THE NINE (<go back) Michelle ran through the woods, looking behind her to see how close they were, then looking forward to watch her step. The blood and ashes still tasted metallic and sour in her mouth. Her wrists were raw from the fibers of the ropes. She had to get to her car, at the bottom of the dirt road. Behind her she could hear Randy's dog barking and David, Troy, Sara, Laney and Jackie yelling. “You bitch! We'll get you anyway! It's a small town, Michelle! We know where you live!” She got in the car and started the engine, speeding off. She lit a cigarette and headed west, into the night. She brushed her long brown hair out of her face and thought about what to do. They knew where she lived. Let them come, Roger would kick their asses. Michelle's step dad was a large imposing man, a farmer and occasional truck driver with a junk yard on his property. He didn't get into fights, but he was effective at stopping them. His size and reputation were enough to deter most people. He was tough, and he expected her to do her share, but Roger had been  like a father to her and let her live in his home for all these years, even after her mom left. He'd fed her, bought her clothes, kept her in school. He'd helped her fix up the car, and he'd let her pay him back slowly for all the parts. He'd showed her how to do a lot of stuff. He said he figured she'd run off to the city after school and she'd need to know how to take care of herself. If only Roger knew what she had to defend herself against right here at home.   He wouldn't understand it though, and he'd probably be mad at her. She loved him and never wanted to cause him pain. She drove on, not wanting to go home. The car was sixteen, just one year younger than Michelle. The tan vinyl seats were cold and it took a while for the heater to warm the interior of the giant automobile. Even if they had parked closer to her, Chad's little pick up, Laney's Honda and Kristin's Toyota couldn't keep up with her Chevelle. The Coven would have to wait. She'd beaten them again. Kristin couldn't stand it. Michelle had been recruited and trained by Kristin. Then she'd defied them. She'd become better than any of them and she was for Light. They worshiped Dark. They were fools. They had only the power to tear down, not to build. She drove the county roads until morning. Then she went home to Roger's and made him coffee and breakfast. He never put a curfew on her, he told her to be careful about things and expected her to work and help pay for groceries and electricity. He said he knew that she was a good girl. It was Saturday, and Michelle did her homework and cleaned the house. When Roger was out feeding the animals, or doing other chores, she could use her gift. She would concentrate hard staring at the broom, until it began to sweep the floors. Then she turned her eye to the sink full of dishes, insisting that they wash themselves. She dried them one by one as they leaped clean and wet into her dish towel. Then she sent them off to their places, floating though the air and landing in their respective cabinets. When she finished with the housework, she went to her room in the attic. She lit some amber incense. She knew that others thought her way was wrong or strange. She knew that around here, you either believed in a Christian God or you didn't. There were no synagogues or temples in Shadow Springs. There were lots of  Protestant and Catholic churches, and just as many bars. Most of the kids her age were your basic amoral party centered spoiled American brat, going to keggers and shopping malls. Even those would think her way was weird. Michelle had no one now that her so called friends, The Nine, now only The Eight, were her enemies. Roger hardly came upstairs at all. His back hurt him, so he avoided the climb. They had lived like this for seven years. Michelle's mom, Judy, had left them both and went to Canada with a biker. They had not heard from her since. Michelle had no idea who her real dad was, just that her mom had said he was a teacher. Judy was only seventeen years older than Michelle. Michelle would sit before the window each day and ask the Spirit of Love to prevail upon the earth and bring peace to her life and all others. Saturday, she asked for protection. She woke at dawn and went to her window. She opened it and looked at the sky. The next day, Michelle had to work from nine to three at the grocery store. They showed up, just as she expected. Kristin bought a pack of Camel Lights, Chad bought Marlboro Reds, and Randy bought a beef tongue from the meat department. He threw it down on her counter. Kristin looked at Michelle and said, “That could be you if you talk.” Kristin tossed her light brown hair and turned on her thick black heel. She wore a black leather jacket over a black sweater, a long skirt and boots. Randy wore a long black coat and filled the pockets with stolen items from the store. Chad was tall and good looking, with his black coat and baggy pants, brown hair and blue eyes.  