Sandi Griffin floated in the void, surrounded by the shouts and screams of her unseen companions. Her bare body felt like a dried leaf caught up in a raging wind. Gusts of heat, and ice cold winds blasted her cringing flesh. The roaring of the eternal storm blowing between worlds was the only other noise. A faint tugging was pulling on her comatose spirit, a feeling of something undone, a responsibility she still had. The dim images of three young women flickered in her mind's eye, displacing the constant images of her disappointed, angry mother screaming and striking her over and over.
Sandi's screaming had joined that of the others being blown in the darkness of the great Abyss. "I'm sorry, so sorry! I love you, mommy, don't hit me anymore! Sam! Chris! Why do you hate me so much! I'm your sister! Dad! Why don't you ever protect me! Are you as afraid of me as you are of Mom! Why is all this happening! I'm sorry I'm so stupid! I'm sorry I was so mean to every body! Quinn, Stacy, Tiffany, I didn't mean to drag you into this, it wasn't supposed to be this way, they lied to me! They all lied to me! No, leave Quinn and Tiffany alone! Don't make her do that, damn you! She's my best friend! You said I'd pay, not anybody else! You were just supposed to make Mom love me again! That's all I wanted! That's all I ever wanted!"
Flickering images now appeared in Sandi's mind: Stacy's slow death out in the snow, her soulless body's attack on Tiffany, and then Quinn, and finally, her weeping mother, alone in her den, mingled fear and love for Sandi warring with humiliation of being exposed as an abusive mother. Then even more torments. Police investigations. Sandi had committed suicide, and killed her friends. Her dad accused of molesting her by her mother to cover herself, her brothers too afraid of her mother to tell the truth. Tom Griffin sent to prison, while Linda got famous as the poor grieving mother. Their bodies found. Quinn and Sandi's murder of Tiffany revealed. The gruesome details of their cannibalism of their friend. Quinn and Sandi dammed as supposed lesbian lovers into murder and human sacrifice. Stacy missing. Probably the same thing was done to her. Body never found.
Their principal Ms. Li, mourning publically, using the tragedy for more funding for the school, for grief counseling. The little plaque which was all the recognition their club had ever gotten sold on E-Bay. Its brief message: We Mean Well, used as the title for countless books and movies. " "We Mean Well," what evil message is hidden behind these innocent words? Tonight, the sinister story of the Fashion Club of Lawndale High, of what happened when sadistic Sandi Griffin and Quinn "Cannibal" Morgendorffer kidnaped, murdered, and ate their friends, Stacy Rowe, and Tiffany Blum-Deckler! Our top story tonight, on Sick Sad World!"
No more life at all. Just floating in the darkness, forever alone, surrounded by screaming and crying, people she could never see or touch, her hands forever reaching out in the darkness for something she was afraid to find. It was all her fault. She deserved to be here. She was where she had always belonged now, alone. No one to boss around here. No one to be hurt by her cruel remarks. No more humble Stacy to be put down by her and Tiffany. No more Tiffany being so afraid to not fit in that she'd agree with whoever seemed on top. No more . . . Quinn.
She and Quinn were so alike. But where Sandi tried to control with sheer determination, Quinn would use her beauty, her persistence. Quinn was gorgeous, fashionable and instantly popular. She seemed to have it all. But Sandi had known what went on behind the scenes, the compromises you had to make not only at home, but with family and friends. The constant acting of your role on the stage. The fear of being left out if you didn't constantly agree with the others, until you wondered if anybody actually thought anything at all. Always, the fear of being left out, of being ignored and alone. Like she was alone now, forever and ever, while her friends died, and her dad got blamed for what she and her mother had done to each other. Her brothers would grow up, and do the same things to their wives and children, and it would go on and on and on.
Would Sam and Chris ever admit to the world she was their big sister? Weren't families supposed to care about each other? Would anybody miss her, Sandi Griffin at all? Or would they just be condemning her for Quinn and Stacy and Tiffany? Helen, Quinn's mother certainly would be. Sandi had always been so jealous of Quinn's mother, had always envied how much she openly cared about her daughters, even Quinn's weird older sister, Daria.
The Fashion Club had done a sleep-over at the Morgendorffer's house once. Helen had welcomed them all, even though Sandi's own mother didn't like her, and done her best to make them feel at home. Sandi had even tried to give her a make-over, but had gotten so nervous she had really messed it up. Quinn was sure she had done it that way on purpose, but she hadn't. She had wanted so hard to make Helen like her! And she had messed up. Again. Like she had messed up now. Forever helpless. While Quinn and Stacy and Tiffany suffered and died.
