Heather sighed softly as she looked down at the books spread out before her as she lay on her stomach on the bed. She tossed down the pen and propped up her head with her hands, staring morosely at the pages of her textbook. Behind her, she lazily lifted a bare foot into the air and let it come down with a thump against her pillow.

She turned her head. Melinda sat on the other bed, a paperback fantasy novel in her hands, her eyes tracking quickly back and forth across the pages. The book was very well-read. The back cover had long since fallen off and the spine was cracked.

Heather knew which one it was right away. It was the one that Melinda always read when she was upset. She only recently confided in her older sister that it was because this particular novel had the fantasy world she'd most likely want to live in instead of reality.

Even as Melinda read, her face still remained as sullen as it had through the whole bus trip home.

Heather gave up trying to concentrate on her homework and jumped out of bed. "Hey."

Melinda didn't even acknowledge her sister and kept reading.

"I was going downstairs for a soda. Want anything?"

Melinda shook her head quickly.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded.

Heather rolled her eyes. "Are you ever going to talk to me again?"

Melinda shook her head violently.

Heather put her hands on her hips and gave her little sister an exasperated look. When this received no response, she reached forward and plucked the book from Melinda's hands.

"Give that back!"

Heather winced. "Well, at least that got you to talk. Or scream at the top of your lungs, anyway."

Melinda folded her arms and shot Heather a venomous look. "So reading books is not okay anymore either. I guess I'm not supposed to have any fun anymore, huh?"

"Melinda ..."

"Just because you don't have a boyfriend to boink doesn't mean you should stop me from doing it!"

"Melinda!" Heather cried. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "This is not about trying to stop you from being with Jason, okay?"

"Not that he wanted to be with me anyway. He'd rather sit in front of a computer than fool around with me!"

Heather gave her sister an odd look and smirked. "Okay, now just who are you mad at, him or me?"

"Him! You! Both of you! How the hell should I know?!"

In the silence that followed, Melinda sniffled once.

Heather sighed. "C'mon, let's go downstairs. I think we need to talk."

"I don't want to talk about anything."

"Melinda, please. I'm ... I'm trying to be nice to you. Isn't that what you always wanted?"

Melinda snorted. "Yeah, when there's something in it for you."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Huh? I am?"

"I was going to ask you for love advice and then use it to steal your boyfriend."

Melinda stared wide-eyed at her sister, her mouth dropping open. The next moment, her astonishment and indignation turned to amusement, and she dissolved into a fit of giggles.

Heather smirked and stood up, tossing the book aside.

"Oh, way to lose my place, bubblehead," Melinda snapped.

"Like you haven't already read it five zillion times and can quote it from memory, runt," Heather retorted.

The both of them giggled briefly. Melinda bolted out of bed. "All right, fine, I'll have a stupid soda with my bossy big sister."

Heather gave Melinda a weak smile. She had to resist the urge to place an arm around Melinda's shoulders as she passed, or try to take her hand. Heather was not sure what her own reaction to the physical contact would be. Already she had to refrain from looking at Melinda's back as they walked down the stairs. She was afraid of where her eyes might drift.

"Here, I'll get them," Heather said, quickly racing ahead of her sister when they entered the kitchen.

Melinda fell heavily into a chair. She swept her gaze around the room with a sad look in her eyes. "This used to be my favorite room, Heather."

Heather turned from the refrigerator, closing it with a kick before heading over to the table. "Your favorite room?" she asked curiously. She slid a Dr. Pepper across the table to Melinda and popped the top on her Pepsi.

"Yeah, I know, you think it sounds stupid. More dumb stuff from the baby sister," Melinda said acidly.

"Hey, no, I wasn't thinking that, okay? Really."

Melinda gave Heather a suspicious look as she drank her soda.

Heather sighed. "Look, Melinda ... you must've noticed I've been trying to be nicer towards you. Most of the time, I mean."

"Yeah, I guess ..."

