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  Author's Note: The first story is done. I'm going to post it in parts so I have a little more time to work on my next story. :P Hope you all enjoy it. This is a slightly modified version of what I originally posted. If you feel you have a good grasp of what happened before you can probably just skip to the next part though you might read the Prologue, which is new. ~Matt.  

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Prologue

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Maria ran through the woods at full bore.   She knew it was foolish, the trail she was trying to follow was confusing and if she hurt herself they would catch her for sure!   She had to stay in front of them!   If they caught her she was dead!

As she ran, a rushing sound filled her ears and she pushed herself even harder.   She wouldn’t let them catch her!   The rushing faded and a euphoric feeling filled her, leaving her light headed and making the trail that much harder to follow.   By the time she realized she had gone off track she could barely remember why she was running at all.   Staggering to a stop she listened for any sign of pursuit but heard only silence.   The euphoria intensified; she had never felt so aroused; she could feel every single cell of her body cry out for release!   Writhing on the leaf strewn forest floor she felt her entire being explode with pure ecstasy and then... nothing.

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CHAPTER 1

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“Seven! Come on Double A!   Push it!   Push it! Hell yeah!   Eight!   Give me two more!”

I gritted my teeth and pushed into the next rep.   This was my third set on the bench press and my chest and arms were on fire. Hanover hovered over me ready to catch the bar if my arms failed.   I have to admit, the fact that I had been giving him ‘two more’ for the last five reps was really starting to get on my nerves.

“Nine!   Two more man!   Three Hundred ain’t nothing!   You got this!”

My extremely vocal teammate and spotter is Darrel Hanover.   Darrel is a picture perfect high school receiver.   He’s fast and has soft hands.   My lateral movement is better but in the open field no one can touch him.   If you aren’t ready for it he just looks like a blue and brown blur.   Darrel is a good guy, not the smartest guy on the team and way too upbeat for most people to take for long.   I have no question that if he had been born a girl he would have ended up a cheerleader of the highest order.

They say they put me with him because I’m the only Sophomore to make Varsity this year and Hanover is super helpful.   I’d like to think it was because they want me to have a lot of support but to be honest I think it’s just more hazing.

The funny thing is that it doesn’t usually get to me and he really is motivational.

“Damn Double A!   You’re pounding them out! Eleven!   If your going to go like that we should add more weight and start over!”

My glare elicited the same stupid toothy grin he always wore when talking to girls.

Come to think of it, most of the girls he talked to seemed to spend a lot of time glaring at him as well.   Didn’t seem to keep them from sucking face with him though.

As I pushed into the twelfth rep, my arms started shaking as they began to fail.   As usual Darrel was on top of things and got ready to catch the bar if I couldn’t finish the rep.

“Push!   Push!   This ain’t nothing!   Finish it out!”   My left arm faltered half-way up.   “Don’t you fag out on me!   Push!” he yelled.

With a final burst of strength, I barely managed to finish a sloppy rep and Darrel pulled the weight bar home.   With the weight gone the muscles in my arms and chest started twitching uncontrollably.   The spasms weren’t new but I sure as heck wouldn’t mind if they would stop.   I never got twitches like this before I signed up for the protein shake trial.   The doctors from Wytex don’t seem to think it’s anything to be worried about.   They don’t have to feel it though.   They might be more concerned if it was their muscles spazzing out for a minute or two after each set.

“Hanover!” Coach Wiese shouted from across the weight room as he strode our way.   “What have I told you about using pejorative terms as a motivational method?”

“Uh... not too?” Darrel replied as both he and I began looking about the room nervously.   

Sure enough, everyone had stopped what they were doing and were watching us.   Some of them looked on with sympathy, most maintained carefully neutral expressions and a few snickered at us openly.

“Uh... not too?” Coach mimicked “Wind sprints.   Now.   I’ll come out and tell you when you can stop.”

“But Coach,” Darrel said in horror.   

While insensitive slurs were technically a fairly major offence, questioning an athlete’s masculinity or sexual orientation was an older than dirt motivational technique.   Even Coach Wiese dropped them from time to time.   Usually something as minor as calling me a fag wouldn’t even be noticed, maybe he would get a glare.   Wind sprints until further notice was something Coach saved for the big stuff.   Stuff that might really hurt someone.   Screwing around with the weights could do it but this wasn’t on the same level.

Scanning the room once more, the real problem became apparent.   Ms. Robothom, the vice-principal and hater of all things masculine and fun was standing in the door of Coach’s office glaring at Darrel.   If it didn’t look like Coach was taking this seriously Darrel might end up bounced off the team.   It wouldn’t be the first time she pulled stuff like that.

“Dude,” I said quietly, gesturing with my eyes to where ‘The Robot’ waited.

Understanding dawned and Darrel’s attitude changed.   “Sorry Coach.   I just got excited.   I’ll fill out AJ’s log and then...”

“Double A can fill it out himself,” Coach said cutting him off. “Get to running Hanover.”

“Yes Coach,” Darrel said with a nod and then took off for the bleachers.

“Cross.   Hanover was out of line calling you that.   You want to make something of it?”

Have you ever noticed that when you’re in a situation where you already stick out as not quite fitting in, that the universe tends to find all sorts of ways to really showcase it?

“Not really Coach.” I said honestly, “I was too busy lifting to pay that much attention anyway,” as an after thought I added “I am going to need someone else to spot me now though.”

Not Peters.   Not Peters.   Not Peters.

“Leighman!” Coach called to one of the linemen. “Spot Double A.”

Jamie gestured toward the Squat machine which had just opened up, “I was about to start myself Coach.”

The look on Coaches face was less than pleased.

“Don’t sweat it Jamie,” the bass voice of Brian Peters rumbled, “I got it Coach.”

“Fine,” Coach checked the clock.   “Twenty minutes to go people.   Work it!”

As part of the trial that Wytex was doing with us, we were all being given protein shakes at specific times on specific days.   They said they had come up with a new formulation that’s supposed to be better than their old version, whatever that means.   Everyone that signed up for the study got a number and we had to drink the bottle they gave us.   I don’t know if I had the new formula or the old one but which ever it was I hoped the other one wouldn’t give me these spaz attacks.   It’s hard enough dealing with Peters without giving him any more material.

“Hey, twinkletoes,” Brian grinned at me, showing his chipped incisor, “You heard Coach.   You ready to step up from the baby weights or will that mess up your manicure?”

Remember what I said about questioning another player’s sexuality being a tried and true means of motivation?   That isn’t what he’s doing.   Brian doesn’t like me and he’s being an ass.

“I’m on a schedule Brian, you know they don’t like it when we go off.   That’s how people get hurt,” I try not to come across like he intimidates me but in the end he’s six inches taller, three years older and easily weighs as much as two of me.   If a Mack Truck and a gorilla had a baby I imagine it might look something like Brian.   “Just help me finish my set.   Okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah,” he said lifting the bar without even straining.   

I think I should explain some things here.   I’m five foot eleven and weigh about one-sixty five to one-seventy.   I can bench a little over double my body weight for three reps.   For a sophomore in high school this is pretty good.   I even have my name up on the Sophomore board for top lifts this year.

Brian is six foot six and weighs somewhere over three hundred fifty pounds.   He’s a giant slab of ugly muscle.   He can press somewhere over a quarter ton.   That’s more than I think I’d trust truck with!

Of course, my truck is a piece of crap.

If he doesn’t end up in jail for doing something stupid he’s going to have to fight the recruiters off with a stick.

Brian leered down at me as I pressed the weights to extension, “I saw you’re mom the other day.   She still turning tricks?”

“Screw you!” I gasped as I pressed the weight once more.   Not my most witty rejoinder but it’s hard to be clever while holding three hundred pounds.   Shifting my grip I tried to swing the bar home but found Brian blocking me.

“Screw me?” he said in a distressingly conversational tone. Gripping the bar as if to lift it away he instead began to push against me,   “Nah.   Screw you Double A,” casually he pressed even harder, “Screw you.   You think you’re hot shit just cause your Dad played in the NFL, Cross?”

My arms buckled but I managed to catch the weight before it hit my chest.   Brian may have actually checked the weight to give me a chance to catch it.   With my arms no longer locked out I was completely at his mercy.   My muscles, already fatigued from working through my circuit, were absolutely screaming but I managed to push back just enough to keep it from crushing me.

Leaning in he said, “Come on Cross.   You have to mean it.   Push!” all the while he held me pinned to the bench.   More quietly he continued, “You’re nothing Cross.   You’re shit.   You’re old man is shit.   You’re mom is a whore and I bet you’re little sister is just a tighter version.”

The anger that lit my eyes must have told him he had struck a nerve. I pushed harder but it was like the pushing against a stone wall.

“Oh yeah,” he intoned lewdly, “How much you think she’d charge to suck me off?   A dollar?” he feigned thinking, “Nah she’s probably so sick of your dinky dick she’d be glad to final...”

The bar flew off my chest and arced over the cradle, smashing to the floor with a terrible crash. Brian backpedaled, barely avoiding being hit. If I had been capable of any kind of rational thought at the moment I suspect the look of surprise on his face would have been priceless.

“How the fuck did you do that?” he asked with a touch of fear in his voice.   At least that’s what I think he said; it was hard to hear with the blood pounding in my ears.

“You don’t talk about my sister!” I screamed, stomping toward him on shaky legs.   “Talk about her again and I’ll...”

“You’ll what?” he recovered and took a step toward me, “What?   Come on Twinkletoes!   Just what the fuck are you going to do?”

My hand balled into a fist so tightly it hurt.   My muscles were spasming but I didn’t care.   My arm cocked back as I got ready to punch a hole straight through him.   It was strange, almost like watching myself do things rather than doing them myself.

“Cross!” Coach Wiese shouted from across the room, instantly breaking my fugue. “My office!   Now!”

“Yes Coach!” I shouted back all the while boring holes in Brian with my eyes.   He had gotten to me.   He had gotten under my skin and now I was going to pay for it.   Asshole!

“Peters!” Coach barked, “Join Hanover on the Bleachers.   When you finish fifty you can both come in,”   Stepping aside he allowed me into his office. “Peters!” Brian turned looked back from the door. “You only have fifteen minutes before Wytex starts their thing so no goldbricking on those sprints.”

“Yes, Coach,” Brian nodded and loped off toward the bleachers.

“The rest of you.   Shows over.   Get back to work,” he stood for a moment glaring at the other members of the team until the rhythmic clinking of metal on metal resumed it’s cadence.   

Meanwhile I stood fuming while trying not to look like I was fuming.   I don’t have a short temper as a rule.   I get touchy about Josie though and Peters had pressed that button hard.

Satisfied that the remainder of the session would not be completely wasted Coach closed the door to his office and crossed in front of me to perch on the edge of his desk. “Have a seat,” he gestured at one of the lime green hard plastic chairs in front of his desk.

With my head downcast I lowered myself onto the seat of shame. “Sorry Coach,” I squeaked.   My eyes were burning and it was all I could do to keep from crying. I was not going to give Peters that satisfaction.

“Why are you sorry AJ?”   He didn’t sound angry and if anything that made holding back the tears that much harder.

I started to speak but realized that I wasn’t exactly sure why I was sorry.   Yeah, I had gotten mad but it wasn’t like I had actually tossed the weight like that, Brian had to have pulled on it.   In fact that was kind of what it felt like.   Rather than try and explain anything I remained silent.

“Speak up Cross.   Why are you sorry?”   He still didn’t sound mad but he sounded more like Coach.

“I broke the first rule of using the weight room,” I said quietly.

Coach Wiese nodded, “and?” he prodded.

I chewed my tongue for a moment before continuing, “And if you screw around with weights then someone can get hurt.”

“Look at me AJ,” I raised my eyes to his, “What were you benching out there? 280? 290?”

“300, sir.”

He shook his head and tried to hide the grin that threatened to split his face by standing up and rounding his desk to sit in the heavy wooden swivel chair.   By the time he faced me again his face was once more serious.

“AJ, at 300 pounds you could kill someone with a stunt like that.   Peters is a block of wood but if you get 300 pounds of iron moving and it clips him right it could kill him.” Coach steepled his fingers.   “AJ, you know that I don’t normally put Sophomores on Varsity.”

I nodded and my stomach sank.   He was about to boot me.

“I have plenty of Juniors and Seniors to fill the roster.   Sophomores usually aren’t mature enough, physically or emotionally, to handle the pressure and keep up.   Do you see where I’m going with this AJ?”

I took a deep breath and tried to keep it from shuddering too much, “You’re cutting me,” I managed to whisper.

“No.   That’s not it.   Unless you want me too.   If it’s too much for you I’m willing to be the bad...”

I sat bolt upright in my chair, “No!   It’s not too much!   Dad would kill me if I got cut for doing something stupid!”

Coach smiled, “I suspect he might at that.   Now why don’t you tell me what happened out there.”

I fidgeted under his gaze for a moment before trying to explain, “I was doing my set with Darrel and then you sent him to do windsprints and then you stuck me with Peters and he started talking about my family and pinned me down to the bench and eventually I got mad and pushed the bar off my chest but he had to have pulled on it ‘cause there’s no way could have tossed it that far unless he helped,”   I took another breath and cursed myself inwardly for saying too much.   You don’t rat out teammates.   Even if they are total asshats.

Coach leaned forward, his face all business, “AJ, football is a very competitive sport.   The other team is going to do everything they can to get inside your head and get you thinking about anything except the game.   Peters is good at that.   He can get under your skin so fast and so far that you can’t help but jump,” Coach sighed and his years showed for a moment. “It’s a great talent for a lineman but it also makes him difficult to deal with.”

“Coach, he freaking hates me and my family and I don’t have any idea why,”

“Do you know how many Sophomores I’ve put on the Varsity team?”

“Uh...no?” I replied in confusion at the non sequitur.

“In the, Lord, thirty years,” he shook his head at the thought,   “I’ve been coaching here, I’ve given the go to a half dozen Sophomores.   Ten tops.   Ten years ago the school had gotten big enough that I didn’t think I would ever do it again.   Plenty of upperclassmen waiting to play,” He stood up and walked over to the wall to the left of his desk which was covered with framed newspaper articles and stared at one of the more yellowed pages which heralded Coach Wiese’s first conference championship. “but every once in a while you find a player who has so much potential.   So much raw talent, that it would be a crime not to play them.   Two years ago I found one such player in Peters and I be damned if he hasn’t carried us through two consecutive championships.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling rather stupid for not knowing this, “That still doesn’t explain why he’s riding me though.”

Coach sighed and sat back down in his chair, “This is Brian’s Senior year, AJ.   This is supposed to be his year but with you on the team he’s losing some of of his thunder.   I had hoped he would take the opportunity to show some class and take you under his wing.   Lord knows he could have used someone back when he was a Sophomore.”

I was terribly confused, “Are you saying someone actually picked on Peters?   Who would do that?   He’s the size of a house!”

Coach smiled, “He wasn’t always as big as he is now.   Don’t get me wrong.   He was always a big kid but back when he was your age he hadn’t finished filling out.   The simple fact is that the upperclassmen ride those below them.   The Seniors ride the Juniors but the mix is pretty even so no one really gets it unless they call it down on themselves.   As a Sophomore everyone is going to ride you AJ.   You upset the balance and the fact that you out perform half of them isn’t going to help.”

“I guess I could...” I began but coach cut me off.

“If I ever catch even a hint that you aren’t giving everything you have I will cut you so fast you’ll wonder if this was a dream!”

My eyes must have looked like saucers. “Yes, Coach!   I’m mean no Coach!   I always try my hardest!”

“Just be sure you do,” he looked back toward the newspaper he had examined earlier.   “Your father was on that team, you know.”

“Yes Sir, my dad has the same paper in his scrapbook, he says you were the best coach he ever had,”

“Really?” he smiled, obviously pleased to hear it.

I glanced at the clock, “Coach? We’re past when we were supposed to end for the day.   I need to get my protein shake from the Wytex guys before they leave.”

“That late?” he craned to look at the clock on the wall, “Fine.   Get your shake.   Can’t afford any dropout we can avoid,” I stood to leave but before I got out of the office he continued “Hold on Cross,” I returned my attention to him.   I had been so close. “You won’t dress for the next game.”

“Yes Coach,” I said glumly.

God.   My dad was going to blow a freaking gasket.

Leaving the office I saw Peters and Darrel standing in line to get their shakes from the Wytex rep.   Neither of them looked very good.   Peters was flushed and breathing hard and by the look on Darrel’s face I’m guessing he probably threw up at some point during the sprints.Trying to be as unobtrusive as possible I stepped to the back of the line and waited for my turn.

Wytex Sports Nutrition had chosen the Omaha Public School System out of thousands of applicants to participate in a non-clinical trial of a new protein shake they were getting ready to market.   Their earlier clinical studies showed that the new amino acid chain they had created was significantly more effective at promoting muscle development than their current formulation which is marketed under the name ‘Novacane’.   Their slogan is ‘No Pain!   All Gain!’ which is frighteningly not the worst I’ve heard.

Still looking flushed and green Darrel moved back in line to stand with me.   As he did I noticed Brian eyeing me strangely while rubbing his right wrist.

“So what happened with Coach?” Darrel asked quietly.

I shrugged my shoulders.   I really didn’t feel like talking about it.

“He didn’t cut you did he?   You know better than to screw around like that in here,” he thought for a moment.   “Actually what I really want to know is how you managed to toss the weights like that anyway.   You were all but gassed when I left.”

I shrugged again but knew it was a losing battle.   Darrel was not one to take subtle hints.

Darrel wheedled, “Come on man.   Give me something!   Brian’s been rubbing his wrist like he tweaked it ever since he came out and started to do sprints.   I tried to find out what happened from him but he clammed up and just kept running.   You know how much Brian hates running the bleachers.   Any excuse to avoid them, but he just kept pounding up and down those benches.”

“He must have hurt it when he pulled the weight off my chest,” I grumbled.

“Well at least he was doing what he was supposed to, right?” he smiled.

“He had to pull it off because he was using it to pin me down while he bad mouthed my family!” I replied more hotly than was deserved.

“Oh,”   he looked toward Brian who had finally reached the front of the line and was chugging the protein shake marked 781. “Man.   What an ass.” he quipped.

I have to admit his deadpan delivery was perfect and I cracked a smile in spite of my foul mood.

Seeing me grin he returned to the topic he wanted at hand, “So what happened with Coach?”

He was going to find out any way so there was little reason not to tell him except that I didn’t want to say it. “I don’t get to dress for the next game,” I said with a sigh.

Darrel grimaced, “Ohh... harsh.   At least he didn’t cut you.   Screwing around with weights is one of his things.”

“Dude.   You’re up,” I gestured behind him as the person just in front of us finished up the rigmarole.

With a grin on his face Darrel stepped up to the white plastic folding table, half of which was covered with a plastic flat filled with plastic bottles.   The bottles were white with red caps and there was a number on both the cap and the bottle.   A dark eyed man stared blandly at Darrel from behind the table.   He wore a white coat with the Wytex logo on the breast and just below that was a name tag that said ‘Dr. Callow’.   It was pretty obvious that he would have rather been somewhere else.

“Name?” Dr. Callow said with the same disinterest his eyes had shown.

If Darrel noticed the doctor’s attitude you never would have known.   “Hanover comma Darrel” he said quickly.

Dr. Callow picked up an iPad and began reading from it, “Darrel Hanover.   In the time since last receiving your previous allotment of Protein Formulation 7G have you experienced any unusual discomfort or inexplicable phenomena including but not limited to: lightheadedness, dizziness, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, visual or auditory iIllusions, double vision, muscle cramps or priapism.”

As usual Darrel laughed at the last one, eliciting a glare from the good doctor.   “Nope.   It’s all good.”

“Very well.   Here is your bottle,” he handed Darrel a bottle marked 674, “please open it and drink the contents.   When you finish, return the cap and sign the side of the bottle, please.”

Without really waiting for the instructions, Darrel snapped off the lid and upended the contents.   When he finished he wiped his mouth with the back of his arm and signed the bottle with one of the provided markers.   Once that was done he handed it back to Dr. Callow who also signed the bottle before returning it to it’s former location in the flat.

“Next!” Dr. Callow said sharply as Darrel took off for the showers.   “Name?”

“Cross comma Aaron,” I replied.

Another day another bottle.

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~oOo~

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The wind blew and I shivered in my blue and cream jacket as I walked to my truck.   It was mid-October and while the first snow had come and gone it was still chilly in the dieing light of the sun.   The fact that the ‘endless’ hot water supply had cut out just as I reached the showers wasn’t helping anything either.   A handful of cars and trucks were scattered about the lot and I waved to the security guard as he slowly cruised past in the funny little car they made him drive.   I would have to check to be sure but I swear it only has three wheels.

Digging into the pocket of my letter jacket I fished the keys out with clumsy fingers.     Predictably I fumbled them but managed to snag them before they hit the ground.   I looked around to see if anyone had actually seen my grab but the lot was empty.   Shaking my hand to get some feeling back into it I opened the door to my mostly there 1991 F150 and hopped inside.   I tossed my backpack on top of the detritus which had accumulated on the passengers side floor.   Cranking the engine I bounced slightly in place while it warmed up.   After a few seconds I checked behind me and began backing out.   When I glanced in my side mirror I saw a girl standing behind me staring.   I have to admit I nearly leap out of my skin!   I slammed on the breaks and craned to look behind me once more.

Only when I did she was gone and when I checked the mirror there was still no sign of her. “Weird,”   I mumbled and started back toward home.

Before I even made it out of the lot my cell phone started hooting.   At least that’s the closest I’ve come so far to describing that particular ring tone.

I really need to find a better one.

Pulling to the side I stopped to fish the phone out of the front pocket of my backpack.   The front screen told me I had three missed calls and that Josie was calling.   With a flip of my thumb I popped open the clamshell and placed the phone to my ear.   “What’s up Jojo?” I smiled into the phone.

“Did you listen to the messages?” she asked seriously.

“Nope.   Sorry.   Just found out I had missed calls.   What’s up?” I repeated.

“Mom wants you at the studio tonight.   She needs someone to dance with the blue hairs,” The amusement in her voice was unmistakable.

“Not today Jojo,” I whined “I just got done lifting and...” I sighed.

“What the matter Aaron?” she asked quietly.   “If you had a bad day I’ll tell Mom I didn’t get a hold of you,” she sounded almost as sad as I felt.

I bounced my head off the steering wheel and ordered myself to suck it up.   Aloud I said, “It’s OK Jojo.   I just had a little trouble with Brian Peters today.”

“Is he the really big lineman that pulled that hatchet job on Centrals QB and put him out for the year?” she asked matter-of-factly.   What can I say. She knows football.

I smiled ruefully, “That would be him.”

“I don’t like him.   He’s a big meany,” she said as if damning him to hell would be a lesser curse.   

I love my sister.

Even though I agreed with her completely I was still compelled to defend my teammate.   “He’s a defensive tackle Jojo.   They’re supposed to be mean.”

“They’re supposed to be mean during the game.   To the other team.   Even then they don’t have to act like they like it,” I could hear her pout over the phone.   “So what did he do?”

The anger over what he had said came rushing back; I clenched my eyes tight against the feelings and managed to control it.

“You still there Aaron?” she asked timidly.

I swallowed my rage and answered her, “Yeah.   Yeah I’m here.”

“What happened?” she sounded near the edge of tears, which was totally unacceptable.   I can not stand for my sister cry.   It just kills me.

Forcing a smile I said, as cheerfully as I could manage, “Nah!   It wasn’t anything really.   He was just trash talking and I let it get to me.   I’ll tell you more when I get home, okay?   I should really get to the studio before mom has a fit.”

“You sure it’s okay?” she sniffed.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” I reassured her and honestly I felt better.   Stewing on things you can’t change won’t make you feel better.   Move forward and use what you learn to do better in the future. “I’ll talk to you later tonight Jojo.”

“Ok.   Bye Bye, Aaron!” she chirped happily and a moment later the line was dead.

I smiled and shook my head.   That was exactly what I needed.   Checking my mirrors once more I noted that only two cars were left in the student lot and I had to wonder what was taking them so long.   Thoughts of the girl came back to me as I nervously checked my blind spots.   

“There’s no such thing as ghosts,” I told myself.

Confident I wasn’t going to hit anyone; I pulled my truck out of the parking lot and began meandering my way through Omaha toward my mothers dance studio.

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~oOo~

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‘Care to Dance’, my mom’s studio, is in Brayford, a little town just outside of the Omaha metro and more or less under constant threat of being swallowed whole by the big city.   Brayford is close enough to one of the newer developments that it’s faster to drive into Brayford than to get into most of Omaha.   This had driven some enterprising people to open boutique businesses in Brayford’s downtown and the lower sales taxes had really been drawing people in.

All this was of keen interest and frustration for my mom.   She had set up her studio in Brayford when it was still twenty minutes by interstate to the edge of Omaha.   Now it was barely ten using surface streets. While the extra attention had increased business for the studio the more money that poured out of Omaha and into Brayford, the better chance there was that the little town would be annexed and ‘Care to Dance’ would have to move. Omaha’s rules and regulations were not favorable for her business model.

That was a worry for another day.

I pulled up in front of the two story brick front building which was nestled between an old crop insurance company and a new shoe store.   The front of the studio was clean, dad and I power washed the bricks about once a year, and the paint on the trim was well maintained.   A large lit sign proclaimed the space as “Care to Dance Studio”, on the window many of the programs my mom offered were listed.   Swing, Jazz, Tap, Clogging, Ballroom, Ballet, Salsa, Samba, Cardio; you name it and my mom can probably teach you how to dance it.   Not listed were the ‘after hours’ classes where she taught housewives how to strip for their husbands.

Back when I was thirteen, I had pieced together roughly what was going on and hatched a devious plan to see naked women.   I rode my bike into town and snuck into the studio where I could watch.

It really wasn’t hot.

None of them got naked and to be honest most of them were so old I don’t think I would have wanted to see it any way.   They were clumsy and spent more time laughing about how embarrassing it all was than actually learning.   

Then mom went through a routine to show them how it was done.

I didn’t go back after that.   Heck, I had a hard time looking her in the eye for a few weeks.   There are some things you just shouldn’t see your mom do.

Opening the cab door I was slapped across the face by a bitter wind.   I shrugged my backpack into place and made my way inside as quickly as I could.

The lights inside blinded me and I was dazzled by the reflections from the mirrored walls.   As my eyes cleared I realized that everyone was looking at me.   My mom stood smiling at the center of the floor giving pointers to her clients as they whirled through a warm up waltz.   I stepped into the changing room and opened my locker to get one of my dance outfits.   Rather than the normal four or five I found only one and a note which read simply, ‘Wear this.   Love Mom.’ followed by a smiley face.   When I unfolded the togs she had left me I swear I could hear that smiley face laughing at me.

It was a women’s outfit.   

Well not really.   It was made for men but I would personally much rather see it on a girl.   It was one piece of sequined, black stretch fabric madness. The legs were obscenely tight on my still   pumped thighs but fell loosely below my knees.   The sleeves were similarly constructed.   The neckline basically plunged to my navel; giving everyone a nice view of my pecs and abs.   To finish it off there was a red satin sash and headband.   I twisted to look at myself in the mirror and god did these pants make my butt look big.   I know guys don’t usually notice stuff like that but there was no way to miss it in this case.   It was sticking out like a shelf behind me.   For once I was glad I wasn’t as big, down there, as some of the guys on the team.   I don’t know where I would have put it otherwise.

You know what?   Forget that.   I would have found a way.

It didn’t look bad.   I guess.   The red of the headband made the blue grey of my eyes stand out and managed to make my dark brown hair look almost black. It wasn’t really any worse than shorts and a tank top but I still felt very much on display.

“Almost ready sweetheart?” mom asked sticking her head through the curtain.

I rolled my eyes at her mushy term of endearment.

She stepped past the curtain and bounced up and down with happiness.   “You look wonderful AJ!   Josie said it would look good on you and she was right!”

Betrayed by my little sister!   Just freaking awesome.

“It seems kind of tight and... uh... kinda girly,” I probed to see how wedded she was to me wearing it.

“Nonsense,” she said placing her hands at center of her hourglass shape.

She was married to it.   Great.

“Spin around.   Let me see,” she twirled a finger in the air to emphasize the action, while crossing the other arm beneath her frankly enormous breasts.

“Fine,” I grouched and slowly began turning in a circle by choppy steps.

“Aaron Jacob Cross, use your grace!” she snapped.

“Yes, mother,” I sassed but slowly turned a graceful pirouette for her.

After I completed one rotation she gestured for me to do it again the other direction.   When I finished the turn the look of annoyance had been replaced with one of concern.

“Did something happen at school today, AJ?” she cocked her head to the side, examining me   “Your movement is off and you seem to be carrying a lot of extra tension.”

I really should have known she would see that I was upset.   She reads body language like it’s Dr. Suess.   If I talked about it I was going to cry and I really wanted to avoid that if I could.

“Yeah, but it isn’t important right now.   I’ll tell you later,” I smiled weakly.

Closing the distance between us, she hugged me gently. “Are you sure sweetheart?   If you aren’t in the mood, you won’t dance as well.   I just know you were hoping to make a little extra money...”

“And they will probably tip well.” I finished for her.

“They like you AJ.   You make them feel young and that is worth a lot to a woman,” she smiled “and this outfit should help maximize your tips.”

Looking in the mirror once more I examined the outfit again, “It just feels a little like...   I don’t know.   It just feels weird.”

“It always feels weird when you put yourself on display like this.   If you aren’t up for it tonight I’ll just let them know.”

Taking a final look I decided that it wasn’t as bad as all that, “No.   I’ll do it.   It’s not the worst thing you’ve made me wear after all.”

“Are you still holding on to that?” she huffed in frustration. “You knew the steps.   The recital was that night.   I needed one more girl.   Your were only eight.   How could I know it would become such a big deal.”

I rolled my eyes, “Common sense might have told you that putting your son in a pink tutu in front of the whole town could have some consequences.”

“It wasn’t the whole town!   There were, at most, fifty people at that program.   Besides, if you hadn’t done such a good job no one would have noticed you and it would have just gone away.   Now quit stalling and get out there,” she said seriously. “You’re still probably pretty loose from lifting but take five or so to stretch.   I’ll run them though the basics and then you can help.   Sound good?”

“Yeah mom,” I smiled at her.

“Keep that smile going and you’ll double your tips,” she added.

We stepped out through the curtain and the low buzz of conversation suddenly stopped.   I felt like running but knew it was too late for that.   I purposefully walked over to the barre and ran through my stretching sequence.   I had been doing it for so long that it was almost meditative and by the time I was done my mind had cleared enough to focus on the task at hand.

While I stretched, mom spoke to her students.   “Good news ladies! My son AJ, has graciously agreed to take time out of his busy schedule to stud for us,” a ripple of giggles and laughs ran through the group. “I left a jar next to the changing room.   If you appreciate AJ helping us like this then gratuities would not be remiss,” In a stage whisper she added, “and they certainly will improve the odds of him coming back again,”   Moving to the platform at the front of the class she gestured for everyone to line up so they could see her. This, coincidentally, placed them in a position to watch me stretch in the mirrors behind her.   

Have I mentioned that my mom can be a rather shameless manipulator?

“Alright everyone I’m going to show you the steps for the Samba we’ve been working on.   Watch me.   I’m going to run through each one several times and when you start to get the rhythm try it on your own.   Once everyone has that fresh in mind we’ll break into partners and try it for real,” she smiled at the looks of panic in the room. “Don’t worry.   We’ll keep it slow to begin with.   AJ, Sasha and I will circulate through the room and help out or take over as we see fit.   Sound good?   Everyone ready?   Everyone excited!”   the enthusiasm built in the room in predicable fashion.   “Ok.   We’ll start with the Natural step which you all seem to pretty much have down.”

By the time mom was done with the warm up, I was done with my stretches and ready to work off some tension.   Everyone broke down into partners and mom started up the music.

Let me tell you, Samba music is supposed to be up tempo.   When you play it slow it just sounds weird.   Like it’s dying or something.   

Mom, her assistant and I moved through the students helping them find the rhythm and get the steps right.   By the end of the night we had them trying it at full speed.   Most of them weren’t ready for it and a few twisted an ankle in their heels but all in all it was a productive class.   Sasha and mom spent most of the night helping everyone keep in proper form while only occasionally stepping in to actually dance.

I, on the other hand, ended up moving from one partner to another and danced at that awful tempo for most of the class.   At least mom had the decency to pick a dance where the opportunities to grab my butt were somewhat limited.   Even so I was going to be sore for a couple days.

The night finally ended and I was exhausted but sitting out the next game didn’t seem as bad any more.   After a little stretching while the ladies changed, I sat down on one of the benches around the periphery of the studio.   Before long, my mom sat down next to me.

“Was that so bad?” she asked, bumping her shoulder against mine.

“No.   My butt is going to be sore from all the groping they did though.”

She had the decency to look a little put out by their behavior, “Sorry about that sweetie.   One of the curses of dancing for dollars I’m afraid.”

Officially Josie and I don’t know that mom used to be a stripper but she isn’t very good at hiding it either.

We watched quietly as ladies filed out of the changing room, dropping money in the jar as they passed it.   Mrs. Welhorne paused at the jar, looked in her billfold and then over at me.

“Smile and wave a little, it will probably double your tip,” mom said quietly as she stood up to talk to some of the other students who were congregating near the door.

Grudgingly I gave Mrs. Welhorne a small acknowledgement.   She looked around in surprise before smiling, fishing around in her billfold for a moment and shoving a fifty into the jar.   I have to admit.   It was easier to smile after that.

 

---

~oOo~

---

An hour later I finished waltzing the mop around the floor while Lady Gaga blared from the recessed speakers.   With everything sanitized the studio was more or less ready for the next day.   I plopped down on a bench and watched Sasha clean the mirrors.

Sasha was hot.

She had pink streaks in her pale blond hair which she had tied back in a high pony tail.   I know she was old enough to drink but not so old that she wouldn’t get carded every time she did.   Her body was tight and she moved like a dancer.   Where as mom was fairly tall and super curvy, Sasha was short and slim.   Her eyes are this brilliant brown color and so deep you could fall into them.   I’ve been crushing on her since she started working for my mom a little over a month ago.   She doesn’t dance as well as my mom but something about the way she moves just sets me off.

Glancing upward of her perfect butt I realized that she had caught me staring.   Stupid mirrors!   Rather than getting upset she just kept doing what she was doing.   If anything, she seemed to be stretching just that much more and actually giving me a show.   My already too tight pants got just that much tighter and I thought I was going to hurt something down there.   Quickly I grabbed a towel to cover my no longer flat front and stumped toward the changing rooms.

Why the hell was I still wearing this ridiculous outfit anyway!

As I changed into my street clothes my mind ran through various scenarios where in Sasha walked in on me changing and we... well you know.   I’m really not a super horn dog most of the time.   I haven’t ever really dated and while I did have sex once, back when I was thirteen, it was with my childhood friend Janey Bockman and it pretty much ruined my friendship with her and her brother.   They moved away a couple years ago after their farm failed but I hadn’t talked to either of them for a long time before that.

I really wish I could have said good bye.

Anyway.

I really don’t think about sex all the time but dancing always gets me going.   Between dancing and Sasha I was pretty much doomed every time I came to the studio.

After I finally calmed down enough to walk properly I pulled aside the curtain and stepped into the twilight of the closed down studio.   Out of the partial darkness an energy bar flew at my head.   Reflexively, I snagged it out of the air.   ‘Nova-bar!   Cinnamonster!’ read the the wrapper and as my eyes adjusted I saw Sasha standing not too far away eating one of her own.

“You have to be starving,” she grinned and took another bite.

She had very pretty bubblegum pink lips.

“Yeah,” I admitted and tore open the wrapper, “I grabbed Arbys on the way over but I didn’t want too much in my stomach before dancing.”

“Sure,” she smiled again.

Was she actually flirting with me?   It sure seemed like she was.   Boy was I glad I had changed pants.   In lieu of speaking I just munched on the power bar.   Cinnamon was not my favorite flavor but at least it wasn’t the maple syrup flavored kind.   Gag!

Sasha shifted and stretched a little bit giving me enough of a show that I was certain she was flirting with me.   She was probably just being a tease.   She was too old to actually be interested in me.

“So how long have you been dancing?” she asked casually.   “You’re very, very good.”

I blushed and coughed up a little bit of my protein bar.   “As long as I can remember,” I cleared my throat.   “Mom taught Josie and me to dance almost before we learned to walk.”

“Well Jackie did a good job.   I’m surprised you kept to it though.   Most guys seem to hit a point where they lose interest in that kind of thing.”

I shrugged.   The truth was that I really loved to dance.   If I could dance rather than do football I probably would but that isn’t in the cards.   Come hell or high water I was going to walk the tunnel into Memorial Stadium as a Nebraska Cornhusker, even if my Dad had to drag me by my ears.

Finally finishing her own Nova-bar, she smiled and brushed past me far more closely than was necessary.   “Well keep it up.   Girls love a man that knows how to move.   I should get out of these sweaty things so I can get home.   Talk to you later AJ,”   With that she swished behind the curtain throwing me a final look before she disappeared.

I think I had just been propositioned by an older woman.   I was so excited that I thought I was going to pass out.   My feet and my brain were at war.   I knew I shouldn’t do anything.   I had too much going on as it was and this could only end with disaster.   Yet my right leg took a halting step toward the curtain.   This was wrong thinking, I need to leave before I did something stupid.

Just as I was about to push aside the curtain, my mom’s voice snapped me out of it.   “Well AJ.   I think it’s safe to say you were a hit.”

“Wha-huh?” was my eloquent response as I twisted and tried to find a way to hide my erection.   Eventually I stuck my hands in my jacket pockets and pushed them together to cover myself.

“There’s my little Shakespeare,” she smiled and I had to wonder at her choice of phrasing.   On the plus side my immediate problem started to flag.   “Your tips,” she presented me with an envelope.

When I opened it I was shocked.   There was a lot of money.   “How much?”

“Almost four hundred dollars!” her smile went from ear to ear and I could tell she was ecstatic for me.

I looked at the money again and estimated she was probably right, “Why?   How?   Holy cow!” was all I could manage.

Sasha’s laughter rolled out of the changing room, “Good job AJ!” she shouted.

“But I didn’t do anything...” I had never received this much money at one time before.   “Wow.”

“Whatever ‘nothing’ you did they seemed to like it,” she gave me a squishy hug.   “I signed up almost half of them for year long memberships!   You did wonderfully sweetheart!” She grabbed my head an pulled it down a little so she could kiss my forehead.

“Half?” Sasha said poking out from behind the curtain wearing little more than her underwear.   “Holy shit!” she swore.   Basd on the look she gave me I thought she might jump me right there and then.   “So.   Jackie,” she smiled coyly.   “Since things are going so well maybe I could get a raise?”

“We’ll see Sasha, we’ll see,” mom said noncommittally.   

Sasha pulled back behind the curtain and I could hear her singing ‘I like it rough’ by Lady Gaga, to herself.

“Sasha?” mom called into the back.

“Yeah, Jackie?”

“I need to get home and make sure my family has eaten.   Can you finish closing up?”

“Not a problem!   I’ll see you tomorrow Jackie!   Bye, AJ!” she shouted from the back.

Choking on the words I managed to mumble an awkward goodbye and then fled the building.   Stepping outside I immediately began to shiver.   I waved to my mom and hopped in my truck as she hurried to her little red Volkswagen Beetle.   Watching her hustle in five inch heels always impressed me.   I had tried on a pair of her shoes when I was younger but I couldn’t get the knack of really moving in them like she does.   Mostly I just fell down a lot.   I waited until she was on her way before backing out myself and finally heading home.

The upcoming conversation with my dad was not going to be pleasant.

Hmmm... maybe I’ll get lucky and have an accident on the way home.

---

CHAPTER 2

---

My house is an early 1900’s, two story farm house, a few miles outside of Brayford.   It’s white with Kelly green trim and the barn is green with white trim.   Dad says he wanted to have a barn that could be used as a landmark.   Personally, I think he just got a good deal on the paint.   There are three out buildings in addition to the barn and a newer garage nearer the house where my mom gets to park.   Dads truck goes in the barn and mine sits out on the gravel next to the garage.

I suspect that when Josie gets old enough to drive she’ll get the other space in the garage.   Why it has to sit open until then is beyond me.   I guess it gives dad some extra work space.

Mom and I hurried to the house and when we stepped inside my nose was embraced by the heavenly smell of my dad’s Swedish Meatballs.   

The instant I smelled it I knew it was already too late for me.   Dad knew I had done something stupid.   This was my last meal.

OK.   That’s probably a little melodramatic.   My dad is not much of a cook.   He can make about five things really well and he doesn’t stray from those five things for love nor money.   Under normal circumstances he doesn’t cook at all.   That’s what mom is for, I guess.   On special occasions though he can be cajoled into making one of his five meals.

The only time he cooks without being talked into it is when he’s really mad.   When I backed into a police cruiser he made lasagna.   When I accidentally started the hay in the loft on fire we got Pancakes.   When I locked Josie in an old storm cellar and she ended up crying and covered in spider bites...   well he spanked hell out of me and I went to bed without supper, but I smelled Taco Pie.   I don’t know where he picked up the habit but as soon as I smelled that delicious aroma I knew I was in trouble.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had noticed the pattern.

“Fuck,” mom said under her breath only to immediately cover her mouth and blush, “Sorry, sweetie.   Crap!   What happened!” she asked in hushed tones.

Before I could answer a pink comet with a long blond tail zipped down the back stairs and into the foyer.   Josie smashed into me with a crushing hug.   “I’m so glad you’re alright!   Dad got a phone call from someone about an hour ago and then he started cooking!   I’ve never seen him make so many meatballs before!   It’s just horrible!” she buried her face in my chest and I was afraid she was going to cry. Instead she stepped back from me and said very seriously, “What did you do?”

“What?” I have to admit that with both of them glaring at me I panicked a little.

“AJ...” they said in unison; placing hands to hips.

They looked, moved and sounded almost exactly the same.   Images of Dr.Evil and Mini-me sprang to mind and I started to laugh.

This was a mistake on my part.   Girls really don’t like to be laughed at.

“AJ?   Jackie?   That you?” Dad called from the kitchen.   When he did mom and Jojo stopped trying to glare me to death.   Saved by my executioner.   Awesome.

“Yeah, Dad.   It’s us,” I shouted back.

“Well get your asses in here.   Suppers getting cold,”   He didn’t sound angry but he had dropped the ‘A’ word around Josie, when he was neither watching a game nor working on a vehicle.   Not a good sign.   Mom and Josie started toward the kitchen at resigned pace.   When dad really gets upset, he tends to spread it around so everyone can enjoy.   Mom would push back if he went too far but it was still unpleasant.

When we reached the kitchen table where dad had laid out his feast I finally saw just how upset he must have been.   There was a ten quart dutch oven full of meat balls and a platter heaped high with mashed potatoes.   Everything looked awesome.   He had even made salads for us.   Dad sat at his place at the table looming over it like always.   My dad is a big man.   He’s over six and a half feet tall and weighs god only knows how much.   He has some extra padding around the middle but he’s still a block of muscle.   His blue eyes glared at me from over the spread and the crease of his mouth was all but covered by his beard and mustache.   To be honest my dad scares me a little bit.   He hasn’t really done anything to earn that except be big and loud but that doesn’t seem to really change anything.   Strong as I am I know he could break he in half without even trying.   Mom and I stood gawking at the pile of food and ominous glower in front of us, too stunned to proceed.   Jojo was better prepared and reached her seat first; Mom and I drifted over more slowly.

