Disclaimer:
~Big thanks to DC comics for making the fun characters, and to Lilith Langtree for making the universe to play in.
Author's Note: At long last, here is the second part of Zee's story. A very big thanks to my editor for helping with the edits.

I felt like something had crashed on my head when I awoke the following morning. I was surprised to find that I was tucked in my own bed, instead of some hospital. I clutched my head as I sat up in bed. My sheets fell down to waist, and I saw that someone had changed me into my pajamas while I was unconscious; I was guessing Dad had done that.

I yawned and then clutched the spot where the sword had pierced my side. Strangely, I felt no pain. I pulled my torso out from underneath the bed covers and rolled up my pajama shirt, and saw that there was no wound where there should have been. The skin felt smooth around and where the wound should have been.

I shook my head, and just assumed that my wound had healed over already. But, I knew it couldn’t have been that easy. I didn’t want to think about it right now, so I decided to go see if a shower could shake off these strange feelings.

I let the water warm up a bit before I stepped into the shower. As soon as my skin touched the water, I yelped. I also jumped and ended up slipping and landing on my butt. As I nursed by bruised bottom, I wonder why the water felt different than usual. I stood back up and cautiously stepped into the spray. The water wasn’t as much of a shock like before, it just felt a little warmer than usual.

I shrugged off any doubts that this was related to the shock that I had went through last night, and proceeded to suds up and get clean. I wondered if I was just imagining things with my skin sending off strange signals and my leg wound.

After my shower, I quickly threw on some street clothes and headed down for some breakfast. For some reason, I was feeling very hungry and not sure why. I entered the kitchen a few minutes later, where I saw my father and Elissa sitting at the kitchen island eating some cereal for breakfast.

“Well, look who finally got up,” Elissa said.

“Ha, ha, ha,” I replied sarcastically. I climbed onto one of the stools surrounding the island and poured my self some breakfast.

As I was pouring the milk for my cereal I asked, “So, what happened after I passed out?”

“We won the talent show,” Elissa said, matter-of-factly.

I spat out my cereal in surprise and said through my choking, “What?!”

“We still won, even though I accidentally stabbed you,” Elissa said, a little embarrassed.

“Yeah, what was with that?” I asked.

“The jerk in the front row was jealous of the flower you gave his girlfriend. He shot me with a spitwad that caused me to jump while I had that sword in my hands. I am so, so, so, sorry about that, Zee.”

“It’s okay, Elissa. It wasn’t your fault. I forgive you.”

I climbed off my stool and went over to give her a big hug of forgiveness, I then added, “I know that you wouldn’t intentionally hurt me.”

“How are you doing, Zane?” my dad asked, after I broke away from Elissa.

“I’m all right. Although, I wasn’t expecting to heal so quickly from that.”

“Really? Let me see,” Elissa said.

I rolled up my blue jeans to where I was stabbed with the sword as Dad and Elissa took a look. Both of them looked surprised when they saw that there was no wound present, not even a scratch.

Elissa stammered, “But… but… the cut was deep! You were bleeding like crazy! That’s not possible.”

When I glanced at dad, it appeared that he was in deep thought, as he stroked his chin. I asked him, “What is it, Dad?”

“Wha?” he replied, “Oh. Umm…,”

“Spit it out, Dad.”

“I need to head into the city today,” he said, as he moved towards the door.

“What? I thought that you had today off to help us move the magic tricks from school.”

“I just remembered that I need to take care of something important in the city today that I started on yesterday. I will be back in time for dinner though.”

Dad rushed out of the room like he had a huge army chasing him.

“What’s with him?” I wondered.

“I don’t know,” Elissa replied. “Looks like he’s freaked out about something.”

We both shrugged as I finished up eating my breakfast. The bowl of cereal was good along with the glass of orange juice that Elissa had just poured for me.

“So, you wanna head out, and starting packing?”

I set down my glass and nodded. “Just let me take care of these first, okay?”

“Okay,” Elissa replied.

I washed my dishes up in the sink and put them away. I also took care of my dad’s and Elissa’s dishes in the sink. I found it was easier to take care of the dishes, instead of letting them pile up on you.

As we were headed out the door, I felt around my neck for my necklace. I quickly did a double-take as I realized that my necklace was not where it should have been. I was starting to panic, and I rushed back upstairs to my bedroom to search the dresser where I kept it if I ever took it off. I was shocked to find that it wasn’t there. I quickly ran back downstairs where Elissa was putting her shoes on?