"I mean, I don't call you 'Mel' anymore. I let you have your half of the room."

"You still call me 'runt'."

"And you still call me 'bubblehead'. So we're even. Now ... what's this about the kitchen?"

Melinda leaned back in her seat, setting the can down heavily. "I use to like coming in here when I ... well, when I needed to get away from you. And Mom was always here."

"I thought you didn't get along with her. Even before all this started."

"The kitchen was always different, see? I mean, I don't know why, but she didn't hassle me in here, unless you barged in to complain about me."

"Oh, yeah ... sorry," Heather said sheepishly.

Melinda just shrugged. "Now I can't do it anymore," she said morosely. "Not ... not with Mom like this ..."

"Yeah ... I know ..."

Melinda raised her eyes. They were glistening. "Heather, what ... what the hell are we going to do??"

Heather gave Melinda a stricken look. This was the first time she could remember since they became teens that Melinda ever looked to her to have all the answers, to be a protector. She didn't feel she was at all up to the task. She had no answers to give, and she felt as if she wanted someone to protect her instead.

But she couldn't tell Melinda this. Not with the way Melinda's eyes were shimmering and her lower lip was quivering.

Heather stood up and came around the table. Melinda stared as Heather crouched next to her chair. "Look, Melinda," Heather said in a soft voice. "I promise you that we'll try to figure it out."

"What's Mom doing over at that Inn, Heather?" Melinda demanded. "What is it that's so bad that she ... she has the ..."

"I don't know yet. But I intend to find out. We'll find out. We'll get Jason and Richie to help."

Melinda snorted. "Good luck with Richie. I'm sorry, Heather, but he's turning into a real asshole. You know what I heard? He made poor Cassie Kendall cry her eyes out!"

"Yeah, I heard. I know. All right, maybe not him. But you trust Jason, don't you? Even when you're mad at him?"

Melinda nodded slowly. She wiped a single tear from her face. "Well ... I'm not that mad at him ..."

Heather managed a small smile. This was a first. Melinda never look so vulnerable.

"I just ... I just want things back to normal. Or ..."

"Or ... what?"

Melinda hesitated a long moment, her face taking on a dark look. "Or bring the House back," she said very softly. "Things were so easy with the House. I could get everything I wanted. Shit. We could've made it work. If everyone would've just took their turn fairly, we ..."

Heather shook her head. "You saw what happened."

"All because Richie ...!"

"No, Melinda. Yeah, he started it, but we all acted bad."

Melinda looked sullen for a moment, but subsided. "Then I wish it never happened."

"Yeah, join the club. Look, we'll figure out what's up with Mom, okay? I promise we will."

Melinda looked at Heather, eyes blurring with tears. She suddenly leapt out of her chair. A surprised Heather straightened, and then uttered an even more astonished gasp when Melinda threw her arms around Heather and hugged her tightly.

"Just ... j-just promise you w-won't go back to the way you were ... before the House ..."

Heather swallowed. She felt a flash of heat over her skin as Melinda pressed against her body. Tentatively, she slid an arm around her sister. She drew in her breath quickly as she felt a tiny shudder go through her, and the heat grow more intense.

"I promise, Melinda," Heather said in a shaky and slightly husky voice.

Melinda hugged her sister more tightly. Heather bit her lip. She felt Melinda's soft, round breasts pressing into hers. The nipples of Heather's own breasts quickly grew taut. Melinda shifted position, brushing the raised knob of one of them through her shirt and bra. Heather felt a tiny ripple of pleasure from the fleeting touch.

Heather tried to keep her breathing steady, her arm tightening around her sister, her hand quivering with the desire to drop down to Melinda's ass. Mercifully, Melinda broke off the embrace first. She smiled up at her big sister.

"Feeling a little better?" Heather said, her own voice still shaky.

If Melinda noticed this, she did not show it. She just nodded and wiped at one eye. "I'm fine. Thanks."

"Here, you go on back upstairs. I, uh, need to use the bathroom first."

