"Melinda," I whispered. "You have to help me."

"Help you? With what?"

My hand was sweating and I cradled the phone between my ear and shoulder so I could wipe it against my jeans. "That guy from the cafeteria. He followed me home. He stopped me in the park and told me the craziest things."

"He followed you home? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. But he's outside my house right now."

"Have you called the cops?" she asked, concern now evident in her voice.

"I was going to, but you called first."

"What did this freak tell you?"

"He said that I'm the daughter of a demon king from another dimension. And he wanted to take me to this other dimension to meet him."

"A demon king," she repeated.

"Yeah." When she didn't say anything for a moment, I prompted, "Melinda?"

"This sounds too crazy to even come from a crazy guy. Besides, the guy in the cafeteria looked like a loser, but not a crazy loser."

"I don't know what to do."

She paused. "You know what I think this is?"

"What?"

"I think somebody's playing a practical joke on you. It's probably Chris's friends. They know that he asked you out and they're-" "Trying to scare me to death?" I managed. "You really think that's all this is?"

"Did he try to hurt you?"

I held the phone so tightly my fingers were numb. "No."

"And where is he now? Still outside?"

I pulled at the curtains and peeked out again. Michael was gone. I scanned what I could see of the dark street but saw nothing. "I can't see him anymore."

"Figures. Maybe Chris found out and called the guy off."

The panic was quickly stepping to the side to make way for a seething annoyance. "Well, I don't find it very funny."