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Chapter Text

I slammed my hand on the alarm clock and groaned.

“Time to wake up.” My grandmother announced as she walked into my bedroom and flung open the curtains. “Rise and shine cupcake.”

I groaned again as I covered my head with my blanket to shield myself from the light coming from the window.

“Breakfast’s on the table.” My grandmother continued as she left the room. “You can’t be late for your first day back at school!” I focussed on the door and it closed with a loud bang.

I rose from my four poster bed and walked to my en-suite bathroom to shower and get dressed. Once I was dressed I walked down the stairs and sat down at the dining table. After I finished my food I grabbed my bag from the hook in the reception and gave my grandmother a kiss on the check before leaving. I got into my BMW convertible, put my sunglasses on and looked in the mirror before leaving from school.
 
I got out of my car once I arrived at school and leaned against it. "What are you staring at?"  I demanded as I saw someone staring at me.
 
"I'm sorry - I didn't mean to - I'm sorry," The girl said helplessly.

"You better be.” I snarled as I turned away.

All around me teenagers were greeting one another, shouting hello; the girls giggling and hugging, the boys horsing around. It was an excited bustle.


I went to my first class which was writing for publication, an English elective, and I was glad I had it. I 
liked creative writing. I took a seat in the back of the class.

"Center on the basketball team," I heard Jeffrey Lovejoy say to the girl I met in the parking lot. She must be new. "Also captain." His hair was as auburn and curly as it was the last time I saw him.

“Already hitting on the newbie Jeffrey? Wonder what your girlfriend would say?” I chuckled as I walked up next to him.
 
Suddenly a shadow fell over us. Or at least that was how it felt.  "Hello, Jeffrey," she said. Her voice was low for a girl's; vibrant and almost husky.  I smirked.
 
"Faye." Jeffrey's voice, by contrast, was noticeably unenthusiastic. He looked tense. "Hi."

Faye leaned over him, one hand on the back of his chair, and I caught the scent of some heavy perfume. "I didn't see much of you over summer vacation," she said. "Where've you been?"

"Around," Jeffrey said lightly. But his smile was forced, and his entire body was taut now.

"You shouldn't keep yourself hidden away like that. Naughty boy." Faye leaned in closer. She was wearing an off-the-shoulder top - completely off both shoulders. It left a great deal of skin exposed just at Jeffrey's eye level. "You know, there's a new horror movie at the Capri this week," she said. "I like horror movies, Jeffrey."

"I can take them or leave them myself," Jeffrey said.

Faye chuckled, a rich, disturbing sound. "Maybe you just haven't seen them with the right girl," she murmured. "Under the proper circumstances, I think they can be very... stimulating."

Jeffrey wet his lips, looking fascinated in spite of himself, but also scared. Like a rabbit in a trap.

"I was going to take Sally down to Gloucester this weekend -" he began, voice strained.

"Well, you'll just have to tell Sally that... something came up," Faye said, raking him with her eyes. "You can come get me Saturday night at seven."

"Faye, I - "

"Oh, and don't be late, all right? I hate it when boys are late. Oh, and by the way," she said, lifting one hand in a languid gesture that showed off her long red nails, "she's from Crowhaven Road too."
Jeffrey's jaw dropped. He stared at the girl he was flirting with a moment ago with an expression of shock and distaste, and then he quickly turned around to face the front of the room. Faye was chuckling as she walked away to take a seat next to me.
 
“She’s a neighbour” I hissed to Faye as our English teacher came in. “How come I didn’t know?”
 
Faye shrugged her shoulders, “She just moved in. She’s living at number 13. Name’s Cassie.”
 
"And since you've all had a chance to talk during your summer vacation, now I'll give you a chance to write," our teacher said. "I want each of you to write a poem, right now, spontaneously. We'll read some of them aloud afterward. The poem can be about anything, but if you have trouble thinking of a subject, write about your dreams."

There were groans from the class, which gradually died into silence and pen chewing. I bent over my notebook with my heart beating rapidly. A vague memory of my dream last week intruded. But I didn't want to write about that. I wanted to write about him.


This heartache I just can't explain,
All I ever feel is pain,
That passion I long for true love for real,
His gentle caressing what I long to feel,
A love that when we are together
we'd rather die than be apart,
A love that when our lips meet
I can feel the kiss from his heart.
I'll wait forever to have this special love,
I'll even wait for all eternity in the heavens above,
All this waiting for him may cause me pain and strife,
But I'll wait, because this love comes once in a life.

