Lifthrasir

"Lif?", Autumn said. She felt stupid. Was this something they'd learned already in the Mythology section of Freshman English? But Emily had always been kind of weird. She could be making stuff up. Except, there was that blue stone that kept her paralyzed, and she didn't seem phased by ghosts, and... she lived with the Librarian. Autumn shivered.

"Yes, pay attention." Emily said. She pulled out a dusty old book from her backpack, bound in red leather and embossed with the picture of a tree like a celtic knot, all the branches curling and twisting in on each other. Stones of amber, jet, and pale blue stone studded the spine. Emily turned on the teacher's projector and set the book on top. Just in front of the whiteboard a 3d picture sprang to life with a blare of trumpets. "Let me just change the volume a bit," she said, twirling her hand on an invisible dial.

In front of them a series of twelve great beings on high thrones sat. "The old Gods. This was the ruling council, before the war that destroyed them all. Well, mostly." Emily typed in the air, and the picture zoomed in on two of them. "Do you know anything about Ragnarok? The Last Battle?"

Autumn gathered her thoughts. "The old Norse gods fight. They die." Autumn swallowed. "But it hasn't happened yet."

"Actually," Emily corrected, "It did. About five hundred years ago. It completely destroyed Asgard, where the gods used to live, and decimated the homeworld of the giants, and the groves of the Alfar. Imagine a war fought by gods and monsters the size of mountains. A war so horrible that it completely wiped out one world and sent two others back to the stone age."

An echo of the screams of dying horses and men, of fiery explosions and thunder from heaven, and howling, earth rending howling, echoed in the darkest corners of Autumn's mind, like the an ancient memory or a nightmare, she couldn't be sure which. For a moment she forgot where she was. The room seemed to glimmer dark, and Autumn felt dizzy, her heart rate rising. She clutched the edges of the desk until the moment passed.

"I've seen some of the archived footage," Emily muttered, almost to herself. Her voice was wooden. "I'm not going to put you through that, though." She shook herself, like waking out of a bad dream, and continued.

"A few of the gods survived." Emily pointed at the two figures in the picture. They were dressed in white and amber and pale  green, with clear bright eyes looking off into the distance. "That's Lif and Lifthrasir, minor gods, servants in the house of Odin Allfather. They escaped to this earth, Midgard, running and hiding along the trunk of the World Tree. Their children married into the royal families of northern Europe: Norway, Denmark, Sweden. It's been hundreds of years, and now their descendants have spread all across the world. Most of the time, they're regular humans, but every once in awhile, for some reason, the blood of the Lif wakes up. They find they can do things and see things that normal people can't do. Weird stuff happens to them because they let off a kind of static. Otherworlders can sense it."

"Like the ghosts." Autumn nodded.

Norse Born

"Hurry." Emily said reaching down she picked up a small flat blue stone off Autumns chest that Autumn hadn’t noticed before. Emily leaned over the desk and quickly slipped it inside. There seemed to be some kind of writing on the stone but it was gone before Autumn could make it out. Without the stone Autumn could once again move her body and she got to her feet. Emily went over to the door and stuck her head out checking from side to side.

"Follow me." Emily said "And don’t make a sound."

Autumn followed closely behind Emily in the dark library being careful to not make a sound. They passed silent lines of dark books and quickly made their way to the entrance and out the doors that Autumn now realized is where Emily must have found her. They went down a staircase and Emily walked up to a dark classroom door. Emily held a hand up to the door knob there was a brief blue light a click and Emily pushed the door open.

"Where are we going?" Autumn asked as they headed deeper into the class.

"shhhh, I said no talking" Emily replied curtly.

in the back off the class was another door. Emily again put her hand to the handle there was a blue light and the door opened once again. They went into the pitch black room. The door shut behind them and Autumn had one panicked thought of Emily trying to stab her when the light from the glowing magic words illuminated the room. The light seemed to make a bubble around them and then was gone. The light switched on and Emily looked over at Autumn cautiously.

"Okay." Emily said. “You can talk now. No one will be able to hear us."

Autumn looked around. They were in a teacher’s office. The desk was cluttered in unmarked papers. Books lined the shelves. Two chairs, one for the desk the other a padded and straight legged.

"Why are we in here?" Autumn asked. "What is going on? You said you knew what was going on."

"We're in here" Emily began, making it sound like everything was obvious. "Is because we don’t want the librarian knowing about you. Second is that I don't know everything and I'm not going to try and tell you everything that I do. What do you know about Mythology?"

"Ummm..." Autumn said stumped. Autumn was a little taken aback, she was not expecting such a question. "You mean the gods and stories people made up to explain what..." Deep breath, you can keep talking, Autumn told herself. "…happened around them. Like the Greeks."

"yes." Emily said with a smirk. She sat down in one set and indicated that Autumn should take the other. "although you are slightly right we won’t be talking about the Greeks. What do you know about the Norse gods?"

"Noththththing." Autumn stammered. Man she was getting a lot of weird questions. "Why?"

"Because, it concerns you. If I’m right you are a Lif, able to go between worlds. not only that you are a Norse Born and carry the blood of the elder Gods in your veins. Let me tell you a story, the true story of our ancestors."

Bound

Autumn shook her head, and licked her lips. Well. She could move her mouth, as well as her head. that was good. "What's going on?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out," Emily asked. "Hurry, before the Librarian comes back. What are you?"

Images flashed through Autumn's mind, of dark things she'd seen, the constant ghosts, shadows that sometimes seemed alive, skittering on the edges of her consciousness. "I don't know," She answered honestly. She tried to move again, but she couldn't. Her body wouldn't obey her.

She felt her breaths squeeze out in gasps. She struggled against the power that held her tight, but she couldn't see anything. She could even see her body moving, although she felt like she was wrestling with an elephant. "Let me go," she gasped, eyes widening in panic.

"Calm down. I had to halt the spread of the poison, so most of your body is in stasis." At Autumn's blank expression, Emily sighed. "I put you on pause, except for your head and vocal system. You can speak and think, but the rest of your body won't move. If I hadn't, you'd probably be dead by now."

"Oh." Autumn shut her eyes, concentrating on her breathing.

"I'm sorry," Emily said. She held out the cup. "I got this from the Librarian's supplies. Firewort. It should heal you of the necrotic energy." Emily pursed her lips, shook her head, and sighed. She pulled out a string of small flat stones and cast them in front of her. Glowing lines connected the stones in a pattern of swirling spheres and orbits, like Celtic knots wound into the air. Emily touched the stones rapidly, like a keyboard. The glowing picture of Autumn appeared before her, an outline in pale green, with an angry deep red pulsing on one side and gray-tinged circles covering the body. Emily moved some of the circles to one side, and Autumn found that she could again move her left arm. Emily handed the cup to Autumn, who drank it quickly.

The taste was somewhat like cucumber, but more salty, with a tinge of lemon. Autumn felt a warm glow passing all through her body, and then concentrating on the right side of her torso where she'd been stabbed. Suddenly the heat turned to ice that got sucked out to slide across her skin and dribble down her side.

"That should take care of it," Emily said, "But no purely mortal human could have survived being stabbed by an Underworld blade. How you got it is also a mystery. And you didn't seem surprised when I activated the magic wards in front of you. So. What are you? Or maybe, who are you, I should ask."

Autumn blinked slowly. Emily was always asking questions, and they'd worked on school projects before. Emily had always had eyes that seemed to see too much. She shook her head. Of course Emily would be involved in weird stuff, if the Librarian was. But she couldn't understand why Emily was being so hostile. Why was she trapped? She hated being bound like this, but crying about it wouldn't help. And Emily had healed her, so that was a good thing. She probably wouldn't try attacking Autumn at least. "I see dead people. 6th Sense, or something. First time one attacked me. I don't know why." Autumn shrugged the one shoulder that was free. Emily seemed to know what was going on, and Autumn was tired of constantly being hounded by random ghosts that said or did nothing except make her feel like a freak. "Tell me what's going on now." Autumn winced slightly at the harshness of her own words, but there. She'd said it.

Emily had leaned back, the way most did when Autumn got grumpy. Most anyone except grandma and Tori tended to avoid her, actually. But Emily, it seemed, had nerves of steel. She seemed shocked by her own reaction, but nodded once.

"If I let you go, you won't attack me?" Emily sounded scared, and Autumn laughed despite herself.

"Just don't tell the Librarian." Autumn said. "You can't keep me like this. I won't hurt you. I promise."

Emily relaxed perceptibly. "Okay. I'll try to explain what I know, and you can help me figure out where you fit in."

What are you?

Autumn walked through the dark school halls in an agonizing haze not knowing where she was going. The invisible wound that the ghost had given her was getting worse. She fumbled against a locker and slid against a wall, the pain was getting worse and it was harder to think straight. Meditating didn’t seem to be helping; she just could concentrate long enough.

