A/N: thanks for all of you that are still reading, and thanks for the reviews and story alerts. I appreciate the input so I know that my effort to entertain you has not been done in vain.

The bed room chamber of the pecan ripple palace:

Jimmy woke up as the sun rose over the horizon. The panoramic windows gave him an unheeded view as the light filled the sky revealing the surrounding country side. He could see a little village off in the distance that was at the foot hills of a mountain range that seemed to stretch on forever. He could see the smoke coming out of the chimneys and despite the distance he could hear a rooster making its cry. He was more than a little impressed that Cindy had envisioned such a place. She was a remarkable girl.

He glanced down to see if Cindy was awake yet. She was lying in his left arm with her head on his chest. She had taken her elastic band out of her hair for the night forcing him to gently brush it to the side so he could see her face.

He didn't really know when the transition had first occurred, the bond that had formed between him and Cindy. He started to think back to when he first met her. He pictured the little 8 year old girl with pig tails and braces as accurately as if it was a photograph.( a side effect of a photographic mind) She had teased him mercilessly without any real explanation. She never missed out on an opportunity to make fun of him when one of his inventions went wrong.

They formed a competitive rivalry to always try to one up each other. He hated her at first with a passion that seemingly had no end. It became an obsession. He remembered how he had looked forward to class presentations and class projects so he could see the look of disappointment in her face when his project was better than hers. He had loved proving her wrong. Nothing had satisfied him as much as wiping that smug look off her face. But that slowly changed as he realized that she was the highlight of his very world. He was so got up in his thoughts that he finally realized there was a strange sound coming from outside.

Cindy woke up to find that she and Goddard were alone. She got up lazily and greeted Goddard. The mechanical K-9 barked happily in response. She asked "Goddard do you know where Jimmy is?"

Goddard ran a scan and his panel flipped over revealing a message that said "he is down stairs in the main hall. She quickly dressed and dashed down the stairs. She heard the doors opening as she reached the main hall and caught a glimpse of Jimmy as he walked out the door. "I wonder where he's going?" she said to herself. It was then that she heard the music.

Jimmy couldn't stop himself as he continued down toward the water, toward the source of the music. It sounded like singing but no human voice could make such a sweet melody that he knew of. He tried to stop himself but like the children in the old pied piper story he couldn't stop himself. A figure came out of the water to greet him. She was beautiful as was her singing. She was familiar somehow but he couldn't think straight under the spell of her enchanting song.

The figure had long brown hair and brown eyes and the most inviting smile. She kept singing as she gestured for him to come to her. He approached slowly. He knew somehow in the core of his being that something was wrong but he couldn't stop himself. His mind screamed for his legs to stop but his body kept going. The being shimmered slightly as she opened her arms to embrace him and his mind registered that this scantily dressed water nymph looked like Betty Quinlan and in Cindy's mind that was not a good thing.

She hugged him as she kept up the beautiful singing that had enticed her prey to her trap in a similar way that a spider builds a web next to a street lamp to catch the prey that are drawn to the light.

He felt her kiss his neck gently. Her breath tickled and it made a shiver run down his back. His mind screamed in terror but there was nothing he could do. She placed her open mouth on his neck and bit down gently. He could feel a mouth full of tiny pin pricks slice into his flesh. She slurped as she drained his life fluid out of him. His heart pounded in his chest as the adrenaline raced through him. But his strength was fading out of him. He became light headed and she supported his weight in her deceptively powerful arms. Before he blacked out he thought one last time of his Cindy and then he drifted off into unconsciousness.

To be continued…

A/N sorry to leave it there but I have to head to work. I'll update tonight when I get home.