Chapter Three:

It was a dress-down day that day. Emma and I borrowed two long black coats from Johnny, fastening our swords to the inside.

"By the way, Nny," I inquired, "how do you plan to come along with us today? We go to an all-girls school, you know."

Johnny grinned. "Well, that's no problem. I mean, now that you're involved in a government conspiracy, you do need a bodyguard, after all."

"Aww," Emma said in mock-disappointment, "and I was hoping you'd go in drag."

The corner of Johnny's mouth twitched, but his expression never became clear.

We were then walked to our bus stop. We had gotten a very early start, though, and Emma decided to walk to school herself. Johnny stayed with me, and after an hour or so, the ugly yellow bus appeared around the corner.

I climbed in when it came to a stop and chose an empty seat. Johnny settled down in the seat directly behind me, and I semi-impatiently waited for the bus to pull into my blonde-haired friend Pearl's stop. As usual, she was lugging around her heinously large backpack-on-wheels. The physical exertion from pulling it up the bus stairs sent her gasping for air by the time she reached my seat.

"Hi Sam," she wheezed.

I opened my mouth to reply, but Johnny leaned over to whisper in her ear, "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if I suddenly shoved a knife through this chair?"

"Um, no, not really!" Pearl said. I gave Johnny a glance, telling him to back off. Minutes later, Pearl and I were deep into a conversation about a dream she had had the previous night about werewolves.

Our talk abruptly came to a halt when a loud shriek sounded from the front of the bus. One of the triplets, as I figured. Those obnoxious brats cried hysterically without fail every single day.

Johnny leaned over and hissed in my ear. "She makes you angry, doesn't she?"

"Yes."

"And sometimes, you just wish she weren't here anymore. No more screaming and crying every day."

"I do."

Smiling, he took my hand and pulled me out of my seat. He was surprisingly strong.

"Then make it happen."

Pearl looked at me, confused, as I stood in the middle of the aisle, trembling. My right hand reached into my jacket and fumbled clumsily with the sword.

"Hey! You can't stand there!" Miss Sullivan, the bus monitor, called out to me. "Stay seated while the bus is in motion!"

But I didn't move. I didn't even look at her as I drew out my sword and held it out in front of me. Miss Sullivan, of course, noticed this, and began to advance towards me while the bus continued moving.

"Weapons are not allowed here!"

She'd tell someone and I'd be done for. They'd kick me out of school immediately. I wouldn't be able to destroy those my heart was set on!

That gave me a good enough reason to kill her, didn't it?

She was right in front of me. I stared at her. What to do, what to do? Then, another hand reached over mine and willed my hand to list the sword. Johnny stood behind me. And before I realized what was happening, he had thrust my hand forward and driven the sword into Miss Sullivan's abdomen.

Her eyes widened as she lurched forward, gripping the thick knife that had entered through her stomach and protruded from her back. I stared at it, transfixed, as the dark blood spurted from the sides of the wound.

Johnny, his hand still over mine, hastily yanked my sword from Miss Sullivan, who promptly crumpled in the aisle. The bus became totally quiet.

And the bus driver kept driving.

Then it came. The earsplitting screeches from those next to die.

"This time," Johnny said, "do it yourself."

I had never felt madness like this before. There was anger, despair, regret, joy – all rolled into one. A lust for spilled blood. A want to make them pay.

I turned to the triplet who screamed the most. "You like to scream, don't you? Why don't we see how loud you can scream?"

I drove the knife into the head of the nearest triplet. Both her and her sister screamed louder and louder as the sword was forced deeper into her head. When it stopped, I removed the sword and went on to the next triplet.

"Shut up!" I swung. The first triplet screamed louder than I had ever heard as her sister's scalp dropped to the floor.

"I said shut up!"

A final swing. Her screams silenced.

And yet the bus driver continued to drive.

I expected everyone to be looking at me. But no, they had their full attention on the dead triplets. I grabbed the front of a small girl's uniform and wiped my sword clean on it. She shrieked and ran to the back of the bus.

Then the bloodlust and anger subsided, and I noticed the blood on my hands. I began to shake uncontrollably and dropped to my knees.

"My hands…are covered in blood…and it's not mine!"

My voice was drowned out by the others.

"Someone call an ambulance!"

"They're dead, stupid!"

"Call the police!"

"Who did this?"

And ye…the bus driver continued to drive.

