Chapter 101

"Where are you from, Blake Blakesly?"

Blake laughed off Steve's question and turned to his companion. "Humbot - is the coast clear?"

The other figure walked back to Steve and Jen. "I will make no weather jokes, Blake. We are safe for the moment."

"Wait, did he just speak in hypertext?" Jen said.

Blake sighed. "He did."

"What is going on here?"

"I'll be happy to explain, but we need to get you to a safe place."

"We're not going anywhere with you!" Steve said.

"He's right," Humbot said, "not until we test you to see if you are the one."

"Test? What?"

Without another word, Blake walked over to Steve and grabbed both of Steve's nipples and twisted.

"Ow! You son of a-"

"It's okay," Blake said. "He passed the test."

Chapter 100

The sound of the Colonel advancing on them struck Steve and Jen dumb with fear. His footsteps crashed in the night, coming down the hill from Flower Gardens. Then, from another direction.

"Thank goodness they're here! Quick, you two, follow me!"

A light shone from the forest to their left. At its appearance, the Colonel's footsteps quickened, sliding a little on the hill but growing louder by the second.

Weighing her options (in a fraction of a second), Jen grabbed Steve's hands and they took off toward the light. Two figures were in front of them, sprinting as well as they could through the tangled overgrowth. The Colonel's steps burst into a run behind them, thundering. Trees shook and dirt geysered from under his feet.

Without warning, the four being pursued came into a clearing. One of the figures tripped and went sprawling through the tall grass. Jen and Steve skidded (like the cartoons, Steve thought) to a stop to help him. The other figure stopped unnaturally quickly and spun around.

It was then that Steve noticed the sound of pursuit had stopped; not because the Colonel had given up, but because he had caught them.

His face looked terrible under the feeble light, with shadows like writhing creatures just below the surface. He laughed - a cold, high, dark laugh, and Steve knew it was over.

"Jen? I just want to say I l-"

And a ray of sun EXPLODED into the clearing, staggering the Colonel. Steam rose from his skin, and his shrieks were unworldly as he fled back in to the darkness of the forest. Steve looked back, blinking to clear his eyes, to see Jen helping the fallen stranger up.

"Hi. I'm Jen, and this is Steve. Thank you so much - I don't know what - who he - what he is..."

"No problem. I'm just glad we got here when we did," the man said, wincing as he put weight on his ankle."

"How did you guys know where we were?" Steve asked.

The man smiled and turned to his companion, still a few yards off. "That's a long story."

"We've got time, man."

"Okay, okay." The man looked Steve up and down, judging him. He stuck out his hand. "My name is Blake Blakesly. I'm here to help."

Chapter 99

As Steve hurried through the forest, dodging hanging branches and stumbling over protruding roots, he heard the sound of someone else crashing through the underbrush. He stopped short.

It's funny, the way the mind works. Time slowed down, and part of Steve's mind noticed that he was back on the bomb shelter. The place where he and Jennipher had seen their future. Another part of his mind knew with certainty that it was Jen crashing through the forest. And a third part of his mind was certain it was something that would kill him. And finally, a small part of his mind had dropped into his gut and was screaming for him to run and never look back.

Steve stood his ground, waiting for whatever (It must be Jen) was coming to kill (or be saved by) him. The trees cut off most of the moonlight, and the ground was darker than the lowest level of hell. The only light, feeble in the overwhelming darkness, was Steve's flashlight. He raised it and saw Jen, panting, come into the clearing.

"Steve! We've got to run!"

"What's going on, Jen?"

"The Colonel! He's after me!"

"Who's the Colonel?"

"We've got to go!"

"No! Not that way! That's to Liz's house!"

"Where do we go?"

They paused, staring at each other. If this was their destiny, it was a lousy destiny.

Chapter 98

The Colonel reached through the window, the shadows flickering on his hands, making them ripple intensely. Jen shrieked, trying to scramble backwards over Kevin's bloody body. The Colonel's hand moved steadily closer, unceasing and fixed in its pace.

"Come on, princess."

With a heavy grunt, Jen kicked at the Colonel with all of her strength. His hand, momentarily diverted, smashed against the dashboard. Jen took advantage of the moment to finally get Kevin's door open. She somersaulted backwards onto her feet, planting and spinning with an agility she didn't know she possessed. Quickly, she sprinted into down the hill and into the woods.

Behind her, the Colonel sneered, and followed her into the dark, dark night.

