Mystery Fanstuff Theater 3000/Spirit/5

"What happened?" Meg asked again. Silence was her only answer as the trio continued to look around the room, purposely avoiding the teacher. Sean and Meg went to check on the students with Madison close behind.

"Okay, none of these kids have a pulse! What in the seven hells is going on?!"

BLUEBRY: i read somewhere that that means they're dead

Sean let out a frustrated sigh and leaned against the wall.

NACHOMAN: I can't believe they have the nerve to go die like that.

"It's Yani."

The three students faced the doorway. Danny was leaning on the frame with his arms crossed over his chest. "He ate their souls.

NACHOMAN: Obviously.

They won't wake up again without them. Their bodies will last about a day before it completely dies." The calmness on his face was unnerving, even as he glanced at the teacher.

"He- he ATE the souls?"

BLUEBRY: what, you've never tasted your soul before?

Meg went pale and immediately felt sick.

Sean stood up, face serious. "We should find and Andy and Kali and warn them. That sword," Sean gestured to the black blade in their teacher,

BLUEBRY: "is bitchin."

"Belongs to a demon."

Danny stood up straight and walked over to the window. "It's a waste of time warning them. They've already faced two demons." Danny looked and the school's old outdoor pool. It was dug into the ground and very small, but deep.

NACHOMAN: I'm having flashbacks to Guts and honestly I'd much rather be reading that right now.

The other three stood by the window and watched as two familiar figures fell towards the ground.

"What do they think they're doing?" Madison yelled.

BLUEBRY: "'THE MOST EPIC CANNONBALL EVER' was all Danny could reply, as he slipped a new Coors into his LSU koozie."

Danny kept up his poker face,

NACHOMAN: When Life Gives You a Bad Romance, show everyone your Poker Face, buy a new Telephone, call Alejandro, and you guys Just Dance!

but Meg could tell he was worried.

"It looks like they'll fall in the pool. And it's deep enough they won't break their necks or something, right?" Sean asked uncertainly. "Right?"

Danny sighed, breaking his mask and a look of helplessness took over. Meg preferred the poker face. "There's nothing we can do. We don't have any powers to help them;

NACHOMAN: but didn't they have those elemental stone thin--

we just have to hope that they don't die."

"Let's at least get out there! If they do manage to land in the pool, we can make sure they don't drown themselves." Madison said and walked quickly to the doorway.

"Man. We all sound like people out of those old suspense movies.

NACHOMAN: "Man. We all sound like characters out of those crappy internet stories."

Enough mush. Let's just kick some demons ass and get out of here." Sean said and followed Madison. He was careful not to step on the soulless bodies that littered the floor. Meg spared them one last pitiful look as they raced down the hallway. They were outside just in time to see Andy and Kali splash into the pool.

BLUEBRY: that, is not possible
NACHOMAN: But nothing happened!

* * *

Kali and Andy felt the wind get knocked out of them as they slapped down against the water. Bubbles of air flew from their bodies towards the surface as they neared the bottom.

NACHOMAN: LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR

Luckily, their momentum slowed before they hit the bottom and both swam furiously towards the air and broke to the surface. They managed to kick over to the edge and clung to it.

Kali opened her eyes slowly and realized that they'd fallen only a foot away from the edge of the pool. She looked at Andy who was next to her panting harder than she was.

BLUEBRY: "sucks to your ass-mar"

"'Well… that wasn't so bad… was it?" he asked sheepishly between breaths. Kali began to laugh lightly despite her lack of air.

"It was...okay...if...you...ignore...the life...threatening...parts," Kali replied and then added, "If you ever...try something...like that...ever again...I will seriously...murder you."

BLUEBRY: "How DARE you save my life?"

Andy laughed lightly then coughed a bit.

"Kali! Are you okay? Do you need to go to the nurse?

BLUEBRY: "Hey we were being chased by demons and-" "Oh do you want some Tylenol?"

Are you sure-" Meg continued her onslaught of questions as Danny tried to pull Andy out of the pool and Madison helped Kali. Her dark purple shirt and denim mini-skirt clung to her body making her feel clammy and exposed. Her long black hair was clinging to the back of her shirt, soaking wet. .

NACHOMAN: {Three paragraphs of describing her breasts later...}

Sean laughed at Andy's attempt to get out of the pool (he'd slipped on the edge and fallen back in). "You should've seen the looks on your guys' faces!" Sean burst into another fit of laughter. Danny was snickering behind him, but quickly stopped when he received glares from Kali and Andy. Instead he helped Andy out of the pool.

