“Medusa?” Jenny said as I stood outside her front door. “Why are you here?”

“Can I come in? I’d like to talk to you,” I said.

“Where are my manners? You can move into my room if you need to. Come in.” She lived in a larger than normal home in the wealthy part of town.

We sat down in a breakfast nook of the kitchen.

“To what do I owe the honor of my savior visiting me.”

I thought the prior Monday had been unusual. The atmosphere at school was unreal. Everyone already knew that Jenny had dumped Tommy. Neither of them would tell anyone why and the number of often conflicting rumors were unreal.

Boys can dream, can’t they?.

Bryce and Paul were boyhood friends. Many Saturday afternoons had been spent horizontal on sofas watching sports on the TV. As the years went by the cans of cola were replaced by beer, razors were in each bathroom and their voices had broken, of course. Commercial breaks were now occupied by discussions of the attractiveness (or otherwise) of various girls of their mutual acquaintance and the ruses needed to get them wearing as little as possible, as quickly as possible.

Journey Into
The
Forbidden West
A Horizon: Forbidden West Fan Fiction
by

E. E. Nalley

April 22nd, 3040

Monday started out weird and just got weirder. First, I was up early and spent most of the morning before school trying to decide what to wear for my second date with Ross. It had to be something that would also be good to wear all day in school. It took forever to decide on an outfit that, last week, I probably would have chosen without a second thought. The worst part was my assumption that Ross probably wasn’t thinking about his outfit at all.

Also, as foolish as it sounds to say it, I felt very exposed out there, naked, in the desert, in the dark.
I'm not talking about being naked. I'm talking about wild animals.
I knew full well that there are no hyenas in the United States, but it didn't stop me from being scared of them.

How could this be? She had been holding the lifeless bird statue when I petrified her and some of her life force was now in the bird. How much had been drained from her? The bird had had no life force for over a week.

I looked at the place where she and the bird were in contact and I could see some of the red inside her moving into the bird. I grasped the bird and was able to remove it from her hand. The bird's life lines were still very faint. At least now the essence was no longer flowing from Marie to the bird.

A few minutes later Aunt Lauretta was sitting with me and Carlo around the table in my room.

“Thank you, Aunt Lauretta. Without you, this guy could create a lot of inconvenience to us,” I said.

“Oh, that is nothing. You know, a little bird told me that you two paid a lot of money to buy me a birthday present. I am glad that I could repay a little of this debt.” She looked at us with a faint smile.

It. Was. Divine. I had to have more! More! But, I didn’t take more. I took my hand away with my trick still active. I was in control, at least I was when I was not starving for the stuff. "That's it. Now, you just have to wait it out." I closed my eyes and opened them. The urge subsided a bit.

I walked back inside. "I'm done," I told the others. They went outside to see Douglas.

“Irish Dancing? Isn't that the rubbish where they keep their arms straight by their sides?" Nick peered myopically at the bulletin board. The poster actually showed a line of girls high kicking in unison, ponytails flying and, yes, arms held rigidly at their sides.

I shook my head, more to myself than anything. It really was a mystery to me how he'd made it to college with so little going on between his ears.

“Did something happened to Vinnie?” Grace asked on entering the room. “She has always been here before me.”

“Indeed!” Mommy almost jumped. “She is always among the first here… Anyone to know something?…” She opened the door of the room. “Fabricia, do you know if Vinnie has called sick?”

“She hasn’t… Wait, the elevator!”

The destroyer Kraben assumed a synchronous orbit over Russia, a silent but powerful reminder of the consequences of their earlier actions. These actions, a series of aggressive moves in space, had provoked the interstellar power and led to the current tense situation. The tension that rippled through Earth's governments was palpable, especially in Russia, where the leadership now found itself in a precarious position. They had acted hastily, and now they were dealing with the fallout—literally and figuratively—of provoking an interstellar power.

Queen Dana of Highwinds the Elf Kingdom inside the Empire has a problem. One that she cannot fix personally. The problem is with a small minority of her population. A problem that has been brought to her attention by the half elf son of a problematic Duke. What is a Queen to do? She calls on help from a friend. The question now is does she realize what she is letting loose on her kingdom?

I woke up Saturday morning with two legs, much to my relief. I showered and returned to my room. As I looked through my closet I noticed the one pair of jeans I had purchased just a handful of days ago. Reaching for the jeans made me feel funny on Thursday. Today, I picked them up off the rack without my compulsions complaining about it. I put them on and still there was no problem. I had to admit I liked the way they hugged my body. When I finished dressing I went downstairs for breakfast. Mom and Daddy were already up.

"Hey, look—" he glanced at his watch. "The timeline! We're still on the timeline, if we want to be!
Right about now, on the night Ross disappeared, he and Mayda left this restaurant and drove out to the desert.
What do you say — we drive out there now and check out the scene? What do you say?"

“Why don’t we go tomorrow and fetch your things? There is no sense in you paying rent, we fit well together. And in Sunday, I would love to teach you some climbing.” It was Friday evening and we had just returned from work.

“Are you sure?” There was a bit of conscience in the voice of Carlo.

“Yes. I… I like you. Like, really.”