A Fiery Friendship [1x1]

Jannistory19

Jannistory19

The Eager Rper
Janine moaned uncharacteristically in nervousness as she stealthily snuck down the school basement. A rabid dog had snuck in the school grounds and had startled the people that were at the school. Thankfully, since school was over for the day, the only people that were there were a couple teams of high schoolers from various sports, the remaining teachers that stayed for whatever reason, students from a couple of after school clubs, and a few campus officers that made sure nothing happened after school was out.

'Apparently they weren't doing their job well enough,' the colored teenager snarled in her head as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark.

If one thought about it, there was a significant decrease in body count if they compared it to when school was in session, but the relatively low count didn't stop the creature from causing a panic amongst them and alerting the officers. They had been trying to trap it efficiently without causing harm to themselves, but they realized that even with the amount of people that was there, they had to deal with the safety of the school first, then containment. They instead called Animal Control and dealt with a mini after school evacuation as they waited for them to come and get rid of the animal.

Once Janine's foot connected to solid floor, she slowly investigated her newer surroundings - the first thing she noticed was the dusty, metallic smell that lingered in the air like a thick blanket, and the fact that the air was hot and stuffy. Surprisingly, the heat didn't bother her as much, but the smell might irritate her; it was making her breathe rather weirdly, and Janine did not want to breathe as if she was in a sauna. A sound from behind the teen made her cock her head around with a small growl.

"What in the world are you doing Dodie?" Janine asked with a snort.
 
The sound Janine heard was Dorothy's camera going off as she snapped a picture of Janine in front of the furnace with her school issued camera. The flash wasn't on, and the dim lighting made Janine look like she had just crawled up from hell. Dodie giggled at the thought as the picture appeared on the camera screen. "Here, look," she said, standing next to Janine and showing her the picture. "You look like some sort of demon, or something!" She laughed. "I wish I could use that for yearbook," she despaired, letting the camera fall limp around her neck.

Her glasses steamed up in the heat, and she slipped them off to clean them. "Why'd we come down to the furnace room?" She asked, slipping off her pink body warmer as she stepped deeper into the room. She pushed her glasses back onto her face. "I mean, it's boiling!" She dropped her body warmer to the ground, rolling up her sleeves. She threw her bright ginger hair over her shoulder.
 
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Janine growled when she noticed the sound coming from her friend's camera. She would've slapped it down and scolded her, had she'd been her sister or some other person who happened to be down here with her, but since it was Dodie, Janine just sighed and shook her head with a small smirk.
Janine was a distant girl... At least to those who were on Janine's dislike list. But she more often than not distanced herself from most social occurrences, such as taking pictures and making speeches. If she was confronted by such actions, her responses were rather... Confrontational to say the least. If someone took something of hers, Janine often verbally attacked the person in order to get it back. If someone took a picture, she'd ask (albeit rather growly) to dispose of it. If someone tried to touch her head and hood in any way, well.... Let's just say things would've gone downhill... Really quick.
But there was a reason to her aggression. Janine and her family knew the reason, but nobody else did. Not even Dodie. How she let Dodie be her friend is still a mystery to her.

Taking the picture up to her face, Janine saw the shadowy silhouette of her body as she passed the furnace that burned beside her, and blinked at how ominous she looked. The demon comment made Janine lower her ears in slight nervousness, but mused in her head at how she looked on a bad day.

'You have no idea,' Janine commented with a shake of her head.

"Yup, you wish. Ain't no way I'm going to be in that overgrown album... And where would you put that anyway? In the 'Halloween Rocks!' section?" Janine asked with a snarky huff. She stepped closer to some pipes that rattled from the incredible pressure. "I like the heat mind you; to say its boiling will mean nothing to me. And we came down here to avoid being in both the dog's and the authorities' ways. I don't like being bunched up with those girls who think they're better than me for no reason at all. It makes me irritable," Janine said as she silently sniffed the air around them.
 
