“Watch it! Watch it!”

“Look out!”

“Sam, move!”

He only had a split second to dive away before the huge stone column toppled over sideways and fell right where Sam had been standing. Amanda saw him clamor quickly to his feet and rub his wrist, but he seemed all right. Amanda only had a few seconds to breathe a silent prayer of thanks before the demon launched its whip-like arm at her.

Amanda saw it coming, waited until the last possible second, then vaulted over the arm that was moving so fast that it was almost impossible to see. The Crystal Sword’s weight dragged down on her back in its scabbard, almost as if it were upset that she had refused to draw it out yet. As soon as Amanda had summoned the blade at the threat of danger, she’d shoved it into the blood-red scabbard that she and Kaine had created.

Well, actually, the old priest had created it, but Amanda had gone to the trouble to rip the seat belt out of her brother’s old car (He never used it anyway!) and attach it to the scabbard so she could sling it off of her back; it was so much cooler that way. What’s more is that the red release buckle matched the scabbard, so everything actually looked coordinated. Besides, she was doing anything and everything she could do to avoid touching the sword. The initial burning feeling had gone away, but she could still hear the screaming voices grating on the edge of her nerves like a hoarse whisper and that was just a little too disconcerting for Amanda.

Regardless of whether or not she used the sword, Amanda still found herself magically clothed in the scratchy black hip huggers, vest, and clingy shirt that were apparently part of the package deal of owning a supernatural relic. The seat belt scabbard fitted closely across her torso and pressed the scratchy material into her skin. Amanda suddenly felt self-conscious; she looked like a complete dork in this outfit! And the black clothes didn’t match the seat belt! But fashion faux pass or not, the outfit apparently added to Amanda’s strength, agility, and senses, and at that point, Amanda was in no condition to complain.

She could see the arm coiling upwards, following in the direction that she had jumped. Nothing appeared blurry, now; every image was sharp and clear. Amanda somersaulted forward, landing in a crouch. She paused for only a fraction of a second, before diving sideways. She watched the gelatinous tentacle follow. Amanda rolled up on one shoulder and sprang up.

“Austin! ” she shouted, and broke into a dead run toward her friend. The arm still pursued her. Austin, understanding what she wanted, gathered a fire-based center of energy in his hand, like some super hero from a Japanese cartoon. The heavy leather jacket he wore dully reflected the orange-red light cupped between Austin’s palms. Wow, Amanda didn’t know she could see that from 50 yards away.

When Amanda was almost too close to him- roughly half a yard-she abruptly changed directions and dived sideways. Austin let the energy fly, frying the end of the arm to a crisp as though he had a flamethrower in his hands.

The house-sized demon screamed in pain, retracting what was left of the tentacle into its tube sock body. The singular eyestalk retracted also, making the demon seem like a big blob of green Jell-O for a second. The demon’s lime-green skin was shiny and transparent, lending to the analogy. Amanda couldn’t see any internal organs, but she could see the muscular shafts that were the arms and eyestalk moving around inside. They’d have to pierce the skin to kill the monster, Amanda knew.

She came to her feet and raced over to where Troy was having a very ridiculous argument with Sam about the expense of having Troy’s hat dry cleaned. Austin was right behind her and Daniel, with an entirely useless feathered fan as his only means of defense, and Crystal quickly joined them.

“All right,” Amanda said. “New game plan. We’ve already decided that nothing we throw at it can really kill it. We’re going to have to pop this thing like a balloon. Austin and Troy, get on opposite sides of the thing. Daniel, use your little wind magic to help Troy make a wall of ice with his water-thingy, Austin you keep the Jell-O thing in one place by shooting fire at it. Sam and Crystal, you guys distract it.”

“Who made you Don Corleone?” Sam asked.

“Do you have a better idea?” Crystal hissed. She plucked at the shimmering white fabric of her over coat. “God dog it, this is going to stain.”

“Don’t get advice from Sam about dry cleaning, you’ll pay too much,” Troy said, glaring at his friend.

“You don’t even own anything worthy to be dry cleaned,” Sam snapped back, stamping his crocodile-hide loafers on the concrete.