Melinda nodded. She grabbed the rest of her soda and smiled again at Heather before dashing off towards the stairs. Heather heard a thumping noise as Melinda took them two at a time.

Heather closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths in a vain attempt to calm herself. Her feet slid apart slightly, her pussy aching and wet. Oh my God, this is so wrong, she lamented, covering her face with her hands for a moment.

Heather had held out some vain hope that once the House was destroyed, she would return to normal. Instead, she simply got better at controlling her own thoughts and feelings. Coming into close contact, however, had unraveled it all in seconds. She felt like she was back to square one.

She quickly headed for the downstairs bathroom. By the time she got there, she was already panting, and just the movements of her thighs had made her rise halfway to orgasm.

Richie's mood went from dark to positively black when he got home and saw that his mother was nowhere to be found.

He had retreated to his room at this point, throwing his backpack angrily into a corner of his room. This knocked over a box that subsequently spilled its cargo of comic books onto the floor. He uttered a vile curse and began picking them up. Less than a minute into this he hurled the comics back to the floor and gave the side of the box a kick, crushing it on one side. He flopped down hard on his bed.

"Shit," he said to no one in particular.

Only the second day of the semester and already it was going downhill. Jason had refused to say a word to him at lunch. Richie didn't even try on the bus, for Jason and Frank had immediately sat together and started yammering away. Then Melinda had given him a look as if he were something disgusting she had just scraped from the bottom of her shoe.

Yeah, she heard about me an' Cassie all right, he thought.

He turned over on the bed and stared in the direction of his computer.

He contemplated IM'ing Jason. As loathe as he was to admit it out loud, he didn't want to loose his friendship with the geek. And not just for what Jason could do for him academically.

He decided against it. Nope, fucked that up for good, he thought with a sigh as he rolled onto his back.

Richie hardly thought it was fair. It had happened months ago. It was done and over with in his mind. For him, if it happened a week ago, it was not worth getting worked up about anymore. So he stole some notes from Cassie for a report. Big deal. Not like it's the first time someone's done something like that. But leave it to Cassie to make a big stink over it now!

Richie grabbed a baseball from his headboard and began lazily tossing it in the air just as he heard the door open downstairs.

"About friggin' time," he muttered darkly.

"Richie?"

"In my room, Mom!" Richie called out.

There was a pause, and then the sound of her mother climbing the stairs.

Richie tossed the ball a few more times before snatching it out of the air in mid-arc and sitting up as Sandra appeared in the doorway. "Hey, I called to you in the hall at school when you got through with Bendon. Dincha hear me?"

Sandra took a breath before responding. "Yes, I heard you, Richie," she said in a somber voice. "I ... had something else on my mind."

"Yeah, so I heard. Huh. Don't look drunk. And I don't smell no cigs on you. Must've been the third option."

"Shut your fucking mouth before I shut it for you," Sandra snapped.

"Hey, whoa, fine. Didn't say there was anything wrong with it, 'kay? You celebrate your little victory over Bendon any way you want. If that means gettin' horizontal with someone, fine."

Sandra shifted her weight slightly. Her pussy was still a little sore from the activity earlier. She had indeed gone for the "third option." Several hours of intense sex was what it took to burn off her arousal. She swallowed and shivered slightly at the memory of her confrontation with Haven again.

Richie looked askance at her. "You all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Sandra said curtly. She checked herself, paused, and then repeated in a more contrite voice, "I'm doing fine, Richie. As fine as I can be."

"Um, okay. So ... care to share?"

"Share what?"

Richie smirked. "The details of the fight. Leave any blood on the floor? Did you make her cry like last year?"

"I didn't make her cry last year, Richie," Sandra declared. "Close, but no."

"Okay, fine. Did you get any closer this year?"

Sandra swallowed and took a deep breath. "Richie ... about ... about that ..."

Richie gave her a wary look. When his mother spoke again, he saw the aura surging back.

