The Dreamer Book2

Chapter 2, Book 2 of The Dreamer
The Valkyrie, the Vampyrr and the Voyeur by dolphininthesky

For the rest of my stories, click here /~dolphininthesky/

story code: Mf, ff, anal, oral

David stumbled through the overgrown shrubbery, panting hard. He could hardly see his way by the little moonlight that filtered through the leafy branches overhead but he ran on, crashing through trees and bushes. Being fired upon and nearly being staked by exotic swords was not part of his everyday experience in life. While the rest of his mind curled up instinctively into a huddling, furry ball of fear, a small, detached part observed that the young woman was actually holding a Japanese sword - a katana. He thought such things belonged to the realm of movies and triad gang wars. Actually having one of those nosing around your innards was not a pleasant way to end the night. He crashed blindly through darkened parklands, pushing his way past branches, leaves, thorns, trees, bushes, undergrowth and who knows what else. Somewhere not far behind, he could hear the much quieter swish, swish of clothing that his pursuer made. Her quiet, stealthy movements in spite of the mountains of dead leaves underfoot and the profusion of twigs and branches that blocked the way, frightened him. These were not the movements of some random maniac but those of a well-trained predator.

It was only after several minutes of frenzied fleeing that rational thought finally caught up with him. David sent his mind backwards, probing for his pursuer's mind. He could try to confuse her mind, he thought. But it might not work very well on someone who was so intent on seeing his demise. It would be helpful if he at least knew why she was intent on attacking him. Who would want him dead anyway? Names like Aristides and al-Jubayr came to mind immediately, making him shudder. Had they found him at last? In his mind's eye, he saw her mind, glowing like a faint lamp in the night. He reached out for it...

David had a rude shock when he realised that he couldn't enter his pursuer's mind. Something kept him out, a barrier, a protective wall of some sort. His blood ran cold. This had never happened before. She wasn't a hitman sent by some rich pervert he'd ripped off with Mandy. This was much, much worse. Since the incident with the pigeons, he had been aware of others out there with skills that were similar to his. Whoever his pursuer was, she had some way of keeping him out of her mind. Was she someone with skills like his? Or was she from some organization or government body dedicated to destroying people like him? He had no idea; all he knew was that getting caught by his pursuer would not bode well for the life-expectancy of David Turner. Knowing she had a gun, he kept to the shadows, running only in the dense thickets and where there was plenty of tree cover.

Not far behind, Valkyrie glided through the wooded parkland like a deadly nocturnal carnivore. She only caught rare glimpses of her prey some fifteen to twenty metres ahead. Here, it was too dark to see clearly and she was unable to get a clear shot at him. The darkness also made it difficult to track him as he randomly plunged through bush and shrubbery in an attempt to throw her off his trail. But it was the way he crashed deafeningly through the foliage like a rampaging jungle elephant that made her shake her head in amusement and disgust. She could track him blindfolded just from the cacophony of sounds he made as he fled. Silent as a panther, she seemed to flow through the greenery, hardly making any audible sounds.

As David fled, he cast his mind outwards in desperation. If he could at least alert a policeman, he might have a chance of survival. He remembered also that whilst he could not control a person easily, if that person was heavily drunk or drugged, he could in effect take over their body whilst their minds were otherwise 'preoccupied'. But this late at night, the park was quite deserted. Was a stoned hobo with a shotgun in hand, sleeping in the park for the night too much to ask for?? Suddenly, he detected the mind of some creature about a hundred yards away. It did not seem quite human. But desperate for any help at all, anything that could give him some advantage over his pursuer, he slipped inside the slumbering mind.

He was dreaming of home and hearth - his kennel, the family that kept him, even the pesky little black meowing creature that he did not quite understand. It was a dream of good times that he sorely missed now that he could never go back. It had been such a great adventure when he finally chewed through the horrible collar that imprisoned him. He had roamed the streets free at last, sniffing every smell, following every scent, harrying every small creature and marking every post. But it had been days already, and the big adventure was turning out to be not so pleasant after all as his stomach growled at the little food he could find. He dreamt of doggie bowls full of doggie treats. Mountains of bones, oceans of scraps. Unlimited pats. His familiar little kennel. Most of all he dreamt about the little human who played with him.

Lucky, for that was his name, woke up from his dream now. His ears pricking up as he sensed a calling to go somewhere - an imperative he had to follow, like the call of the stick that the little human threw; or the call of the moon that made him howl at it; or the call of doggy butt scent that made him nose after it. Lucky shot out from under the tree where he was lying, his body a streak of brown as he disappeared through the bushes in the direction of the call.

As David ran on with a predatory black shadow close on his heels, a little brown shadow suddenly emerged beside him, keeping pace with his stride. He looked down to see the doggy he'd called. 'Good boy,' he muttered in between heavy breaths. It was going to be a long shot but he couldn't think of any better ideas. Running for a dense and darkly shadowed mess of shrubbery, he vanished from his pursuer's line of sight for just a moment. At that moment, David darted behind a leafy plant, where he crouched as silent as a mouse, suppressing the pants that all that running had caused. But even as he hid, as motionless as a statue, his mind kept on running in the little brown doggy body. He ran only in the deep shadows, unseen by the pursuer. And he ran noisily, deliberately crashing through the leaves and crushing the twigs and branches underfoot.

Hot in pursuit as she followed the sounds of her prey up ahead, the huntress passed by only several feet from where David crouched under cover of darkness. As soon as she disappeared from sight and hearing, David got up and began running in another direction - towards the foot of the hill where he had parked his car. He periodically sought out the dog's mind to give it a little guidance so that it would keep running. He could also check if the huntress was still tracking it - the sharp ears of the mutt could easily pick up the faint sounds its pursuer made. He exulted. That this had succeeded told him something about his pursuer - very possibly, she did not have his ability to sense minds. If she did, she would have quickly detected that it was a different mind she was following - one that thought a bit too much about juicy bones.

It was not long before Valkyrie caught sight of the sleek animal body she was chasing. She actually experienced a moment of uncertainty. She knew of course that shape-changing vampires were the stuff of fiction, but even though she had been hunting vampyrie for a few years now, they still kept coming up with surprises for her. Just for a moment, she thought her prey had changed into a canine - and then she realised that she had been fooled. Cursing, she turned round and went back the way she came. But by then, David was long gone and she had no idea which direction to search in. Suddenly, she stopped and stood there, in a little clearing. She lifted her eyes skyward and gave a sharp piercing whistle....

