Free Heartache High by Jon Jacks Page A

equivalent.’
    This time, Dave
keeps quiet. He’s awestruck.
    Both Lamia and
Panthia laugh derisively, as if they’re fully aware of my futile
attempt to wrest some form of control back.
    ‘As you can see,
my dear Stephanie, whenever anyone comes here for my help, I can’t
bear to see such gorgeous young bodies going to waste when my
hungry sons and daughters can make so much better use of them. It’s
so much more efficient than working through dreams, as we used to.
Not that we’re so cruel as to completely eradicate you, of course;
we just complete the process of helping you move into that little
compartment of your mind you’d withdraw into to live a life of
wishful thinking.’
     ‘ You trapped me here?’ I say.
    ‘Oh no, not me – my dear Panthia really deserves the credit for that,
when she so easily accomplished what you’d struggled so long to
achieve. Your wish had been realised, you weren’t
required anymore; you were free to take up permanent residence
where you’d always retired to whenever you’d felt hurt by life’s
unfairness.’
    ‘It wasn’t my wish to live like this !’
    She
shrugs.
    ‘Lovers! Are
they never satisfied?’
     
     
    *
     
     
    The incubus
writhes.
    It curls around
Iain.
    It’s thickening,
gaining in substance.
    I can’t
move.
    I can’t help
him.
    All Panthia is
allowing me to do is to watch.
     
     
    *

Chapter 25
     
    All this is
happening because I’d withdrawn from the life around
me.
    I’d more or less
ignored my friends, Cherry and Mary, preferring to spend most of my
time dreaming of or pining over Iain.
    Even at home, I
was a misery, going about the house as if in a debilitating
daze.
    Cherry and Mary
were both such great friends too.
    Fun to be
with.
    Girls with a
very similar mind to mine. Chatting and laughing over everything
from movies we used to go and see to music we used to
listen together.
      Mum and dad, too, were wonderful, in their over-bearing,
over-caring way.
    Every effort
they’d made to help me get over Iain, I’d shrugged off. Saying they
didn’t understand. Saying they were too old to know what I was
going through.
    Yeah, like
they’d never, ever been young, right?
    They’d never,
ever suffered unrequited love like me, yeah?
    ‘Steph, I don’t
know what it is you’re doing; but keep doing it!’
    What?
    What’s Dave
mean?
    Keep doing
what?
    ‘You’re opening
up your mind!’ Jassy explains. ‘You’re breaking out of the little
compartment you’d retreated into.’
    How?
    How do you
know?
    ‘Because you’ll
never guess who we’ve got here with us!’
    I drop out of my
reverie.
    While I’ve been
giving Jassy and Dave a running commentary of my meeting with
Lamia, other intrigued students have gathered around us on the
lawn.
    And amongst them
all, struggling to break free of their many scrabbling, clinging
arms and hands, is a stunningly beautiful, incredibly angry
girl.
    ‘Who’s she?’ I
ask.
    Jassy smiles up
at me triumphantly.
    ‘We reckon she’s
the delightful Panthia.’
     
     
    *
     
     
    ‘How’s that
possible?’ I ask, bewildered. ‘What’s she doing here?’
    ‘Well, we’re
getting some idea of how all this Heartache High thing works now,
thanks to you!’
    Jassy says it
like she’s figured out an easy way to sneak into the movies for
free, rather than sitting amongst a group of boys and girls
struggling to hold down a wailing banshee of a woman who’s wildly
lashing out at anyone nearby.
    ‘See, we’re each
trapped in a little corner of our minds left to us by an occupying
succubus.’
    ‘But we’re all
emotionally the same,’ Dave says excitedly, ‘all focused on
thinking about nothing but the same thing; so we’ve created an
incredibly strong, sort of telepathic connection.’
    ‘When you
started breaking out of your little compartment though, Steph, you
were spreading into areas of your mind Panthia had believed were
hers for the keeping.’
    ‘You forced
enough of her out of those areas