“Where is it?” I asked, a note of panic in my voice.

“Where’s what?” she replied.

“My necklace! It’s not upstairs on my dresser and I don’t have it. Where is it?”

She stammered, “I… I… I don’t know. I thought that you still had it on you during the show.”

“I did. Do you think it could’ve fallen off me?”

“It’s possible. We should look for it while we’re packing things up. Maybe it fell off during the sword trick.”

“Then, let’s get going. I want my necklace back.”

I quickly slipped on my shoes and headed out the door to my bike. I had to get my necklace back; it was the only thing that I had that reminded me of my mother.

-------------------

We rode our bikes to school and locked them up in the bike rack. We walked around to the auditorium, where we saw a number of vehicles hauling away any props that were used during the talent show by the various performers. Principal Wilson was out and about helping move a piano that someone had used into their red Ford F-150 truck.

I walked over to the principal as he was helping the pianist’s family pull the bungee cords over the piano.

“Mr. Wilson,” I said.

“Zane,” he replied with a grunt as he pulled on the cord. “Nice to see you up and about. I thought you would be in worse shape after what happened last night.”

“I did, too. Listen, did you happen to see a necklace near any of my stuff when you were cleaning up last night?”

“A necklace?” he replied. “I don’t think I did.”

I grumbled, and then said, “Are you sure? This necklace is really important to me, and I was wearing it last night.”

The principal finished securing the piano, and walked over to the passenger door of the cab. As he climbed in, he sighed and then stated, “I’m not sure if I did or not. If it fell off of you as they were hauling you off, it may have fell into the box you were in. I’d check there first, if I were you.”

The driver of the truck said, “We’re going, John.”

“Zane, I have to go. I’m helping the Anderson’s with their piano for a good chunk of the day. If I see a necklace when I return, I’ll let you know.”

I sighed and said solemnly, “Thanks, Mr. Wilson. I’ll keep an eye out for it while Elissa and I pack up our stuff.”

I turned and headed towards the open auditorium doors, looking over my shoulder and seeing them drive off. The backstage area was quiet and dim; I’m guessing that Elissa and I were among the last few people that needed to take stuff home. I saw her leaning into the sword box, looking through it.

“Did you find it?” I asked, as I reached her.

“Nope, sorry, Zee,” she said, climbing up and out of the box.

I grumbled. “Where could it be?”

“Well, why don’t we start packing some of this stuff up? Who knows? It could turn up while we’re doing that.”

“All right,” I said, griping.

-------------------

It seemed like Elissa and I were packing for hours when I slumped down next to sword box. My arms were feeling a little sore and I needed a break from packing up the boxes. I hadn’t seen a sign of my necklace while we packing. I was feeling frustrated by not being able to find it.

Elissa walked over and knelt by my side. She held out a water bottle to me and said, “Thought you might be thirsty.”

I accepted the bottle, and replied, “Thanks.”

I took a few swigs of the cool water and asked her, “Any luck?”

“I haven’t seen it anywhere.” She sighed, and added, “Sorry.”

I grumbled in frustration some more. “I really need to find it, Elissa.”

“I know, Zee. I know.”

She reached her arm around me, and gave me a big comforting hug. “Don’t worry, we’ll find it.”

I grabbed her hand and held on to it tightly, “Thanks.”

We heard the approach of footsteps as we sat there. I wondered who it could be, since we were currently the only people working and packing in the backstage area of the auditorium. Looking towards the door, we saw the principal walking towards us. It looked like he had just returned from helping the Andersons with their piano.

“Mr. Wilson,” Elissa said, as he walked over to us, “how did you like the show last night?”

“I enjoyed it very much, thank you. How’s the packing?” he replied, with a smile.

“Alright,” I replied. “We were just making sure that we have everything.”

“Good,” he said. “I came down here to see if you needed help.”

“I think we have everything handled at the moment,” I replied.

The principal nodded and just stared at us a moment. He then said, “I’ll be around should you need it.”

“Thank you,” I replied.

The principal walked off towards a cluttered area of the backstage area. He glanced back at us, as he headed over to where there were a large number of costumes on some clothing racks.

