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

Odd and Ulrich had a very strange conversation about the dreams they had over night.

Odd told Ulrich about the incident with Sissi in the cornfield, all of it, and what happened next at the old woman's.

Ulrich said that he too had been in the cornfield, and at the farmhouse, but wouldn't elaborate on his encounter with either the man in the cornfield, or the old woman.

"It's none of your business, Odd," Ulrich said.

Odd let it go, thinking Ulrich would tell him when, and if he felt like it.

They got up and showered for the day. On the way to the showers, they stopped by Jeremie's room to pick him up, and to ask him about his dreams.

Jeremie's door was unlocked, so they went in.

Jeremie wasn't there. From the way the room looked, he had jumped out of bed, did something and left, in enough of a hurry that he forgot to lock his door.

The boys didn't really think too much about it, because Jeremie was forgetful at times, and would suddenly remember that he had to be somewhere and drop everything to get there.

Odd, looking around the room, noticed a book lying on Jeremie's desk. He went over and looked closer at it.

"The Stand," By Stephen King.

"Whoa, Ulrich, look at this! Einstein is expanding his reading list!"

Ulrich looked at the book and replied, "I never thought Jeremie was into that kind of thing. And even if he was, Stephen King? Jeremie's been known to gag if the beef is too rare in the cafeteria."

"Well, maybe he's growing up," Odd said, and put the book back on the desk.

The both walked out, and went to take their showers.

The rest of the morning, the two spent in a pick-up game of soccer at the local park. The running, passing and kicking took their minds off of the dreams of the night before.

At lunchtime, they were walking into the cafeteria when Jeremie burst out the door, ran between them and away.

"What the heck was that all about?" Odd asked.

"The beef's too rare, probably," Ulrich replied. They both shrugged their shoulders and went in to eat.

Ulrich had gone off on his own after lunch, and had not said where. Like he really needed to.

"Off to get your Yumi fix, eh," Odd had yelled to him. Ulrich just flipped Odd The Finger in reply and ran off.

The afternoon was boring, except when he ran into Aelita. She was looking for Jeremie.

"We saw him running out of the cafeteria at lunch today, and that's the only time we've seen him," he told Aelita.

"It's not like Jeremie to be gone so long. I mean, when was the last time you saw him before today?"

"Last week, when we..." Odd really couldn't finish.

"None of us have really been together since then, have we," Aelita replied, "Odd, there's something wrong. I don't know what it is, but I'm becoming really afraid."

"Look Aelita, what happened last week was rough on all of us. You almost died, XANA escaped, and it looks like whatever comes next is going to be worse than anything we've ever seen 'til now. When stuff like this happens, you can't help but pull away, for a little while."

"But for this long?"

"I don't know, I've never had something like this happen to me before." On that down note, Odd left.

That evening, Odd settled down to sleep, alone. Ulrich had not returned from wherever he went this afternoon.

Odd was standing in the yard of the old woman's house. He half expected to wind up there again, but didn't expect to see Sissi Delmas sitting on the ground, fussing with something in a shoe box.

Another thing he noticed. He was garbed like he was when he was fighting in Lyoko. He kind of wondered if his Laser Arrows would work here like they did there. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to find out.

The other thing he noticed was the silver chain around his neck. One end was formed into a loop around his neck, the other ran down and was in Sissi's right hand.

He knew what he needed to do, so he got to it.

He spoke to her, telling her why he thought he was here with her, but she was more concerned about whatever was in the box than what he was saying. Kneeling down, he abandoned his former course of action, and tried a new one. He looked in the shoe box.

There was a little chick in the box. It was a reddish orange, and it almost glowed. But, Sissi was right, there was something wrong with it, it looked about ready to die. There was something else about the chick. For some reason, it seemed familiar to him.

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

"Well, I guess we could try..." Sissi replied. With that, Odd began to dig.

The claws on his gloved hands made perfect digging tools. After two swipes, he had dug down enough to uncover two big, fat, worms. He plucked them out of the ground and handed them to her.

She took the worms and fed them to the chick. That seemed to perk the chick right up and it actually looked like it was glowing brighter. Sissi, a bright smile on her face at the turn of events, the turned around and began digging in the dirt herself. Odd did the same.

After a little bit of digging up worms and feeding them to the chick, Odd heard Sissi scream. He turned to her just as she was pulled into a great hole that opened up in the ground. As soon has she had vanished in the hole, it closed up.

Odd jumped over to where Sissi just was, looking about for some indication of where she was. Something finally told him, there, and he began tearing the ground away. He quickly came to where she was buried, and pulled her out.

She had some kind of huge worm wrapped around her neck, and it was strangling her. With his claws, Odd cut away the thing, throwing the pieces off to the side. Her face was purple/blue from lack of air, but she was breathing.

"Sissi, are you alright? Sissi? Sissi, answer me!"

She was looking at Odd, but it was like he wasn't there, or she couldn't hear him. Her eyes darted about, like she was trying to look at something, something that wasn't there.

Then she disappeared.

Odd was on his hands and knees on the ground, alone, in front of the old woman's shack.

What just happened? I had better make sure she's okay when I wake up, Odd thought to himself just before he disappeared.