The Hidden

altered.”

“Yeah, but can’t you make an exception here? I’m not the norm. I already know about you guys. I know about Vincent. I know about Shades.”

Uri shook his head. “When the time comes, it will be revealed.”

Well that was a frustratingly unhelpful thing to say. I couldn’t let it distract me, though. “You keep saying ‘humans.’ Like we’re something different. What exactly are you? I mean, beyond the helpers that come to make sure a Shade can be completed or move on?”

“We’re not human,” he said. “If you couldn’t guess that already.”

I nodded. “Vincent said he was a ‘what’ not a ‘who.’ I don’t know if that means you’re angels, or demons, or what.”

“We’re not any of those things. We’re …” He held out his hands like he was trying to contain something. “We’re like … energy.”

“Okay.”

“That’s the best way to describe it.”

“But where do you live? What about your car?”

“We have cars and houses only when we have an assignment here.”

“Here? As in Sleepy Hollow here, or here as in Earth?”

“Earth.”

Oh. “So … where are you when you’re not here? On Earth, I mean.”

“When we’re not here, we’re in this space that’s sort of in between.”

“Heaven?”

“No.”

“Hell?”

He laughed. “Definitely not. Again, hard to explain. It’s a place where there’s nothing but energy and white light. No physical forms, no manifestations. Just pure energy.”

“Okay, a little boring, but it’s a Zen type place. I get it,” I said.

“No. You don’t. But that’s okay.”

“So one day you’re just in this Zen lovey-dovey white energy space, and then the next you’re zapped back to Earth to help a Shade or their other half be completed or pass over? How do you know what to do? Where to go? Do you get a Post-it note or something?”

“We work in teams, only two of us at a time. And when it’s our turn, yes, we do sort of wake up here and then get our assignment.”

“That’s why Nikolas said it was a problem that there are five of you here,” I replied. “There’s only supposed to be two. He said that, too, but I don’t think I really understood it.”

Uri agreed. “Although we may occasionally have simultaneous assignments-which is rare, but it does happen-we are never in the same place at once. There is no need.”

“So Vincent must have really screwed you all up, then, huh?”

“You could say that.”

“How come everyone can see you and Sophie and Cacey and Kame, but they can’t see Nikolas and Katy? Nikolas and Katy are different from me and Caspian because they’ve been completed, right?”

He nodded. “Humans can see us while we’re here on Earth because, for all intents and purposes, we are human while we’re here. Caspian is different because he’s dead, and Nikolas and Katy are different because they’ve been completed.”

I must have looked confused, because he said, “The easiest way to think about it is like blood types. Caspian is a certain type of ghost, say AB negative, while Nikolas and Katy are O positive. Both types are still blood, a.k.a. Shades, but if Caspian is completed, by you, he’ll become O positive, like Nikolas and Katy.”

“If he’s completed? Why wouldn’t I complete him?”

Uri glanced away. “Sometimes things … happen.”

“Oh, you mean like with Washington Irving? Nikolas told me that he was a Shade, but he wasn’t completed by his other half. She moved on.”

Uri nodded.

“Why do Shades even need to be completed?” I asked. “No one’s ever told me the reason why.”

He wanted to hedge. It was written all over his face, so I tried a different tactic. “What about other Shades that need help crossing over?”

He took a moment to answer but finally said, “For now things are being handled. But this matter needs to be resolved soon. For everyone’s sake.”

“Okay, so you come down here, get your assignment, and then poof? You have a house and a car and clothes? What about ID? Credit scores?”

“We get what’s given to us, in terms of houses and cars and clothes. Sometimes it’s a Jetta, sometimes it’s an apartment in a back alley, and sometimes it’s Gucci. If we need an ID, that’s available to us too. They can come in handy.”

I remembered what he’d been wearing when I first saw him, in the cemetery after the bridge dedication. “You were given a mishmash of clothes this time, huh? You have this Goth meets prep meets skater boy vibe going on. Kind of weird. And the khakis? Not a good look.”

“Most of the clothes are already there waiting for us, wherever we’re staying. But Cacey loves to go shopping, and she drags me with her.” Now he looked a bit embarrassed. “Sometimes it takes a while to figure out what century we’re in.”

“You guys need a built-in stylist-for-a-day when you get your assignments,” I said. “That would solve everything. Oh, and a hairdresser, too.”

Uri laughed again and touched his hair. It was longer than it had been in the cemetery. Instead of a fauxhawk he had mini dreads. “I think I’m a pretty good hairdresser.”

I cocked my head. “Maybe for a boy.” He smiled. “Do the other Revenants dye their hair?” I asked. “Sophie’s always looks like it’s not quite done right. Like she’s a natural blonde and the red can’t cover all of it up. And you all have eyes that are completely clear.”

“Our coloring is the same because in the white space there’s no pigmentation. That’s why we all have pale eyes, pale hair, and pale skin. When we come to Earth, we can wear contacts, get a tan, and, yes, dye our hair. It’s the only chance we have to live like mortals. Cacey likes to take full advantage. That’s why she likes Coca-Cola so much.”

“How long do you generally get to live like mortals? Before your assignment is up?”

“It varies.”

“Like …? Two days? Two years? Two months? What?”

“It just … varies.” His mouth tightened around the edges.

That’s all you’re going to get from him on that, Abbey. Move on. “The superpowers must be kind of cool,” I said instead.

“Superpowers?”

“Yeah, the mind-mojo thing.”

“It’s not really a power. More like the ‘power of persuasion.’”

“So, you can persuade people to do things? Still cool.”

“Not actually things-like barking like a dog, or pretending to be a chicken. We persuade them to go along with what we’re saying. Or to forget that they saw us.”

“I gotta say, that’s pretty freaking sweet.”

He smiled. “It definitely helps.”

“When I first met you guys, I was really creeped-out,” I said. “And then all of a sudden everything was fine. Was that the persuasion thingy?”

“That was it. It’s like a calming agent.”

“I totally need to get my hands on something like that. I have a couple of teachers at school who need to be ‘persuaded’ to forget about my homework.” I grinned at him.

“Sometimes people experience a funny taste or smell when we use the persuasion on them,” he said. “I’m