We continued packing up the magic tricks after a few more minutes of gathering our strength again. Mr. Wilson came back every few minutes or so to check up on us, repeating his willingness to assist us. I found that it was nice of him to keep offering, but after the third time it was starting to get old. When he headed back towards the costume racks, I heard him grumbling under his breath, in frustration.

As soon as he was out of earshot, I asked Elissa, “Is it just me, or does he want us to leave?”

“What makes you say that?” she replied.

“He keeps coming over every so often, and offering help.”

“So? Maybe he just wants to help?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “maybe I’m being a little paranoid.”

“Relax, Zee. He’s probably just being helpful.”

“Alright, if you think so.”

We continued packing for a few minutes more, when Elissa said, “Why don’t you grab my costume from one of the racks.”

“It’s on a rack? I thought that you rushed out with Dad when I was injured.”

“I wanted to. But, someone had to stay behind, so that we didn’t forfeit. I didn’t want all our hard work to go to waste.”

“Okay, I’ll go get it,” I said, standing up with a tone of frustration in my voice.

The costume racks contained various costumes ranging from those used in Shakespearean plays to those from various eras through American history. I had been to a couple of the plays and skits that the Drama class would perform, and the costumes they had were pretty good, since the drama teacher and the students made them themselves. There were several racks in the back of the room, all with various outfits that were in no particular order.

I groaned in frustration as it seemed that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I thought to myself, ‘Why did she have to leave her costume here? Why couldn’t she have worn it home?’

I just shook my head, as I began flipping through the various costumes on the racks. I was amazed that the school had such a variety, but considering how often the drama classes put on shows, I shouldn’t have been.

As I was flipping through another of the racks, I heard a strange voice talking, “Are you sure about him? He doesn’t look any different than last night.”

The voice sounded a bit familiar, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. My curiosity getting the better of me, I decided to listen to what the voice was saying.

“I hope your intel was right about this one. I take great pride in my work,” the voice said in harsh tones, just before pausing for a time.

The pause threw me off only for a second. I soon realized that whomever it was talking on a cell phone. I crept around the racks to try to get a better view of the owner of the voice. As I poked my head around the costume rack, I saw the principal talking on a cell phone. However, it wasn’t his voice coming out of his mouth.

“Listen, Milton,” the principal said harshly, and in a much lower sinister tone, “if this kid doesn’t show his true colors soon, I may have to follow up on a job offer in Chicago.”

He paused again, as this Milton talked on the phone.

“Fine!” he stressed into his phone, “I’ll try provoking the kid into doing something, to try to force their abilities out. I’ll call you when I leave.”

The phony principal shut his cell phone, and grunted loudly in frustration. I decided to get out of there as soon as possible and warn Elissa that the principal was a fake and that he was up to something. I tried to slip away unnoticed hoping to get Elissa and get out of there as fast as we could. I ended up tripping over one of the legs of a costume rack, scattering a number of the costumes all around.

I heard a nearby scuffle and I saw the phony principal peek out around the costume rack. In his right hand, he held a pistol that I’ve seen on television used by the cops. My heart sank into my stomach as I saw him look over at me. An eerie smile crept over his face. I was hoping that he wasn’t going to shoot me as he methodically aimed his weapon.

“Well, well,” the fake principal said in his phone voice with very creepy and evil tones, “Looks like someone was listening to something they weren’t supposed to.”

I gulped as I watched him silently, trying to come up with a way to get out of there. My eyes glanced at everything around me, trying to look for something to use. A few seconds later, my eyes fell on something that could be useful.

“You know something,” he said, as he tapped the muzzle of the barrel against his cheek, “I’m a bit disappointed, I was expecting something more.”

He looked up and the ceiling, still with the muzzle of the gun against his cheek, and continued, “I don’t know what my employer has in mind about you, but I’ll let her figure that out.”

At that moment, I kicked the nearby clothing rack into his leg. He yelled out in pain from the impact and hopped around on one foot away from me while I dashed off to find Elissa.

‘Thank you,’ I thought, as I saw her still packing at the tricks.

“Elissa,” I said, grabbing her and panting to catch my breath from the dead sprint.

“Zee,” she said, looking concerned, “what’s going on?”

“We have to go, that’s not the principal,” I said, panting.

“What do you mean? That’s not the principal?”

The fake principal stumbled out from the clothing racks and lifted the gun towards us. I caught a glance at his face and half of it seemed very different. The face underneath was bald and very ugly. The skin was pale and the face resembled like a skull. It was as though a part of a mask had been torn off. It gradually reverted back to the principal’s face as he approached the two of us.