Before my butt had more than grazed the seat dad said, “Help your mother with her chair,” it was a perfectly reasonable thing and he didn’t raise his voice but I bounced out of my chair like he had told me there was a snake on it!

I quickly helped mom get her chair in place and was about to sit down when I remembered what had happened the last time I had ticked dad off.   He bounced me out of my chair a half dozen times for this and that. “Anything else before I sit down, dad?” I asked as politely as I could.

The quirk at the edge of his mouth told me that I must have just passed some test or another; I was still in trouble but any points I could get would help.

“Corn in the oven.   Milk in the fridge. Ice cream in the freezer in the garage,” he said curtly.

“JP...” mom said in her warning tone.

Dad started shoveling food onto his plate. “Fine.   Corn.   Milk.   You can get the Ice Cream later.”

“Could I have tea instead of milk?” Josie asked timidly.

“No,” dad said immediately.

“JP...” mom’s warning was getting louder.

“Water would be okay too...” Josie quickly added.

“Fine.   A water for Josie,” he began eating without waiting for anything more.   “Hurry up!”

“Yes sir!” I hustled over to the fridge to get the milk and water pitcher and then carefully pulled the corn out of the still hot oven.   Once everything was delivered, I slowly sat down but either dad had his mouth full or that part of the ritual was done.   I shoveled a considerable amount of food onto my plate and began eating.   I hadn’t realized just how hungry I was until I smelled the meatballs.

We ate in silence with furtive glances being tossed about as we all waited for the bomb to drop.

When it did it hit more softly than I expected.

As the meal was wrapping up, dad said, “So I got a call from Coach Wiese a little bit ago. Anything you want to tell me AJ?”

I sighed and pushed my plate toward the center of the table.   My meal was over.   “I won’t be dressing for next game,” I said very quietly.   Josie and mom both gasped.   I really expected dad to come unglued but he didn’t; it was obvious that he was mad but not as much as I would have expected.

“And why will you you not be dressing for the next game?” he asked evenly.

I bit my lower lip and squinted one eye.   I knew he wasn’t going to hit me but his yelling could be almost as bad.   “I did something stupid in the weight room.”

“Oh, AJ!” mom interjected, “You know better than that!”

Awesome.   Guilt for desert.   My favorite.

“What did you do, boy?” Dad asked and I could hear the simmering anger coming to a boil.

“I accidentally tossed a bar bell over the cradle,”

“How much over the cradle?”

“A foot or two. I don’t really know.   I wasn’t really paying that much attention,” I winced at my own words.   Being inattentive was almost as bad as screwing around.

His voice began to rise, “How the hell do you ‘accidentally’ toss 300 pounds two feet in the air AJ!   I’ve gone over the rules of the weight room with you how many times?   I know Coach Wiese takes it seriously.   Why the fuck don’t you!”

“I do!” I responded with a mixture of anger and fear.   Tears were threatening to flow.   God I hate it when that happens!   I get upset and my eyes start to water like a girl!   Gritting my teeth I tried to force the tears away. “It wasn’t like that!”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Jojo had curled up in her chair and was rocking gently with her face buried in her knees.   Why did he have to be such an overbearing asshole?   I can’t believe he made her cry!

I can’t believe I made her cry.

God, I fucking hate myself.       

“Josie.   Let’s go braid your hair, sweetheart,” mom said, taking Jojo’s hand as she stood.   Josie was weeping quietly and tucked her head into mom’s shoulder as they left.   “Don’t worry sweetie.   Everything will be okay.   AJ and your father,’” she glared at dad as she referenced him, “just need to work this out.”

“What was it like then AJ?” dad continued heedless of mom and Josie’s departure.

“Brian Peters got on my case and started talking trash and I just got so mad...”

“So you risked throwing everything we have worked for away because some guy gave you a little flack?” he stood up from the table, “What are you going to do in a game Aaron!   Are you going to go nuts every time someone insults you!   I thought I taught you better than that!”   he loomed over me and I could no longer hold back the tears.

I didn’t blubber or break down but I did cry.

“Me?   I catch crap about me everyday!   I don’t care about me!” I shouted jumping to my feet.

Dad’s posture changed.   I had challenged him in a very primal way and he didn’t like it.   “What could he have possibly said to make you act like such a fucking retard!”

“He called Josie a whore! OKAY!”   I shouted.   “He said that you and I were shit and that Mom and Josie were whores!” I tried to clear the tears from my eyes with the heels of my hands.   My anger started to wane and I continued more quietly. “He pinned me to the bench and he started talking about Josie and...”   I sniffed and rubbed my eyes again trying to regain control. “He pushed me until I snapped.   I know what I did was stupid but at the time I just wanted him to stop talking.   I pushed as hard as I could and at the same time he must have either pulled on the bar or at least stopped pushing.   I’m really sorry dad.   I’m stupid and worthless...”

“That’s more than enough of that,” dad said sternly but the anger was mostly gone.

I sniffled and nodded “Yes sir.   Sorry about crying like this.   Sometimes I just can’t stop the stupid tears.”

Dad quirked the side his mouth, “Your mother was the same way.   She’d get in a towering rage and the tears would be streaming down her face.   God she hated that.”

“Really?”   I blew my nose on a napkin and sat down, “I don’t remember mom ever doing anything like that.”

“Not Jackie,” dad shook his head sadly, “Your birth mother, Carrie.   Jackie has other things happen when she gets upset.”

“Oh,” I sat contemplating this new bit of information about the woman who had given birth to me.   Jackie and Carrie were identical twin sisters.   Carrie was the responsible one who went to college, met a boy and got married.   Jackie’s path was different.   I could never get a good grip on exactly how it had gone but unrepentant hedonism seemed to be pretty close.   When my birth mother died a couple days after I was born both mom and dad were pretty messed up by it.

Jackie ended up helping to take care of me while they were grieving.   It was supposed to be a temporary thing but a couple years later they got married.   I only found out that mom wasn’t my mother a few years ago when I asked them if I was a bastard because they didn’t get married until after I was born.   

You find the damnedest things when gathering information for school projects.

They had promptly changed the subject but a couple days later they sat me down and explained what had happened.   Carrie had apparently miscarried a couple times prior to me and the doctors were concerned there could be complications.   She wrote me a letter in case the unthinkable happened.   Mom had stood clutching that letter and started bawling when she finally worked up the nerve to hand it to me.   It takes a lot to really get mom that upset.   I don’t know what she thought was going to happen when I read the letter but it obviously scared her.   I read it and I could tell that the woman who had written it loved me with all her heart.   It was a good feeling, even if it did make me cry a little, but it didn’t make her my mom.

“What are you thinking about AJ?” dad asked quietly.

I shrugged, there was too much to try and relate it all, “I guess I aways just figured that Mom and her sister were more alike than not.   I’m just trying to figure out how this,” I pointed at my red rimmed eyes, “fits in with who I am.”

“Mmmmm...” dad nodded, “Your mother was a wonderful person AJ.   Jackie is a wonderful person.   I wouldn’t trade my time with either of them for the world,”   he looked me in the eye. “I wouldn’t trade you or your sister for anything either,” he blew out a breath and then popped a stray meatball into his mouth.   A few moments passed in silence as he chewed. “Nothing like that incident in the weight room ever happens again.   I don’t care how hard he pushes; you don’t push back.   You can’t afford to risk your future because some gorilla talks smack about your family.   It hurts, but it’s just words.”

“Yes sir,” I said glumly.

He sat quietly for a moment with a far away look on his face, “Damnit.   No!”   I looked at him in confusion.   “You have to stand up for yourself, son.   A meat head like that will never get bored with it.   If you look like a victim, people will treat you like one.   If someone pushes; you push back, just be smart about it.   Act.   Don’t react.   Understand what I’m saying?”

“I think so...” I said, a bit leery of this very reasonable advice.   

“Good.   You want some ice cream?” he smiled and I could see that the anger was gone.

Against my better judgment I opened my mouth, “Am I in trouble?”

Dad considered this for far longer that I was comfortable with, “Not this time.   Coach Wiese and I talked when he called me earlier and I agree that it’s his place to penalize you as he sees fit.   That does not mean I am happy about what happened and you can believe that by all that is holy if you ever pull a bone head move like that again you will regret it, but for now I’m willing to let it go.”

“Awesome!” I smiled and received a sour look in response. “Sorry sir.”

“You’re still sitting out next game, boy.   I wouldn’t feel too happy about things,” he said seriously.

I slouched in my chair.   He was right.   As usual.

Dad walked toward the door, grabbing his jacket from the coat tree in the corner of the kitchen.   “I’ll go get the ice cream.   Why don’t you go see if your mom and sister want some.”

Smiling more cautiously, I got up and headed to Jojo’s room.   God I hope she isn’t still crying.

---

~oOo~

---

In the end it all worked out.   Mom and Josie played dress up, which seems to be a very serious thing for girls.

I doubt the Supergirl shirt Josie squeezed my mom into will ever recover.

We all had ice cream, I finished the homework I had left, did my evening stretches and it was time for bed.

With the exception of getting in trouble at school and the resulting aftermath it was a pretty typical day really.   If I hadn’t been helping mom at the studio I would have probably been running around the near pasture with a tire strapped to me or whatever else dad thought up for the day.

---

~oOo~

---

At around two in the morning I woke up with the worst cramps I’ve ever had.   My legs and arms began to spasm but it was the pain in my pelvis that really killed me.   I arched and stretched, trying to find some way to ease the pain but it just got worse.

I’m used to pain.

I’ve been playing sports since I was six.   I’ve broken bones, sprained joints and even got a concussion from running head first into a concrete wall.   These cramps were like the most painful moment from when I broke my leg but they didn’t stop.   The pain kept building and everything I tried just seemed to make it worse.   Eventually I couldn’t stifle it any more and cried out.   Josie was there quickly, with mom and dad not far behind.

They asked me a bunch of questions but I was so out of it I can’t really remember any of it clearly.   I remember dad and Josie crying.   The sight of dad in tears always sticks with me.   Mom left and when she came back she forced me to drink something that tasted like really bitter Seven Up from a small glass bottle.   Dad sent Jojo for a heating pad, or maybe she came up with that on her own.   I writhed in my bed, crying in pain while my mom held me tight.   I thought the pain would never end but just when I didn’t think I could take anymore, the world just turned off.

...to be continued...

 

---

 
Author's Note: The first story is done. I'm going to post it in parts so I have a little more time to work on my next story. :P Hope you all enjoy it. I made a few minor alterations to the first part. If you feel you have a good grasp of what happened before you can probably just start reading, though you might read the Prologue, which is new. ~Matt
 

CHAPTER 3

---

I awoke the next morning feeling off.   It wasn’t anything I could place immediately.   I remembered the cramps from the night before and let out a sigh of relief that they were gone.   If PMS is even a quarter as bad as that, I’m glad I wasn’t born a girl.   Rolling onto my back I let out a contented sigh.   It was probably all the endorphins still running through my system but I felt very peaceful in the dim light that made it through my curtains.   

Wait.

Why was there light coming through my curtains?   I was always up before the sun...

“Oh my god it’s gone!” I shouted, leaping out of bed.

My alarm clock was not in it’s normal location.   Looking around I couldn’t find any sign of it at all.   I threw open my curtains and was blasted with brilliant morning sunlight.   “I’m late for school!” grabbing my clothes I ran down the stairs; discarding my old t-shirt as I went.   “Why didn’t anyone wake me!” I shouted even though I had no reason to expect an answer.   By this time mom would be in the middle of a class, Josie would be at school and dad would be at work.

This could not be happening!   I never miss school!   I don’t even need the alarm to wake up any more.   Beyond ruining my chances for perfect attendance it would make it look like I was a whiny little cry baby who fell apart just because he got sidelined.

Stripped to my underwear I briefly considered going without a shower.   I had showered the night before, with as cold as it was getting I might be able to get by with that.   Today it was not an option.   I smelled terrible.   Like rancid meat or warm wet garbage and once I managed to smell it I couldn’t seem to stop smelling it.

God, I was going to have to burn my sheets!   

Tugging off my boxers I rounded a corner into the hall that led to the bathroom only to find my mother waiting for me.

“Oh!” she said and looked away immediately.

For my part I got to use the lateral movement abilities that had gotten me into varsity football.   First I was headed down the hall full speed and then I was back in the stairwell.

“Why aren’t you at work!” I shouted, mortified beyond belief.   It was like a series of bad dreams run in a sequence.

“We didn’t want to leave you alone after last night,” she said a little too quickly.   “Your father and I agreed that we should let you sleep until you woke up on your own.”

I banged my head on the wall, “Well I’m up.   So please go somewhere else so I can take a shower and get to school,” normally I’m not this curt with my mom but the day was already going really badly.

“Fine.   I’ll be in the kitchen when you get done,” I heard a door open, “Is there anything you would like for breakfast?”

At the mention of food it was like my body suddenly realized it was starving.   My stomach twisted in knots and growled angrily.   I had worked out a lot last night but not enough to explain what I was feeling.   I’m usually hungry in the morning but today I felt like I hadn’t eaten in a week!   I banged my head again but more gently, “Anything so long as there’s a lot of it,” I moaned.

“Oatmeal?” she asked.

I smiled and sighed, “Oatmeal would be awesome.   Meat too though.”

“Of course!” I could hear her smile.   “Are you sure you feel okay sweetheart?”

I nodded rocking my head against the wall.   I felt so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open.   I had gotten up five minutes ago.   What the hell was wrong with me?

“I’m fine,”   I lied. My stomach twisted and gurgled but it didn’t feel like hunger pains.   As soon as I realized what was happening I bolted for the bathroom.

I’ll spare the gory details.   Suffice it to say that I was afraid I was literally going to turn inside out from both ends at once.

After I had purged my system and cleaned up, I felt better but was still dog tired. I shambled into the kitchen and slouched into my chair.   Mom gave me one of her worried looks before bringing over a plate loaded with sausages.   When the smell from the meat hit me I thought I was going to vomit.   If there had been anything left in my system I’m sure I would have.   I waved it away immediately. Mom dumped the sausages into a plastic container and stuck them in the fridge.

“Put on your shoes,” she said brusquely, “I’m taking you to the doctor.”   as she spoke she stepped into her heels and pulled on a medium weight jacket with fur trim.

“Ah mom!” I whined.   “I’m fine!”

Her only response was to arch an eyebrow my direction and cock her hips.

Usually that was enough to get me moving but I really didn’t want to go to the doctor today.   “It was probably just food poisoning.”

“We all ate the same thing last night AJ,” her voice held a touch of exasperation. “No one else was sick last night.”

“Arby’s!” I blurted.

Mom looked at me like I was an idiot child.

“I had Arby’s on the way over to the studio last night.   I must have gotten a bad sandwich.   If I take it easy and get some fluids in me I’ll be fine.” I tried to smile convincingly but immediately knew it was a mistake.   Bluffing my mom never works.   “Can I at least try eating some oatmeal first?”

Mom seemed skeptical of taking any more time but she brought me a bowl anyway.   Where as the meat had smelled nasty and rancid the oats actually smelled good.   My stomach rumbled greedily and I began shoveling heaping spoonfuls into my mouth without really taking time to chew.   Mom took her life in her hands and forced me to stop.

“Slowly,” she said gently, “chew.   You don’t want to get sick again.”

She was right but that didn’t make it any easier to actually slow down.   “So what happened last night?” maybe if I was talking it would curtail the shoveling.

“Don’t you remember?” mom looked worried again.

I shrugged and took another mouthful of the sweet ambrosia that was oatmeal.   “I remember getting cramps and it hurting really bad,” my insides spasmed slightly at the memory, “really, really bad.   I’m a little surprised you didn’t take me to the Emergency Room.”

“We tried!” mom said defensively.   “Your father had hauled you down stairs and we had you strapped into the seat of his truck when you woke up.   You looked around and then said that it was too cold for ice cream.”

“What?” I choked on my oatmeal as I tried not to laugh, “Why would I say that?”

Mom actually managed to smile a little, “I don’t know sweetie.   You said you didn’t want ice cream and then climbed out of the truck and shuffled back inside.   We asked you a few questions on the way back to your room and you seemed to be okay, if completely out of it.   We didn’t know what to do.   When you got back in bed you were out like a light.   We probably should have forced you to go to the hospital but you seemed fine,” Mom worried her lip,   “You don’t remember any of this?”

I thought for a moment.   “Not really.   Dad might have been crying and I think I drank something kind of gross.”

“It was Tonic water,” she interjected, “it’s something my mother used to give Carrie and I for cramps.”

I looked at my mom over the spoonful of cereal; she had a little smile on her face but her eyes were far away and sad.   “Are you thinking about your sister?” I asked quietly between bites.

She nodded and then pulled me into a big hug that caught me completely off guard.   “Thank you,” she whispered but I wasn’t sure if she was actually talking to me or not so I just kept my mouth shut.

My shoulder started getting wet and I realized she was crying, “It’s okay mom.   Whatever has you upset it’ll be okay,” As near as I can tell a crying woman touches off some part of the male brain that makes us want nothing more than to make the crying stop.   The only way it could have been worse was if it was Josie.   This was pretty bad though.

After a few more moments she pulled away from me slowly.   She dabbed her eyes with a tissue. “Sorry about that sweetheart.   I know it makes you uncomfortable when I cry.”

“No! It’s okay,” I shifted uncomfortably in my chair.   At least I wasn’t choking myself with food at the moment. “Was it thinking about your sister that did it?” I needed more information so as to avoid the situation in the future. “You never talk about her.”

She smiled again but I could tell that the tears were ready to flow any instant, “No.   It wasn’t thinking about Carrie,” her eyes started to trickle, “I’m just so glad that I was able to be your mom.   I love you so much Aaron.”

I blushed a little.   Mom never got emotional like this.   “I love you too mom.   So why were you crying?”

“Last night scared me to death Aaron.   You were in so much pain and so scared and I didn’t know what to do,” she wiped her eyes again. “I don’t know what I would do if I lost you or your sister.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.   My oatmeal was getting cold and I stood to put it in the microwave.   Rather, I tried to stand but instead ended up lightheaded and my legs turned to rubber.

At least the floor broke my fall.

“Aaron!” mom shrieked and was instantly at my side holding me tightly. “Are you all right?”

“I... I don’t know,” I stuttered, “You know.   Maybe we should go to the doctor.”

---

~oOo~

---

The drive to the doctor’s office took about an hour and mom was quiet and tense the entire time.   When we arrived I climbed out of the bug very carefully and didn’t have any problems.   I might have been a little woozy but nothing worth mentioning.   We waited for an hour in the waiting room and then waited in the examination room for at least a half hour after that.   When Dr. Rogers finally got to us he asked a bunch of questions.   When all was said and done he concluded it was probably food poisoning and that unless something else happened I should take it easy and drink lots of fluids.   Weirdly the thing he seemed most concerned with was that I had recovered from such a severe case so quickly.   I didn’t see any reason to question it.   I was feeling better.   That was good enough for me.

Unfortunately, not so for Dr. Rogers; he drew some blood, had me pee in a cup and took a saliva sample.   I swear it was like he was trying to justify us coming in.

Before we left he told me in no uncertain terms that I was not to compete in any sports for at least a week.   I would have been really put out if I wasn’t already out for next game anyway.

As it was I just had to laugh.

---

CHAPTER 4

---

On the ride home, mom was significantly more animated.   She had really been worried I was dying or something.

We chatted about nothing for most of the time.   She asked me about school and if there were any girls I liked.   I didn’t mention Sasha but I think she knew because she made some slightly out of place comments about her that seemed to boil down to ‘Sasha is trouble’.

I don’t know if that made her more or less attractive to me.

Eventually mom and I ran out of ‘nothing’ to talk about.   The car was quiet for a few miles before mom started talking again.

“I want you to know AJ, that your father and I are very proud of you,”   She grabbed my knee gently as she said it.

“Thanks mom,” I said with a bit of embarrassment, “getting on the Varsity team meant a lot to me too.”

She laughed a tinkling little laugh, “We aren’t proud of you for that sweetie.”

I gaped at her.   It was like being blindsided on the field.

Realizing her slip she laughed again.   “I’m sorry AJ!   Of course we’re proud that you got on the team but that’s just part our general ‘Our son is the best.” philosophy.”

“Moooom!” I hate it when she says stuff like that.

She shrugged, causing her chest to bounce, “What I was talking about is how good you are to your sister.   Your actions with that Peters boy were rash but your heart was in the right place.”

“Thanks.   I guess,” my cheeks burned but I couldn’t stop smiling.

I needed to change the subject.

“Mom,” I began tentatively.

“Yes, AJ?”

I shifted in the seat so I could better look at her, “Could you tell me a little bit about your sister.   About my moth... or whatever...”

What the heck possessed me to change the subject to that!

Mom shrank into her seat.   It was obvious this was not a topic she particularly wanted to delve.   Moments dragged on and I was about to backpedal when she started talking.

“Carrie and I were inseparable when we were little,” a sad smile touched her lips, “I guess that’s pretty common for twins as I think about it but it didn’t make it any less true.   I don’t know that we could actually feel each others pain or anything like that but sometimes it sure felt like it,”   A tear ran down her cheek and she brushed it away. “God, I’m such a wreck today!” she joked.   Looking around she spotted an exit and swung off the interstate. “How about something to eat?   There’s an IHOP coming up in a couple blocks.”

For some reason IHOP did not sound like a good idea.   I searched my memory for an alternative.   “There’s a Village Inn pretty close.   Can we go there instead?”

“Of course, sweetie,” she said changing lanes for the new destination.   Once certain she was headed in the correct direction she got back to her story, “For all our similarities there were even more differences.   There were times where I think the only thing we had in common was how we looked and sometimes not even that,”   The story seemed to peter out there as she was lost in thought.

Now that I had her talking about it I really wanted to know more.   I wanted to know about the woman who gave birth to me; who knew that getting pregnant might be dangerous for her but who did it anyway just because she wanted to meet me.

At least that’s what I took from the letter she wrote me.

In the end I knew it didn’t really matter: Mom was mom.   I was still curious though.

When it became clear she wasn’t going to be as forthcoming as I wanted I decided to push a little. “What was she like?”

“Carrie was,” she paused trying to find the proper word, “normal.   I guess.   Just sort of normal. God that sounds like such a terrible thing to say,”   She dropped her eyes for a moment.

“What do you mean by ‘normal’?” there were a lot of versions of normal out there but apparently mom didn’t think much of her sister’s, “Was that our turn?” I asked turning in my seat to watch the Village Inn sign retreating behind us.

“Oops!” she blushed, “I think I was still going to IHOP in my head.   Maybe I should pay more attention.   Let me get back there and then we can talk more about this.”

---

~oOo~

---

We ended up meandering through far more back streets than I would have thought possible, given we were only trying to back track a dozen or so blocks.   Stupid one way streets.   While sitting at a light, an orange SUV with alloy wheels pulled up next to us.   Everything should have been fine, except that the clowns inside noticed my mom.   Next thing I know they’re climbing all over each other trying to get a look and snapping pictures with their phones.   Mom didn’t seem to notice, even when they started hooting and cat calling she didn’t acknowledge them.   It was only when the light turned green that she very elegantly raised the middle finger to them.   

The whole thing bugged the heck out of me.

Yes, my mom is built and fit.   No, she doesn’t really look her age as a result but I was sitting right there!   Who does that to someone when their kids are with them?

Why do some guys have to be such creeps!

---

~oOo~

---

When we finally got back to the Village Inn, mom managed to wrangle a booth in a quiet area of the restaurant, even though they really weren’t seating anyone there at the time.

Big boobs are definitely a double edged sword.

The restaurant was more crowded than I would have expected but still less than half full.   Here and there, people sat sipping coffee and staring at laptops while dishes rattled back in the kitchen.   My stomach was apparently recovering because the distinct smell of fried meat didn’t instantly disgust me this time.

Actually eating meat still didn’t seem like a good idea though.

Our server was a cute girl with chocolate milk skin and hair that looked like she had tried to bleach it but it hadn’t worked right.   It was pumpkin orange.   She had it tied up in a messy pony tail that just sort of made a puffball behind her head.   An intricate spider web tattoo traced it’s way up her left arm and her finger nails had red hour glasses painted on them.   Her name badge read ‘Ana’ and had a little spider forming a heart behind it.

Apparently she liked spiders.   Weird.

“Welcome to Village Inn,” she smiled as she sat glasses of water in front of us.

I have to admit, it was a good smile.

“My name is Ana,” she pronounced it ‘Ah-nah’, “and I’ll be your server today.   If you would like to start with drinks we have flavored lemonades,” she pointed at the standee on the table with the pen she was holding, “or if you’re looking for something hot we have a special pumpkin chai latte which is to die for.”

She was kind of bubbly.   I officially had no idea what to make of this girl but I was definitely intrigued.   “Just water for me,” I smiled at her and received one in return.   She couldn’t have been too much older than me.   Eighteen?   Twenty, tops.

“I’ll try the Pumpkin Chai and my son will have a large orange juice as well.”

I almost snapped at her for ordering for me.   Technically OJ has too much sugar to be on my diet but it sounded good so I decided to let it go.

Ana’s eyes danced between us as if expecting sparks but when nothing happened she scribbled something on her pad and then excused herself to gather our drinks.

I watched her backside as it wiggled back to the kitchen with appreciation.   Maybe it was just the jeans but she had a nice looking butt.

“She thinks you’re cute too,” mom said quietly as she took a sip of water. Her eyes followed my gaze “and she does have a nice ass.”

“Mom!” I hissed.   I swear sometimes it’s like she’s my age or something! “You shouldn’t... gah! Don’t talk like that!”

“It’s true though.   A little flabby,” she amended, “but with a little of the right exercise that should tighten right up.”

I gaped at her, unable to even form the words needed to express my horror.

“But if you’re done gawking at her, I think we were talking about something earlier,”

“Yeah,” I slouched in my seat, “I wasn’t gawking though,”

Mom laughed, “Trust me sweetie, I have a lot of experience with gawking and that is exactly what you were doing.”

“Okay, fine!   Why are we still talking about this!” If I could have willed myself into non-existence I would have.

Apparently my embarrassment was extremely amusing, because she laughed for more or less the entire time it took Ana to get our drinks.

Ana sat the tray at the edge of the table and started dispensing drinks, “Here’s your OJ and I brought you a carafe of water,” she smiled at me and I felt a blush creep across my body.   “And your Pumpkin Latte ma’am.   Careful, now.   It’s hot,” her eyes strayed to me as she said that and I have to admit it felt pretty good.

Mom grinned and instantly recognized that she was up to something, “Tell me Ana.   Do you live on this side of town?”

“Uh... yeah.” she said a little warily checking something on her order pad. “Why?”

Her most disarming smile in place, mom proceeded, “Well I run a dance studio in Brayford which is just a few minutes from here.   Here, let me get you a card,” she pulled a card from the billfold in her purse and in the same motion scribbled something on the back of it.   “You should stop by.   I think you would really take to dancing.”

“Well.   Maybe,” Ana was clearly unsure about being accosted like this. “I do like dancing but I probably can’t afford it,” she made a motion to hand the card back but mom refused it.

“Come down and I’ll let you try a couple sessions for free.   If you like it we can work something out.”

“Okay, it sounds like it might be fun,” Ana smiled and tucked the card into her pad.

She didn’t know it but the spider girl had just been caught in my mother’s web.

Ana smoothly returned to her duties, “Do you know know what you want?”

Mom folded up her menu, “I would like the Cobb salad.   Hold the bacon and if I could get a couple extra hard boiled eggs that would be wonderful.”

Ana wrote furiously on her pad and then turned to me, “And for you?”

“I’d like a four egg white plus one yolk omelet with cheddar cheese, green peppers, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes,” she raised an eyebrow my direction and I blushed again, “Sorry, I’m in training.”

“Training for what?” she asked casually.

“I’m a running back for the South East Spartans,” I grinned.

“Cool,” she said without enthusiasm, as she checked her notes and then snapped the pad closed, “I’ll get this out to you in just a few minutes. Is there anything else I can get you while you wait?”

“I’m good,” I responded feeling a little confused at her sudden change of demeanor.

Mom gestured that she was fine and Ana retreated back to the kitchen.

“Did I do something wrong?” I asked once I was sure Ana was out of earshot.

Mom patted my hand in a reassuring manner.   “She may not like football or she be embarrassed about being attracted to a high school student.”

“Oh...” I was actually disappointed.   That was more than a little disconcerting; I’d only known her for maybe thirty seconds.

“Do you still want to know more about Carrie?” she sounded more up beat about talking about it and I didn’t want to think about Ana anymore.

“Sure.   You said she was ‘normal’.   What did you mean by that?”

Mom took a small sip of her latte before she spoke, “Carrie was... no... she wanted?   I don’t know how to explain it,” she sighed, “Carrie thought the way the world wanted her to think.”

I looked at her askance, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“There are things that are expected by society.   These expectations determine how easily you will fit into that society.   If you follow expectation you get rewarded.   If you don’t you get punished.   It was very easy for Carrie to do what was expected and that made her life easier,” she took another sip.

“Sounds like she was kind of a tool,” I said blandly.

Mom snorted and covered her mouth to try and stop anything that escaped.   After a moment she began to turn red.

“Are you okay mom?” I asked, hoping she wasn’t going to spit all over me.

Mom held up a finger and finally managed to swallow.   Once she did she began laughing aloud.   “A bit,” She finally confirmed.

This was not really what I had been hoping to hear.   Mom was so cool, for a mom, that I had hoped that maybe her sister was the same way.

“Don’t get this wrong sweetheart,” mom continued sensing my unhappiness, “Carrie was a good person.   She just didn’t need to go out side the lines to be happy.”

“I take it you did though,” I prompted.

Mom swirled the liquid in her cup dislodging the foam from the side and watching it swirl toward the center.   “That would be a fair statement.”

“What were you like then?   I always kind of guessed you were more of the problem child.”

Mom was aghast, “Whatever would give you that idea?” she grinned.

“I don’t know.   Little things like you... uh, dancing... for a living.” I covered my blush with a drink of water.

“Sweetie.   I love to dance.   You know that.   Much as I would have loved to be a prima ballerina the simple fact is that when you are built like this,” she pointed at her chest, “your options are somewhat limited.   I weigh too much for the men to lift safely and a lot of the poses are difficult for me because my center of gravity is less than ideal.   But what was a curse for a ballerina was a serious boon to an exotic dancer.   We all have to make do with what we are given.”

I think that was the first time mom ever really admitted that she had been a stripper.   It was odd having it confirmed.   “So you were the family wild child then?”

Mom blushed, “After a point?   Yes, I got pretty wild for a while.   When I was your age I was actually a repressed and awkward bookworm,” she fidgeted nervously with a napkin.

My jaw fell open, “No way,”

“Oh no, It’s true!   I had only a couple friends and hadn’t dated at all.   I was the ‘smart one’ and your grandparents had all sorts of plans for me.   I studied and studied and studied.   To make things just that much worse Carrie hit puberty at eleven, like Josie.   It was almost five years before I finally started to mature,” her face turned sour for a moment, “I can not even begin to explain how annoying it is for people to think that your identical twin sister is older than you are,”   she huffed out a breath, “I was even born first!”

I looked at my mom and tried to picture her as scrawny and awkward but just couldn’t do it.   “So what happened?”

“Well in part, these happened,” she chuckled glancing down at her chest again, “No.   The truth is that I went to college and for the first time I wasn’t being controlled by my parents.   First semester I was the same stick in the mud that I always had been; I didn’t think enough of myself to believe anyone would ever actually be attracted to me.   Then, I had to take a class to fulfill the physical fitness requirement.   More or less at random I chose a dance class and my entire world changed,”   she smiled at the memory.

About that time the food arrived and we ate in relative silence for a few minutes.   Whatever spark there had been between Ana and I was gone.   Oh well.

“I tried to stick to the plan my parents had worked out for me but I couldn’t stop thinking about dancing.   My grades suffered, mom and dad read me the riot act and for the first time in my life I just didn’t care,” she sighed, “It wasn’t pretty but in the end I transferred schools and changed my major to dance.   Your grand parents cut me off and I had to find a way to pay for school...” she sort of trailed off after that.   “You aren’t too embarrassed by all this, are you?”

I probably should have been but for whatever reason it didn’t bother me.   It actually made me feel more like an adult knowing that she was willing to talk about it with me.   

“No.   It’s ok,” I said shoving another fork full of omelet into my mouth.

Looking pensive, mom sat down her fork and pushed the bowl to the side, “Sweetie?”

“Yeah ma?” I said concentrating on my food.

“Look at me a second?” I looked up and she continued, “I did somethings when I was younger that I am not really proud of.   Exactly what isn’t important but a lot of it was backlash from all the pressure I had on me growing up.”

I nodded, not quite getting where she was going with this.

“If you ever feel like we are pushing you too hard, please talk to us.   Don’t just push it down until it erupts in a self-destructive, hedonistic rampage.”

She was serious.

She was actually serious.

I started laughing and even though it hurt my stomach, I couldn’t stop.   The idea of me freaking out and doing something stupid was just...

Oh.

Well crap.

I sobered instantly and slouched further into my bench.

“You think I’m going to snap and do something stupid?” How much the question was for her and how much it was for myself I’m not sure.   I didn’t think I was that tightly wound but I had pretty much lost it when Peters started in on Josie.   My appetite deserted me and I pushed my plate toward the center of the table.

“Oh, sweetie,” mom cooed, “We don’t think you’re going to snap.   I just want you to be able to be normal if you want.   It may have sounded like I thought less of Carrie for being ‘normal’ but the truth is that I envied her for it.   She was pretty and popular and effortlessly confident,”   She squeezed my hand, “I’m glad you got some of that from her.”

“You never talk about this stuff mom.   Why now?”

After a few false starts mom finally found her words, “There are things that I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time AJ.   I was waiting until you were old enough to understand them but I kept pushing it back because I really didn’t want to talk about it.   Do you remember when we told you that you weren’t my biological son?   How scared I was to give you the letter from Carrie?”

I nodded and as I did my stomach sank.

“I was terrified that when you found out I wasn’t your real mother you would stop loving me,”

I began to refute that but she cut me off.

“I know it’s silly but that was how I felt.   I always had a bit of an inferiority complex when it came to Carrie and the idea that I had to compete with her for your love was awful,” she shook her head.   “So talking about her.   Letting you really know what she was like is still scary to me.”

My gut flipped and I had to wonder if I was going to be sick once more.   “So why are you telling me all of this if you don’t want to?”

“Because what happened last night scared me more than anything ever has,”   she grabbed my hand again and squeezed hard, “It can all end so fast.   It made me realize that I couldn’t count on there being a tomorrow in which to tell you all the things I want you to know,”   A single tear rolled down her cheek, “and I also realized that you are more than mature enough to handle things.   I am so proud of you.”

Blushing intensely I half-heartedly tried to pull my hand from hers. ”Ah, mom...   don’t say stuff like that.”

She smiled and it was clear that she felt better about things, “Since you’ve been sick I’ll try and refrain from telling you how wonderful you are.”

“Mooom!”

Changing the subject she asked, “Are you done?” as she glanced at my nearly empty plate.

“I think so.”

“Ready to go then?”

“I need to use the restroom but I’ll meet you at the car,” I said, looking for the bathrooms.

The look of concern returned to her face, “Are you alright?”

I rolled my eyes, “If I need help, I’ll text you,”

“Smartalec.   Fine.” she tossed a five dollar bill on the table as she stood, “I’ll meet you at the car.   Don’t take too long.”

Once she was gone I tossed another five on the table.   What can I say?   Girls make me stupid.

---

~oOo~

---

Despite feeling a little off, my visit to the bathroom proved to be a total non-event.

Thank god.

As usual, even though there had been several spaces open near the entrance mom had instead parked behind the building next to a wall.

Mom really loves her little car and she has a thing about it getting dings in the door; it makes her park in the most out of the way places possible.   When I looped around the building to where we had parked I immediately knew something was wrong.   An orange SUV with alloy wheels was parked at an odd angle that screened the bug from view.

It was the jerks from before.

A quick scan of the area revealed one of the men leaning against the back end of the SUV, occasionally he would cast a glance back toward where my mom had parked.   The noise from the nearby traffic echoed through the concrete canyon, masking any sound that might have been coming from behind the SUV.   Recognising that there might be trouble I began jogging slowly toward the vehicles.   I was still feeling the effects of the food poisoning.   The last thing I wanted to do was over exert myself and end up passing out. Maybe just showing up would be enough to defuse things.   Hopefully mom hadn’t made it to the car before they arrived and they were just vandalizing it.   Heck, maybe they were just here for pie and this was all a coincidence.   I certainly didn’t want to escalate the situation when I wasn’t sure it was sinister at all.

As I got a little closer, I was able to pick out words here and there.   There were several voices and they sounded pissed.

Then I heard a cry and instantly knew that mom was in trouble.

Without another thought, I took off at a dead run and the same noise that made it difficult to hear what they were doing prevented their distracted sentry from noticing my approach.   In my weakened state I wasn’t able to get to full speed before I smashed into the side of his knee with my shoulder, but even so, I heard something in his leg pop and he folded like a freshman.

It was a cheap shot and my intent was to injure him, maybe even cripple him.   It would have gotten me ejected from the game if I had tried it on the field and rightly so.

Given the circumstances, sportsmanship was the last thing on my mind.

No one messes with my family.

I rolled to my feet and saw mom surrounded by four guys my size or larger.   All of them, mom included, were slack jawed at what had just happened.   I couldn’t tell exactly what had been happening but at that moment i didn’t care.   Without even a warning I charged into them. The first one I hit with one of Brian’s signature moves, I brought my hands up into his chest just as I hit him.   It was sort of a variant straight arm but it also served to absolutely destroy their balance.

When Brian does it people tend to go flying.   I don’t have his mass or strength but it was enough to off balance him and take his wind.   Driving through the block I pushed him backwards into two of his friends who were mostly getting in each others way.   I heard a shriek of pain come from where mom had been, only to see the remaining asshole writhing on the ground with two inches of my mom’s stiletto heel buried in his calf.   Mom scrambled away toward the car discarding her remaining shoe on the way.

Meanwhile I was tied up with two of them in a pile.   The third had gotten away from me but I was too worried about mom to keep track of him.   My experience at the bottom of dog piles served me well.   I was not terribly concerned by the situation while they were freaking out.   I took a few cheap shots and as soon as the press broke I spun out of the tangle.   I managed to get my back to my moms car and was moving to get to the passengers side door when I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye.   I turned with the blow but even so a tire iron connected flush with the side of my head.

I should have been knocked cold if I wasn’t killed outright.   

I must have been seriously pumped with adrenaline because, as it was, I barely felt it and my lack of reaction seemed to jar all of them.   In the process of my turn I tripped him up and sent him sprawling in front of his friends.   The fight stalled.   I checked on mom and she was waving for me to get into the car.   As soon as I did she hopped the curb and drove on the sidewalk to get away.   Sometimes being small is a serious advantage.   My truck never would have fit.

I kept watch to make sure they weren’t following us but there was no sign of pursuit.   We drove in silence the entire way home.   The spasms which I had been getting after working out wracked my entire body.   I couldn’t stop shaking but I did my best to hide just how bad it was from mom.   It didn’t hurt but not being able to control my body bothers me a lot.

When we finally pulled into the garage and the door rattled closed, mom started to cry.   I held her and she sobbed in my arms.

I had been too scared and angry during the fight to be worried with such things but when mom started crying like that I knew exactly what it was to really hate someone.   My anger with Peters paled in comparison.

---

~oOo~

---

Dad had a fit when he heard what had happened.   By turns he yelled at me for being stupid and then hugged and thanked me for doing exactly the same thing.   Mom recovered from the whole thing a lot faster than I would have expected.   By the next day she seemed more or less okay.   I get a feeling this wasn’t the first time something like this has happened to her.   We reported it to the police and they said they would see what they could do.   That involved asking us a lot of questions and writing things down.

I think I should feel bad about what I did to the sentry but I don’t.   A little bit of me hopes he walks with a limp for the rest of his life as a reminder.

When it was all said and done it was after two in the morning.   I fell into bed and was out before I could get under the covers.

---

CHAPTER 5

---

The next morning I woke up late and immediately resolved to find out what had happened to my alarm clock.   Pulling on my exercise clothes I jogged out to the barn where a barre had been installed.   I ran through my stretches and then did the chores that dad had for me.   I collected eggs from the handful of chickens we kept and then tossed some feed to the half-dozen dairy cows.

The cows bawled at me as I tossed the feed and I knew I wasn’t going to get away with leaving the milking for Josie.   I opened the gate and they all wandered into their respective shoots for milking.

By the time I was done the sun was over the horizon.   I wanted to know what kind of shape I was in after the food poisoning.

After less than an hour I was shaking and feeling sick. Pathetic.

I jogged back to the house and found Dad up making omelets.   Under most circumstances it would have been mom.   I had to wonder if dad was angry or if being attacked counted as a special occasion.   Plopping down in my chair, I tried to relax;   the spasms were so bad I hadn’t been able to do my cool down stretches and I was starting to get worried.

Dad’s voice startled me, “You didn’t have to exercise this morning.”

“Huh?” I may get up early but that doesn’t make me a morning person.

“You were really sick the other night and then that...” his jaw set hard and a I could see a vein throbbing on his forehead, “...incident with your mother.   You need to give yourself time to recover.”

My brain couldn’t quite figure out what he was saying.   It sounded like he was giving me permission to slack off.

Except that would mean the sun had burned out.

“I have to stay sharp,” I paraphrased his usual motivational technique.

Dad shook his head with an amused smile as he slid an enormous omelet onto a plate, “How did you do today?” he nodded toward the window, “Looked like you were really struggling.”

I sighed, “It’s the first really cold morning and that didn’t help but yeah, I gassed almost before I got started.”

“That’s what I thought.   You’re going to take the next few days off of training,” he said it in such a way that I knew he was serious even though he was talking like a crazy person.   Before I could object he continued, “You’re form was off.   You were burning far more energy than you had to for every thing you did out there.   Let yourself recover for a week or so...”

“A week!” I spit omelet all over the table, “but if I don’t practice for the week prior to the game then I can’t play!   If I don’t at least dress then I won’t letter!”

“AJ.   Calm yourself,” he said smoothly.   “Bad form leads to injuries.”

I took a deep breath and tried to calm down.   I had somehow ended up in the Twilight Zone or something.

“We’ll see how you’re doing on Sunday.   If you’re good then, you can practice like normal.   If not then you shouldn’t risk hurting the team because you aren’t ready to play,” he took a sip of his coffee while watching me over the rim.

He was right.   I knew he was right but the idea of wasting so much time was very annoying.

Suddenly other thoughts superseded, “How’s mom?”

Dad sat his cup down and stood to look out the kitchen window, “She’s doing ok.   She’ll probably be a little shaky for a couple days but thanks to you, she’s fine.”

“What were they doing to her?” I asked quietly.