“Kaine warned you about fighting in a completely white outfit,” Amanda said, sounding uncannily like Crystal’s mother.

“You were the one who picked it out!” Crystal shouted at her, oblivious to the impending threat congealing less than twenty yards away.

“No, I picked out the trench coat with the white feather trim. You wanted the pants, the sandals and that glittery shirt,” Amanda said in her defense.

Crystal slammed the coat shut, hiding the silvery halter-top. As the group’s advisor in choosing objects to become magical symbols, Kaine had explained to the group very carefully that whatever object they picked to protect their power with, they had to take excruciatingly good care of. “Whatever happens to the object happens to the owner,” Kaine had said, sounding more like a car salesman than the immortal priest that he was supposed to be.

“This isn’t a fashion show,” Troy snapped, unconsciously smoothing his hair and retying his dew rag, placing the hat over it to complete the ensemble. “Let’s just get this over with!”

“Fine,” everyone said at once. Like a football team, they all broke apart at the same time. Troy ran to one side, and Austin went to the other. Daniel followed Troy, while Crystal pulled Sam in the direction of some marble steps. Luckily, this demon was attacking a relatively deserted park area that was all fountains, columns, and trees. What few people there had been had run off already. It was two O’clock on a Wednesday, so most red-blooded Americans were at work. And the combatants were enjoying the freedom of a half-day due to teacher in-service. Super heroes had to love that public school system.

Amanda stepped back a little ways, watching everything around her fall into place.

Why don’t you do it?

Amanda squeezed her eyes shut and fought the oncoming internal dialogue.

I don’t want to, Amanda thought.

Yes you do, the voice inside her head shot back over the faint noise of the screaming voices that she had been successfully ignoring. You know you do. You have all of the power. It’s all in your hands.

I won’t do this, Amanda told herself.

Yes you will. The screaming grew louder. Everyone else uses their powers, so why don’t you?

I won’t be someone else’s puppet; I don’t need revenge for something that didn’t happen to me!

But you still want it, the lone voice whispered seductively. Amanda could almost feel the sound in her ear. You want all of that power for yourself; you need it.

I don’t need anything, Amanda told herself.

“Help….”

I DON’T NEED ANY HELP!

“I distinctly said HELP!” Austin shouted.

Amanda opened her eyes, in horror, realizing that’d she’d completely forgotten about everything. The gel monster had its eye and its arms back out and it was spinning them around like a tiny tornado, whipping over everything in its path with the tentacles. Troy and Daniel were nowhere in sight and Crystal and Sam were already 200 yards in the opposite direction. The gel monster was also oozing toward where Austin was busy trying to isolate it. Locked deeply into a concentrated state, there was little Austin could do but continue to try to fry the demon. He was too weak to move, magic or no, and if he let up for even a second, the gel monster could lunge in and crush him.

Amanda took half a step toward Austin, her hand reaching for the hilt of the sword over her right shoulder in a gesture that felt so natural she almost didn’t think about it…. Until her hand touched the cool surface of the Crystal Sword. Immediately, Amanda received a surge of energy so intense, her head swam, accompanied by the screams of thousands, right beside her eardrums. She closed her eyes, felt her mouth water and the world spin. When she opened them again, she was back under control, the voices subdued…and she had another problem. The creature was bored with Austin; it had decided to come after her.

Amanda froze, with her hand on the hilt. One swift, alien motion would’ve brought it to her hand. One quick move would’ve ended the threat this demon posed. But still, she hesitated. Why? Amanda thought of the willowy creatures that had attacked her, Austin, and Troy in the park; she thought of the possessed ketchup and mustard at the movie theater; she thought of the soulless body that impaled Sam on a human arm just a week before.

Is that worth it? Would putting an end to the demons end the screams? Did the fact that they were being attacked by something not really even human really make it okay to kill things? Did the fact that Kaine could resurrect a human from near death make it okay to go on day after day risking her life? Would death free Amanda from the curse of the Crystal Sword?

“JUST MOVE, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, MOVE!” Austin shouted, barreling into her, knocking them both down and out of the way of the demon’s swinging arm.

