Chapter 23

Cassie hurried over to the administrative area just as her last class before lunch let out. She peeked into the Principal's office. "Um, Miss Fuller?"

Marcie gave a little start as she looked up. "Oh! Oh, yes, sorry," she said with a sheepish smile, brushing strands of hair from her eyes. "Um... Miss Bendon is not available right now..."

"I didn't come to see her, Miss Fuller, I wanted to see you."

Marcie blinked in surprise. "Me? But... oh! You're the girl... Cassie?"

Cassie nodded with a wisp of a smile. There was a pained look in her eyes. "Cassie Kendall, yes. I was the one that asked to see Richie in, um, detention."

"Yes, I remember you, my dear," Marcie said with a smile. She giggled. "That was so romantic!"

Cassie's smile became more uneasy. "Um... but all the trouble I caused that second time..."

Marcie waved a hand of dismissal at her. "Don't worry about that, Cassie."

"You didn't get in trouble for it?"

"Oh, no, of course not! Miss Bendon would never do that. She knows it wasn't my fault. She's very good to me, you know."

"But it was my fault..."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Cassie. I'm more worried about you."

"Huh? Me?"

"Yes. Did you make up with him?"

Cassie looked confused. "Make up?"

"With your boyfriend. You two were very upset..."

"Oh! Yes. Yes, we did."

Marcie beamed. "Oh, good! He's lucky to have such a sweet girl like you."

Cassie blushed at this. At the same time, she realized that something was not right. "And you're sure Principal Bendon was not upset with you, Miss Fuller?"

"Oh, definitely! Miss Bendon has been really nice to me. She's really been helping me these last few days. I... um... something the matter, Cassie?"

Cassie had been staring at her. She realized only now that Marcie was dressed so differently from what she had remembered seeing in detention. It was such that Marcie would have been unrecognizable were it not for those glasses and the voice. Even then, her mannerisms seemed... off somehow.

It was the oddest sensation, but she could not put it into words. It was just an inherent sense of wrongness.

"Nothing, Miss Fuller," Cassie said softly. "Glad to hear that you're not upset about what happened. Um... I should get going to lunch."

Marcie smiled. "Okay, Cassie. Please, feel free to stop by again anytime. Well, anytime you're not in class, that is." She giggled.

Cassie smiled weakly in return and left.

Jason found only Richie waiting for him outside the auditorium when his lunch period hit. Just as he was about to speak, Cassie came running up, out of breath. "Sorry," she panted. "Just came from Miss Fuller... let me catch my breath..."

"I haven't spotted a single one all day," Jason said with a sigh. "Any of you had any luck?"

Still panting, Cassie shook her head. Richie just shrugged.

"Was that a 'no' or an 'I don't give a shit'?" Jason asked Richie in irritation.

"Hey, lay off, 'kay? I'm not havin' a good morning. Who the fuck gives a pop quiz on a Friday?"

Jason rolled his eyes. "You ask that about Mondays as well. All right, never mind. Maybe Heather and Melinda had better luck. At least I hope so."

"Wait, here comes Melinda..." Cassie began, immediately trailing off when she saw the distressed state Melinda was in.

"Jason! Oh, God, Jason!" Melinda cried as she came to a clumsy stop in her haste. Her face was screwed up in anguish.

"Melinda, what is it?" Jason demanded. "What happened?"

"It's Heather. My teacher, in my last class... he said she went home sick!"

"What??"

Melinda paused a moment to catch her breath, cursing softly. "Principal Bendon came into my class and said something to Mr. Mills. Then Mr. Mills calls me to the desk and tells me Heather came down with something and that Mom came and took her home."

"Oh, no, Melinda, she didn't see the nurse, did she?" Cassie said, horror-struck.

"I don't know! He couldn't tell me, and Principal Bendon was gone by then! Oh my God!"

"All right, all right, let's not panic!" Jason said, though his own voice was edgy and quavered slightly. "Maybe there's something perfectly innocent going on here."

