"You have to come with me, Melinda."

"No, I don't, Heather."

"Yes, you do."

"What the hell for?!"

"Because Mom said so, that's why?"

"I don't give a shit what Mom said!"

"Melinda! Quiet!"

"No!" Melinda declared, folding her arms indignantly. "I will not be quiet!"

Heather sighed and rolled her eyes, sweeping an arm towards the bedroom door. "Jason is downstairs. You want him to hear this?"

"I don't care. I'm probably going to tell him all about this anyway once you're gone." Melinda leaned forward to put heavier emphasis on those last three words.

"And just what are you two going to do if I did leave you by yourself?"

Melinda paused a moment. "None of your business," she finally said in a weaker voice.

"Yeah, none of my business. Uh-huh."

"Well, it isn't!" Melinda said shrilly. "Come on, Heather! This isn't fair! You want me to give up my time with him just because the school year started?"

"You two are going to have sex, aren't you?"

Melinda blushed but said nothing in reply.

"Melinda ..."

"It's not like we haven't already been doing it the last couple of weeks," Melinda declared, her blush deepening. "I was really surprised when you found out about it only today!"

Heather sighed and put a hand over her eyes.

Actually, she had known about it. But at least then, Melinda played at being secretive about it, and Heather could pretend it wasn't happening.

Melinda would wait until Heather was out of the house before inviting Jason over, and he was gone by the time she returned. Now from the way the two of them had been looking at each other on the bus, and the fact that he arrived on the Sovert doorstep not fifteen minutes after Heather and Melinda had disembarked, it was quite obvious what they were intending to do.

"Why is this such a big deal now?" Melinda piped. "Come on, Heather! Don't go back to being the big bossy bimbo."

"Don't call me that, Melinda," Heather snapped angrily.

"Sorry," Melinda said in only a slightly more contrite voice. "But stop worrying about me! We're not stupid. We don't do anything that would, you know, get me in trouble."

Heather sighed in desperation. She knew this. Melinda may be impetuous and bratty at times, but she was not dumb. And Jason was even less so. But she could not tell Melinda the other reason she was having trouble letting her sister be. She could never reveal the jealousy she was feeling. She did not want to admit it even to herself that she was feeling this way in the first place.

"And maybe I should remind you that you're the one that first controlled us and made him boink me in the first place back at the House! You're not one to tell me I can't do it now!"

"All right, fine, enough!" Heather cried. "But Mom really thinks you'll be with me today, so you're going to have to leave here and meet me somewhere like we did during the summer. So if she or Dad sees us on their way home from work, they'll think we've been out together."

Melinda nodded, breaking into a smile. "Sure thing."

Heather shook her head. "One of these days, you're going to get in hot water for this, runt. One day Mom or Dad will come home early and ..."

Melinda broke into a wide grin. "No, Jason's figured that out already! Come on, I'll show you."

She grabbed Heather's hand and practically dragged her out of the room and down the stairs. In the living room, Jason turned from where he sat on the sofa. He managed a nervous smile at them, as he had indeed overheard much of the shouted argument.

"Jason, show her that little thing you built!" Melinda said with a giggle. "The little button. You remembered to bring it, right?"

"Huh? Oh, that, sure." He thrust a hand into his pocket and came up with a small red button attached a tiny circuit board. An AAA-cell battery was mounted and wired to the board.

Heather gave him an odd look. "And what is that supposed to do?"

Jason grinned and pressed it.

The doorbell rang.

Heather rolled her eyes. "Oh, great, now what?" She started past them for the front door.

"Oh, wait, Heather, it's just ..."

Melinda waved him silent and giggled again.

Heather stopped and peeked through the peephole. She drew back and frowned, then opened the door and peered.

Melinda laughed. She grabbed the button from Jason and pressed it herself, making the doorbell chime again. Heather jumped when she heard it.

"All right, what the hell is that?" Heather demanded as she closed the front door.

"Sort of a remote for the doorbell," Jason said with a smile. "I built it a few weeks ago. I had to mess with the wiring on the doorbell a bit to put the receiver and relay on it, but ..."