Dad gripped the edge of the sink and I heard the stainless steel warp under the pressure, “That isn’t something you need to worry about.   You stopped them.   You did good, son.”

“I guess,” I sat up in my chair a little straighter, “I bet if you had been there they wouldn’t have tried anything in the first place though.”

“Finish your eggs AJ,” Dad half-smiled at me, “Just because you get out of training doesn’t mean you get out of school.”

Inwardly I sighed with relief.   At least something about this week would be normal.

---

~oOo~

---

When I walked into school things were weird.   People were shooting odd looks my way and I couldn’t figure out why.   I headed toward Coach’s office to tell him I was going to have to sit out for a few days.

It felt so weird not going to morning practice I thought I might have an anxiety attack.   Coach wasn’t at his office but I saw Darrel coming in from morning drills.

“Double A!” he shouted, hustling my way, “Where were you yesterday, man!”

“Food poisoning.”

“Bad?”

“Real bad,” I confirmed.

“Nasty,” he waited a moment and then hared off in a new direction, “What’s this I hear about you killing three guys outside a strip club last night?”

“What?!”

He put his hands up in a defensive gesture, “Take it easy killer. That’s just what I heard.”

“Some jerks attacked my mom outside of a Village Inn,” I said tensely, “I messed them up a little and then we ran.”

“Holy shit dude!” he said far more loudly than was wise.   His next words were a harsh whisper, “You mean you actually fought three thugs and got away clean!   That is fucking badass!”

“Actually there were five of them,” I mumbled.

“Now you’re just messing with me,” he said in disbelief.

I shrugged but didn’t say anything more.

“You’re serious.   You fought five guys while you had food poisoning?   What are you fucking Batman or something?” he laughed and I realized that as embarrassing as the whole thing was, it was kind of cool.

“Is that why everyone is acting so weird?” I asked, glancing around.

Darrel’s brain suddenly shifted into gear and all at once he was very nervous, “Oh.   Oh shit,” he said under his breath, “No man.   I mean some of them maybe but no.”

“Then what’s the problem?” I asked with no little irritation.

“You picked a bad day to miss bro,” he leaned back against the wall, “I mean some seriously messed up stuff is going down.”

“Okay?”

“Didn’t your sister tell you about it?”

“She’s in Junior high,” I reasoned.

Darrel shook his head, “No man, they did it with Junior high.”

I was going to kill him.   “Well we were kind of busy yesterday so how about you just fill me in.”

Darrel closed his eyes and tried to organize his thoughts.

“Okay,” he took a deep breath, “They had an unscheduled assembly yesterday.   Apparently a girl from South Central.   Marie Kuntzie I think.   Something like that.   There are fliers up on the bulletin boards.   She’s a cross country runner and she just disappeared during one of the meets.”

“Do they think she took off or fell in a well or what?” I asked nervously.   It was never cool when something bad happened to another athlete.   Even if she was a cross country girl.   I swear to god, they’re all genetically insane.

“That’s just it.   One minute she was trucking along out front and the next she didn’t make the check in.   They back tracked the course to make sure she hadn’t hurt herself but couldn’t find any sign of her,”   he paused and glanced about nervously.   “We’re supposed to keep an eye out for her but that isn’t the fucked up part.”

I raised an eyebrow in disbelief, “Seriously?”

He nodded ominously, “They didn’t mention it during the assembly but I heard there was some kind of serious explosion in the woods and they found the body of a guy about our age in the middle of it.   He was totally naked but completely unharmed by the blast, even though it knocked down a bunch of old oak trees.”

“So was he alive or dead?” I inquired. He stared at me in confusion.   “If he was unharmed then why was he a body instead of a person.”

Darrel nodded in understanding, “Oh he was dead, but there didn’t seem to be any reason why.   He was just dead.”

Reality reasserted itself, “If they didn’t go over this in the assembly where did you get this information?”

“My cousin works for the police,” he shrugged.

“So who was the guy?”

“They don’t know.   No one has been able to identify him.   They ran him through all sort of stuff and the FBI came in and it was a really big deal.”

“Wait.   How could all of this happen in one day?”

Darrel rolled his eyes at my apparent stupidity, “Cross Country had it’s meet on Saturday, we just started hearing about it yesterday.   Then there was the other thing.”

“There’s more?” this was officially the strangest week in history.

“Apparently at least one of the football players over at South Central was...” he blanched visibly which given his complexion was telling, “...attacked... on Sunday night,”   He looked like he was going to be sick.

“Attacked how?”   I had a bad feeling I already knew.

“Attacked man, like hold you down and do things too you attacked.   Hear me?”

“Fuck,” was all I could come up with.   Who would do something like that?   Heck, given the victim who could do something like that?

“Yeah,” Hanover agreed.   “I don’t think they’re sure what really happened though.   Either way they don’t want people wandering around alone.   My cousin says they’re thinking about setting a curfew but with Halloween coming up they know it’ll never work.”

I was definitely going to have to talk to Josie about making sure to share information like this in the future.

Darrel forged on while I was still lost in thought, “On top of that, Peters has been spreading a rumor that you’ve been juicing,” he said quietly. My face must have been pretty scary because he took a step back. “I guess I don’t know it’s Peter’s but everyone knows it’s him.”

The anger bubbled up inside of me for a moment and then just washed away. “That’s really dumb,” I shrugged my back pack back into position.   “Is Coach around?   I need to talk to him.”

---

~oOo~

---

I found Coach and told him about what the doctor had said.   Once he heard about it he more or less echoed what dad had already decided regarding practice.

I swear, it’s a conspiracy.

He didn’t believe the steroids rumor but with Ms. Robotham watching him he was obliged to take it seriously.   The nurse drew some blood and they sent it away for testing.   I wasn’t worried.   I knew I was clean.   Coach assured me that as long as I was back in form before the next game that I would at least get to dress.   He didn’t say anything but I had the distinct impression that Brian was high on coach’s shit list at the moment.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully.   I gathered my assignments from the previous day but found there were fewer than i would have expected because of the assembly.

The school was buzzing with rumors and speculation about what was going on.   Of the hundred or so stories I heard, a few stood out to me. One version had me missing the day because I was another victim of the rapist.   Another cast me as the rapist.   Maria had been part of the Wytex test group and a few people thought they had killed or kidnapped her to prevent something about the trial from getting out .   Everyone was on edge and none of the classes seemed to get much accomplished.

Probably the most interesting thing that I picked up was that the clearing around the body of the boy they found was huge.   Some were saying that it was the better part of a mile from one side to the other.   The trees radiated out from a central point where the body had been found and there had been no sign of any such damage when the course had been surveyed only hours prior.   Some of the Cross Country kids said the course actually crossed through the open area in several places and it hadn’t been there when the race started.

The implication was that something had knocked down trees, for a significant radius, such that no one noticed it happening.

It was too ridiculous to believe for a moment but it did make me want to see the area myself.

---

~oOo~

---

Seventh period study hall rolled around and as usual I spent the first thirty or so minutes working on my various assignments.   With fifteen minutes left I knew I wasn’t going to be able to finish everything I needed too before school let out.

One of the main reasons I hated missing classes was because with all the practicing I did there was never enough time to get stuff done after school.

I stared at my math home work for a moment as I realized that for the first time in what seemed like forever I didn’t have my usual routine to look forward too.   I was going to have time that was unaccounted for.

I have to admit a little part of me flew into a screaming panic at the idea.

I put away my books and decided to see what else I could find out about all the weirdness that was going on.   Looking around I spied one of the fliers with the missing girl’s face on it.   I had been so busy that I hadn’t had a chance to get a good look at it yet and decided now was a good time.   

When I saw the face up close I recognized it immediately.

Though I had only seen her a moment I would swear that it was the girl I had seen in my mirror the other day.

“No way...” I said under my breath.   Once I had processed the new information I told Mr. Hinkle that I needed to talk to someone about having seen the missing girl.

...to be continued...

---

  Author's Note: The first story is done. I'm going to post it in parts so I have a little more time to work on my next story. :P Hope you all enjoy it. ~Matt  

---

CHAPTER 6

---

“Are you certain it was her?” Agent Emerson asked me yet again.

I was being interviewed by someone from the FBI.   The week had officially gone from strange to unbelievable.

“I think so,” honestly, I was beginning to wonder myself.

“Think or know?” he pressed.

I thought for a moment, “I only saw the girl in my mirror for a second.   When I saw the picture of Maria my gut told me they were the same person but I can’t say for sure either way.”

Agent Emerson looked to his older partner who had been sitting quietly to the side.   Agent Garret stood and was about to say something when his phone rang.

“Special Agent Garret,” he said automatically.   A moment later his face soured and he turned away from me, speaking in hushed tones. “We’re working it as a kidnapping,” there was a pause as he listened before blurting out “Terrorist attack?   Are you kidding me?” the anger that showed on his face built until finally he said simply “I understand,” and hung up the phone.   Agent Emerson looked to him for answers but all he got was, “We’re done here.”

“What?   Why?” his partner questioned.

“It’s been handed off to a different department,” the way he said it seemed to pretty much kill any further questions Agent Emerson might have had.   “Mr. Cross, thank you for your time.     If you think of anything else please give me a call,” he handed me a card.

This was totally going in my scrapbook as soon as I got home.

“There should be someone else in to talk to you shortly. Please stay here until they arrive,” he continued.

Awesome.   More waiting. I should have kept my mouth shut.

I waited for what seemed like a long time for the next group to arrive and then I was driving home.   I’m sure there was some stuff that happened in-between those events but when I tried to think about it the memories just wouldn’t come together.   Looking back on the day big chunks of it were vague.   I had the distinct idea that I had talked to someone and been told I could go home but all of the details were hazy to the point of being basically non-existent.   I was more than a little afraid that the food poisoning was doing something to my brain.

Pulling to the side of the road, I tried to remember what I had forgotten.

“Holy crap, I forgot my shake!” I looked at the clock in my truck and flipped a quick u-turn.   How had it gotten so late!   The Wytex rep would be done handing out the shakes in less than fifteen minutes.   If I missed two in a row I was out of the program.   

Part of me would have been happy to get out of the study, I really wanted the tremors to stop, but there had been enough drop outs already that we were getting dangerously close to the fifteen hundred student minimum.   If we went below that then Wytex would not be obligated to pay the school the other half of the ten million dollars it had promised for participation in the study.

Everyone that actually talked about it seemed to agree that the whole thing felt a little shady but with ten million dollars on the line no-one seemed eager to question it too harshly either.   The fact that our sports teams were performing above expectations this year also helped people look the other way.

Even beyond the money, I can’t blame the school system for wanting to be a part of the trial.   Wytex provided free physicals at the beginning of the year for anyone in the school system that wanted one, even if they weren’t interested in signing up for the trial.   It wasn’t just a cough and out physical either.   They did everything, including blood work and a weird CAT scan kind of thing.   I have no idea how it worked but they injected me with some kind of dye, I stepped into this plastic cylinder, a bunch of lights passed over me and after about five minutes they let me out.   A week later we all got the results of the physical back and it included a copy of the scan.

The scan was pretty cool. It’s primary function was to provide a detailed measurement of the person’s muscle mass but it also told you what your bone density was and a few other things.   I wish our doctor had a scanner like that.   The print out they provided looked like an x-ray on acid.   People were comparing each others scans to see if you could tell who was who based on their insides.   No one picked mine as being me.

Once every two weeks they picked a group of one-hundred fifty participants at random and feed them back though the same machine; I think I’ve been tagged every single time.   I know they want to get good data from this trial but it has to be costing them a fortune.

When I finally pulled back into the school parking lot it was ten minutes after the Wytex rep normally would have been gone.   I pulled around to guest parking on the off chance he had been delayed by something and got lucky.   Dr. Callow was carrying a pile of the plastic flats out to his little SUV as I pulled in next to him.

“Dr. Callow?” I said hopping out of my truck.

He ignored me as he sat the trays inside.   He counted everything twice and then closed the hatch of his vehicle.   His right hand drifted casually beneath his coat and stayed there.   Only then did he turn to even look at me.   “Yes?”

I could actually feel him stabbing me with his eyes, “My name is Aaron Cross.   I’m on the football team?” I knew he recognized me at this point but he sure didn’t act like it.

“Is there something I can do for you?” his tone suggested that perhaps he would like to help push me into a well.

I hesitated a moment.   I had missed the time when we got the shakes.   With all the stuff that had happened over the last couple days, dad and Coach would probably understand how I could forget.   If I just let this go I would be out of the study and maybe things would get back to normal.

But even if dad and coach understood they would still be disappointed.

Dangit!

“I know I’m late for getting my shake but I was talking to the FBI because I thought I saw the missing girl from South Central and it took me a while to get here.   Sorry.   I really don’t want to drop out of the study.   Could I maybe get my shake now?”   I smiled in what I imagine to be my most pathetic way and waited.

For a moment I thought he was going to say no out of hand but instead pulled out his iPad. “What did you say your name is again?” He still sounded irritated but something about his demeanor had changed.

“Cross comma Aaron,” I said quickly.

He typed and poked at the screen for several seconds and then opened the hatch and began pulling out flats until he found the one with my bottle. “It won’t be cold,” he apologized as he handing it to me. “Oh, I need to read you the disclaimer,”   he started fumbling with the pad.

“It’s ok,” I said before he could launch into the spiel “I had some problems with cramping, diarrhea, vomiting, lightheadedness and... no I guess that’s it,” he was marking something down on the pad, “but I’m pretty sure it was a bad sandwich and not this.   I do still have the spasms I mentioned before though.”

He paused in his typing and then did some kind of screen gesture.   “If you have that many problems you’ll probably get removed from the study.   Why don’t you let me read the disclaimer to you one more time.   ‘Aaron Cross.   In the time since last receiving your previous allotment of Protein Formulation 7G have you experienced any unusual discomfort or inexplicable,” he heavily emphasized inexplicable, “phenomena including but not limited to: lightheadedness, dizziness, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, visual or auditory illusions, double vision, muscle cramps or priapism.’”

I thought for a moment, “Nothing inexplicable.”

He actually smiled a little bit.   It creeped me out.

Handing me the shake he continued the rote, “Here is your shake.   Please drink the contents, replace the lid and sign.”

I did and handed the bottle back to him, “Thanks Dr. Callow,”

“Don’t mention it,” he said seriously. “Ever.”

I nodded and climbed back in my truck.   That was one seriously odd guy.

---

~oOo~

---

When I finally got home I started getting ready for my training before realizing I didn’t have to.

I’m not sure how long I stood in the foyer trying to figure out what to do instead.   For all intents and purposes I had never been in this situation before.   It wasn’t the first time I had been unable to practice but usually it was because there was something else taking the time instead.

“Homework,” I mumbled and slowly walked to the dining room table.   Josie was flitting about but, with the exception of a random hug while I was writing a current events paper for my civics class, she left me alone.

When I finished a little over an hour later I knew there was no way I could go a week without exercising.   My legs were jumping all over the place and I had so much excess energy that it was killing me.

I had promised the two men who had the most influence over me that I wouldn’t but at the same time....

I walked into the kitchen and found mom buffing her nails while she waited for supper to finish baking. “Mom?” she started slightly and looked up with a smile.

“Yes sweetheart?”

I fidgeted for a few seconds, mostly because I couldn’t stay still, “I know you and Dad and coach want me to take it easy for a few days but if I don’t do something it’s going to kill me.”

“No exercising AJ,” she said sternly, “Pushing this will just make it take longer to recover from,”   At my look of panic, her eyes softened.   “Your sister is watching TV why don’t you go see whats on.”

Ugh!   I hate TV. There’s never anything on. “Isn’t there something else I could do?”

“AJ,” she said conspiratorially, “go see your sister before dad gets back in from the shop.   You have about a half hour before we eat.”

I didn’t get it but I wasn’t going to fight her either. That only led to fail.

When I went looking for Josie I didn’t find her in the living room.   Honestly that shouldn’t have surprised me too much.   Dad was about the only one who used the TV in there.   I listened and heard music coming from the basement, which is the full size of the house and pretty deep.   Dad had more or less refinished it into an exercise/dance/rec room with a room for another one of his shops and a laundry room at one end.

Dad didn’t believe there should ever be a time when you were doing ‘nothing’. Josie had her laptop hooked up to the TV and was playing some version of Dance Dance Revolution.

On her hands.

Little show off.

I watched her for a little while and she wasn’t actually doing all that well but the fact that she could do it at all was insane.

When she got to the end of the song she rolled to her feet and grinned at me.   She was breathing hard but had a look of triumph about her.   “Want to try?” she gasped.

I chuckled, “Maybe on my feet Jojo.   How did you figure out you could do that?”

She shrugged and plunked herself down in the sofa, “It’s boring when I use my feet, so I made it better.”

Seemed reasonable, “So you just have to step on the arrow on the pad when the corresponding arrow is inside the other arrow?”

Josie stuck her tongue out at me.

“What was that for?” I asked in no little shock.

She rolled her eyes and didn’t answer except to gesture at the pad.

What is it with girls anyway?

I was about to step on the pad when she shouted “Shoes!” causing me to recoil.

“Sheesh, Jojo!   Give me a heart attack why don’t you,” I squatted down and removed the offending footwear.   Once that was done I started up a new game.   She was playing on easy so I didn’t have to fiddle with the settings much at all.

She was right.   It was boring with your feet.

Hard difficulty was more of a problem but even then it was mostly because some of the movements were really unnatural.   While I was working at it Josie ran up to her room and came back down with another mat.

“Why do you have two?” I asked while she was setting it all up.

“So you can dance with friends,” she said in a slightly distracted manner.

“Like who?”

“Mary, Donna, Cori, Raven and I used to play all the time,” she spun around to face me.   “only they got bored because they couldn’t beat me even if I was playing hard and they were on medium.   Plus mom and I play sometimes but hopping like this really isn’t her friend.   You know?”   She made a bouncing gesture with her hands well in front of her own breasts and then pantomimed being smacked in the face with them.

Wait.

When did Josie get breasts!?

Awesome.   I was going to have to kill someone over this.   I could just feel it.

“I even got dad to try it once but he thought it was stupid so... are you OK Aaron?”

Dad had tried it?   Dad let other people into the house?   When did this nonsense start? “Yeah.   So you have friends over here a lot?”

“Uh-huh,” she smiled.

I hadn’t really had a friend over to the house since the falling out with the Bockmans.   I brought a few guys over a year ago but dad pretty much killed that.   I needed to be practicing, not screwing around.   I also don’t think he appreciated how they were gawking at mom.

Neither did I, come to think of it.

The really distressing part was that unless there was free food involved or I told them my mom would be wearing a bikini or really tight sweater or something I don’t know that I could list four people that I would just hang out and do ‘nothing’ stuff with.

I must have looked sad or something because Josie gave me a big hug.   “Play?” she said simply.

“Sure,” I smiled.   Better than getting down over nothing.

I wish I could say the dance off was epic but the truth is that she destroyed me.

In retribution I tickle tackled her.   She squealed and tried to get away but she didn’t have a chance.   We were both laying on the floor, giggling and panting when mom came down to get us.

Maybe not having something to do all the time was okay after all.

---

CHAPTER 7

---

The next day things started finally getting back to normal.   There was still talk about the assembly and the missing girl, but it wasn’t the huge distraction it had been.

Personally I was still itching to get back on my schedule but I could tell that dad knew what he was talking about.   I thought I had felt fine the day before but in retrospect I was dragging and knew I still wasn’t anywhere near one-hundred percent.

Everything was high-school normal until lunch.   I sat down at the far end of the team’s table as usual.   It was very odd: I was expected to eat with the team but I wasn’t supposed to actually interact with them unless they instigated contact.   The only one that might actually do that was Darrel and he was in a different lunch period this semester.   As a result my lunch was not terribly entertaining but at least the food the team got was a step above what everyone else had to eat.

I picked through the chicken and vegetables without appetite but slowly started to make a dent in it.   About fifteen minutes into the period I realized someone was talking to me.   I had been so tied up in my own thoughts I hadn’t noticed.   Looking up I saw one of the guys from the Cross Country team standing at the edge of the table.   Apparently my blank look was enough for him to repeat himself.

“So did you actually see Maria on Monday or what?”

Several of the older players were looking at him with obvious irritation.   He was crowding their space without permission.   As he waited for me to answer several people had to brush past him where he blocked the aisle.

“I’m not sure,” I shrugged “Why?”

“Maria and I are friends, we go running almost every morning together,” as he spoke he sat down across from me.   

The other players were getting more tense by the second.   To an outsider the idea of a players only table might seem like snobbery or something but the truth is that there is a lot of stuff that goes on with a team that they can’t let just anyone know.   Something a simple as who has a strained calf muscle can be used against you by another team.   As a result, if the team doesn’t know someone they tend to treat them like a spy.

I tried to express the fact that he was breaking a fairly major taboo without actually saying it but he apparently misinterpreted my look.

“Maria and I live right at the dividing line between here and South Central.” he explained unnecessarily. “I have a better picture of her,” he reached for his wallet when one of Brian’s enormous hands clamped down on is shoulder.

“Take a walk,” Brian rumbled.   The guy hesitated a moment and was almost thrown out of the seat.   “I said: Take a walk.”

Leave it to Brian to find a way to make things extra awesome.

Once the guy was gone Brian sat down across from me.   Squatted might be a better term.   He really didn’t fit at the tables very well.   I noted that his right wrist was heavily taped; he must have hurt himself worse than I thought.   We stared at each other for a moment and I flinched first, returning to my food.

“How’d you do it?” he said quietly. The tone of his voice was threatening but it was edged by something else I couldn’t recognise.

“Do what?” I had no idea what he was talking about.

Brian glared at me like he thought I was making fun of him.   Images of him ripping my arms off suddenly sprang to mind.   “The weight.   How did you get it to move like that?   There is no way you are that fucking strong.”

I had to give him credit; he was sticking to the lie.

“I’m sorry you hurt your wrist Brian but you shouldn’t have been screwing around like that.   It isn’t going to mess you up for...”

“Listen to me you little dumbshit!”, his left hand smashed into the table making my entire tray leap into the air.   I managed to snag the milk before it toppled.   My hand moved so fast I couldn’t believe it, then my arm spasmed and threw the milk in Brian’s face.

We were both so shocked by what had just happened that neither of us moved.   The noise of the cafeteria lowered in waves as what I had just done rippled through the room.

I was dead.

Brian seemed to grow right in front of me. He clenched his right hand into a fist and flinched.   We both looked at his bandaged hand.   His jaw set, he stood up and walked out of the cafeteria.

He should have murdered me.   What the heck was going on?   I looked down the table hoping someone might feel obligated to explain what I was missing.   Half of them looked every bit as confused as I was and the other half were purposefully not looking at me at all.   I started eating again and the cafeteria returned to it’s previous state of chaos.

This really wasn’t my week.

---

~oOo~

---

When I got to study hall there was a note waiting for me to see coach in his office.

I was actually surprised it had taken so long.

I walked down the halls, wondering what he was going to do this time.   The milk thing wasn’t as heinous as what happened with the weights but it was still bad form for members of a team.   Unfortunately, the fact that Brian started it and that it was an honest accident didn’t really factor into it.

When I reached his office Coach was looking at something on his heavy duty tablet laptop.   I knocked and he waved me in almost immediately, so things were either okay or they were really, really bad.

“Double A,” he nodded to a seat and I took it. “I need you to stop harassing Brian.”

My jaw fell so far open I’m surprised it didn’t come off entirely.   After a couple seconds my brain finally manged to process the crazy words that Coach had just used. “What? When?   What?!”

“You aren’t in trouble Double A but you are in Peters’s head and I need you out of there.   He can’t spare the space,” despite the jokes I could tell he was actually serious.   I think I could feel parts of my brain dying.   “I don’t know what happened but he’s focused on you when I need him focused on the game.   Get me?”

I nodded but the truth was I didn’t get it at all.   Why was Brian going through all this psychological, back handed stuff instead of just breaking me in half during a practice.   Beyond taunting I had thought mind games were beneath him; maybe even beyond him.

Coach sighed. “I need you to be the bigger man here.   Can you do that?”

“I guess,” I said uncertainly “what do you need me to do.”

“I need you to not come to the game tomorrow night.   I need you to do everything you can to avoid Peters until after then.   The team needs him Double A.   Can you do this for them?”

Not dressing for the game was bad.   Short of being cut, it was about the worst thing coach could do to a player.   Not being able to even go to the game might actually have been more devastating for me though.   The original punishment I arguably brought on myself.   This seemed massively more unfair. “Yeah coach.   I can do that if it will help the team,” I said stiffly.

“Good,” he seemed relieved; almost as if he had actually been giving me a choice. “After the game we are going to get this sorted between you two.   I just do not have time at the moment.”

In a dull monotone I asked, “Is there anything else, sir?”

“No AJ.   You can go.   I expect to see you bright and early Monday morning, so don’t do anything to slow down your recovery.”

“Yes sir,” I walked slowly out of his office and back to study hall.   

Once again the rest of the day wizzed by in a blur.   I can’t explain why not being able to go to the game was so bad for me except it felt like I really wasn’t part of the team anymore.   I know it sounds dumb but it was like my entire world was coming to an end.

---

CHAPTER 8

---

For the first time I could remember I was leaving school at the same time as everyone else.   I got my Wytex shake from Ms. Doer, who had apparently replaced Dr. Callow and then headed out to my truck.

The parking lot was complete chaos.   I knew it was like this but it’s another thing to be in the middle of it.

I don’t really fear anything in my truck; it’s been used hard enough that almost everyone else has more to lose than I do in an accident.   Even so, I didn’t feel like dealing with the mess and I didn’t have anywhere I had to be, so I could afford to wait until things cleared out a bit.

A cold shiver ran down my spine but it may have just been the October breeze kicking up.   

Then I looked into the parking lot and saw Maria.

It was the damnedest thing.   She was standing next to a little baby SUV staring farther into the lot.   There were people wandering all around her but no one else seemed to have noticed her.

“Maria!?” I shouted at her and began moving her way. Her head snapped around and she glared at me with an odd mixture of anger, sadness, joy and lust?   I was getting more from a simple look than I felt that I should.   Her body language was angry to say the least and stopped me short; right in front of a girl driving an X-terra.   I managed to get back out of the way before she flattened me but she still flipped me off and yelled something derogatory.   “Fucking retarded football players!” or something like that.

I take Advanced Placement classes and have a B+ average, thank you.

When the SUV passed, Maria was gone.   I hurried over to where she had been standing but there wasn’t anyone there.   Looking in the direction she had been focused, I saw the guy that had talked to me at lunch.   He was chatting up a couple girls while leaning against my truck.

He wasn’t going to hurt it or anything but why was he touching my truck?

As I approached he quickly ended his conversation with the blonde and brunette.   We both watched, as they walked away, in appreciative silence.   With the girls gone, he smiled but it had an odd tension behind it.

“So can we talk here or is the gorilla going to get twisted about that too?” there was a bit of challenge in his voice.

“Who are you?” I asked.   He might have introduced himself earlier but I didn’t catch it.

“William Hughes,” he said with a little annoyance.

The name seemed familiar.   I had played baseball with a Willy Hughes.   I looked at him again and finally recognised him. “Willy?” I smiled.

“That’s me Double A.   How have you been bro?” he was trying to act like everything was normal but his eyes were haunted.   As he talked to me he was constantly scanning the area, as if afraid he would miss something important.

I looked at him skeptically, “Not bad.   How about you Willy?”

“I’m good,” he lied badly.   If I didn’t know better I would think he was on drugs.   Huh, I guess I don’t really know better for that matter.   “You said you saw Maria?”

“Yeah,”

“Where?”

I pointed in the general direction of where I had seen her on Monday. “She was just standing there staring at me.   I only saw her in my mirrors.   When I turned around she was...”

“Just gone, right?” his nervousness was getting worse and it was starting to affect me.

“What’s going on Willy?” I asked quietly.   Suddenly him being willing to sit down at the football table made more sense.   He was spooked beyond reason.

He was quiet for a little while as he wrestled with something internally.   “Can we go somewhere else and talk about this?”

That seemed like a really good idea.   Between his jumpiness and thinking I had seen Maria again I was starting to get kind of spooked myself.   “Let me check with my mom to see if it’s OK,” He nodded and stuck his hand in his jacket pockets.   A few seconds later he started bouncing up an down on the balls of his feet to help keep warm.

Sasha picked up the Studio’s phone on the fourth ring, “Care to Dance,” she always manged to inflect it like she was asking a question. “This is Sasha speaking.”

I cleared my suddenly tight throat, “Hey Sasha, is my mom there?”

“Sorry AJ.   Jackie stayed home today.   Can I help you with anything?” just the sound of her voice was cranking my engine.

Oh, crap!   Did not exercising turn me into a total horn dog or something?   I had to get back on my routine!

“No I’ll just check with her at home.   Thanks Sasha,”

“Anytime AJ, see you soon.”

“Bye Sasha,” I gasped and then shut the phone.

She was going to kill me.   She was going to tease me until I had an aneurysm or something.

“You ok, Dude?” Willy asked from where he was sheltering himself next to my truck.   Why he was wearing shorts in October I just don’t know.   Cross Country runners are weird.

“Just cold,” I lied.   I dialed my mom’s cell number.   She turned it off at work but if she was home I normally could get a hold of her.   After seven rings it went to voice mail.   That was strange.   Mom hardly ever let her phone ring through.   Images of the guys that had attacked her ransacking our house flashed across my minds eye.   I knew there was was no way but I still wanted to make sure.   “You like Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes?”

“Sure.   I guess...” he said noncommittally.

“Awesome,” I unlocked my door, tossed most of the stuff that had built up off the seat and then pushed open the door from the inside. “Get in, we’ll go to my place to talk.”

“Uh, I have a car you know?” he gestured to a little red Honda.

Why was it that everyone else’s vehicle was better than mine?

“Nice,” I nodded approvingly, “then just follow me.”

---

~oOo~

---

When we got to the house mom’s car was in the garage but dad’s truck was parked halfway in the yard.   He was actually on the grass.   He never did that.   I cautiously moved to the kitchen door and found it was partly open.   My heart pounded in my chest.   Something was very wrong.

“Dude? What the hell are you doing?” Willy asked in a harsh whisper.   I held up my hand and he quieted down.

“I have a bad feeling,” I whispered as I carefully pulled open the screen door.   Once inside I heard grunting coming from the kitchen and then my mom cried out.   

I was about to bolt for the kitchen when Willy snagged my arm and pulled me back toward the door.   “Trust me dude.   You do NOT want to see what is going on in there,”

“Let me go!” I easily shook him off. “I have to help!”

“Ewwww! That’s messed up dude!”

“What the hell are you talking about!   Someone is hurting...” I looked from the open door to dad’s truck, “my ... mom ... oh.   Gross.” I had almost walked in on my parents having sex in the kitchen.   “Damnit!”

“What now?” he had a stupid grin on his face.   I think he was enjoying my horror.

“I eat at that table,” I shuddered.

As I was trying desperately not to visualize what was going on in my house a boxy little car pulled into our drive way and Josie climbed out.   She waved to who ever was dropping her off as they drove away and then to Willy and I, as she walked our way, shivering slightly.

“Hi, Aaron,” she grinned, “Hi William!   Are you here to play with my brother?   Why are you guys standing outside?   It’s freaking cold out here.”

Will and I exchanged a look, “Uh, Jojo.   Who was that who just dropped you off?”

“Cori’s dad.   We were supposed to go to a movie but her parents figured out out she’s been dating this guy they hate behind their backs so now instead of going to a movie she’s grounded for life.   Again.”

My sisters life was far more interesting than I had been giving it credit for.

She rubbed her arms and blew out a big breath just to see if there was a cloud, “Why are we outside again?”

“No reason,” I lied poorly.

“Yeah.   Nothing suspect or emotionally scarring happening at all,” Willy confirmed and I kicked him in the leg for it.   The reasons I never invited him over when we played baseball were starting to come back to me.

“O...kay... well I want cocoa,” she started walking toward the house again but I caught her arm and spun her around before she made more than a few steps.   “Hey!   Aaron!”   she protested.

“How about we go to a movie?”   I grinned, “I just made a little extra money so I’ll even pay for the tickets and then we can go out to eat.   I’ll pay.”

“I’m in,” Willy smiled and I scowled at him.

Josie’s face turned suspicious.   “You hate movies, and you hate to spend money.   Why don’t you want me to go into the house?   Did you kill mom and dad?”

“What!?   No! Where do you get this stuff?” I couldn’t believe she would even suggest that.

“Are mom and dad having sex or something?”

Willy started laughing like a hyena.

I wanted to die.   I rubbed my temples as a splitting headache hit me.   How could she be so nonchalant about it?   Why did she even know about sex in the first place!

Oh god.

She was the same age I was when Janie and I...

I was not going to consider that possibility.

I wanted to deny what was going on inside but instead I barely managed to nod in confirmation.

“Did they at least make it past the kitchen this time?”

“What do you mean this time?” my world was spinning out of control.

She shrugged, “When mom gets upset it makes her... uh...” I was glad to see her at least blush over the whole thing. “...frisky?”

Why did I not know this?   Why did she?   Why were we still talking about it? Oh god!   Was that why I found mom’s bra behind my dresser!?   I couldn’t think about this anymore.   It was time to change the subject and get out of here, “What movie do you want to go to?”

She pulled out her phone to check the time, “Missed it already.   Is your friend ok?”

Willy had stopped laughing and was staring toward the barn.   He was pale and sweating in the cold.   “You OK Will?” I asked, suddenly feeling very nervous myself.

“Let’s just go to Fun Town and get some pizza,” he said stiffly. “Now, please?”

Josie nodded in agreement and we piled into vehicles.   On the way to the Fun Town Mega Arcade Josie texted mom to tell her where we were.

I had to wonder if maybe the arcade would be held up or if we would be abducted by aliens on the way there.   Things I would have never thought possible were seeming more and more likely the longer this stupid week wore on.

---

~oOo~

---

Fun Town Mega Arcade is one of the few remaining places in Omaha where you can actually find arcade machines.   The building takes up an entire city block and has bowling, laser tag, mini-golf, go-carts, arcade machines of every type and a bunch of stuff that I hadn’t even bothered to look at yet.   There are two restaurants, mom joked that it was because you got hungry just walking between them, and after paying the ten dollars a head just to get in the door we quickly moved to Pedro’s Pizza.   Even in the partial seclusion of the restaurant the place was incredibly noisy.   Why Willy had picked this place for a talk was beyond me.

After a brief argument over what to get on the pizza, things finally calmed down enough for us to talk but instead we ended up just sort of staring at each other.   The pizza arrived and Willy and I ate in silence while Jojo regaled us with all the crazy things her friends were doing.   I was only paying half attention but I was pretty sure that dad would have murdered us if we had tried half of the stuff that just her friend Raven had done.

The meal finished, Josie looked back and forth between us as if waiting for something. When neither of us spoke she decided to fill the silence herself, “So what are you doing for spirit week?   I have this awesome outfit for dress like a pirate day and...”

Will pulled out a twenty and slapped it down in front of Josie, “I need to talk to your brother.   You can have this if you go away for at least an hour.”

“Dude!” bribing my sister was weak.

“Okay!” Josie grinned, grabbed the money and immediately fed it into a change machine. “If you need me I’ll be at the DDR machine.”

“No sharking, Jojo!” I said seriously.

She blew a raspberry my direction, laughed and then took off onto the floor.

“What the hell was that?” I barked at Will once Josie was gone.

Will dropped his head into his hands, “Sorry man.   How do you take that?   She never stops talking.”

“She’s my little sister,” I really didn’t get what his problem was. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Right.   OK,” he took a deep breath, “I think Maria is haunting me,” the incredulous look on my face spurred him on. “I’m serious man!   I’ve been seeing her all over the place and then she’s just gone!   Plus...” he shuddered and took a long pull from his coke.

“Plus?” I prodded.

“Plus... I don’t want to talk about it.” he was turning a little green and I worried he might be getting sick.

“Dude we could have not talked anywhere!” between the two of us we had shelled out almost a hundred bucks already.   He was darn well going to talk... or maybe Laser Tag.   That would be good too.

“Fine! Fine. It’s just kinda weird and creepy and I don’t really want to think about it,” he paused for a few seconds but I stayed quiet.   Eventually he continued, “She’s been in my room every night since she disappeared.   I couldn’t see her the first night but I felt her.   The next couple nights I just saw shapes but sometimes it was her and some times it wasn’t and she seemed really angry.   Then last night she touched me,”   He shuddered and I thought he was going to burst into tears. “I woke up and something was holding me while I slept but there was a ... it felt like Maria but she had a... I can’t say it.”he dropped his head back into his hands.

“That’s messed up dude,” I said in shock.   I tiny little part of me was kind of turned on by the idea but I stomped that down immediately.   “Maybe it’s just bad dreams brought on by her disappearance?”

His voice took on a manic tone, “That’s what I thought at first too!   But it wasn’t a dream!   I’ve been seeing her out of the corner of my eye everywhere I go for the last couple days!   I thought I was going crazy but then I heard that you saw her too!” He clamped onto my arm, “You saw her, right Double A?   I’m not crazy if someone else is seeing her too!”

I was beginning to question if that was necessarily true.   Willy was oscillating between acting totally normal and coming across like a crazy person.   “How did you know Maria again?” I asked suspiciously.

“She lives a couple blocks over from me.   We both do Cross Country,” he was drawing random patterns in the water from his Coke.

“Right.   What else?” maybe if he talked about it he’d at least feel better.

He thought for a while, “Maria is one of those girls that liked to hang out with the guys.   We’ve been friends since forever and unlike most of the girls I know she never hit that point where she stopped being cool and got all weird and girly.   You know what I mean?”

“Did you guys date?”

“Nah, we’re just friends,” he fidgeted for a moment, “but I have to admit lately I got the impression she wanted to be more than that.   I just couldn’t see her that way though.”

“I’m still not hearing anything that makes me think you aren’t just missing your friend,” I told him bluntly.   “I thought I saw her but there are a bunch of girls at school that kind of look like her.   Sorry man.”

“No.   No.   You’re right,” he laughed sadly. “If it wasn’t for the Marco thing...”

This was new. “Marco thing?”

“Marco Silva?   Plays football for the Tigers?”

“Oh!   Yeah, I know Marco,” I said with distaste.   Marco was a Junior tight end for South Central.   He was about my height and weight actually.   We didn’t have that much social contact but we met at a bonfire one night and he didn’t impress me.   Marco was one of those guys that was absolutely certain the entire universe was dangling between his legs. “What about him?”

“It was Marco,” he said like I was being thick.

“What was Marco?”

“The player from South Central?” he leaned in closer “The one that was attacked on Sunday?   That player?   It was Marco!”

“Holy shit!” the guy was an ass but I wouldn’t wish something like that on him.   “Are you sure?!”

“Oh yeah.   It hasn’t gotten around our school so much but I was talking to Maria’s older brother, Hector and he said that someone had beaten the shit out of Marco and then... done stuff too him.” he shuddered.

I still wasn’t getting it.   I’ll blame it on the food poisoning. “What does this have to do with Maria?”

“I think her ghost raped him!” he blurted.

“Keep it down dude!” I looked around to make sure no one was paying too much attention to us.   A few heads had turned our way but they went back to what they were doing almost immediately. “Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds!   There’s no such thing as ghosts but even if she was one: Why would she do that!”

Willy’s head was bobbing manically, “Revenge maybe?   Marco and Maria were kind of a thing for a while and then they weren’t.   Normally Maria told me everything but she wouldn’t talk about what happened between them and she got really angry if I asked about it.   Whatever happened she hated him after that.   Like, try and run him over with her car, hate.   I think he took advantage of her and this was her getting revenge.”

It was crazy but it actually made a certain amount of sense, “You don’t think Marco is somehow involved with her disappearance do you?”

He shrugged and sort of shook his head to the negative, “No.   Maybe.   Not really though.   This was a while back.   I don’t think Marco would consider anything Maria could have done to him a threat.   He’s a total douche bag,” The jealousy in his voice was obvious but he didn’t seem to recognise it.

“Would Maria be the type to try and get revenge?   Especially like that?”

“A few months ago I would have said no and probably punched who ever suggested it as possible,” He worried his lower lip. “Lately she’s been acting really aggressive though.   It started around the same time Marco and she split and I figured it was just that but I don’t think it was just that.”

“What then?” I asked, taking a drink from my water. My throat was suddenly very dry.

“I don’t know, man.   She was just different.   Really frustrated and angry for no reason.   She was always big on exercise but the last month or so she’s been going way overboard.   She had a little growth spurt and was getting seriously ripped.   I swear she had doubled her squat.   It was almost like she was on steroids or something.”

I didn’t want to ruin his image of her but there was a reason coach had to take the rumors about me juicing seriously; it happened all the time. “Is that possible?”

“No,” he said with total certainty. “Not Maria.   She hates needles.   Every time she has to have blood drawn she gets all woozy.   Last time she actually passed out.”

I slumped against the table a bit. “I don’t know what to tell you man.”

“Just tell me you saw her.”

“I thought I did,” I admitted, “but I’m not as sure now.   Sorry.”

Will slouched lower in his chair looking defeated, “Nah.   It’s cool man.   I was just hoping you might know what was going on.”

I laughed a little at that, “You know way more than I do Will,”

“I guess,” he said so quietly I could barely make it out.

He looked so lost and sad it just killed me, “Do you know where she disappeared?”

“Sure,” his voice was hollow, “I was at the meet when she vanished,” he covered his eyes and tried to push back the tears, “I was fucking there and I didn’t do anything to help her.   I should have been there for her!”

“Dude!   Look at me!”   he looked past his hands and sure enough his eyes were wet.   I sympathized with his predicament but this was a bad place to get all weepy.   I wanted to spare him the embarrassment if I could. “What happened at the meet?”

“Nothing,” he choked back the tears, “It was just a normal meet except that she disappeared.”

I looked at him incredulously, “What about the knocked down trees and the dead naked guy?” I whispered.

His face contorted in confusion, “What dead naked guy?!   There were some downed trees but nothing,” his eyes went hazy for a moment.

“You okay Willy?”

“Yeah,” he shook his head, trying to clear it, “There was so much going on with Maria disappearing the day is sort of a blur.   I don’t remember anything about a dead guy but now that you mention it, there was something weird with the trees,” he rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, “I can’t seem to remember what though.   What’s going on Double A?”

I leaned back in my chair and looked him in the eye, “I don’t know Willy but I think we need to find out.”

---

CHAPTER 9

---

I woke the next morning at three thirty or so, I really need to find that stupid clock.   I tried to go back to sleep but my brain wouldn’t stop long enough for me to drift off.   So much had happened in the last four days that I wanted to make sure I didn’t forget anything important.   Something about Willy’s inability to remember what had happened at the Cross Country meet was bugging me.   I felt like I knew something important but I couldn’t figure out what.

After laying in the dark for awhile I got up and quietly cleared the piles of junk from my desk.   The paints and brushes I put away in the closet where they were supposed to be anyway.   The rest of it was just old homework and other stuff I needed to go through and decide what I wanted to keep.     After looking around for a good place to set it, I balanced it all precariously on my bed.

I really needed to clean this place soon.

