Chapter 12

The Harbingers had no answers.

Or at least this could be said for the three out of the four that had gathered in the Sovert living room, as they could not yet contact Richie.

"I knew we shouldn't have talked about any of this on the bus," Melinda said sullenly.

"I'll talk to Frank later," Jason said. "I think he was already pissed off about something."

"Yeah, but now everyone will be talking about it. If he heard it, someone else did too!"

"So?" Heather asked.

"You want everyone thinking we know something weird's going on?"

Jason looked perplexed. "I don't get your logic there."

Melinda rolled her eyes. "Look, someone at the school did something to Cassie. What if they find out that we know?"

"We don't even know what happened to her."

"Yes, we do. We just don't know who did it."

"It's got to be the principal that did it, right?" asked Heather. "I mean, who else is there?"

"The school nurse," Melinda piped, shivering briefly.

Jason shook his head. "How many times do I have to tell you that she's perfectly fine?"

"If I see the aura on her when I have to go see her, I'm running. I don't care if they expel me."

"Really, Melinda, the only one that could have gotten to Cassie would be Principal Bendon," Jason explained patiently.

Melinda sighed, then suddenly gasped. "Wait! Is Richie okay? He had detention with her!"

Jason shook his head. "No, he doesn't. He has detention with Mr. Seeger."

"Oh. But Cassie stayed after school..."

Heather snorted. "You think Cassie will want to be within a hundred feet of him after what he pulled on her? The little shit."

"Come on, Heather..." Jason began.

"No way, Jason. He's not getting any sympathy from me on that. I heard the whole story."

"Look, I was upset with him, too, but I got over it."

"Oh, yeah? Why?"

"Because there are more important things to worry about right now."

Heather fell silent. Her lips tightened and she folded her arms, tossing her head when a lock of her hair fell in front of one of her eyes.

"What are we going to do about this?" Melinda demanded shrilly. "We can't just leave Cassie like this! She's a friend of mine!"

The other two looked at her.

Melinda glanced back at each of them. "Well, sort of a friend. Look at it this way. Bad enough she had to have Richie do that to her, now she has to deal with this."

"How bad was it, Melinda?" Heather asked. "What was she like?"

Melinda shivered. "She was... strange."

"I thought she was always like that," Jason commented as mildly as he could.

Melinda's head snapped around. "Oh, shut up. I don't mean that. She was... kind of dreamy... and... well, happy."

"Happy?"

Melinda nodded.

"And that's bad?"

"It is when it was like this. It wasn't, well, normal. It was... " She paused and lowered her voice. "It was like... like what one of you looked like. This past summer, when... when you under c-control at the House. Like something was making you be happy."

Heather and Jason exchanged a chilled look.

"That's it, isn't it?" Melinda said in a shaky voice. "Cassie's under someone's control. She's not of her own mind."

"But who?" Jason asked. "And for what purpose?"

Melinda swallowed. "I-I don't know. But... b-but she said tomorrow was going to be a much better day for her. I don't know what she meant by that. All I know is that I didn't like the sound of it, not the way she said it."

"So what do you think we should do?" asked Jason.

Melinda and Heather glanced at each other in confusion, then both gave Jason a funny look.

Jason sighed. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Looking to me for the answers again."

"Jason, you're the one that saved us from the House," Heather said.

"I did? That's news to me."

"You figured it out!" Melinda piped. "You knew who Mara was!"

"Yeah, but I didn't force all of you to turn down the power when it was offered to you, now did I? No, you did that all by yourselves. I had nothing to do with that. I was just as bad as the rest of you that last week when we were all stepping over each other in order to be the first to reach the House and claim the power for a day."

Jason paused for breath. The others looked guiltily at each other.

"Or did you forget that I was the one that hacked into the city computer systems and had them turn off your water for one morning just so I could get there ahead of all of you?" Jason added somberly.

Melinda and Heather remained silent.

"Besides, I didn't get to tell my information about Mara until after she freed us."

"I'm sorry, Jason," Heather said in a more contrite voice.

"Look, I'm not mad at you guys..."

"Well, I hope not!" Melinda said with concern heavy in her voice.

Jason turned and saw that her eyes were glistening. He smiled gently at her. "Really, I'm not, Melinda."

Melinda managed a tiny smile in return.

"I just mean that I'm not your leader. I don't want that."

"I wasn't really thinking that," Melinda said sheepishly. "You just come up with good ideas."

Jason paused and then nodded slightly in acceptance. "I can deal with that. But... don't take my word as law, okay? I don't want that kind of responsibility."

"Okay, then, how about this," Heather said, her mind working furiously. "If Cassie is affected by this, and she said she might do something tomorrow, we just try to keep tabs on her."

"What, you mean follow her?" Melinda asked.

"Something like that. I mean, I know we don't share classes with her, but..."