"Mess with the wiring? You screwed with our doorbell?"

Jason's smile faded. "Er, well ..."

"Oh, come off it, Heather," Melinda said. "If no one's noticed by now, it's fine. Look, if we're up in my room and we hear Mom or Dad come in, we just press the button and they'll go to answer the door. That gives us a chance to, uh, well ..."

"Get presentable?" Heather suggested with a smirk.

Jason blushed slightly. "Um, yes, sorta like that."

"See, Heather? We got everything covered, okay? Stop worrying about us!"

"And if they both come home at the same time?" Heather asked.

Melinda and Jason exchanged a look. "I suppose I could wire something into the ring line of the telephone with a second button," Jason began.

"No!" Heather cried. "No more messing with the wiring! Jesus. Okay, fine, forget I mentioned it. I'll go. Just don't mess with anything else in the house, all right?"

Frank heard the brief screech of tire just outside the house and jarring thump as he reached into the fridge for a soda.

"Yeah, she jumped the curb again," he said to no one in particular as he let the fridge door close. "Must be on her damn cell phone again."

He wandered out of the kitchen. As if on cue, the front door burst open.

"No, no, Barb, listen! Not him, the one with the darker hair ..."

The young woman spun around, her ponytail of light chocolate brown whipping around and landing draped on one shoulder. Briefly there was the glimpse of a bright red sports car in front of the house, front tire on the sidewalk, before the door was slammed shut.

"Barb, you're not listeniiiiing!" she sing-songed into her cellphone. Mindy Darrens dumped a satchel off to the side, the books within making a loud thump against the hardwood. She put a hand on one hip, raising it slightly she uttered a short, exasperated sigh. "Not him. The other one."

"Mom's gonna make you re-park that, you know," Frank drawled as he took a sip of his soda.

Mindy gave her stepbrother an indignant look. "Shut up, midget ... Huh? No, Barb, not you."

Frank snickered.

"Sorry, just dealing with a pest," Mindy said with a sneer. "Now will you listen? The one I'm talking about is ... huh? ... Yes! Him! Now, come on, tell me the truth ... " Her lips curled into a sultry smile. "Think I can get him to ask me out?"

Frank sighed and shook his head. This dismayed him for two reasons. Of these, one was the obvious one. Mindy was halfway through college and barely cared about anything more than dating and being popular.

Then again, she was going to some two-bit community college for a liberal-arts major. Frank felt that this was hardly something that she needed to expend a great deal of mental power for. Yet she still managed to barely scrape a passing grade each year.

The other reason he kept to himself.

Mindy reached down and slipped out of her heels, all the while keeping the cell plastered to her ear. Frank let his eyes play over her legs. They were long and lithe, clad in dark pantyhose. He traced a path with his gaze up to her thighs and the shorts hugging her waist.

"So you figure on, what, maybe show a little leg, jiggle my boobs at him a bit and ... "

Mindy stopped and straightened suddenly. At the mention of her bosom, Frank could not help but let his gaze be drawn there. Her breasts did indeed shake a bit as she stood, two prominent swellings against her pullover shirt. She tugged at the bottom of it, drawing them more tightly across her cleavage.

Frank took a deep breath and forced himself to look away.

"Oh," Mindy said simply. "Well, he might have said he had a girlfriend! God!"

"Even better," Frank quipped as he plopped down in a chair. "They should wear signs that say 'bimbos need not apply'."

"Look, shut the hell up, you little dweeb!" Mindy snapped. "No, Barb, not you!" She rolled her eyes and dashed away from the door. "Look, let me get the hell away from the toad and we can talk, 'kay?"

Frank's eyes never left Mindy as she raced to the stairs between the living room and dining room. His gaze dropped down to her tight ass as she ascended the stairs, her cheeks rippling slightly each time a foot came down on a step.

She disappeared from sight at the top of the stairs, and soon there was the slam of a bedroom door.

Frank sighed and shook his head again. This time it was for himself rather than her.