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Dodie rolled her eyes at Janine's comment. "We don't have a Halloween Rocks section. We're not that cringeworthy." She defended her club. "And no, I'd put it in..." she paused, staring into the furnace, "I don't know. It doesn't fit anywhere!" She admitted. She folded her body warmer and put it over her arm as she walked a little more into the furnace room. Her face lit up in sudden delight. "Hey, I think my class is due an assessment soon!" She perked up. The class she was referring to was her Higher Photography class. It was her favourite of all her different classes, even more so than Higher English, which was a close second. "Can I use that one? Please? You look so cool! I'd get an A for sure!" She plead.

She looked around the ominous furnace room, walking a little close to the burning flames. The metal grated door was warped and full of heat, but they stood strong. There was a problem in the furnace that wasn't visible at all to anybody that didn't open the furnace; the back was charred and a hole was starting to form. The fire took all opportunities, slipping through this little hole and into the wooden walls behind it - all of the walls in the school were made of wood; this was understandable, since the school was built nearly one hundred years ago. However, after a previous fire, much of the school was redone with wooden walls. Not the furnace room, though.

The growing fire remain unnoticed, pardon a subtle increase in heat that Dodie didn't notice. Dodie sighed and slowly sunk to the ground in front of the furnace. "I mean, I suppose it is cozy." She mumbled, "but couldn't we have gone to the girls bathroom, or something?" She asked. "Even if Jacque's written a few articles on the ghosts, they don't actually exist." Jacque was a member of the school newspaper. He frequently wrote articles on the ghost tales of the school, which there were many.
 
Janine groaned when Dodie mentioned an assessment. It wasn't the best time for Janine, as many photographers from Dodie's Higher Photography tried to find a subject that interested them. They all looked to Janine at one point to another, but none of them dared ask her if they could take a picture; Dodie was the only person who, not only occasionally took pictures of her, but did so without asking. She imagined that many of her classmates were somewhat jealous when they see someone like Dodie taking a picture of Janine without permission... There were even the somewhat amusing occasions where Janine still had her picture taken by her glasses-wearing friend even when she repeatedly said 'no'... Of course, it often ended up with Janine tackling Dodie and making her give up her pictures while threatening to drop her camera at a high place.

If there was one thing that Dodie loved, it was her camera.

"Oh for goodness sakes, no! The girls bathroom is not an option. There's always those few delinquent boys like to do their 'experiments' in the girls' rooms after school's out. If I go in and see anything out of the ordinary, I'll smack the crap outta them," Janine threatened as she faced Dodie.

The dulled ominous feeling that was in Janine's gut slightly pinged in her stomach, making her wince a bit; thankfully, it was shrouded by both the darkness and her black hoodie, making it impossible to be seen. She was slowly disliking the impulse of being down here, and it didn't help that Dodie was talking about ghosts. Janine believed that ghosts exist, henceforth, she hated it when those who teased or experimented with legends tried to make light of it or if they say that they didn't exist. The Bloody Mary stunts and whatnot made Janine's spine grow cold every time someone mentioned it.

"Then you're a brave kid you know that? I believe that ghosts exist - I've told you this. But I admit, I'm unsure about the idea of there being ghosts here at Hollowview High," Janine said as she slowly approached Dodie and sat next to her.
 
Dodie rolled her eyes and laughed. "There's no proof of any ghosts," she pointed out. She grabbed her legs and pulled her knees up to her chin. She yawned and blinked slowly, the heat making her sleepy. Dodie had had a few paranormal experiences previously - once, all the taps switched on in the bathroom when she was in alone; another time, her camera turned up random pictures of kids she had never seen in her life - but she didn't take any of them as proof of anything. Most of it could be explained through faulty wirings, malfunctions in equipment, or just flat out lies.

Every second, unbeknownst to the girls, the flames grew brighter and hotter. It started to affect the room, even though the fire still wasn't visible. The fire, while not having consumed the basement, was already charring the floor of the Maths classroom above and starting to catch fire. If it went unnoticed by the distracted staff and the two girls, then the ceiling may well just cave in. Dodie sniffed at the air, smelling that something was burning. "Hey, smell that?" She asked Janine, slowly getting to her feet. She walked a little closer to the furnace, curious but cautious.
 
Janine looked up to Dodie with a tilted head, wondering what her problem was. She sniffed the air at the prompt and shrugged her shoulders, noting the burning smell, but not putting much thought to it.

