During the weekend I didn't feel like going out or doing anything.

I thought of talking about what I had seen with my parents or with Raka, but every time I had a chance, I remembered Erica's dad and it went away. Something told me I had to take care of him a lot more than I did Erica. I thought long and hard about what had happened that night. Erica had saved me, I should be grateful, but remembering the event only made me fear for my life.

As I went to sleep on Friday, I thought that by Monday morning I would be fine and could put the incident aside. But that was not the case. When I returned to class on Monday, I found more than half the class inside. Erica was relaxed, busy doing something about her notebook, while my friends were playing and arguing next to her. I noticed that Pekos was annoying Galica, holding her pencil case up high, while she was trying her best to reach it with her short arms. As he moved and laughed, Pekos inadvertently pushed Erica.

I held my breath. I wanted to yell at Erica to stop, not to hurt him, but I just stayed still where I was.

To my relief, Erica didn't do anything, didn't even turn to look at him. She just fixed the table and continued working on whatever it was she was doing.

-I'm sorry- Pekos apologized, still distracted by Galica.

-Give it back, you oversized donkey!- she bellowed.

Troveto was chatting with another group. I approached slowly, looking at Erica all the time. She seemed to be trying to draw something, I think a flower. As I approached, she covered the drawing and looked up at me.

-Ocko!- she exclaimed- Hi, how's it going?

-Ah... fine. You?- I answered mechanically.

-Fine, fine!- she said, and went back to her drawing, trying to block it from my view.

She was acting normally, too normal. I remembered that, after killing the robbers, she had not shown herself to be any different from her usual self. The possibility was too sinister to think it was true, but I didn't see any other way.

I realized that the same Erica who had saved me from being murdered on the street had been the one who had killed those crooks. She didn't have a "dark side" or a second personality, or anything outlandish. Both situations had been normal for her. Saving lives, snuffing out lives, it was all the same. She hadn't lost any sleep over the blood spilled.

Still puzzled, I went to my sit. I didn't feel like talking much that day.

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During the week I slowly recovered from my encounter with the corpses. Once I even had a nightmare about them, but no more than that. The more time passed, the more I realized that Erica would never hurt me or others. On the street she had defended me, she had used her strength to protect one of her friends, I would have done the same if the roles were reversed.

She killed them, though.

At recess and when we went out with the gang to eat or hang out in the square, I considered asking her what she thought about killing people, when her first homicide had been, if she felt bad about doing it, things like that. But I didn't dare. I couldn't ask her with people around. I was scared, but I wasn't going to tell on her. Secondly, I wasn't sure if I would have liked her answers.

She didn't seem different in any way. Not when I saw her Monday morning, nor during the rest of the week, nor the night of the incident, nor after killing the robbers. The only time I saw her different was while she was doing it, while she was killing them one by one. Her brutal movements had been engraved in my memory.

On the other hand, I found it strange that nowhere did they announce the news about the corpses on the street we passed. Such a massacre would certainly cause a stir on the news, all the channels and all the newspapers would try to grab some of the scoop, but no one said anything.

I was so curious that I even went to the street to examine the place, but I found nothing. There wasn't a drop of blood, everything had simply disappeared. I wondered if Erica had had something to do with it, but the thought was very strange. I wondered if Erica's dad had had something to do with it and THAT idea didn't seem so strange. I didn't know him at all, but I could believe he had his secrets.

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Time passed. My friends and I continued to hang out through the school year, taking our minds off things as much as possible before we had to worry about college tryouts.

We went out to eat around, went to each other's houses a few times, I even heard through the grapevine that Erica and Raquel were getting along without me having done anything, and I thought that was pretty cool.

The incident with the robbers was beginning to seem like a strange dream I'd had, something too fanciful to think was real. Erica, my friend, one of the group, wouldn't hurt a fly. She never complained when we gave annoyed her, or when we accidentally threw water on her, or when Troveto dropped a bottle of paint on her hair, or when Pekos tripped next to her and dropped her sandwich on the ground. She just laughed and said it didn't matter, that our apologies were enough.

No, she couldn't be the demon I saw that night.

But she was.

One day, in physical education, the teachers separated us into boys and girls, and put us on different courts so we wouldn't look at each other. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

Anyway, we were jogging along, the class was about to end, when suddenly a strange noise caught everyone's attention. At first I thought it was a dying animal. I looked in all directions, the other kids were all raising their heads just as startled. I realized that we had all heard it, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

-That came from the court where the girls are- Troveto commented next to me.

I felt the blood leave my head as I connected the dots. With his clue I understood; that noise was not an animal, but a person. Someone screaming in a horrible way.

Separating us from the girls' court was a structure that housed the restrooms, a storage room and the upper hallways. We went around it without much trouble, ignoring the teacher's orders to stay where we were. We all looked out, but in doing so I could only see a large group of girls gathered in a circle. They seemed to be looking at something, many voices could be heard arguing heatedly, but we didn't know what had them so distracted.