He tried to find something to distract himself downstairs and failed. Finally he retreated to his room, passing by Mindy's in the process. He heard a spate of giggling from within as he drew close.

He glanced at her closed door. Frank knew her secret. Mindy only played at being dumb. She liked to play the field with the guys, never letting any get close enough to seek a true reward from her. Instead, she liked toying with their affections and their hearts. She would set them against each other and make them vie for her attentions. And whenever her duplicity was exposed, she knew exactly how to tug on a guy's heartstrings to make him forgive her. And then she did it all over again.

That took some degree of cleverness. It seemed to be all that she cared about. She even got a rise out of it.

Frank took deep breath to steady himself. Yes, she got more than a rise from it. He had proof of that.

He ducked quickly into his room. It looked much like a smaller version of Jason's. He closed the door and dropped in front of his computer.

He took another deep breath, trembling slightly. He glanced towards the door anxiously for a moment before swallowing and bringing up the contents of a folder titled "MindyCam".

There was one advantage to Mindy's single-mindedness. She was not difficult to fool. It had been an easy matter to hide the tiny webcam in her room. This folder was the result.

His eyes darted over the thumbnails in rising excitement. All he had wanted to do was catch some shots of her undressing. He had accomplished that. He had some wonderful pics of her naked breasts, of her bare ass, even fleeting glimpses of her pussy.

It was not long, however, before he got more than he had ever hoped.

Now, barely a quarter of the pics were of her in various states of undress. The rest were of her in a far more interesting posture. So much so that he had recently adjusted the positioning of the cam in her room to get a better angle, so he could see her whole, hot body spread out on the bed.

His latest shots were, in his view, awesome.

Mindy had never had sex with a boy as far as Frank knew. She made up for this with refined skills at self-pleasuring, to which the shots in the MindyCam folder attested. She didn't just stroke her pussy, either. She squeezed her tits, tweaked her nipples, drove herself up ever-so-slowly so she could revel in every moment of pleasure.

Frank let out his breath in a rattling, overexcited sigh. He already had his hand draped over the stiffness that had manifested under his pants.

He swallowed and forced himself to pull his hand away and close down the folder. He closed his eyes and discovered he was panting lightly. He uttered a soft curse.

He hated his stepsister. As much as the pics of her aroused him -- because they aroused him -- he hated her with a passion. He hated his stepmother as well, for being just as attractive. He hated his Dad for being insane enough to marry her and then spend most of his time away from home.

Frank turned away from his computer, his cock still uncomfortably hard.

He leaned back in his chair. He thought Jason was pretty lucky. At least he had a girlfriend. Even if they were into nothing more exciting than kissing, at least it was a distraction.

Melinda was panting hard, sprawled out on her bed, her hair splayed around her head. Little ripples of pleasure spread through her body, centering on her now aching pussy. She tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and uttered a short, shrill moan as she rose.

She heard soft, wet sounds. One of her nipples was inside Jason's mouth, his lips squeezing it tightly as his tongue lashed at it. The small but beautifully rounded breast lay inside his curled fingers. Jason's other hand caressed her smooth, shaven slot, though not quite touching the pinkness deeper inside.

Melinda quivered, her thighs spreading under him. She knew she could come close to getting off on just having her breasts suckled, but it was not enough to drive her over. But Jason loved to tease her like this, driving her wild with lust. She felt his stiff cock against one of her legs.

"God, Jason, please ..." Melinda pleaded in a breathy voice.

Jason sucked harder on her nipple. Melinda whimpered, then moaned when Jason's fingers slipped past her tight labia and into the wet, tender flesh beyond with a squishing sound. He moved in little circles around her swollen clit, making her pant and her body shiver in mounting delight. Melinda squealed when his fingers slid inside her, penetrating her tight tunnel. For just a moment, she wished it could be something else inside her.