Stacy Rowe. Her oldest friend. She had always been there, ever since Fifth Grade. She remembered how they had meet, back then.
Twelve year old Sandi Griffin hustled down the hall behind the teacher as the older woman took her to her new class. This was the second school they had been to this year, since her mom had lost her job as network anchor, and desperately chased after any TV station that would hire her. Sandi didn't understand at all. Her mother was pretty and smart! She should be on TV! It wasn't her mother's fault that Sandi had gotten so depressed after the last time she had changed schools that she had failed a grade at the last school. But why oh why did she have to go to a new school now, when she was like this, and in the middle of the school year! Everybody was going to laugh at her!
"Class, this is Alexandra Griffin. Her family has just moved to Lawndale, and she will be with us the rest of the semester. Now Alexandra, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?"
Sandi moaned as she heard the new teacher pronounce her real first name. She absolutely hated to be called that. She mumbled, "Hi, my name is really Sandi, and we just moved here ... "
"Now, Alexandra, dear, don't mumble, and don't be shy. I don't want people to be using nicknames in my class, so your name will be Alexandra while you're in this room. Now this time, I want you to clearly and distinctly tell the class your real name, and why you came here."
Well, here it comes, Sandi thought unhappily.
"My name is Alexandra Griffin, and my family moved here to Lawndale so that my Mom could work at the TV station, KSBC. My Dad is an accountant and works with all kinds of figures. I have two little brothers, Sam, who's eight and Chris, who's six."
The moment Sandi had started talking a hiss had risen up in the corner away from the teachers desk, a muffled snickering. The teacher glanced that way in irritation, and the noise died out.
"Miss Griffin, what were you doing to have people make that noise!"
Sandi blushed furiously, staring at the floor.
A brown haired girl with pigtails raised her hand reluctantly.
"Yes, Stacy, what is it?"
"I'm so sorry I laughed, Miss Smith, but she's got the biggest braces I've ever seen!"
With that the whole class stirred in obvious discomfort.
The teacher bit her lip.
"Oh, dear! I'm sorry, Alexandra! Why didn't you tell me? Now, class, there is nothing wrong with a girl or boy wearing braces. Peoples teeth sometimes just grow wrong, and people have to wear braces so that they'll grow straight again. Now, Alexandra, I want you to go sit behind Stacy there, in that empty desk."
Sandi hurried to her new desk, trying not to make any eye contact with anybody, keeping her mouth firmly closed. The teacher felt genuinely sorry for the new girl. She knew what her charges were like. She had drawn attention to the shy, gawky girl, with the very big braces, and now the pack would circle around, scenting weakness. Anything she did overtly now would just make things worse. Teaching kids seemed a lot like taking care of a wolf pack at a zoo, she thought, and not for the first time. I should have just been a zoologist!
The big brick house shuddered in the strong winds. The quiet ticking noises of the cooling timbers, the creak of wood against wood, an occasional sharp crack, was all that was heard. That, and the quiet feminine sobbing coming from down the hall where the door to Quinn's bedroom was lying in pieces on the floor, after Jake Morgendorffer, husband to Helen, father to Daria and Quinn, had broken it down minutes before, stumbling into his daughters room. He hadn't said a word since he had disappeared into it, the power failing at the same time.
Daria, kneeling a few feet down the hall, desperately clutching her shaking mother, had only let out a startled "eep!" when the lights had gone out. Both women had been wishing desperately for the lights to come back on, but long minutes had passed, and nothing happened. Helen tugged at Daria's sleeve, and she quickly followed her mother down the hall on her hands and knees to her parents bedroom. Leaving the danger felt worse than facing it. Daria could feel the carpet under her bare hands, expected at any moment for something to leap on her back, but nothing did.
Once there, Daria had quickly closed and locked the door behind them. Helen tried both the regular phone as well as her cell phone, damning both services very quietly when she only heard dead air. Meanwhile, Daria had fumbled around in her parents closet, and Helen heard a metallic rattle. Helen meanwhile had found her purse, and the small flashlight she kept in it for emergencies, as well as her small can of pepper spray. Flicking the light toward Daria, she wasn't surprised to see her standing with one of her father's golf clubs gripped tightly in either hand.
