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The Philver Scream

Thank God It's Friday

Chapter 3

Word Count: 75k

Rated: R

Genre: Horror

Of course, there was nothing like dead children to ruin the mood.

Phil’s face had turned an ashy white and Dan’s face had turned into a confused look of concern.

“You think you killed them?” Dan clarified. “How?”

“I had a dream last night-”

In the worst possible timing, their waitress brought out their pizzas.

“-thank you-anyway, I had a dream last night that you and I were camp counselors-”

“Me?” Dan asked. A part of him wanted to make a “you dreamed of me?” joke, but he could tell by Phil’s expression and even paler face- honestly he didn’t know Phil could even get any paler- that this was serious.

“Yeah, you and me, and we were camp counselors, at THAT camp.”

“And?” Dan prompted.

“And?” Phil repeated, confused. “We died! Horribly! Dramatically!”

Dan shook his head.

“So you’re telling me that you had a dream that you and I-”

“And other teens-”

Dan sighed, frustrated at being interrupted.

“Alright, so that you and me and other people were camp counselors at that camp, and we all died.”

“Murdered.”

Dan nodded, trying not to roll his eyes.

“Well how do you even know it’s the same camp?” Dan asked.

“I saw the sign in the news footage!”

“What if you’re just misremembering and this jogged your memory of your dream and you just think it’s the same camp now?”

“It wasn’t a dream, it was a nightmare!”

Dan sighed but decided not to point out that it had been Phil who had started calling it a dream first. He could be so childish sometimes. It got to be grating.

“Okay, well, whatever it is, I’m sure it had nothing to do with you.”

“We HAVE to go down there and investigate!”

Dan had finally started to reach for a slice of the pizza he order but stopped suddenly.

“Woah, woah, woah. We don’t have to do anything. This has nothing to do with us.”

Phil couldn’t help but notice his heart skip a beat at the use of Dan’s “us” despite everything.

“Dan, I’m TELLING you, I have something to do with this.”

Dan finally succumbed to rolling his eyes.

“Dan! Please. I’m asking you. As a favor. As a friend. Please. I want to be on this case.”

“How do you know the FBI is even going to look into this?”

In a moment of instant karma, his phone lit up and he glanced down at it quickly.

Are you seeing the news coming out of Texas??? Going to be called down there ASAP!!!

It was Jake.

Dan let out a heavy sigh. He stared down at his pizza. He stared at Phil. He stared down at his pizza again.

“Fine.”

Phil’s face split into a smile.

“But I’m finishing this fucking pizza first.”

*-*-*-*-*

“You know, just because you dreamed this before it happened doesn’t mean you killed them,” Dan offered.

They had driven back to Phil’s apartment where Phil had packed a bag and left his car. They then hopped into Dan’s car and started the drive back down to Quantico.

“Well what, then?” Phil asked. He was distressed, Dan could tell.

“Maybe you just saw it before it happened,” Dan suggested.

“Like what, seeing the future?”

Dan shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“I can’t do that,” Phil shook his head.

Dan’s grip on the steering wheel tightened ever so slightly.

“Well I don’t know what you can do,” he argued. Because you never talk to me.

“I do talk to you!” Phil whined.

Dan slammed on the brakes a bit too hard as the car in front of him started slowing down. He used the break as an opportunity to sip his coffee.

“You said you wouldn’t do that,” he commented stoically.

“I can’t control it!”

“Alright, Phil, just calm down-”

“Don’t tell me to calm down!”

The radio started to become staticy as it flipped through the stations.

“This only happens when you’re around, anyway!”

Dan started grinding his teeth.

“And whose fault is that?”

“Yours! If you weren’t so-” Phil gestured him up and down in the driver’s seat- “you!”

Dan rolled his eyes, but he knew what Phil meant.

“I’m sorry I’m such a problem. I’ll just drop you off if that’s what you want, then.”

Phil bit his tongue. Once again he needed Dan, and he knew that.

“This doesn’t happen with anyone else,” he muttered instead, under his breath. Dan heard him, though.

“You don’t have anyone else,” Dan muttered back. He reached for the volume dial and cranked it up. Phil pulled out his trusty earbuds and plugged them into his phone and cranked the volume up himself.

*-*-*-*-*

There was no fanfare, no welcome, when they arrived on Quantico’s campus. Dan parked his car in one of the numerous parking lots and Phil followed him into the building. Dan led the way through a series of hallways and up and down floors until he was able to locate Jake in his office.

“Dan!”

Phil peered around the doorway behind Dan.

“And you must be Phil!”

Does he know? Phil asked, reaching out.

No. Dan smiled at Jake, never once turning back to look at Phil.

“You’re back much sooner than I expected!”

“Didn’t you get my text back?” Dan asked.

“Well, sure, but I still didn’t really expect you to have such an interest in the case!”

Dan reached a finger under the collar of his leather jacket and scratched absent-mindedly. “Yeah, well, you know Phil just saw the case on the news and really thought he could lend a hand to the case! He asked as a personal favor if I could bring him down here to talk to you guys about it.”

Jake focused his attention on Phil.

“Well, you drove all the way down here, I’m sure there’s something you can help us out with while you’re here. I can’t promise much else though. I’m a bit low on the totem pole, but I’ll do my best to put in a good word for you both. If I’m being honest, I’m rather interested in this case as well. The killers hardly left a clue behind! Camp Crystal Lake is a privately owned summer camp, so it doesn’t fall under our jurisdiction, and you know how they can be down there- it’ll take a lot for them to ask for outside help.”

“Seven mutilated children isn’t enough?” Dan asked, using the same description as they had on the news. Jake shrugged.

“I’ll try my best, Dan. Let’s head down to the briefing room now and see who I can scrounge up that’s taken an interest in this case as well.”

Phil backed up so Dan could move out of the door way and Jake could exit his office. On his way out he shut off the lights and closed the door behind him. Phil heard the door lock with a click.

The three of them started down the hallway, Dan and Phil trailing behind Jake.

“So, Phil, Dan told me it’s thanks to your case that he got the FBI’s attention. Said something about you guys uncovering a mass conspiracy for some whack cancer treatment testing on people. Wild! ‘Course, it makes you wonder, if that can go under our noses for so long, what else can.”

“Probably a lot,” Phil replied.

Dan elbowed him in the ribs.

“You’re right!” Jake agreed. “That’s why it’s so great that more people like you guys are looking to join and help out around here. We do the best we can, but more eyes on something, more minds with different ideas- that’s how we’re going to make a difference.”

Only Phil didn’t want more eyes on this case. He wanted to figure it out, just him and Dan. He knew this was too big for either of them to go it alone, though. Even back when they’d been tracking down Martyn’s murderer they’d had the full force of the FBI behind them- and they’d needed it. This case was already far too big and public to go back now.

“I’m sending out a message to see if anyone’s available and willing to meet in around half an hour, or drop in at some point a bit later than that,” Jake informed them as they turned into a conference room. “Like I said, I’m not sure how much we’re really going to get out of this, but I’d hate to have you leave empty-handed. And I’m really proud of the initiative you showed by driving all the way down here. Not sure the other’s will see it that way,” he added quietly, almost as an afterthought to himself.