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David stumbled onto the tarred surface of the little parking lot, one of several that dotted the foot of the hill. Only his car was left in the empty lot, skulking away in some dimly lit corner. He was panting and sweating profusely. David's hands shook with relief as he fumbled in his pocket for his keys - he'd be home soon, where he could wash the whole night away in a hot, steaming shower. Just as he neared his car, his feet suddenly kicked something soft and he nearly stumbled over the obstacle on the ground. Looking down, he saw that it was a dark huddle lying on the ground. It moaned.

He hesitated for a moment and then bent slightly to touch the prone body on the shoulder. 'Are... are you okay?' he asked uncertainly. His hand shrank back as he touched something warm and wet. A dark stain coloured his fingers. He shivered in the cool night breeze. The body stirred again. He gingerly turned the body over and saw, in the dim light of a distant street lamp, that she was a young girl. Her face was pale and thin - white as a sheet. She seemed to be bleeding from her shoulder.

Just then, a gunshot rang out in the silent night, harsh and ear-shattering. The shot bit the gravel several feet away. Before he had time to think, his body moved on its own - he bundled up the injured girl in his arms, took the remaining couple of steps to his car, pushed the girl into the backseat, slid into the front and took off. Shots pocked the surface of his car, clanking and clunking as they tortured the metal body. And it was a rather new set of wheels too, some part of him that was not concentrating on getting away alive observed ruefully. He'd ditched his old Nissan and upgraded with his newly made money. The tyres were screeching as he swerved wildly to exit the parking lot. He saw three darkened figures running towards his car in the mirror - so there was more than one person after him, eh? But once he was on the road, he quickly left his pursuers behind.

He heaved a sigh of relief once he got onto the main road. Only then, did he consciously wonder why he'd saved the girl. 'I guess I don't quite trust a bunch of hitmen to play the good Samaritan,' he thought to himself. She seemed to be badly injured and he was already heading towards the nearest hospital in the city when he thought it'd be a good idea to take a peek into her mind. At least he would be able to tell what her injuries were and how she'd gotten them. He'd gotten the hang of 'multitasking' from lots of practice in recent months - being fully aware and in control of his own body as his mind wandered off into some other body. But when he entered hers, he nearly swerved onto the shoulder of the road. He pulled his mind out of hers and quickly concentrated on driving again. He shivered at what he had seen in that instant.

Chaos. Dark shadows. Reeling images. A thousand memory fragments spinning in free fall. The confusion and pain that gripped him in that moment he entered the young girl's mind had been like a searing white iron pressed into his brain. He massaged his temple with one hand as he drove in silent thought. There was something wrong with her. Her shoulder injury was nothing in comparison to the deep damage in her mind - he'd only seen something like this once before, when he'd entered the mind of a patient at the local 'institution' for the seriously disturbed. But even that mind had greater coherency - albeit in a twisted way. This one seemed to be swiftly unravelling - thoughts and memories flying freely as they lost cohesion, even the very fabric of consciousness was disentangling, unweaving, coming apart. But he had also glimpsed - deep, deep inside - a part that maintained its integrity, its personality, for the moment. And within that deep part, a shining ball of fire - the energy Source. And the intensity of it told him immediately that this young girl was no ordinary human - she was like him.

We concur, the Artifact observed quietly.

He pulled to the side of the road, flipped on the lights inside the car and looked back. He realised for the first time that she was beautiful. In a fragile way - like a thin and exquisite crystal goblet filled with delicate wine. Like the sparkling fire of a drop of dew perched on the tip of a blade of grass - evaporating in the same sun that gave it beauty. He inspected her shoulder wound as best as he could. She had been cut there, but it was just a graze - not deep, even though she had lost quite some blood. He flicked off the interior lights and resumed their journey. As he suspected, her physical injuries were the least of her worries. They were skipping the hospital and heading home.

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Mandy was up waiting for him when he arrived. As far as her parents knew, she was staying over at Becky's, but she'd given them the number for the phone in Becky's room and she knew Becky would cover for her. She, Becky and Julie took turns staying over in each other's houses a lot these days. They really were staying over, except it was in David's apartment. Becky and Julie weren't free to come today and David seemed to be taking longer than usual on his 'virgin hunt' tonight, so she was waiting alone. She knew David usually came home more than a little aroused from witnessing virgins getting broken in, so she waited for him in anticipation. She came to the door when she heard his key in the lock. The look of surprise on her face as she saw him half carrying, half dragging a strange girl, changed to horror when she saw that the girl's shirt was stained with blood.

'Oh, gawd, what happened?' her hands flew to her mouth.

'Found her... injured,' David said incoherently, 'Help her into the bed.' Between the two of them, they put the girl into David's bed. David instructed Mandy to tend to her wound with bandages, water and antiseptic from his little first aid box. As she did, Mandy suddenly winced. Her hands stopped and she held her head instead.

'Are you alright? Don't go inside her mind yet!' David said with concern, holding Mandy's shoulders as she shook her head clear. In the recent months, he'd taken to teaching the three girls his skills. Under the Artifact's instruction, he had unlocked their Source and taught them what he knew. The main difference was only in the type of energy acquired - whilst he needed female sexual energy, the girls drank up male sexual energies. The method of combining the opposite gender's sexual energy with their own and then integrating the result into the Source was the same, as were the methods of using that energy afterwards.

But to his surprise, their progress had been quite different from his own. While his own energy levels stayed fairly constant in between little jumps when he had sex with them and the larger jumps experienced when he went on trips like the one tonight, theirs seemed to increase slowly but steadily all the time. He quickly realised the reason for this: Whilst females released large amounts of energy during their arousal and climax, they were almost 'dormant' the rest of the time. Males on the other hand released a smaller amount during their orgasm but for the most part of the day, a great number of them were constantly in various stages of arousal. This meant that his girls were able to 'snack' on energy throughout the day, whilst he had to rely on proper meals at the appointed times. Mandy and Becky, in particular, were surrounded by horny schoolboys much of the day and could siphon off male sexual energy at any time. The girls knew this too - which may be one of the reasons why they were so permissive of him going out to 'admire the flowers' as they called it (or more accurately, admire the 'deflowering').

'Its... its.. horrible... what happened to her?' Mandy whispered. The headache of being in the injured girl's mind still lingered minutes after she'd exited it. Mandy had only just begun to be able to use her mental skills without having to be in a deep sleep, and exercising her fairly new skills, she had taken a peek into the girl's mind out of curiosity. The pain and confusion had hit her like a ton of bricks.

David shook his head, 'I don't know, but I'm going to try and find out.'

