IT WAS 6:45 PM.Rich had made sure he was showered, freshly shaved, and he'd evenpressed and starched his shirt. He had arrived at 6:30. Alwayspriding himself on being punctual, Rich had made sure to show upextra early, just in case. He flattened the front of his jacket as helooked around the campus for Jenny.

He knew she wouldbe early too.

The day had been anordinary Monday. At least he suspected so, considering it was hisfirst Monday at RBS, but nothing had seemed amiss despite the eventsof the night before. He had taken his first day of classes, whichwere English Literature and Eschatology...

...the study ofthings to come.

He couldn'tactually say it was too uneventful, actually. The last hour of classwound up getting canceled because Ian, his "Man in Black," had adebate with the professor after questioning his interpretation of apassage from Isaiah, which for all intents and purposes he seemed tohave won. Dr. Williams had gone from a reserved and seemingly kindlyold man to screaming and waving his arms before throwing his Bible atthe clock and dismissing class.

Ian had onlylaughed... a disturbing sound, actually...

...and said"Checkmate."

She arrived at 6:50wearing a pretty yellow dress with a white knit sweater over top, herfiery red hair ablaze in the light of the setting sun. From adistance, she gave him a big smile and a little wave beforeapproaching.

"I knew you'd beearly!" she said, echoing his previous thought, shaking him a bit.

"Hey nooby doo,too." His stomach tied itself in knots the moment this erupted fromhis mouth.

"Say what?"

As her face curledup into a question mark, he knew he had already made a fool ofhimself.

"I... I mean, Iknew you would be, too." She chuckled, and he concerned himself asto whether it was a good chuckle or not.

"Iwould have been earlier," she said, "but it was funny watchingyou stand out here straightening everything."

"What?"

"Yeah. Your hair,your jacket, your glasses. It's like you were getting ready to go ona date."

Rich almost chokedon his own vocal chords.

"How did you..."

She pointed to awindow not twenty feet away.

"That's my room."

Rich could onlychuckle and sank into one of the bench seats of the gazebo.

"I'm so sorry.You wouldn't believe the night I had."

"What happened?"

"I... you knowwhat... nevermind."

They sat andchatted for two hours, about everything but what had happened,and it seemed to be going well, but the darker it got, the moreuncomfortable Rich felt. Not with her... she was beautiful andamazing and smart and funny... he'd never even known there were girlsout there like Jenny.

Something in thedarkness was watching them.

He didn't seeanything, of course. Except the moving of the stall doors in thebathroom last night, he hadn't seen anything, ever... but he knew itwas there. He could feel it, sense it with other senses beside theones he knew he had. The bowling ball in his gut was back. There wassomething watching them from the shadows, and the only questionsweren't if it were really there, but where and what exactly it was inthe first place.

"It's gettingdark," he said. "Are you ready to go back to the dorms?"

She looked almosthurt.

"You're nothaving fun?"

"No, I mean... Iam, but... it's just getting dark."

"What are you, areverse vampire?"

"Kind of."

Shechuckled. Whew. Hethought he lost her with that.

Then, she saidsomething that almost collapsed his lungs again.

"You feel it too,don't you?"

His eyes went wide.

"You... you knowabout... whatever it is?"

"Everyone does,"she said. "Nobody ever talks about it."

"Why not?"

"We're not reallyallowed to."

"Not allowed?"

"Dr. Dwyerfinished out last quarter with it. He said when we all came back, anyof us who said anything about it could expect to pack their bags andhead straight back home."

"Are youserious?"

"He even saidthat if any of us were caught studying passages in the Bible aboutdemons, we were done here, and if we knew of anyone who was doing itor talking about it, we were to turn them in, because talking aboutthem gives them power."

"Whoah, slowdown!" Rich's eyes went wide and he waved his hands senselessly ather. "Can we go back to 'demons?'"

Now she lookeduncomfortable, and snapped her head left, to right, then back to himat center.

"No. Hey, insteadof taking me back to the dorm, do you want to go to the studentcenter?"

Rich extended hisarm, but Jenny pulled away.

"Don't forget,"she urged, and he stopped reaching.

"Oh, right," hesaid. "No touching. Well, come on."

They stood up tohead to the student center, and Jenny leaned in and gave him a peckon the cheek. He thought for a second about pushing her down andrunning away, but he stood his ground, and a goofy smile broke overhis face.