"I had a talk with your principal about ... about this medical program, and ... well ..."

"Mom, you did stop it, right? I don't have to have that nurse examine me? Right?"

Sandra's legs quivered. Oh God, not again, not after all that, she thought desperately as the fire burned anew.

"I told her what I thought. I said I didn't ... didn't want her imposing this on you."

Richie's eyes widened. The black was swirling around Sandra like a swarm of angry bees.

"And then, she told me ... she told me that the school was rather e-excited about it."

Richie swallowed. The darkness swept around his mother's body. There was more of it than he ever remembered seeing on her. It was more distinct, and clung to her body, as if caressing her. Tendrils appeared to gather in her nether regions.

"Very excited in fact. Bendon was quite ... quite pleased with it ..."

Sandra had to pause. Her pussy ran liquid and hot again. The soreness was now mixed with a more powerful ache for release. But she knew she could not have her reward, not just yet.

"Mom, what the fuck are you talking about?" Richie said anxiously, his voice cracking. "You said you didn't ...!"

"Don't talk back to me!" Sandra shouted suddenly, making Richie flinch. The intense, growing lust inside her was driving her, making her body tremble and her words harsh. "Start showing your mother a little respect."

"I will when she starts doing something right!"

Sandra closed her eyes tightly for a moment. Her fingers curled where they held the door frame. "I'm trying to do something right, Richie, if you would give me a chance! I'm trying to tell you ... this medical program ... it's ... it's o-okay."

"What?!"

Sandra's cunt throbbed dully. A trickle of moisture tickled the inside her her thigh, escaping from under her soaked panties. When she spoke again, her voice had a sultry edge to it. "I was wrong about it. Completely wrong. It's the best thing to happen to the school." The words flowed out her mouth now as fluid as water and as sweet as honey. Each word sent little jolts of pleasure through her body. She could no longer fight it anymore.

Yes, she was being rewarded very well for her obedience.

And all the while, the inky blackness swelled and slithered around her body, as if a giant snake were coiling around her. Richie stared, his mouth dropping open.

"When they call your name for it, Richie, don't give them any trouble," Sandra said. Her lips curled into a tiny smile that chilled Richie to the bone. "Just submit to it. Let the nurse examine you. It will be all right."

Sandra's nipples were hard. She panted lightly, her pussy rising in pleasure, straining for release.

"I don't want to do it, Mom," Richie said in a lower but still bitterly defiant voice. "I'll let myself get expelled before that!"

Sandra took another deep breath. "You won't do that."

"Yes, I will!"

"We'll discuss this another time," Sandra said curtly. "When you're not in such a pissy mood."

Before Richie could respond, Sandra turned away and quickly disappeared into her bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her. A few faint wisps of horrible inky black persisted for a moment, then curled in the air and followed their mistress.

For a moment, Richie could not move or think. The room was completely silent. Then, faintly, through the wall between his bedroom and his mother's, he heard low, urgent moans.

He collapsed onto his bed, shaking. He felt momentarily sick to his stomach and clutched at his gut until it passed. He shuddered when his mother's orgasmic cries came to him even louder.

Richie stumbled over to the computer and turned it on, then waited for the relatively ancient thing to boot up.

"C'mon, you fucking piece of shit," Richie muttered under his breath. "Come on!"

"Man, I know I saw that thing around here somewhere," said Jason, scratching his head as he stared at the electronic detritus at the bottom of his closet. "Give me another minute."

Frank just shrugged from where he sat in front of Jason's computer, idly kicking at the base of his seat, sending himself turning one way and then the other, over and over. At this point, he didn't care if Jason couldn't find the bridge. He was simply glad to be out of the house.

Actually, so was his stepsister. Mindy had invited one of her friends from college over and didn't want "the toad" hanging around. It was just as well; the last thing he wanted to do was stay in the house with two giggling bimbos, no matter how attractive they might be.