He had looked at Michelle briefly, then looked away in shame and remained quiet. She knew he liked her but was too afraid to defy Kristin and the others. He'd worked too hard at building an identity based on fitting in with them. Chad was sweet and fragile in reality. Michelle had been new to the group,  recruited from the lower ranks of the high school. Before becoming one of The Nine, Michelle was a just a girl. She'd been a nobody. Then she'd been cool and looked good in all black with The Nine. Chad had kissed her, the night before she showed them all the Light. Then he'd been standing off not acting for or against her once the others had declared their anger. Kristin would surely notice his attempted neutrality and make him choose. Michelle was disappointed that he hadn't already chosen. Roger drank the last of the coffee and thought about Michelle. She was grown up now, or at least most of the way. She'd stayed out all night, but he knew she was a pretty good girl. He made her promise never to drive drunk. He'd tried to teach her to save her money and think about things carefully. He'd insisted she take birth control pills until she graduated high school, even though he believed her when she said she was still a virgin. He did it for her, to be as certain as he could that she'd have a shot at a good future. He'd made her pay for things in order to teach her about money. He'd taken every cent she paid him for her share of living expenses, and he'd put it in the bank, in a savings account for her. He'd tried to do right by Michelle, even though every time he looked at her, he saw her mother. The first time they all met, Judy had been a pretty young thing in bell bottom jeans and a halter top hitch-hiking down the Interstate with her little baby girl, Michelle in her arms. He'd been driving a truck for a grain outfit in Kansas City. She'd   been a thin little California girl looking for a good time, and only partly knew her baby needed more. Roger figured that was why she stayed as long as she did. She'd married him after he pleaded with her to stay and let him give the baby a name and a home. He would never break that promise. He loved Michelle dearly. In fact, he reckoned he still loved Judy just about as much. Maybe she left because he didn't say it right. Lord knows, he said it enough to her. He begged her to stay every week. He made passionate love to her, learning and trying things he didn't think people did all that much around here. He worked extra jobs and bought them things like cable television and a Jeep for Judy, toys and clothes for Michelle, and trips to the cities. He'd learned how to dress up a little and behave, but never had mastered appearing comfortable. He'd tried eating things he couldn't pronounce; eating them with chop sticks; eating them with people he didn't understand; going on camping trips with people he didn't like. He'd even smoked marijuana with Judy and her friends once, but he didn't like the way it made him feel. In the end, he couldn't escape the facts. Shadow Springs, Wyoming was a long way from San Francisco, or anywhere in California. He wondered how the girl would make out. He had added a little money to the savings account in case she wanted to go to a community college or technical school maybe. He wondered why Judy didn't call or write her daughter. He was sad and sorry whenever he thought of Judy, and bikers and other men probably treating her poorly in some far away city. He went to work feeding the cows and fixing the fences, then he had to work on his truck. Michelle dressed for school wearing her black skirt and Doc Martin boots, Ministry t-shirt and leather jacket. She drove the Chevelle fast on the dirt roads. She had Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Your Funeral, My Trial” in the cassette player she'd paid the cute guy in town at the stereo store to install. She appraised herself in the rear view mirror just before getting out of the car in the school parking lot. She was ready for Kristin. There was nothing she couldn't handle there. She spotted the blue Toyota as she walked toward the front entrance near the office. Laney, Randy and Sara stood by the open door, on the concrete steps. Chad and David were sitting on the wooden bench looking out at her. Kristin, Troy and Jackie were in the car at the far end of the first parking row. As Michelle got closer, Laney and Sara walked down the steps and waved at her, smiling wryly. No one among the rest of the kids at school would have seen this as