"Oh shit! I just remembered something!" Peter gasped with dawning horror. Julie glanced at him with a slight smirk. "My clothes! I left my clothes in the locker room!"
"You shouldn't worry so much, Peter." Replied Julie in a dismissive tone. "Besides, I kind of like you this way."
"Julie, I can't run around naked all the time!" But for Peter, there was more than just that. The more he thought about it, the more he would be a key suspect in the odd events that had transpired in the boys' locker room. He heard the voices of inquisitive authority figures as they loomed over his clothes. Why is Peter missing? Why are his clothes still here? Where's David? Why was there a baby left here instead? He had to get his clothes out of there.
Hopefully it would not be too late.
"I've really gotta get back to the School, Julie. I can't just leave my clothes there like I did!" Why had he left them, he wondered? Trying to bring his memories back to the locker room was difficult. It was like staring into a deep fog where some faint outlines could be made, but the whole of the image was lost in the haze. From the best he could surmise, his clothes had just not seemed important at the time.
"Very well, I can send you back there, but you'll have to go alone."
"W-why?"
"I have to sleep for a while, Peter."
"You sleep?"
"But of course! All of this flying around expends energy that I need."
"But, aren't you gaining energy by sapping duration from the girls down there?"
"Yes and no." Julie began to explain. "Imagine draining duration from them as being similar to you eating. It gives you energy, but you also have to sleep and dream. If you do not, it can lead to madness. I am in-between the physical and non-physical worlds, which means sleep is not something I need as often as you, but I still need it to some degree...And madness is the last thing either of us want me to succumb to, yes?"
Peter thought about what she said, and try as he might, he could not come up with a convincing argument for her to stay with him. "Yeah, alright Julie..." He would have to just do his best not to get discovered at school. Hell, maybe his absence had not even been noticed yet. But, there was still the issue of Cynthia, Britney, Melissa, and Kathy.
"And don't worry about them down below," Said Julie - plucking the thoughts from Peter's mind. "Christina's a tough child, I think."
"Do you have to do that....read my mind?" Peter bristled. "I'm really not used to that sort of thing."
"Ease up, Peter. The line between speaking and simply thinking is a lot less defined on this level. You're not even really breathing here." Peter stopped bickering for a moment and realized that she was indeed right: he wasn't breathing. There was some other rythmic motion that his body was going through - something that seemed just as natural - but it was not respiration.
"You said that you can send me back to the school, right?"
"Yes, my dear." Julie Answered patiently.
"Umm.. Alright... but when you do send me, can you place me somewhere not out in the open, in case someone is in the locker room?"
Julie smirked and waved a hand in front of her, as if wiping a steamed mirror, and it appeared that there was actually some substance to that analogy, for in the place of her wipe was a window-like view into the boys' locker room. No one was down there, and Peter could easily identify his pants piled on the bench in front of his locker.
Julie brought her hands up to her temples and closed her eyes. The window view of the locker room expanded to the size of a doorway, for which was presumably meant for Peter to enter.
Hesitantly, Peter took a step forward when Julie opened her eyes and spoke again. "Peter, there is something you should know. It is almost time for me to rise among the living once again, which is good that we have made it this far. After I rest, I should be able to make the step from insubstantial to the physical.
"But, there is a problem."
"What is it, Julie?!" Peter did not care for the look on her face in the least bit. She had been in control of the situation from the beginning of this whole, surreal experience...reducing his enemies to children and growing stronger with each of their rejuvenations. What in the name of God - if such a being existed in the strange world that Peter had stepped into - could possibly frighten her?
"I think there is someone listening."
"Listening? What? What does that mean?" Peter was nearly frantic.
"I'm...not entirely certain, myself. But, I am feeling familiar energies, things I have not felt since the Old Aeon. I could not feel this until I had gained some duration from your enemies. Then I felt it."
"You mean, like (something) someone from when you lived on Earth?"
"Precisely. I don't know if this listener is a friend or a foe, but I should be alone on this world. They should all have moved on to higher realms, which means they should have died out...long ago."
"So what are we going to do, Julie?"