She tripped and fell onto the stairs. Stairs, it registered in Autumn’s brain muddily like waking up from a deep sleep. Have to get out Autumn thought desperately. I have to find help. She started to pull herself up the stairs one excruciating step at a time. When she reached the top she wasn’t able to pull herself up onto her feet instead she slid out across the floor. There was light streaming into the hall from the doorway. Slowly, so painfully slowly she moved to the door. After what felt like an eternity she reached it. Despairingly she realized it was shut. Why would the door be shut and light coming out of it at the same time, she thought muddily. Desperately she reached up for the door handle and pulled. Nothing happened, the door was locked. No, she screamed in her head. With her last once of strength she pounded against the door, praying that someone would find her and slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

Slowly Autumn regained consciousness and thought, and the first thing she thought about was how bight it was. She realized why a moment latter. She was lying on her back in the middle of a small room filled with books and other miscellaneous items. Some of the stuff looked very new and others looked ancient. Autumn was lying on a soft leather coach and had a blanket around her. It felt really comfortable until she realized something that really scared her. She couldn’t move her body. She tried to get up but couldn’t. The most movement she could produce was a slight wiggle. Thankfully she could still move her head and she used that to scan the room.

Almost immediately she realized she was in the library. She could tell that by looking out the glass windows that surrounded the room. Most of the library was dark except for the small room that Autumn was in the light from which was illuminating the rest of the library. Then the second realization hit her and she shuddered. This was the librarian’s office. The room that Tori had been wanting to break into. Unbidden she remembered what Tori had said about the librarian being an alien or something else. Images of sharp knives and probes flashed through her mind. All the while and evil grinning librarian was standing over her. Autumn squirmed and wiggled trying to get free. What was she even doing in here?

Autumn stopped squirming abruptly and listened. She could hear footsteps coming closer. Autumn waited in horror staring at the door sure that in any moment a purple librarian would be coming though it to perform all manner of experiments on her. A shadow passed in front of the glass and the door opened and… it was Emily, the librarians assistant. She stood in the doorway hold a cup in her hand and looking down on Autumn with a curious fearful expression. Slowly she moved over to the desk in the middle of the room and set down in the chair there. She looked at Autumn for a moment longer and then asked.

“What are you?”

Ambush

"Yeah, uh, just." Autumn felt troubled by the apparition. Almost every other ghost she had seen was native to the Vancouver area. First Nation warriors, Russian Fur trappers, Anglo and French Canadian settlers... she'd seen older ghosts. But this one had looked like he was on the wrong continent. And he'd seemed to know about her, and want to talk to her.

"It was another ghost?" Tori asked, suddenly curious. "They're appearing more often, aren't they? That's why I think we should be looking for a portal to another world. We already know one exists, right? Maybe we can figure out how to get the ghosts to stop bothering you."

"It was different this time," Autumn said. She shook her head. "It's fine. But don't go doing anything crazy without telling me first, okay?"

"Okay," Tori answered, but she didn't sound sincere. Autumn looked at her sharply, but didn't say anything more. Tori's phone buzzed, and she pulled it out of her pocket, "Oh, hey, it's my foster mom. I'll text you later!" And Tori sped off to the edge of the field, where a large dingy van had parked. What seemed like a two dozen kids had piled out and were now busy chasing each other or wrestling on the manicured grass strip in front of the school. Really their were only seven, but they moved around so much that it seemed like twice that much or more.

Autumn kept jogging her last lap. She hadn't even realized practice was over, but she wanted the time to think. At last she headed back inside, took her fifth and last shower of the day in the dark, abandoned locker room, and headed out.

Just when she was about to leave, another viking-like warrior appeared. This one's face was impassive, his beard gray where the other had had red, his eyes dark like pits. In his had was a dagger, covered in silvery blood. Before Autumn could react, he'd stabbed her.

Autumn gasped and convulsed as a cold chill wrenched through her body. She pulled the dagger from her abdomen. It disappeared like a wisp of smoke as she let go, but the pain was real enough.

The warrior was already moving again, his eyes like stone, hist movements quick and efficient. He brought up an old, chipped sword to slice through her skull. But Autumn was already moving.

Two ghosts, so similar in one day, so different from any others. And although this wasn't the first time a ghost had tried attacking her, it was the first time that one succeeded.

Autumn dodged out of the way of the warrior's sword, sweeping her hand up to block him. She gripped his wrist in one hand and jabbed at his elbow with the other. The move was meant to break bones, and sure enough she heard a crack, although distant and muffled. This ghost was more solid than any she'd encountered before, and where she'd never really noticed the way it felt to touch one, the warrior's skin was icy cold, burning cold. Autumn got up under the ghost's guard and smashed her elbow into his nose, then whirled away to catch her bearings.

The ghost didn't seem to react to a broken bone, merely adjusting his grip. Silvery liquid dripped from his nose, and his eyes seemed to glow darker.

Suddenly the other ghost appeared, clutching his side, the one from earlier. He bowled the gray-bearded warrior aside. Brutally they wrestled on the ground, a dagger between them.

Autumn wanted to run, but she didn't want to expose her back either. She checked her side, where the dagger and pierced her. The skin wasn't broken, but a strange sort of dark-gray bruise had spread tendril-like feelers, a cold burn emanated from the spot, and her breath came in gasps. A film covered her eyes for a moment, so that all the world shimmered in clouds of gray silk. in shock she realized that she could hear the two ghosts clearly, shouting at each other in a language unknown to her and yet familiar, grunting in pain as they struggled. Finally the gray-bearded warrior succeeded in kicking the younger ghost off and drove the dagger into his heart. In a sudden up-rush like a sandstorm the younger ghost disappeared, leaving Autumn abruptly alone again to face the menacing being.

Autumn's vision wavered, between the gray-silk world, a world tinged with green and gold and red lights, as if lit under the branches of many trees, and the real world. At last her stomach settled, and she reached desperately the the meditation exercises they taught at her dojo. She pressed her hands together before her and bowed slightly to her opponent. With every focused breath the pain left her consciousness, and the three-viewed world congealed. Before her was a graying warrior, probably early forties, with stringy black hair. Jagged scars cris-crossed his arms. He picked up his sword from the ground and pulled a shield forward onto his arm.

Autumn breathed, focus, she told herself. The world gave a slow pulse, like a heartbeat, and at last she felt ready. Time seemed to slow down. The gray-bearded warrior was rushing her, but Autumn had moved to the side, sweeping his legs out from under him as he passed. His boots connected painfully with her shin, but she ignored it. Before he could regain his balance, Autumn had smashed his sword arm, his collar bone, his knee. The warrior tumbled to the ground. Autumn kept her distance; her floor work wasn't the best, and besides she remembered what had happened to the other warrior.

Somehow the man had kept hold of his sword, but as he stumbled back to his feet, Autumn's eye caught something on the floor. She could see the dagger again, the one that had destroyed the first ghost and sliced through her side. She lurched forward and picked it up, turning and blocking the sword swinging towards her face just in time.

The last light of day was just fading, and the ghost seemed more solid, if anything, in the growing darkness. Autumn knew she had to end this quickly. Her breath was coming in ragged gasps, and their was only so long she could ignore the pain in her side before she knew it would cost her concentration and leave her open.

The warrior came forward once more, slowly, slowly waiting for her to go down. Autumn couldn't afford that. She engaged the warrior, forcing him to bring his shield up against her dagger thrust. His sword swung round on a diagonal as he blocked, but Autumn caught his elbow. The dagger skittered over his shield, but she held on and kicked his knee, the one she had weakened earlier. The warrior fell, and switching her on his sword-hand, she managed to knock the sword out of his grasp. He clawed at her face, but Autumn ducked away to avoid it, then switched the dagger to her left hand and plunged it into the ghost's side.

In the seconds before her, too, disappeared in a sudden uprush of particles, Autumn caught a disturbingly satisfied look on his face, the only emotion he'd shown the whole time.

Silence is loud

            “NO, no just an um… a thought.” Autumn felt like her cheeks were on fire. And a cold sweet had broken out over her entire body. She did not like being put in these situations, even with her best friend Tori.

            That wasn’t exactly true either. There was a guy on the boys’ basketball team named Alexander Hironaka. He was tall, 4 inches taller than Autumn at least, and he was very attractive. His father was Japanese and owned a business in town. Alex’s mother was Italian and had a nice little Italian restaurant in North Vancouver. It seemed he had inherited only the best qualities from his parents. He had angular features slightly softened by his Asian heritage with slanted brown eyes that were almost olive. Yes, Autumn groaned inwardly, she had looked at him for a long time.