"Really Dodie? We're in a hot basement with a flaming furnace. That thing's going to smell of burning material. You're being- hey!" Janine's voice rose a little as Dodie drew closer to the furnace, feeling wary of her friend's actions.
She didn't like how close she was getting so close to the furnace - what if it let a flame come out or something?

"Hey slow down now Dodie! Step away from that thing before you burn your face!" Janine called out as she got up on her feet rather nervously. The nervousness in her stomach grew larger - she sensed something not right with the room, or rather, more specifically, the furnace, and growled a bit in her throat. She flexed her hand and looked around for something that might've showed a sign of danger, but she couldn't readily identify the danger.

A small bit of wood fell on Janine's hood, making her huff and back off from the falling splinters. She looked up in irritation, but then realised that wood wasn't supposed to be having a burning smell.... Was it? A rattle went off in Janine's head as she sniffed the air harder, backing away with a small gulp. Dodie needed to get out of here - both she and Janine needed to leave before -

"Creeeeeak"

Janine gasped and looked to the furnace, which at this point was spitting flames out of its grilled prison, nearly licking Dodie's hair and nose. Janine gasped and ran towards her friend with an outstretched hand, but then,

"Creeeeak..... Creeeak!!! CRASH!!!"

Janine screamed as the already burning wood collapsed from above, some material landing on the furnace itself while most fell to the concrete floor. She backed away with speed and reeled in her arm, holding it to make sure it didn't touch her. She panted hard as she watched burning material pile in the space that she was just sitting in, which so happened to be blocking a large amount of space to access Dodie.

"Oh no.... Dodie! Holy... Are you okay?! Say something!" Janine called out as she ran around the rupturing pipes.
 
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Dodie rolled her eyes. "It smells of burning wood though. They burn coal in the furnace." She pointed out. She crouched down to look into the furnace, in case somebody had shoved something that wasn't meant to be there into it. As she searched for something wrong, she was unable to see how the ceiling was shivering and how it was creaking under the stress. Suddenly, the fire leapt out at her face and she squealed, stumbling backwards too avoid the heat.

She finally noticed the creaking. She looked up at the ceiling just as it collapsed. She screamed and dropped to her hands and knees, covering her head with her hands as she waited for it to pass. Once it did pass, she couldn't see Janine past the great wall of tables, chairs, and general rubble, much of it now on fire.

Dodie burst into a coughing fit, already having inhaled a lot of smoke. "J-Janine!" She shouted the best she could through the roaring of the flames and the smoke in her lungs. "H-help!" She coughed into her sleeve as she ran from one end of the wall to the other, looking for a weakness. She found an area, directly in front of the furnace, where the wall looked to be a little more unstable. Dodie turned her shoulder to the weak part and ran full sprint, hoping to knock it over. But Dodie had never been the strongest girl, and the wall only shook...at least, that's what she thought.

Further up the wall, a table that was only slightly on fire was dislodged. It shivered, and finally tumbled down, right onto Dodie.

The air was knocked out of her as the heavy table hit her in the chest, pinning her to the ground. It broke a few of her ribs, but she didn't notice as she kept fading in and out. All that was in her lungs was burning, boiling smoke that felt like she was being cooked from the inside out. Faintly, she heard Janine call out to her. "Ja...nine..." she tried, but her voice was a ragged, raspy mess. Finally, her head hit the ground as she drifted out. She wasn't dead just yet, but the fire that was quickly surrounding her seemed to have a way to fix that.
 
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Roaring flames spread all over the surface area of the floor as more of the ceiling threatened to collapse. Janine felt herself panic, racing near recklessly in and attempt to save Dodie. A nearby pipe made a borderline deafening sound as it exploded from the heat and pressure, making Janine scream and leap back. Her lungs panted with panic, soon to draw the teenager into hyperventilating, which would be deadly if she stayed any longer. But she refused to leave - not with her only friend still trapped.

She heard Dodie call out for her, making Janine ignore the dancing flames as she jumped through a small opening that seemed to get her closer to rescuing Dodie. But when Janine couldn't see her, it made her whimper; where was she? Smoke assailed Janine's lungs as she kicked burning wood away from the pile, forcing her to cough harshly into her arm. She used her jacket as a makeshift mask, taking it off and wrapping the sleeves behind her head while using the body of the jacket to cover her mouth and nose.