With any luck, they would likely stay in Mindy's bedroom and there was a chance that Frank would get something interesting. He realized that the chance for any girl-on-girl action was practically nil, as all indications were that Mindy was straight as an arrow.

Still, he might at least hear something interesting. That morning he had added a microphone to the cam right after Mindy and her mom had left the house.

Thinking of girls in general reminded him of the scene at school just before lunch. "Hey, Jason, what did you think of all that with, uh, what was her name? The rich girl?"

Jason poked his head up briefly. "Huh? Cassie?"

"Yeah, her."

Jason made a face and shrugged. "Guess I don't think much of it."

Frank decided to see how far he could push it. "Kinda real low what Richie did, you know?"

"Tell me about it," Jason muttered.

"Real low, yep. And she wasn't even a bad-lookin' girl, you know?"

"Well, admittedly, she is a little odd. I mean, not in a bad way, but enough to mess with Richie's head."

Frank snorted. "It doesn't take much to mess with his head, I think."

Jason turned his head and gave Frank an uneasy smile. Despite how upset he was at Richie these days, he didn't feel comfortable bad-mouthing someone he still considered a friend. "Yeah, well ... he's on a different wavelength, I think. And I didn't mean that as a joke."

Frank immediately stopped laughing. "Oh. Sure, I know what you mean. So, uh ... this mean you and him won't hang out anymore?"

"I really don't ... wait, here it is!"

Jason reached over, nearly collapsing the side of the box he was leaning against, and pulled out the squat little box with the short antenna and trailing cable.

Frank leaned forward, eyes lighting up. "Cool! Man, I can't thank you enough for it."

"Let me know if you don't find anything in range of your house," Jason said as he deposited the device in Frank's lap. "If you can get your hands on a laptop, I can tell you where there are some hot-spots around town."

"Sure thing, man, I ... oh, wait ..." Frank picked up the device, then smirked at Jason. "Um, AC adapter perhaps?"

"Oops. Okay, yeah, it must be in the same box. Hold on."

Just as Jason rushed back over to the closet, Frank heard a chime from Jason's PC. The IM application had popped up, with a message from "studofhaven" that read "u there??!!!??! i need 2 talk 2 u man!!!"

Frank snickered at the handle. "Hey, you're being IM'ed."

Jason abruptly stopped. "Who is it? Is it 'havenprincess1'?"

"Nah. 'studofhaven' instead."

Jason made a face and sighed. "Oh. Well, I'll get to it later. It can wait, it's just Richie."

Frank snorted. "That figures, with a lame handle like that. Who's 'havenprincess1'?"

"Melinda," Jason replied in a lower voice. He had hoped that Melinda would contact him later, maybe after she had cooled off a little. He couldn't believe how angry she was, or how she managed to stay that way all day. She wouldn't even say goodbye to him when she got off the bus. He paused at what he was doing and looked over to Frank. "Is she online?"

Frank looked. "No, man. Showin' as offline. Or hidden."

"She never hides herself. She's offline."

Frank heard the catch in Jason's voice. Now he felt like he was imposing. "Hey, I'm not taking you away from your ..."

"No," Jason said quickly, even a little vehemently. "I can't be with her every single minute of every single day."

Frank nodded, though he filed that one under the "problems he wished he had" department.

Something on the screen caught his eye. Another message from Richie had come in: "d00d come on fuck it i need 2 talk to u now!!!!!" Frank smirked.

As he heard Jason mutter a curse and make increasingly louder noises as he sifted through more junk in his closet, Frank watched a third message come in: "its mom jason shes acting weird & shit and the black stuff is worse and she wants me 2 b examined"

Frank blinked. Huh?

And another: "jason please talk 2 me dont know what 2 do shes all fucked up this is scarin me d00d shes like getting off on it or sumthing they did sumthing 2 her!!!!!"

Frank stared. "What the fuck ...?"

"Huh?"

"Uh ... Jason, you better look at this. Richie's sending you some really weird crap."