Meanwhile, Emma, almost a block away from the school, spied a young boy throwing rocks at a squirrel. He had extremely bad aim, Emma noted, as a rock went whizzing by her head.

"DIE, SQUIRREL! HAHAHAHA!"

It was a short, fat boy that looked like a pig with shaggy blonde hair. Emma took out her knife and ran at him.

"Let the squirrels live!" she shrieked, slashing right through the boy's head. He wouldn't be throwing rocks at poor, defenseless squirrels anymore.

Emma looked at the bloody sword, then at the dead boy. She shrugged, wiped it clean, and headed for the school. The squirrel, watching her with large, thankful eyes, scampered after her.

Making my getaway was extremely easy, albeit painful. While everyone except the bus driver stared at the dead bodies, I pushed open the Emergency Exit and jumped; Johnny behind me.

I landed on the grass, not seriously harmed. I stood and brushed myself off. I could walk the rest of the way to school. As I proceeded to J-walk, I spied Emma bouncing on her way down the street with a squirrel perched on her shoulder.

"You're not going to believe what I did!" I called out to her. "I killed my bus monitor and these three little triplets. And then I jumped out the window."

Emma nodded, catching up to me. "Cool. I put my sword through some fat little kid's brain. He was throwing rocks at Mr. Acorns here. I don't think he liked it very much."

"You're here to slaughter those you know," Johnny said condescendingly. "Not strangers you just pick up off the streets."

"Nny, you do that all the time," I reminded him.

He paused. "Yes, well, um—"

"So, Nny, do you think they're really going to buy the whole government conspiracy thing?" Emma interrupted him as he searched for an explanation.

"Oh, well they should. President's orders, you know. Besides, if I don't keep watch over you, some…guys will come and get you or something like that."

"Wait, we are in a government conspiracy?" Emma said, confused. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"We're not part of a government conspiracy, you imbecile!" I said, smacking the top of her head with my palm. "We're just pretending so Johnny can watch us! I mean, who in their right mind would let two teenagers go on a killing spree unsupervised?"

"Sam, anyone in their right mind wouldn't let two teenagers go on a killing spree period."

I waved a hand at her dismissively. "Y'know what…? I don't need this from you."

The three of us stepped onto the school grounds and headed towards the high school building as the Cranston bus pulled in. Not wanting to be questioned about her absence, Emma quickened her pace and walked ahead of Johnny and me. When we caught up to her, she was standing alone on the stairwell, looking perplexed.

"Where do we go?"

I shrugged. "Homeroom?"

"Another question – are we going to have to skip class? We only have four periods a day…we won't get to all the teachers."

Johnny smirked deviously. "It'll all work out. Really, this day will go by so much faster if you stop thinking so hard. Actually, Emma, you have more of a grasp on this than your friend does." He rounded on me. "You crumpled in the aisle of the bus. Reactions like that will be of no use to you."

I lowered my head, not wanting either of them to see the telltale blood rushing to my face. I started up the stairs ahead of them, stopping at the third floor. There I entered a hallway and found my homeroom. Emma followed inside, and we took our seats.

On the blackboard there was written the daily schedule. I did not notice all the stares Johnny received as he entered the room, as I was fixated on the agenda for the day.

"Emma, there's something wrong here."

We had all eight classes today, instead of four. Usually, we would have periods 1, 3, 5, and 7 one day, and 2, 4, 6, and 8 the next. But here it was, on the blackboard – all eight classes.

Confused, I stood and confronted my homeroom teacher.

"Umm…why are we having eight periods today instead of four?"

Her expression told me that the question had an answer I should have known.

"Samantha…we have been doing this since the first day f your freshman year." She looked me over, concerned. "Do you not remember?"

All concern ceased the very next second, when she spotted Johnny on the other side of the room, calmly sitting on Emma's desk. She cleared her throat.

"Miss Boyd and…you, whoever you are. Can either of you explain why…you're here?"

"I have been appointed to Samantha and Emma by the government," he said simply. Though my teacher's skeptically narrowed eyes showed that she saw right through him, he pressed on. "I have been ordered never to leave them alone…at any expense."

"Yes, yes, of course. And why wasn't I notified of this?"

Emma grabbed quickly at Johnny's arm, stopping his hand from creeping towards his knife.

"He's not…you know…entitled to answering questions," she said innocently. "He just…governmental reasons, you know."

Our teacher looked absolutely mind boggled. To my luck, though, she decided to drop the matter and returned to paper sorting. Feeling triumphant, Johnny, Emma, and I returned to our seats and waited as the clock ticked away the seconds.

