“Jessa, could I see you for a moment?” Mr Fletcher asked as his class filed out for their first lesson of the day.

Flynn, Maggie, Tonia and Annora also all hung back.

“Sorry, guys, I just need to talk to Jessa alone.”

They hesitated before leaving.

“We’ll wait outside,” said Tonia.

“I need to ask you something alone, because I want you to reply without the influence of your friends,” he judged her expression carefully.

“Okay.”

“Jessa, based on some new information that we’ve learned recently, I want to pay another visit to Emmeline Victor. Do you remember who that is?”

“Of course, she was the Head Girl. And she was the first victim.”

“That’s right. So I’d like to go and see her again, and I’d like you to consider joining me—”

“Definitely,” she replied before he’d barely finished speaking.

“Before you make any decision, please just think about it. Because Emmeline isn’t in a healthy state. She’s been thoroughly changed by her experience, and it’s very sad, and potentially scary, and I don’t want to put you in a position—”

“I want to go. I don’t need to think about it—I want to help.”

“All right,” he saw the determination on her young face. “I got my car back from the mechanic this morning, so I’ll drive us there at lunch time.”

#

The car slowly trundled up a narrow lane with a five mile-per-hour speed limit and a noticeable abundance of SLOW signs. A mile or so later, they came across a barrier where a security guard emerged from a small booth and greeted Mr Fletcher at the driver’s window.

“Name?”

“Fletcher and Baxter.”

The security guard peered into the car and looked over at Jessa.

“How old is she?”

“Fourteen. We’ve been authorised.”

“I can see that,” the security guard nodded at his netpad. He opened the barrier and waved them forward.

They pulled up to the imposing building of the Morelands Hospital. If Jessa hadn’t known any better, she might have guessed from its high walls and advanced security that it was less a hospital and more a prison.

“Why is Emmeline still in hospital? I thought she’d be home by now. It’s been a long time since her accident.”

Mr Fletcher turned to her and spoke very quietly. “Jessa, Emmeline hasn’t been home since the incident. This is a high-security psychiatric hospital. As far as any doctors can tell, something happened to Emmeline’s brain in her attack, and while most of the time she doesn’t speak or move at all, she’s had a couple of episodes that were nothing short of, well, ‘mentally disturbed’ is how the nurse described it. So Emmeline has to stay here. For her own protection.”

“Oh.”

“We don’t have to go inside. If this is too much, we can turn around right now.”

“No,” Jessa said. “I want to do this.”

The halls of Morelands Hospital were decorated with some artwork and photographs, but the injections of colour did little to detract from the clinical interior, and nothing could override the vague smell of disinfectant and latex in the air.

A young nurse in white scrubs led them through the corridors, scanning her ID card at every door point for access. “Most days now she just stares out the window,” she said. “She used to be in a room without windows, but since we moved her to this one, she seems to be making a little progress.

Please remember, the door must stay open at all times while you’re in there. If you need assistance, you can call for help by pressing either of the emergency buttons: one is by the door, and the other is by the side of the bed.

Mr Fletcher, you’ve accepted responsibility for bringing a minor into the facility,” she gestured toward Jessa. “Her safety is of primary importance. For this reason, we strongly recommend that you do not make any physical contact with the patient.”

They stopped, and the nurse scanned her ID at a door once again.

“Good afternoon, Emmeline!” the young nurse’s voice brightened.

Jessa swallowed hard and stepped into the room, her eyes fixed on the back of Emmeline’s head as she stared, motionless, through the bars in front of the window.

The room was sparse.

A small headboardless bed protruded into the room, its thin, cheap blankets made up neatly and pulled tight under the sides of the mattress. A small table sat to the side of the bed, with nothing upon it but an untouched paper cup of water. The only other item of furniture in the room was the chair in which Emmeline sat, with her bony bare feet flat on the ground and her arms resting rigidly on each of the side arms.

The nurse bent forward in front of Emmeline so they were face to face. “You have some visitors today, sweetheart. It’s Mr Fletcher and Jessa from school. Do you remember them? Mr Fletcher and Jessa?” She took a step away from Emmeline, allowing the visitors to come forward.

“I’ll leave you to it. If you need me at all, I’ll be in the office just down the hall.” And with that, she left the three of them in the room.

