Forever Kiss by Dawn Michelle

out of wherever she'd found herself.
    "Where am I?" Beth asked when she'd circled enough times to risk making herself dizzy. "What's going on? Hello?"
    No one answered. The figures, if they were people, remained silent and intimidating.
    Beth looked up, hoping to find something that made sense, but she was surrounded by darkness. No sun, moon, or stars. Not even clouds, although if it were dark enough she supposed she wouldn't be able to see them. But then why could she see the people in the mists?
    "Okay, this is freaking me out," Beth admitted. "Look, I don't know what's going on, but I'd like to wake up now."
    "You can't wake up."
    Beth gasped and spun. The figures looked the same, shadowy and obscure. The voice sounded familiar. Southern and female, but harder and crisper than she remembered. "Crys? Crystal? Is that you?"
    "What do you want, Beth? I have better things to do. I have my own people now, my own friends. I don't need you anymore."
    Beth gasped and turned again. A figure approached, moving through the clinging fog until she could distinguish her  long beautiful brown hair from the mists that cloaked her. She saw a pale face with lips the color of blood and eyes that were cold and hard. Crystal, her one and only childhood friend. Her best friend. Her first love.
    "Want? I don't want anything! I mean, I want to get out of here. Where are we? What's wrong with you, Crys?"
    "It's not like I want to be here either. I've got better things to do, remember? I've got a life now, more than you ever had."
    Beth gasped. "What are you talking about? What life? You're not like this. Even after— after—"
    "After you stuck your nose in my business and got yourself raped?" Crystal sneered.
    Beth stiffened. Her head jerked like a machine out of control as images of a boy, Chad, ran through her mind. He smiled in one and snarled in another. She saw him grinning. The smile of a wicked hunter after catching and torturing his prey. Chad's image shifted, melting and reshaping as his teeth grew sharper and the angles of his face sharper. Hair sprouted from his cheeks and chin, fine but growing as he attacked her.
    "No," Beth whimpered as the memories flooded back. She shook her head but she couldn't stop him from ripping her clothes with long and vicious looking fingers. His fingernails had grown into claws, strong enough and sharp enough to shred her denim jeans and leave scratches on her legs and thighs.
    "You asked for it," Crystal told her, distracting her from the horror story unfolding in her head. "You had no life and wanted to be part of mine. You wanted to be like me. But this isn't for you! This is mine! Stop trying to make my life yours! Go away, Beth. Just go away."
    "No!" Beth cried. "I didn't want— I never wanted— You were my best friend! My only friend."
    "Pity," Crystal sneered. "I felt sorry for you. You weighed me down long enough. You kept me from being popular. From making better friends. From being somebody that mattered! I found Hank when you weren't there, remember?"
    Beth sucked in a new breath as a second figure emerged from the fog and stepped up behind Crystal. He towered over her and looked like his shoulders were almost as wide as Crystal was tall. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, but that did little to hide his powerful frame. Short dark hair matched the scruff on his cheeks that Crystal turned and rubbed her cheek against.
    Hank was a biker. Beth remembered that now. One of five that saved Crystal from a monster. The same kind of monster Chad was becoming when he attacked her. Except when Crystal was attacked she was hurt and somehow mixed the blood of the monster with the blood from Hank and his friends.
    "I remember!" Beth whispered.
    "Good, then you can go away and leave us alone," Crystal snapped.
    Beth shook her head. "No, I mean I remember what happened to you. To me—"
    "And you know how pathetic you were? Excuse me, I meant how pathetic you are!"
    "I'm not pathetic!" Beth