"You said this place was made out of steel!" Rex cried, ducking as winged darklings flew in from each window and bombarded themselves against us.
"I'm sorry! People make mistakes!" Jessica Day yelled back as she shown her key chain flashlight in the direction of another encroaching darkling. Its cries created an ear-splitting cacophony as it burst into blue flames.
"People don't make mistakes when it comes to life and death situations!" Rex cried. A particularly large and ferocious looking darkling with horns and knife length claws began closing in on Rex, flapping its leathery, black wings. Rex closed his eyes and threw "Anachronistic," a steel key holder he'd made in machine shop class in the direction of the darkling. Rex opened his eyes again after "Anachronistic" had left his hand. The steel key holder struck the darkling directly on its arm, and in a firework display of blue sparks, the darkling's arm fell off, but much to Rex's dismay, had dissolved into at least a dozen slithers, which continued multiplying until Rex, Melissa, Jonathan, Dess and Jessica had been cornered by a sea of black, wriggling slithers.
"That was my last one!" Rex cried fearfully.
"Use these only on the slithers!" Dess said, scooping out handfuls of hubcaps and distributing them to everyone.
"What do we do about the darklings?" Jonathan asked.
"Don't worry, Jess is gonna handle them," Dess assured him.
"Um, guys, I think I'm running low on batteries," Jess said. She'd abandoned her key chain flashlight for the larger one she'd kept in her jacket, but the beam of light was already faltering.
"Didn't I tell you to change the batteries before midnight?" Dess said exasperatedly.
"I did, but I'm not completely sure if they were new ones. I found them in the basement."
"Well there's your answer," Melissa said. The beam of light from Jess's flashlight shown weakly on an incoming darkling, reducing its effectiveness and allowing the darklings greater proximity to the huddled group of teenagers before finally bursting into flames.
"Quick, form a barrier with the hubcaps I gave you," Dess said, kneeling down and scooping thumbtacks and hubcaps out of her backpack and spreading them out evenly in front of her. Everyone else followed suit and soon they were surrounded by explosions of blue light and slithers.
"Come on, come on," Jess urged, hitting her flashlight with the palm of her hand. It had stopped working, which meant that they would either have to leave, or become darkling chow.
"Jonathan?" Dess asked.
"I'm way ahead of you. Everyone, hold on," Jonathan said, climbing up onto the windowsill. Dess dumped the remnants of her bookbag onto the slithers, which were closing in fast, and had barely grabbed ahold of Jonathan's hand when he suddenly leapt out of the window. Dess once again felt that wonderful light, buoyant feeling she remembered well from the last time she defied gravity with Jonathan, but rather than relishing the feeling of the air rushing past her, she only felt irritated by Rex's elbow constantly jabbing into her side.
"Incoming!" Jonathan cried, and Dess had barely turned her head and allowed her mind to process the darkling approaching them at an alarming speed when she suddenly felt her hand leave Jonathan's.
"Dess!" she heard Jonathan cry. The buoyant feeling had disappeared, and instead Dess felt her body plummeting towards the ground, the wind roaring in her ears and her hands grasping nothing but air. Something was holding her, something with claws that dug painfully into her back. Dess kept her eyes firmly shut, gritting her teeth against the pain that she would feel once the darkling had ended her life. Landing on concrete was preferable. If only she hadn't used all her ammo on the slithers back at the J. Miller building. Dess tried to think of anything, anything at all that would distract her mind from her imminent death. Math! Math had always mollified her. We just jumped from the seventh floor of the Miller building. The height of each room is approximately 3 yards, so when the darkling had attacked me, we were 21 yards in the air. And if I'm falling extremely fast, in approximately how much time will I land? The painful sensation of claws stabbing Dess' back had been replaced by prickling as she felt herself land on something that was rubbery yet hard in certain places. Now, I guess. But something heavy and breathing was still on top of her, and warm hands were gripping her waist. Hands? Dess opened her eyes and gasped when she discovered that it was a young man on top of her, and he was neither Rex nor Jonathan. His eyes, a shocking clear blue, looked down at her and widened.
"I'm sorry," he said, immediately releasing her and attempting to sit up, but it was difficult to remain stable on the garbage bags they had landed on. Dess' legs had felt slightly numb, but now that the young man was sitting at the other end of the garbage bin, she felt colder than before.