'You... you're going in there?' Mandy asked and he nodded. 'Do ... be careful, okay,' she said and he gave her small, cold hand a reassuring squeeze.

David took a deep breath and braced himself. 'I'll need whatever advice you have for this,' he told the Artifact.

We do not know enough at present. From our brief link with her earlier, it appears that her mind is experiencing a mental instability of some kind. We suspect it may be due to external causes, it answered.

'You mean someone caused this on her?' David asked, mentally conversing with the entity.

Affirmative. Perhaps it may be due to a weapon of some kind. We will know after taking a closer look. But first, the external bodily wound - we believe that presently, you should have sufficient ability to heal that.

'What? You mean, I can heal her body with my mind?' David asked incredulously. It came as a surprise, it was the first he'd heard of any such thing from the Artifact. But then, he already knew that it seemed to be in the habit of telling him about new skills only when it deemed him ready to use them.

Yes, the Artifact replied. It showed him how.

Focusing slightly, David could see the tendrils of energy in her body - not the pink, sexual ones, but the thousands, hundreds of thousands of other types, in every colour and intensity known and unknown to man. It was a familiar sight for him - the energies that made up the human body extended outwards and waved their colourful tendrils like corals on a reef. Deeper down, close to the body, the tendrils were woven together like a fabric that covered her body, moving and pulsing in an organic way that told him they were very much alive. But on her left shoulder, there was an ugly rupture. The energy tendrils were damaged, burnt, mutilated. It was an ugly patch, looking like dead, bleached corals on a damaged reef. Somehow, looking at them saddened David - it just looked wrong.

Reach out with a tendril of mental energy, the Artifact instructed. He did. Stroke it lightly, coaxingly. Imagine what they should look like. And if it draws energy from your tendril, slowly feed the energy to it. You must concentrate on the thought of how it should look like undamaged.

'But how should I know what it looks like undamaged?' David asked in puzzlement. The energies on the human body were a complex, complicated mess. A tangle of millions upon millions of energies, interlinking, interlocking, interacting with each other. It was a tapestry of infinite combinations where each combination of energies had an exact function and purpose. How would he know how her shoulder looked like before it was hurt?

But you do, the Artifact said. You knew all along. Because you have the same body as she does. Just remember.

The picture came to mind instinctively. David suddenly came to the realisation that he did in fact know. He didn't know why, and he didn't know how, but he was certain about how the tapestry of energy should look. The picture in his mind had a certain rightness to it. He concentrated on that picture as he let a glowing tendril of intense white extend from his mind, reaching for the young girl's wounded bodily energies - stroking it, gently soothing them, like a mother calming a child at her breast. To his surprise, he distinctly felt it respond. The little energy strands on her body pulsed and glowed. The dead ones seemed to be slowly regaining colour and intensity. As he somehow remembered what the undamaged area should be like, the little tendrils seemed to very slowly move and wriggle, forming a pattern that converged to the mental picture he had. He could feel little amounts of energy leaking from his tendril into her body, supplying it with the strength needed to heal itself. Finally, he could sense the rightness of her body. 'How did that happen?' he asked the Artifact.

Your mind instinctively knows the way the energies of a whole human body should be. Every time you hurt yourself, your body heals itself physically whilst your mind heals the damaged energy network in the same unconscious manner. By doing it consciously and providing the extra supply of energy to the human energy network, you speed the process up considerably. The female's mind is in no state to do this work at the moment, so it was necessary for you to do it for her or the injury would worsen. David digested this bit of new knowledge and surfaced from his thoughts. He found that Mandy was staring at the girl and at him with amazement, a strip of unused bandage in her hand. 'What happened?' David and Mandy asked at the same time.

'Her wound just disappeared before my eyes, it just closed up completely and its not even swollen or bruised!' Mandy exclaimed. David bent over to take a closer look. It was as she said. The unconscious girl's shoulder was still streaked with blood, but the wound was simply not there. Unscarred, unblemished - just perfect skin where the bloody gash had been. He was shocked himself. He knew he'd healed her energies, but he hadn't expected that to translate into complete physical healing. But before Mandy could get another word from him, David hushed her and closed his eyes as he concentrated again. He knew the young girl had even more pressing injuries. Ones only the eyes of the mind could see.

The elation he felt evaporated the moment he entered her mind. Sudden dislocation. Panic. Confusion. Where was he? The swirl of dark shadows buffeted his consciousness like driftwood in a maelstrom. It was a lot worse since he'd linked with her mind less than an hour ago. He struggled to prevent the darkness from overwhelming him. The confusion pressed in on him like a crowd of black, shifting shapes. Helplessness. He was lost. It was a labyrinth. A burst of tingling, painful pinpricks exploded inside his mind. Like savage nettles rubbed deliberately into the exposed nerve ends of his cerebral lobes.

But deep inside that whirling labyrinth, he sensed a place that was still calm. He reached out for it, striving to push past the hurricane of distracting thoughts. With great trouble, he penetrated the depths of that mind, arriving finally at what seemed to be a hastily erected barrier of shimmering white, mental energy. But it was full of holes and he slipped through it easily. It was a place of relative calm, where the thoughts were still coherent. But full of fear. Helplessness and despair.

'Who are you?' someone asked fearfully. It was a voice that expected the worst. He detected that the mind was very uncomfortable with the idea of someone else in her mind. That only happened to normal humans, the mind thought. Vampyrie did not get unwanted visitors. But it realised that in its present state, it was hardly in any position to defend itself. The girl knew he was reading her thoughts, and she knew he knew she knew.

'Don't be frightened,' he said, 'Who did this to you?' She hardly needed to reply. He saw the images that sprang up immediately. The dark cave. The huntress. More hunters. That hunter with the wriggling rune on his hand. She fled. Suddenly - confusion, pain, unconsciousness. She had withdrawn into the deep recesses of her mind, calling up what energy reserves she had to keep out that thing.

'What thing?' David asked. He knew now that the woman who had shot at him and attacked him with a sword hadn't been there for him. She was hunting this girl and had come upon him by accident. He also realised that there were many others with her. Before the young girl could answer David, the Artifact interrupted his thoughts.

Look.

The Artifact could not point for it had no fingers. And if it did, there was nowhere to point for the mind is not a space where directions and distances had any meaning. But if there was a word that best represented what the Artifact was suddenly doing with the fingers it did not have, it would be 'point'. 'Look' was not an accurate word to use either, but David 'looked'. Somewhere in that churning, bubbling, labyrinthine mess of displaced emotions, random sensations and meaningless thought fragments, he saw what he could only describe as an entity. He recognized it immediately as an entity of energy. That unavoidably came from having one living in your own head.