Mr. Humphries was calling for volunteers. Predictably, no hands were raised... until one went up next to me.

The teacher hesitated.  "Faye Chamberlain," Mr. Humphries said at last.

He sat on the edge of his desk as Faye came to stand beside him, but I knew that he would have moved away if he could. An almost palpable air of tension had filled the room, and all eyes were on Faye.

She tossed her glorious mane of black hair back and shrugged, causing her off-the-shoulder top to slip down a little lower. Tilting her head back, she smiled slowly at the class and held up a piece of paper.

"This is my poem," she said in her lazy, husky voice. "It's about fire."

I dream about fire
Tongues of flame licking me.
My hair burns like a torch;
My body burns for you.
Touch my skin and your fingers will stick
You'll blacken like a cinder.
But you'll die smiling;
Then you'll be part of the fire too.

As the entire class watched, riveted, Faye produced a match and lit it. She touched it to the paper and the paper caught fire. Then, walking slowly, she moved to stand directly in front of Jeffrey Lovejoy, waving the burning paper gently before his eyes.

Howls, whistles, and desk banging from the audience. Many of them looked scared, but most of the guys looked excited, too. Some of the girls looked as if they wished they dared to do something like that.

Voices called out, "See, Jeffrey, that's what you get for being so cute!" "Go for it, man!" "Watch out, Jeff, Sally's gonna hear about this!"

Jeffrey just sat there, the back of his neck slowly flushing dull red.

As the paper was about to burn her fingers, Faye sashayed away from Jeffrey again and dropped it in the metal wastebasket by the teacher's desk. Mr. Humphries didn't flinch when something in the wastebasket flared up, and I admired him for that.

"Thank you, Faye," he said evenly. "Class, I think we can call what we've just seen an example of... concrete poetry. Tomorrow we'll study some more traditional methods. Class dismissed."

Faye walked out the door and I quickly followed.
 
The next lesson I had was Biology and as I walked into the lesson I knew I would dread it. The person I least wanted to see was in this class. I was the last to the lesson so all the seats but one were taken. I turned to some red headed boy. “Move!” I growled. He scrambled to get his books when my asshole of a teacher walked in.
 
“Stop!” He ordered and the boy stopped. “Madelyn there is a seat over there” He pointed to where Nick was sitting. “I hope that won’t be a problem”
 
I narrowed my eyes “Of course not.”
 
Begrudgingly I sat down next to Nick who didn’t look happy to sit next to me either. I could already hear the whispers break out around us. Everyone knew that something had happened over the summer. That one of New Salem’s longest and most popular couples had broken up. Especially as they both happened to be in the Club.

Chapter Text

By lunch time I was so relieved to finally be free. I met up with Suzan, Faye and Deborah outside.
 
 "Did anybody follow us, Deborah?" Faye asked lazily as she rummaged through her backpack.

She snorted. "Nobody's stupid enough to try."

"Good. Because this is top secret. I don't want you-know-who to hear anything about it," Faye said. She took out a stenographer's notebook with a red cover and laid it on her knee. "Now let me see, what shall we do to start this year off? I feel like something really wicked."
 
"Well, there's Jeffrey..." Suzan said, her strawberry blond hair swinging in the wind.

"Already begun," Faye said, smiling. "I work fast, Suzan."

Suzan laughed. When she did, her extraordinary chest jiggled in a way that made me certain she wasn't wearing anything underneath her apricot-coloured sweater.

"I still don't see the point of Jeffrey Lovejoy," Deborah said scowling.

"You don't see the point of any guy, Deborah; that's your problem," said Suzan.

"And your problem is that you can't see the point of anything else," Deborah retorted.
 
 "But Jeffrey's worse than most. He's got more teeth than brain cells." I protested.

"It isn't his teeth I'm interested in," said Faye thoughtfully. "Who are you going to start with, Suzan?"

"Oh, I don't know. It's so hard to decide. There's Mark Flemming and Brant Hegerwood and David Downey - he's in my remedial English class, and he's developed this killer body over the summer. And then there's always Nick..."

Deborah hooted. "Our Nick? The only way he'd look at you is if you had four wheels and a clutch."

"And besides, he's taken," I said. The girls looked at me. “Just because we broke up doesn't mean I’m gonna let anyone else have him.”

There was a moment of tension, and then Suzan shrugged. "Okay, I'll take David Downey. I didn't really want Nick anyway. He's an iguana."

Deborah looked up. "He's my cousin!"

