As the guests accepted slices of cake on paper plates from Matty and Sharon in the serving line, Amy aimed another plastic forkful of cake at Scott's mouth, holding it there for a moment while Jessica snapped another picture. Scott reached out with a finger to wipe a bit of excess frosting from Amy's lip, and she caught his hand and sucked on his finger for a moment, giggling.

Amy caught herself turning her eyes towards the stage again. It was getting harder to tear her attention away, and harder to ignore the tingling between her legs -- she'd never been a squirter, but felt almost as though she was doing it now. The napkin in her panties was soaked completely through, and it felt slick and soapy rubbing against her. No, she told herself, not yet, not yet. This is Scott's time.

As Scott gave her her last bite of cake, and she started to look at the stage again, her eyes were caught by his, as if he had reached out for them and grabbed them. He was smiling. "You want to get ready, don't you?"

She couldn't speak. How rude, she thought, to tell him she wanted to leave him.

He leaned forward and kissed her -- a long, soft, tender kiss. Not a goodbye kiss, she knew. That would come later. He broke the kiss and took her hand, squeezing it. His eyes just inches from hers, he whispered, "Go. It's your time now."

She looked at him, wondering how he could come so close to reading her concern and addressing it. She opened her mouth, and he beat her to it, for once. "I love you."

She giggled, feeling bubbles of release bursting inside her. "And I love you." She put her hand behind his head and kissed him again. She turned quickly, and got the attention, in turn, of Jana, Melissa, and Runner, pointing towards the guesthouse as she caught each one's eye.

As she moved to follow them, Amy stopped suddenly, blinking at the sight of her father walking by, holding a drink cup in each hand. She turned as he went past, and saw him stop by Steffi and hand her one of the drinks. It appeared Steffi must have been expecting it, so evidently they had already been talking. Amy hadn't noticed. Steffi said something to him, and Amy blinked again when her father laughed in response. It was not something Amy had seen very often.

And on that positive note, thought Amy to herself, I am out of here.

Trying not to attract undue attention but smiling and giving a finger wave to a few people who did notice her, Amy walked to the guesthouse.

As Amy arrived at the guesthouse and Melissa immediately began unbuttoning the back of Amy's dress, Amy heard Runner saying to Jana, apparently in continuation of an ongoing conversation, "You should pick out where you want to go, and we could put some ropes there beforehand so he can tie you up if he wants to..."

Melissa spoke up. "Just make sure there's some bushes close by so I can watch from there."

Amy, having a hard time concentrating on the outside world as she rehearsed her hanging moves in her head, at last registered the conversation and slowly concluded she did not know what the hell they were talking about. She looked at Jana, around whom the talk seemed to be centering. "What?"

Jana giggled. "Oh! Well, we had a really fun time with Scott's friends, and Runner said maybe we should do your boat friends too. While the dancing and all that is going on, after your hanging."

Runner nodded. "I never got to be with Justin. He just would want straight sex, wouldn't he, Amy?"

Amy smiled at her. "Yeah, do a lot of stroking and kissing. He'd like that. What was this about the ropes?"

Jana answered, "She said I should be with Bailor, because he'd want to really take control. Melissa's going to do Jimmy first, and then -- you heard this part -- she'll watch from the bushes while I'm with Bailor. I'm not reading anything dangerous in him, just that he's kind of aggressive. But it never hurts to be safe."

Amy nodded. Her first instinct was to encourage caution in a situation less controlled than an Academy party, but if Melissa was going to keep an eye out, with Scott and an entire wedding party within earshot, she didn't see cause for worry. She shrugged out of her dress, handing it to Melissa, and pointed to her bag. "Jana, could you get the oil? And the sponges are in there. Melissa, let me look closer at that dress."