But this was different. It appeared to be a mess of dark lines, wriggling in a disconcerting way. If the mayhem of this mind was a labyrinth, then here was its Minotaur. It elicited the sort of emotion people have when they see the insectile motions of wriggling brown, segmented bodies of roaches and the like. Only worse. The disgust that came from the sheer wrongness of it made David thankful he had not eaten dinner yet. But the more he looked at it, the more familiar it looked. He had seen it somewhere.

The symbol on the back of her right hand, the Artifact said. He understood what it meant immediately. The intricate symbol he had seen on her hand earlier (and dismissed as just a curious and rather hideous tattoo) was to this creature, what a stick man was to a real human. The similarity was there in a sketchy, general way but it in no way conveyed the fullness of meaning of the real thing. The tattoo was hideous, but this was Hediousness itself come to visit. And with even greater amazement, he saw that it was swallowing up whole thoughts and memories, then shitting out disintegrated fragments. He realised it for what it was. It was a virus. Of the mind.

It is a being of energy like ourselves. It cannot be killed. We believe it will consume this female's mind and mental energy completely before going on to devour her bodily energies. She will lose her mind and die.

'What then can we do?' asked David, despairing of hope. Could he stand by and watch this girl lose her sanity and then perish? The fact that she was the first person he had met with skills like his - as evidenced by the blaze of energy in her Source - made him feel that she was some kind of kindred spirit.

We must trap and isolate it, the Artifact continued. In the female's memory of her encounter with one she calls a hunter, it appears that the symbol on the hunter's hand was somehow transferred onto hers, and the creature then entered her via that symbol on her hand. We believe it is a container of some form for the energy being. We should take a closer look, it said. David agreed and quickly left the girl's mind.

' Wait!' Lisette cried out, but the stranger's mind had already left as suddenly as it came. Suddenly she felt all alone. She peered out from behind her ineffective barrier at the monster that had crawled into her bed. She had thought she'd successfully escaped from the hunters of the Fellowship when the sudden pain in her mind drew her attention to something that had gotten inside her. It was like finding a stranger in your house; a bogeyman in your closet; a clammy black creature under the quilt cover with you. She threw up a barrier with her mental energy but it was useless, the creature consumed the energy, punching holes in the barrier easily.

It triggered a memory, something she had heard from an old vampyrr years ago. It was said that certain powerful hunters kept energy creatures that could worm themselves into your mind and eat up your memories, thoughts and feelings. It fed on your energy, so any weapon or shield formed with your mental energy would just become a tasty snack. It consumed your mind and mental energy; slowly but surely, it would erode who you were, until you became a shell of yourself, devoid of personality and memory. Finally, an empty husk, it would then start on the rest of the biological energy that made up your body and as those were gradually consumed, organ after organ would fail and you would die a slow, painful death. She shivered. She had thought then that it was just a story to scare little vampyrie into being obedient. The fairytale was now alive and feeding ravenously inside her head.

She sank deeper and deeper into her mind, retreating as the creature advanced slowly. It did not attack her aggressively. Instead it was content to wander randomly consuming every thought and memory in its path and then discharging them as broken fragments. She watched in horror as memories were turned into a thousand fragments, irrecoverably gone. She hugged her most precious and cherished memories close to her. She knew that if these went too, she would no longer be who she was. Was that it, she wondered? Was a person the sum of their memories? If those were gone, what was left behind? Even amnesiacs retained basic memories - how to speak, how to act. She was not so lucky, she would be turned into a vegetable. She had heard rumors that normal humans who became victims of certain human diseases were like that. She shuddered. Every bit of her mind it consumed caused a throbbing pain inside; for every memory was linked to her soul, the very core of her being.

The second shock had come when some stranger had entered her mind. No one had ever done that before. When a person's energy Source was released and they became a vampyrr, they suddenly became aware for the first time of the other dimension - that of the mind. Unlike mere humans, it was simply not possible to enter the mind of a vampyrie, unless they explicitly allowed it. So when a complete stranger came in unbidden, it had almost been as shocking as discovering that creature inside her mind. Twice in such a short space of time, the inviolable sanctity of her mind had been violated. But the second intruder had not seemed hostile. She had even seen a faint glimmer of hope - perhaps he would help her. From their short, interrupted conversation, he did not seem to be a hunter - and hunters didn't know how to make a mental link anyway - but all too soon, he was gone, and she was alone again, under siege in her own mind.

Lisette Silfer shivered in the dark depths, in a corner of her mind that she thought was sufficiently hidden from the creature - at least for the time being. But it continued its slow, inexorable progress, and she knew that it would find her here sooner or later. If only her father was here, Lord Silfer would not have let those accursed hunters do this to her. He was so powerful and wise, he would know what to do to destroy this creature. But it was hopeless. She was all alone. And already, she was beginning to forget the important things. She was only nineteen, the youngest of House Silfer. The other apprentices ranged from thirty to a hundred years old and Lord Silfer himself was near four hundred - she had a long life ahead of her. She started to sob, she didn't want it to end so soon, this way.

It was a long, long time before a deep shadow was cast over that dank alleyway of her mind. It had found her, even in this dark, remote and well-hidden place. She curled into a fearful ball, not daring to look. And yet she must. The creature moved towards her until it was very close. Then, she saw it clearly for the first time. It was the nightmare that you couldn't remember in the morning; that deep, primal fear in the core of your being; it was the reason why men fear the dark. It did not seem to have any single, distinct shape to her eye. It was something so terrible that the revulsed and horrified human mind refused to grasp or recognize it. It crept up to her, not stopping until they were face to face, eye to eye.

She saw it. Something green, scaly and slithering. A creature, brown-carapaced and wriggling. An apparition, segmented, hairy and covered with a thousand dull, colourless eyes, each unerringly fixated on her. A white and bloodless corpse with skin like a withered parchment and red, trickling, pools of blood where eyes should be. Its shape shifted and changed, taking a million different forms all at once, for form and shape had little meaning to it. It was the beginning and the end of every horrible thing. The ugliness of the world. The wickedness of man. Wretchedness. Sin. Avarice. Envy. Malice. This was a creature birthed from such as these.

