be an emergency based on what we know...” She pointed out. Not all of our friends, actually, and Duncan would probably get here as fast as he could.

“I’ll think of something. Go, sleep.” I commanded, and continued to command until she finally went to sleep on the couch. I sighed. Then reached for my phone that I had been ignoring all day. All yesterday? Time became a blur for me when I didn’t get any sleep. I had several missed notifications, mostly from Duncan and Liam. I called Duncan after I left the room. He answered quickly.

“Dude, my shift starts soon, what’s going on?” He grumbled from the other side, he didn’t like talking on the phone, but at this point I couldn’t care.

“Sophie. She…” I quieted my voice in case Paisley was still awake. “She’s disappeared.”

“Oh, oh my god. Is she… What happened?”

“Duncan, listen to me very carefully.” I wasn’t sure how to phrase my next sentence. “I think the dust ball had something to do with it. I can’t figure it out alone, I can’t tell my parents, and I don’t want to scare Paisley. I need your help.” I finished.

“Are you sure?” He said after a moment. I nodded, then answered when I realized he couldn’t see me.

“Yes, I’m sure.” I finally said. He was quiet again for a few more seconds. Then I heard people in the background.

“I have to go. Family emergency.” He didn’t even wait for a response, I heard a clutter and someone’s voice calling for him to wait. “I’ll be there in a few hours, I’m gonna bring Lacey. She can help, or at least be there for Paisley.”

“Thank you.” I said, my voice was starting to break.

“It’s gonna be okay, Owen. We can figure this out together. I’m getting in my car now, I gotta go.”

“Okay.”

“Just a few hours man, I’ll get there as soon as I can.” He said, then hung up. I stared at the dark screen for a moment. Tears beginning to fall. I took a few deep breaths to control myself, then opened my phone again. I got a text from Liam sometime this morning.

Text Conversation: 8:46

LI AM I AM: Hey, you guys okay?

LI AM I AM: You both went silent yesterday. Let me know if some things going on…

Text Conversation: 9:29

Owen: Yea actually.

Owen: We need your help

Owen: Please

My hands were shaking as I sent the texts. I was 99.99% composed of nerves, and fear, and self hatred. What if the ball in the tower was only there to distract me while all of this happened. What if- my phone started ringing before I could finish the thought. It was Liam.

“Liam…” I whispered, not trusting my voice.

“Owen, talk to me. What’s going on.” He sounded panicked.

“It’s hard to explain, the short version is Sophie disappeared.” My own breathing sped up. “We can’t find her.”

“When did she disappear?” He tried to keep his tone calm.

“Sometime after we were talking yesterday.” I felt a wave of remorse. I left the house because I was jealous. I wanted to scream and pull my hair out. If I had chilled out we wouldn’t be in this mess and now Sophie’s gone, Paisley’s freaking out, Duncan was probably speeding to get help, and Liam was yelling at me through the phone- Wait, why was he shouting? I suddenly realized I was crying. Which was surprising, since my glasses completely fogged up and made it nearly impossible to see. I slowly started to calm my breathing. Liam spoke up again after he heard the slow breaths.

“That’s right, take it easy. I’m on my way. Do you want me to bring the police?” He asked.

“No, god no.” I mumbled. “I can tell you why later, just… please come help.”

“Okay, I’ll be there soon.”

“Okay.” I sniffed.

“I’m gonna hang up now, okay?”

“Uh huh…” I mumbled. I felt like a wreck. A train wreck. I was in the wreck, just hit by a train head on. I thought about going back to keep looking, but decided to wait until Liam came. I heard a car pull up, and I went to the door at the same time as him. I opened it, and he pulled me into a gentle hug. Then he stood back and looked at me.

“You haven’t slept, have you?” God I must look horrible right now.

“No. I just convinced Paisley to rest, she’s on the couch.” I told him, thinking he’d like to know.

“Okay, have you eaten?” He asked. I realized that I was so focused on getting Paisley taken care of, and Sophie found that I completely forgot about myself. I was starving, I couldn’t imagine what Sophie was going through. I shook my head no.

“Okay, let’s start with that. Then you can tell me everything.” He led me inside. He made sure I ate and tried to get information out of me. I was hesitant the whole time, until I caved.

“Come with me.” I said. He followed. I started walking towards the basement. I began telling him as we went.

“Before I start, I want to warn you that this is all going to sound crazy.” I said, then continued. “One of the first few nights I was here, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a whiteish-blueish ball of like dust or fog, and it brought me to this room in the basement, and the next day I found a secret entrance in that room. Then I didn’t see it ever again, until recently. I was outside in the rain and I saw it in the tower. I was told specifically not to go in the tower but when you see a large glowing ball of dust you get kind of curious, so I went anyway. And inside was a bunch of drawings on the walls, and the blue ball hovered around me and watched me and left. Then I go back inside, and Paisley comes running, and what does she say that Sophie saw before she disappeared? None other than a pale blue mist ball.” I unlocked the door and slammed it open.

“You’re right, that is a little hard to believe...” He said after my speech. “But I do.”

“What?” I asked, standing next to Angelica.

“I believe you.” he repeated.

“Good.” I said firmly, and stepped on the metal foot. I walked over to where the wall would open. I didn’t bother looking back at Liam’s expression, I was on a mission. Pretty boys will have to wait. Once inside I went straight for the desk and began rummaging around in case I found anything useful. I found more journals, papers with drawings on them, and a multitude of other random stuff. I dropped them onto the desk and began sorting through them. Liam came beside me.

“Owen, I wanna help, what can I do?” Then the two of us spent the next several hours coming up with ideas, not getting anywhere. We sat there, each with a journal in hand and a notebook for writing down ideas or translations when Duncan came in, Lacey in tow. I didn’t have the time or patience to comment on someone I didn’t really know being in my library. I quickly recounted what happened when Sophie disappeared. We each bounced ideas off of each other, back and forth. Eventually becoming passionate, and raising our voices.

“I already told you that can’t work! Especially since we don’t even know if they’re even ghosts at all!” Someone said.

“Well we can’t just keep sitting here, Duncan did you find anything on them, yet?” Another person asked.

“Not any more than last time you asked!” he crowed.

“Did anyone find the other drawing that went with this?” Someone cried.

“I think I saw something for it over here.” Another babbled.

Conversation such as that kept on. No one thought to check the time until Paisley herself walked into the doorway of the library, some papers comically floated to the ground before her, and everyone was shouting. No one actually noticed her presence, though. Not until she opened her mouth to speak.