“I see what you mean,” Elissa said, as the two of us turned and began to run.

We headed for the doors that led deeper into the school; the fake principal stood between us and doors that led outside. I was just hoping that those doors were unlocked. Elissa beat me to the doors, and tried to open them, but they were locked. She took some of her frustration out on trying to open them, but with no luck.

“Damn! They’re locked!” she exclaimed.

I tried the doors when I got there as well and also found that they were locked. “Dammit!”

I whirled around and watched as whoever was pursuing us was getting closer. As he was raising his weapon at us again, I quickly tried the doors. They nudged themselves open as if they been jammed shut instead of locked.

“Come on!” I said, hitting Elissa in the arm, as we dashed through.

We ran down the darkened corridors, trying to get away from that mysterious person. The lockers flanked either side of us, as we were careening down the hall. I happened to steal a glance behind us, and saw that our pursuer was starting to catch up to us.

“Quick! This way!” Elissa shouted, as we she pulled me in the direction of the science corridor.

The science corridor was just as dark as that corridor we had just left. The science classrooms had windows that overlooked the corridor, and I remembered looking out of those windows to see if I could see anyone walk by when I should have been paying attention in class. Now, these windows had nothing but darkness, acting like a brick wall. As we past by a darkened classroom, my eye caught sight of a faint light coming out of one of the rooms, from behind a cracked door.

“Over here,” I said to Elissa, pointing to the room.

We opened the door to the chemistry lab and noticed that the light left on was a lamp by the teacher’s computer. Elissa rushed over there to turn off the light, while I hid behind one of the lab benches that was parallel to the wall with the corridor windows. The lab benches were situated around the edge of the classroom, along three of the four walls. The fourth wall was the location of the room’s whiteboard. There were a number of tables and chairs in the center of the room where other students would sit at when there were no experiments to be performed. Elissa dashed over to me and we breathed heavily as we tried to conceal our presence as best we could. I poked my head out from behind the bench, trying to observe the phony’s movements.

A few minutes had passed and there was no sign of the fake. Our breathing had slowed a little as we thought that we were out of danger, for the time being.

Elissa looked at me and asked, “You mind telling me what’s going on, now?”

I nodded, and then told her what I overheard of the fake principal’s phone call.

“So, what you’re saying is that he was supposed to be observing us?” she replied.

“Yes, but I messed that up for him.”

“Apparently.”

“Any ideas on getting out of this mess?”

“Not really.”

“Oh?”

“Well, we can always make a mad dash for the front door.”

I snickered at that suggestion, “Let’s have that as our backup plan.”

“Alright,” she said, as the door to the lab opened.

‘Dammit!’ I thought to myself, ‘Probably should’ve checked to make sure that door was closed.’

The fake principal entered the room and began a methodical search. I looked over at Elissa and put my finger over my mouth to indicate to be quiet. I then pointed at the door that led to the back store room. Elissa nodded in understanding. I poked my head around the lab bench and saw that he was currently looking in a corner, away from us.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he said in an eerie voice, taunting us to come out of hiding.

His voice just seemed to make my skin crawl. I motioned to Elissa to be ready to move, and she nodded.

I waited for a few more seconds and then nodded to Elissa. The two of us crouched and moved as close to the store room door as we could without making much noise. We managed to make it behind the lab bench that was directly next to the door and all we had to do was open it in order to move to another of the adjoining classrooms.

I snuck a peek around the lab bench that we were currently at. The fake principal didn’t seem to realize that we had moved and was now inspecting the area around the next lab bench, moving counterclockwise around the room.

“I know you’re in here, you no good brats. It would be easier if you’d just surrender. I promise to make it quick.”

He added an evil sounding chuckle after that. It made the hair on the back of my neck stick up straight. I mouthed to Elissa that I would go first and for her to wait until he had his back turned again. I crouched over to the door, opened it quietly, and slipped inside. I left the door cracked so Elissa could slip in when she had the chance.

I took a quick look around the room, and I saw the shelf lined with various chemicals and preserved animals. There were a couple of large refrigerators on one side of the room, with a microwave and sink on the other side. The room seemed to feel very cramped, but then I thought that high schools don’t have a lot of room to store stuff for science classes.