Jason bolted to his feet and stomped across the room. "If he sent me a file with a virus again, I swear I'll kill him," he muttered. No sooner than he read what was on the IM window, however, did his indignation fade and was replaced with genuine worry. "Shit."

The icon flashed that indicated Richie was typing again. Jason quickly banged out, "Stop. Be with you in a minute. Hang tight."

He sighed and turned to Frank and gave him an awkward look.

Frank saved him the embarrassment. "I better hit the road," he said, standing up.

"Sorry, Frank, but, uh ... I think Richie needs some help with a homework assignment. He freaks out about math."

Frank paused and glanced at the screen. Black stuff. Getting off on it, he thought. And I'm expected to believe that this had to do with math. Riiiight.

"Math. Right. I'll, uh, see ya tomorrow."

"I'll find the adapter later and bring it in to school tomorrow," Jason called out after him.

"Sure, dude, no prob."

Jason watched Frank hurry out before turning back to the computer. He got the gist of what happened in a furious five-minute chat volley, which ended with Richie's plea: "what the fuck do we do now????"

Jason sighed. He never saw Richie come so totally unglued about something before. He ran a hand through his already disheveled hair. He really didn't have a ready answer for his friend. Finally, he typed back: "Let me call up Melinda and Heather. If their parents are not home yet, we can meet and talk about it."

"ok man thanks u r the best d00d" came Richie's response.

Jason winced. "Now if I can just get him to stop the awful chat-speak," he muttered to himself.

"So what now? What do we do now?"

Richie's question did not garner any more of an immediate response with Melinda and Heather than it had with Jason. They exchanged a look and then both glanced over to Jason where he sat across from them in the living room of the Sovert home. Richie looked as well.

"Great. I'm expected to have the answers again," Jason muttered.

"Well, I don't know what to do about this!" Melinda piped.

"Richie, are you sure you saw the aura get worse?" Heather asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," answered Richie, his eyes dark. "It fuckin' creeped me out. It looked like a goddamn snake or something."

Heather hugged her arms around herself. "That means we'll have to go through with this, right? The medical program, I mean."

"Sounds like it, yeah," Jason said tonelessly.

"We can't!" Melinda cried shrilly. "We can't do this! If ... if this is what happened to Richie's mom, then ..."

"Well, wait a minute, time out. Richie, your mom saw the principal, right? Not the nurse."

"Yeah, she went and saw Bendon."

"So ... so maybe we really don't have anything to worry about. I mean, we haven't seen this nurse yet, right?"

The others nodded tentatively.

"You gonna go see her then?" asked Richie. "Like you said yesterday?"

"I don't see what other choice we have. We have to know one way or the other, right?"

"Jason, this is scaring me!" Melinda whined. "What if she has it?"

"Then she has it. Then I'll tell you guys about it and we'll know."

"But she might do something to you!"

Jason did consider this. It was the reason why his heart was pounding hard enough to make his chest ache.

"Melinda has a point, Jason," Heather spoke up. "Bendon has it, and she did something to Richie's mom."

Jason thought about this for a long moment, his hands gripping the hand rests tightly on the chair. "Well ... if she doesn't know why I want to take a look at her, maybe it will be okay."

The others exchanged confused looks.

"Look, Richie's mom went down to the principal's office spoiling for a fight, right? So Principal Bendon knew she had an adversary. So she ... well, did whatever she did to Richie's mom. But if I don't go looking for a fight, I don't look like a threat. You see?"

"Man, that's freaking clever, dude!" Richie said in genuine admiration.

Melinda sighed, looking sullen. "I don't have a say in it anyway. You're going to do it no matter what."

"Someone has to, Melinda," said Jason.

"Jason, I don't know about this," Heather said in a hollow voice.

"Do you have a better suggestion?" asked Jason with a slight edge of annoyance in his voice. "Because I'd love to hear it if you do."

"I don't. I'm just getting a funny feeling about it. Like I did before Bendon showed up at the assembly. Like something's going to happen."