Melinda would never admit it out loud, but there were times she actually missed the setup that they had had with the House. Jason could truly fuck her without any worries about pregnancy. They had managed to do it once since then with Jason wearing a condom. But Jason had been awkward with it, and Melinda had been so scared of leakage that she didn't enjoy it, and there was no way her mother would agree to put her on the pill. They hadn't tried again since.

Jason's mouth left her nipple. Her breathing grew heavier in anticipation. She kept her head back and her eyes closed. She felt his body slide down, his fingers still inside her. She opened her legs willingly. She uttered a single, long whimpering moan as his tongue touched her clit.

"Ohmigod!" Melinda gasped as he began to lick her in earnest. "Ohmigod! ... uhhn ... yeah ..."

Melinda rose precipitously as Jason's fingers shot in and out of her. His mouth pressed to her young pussy, sucking hard at her clit. Every muscle seemed to tense as she hung at the edge, a tiny little squeal escaping her lips as she strained. The next moment she let it go with a shrill cry when she came, her pussy throbbing sweetly under Jason's mouth. Her cunt spasmed around his fingers, making her orgasm deeper.

"Ohhh! Oh God! ... uhhhnn! ..."

Slowly, Jason eased off. Melinda descended gradually, still breathing hard. She was at least grateful for one thing. The skills that the House had appeared to imbue in Jason when he was under her control he had re-gained quickly on his own. He was an accomplished lover in that regard.

Melinda uttered a long sigh and fell limp as the last of her orgasm faded, Jason's fingers withdrawing from her.

He drew his body over hers. She smiled at him, taking a deep breath as she let the lingering, pleasant ache in her pussy subside. She reached between their bodies and slipped her fingers around his cock, playing them lightly up and down his shaft. Jason closed his eyes briefly and breathed heavily, looking as if all his concentration were suddenly riveted on this.

Melinda giggled softly at this. She loved having this affect on him with such a simple touch.

Indeed, all of Jason's attention was on this. Or at least most of it. A small part of his thoughts dwelled again on the House. As much as he hated it, every time it came to this point in their lovemaking, he thought about it. He thought about how it felt to have Melinda under his control and seeing to his every pleasure.

The two slowly rolled in bed until Jason was on his back.

Yes, he knew that he didn't need it anymore. She did everything willingly. And now as he drew in his breath quickly as his cock disappeared into her mouth, he was reminded further that she, also, had developed the same skill she had before.

Jason watched Melinda's head very slowly bob up and down on his cock, her lips sliding wonderfully over his shaft, her tongue massaging it firmly. She drew him in deeper on each down-stroke, still knowing just how to angle her mouth to draw all of his length into her mouth without gagging. Her fingers played with his balls.

Jason closed his eyes, both at the rising pleasure and to try and stave off some of his own thoughts. Yet they would not leave him. For the past week they had plagued him, the growing sense that the House had left a permanent change in him. In all of them.

He was not thinking of just the ability to see the darkness that Mara had given them. It ran a lot deeper than that.

Melinda's mouth squeezed around his cock more tightly, making Jason pant. Her head dipped faster down his shaft, though not as far. Instead, she wrapped her small but deft fingers around the base of his cock, pumping him as she sucked. She drew her mouth up to the head and teased the underside with quick side-swipes of her tongue.

This drew a loud moan from Jason, sending him soaring. She relented before he could go too far, letting him drop from her mouth. She tilted her head and ran her tongue slowly and sensuously down the underside of his cock. Thus, for the moment, his troubles were forgotten.

Melinda teased him a bit more, bringing him up and close to cumming and letting him fall back a bit, until his moaning took on more desperate undertones. She flashed him a mischievous smile before taking him into her mouth again. She worked him quickly, pumping away with lips and fingers. Jason uttered a low groan and shuddered as his cock throbbed.

Melinda took him deep, letting him cum fully inside her mouth, her lips tightly clamped around him. Jason moaned constantly as she milked every bit of seed she could from him. Finally, as his orgasm faded, she let him slip from her lips, tilted her head back, and swallowed.

The two of them smiled at each other as Melinda slid forward and snuggled up against Jason. "That was nice, Melinda," Jason said softly.

