Working title, "The Millennium Curse"

Sam slammed the door of her Miata and gulped down several hard breaths. Glancing in her rear-view mirror, she made sure one more time that the strange man that had just killed those strange creatures wasn't following her.

         In a sudden jerky motion she punched the power lock button, securing herself further from the outside world. Running her hands through her hair, she glanced in the mirrors one more time before reaching in her pocked and getting her keys. Starting the car, she pulled out of her spot quickly and headed for the exit.

         A quick fee paid later and she was cruising out of downtown on Westnedge Avenue. It was one of the main streets that connected Kalamazoo to the neighboring city of Portage, which literally butted right up against each other. The urban spread of the two made for a much larger city than Kalamazoo alone would be.

         Samantha lived in Portage, which was a slightly more affluent area. As she crossed into its city limits and out of those of Kalamazoo, she started to breath a little easier and release her death grip on the steering wheel. She was far enough away now that she didn't have to worry about being followed.

         Still, her head was a mess of thoughts and fears. What had those monsters been? The man had said they were goblins, so she supposed that question was answered, but even then, goblins weren't real. They were a fairy tale, something the dorks who played Dungeons & Dragons worried about more than she did.

         And the man himself. Where had he gotten the sword from? Why was he fighting the goblins in the first place? Why was he interested in the fact that they had a magical amulet?

         Why had he asked her?

         She had to tell someone. Her mother, Andrea, was the first most obvious choice. They were as close as a mother and daughter could be; Sam had no other siblings and her father had died when she was very young.

         She could tell her friends, but they would think she was crazy. Hell, her mom would think she'd been doing drugs or something... no, best not to tell anyone. Not until she knew more.

         Shaking her head, she banished that thought as well. She didn't want to know more. She wanted to forget she'd ever seen anything. She had gone into town, shopped a little, gotten some coffee, and went home. A perfectly boring end to a perfectly boring spring break.

         By the time she pulled into the driveway of her home, a two level cookie-cutter house in one of Portage's many sub-divisions, she had convinced herself that goblins were indeed not real, and that there were no such things and magical amulets and men who could pull swords out of thin air. It had been remarkably easy, something she wondered about, but shook the thought from her head at once. What she had seen was a boredom induced day dream and nothing more.