"We'll just have to continue with our own plans until this listener makes itself known. For the meantime, you need to get your clothes. After that, leave the school and..."
***
Cynthia thought she had emptied a small lake from her bladder after nearly two minutes of peeing. Her reduced bladder silently thanked her for allowing it to relieve the excess pressure. She was glad she had not eaten anything in the past eighteen hours, or she may have been spending an even longer time behind the bushes.
When her urine stream had tapered off to a slight trickle, Cynthia examined her hand for a moment, and was surprised by how calm she was. Why was she not trembling? Being reduced to a little girl again should have caused her a small heart attack, to say the least. Yet, she could not help but enjoy it just a little. Sure, she would not admit this fact, but it was there.
Maybe having the past 5 years of her life erased from her development was a small price to pay for experiencing true magic! Maybe the petty way she and the other girls had treated their classmates warranted some sort of punishment. She could not help but feel ashamed that the guy she was dating, Charles, had been involved in the beating of that seventh grader...
(...come to the cemetery as soon as possible, Peter. From there we will decide what to do next.)
Cynthia stood up suddenly, pulling up her jogging pants. Who in the hell had said that? She wondered. The voice sounded like it belonged to a girl her age...well, maybe like her previous age. And Peter? Wasn't the name of the boy Kathy, Charles, and Marty had beaten up at the cemetery? Oh my god! He's here in the forest too! Only thing was, the voice had not been spoken aloud, it was almost like a transmission or something that had just buzzed into her mind.
But, there was more than just that. Cynthia's mind raced, trying to add up the irrational in some vain attempt to bring clarity to the past half hour or so. Fact: they had all mysteriously become younger. Fact: Kathy and Melissa had regressed younger than either Britney or Cynthia, herself. Fact: the seventh grader named Peter would definitely have a grudge after being brutalized by Kathy, Marty, and Charles. Fact: she "heard" the disembodied voice of a girl speaking to Peter.
Fact: this was the craziest set of circumstances she had ever encountered.
Finally leaving the bushes, Cynthia noticed Britney rocking Kathy in her arms. It was an adorable moment, unfortunately there were just too many pressing matters for the girls to deal with.
Britney looked up, and with a little effort, managed a smile. "Do I look any younger?"
"No Brit... do I?"
"Umm.. Nope."
"Good... I think I am beginning to understand what's going on." That was an overstatement. She barely had any sort of idea what was going on, but she knew that Peter was somehow involved. "Did you hear any voices a moment ago?"
Britney looked puzzled. She was beginning to wonder if the tremendous strain of the day had finally taken its toll on poor Cynthia. "Uhh.... no Cynthia. Why?"
"I...heard something while I was peeing..."
"Uhmm.. Cynthia? Maybe you should ease up a bit.. This has been tough on all of us and..."
"No! You have to listen to me! I heard something...someone. I heard someone speaking to Peter. She told him to meet her in the cemetery."
"Peter? The cemetery? That doesn't make any sense!"
"But it does! Marty, Charles, and Kathy beat the hell out of that seventh grader. His name is Peter! Look at us, we are her friends, and we shrank right along with her to a point. Except, she's a newborn now!"
"Yeah, but Lissa didn't beat up Peter, and she's a baby too!"
"But she was being a real bitch to Kathy right before she got babified, reduced, or whatever."
Britney backtracked a little. There was just way too much going on for a sane mind to keep up."You said you heard voices a moment ago? I didn't hear any. Why did you hear em?" Because I think I am a little psychic. My mother was the same way before she died. However, Cynthia did not say that aloud. "I just think we need to go the cemetery. You have to trust me Britney! I've never been the type of person to fuck with people. Especially not right now, the way we are!"
"Alright then, but what are we going to do about the babies?"
"I don't know," Cynthia replied. "Maybe we can help them when we get there. We just have to take them with us and hope for the best. But, I think we will at least be able to find the people who did this to us."
"Well, if we are going to do this - and I think it's not exactly the best idea - what is the quickest way there?"