NACHOMAN: So basically there's this room full of bodies, right? And they need to kick demon ass and they do that by jumping into a pool and now they've climbed out of the pool and are joking around? Do I have this right?

"It wasn't that funny." Kali said curtly and began trying to wring out her shirt. Sean kept giggling like an idiot as Andy got out the pool, dripping sheets of water everywhere.

BLUEBRY: i don't think that's the metaphor you want...

Blond locks were plastered to his face and his white shirt was practically see-through it was so wet.

BLUEBRY: {drools}

It clung to his body, making his muscles visible where they were once hidden.

BLUEBRY: {drools}

"Well, let's not put that at the top of our to-do list again." Andy said while trying to wring out his shirt.

"What kind of demons attacked you?" Madison asked, changing the subject.

"A male ice demon by the name of Zinc and a female fire demon by the name of Kuro," Andy said, still wringing out his shirt.

"Yeah. Kuro was wearing what looked like a red bikini top and red low- rise pants.

NACHOMAN: May I ask why?

Her hair was really long and really orange. No way could we mistake her for a human in a crowd." Kali continued, now wringing out her hair.

"And the ice demon?" Sean asked. He was fully enjoying Andy's frustration with his stubborn shirt which refused to dry.

Andy answered in an irritated voice, "Zinc turned the walls and floor to ice, or just covered it with ice, either way it was really cold in the room. He had freaky light blue hair that was kind spiky and in his face with white-ish silvery streaks in it. Must be a demon thing to have those streaks or something. Anyways, he had light blue baggy pants and a white tank top. He also had Japanese sandals on.

BLUEBRY: naturally

They looked completely out of place"

"He made some wired looking harpoon from –God damn it! This stupid shirt won't DRY!" he yelled. Sean, Danny, and Meg fell into a fit of laughter while Madison and Kali stifled their laughs behind their hands. They failed miserably and doubled over laughing with everyone else. Andy glared at them and then at his shirt.

BLUEBRY: who wouldn't {drools}

"Anyways," Andy said, ignoring his outburst and trying to get the water out of his shirt again. "He had really, really pale skin, albino I think it's called." Andy growled at his shirt and the never ending stream of water that flowed from it, finally giving up, and sending everyone into another fit of giggles at his pouting face.

"And the winner 's shirt!" Sean said in a mock-announcers voice. He completed it with imitating the roar of a crowd. Danny and Meg held Andy back as he reached to strangle Sean.

NACHOMAN: Can those demons please kill these characters now? Please?

"C'mon, Andy! You know you love me!" Sean said with anything but uncertainty in his voice. Madison and Kali watched from the sidelines. Too bad for them that two demons were still unaccounted for and three whose powers were not yet known.

* * *

Kuro, Zinc and two other cloaked figures stood behind a fifth demon. "Yani, did you at least retrieve your sword from that filthy human?" the fifth demon asked.

"Yes, Saku, but the children of the overlords were not there. It was a waste of time," Yani snarled. "The only benefit was I got a good lunch from those other human children."

BLUEBRY: "Oh, dude, we were 'bout to hit up Chipotle, but I guess you can get a drink."

"You just didn't wait long enough, Yani." hissed a low and quiet voice.

"You didn't even go, Naari! What would you know?" replied Yani.

NACHOMAN: So much tension in these demon congregations. They need a good morale-boosting event, maybe a company bowling tournament.

He stood up tall in front of one of the demons still cloaked. His green aura glowed around him to intimidate the smaller demon.

"You are beginning to act as hasty as those pathetic, lowly humans you just slaughtered. All of you. "Saku said in a calm but harsh voice. He was obviously the leader of the demons.

NACHOMAN: obviously

They were all that was left. In The last battle between the demons and the overlords, it was six powerful demons against the rumored invincible overlords. No other demons had dared to attack the overlords. But now as the remaining five, they had no choice. It was fight or be found and locked away in hell with the others.

"I don't want you to slip up. We can't afford messy mistakes." Saku commanded.

"Yes, Sire." The other demons replied simultaneously.

"This girl seems to know a great deal about their powers and knows them well. Perhaps I can use her to our benefit." Saku said, gesturing to a mirror that hung in the air. It floated in the middle of the room and showed Meg walking back inside the school with the others.

"Keep an eye on her. I have other plans to attend to."

"Yes, Sire." Saku disappeared into a black mist, as did all but one of his followers. The one called Naari stayed to watch Meg. If one could see his face, bright gold eyes would be glaring ahead.

