The biggest problem that Margot faced was the translation. Trisha was always eccentric and very private. With her parents, a pair of self-absorbed divorced WASPS who, when not ignoring their daughter, were always sticking their nose's into their daughter's business. One couldn't blame her for the need for privacy. Hence why Trisha decided to use the Ogham alphabet when writing in her diary. Margot stared at the pages as she looked up the alphabet key she kept on her phone.

       Trisha was always good at things like this. She thought wistfully. Codes, languages, riddles. When she didn't want anyone to know something, she'd made as difficult as possible. Those were happier times, though they'd been less than a year ago. Her friends were everything to Margot.

       My friends.

       Aria Wiseman was what Trisha had called a "unique individual". She had both a unique appearance and a unique ability. Average height with bright blue eyes, a smear of freckles across her pointed nose and cheeks and wavy blonde hair reached down her waist. Ever a free spirit, a crown of flowers was always nested in her hair, preferring to wear dresses and skirts. A devout Episcopalian, she spent her free time outside of school and SPIRITS helping her mother, Rev. Paula Wiseman, run the church. But what made Aria truly unique in every sense of the word was what she was: a clairvoyant.

       Aria could "read" people, know their emotions. She knew when someone was lying to her, when a person was upset or if they were happy even if their outer appearance said otherwise. If the energy was strong enough, she could even sense the aura surrounding objects, things that were intimate or personal. It didn't surprise her when Aria figured out that the book was Trisha's diary just by touching it. Just her reaction to it.

       She acted as if she had touched something, well, bad. When it came to finding ghosts, Aria was a natural. She could sense their energy, she knew when they were in the presence of one. At one point Aria was even able to communicate with one of the school ghosts! It was one of their best EVP sessions. Given that it had been stuck in the basement with a vengeful shadow ghost, it'd probably leave some negative residual energy.

       "Where did you find this again?" Aria asked.

       Margot noticed she was still rubbing her fingers. "Are your fingers ok?"

       Immediately she stopped rubbing her fingers. "Yeah. Its nothing. I'm fine."

       Margot didn't believe her but didn't pursue the matter further.

       "Why would she hide this away in the basement of the lab?" Joe asked. He looked at the diary, biting his lower lip. "Why in the world was this in the StarLab? It was off-limits for most of the summer."

       Margot shook her head. "I don't know. She must have believed it was a good place to hide it."

       "Also, why all the secrecy?" Joe asked. Holding up the open book, the pages were written in a series of odd symbols unlike anything

       Margot laughed in spite of herself. "Trisha did it mostly to piss off her mom. She caught her going through her things once and started writing in a language her mom couldn't understand."

       Joe flipped through the pages, brows creased. Some of the entries in the book had pictures of places in Heatherton and others were drawings of different things. "Doesn't it seem strange she would put all this effort into something that someone else couldn't read? The Ogham alphabet, or her bowdlerized version of it, isn't impossible to translate but it isn't well known."

       Margot turned her face away and shrugged, arms crossed. "Trisha liked to keep secrets."

       Joe snapped the book shut. He looked her straight in the eye, "That's my point: what secrets did she have that could possibly justify keeping us in the dark?"

       Joe stood up, leaving the diary on the table. He began to pace the room, a habit of his whenever he was stressed or anxious. Joe was short, the shortest among them at five foot two. He had brown hair that hung past his ears, clear green eyes behind a pair of owl glasses. He was also a genius. Joe had a special talent when working with electronics. Most of their equipment was built by him, from their REM pod to their thermal cam.

       All of them were his own creations. Out of the whole group he was also the biggest stickler to the rules. With Aria's sensitivity to the paranormal and Margot's own overeagerness to investigate the supernatural, it made sense. He never asked for much but wanted everyone to be honest with him. Joe didn't like secrets and it was one of the things he and Trisha had argued the most about over the last year.

       "Margot, why didn't you turn this over to the police?" He asked.

       She bristled at his tone. "What good would it have done turning it in? They wouldn't have been able to read it!"

       "But it can be translated," He shot back. "We even have a codex to translate it." Joe pointed out. "You should have given it to them Margot. There may be something in here that explains what happened to her."

       Her temper flared. "What do you think I've been doing the last three days?" Margot grabbed the dairy, opening it to show her friends "Take a look at this entry. She's talking about shadows and I think it's the same one that attacked Taya and myself!"

       Aria's eyes were like saucers, Joe's brows shot up. Margot felt a little smug, having translated the page and found an important clue to uncovering what happened to Trisha. The police had written off her disappearance as a simple runaway but Margot's instincts told her otherwise.

       Joe spoke first. "Are you saying Trisha knew about this thing and never bothered to tell anyone? Not even us?"

       Margot hesitated. "I... don't know. I'll know more when I finish translating. But from what I've gathered, she knew how to make contact with it."

       "Contact?" Joe asked. He and Aria both perked up at this revelation.

       Margot nodded, excited. "According to her diary, Trisha somehow found a way to communicate with it."

       Joe was skeptical, "How do you mean, 'communicate'?"

       "Like with the REM pod?" Aria wondered aloud.

       "She doesn't mention exactly how she found him but from what I can understand they were speaking through some kind of conduit."

       No one spoke for several moments. It felt like too much.

       "Something's not right," Aria said, biting her thumbnail. "I think we should get rid of it."

       They both stared at her. "Wh—Aria, why would we do that?" Margot demanded.

       "It's Trisha's diary!" Joe exclaimed.

       "Trisha was doing something... I don't know, wrong." Aria explained. "When I touched that thing it felt like I burned myself on dry ice."

       They stopped arguing when they heard Margot's cell phone go off. Recognizing the ringtone as the one for Taya, Margot answered it. "Hey, Margot Verne here."

       "It's...here...help...!"

       The line cut off. Margot sucked in a breath.

       "What is it? What's wrong?" Joe asked.

       Margot wasted no time. She grabbed her bag and her equipment, filling the others in on what was happening. Aria and Joe didn't hesitate either, gathering their own bags. They each tried to contact her by phone again and again but no answer.

       "Did she say where she was?" Aria asked.

       "I don't know. We'll check her house first." Margot said.

       "Call the cops," Joe said. "Just...."

       He didn't want to finish his sentence.