An extension of the creature reached out to her - a hairy proboscis; a thorny tentacle; a blackened, deformed hand. It curled and twisted, sick, slimy and putrid. Lisette knew at once its intention; it would rape her personality right here, in her heart of hearts, the deepest and safest place in her. She tried to back away, but there was nowhere to run to. This was the end of the road. From her hands, it wrested the memory of her childhood, of anything and anyone she cherished, of her favourite places, her favourite foods, her hopes and dreams, her fears and failures, the secret things, the intimate things. It left behind a horrible, gaping void. If only her father... she could not remember his name... if only someone was here, he could save her. She had a vague recollection of there being someone powerful who could save her. Was he her father? Did she have a father? She didn't know... She did not know anything save for the thing in front of her; its fluids were dripping down her neck as one bloody eye stared into hers, mesmerizing her. What was this thing? How did it get here? Where was she? Who was she?

Suddenly, there was a voice. It was a beautiful voice, strong and powerful. The thing turned. It waited, a thousand oily compound eyes staring down the alleys of the ruined and desolate mind. It sensed more energy where the voice came from. The hungry emptiness of the belly that could never be satisfied tuned itself to the voice. The young girl looked past the thing, her gaze far away, looking in the direction where the voice came from. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever known. Tears came unbidden to her eyes. It was the only beautiful thing she knew. She sank to her knees, no strength left to stand. None left even to cry. She sat there, just listening quietly.

Slowly, very slowly, the thing left her. It crawled towards where it sensed more energy. More thoughts. A place rich with memories. It would consume them. It would make the place a black and empty void, just like the void inside it. It was not in the mind it had just ruined. It came from further down, in the energy rich body previously owned by that mind. But the thing ignored those biological energies. They were good for food, but not as good as a human mind was. It moved like a spider on its web, slowly treading its way to its struggling prey. There it was. It was a rich mind, full of thoughts, passions, memories. And it glowed with mental energy. A thousand black tongues licked a thousand purple lips in hunger. It lunged.

All at once, the mind vanished. Dark lines fell all around it, clinging to the creature. It struggled but the lines held fast, tightening and constricting it. It screamed, a hideous, high-pitched wail. It was the scream a dying cockroach would make if cockroaches could scream. It was the scream shadows made when the lights came on if we could only hear them. The sound was indescribably ugly. But it was snuffed out as the lines of black closed in and solidified.

David heaved a sigh of relief as he withdrew his mind and opened his eyes. He looked at the symbol on the fragile looking hand of the unconscious girl. It was now darker than it previously was, testament to the entity contained therein. It had taken all his wit and strength, but together with the Artifact - whose help was invaluable - they had finally figured out how the symbol worked. It was a type of slow drying body paint, and yet it was more than that. There was nothing significant in the paint, the hunter who had attacked the young girl had merely pressed his hand into hers whilst the paint was still wet and left an imprint of the sigil there. The secret was in its shape.

It was a complex and intricate symbol, spiralling madly, hopelessly complicated and convoluted. If one looked at it long enough, one would observe certain strange characteristics to it. It had been drawn without lifting up the pen from beginning to end, so that it traced out a single, continuous symbol that looped back to its starting point. So if one traced out the path of the lines with a finger, one should eventually arrive back at the point where one started. But somehow, one never did. You could keep your finger on the lines, following them continuously, tracing them out for days, but you would never arrive back where you started.

It had taken David half the night to understand why. But he finally did, and once he realised that fact, understanding how the symbol worked was not difficult. Both he and the Artifact had realised that it was impossible to kill the energy creature in the young girl's mind. But they deduced that the symbol was a device that the hunter had used to trap and contain the creature until he was ready to use it, at which point, he would transfer the symbol onto his enemy's body and somehow release the creature from the rune that held it captive. Therefore, if they could understand how the sigil worked, they might have a way of luring it back there and using it to trap it again.

It was after several hours of thought that David came to what was perhaps the single most important conclusion of the night - there was no way one could trace out a single, continuous, looped symbol and not arrive back at the point where one began, unless, the symbol was not the two-dimensional picture that one's eyes said it was. He suspected that the lines continued, unseen, in arbitrarily many higher dimensions, linking one section of the symbol with another section. In that case, by following the two-dimensional projection of a curve that was really traced out in multiple dimensions, one could never hope to arrive back at the starting point of that symbol even though it was a single, continuous loop. To achieve that, one must follow the lines into the higher dimensions that they dipped into.

The usually cold and collected Artifact had showed a rare display of excitement when David shared his thoughts with it. They realised after some discussion that whilst a finger or pen might not be able to follow the drawn symbol as it curved into some higher dimension, it was possible that the mind might be able to do just that. It had taken more experimentation and another hour to achieve that, and once they succeeded, understanding how to use that sigil was relatively easy. Somehow, sections of the symbol actually responded as mental energy was applied to it, and when all was said and done, the rune simply boiled down to this - it was a cage. One that was used to contain an animal that existed in the unknown dimensions. Mentally calling out to the creature, David lured it away from the girl's mind. It followed the bait all the way to her hand, where the symbol had been imprinted. Once there, David easily trapped it with the rune - after the hours of hair-pulling, deep thought and feverish preparations, it had almost seemed anti-climactic.

But although they had finally succeeded, he feared that it was already too late for the creature's young victim. His mind dipped into hers once more and he despaired at what he saw. It was like a junkyard full of discarded and broken rubbish. Or an asteroid belt, thick with fragmented pieces floating aimlessly. There was nothing whole left. He sighed. Her body at least was intact; the creature hadn't gotten there yet. But as for her mind - there was simply no one home. Emptied. Eaten.

'Was that your voice earlier?' a voice said very softly, just as he was about to turn and leave her mind. He looked for the person who had spoken. Hidden deep inside, was a little flickering flame. He drew nearer. The glimmer of light was a mind, or what remained of one. Stripped down, cut back, only the most vital components were left - the consciousness of self, some knowledge of language and some basic understanding of the world that its body inhabited. He saw her only memories - they were of a creature that frightened her for some reason that she couldn't understand, and a voice that had called out to her. He felt a surge of pity for the girl.

'Yes,' he answered, 'It was my voice. That creature is gone now, you don't need to be afraid anymore. I'll make sure you're safe.'

'Did you make it go away?'

'Yes.'

She nodded in response. In his mind, he reached out a hand and put it around her. She didn't know why but she pulled herself closer, the presence of his mind comforting hers. After a long time, he gently laid her down to rest. Tired from all the exertions of the night, he withdrew from her mind and returned to his own once more.

