Warning: Rated 'M' for horror-genre violence, adult situations and adult language.

The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

Certain characters have been adapted from 'The Stand,' by Stephen King, and he is the copyright holder of these.

Certain characters are based on 'Hikaru No Go' by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

Brief references are made to a character from 'Watership Down,' by Richard Adams, and he is the copyright holder of this character.

Saturday

Sissi returned to her room from her morning shower, still thinking about sickly baby birds and strange old black women. When she got back, she found a note on her bed:

Mr. Jean-Pierre Delmas Wishes to Inquire

If Miss Elizabeth Delmas would care to

Join Him for Dinner

This Evening at 7 pm.

"Yippieee!"

Every year since she could remember, her father would take her out to dinner for her birthday. Since she was ten, he always wrote her a formal note asking her to join him, like a gentleman calling to court her. Of course, she always accepted. And she tried to look her best for him each time. Because, on this day of all days, he treated her like a lady, not like a child.

She quickly got her cell phone and dialed a number.

"Yes, this is Miss Delmas calling. I would be more than happy to dine with you this evening, sir."

She listened at the response over the phone.

"6:30 pm, in front of the Administration Building. I will certainly be there."

Pause. "Yes. I am looking forward to the evening too."

With that, she hung up.

I'll have to start getting ready now! What am I going to wear?

With that thought, Sissi Delmas began the search for the perfect dress.

Dinner was wonderful. They went to a small Italian restaurant north of the city. Her father said that he hadn't been there in years, and wasn't sure it was still in business until recently. They ate and talked, not exactly as a father would to his little girl, but as a father might talk to his matured daughter. He always did this, on her birthday. She loved it more than the gift he gave her.

For this night, he was her father, not her principal, not principal, father, mother, brother, in-law or out-law to every kid in the school, but her father. This one evening, he would set aside whatever care, concern or problem that may be vexing him, and pay attention only to her. And one other.

For he was not only celebrating her reaching another year of life, he was also looking back and remembering his wife, Sissi's mother.

Sissi never knew her mother. She had died around the time that she was born. But her father had showed Sissi old photographs of her, and would always say that she looked so much like her mother that it almost hurt sometimes.

So, each year, he would formally ask his daughter to dinner, like he must have asked her mother those many years ago, and they would dine and talk and laugh, and he would remember.

After dinner, they returned to Kadic and went to the Principal's Residence. Tonight, she would sleep in the guest bedroom there, instead of her dorm room. Staying in the dorms was something she insisted on when they first came to the school. It was bad enough she was the principal's daughter, she had told him, but living in the Principal's Residence would only compound that stigma. Her father didn't like it, but he had agreed.

But tonight was different. It was her birthday. So she stayed with her father. She knew that come the morning, or Monday morning, Jean-Pierre Delmas would slip back into the Principal Suit that Life demanded he wear. But tonight, just for now, it was him, her, and the memory of her mother.

They sat and talked just a little longer. He even let her have a small sip of the wine he was drinking, something he would only do on very special occasions. Then it was 'off to bed now, young lady,' and she retired for the night, leaving him with the memories that, even after all of these years, blessed as they burned.

Sissi was sitting in front of the old woman's house in the middle of the cornfield. She sat, cross-legged, in the dirt looking down at the shoe box that contained the little bird. It was still in the box, and it still looked sickly. She had no idea what she was supposed to do to help.

Sissi also noticed something else strange. In her right hand was a very fine silver chain. She held one end of the chain in her hand, and the other end just ran off to the right into the distance. She thought it odd that it was there, but she made no move to get rid of it.

"Hello, Sissi," came a voice. She looked to her right again, and saw someone standing there. If she thought the chain was odd, the person she saw was even odder.

He was about her height, with blond hair with a purple blotch in it. She immediately recognized Odd Della Robbia, but the getup he was wearing was strange even for him!

He was wearing a purple cat costume. His hands were inside clawed gloves, there were what looked like stripes running down his arms, and he even had a tail!

There was one other thing she noticed. Around his neck, and running down to her right hand, was the silver chain.

She couldn't help it, "hello, Odd. Cat got your tongue?"

He laughed back.

"What are you doing in my dream, Odd?" she asked him.

"I've got something to ask you, and it would be better to ask it here, first, rather than in the real world. It's about the chain."

"Yes, I just noticed that it's around your neck. Do you need to be taken for a walk?"

Odd grimaced at that, but replied, "no, last night I, ahh, made a promise to someone about you, and they're holding me to it, but only if you agree."

"And what promise is that?" she asked, and was suddenly given the answer.

The chain in her hand started vibrating. Suddenly she heard in her mind his voice:

"I will never let anything like that happen to her! I will do all I can keep her safe! I will die myself if need be!"

She looked at Odd and asked, "keep me safe from what? Never let what happen?"

"Very bad things, Sissi. When I made that vow, I had just seen the worst ugliness a person should ever be made to witness. And I was told that it came from within me."

"You wanted something bad to happen to me?"

