Elijah's POV

I was afraid of losing my little brother, Dean.

And I had.

Now I was afraid of losing this guy, and now I had showed him the part of me that killed. I had him by the arm, and he was silent. I grind my teeth as I put him go in the boy's bathroom. It was super clean. Like usual.

His dark brown skin started beading with sweat, and his eyes had been replaced with something dead.

Guess it was my bad on this one.

"Look, Stretch, I had to do what I had to do so she wouldn't hurt you..." I scanned the surfacing bruises on his face. "...anymore."

I gripped his shoulders. "You got that?"

He shook his head. "You didn't have to kill her."

"Stretch---"

"You could have just..."

"Knocked her out? Left her behind?"

He shrugged. "Sure."

"She's not normal. She's not. And she's not dead, dude. She can't die."

"You're insane." He looked away.

I sucked my teeth, looking downward. I probably should have informed him about this one thing sooner... but I wanted him to be removed from that, just for a while.

That's what I did for all the clueless new kids. They all waltzed in here, thinking this "summer school" was all about extra education.

But that wasn't what this was at all.

"The delinquents are monsters. Vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts, every ghoul under the stars, Stretch. They can't die. Not for long, not really, but you can."

He narrowed his eyes. Of course he couldn't believe this. "And what are you? They wouldn't be scared of a human would they? What are you?"

I bit my lip. "I'm human, man. I'm... a ghost hunter. That's one of the reasons they call me the Ghost Criminal. The reason I didn't want to tell you about."

He put his head in his hands. "So this place is haunted? If you aren't crazy, if you're really telling the truth--- You're saying people put actual monsters and humans together on purpose?"

I nodded. "Yeah. But not all humans get killed."

"But you said a lot of them do!"

"They do, but that's not the point. You have to save yourself, Stretch, and that starts with listening to every word I say. You got me?"

He didn't answer. So, eventually, I said, "How long have we known each other?"

He finally spoke, head still in hands: "Three days, not counting this one."

"You might die soon."

"You're sending me mixed signals here, man."

I just went and Sighed™. "I'm going to tell you... what happened to my brother."

"Why---?"

"To scare you into listening."

And I did.