"He's still an iguana. He kissed me at the freshmen prom, and it was like kissing a reptile."
 
“He does not kiss like a reptile!” I argued.

"Can we get back to business?" Faye said. "Who's on the hate list?"

"Sally Waltman," Suzan and I said immediately.

"She already thinks because she's class president she can stand up to us, and if you take Jeffrey, she's going to be really mad." I continued.

"Sally..." Fay mused. "Yes, we'll have to come up with something truly special for dear old Sally... What's wrong, Deborah?"

Deborah had stiffened, looking up the hill toward the school entrance. "Intruder alert," she said. "In fact, it looks like a whole delegation."

I had seen it too, a group of guys and girls coming through the main entrance down the hill.
A broad-shouldered boy in front, who seemed to be the leader, spoke up.

"Look, Faye, the cafeteria's crowded. So we're going to eat out here - okay?" His voice started out belligerent, but it wavered toward the end, becoming more of a question than a statement.

Faye looked up at him without haste, and then smiled her slow, beautiful smile. "No," she said, briefly and sweetly. "It isn't okay." Then she turned back to her lunch.

"How come?" the boy burst out, still trying to sound tough. "You didn't stop us last year."

"Last year," I said, "we were only juniors. This year we're seniors - and we're wicked. As wicked as we wanna be."

Deborah, Suzan and Faye smiled.

The group of guys and girls went on standing there for a minute or two, exchanging angry glances. But finally they turned and walked back toward the school building - all except one.

"Uh, Faye, Maddie? Did you mean I had to go too?" Faye raised her eyebrows and then patted the landing invitingly.

"Why, Kori," she said, "of course you can stay. We just imagined you'd be eating in the cafeteria with the Princess of Purity and the rest of the goody-goodies."

Kori sat down. "A little bad once in a while isn’t horrible.” she said.

Faye tilted her head and smiled. "And there I thought you were a namby-pamby little Puritan. Silly me," she said. "Well, you know you're always welcome here. You're almost one of us, aren't you?"

Kori ducked her head. "I'll be fifteen in two weeks."

"There, you see," Faye said to the others. "She's almost eligible. Now what were we talking about? That new slasher movie, wasn't it?"

"That's right," Deborah said, showing her teeth. "The one where the guy chops people up and makes them into condiments at his salad bar."

Suzan was unwrapping a Twinkie. "Oh, Deborah, don't. You're making me sick."

"Well, you make me sick with those things," Deborah said. "You never stop eating them. That's what those are, you know," she told Kori, pointing at Suzan's chest. "Two giant Twinkies. If Hostess went out of business, she'd be wearing a double A."

Faye and I laughed and even Suzan giggled. Kori was smiling too, but looking uncomfortable.

"Kori! We're not embarrassing you, are we?" I exclaimed as I pushed a lock of my golden hair behind my ear. I then began to play with my rose quartz which hung on a necklace around my neck.

"Don't be silly. I don't embarrass easily," Kori said.

"Well, with brothers like yours, I should think not. Still," Faye went on, "you seem so young, you know; almost... virginal. But that's probably just a false impression, right?"

Kori was blushing now. We were looking at her with insinuating smiles.

"Well, sure - I mean, it is a false impression - I'm not all that young - “Kori swallowed, looking confused. "I went out with Jimmy Clark all last summer," she ended defensively.

"Why don't you tell us all about it?" Faye murmured. Kori looked more confused.

"I - well - I think I'd better get going. I've got gym next period, and I have to get all the way over to E-wing. I'll see you guys." She got up quickly and disappeared.

"Strange, she left her lunch," Faye mused, frowning gently. "Oh, well." She extracted a package of cupcakes from Kori's lunch sack and tossed them to Suzan, who giggled.

Deborah, though, was frowning. "That was stupid, Faye. We're going to need her later - like in two weeks. One empty space, one candidate, you know?"

"True," Faye said. "Oh, well, I'll make it up to her. Don't worry; when the time comes, she'll be on our side."

"I suppose we'd better get moving too," Suzan said, "Maddie and I have got to climb all the way to the third floor for algebra."

"Which could take hours," Deborah said maliciously. "But don't strain yourself just yet. There's more company coming."

I sighed in exasperation, without turning. "Who now? What do we have to do to get a little peace around here?"

"It's Madame Class President herself. Sally. And there's steam coming out of her ears."