"We can figure out her schedule," Jason said. "Well... I can, anyway. I think I found out how they did the class rotations in my year. I can figure out what classes she has and where she will be. We can each try to pass by that point and see if she does anything in between classes. I mean, I figure that's the only time she can do anything."

"And after school?" asked Melinda.

Jason was silent for a moment.

"If she gets in the limo, we can't do anything, can we?" asked Heather.

"I mean if she stays at the school again. We can follow her, right?"

"We'll miss the bus," Jason said.

"So?" Melinda snapped. "We miss the bus. Mom or Dad can come pick us up. Can't yours do the same?"

"Yeah, but what excuse do we give them for being after school like that without telling them?"

"Look, we'll worry about that tomorrow."

"I don't think Mom would mind picking you up as well," Heather said to Jason. "So you don't have to mess with telling your parents if you really don't want to."

Jason sighed. He had to admit that he couldn't think of anything better to do. "All right, that sounds like a plan. I should tell Richie about this..."

"Why bother?" Melinda said with a snort. "He's in detention anyway. He won't be able to help."

Jason didn't want to mention the fact that it seemed strange not to have him there. He felt like something was missing.

"So we're okay with this?" Melinda asked.

Jason nodded. "I'll figure out her classrooms tonight. You two email me your exact schedules and classrooms and I'll figure out which one of us is closest to her at any given time of the day."

Melinda smiled. "Got it."

"What are you so happy about?" Heather asked.

"I feel like I'm actually doing something about this, that's what," Melinda declared. "Maybe now we can just stop this right here and not have to worry about it anymore."

"Now, Debby," James said with exaggerated patience. "Do you see what you did wrong? Do you see how you screwed up?"

The sweet-faced, brown-haired girl named Debby Vance stood with her back against a tree, a short distance from the bus stop where she got off. She was panting, staring at James with wide, deep blue eyes. Her bosom swelled against her blouse, her nipples hard and erect. Her feet slid apart as her pussy grew too hot and wet under her soaked panties to keep her legs together anymore without discomfort.

"Y-yes..." she said in a breathy moan. "I'm sorry... so sorry... "

"That was very bad of you, Debby, to dump me like that," James said softly. He slowly raised a hand. "Very bad."

"I know, James... a-and I'm so very sorry... I... oh... ohhh..."

James lightly fingered one of Debby's nipples through her blouse. Debby trembled, panting harder as her pussy throbbed softly with intense desire. Her cunt tightened as she rose and strained. She uttered a pitiful whimper as her body screamed for sexual release.

"You need to do something for me, Debby, if you really want to make it up to me."

Debby moaned, her body silently begging him to touch her more intimately. Finally his hand left her breast, but instead of sliding over her tender folds and giving her the release she desperately needed, he touched her hip instead. He stepped forward and slipped his hand over her ass, squeezing the cheek tightly.

"Oh, God, James, p-please..."

"Oh, you beg for it now, do you? No, not yet, Debby. You need to figure out what to do. You have to figure out what I want. Tomorrow, Debby."

He removed his hand from her. Debby mewled in despair. "I-I'll do it... I'll come over tomorrow... I..."

James' lips curled into a wicked grin. "Good girl, Debby. You want to be a good girl, don't you?"

Debby swallowed. "Yes... " She breathed. "I-I want to b-be a g-good girl..."

"Kathy... I don't understand..."

"I know you don't, Irene, that's the problem. That's always been the problem."

Irene Barlowe swallowed. She stood with her back against the lockers, still dressed in her cheerleading outfit from tryouts that afternoon after classes, her black hair tied into a makeshift ponytail. Kathy had cornered her near the girls' locker room. She was panting lightly, her deep blue eyes gazing into Kathy's dark brown ones.

Irene could not move, and she did not understand why.

"Irene, I've always looked up to you," Kathy said in a forlorn voice, her eyes shimmering. "I've only wanted to be your friend. Nothing more. You could have accepted that."

Kathy took a step closer to her. Irene's breath quickened, her heart thumping. She tried to back further into the lockers to no avail. The handle of one locker poked into her back, but she barely noticed.

"I'm sorry, Kathy, I didn't mean..."

Kathy sighed and shook her head, lifting her hand. "Yes, you did."

"But, Kathy... yes... yes, I did, but... what... what are you... uhhhn..."

Kathy's hand alighted on the bare skin along Irene's left side, just above her waist. She traced her fingers slowly up to the top piece of Irene's cheerleading uniform. Irene shuddered, rattling the lockers behind her. Heat exploded in her sex.

"Oh my God..." Irene gasped, barely able to breathe let along talk. She felt overwhelmed by the intense pleasure flowing through her body. Kathy drew her fingers up and traced the outlines of Irene's rounded breasts. She flicked gently at the rising nubs of Irene's nipples.