unusual. They didn't know yet what had happened between the Nine over the weekend. The other kids enjoyed making up rumors and jokes about the Nine. The religious kids took the Nine more seriously. The jocks, cowboys, and preppies; the potheads, and the  nerds, all made fun of the Nine. As individuals, they reveled in the image of “outcast”. As a group, they knew they were cool, because everyone was talking about them. When Michelle first became Kristin's friend, it was fun. They had been assigned seats next to each other in eleventh grade Art class, and Kristin had acted impressed with Michelle's collage. They talked about music and boys. Soon, Kristin was inviting Michelle places, and introducing her to people. Michelle had transferred to the high school from a smaller rural   school. There were few of the kids she knew attending her high school. Michelle had not made many friends the year before. Their Sophomore year, Kristin and Michelle had been close. Kristin had introduced her to the others and to witchcraft. They were cool and dark. Laney wore thick eyeliner and many earrings and black leggings and military boots. She was obsessed with Joy Division. David was a tall thin blond who liked horror comics. Troy was dark haired and had beautiful light brown eyes. Sara and Randy were together. Sara had Manic Panic pink hair, Randy had a tattoo of a tiger on his right shoulder. He also wore  safety pins in his ears and dressed liked a British punk. Jackie was a cute lesbian punk girl with a short and stocky, but fit body. She was outspoken and rough but vulnerable because she had a crush on Kristin. Michelle felt patently uncool in her jeans and polo shirts when she first started hanging out with the Coven. It was on a Saturday night that Kristin dubbed them the Nine. It was in the woods around and inside the ruins of a cement factory, overgrown and crumbling in the sparse outskirts of town. The Factory, as they called it was where they went to hang out. Kristin had dressed Michelle in gauzy black layers and boots, and had the others stand around holding candles as She chanted and burned incense, playing Bauhaus on a cassette boom box loaded with batteries. Michelle was called to the center of the circle and welcomed officially into the Coven, making them nine strong. From then on, Michelle wore black and she started smoking cigarettes. Each inhaled lung full of poison seemed to make her more like them, dark and mysterious, cool and risky. Michelle was very pretty, with long dark straight hair, and long legs. She was getting noticed by all the boys in school now that she wore black and stood out with the Nine. It was a new pleasure, to be seen as pretty and exotic by guys that had never really noticed her before. Two football players and a basketball star now tried to talk to her in classes and in the cafeteria. “So are you like, a witch or something? “ said Joey, a meaty full back with tight brown curls and blue eyes. “She's got a spell on me, I believe am be-witched!” said Darius, the tall basketball star. He was a handsome green eyed black boy with a tall fade and a smooth smile. He liked to open the door for her and placed his large hand on the small of her back as she walked into their shared classroom. He called her Samantha. This gave Michelle a tingly good feeling, and made her blush. Darius did that to all sorts of females, including teachers and librarians. “Do you like, worship the devil?” said one of the junior cheerleaders. Kristin had looked hard at the girl and said, “Yes.” The others had laughed. Michelle thought about the question. Kristin had only called on nature elements and ancient spirits, so Michelle had not thought of their ceremonies as anything like devil worship. She'd really only thought of them as harmless fun and something different, maybe even a little silly.     At first, Michelle had been skeptical of their claims of harnessed energies and magic.  When she'd seen Chad's lovely face for the first time, taking in his dark hair and blue eyes, his strong jaw and wide shoulders. She was suddenly very interested in their witchcraft. Michelle was not easily fooled, and saw Kristin's showmanship and bluster for what it was. Kristin was a persuasive leader, and the others were willing to follow. Kristin used parlor tricks, costume and made up mysticism to create an identity for them. Her power was intimidation and  influence, rather than magic. Michelle's gift was real, and became apparent quite by accident. They were having a Winter Solstice ritual ceremony, that was a lot like any other high school drinking party, with dark poems and candles.  