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The demon reared back and drew itself up a little, and then lurched, lunging for the fallen teenagers with a jelly like gap poised to inhale them.

“Don’t just stand there, DO SOMETHING!” Crystal shouted to them.

Amanda rose to one knee and drew the Crystal Sword out of the scabbard. At first, the unexpected length of the blade, plus the wild cries in her mind made her lower the point to the ground. Then the intense surge of energy returned to her and she was able to lift it up, just in time to pierce the slimy hide of the monster. The voices stopped screaming, replaced by a low chuckle that tickled the back of Amanda’s mind.

Just like a balloon popping, the skin at first retracted at the touch of the blade and then rushed forward as the hide broke. Out with it rushed the gelatinous insides of the monster.

Amanda shut her eyes and tried to think of it as being slimed by something like a game show on Nickelodeon or even the cute, cartoon version of Slimer on the Ghost-Busters. But…No. No, this was just gross. Repugnant, even. And what was worse is that, for some odd reason, whenever some poor sap gets a blast of a semi-liquid material, they always, always, feel compelled to open their mouths. Amanda gagged and was already vomiting before the monster had even finished dilapidating on them.

“Why did you open your mouth?” Troy asked, even as Austin began to heave.

“Yeah, its not like swallowing is required,” Sam said.

“So you’re saying you spit?” Troy asked with a wicked grin.

Sam, completely missing the sexual reference said, “Sure, why not?”

“Okay,” Troy said, “Let’s go.”

“If you’re making a pass at me, again man….”

“Sam, you give head?” Kaine asked. “Can I have some?”

“You!” Crystal shouted. “Where the hell were you?”

“At the McDonalds across the street,” Kaine said, pointing. “You guys seemed to be doing okay…. Don’t tell me you’re going to try and strangle me, Crystal.”

“What’s all this ‘try’ crap?”

“Come on, Troy,” Amanda said, breathing deeply, “you saw the Exorcist. What’s the first thing they did when the little girl threw up on them?”

“They opened up their mouths,” everyone said.

“Okay,” Troy said. “You’re forgiven.”

“Where is Daniel?” Crystal asked.

“Uhh…. Guys? Guys…. Help,” came the pathetic cry. Daniel had gotten himself stuck up a tree. He waved his feather fan as though it were surrender flag, looking pathetic.

“How the hell did you get stuck up there?” Austin asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Well, I was trying to do the wind thing, but…” Daniel said. “Oh, forget it, just get me down. I lost another set of glasses and I have the worst wedgie, too.”

“Too much information,” Troy said, heading toward the tree.

“What took you so long to bust out with the sword?” Kaine asked Amanda. His teenage appearance affected his grammar, but not his astuteness.

Amanda shot Kaine a dirty look, but she was too tired to come up with a witty retort. She’d put the blade back in the scabbard and was already trying to make the sword dissipate back into thin air from whence it came and her clothes go back to normal. At least those were dry. When she finally managed to flip whatever mental switches that turned the Crystal Sword on and off (the only thing Kaine had managed to teach her so far;) it felt like the worst hangover on Monday morning. Not that she would know anything about hangovers, but well….

Amanda didn’t need to defend herself. By now Crystal had cut off the circulation to Kaine’s head and his face was turning purple.

She may not have needed an excuse for Kaine, but she was having trouble finding an excuse for herself.

“Take it easy, Amanda; its not like he wants to kiss somebody that just got covered in the insides of something that tried to kill him,” Austin said, patting her on the back.

“I guess,” Amanda conceded, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands. “Not that he’s a particularly tender person in general,” she added with a cat like cynical smile.

“Oh, come on,” Austin said, leaning as far back as his chair would allow, “He’s your boyfriend. You got what you’ve wanted since eight grade, right?”

“Ninth grade,” Amanda corrected him, “And no I don’t. I didn’t necessarily want him as a boyfriend. I just wanted him to like me.”

“And he’s your boyfriend. He wouldn’t be your boyfriend, if he didn’t like you,” Austin reasoned. “Sam isn’t a complex person, Amanda. Just accept what you can get and be happy. Why is that so hard for you?”