About a minute later, I saw her approach the door and slip inside with me.

“That was close,” she whispered.

“Did he see you?” I replied.

“I don’t think so,” she said, just before we heard the glass behind us shatter. “Then again, maybe he did.”

Elissa and I bolted towards the biology classroom, just as the fake principal opened the door to the storeroom. The phony fired off a couple shots off at us and I had my arms flailing for a second, trying to provide as little of a target as possible. Elissa flung open a freezer door as we passed it in our wake. We reached the door to the biology classroom and I opened the door to Elissa. As I looked back at our pursuer, I saw that there were various chemicals from the freezer and the shelves that were flinging themselves across the room, some of them hitting the fake principal.

I snickered as I saw him try to dodge the flying chemicals. Those that impacted him caused his suit he was wearing to start degrading.

“Zee!” Elissa shouted.

I turned and rushed out the door, and the two of us quickly ran out of the biology classroom before he could catch up to us again. As soon as were back in the hallway, we made a dash down the next corridor, which led toward the locker rooms and the gymnasium. Elissa and I tried the lock on each of the doors, but only the women’s locker room door was open. I groaned and Elissa just gave me a look that said, “Just deal with it.” The two of us ran in there to try to hide and figure out our next move.

The first things I noticed about the women’s locker room was that it smelled more pleasant and there were a lot more posters hanging from the walls. Other than that, it was laid out nearly the same way as the men’s locker room, but a whole lot cleaner. I felt a bit nervous being in there, since I didn’t know if any of the women’s sport teams had a practice today.
“Zee,” Elissa said, “will you just get over yourself?”

“Elissa,” I replied. “This is the girl’s locker room.”

“Yes and you don’t have anything to worry about with the other girls. The guy who’s chasing us? Him, you have to worry about.”

I just shook my head, and asked her, “So, you have a plan?”

“We could barricade the door with something.”

“With what?” I asked. “The lockers are attached to the walls and the benches are bolted to the ground.”

“We could move the trash and the lost and found cans in front of the door.”

“It’s a start,” I reluctantly agreed.

We pushed as many of those cans up the small ramp that led from the door we had entered. After stacking four or five large cans of stuff against the door, we went back down and rested for a bit on one of the benches.

“That’s not going to hold forever, you know,” I commented.

“No, but it should buy us some time,” she replied. “Come up with a good plan to lose him so we can escape?”

“We could always go through the food court and the cafeteria,” I suggested.

“That would only buy us a couple of minutes,” Elissa said.

“True, but, we would also get out of the school, since the cafeteria leads to the food court.”

As soon as she was about to say something, the door to the locker room burst open. The trash and lost clothes cans were scattered down the small ramp. The clothes that he wore, however, were in tatters, due to all the chemicals splashing on him. However, he no longer looked like the principal. He now had that skull-like face again. His face was hideously ugly as it looked like a skull with skin stretched over it.

I thought I heard Elissa scream in fright and surprise for a second. I told her, “Time to go!”

We bolted from the benches and headed towards the other exit at the opposite end of the room. The gun fired off a few more rounds, and luckily they impacted the lockers. Elissa and I quickly decided to weave in and out of the lockers to keep him from getting any decent aim.

“This guy doesn’t know when to quit, does he?” Elissa asked, breathing heavily as we rounded the next set of lockers.

“I guess not,” I replied.

Out of nowhere, the lockers in front of and behind us burst open, as if something forced them open violently from the inside. Various paraphernalia flew out of the lockers pelting us and our assailant with a bunch of stuff. Perfumes, lotions, and various hair products that the girls had in their lockers were bombarding us with various scents and smells. Our clothes and skin was being smeared with the various makeup products that they had. Spare bras and panties were also being caught on our bodies as we ran through the room.
“What’s going on?” Elissa shouted as she was pelted by another bottle of shampoo.

“How should I know?” I replied through the torrent.

“Is he causing this?”

I whipped my head around to get a look at him, and he looked even more frustrated than we were.

“I don’t think so, Elissa.”

The barrage of various products increased behind us as we emerged from the locker room close to the cafeteria. Our assailant slowed down a bit, as the storm of grooming products pelted him relentlessly.