            It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell Tori about him. It was just it didn’t feel right to talk about it right now. It was her secret crush and she was afraid as soon as she told someone that the magic of it all would just go away. Also those who found out she liked them in the past tended to avoid her. She really liked and trusted Tori. She also knew Tori, and trusted her to go up and tell Alex to ask her out.

            Autumn was about to say something else to Tori when she saw something that completely made her forget about everything else. A warrior stood in back of Tori. He was huge, no he wasn’t he only looked huge. He was a little shorter then Autumn but was wearing armor and leather and fur that seemed to make him bigger. Scale mail peaked out from under a large cloak. He carried a wooden shield, a serpent on the front of it. An intricate axe was in his other hand. His face was covered by a helmet a long yellow beard poked out from under it. Some of the beard was braded. If his helmet had horns on it he would’ve looked like a Viking, and her was yelling at her.

            He was a ghost, Autumn knew that much, but she couldn’t understand what he was yelling at her. He threw down his shield and axe and used his hands to try to help his cause. He kept making so many strange motions that Autumn couldn’t make anything out of it. If there was one thing that Autumn could tell it was that warrior was desperate. He picked up his axe and slammed it into his shield. It looked as if the axe blade neatly cut of the serpents head. He turned to he still franticly yelling. Autumn went around Tori so she could touch him and see if she could understand what he was saying. She reached out a hand but before it touched anything the warrior disappeared and Autumn was left grasping at air.

            “Autumn… are you okay?” Autumn looked back at Tori. She could see worry in her eyes.

Track Practice

"I said we can sneak in tonight once you're done with all your practices," Tori was explaining. "I already put a piece of tape on the door so that it won't lock."

"Not tonight." Autumn shook her head. All the practices today had made her tired, and she wanted to be at her peak for another of Tori's plans. She knew Tori had been pressing for the break-in to occur that night, in typical Tori fashion. She always wanted to rush into things as soon as she thought of them. Still, Autumn was pretty good at delaying her to a more reasonable time frame. "Weekend."

"Why not tonight? You're right I suppose, we could use a little more planning besides just the usual breaking and entering. I bet she has all kinds of security. Oh! You know who has some awesome security? Claire's dad. I bet Claire could help us figure out how to get into the office. But anyways, it's the Librarian we're talking about. And I bet she has all sorts of magic spells or alien technology or some such guarding her lair."

That was something Autumn liked about Tori. She could carry on both sides of the conversation by herself, so Autumn didn't actually have to say much.

"Besides, I remember your grandma has some sort of thing planned tonight. What was it again?" Tori asked. Autumn opened her mouth to reply, but Tori kept going before she said anything. "Oh yeah, I remember. That gardening show thing. She was going to show off her black roses, and some lilies or something."

Autumn nodded her head. They headed back to the locker, where the other girls were already finishing. Final practice of the evening was track. Autumn liked track the best. She didn't have to worry about outshining the other girls too much, or never getting passed to and still making all the shots. She could concentrate on her own efforts. Besides, Tori was on track with her.

Autumn kept the door of her locker nearly shut as she changed. She didn't like letting people see the inside, which was decorated in a pink biker lady pattern her grandmother had got her. If she let them see, the other girls would probably laugh.

Tori was already changed and out the door in the time it took Autumn to dial open her locker for the third time that evening, waving a hurried "See you on the field!"

Autumn followed more slowly, behind the rest of the girls. Maybe the reason she couldn't get a guy to ask her out was because of her smell? But Autumn took 3 showers a day, so much it dried out her skin a little. Sometimes she felt like she lived on the field and in the shower, with short rest periods for school and sleep. It was the beginning of the year, but already she was looking forward to spring and summer, when she could have a little lazy time. Besides, ghosts came out more often in the fall.

Tori was already jogging laps, and Autumn joined her as she came around the track the second time. Maybe Tori would know how to get a guy to ask her out? But no, Tori was always moaning about David. She'd gone out with a couple other guys, but never any second dates. Anyways, Autumn didn't want David asking her out. He was too popular, too public. She'd have liked a nice, quiet, undemanding guy she could feel comfortable around. Not have people staring at her constantly. And taller than her. Although, that last bit was a little difficult. Maybe, as long as he didn't mind that she was taller, and probably better at sports...

Heck, pretty much any guy that had the guts to ask her out would be nice. Autumn tossed her hair. She didn't need a guy. Still, it couldn't hurt to ask Tori for some pointers.

"Tori," She huffed, interrupting the elaborate plans Tori was making. "What do guys like?"

"What?" Tori asked. "You like someone! Tell me!"

Autumn blushed. Then again, Tori might not have been the best person to tell after all.

What did you say?

 “Ghost, don’t tell anyone.” Autumn told tori as they walked back to the school. That was one thing Autumn didn’t need, more people thinking she was strange or weird. She wanted to tell Tori more wanted to tell her how she communicated tell her what had just happened if only so she wasn’t the only one who knew.

 “You think you saw a ghost?!” Tori said looking around excitedly. “Who was it? What did they want? Did they send you on a quest to keep them from dying?!”

 “Gone.” Autumn said with relief. “Don’t want looks.” Autumn said shyly. It was nice to have Tori just take what you said and believe it. Not everyone was like that. “think I’m weird already.”

 “I don’t think you are as weird as you think you are.” Tori commented. “So what did the ghost want?”

 “Nothing, I uh I uh don’t know… why they show up here.” It was hard getting that much out at one time. Inside autumn felt a little surge of pride for being able to do it.

 “Well I’m not surprised you saw a ghost here. Come on, what school isn’t haunted?” Tori said opening the door to let them both into the school. “Well what about tonight?”

 “What about tonight?”

“You know” Tori said looking around. “The other world thing.”

“Have to check on Gran.”

 “You have to check on your Gran first!” Tori said incredulously. “If there is on woman on the face of this earth who does not need checking up on it’s your Gran. Why…”

Autumn let Tori’s rant wash over her. They had just entered the girls locker room and Autumn could feel them staring. She could almost feel the words in the air as they talked behind her back. But really could she blame them.

Each women’s coach wanted her for their team, but if she was on every team she wouldn’t have enough time to do any of the sports. So all the coaches devised a plan to have her on every team. They split up practice time for her, so that she was only ever at one teams practice part of the time. She would then go from practice to practice. Each coach was very guarded about the time that they had Autumn and would be calling her if she was even a minute late.

It didn’t seem very fair to do it that way to Autumn and she was sure that the other girls felt the same. They never talked to her and the looks that she received from them were full of disdain. Not only were these other girls showing up to the full practice and getting yelled at by the coaches but they put their heart and soul into it. Then Autumn comes along for just a part of the practice and outperforms every single one. Well all except for Tori, no one could outrun Tori. It had caused a rift to form between her and the other players. Autumn kept meaning to say no to all the sports but she just couldn’t say no when someone said they needed her.

Her freshman year had almost been unbearable. No one talked to her, everyone acted afraid of her and stayed away. One of the happiest moments of her life was when Tori came to there school two years ago just to run track. She didn’t care about Autumns reputation and the two of them had been close ever since.

Something Tori was saying caught Autumns attention and dragged her focus back to the present.

 “Hold on, what did you just say?”

Ghost

After volleyball practice was track with Tori, and then after track practice was soccer. Autumn was embarrassed that she was constantly be begged by every coach to join their team; like that woman in Africa a couple years ago. Some people had said she shouldn't be allowed to compete because she was just pretending to be a woman, but she was really a man.

Autumn felt like that all the time, a freak. People looked at her with fear, and all she could do was hold her head high and try her best to be as nice as possible. But talking was so hard. People always took things the wrong way. Most of the time is was just easier to not say anything at all.

The ghosts didn't make her feel normal either.

Autumn saw another one waiting for her at the edge of the field after soccer practice. This time it looked to be a twelve year old girl. Autumn grimaced. The younger ones always made her so sad. She walked over slowly, waiting until the rest of the team was headed towards the showers and the coaches were involved in a heated discussion by the water jugs.

The girl was crying, but Autumn didn't say anything. She just motioned for the girl to follow until they got behind the bleachers.

She had heavy makeup on her face and wore a floral pink shirt with ruffles on the bottom. Her white shoes were scuffed and her blue jeans were sun bleached and had holes in them.

Ghosts never said much, or maybe it was just that Autumn couldn't understand what they said. All she heard was a soft mumbling, like a radio turned down too low to distinguish the words. Words weren't necessary though. Autumn reached out and took the girl’s hand. 

The images started flickering immediately. She saw the girl's parents, a stern faced man with gray streaks in his black hair, a soft woman with sad eyes, dressed in pale green. She saw a sharp-eyed friend or brother, laughing on a swing set with the girl. She saw teachers, a preacher, more friends. Quickly the images piled up on top of each other, a lifetime of memories, faces, places. Spring, winter, summer, fall, all passed by in flashes. Autumn witnessed a fuzzy bug-like Halloween costume, a broken china doll, an apple tree in a small backyard. Time held no meaning; one image she was a toddler, the next blowing out ten candles. Autumn saw the girl's fall into the canal where she'd drowned. She saw her mother holding a newborn. It took only moments, but it was a lifetime.

