“So the other guys?” Seth asked, his eyes cutting across the table to Tristan.

“They’re Tristan’s older brothers. But don’t they have big dates or something for tonight?” I looked at Tristan who was purposefully keeping his eyes locked on me.

“That’s why they’re coming home,” Tristan laughed. “They’re trying to avoid Valentine’s drama.”

“Me too….” I mumbled low enough that not even Seth heard me.

I had been watching the three scattered Shadows out of my peripheral. Bree butted in the conversation, gushing about how hot Tristan’s brothers were and I took the opportunity to take stock of the room. The number of Shadows had grown immensely; the high corners of every wall seemed covered in them as they whipped their slender bodies back and forth. I sucked in a gasp, and tried not to burst into a glow light right here. Students around the cafeteria started to notice them and a prickling, nervous sensation washed over my body. This was not going to end well.

“You’re just as close with Tristan’s brothers, I take it?” Seth asked dryly, his eyes flickering to the walls of Shadows, widening in surprise and then landing back on me. He acknowledged the evil presence, but was still waiting for an answer from me.

“Uh yes,” I couldn’t help but fidget nervously.

“She’s basically part of our family, my parents love her,” Tristan declared loudly. I shrunk down, hating that something that was true made me feel so uncomfortable. Or maybe it was just everybody’s eyes on me, like me being close with Tristan’s family was a betrayal to Seth, or that me being close with Seth was making me unfaithful to Tristan.

“So then if you guys ever dated it would be like incest, right?” Piper asked with feigned innocence. I wished I could laugh at her cleverness, even if it was the wrong thing to say, my friend Piper was funny.

“Cassidy, I don’t have the patience right now,” Tristan warned, using her last name like he was talking to one of his teammates when they were losing. “What do you say, Stel? Want to join me for dinner?” Tristan turned back to me, re-including me in the conversation. I swallowed around the nervous lump in my stomach and twirled the end of my hair just to give my hands something to do. Tristan’s eyes bore in to mine, their color sparking to life as he waited for my answer. There was something intimate in his gaze, something beyond this power play game he and Seth were playing. He was asking more of me than dinner, I just wasn’t sure what yet.

“Um, my grandpa had that thing tonight, though,” Seth reminded me softly of the training that was planned for after dinner, just like every other night. I turned to meet his eyes, realizing he wasn’t even being possessive, he was reminding me in the sweet Seth way that only he was capable of. He was still giving me a choice, but reminding me of my responsibilities.

“Uh….” I stammered, feeling like my heart was being pulled in two very different directions. The smell of sulfur drifted through the air, distracting me for a minute and grabbing the attention of our table. Finally. Everyone started looking around, finding the Shadows that clustered together like black beehives.

“I say you blow both these clowns off and come out with me, Stella. I won’t even pretend like my family wants to have dinner with you. You and I can actually celebrate Valentine’s Day,” Rigley declared, making the act of celebrating sound very, very dirty. I burst into laughter as he ran a hand through his mop of hair seductively and waggled his eyebrows at me.

For the first time in my life I was willing to take Rigley up on his not so serious offer. And then the spiritual world I had access to collided with the physical world I lived in as the Shadows erupted from the walls they congregated on, screeching and hollering violently. There was no more ignoring them, since they made their presence so clearly known. They swirled around the room like they were trying to start a tornado, dipping in between the students who covered their heads with their hands and then ran from the room. This wouldn’t make sense to anyone paying close attention, but knowing the human condition was prone to denial and the fact that Shadows could be logically, or at least reasonably explained away as a freak infestation of bats, I put my faith in that explanation and faced my nightmare come to life.

The acrid scent of rotting eggs and death wafted through the air and I felt the familiar rush of nausea from the unearthly scent that grated against my nostrils. Students throughout the cafeteria couldn’t ignore the awful aroma anymore and covered their faces as they fled from the cafeteria. I looked to Seth whose ferocious gaze confirmed my suspicions that this was unprecedented and dangerous. We joined the stampede of students and teachers fleeing the cafeteria and met back up with everyone outside the school. Someone had set off the fire alarms inside and the loud sirens rivaled the still shrieking shadows for which one would blow out my oversensitive ear drums.

Outside the dark grey sky was spitting sleet. Lightning flashed on the horizon and a chill washed over my body. In the long, desolate winters of Nebraska, it wasn’t completely uncommon for there to be lightning in the middle of a snowstorm, but this was the work of a supernatural presence and had nothing to do with the extreme weather of the Midwest. The clouds grew visibly darker overhead and I felt more than anything that whatever was still inside the school was waiting for me.

Sirens could be heard in the distance. I didn’t have much time to draw the Shadows out of the building before humans would have to face them.

I stood up abruptly and announced, “I think I’m going to be sick, I need to go,” I started to walk away and then realized my alibi sucked since I needed Seth. I reached down and grabbed a handful of his shirtsleeve before yanking him up with me. “And I’m going to need Seth.”