"Umm.. Err.... I think that if we cut left through Mr. Stover's field, we can end up at the rear of the cemetery. We'll have to cross a fence, I'm sure."
"Cemeteries creep me out, Cynthie... I really don't like em."
"Yeah Brit, but who does like em, anyway?" Apparently The Voice had liked the cemetery enough. "Look, there's nothing to be afraid of. There's plenty of daylight left, and even if it weren't we'd still be safe. All the people there are already dead."
With sleeping Kathy in Cynthia's arms, and with Britney holding a yawning newborn Melissa, they proceeded to the cemetery. Cynthia had to keep reassuring herself that they would be safe, but she really had nothing to back up such a hope. Fact: Peter had gotten the piss beaten out of him there. Fact: there was black magic afoot when people are transformed into children and babies. Fact: a disembodied voice was asking a young boy to go there.
Fact: Cynthia hoped to hell she had made the right choice.
***
Peter, not wasting any time, began the routine process of getting dressed. He briefly wondered what it would be like to notice that his clothes no longer fit properly, to be slowly losing height and what little build his juvenile body had attained. His genetic make-up had been so slow in giving him any form of growth, as though his body had been controlled by some cratchety old Scrooge, too greedy to dole out enough puberty to compete with other boys in sports and whatnot. It was not a wonder why his junior high experience was hell.
The brief moment of reflection made Peter feel somewhat guilty for the fun he and Julie had at the expense of the ex-ninth graders. But, at the same time, he couldn't wait to find another victim or two that Julie could work her magic on. The score between Peter, Marty, and Charles was not settled.
Far from it.
"My boy, if you had not found that bitch of a friend in the cemetery, you would have had your revenge on those other children. And what a memorable revenge it would have been."
Peter froze where he was. He had been tying his shoe laces, his back turned to the locker room door. He must have been lost in his thoughts heavily, for he had not heard the owner of the voice enter from behind him.
No, he had not heard the voice of The Principal.
Peter, with the ultimate cat-ate-the-canary look on his face, spun around to where the man now stood. The Principal - Mr. Dodson, Navy Seal, Man With the Electric Paddle, Demi-God, the Omnipotent One, etcetera - had a look of almost regret on his face. As though he had expected something so much more from the circumstances than what had been dealt. Peter was about to try some sort of explanation, but before he could do such, he realized that The Principal had spoken of his new friend. He knows about Julie!!!???
"Uh.. How did you know about Julie?"
The Principal, seeming to ignore him, turned to face the wall, still with a somber expression besetting the stone-like features of his face. "You would have brought them more than a cradle, Peter. If things had gone the way they should have, you would have brought them the tomb."
Peter did not want this to continue. He imagined himself holding a very long rope that wrapped around a corner into a room darker than the blackest of plagues. Oh, and there would be something at the other end of that rope. Something waiting for him to reach its end. It waited in the darkness, and Peter was inching closer to that Unknown. The Principal's chilling words were the rope. And try as Peter might, he could not help but draw ever closer to the hideous truth. "S-sir, what are you talking about?"
"Do you know why little boys kill? Do you know why they reach in their Daddies' closets and pull out firearms....and then take them to places like this? Do you know why, Peter? My friend? Do you know?"
Peter wanted to scream No! No I don't know why they do it! Thanks for frightening the holy weeping creeping Jesus out of me, sir; but I have to run! It's been fun getting beaten and nearly raped in this hell-hole of American society, but I'm going to meet up with this chick in the cemetery, who's gonna take me with her on wild adventures that involve traveling the world and rejuvenating petty assholes! Bye! Ciao! Don't forget to write! Better yet, maybe you should forget to write me, because you are ONE SPOOKY MOTHER FUCKER! Toodles!
Instead, what came out of Peter's mouth was something that had always lurked in the darker recesses of his mind: "Because they hate being powerless children trapped in a place with other children who like torturing them."
"Spoken like a true prodigy, Peter." The Principal turned and smiled with teeth that looked somewhat longer than they should have been. "You also knew of a gun in your Daddy's closet, didn't you Peter? Didn't you?"
"Yes, sir." Peter was drawing ever closer to the other side of the corner, where the thing in the darkness awaited.