The two of us ran towards the cafeteria, and opened the doors. As we ran, it felt like my clothes were feeling a lot tighter on my body than they were this morning. My skin was also feeling like it was being rubbed hard as well. I put those thoughts aside for the moment as we slumped down to the ground to rest by the door, and took another breather. We looked at each other, to make sure we were alright, and then, for no reason, Elissa started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“You, you have a-,” she tried to get out of her mouth, but she was overcome by a fit of laughter as she pointed to the top of my head.

I reached on top of it, and found that a bra was snagged in my hair. I removed the bra from my hair, and then started to laugh.

“How did this come along for the ride?” I asked through my own bouts of hysteria.

“I don’t know, but you looked so silly with it on you!”

The two of us both laughed some more until Elissa pointed toward the other end of the cafeteria.

“Look! The way out of here!” she shouted.

I looked to where she was pointing, and saw the glass door that separated the cafeteria from the outdoor food court. We both breathed a sigh of relief, glad that we were almost clear. However, our reprieve was short lived as we were interrupted by a pounding on the door.

“He always has to spoil our breaks, doesn’t he?” Elissa commented.

The two of us got up, and made a dash for the exit. Our assailant fired off another few shots at us, and luckily they were a bit wide. The tables and benches that were usually down during mealtime were in their respective slots along the wall, and for a second, I wished that they were out to help us dodge his attacks.

A loud noise echoed through the cafeteria. We looked over at the table and bench wall, watching the tables coming out of the walls on their own!

Elissa and I looked at each other, bewildered. We turned and saw that the tables and the benches were rolling their way right at our attacker. He saw them coming for him and he tried to dodge and roll around them. Some of them did knock him to his feet, but he quickly recovered and stood back up.

Elissa and I turned and kept running, as the benches and tables in front of us were now coming out of their slots and headed for us. As we tried to avoid them, I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on. I ran through everything strange happening ever since our pursuer began the chase.

First, it was that door that was locked, and then it was suddenly just jammed. Then, in the chemical storeroom, the chemicals sprung from their shelf and flew across the room. In the girl’s locker room, the lockers burst open and their contents went flying around. And now, the benches and tables that were usually rolled away during the weekend were coming out and just causing chaos in the room.

‘What the hell is going on here?’ I thought to myself, while trying to avoid an oncoming bench.

We were nearing the exit to the room when we heard a loud bang overhead. I looked up and saw that a light bulb had exploded. As I watched, more bulbs had exploded, showering glass and electrical stuff as they traveled from the hallway end of the room to the exit.

“Great!” Elissa commented sarcastically, “Is there anything else than can possibly can go wrong?”

No sooner than the words were out of her mouth than soda from the dispensers and leftover food from the refrigerators came pelting out of the kitchen and headed straight for the three of us.

“Look out!” I shouted.

Elissa turned to look, and got smacked in the face with some pizza. I made a face that was a mix of laughter and grossed out, just before I got hit with some leftover ice cream. Soda stopped short of our pursuer causing him to slip. He slid down the floor for a bit, knocking into some of the benches that had stopped moving.

His impact had caused them to roll straight for us. I pushed Elissa out of the way, as they headed for us, and I saw the benches slam in to the glass door. Elissa and I quickly got back to our feet as the overhead sprinklers went off soaking the entire room in water.

As we exited through the broken glass and into the outdoor food court, we quickly dashed for the bike rack. Elissa and I decided to jump off the steps in attempt to get there more quickly, but we ended up eating some of the asphalt.

“Ow!!!” she screamed, clutching her shin.

Pain flared through my legs, as I heard my jeans tear. I looked at the legs of my jeans and I saw that they had ripped down the seams. I could see my ankles and a bit of my lower leg, where the cuff of the pants used to be. Before I wondered how I could see that much of my leg I quickly rushed over to Elissa.

“You okay?” I asked, looking at her injury.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, climbing back to her feet. “It doesn’t feel like I broke anything.”

“Good,” I said, as I grabbed her hand, and raced towards our bikes.

We ran as fast as we could, but it was difficult. We had already run through a good chunk of the school, and we were definitely feeling it in our legs. My legs definitely felt different than I was used to though. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something was definitely up with them.

I sighed and muttered, “Thank God,” as we saw that our bikes were still locked in the rack.

I heard a ricochet of a bullet, and catching a glance back, I saw our assailant load another clip into his pistol, then taking aim. Turning back toward the bikes I saw the Prius drive up and skid nearby. My dad jumped out of the car and rushed over to us.

“Are you two okay?” he asked us.