"Dodie! Hang on, I'm coming!" Janine called out as loud as she could. It was very surprising how loud fire could be when it raged like this. It seemed that no matter how many objects Janine lifted, she wasn't getting any closer to Dodie. Then, Janine had a sudden idea. Perhaps she wasn't strong enough. Maybe she needed to change to rescue Dodie. Her mom often prompted Janine to ask herself if shifting in front of Dodie was worth the danger and risk that went along with it. Her mother's words echoed in her head once more.

"Think wisely... How important is your friendship to you? Is she worth risking your secret?"

Without hesitation, Janine nodded her head. Yes. She was worth the risk - hands down worth the risk. With a sharp growl, Janine closed her eyes and concentrated; but just when she was in her moment, Dodie's faint voice broke her concentration. No! Don't pass out! Not yet! Janine had begun to think that maybe her transformation would take too long, and that she should just try to take Dodie normally.

Just when she took a hand and removed a piece of warm metal, the pile shifted and leaned towards her, and a sturdy piece of wood whacked her chest. She felt the wind rush out of her as she hit her back on the wall, and gasped desperately for fresher air. She felt herself on the brink of passing out, but she somehow forced and willed herself to stay conscious, struggling to her feet with shaking legs.
Suddenly, voices coming from the stairway flew to Janine's ear, making her slowly lift her head. She couldn't see from the thick smoke, but she sensed several people coming down to the basement. Too weary to speak up, Janine slumped back to the floor and tried to focus on breathing, waiting for the figures to grab her and Dodie. A short moment later, even though it felt like an eternity, she was lifted up and taken in the arms of a person.

With weary eyes Janine barely saw another figure trying to lift rubble from the pile near the furnace, and she relaxed a bit with a sigh. She closed her eyes, her willingness to stay awake fading as she allowed herself to go unconscious.
 
The wall of rubble was much stronger than was initially thought. By the time it was brought down, and Dodie could maybe be rescued, she was long, long gone. She was nothing but a charred thing resembling nothing like the bright-haired girl she had been just a few short minutes ago, with only a camera remaining to identify her as long as the only witness was unconscious. They declared her dead on the scene, and was identified through her photographs, filled with selfies.

Even still, her spirit dwelled in some state of limbo, numb to the new, paranormal world that had now opened up to her. Her spirit drifted towards the closest possible reassurance - Janine - while essentially sleepwalking. The spirit slipped beside Janine in her bed in the ambulance, curled up like a foetus. The spirit stayed there, invisible to everyone, just waiting to wake up.



12:39pm, the next day

Bell Hospital was bright and bustling, full of nurses and doctors all going around their daily business, unaware that for one teenage boy, his whole life was falling apart.

Sean stumbled into the hospital, dragging his feet as he came up to the front desk. "Can I...can I see Janine Hopkins, please?" He croaked. "I'm her brother." He lied. His face was tear stained and puffy, and he was dressed in a baggy sweatshirt and sweatpants. His hair was a mess, stuck up in all directions. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have been seen dead looking like he did. He didn't care now. He really, really didn't care.

After a while of conversation with the nurse at the desk - on Sean's side, it was mostly lies - the nurse gave him Janine's room number. TWrd102 - Teen Ward, Room 102. Where Dorothy should have been.

He trudged forwards, following the nurses directions. He came to the door marked '102', and mercilessly, he tore the sliding door open. He stomped into the room, not caring if Janine was awake or not, and pulled up a chair, sitting down next to her bed. He folded his arms and leant back in the chair, chewing on a stick of bubblegum.
 
((Bruh you're gonna trigger a chick with that uneven time xD
What's wrong with 12:40? :p:D))

For the majority of the time Janine was unconscious, she had been in a silent world of darkness. It was warm and comforting, and she almost didn't want to wake up, but something had been tugging at her subconscious. She barely had the energy to try and figure it out, but then the atmosphere became.... Hot.
As if she was in an oven. Or in a stuffy dark room...