She said, "Rachel Wong." 

Rachel glowed brighter and brighter, and then faded, and then she was gone.

Tori ran up a moment later. 

Meeting

“But why not!?” Tori wailed, stomping around in circles, arms thrown back and talking to the sky.

“I told you, the librarian freaks me out. I don’t want to mess with her.” Holly replied. They had caught up with Holly and Adelaide after school. Adelaide was heading to the sports medicine room and Holly was with her. “Sure she is great if you want to know something but I wouldn’t mess with her.”

Autumn hated to admit she was a little jealous of the other three girls. All three of them were average height (well, maybe a little taller than average), and pretty. Even Tori with her crazy fashion was considered interesting and fun. She had heard Adelaide with her ghost-like complexion compared to an angel, and then there was Holly. She was fiery and always seemed to know what to say. People liked her. She had freckles, like Autumn, but in a cute line across her nose and cheekbones instead of dark and all over her face like Autumn's were. Autumn had even considered calling her own freckles ‘the Legion’ a time or two. She had emerald green eyes compared to Autumns hazel and to top it off, Tori had told her that Holly had a boyfriend!

“I’m all tied up too.” Adelaide said. “Besides what makes you think that the librarian is from another world? She seems pretty normal to me.” This brought Tori’s head down and she started to rub her hands together as she made a little smile.

“Well I’m glad you asked. Well Holley…” Tori began, looking over at Holley who Autumn saw shake her head vigorously. Autumn cold tell that Tori changed what she was about to say and instead she held up a finger and began pacing back and forth with her other hand behind her back, “First…Everyone seems to do what she says. Second, she doesn't seem to have a real name; believe me, I checked. Third, since she has been here no one has turned in a late book. Ever. Fourth, sometimes she speaks in a weird language; and Fifth, I heard … she was a vegetarian!”

“Hey! I’m a vegetarian!” Holly said aghast.

“I know dear, and we try not to hold that against you.” Tori said, patting Holly’s cheek.

“Ya, but I don’t see why not having late books and speaking in another language makes you an alien.” Adelaide broke in.

“Because this is high school! Come on, out of all the students here, don’t you think that it’s a little strange that not a single one has ever had a late book since she has become the librarian?”

“Okay that is a little strange. “ Adelaide relented. “But I heard she was from Norway, so it makes sense that she can speak another language.”

"Ya, but when Norwegians speak do they turn the air different colors?”

“What do you mean?” all three girls asked in unison.

“Well…” Tori began. “I don’t think she knew anyone was there, and I was just setting something up, and I saw her talking to the air, and I swear that I saw the air around her turn different colors.”

There was a moment of silence and then all three girls said “Uh huh.” in unison.

“No, guys you got to believe me! I really did see it!” Tori began.

There was a buzzing in Autumns pocket and she pulled out her phone. The little screen read Coach Baker. “Shoot, I have to go! I’m late for volleyball practice.” She looked over at Adelaide and Holly. “Don’t let her do anything until I get back.”

Tori

Despite herself, Autumn grinned. "Gee Brain, what do you want to do tonight?" She turned around to face her best friend of the past 2 years, Victoria "Tori" Bourne.

She'd changed her hair color again. Last week it was blue and green. Next week would probably be white and black, or neon yellow and orange, or some other crazy combination. She was also wearing purple boots with pink leggings, a short purple skirt to which she'd pinned some paper stars, and a pale blue button up with a cute little bowtie that matched the pink streak in her hair. Autumn frowned in consternation. "Oh no, you didn't."

"Yep!" Tori grinned, "Twilight Sparkle. You like?"

Autumn groaned. Lately Tori had been on a cartoon craze, and her most recent favorite was the one with the ponies. Last Saturday Tori had made Autumn watch an entire movie devoted to talking horses turning into rainbow-colored people. Now, apparently, she wanted to become one.

"You only wish that you could pull it off with me," Tori said sympathetically. "I'd make you Nightmare Moon. She's the bad guy for the first episode, and then she turns into a good guy. Sort of like you in the morning."

"I think I'd be Pinky," Autumn complained as she made her way to her locker. Everyone gave her a wide birth. She stood up straight, and tried to look as nice as possible, but everyone still shrank away from her. Most days it wasn't too bad, but today it was really getting to her.

"Pinkie Pie? You want to have luxurious, curly pinky locks and be the life of every party?" Tori nodded her head sagely. "Good idea. I think you'd look gorgeous with pink hair."

"No, I meant, you know, Pinky and the Brain?" Autumn self-consciously brushed her straight brown hair behind her ear.  "'Cause of all your brilliant plans to take over the world and stuff?"

"Ewe, no. I'm a horse," Tori said confidently. "Look at me run with my wild mane catching the wind!" She ran down the crowded hall, neighing, and Autumn hid a grin as she dialed open her locker. Tori had to be the craziest person she knew. Who else would be best friends with the freaky giant girl?

Tori was back a moment later, a huge grin on her face, completely unembarrassed. "So guess what we're going to do today?"

Autumn laughed. "The same thing we do every night Pinky. Try and take over the world!"

"You're right, I am way more Pinkie Pie than you," Tori laughed. "But guess. You'll never guess. Okay, I'll tell you."

Autumn simply nodded and smiled. When Tori was like this, the best thing to do was nod, smile, and be ready to haul butt as soon as their next escapade landed them into trouble.

"We're going to discover a secret world," Tori whispered, eyes flashing.

"Really."

"Yeah. I have it all figured out, just like in the My Little pony movie. The Librarian is obviously an evil hag who stays young by sucking out the brains of students. Or an alien, I'm still not sure which. So we wait till after night time, sneak into her private library, and find the spell that lets her go back to her home dimension!"

"Really."

"Yeah! Only, we're going to need help, so I decided to get Holly and Adelaide in on this. It's going to be epic!"

"Tori, I don't think finding a new world like that is even possible."

"Autumn, how often do you tell me that my plans are impossible?"

"Every time."

"And how often do they end up working?"

"Every time. But you gotta admit, this is way more far-fetched than anything you've ever come up with before-"

"Have a little faith, sis," Tori faked an agrieved tone.

"And we also always, Always get into trouble." Autumn finished.

"Well, that's why I always bring you with me, to get me out of it," Tori grinned and waved as she raced off to her next class.

Autumn

            “You got asked by who!” Autumn snuck a glance at the back of the class where two girls were excitedly talking their heads close together.

            It was lunch time and the class was just emptying out everyone heading in separate directions. Some of the students stayed though. Mr. Clark, the classroom teacher, didn’t mind if you ate lunch there. Mr. Clark even pulled a brown paper bag out of his desk opened a book and began reading as he ate his lunch. Autumn didn’t pay much attention to anything else. She was mostly interested in what the girls at the back were talking about.

            “I know and it was sooooooo cute too!” The second girl said. Autumn thought her name was Sarah or something. “He left a bunch of chocolate kiss on my doorstep with a note that said ‘now that I’ve kissed the ground you walked on will you go to homecoming with me?’” Both girls fell into a fit of giggles.  Autumn sat on the edge of her chair trying to catch what they were saying.

            “awww I wish that something like that would happen to me.” The first girl said dreamily. Autumn was pretty sure her name was Becky.

            “Well what about Todd? Weren’t you going to try to get him to ask you?” Sarah inquired. “I thought you guys were getting pretty close.”

At this point Autumn almost fell out of her seat and had to readjust. The two girls stopped talking for a moment to look up, their eyes widened for a moment when they saw Autumn and the quickly looked down talking in quitter tones.

Autumn sat there frustrated. She was missing the best part! How did you get someone you liked to ask you out? She had no idea! Not that it had really ever happened before. Actually it had never happened to her at all. Boys didn’t really want to ask you out when you could look them in the eye not to mention look down on them most of the time even without shoes. That’s what it was like when you were a girl and 6’3”. And even if that wasn’t what it was about, it sure felt like that’s what it was about! And now Sarah and Becky were talking about how to get a guy to ask you out and Autumn couldn’t even hear!

Well she wasn’t going to hear what they were saying if she just sat where she was. She grabbed her lunch bag took a deep breath and stood up. The few students that were left in the class room looked up at her, including Sarah and Becky but they all quickly turned away when they saw who it was. Autumn felt a little prick somewhere deep inside. Her whole life people had acted scared around her and she never understood why.