• * *

School was let out early and police came to investigate the situation at the school, but of course found nothing rational to explain it. The children whose souls were taken were determined to be in a coma and were taken to the hospital.

Kali and Andy were able to avoid questioning by the police and joined the others by the gate. Danny was recapping his encounter with the demon Saku.

"He didn't actually come in person; he just kinda popped into my head and started talking. Typical evil guy, complete with that stupid cocky laugh, though it sounded more like he was trying to gargling sand. Anyways, he told me that you guys," he pointed to Madison and Sean, "Just missed getting your souls sucked out of your body and eaten by Yani."

The six teenagers walked down the street, debating on what to do.

"They obviously know who we are and where we're gonna be." Sean said thoughtfully. "They may try and attack again soon."

NACHOMAN: Or they could attack now while you're vulnerable...?

"School will be canceled for a while, so we can hang out.

NACHOMAN: "You guys just want to meet in front of the Blockbuster and just howl at people for a while?"

If we're all together, then they won't attack us, right?" Kali asked. "They won't know if we have the stones or not."

"All the kids were freaked beyond comparison. We can safely say that school will be out, yeah, but you heard what Kuro said. 'Concentrate. They just don't have their stones.' That means that they can sense whether we have them or not. If we don't, then they'll attack us without a second thought."

"So, we keep our stones nearby then," Sean said, more of a question then a statement.

"No. Then they will sense if we're alone or not." Danny sighed. "We should tell Spirit and let her know what's going on. They may know about her too, which would be really bad."

"Why?" Meg asked. "She isn't any more powerful than you guys, right?"

"She's pretty much the leader of our little group. She's also the strategist. We don't know much about demons and what we know we learned from her." Andy said.

"And I'm guessing that if you brought the stones with you in case of attack, they'd follow you to Spirit who doesn't have her stone, does she?" Kali asked.

"Yeah. It's in the box I showed you, which is safely hidden." Danny said. "We'll go tomorrow. All of us. She'll probably want to meet you Meg, since you know about everything. Just so she knows you can be trusted." Meg stopped dead in her tracks.

"N-no. That's okay. I'm sure she doesn't have time to meet me, what with all this stuff going on. Besides, I have karate lessons tomorrow and I can't go out because, I, uh, have lots of chores to do." Meg stuttered and took a few steps in the direction of her house.

"She doesn't bite, Meg. And karate doesn't take all day. It'll take half an hour and then it's over." Andy assured her.

{loud snoring is heard}

"That's okay. Maybe some other time. Um, bye!" Meg ran off towards her house before they could say anything.

Andy looked at Kali. "Did I say something wrong?" he asked.

"No. But she doesn't have karate tomorrow and we never get chores assigned." Kali replied worried. "I'll ask her what's wrong later."

"You do that." Sean said. "The rest of us will meet and my house tomorrow at noon. We'll eat lunch and head off. We can throw in some other shopping stuff while we're in town." Kali waved goodbye and ran off after Meg.

"But, shouldn't Meg still come? What if they know about her knowing everything? They might attack her while we're gone." Andy asked.

"Man, Andy, don't be such a worrywart!

NACHOMAN: "It's only an ancient race of demons you pussy!"

If you like her that much, then stay behind and watch over her!" Sean teased. Andy turned a bright red but said nothing in reply. "Later, people! I need some food!" Sean and Danny raced each other down the block.

"Like children. Both of them. And don't worry Andy; your secret crush is safe with me." Madison winked and headed off towards her house. "See you tomorrow!"

She left Andy standing at the corner with his mouth open to protest. Nothing came out. He just shook his head and grumbled as he headed to his own house.

Kali kicked off her shoes at the doorway and put her school bag on the kitchen table. Stretching, she headed upstairs to the room she shared with Meg. Both of them had curtains around their beds for privacy, but they only used them when they were fighting, which didn't happen very often, or when one of them was sick.

Kali saw Meg curled up on her bed sleeping soundly. She felt a wave of serene and comfort wash over her and she pulled the covers so they covered her shoulders. Deciding to let her sleep, Kali went over to her side of the room and popped in her favorite CD into her player. She lay on her bed staring at the ceiling, feeling utterly bored.

'I have no homework; chores are boring, and no one to talk to.' Kali thought. 'I have such an interesting life.' She didn't move for the better part of an hour, too absorbed in thoughts to get up and eat something. Her thoughts ranged from why Meg was so distant all of a sudden to whether or not she was going to get a cold from being in wet clothes for so long. She fell asleep with thoughts bumping around in her head, trying to get an answer.

