The first night back in my bed and it feels heavenly. Not that I’m lying on a sleep-number mattress or anything plush like that, but it’s my bed and it just feels good to be back in it. After three long days and two nights cooped up in the library with half the town of Lincoln, a cot on the porch with the open night air might have felt better.

So I’m back in my bed and tomorrow we’re back in school. Next week is Thanksgiving. It’s also the week of November twenty-first, when Barrow, Alaska, goes into its reported dark days. Sasha still thinks we’ll end up there but me, the realistic one, says not. For one, my dad doesn’t have money to send me to Alaska and he wouldn’t even if he did. After winning the battle with Dumar and having me reinstated in school, his first goal is to see me graduated and accepted into a good college. He’s still hoping I’ll have some semblance of a normal life. Plus, what good would it be to go to Alaska? Charon can appear anywhere, he can strike here in Lincoln again just as he could across the oceans in China or something. It’s not like he needs a passport or visa to travel.

Besides, Sasha saw more magicals in the library, saw their real faces beyond their earthly glamour. That proves there’s something still lurking here in Lincoln, something we need to stay here to take care of.

My eyes feel all scratchy, so I close them to get some relief. Sleep comes quickly, exhaustion settling over me like a heavy blanket.

And then the dream begins…

I’m still in bed but I’m not alone. Krystal is there with me, lying right beside me, the hem of her nightshirt riding up so that my hand skims along the smooth skin of her thigh.

She makes this soft sound as we kiss, and every nerve in my body is on end. I’m tingling all over as our kiss deepens and I move so that I’m on top of her. One of my legs falls between hers, my palm moves up from her thigh to cup her unbound breast. And then she makes that sound again and I completely melt.

No, not melt. It’s so hot, I’m sweating. My heart’s beating wildly as I keep kissing her and she keeps kissing me. I don’t know where we are except on a bed and I really don’t care. I have no idea what’s going on around me, only that her arms are wrapped tight around my neck, pulling me closer, urging me further.

“Krystal.”

I hear her name, but it’s not in my voice.

“Krystal.”

There it is again, and I know I didn’t say it because my lips are busily nipping a heated path down her neck.

“Yes,” she answers, and at first I think she’s just conceding to the pleasure I feel rippling through my body.

But no, she’s not talking to me at all.

Pulling back, I’m alarmed to see there’s nobody there. No Krystal, just me and my overexcited self. Turning around quickly I’m staring into darkness and a chilly breeze is now greeting my naked body. I reach somewhere, hoping to find some basketball shorts or something to cover myself. The last thing I want to do is get up from this bed and walk through endless darkness in the nude.

Like someone flicked on a switch, the pitch darkness turns blue, tinted slightly just as I remembered it before. I’m in the Underworld. Now I really want to find some shorts or pants. Fighting demons buff is so not going to work.

When I stand I already have shorts on, don’t really know where they came from but I’m grateful just the same.

I hear her name being called again and she’s answering.

“I hear you but I can’t find you,” Krystal says.

“I’m right here,” I say. But again, I don’t think she’s talking to me.

I keep walking in the direction I hear the voices, both of them, the boy and the girl.

“Krystal, come on. I’m waiting,” he says, and I swear the voice sounds familiar now.

“I’m coming,” Krystal answers.

Something clenches in my chest at the sound of her voice. She’s going to him. She knows who he is. She’s always known.

After wandering down the longest hallway ever I see more blue light at the end and I hear the trickling of water. The River Styx.

Moving faster I try to get to the end before the ferry leaves, because I know instinctively there’s a ferryboat docked in the water, with a hooded man and his staff waiting to pull off, to take another willing soul into the Underworld.

“Krystal,” I call to her, hoping she’ll hear me like she hears the other male voice. But she doesn’t answer me.

“Krystal!” I yell louder and start to run.

Laughter answers me. Not demonic but evil just the same. As I get to the end of the hallway and walk into the clearing I see the one laughing and my entire body freezes.

Franklin.

But then it’s not him, at least not the way I remember seeing him when he was a student at Settleman’s.

He’s bigger now, his body like some teenage bodybuilder. He’s wearing jeans and no shirt, his bronze chest glistening in the eerie blue light. His eyes are black but his mouth is smiling. And Krystal’s walking straight toward him.

“Krystal, no,” I shout, and she turns.

“I’m sorry, Jake. I have to go,” she says, her hair a wild mess around her head, her eyes just a little wild as she glares back at me briefly.

“No! He’s not who you think he is!”

“He’s mine,” she says, and the air escapes my lungs.

Falling to my knees I watch as she takes Franklin’s hand and he lifts her onto the ferry. He’s standing beside the robed man. Charon.

The laughter sounds again.