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It was a day like any other. We had physical education class. The sun was starting to wane at that time of the year, but it still wasn't cool, so it wasn't bad to get out and get some exercise. Only P.E. classes were still classes. We went to change, then the teacher had us jog around the court. Nothing complicated.

I looked at Erica a couple of times as we ran. It was funny to see her so tired, especially since I knew she was just acting, and she was doing it very well. She wasn't exaggerating anything, but she was moving slow, keeping her head down and purposely shaking her breath. All the other girls took her for one of the slowest in the class, and maybe I would have thought the same thing if I didn't know what was really going on.

Finally they gave us a ball and made us play football.

-Again?!- cried Erica- We've been doing it all month!

-Oh, I forgot you're new- commented Galica- the teacher is a football fanatic, so get used to it.

Every few months we were rotated between physical education teachers. At the beginning of the year we had a young teacher who didn't demand much from us, but since a couple of classes ago, we had the other teacher for the girls, a woman too passionate about sports, in my opinion.

-What?!- Erica shouted.

-Yes, she's going to make us play for the rest of the term, until next semester.

Erica stared at her in terror. I wondered what was going through her head, but I was too embarrassed to ask. Before long we had selected our teams and were playing. There were a couple of competitive girls, like Solis and her friends, but other than that the game was pretty relaxed. The teacher yelled at us from a distance, constantly giving us instructions, but we all pretended not to hear her.

Erica and I were on defense. Her because the others thought she was bad at sports, me because I wasn't interested in playing just for the sake of playing, and I never took the games seriously. Most of the girls were on the other side of the field, our team had better players and we had the advantage, the opposing team was constantly in danger of a goal. Suddenly, however, their goalkeeper managed to get hold of the ball. With a strong kick she sent it high into the sky, towards our side. We saw the ball coming towards us, not directly, but at least in our general direction. Behind it followed the rest of the girls.

I tensed up. I immediately began to think about my options if I found myself facing one of the competitive girls. It would not be a pleasant confrontation. I decided it would be best to avoid it.

Curious, I glanced at Erica, wondering what she was planning to do. I figured she could easily take the ball for herself, run to the other side and in three seconds score a goal. However, as I looked at her I noticed that she was even more tense than I was. Her face radiated anguish, her arms raised high above her head, her legs apart, like a child suffering physical abuse from her parents or a soldier in her first battle. She clearly did not want to be there.

-Raquel!- someone shouted.

I turned back to the ball. The girls were much closer than I had expected. I had no time to prepare, I just looked up and froze as I saw the ball in the sky. At first it didn't appear to me to be moving, just slowly increasing in size. Belatedly I realized it was coming right at me.

It hit me right in the face, I was thrown back by the impact, but I didn't fall. I held my face with my hands, sore and scared. I heard the footsteps of the girls running around me, it seemed to me that some of them stopped, but there were several who continued running at full speed.

-The ball is still in play!- I heard one of them say.

I realized that it didn't hurt much, I was just paralyzed by the shock, although I was still scared of what it might have done to my nose. I looked up again to make sure nothing else hit me. There were a lot of girls around, some running, some waiting for the ball to come down. I guessed it was still in the air.

Then it hit Erica. Almost luckily, she stopped it with her chest and brought it down to her feet. She looked confused, not knowing what to do. She looked around nervously.

Soon the girls on our team were running the other way again, while the girls on the opposing team tried to take the ball from her. Erica made an effort to keep the ball, but she wasn't very confident.

-Just throw it away!- shouted our captain, one of the girls on the football team.

-Waht?

-Throw it away! Come on! What are you waiting for?!

Our captain ran away. Erica didn't even look at the ball, she was so nervous that she prepared to hit it. But then I noticed Solis approaching from behind. She dove to the ground to swept the ball away. I saw tragedy approaching. I couldn't say anything, there was no time. Erica kicked something with all her might.

Solis, our companion, a girl like any of us, flew through the air spinning like a propeller. She took off like one and fell like two. Her body hit the grass with a thud, while her leg traveled a longer distance, bounced and came to rest five meters away from her.

Solis exclaimed, nothing more than a grunt of effort from falling. Then she quickly became agitated, her breathing quickened and she writhed in pain. She rolled over on the ground, looked at her leg, gone. She stretched her arms out to where she had had it until a moment ago, as if trying to catch it. She writhed more.

She kicked the air, cried, and only after a few seconds began to scream.

Until that moment I had never heard a scream as terrifying as that. She was desperate, torn, terrified. She pounded the ground with her fists, with her head and with her remaining foot. She moved her amputated leg over her knee, but that only increased the pain and the screaming.

I was paralyzed. My thoughts ceased. I didn't understand how it had come to that, how a routine morning of physical education could bring such pain and suffering to a girl who hadn't earned it.

After that everything became confusing. The teacher came rushing up and began barking orders. The girls gathered around, curious, terrified, distressed. A couple fainted, one vomited from shock.