"And maybe...just maybe...perhaps...you took special note of all the school shootings that have transpired within the past couple of years...and just a big maybe here...maybe you secretly applauded those young boys who violently freed themselves from the shackles of public school and its social cliques. Maybe...you even liked all the special attention the news media gave those boys? They made national headlines for Christ's sake! They went from being nobodies being tortured by other children and teachers to being immortalized! And the media loved it, Peter. They sold their newspapers and broadcasted their television specials...and little boys like you...tortured, hurt little boys like you...absorbed all of this publicity. Isn't that right, Peter?"
Closer to the thing in the dark.
"Yes, sir."
"And little boys like you, Peter, realized that you weren't as powerless and ignored by society after all...that you could put a stop to the laughter and the bullying once and for all. No one would laugh again."
"Stop....please...."
"Stop? Stop what? We're just having a friendly chat, Petie-Q. Lighten up! It's not like I am suggesting that had your little cunt-girlfriend not come out of her grave with her little magic games and tricks, you would have instead come into school today with a loaded weapon!"
But, he was suggesting exactly that.
Peter had almost reached the end of that rope. All he had to do was step into the darkness and embrace the dark creature that was nothing more than the part of him that would have done precisely what The Principal had "not suggested." But, instead of allowing himself to be overcome with what could/would have happened - had Julie not found him first - Peter did the only possible recourse that could end whatever sick twisted game The Principal was playing.
He bolted for the door for all his worth.
And, he would have made it too, had a hand with a clawlike grip not grabbed the back of his shirt and slung him to the floor. Peter realized that he had just been assaulted by a school faculty member. He turned to look up at The Principal, but was profoundly disturbed to notice that what had once resembled a man now looked slumped and hideous. It's teeth jutted in bizarre directions, it's eyes looked almost reptilian, and its hands and arms resembled something between a spider and a bird's talons.
To Peter's realization, this monster was one of the old people that had existed long before humankind had walked the face of the earth. This unholy monstrosity was something that was kith and kin with Julie.
Peter screamed in shear terror and pissed himself without even noticing.
He tried to get up again, but the beast pinned him down with its horrid appendages. It's face began to quiver, with its deformed jaws opening and closing in almost a chewing fashion. Peter braced himself for what had to be his devourment, when its horrid visage suddenly contorted back into that of The Principal's.
"Now that you have expended all of your options," The Principal spoke in a voice softer than Peter had ever heard him use, "maybe you would be so kind as to take me to where exactly this....Julie....is buried."
With tears streaming down the boy's cheeks, Peter managed to say: "You're the listener, aren't you?" Of course, he knew that question had been answered, along with the other one concerning whether the listener was friend or foe. He also knew his situation was fucked, to say the least.
"Aye, that would indeed be me. Now, it's time to go settle an old score of my own. Afterwards, I intend to correct the incursion that your little Julie made with you. Oh yes, you and I will make things the way they are supposed to be. Just wait, Petie-Q.
All Peter could hope for was that Julie would know how to stop such a monster.
***
A grave that was relatively new, compared to the many that stretched back into the late nineteenth century, silently displayed the epitaph of Julie Krantz. "She rejoices in the love of the Lord." Its date read Aug. 18th, 1973 to November 21st, 1987.
The calm and peacefulness of the cemetery was interrupted with a dirty hand heaving out of the ground in front of the eternal resting place of Julie Krantz. Then, another dirty hand. Finally, Julie had reached the surface after a brief rest. With enough leverage attained, she pulled herself completely out of the grave and collapsed beside it, her chest heaving after holding her breath for so long.
The taste of the air was electrifying and almost intoxicating. It had been so very long! Now she was again among the living. She stood up and looked at her muddy dress that had probably once been very beautiful. She examined her hands. Her flesh was of a youthful and vibrant color that meant only one thing: She was alive again!
She walked around, working the stiffness out of her joints, and had to soon lean against a large tomb stone for support. She knew she would have to take it easy at first. Although her body was completely restored, it still needed to build up more mass to its muscles.