She walked to the back of the room and stood in front of Becky and Sarah. They looked up at her there eyes going wider. Crap! Autumn thought I have no idea what to say! I can’t just ask them how to get boys to ask you out. That would be way too weird! Why don’t I ever think before I just do things!? Maybe if I just ask to do something else they’ll talk to me. Wait what else do I ask them to do?! Maybe sports, I know about sports. Wait they don’t look like sports girls they look like girly girls. They probably don’t know anything about sports. But I don’t know any girly girly stuff to talk about! Oh now I’m taking too long, and I still don’t know what to say! Oh right I brought my lunch bag I’ll ask them to eat lunch with me!

“Lunch!” she said triumphantly, setting her brown lunch bag down in front of the two girls accidently hitting the desk pretty hard as she did so.

Both girls looked at her with panic stricken eyes, along with everyone else in the classroom except for Mr. Clark who was still reading. “Here” they squeaked in unison putting their lunches next to hers and getting up and practically running out of the classroom leaving there bags and books in their rush. Autumn sighed as she gathered up there things. She had to have the worst people skills in the world.

“Mr. Clark” Autumn said placing the items in front of the teacher. Mr. Clark looked up from reading gave a little shocked surprise at seeing Autumn and knocked his desk a little bit sending an apple rolling.

“What can I do for you?” Mr. Clark said. He kept setting the apple down and then it would roll and he would pick it up and set it down only to have it roll again.

“Becky and Sarah left some of their stuff here can you give it back to them when they come back?”

“Certainly” Mr. Clark said still messing with the apple.

Autumn exited the classroom walking down the long hallway. She would like to say that today just didn’t seem to be one of her days but it actually was pretty normal for her so far. Autumn was just contemplating what she was going to do for lunch when she was assailed from behind and a mass of purple and pink hair obscured her vision as a voice whispered into her ear.      

“I have the perfect plan today Pinky.”

The Big Bad

Brett clambered up the branches of tree, wary that a wolf might hear the sound. It was still buzzing and in a moment he had the cold plastic pressed to his ear. The cold light illuminated the puffs of his breath in the night air.

"Hello?" Brett whispered. 

"Brett, this is Adelaide. We're up a tree. They have us surrounded." Adelaide's voice shivered. "They're just standing below us, nineteen... twenty eight wolves and three that look like humans. It seems like they're waiting for something." 

Brett cursed and dropped to the earth, bending his knees and tucking into a roll. He sprang up and was running, the phone never leaving his ear. "I'll be there in a minute." 

"No, don't! Emily's doing something, I think we're going to try a flying spell or something." 

Brett was already closing the distance. The woods were silent except for his own panting breath. The moonlight was now edging above the horizon, and by its light Brett could see the clearing. A semicircle of wolves, eyes gleaming yellow, waited for him. 

Emily and Adelaide were standing on a slim branch roughly twenty feet above the ground, Levi supported between them. 

The wolves just stood their in the cold. As he approached, the three human-looking ones Adelaide had mentioned were in the process of completing their transformations to wolf. Slowly Brett stepped into the circle of moonlight illuminating the clearing.

"Ah, you've arrived," a voice growled out of the darkness. The other wolves stayed still. "Well, we didn't want to kill them without you here."

Slowly, melting out of the darkness, a monster wolf appeared, and Brett's heart sank. Each of the other wolves was the size of a small horse, but next to this new one they were like puppies. This new wolf had red eyes the size of dinner plates, and a head the size of a dumpster. Its shoulder brushed tree limbs fifteen feet off the ground. Despite its size, the great black beast stalked as silent as an owl. Its great claws tapped the ground gently. It sat on its back haunches next to the tree of the girls and Levi. Adelaide stifled a scream as the great beast snuffled inches away from her leg, the air from its nostrils blowing ruffling her shirt and hair. She kicked at the nose, and it twitched.

"I like my dinner with a little kick," The beast purred, a rumbling sound that caused Brett's whole body to vibrate. It licked its lips hungrily, eyeing Brett's friends just above its head. Then it glanced back at him. "I could eat them all before you had a chance to cross the clearing," it crooned.

"But you won't," Adelaide interrupted it. Her voice shivered, thin and flat in the cold air, but she continued. "You're a bully and a coward. You don't want to face all of us. You're afraid." She forced herself to look down into the eyes of the wolf.

"Coward!" Levi shouted angrily. "You send four giant wolves to kidnap a scrawny guy like me?" He pointed out into the darkness, "How many wolves do you got, fifty? Yeah, my pal Brett's got you running scared." He coughed, and Adelaide held on to him as speckled of blood stained his lips. Still, he continued. "They follow you because you're bigger and meaner, but none of you could win an even fight if your life depended on it."

Next to them on the branches, Emily was chanting quietly. Pale lights, a sphere of runes, bloomed around her and the two others.

The monster creature opened its mouth, tongue lolling to the side. "Oh, this is too much!" A yipping kind of horrible gurgle erupted from its throat, and Brett realized it was laughing. "Yes, you caught me. I'm a bully." It leaned against the tree the three were in, rubbing its shoulder against the bark. With every movement the tree shuddered, tossing Adelaide, Emily, and Levi around. "I'm completely defenseless against a cripple, two little girls, and a child with a sword." It rubbed more vigorously, and Levi fell out of the tree. A crack was heard when he hit the ground, and Levi screamed in agony. Brett could tell that his leg was broken.

"Let them go!" He screamed, finally finding his voice. "I'm the one you want. They've got nothing to do with this!"

Adelaide dropped out of the tree and rushed to Levi's side. Emily made her way down as well, but as she was stepping from one branch to the next the great wolf grabbed her by the leg and flung her into the center of the clearing. The brilliant glowing runes she'd summoned winked out.

"Let them go? But they're godspawn, just like you, little boy," the beast purred.

Brett made to run to the center of the clearing to check on Emily, but two of the smaller wolves sprang into his way, teeth bared and growling.

Brett felt and answering growl escape his own lips. A low rumble echoed in his ears, and the ground shivered again beneath his feet.

"Oh let him pass," the huge one said, and the two smaller wolves slinked away, snapping and growling, but leaving.

Brett ran to Emily, who was just sitting up. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Well, I have a slash on my leg from that thing's teeth, and I just got thrown thirty yards." She said, holding her head in her hands. "Despite a killer headache, I think I'll be okay." She grinned up at him. "I did it."

Realizations

            Brett ran his breathing coming heavy and fast. This was nothing like he was used to. He had never had to run like this before. He was used to running, he ran every day for football. That was easy, he never felt like he was pushing himself. Running away from a pack of wolfs, now that was challenging.

            At first it was easy. Adrenaline and anger had combined giving him the strength and speed that he had needed. The nail that turned into a sword had helped keep the pack leaders at bay along with rocks that he could pick up and throw. Even in the night and on the run Brett still had the arm of star quarter back and now he didn’t have to hold back. He could throw as hard as he wanted. A couple of his throws he could hear bone breaking. But no matter how many he slowed down they kept on coming.

            As far as he could tell there were three behind him. These ones were smarter more agile. Two ran on the sides the third behind. Brett couldn’t help thinking that they were trying to herd him somewhere. Well whatever they were trying to do Brett had to stop it. Brett tried to clear his mind. It was time to use the cuts he had been practicing in football.

Chopping his feet he quickly turned left pulling out the nail. The wolf on the left jumped back as Brett swung in a wide arc, anticipating the move. That was fine, it wasn’t his target. The swing of the sword had brought Brett into the perfect position and he threw the fist sized stone in his hand as hard as he could at the wolf in back of him. The stone connected with the canines head and it fell to the ground without making a sound.

            By some instinct Brett ducked and thrust upward with his sword catching the wolf that had been herding him on the right in the chest and dropping it to the ground. Brett stood shakily to his feet the last wolf watched him warily pacing back and forth. Its lips were pulled back and the dull light reflected off its razor sharp teeth. Time to go all out Brett thought as he prepared himself to attack and run. Before Brett could act the wolf sniffed the air turned around and run back the way it had come.

            Brett turned around quickly. In back of him up on a ridge was a wolf. This one was bigger than all the others that Brett had seen. It was as big as a horse and had silver fur. Its bright blue eyes shined in the darkness. Brett readied himself, he had no idea how he was supposed to fight this new wolf but he had to try. He didn’t know if he could out run this one. He didn’t even know if he could run at all. The new wolf just looked at him and time seemed to stretch by. The silver wolf raised its head and howled into the night. The whole thing sent shivers down Brett’s spine and he closed his eyes for just a second but when he opened them again the large wolf was gone. Brett spun around looking for it but it was no use. He couldn’t see it anywhere.

            Brett sank to his knees and tried to gulp in large breaths of air. Emily had no idea how right she had been when she had said this was his fault. He felt it now, an ice in the pit of his stomach. If he had only trusted Levi, if he had only gone and helped him maybe none of this would have happened. A couple of hours before Emily had shown up at his house Brett had gotten a phone call from Levi. Levi had said someone was following him home. He said they looked like the wolf kid from school. Brett hadn’t listened, instead he had yelled at Levi told him to get lost and that he never wanted to talk to him again.

