Chapter 4

They sat in silence.

Bill's eyes were on Ai, as she stood back at her spot by the tree. Her eyes were lifeless again, although he thought he caught some movement of her looking between him and Julie. Ai wasn't that far beneath the surface...

"What are you gonna do?"

He turned and saw Julie looking at him. Her blue eyes, which he really hadn't paid much attention to before, were wet with emotion. She was trying hard not to cry, and her hand once more crept over and lay on top of his. He looked down at this contact, then back at Ai.

"I don't know. Never have a girlfriend, that's for sure."

Julie bowed her head, a few strands of her long brown hair falling to cover her face, and Bill suddenly felt like shit. He half turned and used his free hand to brush some of the hair behind her small ear, and caressed her cheek with his thumb. Her eyes came up to look at him, and he saw the tears.

"I'm sorry ... I..." He sighed, his finger now catching some of her tears. "I can't be with anyone if it'll hurt her." Bill suddenly gave a chuckle. "I'd be all for having two beautiful women in my life, one an old friend, another an inhuman creature. I'm horny enough and have read enough Heinlein books to consider that a reasonable option. But..." he looked over at Ai again, "SHE would have to say it was OK, and I can't see that happening if it means her end. Not that I'd be happy about that either." Bill looked back down at Julie, and saw her smiling up at him, eyes shining. Tears will do that, he thought. Her free hand came up and held his against her cheek.

"We'll see if there's an answer."

"Answer? To which question?"

"Well," Julie said, entwining her fingers with his in a gesture much more intimate then Bill would ever have expected, "how can you have your ghoul, and eat me too?"

They talked for a good hour, stopping only to drive away smaller kids who'd occasionally come and try and use the hideout. He told her everything. Every observation he had ever made of the creatures, every word and expression Ai had used. She even pressed him on details of their encounters together. Both their faces were red as Bill described how Ai had reacted to his touches, and his release. He didn't know what good it would do, but he almost got a thrill over boasting of his exploits. Maybe that's why some guys did it...

Suddenly, he looked down at his crotch in surprise, then over at Ai. He laughed, a joyous laugh.

"What is it?"

Bill looked over at a confused, sexually aroused Julie and almost giggled. He pointed between his legs.

"Ai is pissed! I'm as horny as can be, and she refuses to give me an erection! This means she has some control!" He jumped up and ran over to the creature, put his hands on either side of her insubstantial head and kissed the empty air. "I love you, Ai!" His dick suddenly burst into full hardness, trapped in his pants, and looking down he saw both her hands working on him. Looking up, Bill thought he saw a slight, sly smile on that blank face, and he grinned again. He turned his head back to Julie. "I think, for now, I shouldn't think about how beautiful and sexy you are!"

Julie closed the door to her bedroom, and threw herself on her bed. Her mind was...

... she didn't know what her mind was.

Magical creatures existed!

She had held Bill's hand!

She laughed, grabbed Horsey, her big stuffed frog, and hugged it tightly as she rolled around on the bed. No day had EVER been like this before!

Julie sat up. And the day wasn't over! She had work to do!. Letting go of Horsey, she jumped back off the bed and grabbed her laptop off of the desk, then it was back onto the bed. Lying down, she got to work searching the net.

Two hours later, Julie was ready to sic her stuffed frog on the web. Maybe it would find some nice flies to eat as it rampaged around and destroyed unhelpful web sites...

She rolled onto her back, and sighed. It should have been easy. Somewhere, somewhen, there must have been people seeing creatures like Ai. There must be people who knew about them NOW, even if they were thought to be insane, or unpublishable! (The two were in no way related, to her knowledge) But, no! She tried the occult sites, the ghost sites, new age sites ... even Japanese movie sites, in the hope some of those long haired girls were based on legends that in some way applied here! Nothing!

Her tummy growled.