In an instant, large bursts of flame erupted from all sides, in a sort of surreal state of movement. Then the sounds of burning debris falling crashed in her ears, and when she looked up, a large desk came down above her. And then....

"SLAM!"

Janine suddenly came back to consciousness, though she kept her eyes closed for a moment longer. She heard her what she guessed were footsteps drawing closer to her, then shuffling around as the owner of the feet must've sat down. Her chest rose and fell more noticeably at this point, when she involuntarily took a quiet, yet larger inhale and exhale, her head turning to the side of the sound.

She decided to open her eyes, but she did so rather slowly, as the light took a while to adjust after being in the dark for so long. She saw a figure near her bed, but her vision was still a bit blurry, so she assumed it was her mom, and opened her mouth to cry to her; but she sooner caught the scent of a male, and the scent of bubblegum. Even in her groggy and slightly disorientated state she knew it wasn't her mom nor a nurse, so she closed her eyes and faced her head forward, suppressing the growl that nearly, impulsively, came out of her throat.

"Who are you?" Jami asked somewhat curiously.
 
((idk I just like uneven stuff :p))

Sean lifted his leg up to his chin, sitting his foot in the chair. He bit his tongue so that he wouldn't start crying again - the fourth time that day - but it was difficult. He couldn't focus on anything except from the camera that the police had given to him when they found out that they were related. The same camera was tucked into the pocket of his sweatshirt, along with her glasses, which somehow escaped without massive fire damage. He took the camera out now, switching it on and looking into the photos. He looked through them - the first few were all photos to do with yearbook - and came to a picture she had taken of herself.

He stared at the photo, holding his breath for so long that he might have just passed out. He wish that he would already. He hadn't got a second of sleep the previous night. He couldn't stop thinking about the fire. The idea that he had only been a couple hundred yards away on the football (soccer) pitch wouldn't leave him alone. He stared back at his sister, her smiling face frozen in time. Maybe if he focused hard enough, she would come out of the camera, just like she had been before. He knew that nothing would happen - he wasn't as dumb as he looked. Looking at the picture, he finally saw how alike they looked. He had never seen it before, but now he could tell that the only real difference between them was that Sean was taller, had shorter hair, and didn't have glasses. That was it.

Still looking at the picture, he couldn't hold it back. He burst into tears, burying his face into his hands. He shoved the camera back into his pocket as he tried to calm himself down. He froze mid-sob as he heard a voice ask him who he was. He looked up from his hands, face even more tear-stained than it had been before. He fixed Janine with a steady glare. "Don't act like you don't know me," he growled, staring at her. "You've been in my house plenty times before." He stuffed his hands into his pocket and pulled out Dodie's glasses, only a little charred. He stared down into the cracked glass and then looked back up at Janine.

"Sean Thompson. I'm in a few of your classes. A lot of Dodie's." He whispered. His voice cracked when he said her name, and he stared crying again, hugging his leg to his body as he tried to calm down.
 
The crying had put Janine off a moment, making her wonder why the person was doing so. Something sad must've happened. But Janine was still a bit out of it to think too far in her mind; in honesty, she wished that she could fall asleep. But the boy in here came in here for a reason - she figured it be polite to see what the purpose of the visit was.

When the boy growled at her, Janine opened her right eye in a narrowed slit, letting a bit of her stuck growl from earlier come out a little in response. What is he growling for? When he claimed that she had visited his house before, Janine tried to think on what he was talking about. Then he stated his name.

Sean Thompson.

Janine gasped in her head at the name; he's Dodie's brother. She remembered him in a few of her classes; her Art elective, her math class, and her earth science. She remembered how bulky and strong he looked every time she saw him; as she expected from a jock like him. She noted how she never saw him talk to Dodie at all while at school; at first it didn't mean anything to her, but as she grew in relationship with Dodie, she cared about his lack of communication during school hours. Granted, she knew he had would most likely talk to her at home, but the chances were only miniscule of a rise. It irked her for some reason, and as a result, he was disliked by her.