            Brett beat his hand against the earth. The ground seemed to rumble and roll as his fist connected. He felt a buzzing in his pocket. At first he thought it was his imagination. Realizing it wasn’t he reached down and pulled out his phone. The little screen blinked at him letting him know that Levi was calling.

We found him!

Emily and Adelaide circled through the woods, walking crouched, quiet, pausing at the slightest sign of movement among the trees. A owl hooted in the darkness, and they jumped. Adelaide clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. 

They continued on. 

Levi was under a broken pine tree a little farther on. Adelaide saw him first, forgetting the wolves for a moment and running to where he lay limply on the ground. She reached him a second later, already opening her backpack and grabbing out equipment. 

"He needs gauze and antiseptic right away." She whispered furiously. Her voice shook, but her hands were deft, firm and competent. She checked his pulse, his breathing. He didn't seem to have any broken bones, but she was worried about moving him in case he had suffered some spinal injury. He shivered under her hands, his skin clammy. "Let's get a blanket over him." 

The light was horrible. She couldn't see anything, was working more by feel and instinct. With gloved hands she traced four long gashes that ran down from his right shoulder down his side, all the way to his thigh. 

"Is he alright?" Emily asked anxiously from behind her. 

Adelaide swallowed. "He's lost allot of blood," she said, keeping her voice even. So much blood, soaking the ground, her gloves, his pants. She felt through his jeans, found a series of puncture wounds on the left calf. Probably where one of the wolves had gripped his leg in its teeth, carrying him along. 

She pressed gauze after antiseptic gauze into his gaping wounds, but she didn't have nearly enough. When she ran out she pulled out the sports wrap. It felt like trying to duct-tape a life raft, and she was losing. The wrap soaked red as soon as it touched Levi's flesh. 

"Emily, does your magic do anything for healing?" Adelaide asked helplessly. 

"A little, but if we use any more magic it'll break the enchantment keeping us hidden," Emily said. 

"I think we're going to have to risk it," Adelaide replied. "Tell me what I need to do." 

"I haven't really learned that much," Emily said nervously. "Mostly you're just trying to get the body to remember what it was like to be whole, and then you gotta give them some rest. It takes allot of energy." 

"You said I have some of this magic stuff too, right?" Adelaide asked. "Can you use some of that?" 

"Yeah, but we're-" 

"Emily, if we don't do something right now Levi's going to die," Adelaide hissed. "Brett, you, me, we've come all this way. I can't do anything for him this way. He's lost too much. Now tell me what I gotta do, and let's get this done." 

"Okay," Emily nodded. "I'll explain as quick as I can, then. The magic I use is all about knowledge and sacrifice. Basically, that means I need you to give something up so that I can give you the knowledge of how to do what we're going to do here." 

"What kind of sacrifice?" 

"In the old stories, the Odin gave an eye for wisdom, but I don't think we need to be that drastic. A ring or something would work." 

"Like some hair, or a fingernail?" 

"No, it has to be something you'd miss." 

Adelaide took one of her shoes off. "Will this do?" 

Emily hesitated. "I think so."

Adelaide handed the shoe over. Emily took it in her hands, and a moment later the shoe started glowing, like it had a black light shining on it. It lifted from Emily's hands, and then burst into fire, the acrid smoke smelling of burning plastic and cotton. 

As the smoke hit Adelaide's nose, images and symbols bloomed in her mind. They spiraled upwards, faster and faster until she felt she was in a galaxy of miniature suns. Behind her, she could feel a warm, comforting, ancient presence, wrapping her in its arms. It comforted her with its familiarity and simultaneously scared her with its immense age. It had seen millennia, she could tell. She tried to turn around, to see the presence, but in that moment it was gone. 

"So you know what to do now?" Emily asked.

"Yes," Adelaide said. She knelt down again next to Levi. "Give me your hand." 

Emily knelt down on the other side. Emily put her right hand over Adelaide's, on top of Levi's forehead. Emily grabbed one of Levi's hands in her other, whispering, "It's going to be alright." Adelaide passed her second hand in the air over Levi. A soft silver glow emanated from them both, fading into red-black afterimage spots as the light sunk into Levi's body. 

Adelaide went deeper into the magic she could now feel Emily weaving. They were convincing Levi's body to rebuild itself, but Adelaide knew there was so much more she could do, she felt. She felt her mind diving deep, into the tendons, the nerves, the muscle fibers. She felt where the blood still leaked out, and closed the arteries. She whispered words of encouragement, and the flesh knitted itself back together. She felt along the lines of his energy, pausing here and there to encourage, revitalize. She poured some of her own vigor into him, until she felt his raspy breathing deepen beneath her hand, felt the erratic scattering of his broken thoughts smooth into theta waves, felt him returning to consciousness and vitality.

Levi breathed deeply, suddenly. His eyes flew open and he sat up, throwing the two girls off. Emily came right back, smoothing his hair, patting his back. "Sh, sh, sh," she whispered. "We need to be quiet." 

"I was going to die," he whispered hoarsely. "And you saved me." 

"It was mostly Adelaide," Emily nodded. "I don't know half of what you did," she said, glancing at the other girl, "you've got a real gift." 

"It was both of us," Adelaide whispered. "Now lets get out of here before-" 

"Before what?" A cold, growling voice whispered behind her. 

Did it work?

Ba boom ba boom ba boom the sound of the blood rushing into Adelaide’s ears was the loudest sound that she heard as Emily and she made their way to the flickering green dot that was Levi. She tried to control her breathing as they climbed through the underbrush. Having too much adrenaline wasn’t good if she needed to perform any medical attention. It was hard trying to calm yourself down when the shadows of the trees and the knowledge that there was danger all around kept making your heart beat faster. Adelaide felt like she was losing the battle in that respect.

The pine needles and leaves crunched under foot as they walked the dark paths. Emily held the phone and kept looking at it to make sure they were still on the right path. A wolfs howl in the distance made Adelaide jump and grab Emily’s hand. It was only a little comfort to have Emily hold on to her hand as tightly as she held on to hers.

“Um Adelaide...” Emily started hesitantly whispering in the darkness. “Try not to make any sound okay.”

“Why?” Adelaide whispered back curiously. “Didn’t you use a spell on us?”

“About that,” Emily began tentatively. “I’ve never used so much magic and never so many big spells at one time. I’m not even sure I did them all right.” Emily sounded like she was having a hard time admitting it along with sounding guilty.

“It’s okay Emily. We’ll just be quite and not make any…” Adelaide began and then was cut off abruptly by the deep rumble of a growl.

In the darkness golden eyes caught the small light of the moon and stars and reflected them in two visceral eyes. Adelaide grip tightened on Emily’s hand as the beast stepped out of the darkness. Paws as big as dinner plates supported the massive wolf. Adelaide had never seen a wolf as large as this. Dark gray fur rolled and shook with each surprisingly quit step. The beast growled pulling back its lips and now all that Adelaide could think about was the white teeth that seemed to spell death.

As the wolf got closer it lowered its head. The hair on its back rose to stand straight in the air. Adelaide closed her eyes sure that death would be coming for her any moment. A long piercing howl shattered the night and Adelaide opened her eyes. The wolf stared off into the night toward the direction of the howl. It turned back to the girls it eyes narrowed and indecision seemed to cross its features before it bounded off into the night as quit as it had come.

Adelaide let out the breath she didn’t even know she was holding and heard the twin of it coming from Emily. They looked at each other evident relief shown clearly in each face. Adelaide couldn’t help it and through her arms around Emily’s neck. It just seemed the right thing to do in that situation and was hugged in return.

“Well at least that seemed to have worked.” Adelaide said in relief stepping back.

“I’m not so sure.” Emily said looking worried. “That one didn’t show up on my map.”

“Well is Levi still there?”

“Yes, he should be right up ahead.” Emily said and started walking in the direction she had indicated.

1...2...3... Run!

"Give me your phones," Emily said to the others. Adelaide had a smart phone, but Brett's was just a flip phone. "Okay, you're going to have to use mine. Me and Adelaide will stick together." She drew a sigil on Adelaide's phone. It glowed blue for a second, then went out. Emily handed Adelaide's phone to Brett. "Me and Adelaide are going first. We have a... it's not exactly invisibility. It's more like a Don't Notice Me smell, so they can look right at us and think we're as important as trees. We'll go in and extract Levi from the cave where they've hidden him. I've downloaded an app so that you can track the movements of the monsters. It should be able to keep up with anything below a level 4, but be careful. Something bigger might be out there. And make sure they don't see the light on the phone."

"Can't you do the invisibility thing on me?" Brett asked.