Chapter 97

Steve swept the backyard with the flashlight. When Liz's mom had handed it him, he had a momentary urge to put it to his forehead and shout "I'm a unicorn!," but it passed. There didn't appear to be anything amiss - the pool cover was securely on, there were no signs of animals or intruders - just a chill in the air that seemed wrong. Unwittingly, Steve shined the flashlight into the trees and was painfully reminded of Jennipher Semmes.

His heart dropped into his stomach. Tonight was supposed to be their destiny, and here he was, skipping prom to comfort a woman who hadn't even liked him before he complimented her brownies. He could picture Jen at the dance, in a navy blue dress, her hair spilling down her shoulders as she danced. Her smile lighting up the room - and really, there was no way she couldn't be prom queen. A vision of her attacking him with a fierce hug after coming down from the dais. And maybe, just maybe, at the end of the night, a soft kiss. Her lips tasting like breaking glass. Her breath like - wait! Breaking glass?

Steve bounded over the chain-link fence and headed into the woods.

Chapter 96

"What's going on?" Jen asked.

The Colonel showed nothing on his face - he merely extended one bandaged finger and pressed on the glass. Up close, it looked terrible. The bandage was dirty and stained with old blood, and the visible portion of the finger didn't look much better.

"Kevin, what's going on?" she asked, voice rising.

"I told you that you'd be sorry, Jen. This was supposed to be our night. And it was nice, it really was. But you can't treat me like that and expect to get away with it."

"You're doing this because we didn't go to prom together? That's absurd!"

The Colonel tapped on the glass.

"No, it's not just prom, Jen. It's everything. You walk around like you're so important. Like you're something special. Like you're a princess. Well, guess what princess?! You're in for the longest night of your life!"

"What does The Colonel have to do with any of this?"

A second tap on the glass.

"He has some reason to want you; I didn't ask questions."

"Really?! Because that seems like something you should ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT!"

Kevin laughed, a cold laugh that did nothing to assuage Jen's fears.

Several things happened at once. Kevin spoke. Jen turned to look at him. The Colonel tapped on the glass for a third time. The window exploded inward, a hail of glass shredding Kevin but leaving Jen untouched.

Kevin's screams ripped through the night. Jen turned to face her window, only to see the Colonel reaching in...

Chapter 95

With the fire burning bright, Stares-At-The-Sun raised his arms high. With that, the fire ascended into the sky, leaving no trace behind. The wood was still stacked in its pyramid shape, unscorched and unscarred by the heat. Even the dry grass he had used to start the fire was unharmed.

With that, he shut his eyes.

"I pray that will be enough."

Chapter 94

Steve waited impatiently on the front steps of the Bogners' house. His iPod was inside and Liz's mom was taking forever to answer the door. After an interminable time, she opened the door slightly, saw who it was, then visibly relaxed as she opened it the rest of the way.

"Steve! Thank heavens it's you!"

"What's going on?"

"I don't know - I guess you're here for your iPod."

"Actually, I couldn't resist your delicious brownies. And the iPod, yeah."

"Oh, Steve! You can come by for brownies anytime. It's just - " she stopped herself, looking unsure of herself as she did.

"Seriously. What's going on?"

"It's just one of those nights. It seems darker than normal - that it got darker sooner, I mean. The night where...things happen. And it terrifies me that Liz is out there in it."

"Everything seemed fine when they got in the limo. Actually, it didn't seem bad until...until I got here."

"Would you mind - I feel like such an idiot for asking this - would you mind taking a look out back for me?"

"Yeah, no problem."

"I'll have some brownies ready for when you get back."

"Thanks."

And so Steve headed out into the extra-dark night that came extra early, unaware of how much his life was about to change.

Chapter 93

Jen was pleasantly full of roadside diner cheeseburger. The wind coming in off Lake Michigan had blown her sorrows and worries about Kevin away. She had apologized for not going to prom with him, and he couldn't quite meet her eyes when she did. It was possible - just barely possible - that she saw tears in his eyes as he re-focused on the road. She had thought they were headed home, but...

"Flower Gardens? The make out place? Seriously?" She was nonplussed.

"What?" he asked, full of false innocence.

"I'm not going to make out with you to make up for not going to prom with you!"

"Jesus, Jen, we're just here to talk."

"We can talk somewhere else, can't we?"

