Mel spun around, looking at everyone in horror. "You can't mean it! You can't!"

"Why not?" asked Kat coldly.

"Other people is one thing, but he's one of us! How can you kill a Cosk? What next? Think about this, everyone, if they're killing him this time, who next? You, Kara? Or Chard, how about you?" her voice dropped, to the point where you could barely hear it at all. However, everybody caught what she said next. "Will you kill me next?"

"Kyle was never a Cosk," Chard said, though his voice seemed to falter across the words he had said so many times. "He never was, he never will be. If you are here at all, then obviously you are loyal and won't be killed."

"Loyal to who?" screeched Mel. "We don't even have a leader!"

"Loyal to all of us," insisted Renn. "Loyal to the group. If somebody isn't, then why bother with their life at all? They're hopeless, and they'll just be in our way."

"Maybe Mel's right," spoke up Kara softly. "We don't have to kill him. Why bother?"

"So speaks the coward," mocked Kat. "Why? Because he's in our way! Everybody, we're going to do it. If you're too weak to stomach it, then you can walk right out that door." She threw her pointed finger in the direction of the door.

"Yeah, as if you'd let anyone who left live." Mel glared back at Kat. "You don't scare me, and I'm not too weak. But I won't kill another Cosk. That's where I draw the line. Where is your line, Kat? Do you have any morality left?" Her voice dropped lower, almost a whisper. The whisper, some of the more sensitive people of the group could tell, was a plea. A plea for her best friend to come back, to emerge from this monster that had somehow taken control.

Kat rolled her eyes. "Fine, we won't kill him, we'll find a way around it. But I'm letting you all know right now, I'm not going to bend to the will of the group all of the time. Just this once, and no more." Everybody could hear how true those words were.

"Alright, then, are we adjourned?" asked Mel, her business done for that day. She wanted to get away from here, far away...how had her friends, her dear friends, changed so much?

"We still haven't planned how to take control of the area," scoffed Kat. "We're not done!" She looked around at everyone with a scornful look.

"Yes, Kat, we're going to do that all today," returned Renn scornfully. "Riight. We can take a break, meet back here at the same time tomorrow. Does that work for everyone?"

"If you think you're going to get out of this, you're just delaying the inevitable," Kat replied quickly, fire in her voice.

"I'm not trying to get out of anything. You think that I care for some stupid people? All I know is that some people are going to get into big trouble with their parents if they stay now, and I don't want to do that, thank you very much. If they're grounded, how can they come here?"

Everyone had to admit that Renn was making sense. All of them nodded and left, after everyone agreed to be back the next day.

As everyone walked out, Mel slipped away and ran down the street. She always hated going through the city at this time, but she had a place to get to. Turning the corner, she got to the apartment building and opened the door to go inside. Getting to the stairs, she went down to the basement floor and knocked on the door.

A Hispanic-looking girl opened it up, and upon seeing Mel there ushered her in quickly and lead her into a rather large room. "You're finished?" she asked hopefully.

"For tonight," Mel nodded.

"So you're going back again?" Nat drooped a little, and sighed as she looked across the room. "Why? Please, stop with this, I'm begging you."

"Trust me, Nat, I would if I could. If I quit they'd kill me."

"They'd kill you? These are the people who were supposed to be your friends, Mel, your best friends. They--" Mel interrupted her friend. "They used to be my friends, yes. But no more, they aren't anymore. I don't know what happened...or if I changed as well..."

"I don't know," sighed Nat. "You're different, but not in the way you would think. I'm not even sure what I mean. Please, something's happening, isn't there any way for you to stop?"

"Nothing that I can see." Mel looked down at her hands. So much blood, so many deaths, so much sorrow were all on there. So many lives ruined, so many hearts broken off from their rhythmic beating...her hands had held a dagger so many times, so many times. A year ago, she never would have dreamed of killing, but now it just happened, she couldn't stop it once the death started beating inside her veins. "Some of them, many of them, would kill me without giving it a second thought."

"Do you even know what's causing it?" asked Nat desperately.

"No, and for all my science I can't even guess. It's like, the person's personality is still there, and depending on how manipulative the person was in the first place, it's infused with killing. But it's not really different; Kara, she's still the same, except that she'll kill someone if we make her...it's like, we were made into killers, then our original personalities were thrust back onto us..." Mel shuddered.

"Why you guys? Why did it affect you, and nobody else? The only thing I can think of...I'd be like that too..."

"Maybe you are, maybe it's affecting you in a different way, or...I don't know. I don't have all the answers. I don't even have the ones I thought that I had." The girl felt like throwing something across the room, but everything there would either be broken or unsatisfying if it was thrown. "I have to go. If they found out that I was meeting with you...it wouldn't be pretty. I'll try to find another time to come soon." Mel stood up and went for the door.

"No, wait!" Mel turned around to see what Nat was about to say. "If you ever think that you'll be able to escape them, go here," she said, slipping her friend a piece of paper. "Don't open it and see the address unless you think that you'll be able to actually go, though. Otherwise the help might disappear. Now go." She hugged her friend, then led her to the door to leave.

"Thank you," whispered Mel. "I know that you must care in order for you to go through this trouble." She held up the paper, then put it into her pocket and sprinted up the stairs.

Once she got to the door, Mel had to look around, right and left, to make sure that nobody was watching, nobody was seeing her leave Nat's. They would leave her alone as long as they didn't interfere, but everyone who was in any position of power within the Coske knew that Nathalie would try to sway Mel and Gail away from the group.