"No, we need you to be a distraction. Don't run in though, they're waiting for you. See if you can circle around instead, take out the patrols on the edges. Get them worried about one spot and then run somewhere else. Don't stay too long though."

"I told you I can handle myself."

"Brett, pay attention." She flipped open her own phone. She clicked an icon like a shield made of the wings of two crows. A map of the park zoomed into view. Three little green specks sat huddled in the parking lot, while all around them red specks circled. Dozens of them. About three hundred yards into the forest, another little green dot flickered.

"There are 37 wolves. Can you handle 37 wolves by yourself?" Emily asked sarcastically.

Brett stared at the screen, mind blank. A cold chill shivered up his spine. I would have walked right into that, he thought. I wouldn't have stood a chance.

"Brett! Pay attention!" Emily snapped.

"All of those red dots are giant wolves?" Adelaide asked. She sounded remarkably calm about it. "But they can't see us, right?"

"They know where Brett is right now, but they won't as soon as he sprints away from the car. I set up an enchantment so that they'll sense three different Bretts running in different directions. That way he has a chance to draw them off. We'll already be heading to get Levi, and the wolves should be too preoccupied, and my enchantment should hold." Emily shook her head. "I'm not going to lie, this is insanely dangerous. I, ah, didn't expect..." she swallowed. "There are allot more fenrir than I expected." She glanced down at the screen, then outside. "Okay, looks like the wolves are getting antsy. Time for us to go. Count to 10 before you head out, or the wolves might trip over us, and they would definitely notice that."

Emily opened the car door a crack and slipped out into the still night, Adelaide close behind. "And Brett," Emily whispered. "I'd take off my shoes and socks if I were you. It'll help. Trust me."

Brett swore at the girl's retreating figures, quietly. Gritting his teeth, he shucked his shoes off, counting to ten as he did so. "One," he grimaced.

He hoped the girls would be okay. This was a horrible plan. "Two," he whispered quietly to himself.

Was that movement under that tree? "Three"

Both his shoes and now his socks were discarded onto the floor of the car. A rank, toe-like smell wafted up. "Four."

Definitely movement. Coming from two different directions. "Five."

He glanced down at the phone. Maybe eight of them were circling his car, just outside the parking lot. "Six."

His breath came faster. "Seven."

"Eight."

"Nine." One was running towards his car.

"Ten!" Brett launched himself out of the vehicle, slamming the car door into the wolf-creature's face as he did so. He rolled on the ground and pelted in the opposite direction of the girls. He felt a sensation like two shadows crossing over his shoulders, and a moment later out of the corner of his eyes he saw two mirror images of himself streaking in opposite directions. Laughing madly, Brett leaned into the run, sprinting through the cool night air.

Brett was probably the best football player on his team. He played varsity as a freshman. He knew how fast he was, how strong. He'd been getting into fights for years. He'd never lost once. This was his field. Brett knew it, he could feel the wolves coming for him, faster than linebackers, faster than startled deer, and still they seemed to move through molasses. This was his game.

He could feel one of the wolves closer than the rest, her breath- he could tell it was female somehow- damp-hot on his legs. He leaped towards a tree, kicking off just as the beast sailed below him, pulling out the nail and twisting in mid-air to avoid another wolf-monster's swiping claws.

A moment later he held a sword in his hand.

Brett didn't let them get close enough to grapple. One on one grappling was fine, but a death wish against so many. Brett slashed in a wide arc with his sword, directing it towards movement more felt than seen. The blade sang through the air, and a moment later monstrous howls of rage filled his ears.

He glanced down at the phone in his other hand. Ten more were headed in his direction to join these three. Brett ran again, bursting between the two in front of him with a quick jab into the ear of the right and a quick slice of the sword across the hind quarters of the left. They fell back a moment, disoriented, before hurtling like comets of fur and fury at his heels again.

Brett realized he was still laughing. He stopped abruptly. A short bluff loomed up ahead. Brett leaped, sword changed back to nail and in pocket, phone between teeth, leaped and scurried up the shear rock wall like a lizard. Down below the wolves scrabbled after him, but they weren't built to climb. The cool stone was welcoming beneath his feet. He reached the summit and kept running, grinning into the darkness.

They wanted to hunt him, did they? He would show them who was hunter, and who was hunted.

Stop!

            Malaspina Park didn’t look like much and was hard to get to. The park didn’t have any real open spaces and was pretty much just a bunch of trails that ran through the woods. Brett didn’t feel like walking to the trailheads so he went up some windy roads until he could pull off onto a dirt power line road that went by the trailheads. All the trees had been cut back to make room for the power lines so you had a thirty foot wide snake of space bordered on both sides by trees. On one side just a little past the trees was the North Vancouver suburbs and on the other was a vast never ending forest.

            “What is she doing?” Brett asked and not for the first time as he pulled onto the dirt road. “We’re almost there.”

            “Brett shhhh.” Adelaide said quietly. “Emily said she needed to concentrate for this to work.”

            Emily the weird had been sitting in a trance like state for the last ten minutes. It had been so frustrating to have her say ‘oh there is so much stuff I know Brett but your too dumb to understand it all, you’re just going to have to wait until I find my picture books, I’m not sure I can teach jock monkeys to read’ okay she hadn’t said it like that but that’s what it had felt like she had been saying. Telling them she knew about what was going on than saying she would explain it latter and then telling them they had to be quite so she could concentrate and hopefully get them all back alive.

            Emily started speaking under her breath in some language that Brett had never heard but that sent shivers down his spine and made his hair stand up. The quick glances that Brett had sneaked as they drove along showed Emily head bowed and eyes closed mumbling and moving her arms and hand in funny gestures. Adelaide looked on with a face of worry and concern. Suddenly Emily’s hand shot out and griped his arm “stop the car” she said in an urgent horse whisper.

            “Now what?” Brett sighed as he stopped the car.

            “There are too many of them. Even you would be overwhelmed.” She said with certainty. Again she didn’t tell them how she knew.

            “I’d like to see them try.” Brett growled and almost kept driving but the tightening of Emily’s hand on his arm stopped him.

            “Brett, please don’t be an idiot. We need to use the subtle approach here.”

            “I don’t know if Brett knows how to be subtle.” Adelaide said a little smile twitched on her lips.

“I know how to be subtle.” Brett said defensively. He was glad it was dark so the girls couldn’t see his face. It felt hot.

“Well you don’t show it very often.” Adelaide said with a giggle.

“I’ve been using magic and contemplating. And I think I now a way to get Levi out without getting any of us killed in the process.” Emily said with confidence. But Brett could see the worry lining her face.

Another Car Ride

They got to Adelaide's house a few minutes later. She was sitting on the porch, her white hair giving her a faint halo from the moonlight and porch light. Her first aide backpack was next to her, and as soon as she saw them pull up, Adelaide hopped to her feet and ran to the car.

"I told my parents that I needed to help some friends from school with some things," she said breathlessly. "Well? What's going on?"

"Well," Brett began, a little disgruntled that she had also sat in the back seat.

"Oh, I'll explain it. You'd just mess things up," Emily said crossly. She turned to Adelaide. "I know you've dealt with some crazy things before. Unusual injuries," Emily waved at Brett in the front seat. "Perhaps seeing unusual things, something like that. The reason I know that is because everybody here has experienced something similar."

Adelaide gave herself some time to think while she pulled a dry towel out of her backpack for Emily. "I've always been really good at medicine. People say it's because I'm smart, and I really do love learning about how to help people, but sometimes," She said, "Sometimes I feel like I'm healing people with magic or something. Like I will them better." She looked at the other two curiously. "I kind of figured something similar might be happening with Brett,"

"Does everybody know my biggest secret?" Brett interrupted incredulously.

"You're a rather obnoxiously obvious target," Emily stated. She toweled her damp clothes vigorously, as well as her hair.

"I figured Brett might have had something similar going on," Adelaide continued, "but I didn't think you might have..."

"There are quite a few of us here at school." Emily said, still toweling. When she finished, she looked pointedly at Brett, who stared back until realizing he was still sitting in front of Adelaide's house. Muttering about obnoxiously bossy females, he started the car up again and started driving.

"I can't tell you who everyone is yet, but that's not the point. The point is that there are monsters as well as kids with gifts. Monsters that really want to kill the kids with gifts. Most of the time we manage to hide the people from them before it becomes too much of a problem." Emily went on. "The bracelet I gave you for you birthday? That's a protective charm. It keeps the monsters from noticing you. I never did manage to give one to Brett though."

Adelaide tugged self-consciously at the braided hemp bracelet set with a single carved green stone.

"Wait a minute, who's we?" Brett interrupted.

"I don't have time to explain everything right now," Emily shot an irritated glance at the Brett, and then continued on. "The most important thing right now is that somehow Levi got involved with all of this. He's a normal, but I think some monsters are using him as bait to get Brett to come and save him. I'm not sure why."