• * *

Andy opened the door to a small house and walked in. He was unprepared for the assaults of his family, who had obviously heard about the 'mystery murders' at his school. His little brother was nice enough to show his concern by throwing his old rattle straight at Andy's face, making a neat, round little red mark before falling on his foot. His mom and dad began to fight about it while his little sister tugged on his pant leg (which was still wet, much to Andy's dismay) for food.

He let out a frustrated sigh and went to the kitchen to get some dinner. 'I hope Madison makes it okay......'

• * *

Madison headed to her front door, then quickly changed her mind and decided to go through the back door which led to the kitchen. No one would notice her that way. It took her a few minutes to reach her back door because she had to hide from many window views and her house was very large.

Madison's house was made of red brick with two white railed balconies on the front and a long patio with white wooden sidings. There was a swing and fancy tea table on it, complete with greenery lining the bottom and flowers by the mailbox. Their house was three levels tall with many rounded white framed windows on each floor.

Out back was a large in-ground swimming pool with yet another patio, this one decorated as if it were a deck, reaching to a three-season room. There was a large grill and two glass tables placed accordingly. The rest of the backyard was large and decorated with a fountain near the end and a beautiful garden surrounding it. It was the only part of the house Madison liked.

She found the back door and opened it as quietly as possible to peek in. She was now in the large kitchen. No one was there so she walked in quietly. She made sure to close the door as quietly as she opened it before moving on. She headed to a swinging door that led to the 'entertainment room', as her parents called it, and a large staircase.

She tiptoed through the room and winced as a shrill voice wailing her name shattered the silence. Her first instinct was to cover her ears and then she groaned as Mrs. Peters, her mother, came into the room. Madison was crushed in a bear hug.

"Air." Madison mumbled.

"Oh, right. I'm sorry Maddy." Catherine Peters let her daughter go and waited for her to catch her breath. "Are you alright? I heard about what happened at that school! I told you public schools were dangerous, didn't I? Do you need to go to the doctors? I'd feel better if you would-"

"Cathy, I'm fine. I wasn't there when the students were hurt. I was running late for class." Madison explained.

"And why were you late for class?" Cathy crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well, actually, we weren't that late, only a couple minutes. My watch was slow so we thought we were okay."

Cathy waved her hands dismissively and sighed. "Just go to your room. You gave us all a great scare. We thought that you had gone out with those," Cathy sniffed, "people you like."

"You mean my friends." Madison replied crossly. "Cathy, just don't. Don't try to act like my mom, because you're not. I'll be in my room." Madison didn't wait to hear a response and ran up the stairs. She quickly turned on her music to drown out any complaining her 'mother' might be yelling. Metallica started playing and Madison lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking.

No one would guess that Madison was her parent's daughter. They were curt, over dressed, proper, and listened to what they called 'proper music', old classical music like Beethoven and Mozart.

Madison was kind and charitable. She hated anything fancy and expensive and ignored what her parents called 'etiquette'. She listened to rock and heavy metal. She was unable to relate to her parents at all, more so than other children her age.

Cathy wasn't even her biological mother. Her father had divorced when she was seven and remarried six months later to the witch known as Catherine. They couldn't stand each other, and Cathy had tried numerous times to cart her off to some finishing school in England.

She let her mind wander.

'Danny and Sean are lucky. They don't have to deal with parents fighting and siblings or stupid stepmothers. But then, they've never really had anyone to take care of them, either. I wonder if they miss having parents.....'

Sean was back in his weird mood again and began singing the theme song from Sponge Bob Square Pants horribly off-key. He also sang with a pirate accent, just to see how long it would take for Danny to snap at him.

"SPONGE BOB!!!!!!!" he took a deep breath, "SQUARE-!"

"God damn it, would you shut up?!" Danny shouted, clasping his hands around Sean neck and shaking him.

"Aw, don't be a spoilsport! I only sang it," Sean started ticking off his fingers. "Can I borrow this? Thanks." He said nonchalantly and grabbed one of Danny's hands that was around his neck. He continued counting and fought down a snicker as Danny's eye twitched as he glared at Sean.

Seemingly unaffected by the death glare thrown his way, Sean announced proudly, "Twelve times!"

"It took you five minutes to count to twelve?" Danny asked teasingly.

"I'm special." Sean smirked back and opened the door to their house.

Meg woke and sat up in her bed. She checked the clock. Bright red numbers flashed 11:52. 'Wow. I sure slept a long time before my stomach woke me up.'