The fatigue caught up with him like a rushing tide. He remembered now that he was sitting on the side of his bed, where they had lain the girl. He tried to stand up but his vision spun and his body swayed unsteadily. Arms caught him. 'Are you okay? Your mind was gone for hours,' Mandy's voice asked gently. He nodded weakly, 'She's safe now, but she has what we'd call really major amnesia.'

Mandy helped David out of the bedroom and into the living room. Not bothering to turn the lights on, they sat down on his couch. For a long time, they sat there as David rested. Mandy yawned, it was nearly three in the morning and she had been sitting beside David and the girl the whole night, worrying about him and wishing she knew enough to help. With the girl on the bed, it looked like they would be spending tonight, or what was left of it, on the couch.

David's arm was around her and she suddenly felt his hand gently squeezing the side of her breast. 'Mm.... aren't you supposed to be tired?' she asked softly.

He gave a low laugh, 'I'm just low on mental energy. What better way to replenish it than this?' He gave her another gentle squeeze.

'Wait a minute,' David said, 'Get up. Let me open up the couch - its one of those sofa-beds. It'll be more comfortable.'

'It's a sofa-bed? I never knew that,' Mandy said as she rose to her feet.

'It's handy if a friend stays over for a night. Not that you girls would use it. You three seem to enjoy fighting with me over my bed,' he joked. The bed in his room was not all that big and when the three girls stayed over, the four of them often ended up in a big tangle of limbs and naked, sweaty bodies as they pressed against each other in an effort not to fall off the edge.

David and Mandy sank into the sofa-bed after he'd set it up. 'Mmmmm....' so much better, Mandy said as she stretched her tired body. David's eyes roamed hungrily over it. His roving hands were beginning to peel off the oversized t-shirt she wore to bed.

'Wait... wait... there's a problem!' Mandy protested, pushing his hands away. He looked at her questioningly and she pointed at the window. He had large windows in the living room and no curtains. Across the street, a rather similar block of apartments looked into the room. The silver, liquid moonlight shone through the windows and cast a pale and mysterious light over the room. He laughed, 'No one will see us sweetheart. The lights are off and the moonlight is too faint. From the outside, the living room will look pitch black.'

Mandy nodded but protested somewhat shyly, 'But... its so exposed. I know no one can see a thing, but I can almost imagine those people living across the street looking at us. Maybe some pervert has got a pair of binoculars trained on me....'

David nearly laughed out loud. 'I remember the last time you and me did something in the living room. It was broad daylight and you were really hot at the thought of people seeing you masturbate...' he said. Mandy gave him a push and said in mock anger, 'That was your fault. You were taking advantage of me then and playing around with my mind.' David grinned and kissed her silent before she could make anymore protests. He slowly stripped his little girlfriend, running his hands over her pert, developing body. She replied with a passion that made him sigh. He could hardly believe she was fourteen - she had a sizzling body; only her still developing breasts told him she was still a growing girl. But even now, they were nice and decent handfuls, he thought to himself as he gripped them and slowly enjoyed the feel of the flesh running through his fingers.

David gently pressed a finger between her thighs, teasing the little virgin mound. He still hadn't broken the seal there yet - he wanted it to be special. He'd promised her he would on her fifteenth birthday, which was still many months away. He planned on taking her for a week long holiday, a honeymoon of sorts where she could have his undivided attention all day, every day. But for now, her girlhood remained intact and they satisfied themselves in other ways. 'Get into position,' he told her when he felt that she was wet and ready.

At once, she obediently crouched down on her hands and knees, her head on the soft sofa-bed and her rump lifted up, a pleasing offering to him. David looked at her proudly and patted her firm bum. She was quite used to their anal play and it was to her, their normal position of sex. As David wet his rigidness on her honeyed lips, liberally spreading it all over himself, his fingers too began to transfer her girly lubrication from the front entrance to the back door. He pushed his slippery finger deep inside the brown, winking tunnel. She sighed and relaxed her muscles to let him penetrate deeply. She crouched there quietly as she enjoyed the pleasurable sensations of her rectal massage.

David's tongue joined his fingers. She had washed herself with great care earlier because she knew he often came home from his 'virgin hunting' all worked up and stiff as a poker. But even if she hadn't, he probably wouldn't have cared a great deal. He had long since forgotten the meaning of the word 'icky' when it came to Mandy. To him, everything about her was sweet and wonderful. All her fluids were nectar. All her scents exciting. He let his tongue and nose bathe in her exotic muskiness, her pheromones driving him into a fuck lust.

Finally, he rose up and positioned his thickness at the little back door. Even as he pressed in, his hand reached round the front to play with her sopping virginity. Mandy cried out as he pushed deep inside. The cacophony of sensations that the thick, reversing turd and the playful fingers that worried her pleasure bud worked together to instigate a powerful pleasure response in her lithe body. She moaned and rocked her body as he began to gently bugger her. Young Mandy could feel it coming.... his fingers felt so good as he massaged her clitoral hood, sending sparks up her spine. She could feel it almost there....

And then, it stopped as he took his fingers away. 'Noo.....' she groaned. David laughed as she wiggled her butt in frustration, her anal ring tightening around him as she tried to squeeze her muscles together to bring on that sensation she craved. She shook her head woefully as she realised he was going to play with her like 'that' again. He had lately been teasing her little baby cunny until it was just about to explode before he held back and deprived her of her cum. He hadn't been doing it without reason of course. He knew that whilst Mandy enjoyed being taken up her ass, she still came only when he played with her little virgin cunny.

Therefore, he had a dream.... He had a dream that one day she would cum just from the pumping he gave the lush, lust-reddened hills of her pert buttocks. He wanted her to enjoy it every bit as much as he did. He had a dream that one day, as he anally penetrated the tight rosebud that was sweltering from the heat of the fuck, Mandy would become so overwhelmed by bitch-heat that her joy would blossom and climax, relieving her from the fuck-heat as she was swam in the sweet, cool waters of an orgiastic oasis. And all this without him so much as touching her honeyed cunny. Oh yes, he had a dream. His intentions may not have been as noble as that of that great political activist and orator, but still, he did it for the good of his lovely Mandy - that she may derive as much or even greater pleasure than what he experienced during their sodomic lovemaking.

So this was what he did. David would play with her precious little slot and with her aching little delight button until she squirmed and wriggled in the throes of passion. Then he would stop suddenly, leaving her in the lurch, with the gentle, rhythmic action of his buggering as the only stimulation she got. He would repeat this again and again until finally, pure sodomy was sufficient to push her over the edge, forcing her into frenzied multiple orgasms as he shafted her innocent brown hole.