"I killed one of them earlier today," Brett growled. "Just like I'm going to kill the rest when we get there."

The girls sat in uncomfortable silence after that last comment. Outside houses gave way to gas stations and strip malls, and Brett started driving faster. Adelaide said, "Shouldn't we try focusing on getting Levi safely out of there, instead of walking into the trap like this?"

"That's what me and you are here for," Emily said, smiling. "Levi is probably seriously injured; they're likely to try using him as a bargaining chip with Brett, to get him in a vulnerable position, and then take him down. But they don't know about you or me. Our job will be locating and extracting Levi while Brett keeps the fenrir occupied."

"I thought they were werewolves," Brett said.

"I'll explain that later too, I promise. But right now the most important thing is making sure Levi is safe." Emily shook her head. "I'm breaking so many rules today," she said wryly, "But monsters have been moving allot more openly lately. Maybe it's time for people like us to do the same."

"And Brett's going to take care of the wolves," Adelaide said, doubt in her voice. "By himself."

"I'm going to give him a little help before he goes in," Emily assured her. "And both of us will be there if things get too hairy." She pulled a couple nails, big as railroad spikes, out of her coat pocket. "Each of you take one of these."

Adelaide took one dubiously, but her mouth firmed a second later. "I'm ready. Just," she said, patting Brett quickly on the shoulder, "Just be careful out there, okay?"

Brett blushed a little, but when he spoke, his voice still carried angry undertones, like the distant rumble of an earthquake. "Don't worry. I can take care of myself."

Well this is Painful

Pain shot through Levi’s entire body. He didn’t want to move or open his eyes. It hurt even to breath. Each one shot lances of pain through his battered frame. One of his ribs must be broken Levi thought dully. Although right now nothing seemed to be working and everything might be broken for all he knew.

The last thing Levi remembered was walking home. The light from the sun had set and now the twilight glow was all that was left. His phone rang again; he looked at the screen monotonously. It was Emily; she had been calling for the last hour. He watched his screen until the light stopped flashing and it went blank. He sighed, he felt guilty for not answering. But at the moment he didn’t want to talk to her.

He was almost home, his steps slowed noticeably as he got closer. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his foster family. He did, but then again he didn’t. Interesting would be the best word for them. Levi’s foster father drank a lot and played jokes and pranked people a lot. When asked what he did he always had a different answer but Levi always thought of him as a con artist. Levi’s foster mother worked long hours at a butchers and always wanted to know where he was at and what he was doing. Half the missed calls on his phone were from her. There was the older Goth sister who liked to play zombie. She was okay half the time. There was the older brother who worked at the pet store. He shaved his head bald and had a snake tattoo that covered his entire body. Then there was the dog. Levi didn’t know why he always included him with the family but it just seemed right. It was the biggest dog that Levi had ever seen. Levi foster father laughed and said he was some malamute, husky, wolf mix with horse thrown in for good measure. He was chained up in the back yard and stayed there with his head poking out of his too small dog house. Baleful eyes watching and waiting for someone to make the mistake and come to close to his domain. Ironically it was Levi’s foster father’s girlfriend that Levi liked the most. She was nice and loved horses and liked to tell Levi about them.

Lost in thoughts about his foster family and how he was going to convince Brett he didn’t tell Emily anything. Levi had no idea what happened. He was walking the next thing he knew he had the wind knocked out of him and his face smashed against the sidewalk. He was desperately trying to suck in air when pain ached up his body from his arm and he blacked out.

Levi opened his eyes now. Squinting down he tried to look at his arm. It was hard to see anything it was so dark. He had his back against a pine tree and it looked like he was in the forest that surrounded North Vancouver. He was shirtless and cold. He could tell his back was scrapped up and he was sure that he had cuts all over his torso.

The ground elevated to the right and was the forest proper. To the left the ground sloped down and Levi could see a ways into the distance the forest broke in a long clearing a road running through it. Further and a little past the clearing and road Levi could see house lights.

Turning again to the right his view was obscured by white teeth and yellow eyes. Levi screamed and fell over onto his side coughing and curled up in pain. For a moment Levi thought it was the family dog. But the giant gray wolf wasn’t him. There was the crunch of boots in the dead foliage and Levi looked up into the face of what he thought was Camdon, before realizing it wasn’t him, a moment before he blacked out once again.

Levi is still alive, the note said. Barely.

Brett bristled, but stepped out onto the porch and closed the door quietly.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed. "I don't want you, or Levi, or anybody coming around he-"

Emily thrust the shirt and note at him. "Before you ridicule me, perhaps you should consider the consequences of your own actions."

Brett took them without thinking, grimacing at the wetness of both. Halted mid-rant he glanced down at the shirt and caught his breath. It was Levi's shirt, green with a Chinese dragon printed across the back. It was ripped, and mud and deep red spattered his hands where he touched it.

"Couple of wolves just left that on your porch. Horse-sized wolves. I ended up in your neighbor's kiddy pool to keep them from smelling me," Emily said, tossing her wet hair. "Did you read the note?"

Your friend is still alive, godspawn, scrawled in blotchy, spidery black letters. Will you be, before the night is over? Come to Malaspina Park. Hurry. My wolves are hungry, hungry for vengeance. The little one might not last much longer.

Brett felt a wave of heat, then chills, sweep over his whole body. He crumpled the paper, his whole body trembling. Pebbles on the ground started trembling. Without a word he started toward the car.

Emily jumped into the back seat with him before he'd started the ignition. "Adelaide," she said. "We need Adelaide. I don't know how badly Levi's been injured." She pulled out her phone, already dialing the number. "Hopefully my phone still works after that dunking."

Brett glared back at her furiously. "Get out, you-"

"It's your fault," Emily said. "You pushed him away. You left him defenseless." The phone in her hand was ringing.

"Shut up," He said quietly. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"What possible reason could you have for abandoning him like that?"

"He told you about me! He told you about the wolves, the goblins, and now you're sticking your nose into my business! You want to get Adelaide mixed up in this crap too? I'm trying to protect you, you idiot! I'm trying to keep the nightmares from getting you, like they- like they-" Brett stopped, his voice stuck in his throat. He realized vaguely that pebbles floated lazily around the car. That's new, he thought, vaguely disconnected. Everything seemed so unreal. All his life, Brett had been confident that whatever happened, he'd be able to handle it. Now Levi was gone, and Brett couldn't handle it. He'd never felt helpless before.

"Levi didn't tell me anything," Emily said softly. Her eyes burned in rage. "Not. One. Thing."

A click on the other end of Emily's phone brought them both up short. "Hey, Emily. What's up?" Adelaide's voice seemed to drain the tension out of the too-close atmosphere of the car. Still, neither Emily or Brett spoke. "Emily? Is everything okay?" Adelaide's voice asked.

"Adelaide, I-" Emily stopped for a moment when Brett motioned. "Hold on, somebody wants to talk to you.

Brett took the phone. "Adelaide?" He asked, his voice uncertain. "I, um." He took a deep breath, held it.

"Brett? What's going on?"

"Nothing's wrong Adelaide," Brett said.

"Brett," Adelaide said. "It's going to be okay."

"No it's not," Brett said woodenly. He took a deep breath. "I messed up, Adelaide, and now Levi's- hurt. Maybe. I don't know. Everything's messed up." He wanted to crumple the phone in his hand, but he forced himself to keep talking. "I need to do something really dangerous tonight, and I- well, I don't want to get you involved. But you're probably the best person, the only person I would trust to help, and-"

"Come over to my house, I'll have my stuff ready by the time you get here," Adelaide hung up.

Brett crushed the phone in his hand.

"Start driving," Emily ordered from the back seat.

"You still here?" Brett asked sarcastically. He turned on the ignition, his mom's little car roaring to life. She'll probably want to know where I had to go in the middle of the night, he thought to himself. Another lie. The lights puled on and he backed into the road, then roared down the street, slightly faster than necessary.

"I assume you know where Adelaide lives," Emily said. "You owe me a new phone, by the way."

"If Levi didn't tell you about stuff, how do you know?"

Emily chortled unpleasantly. "Oh, this is too rich. You actually thought you were the only one?" Brett glanced back. Emily's eyes glittered like chips of moonlight. "I knew what you were from the first moment I saw you."

She looked out the window, up where the night twinkled with stars. "It took a bit longer for me to identify others. Adelaide is one of us too."

"Godspawn?" Brett recalled the word from the note.

Emily hesitated for a moment. "I'm not sure. I can see the power lingering around certain people, like sparks hover around a campfire. You have it really strong. Adelaide has less." She shivered, her clothes still damp. "I saw it on the wolves too. And I've seen it on others. When I first met you, I thought you were one of the monsters."