"You're not bad yourself, you know." Melinda sighed and hugged him. "I wish Heather didn't give me so much trouble earlier."

"Well, it's okay, we got past it. She's okay with us ..."

Melinda lifted her head, her eyes clouded. "No, Jason, she's not okay with it. I can tell."

"You said this morning you didn't care that she knew."

"Well, I mean she can't stop us. But I don't want her mad at me over it. Not after we've been getting along better, you know?"

Jason nodded, though he did not completely understand. From the way Heather and Melinda sniped at each other, he didn't think things were all that different between them. "If she's just worried about you getting in trouble ... and I mean that in both senses. Your parents and ... you know, the other ..."

Melinda was already shaking her head. "She says it's that, but I think she's lying to me," she said in a sullen voice. "It's something else."

Jason just looked at her and shrugged.

Melinda was thoughtful for a moment. Her expression darkened and she bit her lip. "Um, Jason ... I ... I wanted to ask you something ..."

Jason nodded, concerned.

"Are you ... I mean, do you ... do you still want ... do you ever think about, uh, having sex with Heather again?"

Jason blinked in surprise, not so much at her question as the fact that he really had not been thinking about it the past few weeks. Considering that one of the reasons he had become involved with the House in the first place had been his lust for Melinda's older sister, this was quite a turn of events.

Yet now that she had brought it to his thoughts again, he had to admit that it was certainly something he would not mind. Heather had not exactly hated having sex with Jason, even though she had been under his control at the time. In fact, she had come out and said (albeit after some coaxing) that she had enjoyed it.

Still, he wasn't about to seek it. Not after having a steady relationship with Melinda.

"I guess I don't, no," Jason finally said.

Melinda looked at him dubiously. "You guess?"

"I mean, no, I don't think about it."

"You can tell me the truth if you do, you know."

"I know. But I don't. Or at least I didn't until you mentioned it." Jason paused a moment. "So why did you ask me that?"

Melinda rolled her eyes. "Oh, how the hell should I know," she said in exasperation.

Jason smirked. "Because you were the one that asked it?"

Melinda snorted. "You still have a lot to learn about girls, Jason."

Jason's smiled faded and he uttered a small sigh. Yes, he suppose he did.

"... so then, get this, Susan starts telling me she's got the hots for Jim Haynes. I mean, come on, Jim? When she's already got other guys lined up to date her? Please. Anyway, Jim's already going with Linda and they look like they're going steady. She'd be crazy to try and ..."

One glance at Heather was enough to make Diane Woodrow stop, both her stream of gossip and her walk.

Heather took a few more steps down the the aisle of the mall before finally halting and turning to face her friend. "What?"

Diane put her hands in her hips. "Have you been listening to a word I've been saying?"

Heather looked crossly at the slender, dark-haired girl. "Of course I have. You were talking about Susan Radson and her new boyfriend Jim ..."

Diane clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. "No, Heather, that was Linda and Jim, and Susan said ... oh, never mind. What's up with you today?"

Her tone when from indignant to concern in the space of two sentences.

For a moment Heather's gaze was distracted by something just behind Diane. A jocular young man was laughing at a joke his lovely young wife just told him. Tendrils of inky darkness swirled around his muscular frame. His mate, however, was pristine.

Heather sighed heavily.

Diane furrowed her brow and glanced behind her briefly, then turned back to her friend, looking askance. "What's wrong, Heather? You're acting very strangely today."

"I guess I just have some things on my mind, that's all."

Diane gave Heather a nonplussed look. Heather was the last person she thought of as ever having anything at all weighty on her mind beyond who she might be dating or who other people were dating. Though she wondered if something had been brewing for some time.

Ever since about the end of July, Diane had noticed something odd. Heather's phone conversations with her had dropped off dramatically, and on the rare times they did talk, Heather was rather subdued and hesitant.

Based on what she knew of Heather, there was only one thing she could think of. "You still upset over having to dump Brad?"

"Huh? No," Heather said quickly, frowning slightly. "I dumped him for a reason, Diane."

