Time Spent (7 page)

The whole cafeteria went quiet.
Brock laughed. "Whatever" he said, and turned to leave.

A quick hand scooped up Mia's
meatloaf, and she stepped up on her chair and climbed up on the
table. Hearing the noise, Brock turned back. Mia grabbed his shirt
collar with one hand and with the other she smashed the meatloaf
into his face.

"What the fuck?" Brock said,
sputtering the meat and sauce out of his mouth and wiping it from
his eyes.

Two teachers ran from the other
side of the cafeteria, to break it up.

Amber watched as they ushered the
two of them out of the cafeteria and toward the principal's office.
Around her, the whispers began:

"Did you see that?"

"Heard she was in
juvie."

"Just got out of jail."

"What did she do?"

"That girl is crazy."

______________________

"Oh YEAH? What are you gonna DO
throw some MEATLOAF at me?"

Mia's fists glowed. "Something
like that," she said.

Brock's glowing eyes fixed on her
hands.
 
"unknownenergydetected spectraclanalysispending
dangeralertdangeralert"

Mia threw her hands forward and a
ball of yellow energy exploded outward, crashing into Brock like a
giant bowling ball. His enormous body braced itself, and the energy
crackled around him, then faded.

"analysiscompleteenergycompatible.
MMmm Daddy LIKE... acquireacquire"

"Oh shit." Mia backed
off.

Tendrils fired off from Brock's
fingertips, trailing thin wires back to his hands. Mia threw
herself backwards, trying to avoid them. Four of them landed in the
back of a passerby who had seen Brock and started to run. Circuitry
spread out from the points of impact to cover the man within
seconds.

Mia clambered to her feet and
turned to run, when pain exploded in her left temple. One of the
tendrils had hit her there, driving a spike into her face. She
reached up and tore it free, throwing it aside, but the pain was
intense, and something was left there, just under the
skin.

"targetattained. YEAH baby you
MINE now! conversioninitiated"

______________________

The hole widened, and through it,
Mia saw a sea of madness. She saw a deep green forest. There were
faces in the trees, and accusing eyes in the clouds.

All of them were staring back at
her.

Mia gasped. The sound of their
terrible keening filled the air. The wind buffeted her even harder,
and Mia's head felt as if it would split open.

The forest grew, trees reaching to
the heavens and clouds spreading out to darken the sky. And in the
center of the forest, Mia saw a ring of dancing women. A pile of
dead animals lay at their capering feet, their naked forms covered
in blood.

______________________

After school, Mia found Amber
waiting for the bus outside.

"Hey," she said.

Amber smiled. "Hey. What
happened?"

"I'm stuck here on Saturday," Mia
said. "But it was worth it."

They laughed.
 
I like her
laugh,
 
Mia
thought.

"I'm really sorry you got in
trouble, though," Amber said. "I feel like it was my
fault."

"Your fault? Uh, no. That Brock
guy is an asshole."

Amber nodded.

"Hey, you wanna go talk somewhere?
We can sit in the bleachers and pretend we're watching baseball
practice."

"Um, well, I have to get home. My
parents..."

"Oh, come on...we can talk for a
while and then I'll get my dad to come get us. You won't be
late."

"Okay."

They climbed to the top of the
bleachers and sat. Baseball practice was underway, but Mia and
Amber were not interested in that. Mia could not get her mind off
the place where their knees were touching.

"So, what happened," Amber said,
"what Brock, what he did."

"With your arm."

"Yeah..."

"Do you want to talk about it?"
Mia asked.

Amber shook her head, eyes wide.
"No, no, it's just, it's old. That's old stuff. I don't do that
anymore."

"Okay."

"I used to do it. I went through a
bad time. But I'm okay now."

"I hope so."

Amber nodded. "I am, yeah. I just
didn't want you to think I was crazy. Or anything."

Mia laughed. "I don't think that
at all."

"Good."

"After today, you probably think
I'm the crazy one," Mia said, laughing.

"No!" Amber took Mia's hand in
hers. "No, I don't. You're..."

Words died on her lips. Their eyes
met, and Mia leaned close...

Suddenly a brown haired girl
several rows below them jumped up and cheered. "SIMONNNN!!" One of
the players had apparently hit a home run. There was sporadic
clapping from the kids in the stands.

Mia looked at Amber. "Wow, someone
likes Simon a lot, huh?"

They laughed.

"I like your laugh," Mia
said.

Amber smiled. "It's you. You're
different from everyone else."

"Is that good or bad?" Mia
asked.

"It's good. It's like...you have
something inside you. A spark."

Mia considered this, then snapped
her fingers. "Come on. You just gave me a great idea!"

They made their way down the hair
product aisle at the pharmacy, Mia tapping the boxes as she
searched the rows. Finally, she snatched one up and turned
around.

"Perfect," she said.

She held the box up and displayed
it for Amber to see. Under the photo of the model wearing the hair
color were the words ELECTRIC BLUE.

"Blue hair?" Amber said. "Oh no,
not me, I couldn't."

"I'll do it," Mia said. "Why not?
Come on, call your parents and tell them you're coming over to my
place. You can help me!"

Amber laughed. "Okay."

Once the dye was worked into her
hair, Mia stood. Traces of blue water ran down her body. She
turned, facing Amber with her hair wet and freshly dyed, droplets
landing in her black bra. Her shirt hung on the door
nearby.