I rifled through the drawers of my desk and for once actually wished I had taken dad up on his offer to give me a laptop for Christmas.   Josie had taken one and she used it all the time.   I just took the money and used it to buy a really nice oil brush set that I had thus far used two brushes out of.   The brushes were awesome and I really liked to paint when I had the time.

It just didn’t seem like I ever had the time anymore.

After far too long I found an old steno pad which I had used for sketching back when I first got the art bug.   I hadn’t looked at it in probably eight years.   Slowly I turned through the sketches which I had so carefully rendered on the thin yellow paper.

Most of it was crap.   Every once in a while I’d find something that wasn’t bad though.   Maybe a little rough and heavy handed but solid none the less.

I reached the end of the sketches and turned a couple pages further in.   I then tried to write down everything odd that had happened over the previous week and what Willy and I had decided to do about it.   The top of the list was Maria appearing to Willy as a ghost.   Even as I wrote it, it seemed crazy but he was absolutely convinced of what was happening and I had seen just enough strangeness that I had a hard time discounting it completely.

Next came the naked dead guy in the woods that maybe didn’t even exist; followed by the knocked down trees.   The FBI was still poking around and so was another agency but neither Willy nor I were sure which one.   Our general consensus was that it was either military or maybe CIA but we really didn’t know.   I’m not really into conspiracy theories but it really did feel like someone was trying to cover something up.

Will and I discussed a number of possible ideas but eventually decided to visit the site of Maria’s disappearance on the   upcoming Saturday.   The odds of us finding anything was basically nil but with a little luck it would make Will feel better.   He liked Maria a lot!   Way more than he wanted to admit to even himself.

I sat quietly in the light of my desk lamp as realization of my own loneliness crept up on me.

I shook away the morose feelings as best I could.   I was just tired and sitting alone in the dark was a good way to end up depressed.

There was a slight thump and scrabble which came from outside my window overlooking the front porch.   My heart pounded in my throat and I sat as still as I could, listening.   When nothing except the usual creeks and groans of the old house followed I was able to work up the courage to look outside.   I scanned the area as best I could but saw nothing out of the ordinary.   It was probably just one of the cats.

Stupid cats.

I returned to my desk and reviewed the list one more time.   It looked more or less complete and my eyes were getting heavy so I turned off the light and climbed back into bed.

Of course that spilled the various piles of stuff I had forgotten there all over the floor.

“Dangit!” I cursed under my breath.   I couldn’t decide if I should get up and clean up the mess or leave it for morning.

The light in the hall clicked on and my door opened a crack.   “Is everything OK sweetheart?” mom asked quietly enough that if I had been asleep I doubt I would have heard her.

“I’m fine mom, just had a little trouble sleeping,” I replied.

“Are you sure,” she sounded worried.   The food poisoning must have been worse for them than it was for me.

I yawned theatrically, “I’m sure. Good night, mom,”

“Good night, AJ.”

The hall light turned off and so did I.

...to be continued...

---

 
Author's Note: I'm working on the next story for this but between the holidays and the Comic Store I have gone to for the last fifteen odd years closing (which has been a huge distraction. It's like saying they were closing "home") it's going a little slower than I had hoped it would. Just a Heads up.~Matt
 

---

CHAPTER 10

---

When I got up Friday morning it was just before dawn.   I ran around the near pasture for a half-hour to get my blood pumping and felt much more like myself.   I helped Josie with the morning chores and then mom made us waffles before we all headed off to our destinations for the day.

The game was away this week and I dressed in my blue suit for the occasion.   I might not be able to dress or even go to the game but I’d support them however I could.

The talk about the weirdness from earlier in the week was all but gone.   People were discussing what they were going to wear for spirit week and how far they thought they could push things before they were sent home to change.

The day was otherwise pretty typical.   In order to avoid Brian I ended up sitting with Willy and his friends at lunch.   It was actually kind of fun to have people to talk to during lunch again.

When school got out, I grabbed my shake, made it to my car and headed home without any weirdness happening at all.   Willy had wanted to change the plan and check out the place Maria had disappeared that night but I still hadn’t mentioned that I wasn’t going to the game to my parents and expected that to be a little bit of drama.   Reluctantly he agreed to wait until Saturday.

I have to admit part of me just wanted to make sure there was plenty of day light left when he got there.   I wasn’t really scared but I was feeling cautious.

~oOo~

---

~oOo~

I walked into the kitchen to find mom and Josie giggling while doing dishes.   “AJ,” mom dried her hands, “I thought you would just ride with the team,”   She smiled, “We’ll just have to take you’re father’s truck instead.”

Time to get this over with, “Is dad home yet?”

“He’s getting ready for the game,” her face turned suspicious, “Why?   What’s going on AJ?”

“I just need to talk to dad about tonight’s game is all,”

Mom pursed her lips in a less than pleased fashion.   After standing up to her glare for a few seconds she relented, “He should be in the den.”

“Could you come along?” I asked very quietly.   Part of me wanted her there so I wouldn’t have to explain it twice.   Mostly I knew that she could help blunt dad’s anger if he really went off the deep end.

Rather than say anything she simply nodded and waited for me to lead the way.

We walked in silence to the den, where-in I saw my dad flipping through one of the scrapbooks he had kept over the years.

Dad loves football.   He loved playing it it.   He loves watching it.   He loves that I’m playing it.   Give him half a chance and a beer and he’ll regale you with stories from playing in High School for the Spartans and College for the Cornhuskers.

He doesn’t really talk about his time with the Miami Dolphins.   He blew his knee out before the end of his rookie year and that was the end of that.   He came back to Nebraska and has been working as a physical therapist for the hospital ever since.   I get the feeling there was more to him not going back than just the injury.   He doesn’t seem to like the NFL.   He doesn’t even watch the games.

“Dad?” I said quietly, pulling him out of his memories.

“Yes, AJ?” he smiled.   With a little luck it was a smile that indicated a forgiving mood.

“Dad I...” the words caught in my throat.

“Spit it out, boy” dad said firmly.   His good mood seemed to be gone already.   Awesome.

I took a deep breath and let it all go at once, “Brian Peters has been acting weird and coach thinks it’s because of me so he asked me not to go to the game so I don’t get in Peters’ head when he needs to be focused on the game sorry dad.”

It took dad a moment to sort out exactly what I’d said.   “Huh,” he said, unfazed “Was that all?”

It was like he didn’t understand how big a deal this was.   “Yes, sir,” I nodded.

“Do you mind if the rest of us go?” he asked with a guilty smile.

“JP!” mom scolded.

This wasn’t at all what I had prepared myself for!   “I guess not,” I stuttered.

“Good!” he stood up and clapped me on the shoulder.   “Next week will be better AJ.   The rest of us need to get moving.”   Dad hustled us all out of the den.   Mom made a few objections but dad wanted to go to the game and he just wasn’t hearing it.

When we got to the kitchen Josie had finished the dishes and was waiting in her coat by the door. “This is Sparta!” she shouted and my dad echoed her.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this AJ?” mom asked as she gave me a hug.

I squeezed her back, “It’s okay mom.   It’s just a game.   There will be lots of other games.”

“Get you’re coat Aaron!” Josie giggled while trying to avoid a bear hug from dad.

“I’m not going Jojo,” I said, trying my best to sound like it didn’t bother me.

Josie stopped scrambling, “Why?” she asked with obvious concern.

“Just a failing of one of the other players Josie,” dad said lightly.

Josie thought for a second and then unzipped her coat and started to take it off, “I’ll just stay home with Aaron then.”

“You don’t have to do that Jojo,” I said before either of my parents could object themselves, “I know you like watching the games.   Go, have fun.”

Josie rolled her eyes and hung up her coat, “I like watching you.   If you aren’t playing why would I care?”

“Because it’s fun?” I ventured.

She waved a hand at me dismissively, “Is it alright if I stay home with Aaron mom?”

It was pretty obvious that mom would have liked to stay home as well but when she glanced at dad in his bright blue Spartans sweatshirt it was clear that they would be going to the game. “Ask your father,” was all she said.

“Can I daddy?” Josie asked; hitting him with the puppy dog eyes at the same time.

“I suppose,” he said with a hint of disappointment.

Josie gave dad and mom a hug and then the parents took off for Papillion.

Once they were gone I turned to Jojo, “So, what do you want to do tonight?”

~oOo~

---

~oOo~

Three hours later I sat stoney faced and tried to ignore the pencil my little sister was jamming into my right eye.

"You know that if you ever tell anyone about this I will find out don't you?" It came out a little slurred.   I blame the bobby pins in my mouth.   If I ever figure out how she gets me to do stuff like this I swear I'll patent it and make a fortune.   I shifted the pins a bit to make talking easier, "Then I'd have no choice but to find you and cut all your hair off."

Josie took a step back with a look of horror on her face.   She self-consciously pulled her incredibly long thick blond hair into an embrace.   "You wouldn't!"

"Wouldn't I?" I replied with a grin that sent several pins tinkling to the floor. If she actually believed her hair might be in danger I knew she'd keep quiet.   Rapunzel wishes she had hair like my little sister.

"But... but..." she sniffed and her lip began to tremble.

Before she could get the water works flowing I relented.   I knew she was probably faking but I couldn't stand to see her cry. "Hey!" I tried to reach up to grab her chin but my hands were caught under the beach towel she had draped around my neck. "No need for that!"   I smiled until I caught her eye.   "You know how pretty I think your hair is; there's no way I'd ever do anything to it!"

"Really?" she snuffled again and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

Guilt crisis averted.   Thank god.   "Of course!" I smiled and received one in return.   Certain she was no longer going to have a melt down, I shifted to my game face.   "But seriously, if you ever tell anyone I'll shave you bald as a cue ball."

For a moment I thought she was going to open up the water works on me again but then she laughed. "I won't tell anyone Aaron.   I really appreciate you letting me practice on you. Getting the make-up too look right is really tricky."

I nodded and the hair scratched against the back of my neck, “Why do I have to wear the wig again?”

She rolled her eyes as if it was the dumbest thing she’d ever heard, “Because that’s how Egyptians look.   Duh!”

I wanted to argue but couldn’t find any particular fault in her reasoning.   The fact she still hadn’t let me see what all she had done was starting to wear on me.   “Are you almost done?   What time is it anyway?”

“About eight,”   she said glancing at the creepy shifty-eye cat clock on her wall.

I quickly estimated when mom and dad would be likely to get home. “How long will this stuff take to get of?”

“Not too long,” she brushed something across my cheeks and then rubbed at it with her thumb.

“Well wrap this up.   Mom and dad could be home...” an errant sound caught my attention, “Did you hear that?”

Josie stood still and listened, “Hear what?”

My blood ran cold, “It sounded kind of like...”

“We’re home!” mom shouted up the stairs.

“Oh shit!” Josie swore.   I was too busy trying to disengage myself from the towel to chastise her for swearing.   I started desperately rubbing the make-up off my face with the towel to Josie’s horror, “My work!   My towel!” she gasped.   “Stop it!   Stop!   You’re just smearing it around!   Take these!”   She handing me a box of something that looked like wet naps.

“Are you here?” mom said I we could hear her climbing the stairs.   After a few steps she stopped and retreated back down the stairs.

My heart was racing, I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but I was still terrified of getting caught doing it.   When she stopped coming up the stairs both Josie and I relaxed a little.   She grabbed one of the wipes and was about to help me get cleaned up when I heard a very different footfall on the old staircase.   Mom’s tread was light and had a distinct clip-clop sound from her heels.

This was more of a thud.

My heart stopped.   All I could hear was that sound as it drew inexorably closer.

“I know it’s silly Jacob.   Stop laughing at me!” Dad’s steps faltered slightly as I suspect mom shoved him.

There was a weighty pause and after a moment I made out the sounds I had come to associate with my parents making out.

It was the first time I could remember being glad that they were so openly affectionate.

I jumped out of the chair and was about to bolt for my room but Josie stopped me. “Walk,” she said as she pulled off the wig.

With carefully measured steps I crossed the landing between the second floor bed rooms.   Sure enough, when I glanced down the stairs my parents were kissing.   Ick.   I hurried into my room and over to the mirror I kept by my easel.   As fast as I could, I scrubbed away the offending materials, threw away the wipes, hid the box of wipes and even thought to stir the waste basket to better conceal the remains.   I was never doing anything like that ever again.   Make-up was just out.   Period.   Why did I let her talk me into that in the first place?

Just when I was sure I wasn’t going to be disowned, dad opened my door with out knocking.   “So how were things tonight?” he asked casually.

“Normal.   Totally a normal night,”   As I spoke I could feel all the places where I had missed while cleaning up.   The light was dim at the moment, cast only by a single desk lamp.   So long as he didn’t see me too closely I’d be fine.   “How was the game?”

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” Dad looked around for a place to sit but there was only one chair in my room and I was using it. “How about we go down to the den?”

“Here,” I said jumping up and gesturing to the chair while I hopped over to my bed, “What happened at the game?”

Dad groused a little about the admittedly too small chair but managed to sit without breaking it.   Dad was being quiet and pensive which was very unlike him. “I know you’ve been having some problems with Brian Peters.”

Understatement. “Yeah, he’s been acting like a total psycho.”

“Well, be careful around him.   He was in a very dangerous place tonight and I think it may have been directed at you,” he said solemnly.

This new information completely evaporated my concerns over a little bit of makeup. “Wh...why would you think that?” I stuttered.

Dad ran a hand through his thinning hair and leaned back in the chair which groaned in protest, “He was going out of his way to hurt people tonight.   He was jumping offsides and he singled out the kid they had in your position even though it was off his route.”

“What happened?” I asked nervously, if Peters was really trying to hurt people it would be bad.   My stomach was suddenly very cold.   “Was anyone injured?”

“Yeah,” he nodded sadly, “they had to haul a half dozen of their players out before Coach Wiese had enough and ejected Peters himself.”

“Whoa...” that just didn’t happen, “Why didn’t the refs stop it?”

Dad shook his head, “I don’t know AJ.   It looked obvious to me but it’s different on the field.”

“Who won?” without Peters in the game anything could happen.

“Go Spartans,” Dad smiled but it didn’t have the joy I would usually expect.   “It was tight but they pulled it out.   Do you actually want to play football Aaron?”

When I was first learning to drive a manual transmission I panicked and ended up completely burning out the clutch plate.   I imagine that my brain made that same sound and smell when my dad asked me that.

“AJ?” Dad reached over and shook my knee, which was apparently enough to get my brain moving again.

“Yeah.   No.   Of course I want to play,” I was having a little trouble breathing and felt very tired all of a sudden, “Why?”

Dad sighed, “Your mother and I were talking tonight and we don’t...” he closed his eyes and set his jaw, “I don’t want you to feel like I’m pushing you into playing.   You’re a natural AJ.   I love to watch you play and I think you could go far with it but it needs to be something you want.   Not something I want for you.”

I really had fallen into a parallel dimension.   It was the only explanation.   

My jaw worked uselessly for a while before I finally managed, “I’m really tired tonight.   I can’t think about this right now.”

Dad nodded and stood, “I hope you keep playing but if it’s time to move on to something else then it’s time.   I won’t be any less proud of you.   Night AJ,” he patted me on the leg as he walked out of the room.

“Night dad,” I said absently as my brain tried it’s hardest to assimilate this new reality.

I was already more or less ready for bed so I turned off the light and tried to sleep.   A minute later I turned it back on and got up to do my evening stretches.   When I finished, I felt a little less like a leaf on the wind and went back to bed.

A half hour later I was still awake.   My chest hurt and it reached all the way through to my back.   No matter what I did I couldn’t find a comfortable position.   I twisted and stretched and cracked my back but the pain wouldn’t ease up.   It was nothing in comparison to the cramps but it was still really annoying.

An hour after that I noticed that my nipples felt really weird.   They were hard and puffy and I could feel them when they brushed against my t-shirt.   It didn’t feel bad, it actually felt kind of good but it was really weird and I didn’t like it.   I thought about telling mom but I didn’t want any part of that conversation.

Finally around midnight the pain finally eased and I drifted off into fitful slumber.

~oOo~

---

~oOo~

Some time later I was shaken awake.   I rolled over to see who it was but between my sluggish brain, bleary eyes and the darkness I only registered a vaguely female shape.   “Wuh?” was I all could manage.

“I’m scared,” she said.

“That you Jojo?” I asked blearily.

“I’m scared,” she repeated. “I don’t want to be alone.”

“You’re getting too big for this Jojo,” I objected but the weight of history had me scooting over to make room for her.   “Night Jojo,” I rolled to my side and put my back to her.   I felt her climb into the bed but rather than taking her side as usual she spooned up behind me and wrapped her arms around me.

At once I was awake and completely alert.   I knew without question it was not Josie in bed with me.   Everything from the lack of the smell of her lilac shampoo to the contour of her body was wrong.   Most horrifying was the hot, hard thing pressing into the small of my back.   My heart   pounded in my chest.   I wanted to move but it was like my body was no longer under my control.   “I love you, Marco,” she whispered, “Please let me inside of you.”

I felt her penis, there was nothing else it could have been, begin sliding lower and lower.   My shirt rode up in the back and I knew what was going to happen next!

With titanic effort I managed to twist in her grasp and push her away from me.   She felt surprisingly solid for a ghost.   With a thump she fell out of bed to the floor.

The look on her face was pure confusion. “You...you aren’t Marco!   How did you...   Oh my god!   You touched me?!” she stuttered.

“I’ll do a hell of a lot more than that!” I growled as I spun my back to a wall, “I wouldn’t normally hit a girl but... you don’t exactly count.” my eyes drifted to her still erect penis and I goggled slightly.

It wasn’t fair.   It just wasn’t fair.

A smile spread across her lips, “You touched me,” she said it as if this was a major revelation for her.   “You touched me!”

I thought she was going to start bouncing up and down with happiness.

A second later she actually did start jumping for joy, “You touched me, you touched me, you touched me,” she chanted.

“What the hell...” I mumbled.   I had absolutely no idea what to make of her behavior.

Suddenly she was in my face and kissing me full on the lips.   Try as I might I couldn’t pull away; my lungs burned and then I was laying on my stomach in bed with my back arched gasping for breath.   “Must have had my face in the pillow,”   I rationalized.   The dream was still incredibly vivid and in spite of all reason I was incredibly turned on.   I buried my face back in the pillow and started running play routes in my head.   “Just what I need,” I grumbled.

“Are you okay Aaron?” a voice asked quietly from near my bed.

My entire body convulsed in surprise and I bounced right out of bed. “Ouch,” I grunted.   It hadn’t really hurt but it’s just one of those thing you say.

Josie was trying to keep from laughing too loudly, “Are you okay?” she whispered again.

“What are you doing in my room?” I hissed as I rubbed a small knot on my head.   Maybe it hurt a little bit.

“I had a weird dream about that girl that disappeared and when I woke up I heard you talking to yourself so I thought maybe I could....” she fidgeted with her hands rather than actually ask if she could sleep with me.

I didn’t really want her in bed with me at the moment, I was really horny, and the dream was still fresh enough I was having a hard time separating it from reality.   “Turn on the light a second,”   I said suspiciously.

“Why?”

“Just do it Jojo,”

After a few failed attempts she managed to get the light on, “Now what?” she asked a little peevishly.

“Nothing,” I yawned, “I just needed to see for a second.   Bad dreams, you know?”

She nodded, “I can stay?”

I swear; you tie her hair up and put her in a pink Super Girl night shirt, she might as well still be six years old.   I smiled in defeat, “Sure Jojo.   Just stay on your side alright?”

She nodded and turned out the light, “Night Aaron,” she said sleepily, as she climbed into bed, falling asleep almost immediately.

I lay in bed trying not to think about the nightmare and all the weird feelings it had dredged up but the more I tried not to think about it, the more it was the only thing I could think about. Fortunately, before long I felt Josie’s comforting presence and drifted into dreamless slumber.

---

CHAPTER 11

---

I woke the next morning to some minor cramping in my abdomen.   The heavy quilt was on the floor and Josie was curled up next to me, fast asleep.   I tried to change position without waking her up but nothing I tried seemed to be helping.   Fear that I was going to have another attack like Monday night bounced through my brain but I knew that panicking wouldn’t help.   After a few minutes of this I tried to get a better idea of how to remove myself without disturbing her.   

That’s when I noticed she was drooling all over me!

Without further concern for her rest I bounced out of bed and grabbed a rag to try and blot up the saliva which had pooled on my chest. “Gross!” I whispered harshly.

“Morning Aaron,” she smiled, “You look grumpy.”

“You slobbered all over me again,” I grumbled.

“Oops,” she blushed, wiping her chin on the sleeve of her shirt, “Sorry,” she lolled her tongue out of her mouth a somewhat disturbing distance and then wrapped it up to touch the tip of her nose, “Mah tung es tuh beeg,” she slurred.

“Stop that!   It’s weird!” I barked.   Her tongue really was too big for her mouth. I think I actually heard mom talking to Dr. Rogers about it a couple times.   His diagnosis was basically that growth spurts can be very strange. “I’m going to go change,” I said removing my shirt and heading to my dresser.   This was intended as a hint for her to leave but apparently she didn’t get it.

Jojo looked at me while I tried to find a shirt. “Have your boobs always looked like that Aaron?” she questioned.

“I don’t have boobs!” I snapped at her in horror, causing her to giggle.   “I have pecs!   Girls have boobs.   Boys have pecs.   Sheesh!” I looked down at the topic of conversation and had to admit they did look a little off.   Mostly it was my nipples.   They seemed puffy and maybe a little larger than I remembered.   As I watched, the cold air in my room really hit them and they became very tight and hard.   I touched one and actually jumped at the sensation.   “That’s new,” I said under my breath.

“Mine get like that when it’s cold,” Josie offered helpfully.   Before she could catch my look of scorn she sniffed the air, “Bacon!” she hooted and bolted down stairs without another thought.

I stood in my room playing with my nipples for far longer than I probably should have.   They were really hard and touching them felt good in a way that kind of made me horny.   The weirdest part was that it actually seemed to be making the cramps go away. “That’s messed up,” I decided and pulled on my shirt.   The feeling of the t-shirt sliding over them was not at all pleasant but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t deal with.

The fact that I was totally nipping out though my shirt was more of a concern.

“Breakfast, AJ,” Mom called up the stairs.

“Just a second,” I hollered back.   As fast as I could, I rooted around for a softer t-shirt and then pulled a hoodie over my head.   The thought that maybe I should mention this to mom flashed through my head.

“Get your butt down here AJ!” dad yelled and as quickly as it had come the idea flashed back out.   Without another thought to my weird bumps, I hustled down stairs before dad got any more irritated.

Man, was I hungry.

~oOo~

---

~oOo~

After breakfast I felt terrific.   Euphoric might even be a better term.   After almost a week of dragging ass, the lingering weakness and overall lethargy was finally gone.

My overly playful behavior soon got on dad’s nerves and he sent me out to burn some of it off.

I ran and jumped and flipped the tractor tire a few dozen times and all in all just tore the place up.

When I was done I was exhausted but still euphoric: I was giggling, singing and dancing for no reason.   I knew I was acting like a total spaz but I didn’t care.   I felt too good to worry about it.

When I went inside I tried to play with Jojo but she wanted nothing to do with me until I had cleaned up.   The shower was a little strange.   My nipples were still acting all haywire and my skin was more sensitive than I expected.   At first, it was really uncomfortable but after a while I started to enjoy it.

Exactly how much I enjoyed it I’ll leave up to your imagination.

When I was finally out of the bathroom, I decided to grab a protein shake to tide myself over.   Mom was in the kitchen working on something at the counter and on a lark I snuck up behind her and poked her in the ribs.

She jumped and shrieked and took a swing at me with the knife she was holding.   Her eyes were wild and it took a moment for her to recognise me. “Oh AJ!,” she gasped, setting the knife down on the counter, and then holding her hand to her heart. “Don’t do that!   You scared the life out of me! Oh god!” she covered her mouth as she realized what she had done with the knife.

It wasn’t the first time I had surprised her like this; she didn’t like it but she had never reacted so violently before. As I watched tears welled up in her eyes and she tried to stop them but couldn’t seem to do it.   Mom never reacted like this.   Why was she so upset...

Those assholes at the Village Inn!

God I am such a fucking moron!   She gets attacked and then I scare her.   What the hell is wrong with me?

I wrapped her up in a hug, “I’m sorry mommy,” I said quietly as she cried into my chest, “I didn’t mean to scare you so bad.   I just thought it would be funny.   I’m really sorry.   Please don’t cry.”

She hugged me and cried for a little while longer but recovered very quickly.   “It’s okay AJ,” she responded when she was able.   “I over reacted.   Please promise me you won’t do that anymore.”

“Never again,” I said quickly, “sorry mommy,” by that point my eyes were also tearing up and I ducked my head into her shoulder.

After a while standing like this, I noticed that Mom’s hug had become uncomfortably palpatory.   “Have you lost weight?” she asked, apparently recovered.

Not this again.   “No mom.   I’m fine,” At least she didn’t seem so upset anymore.

“Are you sure?   You seem thinner than usual,” her groping moved around to my ribs and it tickled.

I bounced out of her grasp, “Stop!   Stop it!” I gasped through giggles. “I’m fine.   I’ve been sick, so maybe I’ve lost a few pounds but it’s no big deal.”

She looked me over critically, “I suppose.   How about a sandwich?”

I put my hands up to try and fend her off, “I was just going to grab a protein shake and then...” my phone rang and for a brief moment I was confused.   Everyone that called me was here.   I quickly pulled the phone from it’s charger and checked who it was.   “Hey, what’s up?” I answered into the phone.   To mom I mouthed ‘sorry’.   She rolled her eyes with a small smile and returned to chopping celery.

“Not too much,” Willy responded.   “You ready to go?”

I had completely forgotten that we were going to check out the track today.   Awesome job Cross.

“How long will it take you to get here?   Or was I coming to you?   What are we doing again?”

Willy sounded a little concerned, “You alright Double A?   You seem kinda spacey.”

I laughed. “That’s fair.   Just had bad dreams last night and I’ve been feeling weird all day,” The line was quiet for long enough I wondered if we had been disconnected. “You still there Willy?”

“Was the dream about Maria?” he asked quietly but it clear he was very much on edge..

“Yeah...” I admitted warily.   Thinking back on the dream and how I had reacted to it was not something I was eager to do.   “Why?”

“I have to check a couple things but I should be at the truck stop in about an hour.”

“Right!” I confirmed as the plan finally started coming back to me.   “I’ll see you then.”

“Sweet.   Watch your back man,” he said ominously and then hung up the phone.

“Huh,” I grunted as I closed my phone.

“Who was that?” mom asked casually.

“Just a friend,” I replied defensively.

Mom turned and leaned against the counter, “Boy friend?   Girl friend?” mom was on the hunt.   Resisting was pointless.

“Do you remember Willy Hughes?” I asked.

Mom thought for a moment and then did the one thing I was really hoping she wouldn’t do, “JP!” she called loudly.

“Yeah?” he called back.

“Do you remember a Willy Hughes?”

Without a pause he answered, “Wasn’t he that weird kid who played Little League with AJ?” his voice was getting closer. “He was the one that thought it was funny to sit on his cleats. Why?” he asked standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

“AJ was just talking to him on the phone,” she smiled happily.

“Why are you wasting time talking to him?” dad asked me bluntly.

“JP!” mom chastised him.   “So what is Willy up to these days AJ?”   mom asked, still giving dad the eye.

“He’s in Cross Country...” I began.

“Uh huh,” dad interjected.   It was pretty obvious that Cross Country was exactly where dad would have expected Willy to end up.

“JP,” mom warned once again.

I decided my best chance of getting out without explaining too much was to forge ahead. “He and I started talking at lunch earlier this week and we decided to hang out today.”

“That’s wonderful!” mom grinned.   “Isn’t it JP?”

Dad turned and headed back the way he had come, “Get it out of your system, boy.   Practice starts up again tomorrow morning.”

That was about as much approval as I could hope for from dad.   Awesome!   “Yes, sir.” I replied smartly.

“So what are you two doing today?”   mom asked returning to her work.

I shrugged, “Not totally sure.   I’m supposed to meet him at Stauffer’s pretty soon and we were going to decide there,”   It wasn’t exactly a lie.

“All right,” mom smiled again.   Me hanging out with Willy sure seemed to be making her happy. “Just be sure you call once you know what you’re up too.”

“Will do,” I smiled back.   This was so much easier than I expected. “I should probably get going.”

“See you later sweetheart.”

“Bye mom.”   I hightailed it before any more questions could be formulated.

---

CHAPTER 12

---

I sat in Stauffer’s Truck Stop waiting for Willy long enough I felt compelled to either leave or order a piece of pie.   I decided that if Willy wasn’t there by the time I finished my pie I would give him a call to see what was keeping him.

About the time I finished the pie, my phone rang. “Where you at Willy?” I asked as soon as I saw who it was.

“Outside,” he said cryptically.   “Hurry up.   I’ll drive.”

“Okay...” I was going to ask what had taken so long but the line was already dead.   “Weird.”

I paid for my pie and headed outside.   Willy was idling in front of the doors and I could see he had a passenger in the back seat but no detail about them.   When I approached the car he pushed the passenger side door open and said, “Sorry I’m late I had to pick up someone else,” he rolled his eyes toward the back seat.

I climbed into the car without really looking, “Whatever dude.   Why all the cloak and dagger.”

“Get in,” he ordered, “I’ll explain on the way.”

“Sure...” I hedged and climbed in the car.

Once the car was rolling I turned in my seat and finally got a decent look at the other passenger.   Her dark brown eyes were large and, though it was a little hard to spot covered as they were by a pair of horn rimmed glasses, turned up just slightly at the corners.   Her skin was a light caramel color which contrasted badly with the bright green of her Property of East Omaha Giants Track and Field Department sweatshirt.   After a moment I realized that her hair, which was tied off to the side in a high pony tail, matched her sweatshirt.   It was hard to get much more with her sitting in the back of the car.

“Cross country?” I asked her, already knowing the answer.

“Yup.   Football? she said in a similarly dismissive tone.

I nodded, “Did you know Maria?”

“We were friends before I moved and I had to transfer to East.   Plus, I think her ghost has been trying to fuck me for about a week,” she said it so casually that if I hadn’t been paying attention I probably would have missed it.

“What!” I turned to Willy, “Ok, what the hell is going on?”

Rainy squinted at me, “She tried to get you too didn’t she?”

“No!” I said too quickly and too loudly, “I’ve been sick and it’s messing with me.”

“OK.   So did she get anything inside you?” it was like she hadn’t heard me at all, “Cause she had me pinned down and when I tried to push her off I went right through her like she wasn’t there.   I could definitely feel when she touched me though,”   she shuddered.   “When I went through her she shrieked in frustrated rage and then I was waking up and she was gone.”

“Sounds like a bad dream to me,” I said trying to believe it myself.

“You know you’re crying right?” she said without any real emotion.

“What?” I wiped my cheeks and my hand came back wet.   “Dammit.”

“Just a dream, huh?” she asked in a monotone voice with just a hint of sarcasm.

“Yeah... probably,” I admitted and turned away from her, “So why are we going to the woods again?”

Willy answered first, “Rainbow and I...”

“Rainbow!?” I laughed, “Seriously?” I turned around and the face that met me was the heart of seriousness.   “Sorry.   Please go on Willy,”

“Whatever.   Like I said, Rainy and I were asking around with all the kids that were at the cross country meet and we all have these weird blank spots.   Nobody noticed them until someone else started talking about it but it’s like there are just missing chunks that no one can account for.”

“And we need to figure out what everyone has forgotten and why?” I asked questioningly.   I had absolutely no idea where we would even start.

“So we’re going back to the woods and with a little luck it will jog our memories or something,” Rainy added.

“Sure.   I guess... why am I going though?”   It had made a lot more sense when it was just Willy that would have been going.   Now that there were two of them I felt a little superfluous.   I didn’t know Maria and if all the weirdness surrounding her would just go away I would have been really happy.

“Because of all the kids we’ve talked to that have been seeing her ghost you’re the only one that wasn’t at the meet and the only one that has seen her when she wasn’t directly messing with you,” she said levelly.   “At least as far as we know,” She leaned forward in the seat and squinted at me.   “Are you a witch?”

“Don’t push it Rainy,” Will barked.   Rainbow leaned back into her seat laughing to herself.   To me Will added, “Sorry man, she can get kinda weird sometimes,”   Rainy kicked the back of his seat in retaliation. “Hey!   Feet on the floor!” he yelled and the car swerved violently for a moment.   “If I find foot prints on the upholstery!” he threatened.

I braced myself and looked back to find Rainy finally taking the time to belt herself in, “That’s great,” I smiled.   “Still doesn’t explain the spy act.”

“Oh that,” Rainy grinned, “Willy and I are pretty sure the Fed’s are watching us all.”

~oOo~

---

~oOo~

After turning off the main road it was going to be at least twenty minutes before we would finally arrive.   I was unsure how long the whole thing would take us, so I decided to check in.   Pulling out my phone I dialed mom’s cell.

“Good luck with that,” Rainbow said with an audible smirk.   “Can you hear me now?” she said derisively, “Nope!”

My phone failed to connect and I canceled the call to try again.

“No luck?   Shock!   Maybe that’s because this whole part of the county is a freaking dead zone.   Who are you trying to call anyway?”

I spun in the seat to face her, “What is with you?   Just let me make the call!”

“I’m not stopping you, genius!   What the fuck is your problem? I’m just saying that you’re wasting your time.   You’re the one going all psycho over it.”

Her voice was cute; her lips pouty and attractive; her words reasonable, if aggressive; I had never wanted to punch a girl as much as I did her at that moment.   The pain and frustration of the week bubbled up and I clenched my hands into fists trying to control the urge.   There was a crunch, pop and the smell of burned plastic.

“What that fuck was that?” Rainbow said sniffing the air before rolling down the back window.   “Did your brain just short out or something?   Are you a robot!?”

“Will both out you just shut the hell up!” Willy yelled, sniffing the air himself, “What the hell is that?” his eyes gained a look of panic, “My seats aren’t on fire are they?!   What is that?”

The moment of anger past, I unclenched my hands and suddenly felt something digging into the meat of my palm.   “Ow!   What the...” I looked at the offending hand and found it filled with vaguely familiar pieces that had once been my phone.   I had crushed it like a dixie cup.

“You okay?” Rainy said unbuckling her seat belt to lean forward.   

I stared at my hand, trying to figure out how I had crushed my phone so completely without even noticing it happen!

“Holy fuck!” Rainy gasped when she realized what I was holding, “You really are a robot!” there was a pregnant pause, “Do it again!” she pulled out her phone, “Here, you can use mine.”

Willy glanced over at the mess of parts in my hand, “Geeze Double A, anger problems much?”

“Not normally,” I said, still in shock.

The car skidded to a stop and Rainy and I bashed heads in the process.

Somehow she managed to hit me in exactly the same spot I had cracked the night before.

“Sorry!   Sorry,” Willy said as he turned around to look behind him.   “I missed the last turn off.   You guys ok?”

Rainy and I rubbed our heads where they had connected, “Yeah I’m fine,” I groaned.

“Maybe a little warning next time!” standing up in the back seat, she leaned between us and commandeered the rear view mirror.   “I knew I should have driven myself!   If I get a bruise from this you are so going to hear about it!”

As she was leaning between us I was able to get a better idea of what she looked like.   Like Willy, she was wearing shorts even though it was far too cold for it.   For that matter Willy’s shorts at least hit him below the knee.   Rainbow wasn’t exactly wearing short-shorts but they were a heck of a lot closer to that than Capri's.   Her legs were long for her height and had a muscularity that some runners seemed to develop and others wished they did.   They terminated in the kind of butt that rappers seemed to be obsessed with.   It was big and round, high and tight and well proportioned for her body.

At least if you like them a little on the big side.

I have seen some pretty butts in my time and this was probably the prettiest butt I’ve ever seen.

“What the fuck are you doing?” she said hotly.   “Are you staring at my ass!?”

I blushed. “What?   No!   I... I was... Oh come on! It’s right in my face!   What do you expect me to do?”

“I want you to act like a gentleman!   I expect you to act like the perverted knuckle dragging neanderthal you clearly are.   I should have known that a football player,” she made it sound like something you would scrape off your shoe, “would only be able to think with the little head!”

“What in the hell is your problem!” I responded angrily,   “You’ve been nothing but a bitch since I got in the car!”

“Oh you did NOT just call me a bitch!” she said twisting around to get a better look at me, her eyes were wild and dangerous.

“B. I. T. C. H.” I repeated.

She lifted a hand to slap me and at that moment Willy slammed on the breaks.   Rainbow lost her balance and I tried to catch her but she ended up tumbling face first into my lap.

“Both of you get the fuck out of my car!”   Willy shouted and started pushing us toward my door.

Rainy wriggled and squirmed trying to get her hands into a position to push away from me and every time I tried to help she squealed and thrashed about.   Her face was rubbing right against my groin; I could feel her hot breath through my pants and predictably ended up with a raging hard on.   After a fifteen second eternity I finally pushed the door open, grabbed Rainbow, and sat her outside by main strength.   As soon as she was clear I climbed outside myself with Willy pushing me all the way.

Rainbow and I stood outside of the car blushing and trying not too look at each other.   Willy, in the meantime, crawled through the interior of his car looking for damage and cursing the entire time.   After a lengthy pause Rainy said haltingly, “Wow.   You’re really strong,” she smiled awkwardly at me. “Too bad your so dumb,”   she patted me on the cheek and then took off toward the woods.   “The track ran by here.   I’m going to go check it out.   Tell Will that I’ll meet you guys at the starting line.”

“No.   Wait.   Stop. We should stick together,” I said quietly under my breath.   I didn’t really want her to get killed by an axe wielding maniac or anything but a little quiet was welcome.

Something about that girl irritated the heck out of me.

That didn’t stop me from watching her butt retreat into the woods though.

I looked back toward the car and Willy had calmed down a bit, “Can I get back in?” I asked as I opened the door.

“Yeah.   Sorry about that.   It’s just that this is only my car as long as I take care of it.   If dad sees any damage he might make me drive a P.O.S. pick-up truck or some... thing...   hey there’s where we’re going!” he smiled at me and pretended not to notice the look of annoyance on my face.   “Thanks for coming Double A.   I didn’t want to do this alone.”

I decided it was best to just let things go and climbed back in the car, “You have Rainy here.   She might be helpful.   Maybe.   Why did you bring her, anyway?   No offense man but she’s really annoying!”

Will leaned back on the head rest of his seat, “Oh man!   Tell me about it!   I’m just glad you were here or I would have gotten both barrels.”

“Then why did you bring her?” I asked incredulously.

“Because we’re friends, she cares about Maria and she wanted to come,” he answered simply. “Besides,” he smirked, “would you want to try and say no to her?”

I thought about it for a moment and then lifted a hand and we banged knuckles, “We should probably try and catch up with her.   She said she’d meet us at the starting line.”

“That works,” he started the car, “I think I’ll take my time getting there.”

We rolled quietly forward but when we got to the parking area there was already a vehicle there. I noticed that it had government plates and my gut told me that it was the FBI.   “Keep going!” I hissed and sank down in the seat.

“What?   Why?” he asked in confusion.

“Cops!” I said tensely and gestured toward the car.

Willy accelerated past the pull off and continued down the road until we were over the crest of a hill.   “Was it the FBI?” he asked almost in a panic.   “How did they know where we were going? Oh geeze!   We have to go back for Rainy!”

“I know!   Give me a second to think!” We had to get Rainy out but if the FBI caught us messing around they would undoubtedly give us a lot of grief. “How did you know about the FBI?” I asked, as what he had said fully registered.

Willy looked around nervously, “They talked to a bunch of Maria’s friends.   They wanted to know if she had any enemies or if she had said anything that might make us think she was going to kill herself or run away or anything like that.   Pretty much what you would expect but it’s just these two guys and Rainy and I are pretty sure they’re up to something.” he paused for a second, “What about Rainy?”

He was right.   The other stuff could wait; we needed to get Rainy out of there.   I sat up in my seat and spotted an over grown lane that led into the woods toward what was probably an abandoned farmstead. “There.   I said pointing to the lane.   We pull in there and then make our way on foot.”

“Where?” he asked, squinting.

“Right there,” I pointed again.

“Dammit, hold on,” he leaned across the car, opened the glove compartment and pulled out a pair of glasses.   “Where?” he asked again after putting them on.   I pointed again. “Oh yeah, I got it now,”   he carefully pulled into the lane and then drove far enough that we were difficult to see from the road even with the sparse fall vegetation.

“You know we could probably get in a lot of trouble for this right?   I mean screwing around with the FBI can’t be a good idea,” I pointed out.   We sat in the car for a minute thinking about what we were doing.   An involuntary grin crept across my face.   When I looked at Willy he had the same look on his face.

This was awesome!

“You know orienteering?” I asked before we got out of the car.

“Enough for Nebraska.   They make us learn a little bit when we join cross country.   You?”

I looked around and determined where north was, “I should be okay.   I learned the basics when I was in ROTC last year.”

“Man, when do you sleep?” Willy smiled and opened the car door.

I grinned back, “Sleep?   I know not this ‘sleep’.”

Willy laughed but quickly stifled it, “I probably have more experience running though terrain like this,” I nodded in agreement. “So I’ll take the lead.   We want to be quiet, so I’ll take it slowish.   If you have trouble keeping up let me know.”

“Dude,” I scoffed, “I’m only thirty seconds off of a four minute mile.”

Willy shook his head, “On a track maybe.   This is different.”

“Whatever,” I rolled my eyes.

Willy gave up the fight, “Just try not to break anything Double A.”

~oOo~

---

~oOo~

Fifteen minutes later I was leaning against a tree, sucking wind.   I couldn’t get a stride going.   You had to adjust every step and watch out all around you constantly.   Willy, on the other hand, looked bored.   “This sucks,” I gasped “Why... would you do this?”

“It’s fun?” he said softly. “You just need to relax and you’ll be fine.   You seem to have a pretty good eye for what not to tread on so that’s a big thing right there.   You ready to go?”

I took a deep breath and nodded.   I was totally adding this to my exercise regime.

After the break I started to get better at not wasting so much energy and we covered more ground much faster.   Suddenly, Willy called a halt and then back tracked about a hundred feet. “I think we passed the trail,” he whispered.   Sure enough Willy found the trail the meet had been using and we started down it.   “The starting line is this way,” he whispered “but knowing Rainy she’s gotten bored waiting for us and taken off on her own.”

“How do we find her then?”

“Keep your ears open for bitching,”

“Thanks for that,” I snarked.

After a few minutes of walking in silence I thought I heard voices.   I tapped Willy on the shoulder and we both knelt down to listen.   Though indistinct we could tell that the voices were male and what direction they were coming from.   Suddenly my choice of a basic gray sweatshirt, rather than Spartan Blue, seemed rather inspired.   Will pointed in the direction of the voices and made a walking motion with his fingers.   I shook my head ‘no’ and made a gesture as if being hung.   Will snickered and then started toward the noise heedless of my opinion.

God, I hope we don’t get shot.

A couple minutes later the voices were easier to understand.

“You must be reading it wrong,” Agent Garret said.   He sounded a little irritated.

“I’m telling you boss.   This is the spot.   The GPS coordinates in the time stamp say that this is where we filmed the footage.”