Kevin didn't answer. His gaze drifted over her shoulder to someone blocking the feeble light shining through the passenger window. Immediately, Jen's mind assumed it was a cop, and that she was going to be disgraced for being arrested in "Deflower Gardens." A million reasons came to mind about why she shouldn't be arrested - the main one being that they weren't DOING anything - but then looked at the figure as it leaned over.

It wasn't a cop.

It was her least favorite pizza customer.

It was the Colonel.

Chapter 92

Steve laughed as he watched the crew pile into the limo. True to form, Bobby B was making disgusting gestures behind the backs of all the girls in the group. Stoner was smiling awkwardly (why a kid with an orthodontist for a dad would have such a dorky smile amused Steve on a level he couldn't quite identify), and Gar was trying to impress everyone's dates.

As they pulled away, Gar and Liz popped out of the sunroof for one final wave goodbye. The limo abruptly stopped, and Steve could almost hear the driver remonstrating them for going through the sunroof while the car was moving. The two of them dipped back down out of sight, and Steve smiled and dorkily waved at the departing car.

He turned to get back into his own car and abruptly realized - he had left his iPod at Liz's house. As he knew that this was a night for music to say what he couldn't, he knew he'd have to go back. Though the trip might not be entirely wasted - maybe there were brownies left.

Chapter 91

"That was delicious," Jen said. She was sitting on the trunk of Kevin's car, licking the remnants of a cheeseburger off her fingers. They were at a diner just off the highway - this diner, like several others, claimed to be the home of the original Maxwell Street Polish Sausage. Kevin had barely touched his burger (Jen's stomach rumbled as she thought of trying to eat that one, as well), instead eating one fry at a time out of the brown paper bag.

"Do you believe in karma, Jen?" he asked over the sounds of highway traffic.

"Instant karma's gonna get you," she said, smiling.

"No, I'm serious. Do you believe that good things happen to good people, and that bad things happen to bad people?"

Jen paused, pursing her lips. She fought back a belch and answered, "I believe that all things happen to all people. When good things happen to good people, we think they deserve it and put it out of mind. But when bad things happen to good people, we think 'Why?'"

"Do you believe in an eye for an eye? Tooth for a tooth and all that?"

"I'm not sure where this line of questioning is going, but no. Wasn't that Hammurabi? Didn't he pioneer that way of thinking? That was forever ago, and I'd like to think we've come far in the past several thousand years."

Kevin forced a smile. "Odd that you mention a thousand years."

"What does all this have to do with a cheeseburger?"

A semi blasted its air horn, cutting short Kevin's response. When it had passed, he said "I just really wanted to come here with you tonight. I feel badly about what I've done, and - this place was always special to me, and I wanted to share it with you tonight. To kind of say 'I'm sorry for being a jerk.'"

"Well, you're lucky that cheeseburger was so good." Jen smiled.

Chapter 90

Steve watched from his car as Liz scampered up the front walk to Gar's house (hampered as her scampering was by her almost-disturbingly high heels). He felt a little melancholy, but reasoned that it, too, would pass. As the gaggle of people spilled out through the front door onto the lawn, Steve offered a halfhearted wave. Gar returned it enthusiastically and motioned for Steve to join them.

He opened the car door and stepped out, careful to wipe the brownie crumbs from his shirt onto the driveway and not into his car. A few steps later he was surrounded by hugs and shouting friends, clamoring for him to join them, that he'd find a date at the prom, that it wouldn't be the same without him, that they loved him and appreciated him, that he was wonderful...

It was, to that point, the best moment of his life. The day, however, was far from over.

Chapter 89

As Kevin merged onto I-94, Jen looked nervously at the cars passing them. Kevin usually drove fast, and tonight, he was driving...reluctantly was the best word she could think of. They were headed to Chicago, that was obvious...but where?

"Where are we headed?" she asked.

"A few places."

"Okay. So you expect me to keep asking where we're going, and it will build up the mystery?"

Kevin smiled, a thin, tight smile.

"Okay." Two could play at this game. "Wherever. We can go wherever."

Chapter 88

Steve pulled up at Liz's house to pick her up. He unplugged the iPod from his stereo and walked to the door. A wry smile crossed his face as he imagined taking Liz to prom - she was a sweet girl, but best in small doses, as far as Steve was concerned. Taking her from her house over to Gar's would be plenty.