Jake took a seat and gestured to the seats on his right. Dan took the seat closed to Jake and Phil took the seat next to Dan.

“Phil, have you ever been to Quantico before?”

Phil shook his head.

“Well, I’m not sure half an hour will really give you time to take a tour around here, but you’re both free to go get something to eat or drink if you’d like. Maybe after Dan can show you around,” Jake suggested encouragingly.

Dan turned to Phil, acting as a mediator.

“Are you good? Do you need to use the bathroom or anything?”

As annoyed as Phil was at feeling babied by Dan, as soon as he’d asked, Phil realized he did, in fact, need to use the bathroom.

“Yeah, actually,” Phil mumbled awkwardly.

Dan turned back to Jake.

“Alright, we’ll be back in a few. And thanks again, for all of this.” Dan gestured vaguely.

“Anytime, Danny-boy,” Jake smiled widely. Dan smiled warmly back and Phil felt his stomach (and his fists) tighten.

Dan pushed back from the table and stood up followed by Phil. They exited the conference room.

“‘Danny-boy’?” Phil asked, trying his best to keep the sneer out of his voice.

“Whatever, he’s helping us out, alright? If you want in on this case, you’ll need to get along with him,” Dan huffed.

“‘Want in on this case’? I have insight on this case,” Phil argued.

“Insight, huh? And what exactly do you have? Because the cops down there haven’t found anything.”

“We were there, Dan-”

“You were there.”

Phil tried his best to push aside the memory of how he was feeling that night in his dream, before all the murder had started to happen. They had been… attracted to each other. But that was just part of the dream. That part wasn’t real, just like Phil wasn’t really there.

Phil had been feeling off since the whole thing. He felt… moodier. Little things that didn’t normally bother him were getting to him, and a part of him felt like he was overreacting to these things, but there was a darker part of himself he was desperately trying to push down as it desperately tried to claw it’s way out. It felt like he was justified in being annoyed at all of this. This, whatever “this” was, just wasn’t him. But was he really so wrong for being upset at how Dan was treating the whole thing?

In the end, Phil managed to bite his tongue until they made it down the hall to the bathroom.

“He was right, this place really is nice,” Phil tried instead, hoping that by forcing out his positive thoughts they could overcome his negative emotions.

“It is. I’ve had a lot of fun working here. More fun than I’ve had in years.”

It was hard not to take that personally.

The bathroom, thankfully, had stalls, and Phil was able to lock himself in one and just give himself a moment to breathe.

Phil sat on the toilet and hung his head in his hands. Things were moving so fast. This was just supposed to be a lunch date between friends, right? They were friends, after all.

Nothing more, nothing less, said a little voice in his head.

He didn’t care. He didn’t care.

He did care.

Phil curled his fingers in his hair and pulled. The pain of his hair tugging matched the emotional turmoil he was feeling. It felt good. It felt like something. Like maybe if he went far enough, was dramatic enough, someone would notice how hurt he was feeling inside and stop to ask him what the matter was. Who, though? Who could he even talk to about this? Certainly not Dan, and certainly not Jake.

“You good in there?” Dan asked, almost as if on cue.

“Yeah, I’m fine!” Phil responded in a cheery voice. It sounded so fake to him, and yet so real. Of course, he’d always had to wear a mask of sorts, hiding all the things he felt inside from others. But it was almost worse when it was his own feelings.

Phil stood up and turned around and finally unzipped his pants to take a piss. When he was done he walked out of the stall. Dan was waiting for him as he washed his hands, leaning with his back up against the wall by the sink.

“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how chilling it must have been to see us getting murdered.”

Phil nodded and walked past him out the bathroom door without a word.

They walked back into the conference room and sat back down in their chairs. Phil pulled out his phone and his earbuds and plugged them into one another before putting the round parts in his ears. He opened up his music app and looked for the heaviest music he had before hitting play.

Dan opened his own phone and started scrolling through his social media feed. Phil noticed a lot of hot guys out of the corner of his eye. He tried not to compare himself to them and turned the volume up on his music. A glance over from Dan alerted him that he could hear Phil’s music, but Phil really didn’t care. Anything to drown his own thoughts out.

After what seemed like an eternity and yet not enough songs, Jake returned followed by some men in crisp suits of varying ages.

Unlike a normal conference table, this one was round, meaning that when the men sat down, no one was sitting at the head of the table. Otherwise, Phil assumed, Jake would have been the one sitting there. He’d been the one to organize this meeting, after all.

“Welcome in,” Jake greeted, sounding almost like a cashier welcoming people into their store begrudgingly. “The time is now eighteen hundred hours on August the 13th. We are meeting here to discuss the case out of Texas regarding the mass murder of seven local teens.”

Jake looked around the room at each of them, waiting to see if anyone had anything to add.

Jake shuffled the file he’d brought in with him and flipped through the pages within the envelope.

“As of right now we have not been invited into the case, and since the camp is privately owned we don’t have any legal grounds to insert ourselves into the case. Our boys in black down there at the Texas Bureau of Information are of course on scene and working with local law enforcement, but they haven’t asked to bring the big guns in yet by any means.”

Jake looked around again.

“With us here I have a recent graduate of our training program, Detective Howell, as well as a specialist we have who has worked with Detective Howell in the past, Phil Lester.”

“A specialist in what?” One of the men piped up. Phil shifted nervously in his seat.

“He’s an on-call psychic.”

Phil could hear audible snickers around the room and felt a bump on his leg as Dan knocked his knee against Phil’s in silent support. The feeling from Dan’s knee lingered against Phil’s leg, and he clutched on to it.

“They have an interest in the case and would like to be sent down on our behalf to send a report back from us.”

“What’s the interest?” the same man asked. Dan pipped up this time.

“What’s not to be interested in? Seven murders and no evidence left behind?”

A few of the men nodded, acknowledging the fact.

“If the case really is so bamboozling then what’s the point of sending a greenie and a kook? Why waste the resources? There are plenty of other cases other people aren’t vying for to send them on.”

“Like I said, they expressed a personal interest.”

“I believe I can be of some assistance,” Phil pipped up, “and if they have no leads, then working another angle without taking away any real resources from their investigation wouldn’t hurt, would it? We’d stay out of their way unless they needed a hand with something but conduct our own investigative angle on the side.”

Phil caught a supportive look from Jake.

The older men looked around at each other.

“And once again this is time and money. Why should we be spending those on this case?”

“For time, I don’t have any classes I’m teaching coming up, meaning there’s no reason I can’t be out in the field. Detective Howell doesn’t have any cases to assist on yet, because, as you pointed out, he’s a newbie. Mr. Lester is a consultant, but is willing to work pro-bono on this. In fact, we all are. What we’re asking for is the resources from the FBI to work it under their name. If you really need me to, I’d be more than happy to work back the funds it would take to put us up in a hotel, gas, food, etc.”

One of the older men leaned back in his chair in thought while another one leaned forward, clasping his hands in front of him on the desk.