If she had waited for other people to drain duration from, she would probably have had the proper strength. But, she had felt the presence of some anonymous force. If it was indeed a member of one of the many races that had inhabited the earth during her first lifetime, then it probably meant trouble.
She hoped Peter would hurry the hell up so they could put as many miles between themselves and that place as possible. The fact that Peter was not already there worried Julie. She hoped he had not been caught by anyone at the school. She also hoped that the silent listener had not somehow gotten to him, but she doubted the likelihood of such terrible luck. He was probably just delayed, that was all. She hoped...
The rustling of some bushes nearby, on the edge of the cemetery, broke Julie's thoughts. She ducked down behind the large monument, hoping it could properly conceal her. She heard a baby crying, another one cooing, and the voice of a little girl shushing the crying infant. A second later she heard the voice of another little girl. "Who's there? Behind the tombstone?"
"Shit," Julie muttered. So much for trying the whole obscurity thing. Julie slowly, yet deliberately, stepped out from behind the monument in all of her muddy, ragged glory. Even before she brought her eyes up to meet the newcomers, she knew who they were.
They were girls she had regressed.
"Uhmm... Miss... are you alright?" The ten year old named Britney asked with a hint of fear in her voice.
"Yeah. I'm fine...thank you." Maybe Julie could pretend not to know anything about their plight. Maybe they would even fall for it. "So, what brings two pretty girls and two babies to a cemetery?"
"We're looking for a couple of people," the one named Cynthia spoke up. Cynthia eyed her keenly. "You're her, aren't you?"
"Her?" Julie tried to sound confused. "Her who?"
"Peter's friend."
"Uhm, well, I guess I know someone named Peter. So?"
"So...WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON AROUND HERE?!" Cynthia exploded.
"Uh, Cynthie... maybe we should leave her alone... she looks..." She looks like she's crawled out of a grave!! Britney did not say that last bit, however.
"Uhm.. Oh fuck it." Julie threw her arms up in frustration. "Enough of the games. I am really old. REALLY old. I have spent the past forty thousand years or so without a body, which you can probably guess how that might cramp my social life. When I finally mustered up enough energy by feeding off of old vibrations from dead people, I was able to leave this cemetery in a non-physical state. And, with the help of my friend Peter - whom you and your companions have tormented in some way or another - I have finally been able to gain enough energy to rebuild a dead body into a living one. So here I am. Oh, and as you may or may not know, I had to use your duration for energy. Girls, that's why you have observed the loss of height, weight, and puberty."
The young girls were speechless, except for one of the babies that managed a solitary hiccup.
Finally managing to speak, Cynthia said: "Y-you mean you did this because... because...you wanted to live again? It's great that you're alive and all, but look at us! Our lives are severely screwed up right now!"
Britney, trying to be more reasonable, simply asked: "Is there any way you can just make us older again?
"Not at the moment. That would require draining duration from other people. Maybe later. However, I refuse to restore those two babies. Both of those girls were rather heartless and quite childish. I think they should be raised again...and correctly this time." Julie wobbled a little and nearly tumbled to the ground before grabbing onto the old monument for stability.
Cynthia regarded the babies, silently. In their previous states, they had been essentially what the girl in the muddy dress had described. Would their parents mind raising them again? Maybe Britney's parents would not mind adopting them. Of course, the girl before them had the power over their collective ages, and thus had the ultimate decision. "Maybe it's for the best that they start over, but who will care for them?"
The muddy girl that may or may not have crawled out of the ground smiled impishly. "I am sure that I can be rather persuasive in dealing with her parents." Cynthia had no doubt that the girl was right.
Julie looked the girls up and down before speaking. "Once Peter arrives here, we might be able to do something about restoring you and your friend to your normal age. I suppose we could shave a year or two off of some elderly people for such a purpose."
"We would like that very much. My name is Cynthia, and this is Britney. And you are?"
"Julie Krantz."
"Julie Krantz is dead. She was killed by a drunk driver back in the eighties. My sister went to school with her."
"Well, that may have been that Julie Krantz, but not the one standing before you. What's more, I doubt people would wish to deal with my old name."