Many of them had taken magic mushrooms that night, picked in a cow field by David. They spray painted a pentagram on the south wall of the ruins. Randy was laughing hysterically. Chad was drunk and distracted, holding a spray can in his right hand and a beer bottle in his left, when he stepped carelessly backward off the edge of a large hole in the cement floor. Below him nearly twenty feet was a pile of broken concrete slabs and rusted cables. In the split second that his foot went off the edge of the floor they stood on, Michelle glanced over from across the large room and saw Chad falling into the pit. She saw in her mind a white light and the loose cable lying at the bottom of the pit. She willed the cable to stand upright and stiff, and it did. She called Chad's name in her mind and said “Grab onto it!” Chad must have heard her somehow, as he grabbed on to the rusty steel cable on his way down and was suspended there for a brief moment, then lifted up as the cable smoothly arched outward, bending so that Chad's feet touched the concrete floor he had just fallen from. It all happened so fast that no one was sure it had happened at all. No one seemed very clear on what had just occurred, least of all Chad. Kristin alone looked at Michelle. Michelle was surprised and confused by what she'd done. She had not taken any mushrooms, and she'd only had a little to drink. At home, she began practicing her new gift. When Roger wasn't near by , she would focus her energy and try to move objects, as she had the cable. It was harder than it had been that night. She couldn't make things happen smoothly at first. She tried to float a hair brush across the room and watched it drop from the air several times before finally moving it a few feet and spinning it around once or twice for good measure.  It took even longer to learn how to move larger objects. She was frustrated often in her first days of understanding the gift. She eventually learned that it was strongest when it was really needed. It  could be practiced, but  it   would not work for her if her mind was clouded with unnecessary steps or overly complex plans. When it worked, she saw a light in her mind and it grew and shone bright white, covering everything in her line of vision just as her power peaked. At first this left her feeling emotional and perplexed. Then, in time, a feeling of peace washed over her and the thing that she had willed would happen. A voice inside her told her to stay in The Light, and think for herself. “Trust in the light I send you,” the voice instructed audibly.“I'm coming to see you soon.” Michelle could see nothing but the brightest light. She knew the voice of the  light was an expression of love. As time went on, Michelle realized that Kristin was increasingly demanding. She expected the Nine to demonstrate their loyalty often. She got angry if anyone else took the group's attention from her. She held intense grudges for very slight offenses and liked to provoke competition for her approval. By Senior year, Michelle had developed mixed emotions regarding all of the Nine.   Michelle danced with Chad, and kissed him twice at a party in Kristin's basement. Kristin had not liked this development. She had wanted to reserve Chad for herself, even if she didn't really want him now. She'd made out with Troy instead.   The next night was the one year anniversary of Michelle's initiation into the coven. It was also the night she defied Kristin openly. She had refused to take part in a ritual Kristin made up that involved cutting each other's hands and drinking the blood. She'd stolen the spotlight  in announcing this. Then Michelle chose to show them the gift of the Light. She stopped the boom box by looking at it and thinking “Stop!” Then she made all of the candles in the room fly to the center and hover above the big hole that had nearly claimed Chad. She saw the Light, brighter than before and felt herself float above the ground. Then, feeling a sharp pain ,as a large rock  hit her in her right side, Michelle dropped down to the floor on her hands and knees and opened her eyes. Kristin was glaring at her. Michelle blew a short breath and the candles all went out, dropping into the pit. She could see the outlines of the others barely visible in the pale moonlight that shone  through  metal window frames and holes in the cement walls into the now silent rooms of the ruin. She could see their breath condensing in the cold air. “ You have betrayed us! You came here and tried to work magic against me! You want to destroy the Nine, and I won't let you!” Kristin screamed. “I'm going to build a fire in one of the pits and burn you alive, Michelle!” Kristin yelled at the others to grab her, and they did so. David tied Michelle's hands together and Randy and Troy held her. Chad stood looking at her, he and the girls watched as Kristin took a bayonet and cut the palm of her hand