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was my seventeenth birthday and I wasn’t going to let some stupid, fake cheerleader ruin it.  We would go to the dance tonight just to make an appearance, then we would go off and have Robyn’s bonfire.  Yes, it meant I was that weird kid I didn’t want to be, but at least I would be among friends.
    * * *
    After school, I turned down Robyn’s offer of a ride home.
    “Are you sure?  You’re not planning on taking out Michaela and her posse, are you?”
    I snorted.  “No, I just think a long walk would do me some good.  I’m going to take the trail through the swamp.”
    It was the truth.  I pretended not to care about Michaela and her stupid list, but deep down it hurt.  I didn’t want my friends to know about it though.  They would only want to comfort me, and although I appreciated their concern, I wanted to shake the feeling off on my own.
    The wind rustled through the tall eucalyptus trees and I was practically humming as I headed across the football field and track behind the school.  I found the trail that cut through the trees and ended up on a back road that led into the swamp.  From there it would be easy to find the horse path that ran behind my backyard.
    It was a rather pretty afternoon, the sky clear blue and the sun warm.  The weather usually stayed that way through late November.  I drew in a deep breath, truly reveling in the smells of autumn.  I couldn’t tell you what it was about the fall that made me like it so much.  Maybe it was the idea that the year was coming to an end and soon the cycle would start all over again.  Maybe it was the smell of hay and the earthy colors that accompanied the harvest that appealed to me so much.  Maybe it was because my birthday arrived on the cusp of fall.  Whatever it was, I liked it.
    After passing through the tall trees, I cut across a side trail that had been worn through the layers of leaf litter and stepped out onto a quiet street.  I pulled my cell phone out of my backpack and popped in my headphones.  I searched my music list, looking for something that would match my mood.  I decided to go with some indie rock today.  I twirled a strand of my dark hair with my index finger and kicked at acorns on the ground as I walked.  My butterfly antennae bounced with the rhythm of the current song and the yellow in my wings caught the sun of the autumn afternoon, leaving splotches of color along the road.
    It took me half an hour to come to the end of the road.  I easily climbed over the barrier that stated motor vehicles weren’t permitted any further and descended deeper into the small wilderness that rested behind my home.  The thatch of willows up ahead told me that the water was near, but I wasn’t too worried about mosquitoes or getting wet.  I would be through quick enough, and by this time of year any significant amount of standing water was all but gone.
    It was while I was crossing the small bridge of land that stretched beneath the low canopy that I first noticed something strange.  I had been so busy humming along to my music that I missed it at first.  A flash of something dull green, then the jerking and swaying of the reeds and brush ahead of me forced me to stop and pull the headphones out of my ears.  It was as if an army of gophers had suddenly decided to devour the shrubbery around me.  I would’ve dismissed it as merely some small animals foraging for food, but there were just too many of them and now that I didn’t have music blasting in my ears, I could hear them too.
    My skin immediately began to crawl, the way it did when my mind started playing tricks on me.  It almost sounded like laughter, maniacal laughter; like some demented puppet from a horror movie had been let loose in the swamp.  I swallowed only to find my throat had gone dry.  And then I saw one of them.  The creature was small and warty like a toad, with beetle-black eyes and teeth that protruded from what I could only assume was a primitive