"What do you think?" she
asked.

Amber swallowed. "You
look..."

Mia took her hands, pulling her
close. "Feel that?"

"What?" Amber said.

"The spark."

Their lips met. Mia could feel
Amber's heart beating against hers.

______________________

"Amber!" Mia cried, running toward
her. Brock was somewhere behind, still coming after her, but he
kept stopping to attack people on the street. Each one was turned
into some kind of cyber zombie. Worse, Mia could feel something
growing under her left temple, spreading.

Amber was in the middle of the
street. They had reached a much busier area of town now, and cars
were everywhere. Amber's mouth yawned open, and the terrible wail
issued forth again. It was deafening. Within moments the cars were
encased in solid ice.

"Stop!" Mia shouted, but her voice
was lost in the noise.

"analysisinitiated. Well WELL what
do we have HERE? secondarytargetacquired. I knew we had a little
LOVE connection with YOU TWO. acquireacquire."
 
It was Brock, advancing from
the other side of the street.

"You STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Mia
screamed, and stepped around one of the frozen cars. She grabbed
the door handle, and tore the door free. "Get out!"

The driver scrambled free of the
car and ran.

Mia reached under the car as Brock
approached. The yellow energy spread out underneath it, and with a
flick of her hands she sent it spinning through the air at him. The
car struck Brock with an audible crunch, sending him flying and
sandwiching him against a building on the opposite side of the
street. The windows behind him shattered, and people within
screamed and ran.

Mia turned back to Amber, but she
had lost her again. Amber continued her steady march toward
downtown.

"structuraldamagedetected. Crazy
BITCH. repairmodeengaged."

Brock's hands reached around the
sides of the car. Metallic structures emerged from his hands,
clamping into the car, and he hauled it away from himself. Once
moved, the structures retracted in his arm.

"I'm crazy?? Have you looked in a
mirror?" Mia wrenched a fire hydrant from the corner and sent it
flying at his head, a deadly missile.

Brock swatted it away with one
hand.

"tacticalanalysispending. I'm not
AFRAID of you... I'm not AFRAID.
dangeralertdangeralert."

______________________

They chanted, and their chants
made the trees grow even more, and the faces stared down at Mia and
blew forth the keening sound that infested her mind.

The naked women danced, and
suddenly they surrounded Mia, snatching at her with their bloody
hands, pulling and pawing at her.

At the center of the aperture in
the sky, another woman appeared, this one framed by a cascade of
shimmering red hair.

The red woman stepped
forth.

______________________

"I need to get to my locker," Mia
said.

Brock turned. "Well, well, if it
isn't our little lezbo love connection."

Amber stood behind her, and Mia
reached back one hand to clutch hers.

"Locker. NOW," she
said.

"Ooh, takey chargey, I like it.
And by the way, LOVE the hair," he said, indicating Mia's new spiky
blue look.

"Move your GOD DAMN ASS!" Mia
swung her book bag up, very close to his head, and it smashed into
the locker with a clang that rang up and down the hall. Everyone
got very quiet.

"Jesus!" Brock backed off. "This
girl's fuckin' crazy," he said to his friends. "What do you have in
that bag?"

"Only books, for now," Mia said.
"But if it needs to be bricks, I can make that happen next
time."

"You're crazy," he said again.
"Let's go." He and his friends walked away.

Once he was gone, Mia turned to
Amber. "So, I have a good idea. What say we find a quiet place to
sneak off too and make out?"

Amber smiled. "Don't you have to
get into your locker?"

"Nope." She took Amber's hand and
the two of them strolled off, laughing together.

The whispers followed:

"I heard she stabbed some
kid."

"Shh, she'll hear you."

"She beat up a
teacher."

"...started
 
screaming
 
for no reason..."

"...threw a brick right at his
head."

______________________

"Is that what this is all about?"
Mia asked. "School? The cafeteria, everything? You're
afraid?"

"dangerdanger. I'M NOT AFRAID.
dangerdanger."
 
Brock repeated, looming over her.

"You are afraid. You were. I'm
sorry, I didn't know what else to do. You wouldn't stop! You never
stop!"

Brock paused, and the stalks
protruding from his glowing satellite eyes spun in tiny
circles.
 
"evaluatingthreatlevel. I don't KNOW. I don't know what to
DO. evaluating."

The yellow energy died from Mia's
eyes. "All you have to do is stop. I'll stop if you
will."

Brock lowered his
hands.
 
"threatabatedcombatmodedisengaged. What's happening? What
happened to me? I'm scared. I'm SCARED.
diagnosticprogramactivated."

"Me too."

"dangeralert. What's SHE doing?
dangeralert."

Mia spun around. Amber stood on
the curb, her eyes fixed on Brock. Her mouth dropped open, and the
wail began, rising and rising. Mia clapped her hands over her ears
but it did nothing, the sound knocked her off her feet and she lay
on the street, clutching her head.

"dangerdangerdanger. You little
BITCH. I'll GET you. dangerdanger."

The swirling cone of cold issuing
from Amber's mouth surrounded Brock. Within an instant, frost
covered him, and he was quickly encased in ice. Still the sound
mounted. Windows on the other side of the street burst. Ice grew
and grew on Brock's body, until Mia could no longer see him at all.
Louder, the sound grew, and still louder.

Finally, Brock's frozen body burst
into thousands of fragments that blasted into the air to clatter
down on the street like hailstones.