“Hi, Emmeline. I visited you before, do you remember? And I brought Jessa with me today because I think the two of you could get on well. Jessa, do you want to come and say hi?”

The closer she stepped towards Emmeline, the harder her heart pounded.

She’d never met Emmeline Victor at school, only seen her in passing, but she knew her face from the photograph in the school foyer, and she knew her reputation.

The person sitting before her in the hospital room was barely recognisable as the beautiful and accomplished student who had once proudly reigned as head girl of Winsbury. Her skin was colourless and thin, pulled severely over her gaunt form. She was draped in a beige hospital gown that sagged from her frame and spilled over her thighs. Her long reddish brown hair hung, lifeless and greasy, a few tendrils dangling by her jutting cheekbones.

Jessa’s memory suddenly threw her back to when Mr Fletcher told them Emmeline had been found. His words echoed in Jessa’s mind. A ghost.

The girl sitting before her in the hospital was as ghostly as Jessa could have possibly imagined a living person to be.

Whether it was curiosity, or a desire to help in the investigation, or even just the stubbornness of not wanting to let Hugo Fletcher see how nervous she was, Jessa took a deep breath and came forward, in the same manner as the nurse had done.

She brought her eyes level with Emmeline’s, staring right into the emptiness that glazed over them.

She remembered the vision in which she’d seen Annora staring into Silas’ black eyes.

When Jessa finally spoke, the words came out in a whisper. “He did this to you.”

She focused on Emmeline’s pupils. Was that indeed a flicker of recognition?

She whispered again, “I’ve seen him too.”

Every inch of her skin stung with sensation. She felt a deep compulsion to touch Emmeline, but a recollection of the nurse’s warning pinged in Jessa’s mind and she held her hands back, resting them instead on the ends of the arms right in front of Emmeline’s.

Close but untouching.

Then, before Jessa had time to move, Emmeline flinched. She grabbed hold of Jessa’s hands and pinned them to the arms of the chair.

Emmeline locked her eyes on Jessa’s, and that’s when Jessa felt it.

The energy rushing through her entire body. The ringing sound reverberating through her skull. The fading to black in her vision, and the returning clarity as she appeared in a different, reconstructed reality.

Everything was blurry, like she’d been hit on the head. She could tell that people were moving around her, but she couldn’t see them. All she could see were shadows across her faltering vision, fading in and out of sight. Hands gripped her skull, torturously pulling at her consciousness.

The vision broke, and Jessa was back in the hospital room, gasping. Emmeline’s fingers dug into the backs of Jessa’s hands.

Emmeline whispered one word.

“Shadows.”

Jessa froze.

“Shadows,” Emmeline uttered again, the word barely a wisp from her mouth.

“Yes. I saw them, Emmeline. I saw the shadows. Is that what happened to you? Did you just show me what happened?” Jessa’s words tumbled out of her mouth desperately.

“Shadows,” Emmeline said, louder.

Emmeline’s head jerked from side to side.

Jessa recoiled and cowered toward Hugo Fletcher, who protectively pulled her in toward his own body.

Emmeline’s head tilted back and her mouth threw itself open, letting out air as though a scream should emerge, but only a ghostly wheeze came out. Mr Fletcher tore back and pressed the emergency button by the side of the bed, and a screeching alarm wailed into the room. Three male nurses in white scrubs ran into the room. Two of them picked up Emmeline and moved her onto the bed while the third nurse ushered Mr Fletcher and Jessa from the room.

Jessa gripped his hand tightly, her face stuck in a horrified gawp as she watched the scene unfold before her.

Mr Fletcher pulled Jessa to the door and led her briskly by the hand back through the corridors as the nurse walked ahead of them, scanning his ID card at every door to aid their departure.

He didn’t stop until they reached the car. He immediately wrapped his arms tightly around her, pulling Jessa’s shaking body into his chest.

“It’s okay,” he spoke, breathlessly. “It’s okay…”

“I’m taking you home. Don’t worry about the rest of the school day; I’ll sign a medical slip for your parents. Just tell them you weren’t feeling well. Is that all right?”

Jessa nodded. The rumbles from the car soothed her tense body.

“Jessa, I am so, so sorry.”