Faye's expression of annoyance vanished, dissolving into something more beautiful and infinitely more dangerous. Still sitting with her back to the school, she smiled and worked her long, red-tipped fingers like a cat exercising its claws. "And I thought today was going to be boring," she murmured, clucking her tongue. "It just shows you can never tell. Well, hello, Sally," she said aloud, standing and turning in one smooth motion. "What a lovely surprise. How was your summer?"

"Save it, Faye," said the girl who'd just marched down the steps. She was a good head shorter than Faye, and slighter of build, but her arms and legs had a wiry look and her fists were clenched as if she were prepared to do physical battle. "I didn't come out here to chat."

"But we haven't had a good talk in so long... Did you do something to your hair? It's so - interesting."

I looked at Sally’s hair. It had a rusty cast to it, and looked frizzled and overpermed. "I didn't come to talk about my hair, either!" snapped Sally. She had a strident voice that was climbing higher with every sentence. "I came to talk about Jeffrey. You leave him alone!"

Faye smiled, very slowly. "Why?" she murmured, and in contrast to Sally's voice hers seemed even lower and more sensual. "Afraid of what he'll do if you're not there to hold his hand?"

"He's not interested in you!"

"Is that what he told you? Hmm. He seemed very interested this morning. He's taking me out Saturday night."

"Because you're making him."

"Making him? Are you suggesting a big boy like Jeffrey can't say no when he wants to?" Faye shook her head. "And why isn't he here now to speak for himself? I'll tell you something, Sally," she added, her voice dropping confidentially. "He didn't fight hard this morning. He didn't fight hard at all."

Sally's hand drew back as if she wanted to hit the bigger girl, but she didn't. "You think you can do anything, Faye - you and the rest of the Club! Well, it's time somebody showed you that you can't. There are more of us - lots more - and we're getting tired of being pushed around. It's time somebody took a stand."
 
"Is that what you're planning to do?" Faye said pleasantly. Sally had been circling her like a bulldog looking for an opening, and now the wiry girl had ended on the edge of the landing with her back to the steps leading down.
 
"Yes!" Sally cried defiantly.
 
"Funny," murmured Faye, "Because it's going to be hard to do that flat on your back." With the last words she flicked her long red fingernails in Sally's face.
 
Faye didn’t actually touch Sally but it was as if something hit Sally. Something invisible. And heavy. The wiry girl's entire body jerked back and she tried frantically to regain her footing on the edge of the landing. Arms flailing, she teetered for an endless instant and then fell backward.
 
"Let go! You ripped my shirt," Sally exclaimed as she pushed Cassie off her. Cassie had come out of nowhere and tackled Sally. "And as for you, Faye Chamberlain - you tried to kill me! But you'll get yours, you wait and see!"
 
"I'll get yours too, Sally," Faye promised, smiling, but the sleepiness in her smile wasn't genuine anymore. She looked as if underneath she were grinding her teeth.
 
"You just wait," Sally repeated vehemently. "Someday they may find you at the bottom of those stairs with a broken neck." With that, she marched to the landing and up the steps, bringing her foot down on each as if she were stamping on Faye's face. She didn't even look back or acknowledge Cassie's existence. Cassie turned to face us.
 
"Well, now, what do we have here?" Faye said in a throaty voice. "A spy? Or a little white mouse?"
 
"I saw her this morning," I said. "She was hanging out in the parking lot, staring at me."
 
"Oh, I've seen her before that, Maddie," Faye replied. "I saw her last week at Number Thirteen. She's a neighbour."
 
"You mean she's - " Suzan broke off.
 
"Yes." I answered
 
"Whatever else she is, she's dead meat now," Deborah said. Her petite face was twisted in a scowl.
 
"Let's not be hasty," Faye murmured. "Even mice may have their uses. By the way, how long were you hiding there?"
 
"Long enough," she said, and shut her eyes in misery.
 
Faye descended slowly to stand in front of her. "Do you always spy on other people's private conversations?"
 
"I was here before you came," Cassie said, with as much spirit as she could manage.  "I was here first," she said defiantly.
 
"Very good," murmured Faye, and there was an odd look in her eyes. Then she turned her head. "Anything interesting in her backpack?"
 
Deborah was going through her backpack, throwing things out one by one. "Not much," the biker said, tossing it on the ground so the rest of its contents scattered down the hillside.
 
"All right." Faye was smiling again, a particularly unpleasant smile that made her red lips look cruel. "I think you were right the first time, Deborah. She's dead meat." She looked at Cassie. "You're new here, so you probably don't understand what kind of mistake you've made. And I don't have time to stand here and tell you. But you'll find out. You'll find out - Cassie."
 
