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her freak out”

It was bizarre the way Kayla spoke, unsettling even by drea at anyone—she was just voicing her thoughts, like I’d thrown a switch si about her She was Richard the Third in Shakespeare’s play, pausing for a hten the audience as to motive and malice

“Why shouldn’t I pick on Sa for my friends It reminds my friends to be a little afraid of me, and that’s useful It reminds them that they could be next if they disappoint me Besides, I can’t stand that she—”

She stopped just like that, in ht

I laughed Not because it was funny but because it had the ring of truth and I had not often heard truth spoken so bluntly and so utterly without self-justification

I turnedfor ht

“If this is a dream, why aren’t we at my school?” I asked him “I should dream about places I know This place probably isn’t real”

He must have heard the uncertainty in my voice I did

“Okay, that’s enough,” I said sharply “I want answers I want to knohat this is” The panic ca me by surprise “This is real, isn’t it? This is real Oh, God, this is real This is real!”

“Bravo! Well done She’s not nearly as thick as you were, Messenger” A female voice Not Kayla Not Sa a classroom

Kayla’s little group broke up as the bell rang with startling urgency, and just as it did at , the hallway e aith backpacks swinging

The girl who had spoken, well, ically but surely not psychologically No girl could have carried herself this way A wo woman to look at but with no hint of youthful innocence

She was as pale as Messenger and, like hireat deal less clothing in total She wore a thing that was a cross between a bustier and a leather jacket Cutouts revealed her shoulders, the neckline plunged to her breastbone, and the whole gar a V that hid her navel but left the sides of her waist and her lower back bare She wore black tights that seemed more liquid than fabric, and swirled with black-on-black patterns that shifted and changed Her boots went to her knees and were notably strange for suggesting that her feet were unnaturally small

That detail bothered me, held my attention for a moment, as I could not see how she could stand on such tiny feet, particularly given the height of the heels

If Kayla was the blond sun, thisthis personwas e as if the pupils had expanded to consuant lashes and black hair, but it was her lips that drew reen, not a sickly green, but a flareen of jade They matched a pendant around her neck that was an ornate object of jade and onyx, green and black, suggesting a face, a lewd, leering face