"Damn!" she yelped, grabbing her ankle in pain. Dee felt she had lost her edge. Couldn't even perform a straightforward front punch anymore without hurting herself. She hobbled over to the side of the fitness studio, propping herself against the wall. Ever since that game... "Oh stop it," she thought to herself. The fact that she hadn't been stretching regularly and had indulged in a few too many bags of fritos really wasn't Julian's fault. Her excuses for not exercising were sounding pretty pitiful lately. But still, the haunted look she kept seeing in her friends' eyes was getting to her.
"You alright Dee? You seem a little off today." It was one of the other black belts. Mike. Who incidentally made a habit of "being off." Dee had always wondered how he had earned his belt. "I could give you a ride home if you want," he offered raising his eyebrows suggestively. "Thanks, Mike," Dee replied, grimacing, "but I'm fine, really."
As she bowed before leaving the studio she caught Mike giving her an appreciative glance from the corner of her eye. It was definitely time to head out, she thought, shuddering slightly under his gaze. She wanted to shower quickly before she met Jenny for the movie tonight. Jenny, Jenny, Jenny. If Dee's new problems involved fritos, Jenny's issues seemed to be a little more complicated. Not as bad as Zach though. The affection that had seemed to spring up between him and Summer proved short-lived to say the least, and Dee had often noticed him staring strangely at Jenny with a bizarre gleam in his eye. She couldn't really put her finger on what was going on with him, but Dee knew the less she saw of him lately, the better she felt.
"Okay," she thought, "time to cheer Jenny up, whether she likes it or not" as she pulled her car out of the parking lot.
Jenny began to gather her hair into a low ponytail, then paused, throwing the leopard print scrunci back on top of her dresser. Well, maybe Julian would take some satisfaction in the fact he had influenced her enough that she'd graduated from pastel solids to leopard print when it came to her scrunci preferences. "Except that he's not watching you anymore," she thought. "Damn." She shook out her hair and felt to make sure the ring was still on its chain against her chest. Yes, it was there. Earlier she had caught her mother frowning pensively at her left hand when she had still worn the ring on her finger. The last thing any of them needed was to rehash the whole shadow world fiasco again. Especially once her parents and everyone else's had finally accepted that the kids had all experienced some sort of massive long-lived group hallucination. Summer's parents still seemed to harbor suspicions that it had all been drug induced, but all of the tests had turned up negative. Lately though, Jenny wondered. She had felt about as attractive as a dishrag the last couple months. The idea that some unbelievably handsome prince of the shadows had stalked and abducted her began to sound a little incredible. "Hmm," she thought flashing what she tried to make a wickedly seductive grin at the mirror, "Jenny, queen of darkness!"
"Jenny!" her mother cried. "You are just going out with Dee tonight, aren't you?" Jenny's nerves grated at the suspicious tone in her mother's voice. Though she realized it probably would have helped her case if she hadn't been trying out her come-hither smile at that exact moment, it was still frustrating. "Your father and I think you have lied to both of us enough recently. I would hate to think you were hiding anything from us again..."
"No, mom, I'm not hiding anything. It's just Dee and I tonight." The cloying scent of Shalimar was going to make her sneeze if her mother remained leaning over in that accusative stance much longer. There was simply way too much essence of amber for her to breath. Her mother kept looking at her, this time narrowing her eyes. "Really mom. You know I'm not with Tom anymore."
"Well, honey, just keep in mind that in rebound relationships, you can't always depend upon your feelings. I know you and Tom were very close, I just don't want you to hurt yourself again."
"Mom," she replied, exasperated, "there is no guy. For the last time, it's just Dee. Really." Her mother just gave her a weak smile as she backed out of Jenny's room. Jenny took one more look in the mirror, this time just analyzing her face, looking for some sign of the girl she had seen reflected in Julian's eyes. I am my only master...all I refuse and thee I choose. They weren't necessarily irreconcilable statements. "Damn." she thought again for the second time that evening. "You're going to see a movie tonight with your best friend Dee, and you are going to have fun whether you feel like it or not," she told herself. She didn't understand why she was having this sudden Julian-reminiscence attack. She'd been fine for about a month now until tonight. Well, she'd always been able to pull out of her slumps eventually, and she promised herself that this time would be no different.
"Dee's here!" her father called out. Jenny grabbed her purse off the hook in her closet and headed out the door.
The movie hadn't really been bad, but the mediocre sci-fi action movie Dee had wanted to see wasn't really Jenny's thing. Before she had always dragged Tom off to sappy romantic comedies. Things were a bit different now, though. "That's got to be the understatement of the year," she thought. Those movies weren't as satisfying as they had been before. She had realized they didn't work so well when you weren't distracted by the warm body of your boyfriend sitting on your right. And after the amount of conflict she'd gone through during and after the games, the problems the lead characters had to surmount seemed rather tame.
"That was one hell of a roundhouse in that last duel!" Dee excitedly remarked. "Hmm," Jenny mumbled, "I think I missed that one." Dee just shook her head in mock desperation. "All of those beautifully choreographed action sequences, just wasted on you. It's sad, really."
Jenny started suddenly, grabbing Dee's forearm. She stood still, her body practically quivering with tension. "Do you feel that?" she asked Dee. As she turned her head to look at her friend, Jenny felt something she hadn't experienced in months. Eyes. Watching eyes. But that wasn't what had first attracted her attention. That had been the cold. "Jenny, maybe it's just some vent from the theater?" Dee suggested, uncertainly.
No. It wasn't some unseen vent, it was an icy tendril of mist and it was stretching and undulating towards Jenny. Her eyes widened in horror as it began to curl, beckoning like some disembodied finger. No. It couldn't touch her. "Please, no," she whispered. "No, not again." She felt as Dee shifted under her hand. Jenny finally glanced towards her friend and realized she was seeing this too. "Do you feel the eyes?" she whispered. Dee just looked at her for a moment. "I don't think we should just stand here talking Jenny," she hissed urgently, "let's get to the car. We don't have time to think about their eyes, we have to go, now." Dee began to drag her away towards the parking area. The mist lashed towards Jenny once more before retracting back into the shadow of the movie theater exit.