To herself, Mel had to admit that by now, Gail was beyond any sort of help, even coming from Nat. Whatever it was affected her more than anybody; anybody besides Kat, that was, perhaps, but it changed her in a different way. Sometimes Mel wondered if...whatever it was...had really changed Kat, or simply made her innate personality more powerful, enhanced the bad parts that were already in there, but were simply dormant.

Walking down the street to her home, thoughts ran through Mel's head, wondering about everybody. Each day, all of them, working together to achieve-- what were they trying to achieve? Only Kat knew for certain, though Mel and a few others had some idea. It was power, they knew that, but what sort?

All of them, following Kat. Oh, nobody named Kat as any sort of leader, in fact many of them were thinking of Mel as one of the leaders, but all the same, it was Kat who headed most of the missions, Kat who made most of the decisions. She was discreet, and barely anybody noticed.

I probably wouldn't have, if I didn't know Kat so well, sighed Mel. For all Kat had changed, in a scary way she had seemed exactly the same in many ways. The same enough for Mel to be able to tell exactly how she was getting other people to be scared of her, and when that wouldn't work or wouldn't be productive, to get other people to voice her opinions without even realizing it.

Mel could have had that sort of power too, and she knew it. Slipping through the alleys, she also knew that if she did that, any hopes of her leaving would be completely dashed. And Mel was still hoping for some sort of normal life, away from the Coske, someday.

Someday, she thought to herself.

* * *

There she was, again. It seemed that she could never escape that quiet, dark room, the abandoned house where the Coske met. Will I ever be free of this? Mel asked herself desperately.

"Hello?" asked a voice behind her. Mel whipped around to see Tammy. The girl was tense, looking around worriedly.

"What are you doing here?" questioned Mel. She'd normally be smiling when she saw the girl, but what had pulled her into this circle? She didn't want Tammy to get involved in this.

"I was always here," replied the girl, walking to the wall and leaning against it uneasily. "I just stayed in the shadows. I didn't try to get involved in the leader's circle, even though I knew that it was my right. I was scared to get in." After a pause, she went on to admit, "I still am."

"Then don't! Don't get involved in this, back out while you still can!" Would all her friends be pulled into this nightmare, the way she was? Could none of them escape, except for Nat? Poor Nat, who was scared and trying to help her, but there was nothing either of them could do...

"I can't back out!" replied Tammy, whipping around to face her friend. "I wish I could, but I'm already wrapped up in this, like it or not, and I can't leave. You know as well as I do that your friends think of the lower ones as cannon fodder. They wouldn't hesitate to send me directly into my death unless I do something, and this is the only thing I can think of without further risking my life."

Mel was about to answer when someone stepped in. "Hello," said a cold voice, which was not so much sinister but instead expressionless. "Who is this already here?"

Tammy turned around to face Renn, who was at the door. "Hi," she said, "I'm sure that you know me. In case you don't, it's Tammy. I've been here, and I've decided to ask to become part of the Leader's Circle. It's my right." The girl's voice formed a straight line of determination, and Mel looked around in despair.

"Well, we'll test it when the others get here," Renn shrugged. Her brown hair was tied in a tight ponytail that reached her neck, and right now she twisted it a little, as she'd always done when she fidgeted. After a few minutes, most of the other Coske arrived, and Tammy presented her case, standing in the middle of the room and glaring at various people in different parts of her "speech".

"I've been here for a long time, almost since the entire group started. I was drawn here, as the rest of the Leaders were and a few of the Followers. However, I know that by right I am a Leader." Her head was help up high, and that haughty look that Mel knew so well was in her eye. Turning her head, the girl walked over to the lamp, and held up her hair. She twisted herself so that you could see the back of her neck.

Kat gasped when she saw the well-known Cosk symbol on the girl's neck. "Why didn't we see it? Why didn't you say something?"

"I hid it," responded Tammy quietly, dropping her hair again, "because I was afraid to become a Leader. But that fear is dashed now, and I'm ready to take my rightful place."

Mel spoke up then. "I volunteer to train you."

"I accept," replied Tammy, bowing slightly to the other girl. She turned to the wall, and where the names of the Leaders were. She picked up a piece of charcoal from when they'd had a fire, and added Tammy there underneath the last name there, Kara. "There. Six leaders were meant for the Coske, not five." She stood there for a moment, then turned to take her place among the Leaders.

"Alright, now that that was taken care of," Kat took charge again, "we have some business to complete." She explained exactly what was going to happen as Mel started to feel sick again. Yet another death mission. Suddenly, Mel understood what was going to happen. As soon as she understood, Kat suddenly turned. "Mel will now explain the rest. Mel? Remember what we discussed?" Kat gave a wink that was supposed to be friendly as the other girl stood up.

How could she have known? Mel thought frantically. Calming herself, so she wouldn't look like a fool in front of everyone, Mel started explaining what they were going to do. After all, if Kat was going to use her as part of the plot to make herself not seem like the leader, this way was better. That way, Mel seemed like the co-leader here, like the two of them were really in control.

"So, we'll come back tomorrow to complete this. If it's not done soon, then all will be lost," she finished confidently. "Well, everyone, you can go, but be here early tomorrow, around five o'clock."

At everyone's nod, Mel turned away. Whatever it is that was that changed us, it must still be working, she realized with panic. I'm still changing. Walking outside, Mel found herself walking next to Tammy, and they had a half-hearted conversation. Tammy was still scared of being a leader.

Mel was still scared that in a few days, she wouldn't even be her. She'd be someone totally different. How is that even different from death?