open. She took some ashes from the large alter at the base of the pentagram wall, and rubbed them into her bloody palm. This she pressed into Michelle's mouth, pressing into the corner with the thumb of her other hand until Michelle's mouth opened enough to force some of the blood and ashes into it. “ Eat it Bitch! It's your last meal!” screamed Kristin. Michelle bit down on her hand and spit the foul potion out, and kicked Randy in his shin, breaking loose from both boys and running carefully around the pit and into the maze of dark rooms that made up the Factory. She ran up steps in the darkness and tried to free her hands in the process, finally succeeding by pulling one wrist out painfully and losing skin in the process. She heard the others climbing the stairs below, and she leaped out of a hole in a side wall and onto the roof of a long chute that spanned one hundred feet standing on steel beams and crumbling cement columns watching over a small quiet lake. From here The Factory looked like some haunted monster's castle. Michelle ran the distance, hearing the others voices below.  When she reached the end, she jumped, landing on the  dead leaves piled beneath a stand of cottonwoods. She skinned her knee a little, but otherwise unharmed ran for the Chevy, escaping into the night. She knew Kristin wouldn't give up.   Roger started up the old pick up and eased it back out of the shop. Buster, the medium sized Shepard mix hopped into the passenger side and lay down looking at him. He drove into town to check the mail and get the weeks groceries. The post office always smelled like the glue that was on the back of the stamps, he thought, as he walked to his box.  He hadn't been for a few days, so the box was overflowing with mail. There was a card from his mother, bless her sweet heart, she sent money for a graduation present for Michelle. There was a thick sweepstakes envelope, a few bills, some coupons, his hunting magazine, her music magazine- what Michelle saw in all the make up and screaming and strange noises of her music he would never understand. To Roger, music was The Eagles or Alabama or the old stuff he was raised on. He had always vowed to let her be herself though, and only interfere when something really mattered, like her smoking. He intended to talk to her about that one. Roger flipped through the rest of the mail, mostly junk, an advertisement for some tires, and a letter from his sister, Amy in Washington. He read it in the cab of the pick up with Buster watching. It was mostly good news, his brother in law was employed again, his nephews were doing well in sports, and his sister was pregnant with a third child, kind of unexpected, but a happy surprise, she hoped it was a girl. Towards the end of the letter, Roger stopped short, having to re-read the part that startled him. Amy said she'd seen Judy. Judy had showed up at her church in Spokane, asking for money to help her get home. Amy said Judy never recognized her, but she'd never mistake Judy for anyone else, because of her wild eyes and the brown birthmark on her neck that was shaped sort of like a pear. Amy said she was a strung out mess and the pastor's wife took her home and cleaned her up, fed her and bought her a bus ticket to someplace in the Napa Valley, where she said her mother was living. Roger knew the address, as he'd gone there with Michelle once to visit. It had been depressing for him, but it was good for Michelle to see her grandparents. He wondered if he could convince Judy to stay there long enough for Michelle to graduate and come see her. He thought about it while he shopped for milk, toilet paper, deviled ham, shampoo, dog food, store brand macaroni and cheese, Michelle's favorite cereal, and white bread. Roger clutched his list in one hand and hardly said a word to anyone. Michelle stood at the edge of the front row of cars. She knew they were all waiting, even Chad was part of it. They had laid a trap for her. She looked over at the blue Toyota, and saw Kristin smiling. She could see Jackie waving and mouthing the word “Goodbye”.  She knew Troy was in the backseat, because he was the only other one not hanging out on the front steps of  the school.  