Chapter 2

"I'm telling you, the Dragonriders are all gay!"

Bill and Bobby walked through the middle school hallway, ignoring all around them as they argued this important issue. Bill, in particular, was doing his best to not pay attention to his surroundings. Bobby's ghostly companion was giving his friend a blow job as she floated before his crotch, and that was one place you did NOT want to stare during a conversation like this. That her eyes, like that of all the creatures, was actually on Bill didn't help.

"Look," Bill said, the expert on the topic as he'd been reading the series since sixth grade, "yes, when the dragons mate the guys bang the other male dragon rider. But the rest of the time most of them go with women! That's not gay!"

"What is it then?"

"Dragons with benefits?"

This cracked both of them up. The library door was before them, though, so the two friends took a moment to compose themselves. Laughter contained, they entered.

Mark was already at their usual table, math book out. The blond obviously hadn't finished last night's homework. Under the table, Bill saw Mark's creature doing its thing. Unless it was the math giving him a hard on, that had to be distracting. Actually, truth be told, Mark's ghostly companion at times distracted Bill. While most of the creatures he could see were females of one sort or another, Mark's was ... well, you couldn't tell. It COULD be a flat chested girl. Or, it could be a long haired boy. In the plain white tunic it was impossible to say. Bill had yet to figure out if the gender of the creatures had any real meaning, and wished he could talk openly to Mark about it. If he was gay, it would be some evidence in that direction. But ... such topics were off limits.

Bill's eyes caught red in the back corner of the library. Ah, Cindi. It was funny: obviously, she had been using the library the same times they had for the entire year, yet he had never noticed her before. Bill had known of her, but honestly thought their paths just never crossed. Amazing how your attention manages to edit out things that don't concern you.

"Hey, guys." Bobby had already sat down next to Mark, and the two gave their friend a bemused look. "I have to go talk to someone for a few minutes. It shouldn't take too long."

"Who?" Bobby looked confused. There was no one else here, apart from the librarian who, truth be told, he wouldn't mind talking to alone back in the stacks. Mark, however, looked over his shoulder, then back at Bill with a contemptuous look.

"Her? What, Julie isn't enough for you?"

"Wait, what? What about Julie?" Now Bobby was more confused. What did his ex have to do with anything?

"Bill here," Mark explained dryly, "is going with Julie, and now also wants to be with the Freak."

Bobby looked up at his friend, stunned ... and hurt. Bill tried to think of what to say, but couldn't on short notice.

"You said you two were just talking about nothing!"

"We were, then! Things ... changed. Look, did you go around talking about it when you and her were together?"

"Every chance I got!"

This brought laughter from both Bill and Mark, and a stern look from Miss Trenten.

"And now," Bill went on, quieter, "I can see how much of that was just you bragging." Bobby's eyes shot up, a slight blush rising to his face. Bill shook his head. "Just kidding. I'd never pry. Look, you two, I have to talk to Cindi for a bit, OK? I'll be back later." He walked away not waiting for an answer.

Cindi was at a small round table, with just two chairs. She looked up as Bill approached, eyes apprehensive. She still wore all black, a one piece dress today, and no makeup. Not that she needed any, in Bill's opinion.

"Can I sit?"

Cindi nodded, watching as Bill put his books down and joined her. Neither spoke for a few moments. Finally, Cindi seemed to gather her courage and brought out a spiral notebook.

"I ... did what Julie asked. I made a list of all the creatures, or lots of them. What I think they do." She slid the book over to Bill, who raised an eyebrow at the unicorn and rainbow on the cover. Cindi gave a slight smile. "I do have a slight sense of humor."

Bill nodded, opening the book. Inside ... was madness.

She had drawn pictures. She wasn't a great artist, and her hand had been trembling while looking at some of the things, but ... Bill quickly leafed through it, then closed the cover and met Cindi's eyes.

"How are you still sane?"

"I'm not."

Bill thought.

"Look, can you come over? Dad's playing poker, so Julie's family is coming over for pizza or something. Mom will drive you home. We can go over your book, talk..." She looked reluctant. "Please?"

Nobody ever said "please" to her...

The notebook was opened up on the coffee table, its contents speaking loudly in the silence of the room. Shirley and Gretchen sat on the couch, reading intently, slowly flipping the pages, while the six teens, almost teens, and Ai, sat on the floor around them. Now and then one of them would look around the room, wondering which of these ... things were around them, horrible and invisible. Shirley finally sat back up, regarding Cindi.

"Impressive work." The girl blushed at that. "There seem to be ... families of these creatures, divided by skin color and function. That how you see it?"

"Yeah..." Cindi gathered her thoughts. Being with adults who ... understood her was so different. "Yeah. Blue is pleasure, orange is pain, red is death, green ... mental? It's hard to tell, and it's not like I've really TRIED to look at them. If anything, I do my best not to see." Shirley nodded, fully understanding. Her eyes were full of compassion, but not the kind that humiliated Cindi. No ... there was respect as well in that gaze, and Cindi began to wish this was the family she had been born into.