With a frustrated grunt, Julie pushed herself off of the bed and stood. She grabbed Horsey, and marched out of the room, down the hall, and into the kitchen. She saw a formerly frozen pizza on the cutting board cut in half, so grabbing a dinner plate she put the other half on it and walked into the living room. Jenny was stretched out on the couch with an empty plate on the floor next to her, watching Kiki's Delivery Service. The 6th grader's eyes followed her sister as Julie made her way to the bean bag chair and plopped into it.

"I CALLED you when I made the pizza!" Julie's mouth was full, so she just waved acknowledgment. Jenny's eyes narrowed. "What were you DOING in there all that time?" Her sister rolled her head over towards the youngster, swallowing.

"Stuff."

"Whatever." Jenny went back to watching the movie, thinking the witch could do much better than that geek with the glasses and bad striped shirt. Speaking of which...

"Christine saw you talking with Bill all day ... ALONE. Were you doing... 'stuff' ... with him, too?"

"Horsey attack!"

With that, Julie picked up the green frog by one of its long legs and heaved it at her sister. With a scream Jenny rolled off the couch onto the floor, taking a pillow with her which she threw back at the attacker. Julie caught it and whipped back a return throw. The frog hit her in the face a moment later, and the two sisters fell back into their seats laughing.

"Stupid traitor Horsey! Bad frog!" Julie hugged the stuffed frog just so it knew how angry she was at it. She loved her frog. It had been one of her earliest toys, three feet long, half of which was legs. The rest of her stuffed animals had used it as a riding animal, hence the name. Grabbing the rest of the pizza, she went on filling her tummy.

After another hour searching, Julie was ready to call it quits. She had always thought she was smart, and great at researching stuff. She may have not made it into the calculus class with Bill, but in all the other class she was always at the top. So, why couldn't she find anything to help him?!? She closed the lid on the computer, shoved it to the side of the bed, and rolled onto her back holding Horsey.

She had to help Bill.

If she didn't help Bill ... she could never hold him. Never kiss him. Never...

She pictured Bill, lying on his bed. She was on all fours over him, just like he had said Ai had been. She could be sexier then Ai. A hand snaked down between her legs, rubbing against her white jeans as she pictured herself naked over Bill, offering one of her breasts to him. The hand moved up and undid the snaps, then went inside as the dream Julie reached a hand back and caressed Bill's hardness. Her fingers reached her secret place the same moment he pressed up against it, his tip just entering...

Julie shot into a sitting position, hand jerked away.

That was it.

That had to be it.

OK, it might not be, but ... oh, God, that could be it!

Her heart was beating a mile a minute. It was the answer, but ... could she? Could she stand aside and let ... Her eyes went to the phone...

"I'll get it!"

Betty jumped up off the couch and raced out of the room to answer the phone. Bill and his parents just looked at each other and laughed. Once the kid got her own cell phone this kind of childishness would be a thing of the past, and Bill thought he'd kind of miss it. It's not like any of the calls Betty rushed to answer were actually for him.

"Bill! Phone!"

His mom gave him a questioning glance, which Bill answered with a shrug as he got to his feet and left his parents alone with the TV. He found Betty holding the phone out for him in the kitchen, a smirk on her face.

"It's Julie!" She made kissy sounds as he took the receiver, then just stood there to listen. Shaking his head, Bill brought it up to his ear.

"Hello. What's up."

"Bill! I have it! Maybe I have it! It might work!"

"What might?"

"The plan to help you and Ai!!"

Bill looked at Betty, who was going nowhere. He sighed.

"We have someone listening at the moment who I can't get rid of..."

"Wha ... oh, Betty? No prob. Put the phone to her ear." Bill did so, and waited. A moment later he saw his sister's face turn white. With just a quick, frightened glance at her brother, she then fled the room. Bill brought the phone back up.

"OK, what was that?"

"Oh," Julie laughed, "just using some of the blackmail material I have saved up. Our sisters aren't as sneaky as they think they are."