She  saw the car starting to move slowly forward as she took a step. Michelle began to see the light in her mind once more. She knew the light was for good, not evil, because evil could not be trusted. It consumed those who wished to use it. She saw the light gathering and growing into something bigger and brighter than she had ever seen. “What is my name, Michelle?” She heard a voice in the center of the light. “Love,” she replied. “Yes,” said the voice. Michelle walked into the path of the Toyota. Kristin stepped on the gas pedal and sped toward her. All Michelle could see was Light. She stood still in the middle of the parking lot as Kristin's car swiftly approached. Turning toward the sound of the engine, Michelle spread her arms and welcomed the attack. The moment that the car should have hit her, all of the onlookers were screaming and yelling her name. The books dropped out of her arms, and hit the hood of the Toyota. There was nothing more. The crowd stood silent. The engine, and in fact the moving body of the car, had simply stopped. Michelle blinked and saw the stalled car's bumper touching her leg. Kristin was inside trying to start the ignition. Jackie looked like she had swallowed a bug, and Troy was trying to shrink down in the back seat. Sara and David slipped into the school building, Chad and the others quickly followed. A girl from the swim team walked over to Michelle and helped her gather her books. The school principal, Mr. Whitehead, came bounding down the steps, red faced and breathless in his brown suit and bolo tie. He grabbed Michelle, shouting. “Are you alright?”   She nodded. Then Mr. Whitehead went to Kristin's door and yanked it open. “I saw you through the window, you were looking right at her! What the hell were you planning to do, Kristin? I'll let you think about that, because your parents are on their way here, and so is the County Sheriff. They will surely want to know. You may want to explain it to a lawyer first. Now get out of the car and come with me! All three of you.” He marched the three toward the school building, and Kristin looked back at Michelle, glaring. The car sat in the middle of the drive with both doors open. Michelle stood at the side of the parking lot with Ms. Applegate, the P.E. Teacher, who held onto her shoulders and asked her “Do you want to tell me what that was about?” Michelle was not sure what to say. “She likes Chad and he likes me,” was all she could think of that would make sense to Ms. Applegate. “The thing I don't understand,” Ms. Applegate began, “is why there aren't any skid marks. She was going pretty fast, and I didn't see the brake light come on, I mean, we all thought she was going to hit you. Then the car just stopped.” “Yeah. I know,” said Michelle. Roger loaded the brown paper bags into the back of the pick up and walked around to get in, when he saw the deputy sheriff, Clayton Wilson, dart out of the Pancake Palace and scramble into his squad car. Clayton took off with his lights and sirens on. Roger was curious, and watched as he drove on, thinking there must have been an accident on the highway or something. When the sheriff turned onto the road just before the highway, Roger knew the only place he could be headed was the High School. Suddenly he felt he had to get there too. He turned so sharply that Buster slid off the seat. “Sorry, Boy,” said Roger. The dog licked its lips and crawled back into the seat. Roger sped up arriving just behind the sheriff, and was immediately relieved to see Michelle standing in the parking lot, apparently unharmed. He saw a blue Toyota  in front of the squad car. He got out and went to Michelle, asking,”What happened?” “Kristin tried to run me down with her car,” said Michelle. “What did she do that for?” Roger's voice was raised and she could see he was pained and angered. "She likes Chad, and he likes me, Roger. She did it because she's crazy and jealous.” Michelle decided this was the best way to explain the situation, because she didn't want anyone to know the rest. It would only hurt Roger more to think she was involved in such a dark life. She didn't want to be a part of the Nine or anything like them any longer.  Now she knew, group mentality is the most dangerous power. Roger drove back home behind Michelle in her car. He'd told Mr. Whitehead he thought she should come home for the rest of the day, and she'd be back in school the next day. He didn't believe that Michelle was telling him everything about the incident. He also knew that was probably the way it should be, now that she was almost grown. Some things he didn't want to know. He knew she was a good girl, and that all kids experimented. He would tell her that smoking was stupid though. He planned to explain that it killed people just when they got old enough to enjoy the things they had worked all their life for. He'd seen that happen to people. When they got home, Michelle put the groceries away and had some coffee and a sandwich with Roger. She told him she wasn't going to party any more until she got to college, and that she thought she'd avoid getting into the social scene there too deeply. She planned to go to community college and get her basic credits out of the way before transferring to a university. She was not sure what she wanted to major in, but said she thought she'd probably