"If you can handle it, I'd like to work with you to research all this better. We need to know a lot more than we do, and you're our one link to Ai's world." The idea of working ... as an equal! ... with this woman appealed to Cindi, and she nodded despite the horror of what was being asked. Shirley smiled. "Thank you. Now, you can control somewhat how much you can see?"

"Yeah, a bit. If I try, I can ... only see those affecting me, or those who will touch those around me. If I'm tired, or just waking up ... I see ALL of them." Cindi shuddered at this, only stiffening a bit when Julie reached around to give her a comforting hug. Bill, sitting on the other side of Julie with Ai, spoke up.

"When they're not doing anything, the creatures just sort of stand off to the side. You can see them lined up against the wall of the classroom, waiting to do their job." His mom looked over at Ai.

"What did you think about, when you were doing nothing like that?"

Ai thought. As the seconds ticked by, and the gathered waited for her reply, her expression slowly became incredulous and upset. She looked up at her new Mom.

"I ... I can no longer remember! It's all gone!" Shirley's eyebrows shot up at that. Damn it, she should have gotten more out of the creature earlier. Ah, well. Science marches on. Shirley waited for Ai to calm down, helped by Bill's hug, then went on.

"Do you think you could see other creatures, either your own kind or others?" Ai considered it again.

"No ... I ... knew others were there, my others, but always I was looking at Bill. Remember that much. Why ... why is it going away?!?"

"Because you're with me," Bill said, squeezing his lover. "I'm sorry." Ai responded by caressing his cheek and giving him a quick kiss. Cindi looked at the creature with awe. The idea of LOSING the ability to see ... was there hope?

Gretchen, who'd kept looking through the notebook, sat up again and cast a speculative gaze at Ai. She'd rather be told what was true than try and find out herself, but a question had formed in her mind.

"Ai. If you tried, really hard, do you think you could see one of the creatures?" Shirley gave her old friend a quick look. That, actually, was a good question. Why hadn't she thought of it? Probably because she was more worried about upsetting her son by treating Ai like a test subject. Emotional distance has its advantages. She saw Ai looking at Bill for help.

"It's up to you, Ai. If you want to try it, we'll be here for backup." Ai slowly nodded, then looked at Cindi.

"Where ... is one?"

Cindi cast her gaze around, looking for a good target. Something not too embarrassing, which left out the small bluish primates sucking on a couple of the female nipples in the room.

"There," she pointed, indicating a spot in front of an empty chair. "There's one standing there, maybe five feet tall."

"Don't tell us what it looks like," Shirley said. "Ai, focus on that point and try and see."

The blue girl nodded, swung her body around so she was sitting facing the chair, and began to concentrate. All were quiet, even the sound of breathing stopped. Ai's eyes were wide, hands on her knees, body leaning forward. Could she? ... yes, wait ... she thought she saw...

Cindi caught a flash of orange movement in the corner of her eye. Swinging her head around, her eyes widened in terror. Coming at her at amazing speed was ... evil. It was bright orange. Long, thin arms and legs met at a body that was no more than a small circle. Running half on all fours, it tore across the dining room and into the living room. It's head ... it had no head, just two rows of jagged, glistening white teeth, set almost in a duckbill, one foot radius half circles joined at the body. It threw itself at Ai. Cindy leapt to her feet, screaming.

"No!"

The creature's jaw closed on Ai's head, and Ai screamed in agony.

"Ai!"

"What is it!?"

All they could see was Ai shrieking, hands holding her head, eyes wide and staring at the living room chair across from her. Her cry was high pitched and pitiful, her mind unable to form words in the horror of the moment.

Cindi had to do something. Something. The others were all at Ai's side, ignorant of the problem. She had to...

Cindi leapt over to Ai. One foot almost crushing Jenny's hand before it was quickly pulled out of the way, she planted herself next to the orange thing. Its teeth were half way into Ai's skull, the sound of the crunching echoing in her ears. She reached out to grab one of its arms, her hands passing through it like the creature wasn't there. Which, it wasn't. What could she ... Cindi tried again. Bill was frantically trying to pull Ai's head towards her, away from whatever she was seeing, thinking that was the problem. Concentrating, Cindi again grabbed at the arm. Once ... twice...

Her hands touched solid, burning hot flesh.

Cindi let out a scream. Her hand jerked away, but at the same instant Bill managed to yank Ai's head and the creature released it from his jaws. Ai collapsed sobbing into his arms, head buried in Bill's chest, as Cindi staggered back. Small orange cat creatures leapt up to lick her throbbing hands.

The large orange thing stood still for a moment, then turned towards Cindi. She could read no emotion into its faceless gaze, but trembled as that open mouth seemed to beckon to her. Was she next? After what seemed like an eternity, its mouth closed, followed by the creature turning and running through the window out into the falling snow.

Cindi collapsed.

The smell of fresh baked pizza woke her.

Cindi was lying on the couch, a knitted blanket that had been thrown over the back of it now spread out over her. Turning her head, she saw a large rectangular tray of pizza now half empty sitting on the coffee table. Everyone was sitting around the room, mostly on chairs pulled in from the dining room. Mrs. Cutter saw her awaken, and putting down her plate quickly came over.