"No. But some of the meanness and spite that has been inside of me towards you got magnified and projected in front of my eyes. I didn't like what I saw, so I made that vow in recompense."

"And what do you want me to do? Release you from it? Is that what you want?"

"No. I want you to decide for yourself."

"Decide what?" Sissi was starting to get tired of this.

"To accept my vow. Or to deny it and free me. I would like you to accept it though. I truly fear that what I saw may come true all too soon."

"Well, I don't know about that right now. I still have to figure out what to do with this chick I'm supposed to be taking care of."

Odd knelt down, looking at the chick.

"I don't know, don't baby chicks need worms to eat? That's what mother birds bring to them all the time," he suggested after a moment.

"Well, I guess we could try..."

With that, Odd went the rest of the way to his knees and started scratching in the dirt. The claws on his gloves (hands?) quickly tore a hole into the ground, pulling up big fat, worms. He pulled a couple out of the ground and handed them to Sissi.

"Here, try this," he told her.

Inwardly gagging to herself, Sissi took the wriggling things, and gave one to the bird.

The chick opened its beak wide and gobbled the worm up whole. And, miracle of miracles, it seemed to perk up, get brighter!

She fed the other worm to the chick. It got better!

Now Sissi was on her hands and knees, clawing at the ground with her fingernails, trying to find more worms. She and Odd continued like this for a while, finding worms and feeding the little chick, then scrabbling about for more.

Then, while Sissi was digging, something grabbed her hand. She screamed, and was pulled down into the hole she had just scratched out. It expanded and swallowed her whole, just as the chick had done with the worms.

Sissi struggled, called out for help, but the hole had closed up behind her, encasing her in darkness. Then, she felt something snake itself around her neck and tighten. She tried to get her hands around whatever was strangling her, but her arms weren't responding to her commands. She continued to struggle and finally was able to get her hands up to her throat.

The thing around her neck felt alive. It was warm and it pulsed as it constricted. She tried and tried but couldn't get whatever it was to loosen its grip on her. She tried crying for help, screaming, anything, but no sound came out of her mouth. The thing kept tightening.

The she heard what sounded like muffled words. She couldn't make them out, nor could she identify who was talking, but whoever was talking was getting excited.

Then, she saw it, a little glimmer of light. It became larger, a line of light. Then a small opening. Sissi was starting to fade now, the garrote around her neck finishing its work.

Hands grabbed her. Clawed hands.

Suddenly, she was pulled up out of the ground. Odd had pulled her up and laid her down on the grass. He grabbed the thing strangling her and cut it with a swift flick of his claws. He flung the pieces away as she drank in her first breath of air.

In her mind, she was not hearing Odd asking her if she was alright. The muffled voices she heard while buried were now clearer.

"I've got the baby! The cord's wrapped around her throat! Scissors!"

"BP is 60 over 80 and dropping fast! Pulse 120 and thready!"

"Push another liter of Ringers!"

"I've got bleeding in here! Get me suction! No! Here!"

"BP is 40 over 60! Heartbeat is erratic! She's going into de-fib!"

"I've got massive hemorrhaging here!"

"We're losing her..."

Sunday

Sissi woke up screaming. She sat bolt upright.

Her father ran into the room. "Sissi, what's the matter?"

Sissi threw herself into her father's arms, crying hysterically.

"Daddy, it was horrible! I was trying to feed my little chick the old woman gave me and I got pulled underground and something was strangling me and Odd pulled me out and..."

Jean-Pierre just held his daughter as she cried out the experience. Presently, she settled down with one last sob, and he let her sit back on her bed.

"Daddy, can I ask you something?"

"Yes, Sissi, you can ask me anything," he replied.

"How did Mother die?"

Jean-Pierre was shocked. He had never held back the fact that her mother had died when she was born. Until today, she had never asked for details.

"Well, you mother died when you were born and..."

"She died having me, didn't she," Sissi asked, a sad look on her face.

"Yes, Sissi, she did," he replied after a moment. There was no avoiding this now.

"Your mother had a rough time while she was carrying you. In the last few months, she was confined to bed for fear that something would happen to you or her otherwise. When the time came for you to be born, we were happy that you both had made it."

"But during the labor, something happened. You started having problems and the doctors got so worried that they decided to perform a cesarean section to get you out."

"What's a 'cesarean section,' daddy?"

"It is a surgical procedure where the doctors cut into a mother's abdomen to remove the baby."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Yes, it can be. And it was, in this case."

Jean-Pierre paused a moment, then continued. "The doctor's removed you from your mother's womb and saved you. But there was a problem. Somehow, she started bleeding inside and the doctors couldn't stop it. She died moments after you were born."

Sissi sat there, the echoes of the voices reverberating through her mind. Then another thought raised itself.

"Daddy, what was wrong with me that they had to do the cesarean section?" Sissi knew what the answer was even before her father confirmed it.

He told her, "they told me that your umbilical cord had wrapped itself around your neck. If they hadn't removed you, you would have strangled to death before you could be born."