"It's okay, but, where's the darkling?" she asked, her eyes darting around the dimly lit alley they were in.
"Oh, you mean that big hairy thing that tried to fly off with you? I threw a license plate at it and it just flew off. I didn't know they were afraid of license plates."
"It must've been made of stainless steel. Darklings don't like steel, or any new type of metal. I don't understand though, how'd you end up here?" Dess asked.
"I wanted to make sure you didn't land on the concrete," the young man said seriously.
"Oh," Dess said, although this didn't make much sense to her either, but she was touched that he cared that much about her, even though she was a complete stranger to him. "Thanks for saving me then."
"No problem." He smiled, and Dess' heart, which had been beating at an alarming rate when she'd been up in the air with the darkling, suddenly began racing again, but for an entirely different reason.
"Don't you think we should get out of here? It kinda reeks," Dess said. "Oh, sure," the young man said, climbing out of the garbage bin. Dess swung one leg over the edge of the garbage bin, trying not to think about how stupid she probably looked, but the young man had placed his hands on her waist and was lifting her out of the bin and onto the ground. "Thanks," Dess said again. The young man just smiled and took her hand, leading her out of the alley and onto the street. The moon had cast a soft blue glow onto the streets that was typical of midnight. Dess looked around. The neighborhood seemed unfamiliar and her friends were nowhere to be seen. "What's your name?" Dess asked, not wanting to refer to him as the 'young man' forever.
"I'm James. What's yours?"
"Dess. How long have you lived in Bixby James?"
"Not too long. I only moved here from New York about a month ago." A month ago? Why hadn't Melissa sensed him? Or did she sense him and choose not to say anything about it? But that made no sense. Why would she have a reason not to? The others would be very excited when they found out there was another midnighter in their midst. "What school do you go to?" Dess asked.
"Bixby High."
"Senior?"
"Yeah."
"Don't you find this midnight thing a little strange?" Dess asked. James seemed so unnaturally calm for a newcomer. She remembered with some amusement how Jess had assumed that the midnight hour was only a dream.
"When I first came here, I thought it was a dream, but I've gotten used to it and I've realized that everything's too real to be a dream. Those 'darklings' are a little too real for me."
"If you want I can show you how to defend yourself against the darklings. My friends are midnighters too, so you're not the only one out there."
"I think I can handle midnight. I've made it this far haven't I?" James also seemed awfully brave for a new Midnighter. But maybe that was why Dess admired him so much. Dess noticed that the blue light that had blanketed the streets was receding, and within moments, the lampposts once again cast an orange glow on the streets and sidewalks and sounds of insects and birds chirping rang through the night.
"James?" Dess asked. She'd glanced to her side and discovered that James had miraculously disappeared. Oh well. See you in the next 8,280 seconds, Dess thought.
"Dess!" a familiar voice cried. Rex was running towards her, followed by Jonathan, Melissa and Jessica.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Dess asked Jess.
Jess rolled her eyes. "I was worried about you. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I thought you were a goner!" Rex cried.
"Am I the only one who has faith in Dess?" Jonathan said incredulously, hugging me. "Seriously though, are you alright?" he muttered in her ear.
Dess laughed. "I'm fine. This guy named James claimed he saved me."
"Wait, there's another midnighter?" Rex asked. "Melissa, you never said anything."
"That's because I never sensed anything," Melissa said. But she was looking pensive.
"Melissa's pretty in tune with her ESP, so there must be some mistake," Jess said.
"But there wasn't a mistake. I saw him with my own two eyes. Maybe Melissa made a mistake."
"Melissa wouldn't make a mistake," Rex countered.
"Guys, stop before you get into an argument," Melissa warned, closing her eyes briefly. "Maybe I did make a mistake," she said quietly. "I must've gotten confused with all the darklings flying around. I think I need to meet him. Then I'll understand why I haven't sensed him."
"He goes to Bixby High. You can start looking for him tomorrow. And if that doesn't work, we can wait until midnight."
"Alright then. Now let's go before we get caught by the cops," Rex said.
"Did James happen to tell you when how long he's been living here?" Melissa asked.
"He said he moved in a month ago," Dess replied.
"That's weird. I think I'll meditate on it."
Jess yawned. "And I think I'll call it a night," she said, linking arms with Jonathan, who grinned down at her.
"Me too," Dess said happily. Midnight now had another perk.