“Well, I for one, think it could be a good thing,” said a man who hadn’t spoken up to this point. He had a snow white beard and looked scholarly despite his suit and tie. “There’s never anything wrong with having our own boots on the ground in a case like this.”

The man to his right nodded in agreement.

The man leaning forward on the desk, one of the ones that’d been asking Jake to justify this trip shook his head. “I just don’t think it’s worth the expense.”

The beared man waved a hand and shook his head.

“You guys and your finances. If we don’t let people here have opportunities like this, there won’t be a Federal Bureau of Investigation in the future. They’re young! Let them travel and work on this, even just for a few days. If you really get worried about the expenses, call them back home.”

The finances guy looked to the guy on his left.

“Fine. You’ll leave at oh seven hundred hours tomorrow. We’ll start getting ready for your trip now. Jake, you’re with me. The other two can stay in the dorms for the night.”

The men got up and started shuffling their way out. Jake turned to look at Dan.

“Your old dorm room should be empty if you’d like to sleep up there,” he suggested. Dan nodded. Jake shifted his gaze to Phil

“It was really nice to finally meet you, Phil. I’ve heard so much about you, I’m really looking forward to seeing what you can offer on this case.”

Phil smiled thinly and followed Dan out of the building towards the dorms.

“If he doesn’t know about what I can do, then what exactly does he think I do?” Phil asked as they walked.

“Pretty much he just thinks you go around and look at things and get vibes from them and translate those into something,” Dan explained.

“But that is what I do.”

“Yeah, well, I left out the part where you can deflect bullets and change the radio by blinking at it and, oh yeah, talk to people in their heads.”

Phil shrugged.

They stood outside the dorm rooms.

“This was the one I was staying in.” Dan held up a key and used it to unlock the door to his old dorm room, flicking on the lightswitch to his right.

Phil could feel the sense of home radiating off Dan: the nostalgia, the comfort, the familiarity. He missed it here. It was like he’d never wanted to come back home to Massachusetts. To Phil.

Phil pushed the feelings away as best as he could.

“Where am I sleeping?” he asked rather bluntly.

Dan went back out into the hall and unlocked the room next door with the same key.

“Bathrooms are down the hall on the right. Think you’ll be okay for the night?”

Phil went to answer when all of a sudden his stomach growled loudly.

Dan couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Pizza again for dinner okay?” he asked with a grin.

Phil rolled his eyes and a small smile escaped from his lips.

“Do you know a place?”

Dan smiled wider.

“I do.”

“Alright, let’s go then.”

*-*-*-*-*

Another booth in another pizza parlor on another road trip with Dan, only this time, he was an agent.

“Do you have a badge and everything?” Phil asked around a mouthful of cheese, sauce, and crust.

“Not yet. There’s still a lot I need to do before I become an official agent.”

“Did you come here with Jake a lot?” Phil asked.

“Yeah, I did,” Dan answered. He didn’t know why Phil was being so weird about Jake. Jake was a nice guy, and if anything, he was putting a lot on the line to help Phil with this little whim of his. He hoped Phil would lighten up soon. Even hunting down Martyn’s killers Phil had been the one to see the bright side of things. Now, everything just felt like doom and gloom. It felt like Phil had his own personal cloud hanging over his head, the weight of this prophetic dream he felt like he couldn’t share with anyone else, because they could never fully understand or felt the things he’d felt.

“Was it scary?” Dan asked.

Phil’s eyes flickered down to his lap.

“It was terrifying,” he finally answered in a hushed voice.

He placed the slice of pizza he’d been eating down and pushed the plate off to the side a bit.

“I’m sorry you went through that,” Dan said. He’d been trying to work on his “people skills” since joining the bureau. That was another thing Jake had been helping him with.

“I feel… different,” Phil admitted.

Dan cocked his head to the side just a bit.

“I can tell,” he replied.

“I’m sorry,” Phil apologized.

Dan shook his head. “I hope you feel better. But, in the meantime, do you think you should maybe… talk to someone?”

“Like you?” Phil asked, slightly confused.

“No, I mean, like, a therapist or something. You don’t have to go into detail about your powers and everything, but plenty of people have awful dreams that really leave an impact on them. Maybe a therapist would have some suggestions, and ways to help make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Phil hadn’t even thought about what would happen if he’d to have another dream like that one.

“I hate it when you call them that,” he mentioned.

“What?” Dan asked.

“My ‘powers’.”

“Well, what do you want me to call them? Your gifts? You abilities?”

Phil shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Dan nodded, sensing another opportunity to work on his communication and interpersonal relationships. “Well, that’s okay. I’ll try to avoid calling them that from now on, and maybe in the meantime, we can, or you can, think of an alternative thing to call them by.”

Phil shrugged again and pulled the plate with his half-eaten pizza slice back to take another stab at it.

“I don’t like feeling like this,” he mentioned casually.

Dan nodded. “I’m sure. I can’t tell what you’re feeling or what you’re going through but I can see how much it’s taking a toll on you.”

“I’m worried I’m going to take it out on you and Jake,” Phil admitted, his heart pounding in his chest.

“We understand. We’re on your side, Phil. We have your back.”

*-*-*-*-*

Phil’s alarm went off at 6:30 the next morning. He didn’t know if breakfast would be here or on the way to the air strip, but either way, he really needed to pee, and should probably brush his teeth.

Phil rooted around in his duffle bag for his toiletries pouch and made his way to the bathroom down the hall.

He was tired from the night before. He’d been worried about falling asleep and having another nightmare, so he’d stayed awake as long as he could before finally succumbing to sleep. Before that, though, he’d stared at the walls, stared out the window, stared at his phone screen… he’d wanted some fresh air and to go outside, but he knew with his horrible sense of direction he’d get lost trying to find the dorm rooms again, so he’d settled for a comfy arm chair like the one he sat in back at his apartment by an open window. It’d been a full moon on a mostly cloudless night, and it’d lit up his room in beautiful hues. He stared at the wall separating the room he was staying in and the one Dan’d had during his time training here, willing Dan to come over and talk to him, but he hadn’t.

Now, they were packing up their things and heading off towards the company car.

The three of them threw their duffle bags in the back. Jake climbed in behind the wheel, and though Phil totally expected it, it made his heart drop when Dan took the passenger seat beside Jake, leaving Phil to sit in the back by himself.

Phil pulled out his earbuds and turned on some music.

“Is he alright?” he heard Jake ask as they started to pull away from Quantico.

“Yeah, he just does that,” Dan explained.

Phil turned his music up a little louder.

*-*-*-*-*

The ride to the air strip was a short one. Phil couldn’t help but be grateful that they were flying. The idea of a two-day car trip in the back seat with Jake and Dan in the front sounded all sorts of awkward that Phil wasn’t looking forward to.

They’d be flying to an airstrip about an hour out from the camp itself and a little less than an hour from where local law enforcement had set up their base in one of the bigger police headquarters. There’d be a car to meet them at the airstrip and drive them first to meet up with Texas Bureau of Investigation officials working in the headquarters where they’d get established before being driven over to the scene.