"Like hell there is!" Melinda snarled. "They did something to her!"

"We don't know that yet."

"But it's possible, isn't it? Isn't it?!"

"Shit, Melinda, get a freakin' grip," Richie said. "Not everything is... ow!"

Melinda had punched him in the arm as hard as she could. "Shut up, Richie! Just shut the fuck up!"

"What the hell you... !"

"Just because you don't care doesn't mean you get to tell me what to do!"

"Then stop acting like a little whiny brat all the time!"

"Better than an ignorant jerk like you!"

"Stop it!" Jason cried, stepping between them as other students started to glance curiously in their direction. "You're going to draw attention to us, dammit."

"But, Jason, he... !" Melinda started.

Jason placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. "Look, never mind him, okay? How about we look in on Heather when we get home, before we go looking for Becky?"

"But... b-but if she's g-got the aura..." Melinda said in a tiny, frightened voice. "Y-you better look in on her."

Jason shook his head. "No. I... I might be her target for all I know."

Richie snorted.

Jason and Melinda turned their heads sharply towards him. Cassie just looked on in confusion. She knew about the House but not all the sordid details of what had gone on between them all. While her dreams had indeed given her a glimpse into this as well, they were so wildly erotic that she had been too embarrassed to note them in great detail in her journal.

"What?" Jason demanded.

"I think you've got a real high opinion of yourself, dude," Richie said, laughing.

Jason bristled. He almost wanted to tell Richie then and there that during the House episode, Heather had practically proclaimed that Jason had been a much better sexual partner than Richie had ever been. Or could possibly hope to be.

"Yeah. A well-deserved one," Melinda muttered.

Jason could not help but break into a brief smile at this. "Melinda, you better check on her when we get home. You'd be safe from her even if... well, you know..."

Melinda paled. Cassie put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sure it's not that," Cassie said, though she wasn't entirely convinced herself.

"Y'know, she could be, I don't know, actually sick?" Richie said sarcastically.

"Richie, if you say one more word, I... !" Melinda spat.

"Melinda, wait, calm down," said Jason. "Richie actually has a point. I mean, yeah, the timing sucks, but we can still do this. Cassie will just have to go it alone with Ned."

Cassie's eyes momentarily widened at this, but she just nodded. Her instinct was to tell them she was too scared to even consider it alone, but that just made her feel guilty. They had saved her from doing something bad to Richie, and probably herself as well, and they deserved something for that. She owed it to them to go through with this.

"I can do it," Cassie finally said, though with less conviction than she had hoped.

Jason sighed. "I just wish I knew whether she had found anyone before she went home sick."

"If she's really sick, she may not have been able to check."

"God, I know this sounds horrible, but I hope my sister is sick as a dog," Melinda said in a hollow voice.

Cassie bit her lip. The more she thought about it, the more worried she became. Heather had been on the verge of another Precog vision, she was sure of it. That would be just the time to try and take her, before she could warn the others. But the idea that Nyssa somehow knew of their abilities was too chilling a thought to consider.

She had initially intended to tell them about her odd visit with Marcie Fuller. She felt there was something important she was missing. Yet it had to take a back seat for the time being.

"Yeah, I guess I do, too," Jason said softly. "Look, everyone, we can't just stop, okay? We still have the rest of the day to get through. We may still find one more that she's intending to take. And maybe Heather did see someone and can tell us later tonight when she's feeling better."

"But it will be too late then to find out who she's after!" Melinda piped.

"Yeah, but it's better than nothing."

Melinda sighed and nodded.

Jason turned to Richie. "I guess it's too much to ask that you not be in detention this afternoon, right?"

"Yep," Richie replied, one corner of his mouth tugging upwards.

Jason just shook his head. "All right, Melinda, you better get to class."

"I think this is the first time I've ever been worried about my sister," Melinda lamented to Cassie before parting company.

"She's really upset," Cassie commented softly to the others after Melinda was out of earshot.

"She'll get over it," Richie drawled.

