Chapter 4

The four teens were so stunned that they did not hear all of Principal Bendon's opening words. All four could see the terrible black miasma around Laura Bendon's body, though with varying degrees of intensity.

Melinda saw it as it was, her heart pounding so hard it ached, and had to bite her lip to stop herself from screaming.

Heather saw it clearly as well, though the edges wavered a bit, and she had managed to quell her initial fight-or-flight response. Yet she trembled in her seat, her hands gripping it until the knuckles went white.

Jason could see it as well as Heather, and a little more. He could make out movements in the darkness that the others could not. His mind kept insisting that there were subtle patterns in it that he could discern if he just concentrated more. Yet when he tried, he felt lightheaded and his stomach clenched.

For Richie, it did not seem to want to stay in his field of view. It wavered and flickered, occasionally disappearing entirely, only to suddenly surge back, like a radio station just slightly out of tune. Like with his mother, he simply did not want to see it, and it was as if his mind were trying to obey this command but with only limited success.

"I don't understand this," Heather finally whispered to the others. "Why are we seeing this? Why her?"

"Yeah, if it'd be around anyone, it shoulda been saggy-seeger," said Richie.

"Dammit, Richie, be serious about this for once!" Heather whisper-shouted.

"What does it mean?" Melinda demanded in a squeaking, quavering voice. "Jason... ?"

"Melinda, I just don't know," Jason said in exasperation. He glanced back at Principal Bendon, taking a deep breath as he saw that the darkness was not only still there, but appeared to be growing more agitated. The feeling that there was a meaning to the movements he was seeing grew stronger.

"Maybe it just means she's gonna hand out more detention this year," Richie suggested. When Heather and Melinda glared at him, he quickly added, "Well, I don't hear any of you geniuses coming up with any better explanation."

"We know what it means," Heather said in a scared voice. "She's with the darkness. The one coming to Haven."

"But... that means... that means the darkness is here, doesn't it?" Melinda asked, her eyes shimmering.

"Look, don't panic everyone, okay?" said Jason. "It doesn't mean that, Melinda. At least I don't think it does. Other people were like this already. Your mother and... and my father... and Richie's..."

"Hey, leave her the fuck out of this, man..." Richie warned.

"I'm just saying, Richie, that we all saw..."

"I don't give a shit what anyone saw. I don't want..."

"Will everyone just shush?! She just said something about a medical program!" Melinda piped.

The other three quieted at once.

"... at Haven High," came Principal Bendon's voice. The four teens had to occasionally avert their eyes. None of them could comfortably hold his or her gaze on the principal for more than a few seconds at a time. "As a result, our school nurse, Miss Nyssa Neris..."

"Huh? Who's Nyssa Neris? What happened to Emma Tanner?" Heather asked.

Jason pointed. "Some of the other faculty are looking confused as well."

"... their classrooms to report to the nurse's station for a full medical examination..." continued the principal.

"For a what?!" Richie suddenly exclaimed loud enough for others nearby to turn their heads.

"Shhhh!!" Melinda hissed.

"No fucking way am I... !"

"Richie, shut up!!" Heather said through clenched teeth.

"... important to insure the good health and well-being of our students," said Principal Bendon, "there will be no exceptions whatsoever to this program. No requests for exemptions will be heard, and no excuses granted."

"They can't do that," Jason said, his eyes wide.

"All students are expected to comply with this new policy. Your full cooperation is expected in this matter. Any student that fails to comply will face immediate expulsion."

"They can't do that!" Jason turned to the others. "It's against state law! A public high school nurse can't conduct that sort of..."

"Jason, I don't think Bendon gives a shit about that, the way she's spouting off about it," Richie said sourly. "And you know something? Let 'em fucking expel me. No fucking way I'm getting an examination from some stupid school nurse."

"You're not serious about that, Richie," Melinda said.

"Oh, yeah? Try me."

"You're never serious about anything else. Why should I believe this?"

"Look, enough, you two," Jason said. "Stop sniping at each other. The principal may be saying something else about..."

"Naw, she's moved on to the same old boring crap about the normal rules and regs," said Richie.

"I don't understand any of this," Heather said. "They've never done anything like this before. Why now?"

"Maybe for the same reason the principal has the aura?"

No one liked the implications of Jason's suggestion. Even Richie looked uncomfortable.

"That... that can't be it," Heather said nervously. "I mean, come on... it's not like Principal Bendon is going to be examining us."