“I’m an emotional, dyslexic, teenage drama queen; nothing is easy for me,” Amanda said.

Austin rolled his eyes; she always used that damn excuse. He opened his mouth to argue further, but the bell for fourth period rang, so instead he rocked all four legs of the chair back on the ground and said, “Hoffmann, Biology.”

“Damn,” Amanda finished. She hopped nimbly off of the desktop where she perched. “Lets go.”

“All right you little maniacs, get out of my room, go on, go on, shoo, off you go,” their English teacher urged. It was so nice to get positive encouragement form teachers.

In the hallway of the “gifted” school, such things as people running up and down the hallways declaring their political affiliations in relation to fast food restaurants was not uncommon, nor was the occasional pseudo-psychopath making an edict that all hamsters must die before sun down on Tuesday. What wasn’t normal was complete silence, save for the slamming of lockers and shuffle of feet. Amanda and Austin thought that they had wandered into the halls of an alternate universe for a second.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot,” Amanda said. “PSAT’s and SAT’s are coming up.”

“So?” Austin asked.

“That means the seniors and juniors are going to be depressed,” Amanda replied.

“I know how they feel. If I knew my future was going to depend on my performance in filling out a bubble test at the most ungodly hours of the day, I would get sulky too.”

“Yeah, one more of those foul things, and I’ll forget my name,” Troy said, joining them on the sojourn across the nearly deserted center hallway to the “normal” side of Duriarb. “Which reminds me, you know those substitute tests we take, the ones instead of the TOSS?”

“What? The IOWA Achievement tests?” Amanda asked in dread.

“That’s the one,” Troy said. “We start those next week.”

“For the love of God, we can’t catch a break, can we?” Austin said.

“IOWA and Achievement…. Sounds like an oxymoron,” Amanda muttered.

“Why disrespect Iowa?” Troy asked.

“Idiots, Out, Walking, Around,” Amanda demonstrated the acronym, ticking off each word on her fingers.

“Ah,” Austin said.

On the other side of the forked school, there was always more noise, because there were more people, but even they seemed subdued today. Everyone hated testing.

Ms. Hoffmann brought new meaning to the words subdued and hate in Biology. They had to watch a hideous 1980’s flick on the creation of a human life titled The Miracle of Life.

“It would be a miracle to me, if this stupid film were accurate,” Amanda growled during the opening credits.

“Notice how they totally skip the sex part,” Crystal pointed out. “They jumped from the composition of the male and female bodies into a description of an embryo. No sex, no orgasm, nothing.”

“SILENCE!” Roared Ms. Hoffmann.

“It’s a crucial part of human development,” Amanda agreed. “It’s a crime against the students to withhold certain truths.”

“So, how did your parents break it to you?” Troy asked, “Sex, I mean.”

“They said, when a man and a woman love each other very much…” Austin began.

“Mine said when a man and a woman got married,” Sam quipped.

“Mine said when two people got drunk enough,” Daniel added.

“Huh,” said Amanda. “My parents didn’t even say that. They just said when two people felt like it, they got down to doing the wild monkey dance of love and that I should be grateful that condoms weren’t a hundred percent effective.”

“They’re not?” Troy asked, going quite pale.

“Not like you need to know, or anything, right Troy?” Kaine teased, raising his eyebrows.

Ms. Hoffmann turned around and gave them the evil/whither/I’m-going-to-give-you-detention eye.

“So sex has nothing to do with love?” Austin whispered when Ms. Hoffmann released them from the paralyzing stare.

“No, my parents said that, when done right, you can love sex,” Crystal said, “But since that only happens ten percent of the time, its very rare.”

“QUIET!” Ms. Hoffmann screamed without looking up.

“I wonder what it feels like,” Amanda said after a moment.

“It feels great,” Kaine said. Everyone stared at him. “What? I’ve been around a long time, you think I haven’t tried anything?”

“I’ve heard it’s ten times better than masturbation,” Sam supplied.

“From where?” Troy asked.

“Hey, the Net ain’t a church, if you know what I mean,” Sam replied, turning his attention to picking at his lap top case.

