When Chase got out of Torey's car, Alicia's house was dark. The family was already asleep. The only window that was illuminated was the one for Alicia's bedroom.

Chase said goodnight to Torey and he drove away, leaving her alone on the sidewalk.

The night was unseasonably cold when Chase left, and a strong wind had picked up during the movie, worsening the situation. The trees that lined the sidewalk were waylaid by it, bony branches creaking and shedding fall leaves in rustling waves. The cannibal pulled her coat tight around her and strode hastily to Alicia's front door.

Her fluttering blonde hair snared flashes of moonlight as she put a hand on the metal door handle, which was textured with frost. Although she couldn't wait to get inside, something made her pause.

She glanced over her shoulder. At the houses across the street, the trees, the fence separating Alicia's yard from her neighbor's.

Was she being watched? She waited and listened. It was difficult to hear over the wind, but she'd hunted in worse. She turned her acute predator's senses to whatever was out there...and waited.

A couple minutes passed, long enough to conclude that she must have been imagining things, so she opened the door and got out of the cold.

…

Worry kept Alicia from focusing on her homework, so she decided to call Lindsey as a distraction. She was laying on her bed in her pajamas, hair still damp from a long bath, but she didn't look at all relaxed.

“I dunno, they can do really impressive stuff with, like, reconstruction and all that,” said Lindsey, through the phone's tiny speaker. “I mean, you never know. She might be able to cheer again.”

Alicia tensed up even more. Laying on her stomach, propped up on her elbows, she pressed the phone tightly against her ear. This conversation was only giving her more to dwell on. “Poor Samantha. It's not fair that this had to happen to her. She didn't do anything to deserve this.”

“Did you talk to Melissa C.?”

“Yeah,” Alicia confirmed. She thought back to the conversation she and Melissa C. had after practice.

The brunette had been shaken up, truly distraught at what had happened. Explaining that, while lost, she had developed a 'rare density abnormality' that made her extremely heavy despite her size, she added that she was taking medication for it and didn't realize it was flaring up again.

It was, to understate, a far-fetched sounding story, and when Alicia related it to Lindsey, she had the same reaction. But what else could explain Samantha's hand? It was as good as anything they could come up with, and they had no reason to believe their friend would lie to them.

“I didn't get a lot of details, but I didn't really want to ask, either,” concluded Alicia. “I could tell she was blaming herself for the whole thing and I didn't want to make it worse.”

Lindsey didn't want or need to ask if this meant she had Melissa C.'s flier position back. It went without saying, and she didn't want to make it sound like she was happy or eager about it. Because she certainly wasn't. She wanted the flier spot, but she also knew that even though she was good at it, Melissa C. was better. She figured she'd make flier next year, after Melissa C. graduated. Getting the position this way just didn't feel right.

Alicia's door opened with a small squeak, and she looked up. There was Chase, looking to be in very high spirits. “Am back!” she announced.

“Oh, Chase is back! I gotta go!” she told her phone, sitting up.

Lindsey's voice immediately perked up. “Oh, okay! See ya! Get details! Lots of details!”

Alicia would certainly get them, but she was afraid once she had them they wouldn't be the details she wanted to hear. A detailed account of two platonic friends enjoying a night at the movies, then getting into a fight and deciding not to be friends anymore, was what she was rooting for.

She hung up. Chase entered the room, her sunny disposition practically preceding her like an ill wind, from Alicia's perspective. “Hiii Chase! Wow, you look happy!” she ventured.

“Am hap hap! Am much glad!” Chase confirmed.

“What's got you in such a good mood? Let me guess, it went terribly, and you're just acting happy to hide your pain!” tried Alicia.

“No! Was great!” said Chase joyously. She sat down on the bed next to Alicia and took her hands, as though trying to establish a conduit so her friend could directly share in her excitement. “And guess what? Have dance pal for Harv now!”

It was pretty obvious what she meant by this statement, but Alicia's brain was unwilling to accept the easy explanation. “Oh, that's okay. You didn't want to go with him anyway, did you? Who's he taking, fishnets chick?”

Chase shook her head. “No, no! ME have dance pal for Harv! Me go with Tor!”

“What?!” cried Alicia. “Please, Chase, tell me you're joking!”

It was a strange request, but Chase complied. “Me joke!”

Somehow, Alicia didn't believe her. “Chase, he's a scary kid! Cheerleaders don't go to Harvest with scary kids! You should have said no!”

Chase thought about it. “Well, it not count if I say no. That Tor's job.”

This took Alicia a moment to understand. “Wait, you asked HIM?! You asked HIM?!”

“Yes! Ask him!” Chase confirmed. “Not scared at all!”

Alicia let go of Chase's hands, so she could use her own to hold her face. “You asked a guy to Harvest. You, a GIRL. Chase, how could you degrade yourself like that?” she moaned into her palms. “And a scary kid, at that... How on earth did this happen?”

The cannibal was completely unfazed by Alicia's negative reaction. “Well, us watch films, see much flesh eat on boats. Was great fun. Just us there, no one else. Start to did think of dance, how not have no one for Harv. So ask Tor and him say yes! Then him go for kiss, so I punch his face and him bring home.”

This shook Alicia out of her sulk. “Wait, wait, he went for a KISS?” she repeated, astonished.

“Yeah.”

“And you punched his face.”

“Well, it make me mad,” explained Chase. She looked thoughtful. “Hey, Leash? What is go for kiss?”

Alicia was surprised. “Huh? You don't know what a kiss is?”

Chase shook her head innocently, and Alicia felt some of her frustration disappear. Some things about this world, like cheerleading, being popular, and biology class, came so easy to Chase that it was easy to forget she was still a stranger to this place, and that many aspects of modern life were still quite alien to her. It would be wrong to stay mad at her for a social snafu or two. Although she was still concerned about Torey, Alicia felt him slide onto the backburner while Chase's cute question took the forefront in her mind.