“The footage we don’t remember taking?” Garret asked.

“That footage exactly Boss,” Emerson replied.

Willy and I crept a bit farther and found a clearing about fifty feet across with the two agents standing at its rough center.

“The time stamp has to be wrong Emerson,” he looked around, “trees don’t just pop back up.”

“I know it doesn’t make any sense boss but that’s exactly what seems to have happened,” he gestured to the clearing.   “I mean this all looks pretty normal but the footage looks more like...”

“Tunguska circa 1908?” Garret finished.

“What?   Oh.   Yeah.   Sure, Boss,” Emerson squatted down and tussled the grass a bit, “the file I found on my SD card should be legitimate.   This is where they found the body right?”

“Should be,” Garret said thoughtfully.

“What are you thinking, boss?” Emerson asked rising to his feet and dusting his hands together.

Garret looked pensive. “Manning’s pattern may have something to it,” he said ominously.

Emerson was clearly unconvinced, “I know you like this for some kind of big conspiracy boss but I still think the odds are better that Cross is our perp.   I mean, come on.   We move out of the seventy-two hour window and he just happens to see her but can’t provide anything useful?   Sounds to me like someone who doesn’t want people to stop paying attention to his hard work.”

They thought I was behind Maria disappearing?   I hadn’t even heard of her before all this started!

“It would certainly fit classic serial killer behavior,” Garret agreed. “but that seems to be about the only thing that really tags him for that.”

Well that’s good to know!

Willy and I crushed ourselves to the ground as Agent Emerson began scanning the area, “If you say so boss.   All I know is that Manning’s pattern is huge.   If there’s a single organization behind it it has to be insanely well funded and connected.”

Garret raised an eyebrow toward his much younger partner, “Looking for a new job, Emerson?”

“You know what I mean boss.   Manning’s thing has kids disappearing all over the country, if there’s a group doing it then they would have to be able to move throughout the country, pretty much at will;   be large enough to field multiple teams at the same time and have those teams be well enough trained that they could disappear into the night with only a handful of witnesses indicating there was anyone out of place there at all,” Emerson shook his head, “It’s too big, boss.   Even if a government or one of the really big corporations wanted to kidnap or kill a bunch of kids for some reason they’d still get caught if they tried it on the scale we’re talking about.”

Garret grunted, “Don’t disagree with anything you’re saying Emerson but if the pattern isn’t there then what did Manning find?”

“Order in the chaos?” he shrugged, “If you look at a big enough sample you can probably find some connection between a group of them.   Besides,” he continued in an almost patronizing tone, “crazy people are really good at finding non-sense patterns and Manning is a nut job.”

“Manning is eccentric, I admit, but...”

“Boss!   He caries a blond pigtail wig everywhere he goes and is convinced that every single thing that goes wrong is the work of demons!”

“How is your magic pendant?” Garret asked sardonically.

Emerson touched his chest self consciously, “It’s not magic.   It’s lucky.   There’s a difference.”

“Manning has some screws loose.   Fine.   He also has an uncanny eye for patterns.   Especially those that involve kidnappers.   He says that someone is disappearing kids and my gut says he may be right.”

Emerson was about to say something in response when a shriek ripped though the silent woods.   The agents took off in the rough direction of the sound and I was about to follow when Willy grabbed my arm and pointed in two different directions.   I wasn’t sure why he wanted to split up but I didn’t have time to question it either.   He took off into the woods and I finally got to see what he could do without me slowing him down.

He just vanished.

A second later I took off as well.   I wasn’t sure where I was going but with a little luck I’d get there all the same.

Not long after that, I caught flashes of someone in green sprinting through the woods.   I adjusted my angle to intercept and was only barely able to make it.   Unfortunately, because I arrived a little late I had to catch her from behind.   She shrieked again and tried to pull away from me.   We tumbled but I was able to roll so that she landed on top of me and I took the brunt of the crash.   Her eyes were closed tight with fear and she was screaming and struggling to get away from me.   My hands were tied up trying to keep her still and I really needed her to stop screaming at me.

So I kissed her.

When I did she froze for a moment and then kissed me back.

I don’t know why I did it.   She bugged the crap out of me.   I certainly didn’t want to kiss her but as our lips press against each other and our tongues began to wrestle I realized that all I wanted to do was kiss her.   She melted into me and it was perfect.

I didn’t even mind the rock jabbing me in the shoulder.

Some amount of time passed and she finally came up for air, “Do you have a condom?” she gasped, running her hands against me.   I inwardly cursed myself but shook my head no. “OH thank god,” she said with a smirk and leaned back in to kiss me again, “If you did I would have fucked you right here and I’m pretty sure someone would hear us.”

I was trying to come up with any response to what she had just said when I heard a twig snap. We both froze, unfamiliar voices made way to my ears.   “I can’t believe you talked me into doing that out here,” a girl said quietly.

“We had to wait for the FBI Agents to leave, right?” I could hear his grin. “I wouldn’t want to try and contact anyone with them around.   Might as well do something fun while we waited.”

The girl laughed, “I swear Sean, you are the most insatiable...”

Her sentence was cut off and what I interpreted as face sucking followed.   I gestured away from them and Rainy kissed me on the lips before quietly crawling away.   I wasn’t sure who the other kids were but I didn’t want to borrow any more trouble if I could help it.

After we had some distance Rainy and I picked up the pace.   Following her proved a little easier than following Willy and something about chasing her through the woods was a serious turn on.   

When we got back to the car and Willy was nowhere in sight, we started making out again. “So are we dating now?” I panted.

“Will you just shut up and kiss me?” she growled.

I saw no particular reason to disobey orders.

~oOo~

---

~oOo~

About twenty minutes later Willy loped back to the car and caught us necking. “Huh,” he said causing us both to jump and blush. “Would not have predicted that.   We should go before we get caught.”

Rainy and I stood up holding hands, “Where have you been?” I asked.

“I kept the feds running away from where I thought Rainy was headed,” he blew out a breath, “Wasn’t easy though.   The younger one has some serious moves.”

We climbed in the car and backed out of the lane.   As we rounded the final twist Willy stopped short.

The FBI agent’s car was blocking the way out.

Willy shifted into drive but Agent Emerson was standing in front of us with a hand on his gun.   He hadn’t drawn but the message was clear, “Turn off the car and put your palms on the ceiling,” he said with authority.   Willy followed the instructions immediately but Rainy and I hesitated.   “All of you!” he added.   We did as he said.

Agent Garret pulled their car in behind us and climbed out.   In the mean time,   Agent Emerson had pulled us from the vehicle one by one and gently zip tied our ankles. “You really think that is necessary Emerson?” Agent Garret asked with amusement.

“I’m not going to try and chase them down again boss,” he was covering it well but up close he was clearly winded.   “I’m not making them super tight or anything.   Everyone comfortable?” he asked us as a group.

Willy and I shrugged but Rainbow said, “Not really, no.   Why are you detaining us exactly?   This area is used by the Omaha Public Schools as a cross country track and my friends...”

Emerson completely ignored her and walked over to Garret where they began talking in hushed tones.

“Don’t ignore me!” she said angrily, “I’m talking to you!   Hey! Come back here!”   when it became clear that Emerson was not interested she started to sulk.

“Don’t worry about it Rainy,” I put my arm around her and she snuggled up against me, “they just want to scare us so that we talk but since we don’t know anything I don’t think it’s going to work.”

Willy actually managed to smile, “Yeah.   If they were really serious they would have taken us somewhere and kept us separate before they questioned us.   This feels more like an attempt to psych us out so we don’t keep messing around out here.”

Emerson and Garret had stopped talking and were looking at Willy.   Garret had a look of amusement on his face but Emerson just looked annoyed.   After a moment Emerson walked over, pulled out a knife and started cutting the zip ties.   “Just don’t try and run.   Deal?”   We all nodded.

Agent Garret walked over to us and smiled, “You seem like smart kids.   Except the shorts thing,” he amended, “Aren’t you two cold?”

“Maybe a little,” Rainy admitted quietly.   Willy just nodded his agreement.

“Tell you what.   How about we go somewhere and get a coffee or cocoa or whatever it is you kids drink and we can talk.”

He might as well have been holding a sign over his head the said ‘trap’ but what were we going to say?

At our reluctant looks he backed off a little, “You two were friends with Maria.   Correct?”   Willy and Rainy nodded. “Well my partner and I are just trying to figure out what happened to her and the more we look into all of this the less sense it makes.   If you want to help Maria then you need to help us.”

“Yeah,   okay,” I said quietly and caught stern looks from both of my friends.

I had friends.

I had a girlfriend.

I couldn’t help but grin which only seemed to increase their annoyance with me.   “We want to help Maria, don’t we?” I asked them and they both agreed silently. “Well I don’t have any idea how we do that.   We need help,” I nodded towards the agents.

“I just feel like such a sell out,” Rainy muttered.

Emerson laughed, “Don’t sweat it kid.   It happens to the best of us.”

...to be continued...

---

 
Author's Note: The end grows near. Both for this story and the year. Happy Holidays to all and may your loved ones be near. ~Matt
 
(Yeah I rhymed near and near. Sue me. :) )

---

CHAPTER 13

---

We drove back to Stauffer’s and true to his word Agent Garret bought us each a tall cup of whatever we wanted.   I had cocoa, Rainy and Willy each had some kind of foamy coffee thing, Agent Emerson had a bottle of water and Agent Garret a black coffee. He seemed strangely pleased when they handed it to him; as if he had expected to have to explain the concept of ‘black coffee’.

After we warmed up a bit, Agent Garret got down to business, “We’ll start simple.   Why were you kids in the woods today.”

I tried to come up with a plausible explanation but the truth is that I’m not very good at lying, “Uh...” was all I could seem to manage.

“Double A wanted to try a Cross Country course to see if he was interested in joining the team,” Willy said smoothly.

Rainbow nodded, “So we decided to come out and run him around the course to see what he thought.   Isn’t that right AJ?”

“Uh... sure?” I replied.   They must have been working on this for quite a while.   Hmmm...maybe I should have been doing that.

“Sorry if AJ seems a little out of it Agent Garret,” she smiled and then stage whispered behind her hand, “He’s pretty but he’s a little dumb.”

“Hey!” I objected.

“Hush sweetie,” she patted my knee reassuringly under the table and then trailed her fingers up nearly the full length of my inner thigh.

Sure enough, it shut me up immediately.

“Sure,” Agent Emerson smiled obligingly, “That makes sense: You two,” he indicated Rainy and Willy, “who are admitted friends of the missing girl, just happened to take him,” he nodded at me, “who claimed to have seen said missing girl earlier this week, to the very course where said girl disappeared.   Huh.   What are the odds.   Guess it must all be a big coincidence.”

Now it was Willy and Rainbow’s turn to come up short, “uh...” they said in unison.

“We were hoping to find something that could help her somehow,” I said quietly.   “There’s been a lot of weird stuff happening since she disappeared and... um ...”

“Adults don’t take you seriously?” Agent Garret asked as he sipped his coffee.

“I’m not totally sure I take me seriously,” I admitted, “Like I said, I was sick.”

“What do you think is going on?” Agent Garret asked calmly.   

He was good.   I knew I was hanging myself but I just kept talking.   “She might be a ghost?” I almost whispered.

“What else?” Garret asked almost as if he believed me.   Even Agent Emerson didn’t seem inclined mock the idea.

It was weird but suddenly Maria being a ghost was a little scarier.

Willy tried to explain but got tongue tied and ended up clamming up instead.   I was trying to figure out the best way to explain without coming across any crazier than was necessary when Rainy cannonballed the conversation, “Maria’s ghost is horny and mad and she’s been trying to fuck us.”

Willy and I gawked at her, it was basically true but there had to be a better way to say it.   Emerson spit water halfway across the room and barely managed to choke out a coughing, “What?”

Agent Garret just looked her in the eyes and sipped his coffee as if she had told them the sky was blue.   Either he really wasn’t surprised or he had a poker face of epic proportions.   “Care to repeat that?” he said levelly.

Willy sighed, “Something happened to Maria,” The Agents nodded. “We’ve been seeing her all over the place,” Willy was turning green.   “She... I ... she grew a ...” he gestured in vaguely lewd manner at his crotch, “we’re not crazy!”

I had to give the agents credit.   They were really trying to pretend to take what we were saying seriously.

I would have probably broken down into mocking laughter already.

“Grew a what?” Emerson asked.   I thought Willy’s pantomime was quite effective but I guess I had context.

Willy couldn’t bring himself to actually use the word.   It had to play on his mind to like a girl and have her end up better hung than I am..

Better hung than Willy is.

Well I presume she’s better hung than Willy.   I guess I don’t really know but she was pretty big and...

Okay.   No more thinking about penis.

“Her ghost has a dick,” Rainy repeated Willy’s gesture, “Dick.   Get it?”

“Right,” Agent Emerson said such that it was clear he thought we were high or something. “Is that really what you were trying to say kid?”

Willy blushed, “Actually that was pretty muAHHAYEOU!” he shouted leaping out of his chair and swatting at his crotch like it was on fire.   After a second hopping around, he pulled out his phone which was vibrating like crazy.   “Sorry, it was buzzing my nuts.” he said distractedly. “Hold on.   It’s my mom,” turning his back to us. “Hey mom, what’s up?   No, I...   We were out in the country...   No I... Yes...   Yes, I’ll tell him... I’m kind of in the middle of... Oh come on!   Fine.   Yes I’ll tell him.   Bye... I know...I know...”   very quietly he finished, “love you too.”   Willy turned back to us with an embarrassed grin on his face.   “Uh, we have to go.” he indicated me with his eyes.

That didn’t sound good.   “What?   Why?” I asked.

“I’m in trouble for not answering my phone because you didn’t answer your phone,” he replied in an irritated tone.

“Oh yeah,” I said under my breath, “my phone.   So what happened?”

“You were here for the call man.   Did it sound like I got a lot of details?” he picked up his cup and chugged the remainder.   “Your mom called my mom because you didn’t answer your phone and now I’m going to catch hell for it.”

“Sorry man, I didn’t think she would get twisted just because I didn’t check in,” maybe mom wasn’t as happy about me having friends as I thought.

Willy’s phone rang again, “Yeah mom?” he answered quickly.   His face changed from annoyed to concerned in a matter of moments, “Is she alright?   Yeah,   I’ll tell him.   Love you, mom.” he hung up the phone with a blank look on his face.

“Who got hurt Willy?” Rainbow asked quickly.   As soon as she said it I recognised the look on his face as well.

“That was my mom.” he said distractedly.

“Yeah...” my stomach was twisting in knots.

“She said that you wouldn’t be able to get a hold of your parents for a while because they had to turn off their phones.”

Agent Emerson and Garret exchanged a look and began gathering their things to leave.   “Why?” I prodded.

“You mom called and told my mom that you should just come straight to the Omaha Medical Center,” he looked sick, “Something happened to Josie.”

I came out of my chair, “What!?   What happened to my little sister?”

“I don’t know man!   Seriously dude!” he struggled against my grasp, “Dude that hurts!”

Rainbow gently pushed my arms away from Willy’s shoulders, “It’ll be okay AJ,” she said quietly.   To the agents she said, “Are we done?”

“Done enough for now,” Agent Garret agreed.   “If you think of anything, let us know.”

“I have to go,” I said in a daze, pulling out my keys.

“Maybe I should drive?” Rainbow offered.

“Dad says I’m not supposed to let anyone else drive,” I answered as I lurched toward the door.

Agent Emerson seemed to pick up on the danger as well, “She might have a poi...”

Rainbow waved him off and then got in my way.   Wrapping her arms about my waist, “You can’t drive right now AJ.”

I could have bowled her over without any real effort but I didn’t. “Let me go Bow.”

“Not until you stop being crazy,” she responded hugging me tighter. “You killing yourself won’t help your sister.”

Her face rested gently against my chest and in spite of every overly protective brotherly instinct I had, I found myself listening to her.   I took a deep breath and inhaled the slightly musky smell I was coming to associate as being Rainbow.   The tunnel vision started to fade.

After a minute or so I was more or less back.   I stroked her hair gently, “You can let me go Bow.”

“Do I have to?” she said playfully, looking up into my eyes.

“Yeah.   Come on.   I have to get to the hospital,” I turned to Willy who was still rubbing his shoulders, “Sorry man.   You can take Bow home right?”

“Yeah sure,” Willy grouched distractedly. “So that’s how you crushed your phone,” he mumbled.

“I want to go with you,” Rainy said, still not releasing the hug, “Can’t you give me a ride AJ?”

“Heh... uh... sure...” I stammered.

“Romeo,” Agent Emerson called from the door, apparently meaning me. “You drive a red, white and rust Ford pick-up?”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Well then I don’t think you’re going to be driving anywhere for a while,” he said ominously.

Willy, Bow and I hurried to the door to see what he was talking about.   “Oh, no fucking way,” I said under my breath.   “No fucking way!” I shouted as I ran over to my poor, poor truck.

My truck is a P.O.S.   I know that.   It’s rusty, it’s been in a few accidents, the gas mileage is bad and the tires are nearly bald.   Sometimes I may hate it but it is mine, dammit!

“Someone is freaking dead!” I growled.   The tires were all flat, the sidewalls had been slashed brutally.   ‘Bitch’ and ‘Fucker’ were repeatedly scratched into the remaining patches of good paint.   “Did anyone see who did this?” I shouted to the world at large.   My truck was parked near the edge of the lot so I wouldn’t be in the way but it was still a busy parking lot.   Someone had to have seen it happen!

Agent Garret was talking on his phone and Agent Emerson approached me carefully, “AJ?” I must have looked insane.   “Agent Garret is taking care of your truck.   How about I get you to the Hospital.”

“Yeah, that’s... yeah.. thanks,” I said calming down a bit.

“Can I come too?” Rainbow said stepping in and taking my hand.   When she did I felt the anger flow right out of me.

“Fine with me,” Emerson shrugged.

The three of us piled into his car and I tried not to look back.

---

~oOo~

---

The ride over gave me a little time to cool off.   I was used to things going as expected and nothing seemed to be going that way this week.   Rainy and I held hands all the way there and I have to admit that by the time we arrived I was almost feeling back in control of myself.   I thanked Agent Emerson for the ride and then watched as he pulled away.

“They think we did something to Maria,” Rainy said with a hint of anger. “I guess that’s what we get for trying to help.”

I tugged her hand and we started toward the hospital with purpose, I was trying to think about anything except what might have happened to Jojo, “Why do you think that?”

She shrugged, “They just do.   They probably think we hid her in the woods after killing her and that we were going back to better dispose of the body.”

“Maybe,” I admitted, “Willy and I heard them talking about a pattern of disappearing kids.   From what they said I doubt we’ll really fit their profile.”

“When did you hear this?” she asked in confusion.   I got the distinct impression that she didn’t like not being in the know.

“Just before you started screaming like a banshee and I had to run you down,” I smiled and squeezed her hand, “What made you scream like that anyway?”

She shuddered.   It was barely perceptible but I felt it regardless, when she spoke it was with her usual, cavalier attitude, “Maria showed up and tried to fuck me again.   She had me pinned down and...” she started to shake.   I stepped in to hold her but she pushed me away, “No!   I will not be pitied or taken care of!” she squinted her eyes hard and took a few deep breaths.   When she opened her eyes, they were clear, “I freaked out and managed to get away before she could really do anything.   Then you caught me and...” she smiled.

I let go of her hand and turned her to face me, “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?” she seemed honestly surprised.

“Act like it doesn’t bother you.   When she touched me I completely flipped my shit!” I ran a hand along the side of her oval shaped face tenderly.

She shuddered and hugged me tightly.   I smelled her hair and kissed the top of her head, “You don’t know her,” she said very quietly, “Maria and I are best friends.   Even after I moved we stayed close,” She looked me in the eyes, “Maria would never hurt me on purpose.   She’s just confused.”

“She’s hurting people Rainy, and the way she’s doing it is so wrong!   I mean... why does she have a ... it’s just... I mean a penis?   What the hell?”

Rainy buried her face in my chest and laughed bitterly, “When we were younger Maria and I played truth or dare at a party.   I don’t remember what the question was but she said she always kind of wanted a dick.   We all laughed and made fun of her for it and she played it off like she was just fooling around but when I asked her about it later she said it was true,” Rainy laughed again but it quickly turned into sobs. After about a minute she regained control, “but we aren’t here for me,” she said steeling herself.

I loved her.   I had only known her a couple of hours but I absolutely loved everything about her.

“And who would this be?” At the sound of my mom’s voice I felt any hope of sneaking in shrivel to nothingness.

“Mom!” I gasped happily without releasing Bow from our embrace, “Is Jojo alright?”

My mom’s face was a study in contradictions.   It was obvious that she was mad at me but at the same time she had this goofy happy look as well. It took my brain a second to process it but if mom was in any way concerned about Rainbow then things couldn’t be too bad.

“Josie is going to be fine,” she reassured me, “who is your friend?”

“What’s your last name!” she hissed into my chest.

“Cross,” I whispered back just a softly.

Rainy wiped her eyes against my chest, pulled on her glasses and turned around with a big smile on her face. “Hello Mrs. Cross my ... name ... is... holy cow you have big boobs,”   she looked between mom and I for a moment, “You’re his mom?   Did you have him when you were ten or something!?”

I slapped my forehead in frustration.   Apparently Rainy didn’t have a filter between her mouth and her brain.   Awesome.   Good to know.

“Oh my god, I love your shoes!,” Rainy gushed “My mom won’t let me wear heels even though I think they make my butt look way hotter,” she turned to show my mom her butt, pushing up onto her toes.

Mom smirked, “Well that explains some things.”

I needed to stop Rainy from talking but the idea that it might be possible for her butt to actually look hotter rendered me completely incapable of focused thought in any other area.   

Rainy dropped flat foot with a thoughtful look on her face.   She slowly turned and looked at my mom again, “Mrs. Cross?   Did you teach square dancing at Osborne Elementary?   Like once a year or something?”

Mom smiled, “Yes.   It’s been a few years since they...” now it was mom’s turn to look at Rainy anew, “Rainbow?”

Rainy bounced up and down, “You remember me!” she hopped over and crushed my mom in a hug.   “I loved your classes so much!” she gushed, “I was so sad when you didn’t do them for Junior High.”

Mom hugged her back, “It’s good to see you again too, Rainbow.”   Over Rainy’s head she mouthed, “I like her!” and gave me a thumbs up.   She then carefully extracted herself from the embrace.

I hate to admit it but her approval was a huge weight off my shoulders.

Once she was no longer being mugged by Rainbow, mom became serious once more, “It’s very nice to see you again Rainbow but this is sort of a family time.   Why don’t you just head on home?”

“I kinda don’t have a car here,” she said sheepishly, “I was sorta counting on AJ to give me a ride,”   Mom quirked an eyebrow at the possible innuendo.   “Haha, I just meant.   Ah...” she was so red she looked like Memorial Stadium on game day.

Mom put her hand on Rainy’s shoulder, “I know what you meant.   It’s okay, Rainbow.   We’ll get you home soon.   Why don’t you go inside.   AJ and I will be in momentarily,”   Rainbow nodded and then looked to me to make sure it was okay for her to leave.   When I nodded yes she scooted off inside with both mom and I watching her go in silence.

When mom turned back to me I expected to be instantly consumed by wrath and hellfire but instead she hugged me.   She was almost bouncing in place.

“Oh AJ!   She’s adorable!   I’m so glad you finally found a nice girl your age that actually interests you!   How long have you been dating?   Have you met her parents yet?   Why didn’t you tell us about her?”   mom bubbled.

“Uh,” I wasn’t sure which question to answer, “We me this afternoon?” seemed to cover most of it.

Mom nodded appreciatively, “I should have known you’d be a fast mover once you found something you liked.   And why not,” she added with a glance back the way Rainbow had gone, ”My god, that girl should model boy shorts.”

“Mom!   What the hell!” I gasped in shock.

“Callipygian,” mom considered airily, “I think that’s the term.   So firm and apple shaped...”

“Oh my god!   Please stop!” I begged, “Punish me!   Ground me for life!   Just please stop talking about my girlfriends butt!”

“It seems like such an effective torture though,” she grinned evilly. “but you’re right.   Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“I accidentally sort of broke it,” I admitted, “What happened to Jojo?”

“What were you doing that would break your phone?” she glanced over her shoulder to where Bow was watching us from a window while pretending to read a magazine. “AJ!” she said in tone building toward ultimate disapproval.

“No!   We didn’t!   No!   I met her and she was running her mouth and I got mad and sort of crushed it.   That’s it!   Honest.   Willy was there!   You can ask him.   I wouldn’t do it with him there!” the look on mom’s face was still displeased, “or... you know... at all,” I finished weakly. “What happened to Jojo?” I repeated.

“Just be sure you use a condom,” she said bluntly.

“Mom!   Please!   Jojo!”   I begged her.

Mom rolled her eyes, “Your little sister had the brilliant idea to try playing DDR while doing a hand stand.”

I nodded.   It was weird knowing something before her, “Yeah, I saw her doing that a couple days ago.”

Mom was incredulous, “Why didn’t you tell her not too?   The basement floor is basically just concrete!”

I shrugged, “‘Cause she was doing fine.   What happened?”

Mom shook her head in disgust, “She slipped and face planted.   They don’t know if her nose is broken or just cracked yet,” she checked her watch, “They should know anytime now though.   Her eyes are both black and there was a lot of blood,” she shuddered at the thought, “But I think she was more scared than hurt.”

“So she’s really okay?” I confirmed.

Mom nodded, “Yes sweetie but she kept asking for you and when you didn’t answer I’m afraid I may have gotten a bit hysterical,”   she hugged me tight, “This has been a truly god awful week.”

I hugged her back, “You’ll get no arguments from me.”

Looking toward the entrance I saw Rainbow still waiting for me.   She smiled shyly and waved.

The week had it’s good points too though.

---

~oOo~

---

I stopped off in the gift shop and bought a teddy bear dressed as Supergirl for Jojo.

When Rainbow saw what I was buying she asked, “What did you’re sister do?”

“Broke her nose,” I said while waiting for them to wrap the bear.

Rainy winced, “Ouch!   Hold on!” she said to the gal behind the counter.   Quick as she could she zipped over to one of the nurses that was passing by and not long after that returned with a large band aid that she carefully placed on the Teddy Bear’s nose. “Now it’s ready,” she smiled.

My girlfriend, was awesome.

After wandering around for a while we finally found where they were keeping Jojo.   She had a bed but it was covered in paper rather than actual sheets so they obviously didn’t think she would be there very long.

“Hey Jojo,” I said softly as I entered the room.   I finally got a look at her and it wasn’t a pretty picture.   She had a rug burn on her forehead, her eyes were both black and a huge white bandage tented out over her face.   She kind of reminded me of a duck. If it hadn’t been my little sister it might have even been funny.   

When Josie saw me a look of happiness flashed across her face before she remembered that she was mad and turned her face away. “I’m not talking to you,” she said sullenly but I could see her eyes darting between the package I was holding and Rainbow, who was waiting by the door.

Dad gestured that he would be back in a second and left the room after exchanging a couple words with Rainy that I didn’t catch.   “Not even if I have something for you?” I grinned, holding out the gift.

Josie raised her nose higher in the air and flinched, “I’m not six any more, Aaron.   I can not be bought off with cheap gift shop teddy bears.”

Rainbow chuckled behind me and I tried to just gut through it, “Really? I guess I’ll just take it back then.   Too bad.   It’s really cute,”   I stood up as if to leave but left the present within easy grabbing distance.

“Give me that!” she said taking the present from me and tearing it open.   When she saw the Supergirl Bear she squealed in delight, though it sounded more like a noise you would expect from a moose, and hugged it tightly.   “I love it!”   she rubbed it carefully against her cheek, “so soft.”

“So am I forgiven for what ever it was that you were angry at me for?”

“Huh?” she looked at me in confusion, “What do you mean?”

I had to smile.   When Jojo gets over something she’s just done with it.   “What happened, Jojo?” I asked as I carefully brushed a stray lock out of her face, “You’re too good an acrobat to face plant like this.”

“Who’s your friend?” she asked suspiciously, squinting at Bow.

I blew out a breath, “Jojo this is Rainbow, she’s uh... she’s kind of my girlfriend.”

“Do you trust her?” she said quietly, still giving Bow the stink eye.

“She’s my girlfriend,”

“Yes, but do you trust her?” she repeated in a very serious way that was sort of undercut by the odd nasal quality her voice had because of the injury.

“What’s going on Josie?” I asked quietly.

She waved for me to lean in closer so she could whisper.   “I think that missing girl was in our basement.”

My heart stopped, “What?”

Jojo nodded earnestly, “I was playing Dan Dan Revu... Revul ” She just couldn’t form the words, “DDR and I saw her standing in the doorway watching me with this weird hungry look,” she whispered right in my ear, “and she had a big stiffy too!” Returning to more normal volume she continued, “When I saw that I kinda lost focus and mashed my nose,” She poked her nose experimentally and flinched, “They gave me something for the pain and now I feel all floaty,” she added with a yawn,   “they said it might make me sleepy but I feel... fine...” I managed to catch her before she hit her nose and rested her back into the bed.

I tucked the bear into her arms and she hugged it tightly mumbling something I couldn’t understand.   Once I was sure she was asleep I gestured to Rainbow that we should talk outside. “Why the hell is she messing with my sister!?” I said in a harsh whisper.

Rainy was stricken, “I don’t know!” she hissed back.   “Why are you guys seeing her at all?   Everyone else was at the meet when she disappeared.”

“Since when are there so many people seeing her?” I finally got around to asking.   “When Willy and I talked a few days ago he made it sound like it was just the two of us.”

“I think everyone kept quiet because they didn’t want to sound crazy like Marco,”

“What now?” I prodded.

“They had to put Marco in an institution,” she said quietly, hugging me, “whatever happened to him, it broke his mind.”

“Considering what probably happened I can’t say I’m shocked.   Damn. I wish I knew more about the boy they found in the woods,” I mused.   “I have a feeling he’s somehow connected to Maria.”

“What boy?” Rainy asked.

“The police found a naked dead boy about...”

“I’m fine JP,” Mom said from down the hallway.   She was carrying her shoes and her clothes were rumpled and out of place.   Dad was trying to help but it was pretty obvious he would have rather simply been carrying her.

“It’s not fine, Jackie,” dad countered, “you need to talk to a doctor.”

Without thinking I linked Bow’s hand with mine, “What happened?” I asked with concern.

“Nothing,” mom assured me.   “I lost my balance when the elevator stuttered and hit my head.”

“You said someone pushed you down,” dad reminded her.

“There wasn’t anyone else in the elevator JP.   I just got tippy on my heels,” she smiled and patted him on the arm playfully, “Unless you think it was a ghost.”

I have repeatedly seen my mom run in five inch heels on grass.   She doesn’t get ‘tippy’.   “Maybe we could check the security footage to make sure?” I asked timidly.

“Security is in the basement,” dad replied quickly.   “Here’s what’s going to happen Jacqueline,” dad boomed softly, “I am going to help you into the room with Josie.   You are going to wait there happily and calmly while I grab a doctor.”

“You could just snag one of the staff and let them do it,” Rainy said brazenly, “If she has a concussion you probably don’t want to leave her alone,” without further preamble she hared off down the hall on a mission.

Mom and dad stared after her and then started to execute on her plan. “I told you she was adorable,” mom said to dad.

Dad grunted appreciatively, “She kind of reminds me of someone,” dad mused, “Willful.   Bull headed.   Built to stop traff...”

“Oh stop!” mom said hitting him lightly.

“What should I do?” I asked.   I felt very strange for some reason.

“Why don’t you go see what the cameras got.   Take the elevator down to B3,” he scooped mom up in his arms like she weighed nothing eliciting a giggle from her, “B3.   B4 is the morgue so I wouldn’t recommend mistaking the two.   When you get there ask for Amos; tell him who you are and what you need.   He’s a good guy.   He’ll help if he can.”

Dad carried mom into Josie’s room just as Rainy returned. “They’re going to send someone over as soon as they can.   So are we off to look at grainy black and white footage?”

“Probably,” I said without paying too much attention.   “We need an elevator.”

“This way,” she grabbed my hand and started dragging me along, “You’re family is going to be fine AJ.   Lets get this done so we can find out what happened with your truck.”

Mention of my truck snapped be back to reality like a bucket of water, “Ah man!   I had totally forgotten about that!” my head throbbed with a stress headache.   “Yeah, lets go see Amos.”

---

~oOo~

---

Basement three was secured and it took Rainy and I a while to get them to let us in.   Luckily, once I mentioned dad it seemed to grease things quite nicely.   A female member of security led us through a few over lit hallways to Video Room One.

Before I could open the door it seemed to swing open on it’s own.   A high backed office chair was sitting so that the first thing you saw was it’s back.   Strangely it wasn’t sitting on the plastic carpet protector which was in front of the main terminal.   “Mr. Cross,” a voice droned in an affected manner, “I’ve been expecting you,”   He turned in his chair I the first thing I noticed were the black sunglasses.   It seemed weird for such a dark room.

Rainy looked at him cock eyed, “Are you doing something from the Matrix?”

“Give me a break!” he smiled taking off the glasses and tossing them on the desk before replacing them with a pair of orange tinted glasses. “My Agent Smith is dead on.”

“It’s wasn’t bad,” she allowed, “might have been move effective if you were in the black suit instead of a ‘smurfs’ sweatshirt.”

“Don’t mock the shirt,” he warned “It gets really cold in here and I had to find something that other people wouldn’t ‘mistake’ for being theirs,”   he started scooting back over to the plastic pad.   “I have the suit for Halloween,” he added.   “What did you kids need?”

Something about Amos calling us kids seemed incongruous.   He had to be in his mid-twenties but he had a baby face that made him look at least ten years younger.   His hair was slicked back and had obviously been cut to resemble Agent Smith’s.   Otherwise the resemblance was pretty much non-existent.   Amos was heavy set, pale and looked short.   My head buzzed badly and it took me a moment to clear it.

“Are you okay AJ?” Rainy asked, giving me a hug.

“Just a stressful day,” I smiled at her and felt a little better. “Sorry Mr. Amos...” I began but he cut me off.

“Smith,” he interjected. While watching one of the monitors. “If I have to be Mr. anything it’s Smith.   Amos Smith,” he quirked a smile my way.   “Amos is fine though.   You wanted to see the footage of when you mom fell in the elevator right?”

Rainy and I both looked at him suspiciously.   “Are you a witch?” Rainy asked with slitted eyes.

He turned to face us with a malevolent look on his face, “You have named me witch green haired one!   You know too much and the only penalty is death!” he cried rising to his feet and pointing dramatically at us.   Neither Rainbow nor I made a sound.   I didn’t know what to think.   After holding the pose for a few seconds he plopped back into his chair, laughing.   “Witch,” he snickered, “kids...”

“What the fuck was that?” Rainy whispered under her breath.

“Sorry,” he was still laughing to himself, “I don’t get a lot of visitors down here,”   he picked up the handset for a phone. “Jake gave me a call.   You didn’t think they would just let random kids wander around down here did you?”

“Who’s Jake?” I asked.

Amos looked suddenly unsure of himself, “You’re dad?”

“You call my dad Jake?” I had never heard anyone call him that.

“Sure do.   You want to see the footage?”

I wrinkled my nose, “Of you calling my dad Jake?”

“Of your mom, dummy,” Rainbow said elbowing me in the ribs.   “That would be great Amos,” she answered for me.

“I’ve got it cued up for you,” he pushed back from the monitor so we could get a better look.   “I’ve watched it a few times already and it’s a little strange but it looks like she just loses her balance.”

I pushed play and watched the video in silence.   Mom was alone in the elevator.   She pulled out her compact to check her make-up and then a moment later started and spun around.   The elevator lurched slightly but it looked like mom was going to stay upright with out any problem.   Suddenly she tipped over backward and slammed into the corner of the elevator.   Her top popped open revealing her huge black bra.   She seemed to be pushing into the corner but something about her posture and reactions seemed wrong.   

My mom is very graceful.   She doesn’t lose her footing like that.

Her hands were pressed against the walls almost like she was being held there forcibly.   She seemed to be saying something or maybe moaning.   Disturbingly it was actually a little sexy.   This went on for a few seconds and as I watched I was almost certain I saw her breasts deform strangely.

It almost looked like a hand groping her roughly.

After what to me felt like a very long time she arched her back and slid to the floor spread legged.   She was very still for a few moments and then looked around in confusion.   The elevator door opened and dad entered to help her up.

Rainy whispered, “You said you saw Maria in your mirror the first time right?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed.

“And your mom acted strange after looking in her compact,” she continued.

I was starting to see where she was headed, “You know. Now that you...” I stood up and turned to smile at Amos.   “Thanks Mr. Smith, it makes me feel better knowing my mom was just clumsy.”   

Amos looked at me askance but smiled none the less, “Any time kid, say hi to your parents for me.”

He was going to be watching that footage a lot.   I could just feel it.   Pervert!

“Will do!” I said as cheerfully as I could manage with all the roiling emotions I was feeling.   It probably sounded a little forced in retrospect. Rainy tugged at my hand and we headed toward the door.

“You two stay out of trouble,” he added with a grin.

---

~oOo~

---

After making our way out of the sub-basement Rainy and I found the cafeteria.

“We should have asked him to enhance the image of the reflection in the compact,” Rainy said as she took another bite from the surprisingly decent peach pie we were sharing.

“Could he do that?” I asked incredulously.

Rainbow snorted and tried to stifle her laughs, “No,” she rested her chin in her hand and gazed at me adoringly, “Such pretty eyes. Why are the pretty ones always so dumb.”

“I’m not dumb,” I said evenly.

“Oh come on AJ,” she smiled, “I was just playing.”

“Once is cute.   Twice is playing.   That’s the fourth or fifth time you’ve called me dumb just since I met you,” my eyes stung and I realized they were starting to water.

Dammit!

“Are you crying?” she asked looking at me across the table. “I didn’t think you would be that sensitive.”

“I’m not crying!” I said angrily as I wiped my eyes, “I’m mad!   I’m mad that a ghost...   a freaking ghost... is messing with my family!   I’m mad that the FBI thinks we did something wrong!   I’m mad that someone messed with my truck and I’m mad that you think I’m stupid!”

Rainy looked at me blank faced.   I had driven her away.   I wanted us to be together but I couldn’t let her treat me like that.   “You’re a little bit of a girl on the inside, aren’t you?” she smirked.

I was so overcome with rage I couldn’t even yell at her.

She stood up, moved around to my side of the table and sat down in my lap.   “I think that’s kind of hot,” she said quietly as she kissed me on the neck.

I was stiff in pretty much every way possible, “I won’t be distracted by this.   I’m not dumb!”

Bow sighed and moved back to her chair, “Are we breaking up already?” she asked sadly.

“I don’t want to,” I admitted. “At least not before we actually go on a date or something,” she laughed at my little joke.   “but I can’t date someone that thinks I’m stupid.”

“I don’t think you’re stupid AJ,” she touched my hand tenderly, “It’s just... boys.   Boys are stupid.”

“Not all boys are stupid,” I defended my sex.

“I know,” she she said reluctantly though it was clear she didn’t really believe it, “but so many are!   I have six older brothers.”

“Six?” Unbidden, my mind began calculating the beating they could dish out for touching their little sister.

“Yeah,” she took another bite of pie, “and they’re all knuckle dragging morons,” she said glumly “I mean if they knew you had kissed me they would probably beat you like a lumpy pillow.   Every guy I’ve dated has been the same way.   Boys try and be cool and some of them are fine for a while but in the end they always turn out to be stupid... boys,” she groaned. “Gawd,   when I say it all out loud I sound like a total bitch.”

“You’re a cute bitch though,” I joked.

“Tell you what,” she said, taking my hand, “You try not to all me a bitch and I’ll try not to call you stupid. Sorry I made you cry.”

“It happens,” I squeezed her hand. “you aren’t embarrassed by this?” I pointed to my eyes.

“Does it happen often?” she inquired.

I shrugged, “Only when I get really upset,” I averted my eyes, “I have to really care for it to get to me,”   I smiled at her sheepishly, “I can’t believe we only met a couple hours ago.   It feels like I’ve known you forever.”

“Such a girl,” she laughed.   “Come on, lets go see if your mom is doing better.”

She stood to leave but I pulled her back into her seat, “Hold on.   I was thinking,” she almost made a comment but managed to control herself, “The door to the room Josie was in is opposite the television.   If she was watching the screen she wouldn’t be able to see the door but that’s where she said she saw Maria.”

“Mirrors?” Rainbow asked.

I shrugged, “Not quite, but lots of reflective surfaces.”

“But other people have been seeing her without mirrors,” she pointed out. “What are you thinking babe?”

I shrugged, “Maybe the Mirror is a conduit that she can use to get to you?”

“So, bloody Maria?” she quipped.

“Maybe,” my brain was running so fast it was actually slowing me down, “or maybe the mirror thing is coincidental.   Either way, she’s definitely moving beyond targeting people that were at the meet.”

“Why your family though?” Bow took a sip of coffee.

“I have no idea, but you know what?   None of this is important.   Maria is targeting my family for some reason and we have to stop her,”   I pulled her to her feet.

“Any idea how we might do that?” she asked sardonically.

“Not really,” I admitted, “Let’s go see if Jojo is awake so I can really introduce you,”   I stopped dead, “I just realized, I never got your last name.”

After a moments hesitation she said “Bright,” with a look of fear; she looked almost like she expected me to hit her.

“Awesome, that will save a lot of potential embarrassment later,” I grinned.

She seemed surprised, “Rainbow Bright.   Like the doll,” she explained.

“Yeah?” I wasn’t sure what she was getting at.

A complicated series of emotions played across her face terminating with her grabbing me around the neck and kissing me so hard I though I might pop.   “I was wrong!” she kissed me again and again, “I was so wrong!   You aren’t dumb!   You’re wonderful!   You are the most wonderful boy ever!”

I didn’t have the faintest idea what I had done to deserve such affection but at the moment I didn’t really care.

---

CHAPTER 14

---

The next few days were a whirlwind of activity.   I went back to practicing and remembered just how much fun it could be.   I helped take care of Jojo a little and tried to ignore the incredibly loud sex my parents kept having.   Rainy and I spent as much time as we could get away with together.   We called and texted back and forth when we couldn’t be.

I had never felt so happy in all my life.

On Tuesday morning I got my poor abused truck back from the police and found out something interesting about Rainy’s knuckle dragging brothers. Firstly, they were gear heads and most of them worked in her family’s garage. Secondly, Bow apparently had them all wrapped around her little finger.   A tow truck from Bright Automotive showed up at the farm and dragged my truck to their garage.   I wanted to help but they got irritated because I don’t really know one end of a sander from the other.   I asked Rainy how she had gotten them to do it so quickly and she just smiled.   I guess girls have to have their secrets.

Sightings of Maria that week dropped off completely and I dearly hoped that maybe she had finally moved on.   

The idea that my mom’s boobs had somehow exercised an angry ghost kept running through my head but I just tired to ignore it.

Everyone was busy with Spirit week and the team was getting ready for Homecoming.   Peters wasn’t dressing for the game because of his behavior the week before and the rest of the team were blaming me for it.

Screw them.   I have more important things to worry about.