"No, just this new nurse is," Jason said. "The one no one has ever met or seen before."

The others fell into another uneasy silence that lasted the rest of the assembly.

"Look, no need to worry about this, guys, okay?" Richie said with a smirk. "I've got it all taken care of."

The four of them had emerged from the auditorium and were wandering down the main corridor of the school. They stopped as they came to Heather's locker.

"Oh, this ought to be good," Melinda muttered.

"Come on, let him talk," Jason said gently. "Richie, what's your idea?"

"Simple. I just tell my Mom about it. Guarantee ya she'll go apeshit over this. You think Bendon or Seeger is bad? Wait til you see my Mom in action. She'll open up a super-sized can o'whupass on that there principal."

"Principal Bendon said she wouldn't listen to any requests for..."

Richie waved him off. "Don't matter, dude. Not where my Mom's concerned. Trust me on this."

"Well, that's fine for you," Melinda piped. "What about..."

"No, no, you don't get it. I mean the whole deal is gone. Kaput. Finished. Adios amigo."

"And how do you figure on that, huh?"

Richie smirked. "Heather, my dear, do you..."

"Don't call me 'dear'," Heather snapped as she slammed her locker shut. "And hurry up, I've got class in five minutes."

"So do I," Melinda said. She smirked at Richie. "I have Miss Linda Davis next. You remember her, don't you, Richie?"

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway..."

"Was she everything you hoped for? Was she as hot as you remember her?"

Richie glared at her. "Just shut the fuck up about her, okay?"

"Oh, but haven't you asked her out yet?"

"Melinda, I said... !"

"Richie, what were you going to say?" Jason said in a slightly exasperated tone.

Richie paused to flip Melinda the finger. Melinda just stuck her tongue back at him. "I was going to ask Heather if she remembers last year when they were talkin' about that stupid program about requiring students to carry these pagers."

Melinda blinked. "Pagers? What for?"

"It was to insure attendance at school or something like that," Heather explained. "But they killed it. Just disappeared."

Richie smiled smugly. "Don't all thank me at once now."

Jason gaped. "Your Mom stopped that program?"

"Came down on old Bendon like a ton of bricks, soon as she heard she was gonna hafta foot the bill for the pager. Plus there was a little thing about the school tellin' her how to be a Mom, blah blah blah. You get the picture. Bendon's a pushover when it comes to parents givin' her flak for something."

The others exchanged dubious looks.

Richie frowned. "Look, maybe she has that black shit around her, but she's still my Mom, okay? And she don't want no nurse touchin' her baby boy without her say. And I guarantee you that at least one of the guys she's screwed in the last little bit's a lawyer."

Jason looked uncomfortable when he heard this last part. He was always a bit squeamish when he heard Richie talk about his mother's promiscuity as if he were talking about the weather. Heather and Melinda just exchanged a worried look for reasons of their own.

Richie just shook his head and rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Jason, it's lunchtime for us. I'm starvin'."

"See you later," Jason said to the girls he left with Richie.

Melinda gave a forlorn sigh as they departed. "Shit. I wish they didn't divide up the lunch periods by year."

Heather smirked. "You really like Jason, don't you?"

"Oh, whatever gave you that silly idea? Just the dozen times or so I've told you over the past week?"

"Okay, no need to be a smart-ass about it, runt."

"I'll be whatever the hell I want to be. And don't call me 'runt'."

"How about Fine-Boobs, then?"

Melinda flushed. "Argh! I'm gonna kill Richie for that one!" she screeched before stomping off to her next class.

Heather cracked a small smile as she watched her little sister storm off. She actually didn't want to tease her sister like that, but it helped take her mind off other feelings. Even in school, safely away from the confines of their shared bedroom, she still felt the urges flitting through her mind at odd moments.

Though admittedly, as a small tingle flickered through her sex, she wished she had not chosen that particular joke to make.

Heather took a deep breath. She still didn't understand what was going on. While her thoughts were not irrepressible at the moment, she was still of the opinion that she should not be having them at all. She couldn't accept the fact that they were coming from her own mind.

Yet there was no more House left. It was gone. She could no longer blame it for any lingering power over her.

Heather sighed and turned to head down the hallway to her next class.

Frank managed to catch up with his new friend Jason just at the lunch period, but when he saw who Jason was with as they entered the lunchroom, he held back.