I ignored Piper’s hurt look at choosing Seth in my time of need over her, completely avoided Tristan’s eyes because I knew they would be filled with worry and ignored Rigley’s snide, “You need Seth to get sick?” and bee lined it back into the school. Seth and I rushed passed teachers who were too busy watching the darkening sky or covering their ears against the unearthly sounds coming from the building and snuck back in through a side door that had been propped open.

I turned around in the hallway just in time to see thousands of Shadows swoop down in an angry mob and pummel towards us. Seth and I threw our bodies to the ground as they filled the hallway around us and kept going, their trail narrowing to a point at the end like caricature of the devil’s pronged tail. The sound that followed them was deafening, their screeching echoed against my ears and the scent of hell filled the air.

“I don’t have a weapon!” I shouted to Seth with my hands still covering my ears. Our bodies were encompassed in a soft glow as we let our light expand in order to protect ourselves.

“I do, in my locker!” he shouted back and tilted his head toward where the hallway came to a T thirty yards away. He held up two fingers, letting me know he had two swords waiting for us and I was suddenly so thankful for his preparedness I could have kissed him.

Except there was a serious chance that kissing Seth would lead to our untimely deaths, so I refrained.

The hallway suddenly became eerily quiet. No more shrieking. No more swishing sounds as the Shadows moved through the halls in their haunting formations. Everything stilled and became absolutely silent. But the smell of death and evil things rotting still filled my nostrils and so I knew they hadn’t left, they were still close.

Waiting for us.

We jumped to our feet in a synchronized effort and took off sprinting down the long hall. Without slowing down we slid into Seth’s locker, his shoes squeaking across the waxed tile. Before he could open the door, the Shadows were back in formation and plunging toward us. I pressed my back into the wall of rusting red lockers and shut my eyes, preparing myself for painful impact. I could feel their ice cold presence even before they hit me, and even though I released my light into the dim school hallway before they could get too close, their momentum was too fast for all of them to completely abort their attack.

I held my breath as the brightness of my inner light singed and burned the Shadows that didn’t stop soon enough, their screeching abruptly halted as they were burned into ashes before completely puffing away. I held the circumference of my light in a wide circle around Seth and I and then moved forward so he could open his locker and retrieve the two weapons. They were hidden behind a long trench coat that hung from the center hook of his locker, and velcroed to the back metal wall.

Geesh, good thing he didn’t have many friends. I was pretty sure that hiding swords in your locker was so against school policy.

My light drifted down the three separate hallways we stood at the crossroads to, but beyond my warmth that flickered like an ultra-bright candle, I could see the darkened hallways packed with those wicked little wisps of evil. I regulated my breathing and took the cutlass saber Seth was holding out for me.

It wasn’t my katana, but it was deathly sharp and immensely capable. I tested out its weight, shifting it back and forth between my hands and swinging it around my body holding it by two hands before I dimmed my light.

The heat and brightness of my inner essence was fantastic and effective when I needed to keep Shadows completely at bay. But I was a Star and when I turned up the heat and light it started to have adverse effects on the atmosphere around me, which was why Seth hadn’t lit up yet.

I could already feel the malleable bend to the surrounding lockers after being exposed for a few moments to a light that was capable of burning as bright as the sun. The floor beneath me was sticky from melting and the lights in all three hallways had burst and shattered glass everywhere.

Well shoot. That was going to be harder to explain away than bats.

Please, please, please let these people only see what they are ready to believe.

I couldn’t think about that now though.

I dimmed my light, so that I was a glowy version of my regular self and Seth heated to join me. We held out our swords, with our bodies perfectly tensed and ready. Then waited for the attack.

A lone, shrill, shrieking pierced through the school and I relaxed into the instincts that were bred for battle. Instead of attacking though, the horde of Shadows turned and ran instead. They melted together in a combined cloak of darkness and whipped out of our sight down another hallway.

Seth and I paused for all of one point two seconds and then used our supernatural speed to chase after them. We were on the tail end of them, racing to slice through their disgustingly, if not a little surprisingly, solid bodies to head off their retreat and hopefully make some headway.

As I ran with my sword slashing accurately through my enemies, I was constantly sprayed with the black, tar these creatures considered blood. I suppressed the disgusted shivers and kept on, not even dwelling on the cute, gray bubble skirt I wore, or the pink and black striped preppy sweater I had borrowed from Piper. I promised myself I would replace her sweater if I lived through this, even if she had only bought it because she was feeling “ironically kitschy.”

I kept pace with Seth easily and when the swarm of Shadows disappeared down the stairwell that led to the locker rooms and creepy bowels of the school I decided to pause and gather our bearings before we continued. Our light could flush out the Shadows easily, but we had to be careful of the boiler room and any damage that couldn’t be easily explained.