After we had been silent for about fifteen minutes, waiting for the period one bell to ring, Emma tapped me on the shoulder.

"So…Sam…today's schedule is 7-8-1-2-3-4-5-6."

I nodded.

"…What is that again?"

"Are you shitting me?" I should have expected it, though. Emma asked me questions of this variation daily, if not hourly.

"Fine then…that's science, Spanish, history, study, math, chorus for me, health for you, religion, and English." I turned to Johnny. "So then, what's going to happen when we have to split up?"

"Is there anyone on your list in your chorus class?" he asked.

"Oh definitely – Miss Kreeli. She treats us all like we're frigging five years old. Plus, she fails you if she doesn't think you have a good voice. I mean, what is that?! Some people just don't have the talent!"

Emma placed her hand lightly on my shoulder, gazing at me apologetically. "Samantha…she's failing you, isn't she?"

My mouth dropped open before I could stop it. "What? No! That wasn't what I meant at all! I was just trying to get my point that her teaching methods suck across!"

"Yes, yes, okay, whatever." Johnny held out a hand to shush me. "Emma, how about you? In health?"

Emma grinned devilishly. "Of course. Miss Cummings."

Johnny's features screwed up as he twisted his face into a disturbed expression. "Miss…what?! What the fuck kind of name is that?!"

"A really shitty one…" I giggled. "Which fits her perfectly as the health teacher."

And then my luck turned for the worst. As I had opened my mouth to speak, the noise in the room had lulled.

The teacher pointed an accusing finger at me. "Miss Acampora! LANGUAGE! You've earned yourself a nice little detention slip, missy!"

She never even had time to finish writing out the slip. Johnny flew to her side and skillfully wrapped his fingers around her neck. He pressed.

"Neither of them has detention so long as I'm with them." He released her, snatched the paper from her hand, and tossed it into the garbage.

She breathed a sigh of relief and massaged her throat muscles. "This is absolutely blasphemous."

"I HEARD THAT, BITCH!" In the next second, he had hit her hard over the head with the flat of his sword. She crumpled to the floor in a dead faint, a lump the size of a basketball protruding from her head.

A collective gasp sounded around the room.

"What? She'll only be out for about an hour." The bell rang. "Oh, look at that! Time to go!"

"B-but –" I started.

"NEVER MIND. Now…where is your science class?"

I pointed to a room two doors down, and he gave us a push to get us walking.

We were somehow the first to enter the room. Miss O'Reilly did not smile when she saw us. She eyed Johnny, but her expression remained otherwise unreadable. Neither of us hated her enough to wish death upon her, though the thoughts of just messing with her a little appealed to me.

Our classmates began to arrive. I took my seat, and Emma took hers next to me. As soon as she sat down, she rummaged through her bag, searching for a notebook to doodle in.

The bell rang, and Miss O'Reilly took her place in the front of the room, her hands folded neatly in front of her as she flashed us her usual "better-than-thou" expression.

"Now…first of all, I'd like to hand back last week's quizzes." She unfolded her hands and placed them on her hips. "Some of you did well. And others…" She deliberately glared across the room at certain people, including Emma and myself. "…Not so well."

"Way to keep it private…"

"I know," Emma muttered in disgust.

"Excuse me, what was that?"

Miss O'Reilly strutted to my table, pursing her lips. "Was there something you'd like to share with the rest of us?"

"No, there's – OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT?!"

The entire class turned to look out the window as I pointed frantically. Without thinking, I stood up and did the first thing that came to mind – punched Miss O'Reilly right in the eye. Emma snorted into her hand.

Miss O'Reilly staggered backwards and onto the ground, one hand covering the offended eye. The class noticed, of course, and there was an uproar. My classmates all tried to find someone to point a finger at, but there was no one. We couldn't be caught, being shielded by the Burger Boy.

But if that was so…

It all fell into place, as much as it could. If a product of Johnny's mind could shield someone else besides him, this wasn't as simple as schizophrenia – though even that wasn't all that simple. How had I not realized this before? Maybe that was how it started; how each of them had received a voice – Eff, D-Boy, Bunny, and Reverend Meat. But there was something else, too. Somehow they gained power; had minds of their own, and were able to draw other people in. Seeking more power. That was why I could hear Reverend Meat, and Emma probably could, too.

He was seeking power from us as well.