"Shhh," shehushed him, smiling goofily herself. "Don't tell anyone."

They began to walktoward the student center, the brightly-lit center of the campus. Ithad felt nerve-wrackingly isolated out at the gazebo, and the studentcenter drew them in quite literally like moths to a flame.

"It's not so bad,I guess," he chuckled. "I hear Pensacola has blue and pinksidewalks."

"That's so dumb!"she said, but here they were, not even able to hold hands or sit lessthan arm's length apart.

Theinside of the student center was mostly a single room on the firstfloor, with a pool table, foozball table, table tennis, skee ball,and dartboards set up around the room. A living room setup on theother side of a waist-high barrier centered around a smallishtelevision on which played The Great Escape,one of only four admin-accepted VHS tapes they were allowed to watch.Most of the on-campus students were in the game room, but Malcolm,Jimmy, Steve, and Big D were on the other side watching the movie.Rich pointed them out, and the two started moving toward them.

"Jenny!"

Jenny turned andnearly deafened Rich as she shrieked, "Julie!"

A mousy, but prettyyoung lady who Rich had seen working in the library shuffled over toher, and the two jumped up and down joyously at each other likechildren for a moment.

"How's Henry?"Jenny asked slyly, to which they both just continued giggling at eachother.

"Is this Rich?"Julie's smile was huge as she asked.

"Yes!" Jennyhappily exclaimed, and the two slapped at each other while squealingfor a second.

Rich was in collegenow and still couldn't understand girls.

"I'm just headingback to the dorms. I'll make some tea for when you get back."

"Thatwould be mahh-velous,"Jenny said, flipping her hair back dramatically. It blew Rich away...she looked like an old-time movie starlet, even with no makeup. Theysquealed at each other a bit more, and Julie looked to Rich with awave.

"Bye, Rich!"

They continued onto their friends by the television as Julie left.

"Well, she'snice," said Rich.

"Don't get anyideas," Jenny said. It took Rich a few seconds to realize she wasjoking.

Charles Bronson wasjust refusing to continue working in the tunnel as they arrived, theall-too-familiar movie playing in the background as Jimmy stood andwildly waved his arms.

"Hey, guys!"Jimmy exclaimed, his usual oddly high level of excitement not in theleast abated. Steve, Malcolm, and Big D waved without taking theireyes from the screen.

"Jimmy," Jennycurtsied, and Jimmy did his best to do the same back. They bothlooked at Rich.

Rich curtsied too.They all laughed.

It wasn't untilSteve McQueen and his motorcycle were tangled in razor wire thatJimmy's mood seemed to switch, as though he'd remembered something hehad to say.

He had.

He leaned overtoward Rich, and very softly, he muttered, "Hey... you didn'thappen to run into Ian last night, did you."

It was Rich's turnto have a mood switch. His face grew solemn and his skin gray as herecalled the previous night, with its oddly-behaved bathroom stalldoors, as quietly as he could to Jimmy. He felt Jenny's eyes burninginto him the whole time.

"Yeah," heanswered, "in the bathroom."

Jenny leaned over,her face almost sad.

"Do I need togo?" she asked Jimmy. Rich's head snapped to her, confused.

"Wh-what? What'swrong?"

She shushed him.

"You guys enjoytalking about that," said Malcolm, who got up to go without a wordmore. Rich watched him walk off.

"It's okay. We'lltalk later. Ian just asked me about you, is all."

"He what?" Richfelt his stomach sinking for the hundredth time since he'd set footon campus three days ago, but not in the bowling-ball sort of way.

Jenny was gettingnoticeably uncomfortable, fidgeting and looking down at her lap. Sheexcused herself to the bathroom, and Rich watched her go with his jawnearly hanging open. He looked to Jimmy.

"Why does talkingabout him make half the people around us head for the hills?"

"Oh, she,ummmm..." Now Jimmy felt uncomfortable, but Big D came to therescue.

"She had a crushon your bearded boy in black when she first got here," he said,never turning away from the credits as they rolled. "But then shefound out she wasn't woman enough for him."

"That is nottrue!" Jimmy exclaimed, his face twisting into what, on his face,appeared almost as a parody of anger.

"You explain itthen, dawg," said Big D, continuing to stare at the screen.