Elissa and I both looked at him, and nodded.

“We’re all right, Dad.”

“Good, get to the car and stay there,” he replied.

I wasn’t in the mood to disagree with him. I just wanted to get as far away from our crazy pursuer as fast as I could.

“Shot gun,” Elissa said, with a giggle.

I groaned as we headed for the car. Elissa jumped into the front seat, while I climbed into the back. We both then watched my dad stand up to whoever it was. I was mystified to why my dad wasn’t running away with us. I had never known Dad to do anything like this. I had never known him to stand up and fight someone, especially someone who was holding a gun. But, I knew that my dad hated bullies. I remember the day that he had told me to stand up to a bully that had been picking on me for most of the first month of school in the seventh grade.

His name was John Dee. He was a lot bigger than me and they kept calling me names, pushing me into the lockers, taking my lunch money, and even threw me into a few trash cans. I didn’t know what his problem was with me; I guess I just pulled the unlucky draw. One day, I came home very bruised and smelling horrible. Dad was home early from preparing for a show in the city and he flipped when he saw the state that I was in. After a long talk, he convinced me to stand up to the bully and confront him.

I took his advice, and in front of a large crowd at school, stood my ground against John, or “Dream Boy” as his cronies called him. I heard that he had earned that nickname after one of his former targets had nightmares about him for months. He didn’t like the idea of someone standing up to him and he had his goons hold me down while he took a few shots at me. After several shots, I saw Elissa come up and clock John hard in the jaw, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. Most of the school had witnessed it, and John was humiliated that a girl hit him to the ground with one punch. She helped me to the nurse’s office, and I realized that I had an awesome friend in her.

Now, as I watched my dad take a stand, I couldn’t help but think back to that bully. However, I wasn’t sure if he was brave or foolish to try to stand up to who was after Elissa and me. Maybe he was a little bit of both. All that Elissa and I could do now was sit and watch.

“Just who the hell are you?” the attacker said, when he saw my dad standing between him and the car.

My dad was dressed in his magician’s attire; I assumed that he came directly here from something that required the costume. I watched as his cape fluttered in the breeze behind him.

“Leave my son and his friend alone,” my dad said in an imposing tone.

“Like hell. My employer wants the neo… neofi…. Bah! The whatever!”

“Neophyte?” my father replied.

“Yeah, that! And I’ll do anything to get the job done,” he said, raising the gun at my dad.

“You are welcome to try.”

I had no idea what my dad meant by neophyte. I didn’t even know what it meant. My guess was that it was referring to Elissa or me.

As I was wondering what was meant, the attacker opened fire on my dad. I heard at least two or three gunshots. I gasped as I saw a plume of smoke spring up from the ground surrounding my dad, as the bullets whizzed by.

Elissa and I, along with whoever was shooting at him, looked for where my dad went off to. We couldn’t see much until the smoked had cleared away. I was guessing that my dad had used a smoke bomb to conceal his movements. After the smoked had cleared, we watched the attacker look around and saw a hand tap his shoulder.

“Looking for me?” my dad said, before he punched the attacker square in the jaw.

The attacker momentarily lost his balance from the surprise of my dad clocking him in the face. He stumbled back a couple of steps and said, “I was told to leave you out of this, magician. Guess I don’t have to now.”

The assailant then swiftly punched my dad in the gut twice. Dad doubled back in pain and tried to maintain his footing. He luckily did and managed to kick the mystery man in the side.

“I see you can fight,” the attacker observed.

“I’m not all illusions and tricks,” my dad replied, going at him again with his fists.

The two of them brawled around for a while. My dad was holding his own fairly well, but it started to show that he wasn’t well trained in martial fighting. Our attacker started getting closer to knocking him out of the fight. I was surprised of how long he was actually staying up.

The two of them moved around until the attacker’s back was to the bike racks. Although, the attacker didn’t seem to be too worried about it. He saw my dad huffing and puffing with some measure of exhaustion.

“Give it up, old man,” he provoked my dad.

Strangely though, my dad just smiled as he was breathing hard. My dad didn’t look too good as I could see him huffing and puffing.

“What are you smiling about?” the attacker asked.

My father didn’t answer, as he panted. Instead, my father lifted his arms up and aimed his hands at the bike rack.

The attacker laughed, and said, “You think you’re gonna strangle me?”