Irene moaned as her pussy grew warm and then hot. Moisture trickled down the inside of one thigh and a dark stain spread across the crotch of her uniform. She trembled, and then shook with desperation as her cunt hung just short of sweet release. She couldn't think. She could only feel the nearly painful need that gripped her body.

"You'll be my friend tomorrow, though," Kathy said with a sweet smile. "But... you'll need to get something for me."

Kathy withdrew her hand. Irene whimpered.

"You'll know what it is by tomorrow. You'll know where to get it. And you'll know where to bring it."

Irene panted hard. "P-please..."

Kathy shook her head and cupped Irene's cheek gently. "Not now. Tomorrow."

Irene shivered at the touch, another tiny whimper escaping her slightly parted lips. Irene looked at Kathy in disappointment but nodded.

Kathy smiled one last time and turned away.

Frank didn't think anything of the sound of the door opening downstairs. The only reason he heard it at all was that he was doing little more than sulking in his room. Already his stepsister had taken the wireless bridge from him. Any hopes he had of delaying on that by simply being slow to install it for her were dashed. Obviously she was as competent at computers as she had claimed, or her slab of beef boyfriend did it for her. In either case, she already had it set up by the time he got home.

From the hall, she could hear Mindy typing furiously as she had been for the past hour. Every now and then it would interspersed with giggling as she read something amusing in her chat session. Frank was growing quickly irritated with that sound.

This was drowned out, however, by the sound of someone pounding up the stairs and panting. To his surprise, his stepmother appeared at the door. She was still dressed in her jogging outfit, breathing heavily.

Frank bolted up in bed when he saw the angry look on her face. "What... ?"

She pointed at him. "You. In the kitchen. Now."

Before Frank could respond, she withdrew and headed back down the stairs.

Frank felt his heart pound. Whenever she did that, it meant he was in big trouble for something. He had no idea what it could be.

His eyes suddenly widened as he had a terrible thought. Surely it couldn't be for...

Frank swallowed and headed out of his room. As he passed Mindy's, he glanced inside. Mindy stopped typing and turned her head towards him. She smirked, gave him a wink, and returned to her chatting.

Frank felt his stomach turn cold.

He quickly went down the stairs and into the kitchen. He paused just inside the door. He caught his stepmom standing before the refrigerator, bent over to fetch something from the back of the shelf. The shorts she wore were stretched tightly over her ass.

Frank took a breath, his eyes fixed on this sight for a moment before he could pull them away, only to have them dart down her legs. Long, bare, and smooth, they might have well been the legs of a twenty-something since the forty-something Jenny Darrens kept herself in such good shape these days.

Jenny straightened up and shoved the fridge door shut with a knee. She turned around with a water purifier pitcher in her hand. Despite the tight sports bra, her large bosom bounced lightly as she completed the turn and sat down at the table. She lifted her piercing blue-green gaze to Frank.

"Mindy called me earlier this morning while you were at school," Jenny said in a cool voice. She poured some water from the pitcher into a glass and leaned back in her seat. "Guess what she told me?"

Frank's eyes widened slightly, his heart thumping wildly, but he said nothing.

Jenny paused to take a long sip of her water, her eyes still fixed on Frank, unyielding and unmerciful. Frank hated this treatment. He knew he was going to be punished for something, but he just wanted her to cut to the chase and get on with it.

"It seems you decided to do a little redecorating in her room."

Frank bit his lower lip. That bitch. She told her mom. Mindy said she wouldn't if he made the deal and she told on him anyway!

Jenny took another sip and put the glass down loudly. She leaned forward. Frank could not help but let his eyes be drawn to her briefly jiggling boobs. He sorely wished Jenny were not as attractive as Mindy was.

"You know something, Frankie? I'm not surprised."

Frank cringed slightly at the name she used. Jenny knew Frank hated it as well. Where Mindy would hear him complain and then mock him about it, Jenny was worse. She simply ignored his complaints.

"No, not surprised at all," Jenny said. "You must think Mindy's pretty hot, don't you?"

Despite the fact that he kept telling himself that this woman was not his mother, he still felt embarrassed at hearing this from her.

"Answer me, Frankie."

Frank swallowed again. "No, I... I don't, I just..."

Jenny smirked. "So you were taking nudie pics of someone you thought was butt ugly, huh? Right. Were you going to sneak a cam into my bedroom next?"

Frank gasped and his mouth fell open. "No!"

"Sure of that?"

Frank gritted his teeth. There was no way he was telling her the truth. There was simply no way Jenny would ever learn that he did harbor something of a lust for her as well. He could hardly help it. Jenny was very attractive, kept herself in great shape, and liked to show herself off as much as possible, even around the house. She thought little of coming out of the shower with just a bath towel wrapped around her on a weekend morning and leaving herself that way until almost noon.