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She had to

The cat&039;s raspy breathing and padded footfalls reached her ears, the sounds carrying like whispers through the silent blue world, closer and closer

Jessica dashed the last few yards, reached the passenger side door, and yanked at the handle

It was locked

"You&039;ve got to help me!" she cried "Let me in!"

Then Jessica saw the face of the driver The woht frown on her face, as if she were concentrating on the road ahead But her skin was as white as paper Her fingers gripped the wheel motionlessly Like Beth, she was frozen, lifeless

"No!" Jessica shouted

A hissing came fro, Jessica leapt up onto the hood She wound up facing the driver through the windshield, the blank eyes staring back at her like a statue&039;s

"No," Jessica sobbed, pounding the hood of the car

She rolled over to face the panther, exhausted, defeated

The beast was only a few strides away It paused, growling, and the two long fangs glinted in the dark ht Jessica knew that she was deadhappened

A tiny flying saucer ca past Jessica, headed toward the panther The object left a wake of blue sparks and electrified air Jessica felt her hair stand on end, as if lightning had struck close by The panther&039;s eyes flashed, wide and panicked, reflecting gold instead of indigo

The projectile burst into a blue flaiant cat The creature spun around and leapt away, the fire clinging to its fur It bounded farther down the street, howling a erie of pain - lions&039; roars and stricken birds, cats being tortured The beast passed fro into a hideous, torh like that of a wounded hyena

"Wow," came a familiar voice, "Hypochondriac killed the cat" The nonsense words were followed by a giggle

Jessica turned to face the voice, blinking away tears and disbelief A few yards away, so her dream, was Dess

"Hey, Jess," she called "How&039;s it going?"

Jessica opened her mouth, but no sound came out

Dess was astride a rickety old bike, one foot resting on the pavement, the other on a pedal She wore a leather jacket over her usual black dress and was flipping what looked like a coin in the air

Jessica heard a hissing noise fro their way toward Dess

"Snakes," she ed to croak

"Slithers, actually," Dess said, and flipped the coin into the dark shapes

It pinged against the ground aht blue spark, and, with a chorus of thin screeching noises, the snakes scuttled back under the car

Two more bikes rolled into view

They were ridden by Dess&039;s friends frolasses pulled up first, only he wasn&039;t wearing glasses now His long coat billowed around hiirl who&039;d been at Dess&039;s table, whom Jessica had never met, pulled up

Jessica looked at the three of the weirder and weirder

"You&039;re welcome," said Dess

"Be quiet," the boy said breathlessly "Are you okay?"

It took a moment for Jessica to realize that the question was directed at her She blinked again and nodded dumbly Her feet hurt and she was out of breath, but she was okay Physically, anyway

"Sure, I&039;uess"

"Don&039;t worry about psychokitty; it&039;s gone for the night," Dess said, looking after the departed panther She turned to the boy "What was it, Rex?"

"So," he said

"Well, duh," Dess said

Both of the her eyes with one hand "It tasted very old, maybe even from before the Split"

Rex whistled "That&039;s old, all right It irl nodded "A few fries short of a Happy Meal But still crafty"

Dess dropped her bike to the ground and walked over to where the cat had stood "Whatever it was, it turned out to be no hty power of Hypochondriac"

She knelt and plucked a dark disk of round

"Ouch!" Dess passed it fro "Still sparky"

It looked like an old hubcap, blackened by fire Was that the dazzling flying saucer of a o?

Jessica shook her head, dazed but slowly cal into more familiar dream territory: total craziness

Rex rested his bike on the street and walked to the side of the car Jessica shrank from him a little, and he put up both palms

"It&039;s okay," he said softly, "but you should probably get off the car It looks like it&039;s going pretty fast"

"Co up at the sky "It&039;s like a quarter till"

"It&039;s still not a good habit, Dess," he said "Especially when you&039;re new"

He offered his hand Jessica looked down suspiciously at the ground, but there were no snakes apparent She saw the same shiny ankle bracelets that Dess wore looped around Rex&039;s boots The other girl had thes of metal piled up around her black sneakers

She looked at her own bare feet

"Don&039;t worry, the slithers are gone"

"They departed so Her eyes ide, as if the encounter with the panther had been sonored Rex&039;s hand and slid off the car hood toward the front She pushed off fro into the shadows beneath it But the snakes did seem to have disappeared

"I wouldn&039;t stand in front of it either," Rex suggestedabout fifty aze and saw that the tires weren&039;t actually round They were oval, cohtly forward They looked hoheels in motion were drawn in cartoons But the car was absolutely still The driver still wore the exact sa on around her

Rex pointed up at the dark oes down, it&039;ll juood to keep inabout Rex&039;s cal he said made any sense whatsoever

She looked up at theacross the sky quickly, alasp caaze to them They stared back at her

"What is it?" Jessica asked sharply She&039;d had enough of their weirdness

The girl whose na closely at her face with an appalled expression

"Your eyes are wrong," the girl said