That last cannibal. She felt her whole body tense up. That bitch. The girl who helped to butcher and eat her friends. The girl who would have done the same to her. But then, her tension gave way to a shiver. She hugged herself, suddenly desperate for any modicum of comfort she could find. “No. I'm sorry, but I just can't. That girl's a monster. It doesn't matter how mad I am or how much I want to make her pay, she'll kill me. I know she will. I don't want anything more to do with her or this town or that family. I just want to forget any of this ever happened—I want to be happy, try to live my life, grow to a ripe old age, and never, ever go camping again.”

Agent Stevens considered this. “I understand your concern. I can't imagine how frightening this all has been for you. But you must understand, your safety is my greatest concern. I wouldn't ask you to fight her if I didn't know, with one-hundred percent certainty, that you could win.”

Lawrence spoke up, sounding proud. “We did a little more than fix you, you know. Like we said, you're not merely human anymore. We gave you a bit of a tune-up.”

One of Melissa's eyebrows arched at this. “I'm sorry, but 'a bit of a tune-up' isn't going to be enough to beat her.”

Lawrence didn't seem concerned as he sat back down at his laptop. In fact, he seemed rather smug. “Tell you what. I'll read off a list of the enhancements I added, and if you think you need more, you let me know.”

He got about a quarter through the list before the girl put a hand to her overwhelmed head again. “Okay, okay, you've convinced me.”

She eased her eyes open, then looked at her hands. Looked at her wrists, looked at her arms, looked at her legs, and tried to fathom the power contained in them. Then, she thought of her. She thought of that girl, and something changed in her mind. Her desire to run was gone. Compared to revenge, her other wants and needs seemed unimportant. Somehow...it was hard to think of a reason not to put her new body to use. Her hands clenched into fists. With awe, she repeated: “You've convinced me. With this body...I can serve justice. M-maybe then...my friends can rest in peace.” Her head turned to the man in the black suit. “How do we find her? Where do we start looking?”

With an approving nod, he said, “Oh that isn't a problem. She hasn't exactly been keeping a low profile. We've been keeping her under close surveillance.”

“Really? Where is she?!”

The young man looked at a clock, hanging on the wall above a tool bench. “If I had to guess, I'd say sixth period. I forgot to mention this, but she's going to your school.”

..............

“I'm still not so sure about this,” said Alicia, crossing her arms.

It was later that evening, in Alicia's room. Chase was trying to get ready for the movies using Alicia's bathroom mirror, and for the past half hour Alicia had been repeatedly crossing her arms in a very stern manner. No matter how many times she did it, though, Chase continued to get ready to leave. It was almost like she didn't care.

“It okay, Leash,” assured Chase, applying some mascara. “Like Cait say, I take care of self.”

Alicia remembered some of the sticky situations Chase had been in. “Well, that is true...but all the same, I'm still concerned for you.”

After a moment's pause, Chase quickly finished up and capped the mascara. She turned around and gave Alicia a hug. “Thanks for cern, Leash. I thank to have friend who care such to have cern. But I want do. I fine.”

Alicia's response was superseded by a few quick honks from outside. “Oh! That them! I go!” cried Chase, breaking up the hug and dashing for the door.

“Chase, wait!” called Alicia.

The blonde stopped, then uncertainly turned around. Alicia grabbed her purse off her nightstand, reached inside, and pulled out a five dollar bill.

“Admission, remember?” she asked curtly, holding it out for Chase to take. “Just...just be careful, okay?”

Chase was surprised for a moment, then smiled. “Thanks, Leash,” she said, accepting the money.

…

Chase walked downstairs and out of the house, opening the front door just as she heard a second set of honks. “Come! I come!” she cheerfully called.

The sun was low in the sky, so Chase cast a long shadow over Alicia's front yard as she jogged down the front walk to Torey's white sedan, which was parked at the curb. The chill of an autumn night was prematurely settling in, making her happy she'd remembered a scarf.

Chase tried the door. It was locked, and Torey quickly opened it for her. “Hey, Chase,” he said, as she got in. He wasn't wearing his hood, and for the first time, she got a look at his thick hair, a light but bold brown, the color of stained cedar.

“Hi Tor!” she answered, closing the door. She looked over her shoulder at the dark, empty back seats. “Thought more you friends come?”

He tripped on this query as they pulled away from the curb. “Yeah, er, so did I. They...all got rides with somebody else,” he selected. Chase didn't pick up on his hesitation, and accepted this response without any further thought.

As they drove, they made small talk, mostly about Chase. Torey was curious about what country she came from and how she came to end up in Sunnycrest, and she fed him the usual tragic, hardship-soaked fairytale her friends had concocted for her. At the same time, she managed to pick up a few things about Torey as well.

“Huh? Oh, nah, I'm not on a team,” he answered. Chase didn't understand; she thought everyone in high school was in a club or on a team. “I usually just work after school.”

“What you work on?”

“I have a job at the supermarket, I work in the deli.”

“Del...ee?” she sampled. “What is del ee?”

He found her curiosity amusing. “Uh, it's kinda boring, honestly. Pretty much just slicing up meat.”

She gasped and put an astonished hand to her chest. “Bore?! No! Love to slice meat!” she proclaimed. Now that she thought about it, she was something of an amateur deli worker herself.

A red light stopped them as Torey laughed. “Makes sense. I guess you're a pretty big horror buff.” The light turned green, and they rolled on.

“No! Not have seen one!” the girl replied. From the tone of her voice, she couldn't wait to see her first. “Are you?”

He shrugged. “I like 'em, but my brother's the real maniac. He loves horror movies so much that when he heard the Sandman was going out of business he bought the place.”