“Sex feels like warm bodies,” Austin half-asked, half-stated.

“Oh, they don’t have to be warm, dear boy,” Kaine said, getting a particularly raunchy glint in his eye. Crystal smacked him.

“But what does a person feel?” Amanda asked.

“Pain, if you’re a virgin girl,” Crystal said.

“Orgasm, if you’re a boy,” Troy added.

“What about emotion?” Amanda asked. She was deliberately leading the conversation somewhere, but for all his years, Kaine couldn’t figure out where.

“Oh, please,” Kaine said, rolling his eyes and deciding to go along with the game. “Sex not a declaration of love, it’s primal.”

“So you feel lust?” Amanda asked, again baiting the question. Crystal noticed that Amanda was watching Sam very closely during all of this.

“No, you feel good,” Troy said, casually as ever.

“You can feel love,” Austin said.

“How the hell would you know,” Troy turned on him.

“You can feel warm and fuzzy,” Daniel suggested.

“You need to stop watching the care bears,” Kaine replied.

“Hey,” Crystal said, “He can feel what he wants.”

“All I feel is your hand print on my face,” Kaine growled.

“Aww, poor baby,” Crystal cooed. “Do you want me to kiss it and make it better?”

“Kiss what, exactly?” Troy asked.

“Pervert!” Crystal yelped.

“God damn it, I said quiet back there!” Ms. Hoffmann howled with eyes of pure icy fire; skewering the seven teens where they sat at the second to last row of lab tables as far away from Ms. Hoffmann as they could manage.

Amanda noticed Kaine looked away when Crystal offered to kiss him. A normal flirty teenager would’ve accepted the kiss, a shy teen would’ve diverted and blushed, but Amanda supposed Kaine was far too old to blush. It made her feel a little sorry for him; he didn’t have anything excuse for not knowing what to say to a girl he really liked. And as for what to say to the boy she really liked….

“I wouldn’t sleep with a person I didn’t care about a great deal,” Amanda said, lightly. Her eyes never left Sam’s profile. He didn’t react.

“Well, you’ve got more to lose,” Troy reasoned, leaning back in his chair. “Guys don’t have as much to care about other than pleasure.”

“They have to care about giving the girl pleasure,” Kaine argued. Casually, he reached his foot out to nudge Troy’s chair over, but Troy caught onto the table at the last second.

“No they don’t,” Austin said.

“You inconsiderate pig,” Amanda said to Austin, leaning around the inert Sam.

“On the contrary,” Kaine said. “There’s nothing better than giving the girl the big O.”

“What about giving her a little love?” Amanda asked. Again, her eyes strayed to Sam.

“That’s what kissing is for,” Sam said, his skin darkening in his male version of a blush. He never raised his eyes from the tabletop, but he did smile.

“This coming from the guy who left his dating skills back in the fourth grade,” Troy laughed. Sam’s face dropped.

“Kissing can be something special, or something trivial,” Kaine said, sounding like an Oxford professor, “but mostly it’s just a prelude.”

“SHUT-UP!” Ms. Hoffmann yelled. Silence reigned for a count of three seconds.

“Where is Daniel?” Sam whispered, trying to change the subject.

He was under the table behind them, trying to look up a classmate’s skirt. The blond girl was totally oblivious as she was trying to comprehend all of the big words the video was using, but Crystal swooped in like a hawk and hauled Daniel up in his seat.

“You moron,” she hissed, smacking him, “Do I have to protect you-” slap in the face “From every-” -slap- “Single-” –slap- “THING?” By now, Daniel was an incoherent lump, left cowering in his seat. Apparently hurting him was supposed to help him.

“Do you believe in love?” Troy asked, after a moment.

“No, but I believe in hormones,” Daniel said.

“Amen, brother,” Austin said, giving him a black power handshake.

“Kissing is special,” Crystal insisted. “When it’s done right.”

“What does it matter, if you don’t care?” Amanda asked. Sam sucked in a breath and wouldn’t meet Amanda’s questioning eyes.

Ah, Kaine thought, so that’s what she’s after.

No one had an answer for that. The bell rang, the detentions were passed out, and the conversation ended.