Breakfast, as it turns out, was served on the FBI jet. There was an assortment of bagels, muffins, fruit, and more. Phil felt very out of place in his every-day clothes on what, to him, felt like a very fancy jet. It was like something straight out of one of those crime investigation shows they aired on TV.

Of course, the first time Phil had been in a helicopter was when they’d helicoptered him and Dan over to the medical base, if it could be called that, last year. Phil was experiencing a lot of new things lately. His life had really taken a different direction than he ever expected. He was glad, though. He wanted to be able to use his intuitions to help people, and he hoped this way he would be able to do it on a larger scale than on his own. And if he didn’t cause the death of these kids, then maybe he could even help solve their murders.

Phil had debated whether or not to bring some of his tools with him, but he didn’t want to look even more ridiculous than he figured he would already feel. Besides, if he was right, the souls of murdered kids probably wouldn’t be that hard to reach out to and contact. Wasn’t it the stereotype that all unsolved murder victims to want to reach out and help solve their case so they could rest in peace? Phil felt that was true, at least in the case of his brother Martyn. Martyn had moved on to whatever the “other side” was, and Phil wasn’t able to contact him again. He missed his brother, but he liked to believe Martyn was in a better place than he would be if he was still stuck here with Phil. Phil was willing to trade not being able to talk to his brother again if it meant he was someplace better, wherever that may be.

Phil was nibbling on a muffin, trying very hard not to let any crumbs spill onto the carpet. There were already faint stains here and there, but he didn’t want to add to it.

Dan came and sat down next to him and Jake sat at a bench seat with a table across from them.

“Do you want to go over the case before we arrive?” Jake asked.

Dan looked to Phil but Phil shook his head.

“That’s fine. The flight should be just under three hours. We have WiFi here if you want the password. Should be long enough to watch a movie or something if you want.”

“Thanks,” Phil mumbled and went back to carefully eating his muffin.

If anything, Phil was hoping to catch some more sleep. Since the nightmare he’d had two nights ago, leading into the lunch with Dan where they left for the long drive to Quantico shortly after directly to a meeting with a bunch of men in suits Phil had never met, only to try and stay up as late as he could, afraid to go to sleep the night before, he was exhausted.

As if sensing this, Dan got up and moved to sit near Jake.

“You can lay down and take a nap if you want, Phil. I’ll take a look over the case with Jake while you do.”

The thought of being left out stung a bit, but it was better than looking over the casefile and seeing all those dead bodies- the dead bodies of people who had been his friends- or so it felt like, at least- again. Phil finished his muffin and threw the wrapper in the small waste bin under the table Jake and Dan were sitting at and then moved to curl up on the couch he’d been sitting on before.

Jake reached up behind him and pulled the shade down over the jet window to dim the room as much as he could to try and help Phil sleep. Phil appreciated it, but didn’t say anything. He put his earbuds in, turned on some music, and was asleep within minutes.

*-*-*-*-*

Phil woke up to a hand shaking him gently. When his eyes fluttered open they landed on Dan’s softly chiseled face.

“We’re almost there,” was all he said before moving back to sit down next to Jake.

The feeling of Dan’s hand on his upper arm lingered like it always did. Phil sat up, rubbing it absentmindedly. He noticed Dan glance over briefly and sheepishly stopped.

Phil pulled out his phone and checked what song was playing. It was a band he wasn’t familiar with, but the song was good, so he liked it before clicking his phone shut and slipping it back into his pocket. He let the song finish before pressing the pause button on his earbuds and gently pulling them out of his ears.

“There’ll be a car to meet us there when we land,” Jake reiterated, “and then we’ll drive over to the office. From there some local officers will take us out to the crime scene. It’s a bit of a ways away from civilization, so it’ll be a bit of a ride as well. Now, I’ve tried my best to get the point across that we’re just interested in checking out the crime because it’s, well, interesting: aka that we’re not trying to step on any toes. I’m not sure how well that’s come across, though, so it’s going to be a bit of a delicate situation until we get settled in and know for sure. I’ll handle the talking.”

Jake looked at Dan and then Phil squarely with a nod.

“I’m going to use the bathroom before we land,” Dan announced, and got up to step away.

When Dan was locked away in the bathroom Phil turned his gaze from the bathroom door to Jake.

“Did you tell the local officers anything about me?” he asked.

Jake made a so-so motion with his hand.

“I told them that we have someone with an out-of-the-box way of looking at things who wanted to take a look around. Of course, they asked me directly if it was a psychic. I had no choice but to be honest and say yes. Unless, of course, there’s another term you prefer to use?”

“No, psychic, medium, both work. I just default to psychic.”

Jake nodded.

“I’m sorry. You must really be putting your reputation out on the line to support bringing in someone like me.”

Jake waved a hand in dismissal and shook his head.

“Any favor to Dan.”

Before Phil could ask about anything else Dan unlocked the jet bathroom door and exited.

As he was walking back to his seat the pilot made an announcement about their landing and a request that the three of them remain seated during the landing process. Dan took his seat and they started their downward descent.

Phil looked out the window as they started to land, watching the fields and houses and streets and trees come into clearer and clearer focus until they were flying over and empty expanse with just a few buildings here and there.

“Did you ever think we’d be back so soon?” Phil turned to Dan and asked.

Dan started to gather up his things and shook his head.

“Never in a million years.”

*-*-*-*-*

Phil shouldered his overnight bag and carefully made his way down the steep and large steps that folded up into the jet’s door.

He had taken off the sweatshirt he’d worn that day and shoved it in his bag before they landed, tucking his trusty earbuds safely into the back pocket of his jeans.

Phil threw his bag into the SUV’s large trunk area before climbing in behind the driver. Dan climbed in next to him while Jake rode shotgun.

“What a case!” Phil heard the driver say to Jake. He’d been part of the way of putting his earbuds in but decided to hold out. He was curious how much the driver knew about the case. Backtracking, Phil wound his earbuds around his fingertips and slipped them back into his pocket while listening to the conversation happening up front.

“You bet,” Jake had replied.

“Think you’re going to find anything the locals don’t?” The driver asked.

Jake shrugged. “We’ll see,” he replied casually.

“What’s your angle?” The driver asked. Phil felt his heart in his chest.

Jake shook his head. “I’m keeping that one under wraps.”

The driver nodded with a knowing chuckle and the conversation switched topic. Phil hadn’t even realized he’d been leaning forward in his seat until he exhaled and leaned back.

“Jake’s a good guy,” Dan said to him, low enough that they couldn’t hear up front. “He’s got your back.”

Phil looked back at Dan.

“What about you?”

Dan blinked at the question. “O-of course I have your back Phil,” he responded, stumbling on his words. Phil could feel the pained emotions radiating off Dan and he realized he’d fucked up. “We wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

Dan turned to look out the window, ignoring Phil for the rest of the ride.

*-*-*-*-*

They drove through heavily forested areas, something that didn’t remind Phil of the last time they’d been here at all. He’d never imagined Texas as a state with so much forests, but here they were.