She knew this too, as he had told her his purposes: that he wanted her to enjoy their nether couplings as much as she would a normal, vaginal intercourse. She protested it of course, but at the same time, being turned into his little fourteen year old anal slut held some kind of perverse attraction that fascinated Mandy. She almost felt proud and happy when she succeeded in climaxing from the sensations in her tender ass. It was a sense of accomplishment that felt as good as being petted and praised by David afterwards.

She worked hard to cum as she pushed her soft buns back into David's pubic bone. Being stretched wide and deep, having her bowels distended by the large tool - these feelings were good, and the harder and the faster David plowed into her, the better it felt. She liked it when he crashed into her so hard that her little frame shuddered. The wave of sensations were so intense that she would orgasm involuntarily then. But he was usually rather hesitant about doing that as he feared hurting her little body. So it was up to her to push hard into him, to squeeze and massage him with her colon until he lost control and gave her the proper sodomizing - hard, deep and fast - that she needed.

Oh, but how her little pearl craved attention. It was jutting out, red and angry. 'Just... just touch my cunny... my clitty .. a little, David?' she pleaded. 'Oooo.... please.... please.... I want to feel your hands there....' she whimpered.

'Here?' David asked teasingly as he pointed to her cunny. They had changed position already. He had pulled her up from her crouching position and he was now sitting down whilst she sat on his member, her front facing away from him. One hand reached down to point between her legs as he teased her and the other hand reached around her to massage her breasts from the front.

'Yess.....' she whimpered as she pushed herself up and down David's rigidness. She was doing all the work now as he sat there idly teasing her. She leaned back into his strong chest.

'You want me to put my mouth there and lick, don't you? You'd like my tongue swirling around your little cunt, diving deep inside?' he asked, smiling devilishly.

'Ohhh... yesss.... lick me... lick me there....' Mandy squealed, her voice high and squeaky from the excitement. She could barely form a proper thought in her lust clouded mind, let alone speak. And he was making her speak all those dirty words that normally made her blush just from thinking them.

'Where? Here?' David's finger gave her clitty the tiniest and lightest graze possible, but her whole body jerked as though jolted by a thousand volts of electricity. The sensations on David's purple sausage was incredible. He had to squeeze his crotch muscles hard to prevent himself from losing it. Both their eyes were closed as they reveled in the sensations they were giving each other as David bounced her up and down on his thighs. She threw back her head and arched her back, causing her masses of blonde curls to hang down over David's neck and chest, making him groan as it gave him an intense, ticklish pleasure. Her hands reached for her hot little box, desperate for a measure of relief, but David slapped them away gently.

'Pleasee... touch me.. lick.. me.... do something ... anyonee....I can't take it anymore... anyone.... pleasseee..' Mandy begged. David replied by pushing her hair to one side so he could nibble on the back of her neck, making her shudder uncontrollably - she had never thought he could titillate her so just by kissing her neck.

'No... no... not my neck... my cunny... my cunny... lick my hot little cunny.....' Mandy pointed to her tender, inflamed slot. Her hands wanted to touch it, but she knew David wouldn't let her. She jabbed her finger at her private parts emphatically, as though somehow by merely pointing, she might get some satisfaction.

Suddenly, her near-delirious wishes were granted - a mouth latched itself onto her most tender of parts and a tongue, soft and thick was lapping at her pleasure nubbin. Mandy's eyes flew opened in shock the same moment the climax collapsed into her like a tsunami. But David was still embedded to the hilt in her back door. Unless he was a champion contortionist, there was no way his mouth could get to her front.

She looked down in panic to see a beautiful girl between her legs. Her hair was so fair that it bordered on silver, and the silky cascade was long enough to just cover her pert bottoms. Her face was delicate and exquisitely formed and her large eyes were like emerald pools deep in the Mayan jungles. Her skin, already as fair as Snow White, was even paler because of her intense exhaustion. It made her seem fragile and delicate, arousing compassion and pity from anyone who looked on her.

It was the girl they had saved, and she was diligently lapping at Mandy whilst looking up with a questioning look on her large eyes that seemed to ask, 'Was this what you wanted?' But there was an air of complete child-like innocence about her that was devoid of any wantoness or lewdness. But at the moment, Mandy didn't give a damn. It could have been Tassie from next door or even Tassie's little pet terrier - she didn't care - all she knew was that she needed it and she needed it bad. She clutched the girl's head and pressed herself deep into those lapping, sucking lips.

The girl's lapping was totally unskilled. She had absolutely no idea what to do but she more than made up for it with her energy. And when she accidentally hit on Mandy's clitty, at Mandy's prompting, she attacked it mercilessly, her tongue rapidly clicking back and forth as it pounded the tortured bead.
'Yes... that's it... yes.... yes! there! there's the right spot! Ngggggghhhhhhhhhhh......' Mandy whined as she came hard.

In the darkened room, with Mandy's body in the way and his concentration fully on the rectal contractions that were so powerful they threatened to break off his stalk, David had absolutely no idea that Mandy was getting a helping hand, or rather, mouth. Mandy's sweet butt milked him dry and he grunted with each thrust. He held her trembling body close as their pleasure peaked simultaneously. He sank his teeth into her shoulder lightly as he growled with satisfaction.

Finally, the sensations ebbed away gradually. It was only then that he noticed something amiss. He heard Mandy murmuring weakly, 'Oooo... enough.... uhhh... yes, yes... that's enough... your mouth is so good... anymore and you'll kill me.... thank you... thank you.... ' He looked over her shaking shoulder to see the young girl he had brought home crouched between both their legs, her face shiny with Mandy's girly fluids. She looked up and saw him staring at her open mouthed. She gave him the sweetest smile. David was at a loss for words. But first things first - he pulled Mandy off him with a little pop and laid her half-conscious body down on the sofa-bed. As Mandy recovered, she looked up, flushed with shame - had she just pressed a complete stranger's face into her crotch and just about raped her mouth?

'Did I do it right?' a girlish voice asked innocently. She looked up and saw the girl, sitting on the bed observing her posterior with intense interest. Mandy squeaked and hastily moved to cover herself with her hands. She knew the girl was watching her still stretched and gaping behind as it leaked the white and murky love juice David had douched her with. But as she moved, a little fart came out involuntarily with a cute brrp. The young girl giggled and Mandy wished she could hide her head in a hole in the ground. The girl reached out a questioning finger and rubbed it round the rim of Mandy's wide open hole, making her jump and shudder.