She eased her voice into a sort of gentle gravitas before continuing. “Well, it's something that you do with somebody you really like.” She gave a slight, embarrassed smile. “You close your eyes and kind of...press your lips together. It feels super warm and intimate. Usually there's some hugging going on too, and sometimes even some tongues squiggling on each other. It's very nice. A good kiss can, like, hypnotize you, put you in a trance, make the whole rest of the world disappear except for the person you're with.”

Chase made a connection. “Oh! Like make out!” she realized.

“How do you know what making out is if you don't know what kissing is?”

“Oh, much like make out! It best!” said Chase. “When teens go camp in woods, them make out much. Best time for jump out and kill, while they not look. Have great respect for make out, make out make good hunt.” Alicia wished she hadn't asked. “But...put mouth on face, but no bite? No chew or gnaw? That a big snooze! Big bore!”

Alicia laughed. “Yeah, I guess it probably does sound kinda boring. Buuuut...” She drew out this last word to give her time to quickly scan her room. Spotting her pillow, she snatched it up. “Aha, here we go! I'll give you a demonstration. You're not gonna think THIS is boring, trust me.”

She held the pillow in front of her. Chase was watching intently, ready to learn.

Taking a deep breath, Alicia closed her eyes, imagined the pillow was Kirk, and brought it slowly to her lips.

No squiggling tongues were used, as that would have been a bit gross, but it was a very passionate and loving kiss all the same. As Alicia smooched the pillow, Chase felt a blush deepen, felt her pulse quicken. Kissing was exactly what Alicia described: putting your mouth on something. But somehow, her words could not do the act justice. There was a sort of subtle magic to this strange dance, and Chase was easily caught up in it. By the time Alicia brought the pillow down to the bed in what resembled a full makeout, Chase could feel a lump swelling in her throat, and one of her hands had moved to her heart in an attempt to soothe its fevered thumping.

Alicia seemed to realize what she was doing, and abruptly stopped. Shyly, she sat up. “Er, I-I-I guess I got carried away there, haha. Sorry.”

When Chase spoke, her voice was a stuttering whisper. Her heart's convulsions were rattling her entire body, including her vocal chords. “Him...him want do that on me?” she managed to utter.

“It sure sounds like it,” Alicia answered.

Chase gulped. On the one hand, she felt as though she'd dodged a major bullet. She wasn't sure she was ready for something so...intense.

…

Melissa C. waited patiently on Alicia's front lawn, staring up at Alicia's bedroom window. She wasn't concerned about passersby, or Alicia happening to glance down. In her black catsuit she would be nearly invisible in the inky night.

She couldn't change out of the cheerleading uniform fast enough after practice. What happened to Samantha had affected her deeply. She wanted to burn the thing, she was so disgusted with herself. She should have known. She should have realized that seventy-three hundred new parts would probably increase her body weight by a substantial amount. But she didn't, and an innocent was paying the price.

The cold wind lashed at her face and cut easily through the tight, thin fabric of her clothes, but she acknowledged it impartially and indifferently, the same way she also acknowledged that the stars were out. Her modified body rebuffed its every assault, didn't even feel it.

Whatever she was now, it was a sick joke to think she could fit in with them, could pass as one of them, could wear that uniform alongside them. She wasn't a regular high schooler anymore, she was a war machine. When she talked to Alicia on the phone, Alicia sounded like she thought Melissa C. still wanted to cheer. “We'll talk about it at practice tomorrow, okay?” she had asked when Melissa C. stonewalled her captain's concerns and sympathies.

But the brunette had firmly decided she was never going back to practice again. Who knew who else she could hurt? She saw her body was a wild, murderous beast, which she was just barely fastening a collar on. If she were to put on that uniform again, and practice and perform among those innocent regular girls...she'd be just like Chase, a wolf in sheep's clothing.

The light went out in Alicia's room. Good, they were going to sleep. She waited a few minutes, then began climbing up to the window.

This was simpler. It was simpler just to be a wolf.

But on the other hand...she sort of wished she'd taken the opportunity to find out.

....

The window opened without squeaking. Melissa C. slid inside. Her night vision revealed the bright, glowing shape of Alicia's body, lying on her side on her bed. The cheer captain moved, and Melissa C. instantly froze, snatching back the breath she was about to exhale.

But Alicia stopped stirring and her breathing slowly returned to normal. In a moment, Melissa C.'s did as well. She looked back, accusing the window. The curtains were flapping, the breeze brawling its way past them into the room. Alicia hadn't woken up. She had just gotten cold in her sleep.

Alicia's tidy, girlish room was attacking Melissa C. from all sides. Cheer memorabilia, posters of cute musicians and celebrities, a bookshelf adorned with a few books and trophies, a waist-high dresser with a mirror over it. These things all gave an impression of normalcy that made Melissa C.'s stomach churn.

How dare that cannibalistic monster intrude on Alicia's life? How dare she defile this pure, perfect scene with her foul existence?

She rounded Alicia's bed and found the culprit there, wrapped up in a sleeping bag.

Melissa C. looked down at this creature with contempt beyond words. It was as though she were a museum curator who had just found a grease stain on a priceless painting.

Her right hand split open. Making no noise, parts of it slid around, rearranged, and folded upon themselves, with new parts blooming and forming from the depths of her arm. When the transformation was complete, her hand was replaced by a glistening steel axe.

She'd waste no time. She'd cut out this cancer right here and now.

She raised the axe high above her head, and swung it down with incredible force, aiming directly at Chase's freckled, sleeping face.