"Ahh, Sean... I figured it was you. Your scent is quite strong," the teenager stated with a somewhat quieted voice. She flicked an ear at his quiet sobs and turned her head to face him again, her vision finally allowing her to see properly. She wondered why he was crying and was going to ask when she scented something that suggested it was burned. A vague feeling of dread fell upon her and settled throughout her body, making her swallow hard as she dared to open her mouth. "Where is your family?" Janine asked.
 
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Sean wiped at his eyes with his sleeve, which was already marked with snot and tear stains. He took a deep breath in and out as he looked back up at Janine. He couldn't focus on one emotion for long. He went from anger to forgiveness to grief to a plain, deep empty nothing, switching constantly. His voice was monotone when he replied.

"When I left, mum was in the bedroom, dad was in the basement, and Alice was in the living room." He nodded quietly to himself, as if he was proud for remembering. It hadn't even been a day and he was struggling to keep track of his thoughts. The Thompson's house was a large, three story home with a basement and an attic - so really, it was five stories. They owed the house to their dad, who was a senior anaesthetist in Bell Hospital. Normally, if all the family was home, they would all keep to the one floor, normally the ground (first) where the living room and kitchen was. Now, they were all spread out; Marie on the second (third) floor, David in the basement, and Alice on the ground (first). Sean couldn't remember a time things had been like that.

He'd forgotten to give Alice lunch before he left. Whatever. She was probably mature enough to make something herself.



Dodie's spirit shuffled around on the bed, making no sound and showing no signs of movement. She was practically not even there. She slowly woke up from her little unconscious stupor and uncurled herself, yawning loudly - of course, no one else could see it. She blinked a few times as she sat up, looking around the room. She wished she could ask the question 'where am I?', but she had been to plenty of 'take your daughter to work' days, and she would recognise a ward anytime of the day. The why was a more pressing question...

She remembered the fire, and let out a sort of breathy-laugh of relief. She'd been saved. Of course she had! The campus was full of people to help out at all times. It made sense for her to be in the hospital. She owed her lack of pain to the morphine that they must have given her, but then she turned her attention to an important matter, which was why she didn't have her own bed.

She turned to look at Janine, smiling softly though plain curiosity across her face. "Hey, Janine, I'm glad we're alive and all, but why are we in the same..." her sentence fell away on her lips when she realised that while Janine had plenty of machines hooked up to her, Dodie had none, and that Janine wasn't reacting to her voice or her touch. Her gaze drifted to the boy sitting nearby, and she recognised him instantly. "Sean!" She exclaimed, hopping out of bed. The nurse that was helping another girl in a different bed didn't react.
 
Janine nodded her head at the brother's answer, and sighed. She wasn't fully aware of how the family was when she wasn't there, but from what Sean was saying, and from what Dodie had often mentioned, the Thompsons tended to stay in the same area during times of unity. Perhaps it was because Dodie wasn't there.
Janine couldn't help but notice that Sean wasn't being his usual self. He was shaky and crying, and his voice wavered throughout the conversation.

Something was wrong. He was sad about something, and she knew it wasn't because Sean was comforting her. Sure he was there, but he didn't seem to be there with that in mind. She could tell from how he spoke earlier. Janine was even more and more hesitant in asking the question that she wanted to know the answer to, but at the same time, didn't want to hear it. Her stomach ached in protest to her thoughts, but she shoved her nervousness aside once more and opened her mouth.

"Sean? What are you here for? Why aren't you sitting with Dodie?" Janine asked with a strained huff.
 
Dodie looked at Janine. "I mean, he is technically..." she said.

Sean looked up from his lap, face contorted in anger, but also confusion and distress. "What, is that a joke?" He spat, squinting his blue eyes at her as if to see into her head. He paused a few seconds to see what she would do, but quickly figured it out. She had only just woken up when he came in the room. She didn't know.

Sean choked on his own oxygen, coughing and spluttering. When he recovered, he looked back up at Janine, eyes welling up again. "Because she's not here." He said quietly. He didn't want to say dead. It felt too final.

Dodie tilted her head. "I-I am, I-I'm right here," she stuttered, stepping forward. She tried to put a hand on his shoulder, but it slipped right through his body. She tried again. The same thing. "S-Sean!" She shouted, trying to pull him into a hug, but her body flopped right through him and she slipped to the cold hospital floor. She stumbled up to her feet.