“No,” my father replied in a low tone, “I have something else in mind.”

My father had an interesting smile on his face, as he said something with in a strange language. I was surprised that it sounded somewhat familiar to me.

“Pu mih eit, kcar,” my father said.

I tried to figure out if it was any language that I have heard before, since it was familiar. I couldn’t quite place it though.

“Zee, look!” Elissa said, as she pointed toward the bike rack.

I looked over and watched as the empty bike rack shifted its form. The metal ground against itself, with its wrenching sound, as the attacker just stood there staring at my dad.

“Funny words, old man,” he said.

As he was about to take a shot at my dad with his fist, the metal of the rack lashed out against his strong arm’s shoulder. It pulled his shoulder back and towards the ground. Before he could react, the metal grabbed his other shoulder and did the same. The rack pulled him to the ground, hard.

“How?” the attacker yelled.

Two of the other empty racks reached out for his legs and wrapped themselves around them. They pulled hard and the assailant’s chest was forced onto the ground hard. The only thing he could do know was growl at my father as he was now hog-tied by the metal of the rack.

“If you want to be let go, I would suggest that you leave my friends and family alone. Got it?”

“This isn’t the end, magician.”

My father turned and left Elissa’s and my attacker hog-tied on the ground by the bike rack. He headed for the car and I could see that this was not quite the same man that I had known throughout my life. There was definitely more than meets the eye, I thought.

I felt tired and worn out, as I could feel the adrenaline slow through my body. I collapsed onto the back seat entirely. All I wanted to do now was just curl up and fall asleep.

“Wow,” Elissa said, “I didn’t know your dad could do anything like that.”

“Neither did I,” I said as I tried to stretch out across the back seat.

Normally, when I decided to lie down in the back seat of our car, I didn’t have to bend my knees to get comfortable. However, this time, my knees were bent a good deal. Most of my lower legs were exposed and I could see the tears along the seams of my jeans. When I looked at my legs, my calves seemed to be different somehow.

I tried stretching my arms, and I heard tearing sounds in my ears. I looked at surprise at my shirt, as it seemed that my arms were larger than the sleeves of my tee. They also appeared different as well.

‘Okay,’ I thought to myself, ‘What the hell is going on?’

Elissa turned around to look at me, as she said, “I wonder if your dad is–…. Zee! What happened to you?”

I asked her, “What do you mean?”

“Your clothes! They’re all ragged.”

“I guess I picked out some old clothes this morning.”

“I don’t think so. You wore that outfit last week.”

She gasped, and covered her mouth.

“What? What is it?”

“Your legs! Your arms! They’re different!”

I looked at my legs and arms, and said, “I don’t know. My skin looked like that when I woke up this morning.”

“I don’t mean your skin, I think they’re longer!”

“Longer?” I said, sitting up. As I did so, I bonked my head against the door.

“Ow!” I rubbed my head from where it hit the door and Elissa suggested, “Step out of the car. I want to check you out.”

“Elissa!”

“Relax, Zee,” she said, as we climbed out of the car.

“What’s going on?” my dad asked, as he saw us exit the vehicle. “I thought we were going home.”

“I need to check Zee out, Mr. Z. Something’s not quite right,” Elissa replied.

“I think she’s overreacting,” I replied.

“Oh?” she said, “then why are you taller than me?”

“What?”

I looked at Ellisa’s face, and realized she was right. Before, I had to look up at her to talk with her. Now, she was looking up at me.

“What’s going on?” I said as I looked over my body. As I looked myself over, I caught a glimpse of the tangled metal hulk that was the bike rack out of the corner of my eye.

“Look! He’s gone!”

Elissa and my dad whirled around and Elissa said, “Where did he go?”

We looked around, but couldn’t see him anywhere. I was hoping that he was gone, but I was scared that he was still nearby.

“Let’s go,” my dad said.

We both nodded, and climbed into the car. My dad started the car and began the drive back home. I continued to look over my limbs and tried to wrap my head around what was going on with it.

“Do you have any idea what’s going on, Dad?” I asked.

My dad didn’t say anything and I leaned forward towards him and said, “Dad?”

He said in a low voice, “No, but it’s just begun.”

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Author’s note: Please leave comments at the the bottom of the story. I will appreciate anything you have to say or ask about the story. It doesn’t have to be long and involved, I would just like your reaction to the story. Thanks, your feedback helps!