San Antonio was a large city, most notable for the San Antonio river walk and The Alamo.

Phil watched in awe out the windows as they navigated the busy city streets.

Finally they pulled into the police station.

The line of squad cars all read “San Antonio Police” with “Protecting The Alamo City” underneath in smaller letters on them.

They piled out of the car and grabbed their bags.

“I hope y'all will have some time to do some sight-seeing while you’re here!” Their driver called out as a farewell. They waved him off together and all turned to face the police headquarters.

“Just remember to let me do the talking,” Jake reminded them as they headed inside.

The inside of the police headquarters was large and modern. It was certainly a far cry from the police station that Dan had worked out of. A bigger city meant more money, though, of course.

Phil followed Jake and Dan to the front desk where the receptionist was typing away on her keyboard while cradling a phone in the crook of her neck.

She glanced up at them briefly as they approached before turning her eyes back to her screen.

“Yup, I have that here. And will that be all for you today? Alright, you have a good one now. You too. Thanks. Buh-bye.”

She reached up from her keyboard to place the phone back in it’s cradle.

“How can I help you today?” she smiled, turning her attention to the three of them.

“We’re from the FBI, we’re here to consult on your case,” Jake mentioned.

“Of course,” she smiled. “And do you have ID?”

Phil had a card in his wallet the FBI had issued him as an FBI consultant, and Dan had a card saying he was a Quantico Trainee. Jake, of course, had his FBI badge and Identification in it’s own little wallet, like the ones they had on TV.

The receptionist took each of them and scanned them into her computer system before handing them back.

“Perfect, thank you! They’ll be expecting you up on the second floor. Just head this way behind me down the hall and there’ll be an elevator on your right. From there you’ll keep going down the hall to your right to conference room two-oh-five. Just give a knock and they should let you in.”

“Great, thank you, have a great day,” Jake smiled, and led them towards the elevator in the hallway.

He turned to Dan and Phil as they waited for the elevator to arrive.

“You’re doing great so far,” he smiled at them. Considering Phil hadn’t actually done anything, he wasn’t sure if he should be offended or not.

The elevator arrived and Phil, being the last one in line, ended up being the one facing the doors once they were inside and the one pressing the button to close the doors and head up.

Finally, something useful, he thought to himself.

He could sense a nervousness behind Jake’s confident facade, but it didn’t seem to be slowing him down for a second. Phil wondered if it was all that FBI training or if Jake was just naturally like that. It was impressive either way. A part of Phil had always been ashamed of how openly emotional and heart-on-his-sleeve he could be. Martyn had always told him it was admirable, though, and he’d tried his best to believe him. That was before Phil’s emotions had led him to become a literal ticking time bomb, though. Briefly, he wondered if he could get so upset that he could obliterate himself. Emotional self-destruct. Phil’s focus turned back towards the matters at hand when the elevator slowed, and with a ding, opened the doors.

“Smile and act confident,” Jake encouraged under his breath as they exited the elevator. “You have every right to be here.”

Phil appreciated the message. He made sure his shoulders were back and to walk tall and confidently. His outfit could have probably used some improvement, but it didn’t matter. He knew Jake was right. He deserved to be here. More than anyone else, in fact.

With his newly held confidence Phil allowed himself to be the one to knock on the door, taking a step back so they could swing it open.

A police officer got up from the conference table he’d been sitting at with some coworkers and pulled open the frosted door.

“Why hello! You must be the blokes from the FBI! I’m Officer Maxwell! Come on in!”

A large man with a deep voice held the door open for the three to enter. He had red hair both on top of his head and on his face. His uniform looked like it was stretched to the limits, as if the seams were about to burst at any moment and buttons would come flying off and ricochet off the walls. He waddled back to the conference table and resumed his seat.

“This here’s Officer Jackson and Officer White.”

Officer Jackson was an older looking man with heavily tanned skin in a sheriff’s-style hat and Officer White was a beautiful woman with deep brown skin and two perfectly manicured braids running from her hairline to the small of her back.

“We have a team of detectives on scene, we’re just holding down the fort for them,” she smiled, her voice exuding a rich South African accent.

Jake held up his briefcase. “Do you mind if we take a look at what you have so far and compare notes?”

Officer White smiled and gestured towards the empty seats at the table.

Jake moved to place his overnight bag by the wall of the conference room out of the way, so Phil and Dan followed suit.

They took a row of three seats at the side of the conference table, Jake placing his briefcase with the files he’d taken with him on the empty rolling chair to his right.

“My name’s Special Agent Hall, and this is Detective Howell and Mr. Lester,” Jake introduce. Phil hadn’t realized up until this point he hadn’t heard Jake’s last name.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Your angle was that you were bringing in a psychic on the case?” Officer Maxwell asked, focusing his gaze on Phil. Jake nodded, bringing his attention back to him.

“Yes, Phil here is an on-call psychic for the FBI. He’s worked one case with Dan so far, but when he heard the case on the news and saw there wasn’t a lot of evidence to go on, he figured he could be of some help. We’re not looking to step on any toes, though. Whatever you want to share with us will be left up to your discretion. We just want to take a look and see if we can offer a new angle.”

Officer Maxwell was nodding, and when Jake finished with his pitch, he turned his attention back to Phil.

“So, how does this whole thing work, then? Do you see dead people?” Phil could tell the guy was trying to be sincere, but the words still came off as abrasive to him.

“I prefer to call them ghosts,” Phil mentioned, ignoring the quoted movie line, intentional or not, “and yes, I communicate with them.” Jake had said to be confident, so Phil was trying to stand up for himself.

Officer Maxwell nodded. “Well, if you meet any of those poor kids out there, you tell them that we’re doing the best to catch the bastard who did this to them.”

Phil smiled, feeling accepted. Even if there were feelings of doubt around the room, there was no hostility.

“Yes, sir, I intend to do just that,” Phil reassured him.

“Well then, I think we’ll get along just fine.”

*-*-*-*-*

Phil listened and even chimed in from time to time while the six of them got to know each other as they compared notes and poured over the case file. The local police had information that of course the FBI hadn’t been able to get on short-notice, like a map of the camp and stills from the crime scene.

“Our boys in white will be out there on scene too. They’ve hardly left since this whole thing went down. Real dedicated, that team there is. Some of the best, in my opinion.”

Phil nodded. The crime scene techs at the secret lab had been kind to him, and that experience had given him a hands-on perspective of their jobs and a new respect for them that he knew he’d only gotten by being there in the trenches, so to speak, with them.

“We’ll be glad to have their trained eyes help us on the scene,” Jake assured.

Officer Maxwell turned to Phil.

“Do you think you can tell us anything off these photos?”

Phil didn’t need the photos to tell them almost everything they needed to know, but he took them anyway. He stared down at the lifeless bodies of Becky, Suzie, Jessy, and Tyler, his friends in another world, as they lay there, bloody, cold, stiff, and dead. And of course, two more boys that Phil hadn’t met in his dreams. He focused on what he did know, shuffling the photos in order.