"Wh-what's going on!?" She shouted, and nobody reacted. She tried to calm her breathing. She must be dreaming. Caused by the morphine they must have her on. She just had to wake up. She lifted her hand and slapped herself in the face, but even though she heard the sound clear as day, she didn't feel a single bit of pain.
 
Janine blinked at Sean's snap towards her and turned her head fully to see him. His coughs worried her, not just on his own sake, but for her own as well. What was he so choked up about? Was Dodie more hurt than her? How hurt was she? Was Dodie...? No.... Don't think like that, Janine told herself. She saw the people get to Dodie's place. At least she thought she did. Her memory was a bit hazy after being hit by the chunk of wood. She could only see her bits of memory in a blurry haze at that point, too disorienting to confidently place what happened. She had really hoped for what she thought to had happened.

Sean's words didn't sound too good. Not good at all. Janine swallowed at his statement, but she didn't quite know what he meant. She would blame it on the medicine - which by the way, annoyed Janine to no end on how she was hooked to needles and tubes; something that she never thought she'd be in - but it was beyond that. Most of it probably was that she knew what Sean meant, but was too in denial to admit it. "Not here? As in what? Not in this hospital?" Janine probed once more.
 
Sean glared at Janine, sniffling as he tried not to cry any more. "She's dead." He whispered. He hated the words as soon as they left his mouth, and put a hand over his mouth as if he could take the words back. "They couldn't...they couldn't get to her in time." He added. He buried his face in his hands, sobbing quietly. He couldn't believe that he'd actually said it.

Dodie stared at her brother, baffled. She was...dead? No, that couldn't be right. How was she there if she was dead? She put her hands on the bed to steady herself, but if she fell it wasn't like it would hurt. She felt dizzy and sick, but she couldn't throw up. She squeezed her eyes shut.

'I'm...a ghost.'

That's why everyone was acting like they couldn't see her. She wasn't there for them. She felt like she was crying, but there was nothing for her to cry. She looked up at Janine and her brother. "Please tell me this is a prank..." she whispered. She took a deep breath in. "Look at me! I'm here! I...I exist!" She tried to shake the bed, but her hand slipped right through. It felt good to shout. Before - when she was alive - she never raised her voice above a normal speaking level.
 
Janine's stomach flipped when the words hit her ears. She stared blankly at the brother for a long moment before it seemed to sink in, and it then hit her in a newer sense when she finally registered it. She blinked and frowned, looking down at her hands before she stared at the ceiling. A few more seconds later and she shook her head, her breath beginning to shudder.

"No she isn't. You're lying," Janine said with a huff. But even as she said those words, she knew what they were - the truth. She just didn't want to admit it. She shook her head again and closed her yes. Dodie couldn't have died. Janine saw her being rescued.... Or did she? No! Stop it she was rescued. She's resting and recovering like her, and she was going to be better.

Janine made a small growl as she finally opened her mouth with her slightly raspy voice. "That's not possible. I thought I saw them grab for her. She was under so much stuff yeah but still.." Janine froze as her throat began to ache and she tried to relax it with swallowing, but it doesn't help. She clenched her fists and turned the other way, not wanting to see Sean's face when he spoke.
 
Sean looked up at Janine, giving her a look sharper than a knife. "Why the fuck would I joke about that?" He hissed. "If she was alive, why the hell would I be here with you?" He added, sour and bitter. He stared down at his lap again, pulling out her charred glasses. "Here. Here. Look at me. Look at these if you don't believe me." He whimpered, voice slipping and cracking in every way. He dropped the glasses into her lap.

Dodie stared at the glasses, all burnt and distorted. She lifted her hand to the glasses she was wearing then and slipped them off. Though she couldn't see it all too clear, they were obviously perfectly fine. She put her glasses back on and tried to take the other pair, but they slipped through her hands too. This wasn't a prank. There was no way she would be able to put her hand through things if it was just a stupid prank.

"The wall was too tough, and they didn't have the equipment. The fire department didn't come for another five minutes." He stared into his hands, sniffling as he tried not to cry again. He couldn't remember how many times he had cried now, but he didn't care.
 
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