discover this after a few semesters. Roger told her about the letter from Amy, and asked her if she wanted to see her mother that summer. She had agreed that she would, since she probably wouldn't have many chances. He said he'd buy her a plane ticket, and her mom and grandmother would get her at the airport. He talked to Judy's mother on the phone. Judy was in a rehabilitation facility in Petaluma. She would get a pass to stay at her mother's for the week Michelle was there. That night, in the attic bedroom, Michelle lit amber incense and began to focus on the Light. She felt in her heart thankfulness. She was glad to be alive. As she sat meditating and watching the Light grow in her mind, she felt a warm and peaceful feeling. The voice of the one named Love came to her again. “It isn't what you think, Michelle. You have not been in possession of powers. They have been in possession of you. I am the one you named Love. The one you see as light. My way is opposite of them that meant you harm. You are here for a reason. You  mother, despite her problems,  was chosen. I was her teacher. I was sent down looking like a beautiful young man, and I met her in a commune in Oregon. Some people call us angels, others call us aliens. I was there to spread love. Your mother lost her brother and two friends in Vietnam, and she was wandering the country in search of a way to forget.  I saw her pain and its profound depths the minute I looked at her, and I also saw the purity of her love. I chose her to be the bearer of a special hybrid, which is you. I had been across the earth for the last twenty years or so, sowing my seed with as many as welcomed me with such purity and love. I started something called Free Love and now my half human children are all coming of age, like yourself, Michelle. I had to make sure you survived high school, because there will be a time beyond that when you are to fulfill a greater destiny. It will be a time of war. I will need you to lead the fight when the darkness comes looking for you all. Kristin is a servant of that darkness, but it is weak right now, just as she is. I cannot speak its name, for that gives it strength. You will hear it spoken one day, and you will recognize it for who it represents. It will be stronger in the coming years. Perhaps Kristin will too, if she lives that long. All of the greedy people and politicians will stir up the conditions in which the Darkness thrives. You will need to build the opposite conditions. You must spread love. Burn the smelly stuff for yourself, if you like, but all you have to do is call my name and I'll be listening. You are half me, so I am with you always.” The voice no longer spoke audibly, but simply faded into Michelle's own inner voice, causing her to think its words. When this happened, she knew that it was not as weird as it might have seemed to someone else. She knew without question that this was the voice that had been a part of her all of her life, speaking to her in her mind, offering encouragement and helping her to persevere. As far as being half alien or angel or whatever, Michelle thought about this only long enough to conclude that  Love could not be wrong.  It gave her the desire to gather more strength and knowledge for the journey ahead, whatever it would be. She no longer saw the light as a blinding a brilliant thing coming from outside her, but as a soft and pervasive shining from within her. It illuminated everything in her life. It gave her the strength to return to school and graduate. Kristin never came back to school in Shadow Springs. She moved to Salt Lake City with her parents, after a stint in a Charter Hospital for teens. Jackie dropped out and nobody heard from her again. Troy  stopped wearing all black. He was quiet for the remainder of the year. Randy and Sara, and Laney and David stayed together as a group, and began doing more drugs. Michelle concentrated on her school work. Chad chased Michelle down in the hallway a week before graduation. “Michelle, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I ever believed in any of their shit, and I'm sorry I let Kristin tell me what to do. I'm sorry I didn't tell you what she said she was going to do. I didn't really think she'd go through with it. I don't know what you did, but, it was just like the time the cable was there when I was falling. You saved me that night , and then you saved yourself from Kristin's car. I didn't have the guts to even try to help you. I'm so sorry.” “Chad, I forgive you, but I can't be your friend. I have to go on with my life and hang out with people who don't stand by when I'm in harm's way. I'm sorry too, because I liked you. I wish you luck and  hope you will build a good life after school.” Michelle turned and walked away.