Dead and Alive

Chapter 2

"Oh my god." Julie ran to the couch before she'd finished speaking. She had no idea where the boys had come from. Her first thought was they were Gifted, which was the best reason she could think of for why they'd just appeared in the studio. She knelt down on the floor, hands going to the unconscious boy's throat, looking for a pulse like she'd learned in health class. "Flynn, call an ambulance!"

"An ambulance?" Flynn pulled out her phone. "Why? What happened?"

"Wait!" Willie said, "Julie, I don't think an ambulance will help."

"What?" Julie looked at Willie's expression, then down at her hand. Her fingertips had gone right through the boy's neck. She hurled herself backwards, heart seizing. "What's going on?"

"They're ghosts, like me!" Willie said.

"Ghosts?" Julie repeated, "They're ghosts?" Her heart slammed against her ribs. Willie was the only ghost she'd ever seen. Why could she see these boys, too?

"Wait, what?" Flynn asked, voice pitched high. "There're more ghosts? You can see more of them?"

"What?" The conscious brown-haired boy said. He looked terribly pale.

"Ghosts?" The blond boy whispered. "We're ghosts?" His eyes grew impossibly wider. "No. No. Nononononono—"

"Hey, hey, it's okay!" Willie sat down beside him and pulled him into his arms, holding him tightly as he shook. He shot Julie a helpless look.

Flynn moved closer to the couch. She was looking around, clearly trying to see what Julie was staring at. "Julie, what's happening?"

"There are three more ghosts in here, but I don't know how," Julie said tersely. She was still on her knees, unable to tear her eyes away from the ghost boys who'd manifested themselves in her studio. She'd kind of thought her Gift was so specific Willie was the only ghost she could see. But now there were three of them. And one of them was hurt. How was that possible, if ghosts were already dead?

"Hey," the brown-haired boy said. "I'm Reggie, that's Alex." He gestured towards the blond boy still wrapped up in Willie's arms. "And this is Luke. I don't know how we got here, but Luke's hurt. And..." Luke's form sputtered like a lightbulb with a dying filament. Reggie's expression morphed to one of horror. "What's happening to him?"

"He's flickering out, Julie!" Willie said. "You need to do something!"

"What does that mean?" Julie turned to Willie. "And why me? I don't know anything!"

"Use your Gift!" Willie ordered. "Channel your Lifeforce!"

"What?" Julie and Reggie said at the same time.

"Are you a Healer?" Reggie asked desperately. "Because if you're a Healer—"

"I'm not a Healer!" Julie interrupted him. She turned to Willie. "I have no idea what you want me to do!"

"Concentrate!" Willie snapped. "You've done it before. You do it all the time!"

"What's going on?" Flynn said, eyes moving around the room. "Should I get your dad?"

"No!" Both Julie and Willie said at once. She and Willie were on the same page with this: Ray would totally lose his mind if he saw Julie panicking over people he couldn't see. He'd send her back to talk with awful Dr. Turner for sure.

"Willie says I can use my Gift to save one of the ghosts," Julie said to Flynn. "But I have no idea what he's talking about."

"Like the plants! You use your Gift to make the plants grow! Don't you know that?" Willie said.