She reached out and caught Cassie's chin with long, red-tipped fingers.  Laughing suddenly, Faye released her. "Come on," she said to us. The four of us turned and went up the steps.
 
After school I was about to get into my car when a figure blocked me. “What do you want Diana?”
 
“I want to talk to you. Why have you been hanging out with Faye so much Maddie? What has gotten into you?”
 
 I opened my car door and turned to face my cousin whose shiny fair hair so similar to mine was tied back. “What’s gotten into me?”
 
“Is this about Nick?” She demanded.
 
“No Diana. This is about me. Why don’t you worry about your own boyfriend? And do you know what I think? That too much goodness, Diana, gets boring.” With that I got into my car and closed the door.

Chapter Text

When I got back my house that afternoon my father didn't seem to be downstairs. Finally, as I wandered from room to room calling, my grandmother appeared on the staircase. The look on her face made my stomach lurch.

"What's wrong? Where's Dad?"

"Madelyn. Sweetheart-" My grandmother started.

I sighed. "He's not coming is he?"

"His conference got extended so he won't be back until next week. He sent this for you." My grandmother gave me a small black box. I took it and went to my room. I was the definition of a rich spoiled girl. I had all the latest and top-notch things in my room. I opened the box and saw inside were diamond earrings. I closed the box and placed it in a drawer with the rest of the gifts my father gave me when he missed an event of mine.

That night, I couldn't sleep. My dreams were plagued with images of a dark shadowy figure which seemed all too familiar.

It was Friday morning when things became interesting. I watched Cassie stop in front of her locker. She didn't want to open it, scared because of all the pranks we pulled on her so far that week. She dialled the combination slowly. The locker door opened.

This time she couldn't even scream. The smell... Her locker was full of hamburger. Raw and red like flesh with the skin torn off, darkening to purple where it was going bad from lack of refrigeration. Pounds and pounds of it. It smelled like...

Like meat. Dead meat.

Cassie slammed the locker shut, but it bounced off some of the hamburger that was oozing out the bottom. She whirled and stumbled away, her vision hazing over.

A hand grabbed her and soon her backpack was being pulled off her shoulder.

She turned to see a pretty, sullen face. Malicious dark eyes. A motorcycle jacket. Deborah tossed the backpack past Cassie, and automatically Cassie whirled, following it.

On the other side she saw shoulder-length blond hair. Slanted, slightly mad blue-green eyes. A laughing mouth. It was one of the guys she'd seen roller blading around the school- the Henderson brothers.

"Welcome to the jungle," he sang. He threw the backpack to me and I caught it singing another line. I threw it to back to Deborah. Cassie couldn't help turning around and around between us, like a cat chasing a fur mouse on a string. Tears flooded her eyes. The laughter and singing rang in her ears, louder and louder.

Suddenly an arm thrust out and caught the backpack in mid-air. The laughter died. I turned to see Nick. He was wearing a T-shirt with rolled-up sleeves and the same worn-in black jeans.

"Aw, Nick," Doug complained. "You're wrecking our game."

"Get out of here," Nick said.

"You get out," I snarled from behind Cassie. "We were just - "

"Yeah, we were only - "Deborah added

"Shut up." Nick glanced at Cassie's locker, with globs of meat still seeping out of it. Then he thrust the backpack at her. "You get out," he said.

"Thank you," she said, blinking back the tears.

"It's not much to thank me for," he said. His voice was like a cold wind. Clutching the backpack to her, she fled.

I rolled my eyes and walked away to my own locker to grab my books and went to Physics. I sat next to Suzan who whispered to me "After school, old science building."

After Physics I had Algebra and I sat down at the back. Somebody sat next to me and I groaned. "I swear Melanie if you are going to give me the same speech Diana did I'm going to do something that I may regret later!"

"We just want to talk to you." Melanie's grey eyes shined. "Why won't you talk to us anymore? Now you're hanging out with Faye? It doesn't make sense."

I ignored Melanie's attempts at conversation for the rest of the lesson and went to the old science building after school.

The old science building didn't look as if it had been used for a while; there was a padlock on the door, but that had been sprung. I pushed on the door and it swung away from me.

Inside, it was dim. I couldn't make out any details but I could see a stairway. I climbed it, one hand on the wall to guide myself.

It was when I reached the top of the stairway that I saw Faye, Suzan and Deborah already here. Suzan shushed me and led me next to her. A few moments later I heard someone's footsteps as they entered the room.

