Davis tried to run, to slip sideways and away. It wasn't enough. He was too close, Prendre was too fast. Prendre's face was bleeding thanks to Caleb, the blood falling into his eyes.

Caleb. Davis was dodging the attacks of those claws well enough. Miriam had to stop the bleeding on the cat.

She tried to run, but she was too hurt and too tired. She held her wounds with one hand and used the other to try and keep her balance. She was falling, but if she could delay and direct that fall until she reached the cat, she could help him from her knees. All she had to do was stay on her feet until then. Stumble forward if you can't walk.

She fell two feet short, tripping on the dead remains of a flower.

Even though the heavy weight of the lion was gone, she could still barely breath. She could hear Caleb yowling in pain above the screaming and yelling of the fight. But she couldn't reach him. She looked at Davis.

He jumped out of the way of a claw, but was hit on the backhand, sent sprawling. This was all her fault.

She tried to crawl forward, managed a little and collapsed again. She was so close to reaching Caleb. She was so close.

Warmth filled her, spreading from her ear with such urgency it burned. Davis was on the ground now, teeth coming for his neck, his head.

No. She wasn't useless. Not yet.

There was still something she could do.

"I wish Davis was stronger than any lion," she said.

Davis snapped his head towards her, his mouth open. He was screaming something.

He was screaming NO.

_____________________________

The lights that stole the show. A girl dressed in a white dress holding a balloon that glowed. A man with who had a collar around his neck that connected him to a snake curling around his arm, both of them with glowing diamonds and scales. A dog with one shining eye.

His hair was long, dark and untidy. He had sharp, but not cruel, features and almost luminous eyes. There were almost as bright as the several glow sticks he had wrapped and plaited together around his wrist. There were some more glow rods tying back his long hair. He had some stubble, but not much. He wore a black tee-shirt and worn jeans with heavy boots made for walking. He was the most attractive person Miriam had seen this side of a television screen.

This girl was her double. Miriam was sure she had never moved with that un-deliberate grace. The way she almost smiled. It reminded her of the way her mother looked at old churches.

I'll tell her all about it when I get home, she vowed in silence and tried to force everything she saw into her memory.

The bike had been red. It had white handles and a white leather seat and a tinkling bell. By the end of the day, she could take her hands off the handles without falling.

She had dark skin, the colour of an oak tree. Her lips and eyes with the colour of moss. Her hair was growing as Miriam watch, growing from the root and clumping at the tip to form the shape of leaves, which fell but dissolved before they hit the floor.

His eyes were brown. He had straight, even teeth. All of which were seen as often as he smiled, which was at least ten times a day. He was only a human and she put him on a pedestal.

She had gone because Aaren was the kindest, bravest person she knew.

She found him stumbling through the trees by the fake fairy ring (planted by the primary school). He saw her coming and stood to wait.

"Kiss or kick?"

After a moment or two more, he was there.

And then he kissed her.

Aaren.

...Who?

_________________________________

Davis felt as though all of his bones were breaking as the power surged through him. It brought something else too. He named the price, and the price was too high.

He caught the jaw of his old friend and twisted it. Prendre rolled and pounced, mouth open again. Davis ducked and drove his fist into the lion's side, but it did not stop. Prendre twisted to bite and to claw.

Davis caught hold of that jaw again, twisted again. Twisted too much. There was a sickening crack and Prendre fell to the floor in a heap.

He fell to his knees and stroked the fur of his old friend. His lights began to dim, to go out. Last was the one Davis remembered as a child, the tattoo on his side, a symbol of trust.

The price had been too high.

The door opened as Davis cried. He wanted to stay there with his friend, to do the proper thing. But his other friends were hurt.

"They trust me," he said to the dull lion eyes before he closed them gently. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

He went to Miriam first, but only for a moment. She wasn't responding, her eyes open but unfocused but she wasn't in any immediate danger.

Caleb was. Davis tore off pieces of his clothing to bandage the injured cat.

Davis looked at Echo. She was very still. He didn't have the courage to check on up close.

Slowly, Miriam began to come back to where they were. She looked at him for a little while, then at Caleb and at Echo. Finally, she looked at what was Prendre.

"You won?" she said absently. Her voice sent a jolt of something through him.

"Yes. I won," he said. She looked at him.

"You're crying?"

"Yes."

Then she seemed to come back to her senses. She snapped around to look at Echo, forgetting about her own injuries until they made her cry out. Davis went to her.

"Stop. You'll get even more hurt," he said.

"I'm fine. Echo-"

"-won't be helped any by you damaging yourself."

"Help me over to her."

Davis looked at her. She didn't even hesitate. Why was she so brave? An image came into his head, an image of a brown-eyes boy. He grimaced and went to Echo.

"She's breathing, but it's very shallow," he told her. Then he picked up the girl as gently as he could.

"What are you doing?"

"The door's open. It won't stay that way. Grab the cat."

Caleb yowled when she picked him up but once she had him settled in the nook of her arms he purred softly. Davis wrapped his free hand around Miriam and lifted her to her feet.

Miriam looked at him, surprised he could handle the weight of them.

"Stronger than any lion, remember?" he said without any amusement.

He looked back at his once-friend, lying in the dirt.

Then they walked through the door.