Richie rolled his eyes. "Aw, c'mon, he's just gonna go up to her and say something like 'Hi, nice weather we're having! See ya!'"

"Well, I'll probably have to have a better reason than that, but you get the point, yes."

"Sure I do. It's not like you're gonna go up to her and ask 'Excuse me, are you a demon from the lower levels of hell?'"

"A succubus, actually."

Richie gave him a funny look. "Huh? Suck your what?"

"A succubus," Jason repeated patiently. "That's technically what you would call a female demon. As opposed to an incubus, or a male demon."

Melinda gasped. "Jason, you don't think she's really a ...!"

"No, no, no. Jesus, don't everyone panic, okay? I'm sorry I even mentioned it. Please, the last thing I want to do is start pulling superstition into this. Demons don't exist."

"Sorry," Melinda said in a more contrite voice. Heather looked down at her and moved to drape a comforting arm around her, but thought better of it at the last moment and withdrew.

"Okay, so you get a look at this nurse tomorrow. When are ya gonna do it?" asked Richie.

"Probably before homeroom. It's the only time that I'll have when I don't have to catch the bus back home and she won't have any patients."

"Okay. So ... what do we do about my mom, now?"

Jason looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? What did I tell you! Bendon did something to her! How do we undo it?"

Jason sighed. "I don't know, Richie."

"I don't think we can," Heather spoke up. "Remember what Mara said? We can't stand in the way of anyone that's affected by this. We can only stop others from falling to it."

"That's a fuckin' cop out!" Richie shouted. "What the hell good is all this if we can't ..."

"Then you stand up to Bendon!" Melinda yelled back. "You're good at doing that, seeing what you did to poor Cassie!"

"Don't give me that shit! She started coming on to me and I didn't want it."

"Yeah, and you wouldn't believe me when I told you she had the hots for you!" Heather said indignantly.

"Look, I don't wanna hear this! I ..."

"Guys, come on!" Jason cried. "Stop it! Can't you guys go five goddamn minutes without sniping at each other?"

Silence fell. Richie turned to Jason and shot him an angry look. "Better than the silent treatment, you know?" he said in a sullen voice.

"I'm sorry about that. That was childish of me. Just forget about it. I won't bring it up anymore. Please, I'd just like to drop the whole Cassie business."

Richie nodded once. He glanced over to Melinda, but she just glared back. She was not nearly as forgiving, having been friends with Cassie once. Richie just sighed and looked away.

"I still don't like this," Heather said in a small voice.

"Look, do you all want to meet somewhere before we go to first class?" asked Jason. "So I can tell you right away if we have anything to worry about."

"And if we do?"

Jason was silent for a long moment. "We'll figure that out if we get to that point. One thing at a time."

The others slowly nodded, Heather the last of them.

Heather looked at Jason and shivered. She could not get over the feeling that something was inherently wrong. It was exactly the way she had felt moments before Principal Bendon had arrived at the assembly. She didn't understand it. It was like the vivid mental images she had received about the nurse when she had been with Diane the day before.

She sighed inwardly. It sounded stupid even to her.

Frank was greeted with silence when he walked in the back door. He paused by the refrigerator to grab a soda, listening for any telltale signs of female clucking, chatting, or giggling. Instead, he heard some faint sounds of squeaking floorboards or bedsprings from directly above him.

Good, they were still in Mindy's room.

If he were lucky enough that the door were closed, he could sneak by it and into his own room. If he were quiet enough, they would never know he was there. He knew the moment Mindy realized he was home, and with neither parent at home, it would be open season on teasing the little stepbrother.

As he cautiously climbed the stairs, he avoided the steps he knew made noise. It was obvious that he had done this before. He listened for any telltale signs that Mindy was about to emerge, but all he heard were continued creaking noises from beyond Mindy's closed bedroom door.

Yet as he reached the top of the stairs, the sound was joined by something else.