“This girl, Becky. She was the first to die. Two of the boys by the fireside heard her scream, and went running. One of them checked her pulse. That’s why the smear of blood is there on her wrist. He got blood on her when he touched her, which alerted him to the fact she was injured, but when he checked for a pulse, he found she was already gone.”

Phil flipped to the next photo.

“The boys then met up with Tyler and Suzie in the main hall. From there one of them went with Tyler to go look for Louise and Jessy. They found Louise dead in the cabins, and then went to search for Jessy.”

Phil flipped to the next photo.

“They found Jessy dead in the tool shed. When they ran back to the main hall they found Suzie and Marco dead.”

Phil flipped through the photos of Suzie and the boy who had been Dan in his dream, a boy named Marco. Phil gazed down at the boy’s face. There was a resemblance. The boy’s skin was a bit darker than Dan’s, but the brown hair and doe-like brown eyes were a fit.

“From there they encountered the killer. They split up. Tyler tried to escape by driving away, but he was killed at Louise’s car. The last boy,” Phil flipped to a photo of the boy he’d been in his dream, Dominic, “took a canoe out to the middle of the lake, thinking he could see someone coming from any side. And yet he didn’t make it.”

Phil put the photos down on the table. The room was silent for a moment. Phil felt a knee nudge against his. Phil used the connection to draw from Dan’s stoicism.

“That’s a lot to pick up from just some photos,” Officer White remarked.

Phil shrugged.

“How did Dominic die, then?” Officer Maxwell asked.

Phil picked up the picture of the boy he’d been in his dream and stared at it.

“I haven’t figured that out yet,” Phil said. “I intend to ask him if we meet.”

Jake gently removed the crime scene photo from Phil’s hand and shuffled it in with the rest of them. “What are we waiting for, then?” he asked.

*-*-*-*-*

Officer Maxwell drove a squad car with Dan and Phil in the back while Jake sat in the passenger seat. Officer Jackson drove behind them in a squad car with Officer White riding shotgun.

“What happened to holding down the fort?” Jake asked as they drove.

“Well, if I’m being honest, I’d like to take a look at the crime scene myself with the new insight your bright young man here has provided, and I’m sure it’s the same for the others,” Officer Maxwell confessed.

Phil glanced away.

“I’d be interested to know what he can pick up from the crime scene itself if he can get all that from some photos.”

“Indeed.” Jake glanced Phil’s way, and Phil felt he was going to have some explaining to do later. For now, however, it was between a twenty minute and half an hour drive over to the camp-turned-crime-scene.

Phil turned his head to look over at Dan in the other side of the back seat, and he returned the gesture.

“What if I can’t help find who did this?” Phil asked.

Dan shook his head.

“You’re giving them more information. Anything you can provide is helpful, Phil. No one’s expecting you to solve the case. That’s their job. We’re just here to help.”

“That’s right,” Officer Maxwell chimed in from the front of the car.

They drove down a dirt road, clouds of dust flying up in the air around the car as the tires churned out the dry dirt. A sign on the right hand of the road read “Camp Crystal Lake”. Phil fought the urge to reach out and draw strength from Dan. He needed to learn how to hold his own.

They drove until they came to the parking lot that Tyler had been killed in. Louise’s car was still there, and when they exited the squad car and walked by, Phil could see smears of blood along the driver’s side doors.

He quickly turned his field of vision away.

They walked up the far set of stairs to the main hall, avoiding where Dan’s body- Marco’s body- had lain. There were still small plastic tents with numbers lined up on the stairs around a dried pool of blood. The stairwell itself had been tied off with crime scene caution tape.

Inside the main hall was almost just at Phil had remembered, however there were things here and there from the detectives scattered about. A map on a side table. Packages of what looked like blue crime scene booties by the door. A travel mug of coffee on the mantle.

In the kitchen area members of the crime scene crew sat once again at the kitchen table. The mugs of hot chocolate left behind by the campers before their untimely demise had been dumped out and moved to the counter area behind them. In their place were two matching mugs filled with coffee.

“You must be the blokes from the FBI,” one of the men said. He reached out a hand across the table and Jake, Phil, and Dan took turns shaking it.

“The name’s Harry.”

The other crime scene investigator did the same.

“Name’s Carson.”

The three of them shook Carson’s hand as well.

An officer appeared in the doorway they’d just come through.

“Howdy, Detective Waters,” Officer Maxwell greeted.

Detective Waters nodded back and shook their hands as well.

“Well, if you boys are ready,” Detective Waters glanced over at Harry and Carson, “then we’ll be on our way to showing these fine young men around.”

Harry took one last swing of the coffee in his mug before placing it back on the table and getting up.

Carson got up and stretched a bit.

The nine of them filed out of the main hall and down the left stairs.

“We’ll start with the first body we found and then work out way from there,” Detective Waters stated.

They followed him up the path until they reached a dark stain surrounded by more crime scene markers.

“This is where we found our fist victim, Becky. She seems to have been running when a machete was thrown at her, striking her in the back and causing her to fall to the ground. It seems like perhaps someone heard her being attacked and came running over to check to see if she was still alive.”

They turned around and went back to the cabin.

“Here is where Marco was killed, on the steps. From what we surmise he was running down the steps out the main hall.”

They walked around the staircase and went back to the kitchen area.

“This is where Suzie was found with a head wound.”

The pantry was cleaned rather well. There was a dark spot on the floor where the blood had soaked in but the bits of her brain had been cleaned off the cans and walls. Phil was thankful he hadn’t seen her body. He didn’t know if he could have handled it in the moment. The picture alone was enough.

They filed back out of the cramped kitchen area and out of the main hall down towards the tool shed.

“This is where Jessy was found. We assume she was attempting to load this shot gun before she was killed.”

Phil remembered finding Jessy laying on the ground. They hadn’t lingered when they’d found her. They’d just left her there.

Phil turned away from the spot of dried blood in the dirt of the tool shed floor surrounded by markers.

They took the path to the cabins, going the opposite way that Dan and Phil, or more accurately Marco and Dominic had taken that night.

Under the bunk bed in the third cabin was another spot of dried blood. From the outside, the cabin looked the same as all the others except for the crime scene tape going across the entry way.

“Here is where Louise died.”

Phil stared at the spot forlornly before following them back out past the tool shed again and down to the beach. If this was the order they were found in, Phil figured there must have been more than one detective on scene finding the bodies. It wasn’t a cohesive route for one person to take to find all the bodies, what with them back tracking past the tool shed to head to the beach.

Phil trudged through the sand, sure it was getting in his sneakers, and gazed upon the canoe that he- Dominic- had died in. It had been pulled to shore and the boy’s body retrieved from it. Even having lived- in a sense- through it, Phil still couldn’t understand how the killer had managed to take them by surprise. He hoped Dominic had more answers than he did.

“We found Dom out in the lake, attacked in a canoe. We’re not quite sure how it happened. The running theory is that someone took a canoe out and caught him by surprise before paddling their way back to shore. Another canoe wasn’t found out anywhere though,” Detective Waters admitted. “They were still all in the shed.” He shook his head and turned to the group.