As he rang the bell, he nervously shifted his weight from foot to foot. His hands were sweaty and he switched the iPod from right to left. Finally, Liz's mother opened the door.

"Hello," she said coldly, "come in."

Unsure over whether she was angry with him for existing or if he was walking into a powder keg holding a lit fuse, he followed. The living room smelled like potpourri and hairspray. The couches, pink and aqua, were covered with lace and didn't look comfortable.

"Liz will be right down," her mother's voice came from behind him (scaring him more than he would readily admit), "you can have a seat."

Steve moved slowly toward the uncomfortable couches and sat down gingerly, setting the iPod down on a coffee table.

"Would you care for a brownie?"

"No, thank you."

"Nonsense. I insist."

Steve reluctantly took a brownie and moved it mechanically to his mouth. He took a small bite from the corner, and - it was delicious!

"This is really good, Ms. Bogner!"

Did her face soften?

"Thank you."

"I mean it - these are the best brownies I've ever had!"

Her face definitely softened then. "Thank you! Take some more!"

"Mom! Leave him alone!"

Steve, who was busy loading up with brownies, looked up. Liz looked overly-made-up, but her dress did show quite a bit of skin - Gar would be pleased.

"Let's go, Steve."

Steve, hands full of brownies, smiled once more at Ms. Bogner and followed a swishing Liz out the door.

Chapter 87

Jennipher walked slowly to Kevin's car, idling in front of her house. She leaned over and peered in the passenger window. The scent of onion rings hit her - not her favorite, but certainly a guilty pleasure from time to time.

"Come on. Get in the car, Semmes."

"Let's just drive your car," she half-smiled.

"We can drive all day. Well, what's left of it. I've got a surprise for you."

"It's not those onion rings I smell?" she said, sliding into the seat.

"No - we've got a little drive ahead of us. Is that okay with you?"

"Sure." What went unsaid (but definitely flashed through Jen's head) was that the reason she had the night ahead of her was that she had canceled her prom date with the guy she was about to go out with...on prom night.

They drove off into the evening.

Chapter 86

School had dragged on forever. The second half of the day was even worse, as many of the senior class girls had left early (with permission) to get ready for prom. With half their classes missing, one would think the teachers would take it easy on the remaining students, but no - things went on as they would have. Except, of course, there was no one to keep Steve's attention off the teachers and, as such, he had to actually listen. It was dreadful.

As Steve walked to Gar's car, he noticed Gar in a heated conversation on his phone. As he approached, Gar's voice rose.

"It was five years ago. Don't tell me she remembers!"

A pause.

"Fine! We'll have someone else pick you up and bring you around for pictures. But your mom seriously needs to let it go! No one even remembers the Unicorn bit!"

Steve smiled, sure that Gar was deep into a conversation with Liz Bogner.

"Okay. We'll send someone by around six. Be ready. Bye."

Gar clicked off the call.

"Trouble in paradise?" Steve taunted.

"Yeah. Her mom won't let me or Bobby B near the house on account of-"

"The unicorn. What do you mean, no one remembers? Everyone who was there remembers."

"I know. Listen - I know it's short notice, but - "

"Sure, I'll pick her up."

Gar's face visibly brightened. "Thanks, man. This saves me all kinds of trouble."

"And I'm sure it won't cause me any."

Chapter 85

The room was dark.

"The message has been sent."

"Excellent. We can preserve things as they were meant to be."

"Did you want me to deal with the other?"

"No. If they aren't together, they're nothing."

"And my payment?"

"In due time, son. In due time."

Kevin left.

Chapter 84

Sarah felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket. Although she knew she shouldn't check it, Mrs. Kotoly was engrossed in grading their essays, and there was no way she was getting caught. And even if she did - what were they going to do? Ban her from prom? She wasn't going anyway.

Slowly, she slid the phone out. It was a text message from Kevin. Slowly, ever so slowly, she flipped the phone open to read the message.

"J - we need to talk. I'll call you later. -K"

That was odd. He had never referred to her as "J" before, but maybe the break-up did strange things to him. Boys were crazy anyway.

Chapter 83

It was the morning of prom, and the tension in Steve's shoulders was at an all-time high. Either something amazing would happen tonight...or it wouldn't, and the idea of destiny would shatter.

Either way, what would (or wouldn't) happen would (or wouldn't) happen, and that was all he could do. He finished his Watermelon Dr Pepper, tossed the cup into the recycling bin, and headed off to class.