“No, Krystal,” I say but my throat is hoarse from yelling for her. It’s more like a croak and I know she can’t hear me, but I tell her anyway. “You’re mine. I’m yours.”

Above the laughter the sound of rushing water roars, a wet breeze tickling my skin. “You’re mine. I’m yours. Krystal, please.”

And as I’m talking huge waves engulf me, carrying my body through what feels like the inside of a washing machine. I turn and twist and thump and fall. But all I can think about is her, all I can hear is the sound of her voice. All I can remember is the feel of her skin.

Krystal. Krystal.

My legs are kicking wildly, my arms flailing about. My heart feels like it’s about to beat right out of my chest and then I sit right up in my bed. Sweat rolls down my face as I clench the sheets in both fists.

It was a dream. Just a dream, I’m trying to convince myself and catch my breath at the same time. Then my cell phone rings.

Krystal

He’s got to be up. I know he is. He was right there, I felt him as if he were standing right next to me. The dream had been so intense. I could feel his kisses, his caresses. I wanted more and more. We were going all the way and I wasn’t afraid like I thought I’d be.

When Franklin had first suggested sex to me I’d been deathly afraid. Maybe because it was with Franklin and I knew he wasn’t the right person. But Jake, he was different. Everything about him was different.

Jake had as much emotional baggage as I did, which to me made us a great match because neither one of us were perfect. The fact that we both shared supernatural powers only solidified the fact that we should be together.

Or so I thought.

Until Franklin appeared in the dream.

All he’d had to do was call my name and I was following him, like a horse to a handful of carrots. And I don’t think I really wanted to follow him, but there was something pulling me in that direction, telling me what to say, something very strong.

But Jake was there. He was coming for me. He said I was his and he was mine.

Jake was mine.

“Hello?” I hear his voice and almost scream with joy.

“Jake?”

“Krystal?”

“Did you see him? You were there, did you see him?”

“Did I see who? Where?” He doesn’t sound like he was sleeping at all and I know that’s because he’s awake. He was in that dream with me and now he’s awake.

“You were there, weren’t you? In the dream with Franklin and…and—”

I can’t say the name even though I can see the no-face demon clearly.

“And Charon.”

With a sigh I fall back on my bed. “Yes.”

Sasha

Tonight I’m looking for my moon, desperately needing the connection with another world, another time and place. Since learning I can astral project a feeling of solace has come over me. I know that I’m a human teenager, living on Earth and doing what a normal teenager’s supposed to do. Then again, there’s a more magical part of me that belongs in another world where I’m not considered strange but a kindred spirit.

Twan and I seem to be growing closer, and by that I mean he’s hinting toward us getting more physical. I haven’t told anyone, but I’m leaning in that direction myself. Something about the way I feel when he kisses me and touches me. My body tingles all over and at times I’m afraid I’ll astral project or disappear. It’s like I’m losing control of myself around him, though not in a bad way.

Last night he said he loved me. I believe every word because I love him, too. He knows who and what I am and he still loves me. I’ve never had that before and it feels good.

So sitting on the edge of my bed gazing out into the dark night sky I wish for my moon. And just like that the clouds seem to part and I see the giant orb clearly. I blink and then blink again because this doesn’t look like my moon. It doesn’t look altogether normal.

Standing, I move closer to the window and open it, leaning my face out until the chilly November breeze kisses my cheek. I study it a little closer.

It’s not my normal moon because it’s blue.

A blue moon on the first full moon of November. Flipping through my mental astronomy database I know that’s not normal. Blue moons are the second full moon of each month. And this is early November. It’s all wrong.

And yet…here it is.

A tiny sense of dread moves along my spine.

Lindsey

I’ve always heard voices, or thoughts I guess, from everyone else. Since I was younger I’ve heard their inner musings. After a while it became second nature and I figured out a way to handle it. Wear black and pray that at some point and time they did, too.

But that’s not working now.

And I’m not just hearing their thoughts. I’m feeling their feelings and it’s scaring the hell out of me.

I felt everything Jake was going through, the turmoil, the indecision, the pain.

And tonight, I felt more.

Panic and pain tore through my sleep so now I’m standing at the back door looking at the weirdest moon I’ve ever seen. The cool breeze is whipping around my body, making me intensely aware of the thin nightgown I’m wearing.

Looking up to the sky I’m wondering what’s going to happen next, or more likely, how much more I can bear. If the thoughts of others weren’t bad enough, the feelings will be enough to kill me. And I think that’s his purpose.

Shivering, I wrap myself in my arms but I don’t move. I don’t run back into the house and climb under my covers. I stand right there, staring at that ghoulish moon, waiting for whatever it’s bringing to come.

Waiting for my part in this battle to begin.