“Thank you,” Jake replied.

“We’ll give you time to walk around the crime scene on your own. If you need us, we’ll be in the main hall.”

The San Antonio homicide detectives and the crime scene investigators headed back up the trail.

Jake looked at Phil.

“You knew a lot more about this crime scene than you let on,” he said, glancing to Dan as well.

“I was here,” Phil simply stated, “in a dream.”

“You dreamed about the crime?” Jake asked, surprised.

“Yes,” Phil replied. “I was Dom. Dan was Marco. I saw it play out from Dom’s perspective.”

Jake glanced at the canoe then out to the lake.

“Then how did he die?”

Phil shook his head.

“I don’t know. I remember rowing out to the middle of the lake. It was like I said: my plan was to watch around me and make sure no one was coming. If they were I would simply paddle to the opposite side of the lake. It was a flawless plan. And then I just. I just. Something grabbed the boat. From the lake. Something reached up and grabbed the boat. I slammed down with my paddle but it didn’t do anything. A hand with a machete reached up and cut the paddle in half, so I stabbed the hand holding onto the boat with the splintered paddle and it didn’t do anything. Then the hand with the machete came back down and it… it…” Phil started to tear up. “I looked down at myself and I saw blood. And I looked up into the night sky and I knew I was dying. I closed my eyes looking at the stars and everything went black.” Phil sniffled. “But then I woke up. And Dom, he didn’t wake up.” Phil wiped at his eyes with his sweatshirt sleeve, but as soon as his thoughts caught up to him he started crying even harder. Much to his surprise, Dan moved over and held Phil as he cried. Phil clung on to Dan and pulled from him.

“I hate when you do that,” Dan joked softly.

“You can feel it?” Phil asked.

“Yeah, I can.”

Phil gazed back at Jake.

“I need to talk to Dom. I need to find out if he knows what happened. I need to compare notes or whatever.”

Jake moved to place a hand on Phil.

“I’m sorry, Phil. I didn’t mean…” he trailed off. “I didn’t realize that’s what happened. I understand why you’re so invested now.”

“You believe me?” Phil asked in slight disbelief.

Jake looked over at Dan above Phil’s head.

“Dan believes you, and that’s enough for me.”

Phil reached up and squeezed Jake’s hand on his shoulder. Jake really wasn’t a bad guy at all. Phil just knew he was jealous over him.

“Thank you. Both of you.”

Dan and Jake stepped away.

“We’ll be over up at the shore,” Dan gestured back towards the trail where the sand met the grass.

Phil nodded, tears still slowly coming down his face.

Dan and Jake took their leave and Phil walked over to one of the empty canoes on the side of the beach. He climbed inside and sat down on the front bench, facing the back of the boat.

“Dominic?” he asked, reaching out with his mind. “Are you here?”

There was no reply. A part of him regretted not bringing anything with him, but he just felt so awkward about the whole thing.

“Dominic?”

Phil felt a flicker of something on the back of his neck.

Suddenly a boy appeared in front of him. His hair flopped over his eyes and he wore a black hoodie with black sweatpants. His converse sneakers were laced up in perfect bows.

“Hello.”

“Who are you?” the boy asked.

For once, Phil didn’t know how to answer.

“Well. I’m a psychic, with the FBI. I talk to ghosts. I’m here to help solve your murder.”

“Why?” Dominic asked.

“Because I watched you die, in a dream,” Phil answered honestly.

Dominic glanced away. “Must have been a shitty dream,” he joked dryly.

Phil glanced out towards the water too. “It was.”

Dominic looked back.

“What do you remember?” he asked.

“I remember you sitting with Marco by the fire. You were talking. You heard a scream and went running and that’s when you found Becky. You ran up to the cabin to meet up with Suzie and Tyler, and then you and Tyler went to find Louise and Jessy. You found Louise in the cabins and Jessy in the tool shed. When you went back to the main hall you found Marco dead on the steps. You ran back inside the main hall and when you searched you found Suzie dead in the pantry. When you went to leave you saw a masked man at the door, so the both of you ran out the back door. From there he was in the woods, cutting you off from one another. While Tyler ran towards the parking lot you went back through the main hall and out the front door. From there you ran down to the lake and grabbed a canoe and paddled out to the middle of the lake. And from there you…”

“Died. It’s okay, you can say it.”

Phil shrugged, still not wanting to say it.

“I died.”

Phil shook his head. “But how? How did you die?”

“I was stabbed,” Dominic replied. “With a machete.”

“I know, but, how? How? You didn’t see a boat coming. In fact, he wasn’t even in a boat. It was like he just-”

“Melted out of the water? Yeah, I know. I’ve been asking myself the same thing.”

They fell silent.

“Dominic, how many killers were there?” Phil asked.

“Would you believe me if I told you I thought it was just the one?” he asked.

Phil nodded. “The police are looking for a group of people,” he told Dominic. Dominic shook his head.

“I dunno, I really think it was just one guy. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can tell you anything you don’t already seem to know. I think the same guy who killed Tyler at his car was the same guy who killed me. I don’t know how he got all the way from the parking lot to the middle of the lake, but I saw him through the window of the front door of the main hall and then I saw him again in the woods. I don’t know how he moved so fast. It was like he was able to teleport. Like some Deadpool shit.”

“Deadpool can teleport?” Phil asked.

Dominic chuckled. “Yeah, you didn’t know that?”

Phil looked at the boy in front of him who’d had his life cut so short.

“How are you?” Phil asked.

Dominic blinked in surprise. “Well, I’m dead. And I’m stuck at this camp. Talk about eternal hell.”

“Do you feel stuck here? Like you can’t move on because of what happened to you?”

Dominic shrugged. “I don’t know. Is that what most people say?” he asked.

“I don’t really know how it all works,” Phil confessed.

“But you’ve talked to other ghosts before?” Dominic asked.

“Yes,” Phil replied. “Lots of them. I’m a psychic by trade. I invite people to my house to talk to their loved ones. They can’t see you like I can, so we use ouija boards and things like that.”

Dominic shook his head. “That sure is something. Have you ever not been able to contact anyone?”

“Not usually,” Phil said. “They come from the other side.”

“The other side of what though?” Dominic asked.

“I don’t know,” Phil repeated.

“Am I there?” he asked.

Phil shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“So am I stuck because my murder is unsolved or something?” Dominic asked.

“Do you feel stuck?” Phil asked again.

“I don’t know,” Dominic replied again.

“Well, what happened after you, you know?” Phil asked.

“Died?” Dominic asked. He thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I don’t really remember anything after that. But it feels like time has passed.”

“You don’t feel like you belong somewhere else?” Phil asked.

“I don’t really feel like I belong anywhere, and I’m not just saying that because I’m an edgy teen,” Dominic joked. “Shouldn’t you know this? You’re the one that talks to other ghosts.”

“I never really asked,” Phil admitted. “I never asked for this, to be able to talk to ghosts, or anything. But I’ve seen them my whole life. I spent most of my life trying to ignore them, until I realized I had to embrace them. From then on I really only talked to them when I was with a client and reaching out to talk to them for that loved one.”