Willy talked to Maria’s older brother and determined that things had gone quiet at Maria’s school as well.   Willy was a little distant after what happened on Saturday.   We had been getting along pretty well but it seemed like he mostly just wanted to forget about it all.   In all fairness I was spending so much time with Bow I didn’t put much effort into trying to hang out with him either.

We were all vaguely trying to figure out what to do next but without a direct menace it was hard to keep the energy up.

After school on Thursday I grudgingly went to see Dr. Rogers again.   The cramps had become a fairly regular thing but they weren’t bad enough for me to risk complaining about them.

“How are you feeling today AJ?” Dr. Rogers asked with a smile.

“Fine,” I replied nervously.

“Good.   Good!” he looked over a few notes, “First, I’m disqualifying you from the Wytex trial.”

“What?   Why?” despite my reaction I knew this was actually good news.   When my brain managed to catch up to my mouth I added, “Yeah, okay.”

“Easy enough then,” he smiled, “Second, I need to get another blood sample.”

I winced at the idea, “I have Homecoming on Friday.   I’d rather not be down any fluids if I can help it.”

“Understandable but I’d still really like another draw,” he said firmly.

“Is there something wrong with the other blood I gave you?   Are you a vampire?” Apparently some of Bow’s verbal proclivities were rubbing off on me.

“AJ...” mom warned.

“It’s not a big deal Jackie,” he laughed, “We get far stranger things than that leading up to Halloween.   In answer to your non-fatuous question AJ: There were a few anomalies in your blood work and we need to get a new sample to rule out contamination.”

That didn’t sound good.   “What kind of anomalies?” I asked.

Dr. Roger’s was clearly torn by what to say, “I’d rather have the new sample tested before worrying you with details.”

I sighed, “At this point I figure you think I’m dying.”

“That isn’t what concerns me,” he assured me.   “The hormone profile in your last sample is very odd.”

“Odd how?” I pressed.

Dr. Rogers handed me a chart with the profile on it, “This spike is testosterone, which we would expect, though not at this high a concentration.   These,” he pointed at several other, much larger spikes, “are female sex hormones.   The big one here is estrogen.   So unless you want to start growing breasts like your mother...”

“How much do you need Doc?”   I started rolling up my sleeve, “Just be sure you leave me enough to make it through the game.”

---

~oOo~

---

When we got back to the farm there was a shiny red pick-up with flared fenders sitting where I normally park.   “Friend of yours AJ?” mom asked, squinting at the vehicle.

“No one I know,” I admitted, “maybe one of dad’s friends?”

“That might be it,” she agreed, “the truck seems familiar.”

When we exited the garage I turned to go look at the truck while mom went to the house.   She was right.   It did seem familiar.   I wandered around it for a few minutes trying to figure out where I had seen it before.

“So what do you think?” Rainbow asked me.

“What are you doing here?” I smiled “Is this yours?” I know I shouldn’t have been jealous but I was.

She laughed and then skipped over to give me a hug, “No, dumm...” she bit her tongue, “Sorry, habit,” she knocked herself harshly on the head, “It’s yours AJ,” she tucked the keys into my hand.   I stared at her blankly.   At some point in the conversation she had started speaking in a language I didn’t understand. “So cute!” she pecked me on the lips.

“I can’t afford a new truck,” I tried to hand her back the keys.

“AJ,” she took my arm and gestured to the vehicle, “this is your truck.   It’s a little ghetto but I think my brothers did a pretty cherry job given how fast they had to work.”

I looked at the truck again and realized she was telling the truth.   The interior had been cleaned but it was the same worn out upholstery as always.   Otherwise it looked new.   “I can’t afford to pay for this Bow,” it hurt to admit it but maybe they could just take the truck to pay for what they had done.

She rolled her eyes, “Your dad already paid, AJ.   It’s yours.   Try and enjoy it will you?”

I stopped walking around the truck... around my truck... walked back to Rainbow, scooped her up in my arms and noticed my whole family watching me.   Mom gestured for me to go ahead and covered dad and Jojo’s eyes.   The moment was gone, so I just hugged her tight and whispered, “You are so awesome!” in her ear.

“Are you two done sucking face yet?” Jojo asked impatiently.

“For now,” Bow giggled and pecked me on the lips.

“So what do you think, son?” dad asked with obvious happiness.

I sat Bow down but didn’t let her go.   I was never going to let her go. “It’s awesome dad!   I will totally pay you back!” I assured him.

Dad shook his head, “Your money is no good here, boy.   Happy Thursday, AJ.”

“Wow.   Really?” I asked as I ran my hand across the paint.   I could feel some minor imperfections in the coat but it was slick and shiny and a far cry from the sun beaten paint from before.

“Aren’t you going to try starting it?” Josie asked.

I looked back at them standing there in a knot.   Mom was smiling with tears running down her face.   Dad actually looked a little misty.   I had the best family ever.   I carefully opened the door and noted that it no longer required any technique to get to open.   The seat felt the same and somewhat disappointingly, smelled the same but everything had been cleaned and polished.   “How?” I asked Rainy.

“I asked them too,” she grinned.   “Being the baby sister has it’s advantages, doesn’t it Josie?”

Jojo grinned broadly and then flinched, “Stupid nose,” she mumbled.

“So are you going to give me a ride or what?” she asked.   Mom and dad exchanged a glance but didn’t say anything.

“Can you stay for supper Rainbow?” mom asked breaking the tension between Rainy and I.

Bow checked her phone, “I have homework,” she admitted with a pained expression. “Next time?”

“Of course,” mom smiled.   “You take her home and then come right back AJ.   No, three hour make out sessions while you say good bye.”

“We aren’t that bad!” I said defensively.   Mom just quirked an eyebrow in argument.   “Well, we aren’t THAT bad,” I argued.

“I want to ride along,” Josie stated as she started for the passenger side of the cab.

Before she got two steps mom grabbed her arm, “No, Josephine,”

“Ah!   Weak!” she pouted.

“There will be plenty of time later on Josie,” dad added and she relented.

Rainy climbed in the cab with me and I turned the ignition.   The engine growled but it sounded good.   My truck didn’t suck.   I didn’t know what to make of that!

I drove Bow home on cloud nine.   I could not have been happier.   When we finally arrived we were very reasonable in our farewells.

It couldn’t have taken more than a half hour.

Driving back I realized that, in spite of all the badness that Maria had caused, if it wasn’t for her I probably never would have found my Rainbow.   “Thank you Maria,” I whispered.   “I hope you’re at rest.”

---

 
Author's Note: Well here ends the first story. I'm typing away on the next one but with all the holiday stuff that's been going on the going is a little slow. I'll try and have it done as soon as I can but I won't rush out an inferior product. You guys deserve better than that. :D Thanks for reading and Happy New Year. ~Matt

---

CHAPTER 17

---

When I awoke some time later I was strapped to a bed.   It looked like a hospital but it didn’t feel like one.   I tugged at the restraints and found that with effort I could move them but as soon as I relaxed they returned to their original position.   I examined them more closely and found that the restraints were fed through pulleys and connected to something I couldn’t see.   They had a block that prevented them from traveling past a point and I suspect it would have been pretty ugly if they had slipped.   As it was I was comfortable enough but I didn’t like being restrained.

I was forgetting something.   My head was fuzzy and it was hard to focus.   I stared at one of the lights for a while trying to figure out why I was there.

“Rainbow!” I shouted as things came rushing back to me.   I thrashed about trying to get loose but the harder I pulled the more resistance the restraints gave without ever providing any real leverage.

A distorted voice echoed through the room, “Please try and remain calm.   You’re safe here.”

“Where’s Rainbow?” I shouted.

The was a brief pause, “Is that the cute green haired girl you were attacking?”

“Fuck you!” I shrieked and started raging against the restraints again.   The voice tried to calm me down but I was done listening to it.

After a few minutes a girls voice, this one much less distorted, blared through the speakers, “She’s fine.   Aaron?   Please listen to me.   Rainbow is fine.   She’s back with her family and doesn’t have any memory of what happened.”

“I want to see her,” I said savagely.

I could hear the pain over the speakers, “I’m really sorry Aaron.   It’s just not possible at the moment.”

I looked around the room.   With the exception of a padded steel chair and a rack for some medical equipment there was nothing. “This isn’t a hospital, is it?” I asked quietly.

“No,” she replied.

I swallowed hard and wished I could properly wipe my tears, “I’m really sorry about what happened at the bonfire.   It wasn’t me!” I almost said a ghost did it but that kind of talk was not going to help me at the moment. “Is Darrel okay?” I was no longer sure if I was crying out of anger or grief.

“I don’t know Aaron, I’ll have someone check on him for you.   What is his last name?” she asked compassionately.

“Hanover comma Darrel,” I enunciated through my tears, “Rainbow is really ok?”

“You have my word.”

“and my family?”

She sounded very sad, “As well as can be expected, considering.   Would you be willing to answer a few questions Aaron?”

I rolled my eyes, “Only if you call me AJ.   My little sister is the only one that calls me Aaron.”

“I can do that AJ,” I could hear the smile on her face.   The sound was somewhat muffled but I heard another voice in the background and the girl that was talking to me say, “I’m getting to it!   Sheesh! Hey!”

A new voice, this one male, assaulted my ears, “Look man, cut the bull shit.   Who are you working for?”

“Who am I working for?”   my mind raced looking for meaning in his words, “What do you think I’m a spy or something?”

“It’s been too long since we brought you in for you to have just hit first emergence.   Therefore you have already transitioned.   What do you do?   TK and Mind Control?   How did you insert yourself into that town so completely?   What is your plan!   No!   Stop!   Give me...”

The nice girl came back on the mic, “Sorry about that.   Something about you has been keeping Johnny, “ I heard him yell ‘Don’t use my name!’ in the background but she continued without pause, “up at night and I’m afraid he isn’t quite himself at the moment.”

“So is this like good cop, crazy cop or something?”

She laughed again, “Yes.   I’m Danny Glover and he’s Mel Gibson,”   It seemed familiar but I honestly couldn’t place it.   When I didn’t respond she let it go, “Would you be willing to answer a few questions AJ?”

I sighed. “I guess, but if I don’t want to answer something we just move on.”

“Fair enough,”   there was a pause, “Sorry I have to get the questions out of my hair.”

“Okay...” I said in confusion.   Where the hell was I?   Wait.   “Where the hell am I?”

“...go or I’ll curl you within an inch of your life!   Don’t press that!” she blurted over the microphone. “Sorry AJ.   You’re pick up was a total mess and we aren’t completely up and running at the moment.   Sorry that you’re getting the bad end of the stick on this.”

“Uh huh,”

“Normally we try and do a soft approach once we’re sure...” there was a long pause, “Hold on a second AJ.   I don’t...” the microphone clicked off.

I sat in silence for a while as I waited for anything more.   After less time than it felt like I called out, “Hello? I kind of have to pee,”   Stupid beer!   There was no response and something about being unable to do anything about it made it that much worse.

After what felt like a long time I heard a buzz and a door slid open out of my field of vision.   “Sorry about that AJ,” in person I recognised her voice from somewhere other than the intercom, “we just got the com system installed and I hoped it would be cool but it wasn’t.   Hi!” she held out a hand, “my name is Lucinda Xaing but pretty much everyone calls me Luce,” I looked at her hand, looked at her rather stunningly cute face and then finally at the restraints that held my hands.   “Oh.   Duh,” she rolled her eyes and made half a gesture with her hand but checked it.   “If I let you out of those you won’t go crazy and try and kill me or something will you?”

I squirmed in place, “If you let me out of these and point me to a bathroom I’ll be you best friend forever!” I said through gritted teeth.

“Oh, shit!   Sorry about that!   Don’t freak out, okay?” she waved her hand and the restraints were just gone.

My jaw fell slack and I wet myself.   

I wanted to ask her how she had made the restraints disappear; to express my deep concern that I was having a psychotic episode; to apologize for losing control of my bladder in front of her.     I wanted to say all that and a hundred other things but instead my brain shut down unexpectedly and I just started to scream.

“AJ!,” Lucinda stomped her heel, “You aren’t insane!   This is happening!   I have too many things to do, to deal with you going all dissociative on me!   Focus!   Breathe,”   she demonstrated a breath and it seemed easy enough to give a try.   “I swear,” she held her hand with the first three fingers up, “I swear, I will explain what is going on.   I can’t tell you everything because I don’t know it all myself but I swear this will all make a crazy sort of sense.   Just try and calm down,” I had continued trying her ‘breathing’ and, after brief consideration, decided it was worth doing.   I nodded and she smiled. “Let’s get you cleaned up and then I’ll tell you what’s going on.”

---

~oOo~

---

I was standing naked in a locker room shower while being blasted in the face with hot water.   My brain had rebooted and was attempting to assimilate things that should have been impossible.   Maria, I ground my teeth in anger, had never felt quite real and that had made dealing with her existence a little easier.

What Lucinda had done to the restraints had felt totally real.   I knew it was happening and it was forcing my brain off the tracks.   Why exactly ghosts were reasonable but whatever it was that Luce could do wasn’t, I’m not sure.

“You about done in there?” a boys voice called into the shower, “You have to be getting all pruney.”

I checked my finger tips and sure enough they were wrinkled from all the moisture, “How long have I been in here?” I shouted back.

“Hey!   You can talk!   That’s a step up,” I could hear a smile.   “Maybe a half hour?   Little more or less.   You need any help?”

I wasn’t an invalid, “Just give me a minute and I’ll be out.”

“You sure?” he sounded sort of disappointed.

“Yeah.   I’m good,” I replied and cranked off the water. “Where are the... never mind, I got it.” I grabbed a towel and began drying myself off.

From behind me I heard, “I sure hope you’ve already transitioned, because if not, it is a fucking crime!”

“Excuse me?” I turned on my heel and wrapped the towel around my waist, “Little privacy?”

“I would think you would be used to sharing a shower,” he responded with what I could only describe as a leer.

“Sharing is fine.   Staring is not!”   I waved my hand to try and get his attention, “Dude! What the hell?”

“Sorry.   Sorry,” he said looking away reluctantly; even then I could feel him surreptitiously checking me out.

“Where the hell is Lucinda anyway?” she had at least kept the leers to a minimum.

“Sergeant Luce doesn’t usually handle orientation, we had new toys and she wanted to play,” he shrugged, “When it was clear you weren’t going to be with us for while she had to get back to her real job.”

Details from my conversion with Lucinda began filtering back.   She had been wearing a uniform with Sergeant's stripes.   I tried to remember what all the stuff meant but it escaped me.   “Is Lucinda way older than she looks or something? I guess she is Asian so that might do it,” I finished pulling on the pile of sweats that had been left next to the towels. “I’m decent.”

“Better than that,” he said under his breath.   I glared at him and took a step with intent.   He held up his hands in surrender, “Sorry.   Sorry.   Sometimes I have trouble controlling my mouth but I’ll be good,” his demeanor shifted slightly, “Sergeant Luce is our age, though it wouldn’t surprise me too much if she looked more or less the same in twenty years,” there was a slightly bitter edge to his words.

I relaxed a little, “Is this like some kind of messed up ROTC camp or something?”

He shook his head to the negative. “Most of us aren’t really military.   A few have gotten field commissions as a result of our special circumstances. Luce and a few others here have honest to god rank in the U.S. Army,” I started to object but he cut me off, “I know it can’t happen.   It did. A lot of ‘can’t happens’ happen here.   Lets move on shall we?”

“Where is here?” I probed.   Maybe I could escape and make my way back to my family.

“This is the ‘Beta Site’ for ‘the Center’ in ‘Colorado’. Sorry.   That last one didn’t need air quotes,” he grinned.   He reminded me a little of Willy.

Except way more gay.

“That’s great!” I smiled so broadly it hurt my face a little.   “Why am I here?”

“Whoa!” he took a small step back, “No need for that!   We’re just trying to help.”

“By kidnapping me?” This was going nowhere. “I want to see my family.”

“Not possible,” he said guardedly, “I know this can be kind of stressful but you just need to trust me when I say this is all necessary.   Unfortunate, but necessary.   So, please try and calm down.   You’re giving me a headache.”

I smiled again and I felt my eye twitch involuntarily, “I don’t know what you mean.   I’m perfectly calm,” my hands clenched and relaxed, the thought that I could probably knock this guy out and escape before anyone noticed ran around in my head like a rabid squirrel.

“It won’t work,” a girl with a light British accent called into the showers, “You could probably take him down, probably... he’s pretty tough for a squishy...” she considered,   “but you’d never get out and it would be a terrible way to start your first day here.”

“How the?” she had echoed my basic thoughts perfectly.

“I’m a telepath AJ,” she yelled, “Ryan there,” the boy waved and I realized I hadn’t ever gotten his name. “Is an empath.   You understand what all that means?”

“You people are nuts?” I responded logically. Under my breath I finished, “or I am.”

“Little bit,” she admitted “are you dressed?”

“Don’t you come in here Alyta!” Ryan warned strictly, “We’ve had enough of your shenanigans!”

“Then get your butts out here and stop hanging out in the bathroom like a of couple girls!” she said acerbically. “Wankers.”

Ryan gestured toward the door and I followed his direction.   Once in the hall I was met by a cute black girl about my height in her four inch heels.   She had dark eyes and white hair done up in a puffball. Her outfit made me wonder if it was Halloween or something.   When I quickly reviewed what Ryan was wearing I realized they sort of matched.

“Uniforms,” Alyta commented, “We’ll get you a couple once we know for sure what size you need,”   she looked me over and sighed quietly.

“Tell me about it!” Ryan laughed.

I stomped over to a bench near the entrance to the locker room and sat down.   “You guys have one minute to explain what’s going on or I’m going to flip out and start punching,” I reached for my phone to check the time but of course it wasn’t there. “Uh, do either of you have a watch?”

“A minute isn’t long enough,” Ryan said bluntly.

Alyta nodded, “He’s right.   Why don’t we...”

“49, 48, 47, 46” I counted off slowly.

“Fine.   I’ll give you the short version.”   she took a deep breath. “Animal activists break into a genetics lab, eventually resulting in children who develop super-powers,” she thought about it for a second.   “Yeah that pretty much sums it up.   What do you think Ry?”   He nodded his approval.

“You can’t seriously expect me to buy that.”

“Nothing to buy.   It just is what it is,” she said seriously.

I shook my head disbelievingly, “People don’t have super-powers.   That’s just not...”

“Pick a number,” Ryan said suddenly.

“27” I said quickly.   It was the number on my jersey.

He rolled his eyes, “Any number.   Big as you like and don’t say what it is.   Have you got one?” I nodded confirmation.

“Fourty-two thousand five hundred seventy-two,” Alyta rattled off immediately.

“How did you?” I gaped.

“Tel-e-path,” she said very slowly while pointing to her temple, “Sup-er-Pow-ers”

“Huh”, I grunted as it rattled around in my head for a second, “Yeah.   Okay.”

Ryan and Alyta looked at each other in surprise, “Really?   You’re fine with all this now?” Ryan asked.

I smiled and didn’t have to totally fake it, “‘Fine’ would be an overstatement.   I’m willing to listen.”

“You’re still thinking about trying to escape,” Alyta said with slight annoyance.

She was good.   I had to give her that.

“AJ, listen to me.   You know how people will say something like. ‘It would be easier to break into NORAD than this place’ as a hyperbole intended to express that a location is really secure?”

I hadn’t actually ever heard anyone say that before but I got the idea and nodded.

“Well with out any hyperbole needed.   It would be easier to break into NORAD than this place. Running isn’t an option.   You’re going to have to deal with this.”

“Fine,” I said reluctantly.

Ryan stepped up and took over, “Sixteen years ago, give or take, a radical animal rights group broke into a genetics lab to release the animals.   In the process they dumped a bunch of the stuff the company was working on down the drain and it contaminated the water supply used by a water bottling plant.   The ‘tainted water’,” he air quoted, “was shipped all over the country.   For the most part the stuff was harmless but if a woman drank it while pregnant it did something to her unborn child.   The kid was born intersexed but in a subtle way that prevented easy diagnosis and the mother died not long after she gave birth to them.   Eventually the kids that were changed by the water develop powers.”

“You’re actually serious,” I said quietly.   It was ridiculous but at the same time it was obvious he believed it.   When coupled with everything else I had seen I was having a hard time not believing him.   Things that hadn’t been making sense for a couple weeks began tumbling together.

“‘Fraid so AJ.” Alyta said, “That’s not the whole of it though.   First you develop powers.   We call that First Emergence.   Then, within twenty-four hours, Second Emergence, though most of us call it Transition, hits and the powers turn on completely and we... that is...   I hate doing this part,”   She said to Ryan.   “You do it!”

“I did it last time,” he responded,   “It’s your turn.”

She squared herself to him and started ticking off silently on her fingers.   After a moments calculations she said, “No you didn’t!   The last one we did was Rober... er... Chloe and I know I   told her.”

Ryan put his hands on his hips, “Chloe doesn’t count!   She was so happy she about it she’ll probably name her first child after you!”

“Reaction does not change the fact that I did the last one,” she argued hotly “by that logic you would have had to...”

“Would someone just tell me already!” I snapped.

Alyta stuck her tongue out at Ryan but got back to business, “When Transition hits we change.   A lot.   A big portion change what ethnicity they present as.   I, for instance, was about as WASPy as they come,” she took a deep breath, “and a boy.”

“No way,” I gaped, if it hadn’t been for Rainbow I would have probably been attracted to Alyta, “There is just no way.”

“‘Fraid so,” she smiled, “but it isn’t that bad once you get used to it.   Granted, I always wanted to be a girl but even so.”

“Oh my god,” I exclaimed, looking at Ryan in terror, “How often does that happen?” I swallowed hard, “Wait.   Are you guys implying this... that I’m like... I’m not.”

“Take a breath AJ,” Ryan said calmly. “We aren’t sure what’s going on with you.   The tests show that you are one of us.   You have all the vestigial girl organs just waiting to bloom but ... uh...   should we let someone else handle this part?   It seems kind of out of our depth.”

Alyta rolled her eyes, “We know you are past first emergence because you’ve been demonstrating telekinetic power like crazy...”

This was news to me, “What? When?”

“Well you almost tore a corpsman's arm off before they got you sedated and strapped into the restraints.   They had a terrible time drugging you because they couldn’t get through your skin and of course there was just the fact that you were able to move the restraints past their fix point at all.”

“I’m strong!”   I defended, “being able to drag a hundred pounds with one arm does not make me super.”

“Add a zero AJ!   At least!”

“Oh come on!” I blurted.

“Seriously!” she said.

“Seriously?” I questioned.

“Seriously,” she nodded.

“Seriously?!” I smiled.

“Oh, for fucks sakes, stop it!” Ryan yelled.

“Huh,”   I laughed to myself, “That’s actually kind of awesome,”   my stomach growled angrily. “Could I maybe get something to eat.   I feel like I’m starving to death.”

---

~oOo~

---

The last time I could remember being so hungry was the morning after the cramps.   After going back for seconds and then thirds I finally started to slow down.

”I freaking hate Kinetics,” Ryan mumbled.

“Why’s that?” I asked as I worked my way through a bowl of oatmeal.   It wasn’t as good as mom’s but realistically it was just oatmeal.   It’s pretty hard to mess up.

Alyta smiled evilly, “Because we can pretty much eat anything we want and our powers will burn the calories without issue.   Ryan has to actually watch what he eats if he wants to keep those tight, yummy abs of his.”

“Still not interested, Alyta,” Ryan said dismissively.

This was not a conversation I really wanted to be present for.   Change of subject time. “I thought you were a telepath?” I said as soon as my mouth cleared a bit.

“Well.   Yeah, sort of... I mean that’s the effect,” she hemmed.

“Alyta is a... God, what did they call it?” Ryan interrupted.

Alyta looked strangely embarrassed, “Micro-electrokinetic,”

Ryan shook his head, “No.   No.   I think they called it ‘Mini-E’,”

“They called it Micro-Electrokinesis!” she hissed and poked him with an audible static discharge.

“Ow!” he shook his hand, before nodding appreciatively, “Nice.   That was way bigger than before.   You really are getting stronger.”

She smiled, “Thank you!   I think I may be able to generate a weak stunning effect if I keep practicing.   Maybe even a full on taser kind of thing!”

“That would be so cool!” Ryan said bobbing his head excitedly.   “They might even put you on missions if you could do that!”

She shrugged, “Maybe.   Rather hard to compete as an EK when Kris is in play though.”

“Kris!” he waved his hand limply in a decidedly feminine manner, “She’s only good at the flashy stuff.   Can she use her power to read minds?   I don’t think so!”

Alyta quirked a smile, “True.   On the other hand being able to power all of Lond...”

I cleared my throat to interrupt. I had finished my meal and after waiting a while realized they had more or less forgotten I was there.

“Yes,   AJ?” Alyta asked immediately.

“Sorry.   I hate to be one of those people that is all about himself but can we get back to the part that has something to do with me?”

Alyta and Ryan both laughed and then Alyta touched my arm gently.   I could feel a strange crawling sensation; it was weird but kind of neat at the same time.   “Right you are AJ,” she smiled.   “We’re pretty sure you’re a telekinetic of some kind.   Our current guess is probably vanilla TK with a really short range but we can’t really be certain until after you Transition.”

“If he Transition’s,” Ryan interjected.

“More like if he hasn’t already Transitioned,” she argued and it was obvious they were heading into a new tangent.

“Hold on,” I said, waving my hands, “Let me see what I’ve gotten from all of this,” They both nodded and Ryan interwove his fingers to rest his chin upon them.   

Alyta slapped his hands apart, “Stop that!   Boys don’t do that,” she chastised.

He pouted but crossed his arms carelessly on the table and slouched into one palm, “Better?” he said with a roll of the eyes.

“Stop ironing your shirts and you would make a perfectly believable boy,” she grinned.

“Gee.     Thanks.   So would you!” he laughed and Alyta pushed him on the shoulder hard. I hadn’t really noticed before but she was a little lacking upstairs.

“Anyway!” I pushed onward, “What I’m getting from all of this is that there is a pretty strict time table that people like you guys...,”

“Like US guys,” Ryan said quickly.

I ignored him. “...follow when it comes to powers.   First they manifest...”

“Emerge,” said Alyta.

“...then, within twenty-four hours, they hit full on and you change sex in the process,” they both nodded again, “Only the problem is that I’ve been here for too long to be on the time table so either you guys were wrong and I’m not one of you...”

“Except you are because you have the girl parts like the rest of us did,” she pointed out.

“...or I’m different for some reason and am not going to change,”

“Or you already did change and there was something that went wrong which makes it look like you’re a boy who’s going to turn into a girl when in fact you’re a girl that turned into a boy already,” Ryan rattled off.

“That one doesn’t work at all,” I disagreed.   “I was, am and, with a little luck, always will be a boy.”

Alyta looked unsure, “Some of us go quite mad.   It’s possible that you Transitioned and honestly believe you’ve always been who you are but you weren’t and then you used mind control to make everyone around you believe that you were who you thought you were.”

I gawked at her for a moment, “But I don’t have mind control.”

Ryan looked confused as well, “Yeah, Alyta.   What the hell?”

She shrugged, “Ok so it doesn’t work here but couldn’t you TOTALLY see that happening?”

Ryan considered it for a moment and then laughed, “Yeah!   Yeah, I totally could. You should write a story where that happens.”

“Really?   Do you think anyone would want to read about something like that?”

God, it was like herding barn cats. “So since number three is out then that leaves us with something weird happening with me and you all being wrong.”

“Which we aren’t,” Ryan slid in before I could continue.

I dropped my head in defeat, “Why did you abandon me Lucinda!” I asked the table.

I felt someones hand, Alyta’s judging by the size, brush through my hair gently. It was a pleasantly familiar gesture and brought back thoughts of Rainbow and my family.   My stomach knotted up and I thought I was going to be sick. I tried not to cry but, as seemed to be the case of late, I wasn’t having much luck.   My muscles quaked and I started to feel hot and cold at the same time.   I heard Ryan and Alyta stand suddenly and moments later felt strong hands grip my shoulders.   When I looked up a pair of soldiers, my eyes were too bleary from the tears to make out any rank insignia, were standing behind me.

“Come with us, Mr. Cross,” was all they said.

Before I could even formulate an objection I was being frog marched through the halls.

I half expected them to tie a black bag over my head and water board me or something!

If I was as strong as Alyta seemed to think then these guys wouldn’t be able to restrain me if I didn’t want them too.   Of course I’d probably hurt them in the process and they hadn’t really done anything to me.   I was about to point out that I could walk quite well without help when my stomach lurched and I doubled up in pain.

The cramps were back.   They weren’t going at full strength yet but I could feel them getting worse by the second. “I think I need to see a doctor!” I said as sense memories of the last time this had happened started tripping.

They didn’t say a word.   They just scooped me up and made double time for where ever we were headed.   I really hoped it would be the infirmary.

Not long after that, but still long enough for me to begin to grasp the size of the complex, we entered a large room occupied by a mixture of military, civilian and medical looking types.   At the center of the mass was Lucinda arguing with a civilian and a scientist.

“I don’t care what your preliminary evaluations say! We aren’t doing that!” she barked with surprising confidence,   “If Johnny is right...”

The scientist interrupted, “Mr. Harris’s accuracy has been spotty at best and has grown increasingly so over the last few weeks.   He’s been obsessing over nothing!   You can’t expect us to throw away such a unique opportunity on the word of a burned out pre-cog!”

Lucinda was mad.   She was trying to remain calm but failing miserably. “He’s not an ‘opportunity’,” she growled, “His name is AJ.”

The civilian stepped in and as soon as he opened his mouth I knew that he wasn’t really a civilian at all.   He might as well have been wearing a sign that said ‘intelligence agent’. “Sergeant Xaing.   Please try and see this from our perspective.   The profile says that without a strong familial tie the subject is unlikely to be of use to us for a protracted length of time. Using the bonding effects of his transition will hopefully create a link that will make his assimilation into the organization faster and easier for everyone involved.   It really is for his own good.”

“Oh bullshit! You!,” she pointed at the scientist, “want to see what happens during the bond to a non-emergent and you,” she indicated the spook, “want to see if you can use the bond as a way to control us!   It’s. Not. Going. To. Happen,” Luce ejaculated and I have to admit I fell in love with her a little bit.   It wasn’t what like what I felt for Rainbow but it was there none the less.

“You don’t have any...” was all the spook managed to say before he just vanished.

The scientist stood slack jawed, “I... you... you can’t!”

She stepped up and looked him directly in the eye, “When he first got here, he told me that he ‘was never here’.   Well guess what.   He was right. Now you, Doctor Reinch, you are here but if you wish to remain here you will stop acting like a dick and start acting like a human being!”

Dr. Reinch alternated between flushing and blanching for a few seconds before stomping away, “I will not be bullied like this!” he screeched, “Science is the only hope you freaks have of ever having a normal life but you would throw it all...”   he vanished.

“What a dumbass,” I groaned.

“Oh crap!” Lucinda said and waved the soldiers to bring me to her.   “How are you doing AJ?”

I tried to say something flippant but the cramps ramped up again and I only managed a pained grunt.

“He’s burning up,” one of the soldiers that had been helping me offered.

Luce started to hold her hand to my forehead but pulled away before she even touched me, “Whoa.   You’ll be okay AJ.   Once you Transition, it’ll be better,”   She did a really good job at hiding the fact that she was scared for me but it was still pretty obvious.

Recognition finally hit me, “You were the one who had sex in the woods,” I laughed quietly.

Lucinda blushed crimson and held a finger to my lips, shushing me. “We can not talk about that later,” she smiled but her eyes were sad.

She didn’t think I was going to make it.

Awesome.

She directed the soldiers to help me into another room and walked with me as they did.   It was getting harder and harder to focus but I managed to make out most of what she had to say, “Johnny thinks your transition is going to be dangerous so we’re going to have to leave you in here alone so you don’t accidentally hurt anyone.   You hear me AJ?”

I nodded vacantly, the pain was so bad the world would just flash out for a moment and then come back.   They strapped me to a metal bed and I immediately snapped the restraints.

Luce put her hand on my forehead, “Try and focus AJ.   I don’t want to lose you to this.   Focus.   Did they tell you that you have to pick a new name?”   I grunted and tried to focus on her voice. It did help. “Have you picked one yet?”

“Don’t... want...” I spat through gritted teeth.

“Have you picked one?” she repeated.

I tried to tell her but couldn’t form words.

A doctor had been taking my vitals and was starting to get agitated, “It’s going to be very soon or not at all Sgt. Xaing.”

“Try to relax and let it happen.   It really isn’t so bad,” Luce assured me.

“We have to go Lucinda!” the doctor added with a hint of panic.

“Focus on something you care about AJ,” she added before allowing herself to be removed from the room.   The door was sealed and I was left all alone.

I stared into space as the pain moved past anything I could have even imagined.   I tried to scream but my jaw was locked shut.   Every muscle in my body felt like it was firing at once.   I tried to focus past it all and managed to summon the images of those that meant most to me.   Rainbow, Jojo, mom and dad were all with me.   The pain faded and I slipped into darkness...

---

EPILOGUE

---

Dr. Strange stood out side of Mr. Bottom’s office, waiting for permission to enter.   She found his games insufferable but there was little she could about them.

For now.

“Enter,” the deep baritone voice barked and she did as instructed after a bare moment to collect herself.   “Where the hell is SO302?” he asked before she could even speak.

“Special Operative 302 is still in Omaha, Mr. Bottom,” she had almost said ‘sir’ but in spite of the fact he had obviously spent considerable time in the military, Mr. Bottom did not react favorably to the honorific.

Mr. Bottom gazed at her for a time, letting her sweat, “Exactly what part of full withdrawal did you not understand Dr. Strange?   Her continued presence only serves to increase the chances of the bastard Harris tumbling to us.”

The doctor took a deep breath, “SO302 believes the boy will return and she can still salvage the mission.”

“Salvage the mission?” Mr. Bottom asked incredulously.   “There is no mission!   Project: Morpheus is a failure and we are not devoting any further resources in that direction!   It is your job to get that through her technicolored head!”

“Of course, Mr. Bottom,” she answered.

“I had hoped your experiments with the psychic bond might be a useful way to control these freaks,” he eyed her coldly, “but I am beginning to wonder exactly where the loyalty of your ‘family’ lies.”

Dr. Strange swallowed hard and began carefully visualizing the steps she would have to take when she drew the pistol secreted in the small of her back and shot him in the face.

No one was going to take her babies away from her!

Just before she went for her gun the door burst open and Dr. Charm scrambled into the room, “We did it!” he shouted, out of breath.

Both Dr. Strange and the normally unflappable Mr. Bottom, stared at him in shock.

“What in the hell do you think you are doing Doctor!” Mr. Bottom boomed.   

“We did it!” he repeated with a mad grin on his face.

“Did what?” Dr. Strange asked.

“We finally managed to get into the information stored in the Marigold’s black box,” he took a deep breath, “the project was a success.”

“The Transition Inhibitor was a failure Dr. Charm,” Mr. Bottom said coldly.

“Yes!” he laughed manically, “but what we’ve seen from the Marigold suggests we may have found the cure!”

“You can’t mean...” Dr. Strange said nervously.

“Yes!   The cure.   The cure!” he bubbled,   “We just need the boy!”

---

~oOo~

---

Seven months later...

Shae jerked the wheel of the heavy SUV hard, downshifting to slow just enough not to rear end the minivan ahead of them.   Automatic weapons fire traced across the back of the truck and only Sam’s constant attention kept the damaged back window from completely failing.   Shae tapped the breaks as she slid across three lanes of traffic and stomped the accelerator.

“How in the hell am I the only one that knows how to drive a stick?” Shae shouted as a Semi loomed before them and she swerved just before hitting it.   Shae had always been a very safe driver; the idea of caroming down a busy interstate at 120 miles an hour would never even have occurred to her before the Center pulled her out of Omaha.

She also never would have guessed how thrilling it would be!

“How’s Luce!” Shae shouted without taking her eyes from the road for even a second.

“Still out!” Laramie said stiffly.   “They got her from behind with some kind of dart!”

“You okay, Lara?” Shae asked as she wove through traffic erratically in an attempt to avoid gunfire.

“I’ll be fine in a few minutes,” Laramie lied, “healing this many gunshots is a little rough.   How about you Shae? Those burns looked bad.”

“Excepting the fact that my brain is spinning as fast as the engine I’m fi... shit!” the truck swerved to avoid a car merging carelessly into their lane.   “Jackass!” Shae shouted at the car and the brief distraction proved fortuitous. Without even time to think Shae swang cut across traffic and barely managed to make an off ramp onto an intersecting highway.   Slowing enough to not lose it on the curve Shae took the chance to check on their pursuers.

Sure enough the move had been unexpected enough that the bad guys had missed the exit but as she watched one of the cars deftly pulled a bootlegger reverse in the middle of traffic and barreled the wrong way down the corresponding on ramp!

If they hadn’t been trying to kill them it would have been seriously cool.

“Did you guys see that?” Sam shouted.

“I know!” Shae agreed, “Who are these guys?   CIA?   Syndicate?   I mean, what the hell?”

“Why don’t you get out and ask them?” Sam snarked as she focused on shoring up the rear of the vehicle once more.

The road ahead was only two lanes but it was clear as far as Shae could see.   An involuntary smile spread across her lips.   “Sam!   You’re a genius!   Take the wheel!”

“What?   I’m in the back seat I can’t...oh geeze!” heedless of Sam’s objections Shae set the cruise and released the wheel.   After a stomach shifting jerk Sam took control of the truck.   “Are you trying to get us killed!” Sam shouted, “I can’t drive and keep us from getting shot!”

“Don’t worry.   I got them,” Shae said lightly, “Make sure Luce is safe.   I’ll meet up with you if I can.”

“Meet up? Shae, what are you...” Laramie asked as Shae pushed open the door and climbed onto the roof of the truck as if they were standing still.

“What are you doing?” Sam shrieked, “Get back in here!”

Moments later a pink haired comet smashed into the windshield of the pursuing car causing it to swerve and roll.

“Holy shit!” Laramie said under her breath.   “She’s insane!   What do we do now?”

“Find a place to hide.   Wait for backup.   Wake Luce up.   Find Shae,” Sam recited. “and find someway for me to get in the drivers seat!”

---

~oOo~

---

Two hours later Luce sat hunched over a cup of coffee nursing a killer hang over.   Daniel walked over to her and sat down, “How you feeling?” he asked quietly.

“You saw our car?” Luce asked.

“Yeah,” Daniel said, “it was pretty chewed up.”

“My head feels just a little worse than the truck looks,” she groaned.   “Any word on Shae?”

“Not yet,” Daniel reported, “We found the wreckage but there was no sign of the Battle Axe.”

“I dare you to call her that to her face,” Luce chuckled even though it hurt to do so. “Captured?”

Daniel shook his head and tried not to think about the mess they had found inside the crashed vehicle, “No one in that car captured Shae and anyone else that might have been after you have vanished like we would expect.”

“Anything from her transponder?” Luce continued.

“Doesn’t seem to be working,” Dan chewed his thumb in a vestigially feminine manner, “I may be way off base here Luce but it occurs to me that Kansas City is about the closest we’ve let her get to Omaha since she started going on missions...” he shook his head, “but she’s probably just trying to find us,” he smiled but it was obvious he didn’t buy his own argument.   “I knew I should have grabbed a tracker.”

Luce was quiet for a few moments as she let the information percolate.   “Don’t sweat it Daniel, you couldn’t predict what a hump this would be.   Call in the search party and get things tied up here.   We need to get to Omaha.”

In honor of Halloween, a Whateley Academy Fanfiction

Welcome to Teslaville!

by Matt Zenn

Teslaville, California
April/1/2002

A faceless man looms out of the darkness. He moves with a fluid grace that Harm finds hard to watch. Without a glance Harm's way the man walks away down a street that Harm has not noticed before. As Harm looks around he sees others like the man. A fearsome loneliness wells up within him and he cries out to those around him but none of them react. Harm stands amidst the throng and is unheard, unseen, unknown.

"Why won't any of you speak?" he shouts but they continue on their way as if he did not exist at all. The weight of their disregard drags him down and he collapses, great chains at his wrists, drowning in a sea of anonymity.

"Oh," he says looking around with new eyes, "a nightmare." he shakes his head with disgust and stands. With out a thought he shrugs off the chains that bind him, "I must have been really tired not to see it sooner."

Around him the nightmare continues but he is above it now. In the dream he closes his eyes "Three. Two. One. Wake." he says quietly to himself.

Harm opened his eyes and glanced at the alarm clock that sat next to his bed. He let out a huff of irritation that he had been forced out of sleep by a nightmare. He should have just changed it to something more palatable. Less chance of a repeat that way. Rolling to his back he took a few deep breaths examining the nightmare while it was still fresh in his mind. "Anything special about this one?" he mumbled sleepily to himself, scanning the dream over once again. It was the same as every other time he'd had that nightmare. The details were different but the essence was the same.

He was all alone.

The thought brought back a twinge of the nightmare panic he had felt. "Sweet Peppers." he groaned softly and reached over to turn on his bed lamp. Quietly he sat up in bed and pulled out his dream journal. On the inside of the front cover he added a tally mark to the "Faceless People" column and then turned to the bookmarked page halfway through the leather bound volume. Drawing the pen from its place in the journal's spine he began to scratch out the details.

04/01/2001 02:56

Had one of the lonely dreams again. Seems a little worse than normal. Ate tomato product for dinner. Also broccoli. Fabricate...

He scratched out 'fabricate' until it was completely obscured.

Check other instances to see if eating broccoli may be causative or at least connected.

His mind was beginning to wander as sleep tried to reclaim him and the details of the dream started slipping away.

Chains. Loneliness. Faceless people. The color yellow.

"The color yellow?" he repeated, surprised by his own observation. "I'll have to remember to keep an eye out for that." A yawn escaped his lips and he closed the journal and stowed it back in his nightstand. Turning off the light, he curled back up under the covers. "At least there weren't any shadow assassin's in this one," he murmured, closed his eyes and was once again asleep.

---

Harm and his girl friend Alice, are standing naked at the edge of a cliff. Behind them Teslaville sits, pristine and welcoming. Before them is a vast and untamed wilderness. It is pleasantly warm though paradoxically they can see their breath, Alice's long blond hair whips gently in an unfelt breeze. Joining hands they step off the cliff and fly off together into the clouds.

Standing outside himself Harm observed the other Harm Dong while also being the other Harm Dong. It was a strange sensation which he had long ago grown accustomed to. This was his favorite dream. All he had to do was sit back and not change anything. The inconsistencies with reality occasionally bothered him, Teslaville wasn't in the mountains,the wilderness was a bit too New England for Southern California, and obviously people couldn't fly. Still, Harm had learned that if he changed anything about the dream then the whole thing ended up different and the last thing Harm wanted was to change the ending.

Circling one another like songbirds in spring Harm and Alice wind their way higher and higher until they pass into a particularly soft, warm, wet cloud and there-in proceed to...

The clock positioned two feet from his ear made the distinctive mechanical click which warned of the oncoming cacophony. The one down side of lucid dreaming was that he developed a tendency to sleep through his alarm, if the dream was good. After being late to breakfast one too many times, his father had built an Alarm Clock to wake the dead. Sure enough, Harm hadn't been late since.