"You know, you could be a little more helpful," Jason said sharply.

"What did you want me to do, stand up and cheer?"

"You could stop being such a wiseass all the time."

Richie gave a bark of laughter. Cassie gave him a sharp look. Whatever comment Richie might have made at that point he aborted when his eyes met Cassie's and beheld the anger in them. Instead he just muttered, "Yeah, okay. Sorry."

"You know, I don't think you are," Cassie said flatly.

Richie looked at her. His eyes shimmered and fear flickered across them for just a brief instant, as if afraid that Cassie were going to come after him again. "So how do you know that? Yer dreams tellin' ya stuff again, huh?"

Cassie stiffened and her lips drew to a thin line. Yes, her dreams were telling her more. And some of them involved Richie, some very disturbing ones, much more so than the ones that involved Marcie. She had held them back because she thought they might be manifestations of her own residual anger towards him. Now she felt she needed to tell the others, but she couldn't do it while Richie was still around. She had to wait until the afternoon when she could talk to the others in the parking lot. She for one was actually glad that Richie was still in detention.

"Richie, stop making fun of her," Jason demanded.

"Hey, she don't tell me what to do, and you don't either. Got it?"

Jason paused and then slowly nodded. "Yeah. I get it. I finally get it. More than you realize."

Richie's eyes narrowed. "Oh yeah? What the fuck does that mean?"

"Nothing. Just forget it."

Richie snorted in derision as he started to walk away.

"So where are you going?"

"To get some lunch."

"And you don't want to sit with us?" Cassie asked.

Richie paused just as he was going to cross the threshold into the lunchroom. He turned and smirked. "Yeah. Maybe I don't."

He ducked into the lunchroom and was quickly lost in the crowd of students.

"Jason! Jason, wait up a second."

Jason was on his way out of the school building at the end of classes for the day. He was feeling very frustrated and almost didn't respond to Cassie's hail. Before the last class, Melinda had already told him that she had not seen the third of Nyssa's victims today. Frankly, Jason had thought that Melinda had let her worry over Heather distract her to the point where she missed seeing the third victim, but he had refrained from calling her out on it. Still, it had upset him.

Jason finally stopped and turned. "What's up, Cassie? Can't this wait until we get outside?"

"Melinda was looking really upset when I last saw her. I didn't want her to hear this."

"Hear what?"

"I'm really worried about Richie."

Jason rolled his eyes. "Yeah, aren't we all?"

"No, I don't think I mean it in the way you do. I had this dream. It had Nyssa in it. And that silvery stuff. But this time, it was like Richie was giving it to her rather than her taking it."

Jason paused a moment before he replied. "Cassie, have your dreams ever been predictive in nature?"

"Not really. I mean, I dreamed stuff about the House when you guys were dealing with that, but I think it was about at the same time. This is when I really wish we had Heather here. If anyone could Precog this it would be her."

"Yeah, it was her that let us save him from... er, well, you know."

Cassie smiled wanly. "It's okay, I've sort of come to terms with that now. You don't have to tiptoe around it anymore."

Jason managed a smile. "I just want to be nicer to you than maybe some other people have been."

Cassie's smile became more natural. "That's really sweet, Jason, thank you. No wonder Melinda's crazy about you."

Jason looked at her in surprise. "She is?"

Cassie giggled. "Yeah, boys really are the last to know, aren't they? Of course she is." She paused. "I mean... you really like her, too, don't you?"

"Oh, yeah, of course I do. I just didn't think..."

"Boys generally don't."

Jason stared at her. Cassie blushed at her own boldness and then giggled again. Jason cracked a small smile.

"So, uh, anyway... about Richie..." Cassie said, sounding a little flustered.

"Oh, um, yeah. Well, if we weren't down a person, I'd say we send one of us to go look for him and see that he's okay, but we're going to have to trust that maybe we're interpreting it wrong. I mean, I saw him briefly after I got out of last class and he didn't have the aura. So I figure he's safe from Nyssa for now."