Meanwhile, David slipped into the girl's mind and what he saw confirmed his suspicions - she had absolutely no idea what they were doing. He saw that she had been awakened by Mandy's squealing in the living room next door. Padding quietly to the door, she had opened it a sliver and quietly watched the two of them with mounting curiosity. When Mandy started pleading for 'someone... anyone' to lick her where she was pointing, the girl innocently stepped into the living room and complied. Even now, she was watching Mandy's lower body with innocent fascination.

'So... sorry.... about that... I.. don't know what came over me,' Mandy was just saying to the girl, apologizing for holding her head to her own pussy earlier and telling her to lick it. The girl merely blinked at her without comprehension.

'Mandy, come take a look,' Mandy suddenly heard David's voice in her head. She concentrated and with some effort, was able to break free of the fetters of her body, her mind straining to do what David did with such ease. She followed him into the young girl's mind and realised that the girl had merely been following her 'prompts'.

'I'd say she has the reasoning capabilities of a child and no memories at all to speak off,' David said.

They emerged from her mind to see her looking at both of them curiously. Mandy felt a surge of compassion for the girl. 'Oh, you poor dear,' Mandy reached out, caught her hand and pulled her closer to give her a hug. The young girl had no idea what she was being hugged for, but she liked it. She reached her arms around Mandy and squeezed back tightly. Somewhere inside Mandy, motherly instincts bubbled up and she held the girl and stroked her silky hair gently

'Mmmm....' the girl purred as she knew tenderness for the first time, as far as she could remember anyway (i.e. the last hour or so).

'What's you name?' Mandy asked.

'Name?' she mumbled confusedly.

'I think it's Lisette,' David said as he watched the two. Her name and how she had come to be injured were the few facts that he had skimmed from her mind during his first short foray there. After that, he had been too busy trying to rid her of that energy entity and when he was finally done, there was little coherent memory left in her.

'That's a beautiful name. As beautiful as you are,' Mandy said, 'Don't you think so, David?'

'Lisette...' the girl whispered to herself, whilst David gave some incoherent mumble. When asked by your girlfriend if another girl was beautiful, an affirmative answer was probably not the best one. She was not merely beautiful, she was exquisite. Albeit in a heartbreakingly fragile way. She was petite and thin and the exhaustion from her recent ordeal showed. Mandy had cleaned her earlier and stripped away her bloodied, torn clothes. She now wore David's oversized shirt, which came down to mid-thigh in a tantalizing way that made David wonder guiltily whether Mandy had left her panties on underneath.

'My name is Lisette?' the girl asked, looking from Mandy to David and back.

'Yes, you're Lisette. And I'm Mandy.'

'David,' David said with a nod.

The girl's face lighted up in a smile. 'I like Mandy and David.'

Mandy was delighted, 'We like you too Lisette!' Then she continued, 'It's really late, and you're probably tired. Let's go and sleep, okay?' She wanted to talk more with Lisette but that could come tomorrow - she was obviously exhausted. Lisette nodded and let Mandy lead her back to the bedroom. David wasn't going to follow them - he thought the couch was good enough. But Lisette looked like she was going to cry when he didn't come. Mandy took his hand and dragged him in with them. Lisette slept in the middle and she insisted shyly on both of them pressing against her - somehow the feel of their warm bodies made her feel safe. She was not alone anymore. She remembered David as the voice that had saved her and comforted her. And she now knew Mandy too and clung to the younger girl like a leech.

They slept till the sun was high in the sky, it being a Saturday. David woke to find the three of them curled up against each other. Lisette's long silver hair was spread out over his bed. He couldn't help admiring it - it was indeed the most beautiful hair he had seen. Not only was the colour quite unique, but it was as fine as silk and it shimmered in the late morning sun that fell in through the window. The two girls were in a sort of semi-embrace as they slept and David was pressed up against the beautiful Lisette's butt. He hastily backed away and after some stretching, went out, showered and made breakfast.

It was the smell of hot food that awoke the two girls. They spent ages in the bathroom, and when they finally emerged, Mandy declared that Lisette didn't know how to bathe and she had to do it for her. The long hair must have been hell to wash, David thought to himself as he watched the lustrous locks that fell like a satin curtain over those jean-clad buns. Lisette's jeans from the night before were alright even though her top was irreparable. She was wearing one of David's shirts.

After breakfast, Mandy and David talked about what to do with Lisette, She was quite oblivious to their discussion, having just rediscovered the joys of blowing bubbles with her saliva. She giggled each time they popped. Her behaviour and interests seemed to be somewhat on par with that of a five or six year-old. She clung to Mandy like a kitten clinging to its mother even though she was obviously some years older than Mandy's fourteen. In Mandy's absence, she would cling to David who seemed to have assumed the position of father and protector.

'When I turned up inside her mind, she thought that I was some kind of 'vampyrr'. It appears that she calls people with our skills vampyrie. And I think the hunters that were after her are probably a group that hunt people like us - 'vampire hunters' if you like,' David said as he finished telling Mandy all about last night and what he had gathered from Lisette's mind during its last hours.

'Vampyrie? You're sure she doesn't suck blood?' Mandy asked jokingly.

David laughed, 'When I looked inside her mind, her energy Source looked the same as ours, so I reckon the terms 'vampyrr' and 'vampyrie' merely describe the way we derive our energy from other humans.'

'We should keep her here for the time being and you probably shouldn't go out too often too, since those people know your face as well,' Mandy said.

David disagreed, 'I'm not sure I should stay here. It was pretty dark at the hill last night but they may have seen my car registration plate. If they somehow have links to government databases - and we don't yet know if they are government people or not - they could find out my current address and look for us here. That would put you and the other two girls in danger if you're seen with me. I'm thinking of heading out of the city and lying low somewhere for a little while.'

'I'll come with you,' Mandy said but David wouldn't hear of it. 'I don't want to put you in danger and you've got school and family - how would we explain your absence to your parents and teachers? If you lie low and keep clear of this place, I think you should be pretty safe.'

Mandy didn't want to part with David of course, and she was about to protest when David suddenly looked towards the window and asked, 'Who are you waving to, Lisette?'

Lisette was standing there enjoying the sunlight. She smiled at David and said, 'There are two nice people down there waving at me.' She turned back to the window and waved happily at the 'friendly' people. At once David leapt for the window - there were indeed two figures in the street below. One was holding what that looked like binoculars to his eyes and another was frantically waving at a large van further down the street as it drove towards these two. He recognized one of them - it was the woman who had attacked him.

'Shit!' he exclaimed, looking at Mandy as he quickly pulled Lisette away from the window. 'Shit and damnation! They're here!'