Frank paused, furrowing his brow in confusion as he cocked an ear towards the door. As he listened, his eyes slowly widened and his mouth dropped open.

If he didn't know any better, he would have sworn it was moaning. Very deep and ardent moaning, growing steadily louder and more strident as the moments passed.

"Holy shit," Frank muttered. His next words formed as thoughts only. Maybe Mindy is not as straight as she seems!

Frank rushed into his room as fast as he could and still remain quiet. He closed the door very carefully before dropping himself down in front of the PC. With a slightly shaking hand, he clicked on the button that would show him a live feed from the webcam.

When it popped up on his screen, he very nearly dropped the can of soda in shock.

The webcam was oriented towards Mindy's bed, at a moderate angle from the foot of the bed. Normally this allowed him to see all of her if she were lying down. She was indeed lying there, but all that could be seen of her at the moment, save for fleeting glimpses here and there, were her legs.

The rest of her was hidden from view by a great slab of beef of a guy between those legs.

Frank just stared. The guy was pounding into Mindy, fucking her hard and fast. Through the wall he could hear Mindy's moans faintly. His hand shook as he reached over and bumped up the volume on the speakers just enough to hear over the mike he had installed earlier.

"Oh, yeah ... uhhh ... yeah ... that's it ... harder ... fuck me ... oh yeah! ..."

Frank clicked the volume to "off" with a flick of his wrist. He swallowed, panting lightly as his cock swelled almost painfully in his jeans. The action on the webcam just grew more intense. He caught glimpses of Mindy from one side of her muscular partner. As she writhed under him, she exposed to the camera one breast rolling back and forth in time with his massive thrusts into her.

Frank let his breath go as a ragged gasp. That short scene was one he would never, ever forget.

He placed his hand over his crotch. He was so hard it ached. Reluctantly, he forced himself to take his hand away. He couldn't do it now. He had to wait. That was okay. The whole thing was being recorded. He'd be able to play this as many times as he wanted.

For a moment, a euphoria came over him. He had just caught Mindy doing something that he was sure neither his stepmom nor his dad would approve! It was the perfect blackmail material! He could get Mindy to do practically whatever he wanted with this!

He sighed and shook his head. No, it wouldn't work. He'd have to reveal that he'd been spying on her. He'd never get another chance to do this again.

He smiled. There was one bright spot. If Mindy ever did find out, he had this little gem to stop her from getting him into trouble. It would be a wash in the end, but that was all right. He'd make sure to produce some extra copies and squirrel them away somewhere. No way was he ever giving up this little bit of heaven.

It was not until the sun disappeared behind a bank of thunderstorms rolling over Haven from the mountains that Cassie managed to stop crying. Or at least stopped in the sense that she no longer felt the urge anymore. She had managed to force the tears back to get her through her afternoon classes and to duck any questions from her parents.

She sighed as she looked out the bay window. She was kidding herself. Her parents would have barely noticed.

And if she had told them, and sought comfort from them, they would just listen politely, say something trite, and offer to take her shopping for "something nice" over the weekend. Yes, that was typical for them. Throw money at it, and the problem goes away.

So she did not bother. False sympathy was worse than none.

She turned away from the window as lightning forked from the clouds to the town. She flopped down on her bed just as the room vibrated with a low roll of thunder.

She hated Richie. Not so much for what he had done the last semester, but by leading her on. Or at least, that's what it seemed like to her in her dream-addled mind. In her view, he should have just made off with the notes and ignored her. At least then she would have known how she stood with him all this time.

Now, it was worse. Yes, she hated him. But it didn't make her stop thinking about him. It didn't make her stop growing excited at those thoughts. Even as she thought about him now, a tiny quiver passed through her body, and a faint tingling rose from her sex.

Lightning lit up the room brilliantly. Thunder shook the window in its frame. A few minutes later, rain pelted softly at the glass.

Cassie closed her eyes and curled up on the bed, uttering a long, despairing sigh. She still wanted him. It was just that she now wanted him in a different way.

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