Cassie paused and nodded slowly. "There's just something that bothers me, though."

"What's that?"

"The way he was giving it to her in the dream. Like he wanted to. With the other dreams it was always that she took something. You understand what I mean?"

"I do. But... well, that would mean that he was going to Nyssa himself, and that's just crazy. Who would want to willingly do that, now that we know what she's doing?"

"I hope you're right, Jason."

"We better head outside, before Melinda wonders where we are."

Cassie nodded and walked with him. "Oh, and there was something else. About Miss Fuller. I went to..."

Before she could continue, Melinda gave an indignant huff when they came into view. "About time! I was starting to think Nyssa got you two!"

"Did you see anyone in your last period, Melinda?" Jason asked.

Melinda shook her head.

"I didn't either," Cassie said. She would have to let the subject of Marcie Fuller wait again.

"Damn. That means we came up zero today."

"We still have to help save Ned and Becky," Melinda said. "That'll help, right?"

"I hope so."

"So how are we going to do this?"

"The only way we can. Cassie tracks Ned and you and I go for Becky."

"After we check on Heather, right?" Melinda asked. When Jason gave her a dubious look, she clasped her hands together and pleaded, "Please, Jason? Please?"

"Yes, all right, but it has to be fast, okay?"

"I get dropped off first anyway, so it's going to take you time to get home and get your bike over there."

Jason nodded. "Yeah, true. Okay, but you have to be ready to go once I'm there."

"Jason?" Cassie asked in an uncertain voice. "I'm not sure how I'm going to do this."

"You'll probably have to do the same thing that we did with you. We got to you just before you were going to... whatever it was... to Richie. That seemed to disrupt it and snapped both of you out of it."

"I have to wait until the last minute?"

Jason exchanged a look with Melinda. "Um, actually, I don't know. We just simply burst in and yanked you away from him."

"Cassie, was there something you were going to do to him?" Melinda asked suddenly. "Something that was supposed to finish what you had started?"

Cassie thought for a moment and then blushed. "Uh... y-yes... I, uh, was going to, um..." She waved a hand briefly. "You know."

Jason and Melinda just looked at her blankly.

Cassie's blush deepened. She leaned over and said in a barely audible whisper. "I was going to... to make him c-cum."

Melinda's eyes widened and her own cheeks flushed pink. "Oh."

"No, wait, that makes sense," Jason said.

Melinda blinked at him. "It does?"

"Well, everything that's been happening -- and not just with Nyssa, but the House as well -- revolves around sex. It would make sense that she'd use that to finalize control over someone."

Cassie paled. "Oh my God... I think Nyssa did that to me... that's why I felt..." She shivered violently.

"It's okay, Cassie," Melinda said softly.

"So that's what you have to do," Jason said. "Stop Ned before he makes his victim, uh, cum."

Cassie nodded quickly, though she was still in something of a state of shock over the realization that Nyssa had touched her in that manner. She gave a start with the school bus behind Jason and Melinda blared its horn.

"Whut's the matter wid you kids, huh?!" came Mr. Bradley's irascible voice. "God, it's you 'uns again!"

"We better go," Jason said, dashing for the bus.

"Cassie, call me!" Melinda called out as she ran as well. "Let me know what happened!"

Cassie nodded and quickly made her way to the limo. In her increasing nervousness, all thoughts of Miss Fuller were relegated to the back of her mind. There were more important matters to worry about now other than her own vague misgivings about someone she hardly knew.

As he had the day before, Richie lingered at his locker until the hallways were nearly empty. This time, however, the time was not spent coming to a decision. He had already done that. Instead, he wanted to make sure his friends were gone. This time he did not want to be "rescued."

This was not to say that he did not have second thoughts.

He cast one last glance towards the east wing of the school and sighed through his nose as he slammed his locker shut. No one would do anything for his mother. Then again, after witnessing what he had, he was no longer sure that anything could be done for her anymore. And in either case, what sort of obligation did he have to the others and their little games?