Britney frowned a little. "What's your old name?" She asked.
"Nieffrahtep N'Rylatoth." A voice that wasn't Julie's spoke from behind the girls. The girls spun around in shock, to see a man - The Principal?! - perched atop the wrought iron fence of the cemetery. His feet were not human in the least, and before him in one hand dangled Peter. The boy seemed exhausted beyond his thirteen years.
"Mr. Dodson?!" Britney shrieked. "Wha-what the-why-how-our principal?"
Julie frowned and spoke with a voice that vibrated with authority. "You."
"Rylatoth. It's good to see you have not forgotten the past entirely." The Principal smiled with long, uneven teeth that made Britney and Cynthia shrink back into a frightened embrace with the babies.
"You seem to know me. But I don't believe I have the honor of knowing who you really are." Julie mustered a bitter smile. The Principal's own smile faltered and became a frown, before contorting into something far from human. The jaws extended forward into some sort of muzzle that seemed halfway between that of a dog's and a lizard's. The teeth grew ever longer and jutted out of its mouth in almost zany directions, making it quite clear that their ability to eviscerate a person would be all too possible. Its arms, hands, and legs transformed as well. The end result was a shaggy, slumped monstrosity whose DNA had not chosen whether to be an arachnid, a reptile, or a bird; yet decided to be all of those things combined.
For the first time that day, on a positive note, no one urinated his or her self. But, that did not mean they weren't terrified.
Julie in particular.
"I am Helkras, of the Reskaskurd, impudent little bitch princess!" The beast threw Peter at Julie. She was incredibly weak, but she tried to catch him nonetheless. The impact of his body sent both of the reunited friends to the ground with the wind knocked out of Julie. As she struggled to regain her breath and her ability to stand, Helkras patiently remained on his perch atop the fence.
"They were wise to send you away for so long, for if you had remained with your race when we won the war, we would have all taken turns ravaging your body with our swords. But, your people never expected us to wait for your return. And, I have waited. For forty thousand years I have waited. After the fall of the Old Tower, after the old continents were destroyed, after the rise and first fall of man, I have waited. I followed your presence as you fed on the past of corpses. I learned to make myself look like these apes. And, now I have you. Now I have you, Princess."
"Well, Reskaskurd…I am sorry for keeping you waiting for so long. You may be stronger than I am at the moment, and this may be my last stand, but I am not going to make it easy for you."
"You're right about me being stronger than you! But, I can always have more strength my Princess." Helkras extended his arm in the direction of Britney. Britney thought for a moment that she was sinking into the ground, but soon realized that was not the case. The baby in her arms was becoming increasingly heavier to hold. She turned to look at Cynthia, but found herself looking up at the ten year-old. Within moments Britney could not keep holding the baby Lissa in her arms, which was much larger to her than previously. She at least managed to set the baby down, and backed up a few steps. Her clothes, which were already quite loose, became unbearable circus tents to her diminishing body, younger she became still. Finally her legs gave out from under her, causing her to fall on her little bottom. She looked up at the huge world and stuck a thumb in her mouth. There was no need in pretending that she was anything but a baby.
Helkras of the Reskaskurd began to emit an eerie blue glow. The beast cackled loudly before lunging at Julie, who only stood her ground.
For one moment, Julie was staring at the approaching monster, the next moment she found herself in its hairy, spider-like arms. She felt herself being lifted in the air. She struggled to free herself, but it was a futile attempt. Helkras was just too powerful. Almost before Julie could realize what was happening, she found herself being thrust downward, tightly clenched in the talons of the Reskaskurd. She instinctively threw her arms outward trying to ward off the inevitable, but that too was a futile effort.
Helkras slammed Julie's chest down onto one of the rusty metal points of the cemetery's wrought iron fence. At first she could not move. Every thing was growing dim. She heard Peter's cries of misery, which brought her back to the real world for just a little longer. She needed to do something fast. Her energy field was rapidly dissipating, and if it weakened any further, her physical body would die.
