Free Manifest by Artist Arthur

you’ve seen and tell us what they said to you.”
    “How does that prove anything, if I name somebody you don’t know?”
    “She’s…”
    “Shut up, Jake. I don’t need you to tell me she’s got a point. But we’ve proved our power to you, you’ve got to do something to prove yours.”
    “I don’t have to do anything.”
    Tell them I’m here.
    Oh, great, now he decides to appear.
    I sigh heavily, seeing Ricky walk right through one of those big fat pipes. The steam halos around him so he looks like he’s in one of those gruesome zombie movies, only his face looks a lot better.
    “One’s here right now,” I say because I’m sick of Sasha looking at me with doubt.
    Jake immediately looks around the room. “Where?”
    “Over there.” I point to the pipes. “He’s wearing jeans and a T-shirt, boots and an earring.”
    “He sounds like a thug,” Sasha quips. She doesn’t want to believe me but I see her eyes darting around the room trying to check things out.
    Tell them my name.
    I shrug. “His name’s Ricky Watson.”
    Sasha’s mouth opens then snaps shut.
    “The hip-hopper?” Jake asks in a whisper.
    “That’s what he says.”
    Ask them if they know anything about what happened to me.
    This has got to be the craziest week I’ve ever had. No, correct that, the craziest year. Rolling my eyes isn’t going to change things. That’ll only make me look more lame in Sasha’s eyes. Not that I care what she thinks of me. She’s the one with the disappearing thing going on.
    “Ricky says he needs my help to find out what happened to him. That he can’t, like, cross over to the other side if I don’t prove he wasn’t killed by his friends or something like that. So, do you guys know anything about that?”
    Sasha and Jake both exchange bizarre looks.
    “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Like I said before, I’m outta here.”
    “Wait!” Sasha screams. “If he’s contacting you then we’ve got to help him. It’s like our job or something, right, Jake?”
    Jake’s head is already bobbing up and down, thick locks of brown hair falling into his eyes. Man, he needed to go to the barbershop.
    “We should start by talking to people he knew. Doesn’t he have a brother that goes here?”
    “And then we should probably talk to those other guys at the table.”
    That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout. Ricky rubs his hands together, his tongue snaking out to run across his bottom lip. You should have hooked up with these two sooner, they’re about business.
    “What?” I say and am both flattered and creeped out when three sets of eyes turn in my direction.
    “You two,” I say, pointing at Jake and Sasha. “Are you crazy? How are we going to investigate the death of a student? We’re not cops. We’re tenth graders.”
    Then I turn to Ricky. “And you. I told you I hadn’t decided what to do about you yet, so back off.”
    Ricky holds up his hands and shakes his head. Whoa, you feeling yourself now, Krystal. It’s about time.
    “Shut up!”
    Sasha’s shaking her head. “Who? Us?”
    “Or the ghost?”
    “Arggghhhh!” This is too much. Too insane. This time instead of announcing it, I just turn and walk toward the door.
    “Hey, wait up. You can’t just leave,” Sasha says. “Unless you’re afraid to accept your destiny.”
    My hand’s on the doorknob. I turn it and pull the door open a bit. “Don’t try to psych me out. I’m not afraid of you or of dead boy over there. But I don’t have time to pretend like we’re private investigators. I’ve gotta get back to Biology.”
    “Actually, I agree with Sasha. There’s got to be a reason we have these powers.” Both he and Sasha are way too pumped about this power thing.
    I wave away his comment like that’ll make it mean less. “Whatever.”
    “You can’t run from it, you know. It’s not going to go away.”
    See, I’m not the only one trying to tell you that running’s not the answer.
    These two never quit. I put my