"She liked him,yeah, but then... the changes happened."

There was a silencefor a moment, then...

"...so how was Iwrong?"

"It's how yousaid it!" Jimmy's face temporarily went back to trying to pretendto be angry for the quickest of moments before he turned back toRich. Rich just stared back blankly.

After a moment, hethought of something useful to say.

"What changes?"

Jimmy thought hardfor a second about how to word his thoughts.

"Remember..."Jimmy started slowly, "remember the 'weird stuff' I mentioned theother day?"

"Yeah. I think Ihave some idea of what you mean."

"Ian told me."

"He...?"

"He told me.Earlier. When he asked about you."

"What did he askabout?"

"He just wantedto know... if you were on the level."

"On the level?Like, how Mitch isn't on the level."

"Yeah, dude,"Steve nodded. Rich turned to face him.

"What, he talkedto you too?"

"He talked to usboth at once."

Rich didn't knowhow to take this, and his body involuntarily stood up as his mindsearched for an escape route.

"Where's Jenny? Ineed to go to the bathroom."

- - -

Rich washed hishands. He looked around the room as he toweled them off, surprisedthat the stall doors hadn't broken into spontaneous interpretativedance, and then headed to the door.

He opened it, andentered the hallway that led between the chapel and the rec room. Thelights were off in the rec room, and there was nobody in there.

"How..." hestarted to say out loud... How was I in there that long?

He took a few stepstoward the empty room when he heard Jenny's voice from the chapel. Heturned to see her leaping up from the pew where she had been waitingand jogged over to him.

"Did you have asick belly?" she asked. He found it unbelievably cute, but thenshook himself free of her enchantment.

"Wh-what? No,I... I don't know how I was in there that long. It was probably onlyfive minutes or so, I only... did number one."

"Number one?"

"I don't know,we're at seminary. We get in trouble for saying 'darn.' Plus, youjust asked if I had a sick belly. I figured we were just talking likebabies."

"Hey!" shepouted. He smiled at her.

She smiled back,which instinctively widened his own.

"You know," shesaid, "we're allowed to pray together in the chapel."

"Really?"

"It's the onlyplace we're allowed to be alone."

Ten minutes later,Rich had his first kiss. This kiss, while sloppy and uncoordinated,was the single greatest moment of Rich's life. He felt a bituncomfortable that this was happening in the chapel, and then greweven more ill at ease when he thought about how he had just weighedthis event in his mind with all the other great events of his life,and had not even considered the moments of his salvation or Baptism.

His watch began tobeep.

"Darn it," hesaid, which made Jenny chuckle.

"Hey!" shesaid. "No swearing!"

"That's thecurfew. We've got to go."

"What time isit?"

"10:45."

She stared into hiseyes. When she smiled, his knees almost buckled.

"We can stayanother five minutes, can't we?"

Rich could barelybreathe. It didn't matter that they were in the chapel, and despitehis earlier misgivings the thought didn't cross his mind once thatthey were in full sight of God. He kissed her again.

His hand slipped upthe back of her shirt, and when he felt her pull away slightly hemoved his mouth near her ear.

"I'm sorry. Isthis okay?"

"Yeah, it'sjust..."

She never got achance to finish her sentence. Rich felt something cold and slimy onhis hands, and Jenny shrieked. When he pulled away and looked therewas a viscous, milky substance all over his hand.

"What the..."

"What is it?"Jenny squealed. She reached around to her back, sliding her own handup the back of her shirt.

"Ew!" sheshouted, and pulled her hand away to look. "What is it!"

"I don't know!Turn around!"

She quickly turnedin her seat, and Rich saw a disgusting patch of slime all over herback. It looked vaguely seminal, but thicker, and was much, muchcolder. Also, there was quite a bit more than a any person couldproduce.

"Rich, what's onme?"

"I don't kn..."

"Please! WHAT'SON ME!"

It was only thenRich noticed that, although the lights were clearly on, they werebarely distributing any light to the room. It was so dark it seemedas though it was lit by only a single candle.

"Rich, please...it's cold. Get it off!"

Rich grabbed herhand and they both grabbed their things and left as quickly aspossible.

After curfew, whenthe night mailbox came around, there was a small garbage bag taped upand adorned with a little pink sticky note bearing his name. Insidewas Jenny's shirt, and another note.

-Show this toIan. -J