I took a moment to let Serina's words sink in. My dad had known about this... this craziness? He knew and still sent me here?! Questions were spinning through my head like a whirlwind with little space to form any sort of coherent thought, but I realized that I was just sitting in the alleyway, and I needed to formulate some kind of answer. 

"I...I don't know," I managed to stutter out. Serina stayed silent, watching me intently before smiling. 

"How about this, I take you with me on a mission, and you see whether or not you want to help. If you still want to leave when we're done, I won't stop you," she said. 

"No strings attached?" I question. 

"Nope! Nothing," she held her hands up and continued to laugh. I couldn't help but grin along with her while I propped myself up and walked over. 

"Alright! Let's get moving!" Seri shouted, prancing down the street. I peeked my head out of the alley way, trying to remember if she was even walking in the right direction to get back to the bookstore. After a moment Seri turned back only to see that I was not following her. "We need to get moving now before anything else can happen," she said more sternly. I tilted my head. 

"Anything else?" I asked, and Seri nodded as I caught up to her and we started walking down the central plaza of the town. 

"Yes, when I said that I wanted you to shadow me on a mission, I meant right now. We have a big problem that needs fixing, now." She was much more serious than before, sending chills cascading down my spine. 

"What exactly...happened?" I asked. 

Serina crossed her arms, looking up at the darkening sky as she recounted. "A murder, potentially a robbery gone wrong, which normally wouldn't be anything of our concern, but the officers charged with finding a culprit came back empty-handed. No hairs, no fingerprints, even the home's security was somehow disabled without any sign of damage or tampering. One of the investigators brought on for the case is a friend of mine, and she thinks that we might be able to find something that the others missed. If her hunch is correct, the perpetrator is... not of this world, to say the least." 

"What could we do that the officials can't? It's probably just some experienced con who knows how to cover their tracks, not some ghost" I reasoned.  

"It's simple, you silly goose," Seri spun on her heel and turned to look at me, her signature smile plastered across her face, "We can speak to the dead! Even if it turns out that the criminal is a normal human being, getting the victim's testimony along with any other spirits that may have been around at the time would be incredibly valuable. Of course, that kind of thing doesn't really hold up in a court of law..." Serina kept walking, muttering to herself while my anger rose. 

"THEN WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?!" I shout. I was already so tired from all of the shenanigans throughout the day, I just wanted to get back to my dad and go to bed. Even if I couldn't go back, I knew that Seri and her ghost friends couldn't bother me while I was asleep. Perhaps a good night's rest was all I needed to clear my head and forget all about this crazy crazy day. Just thinking about being able to rest made my eyes flutter and my body sway. I guess the exhaustion of all that had happened was finally starting to catch up with me. Seri watched me carefully as we walked, before quickly pulling me to one side. In my optimistic haze, I had nearly ran into a pole. 

"Watch it, Joey. We're gonna need to be working at full capacity if we want to accomplish anything helpful!" I groaned, my body quickly failing as I tried to collapse on the ground. 

"I just wanna sleeeeep..." I muttered, swaying back and forth before leaning on Serina's shoulder. 

"Hate to break it to you, but you can't sleep right this instant." She replied, looking at something that I couldn't see in my half-asleep stupor. 

"Why not..." I asked. 

"Because we're here."