She turned to him and smiled weakly. The smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I know,” she said. “I just didn’t know what to expect. Why did you want me to go there? Did you know she would do that?”

“If I knew it would be like that I wouldn’t have taken you, I swear,” he said. “Are you able to describe it?”

“I think I saw what happened to her. Or rather, I felt what happened to her.” Jessa’s voice cracked. “It was like someone was sucking my brain out through my skin. Sucking my mind out. It felt like I was losing my…” her voice trembled as the lump swelled in her throat. “My whole identity, my thoughts, my emotions, my parabilities, everything… it was all being torn away. That’s what he did to her. He took away everything that made her a person.” Jessa paused. “If a ghost is a soul without a body, then he made her the opposite. She’s empty. And he’s a monster.”

“Well, we don’t know for sure that it’s Si—”

“Yes, I do. It’s him. I know it’s him.”

#

Jessa lay on her bed, already cosied up in her pyjamas and dressing gown by 4 pm. The whole afternoon had been occupied by reliving her experience with Emmeline, again and again, cycling through anger, fear, and upset. Her thoughts were interrupted by a gentle tapping at the door.

“Yeah?”

“Can I come in?” Flynn poked his head into the room. “Your mum said it was okay for me to come up, I hope you don’t mind.”

“I’m so glad you’re here!” Jessa climbed from her foetal position and greeted him with a hug.

“First things first,” he said. “I told your mum I came here to give you your homework from the rest of the day. And I’m a man of my word, so here you go,” he handed her a selection of printed homework assignments.

“What! We got homework for Music and Religious Theory?”

“You missed a thrilling afternoon,” he said dryly.

Jessa slapped the papers down onto her desk and slumped herself back onto the duvet, tapping it to welcome Flynn to lie down next to her. He pushed off his shoes and slid onto the bed, facing her.

“Mr Fletcher told us what happened.”

Jessa burst into tears. She’d been holding it back all day, telling herself that she was brave and strong, but in the kind and gentle presence of Flynn Howard, Jessa’s true feelings came pouring out.

“Hey…” he said, and stroked her back soothingly as she bawled, face down into her pillow. He said nothing else. He just let her cry.

“I’m sorry,” she sniffed and blinked away the last of the tears from her red eyes.

“Don’t be.”

“Flynn, it was awful.”

“I can only imagine. Do you want to talk about it more?”

“No, not really. Mr Fletcher told you the whole thing?”

“Pretty much. Maggie got all the details from him.”

“Of course she did.”

“Mr Fletcher spoke very highly of you.”

“What do you mean?”

“He said your intuition is something he’s never seen before. Apparently, he’s never heard of someone being able to connect and share a memory like that. He told me that privately, though.”

“Why?” Jessa propped up her head on her hand. Flynn mirrored her.

“Because he wanted me to talk to you about something.”

“Okay?”

“He thinks you could be an asset to the investigation.”

“Aren’t I already an asset to the investigation? He already took me out on a… I don’t know, whatever you want to call it. A mission? A meeting? And he took us all to see that man. Well, he didn’t take us exactly, but he let us help when we were there.”

“His idea is for us to join the Agency.”

“Are you kidding?”

Flynn shook his head.

“Why did he want you to talk to me about this? Why wouldn’t he ask me himself?”

“Because he thought you’d be more honest with me. And because you need to take some time and think about it.” She tried to interrupt but he continued, “Jess, it happened again. Another kid got attacked last night. It’s getting worse and the Agency is desperate. Mr Fletcher believes that somehow we can help. But it’s potentially dangerous, and has to be kept completely secret. We’d all be keeping it from our families, from everyone at school. It’s a big commitment. So yeah, the others don’t know about this yet, but if you’re in, it’s offered to all of us. But without you, we’re all out and this conversation stays between the two of us. Think about it.”

Flynn said his goodbye and Jessa’s ears followed the sound of his departure from the house.

You have to join the Agency.

You have to stop this.

But how do you stop something when you can’t even make sense of it? Why are they attacking school children? Who are these men? What do they want?

You can find out.

Why me?

Someone has to figure it out. Why not you? Your friends are on your side. Mr Fletcher is on your side. Join the Agency and help them bring him down.

Do you feel that burning deep down inside of you? Let it show you what you can do.

Join the Agency.

Get Lynch.