He frowned. He wondered why someone like Jason was friends with a bully like Richie. Even though it was his first day at Haven High, Frank had already heard some worrisome stories about Richie. While Richie wasn't as bad as some of the really nasty bullies -- the ones that were more along the lines of what Jason was forced to deal with before befriending Richie -- his first impression of Richie was not a good one.

He had wanted to sit with Jason during the assembly, but saw him with a girl. He admitted to being a little jealous to see Jason with a girlfriend.

Frank decided he really did not want to sit alone during lunch, not with some of the other students already looking over to him and making snide comments. He rushed on ahead and ran up to Jason. "Hey!"

Jason turned his head and started to speak, but it was Richie that rushed in first. "Kid, didn't I tell you to scram earlier? Need Mr. Fist to remind you again?"

"Richie, shut up," Jason snapped.

Richie blinked in surprise.

"This guy's a friend of mine, okay?"

Richie gave him a confused look. "The shrimp here is your friend?"

"That's Frank to you, buddy," Frank piped. "And not 'Frankie' either, I hate that."

Richie snorted in derision, but quickly subsided when Jason glared at him. "Okay, no prob. I'm cool with that. The more geeks the merrier, right?"

"Just... just try to be nice for once," Jason muttered.

Richie frowned. "Hey, I am nice. I'm Mr. Nice, okay?"

"And you're Mr. Fist, too," Frank said with a wry grin. "Hmm. Multiple personality disorder. I'd have that checked if I were you."

Jason snorted and clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh.

"Hah, hah, very funny," Richie grumped.

"C'mon guys, that's enough," Jason said, though his voice was quavering in amusement. He had to admit that it was funny when someone got a good one on Richie. "Frank's new in town, Richie."

"Yeah, whatever. Let's just go see what the mystery meat for today's lunch is." He walked towards the line forming at the counter without waiting for the others.

Jason gave an askance look to Richie's retreating back and just shook his head slightly. Frank nudged him in the side. "Hey, are all those stories I hear about Richie true?" he asked.

Jason turned to him and sighed. "Yeah, most likely. Really, though, he's... he's not that bad."

Frank gave him a very dubious look.

"Richie just likes to do his own thing."

"From what I heard, he likes to 'do his thing' at the expense of the unpopular kids."

Jason shook his head. "He doesn't do that anymore. Not since I've known him."

That, at least, was a true statement, as far as it went.

Jason had met Richie during the previous school year. Jason was being seriously beaten on by one of the school bullies. Richie had managed to stop it. Granted, when it first started, Richie had been participating in the taunts, but when it had descended to violence, he had tried to call off his friend.

Richie had felt guilty enough about what his friend had done that he started showing up more often when Jason was being picked on. At some point Richie revealed that he was failing math, which was Jason's best subject. Jason tutored him, and Richie managed to pull a decent grade as a result. They had been friends since.

Their friendship had been seriously strained by the House. Richie had wanted the power to himself, and he had trampled on that friendship to do it. Yet Jason also was guilty of doing nasty things to obtain the power for himself, so he felt he had no right to call Richie out on that.

He looked at Frank. He wished he could explain some of this to Frank, but the kid would likely think him nuts.

"Well, I guess you know him better than I do," Frank said with a humorless smirk. "But I wouldn't want to be alone with him."

Jason knew entirely too much about Richie. Like how miserable his home life can be sometimes. But he doubted Richie would like him telling anyone about that.

"Look, it will be all right, trust me. He talks a big game, but he doesn't hurt anyone."

"And Mr. Fist?"

"I don't know why he did that. He wouldn't really have hit you."

Frank wasn't buying any of this, but he just nodded anyway. The last thing he wanted to do was jeopardize this new friendship. If that meant putting up with a bully like Richie, then so be it. At least it looked like Jason could keep him tame.

He managed a small, wry grin. And with Jason around, he could get some digs at Richie without worrying about retribution. A far cry from what he could do at home with his stepsister.

"Okay, whatever you say," Frank said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"C'mon, let's go find a table. Looks like you brought your lunch same as me. Richie can come find us."

Every day the past semester, Cassie's parents had the family cook prepare a very nice lunch for her. He began at 4:30 AM every morning to insure that everything would be prepared to perfection, using nothing but the best foods and the tastiest sauces. Each lunch prepared in this manner would cost about fifty to one hundred dollars if prepared in a fine restaurant.

And every day, Cassie dumped this fine meal at her earliest opportunity and ordered from the cafeteria. The new semester would be no exception.

