“At least the phones are working,” Crystal said to Kaine, as he stepped through the mirror to her room.

“It never fails…I get in the tub for two seconds, and evil strikes,” Kaine grumbled, pulling the fuzzy pink shower cap off of his snow-white hair.

“It’s just a blackout, Kaine,” Crystal said, trying not to laugh at his bunny slippers.

“No, I sense evil. We must be ready,” Kaine said, nearly tripping over Crystal's cat.

“Dear, you’re not going anywhere in that pink bathrobe,” Crystal snorted.

“Well you can’t fight evil in that ridiculous muumuu that makes you look like a three year old,” he shot back.

“It’s not a muumuu!” Crystal shouted, leaping to her feet. “And I look cute, damn it!”

On the other side of town, Troy felt uneasy and he couldn’t explain why. The power was out and he couldn’t seem to calm down. He kept imagining that his friends were somewhere, fighting, in need of his help. But surely they would call if that happened. It’s not like he had a wrist communicator or anything, but they all knew his number. But the more he heard the rush of rainwater, the more he thought he heard someone calling him….

Troy wanted to scream. He tried taking a shower; that always calmed him. But something…the sound of the water, the feel of it on his skin…it made him feel like something was wrong, somewhere.

God! I need a cigarette…But if he smoked in his room, his parents would kill him. If he went outside, then his friends couldn’t reach him. And the rain was driving him crazy.

Driving…he could smoke in his car…he could stay dry that way. But what if his friends called while he was away?

They can call me on my cell phone, he decided, reaching for his car keys.

Somewhere, Daniel sat up.

“What’s wrong?” someone asked him.

“Nothing,” Daniel said. But he knew that was a lie. “I just got a chill.”

Austin rolled over in his sleep and clunked his head against the wall. It still wasn’t enough to pry him out of the horrible nightmare he was having.

Oww…It hurts...It HURTS…

Amanda forced her eyes to open. Her body hurt all over and her bones felt like lead. It felt like someone had torn her open and gone through every nook and cranny with an exacto knife. Her vision was blurry at first, and there was a black smudge in the center of her vision. But as sights became clearer, she realized that the smudge was real, and it was attached to her body.

What the hell?

The smudge shifted and became a human form. An exact copy of Amanda, but the eyes were hollow slits and the mouth was too long and lined with too-sharp teeth. And she was not that fat!

The inaccurate clone loomed over her, pinning her already immobile arms to the ground. It put its face very close to hers and began to hiss. Amanda took a little time to consider her options and then decided to knee the creature in the midsection. The effort was weak and it served only to make the creature smack her.

Good, one arm was temporarily free. Amanda groped for something to club it with. Fortunately, her room was never clean and the first thing she came into contact with was a magic 8 ball. She brought the cheap novelty across the impostor’s face with a thud. It partially withdrew and Amanda twisted around and reached for her cordless phone.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Who am I gonna call? 911?

The creature sank its claws in her lower back, intent on pulling her back, so Amanda hit the first number that was on the speed dial: Austin’s.

“Austin!” Amanda shouted into the receiver, praying that it was he who picked up and not his God-awful brother, Dan.

“Amanda?” was the sleepy reply.

“Get here, quick!” The clone was right above her head, teeth bared in preparation of biting her spinal cord. Amanda twisted back around and cracked the thing in the head with the receiver. The impact shattered the phone and burned Amanda’s hand.

The clone had had enough; it seized Amanda by the shoulders and brutally slammed her onto her bed, while driving her head into the wall that the bed was against. Amanda’s head rang from trauma and she couldn’t determine up from down for about five seconds.

The creature hissed again, this time, words coming from its elongated slit of a mouth, “You are the one who posses the Crystal Sword of the Damned…” It’s breath rasped and saliva dripped from its jaw. The voice was deep, as though projected through a synthesizer and it echoed in Amanda’s ears. “Give it to me,” the creature demanded.

Maybe it was the cold, or the Nyquil, or the numerous blows to the head, but Amanda was in no mood for this shit.

“Go away,” she growled back with equal ferocity, “I’m sick; I’m tired; I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about and does it look like I am in possession of a Goddamned sword? I’m in my pajamas, for Christ’s sake!”

The creature hesitated as though silently waiting for instruction then dealt her a blow to the face.

“Fool! Do not be cross with me. I know you have the Sword of the Dark One; I can see it inside of you. Call it forth and give it to me!”

Well, gee, maybe if he had asked… “No,” Amanda said, stubbornly.

Another blow earned. The dark spots were dancing in her line of sight again. How long could this go on? Where the hell was Austin? Boy was she going to give him a lecture on punctuality.

If she survived this…

Austin Jackson cursed out another driver, while almost taking out an innocent lamppost on the corner of South Rice and Westpark. It was the best time he had ever made in driving to Amanda’s house, but he feared it might be too late. And if she was playing a prank, then boy was he going to kick her ass!

The rain hadn’t let up, and Austin knew, somewhere in the back of his mind that before he reached Amanda’s house, he was going to hit someone. Or come pretty damn close.

It’s not in the genetic make up of men to ask for directions, but after about half and hour of driving around in circles in Amanda’s neighborhood, Sam was seriously considering driving back to ask her for a map. No, he should let the poor girl sleep. That game meant a lot to her, and the idea of seeing Amanda after today made Sam’s palms sweat and his heart beat a little faster.

Sam pulled around another corner, again feeling a strange sensation wash over him. He felt, well...it felt like something was wrong. He couldn’t really tell what, it was just a feeling. He stopped his car at a stop sign and gazed at the trees across the street swaying in the storm. Sam felt hypnotized by the rocking of the trees, back and forth. The rain pattered on his windshield, adding sound to the still air of the car.

The trees swayed and somehow, Sam felt drawn into them. They were…saying something? Trying to warn him? What?

Beware…

…Beware…

……There’s…

………There is…

Sam strained to hear more, feeling an odd tingle in his body at the trees’ song. If he could’ve formulated the strange dialogue going on in his head into words, it would’ve sounded like:

What? What is it, Sam was asking.

Beware, the trees repeated, louder this time, their whispering voices superimposing upon one another.

What, Sam demanded.

There is…DANGER, the trees screamed. Lighting blinded Sam and there was a honking horn and the sound of tires squealing. Thunder rocked the ground beneath the car. Somewhere a car alarm was going off.

“Holy Jesus! I’m sorry, are you okay!” someone was yelling.

Sam wasn’t aware of someone trying to speak to him through his car window, or of the impact that had jolted his head. The trees had one final thing to offer him: a vision.

He saw Amanda’s bedroom, but there was broken glass everywhere, and a huge black thing looming in the center of the room. Sitting on the ground, but leaning against the bed was Amanda, her head bloody and swaying slightly from side to side.

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” the person outside of his car shouted again.

Sam shook himself and opened the door.

“Sam?”

“Austin?”

“Hey, what are you doing here?”

“What happened?”

“Oh, I hit you, sorry. My car fish-tailed and you were just sitting there…”

“What’s the matter?” Sam asked noting the almost-frantic way Austin was acting.

“I--Hey, what are you doing here?” Austin asked again.

“I took Amanda home,” Sam said, still dazed after the tree-thing.

“Amanda? Is she okay? What’s happening over there?”

It clicked. Sam hadn’t been hallucinating. Something was incredibly wrong. And it was back at Amanda’s house.