That name came up again, and Chase decided it was time to ask about it. “Tor, what a Sandy Man?”

They were leaving the city now, dancing on the outskirts of town. “You'll see. I don't want to give it away.” The boy smiled. “You'll love it, though. Me and my friends hang out there all the time, even when there's no movies showing. It's a really cool place.”

When he mentioned his friends, Chase felt wary. For the first time since she'd gotten into Torey's car, she was thinking about what her friends had said. “Hey, Tor? Why you bring to films?”

“Huh? Because you wanted to come,” he said, distracted. He waited in the turning lane for a car to pass, then took an exit off the highway.

“But...I cheer. Is cheer for film?”

He glanced over at her. “Oh, sorry, did you have practice today? Are you too tired?”

She let it drop. He genuinely didn't seem to know what she was getting at. Her instincts said he was on the level; maybe they were right.

…

Chase didn't know what to make of the Sandman as they drove up to it. There was a huge screen, which reminded her of the one at the movie theater she'd gone to at the mall, only bigger. Unlike the mall theater, however, this place was all outdoors, and instead of seats there was a huge paved lot with cars parked on it.

“What this place?” asked Chase excitedly, as they drove up to the ticket booth.

“It's a drive-in theater! Cool, huh?” he asked. “Bet you didn't know these still existed.”

In big blue neon letters above the ticket booth were the words “Sandman Drive-In.” Like Clark's, the establishment's name was in cursive. But while Clark's was aiming for elegant and refined, the Sandman's cursive was sleek, economic and futuristic, well-suited for printing on a car with tail fins or your neighbor's brand new automated dishwashing unit.

Torey stopped at the ticket booth. Chase handed him her five dollars, which he paired with with his own and handed off to the guy behind the window. They seemed to know each other and exchanged a few friendly words before Torey moved on, driving into the theater.

The Sandman was mostly empty, so they should not have had any trouble finding a parking spot. Because of this, Chase was confused when Torey drove right past a bunch of open ones. The boy's eyes scanned the lot until he found what he was looking for: a small knot of cars, surrounded by teens, some of whom she recognized from outside Caitlin's apartment.

Ah. He wanted to park close to his friends. As soon as they pulled into an empty space near the group, their conversation seemed to die off, and many of the faces turned to give the vehicle an annoyed look. When she stepped out of the car, she heard a girl say, “Oh, there she is.”

The disdain in her voice made Chase realize why Torey was the only one who came to pick her up. It was because none of the others wanted her here. She looked from them over to Torey, and could tell from the tension in the middle that he had been one side of a heated discussion before he left.

“'Sup guys,” greeted Torey, maybe thinking that if he didn't read the mood, it would go away.

They didn't seem to notice him though, staring at Chase as though waiting for her to do something. She reluctantly waved. “Ni hao. Me name Chase.”

None of the others volunteered their names, so Torey commandeered them. He put a hand on a girl's shoulder. Chase recognized her as the skater with the pink streak. “This is Flor,” he said. One of her hands was holding a bag of gummi worms, and the other hand was frozen nervously inside it. She was looking at Chase as though she was terrified of her. Torey moved on to a long-haired guy in a denim jacket. “This guy's Willard. He makes gargoyles.”

Willard shoved his hand off. “Dude, shut up! Don't tell her that!”

“Why not?”

“B...Because! That's the kind of thing they think is for dorks!” he argued. He seemed almost embarrassed, but then he quickly became indignant. “Not, not that I care what they think!”

“I no think gurg is dorks,” she assured him. She would have followed this up by asking what gurg was, had she not been distracted by the crisp sound of small wheels rolling across the pavement towards them. At first, she thought it was another skateboarder, but when she looked at the noise, she saw a girl coasting on white roller skates. She wore a uniform of a short blue dress with white pinstripes, and a cute little white, oval-shaped hat perched on top of her head. As she skated closer, Chase was surprised to identify this girl as Maxine.

“Alright, movie's starting soon, what's everybody having?” she asked, taking a small notepad out of a pocket on her dress. Being here at the movies with her friends, she actually looked like she was having fun, but when she saw Chase, she instantly frowned. “Oh. YOU.”

“Hi, Max,” said Chase, still thrown off by the girl's appearance. She looked her up and down. “You look much not same. Where you dark garb?”

The girl rolled her eyes, outlined with black. She still had her dark makeup, at least. “Well, I'm working, obviously. This is my uniform. Also, don't call me Max.” She looked at Torey. “Torey, why the hell did you bring this bimbo here?”

Torey frowned. “She's not a bimbo.”

Maxine gave Chase a sweet look. “Now now, she can speak for herself. Are you a bimbo, Chase?”

Chase scratched her head. “Not know what is. Might be one.”

Maxine laughed. “I rest my case.”

“She's just hasn't learned the language, yet,” said Torey, annoyed. “And the reason I brought her is because she thought it sounded fun and wanted to come.”

The girl made an X with her forearms, and a buzzing sound with her mouth. “Bzzzt. Wrong. You think she cares about this place or these movies? She's only here so she can take notes and gossip to her stupid friends about how lame she thinks we are.” She gave Chase an accusing glare. “You know they're always making fun of us behind our backs.”

“No, not make fun,” Chase said truthfully. “Us not talk you at all. I not heard of you 'til see in lot.”

Somehow, that seemed to anger Maxine even more. She rolled over to Chase. On her skates, she was now the taller of the two.

“That doesn't surprise me,” she replied acidly, completely in Chase's face now. “Why would you have heard of us? Who are we? You're just so much better than us, it makes perfect sense.”

“I am?” asked Chase innocently, taking it as a compliment. “No, you just say that.”

Then, the huge screen lit up.