The next day we started at our new job at Comix and Video Games. I started working at the back lifting and arranging the boxes that arrived every day and Liz started working on cash register duty. Apparently that store was very popular with the guys (and occasional girls who dared to show themselves in the store) of the city.

Nothing much happened that year. Liz and I were able to find a cheap apartment to rent in the perfect spot, the perfect distance from Timmy's house and our work. We made a lot of money from babysitting. It wasn't just Timmy. We were able to get Vicky fired from many other babysitting jobs. I was grateful that she had turned eighteen. Otherwise, she had a very good chance of getting a fairy godparent, or so Betania thought. I hoped Jorgen wasn't that stupid, but from what I had seen of him, I wasn't really sure. We made enough money to buy a small truck that we were able to use to go to our babysitting jobs, which escalated when school came around. We couldn't baby-sit everyone in separate places, so we arranged it so that they all came over to our apartment, which was (fortunately) big enough for those whom we had freed from Vicky's evil clutches. Needless to say, she was as furious as furious could get, at least with her. We normally had around six or seven children around either playing video games with me, doing girl stuff with Liz or both at the same time. There were some nights where there were just guys, some with just girls and some with a mixture. Some nights Tootie came over, mainly to be with Timmy. Liz and I took those opportunities to get to know her better. We asked why she wore the weird outfit and why she didn't go get contacts. She replied (confidentially) that Vicky made her wear them. We also asked about her love for Timmy, at which point she said that her love for him burned with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. Liz worked on getting Timmy and Tootie together. I really didn't approve, since I thought that Trixie was the one that Timmy should be with. Liz thought that Tootie should be Timmy's girlfriend. This was one point that we disagreed on.

The apartment that we lived in was a suitable size for the two of us. In order that people didn't get any ideas, we each slept in separate rooms. Betania became our cat. We were able to raise enough money to get a reasonable amount of necessary materials, electronics and furniture. We didn't get anything that we didn't need to have such as a VCube or high speed gaming computer (although we had enough money for them). We did get a reasonable priced computer that the Turner's didn't want anymore. We hooked it up to the internet.

I didn't have any attacks that year and eventually we forgot about the incident. I hid the jewelry in a chest that I had wished up. I forgot about them as well.

Until that day…

---

Than fateful morning I woke up feeling nauseous. We had been given the day off the day before and as such we were able to baby-sit five kids consisting of Timmy and his four friends. Timmy brought his VCube and we played until it was time for Timmy to go. We had eaten a ton of junk food and nothing healthy the previous night. We had to go to work, however. Before Liz got up, I went to the bathroom and emptied the remaining contents of my stomach.

I didn't eat much breakfast. A small bowl of cereal; and a glass of orange juice was all that I had. As we were leaving, I noticed that my jewelry was sitting on the counter. I told Liz to go out to the car, giving the excuse that I had forgotten something. I picked up my jewelry and for fear of someone snatching them from my pocket, put them on.

To my relief, nothing happened. I wondered how they had gotten there, but since we were pretty late, I put that at the back of my mind. I walked out to the car. Liz was in the driver's seat, waiting impatiently.

"What took you so long?" she asked when I got in.

"I was only a minute." I replied with a growl and left it at that.

The drive to work was uneventful. We arrived at eight fifty-five. The store wasn't open yet so we wandered around. It was only then that I noticed the renovations that had been going on since Christmas. They had completely redone the square and the food court as well as many of the stores. What stood out was the Nasty Burger. It looked a lot more like the original located in Amity Park.

Finally Greg came and unlocked the door. We were always the first ones at the store most every day. Liz took her station at the cash register and I went to the back and started moving, packing and unpacking boxes.

The day was pretty normal for the first half. Lunch-time came around. Liz and I were replaced by a couple others. We stepped out and bought a couple of Double Nasty Burgers. We sat down at our normal booth close to the store.

About halfway through the meal, we spotted Timmy, Chester, and A.J. we waved. They spotted us and came up.

"Hey guys," I began. "What's shakin'?"

"Oh, not much. Chester, A.J. and I were just going over to the Arcade. There's a new game there. I heard a couple of other people talking about it a couple nights ago."

"What's it called?" Liz asked

"Crossover Annihilation. It has Catman, the Crimson Chin, Skull Squisher and Crash Nebula all in the same game!"

"Whoa, dude. That sounds awesome!" I said excitedly. During the past year I had spent some of the long stretches where I had nothing to do reading the extra comics that had been lying around. I had become big fans of all four of them. I knew almost as much as there was to know about them as Timmy did.

"It does! We can't wait to play it!" Chester acted as if he had had a bit too much caffeine that morning.

"I'm just here for a highly scientific study concerning reaction rates."

"Re-what now?" Chester asked, a confused look on his face. I knew what A.J. was talking about and so did Liz, but we kept our mouths shut while A.J. explained. By the end of his lecture, Timmy and Chester were holding their heads, their poor brains obviously in overload.

When they recovered, Chester glared at A.J, remarking how he knew how to take the fun out of everything.

"What's wrong with—?"

"Oh, shut up and let's go you two." Timmy looked impatient to go. "Well, see you two around!" they walked off, Chester and A.J. glaring at each other all the way. Liz giggled. I smiled and we went back to our meal. We finished five minutes later.

We had about ten minutes of free time so we decided to go explore. Liz went off to a girls store and I went off to the nearest DVD store. For ten minutes I looked at the newer DVD's such as the newest Catman movie, The Clawed Knight. When the ten minutes were almost up, I hurried back to the store. Liz was already getting ready to replace Carly, Liz's sub. I strolled back to my work area and began to do the brute work of moving boxes.

About an hour later, Liz came back. She said that business was slow and no one was coming in. We then fell to wondering what our parents must have thought when we disappeared.

"Maybe they thought we ran away and went to Vegas," Liz joked. I gave her the you wish look

"I wouldn't go to Vegas in my right mind," I replied, placing down another box.

"My point exactly."

"What!? Why you…" I began chasing her around the room. We were both laughing so hard we were tired in about five minutes. We were both alone. We had given Betania the week off and she had gone to visit her family. We were even privileged to meet some of them: Cosmo, Wanda and Poof. We were able to contact her if needed through the fairy phones she had given each of us.

Soon we had to stop. We sat on some boxes, breathing heavily.

Suddenly I began to feel a small pain in both my ears. I tried to clear them out, hoping that was all that was wrong. My eyes began to get irritated and my nose began to get cold. Liz noticed and asked what was wrong. Before I could answer, piercing pain seared through my skull. It was like someone had dumped magma on my head it was so painful. I was vaguely aware of someone screaming my name. An instant later I realized that Liz was the one shouting my name.

A mirror was straight across from me. Just as I was losing consciousness, I glanced into it for a couple of seconds. I saw the blood streaming from my nose, mouth, ears and eyes this time. But that was not what scared me.

One thought was on my mind as I slipped into the comforting waves of darkness again.

Why am I glowing blue?

Oooo! What's going to happen next? I wonder... (It's never a good thing when an author doesn't even know what's going to happen next *smiles*) Oh and thank you, once again for the positive reviews. All three of you! They are much apprieciated. reviews are the life force that keeps me alive (as a writer)! I cannot say thank you enough. THANK YOU!!!

morbiusgreen

p.s. Did I say thank you?