Mother and daughter looked at each other for a long moment. Helen thought, My own Warrior
Goddess! My Athena! Sprung from the forehead of Zeus! Spear in one hand, shield in the other, dressed in her robes of white with the owl of wisdom on her thin shoulders! The vision held for a long moment, until Daria said, unknowing what had taken place in her mothers mind just then, "Let's go get Dad and Quinn."
Tiffany lay there on the cool, gritty wooden floor. She felt completely numb by everything happening to her, so helpless. She wasn't really a stupid girl, she just liked to drift, to fit in where she could, knowing that things would happen to her no matter what, and that she couldn't avoid them. But now things were happening, really bad things, and they were hurting her all the time.
Stacy had left hours ago, and Tiffany knew she was probably dead or worse. She mourned for her friend. Sandi's attack on her had terrified her, and during Tiffany's brief bouts of consciousness she had fought to regain her center, her calm place. It wasn't power yoga, like Quinn did, but a meditation taught her by her mother a long time ago, to help protect her in this new land that she had been born in.
Tiffany had recognized the look in Quinn's eyes. It had been pure animal hunger. She had seen boys look at her like that, too, when they didn't know she could see it. Her mother had called it animal lust. 'Don't ever let them see you show fear, Tiffany," she had said sadly to her little girl. "It makes men ... animals." Tiffany knew without having to ask it was knowledge born of grim experience. But Quinn had been staring at her neck, and the bloodstained makeshift bandage when she had done it. Tiffany had felt the waves of cold, and the pulsing raw hunger from the thing in Sandi reach out to her when that thing in Sandi's body attacked her. It had used the hunger in Quinn to enter her. Sandi had been motionless, silent ever since her attack on the others.
Vague stories of ghost's and blood drinking vampires drifted though her tired mind. She couldn't leave, she knew. She was too weak, now. Quinn was strong, though. Quinn had always been strong, like Sandi had been, and then Stacy had become. But Stacy had turned into one of the monsters now, and so had Sandi. The thing in Sandi needed death to grow. Death and blood. Quinn was still fighting. Tiffany knew she would fight to the end. But now, she was so tired, so weak. I really wish I could help Quinn. She's always been so nice to me. But I just need to sleep now, just a little bit. Tiffany's confused tangled of thought slowly unraveled, quieted. Her last clear thought was of the look in Quinn's eyes, the raw hunger.
Stacy awoke in darkness, completely confused, unable to move or see anything. She sensed massive physical pressure against her whole body, against every part of her prone figure. Everything felt cold and damp. She could feel different things against her bare skin, smooth, bare surfaces, like ... rocks? The palms of her hands and the soles of her feet could feel a coarse grittiness against them, like dirt or clay, maybe. Was she in a cave or something? What was going on? She heard the dull hiss of snow blowing far above her, the trickle of running water somewhere close.
Memory slowly started returning to her. Their being trapped in the cabin, Her own slow, (was it a ... seduction?) by the Snow Lady. Stacy felt so hollow, so ... empty. Like an eggshell with nothing in it. Slowly a deep fear grew in the helpless girl. Did she take my, my soul? I wanted to help the other girls! How can I help them like this! What did she do to me? Where am I, anyway?
Suddenly, Stacy's first vision returned. The Snow Lady roaring above the winter landscape like a storm, while her human mortal bones were buried deep underground. The memory she had received from the Snow Lady, of a very human young woman, in tattered rich clothing, fleeing
a burning house in a howling storm, holding her child in her arms, a air of betrayal choking the air as much as the heavy snow had been.
Somebody lied to her, she had to run away, out in the snow, with her baby in her arms, a long time ago. But where am I now?
Suddenly Stacy knew. She had taken the Snow Lady's place. She could do all the Snow Lady, the Yuki-Onna, could. She could soar to Lawndale, feet in the clouds, and cold death in her white hands, bearing seduction and betrayal, slaying all caught in winter's icy grip..
I don't want to kill anybody, I just liked the power, the beauty of it all! I could have helped my friends, then just left, not hurting anybody! I never wanted to be a monster!
But the Snow Lady was both, monster and human equally, living as a woman, haunting the snowy emptiness of the world, and somehow, her human part had died, out here in the wilderness. Stacy had just replaced her in her grave, forever aware, never dying, able to see and feel all.
Stacy started to scream.