Sally Smirk.

Chapter Three

Sally sat on the to stone of Jessamine. She felt that, that was where she belonged. Beside the tombstone. She peered down at the boy kneeling in front of her. 'What's wrong with him?' She thought. Jinxx hopped off her shoulder and circled around a mausoleum. "Sally... When do you see these people?" She looked over her shoulder and peered around the cemetery. "Every day. I see them here, at my house, walking places. Before I go to sleep, they whisper things to me and sit on the edge of my bed at night." She went into another trance. Only this time, she seemed upset. A tear ran down her cheek and dripped off of her chin onto the tombstone. Rayne felt a twinge of pain in his stomach. "Do they scare you?" Sally, now silently crying, sank down to the base of the tombstone. She nodded. "Some are worse than others. And some are not scary at all. Most of them are very nice." She stared into space, just beyond the cemetery gate.

"Sally... Do you see them now?" She nodded again, slowly. She was terrified. "They're everywhere." Rayne suddenly felt guilty for asking so many questions.

"Am I bothering you?" He outstretched his arms towards her. "No. You're helping me." She threw her arms around him, and cried silently into his shoulder.

"I'm always so scared. They tell me to join them, that nobody else wants me. They tell me to leave this place. Earth... That is. They tell me if I don't go willingly, they'll take me. I can't take it anymore. I don't know which people are real in this world and which aren't. I need help." She squeezed him tightly, still peering around the cemetery, seeing people only she could see.

Jinxx was hissing at something in the corner, one moment, then purring at something else. Mixing reactions within seconds.

Rayne opened his eyes and looked at the girl clinging to him. He knew she needed him. He wanted to be there for her. He knew he didn't need or want any other new friends if it meant giving her up. She could crash and burn at any moment, and he knew if he weren't there to save her, she would fall apart. He patted her between the shoulder blades and held her tightly.

"I want you." He said. The three words were small, but powerful. She lifted her head for a moment and surveyed the world around her. "Really, I mean it. I wouldn't have climbed up the trellis to your window and followed you to a cemetery if I didn't."

She blushed and dried her eyes. "Thank you." She stepped back and walked to a tomb. She could see through the wrought iron gate, and marveled at the memorial inside. A weeping angel collapsed over a concrete case around the coffin. It was beauty to her.

"It's getting late. Let me take you home." They walked home in near darkness.

When the pair arrived at Sally's house, Rayne refused to leave her until she was asleep. He tucked her into her bed and kissed her cheek. He was amazed her parents never came in to do this. He kneeled by the side of her bed, and let Jinxx on his lap. "Do you see them now?" He asked. She nodded and covered her ears. He quickly bounded up to uncover them and handed her his earbuds and phone. "Here. Block them out with this." He held her pale and weak hand with one of his own, and with the other he caressed her cheek. She soon fell asleep. He stared at the sleeping girl in her bed. 'I hope I helped her.' He thought. He wondered how much her trances tortured her. Was she schizophrenic? Or could she just see ghosts? What did they say to her? What did they look like? He had so many questions. He considered crawling into bed and staying with her, just to make sure she was okay. But he quickly dismissed the idea, thinking her parents would see him, and his parents would wonder where he was. He kissed her cheek one last time before climbing down the trellis and starting back off to his house.