Cassie was still desperate to fit in. She knew the moment she brought a lunch like that into the cafeteria that she would be branded a snob. While many people already did that, at least it was by no action of her own.

She ate alone most days last semester. This suited her fine. She just wanted to be accepted, but not necessarily popular. Having time alone allowed her to catch up with her journal. Usually by that time of the day, enough random thoughts and feelings had flitted through her mind that she needed to get them down.

But as she left the register where she paid for her lunch and started looking for a seat, her eyes were immediately drawn to Richie.

She recognized one of the two other boys that sat with him. She remembered Jason hanging out with Richie last semester. She always thought that to be a rather odd friendship. Yet near the end of the semester, Richie hung out with Jason almost constantly. That was after Cassie had tried to get to know Richie better.

Surely the two events were not connected. Richie would not have been that cruel.

Cassie approached the table. She didn't recognize the other one. As she grew closer, Richie did not seem to bother to try to converse with them. Instead, he was sitting a little apart from them, eating with a somewhat morose look on his face, while Jason and his companion chatted away non-stop about Star Trek.

Cassie paused a moment, then put on her best smile and sat down. "Hi, Richie."

Richie flinched. "Huh?? Oh, uh... hi, Cassie."

She again ignored the unease in his voice and plowed on ahead. "Hey, Richie, I'm sorry about before."

He frowned. "Sorry about what?"

"Well, you know... that thing with Miss Davis."

His eyes blazed. "Look, just never mind, okay? I really don't want to hear about it."

"It's no big deal. I mean... everyone makes mistakes."

"Yeah, and she's the one that made it, not me."

Cassie paused a moment, then nodded. "Okay. I mean... yeah, you're right."

Richie stared at her for a moment, then sighed and shook his head, looking away.

"She's not your type, anyway."

Richie's gaze snapped back. "What?"

"She's not your type," Cassie said casually, chewing a bite of her lunch. "So it wouldn't have worked anyway."

"And how the hell would you know that?"

"I, uh, have a knack for these things."

"Oh, a knack, huh?"

Cassie smiled. "I've always been a good judge of character, you know? And you two just aren't compatible."

"Yeah, and I suppose you saw this in a dream, too, huh?"

"Oh, funny you should mention that! In fact, just last night I had... uh..."

Cassie trailed off. She finally caught the smirk on his face and realized that he had been mocking her. She blushed and her smile became forced, her voice wavering. "Uh... well... never mind that, then."

"I really don't think you know jack shit about this, Cassie."

"Richie, I'm just trying to help."

"Help? How are you trying to help, huh?"

"I just don't want you feeling bad about this. About Miss Davis."

"Look, enough about her, okay?!"

"Okay, I'm sorry," Cassie said quickly. "You're right, it's probably best to just forget about her entirely. Good point."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Richie's voice had been steadily rising through the whole conversation. By this time it was loud enough that it made Jason and Frank halt their discussion and turn their attention to the two of them. Cassie noticed their attention on her, and her cheeks blushed bright pink. "N-nothing! You said you didn't want to talk about it. Okay, fine. We'll move on to something else."

Richie reached the end of what little patience he possessed that day. "Look, Cassie, what is it you want from me?"

Cassie's eyes widened. "I... I don't want anything from you," she said in a hollow voice.

This was a lie. She knew it was a lie. She just was not sure anymore what it was that she did want.

"Then why the fuck do you keep bothering me?"

Cassie looked stricken. "Bothering? I thought I was just... just making conversation."

Richie made a disgusted noise and rose from his seat. "Well, I don't 'make conversation, ' okay? You know, I don't understand why everyone don't just stop hassling me."

"But I wasn't..."

Richie wasn't listening. He was already picking up his tray and walking away.

Frank appeared to shrink in his seat as Richie passed, as if afraid Richie would introduce him to Mr. Fist after all. When nothing of the sort happened, he gave Jason a smirk and jerked a thumb in the direction Richie went. "What's with him?"

Jason just shrugged and shook his head. "I don't know."

Frank looked past Jason. "Hey."

Cassie had been staring at Richie as he dumped the remainder of his lunch into a bin and headed out of the cafeteria. She blinked and looked at Frank. "Huh?"

"You his girlfriend or something?"

Cassie's mouth fell open. Her blush deepened. "No," she said in a very small voice.

Under the table, she shifted her legs. Moisture squished softly under her panties.

Not yet, she thought forlornly to herself.