Diane nodded absently. What Heather had told her -- that he kept pressuring her too much to have sex with him -- was not quite the truth. Brad did have sex with Heather. It might have even been rape, had not Heather lashed at him with the power the House had given her. For the short time of their coupling, Brad had become her compliant slave, actually making it enjoyable for her.

Yet he had not used protection of any sort. Heather was protected by the House, but he had no way of knowing. Based on that, she told him to go to hell the next time he tried to see her.

"So what's wrong? Your little sis giving you shit again?"

"No, it's not Melinda, okay?" said Heather a little more sharply than she intended.

Diane's eyes widened. "Hey, I'm sorry. Please, don't be upset with me, okay?"

"I'm not, I'm not. It's okay, really."

Diane paused, then nodded slowly.

Heather wished Diane wasn't so sensitive. Diane always seemed to worry about every little perceived transgression against Heather. She apologized for things she didn't need to apologize for. It was as if the girl were deathly afraid of doing anything to jeopardize their relationship.

Heather looked at Diane, the girl's dark, slightly shimmering eyes looking back.

She wished she knew if she could trust Diane with her more personal feelings. Back before the House, what occupied their conversations more than anything else was gossip and poking fun at their peers. Now that seemed so shallow to her. She had tried to get back into it, but it was proving difficult.

Even if she could reveal what she knew, she doubted Diane would understand anything as strange as this. Yet she had to say something.

"So what's up?" Diane asked in a softer voice.

"I guess, uh, I'm just worried about this medical program thing."

"Oh, that," Diane said with a wave of her hand, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, I know. You wonder what Bendon is thinking. Can she even do that?"

"Jason didn't think she could. Said it was against state law or something."

Diane raised an eyebrow. She gave Heather an amused grin. "Jason? Jason Conner? Haven's uber-dweeb?"

Heather managed to crack a small smile at this. "Yes, Jason. Though he can be all right, sometimes."

"Yeah, I guess, when he's not acting like a total dork."

"He's not that bad, Diane."

Diane looked askance at Heather. "Are we talking about the same Jason here? This is the same one you teased up into a horny mess by just saying 'hello' to him?"

"Look, let's not talk about him anymore, okay? Besides, I can't really say anything bad about him anymore. He's been seeing my sister."

Not to mention I've had sex with him, Heather added in her own mind.

Diane chuckled. "Well, that's a perfect match, then. You poor dear. I'm sure your sis would throw a hissy fit if you said a single word out of line about Jason."

Heather wanted to shout at her friend that she simply no longer had the desire to put him down anymore. It was impossible. She had had sex with him. She had liked it. When she didn't have these confusing feelings towards Melinda bothering her, she sometimes entertained the notion of doing it with him again.

In exasperation she simply changed the topic back to what she had wanted it to be in the first place. "Look, Diane, don't you feel nervous about this medical program? About having this strange nurse examine you?"

Diane paused a moment. "Well ... I guess I really didn't stop to think about it. I mean ... what's the big deal? She examines you and sends you on your way."

"You really want to have her examine you that closely?" Heather persisted. "That intimately?"

Diane gave her a confused look.

"I mean, what if ... what if the nurse wants you to strip naked in order to be examined?"

Diane stared.

"Well, think about it! You want to be naked in front of a strange woman in a public high school? All alone with her? You want her touching you in private places? Making you ... uh ..."

Heather trailed off, her eyes growing wide.

She didn't understand it. When her thoughts again turned to the new school nurse, the image of herself standing in an examination room completely naked, another woman touching her too close for comfort to her more intimate areas, came to her so vividly it was as if it were a memory rather than her imagination.

"Um, never mind," Heather said, a small shudder passing through her. She forced a smile. "I'm probably being silly about it."

Diane paused another moment before speaking. When she finally did, her voice was a little shaky and she looked flushed. "Uh, yeah, of course. Like I said. What's the big deal?"

Heather glanced at her. "Diane, are you okay?"

"Fine. Why ... why do you ask?"