“Have you talked to anyone else who was murdered?” Dominic asked.

“Yes,” Phil replied. “My brother.”

Dominic nodded.

“Did you solve his murder?” Dominic asked.

“Yes.”

“And did he… move on?”

“I think so. I haven’t been able to talk to him since.”

“You tried?”

“Yes.”

Dominic looked away.

“Well, if you solve my murder, then fine. If not it’s cool.”

“I’m going to solve it,” Phil insisted.

Dominic shrugged. “It’s okay if you don’t though.”

Phil shook his head but he didn’t say anything.

“Is there anything else you need from me?”

Phil looked away.

“What is it?” Dominic asked.

Phil felt himself turn a bit red.

“I have a question. It’s not about the case though. Is that okay?”

Dominic shrugged.

“I don’t really see why it wouldn’t be. It’s not like I have anywhere else to be.”

Phil tried to gather himself.

“You and Marco… you guys were friends?”

Dominic shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess. I had his Snap. I don’t see why I wouldn’t have snapped him after this when it was all over. I guess I’ll just settle for being ghosts in proximity with him, though. Why?”

Phil hesitated.

“Hey, man. I can keep a secret. Let’s be honest, this is probably the last conversation I’m ever going to have. If you need to get something off your chest, this is the best place to do it. Dead men tell no tales and all that.”

Phil thought for a moment.

“Dominic, I didn’t just watch you die in my dream. I was you.”

Dominic tilted his head in surprise.

“How did that work?” he asked.

“I remember being you, and sitting on the log with Marco- only Marco wasn’t Marco. He was one of the guys over there on the shore.”

Phil didn’t turn to face Dan and Jake, but Domininc did. They, of course, however, couldn’t see that.

“The dude with the leather jacket?” Dominic asked.

“Yes.”

“Who’s he?”

“He’s the cop who helped me solve my brother’s murder.”

Dominic nodded.

“Alright, so you’re me, and he’s Marco. So, what, then?”

Phil sighed and tried his best to figure out how to explain everything.

“In my dream I was you. I was taking your role. But it was like I had been the one attending camp all summer, and like you didn’t exist. It was me instead. I had all these memories of me and all the other counselors, including Dan.”

“Is Dan that guy over there?” Dominic asked.

“Yes,” Phil confirmed. “Anyway, in my dream, in my memories, Dan and I… we weren’t friends like we are here.”

“Oh. That sucks dude. I’m sorry.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

Dominic nodded, confused, until Phil saw the sudden realization hit his face.

“OH. Oh, yeah, no dude, it’s not, I’m not- yeah, no, I have, like, a girl at home and I think Marco does too. Or we did. That was not. No. Sorry. Actually I’m not really sure why I’m apologizing for that.”

“It’s okay,” Phil said, cracking a small smile.

They sat in silence for a moment.

“So, like, basically you had this dream where you guys were camp counselors together who had a thing and one night it all just went horribly wrong?”

“Yeah, and then we went out to lunch the next day and I saw your murder on the news.”

“Damn dude. That’s rough. So like, what’s the sitch now?”

“Besides the fact that I’m venting about my problems to a murdered teenager? Well, uh, yeah, basically what you said. We were work colleagues… friends, I guess. He’s gay, I’m gay. There was nothing there. But, um, yeah, I had a dream where we were a thing, albeit a nightmare, and that morning I woke up both really disturbed from having been murdered-”

“Same.”

“-and feeling really confused on how I actually feel about him, but before I could think about it or figure it out I found out that my dream literally came true in the worst way possible and that took precedence over whatever feelings I had or am having.”

“Murder is such an inconvenience. Truly very sorry. But like, what have you been feeling since then? I mean I got murdered like two days ago.”

“Jealous.”

Dominic looked back over at the shore.

“Because of that guy?” he pointed.

“Yeah.”

“Whose he?”

“That’s Dan’s FBI professor.”

“Damn, so he’s like, hot for teacher?”

“I don’t know, but I swear to God he thinks the sun shines out of Jake’s ass.”

“Ah. Jake. What a douchey name.”

Phil couldn’t help but chuckle.

“In order to get on this case I had Dan reach out to Jake. He’s the one who set it all up so I could be here working on the case.”

“Well, in that case, I’m sure he’s not too bad. I, for one, am grateful you’re here, whoever you are. Nice to talk to someone one last time after death, even if it is going over the most traumatic experience of my life which culminated in my death and then giving a 30-year-old relationship advice in the canoe we both literally got murdered in. Well, I literally got murdered in. You figuratively got murdered in.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sure this isn’t how you envisioned the afterlife.”

“Can’t say as I really envisioned it at all, especially because I wasn’t planning on dying at sixteen, so I can’t really say that it comes as a shock or anything.”

Phil shrugged.

“Well, all I can say is that if you decide that you really do have feelings for him, you should tell him.”

“I don’t think he’d take it well.”

Dominic sighed.

“I think you’re missing the point. I died at sixteen. I had so much life left to live and it was cut short. I’m never going to see my family again. I’m never going to see my girlfriend again. I’m never going to see my dog again.

There’s so much more to life than what we’re facing in the moment. Learn from me. You never know what’s going to happen. Look at your brother. Look at me.

You can’t live with things unsaid because you’re never going to know when things are going to end. And apparently, even when you do, there’s nothing you can do about it.

I’m not saying your feelings are real, especially because they came from some sort of murder premonition dream, but if they are, and you really feel this way, you need to say or do something sooner rather than later, before it’s too late. Not even in a death sense, but in a way where maybe he does hook up with that guy or anyone else.”

Dominic looked sad and angry.

“If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for me at least. After all, how can you say no to a murdered child?” Dominic managed a wry smile.

Phil felt tears forming at the corner of his eyes.

“I’m sorry this happened to you, Dominic. Your murder comes first, either way.”

Dominic shook his head. “No, dude. I’m dead. Don’t let my murder get in the way of you living your life.”

Phil nodded.

“I’m assuming I’m going to be viewing your body,” Phil said, switching morbid subjects. “Is there anything you… need. Want?”

Dominic shrugged. “To be honest I didn’t really think about it.”

“I doubt they’ll let me see your family, but is there any message I can pass along to them through the detectives?”

Dominic shook his head.

“I doubt they’ll believe anyone who says that I told them to say ‘I love you’ or anything like that, but…” he hesitated for a second. “Can you… can you just give my dog a treat for me? Please?”

The tears in Phil’s eyes fell to his cheeks.

“Yeah,” he smiled. “And if I can’t I’ll have one of the detectives do it, okay?”

Dominic nodded, tears in his own eyes.

“I’ll come back and see you,” Phil promised.

Dominic smiled. “I’d appreciate that. Let me know how things go with wonder boy.”

Phil smiled and chuckled.

“What’s your name?”

“Phil. Phil Lester.”

“It’s been an honor, Phil Lester. Thank you, and good luck solving my- our- murder.”

Phil choked up and started crying into his hands while Dominic faded away.

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