Starting at the warning click, he scrabbled for the clock and managed to find the off button before his ante-meridian tormentor could fully rouse itself. The sun shone through the half open drapes and spilled across the various baseball trophies creating a dazzling kaleidoscope of pain. With a groan he pulled the curtains closed to darken his room. The lack of light lessened the throbbing in his skull but it did not stop. "Stupid headaches," he groaned as he pulled on his clothes for school. With shuffling steps he made his way into the bathroom. "Maybe I should see Doctor Willis," he thought as he pressed thumbs into his temples to relieve some of the pressure.

"Harm?" his mother called up the stairs, "Up and at' em sweetie. Breakfast is almost ready!"

"Be down in a second, mom," he called back wincing at his own voice. Desperate, Harm began pawing through the cabinet looking for some of the headache pills his dad had made. They didn't do anything for body aches or really anything except headaches but for their intended purpose they were aces! At last finding the brown glass bottle with the large blue pills, Harm tossed one into his mouth and forced himself to chew slowly, ignoring the bitter taste. As he chewed, he made an intense study of the faucet of the bathroom sink. Focusing on something else usually helped.

"Are you having one of your headaches again, sweetie?" his mother called from closer to him.

"Yeah," he responded still chewing the tablet. "It's already going away though," by the time he swallowed the last of the pill, his headache was gone and he felt human once more. Looking up from the sink he saw his mother stop just inside the door.

"Are you sure you're alright?" she asked pressing her pale wrist to his forehead. "You don't feel hot."

"I'm fine mom." Harm smiled, a bit embarrassed by his mother's concern. "It's just a headache and now it's gone."

"If you're sure," she agreed, but the way she pursed her lips and worried her hands made it clear she was unconvinced. "Perhaps we should just see Dr. Willis to be sure?" absently she replaced a blond lock which had fallen out of place. "You seem to be getting them an awful lot of late."

Harm smiled and shrugged, "They've been kinda bad this week but I bet they stop in a couple days just like dad said."

"Your father's genius only goes so far Harm," Harm watched his mother's nostrils flare just slightly as she sniffed at the air and her eyes widened in panic. "The bacon!" she yelped and then took off at a speed that always impressed the young baseball player. The fact that she did so in heels while taking the stairs two at a time was just frightening.

"Too bad the guys on my team don't show that much hustle," Harm mused as he made his way to the ground floor with a great deal less hurry. Reaching the kitchen Harm smelled the distinct odor of bacon which had been slightly over cooked. "Is it OK?" he asked as he sat down at the table.

Elisabeth stared at the frying pan with a look of deep concern, "Do these look burned or just over done to you?" she held out the pan for Harm to inspect.

"Are they for me or dad?" he asked with a smirk.

"These were for your father," she cocked her hips and placed one arm akimbo whilst the other held the cast iron skillet. An eyebrow arched his direction, she waited for the punchline.

"They look just fine then," Harm grinned toothily.

"Well so much for this batch," she turned smartly on her heel toward the garbage can with nose in the air.

"Mom. Wait!" Harm hopped up and stopped his mother before she could pitch the Bacon. "I don't mind it a little extra done. He can have mine. I'll take this."

Elisabeth shook her head, "You don't have to do that sweetie."

"I know, but I really don't mind."

"Alright," she smiled and ruffled his short dark hair a bit.

"Ma!" Harm protested without any real anger, "Knock it off!"

They walked back over to the table and Harm began dishing himself breakfast. Eggs, waffles, bacon and juice were all swiftly consumed. Between bites Harm managed to ask, "So where is dad?"

"Out in the lab," his mother replied from the stove where she was frying more meat, "he had a brilliant idea for something last night so lord only knows when he'll actually sleep again," Harm nodded and grabbed another piece of toast. Thinking about it for a moment he took a slice of eggs from the casarole and made a sandwich. Elisabeth glanced at her son with a smirk, "Hungry this morning?"

Harm chewed until he could swallow, "Yeah. I didn't notice it when I had the headache but I'm famished!"

"You must be hitting your growth spurt."

"Whatever it is, I'm starved."

"Just leave enough for your father," she said lightly, deftly flipping the sizzling pork without a look.

"What about you?" Harm asked quizzically.

"I can make do with whatever is left. When you're done could you take this out to your father?" she indicated the tray she was holding. Harm nodded as he finished his juice. "Thank you sweetheart," she chimed, kissing him on the top of his head as she sat the tray down next to him.

At last the hole in Harm's gut was full and he let out a burp in appreciation, "Excuse me!" he said quickly. His mother just shook her head. "I'll just run this out to dad then I have to get to school," she nodded vacantly from where she was cleaning up the mess of breakfast. "Mom. Eat something before it all gets cold."

"But the mess," she looked stricken at the idea of leaving the job unfinished.

"Will be there when you finish eating. In spite of what dad seems to think; hot food tastes good. I promise."

"Thank you Harm," she smiled as she sat down at the table and picked a little of this and that for her breakfast.

Whistling atonally Harm grabbed the tray and headed out to the backyard, catching the screen door with his toe before it could bang. The Dong house was average enough for Teslaville. The siding was a light green color with white trim. A short picket fence ran down the side walk in front of the property and a clothes line ran between the house and the lab.

The lab was really the only feature of the Dong property which set it apart from the rest of the town. It was two stories tall and made of pre-stressed concrete slabs no less than ten feet thick. The walls formed an inverted trapezoid and were supported by massive triangular supports. Vents were set into the roof to help direct any explosions which happened within up and away from anything important. Radio antenna's and lightning rods densely populated the remaining space. In the end it resembled a bunker more than anything else. Harm had heard of people having bomb shelters but he doubted any of them would have held a candle to his dad's lab.

Harm angled across the back yard down the cobble stone pathway he had helped his dad put in. His dad, Ducky to most everyone save Harm, had tried building a robot to do all the heavy lifting first but like most of his father's creations it proved far more adept at destruction than construction. Harm still missed the big oak tree it had killed. Entering the twenty foot cube of a corridor which was the entryway to the lab, Harm walked slowly to make sure the sensors could get a good reading before he crossed into the red zone at the far end. Once he was on the steel grating he picked up his pace. The machine gun turrets hadn't spun up so everything was fine. "Now I just have to pry the door open with one hand," he thought as he appraised the inset steel pressure door. Upon reaching the door he found it unbolted so entry was made the easier.

Stepping inside Harm called out, "Dad! You in here? Mom made you breakfast!" silence was the only response except for the intermittent flashes of an arc welder. With a huff of mild frustration Harm began winding his way through the labyrinthine floor as the tray of food rapidly cooled. "You left the door unlatched again," he shouted, not really expecting a response. When he rounded the bend which should have led him to the work area his father was using, he found his way blocked by a short, dome topped, cylindrical robot on small rubber tank treads. A three inch cannon protruded from it's chest and it looked capable of significant adjustment regarding angle of fire. Behind the lifeless drone the flicker and sounds of his father working were evident. "Dad!" he yelled as loud as he could manage but was unsurprised when his father remained oblivious. With a sigh, Harm slowly began navigating his way around to the other side where the way was unobstructed.

Finally reaching his father, he was also able to get a better look at the back of the robot where a large hopper had been attached. Setting the food down next to a small collection of similar, half-eaten plates, Harm, pulled on a pair of goggles and then picked up a hammer. Standing back a bit from his dad Harm banged the hammer on the bench where his father was working. Instantly Ducky's head popped up and the welder swung wide as he looked for the source of the vibration. "Why is it..." his father questioned aloud, "Ah, the mask!" he realized and flipped up the blinder. "Holocaust!" he smiled widely seeing his son, "What are you doing here? Have you seen my new automaton? I made it to help you at the baseball practices." he rattled off with out a pause.

"Uh. Thanks dad," Harm smiled, suppressing the memory of the last time his dad had made a robot to help with practice. Poor Timothy. Poor, poor Timothy. "Mom, said you've been up all night so I brought you something to eat."

"Up all night?" he fished a pocket watch out of his lab coat. "It can't have been more than..." he checked the watch and briefly considered it's meaning, "Up all night it is then." he smiled taking off the welding mask and running a gloved hand through his black hair. Ducky Dong was a significant contrast to Harm's mother. Where she was tall, blond and classically beautiful; he was six inches shorter than his wife, thin and had not received the best combination of features from his Vietnamese ancestry. In that regard Harm had been lucky, the only odd thing about his appearance were his blue eyes and those were new. Fortunately everyone seemed to think they were cool so, again, no problems. "Excellent!" Ducky said rubbing his hands together after removing the heavy gloves. He quickly walked to the tray and began stacking the now chill food into small piles. That done he scooped a single pile onto the large spoon provided and chewed with a blissful look on his face. "Perfect!"

Harm smiled at his father's eccentricities. "Need anything else dad?"

"Well now that you mention it..." Ducky said turning toward his workbench.

Before he could finish the thought Harm jumped in, "'Cause I'd be happy to help but I need to get to school."

Ducky retrieved his watch, "Ah. It is that time. Yes. Off with you. You can help me after school."

"OK. See you then," Harm waved as he started back out of the lab. When he looked back he saw his father scoop up another pile of food and then head back to work. Harm considered telling him to finish the food but knew it was already too late. The muse had him.

Strolling back to the house with a tray full of dishes Harm took a moment to breath in the fresh southern California air and feel the morning sun beat down pleasantly. Returning to his whistling Harm ambled his way to the back door with a smile on his face. It was a good day. Inside he heard his mother talking. For a moment he thought she might be on the phone but then he heard Alice's voice and a good morning got even better. Walking into the Kitchen he was greeted by the lovely sight of Alice Powers chatting with his mother. As he entered Alice turned her head causing her long red locks to shift and fall, framing her face with fire. Seeing Harm a smile split her face, "Hi, Harm," she said warmly. "Your mom and I were just talking about you!"

"Heh," Harm coughed as his ears began to burn a little late, "What about?"

Alice's grin turned mischievous and her brilliant green eyes danced, "Oh, nothing. Your mom got out the photo album..."

Harm's stomach dropped and he sat the tray down a little harder than he intended, "Not... not the pink one?" He tried to keep the panic from his voice but was a complete failure.

"You mean THIS one!" Alice laughed as she pulled the offending photo album from her lap.

"Urk!" Harm gagged.

"Oh, come one Harm," she giggled opening the book, "You look so cute in your little dresses!"

"Give me that!" Harm lunged for the book. Alice didn't resist, instead just smiling all the wider. "They aren't dresses," Harm said defensively, clutching the album to his chest. "They are traditional baby clothes."

"But they were pink!" Alice laughed.

"Not all of them!" Harm protested just as the lights flickered.

His mother stood up and checked the Broadcast Electricity Receivers but found they were working correctly. "Probably just your father again," she muttered as she returned to where Harm was pointing at various pictures.

"See! Blue. Green. Yellow. Lot's of colors!"

Alice wiped a tear from her eye and stood up to give Harm a hug, "It's OK Harm," she chuckled a bit more, "I was just teasing. You were an adorable little girl."

"Sweet Peppers," Harm sighed in frustration as Alice laughed herself silly. "You know we're going to be late, right?"

Though in the midst of a paroxysm, Alice immediately sobered and stood. "We should probably get going then," she said very seriously.

"Yeah," Harm grabbed his back pack and the two of them headed for the front door, "see you after school mom."

"See you then sweetie. I love you."

Harm blushed. "Yeah. Yeah. Same here." he said with a flush. Alice giggled and elbowed him lightly in the ribs.

After negotiating the front gate Alice and Harm began the walk to school. For a moment both were caught up by how perfect the day was. Eventually Alice turned to look at him with out breaking stride, "You know I was just teasing you about the pictures, right?"

"Yeah. Yeah," Harm grumbled.

"Oh. Didums hurt your feelings?" she mewled. "Would a kiss make it better?"

"Yeah!" Harm said a little too enthusiastically.

Alice and Harm embraced loosely and Alice leaned in to press Harm on the lips. As their lips touched a snap of electricity passed between them, "Ouch!" Alice said recoiling from him.

"Are you OK?" Harm asked.

"Yes. I just caught a little shock," she rubbed her top lip lightly. "It's not puffy or red is it?"

"No more so than usual," Harm said with a smirk, earning himself a slap to the shoulder. "Sorry, dad was welding in the lab. I must have picked up a charge."

"I guess we'll just have to try again," Alice leaned back toward him with a smile on her lips.

Just as they were about to touch a voice shouted, "Right!" Alice's eyes went round and suddenly Harm felt himself twisted off his feet, a moment later a girl wearing torn jeans, a black t-shirt, and a bright red bandanna tying back her hair caromed past at breakneck speed. "Sorry!" she yelled but most of it was lost to the wind. As Alice and Harm watched, Angie Alaniz kicked up onto the Forester's concrete wall, rolled along the top for ten feet and then arced off the vaguely ramp-like protrusion which concealed the mailbox. Grasping at the board with one hand "the Psychochik" laughed like a lunatic as she gracefully cleared the neighboring hedge.

"That girl is insane!" Alice blurted as she watched her friend shoot back out onto the sidewalk in front of them and grind to a halt.

"Sweet peppers," he nodded and then began to laugh, "She wants the nickname to stick I guess," Not wanting to be late, Harm pulled Alice lightly to get her walking.

Kicking the back of the board Angie grabbed it with both hands and held it above her head, cackling like a mad woman. Her reverie over, she shouted, "You guys saw! Bwahahaha! I, at last, have witnesses to the depths of my psychosis!"

"That's not a good thing Angie!" Alice countered. She had to admit it was pretty impressive though.

"Not to you, perhaps, but to the Psychochik the madness is life!"

Harm laughed, "Come on Psychochik. We're all going to be late."

Angie shrugged and hopped back on her board. Rolling slightly in front of Alice and Harm, while blithely looking backwards at them, she grinned at the way they had surreptitiously entwined their little fingers. "So," her smile made her brown eyes dance, "Are you giving out kisses to everyone today?"

"Me or Harm?" Alice asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"You. Harm. Either. Both?" she said with a hopeful inflection.

"Ew!" Alice said sticking out her tongue, "You are so weird Angie!"

"True," Angie said wistfully and then shifted her weight causing her to decelerate such that her arms ended up wrapped about Harm's neck. "Well the girlfriend is out, so I guess it's just you and me Hol-o-caust. Be gentle!" she swooned in his arms while still keeping her feet on the board.

"Urk!" Harm grunted, Angie was always a lot heavier than he expected, "Knock it off Angie!"

With a laugh she righted herself and pushed off his chest to get rolling. "No love for the Psychochik?" she pouted and then smiled. "Oh Kay! See you both at prison!" With two hard kicks she shot out into the street and caught the back bumper of a car rolling almost silently by.

"What is wrong with that girl?" Alice asked as she watched Angie slingshot past one car to another moving more quickly.

"She's insane. Remember?" Harm laughed. "Let's go. We're going to be late."

Reluctantly Alice began walking more swiftly, "That was a heck of a jump she did."

"Crazy," was all Harm had to say.

---

The hallways of Teslaville High School were the usual madness one might expect. Winding their way through them Alice and Harm just tried to ignore the petty cruelties around them. To their right another couple were holding hands and talking quietly to each other as they leaned near a window. To their left Henry Dirkov was shaking down a smaller boy for his lunch money. "Dangit Henry!" Harm cursed under his breath and took a step toward them.

Before he could get any further, Alice pulled him back next to her, "Let it go Harm. He's a Junior. He's huge. And we're late as it is," distracted by the squishing sensation of Alice's beast against his arm Harm continued walking. A clatter and shrieks of horror rose from behind them. Harm tossed a look over his shoulder and saw that Dirkov was systematically shoving the smaller boy into his locker. Harm looked at Alice, imploring her to let him do something. After a moment she released his arm, "Fine. Catch up with me after next..."

"Let him go Dirkov," William Hastings threatened as he pressed his way through the throng.

"Or what, Willy?" Dirkov turned and straightened. At his full height he fairly towered over the football player.

"Just let him go Henry," William sighed. "We all know how this goes down if you don't."

As if on cue first bell rang and the hallway began to clear, "You're lucky, Hastings!" Dirkov postured.

"Whatever you have to tell your self, Dirkov," William replied and Henry slouched away.

Harm tossed a quick salute toward William as he helped the other boy back out of the locker. William nodded in acknowledgment and then both he and the boy took off for class. "We're going to be late!" Alice hissed and they both hurried off as fast as they felt they could get away with.

---

After that the day was like any other, though the occasional brownouts did spark a lecture in History about the contributions of Nikola Tesla.

"And what would you say is Mr. Tesla's most enduring creation?" Asked Mr. Ford as the lights flickered once more.

"The Death Ray?" Walter Adams suggested from the third row.

Harm shook his head in amusement; someone always picked the Death Ray.

"I asked for his most enduring invention Mr. Adams. Not his most amusing. Mr. Dong. Most enduring invention."

"Alternating Current Electricity," Harm replied with confidence.

"Very good Mr. Dong." he scanned the room for his next victim settling on a girl in the front row, "Miss Grey. What extension of Teslian theory allows..."

Camille interrupted, "Tesla Broadcast Electricity and the Tesla Broadcast Energy Towers, more commonly called T-BET's by the populace at large are the single technological breakthrough which allows life in Teslaville to exist as it does. Where other cities still rely on fossil fuels to propel their vehicles and heat their homes, Teslaville is 100% electric. This means less pollution, superior power distribution efficiency, and less over all impact on the environment. All these things make the Tesla Broadcast Energy Tower's intrinsic to our superior way of life."

"Thank you Camille," Mr. Ford said with jut a hint of annoyance, "For reciting the text almost verbatim.

Another boy raised his hand, "But what is causing the brownout's?"

Before Mr. Ford could respond Camille jumped in once more, "Most likely it is a result of atmospheric conditions or solar activity."

"Thank you again Camille," his tone was more annoyed than before, "And what could we do to help prevent this effect?"

"Talk to Harm's dad about changing the broadcasting frequency from a single frequency to a frequency array?"

Mr. Ford pushed her, "If it was so simple why would Dr. Dong have not built the towers that way in the first place?"

Camille was stumped, "He didn't think of it?"

Reluctantly Harm raised his hand and waited till called on, "When my dad was setting up the Teslaville power relay he had a very specific amount of electricity to work with. By using a single frequency he was able to maximize the efficiency of the energy transfer and minimize costs for building the receivers. Now that it is established the city council has been reluctant to overhaul a functional system for the rare days like today. You have to keep in mind that if you change how the towers broadcast then you have to change how everything else receives. Every car, lamp, stove, clock and toy which runs on electricity would have to be modified. It's a really big thing." Apparently some of the stuff his dad had talked about had sunk in after all.

Camile twisted in her seat to look at Harm, ignoring Mr. Ford entirely, "Why couldn't you leave the current frequency alone and just add the additional frequencies in a non-interfering range? That way you could hook new things into the new system and just retrofit things as needed. For that matter if you just refitted the cars and buildings..."

"We've gotten way off topic. Camille. Harm. Thank you for the interesting discussion but why don't you save it for science or debate? We're almost out of time," The bell rang, "You can pick up your assignments on the way out. See you all tomorrow."

Harm meandered toward his locker to drop things off before lunch. As he arranged things for easy access afterward, he felt a girl's breasts suddenly press up against him from behind, "Too short to be Alice," he thought "Knock it off Ang...oh. Hi Camille," he said as he turned to face her. "Need something?" Harm found himself staring at the small girl's chest. With the way she dressed it was impossible to tell by looking but the bumps he had felt were surprisingly large.

"Sorry." she mumbled, "I got pushed into you," she lifted her books to cover her chest. "I still think that you could at least make it so the the vital city infrastructure would be less likely to go down by instituting my plan."

"Like a dog with a bone," Harm thought. Aloud he said, "Probably so. Do you have written propose..."

Camille's hand snapped out from where she held her books holding a red folder marked 'Multi-spectrum Energy Transfer'. "I hope it not too long. I double spaced it and left really wide margins for taking notes. If your dad takes notes. Does your dad take notes?" Harm nodded. Nerd lust for his father. So weird. "I think it's a good plan and I hope to work with him on enacting it. Oh. Would you give this to your father," she smiled weakly.

"Sure, Camille. No problem. How about we get to lunch?"

"Lunch? Uh. Sure," she stammered.

"You, Alice, Angie and I can all eat together."

"I usually eat with Jackson," she said quietly.

"So he can eat with us too. No problem."

Camille smiled and this time it managed to fully bloom, "OK. I'll just drop this stuff off and I'll see you there!" Harm watched as the girl practically skipped away down the hall.

Harm laughed quietly to himself as he began the long walk to lunch. His headache was starting to come back but he knew he had a few more hours before it would really get bad. "Maybe I should see the doctor," he mumbled and with a deep breath began to queue. Over the next five minutes Harm's companions trickled into the line. Shouts of 'no cutting' were voiced and ignored. Soon everyone except Alice was at the table trying to decide what kind of meat had been stuffed into the ravioli.

Jackson Case sniffed at the split pasta which hung limply on his fork, "I've never had raccoon. For some reason I imagine this is what it might smell like," he grimaced and shoved it into his mouth. Without waiting to swallow he continued his critique, "Greasy," He chewed a little more. "Yet flavorless," He swallowed and his eyes lit up, "Oh! It's a subtle meal. All after taste," he stuck out his tongue as he reached for his milk.

"Jackson!" Camille said through gritted teeth.

"Sorry, Cammy," he said somewhat abashed. Looking around he saw that he had somehow become the center of attention. "So... you guys know what you're doing over summer break?"

"My family is visiting my uncle in Los Angeles," Angie said as she carefully scraped the red sauce from one of her ravioli.

"That sounds so... uh... normal," Camille commented.

"Oh yes," the crazed glint returned to her eyes, "Plus he lives only five miles from the Los Angeles river. Last time I was there, I hit a dead body with my board!" Looks of horror passed among those assembled. "Don't worry!" She smiled toothily, "All the gunk came off! Juanita was just fine!"

"And that's it for my meal," Jackson said pushing his plate away, "Thanks Angie."

"De nada," she grinned and then skewered his remaining ravioli and ate them all.

"Careful now Porkochik!" a voice dripping with scorn drifted from behind them, "You wouldn't want to end up shaped like your big sister, or mother, or father. Come to think of it, is anyone in your family not shaped like a greasy Mexican sausage?"

"Oh jeeze!" groaned Jackson. "The itchbay is on the owlpray!"

Harm glanced up to where Wendi Hoover stood sneering at Angie's back. Wendi was in Angie's sisters class and there had been bad blood for years. Wendi was tall, blond and built the way you would expect of a cheerleader who was pretty sure that meant she was in charge of the universe. When he looked at Angie, he saw fire blazing behind her eyes. "Angie?" Harm said with a worried tone, "Don't do anything you may regret."

A smile that foretold the doom of all spread across the Psychochik's lips. Holding up a hand to assure everyone things were going to be ok, she stood up and then spun on Wendi with a vacuous smile on her face. "Wendi!" she squealed. Harm could actually hear the little heart used to dot the 'i'. "I've missed you so much!" she bounced over and glomped onto Wendi like glue. After a moment her hands began roving across Wendi's back even as she rubbed her face against the taller girl's breasts.

"Ack! Get off me you homo!" Wendi gagged as she tried unsuccessfully to extract herself from Angie's iron grasp.

"Why do you deny our love!" Angie cried with tears in her eyes, "Does this mean you no longer wish to have our baby!"

"Yes!" Wendi blurted, "Wait. No! That never happened!" in a panic she cast her eyes about the room looking for help. Fortunately for her it was then that her boyfriend William entered the room. "Will! Help! She's crazy!" In spite of her protests her nipples had become visibly aroused.

Harm watched in mute fascination along with the rest of the cafeteria. "That's pretty hot," Jackson commented. Harm just nodded vacantly. He was pretty sure he shouldn't be enjoying this as much as he was.

Moments later William pulled Angie off of his girlfriend by the simple expedient of lifting her by the shoulders. When he sat her down she spun on him and then locked her arms around his waist, "Will! How are you!"

Will shook his head in wonder, "Just fine Angie. What were you doing to Wendi?"

"Reminding her what good friends we are?"

"Wendi was being a bitch," Camille interjected out of nowhere. Harm and Jackson stared at her as if she was speaking in tongues.

Patting Angie on the head in attempt to free himself William turned to Wendi and asked, "What did you do?"

"Me?! This crazy lesbian spic jumps me in front of the whole school and it's MY fault somehow! Ahhhh! This is just so..." in a huff she stormed out of the cafeteria.

"Wendi, wait," William said as he tried to follow but found his movement impeded by Angie's body lock. "Uh, Angie? Could you let me go?"

Angie was oblivious to his request, caught up as she was rubbing her face against his chest, "You are very firm." she mewled happily.

"Harm?" William implored, close to panic.

"Wendi was insulting her family. Camille is right. She was being a Queen Bee."

William nodded, "I kinda figured but I still need to go after her. Can you give me a hand?" he nodded down at the girl as she performed one half of a slow dance.

"Hey. Psychochik. Wendi left her tray. If you want, you can have it."

"Sweet!" Angie said releasing William without another thought and grabbing the tray. "Hey! Gum! And it's already soft!"

William hurried off after Wendi, while Angie busied herself with the new tray of food. "Sitting with you guys is a whole new experience Harm," Jackson said with a grin.

"Yeah. Things would have been even stranger if Alice was here."

"And speak of the devil," Jackson quipped and nodded toward the door. "Whoa."

Turning in his seat Harm was disturbed to see his normally vivacious girlfriend looking wan. Immediately Harm moved to her side, "You Ok Alice?"

"Yeah, I just don't feel very good. I may have a virus so don't get too close," she smiled weakly.

Harm reached out and hugged her, "There isn't anything you could give me that I would..."

"No touching!" shouted Mr. Edison from his perch.

Harm looked at him in disbelief, "Where the heck was he when Angie was groping Wendi?"

"Molesting Wendi! Thank you very much," Angie added from her seat.

Camille rolled her eyes, and let out a huff of irritation, "He was gawking like the rest of you."

Angie grinned, "Thank you! I'll be here all week!" she blew a bubble till it popped.

"It's ok Harm," she coughed into her hand, "I'm not really supposed to be in here but I wanted you to know I was going home early."

Harm was worried, Alice hated missing school, "You must feel pretty bad," She nodded. "Alright. When I get done with school I'll come over and help you feel better."

"That's sweet Harm. I doubt my mom will let you in but I appreciate the thought," she stroked his face and Harm felt a tingle of electricity run though his body. Alice was so awesome!

"I'll see you after school," he said in an assuring tone, "Do you want me to walk you back to the office?"

"Yeah, but we shouldn't. They think I'm just getting my things so I can wait for my mom in the Nurse's station."

"Are you sure? You really don't look good."

"Just what I want to hear from my boyfriend," she joked but the coughing fit which followed killed most of the humor. "I should go," she looked at him hopefully, "I'll see you later then?"

"Absolutely," Harm said with finality, "Even if I have to stand outside your window and throw rocks."

"Careful Mr. Pitcher, my dad won't like it if you break my window again," As Harm looked into her sweet face there was a dullness to her eyes he had never seen before. His stomach flipped with worry.

"I'll be careful," he said quietly and took her hand. A moment passed between them and then Alice began to slowly make her way out of the lunchroom. Fighting the urge to go after her Harm sat back down at the table.

"You aren't going with her?" Camille asked; she looked worried as well.

"She said I shouldn't," Harm replied still watching her almost stagger out of the room. With preternatural speed Harm managed to block a kick headed straight for his ribs. "Angie! What the heck are you doing?"

"Whoa," Angie boggled, "That was awesome. How did you block that?" Harm shrugged. "Oh, yeah. You used to get in all those weird fights, didn't you?"

"Why were you trying to kick me in the first place?"

"I think it was a subtle hint to go and help Alice regardless of what she says," Jackson said dryly.

"Oh. Yeah," Harm stood up and took a step from the table and then turned back to Jackson, "Thanks. Oh, and nowhere," Jackson squinted at him with a confused expression. "Summer Break. My family always stays in Teslaville."

"Will you just go already? We need to talk about you behind your back and you are making it very difficult!" Angie said hotly. Harm wasn't sure if she was kidding or not but he wasted no more time going after Alice.

This was turning out to be a less good day than he had hoped.

---

When William caught up to Wendi she was sorting through her locker looking for something. "What do YOU want?" she said coldly.

"Give me a break Wendi. You ride the Alanis' every chance you get and unlike Maria, Angie rides back. Can't you just let it go?"

"If this is you trying to make up for acting like a jerk in there you are doing a terrible job."

Will rolled his eyes and stepped closer to her, "I'm sorry I presumed you were at fault. Angie rubbing on you like that was totally out of line," Wendi got a far away look in her eyes and a flush of red colored her cheeks. "You Ok Wend..." was all he managed before she nearly knocked him to the floor with a kiss. The assault on his lips was relentless. When he finally managed to catch a breath, he gasped "What has gotten into you!"

In response Wendi began stroking the bulge in his pants and then led him off to somewhere more private.

---

Harm waved goodbye to Alice as her mother drove her home, "I hope she's OK," he fretted and then took off for his next class. He'd have a tardy but he was glad he had stayed with Alice anyway.

The day wore on as usual, though it seemed much longer as he worried about Alice. In spite of his distracted state Harm couldn't help but notice other students looking ill. Coughing became more and more common place and it began to look like there might be an epidemic spreading through the school. With the exception of his headache Harm felt fine. Thank god for small favors.

As Harm threaded his way toward his second to last class of the day he found himself flanked by Camille and Angie. "You feeling ok?" Camille asked.

"Yeah. Why?" he asked warily.

"I've been looking into the spread of this disease."

"OK."

"And near as I can tell Alice is probably patient zero."

Harm shook his head in disbelief, "What are you basing this on?"

"Classes she attended early in the day have the largest number of people complaining of symptoms and it seems to just be following her around," Camille said blithely. Harm stared at her, this wasn't the kind of information she could just compile by herself. "I snuck into the nurses office and checked her charts. Alice was first then about an hour later others started trickling in."

Harm nodded and felt even more ill, "Why are you here Angie?"

"I have been asking myself that all day," she huffed and then thought for a moment, "Because I can't find Wendi?"

"What?" Harm and Camille chorused.

"I can't torment her if she isn't here. Duh."

"Oh. OK," Harm acknowledged.

"Plus I want to motorboat her boobs!" her crazy grin returned, "Have you guys touched them? They're awesome!" Camille and Harm exchanged a look and agreed silently to just let it go. When he looked back toward Angie she had moved to a window and was staring at the sky along with half the student body. "What in the world? Guys! Check this out!"

"That isn't possible," Camille said, shielding her eyes. There shouldn't be a total solar eclipse here for years," Yet as they watched the sun gave way to the moon and an eerie twilight fell over Teslaville. There was something unsettling about the eclipse. Everyone stood waiting for it to pass but after almost two minutes the diamond ring still had not appeared. "This can't be happening," She glared at Angie, "Did you spike my drink with something?"

"Shut up a second," Angie said seriously, "What is that sound?"

It was at that moment that the school's lights failed. After thirty seconds it became clear the backups were not functioning either. Harm's stomach felt tingly. His headache was suddenly gone and he was left feeling inexplicably aroused. "I think we should get out of the hallway," Harm said firmly. "This whole thing is getting a little too weird," It was then that the screaming began.

Down the corridor toward the office streamed a panicked herd of teenagers. For a moment Harm considered trying to stop them but the fear on their faces told of that plans inevitable failure. Instead he pushed Angie and Camille into a nook formed by lockers and then protected them with his own body. Soon the wave had passed and only the slower students trickled by, though their fear was no less obvious. Realizing he needed more information Harm stepped out with the intent of stopping one of the stragglers and questioning them. Before he could do so the answer to his question presented itself.

Shambling down the hall at a disturbingly random velocity was one of the students. His skin was badly burned and Harm immediately recognized them as electrical in origin. With as bad as the burns looked he should have been dead or at least unconscious. He certainly shouldn't have been shooting electricity from his eyes and hands. That wasn't normal! The utter ridiculousness of the situation left him stunned, watching as the tendrils of electricity crept closer. A stray bolt caught a girl who had fallen behind the pack in the leg. As soon she she went down the electro-thing leapt upon her supine form. The girl screamed as electricity began flowing in and out of her leaving angry burns in their wake. As she screamed the creature bent near her face and a flow of electricity fed from her into him. Her body convulsed as the torrent of electricity increased and then she became completely still.

Watching the girl die in front of him seemed utterly unreal. He turned to where he had left Angie and Camille but found them gone. Was this a dream? That seemed more plausible than it actually happening. Turning away from the carnage Harm closed his eyes and willed the monster away. When he opened them Angie was charging at him with a fire extinguisher clutched in both hands, screaming like a banshee.

In the blink of an eye Angie tore past him, forcing him to wheel in place to avoid her. Without hesitation she ran right up to the electrified student and cracked him in the head with the Class C extinguisher, knocking him away from the girl. She let out a yelp as a current ran through the extinguisher but she managed to hold on.

From behind him he heard Camille yelling, "What are you doing? Don't hit him with it! Spray! Spray!" the edge of panic running through her voice was unmistakable and at last that shook Harm loose of his daze.

"Angie! Pass and clear!" he shouted and with characteristic alacrity she tossed him the extinguisher and then took off at a dead run the opposite direction making it to a corner before Harm had prepped the canister. As soon as she was away, Harm began hosing down the creature with non-conductive foam. Lightning and sparks fired from anywhere not covered but with an efficiency learned in his father's lab Harm quickly coated the student and watched as he slowed and eventually went still beneath it. "How did you know?" he said turning to Camille who had moved next to him.

"It was the only thing I could think of," she said vacantly, "Are they dead?" she swallowed hard trying not to throw up.

"I think so," Harm said gravely, "We should get Angie and try to find out what happened."

"Yeah. OK," she replied still staring at the bodies, "I wonder who he was, Oh god Jackson!"

Harm rested a hand on her shoulder and was momentarily struck by how pretty her eyes were when not concealed behind glasses, "It wasn't Jackson, Camille."

"I know!" she said near tears, "but I don't know where he is! We have to find him!"

Harm nodded and looked around, a light flicked past the corner Angie had taken, "An arc welder?" he mumbled and Camille followed his eye.

As recognition dawned for both of them Angie came running around the corner and slid on the tile into the far wall, hard. Scrambling to her feet she began to scream incoherently, without further pause she charged down the hall toward them with no signs of slowing.

The look of blind terror in Angie's eyes was all it took to get the other two motivated. "Angie! How many!" Harm huffed while trying to help Camille keep up. "If we can get enough extinguishers..."

"No!" was all Angie could gasp through her tears.

---

"We really shouldn't have done that," Will said seriously but his grin betrayed him. "It was awesome though."

"Yeah,it was great," Wendi said distractedly, "Why is it so dark in here?"

"The lights are off?"

Wendi rolled her eyes, "I know THAT, but they leave the top window shades open unless it needs to be dark in the auditorium for some reason," She stood up and looked over the top of the orchestra pit where they had secreted themselves. "And those lights should be on," she pointed toward the doors.

Will laughed, "How do you know so much about this place?"

"Uh. I've spent quite a bit of time in here," she said evasively and then fumbled around in her pile of things on the floor for her watch. "I didn't hear the bell for next class and what is that smell?"

Will finally regained his ability to focus and joined her at the edge of the pit. "Wendi, get your things on. That smells like an electrical fire," as quick as they were able they threw on the rest of their clothes and made their way to a side door to the auditorium. Will felt the door to make sure it wasn't hot and then pushed the heavy steel door open for his girlfriend. Without further ado Wendi rushed out into the hall and was immediately slammed into by something moving very quickly.

---

Images stabbed at Angie's mind and robbed her of control. It made her want to scream. The fact that she had screamed her throat raw didn't seem to register.

When she had gone around the corner she had found the hallway toward the offices deserted. Certain Harm could handle a single crazed monster, she move blithely toward the office. As she neared it, the smell of o-zone intensified. Looking in the wire reinforced window she had seen bodies littering the floor and more creatures like the one see had just hit.

Unlike the faceless boy these she recognized. Mr.Edison, Principal Farnsworth, Nurse Curry were all shambling about within and as they moved the bodies of the students and faculty who had fallen around them would shake and convulse. Then she saw one of the dead begin to rise and arcs of electricity began to chase about it. As she watched, those that had fallen all began to clamor to their feet, the electricity baked their flesh and the smell of burned meat turned her stomach.

She wasn't sure when she had started crying but the moment she screamed she knew. As one, ten sets of eyes burning with an intense blue light turned on her and began moving her way. The teacher's faces haunted her but the students faces were blank to her memory and all the more horrifying for it. Angie had always considered herself to be above worrying about a little thing like dying. If you live in fear of death then you never really live, had long been her philosophy. This was something different. The idea of becoming one of these things scared her so deeply that her legs were running before her mind registered it.

When she slid into the wall and saw Harm and Camille still alive, the faintest hope began to grow. If they could just get away. More running. Yes. That was the thing to do. With the singular goal of getting away from what she had seen Angie barreled down the hall next to the auditorium. Something rushed out into her path. There was no time to stop. No time to even slow down. They had her. Why did it have to end like this?

---

Harm paused to let Camille catch up with him. A moment later she reached him clutching at the stitch in her side. "We need to keep moving," he said quietly and without anger.

"Can't run anymore," she gasped. "Leave me. I'll find Jackson. Myself."

"We stick together. I would never have thought of that fire extinguisher thing. We need you."

"but..." He didn't let her finish.

"No. We will try and find Jackson but in all likelihood he got caught up in the panic and is long gone. We'll walk. Let's go. We cant let Angie get too far ahead," Gritting her teeth Camille began walking at the swift pace set by Harm. "Right now we just need to get out of here but we have to get Angie first. What the heck scared her like that?"

When they turned the last corner they had seen Angie take they were met with a curious sight; Angie was clutching desperately to Wendi and shaking violently with fear. Meanwhile Wendi was carefully wrapping bandages made of Will's t-shirt around the burns on Angie's hands. "Harm!" Will called from where he was keeping watch. Harm felt a wave of relief seeing someone else. "What the heck is going on?", more quietly he added, "Is Angie on drugs or something? Her hands..."

"What happened to her?" Wendi said with heat that was familiar though the cause was most curious. "How did her hands get burned like this?"

"The school is being overrun by electro-zombies," Camille said without thinking, and then considered her statement, "I've only seen the one but Angie must have seen more. The one we fought did that to her hands," Harm nodded confirmation.

"Electro-zombies?" Will said in shock. "Whatever. The burns are pretty bad. We should take her to the nurse."

Angie began thrashing about trying to get away. Wendi held her tight and whispered soothing lies into her ear. When Angie stopped trying to flee Wendi looked at Will and then at Harm, the fear, concern and compassion in her eyes at that moment seemed so out of character. "Shop," Harm said almost to himself.

"What?" Will asked.

"We need to get to the shop. They have first aid kits and fire extinguishers and other stuff for us to use to defend ourselves. We stock up. Get Angie bandaged as best we can and then head for my house."

"Why your house?" Wendi said in a tone more like what he would expect.

"Because my dad's lab is basically a fortress and it's loaded down with weapons. Even the stuff that isn't weapons tend to act like weapons," he nodded his head as certainty of his plan began to cement, "Plus he works with electricity all the time. If he's there he WILL be able to help us."

"What about Jackson?" Camille whimpered.

Harm turned and took her by both shoulders, "We don't know where he is. We cant just wander around randomly looking or him. We'll keep an eye out for him or anyone else that isn't a ... uh... electro-zombie but we have to get going. Now."

As stealthily as they were able the five of them quickly wound their way down the hall. Thankfully the shop proper proved deserted. "What now?" Will asked trying to keep the fear from his voice. All eyes turned to Harm.

Pressing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger to ward off a new headache he tried to get down to business. "Will. We need anything we can easily carry to fight these things, if we have to. Take Camille with you. She seems to have a better idea how these thing may work than the rest of us," with a little coaxing Will managed to get Camille focused on helping them survive rather than her best friend. "Wendi. See if you can find the first aid kit and tend to Angie's hands."

For a moment the look of queen cheerleader returned and it seemed as if she would object, when her eyes drifted to Angie however the resistance faded, "Ok. What are you going to do?"

Harm looked at the door, "We're going to need more fire extinguishers," They shared a nod and both got to work.

---

Ten minutes later the situation seemed less dire. Angie had partially recovered her wits and her hands had been treated with burn cream and wrapped in gauze. She would still burst into tears at seemingly random moments but she was no longer a wild animal. Camille and Will managed to find some wrenches and wrap them in electrical tape. Will had even cobbled together a makeshift spear. "Where's Harm?" William asked in hushed tones. Angie shuddered in the grip of crying fit, clutching to Wendi like a frightened child. Surprisingly Wendi didn't seem to mind. "Things are still quiet and we have our stuff."

Wendi absently stroked the smaller girl's hair, "He went off to find more fire extinguishers."

"What! Why did you let him do that!" Will responded hotly. "Now we have no way of knowing... When did he leave?"

"Maybe two minutes after you disappeared into the shop," Angie clutched at her more tightly, "It's OK. We're going to all be OK," she cooed.

Camille seemed to reach a decision and spoke up, "If he's been gone that long then we have to presume the EZ's got him."

"EZ's?" Wendi asked distractedly.

"Electro-zombies. EZ's. It was Will's idea."

"Whatever," Wendi said dismissively, this was all just a huge distraction from the plan, "We can't leave without Harm."

Will stepped in, "Yes we can and we're going to. I know where Harm lives. We head there and with a little luck he'll make it. We can't wait."

"It's OK sweetie," Wendi whispered as she carefully unclasped Angie's hands from about her and stood up, she was glad she was wearing her high wedges, it let her almost look William in the eye, "Harm's father is a genius. If his lab is as impregnable as Harm seems to think, then without him I doubt we can even get inside. Harm will be back. Just give him time," she sat back down and Angie grasped a hold of her again. "If we don't have Harm then we should just stay here."

"At the center of the EZ hoard?" Will said with exasperation, "That's got to be the dumbest..."

"She may be right," Camille said as she surreptitiously peeked out the small window they had covered with a greasy shop towel. "They haven't found us here yet. Once they," she choked and took a moment to collect herself, "Once they consume everything here they would logically move out from this point to find more sustenance. If we wait long enough this place should be clear," Will looked unconvinced. "It's like a fairy ring."

"A what?"

"Those rings of mushrooms you sometimes get in your yard that start small and then spread out in a widening ring," Wendi and Will nodded in understanding, "That happens because they eat everything in one spot and then dump spores and move out. The center is depleted so it doesn't get any new mushrooms. We're at the center of the ring."

"What do we do for food then?" Will asked prudently.

Wendi interjected, "Odds are Mr. Edison has some kind of food stashed in here," at the mention of Mr. Edison Angie began shaking, "Poor baby," Wendi said and held her more tightly, "We have water. If Harm doesn't come back we find what we can to eat in here and then wait as long as we can before heading to the cafeteria or maybe Home Ec for supplies. With luck by that time everything will have resolved itself," Will and Camille gaped at her. "What?"

"It's just that's..." Will trailed off.

