"Your FAN?!"  I yelled at Brie incredulously, scrambling back from the creature.

"Well it WORKED didn't it?"  She cried shrilly as the creature tried to remove the folded metal and cloth fan from its eye socket.

"Your FAN!?"  I repeated with a scream.  The shadow creature was still alive, and I couldn't trust it not to charge at me or Brie.  I looked for something I could swing at it to drive the fan further in.

"Duck."  Said a voice behind me, and I squatted, then whirled around.  A solid THUNK rang out above my head, as I took in the speaker's appearance.  It was Kaden with his shovel, in the middle of a swing.  With a thud, the thing fell to the ground behind me.  I looked over my shoulder at the creature.  The fan had been driven deep into its skull.  Huh, maybe they do have brains.

"Nice"  I said simply.

"Well, I guess they do have brains."  Kaden stated thoughtfully as if reading my thoughts again.  A few observations started brewing at the back of my mind, things I hadn't even been aware I had noticed coming together to start forming a picture I couldn't quite see yet.  I stood up and pushed the crazy suspicions back, looking at Kaden cautiously.  He looked at me with amusement.

"Speaking of nice..."  Kaden mentioned suggestively, eyeing my torso.

"Gross."  I grimaced and walked past him.  Now I could add pervert to my suspicions I thought, shoving my thoughts to the back of my mind.  Kaden's smooth brown skin flushed lightly.  I jogged back to Brie, standing on the asphalt.

"Your fan though?  Really?"  I asked incredulously.

"Hey, like I said-it worked, right?  Where's you're gratitude?  I also kinda wish you'd brought it back, I'd like to run some tests..."  Brie gazed around me at the creature greedily.  I looked at her in disbelief.

"Focus Brie!  Where is your car, and where are those shoes?"  I urged

"Car's this way..."  She quickly turned and started down the hill.  "I don't know where the shoes are though, they're probably in transit right now, they weren't due to have everything packed up and moved until next week..."  Brie paused, looking at something behind me.  My heart-rate immediately climbed and I spun around with alarm.  Kaden was following a pace or two behind us, he looked lost in thought.  I hadn't even heard his footsteps.

"Did you need a ride?"  Brie asked sweetly.  Kaden's head jerked up.

"Oh uh, well...I thought I'd help you out the shoes thing.  It seems we're in a rather small percentage of the population that even knows what's going on, or at least can see those things.  I just thought that the more help you can get, and so forth..."  He smiled weakly at her.

"What about the woman?"  I asked, hands on my hips.

"The woman..."  Kaden repeated, with a puzzled look on his face.  I had to give him credit, he was studiously ignoring my torso now.  I sighed with exasperation.

"The woman you were supposed to be helping earlier."  I said leadingly "The one who was injured?"  Kaden's expression immediately brightened.

"Oh yes, I helped her to her car.  She said she was going to call an ambulance from her cellphone and wait for them there."  He replied eagerly.  At his words, the siren's became very clear and pronounced.

"Time to go, unless you wanna play 20 questions with the police."  Brie remarked, using her key fob to unlock her SUV.

"Yup."  I responded quickly and we raced towards the vehicle.  As Brie bounced into the driver's seat, I dove into the backseat on the driver's side to save time.  Then the front passenger door slammed, and I looked up to see Kaden.  I glared.

"What are you doing?"  I glowered.

"No time!"  Brie shushed me, pulling out, getting us to the cemetery exit in record time.  She was sedately driving away as the emergency vehicles arrived.  Sinking down in my seat so my lack of a top wouldn't be noticeable by passing cars, I chewed my bottom lip anxiously, wishing she'd step on it.  The logical part of my brain argued back that she was doing exactly what she should in this situation.  If you ever want to convince someone you're not up to anything, just act like you belong.  Brie easily did this, blending in with the slow moving traffic.  I still couldn't stop my leg from bouncing though as the urge to hurry ate at me.

"What did he mean?"  Kayden suddenly asked.  I looked up to see him slightly turned in his seat, looking at me curiously.  I raised an eyebrow at him.  I still wasn't happy he butted in.

"Oh come on, I'm not that bad am I?"  He grinned.  My suspicion of him was only growing stronger, though I still couldn't place my finger on why.  He flashed another smile at me.

"Well?"  He challenged.

"He who?"  My response was terse.

"Him!"  Kaden waved vaguely in the direction of the cemetery.  "The self-proclaimed 'Nightmare King' or whatever."  I snorted.

 "About what?"  I replied off-hand, looking out the window as if it was no concern of mine what he said.

"The whole 'I recognize you' thing."  Kaden demanded.  I looked at him blankly.

"Oh come on!  You're really gonna play dumb here?  He was saying he saw you often and recognized you, and you knew better than the rest of us what we faced.."  Kaden sighed with exasperation.  The flurry of images tore through my mind.  Images from half-remembered dreams, things I could barely remember.  I winced as my right temple throbbed, which in turn set off the twitch in my right eyelid.  I squeezed my eyes shut and held the lid still, groaning softly.

"Rue-you ok back there?  Are you getting car sick?  Should I pull over?  Oh GOD, are you having an attack?"  Brie was looking at me in the rear view mirror.

"Watch the road!"  I griped, headache throbbing in response.

"Attack?"  Kaden asked curiously, looking back and forth between us.

"It's nothing Brie, I'm fine.  Just watch where you're going."  I replied rubbing my temple.

"Are you sure?"  Brie asked at the same time that Kaden exclaimed "Hey are you gonna answer my questions?"  My eyelid started spasming again.  The annoyance was starting to get to me, and I could feel the heat building in my chest again.

"I'm fine!"  I snapped at Brie "And as for you-I don't know ok!"