She brought her gaze to Peter, who stood on the other side of the Reskaskurd. With all of Julie's remaining will, she shot a two word message to Peter's mind.
I'm sorry.
***
The monstrosity began slowly approaching Peter, who stood weeping in front of Cynthia and the three babies. Peter backed away from the creature until he bumped into Cynthia, who was standing directly behind him. She clung to him instinctively. After all, he was thirteen and taller than Cynthia or her infantile friends. The babies were on the ground right behind the two older kids. They bawled with terror, which was quite understandable to Peter. There was only a blood thirsty murderous unholy terror closing in on them, that's all.
Peter immediately picked up a tree branch that had been on the ground. It wasn't much, but he was determined not to make his death too easy for The Principal. When Helkras observed Peter's small gesture of defiance, it threw back its head and laughed maniacally. It's cackling echoed back from the tombstones, which created the effect of being surrounded by hundreds of Reskaskurd.
On and on it laughed, not even seeming to pay attention to Peter or Cynthia. Peter was about to suggest they grab the babies and run like hell, when the world seemed to distort around him. He looked down at his feet and noticed that the ground below him was rapidly approaching his eyes. His pants fell to his ankles, and his shirt reached down to mid thigh. He turned to Cynthia, and saw that he was eye-level with her. Then, they both began shrinking; only it was not just a shrinking process, it was their duration being taken away. Cynthia's features became more childlike by each passing second. Peter could only assume that he was looking similar.
Helkras continued to laugh. Only, Helkras was not glowing with the eerie color that signified a gain of energy.
Julie, on the other hand, was.
***
Helkras the Reskaskurd's delicious laughter finally died down enough for him to gain control of himself again. Instead of seeing a pathetic human boy holding a rotted tree branch, he saw two babies in a pile of clothes next to a rotted tree branch.
Helkras puzzlement quickly faded. He spun around to where Julie had been, but saw only the wrought iron fence, sans a couple of iron stakes that had marked where he had impaled her. He heard a whizzing in the air above him. He cocked his head at a forty-five degree angle, just in time to see a projectile flying straight for him!
He tried to dodge it, but was not fast enough. The iron stake pierced into his left eye rather deeply. Black fluid spewed from the wound. Helkras screamed with pain and outrage as he tried to pull the stake from his cranium, but the barbs at the end of the stake's arrow-tip had embedded all to well.
Julie landed a few feet away from the screaming Reskaskurd and grinned ruefully. In her hands was the other spike that had impaled her. With it raised, she lunged forward, skewering the old monster with its rusted, blunt tip. Helkras' screams intensified, but Julie did not relent in the least. She thrust until the point of the iron stake bulged beneath the flesh of the Reska-skurd's back. With a little effort, she lifted the dying, gurgling beast into the air by the iron stake.
Julie's body began to glow with an imperial purple color. The glow began to ascend the length of the wrought iron stake until the Reskaskurd itself was glowing. The glow intensified until a small trickle of white twinkles floated from its body down to Julie, who absorbed them. The trickling of the twinkles (say that five times really fast) increased to a torrential flow of light. After maybe three minutes, the twinkles ebbed away to a trickle again, and finally to nothing. When the last twinkle escaped from Helkras, its blackened body broke away into ash that blew away with the wind.
Julie stood before the five babies that wallowed on the soft cemetery grass. She smiled warmly and said: "Well, it's time to see what we can do about you little ones."
She was charged up with quite a lot of duration, which meant she could easily restore them to their proper ages. But before she began the restoration process, she picked up little naked Peter and cradled him in her arms. She tickled his nose a little, which made him giggle.
The cuteness overload nearly made her melt.
***
It was one hell of a party! The older teenagers had managed to get a keg along with enough weed to make everyone attending higher than Georgia pines. Marty was quite proud of the fact that he had slowly but surely convinced a sophomore girl to smoke a little weed, drink a couple of beers, and go to bed with him and Charles.
They were still not sure what had happened to their girlfriends, Kathy and Cynthia. They had been initially concerned, but that had been a six-pack and two joints ago. Now all that mattered was the potential pussy they would be getting from the tenth grader.