A few girls and the teacher worked to stop the bleeding from Solis' leg, others went to the casino to pick up a cooler with lots of ice to put the leg in. After that, more teachers and the nurse arrived. It got so crowded that those of us who were not doing anything had to move away to give them space.

After a while, paramedics arrived and took Solis and her leg away in an ambulance.

When I realized that this could have happened to me, I grabbed my leg, below the knee. I felt it with my fingers, squeezed it between my palms to feel my bones and muscles. I couldn't swallow the fact that Solis had had her leg one moment, and not the next.

After a while I remembered Erica. I looked for her, but I couldn't find her. I walked through the crowd that had gathered on the court, but she was nowhere to be seen. I ran into Ocko and his friends, but they didn't know where Erica had gone either. It was as if she had vanished along with Solis' knee.

-Raquel, is it true that her leg came off?- Ocko asked me.

I looked at his face. He looked worried. I assumed it was normal, it wasn't every day that a student's limb came off at school.

I opened my mouth to tell him, but stopped myself. "Erica did it, I saw her" sounded like an accusation. Technically Erica had taken her leg, but she wasn't guilty. She couldn't help being so strong, and she hadn't had time to notice. I figured that sooner or later people would find out it had been her, but until then, I didn't want them to point the finger at me as the girl who had ratted her out. Ocko would have to be satisfied with a vague answer.

-Yes, and that's probably what you're imagining.

-Was it Erica?!- he exclaimed.

You moron. I put a hand to my face and looked at him reprovingly. But the damage was done, we were surrounded by people. No one looked at us, but surely someone would have heard him.

-Yes- I answered quietly- it was an accident.

Ocko looked down, puzzled. At that moment it was obvious that Ocko and Erica felt something special for each other, it was normal for Ocko to worry. However, through my long years of knowing that airhead, I noticed something strange; more than worried, he looked terrified. He was pale and his eyes were wide open, staring at his feet, as if a giant was hunting him and he had nowhere to hide.

-Ocko?- I called out to him.

He looked at me. Unlike usual, he was mute. He said nothing. I was silent for a moment, waiting for an answer.

-Ocko!- I called out to him again.

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I didn't know exactly what had happened, but I didn't have to do much research to realize that it was Erica. Some spoke of blood, others of Solis, one of our classmates. A leg, a kick, a scream, an ambulance. After ten minutes I managed to understand the accident in general terms.

That's when I ran into Raka. She looked calmer than the rest, but shocked all the same.

-Ocko?- she called me for the second time.

I managed to shake my uneasiness up.

-Yes, sorry.

I swallowed. I wondered if Erica had taken Solis' leg on purpose. Raka said it was an accident, but how could I be sure? After seeing her kill so naturally, a leg didn't look like much.

-Where is Erica?- I asked.

But Raquel shook her head.

-No idea, I thought she'd be with you.

-Weren't you with her?- I argued.

-Yes, but she disappeared. What do you want me to do?

I rested my shoulders. I knew I could go and sit down, follow the teachers' instructions and everything would be back to normal in a few hours. But one thought in my head haunted and tormented me, and wouldn't let me just sit idly by; what if Erica attacked someone at school again? Or maybe it wasn't a question of IF she would, but how long would it take for her to break a leg or an arm on one of us, her friends. How long would it take for her to kill me?

-Calm down, Erica would never hurt me- I said to myself.

We were her friends, she wasn't going to do those terrible things to us... unless she felt like it.

Whatever I thought, that fear was not going to go away. I realized that the best thing to do would be to find her and talk to her. I needed the certainty that she wouldn't hurt us, anything. It was enough if she simply said "no, I would never do that"; then everything would be fine.

-I'm going to look for her- we both said at the same time.

-Wait, I'm coming with you- Raquel said.

I hadn't planned that, but I didn't care. I just wanted to find Erica. Nervous, I went to the edge of the court. There were a lot of people, but the location of the accident was easy to figure out, since it was the center of all the commotion. I started to think. If Erica had fled from that point, the easiest route was along the edge of the court, and then into the schoolyard.

We went there with Raquel, then stopped next to the multipurpose court for the children. There were rooms all around, above were the kindergartens. There was also a passageway to the first and second grade classrooms, and to the second forest.

-Do you think she's in the forest?- I asked Raquel.

I couldn't think of a better place to hide. She thought for a moment.

-How high can she jump?- she asked.

I was dumbfounded. I hadn't thought of that possibility. I looked at the buildings around us, of varying heights. One, two, three stories. Even the convent tower. I remembered that nothing had happened to her that day we fell from the top of the church, she even saved me from the impact of the fall. Of course she could jump to the top of any of those buildings without any problems.

We looked everywhere, but we couldn't find her. She didn't come back for the last class either, and her backpack was gone. The janitor assured us that he hadn't seen her come in, but we all knew that didn't matter much.

Erica had fled for the time being, but she would be back.