"Yeah, it's a good plan," the disbelief in Camille's voice was clear.

"Nice. I may be a bitch but that doesn't mean I'm an idiot," she held Angie a little tighter, "I normally have other things on my mind is all."

"She's right," Harm said as he walked into the shop office looking a bit the worse for wear and bearing two large fire extinguishers.

"How?" asked Will looking at the door they had been watching.

"I circled around and came in the back."

"Oh my god Harm!" Camille rushed over to him and moved his shirt to the side revealing a nasty electrical burn, "We need to take care of this."

"No time," he handed Will one of the extinguishers, " I tried to get a third one and got caught. They zapped me but I used the third extinguisher to stop them. You get this on them they start to get weaker and they seem unwilling to pass through a field of it on the ground either," He sighed. "But they know I'm here so eventually..." he trailed off. "Sorry."

Angie's eyes got even bigger, "Coming?" she whimpered. Wendi held Angie's head and comforted her.

"Yeah. I slowed them down but there are still more getting up. We have to go. Get your stuff."

---

Exiting through the garage doors they found their path unobstructed and soon made their way into the streets of Teslaville. Once moving again Angie began coming back to herself but her wild eyes and jumpy demeanor contrasted completely with the girl Harm had known most of his life. Camille was only slightly better off and even Will looked near the breaking point after he was forced to hop-scotch through the burned bodies that were just laying in the street, waiting to rise. Wendi, on the other hand, was proving to be a rock. Maybe taking care of Angie was helping her stay grounded. Things were not going at all the way he would have predicted if asked to guess about this a week ago. The way was nearly deserted save the skeletal remains of electric cars littering the streets and the occasional body here or there. Harm wanted to scream but he knew if he lost it the others would never make it out.

"OK," He said aloud to himself, "Once we get off DiVinci Avenue we can take Popeil Lane, check on Alice and then it's just around the block to my house."

"What?" Camille said, stopping abruptly, "We aren't stopping to check on Alice."

"Of course we are. That was the plan," he didn't pause or stop looking for the telltale flashes which proceeded the electro-zomies.

"No," Camille said firmly, "The plan was to get to your dad's lab and figure out how to survive this!"

Harm turned, "Well, we're getting Alice."

"She started this!" Camille shouted. "We are not going to try and rescue Typhoid Mary but leave Jackson just... alone!"

"Shut up!" Harm barked trying to keep his voice down, "We have no idea where he is. We know exactly where she is and it's on the way. We. Are. Checking. On. Alice."

"You bastard! You think that just because you care about someone that makes them more important than someone I care about!" Camille turned and began walking back toward the school.

"Camille!" Will shouted, "Don't do this! We have to stick together."

"Will you all keep it down!" Wendi hissed. Angie was crying again. "Camille! If you want to kill yourself do it in a way that won't let them bring you back! Harm we... are... Oh god!" As one they followed her gaze and saw down a side street the telltale flickering.

"We have to hide!" Harm ordered, "Camille we need you! We'll discuss it after we aren't dead."

Camille looked back toward the school, then at Harm and then at the rapidly intensifying light. Squinting at the still eclipsed sun she nodded and hurried with them to find place to hide.

Running through the streets the full reality of the situation hit home. Though never discussed, they had all expected to find others like them, desperately trying to survive, but the more time that passed the more obvious it became that they were on their own. The zombie's were getting harder and harder to avoid as their numbers swelled. Harm was beginning to question if even his dad could help them. The whole town seemed to have been infected. As they crept past Duryea Bros. Garage and Towing Camille suddenly got excited and called them all back. "In here!" she said not waiting for anyone to object.

"Camille!" Harm hissed but she was already gone. Grumbling under his breath Harm directed the remainder to follow her into the garage.

Though it took longer than Harm would have expected they soon found Camille studying a pegboard covered with keys. "Where is it?" she mumbled, "Where is it?"

"What are you doing Camille?" Will asked. Meanwhile Harm started looking over the shop for equipment to improve their arsenal. Angie and Wendi say down and the blond began checking the younger girls wounds.

"This place does towing," Camille said distractedly.

"So?" Will rejoined.

"So they probably have a guzzler tow truck which won't be tied to the messed up power relay and if we can get our hands on it then we can just drive away without having to worry about the T-BET's range," she looked at him and shrugged, "If nothing else we can get to Harm's place faster."

"Harm," Wendi said quietly as she closed in behind him, "I think Angie is starting to run a fever. We need to get her real help."

Harm turned on her with a look of confusion on his face, "Why do you care so much all of a sudden? You always hated her."

"I did not," she defended. Harm just stared at her. "Fine, I tormented her," she admitted, "But that was... That was before she got hurt. She's so scared, Harm. We have to help her."

"Fine," he didn't have time to help her work through her own motivations. "Check the office. If this place is up to code they'll have a first aid kit and burn trauma kit prominently displayed."

'Really?" Wendi looked genuinely surprised.

"They work with electric cars. You have to be careful." Wendi nodded and turned to make her way back to Angie. Before she made it a step Harm touched her on the arm, drawing her attention back to him. "Any idea what scared her so bad?" Seeing Angie jump at every little things was tearing Harm apart.

Wendi pressed her lips into a tight line. It was obvious that whatever she suspected she did not want to give voice. Harm waited patiently for her to decide if she would share or not. "I think..." Wendi trailed off, dropping her head and trying to suppress a shudder, "When she first ran into me, in the hall, she kept saying hermana over and over," Wendi shifted uncomfortably, "At first I thought she was calling me sister. I mean she was completely out of her mind!" a half-crazed laugh escaped her lips before she could stifle it. She glanced back toward Angie where the younger girl sat in a stupor, glad she did not seem to have noticed her outburst. "Only I don't think that was it. I think she saw something happen to Maria," Wendi turned green, "God. I was so mean to both of them! Why do I have to be like that! I mean Maria and I were friends and now..." tears began to flow.

"Wendi!" Harm snapped grabbing her by the shoulders roughly. "You and I are the only ones keeping it together! Please, don't lose it now. I need you to take care of Angie. I can not do this on my own."

"OK," she nodded as she snuffled back her tears, "I'm going to see what I can do for Angie's hands," Leaving Harm to continue his search, Wendi carefully lead Angie into the office and closed the door quietly behind them.

---

Fifteen minutes later Harm sat atop a tool chest staring out the window into the street. Angie and Wendi were still in the office and Will and Camille had ventured out into the lot to find the guzzler truck Camille had fixated on. "We would have been at my place by now," he breathed as he watched a handful of zombie's pass by a couple blocks away with their disturbing gait. Looking down Harm realized he had run out of electrical tape again. Opening a new package he started wrapping another of the over sized sockets he had found. Once he finished wrapping it he tossed it in the air a few times to get the balance, "Yeah. I can throw this," he nodded to himself. "Sure do wish I had a bat though."

"...because it just isn't here. That's why. Now keep your voice down!" William said with barely restrained anger.

"It has to be here!" Camille objected, "I found the keys! It's here, we just have to find it."

"We are not going to the outer lot to look for something which probably isn't here anyway," Will countered.

"What's it look like out there?" Harm asked nervously as he put the last of the sockets in the satchel he had scrounged.

"Not good," Will said sourly, "It was getting to point where I was seeing zombie sign every time I looked up. We need to get out of here and to your place."

"It's going to be tricky," Harm said tossing a glance back toward the window, "There are a lot more of them now than there were when you left."

"I noticed. Where are the girls?" Will asked casting an eye about for them. "I should probably make sure Wendi is doing ok."

"Still in the office."

"Still? Doesn't that seem a little long to..."

"Eureka!" Camille cried. Both boys turned and emphatically hushed her. "Sorry," she whispered, "I was so fixated on the guzzler I didn't think to check for a car with batteries," Harm and Will just waited for her to explain. "Think about it! The T-BET's are down or malfunctioning so most cars won't work cause they don't have any power. This," she gestured to the car in front of her, "Uses the T-BET's most of the time but has batteries for when you go outside their range."

Harm smiled as he started to see the plan, "If we can get this going then we should be able to drive and it won't be nearly so loud."

"Yes!" Camille jumped for joy.

"Why is it here though?" Will asked eying the car.

"It's probably just some minor mechanical problem," she opened the door and hopped inside. "I'll check the diagnostic and see what it says."

Harm glanced around and found a pair of insulated gloves, "Hold on Camille. If it's in here then you should wear these."

"Oh come on Harm!" Camille scoffed, "I'm just pushing a button or two."

"Yeah, Harm. Calm down. Just let her work," Will interjected.

"Doesn't seem to be anything wrong according to the diagnostic. Let me see if it starts."

"Hold on!" Harm stepped up to hand her the gloves, placing his hand on the top of the car. "Here. Take these."

Camille rolled her eyes and blithely pushed the button to start the car.

Harm felt more than saw or heard the batteries discharge into her, he was thrown back in a tangle and his right hand was badly burned. "Shit!" William swore and hurried first to check on Camille and then on Harm.

"Harm! Harm!" he shouted, "Are you ok?"

The world seemed muted, Harm's eyes and ears didn't want to work right. He suddenly realized Will had asked him a question and he indicated in the negative. He most definitely not all right. "Camille?" he slurred.

Will shuddered and shook is head, "No she... she 's gone."

"Dangit!" Harm cursed and pulled away from Will jerkily. He felt weird. A tingling sensation tickled at his skin and his mind was going a thousand miles an hour with absolutely no direction. "Ahhhhhhhhhh!" he screamed in frustration.

"Dude!" Will snapped in fear.

Harm realized his error and gestured for Will to check one side while he checked the other. Both hurried to their positions.

Zombie sign was every where. Leaning a hand against the corrugated steel of the garage wall Harm felt the strange tingling intensify. Pulling his hand away he saw several small arcs of electricity pass back and forth. "No!" he whispered. Looking at his palm he saw that the burns were mostly cosmetic. With as much amperage had hit him he probably shouldn't even have been able to use that hand but as feeling came back he found it was just a bit sore. Turning around he found Will waiting with a large insulated wrench at the ready. "What are you doing Will?"

"I saw," he said through clenched teeth "you're infected. Just let me finish you quick before you fully turn."

Harm searched his mind. He didn't feel infected. At least he didn't think he did. "Will. Look at me. I'm fine. I don't know what that was but I'm not infected," Will took a swing which Harm easily ducked. "Will! I'm talking. I'm lucid! I'm not infected!"

"No more stupid chances!" Will shouted as he caught Harm in the mid section on the reverse stroke of a wild swing.

Backing away Harm coughed and gasped for air, "Will! Knock it off man! We don't have time for this. They are on their way! We need to get the girls and run for it while we still can!" as he spoke he slowly fished a socket out of the satchel.

Circling to get a better angle Will switched his weapon from one hand to the other, "That's the plan. You just aren't part of it."

A sudden crack of electricity went off behind William, temporarily blinding Harm. For a moment he figured it was over only the final blow never fell. Instead he heard the sound of a struggle and more yelling. When his vision cleared Harm saw little Camille winning a wrestling match with the football player. Will had managed to get his hands on a fire extinguisher at some point during the struggle but he was unable to use it effectively. Thinking fast Harm grabbed another extinguisher to spray them both. As he did an arc played on he surface of Will's canister for a moment too long and it detonated, knocking Harm backwards and stunning him yet again.

When Harm could once again move he struggled to pull himself to his feet. The room was irregularly covered in a thin white coating of foam. Staggering to where Will and Camille lay he found them still and lifeless. A quick glance around showed the familiar strobe effect playing on the now frosted glass from just outside. Still dazed he stumbled to the office door to get Wendi and Angie. They had to make a run for it right now or it was all over. Deep down he knew it was already too late. "I have to get to Alice," he thought aloud as he opened the door. "I promised!"

Inside he found Angie and Wendi locked together in an intimate embrace. Harm stared slack jaw for a moment trying to decide if he was actually seeing this or if it was the concussion. "Angie?" he said in confusion even as they continued to kiss.

At the sound of his voice Angie broke the kiss and Wendi slumped lifelessly in her arms, "No!" Harm gasped as the previously suppressed electricity arced around her. Spinning, Harm tried to run but instead found himself falling to his knees. For a moment he was unsure why he couldn't move and then the smell of burned flesh and ozone at last reached his brain. He tried to rise but his body refused to obey. The world began going dim and he pitched forward to the floor. "Alice," he breathed out, never to inhale.

~End

A Whateley Academy Fanfiction

Welcome to Teslaville!: Out of Harm

by Matt Zenn

Lights danced before Harm's eyes. Blue, yellow, white they jumped about at random and made him feel sick. He tried to close his eyes as the lights drew closer but realized he had no eyes to close. He wanted to be sick but had no stomach to vomit from. He wanted to scream but had no lips, no lungs, no tongue, no teeth. He was a non-thing and all he could do was watch helplessly as the light grew brighter. He couldn't feel anything but the pain and fear that the light burned into him. He knew without question that it wasn't a dream and as the light finally reached him he saw past the light and fell unfeeling through the dark.

As he fell, a sense of acceleration slammed into his numbness and destroyed all sense of equilibrium. He was spinning out of control through the darkness and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He tried to cry out for his mother but had no more luck than he had screaming. He was alone. Memories of nightmares past assaulted him. People with out faces. Monsters who looked like friends and family but something about them made him want to scream and run away. He willed himself to wake but he could not. As he watched the flesh of his family melted like wax revealing nothing behind the face but a void that he knew in the end would consume him.

The spinning sensation amplified and it was as if he saw all directions at once and everywhere he looked there were people he remembered with twisted faces looming and lifeless. Everyone he had ever known stood on a hoary field, dead and their vacant eyes blamed Harm for it. His vision wheeled and he felt weak and used up. He just wanted to close his eyes and let the nightmares have him. In the distance which at once moved to him he saw Alice floating, a sleeping beauty, at peace. Focusing all the will he had left Harm tried to change nightmare into dream and he cleaved to Alice with all of the nothing he had.

The world stopped spinning. The nightmares slipped away into the darkness. He and Alice were together and he kissed her without lips and begged her to forgive him for not saving her without words. As he held her she too melted away but inside there was light and he clung to it and it to him and it no longer hurt him to see it.

---

Harm woke slowly and as he did the dream that had felt so much like reality began to fade as most dreams do. His mind was sluggish and he felt a warmth that started in his chest and began moving outward. As it did he realized that other than the warmth he could not feel anything. The world began spinning slowly and a dull panic he could not explain rippled through him. He tried to open his eyes but they were stuck fast. Harm strained to lift a hand but could not feel the limb. Something struck him in the chest and he started but could not run. He did not move. He did not even breath as he waited for whatever had hit him but after an eternity nothing returned. The warmth continued to spread and he realized that his bottom was cold which led to the understanding that he was sitting. Connection to the seat slowed the worlds spin. The farther out the warmth spread the stranger he felt. His chest felt odd and his butt was wrong somehow. His entire body felt strange, unconnected, as if he was sitting just to the left of himself, "It must be the concussion," he tried to say but found his mouth similarly fixed shut. Panic gripped his heart and his lungs started to burn. Something was covering his face! The heat had reached part way down his arms and though he kept bumping into things in the dark he managed to grasp clumsily at the covering, eventually gaining purchase on it. With a tug he pulled at the material which stretched and pulled at his skin. After what seemed an eternity the material finally gave up and ripped away from his face. Gasping for breath he opened his eyes only to realize the room in which he sat was just as dark without the mask. Sitting in the dark he sneezed at the stale air and concentrated on getting his body working again. As he flexed his hands and worked to move his toes, something tickled his nose and he absently tried to brush it away. The slap that hit him was a surprise but at least he had been able to feel it's source. "I have to be careful," he tried to say but the words were jumbled and slurred. "What's happened to me?" he wondered as he tried to remember how to move his mouth and tongue. With painstaking effort Harm forced himself to relearn how to move and finally tried to stand only to discover that the ceiling was unusually short.

"Hello!" he called as loud as he could. It wasn't exactly clear but at least approximated the word he was attempting. His ears seemed as affected as the rest of his body but even though everything still seemed muted and strange there was no way he could mistake the incongruity of his shout. It had not sounded like his voice. It was too high. It had sounded too much like Alice. With growing fear Harm reached up to his throat and his arms brushed roughly against his chest in a way that his mind could not seem to reconcile. His body was not shaped like that, even though the sensations he had been receiving indicated otherwise. Slowly and with great trepidation he lowered his hands to where the foreign sensations had originated. "Oh god no!" he whispered in Alice's voice and this time there could be no mistake. "No. This can't be happening. This is all a nightmare," He clenched his eyes and willed himself to wake up. "Everyone is fine. I'm at home in bed and this is just the worst dream ever," he chanted but the more time that passed the less dream like it felt. As he stood in the dark the full sensation of his body slowly crept into his consciousness.

Breathing harder than was warranted Harm tried his best to suppress the oncoming panic attack. The lucid dreaming techniques his father had taught him always worked. He should have been able to wake at will; yet here he stood trapped in the nightmare darkness and what he increasingly feared was his girlfriends skin. "The darkness is a trap. Find the light and you can wake," he told himself. Feeling ahead of himself in the blackness Harm quickly determined he did not have far to go. Feeling all around he estimated he was in a less than two meter square room. Out in the darkness, beyond where he knew the walls to be he saw something move though he could not see anything. A sense of being stalked pressed against him and wore at his already frayed self-control. For a moment he stood shivering in the darkness as the thing he could not see moved closer and closer. He was trapped and a mindless fear he had never experienced prior bubbled up and overwhelmed his reason.

He had to get out. He had to get out now!

Lashing out at the walls in a fit, the panicked animal part of his mind noticed that the sound from the wall facing the chair was different than the others. Different meant a possibility of change and that propelled him to focus his efforts on that which was different. Had he been in his right mind he might have wondered how it was that his hands did not hurt after repeatedly smashing into steel walls or why he felt that same steel buckle with each blow. Time and again he hammered away at the offending surface and was finally rewarded by a dim light passing through a buckled seam. Gripping the seam with his finger tips he lifted as hard as he could. For long seconds nothing happened. Then, just before he was about to go back to punching, a groan from the wall bolstered his resolve. Putting everything he had left into one massive pull he heard a loud pinging sound from higher up in the wall and the panel shot upward and jammed halfway open. Without a thought to the danger Harm dove through with out even a moment to consider what might be on the other side.

The unknown proved to be foreign but at least there was light. Scrabbling on all fours until he finally found his feet Harm retreated from the dark cell on rubber legs. A pathetically short distance from where he started Harm collapsed and found he once again could not move. His face pressed against the cold steel floor Harm began to cry in frustration and fear. Slowly his body began to come back under his control and his terror began to abate. When he could move his body enough, he pulled his legs to his chest and tried to ignore the squishing sensation it caused. His father's advice to keep his head cycled through his had like a mantra.

For many minutes Harm lay in a ball on the hard steel floor trying to force himself to wake. "Five, four, three, two, one. Wake!" he repeated countless times. Sensations from his childhood nightmares tore at his mind rending old wounds open anew. He was alone. Always alone though he stand in a crowd of thousands. He was the only living thing, just like in the dreams. It had to be a nightmare but every attempt met with failure. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't wake and fear that this impossible thing might actually be happening finally started to set in. "You have to keep it together!" he cried to himself, flinching at the strange and frightening echoes that resulted.

Pushing himself to a sitting position Harm focused his mind on the task at hand. "This is the big game Dong!" he said to himself in imitation of Coach Whitney, "Get it done! You'll have plenty of time for nerves after we win!" Opening his eyes he nodded, "Ok. I can do this."

The sickly yellow green lights in the dank hallway allowed his eyes to see what his hands had already determined. Red hair spilled from the tears in the strange suit where he had torn it loose from his face. He was covered in a shiny black bodysuit which left absolutely no way for him to deny the truth. He was in a girl's body and though he wanted desperately for it not to be, he knew deep down that the body he was wore was his girlfriend's. The same blind panic began to bubble beneath the surface and though it had served him well the last time he feared that if he succumbed again he would never recover.

As he tried to calm himself one of the many strange conversations he'd had with his father came to mind unbidden. "Hand me that spanner." his father had said pointing to one of the many wrenches which littered the workbench. Unsure which he wanted, Harm grabbed one at random and held it out to him. "No. Not that one. The one with the red stripe."

Glancing quickly across the surface it became obvious there was no such spanner present, "Did you put it on the panel above you?" Harm asked with a smirk. Groping around he had found the wrench and then used it to hammer at something inside the automaton he was building. "Need anything else Dad?"

Ducky leaned back and closed the access panel, "You know. There is something." The way he said it made Harm's insides twist uncomfortably.

"Uh. What is it?"

"Nothing bad," his father assured him, "well not exactly bad anyway." he immediately back pedaled. "Harm I know you have been seeing a lot of the Alan Powers' daughter. There are things you need to..."

Harm cut him off as quickly as he could, "If this is about," he made a unpleasant face, "sex then you don't have to worry. Mom told me all about it. I couldn't look Alice or any of the girls I know in the eye for a week!"

"Wha? Oh! No. No I'm sure your mother did a fine job with that," Ducky laughed, "This is far more important than that. You are old enough to be a man now. You have to be ready to take responsibility when something unspeakably horrible happens."

Harm was confused, "Horrible how?"

"Impossible to say, but Alien invasion, Ninjas, Demon worshiping cultists, Paramilitary Assault on the city or maybe just a Zombie plague all come to mind." Harm gaped in disbelief. "I'm serious! This world is far stranger than little Teslaville might lead you to believe. You need to start cultivating your sense of wariness." He nodded sagely, "That's how you keep yourself and those you care about alive."

It had been so random and seemed so unlikely Harm had mentally filed it away with all the other onions of wisdom his father had dropped from time to time. "Did he know this was going to happen?" Harm huffed into the barren twilight. He hadn't been wary enough before. It was time that changed. "First figure out where you are," he mumbled trying to ignore his own voice, "Then find a way out of here and back to Teslaville," Flashes of the zombies marauding through his home town intermingled with memories of his friends dying and the likelihood that his parent were dead as well. Stumbling at the onslaught Harm caught himself against the wall. "Find your way out now!" he chided himself, "Panic later."

His mind tenuously focused on the task at hand, he began to finally take stock of his surroundings. A dimly lit corridor of stainless steel ran off in both directions at a slight curve. Along the walls were more doors like the one he had just exited. The hall was taller than the room had been but still forced him to duck when he stood. Standing in a crouch only amplified the strangeness of the body and forced him to look at it more than he would have liked. "Just keep it together and everything will be fine," he said firmly and for once found hearing Alice's voice was a comfort. It was almost like she was there telling him it was going to be ok. Like he wasn't completely alone.

An inset track ran along the center with sidings leading to each of the rooms. Fighting off a pang of claustrophobia Harm took the opportunity to examine the room he had just exited. Sure enough the track continued on the inside of the room and his best guess was that the chair could move along that track if properly motivated. How exactly one might do that however was beyond Harm's ken. Moving on, Harm examined the lights and found they were chemical in nature. "Emergency lights," he mused, "Kind of like what dad always uses," Looking around he had to admit the place had the feel of something his dad might build. "What in the heck is going on?" he breathed and then started off down the hall to his right.

The corridor proved surprisingly maddening, the arc prevented any idea of how far it traveled and every door save the one he had ruined was identical. Time became difficult to gauge and it felt as if he had been walking forever without making any progress. Finally off in the distance he saw a form sitting in the middle of the corridor which at least indicated he was getting somewhere. Breaking into a run without thinking Harm covered the distance in moments and was disappointed to find it was only a small and inert automaton locked into the rail. Undiscouraged Harm checked over the machine hoping to ascertain it's purpose. After a few minutes of this he gave up. It's arms terminated in small probes of some kind but without power determining their purpose was beyond him. Standing up Harm cracked his head on the ceiling once again. Sitting down against the wall he rubbed the point of impact and stared back the way he had come. "I should have been counting doors." he mused aloud, "At least then I'd have some idea how far I've come. Congratulations," he patted the automaton on the top it's dome, "I now dub you Milestone one. Hmmm..." he reached down and examined the probe once more. With a little bit of effort he pulled the probe down to the floor and scraped it. Sure enough the probe was capable of lightly scoring the stainless steel. With a small pang of guilt Harm tore loose the arm. "Sorry Milestone, I'll try and get this back to you if I can," It was time to start doing this scientifically, he knew his feet were roughly twenty-two centimeters long. Carefully he began stepping off the distance between the right side of one door and the right side of the next.

"A little over fifteen paces. That's around three point three meters," He grinned at his ingenuity, "so all I Have to do is count the doors as I pass them and when I get to the end I can figure out how far to this point give or take." for a moment he waited to make sure he wasn't missing anything. Again a lock of red hair fell into his eyes and he brushed it away. All at once his crest fell, "Dang it, these aren't my feet," he let out a heavy sigh, "I thought it looked a little short for three point three meters." For a moment Harm considered what part of Alice he might use as a frame of reference for determining the distance but in the end the only thing he knew for certain was that her breasts seemed much larger from this angle. Tossing up his hands he laughed, "It doesn't matter as long as they stay the same. Once you get to the end you can find something to measure with and then just multiply. Now quit wasting time and get moving. Yes, ma'am," he responded to himself without thinking.

Counting the doors proved frightfully dull. The only consolation was that at least he was not hungry or thirsty or sleepy or tired from all the walking. At all. Quickly Harm scratched CCXXIX into the last door counted and then began an overdue accounting of himself. He was definitely in Alice's body, he chose not to look any further at that for the moment. He had overpowered a hydrolic lift mechanism on the door and dented steel plating with his bare hands. Looking at the dainty, tapered fingers he felt a wave of grief begin to rise but he managed to break it before it could drown him. He didn't know when last he had eaten but he knew he had been before...

Images of Angie shooting him in the back flooded his mind almost as if he had watched it as an observer. "Just find a way out," he said aloud and nodded in agreement. "You've been conserving energy but you don't seem to be running low. Maybe a run would speed things up? Yeah, and that will also tell me what it takes to wind me. Exactly," he responded.

At first he attempted to jog but found the bouncing distracting and painful when he banged his head on the ceiling, "Why does it hurt to hit my head but not to punch things?" he grumbled but soon found that if he ran full out his problems were alleviated. Sprinting down the corridor he continued counting the doors as they flew by. Three-hundred. Four-hundred. Five-hundred. The doors whizzed by and Harm soon realize he was traveling much faster than he should have been. As he cruised past door five-hundred twelve his mind was so absorbed counting the doors and trying to figure out how he was running so quickly that he nearly missed a change in the monotony. At door five-twenty he fully realized that one of the doors was open and attempted to stop.

The Rubber coating on the bottom of his feet caught solidly against the steel and then ripped away violently causing him to lose control in spectacular form.

When he finally stopped rolling and bouncing off of walls from his wipeout he climbed to his feet with only his suit the worse for wear. Hustling back to the open door he looked inside to find another small automaton, identical to Milestone One. Seated rigidly in the chair was a body swaddled in black just as he had been. For a moment he feared it would also prove to be Alice Powers but the figure was all wrong. Alice was much prettier. "Oh god. I'm much prettier!" He realized. Stepping inside he carefully grabbed at the material covering the woman's face and pulled it away with a disturbing sucking sound.

It took him a moment but he recognized her as one of the women from his block. "You're friends with Mrs. Powers aren't you?" he mumbled as he searched for any signs of life. Her skin wasn't burned so it stood to reason she had not been infected with the electro-zombie contagion. Slowly he reached out and touched fingers to her throat, checking for a pulse. A tiny spark jumped between them and the body convulsed violently. Harm took a step back. "Mrs. Reynolds?" He said nervously. "Are you ok?" In response arcs of electricity began running over her skin.

At the first sign of electricity Harm clamped his hands around the door and tried to pull it shut. Predictably all he managed was a pull up. If he could trap it inside he could get away, but without leverage... Without further consideration Harm once again pulled himself up by the door but then braced against the ceiling. The ceiling panel deformed slightly under the pressure but after a moment he heard the glorious sound of metal failing and the door dropped suddenly.

Laying in a heap on the floor Harm began to laugh. He had done it. He had stopped at least one of them.

Then the door came loose entirely and fell on top of him. "Sweet Peppers! Come ON!" he shrieked in frustration, pushing aside the heavy metal door with ease. The former Mrs. Reynolds had found her feet in the mean time and was shuffling the short distance between them. Looking at her Harm could almost feel a build up of energy centered in her hands. Before she could fry him with a torrent of electricity Harm grabbed the door and held it as a shield. The lightning crashed into the metal he held and a current passed through the ruined suit at his hands and feet.

It felt good.

Really good.

Like the kind of good you don't like to talk to your parents about because it's way too embarrassing, good.

He wanted more but the thought of his mother and father doused that fire almost before it could start. Harm turned to run but in one of the characteristic if irregular bursts of speed Mrs. Reynolds covered the ground in a blink and dragged Harm to the ground. Regardless how strong Harm thought he was the zombie proved stronger, pinning him to the floor with ease.

"No!" he screamed as he struggled to free himself from the monsters steely grasp. With agonizing slowness his former neighbor leaned down. If not for the lightning flowing from her eyes it might almost have seemed like she intended kissing him. The image of the matronly Mrs. Reynolds trying to kiss him did not in any way alleviate his panic. When she was two inches from his trembling, screaming lips Harm felt a tugging which he could not explain. A trickle of energy began to flow from him into the zombie. It was the longest second of Harm's young life and as it passed he felt the pull getting stronger. As the pull increased Harm felt it tugging at his very essence. In another moment he would tear loose from Alice's body and he feared that would be the end of him. The pull hit again and again and finally Harm did the only thing he could think of.

He pulled back.

The torrent reversed and increased to a furious pace. He absorbed the electricity like a sponge and it felt good. A warm sensation built deep inside his abdomen. Just as Mrs. Reynolds stopped moving the sensation peaked and then released in an orgasmic burst of electricity and pleasure. Panting beneath the once again immobile woman Harm was only vaguely aware of the doors which began opening and closing at random up and down the hall from his position. "That was...uhhhhhh!." he shuddered trying not to smile, he genuinely felt bad for what had happened to her, but the wonderful tingling sensation running through his body made it impossibly difficult. Rolling her carefully to the side he closed her eyes and then hopped to his feet still feeling the aftershocks of the release.

Everywhere he looked he saw the beginnings of Zombie sign. For one agonizing moment Harm considered letting them all just fill him up till he erupted over and over again. Instead he picked up the discarded door and heaved it ahead of him as he took off at a sprint. While the door did little to the zombies it slowed those nearest to him down just long enough to get up to speed. Winding his way through the monsters Harm tried to ignore the faces he saw. Eventually he actually became glad when the burns rendered them anonymous.

After what he guessed was roughly one-hundred meters he had left the zombies behind him. There had been fewer than he had expected but he knew they were after him now and he had no time to waste. Chancing a look over his shoulder Harm smiled that only a faint flickering light could be seen behind him. He knew now that he could outpace them and that bolstered his spirits just in time for him to smash straight through an inconveniently placed wall.

For a moment Harm just lay in a heap on the floor of a large room. His butt stuck up in the air, wedged as he was upside down against a wall. He hurt all over but after a quick inspection found only a few scratches to show for it. Rolling to his feet Harm realized that the black suit he was wearing would not survive much longer. In a flash reasoning returned, "The electro-zombies!" he gasped and then rushed to the hole he had made to check their progress.

Far down the hall he saw zombie sign but it was still a long way off. Quickly looking over the hole he had created Harm realized that it had once been a door and he had managed to knock it completely out of it's frame. Hunting around he found the door bent in half and lodged in a wall near where he had rolled to a stop. "This is reinforced half inch steel." Harm boggled. "I should have crushed myself like a grape against this!" Harm looked down at Alice's body with confusion, "Were you always this strong? This tough?" he mumbled as the curious feats of strength Alice had occasionally demonstrated ran through his head. "Was it just you?" Suddenly remembering his mission, Harm wrenched the panel loose and tried to straiten it back out. The attempt was less than stellar but it was at least mostly rectangular again.

With a grunt of effort Harm jammed the ruined door back in place. It seemed solid but he knew it would not stop the zombies for long. "There has to be something else I can do." First he grabbed the jam and attempted to crimp it to further block the way but was unsatisfied with the result. Flexing his new hands he felt like they should be strong enough to do the job but it couldn't seem to get everything they were capable of out of them. "Focus," he told himself as he tried one more time to seal the door. Grasping the steel tightly Harm twisted so hard that he actually unbalanced himself. Reaching over with his left hand to steady himself he felt a discharge of electricity arc just as he came in contact and then a lesser current run in through his right where it gripped the metal.

Seeing the flash caused Harm to recoil, fearing the zombies had arrived but when no further sparks appeared he began considering the situation anew. "Either I'm infected but it doesn't work right on me or I'm immune do to some kind of electrical abilities of my own. That's ridiculous. Maybe so but it's the best explanation I have. Fine so what do we do with it?" Harm twisted his lips into the same look of concentration Alice had often sported. "Hold on. It's only useful if it's replicable. True. Ok. Let's see if we can do it on purpose," Once again Harm grabbed the metal and focused. Feeling a strange tingle run through his limbs Harm reached out and almost touched the wall. An electrical arc formed and a plan started to come together.

Dropping to the floor, Harm checked to see where the zombies had gotten. "Sweet Peppers!" he breathed still trying not to draw attention. The zombies were close and there were a lot of them. Flashes of his previous encounters with them attempted to delay him but Harm fought his way through. "Get out. Find out where you are. Get back to Teslaville. Save the day," he chanted as he began tossing the room for something he could use. "Flux. Flux. Flux." he mumbled absently. "Oh come on! Who doesn't have any Flux in a place like..." he eye settled on a lab coat hanging in a partially destroyed wardrobe. "Hanger!" he shouted and rushed to grab the coat. Keenly aware of how exposed his body had become he tugged on the coat even as he untwisted the wire. "Hope this works," he breathed as he grasped hold of the jam once more. Running a quarter-inch of the wire past his hand Harm tried to focus on creating the arc.

THOUM!

The doors shifted as the first of the zombies arrived with a crash.

THOUM!

The pounding continued and panic began to grow in his chest.

"Do it!" he shouted at himself. He resolve steeled, Harm stepped up and forced the power down the wire. With a practiced hand he welded the door to the frame. As he worked, electricity began spilling through the metal. He could feel them out there. All working in serial to melt their way though. The power they wielded should have slagged the door in seconds but everything they put out he took into himself. The glorious tingling sensation was building once more. It was so hard to concentrate. He finished the weld and then just let go and took all the power he could.

Gates he had never known existed were blown open inside his mind. He collapsed to the ground shrieking in pleasure so intense it hurt. It was too much. The flow would not stop and in waves he felt himself die over and over again. The pressure built one final time and with a titanic release the world went dark.

---

"Oh my poor sweet baby," a gentle and familiar voice cooed as a hand stroked his face. "Were you having a nightmare?"

"Mommy?" Harm asked, opening bleary eyes to the wonderful sight of his mother. "I was so scared you were dead," everything felt right with the world. A quick glance confirmed his body was his own. It really had been a dream, he began to cry. It had been so real.

"Shhh. Shhh. It's alright my little one. Mommy's here. Mommy will always be here," Harm grasped her about the midsection to pull himself closer still uncertain she would not simply vanish into the ether. "It's alright Harm," she lifted his head from her lap so as to look him in the eyes. "We can just stay here. Together. Forever."

Harm screamed as the electricity poured out of his mother's eyes and with inhuman strength she forced her lips to his. Thrashing against the obscene kiss Harm was helpless as he felt his mother slowly suck him dry.

Amidst the pain, confusion and terror came epiphany.

"No," he said calmly, easily breaking her grasp. "This is a nightmare. You are not my mother. My mother would never hurt me. Begone figment," the image of his bedroom and mother faded into smoke. With purpose he closed his eyes and said firmly, "Awake!" and when he opened them he was laying on the floor with his breasts creating a most peculiar and uncomfortable sensation.

With a calmer mind Harm listened carefully for any sound but all he could hear was the sound of his own breathing. The door was dented but it had held. Looking out through the small gap at the bottom he saw bodies collapsed to the floor. Some had been torn apart, some had burned to death and a few looked as if they had simply laid down for a nap.

Harm felt sick. He wanted to vomit but as much as he dry heaved nothing would happen. Regretting his decision to look, he stood up to examine the room he had so desperately claimed.

The room was large, if not for the arcane equipment littering it he might have been able to play a game of baseball with-in its boundaries, and of the same basic design as the halls and rooms he had already seen. Tables and benches were covered with half finished projects and tools. In almost every way it reminded him of his father's lab, except the creations here seemed to lack the innocence of his father's work. The automaton's he found seemed intended with the sole purpose of doing harm. Even the spider like device he eventually decided was medical equipment seemed angry.

At the right center of the room a throne like steel chair sat facing a curved wall covered in regularly sized rectangles of black glass. Harm wasn't clear why it had been designed in this fashion but it was obviously a control center of some kind. Threading his way through the aisles Harm looked for any sign of where he was. The room was lit with larger versions of the chemical lights in the hallways. "This place is dead," he said aloud and started at the sound of his own voice. For once the shock had less to do with it being Alice's voice and more with the sudden invasion of sound into so heavy a silence. Looking at one of the benches Harm burst out laughing, "Flux!" a spool of welding wire sat less than five feet from where he had grabbed the coat hanger to serve in its place. "Of course," he rolled his eyes and stuck the heavy spool of wire in one of his coat's pockets. Swinging around he walked past the black glass wall and in the eerie green yellow light finally saw himself. "Oh god," he said reaching out to touch the glass, "Alice. How did this happen?"

As his fingers brushed the panel he felt a strange connection and then the panel lit up showing static. Harm recoiled and when he did the light faded with a ripple of activity through the monitors surrounding it. "What was that?", he breathed. When nothing else happened he ventured to try it again and a similar effect resulted. With a bit of effort he discovered he could light the screens at will. "So cool," he grinned as he caused the monitors to dance up and down the wall. "Must be an entertainment device of some kind." he scanned over the wall critically, "I don't get it."

Turning from the wall he noticed the tracks which he had followed through the halls wove erratically through the room as well. Following the tracks he twisted back through the room and finally discovered another door identical to the one he had entered though on the opposite side. "It's a ring." he theorized. "I'll bet I would have ended up here regardless the way I picked in the beginning." pulling out the probe he scratched 'Rome' into the door and then returned to his investigation.

Hours passed and he still had no idea how to get out of the facility. "Surely you don't exit through one of the unmarked doors in the hallway?" a sinking feeling hit his stomach at the thought of prying open all the doors he had passed in the vain hope that one would lead outside. After another hour he was resigned to doing just that, "I'm going to need better light," he mused and began searching though the rooms contents for something to serve.

"Hold on," he said looking at one of the unlit directional light fixtures which depended from the ceiling. "Hold on just one second," reaching out he carefully touched the fixture and it sprang to life. A grin almost as bright as the bulb spread across his face. "Now we have something," Wasting no more time Harm pulled down one of the lights and carried it to one of the work benches. Nearly oblivious to his own actions Harm began to solder and rewire the light to make it more portable. "Huh," he grunted as he fabricated a rudimentary handle for it. For all the years he had helped his father in the lab he had never really understood why Ducky had been so obsessed with it. Now he knew. It was strangely euphoric to create something with your own hands and then watch it do what you intended. It was just...fun.

Shining the self powered light about the room Harm was very pleased. By moderating the amount of energy he discharged into it he could vary the intensity. As the light passed over a dark corner he was struck by the fact that the beam had not illuminated it as it had the rest of the room. He was certain he had looked in that corner and found nothing. Shining the light back on the corner he confirmed what he had thought. The corner was unnaturally dark and the light had no effect. His curiosity piqued Harm made his way to the corner and with hand outstretched pushed his way into the darkness.

Passing though the initial wall of shadow Harm realized the area had been designed to conceal this passageway from easy detection. The walls were matte black but more than that the light did not seem to reflect at all off the surface. "Curiouser and curiouser," he said without consideration of the body he now wore. After what he estimated to be around 100 meters Harm's bumped the end of his flashlight into a wall smashing the bulbs. "Stupid black walls," he grumbled tossing the lamp to the side. "Oh well. It's not like it was doing me much good in here anyway."

Feeling his way forward, Harm found the section of wall here was different from what he had seen previously. The wall felt convex and had been riveted together. A thick piece of raised metal sat in the center of the wall forming an oval. Inset into the oval was more metal crossed regularly with more raised sections and rivets. At the center he found a wheel he quickly recognized as the latch for a pressure door. "Forward," he breathed and began spinning the stiff mechanism till it set home. Taking a deep breath Harm opened the door only to find yet more darkness. "This is ludicrous!" he said as he fumbled his way through the hatch. "At least it wasn't filled with water or something."

Tracing his hands about the circular room he soon came upon a ladder of steel rungs leading up into the unknown. For just a moment he considered returning to the lab to make a new light but his instinct told him it was unlikely to make a difference. That decided he began his long ascent into the dark.

As he passed the seven-hundredth rung, for the first time since the incident Harm started to feel tired. He felt hungry and sleepy but he forced his way onward. At two-thousand rungs he had to stop. He was weak and shaky. His hands would barely grip the cold metal. "Just a little nap," he gasped as his eyes nodded shut of their own accord. His entire body began going limp and he started to fall.

Panic snapped him awake and Harm lashed out a hand into the darkness for purchase. Grasping desperately to one of the rungs Harm hugged the steel like a loved one. His mind wild with fear he tried to come up with a solution. "I can't go back down. I can't keep going up without a break. I can't sleep here without falling to my death," he rested his head against a rung. "What am I going to..." reaching into a pocket in his coat Harm pulled out the spool of flux. "Yeah. That should work."

Carefully Harm let out a long length of wire and looped it loosely beneath his arms and though the ladder. After repeating this several times he folded up the coat to form a pad and leaned into the sling he had created. Once sure it would hold he locked his knees and closed his eyes.

---

How much time passed Harm did not know but when he came to he felt refreshed. Taking the time to rewind the spool he donned his coat once more and resumed the climb. "The end is probably ten meters above me." he tried to chuckle but found his face once again fixed in place by a membrane. He had become so used to the dark nothing had seemed amiss. Again Harm tore away the material from his face and hair. "Where is this stuff coming from?" he gasped taking huge lungs full of increasingly stale air. "Figure it out later," he chastised himself, "Just worry about getting to the top for now."

Somewhere over a thousand rungs later Harm was beginning to weaken once more. "It can't be much farther," he tried to assure himself without much luck. "Just a little..." his hand bumped into a surface different from what he expected and he heart soared. Feeling around at the top of the shaft he soon found the wheel for another hatch. Cranking it with frantic speed he felt the seal break and was assaulted hot dry air and light.

Happy to finally be out of the dark Harm scrambled outside and breathed in the air. Squinting against the light out of instinct more than need Harm stood in the unusually hot sun and basked in the heat. He hadn't really noticed how chill it had been below but now the warmth felt glorious. His reverie over Harm looked all about himself trying to get his bearings.

He stood atop a large metal box which had conduits running in from every side. The conduits ran to smaller nodes which ran to large black domes baking in the sun. Turning this way and that he saw the pattern repeated but not a living thing in sight. "Hello?" he called tentatively, "Is there anyone out there?"

~To be continued