"You're looking a little off."

Diane forced a smile. "No, I'm fine. Perfectly. So ... uh ... do you want to hear about Susan's latest folly or what?"

Heather stared at her friend for a moment and then nodded slowly. "Sure. Sure thing."

Sandra Gardner stared at her son for a long moment. She then lowered the can of beer that had been paused halfway to her lips with loud thunk on the kitchen table. Golden foam spurted from the opening and dribbled down the side of the can.

"No fucking way."

Richie gave what he hoped was a nonchalant shrug. "According to Principal Bendon, I gotta do it."

"No. Fucking. Way."

"No exceptions, no excuses, no foolin," said Richie smoothly, a small smile on his lips. "Principal's orders."

"Fuck the principal's orders. Goddamn. What shit is Bendon smoking these days?"

"Must be some real good stuff, huh?"

"Don't be a wise-ass, Richie."

Richie held up his hands briefly. "Hey, don't shoot the messenger, okay? I'm just doing my duty as a good little student and letting you know."

Sandra snorted. "Good little student, yeah, right."

Richie just shrugged. "Anyway, that's the lowdown. Medical examinations for all. Take a number and don't die of boredom from the outdated mags in the waiting room."

Sandra bolted out of her seat, her face livid. "Oh, no, they don't. I wouldn't have some chicken-shit public school nurse examine you in the best of times. I sure as hell am not going to let them do it here in Haven!"

Richie gave her a funny look. "What the hell does Haven have to do with it?"

Sandra stared at her son for a moment.

When Richie had been involved with the House, he had used the power it had granted him to control his own mother. In the end, all Richie had wanted was a mother that acted more like he thought one should. Yet Sandra knew she had been controlled. She could remember everything that had happened to her while she was powerless to stop it.

Then it had vanished as mysteriously as it had come. Richie just went back to being plain Richie. Yet Sandra lived in fear for another two weeks after that, thinking that the power would manifest again. Sometimes she would look at him like this and expect to feel the terrible darkness descending on her mind.

"Never mind about that," Sandra said in a lower voice. She grabbed her beer and took a long swig.

Richie blinked. Tendrils of wispy black had begun to curl around Sandra's arms and torso. He tried to ignore it. "No, wait a minute," he said indignantly. "That's not the first time you've said something like that."

Sandra looked sharply at her son, but it softened immediately, briefly mixed with fear. "So what? Maybe I just don't like this town, okay?"

"Why'd you move here, then, huh?"

"None of your goddamn business."

Richie was somewhat taken aback by that answer. What was the great mystery behind it? He knew that his parents had moved here when Richie was only six. His Dad left Sandra shortly afterward, and they were divorced a year later. Her mother never told Richie any details about the move or the divorce. He always suspected the two were related somehow.

"Look, all I want to know ..."

"Richie, I'll tell you all you need to know about this town. Beyond your own little circle of friends, you assume everyone else has got an agenda. Everyone. That includes your teachers and your goddamn principal. And probably that school nurse as well."

"The teachers are clean," Richie said tonelessly.

Sandra stared. "Huh?"

By this time, his mother was wearing an ethereal gown of writhing tendrils of darkness. It clung only loosely to her body, slithering almost tentatively around her, as if wanting to keep its distance from her. When she moved, the darkness took a moment or two to follow.

Richie wondered if his mother were simply not that far gone yet, or his own sense of it was weak. What was most frustrating about it was that he had no idea why. At least with Heather and Melinda's mom, they knew it had to do with the Li'l Missy Inn. For Jason's dad, it was his so-called research at the hospital.

But what was up with his mother? It couldn't be that she slept around. As much as Richie might despise it, there was nothing inherently evil about it.

"Nothing," he muttered.

Sandra gave him a funny look for another moment. "Just listen to me for once, okay?" she said, her voice agitated. "You don't trust anyone that gives you bullshit when you ask them to explain themselves. They can't tell you exactly why they just did something, you get away from them."

"Does that include Principal Bendon?" Richie asked evenly.