Kali stirred in her sleep but only shifted slightly. Meg smiled to herself and made her way quietly downstairs.

///'Where are you going, child?'/// a tenor voice ripped through the silence of the house, but was heard only by Meg. She looked around frantically. Had anyone been awake to see her face break out in fear and look for a voice no one else could hear, they'd think she was mad.

///'I thought you would've caught on by now, but you humans don't like to believe what you don't want to. Only you can hear me because I only need you. I have a favor to ask of you.'/// the voice echoed in her head. Had there been a face to go with the voice, Meg was sure a devilish grin would be plastered on his face.

Meg tried to ignore it and moved to get a glass of water. 'It's just a voice, and this is probably a dream.' She tried to convince herself she wasn't insane, or worse, there really was a voice. She took a deep breath and poured some water in her glass. 'I will wake up and everything will be normal.'

The voice laughed. ///'Dear child, you will wake up after you perform my task.'///

White hot pain flashed through her mind for a split second. Afterwards, her eyes turned glassy and dull. The familiar dark green pools took place of her dilated pupils. Her face was void of any emotion and she didn't blinked or moved her eyes.

///'There, see? You make it harder on yourself when you try to escape me. I want you to go back to your room and look for a small round gem. It will look like a green marble and will probably be kept somewhere safe among your sister's belongings.'///

Meg dropped her glass on the floor as her hands moved down to her sides. Inside she was screaming for him to go away, but control was no longer hers. She felt no pain as the glass shattered on the floor and cut her feet. She wasn't cold when the ice water splashed her legs. Her master wanted her help and she would serve him well.

She walked up the stairs slowly, staring straight ahead the whole time. She went over to Kali's bedside table and opened a small drawer. Scissors, a small mirror, and various hair accessories were strewn about.

Not seeing the green marble her master wanted, she moved to a chest about a foot high. It was worn and old but had no lock on it. This was one place where Kali kept her personal belongings like photos. The marble would be here or nowhere at all.

Meg shifted through old photographs of when they were little and lived in Japan. Pictures of them at the park and with their parents were in neat piles and safely covered. A small black diary from when she was younger. The last few pages were still blank, waiting for a special event to fill them. The list continued with letters from friends that slowly stopped writing, letters of grievance from the funeral for their parents, trinkets they had gotten from different places they'd been. A small green marble was not one of the items.

She was about halfway through the trunk when Kali woke up. She rubbed her yes for a second and then turned on the light. She stared wide-eyed at her sister. She was going through her stuff without asking.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?!"

Meg wasn't affected by the yelling or change of light. She continued searching, finding poems by the pictures. Written in Japanese and in childish handwriting, the poems had been long forgotten to avoid bringing up unwanted subjects.

Kali grabbed Meg by the shoulders to turn her around and slapped her across the face.

"I asked you what the hell you think you're doing?" Kali shouted again. She moved to put everything backing its spot.

"Huh?" Meg snapped out of her reverie-like state and looked at Kali, around her, and then touched her cheek where Kali had slapped her. "What happened?" She rubbed her head a bit as the night came back to her. The voice! Meg panicked. "He isn't here, is he? I thought he would go away! I thought he would leave me alone! I'm so sorry!"

Kali's anger dissolved as confusion and worry over-powered it. "What are you talking about? No one's here but us." Kali said in a soft voice. "But why were you looking through my stuff. You know you aren't supposed to."

"I-he, he t-told me, "Meg stuttered, then felt another blinding pain and blacked out.

"Hey! Now what?" Kali caught Meg's limp form and noticed for the first time that her foot was cut and bleeding over the wood floor.

"Joy. More weirdness to deal with. Being a big sister is so overrated sometimes." Kali sighed, but smiled sadly at her sister. "What have I gotten you into, Meg?"

She cleaned and bandaged Meg's foot and laid her on her own bed. Kali frowned as Meg broke into a cold sweat. She felt her forehead.

"A fever? Man, she's really got it bad." Kali muttered. She went downstairs to get some cool water and a cloth. She noted on the way down the stairs that there were light footprints of blood.

"Guess I've got to clean that, too. At least it wasn't that bad of a cut." She grumbled.

Kali turned on the light for the kitchen after grabbing the cloth and saw broken glass and water tinted with blood by the sink.

'Grossgrossgrossgrossgross.' Kali thought. She managed to clean everything up and get back upstairs before Meg's fever got any worse. She placed a cold, wet cloth on Meg's forehead. 'At least now she can't lie and say nothing's wrong.'