Wendy Ceaver was quite intoxicated, but she insisted that she was merely buzzing. Regardless, she found herself in a dark bedroom with two freshmen stripping her clothes off. She thought it was quite hilarious, and not to mention that a little alky-hol and a little wacky tobacky made her randier than Madonna at a Male African-American Nymphomaniacs Support meeting.
Charles began sucking on one of Wendy's exposed nipples while Marty removed her panties. She lost her balance and fell on the bed with a disquieting thud. Not even bothering with foreplay, Marty slipped a finger inside her warm slit. His probing finger completely missed the clitoris, not even really knowing - or caring - about it. But, Wendy was drunk and horny, so even his bumbling antics felt somewhat pleasant.
After a while, Charles began kissing her. He seemed to at least care for some sort of interaction before sex, so Wendy reached into his boxer shorts and pulled out his penis, which was quite substantial for a ninth-grader.
Marty, feeling that he had masturbated Wendy enough, undid his pants and attempted to insert himself into her. For a moment, he thought he had found the right hole before Wendy screamed: "That's not it, that's my ass!" Feeling like an idiot, Marty finally managed to stick it in the right place. He began thrusting and thrusting before accidentally slipping out.
Wendy wished Marty would hurry up and re-insert his prick. Meanwhile, she kept a steady jerking motion with Charles, but it seemed she must not have been doing a good enough job, for he seemed to have lost his initial arousal or something. His penis just didn't seem to be as large as it used to.
Wendy finally felt Marty re-enter her pussy, only he must have decided to finger her again, for it seemed too small to be his penis.
A minute later and a couple of high pitched screams of pleasure, both of the boys collapsed on top of Wendy, who finally passed out from intoxication and boredom.
When sunlight shined in on the nude figures asleep in the bed, Wendy awoke with a god-awful headache. She managed to climb over the two smooth, soft, naked forms and got out of the bed. She tried looking for her clothes, but figured they were probably still in the bed. When she went back to the bed to look, she saw something that profoundly disturbed her.
Two naked seven year old boys were sound asleep. Lipstick smudges were all over their innocent faces, necks, and chests. Her lipstick.
Wendy found a T-shirt. It was too large to belong to the boys in bed, so she took it. Throwing the shirt over her nudity, Wendy Ceaver ran out of the bedroom and out of the house, not looking back. She hopped into her car and floored it. No one saw her leave, for everyone else was still unconscious. She never told anyone about what had happened in that bedroom, but many odd rumors circulated afterwards.
In fact, many odd things circulated around. There was a massive manhunt underway for Principal Dodson. Although missing, they linked him as the prime suspect in the disappearance of David Mullon, Kathy Hennly, Melissa Thresher, and Peter McNeal. There was also the incident of Julie Krantz's body being missing from the cemetery.
Most of the families involved in the odd events that transpired in one day were quite strong in handling the situation. Well, maybe not David Mullon's father. He did not even care that his son was missing, or so the rumors went. The parents of the missing girls took the news bravely, and actually adopted new girls rather quickly. Oddly enough, the girls they adopted looked remarkably like their missing girls. Britney Powell's parents even adopted a young baby boy that had been found in the locker room at the school on that strange day.
Britney and Cynthia were commended by their community for offering so much support to the families who had lost so much. And, they spent most of their free time babysitting the adopted children without accepting any form of payment.
The Krantz family was at first devastated by the fact that their only child's grave had been robbed, but later they would make headlines with their emotional story about how one evening their daughter Julie had appeared before them as a radiant angel who reassured them that all was well and that she loved them dearly. To prove such, she had reportedly left them with an uncut diamond that was easily worth nine hundred thousand dollars.
The McNeal family would not see their son again for a long time, although they would receive letters from Peter periodically that said he was safe and traveling the world with his beloved girlfriend, Julie. He would mail photographs of himself and a beautiful girl his age at many famous places. In one picture, they were scaling the Great Pyramid at Cairo. In another, they would be standing in front of the Eiffel Tower. In another...
June 14th, 2000
Máire Flynn (maireflynn@cs.com)