"Hello, Cassie," said Faye. "I'm afraid Sally couldn't make it. But maybe you and I can help each other instead."

"You sent the note," Cassie said flatly.

Faye smiled her slow, terrible smile. "Somehow I didn't think you'd come if I used my own name," she said. "How do you like the little presents you've been finding?"

Tears came to Cassie's eyes. "Haven't you been sleeping well?" Faye continued her throaty voice innocent. "You look awful. Or maybe your dreams have been keeping you awake."

Cassie turned to cast a quick look behind her. There was an exit there, but Suzan and I were in front of it.

"Oh, you can't go yet," Faye said. "I wouldn't dream of letting you."

Cassie stared at her. "Faye, just leave me alone..."

"Dream on," said Deborah, and she laughed nastily.

Faye was holding a piece of paper in her hand, a poem. Cassie lunged at Faye crying, "That's mine!"

It took Faye by surprise. She reeled back, dodging, holding the poem high out of Cassie's reach. Then something caught Cassie's arms from behind, pinning them.

"Thank you, Deborah," Faye said, slightly breathless. She looked at Cassie. "I suppose even a little white mouse will turn. We'll have to remember that. But just now," she continued, "we're going to have an impromptu poetry reading. I'm sorry the atmosphere isn't more - appropriate - but what can you do? This used to be the science building, but nobody comes here much anymore. Not since Doug and Chris Henderson made a little mistake in a chemistry experiment. You've probably seen the Henderson brothers - they're hard to miss. Nice guys, but a little irresponsible. They accidentally made a bomb."

"Of course, some people think it's unsafe here," Faye continued, "so they keep it locked. But we've never let a little thing like that stop us. It is private, though. We can make all the noise we want and nobody will hear us."

Deborah's grip on Cassie's arms looked painful. But Cassie started to struggle again as Faye cleared her throat and held up the paper.

I walked over to Faye and she handed the paper to me. "Let me see... 'My Dreams,' by Cassie Blake. Imaginative title, by the way."

"You don't have any right-" Cassie began, but I ignored her I could feel Faye's smirk on the back of my neck. I began reading in a theatrical, melodramatic voice:

"Each night I lie and dream about the one - "

"It's private!" Cassie cried.

"Who kissed me and awakened my desire - "

"Let me go!"

"I spent a single hour with him alone - "

"It isn't fair - "

"And since that hour, my days are laced with fire." I looked up. "That's it. What do you think, Deborah?"

"It stinks," Deborah said, and then gave a little wrench to Cassie's arms as Cassie tried to tear away. "It's stupid."

"Oh, I don't know. I liked some of the imagery. About fire, for instance. Do you like fire, Cassie?" Faye asked

Cassie went still.

"Do you think about fire, Cassie? Do you dream about it?"

Dry-mouthed, Cassie stared at Faye.

Faye smiled her eyes filed with excitement. "Would you like to see a fire trick?"

Cassie shook her head.

I handed the piece of paper to Faye. Faye snapped the piece of paper in her hand, forming it into a loose cone. Flame burst out of one corner at the top.

"Why don't you tell us who the poem is about, Cassie? This boy who awakened you - who is he?"

Cassie leaned away, trying to escape the blazing paper in front of her face.

"Careful," Deborah said mockingly from behind her. "Don't get too close to her hair."

"What, you mean this close?" said Faye. "Or this close?"

Cassie had to twist her neck to evade the flame. Little glowing bits of paper were flying off in every direction. The brightness left an afterimage.

"Oops, that was close. I think her eyelashes are too long anyway, Deborah, don't you?"

Cassie was fighting now, but Deborah was astonishingly strong "Let go of me –" she gasped out.

"But I thought you liked fire, Cassie. Look into the fire. What do you see?"

Cassie looked like she didn't want to obey, but she couldn't help it. Surely the paper should have burned up by now. But it was still blazing. Tears flooded her eyes and fell down her cheeks.

"Oh, she's just a baby after all," I said, and there was savage disgust in my voice. Disgust and something like disappointment. "Come on, baby, can't you cry any harder than that? If you cry hard enough, maybe you can put it out." A part of me felt bad but just as soon as the feeling appeared it, it disappeared.

Still sobbing, Cassie tossed her head back and forth as the blazing paper stabbed closer. So close that tears fell on it and sizzled.

"What are you doing? Let go of her - now!" The voice came out of nowhere.