Sandra frowned. "You never mind about her, Richie. Just stay out of trouble around her this year, okay? Just for once? Is that too much to ask that you avoid detention for one fucking semester?"

Richie gave her a nonplussed look. "Uh ... sure, Mom," he said, a slight tone of amusement to his voice.

Sandra sighed. "Probably just fell on deaf ears."

"What difference does it make? If I don't open my mouth and say 'ah' to the nurse, Bendon won't give me detention, she'll suspend me."

"Like fucking hell she will. This is the same bullshit she tried to pull last year with that dumbass pager program."

Richie started to grin. "Gonna give her hell with both barrels, huh?"

"Yeah, I'll have a little talk with Bendon, all right. I don't pay my fucking taxes to have them tell me how to take care of my son. Knock it off, wise-ass."

Richie had been mouthing the words of his mother's last sentence with a growing grin on his face. "Sorry, just sounded kinda familiar."

Sandra paused, then cracked a smile herself. "Guess it does, huh? Just don't worry about this one, Richie. I'll take care of it, same as I did with the lame-ass pager program last year. Bendon was a fucking pushover then and she'll be a fucking pushover now."

Cassie sat motionless in the bay window of her bedroom.

She had been there since after dinner. The sun had just set then. Now the skies above the mountains deepened towards velvet night. Below, the twinkling lights of Haven dotted the valley between the mountains and the mesa atop which her parents' mansion sat.

She used to enjoy this. She used to like watching the lights come on over Haven as night approached. She used to love being able to see the whole town spread out before her. It made her feel like a princess, sitting in her royal bedroom atop the tower of the palace, gazing out over the kingdom.

That was before she had changed. Before the dreams came.

Now everything she saw would reappear in her dreams. This would be well and good if they appeared unaltered. Instead, they were distorted, sometimes twisted into something so bizarre it was barely recognizable.

Yet the people that populated them were all too familiar. Friends, family, peers, teachers, all inhabiting these altered realities. Some spoke to her. Some were as she always remembered them. Many were changed, acting in peculiar, strange, or downright frightening ways.

And now she had to deal with her feelings about Richie as well.

Cassie sighed and turned away. Her room was nearly pitch dark, as she had not bothered to put the light on. After a moment, vague shapes appeared in her field of vision as her eyes adapted.

She stepped around the obstacles, her clothing making soft noises as she shed them from her body. She leaned over her night table and clicked the lamp on, illuminating her nude form.

Cassie straightened. Her petite breasts were two rounded mounds, the nipples slightly raised. As she stood there for a moment, she took a deep breath. Her bosom swelled, the nipples growing more hard and prominent. She turned away from the lamp, a slight glistening below the tuft of pubic hair over her sex.

As she procured a nightgown from one of the drawers of her dresser, she once again asked the same question she had been for the past few months. Why was she so attracted to Richie?

She knew the answer, but did not want to admit it. He was simply the only one that had shown her any interest whatsoever the semester before. As desperate as she had been for a friend, she had latched onto that. It was a little later that it progressed from that to attraction, and now to lust.

Cassie slipped into a simple, white gown and buttoned it closed. It covered her down to her knees, swishing around her legs as she padded quietly over to her bed.

She slipped under the sheets and clicked off the light, sending the room into darkness again. Everything was silent, save for the soft rush of air from the ceiling vent.

Cassie lay still for a few moments, then uttered a deep, sultry sigh and kicked off the sheet. The bed creaked as she moved in the dark. There was a brief pause, and then gentle, slick, wet sounds. Her breathing grew labored. The sounds became less soft and more frenzied. Breathing became panting.

Her breathing seemed to stop for a few moments, the other noises becoming frantic in intensity. Finally her breath came out as a sudden, sharp sigh. The bed creaked again as she writhed, and from her lips came soft, desperate moans.

Slowly, Cassie fell silent again, save for her ragged breathing. Then this faded as well.

Cassie did not even bother to clean herself. She simply closed her eyes and fell into another dream-ridden, troubled sleep.

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