What he wanted at the moment was to go home and rest for some time, maybe Frank was right and he did overwork himself – his head was aching badly.

"Now, homework for you," the teacher, Mrs. Sanders said moments before the bell. "Think about the latest series of bankruptcies of mega-corporations - "Worldcom", "Enron", "Adelphia" and..."

Joe didn't hear the rest of the list as a sudden whisper gave him the creeps for the third time this day, "Think about the fall of "Adelphia"..." came from the front.

Joe squeezed his eyes tightly shut, I'm not going to see him, I am not going to see him, I am not…. Get away from me, you’re only my imagination, you’re not there, you’re just messing with my brain, it’s only my sick imagination…

"You've got to think about it," Daniel's voice said clearly, disproving his thoughts.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it...." Joe silently begged, his eyes still closed. "Stop it and leave me alone."

"The fall of "Adelphia", Joe..."

Joe??? Joe froze in terror. He’s talking to me! Hell’s bells!!! I'm gonna die, he’s gonna take me with him, this isn’t my imagination, he must be standing there, staring at insane me…. To prove himself of that, Joe opened his eyes and next moment he knew he was paralysed by the piercing stare of Daniel's cold, glazed grey eyes.

"The fall of "Adelphia"..." Daniel said again, looking straight into the horrified teen’s eyes. "Think about it before it’s…." The rest of it was deafened by the bell.

Joe blinked his eyes and when he opened them again Daniel, as expected, was gone and everyone was leaving the classroom.

Joe exhaustedly leaned forward until his covered in cold sweat forehead touched the surface of the desk. He could feel his heart beating like mad and his head was threatening to explode. What wouldn’t he give away to forget about everything and fall into the arms of unconsciousness just to get away from it all!

Someone tapped him on a shoulder and he slowly opened his weary eyes at the disturber. "Joe, are you sure you're ok? You look jumpy today," Chet Morton asked his friend, concern in his voice. "You don’t look too good, you know."

"I know, Chet, I know," Joe quietly replied and sat upright. He rubbed his eyes with his hands. "It’s been a difficult day, that’s all."

Joe slowly collected his books and put them in his backpack. Sighing as he glanced at where Daniel had been and seeing no one there, he stood up and walked out of the classroom. Chet only shook his head as he watched him go.

~~

10 minutes later the brothers were in their van, riding back home.

"The fall of "Adelphia"?" Frank re-asked, watching the road closely. Now that Joe had told him about another Daniel’s coming he had doubts about the fact that it was only Joe’s imagination. There should have been something behind it all – something inexplicable which they must pay heed to, no matter how ridiculous and strange it seemed to Frank who never believed in such things. "And what can it mean?"

"You ask me?" Joe asked derisively. "Well, from what Mrs. Sanders told us the only things I know about it is that it is one of the biggest companies in America which got mixed up in financial machinations."

"Yeah, I know, but it can’t be this simple, can it?" Frank mused, scratching his forehead. "First you solve that problem and Daniel gets hit by a car, then you hear him say about someone coming downstairs and Biff almost falls down the stairs. Now you have to think about the bankruptcy of that corporation…."

"And you think he meant that someone was in danger again?" Joe asked. "Me, to be more precise? Because he talked to me."

Frank sighed, "Yes, that’s what I think…. But Biff is fine," he argued with himself. "Because you knew what that sentence meant. So, the question you need to answer is what ‘the fall of "Adelphia"’ means."

"Ok, genius, how am I supposed to do that?" Joe asked, feeling even more than awkwardly. To know that your life depends on such a thing was even worse than knowing your life was in danger.

"When we get home you’ll have to search the Internet and see what you can find on that company and make conclusions," Frank suggested.

"I'll have to?" Joe raised his eyebrows, hardly believing his ears. "Won’t you help me?"

"You know that I promised Callie to take her out," Frank smiled both sheepishly and apologetically. "We’re going to that Italian restaurant called "La Costoletta"…"

"Frank, you can’t do this to me!" Joe was shocked. "Are you really going to leave me alone when I need you so much?"

"Joe, I'm not leaving you alone, for God’s sake! Mom and Dad are at home after all, they won’t let anything happen to you. I'm just keeping my promise to Callie," Frank argued.

"You can always do it tomorrow!"

"No, in fact I should have done it yesterday."

"Frank…" Joe opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to collect all his thoughts to put them into a sentence.

"Joe, I don’t know what else I can do for you. You must understand that Callie is important to me, too," Frank said, pulling into the driveway of their house and stopping the car.

"Yeah, right, she is more important to you when I need you the most," Joe replied in a betrayed voice as he climbed out and went to the front door.

"Joe, don’t be so selfish!" Frank said, getting annoyed with him. "What do you want from me? You don’t even know what your problem is and you want me to break my promise and to stay at home and try to help you with something you imagined."

"Imagined??" Joe re-asked, turning to him, his eyes wide open in shock. "You say I imagined it?"

"And what did you do?" Frank asked back, shutting the door of the van. "Or do you want to tell me that Daniel got out of the morgue, went to school to communicate with you, but no one else saw it?"

"Are you telling me that I'm abnormal??!"

"I am not, but… but why should I believe it was real?"

"You know what, Frank?" Joe looked him in the eyes as he pointed his index finger at his brother’s chest. "Go to that date with her and forget everything I told you," with that he opened the front door and walked in.

"Oh, thank you for your permission," Frank said to Joe’s back.

Instead of an answer he only heard the door slam shut right in front of his nose.