She took the dress back from Melissa, and examined it on the inside, more closely than she had before. It was designed to be ripped away easily, its front and back halves slightly overlapping, held together on the inside by small loops of thread sewn into the fabric, every few inches from top to bottom, as well as down the sleeves. She had found that, as long as she didn't need to bend over, none of the spaces between the threads spread apart far enough to show any skin. She bit her lip, and said to Melissa, "We need to test this somehow."

Melissa pointed. "Let's rip open that stitch at the bottom, on the right side. That's expendable."

Amy nodded and handed her that part of the dress. "You do it, since you and Scott are going to be doing it for real later. See how much effort it takes."

Melissa, her lips pressed together, pulled at the fabric on either side of the stitch. In a moment it gave way. She nodded and draped the dress over a chair. "It wasn't as hard as it probably looked. I was trying to make sure I didn't rip any more of them than that. We'll have to give it a pretty good yank, but it's no big deal." She looked behind her. "Do you have... Oh, good." She took one of the sponges from Jana.

Amy pulled down her panties, relieved to get the slimy material away from her crotch. She giggled. "Kind of think I needed a heavier napkin. These are really a mess, hon. I don't know if you even want to bother taking them back with you."

Melissa laughed. "I'll give them to Scott. He'll probably want them as is."

Amy smiled at her. "Oh, would you? Thank you."

Runner stood holding her sponge. "What do we do, Amy?"

Amy looked at all three of them. "Okay, none of you has done this before, but there's nothing tricky. Just soak your sponges in the oil and rub it all over my body, from the neck down. Check each other's work to make sure you don't miss any spots -- underarms, between legs, everything."

Runner's eyes went wide. "Oh! This is how they make the girls shiny before they hang!"

Amy nodded. "Right." She stood with her legs apart, her arms away from her sides. Jana knelt first and began oiling Amy's feet, as Melissa started on her upper legs. Runner, after watching the others briefly, started oiling Amy's shoulders.

Amy closed her eyes and sighed, blanking her thoughts of hanging for the moment and giving in to the pure sensation.

She had never felt closer to Miranda. Amy had known Miranda for such a very brief time, and almost her only physical contact with her had been oiling her body, while Beth had busied herself with Miranda's crotch rope. Amy felt the circle of a Hanging Girl's life completing itself, from her birth on the day she'd met Miranda, to the day she had aimed herself towards ever since.

She gasped and giggled as Melissa passed the sponge between her buttocks, at the same moment Runner was approaching her crotch from the front and above.

The girls finished and spent some time looking closely, and Amy smiled as she wondered whether her naked body had ever had quite this much visual attention. At last they looked at each other, and Melissa turned to Amy. "All done."

Amy pointed to her dress. "See if you can get that back on me so it does as little sliding across my skin as possible."

After some discussion, Jana helped Melissa turn the dress nearly inside out, rolling up the sleeves, then together they held it over Amy's head, bringing it down over her head and hands and then unrolling it down her body and arms.

While Melissa was buttoning it in back, Amy held out her arms to Jana. Holding Jana, she kissed her and said, "Have a great life and a great hanging. With your feet tied." Jana giggled and promised she would.

Amy hugged Melissa next. "Make the Warren family proud. Again. And tell Maria about me when she gets here." She kissed her, and Melissa brushed a tear away as she said, "I will."

She turned finally to Runner, and held both her hands. "You've come such a long way since I met you. And I don't just mean from the island. I couldn't be here without you today, and I thank you so, so, so much." She drew Runner closer for a hug, and whispered, "Always love everybody. Always be happy. And always be the best Hanging Girl you can be." She kissed her.

Runner's eyes were glowing, and Amy wondered whether it was a reflection of her own eyes or something contained in Runner's. "I will, Amy. I love you."

Amy, in a choked voice, said, "I love you, Runner."

Amy let her go, stood back, and closed her eyes a moment, breathing deeply. She let the joy, the excitement, the eager anticipation, burst forth into her conscious mind again. "Okay, here's how I want us to go out..."

For the second time, Melissa, Jana, and Runner emerged from the guesthouse, together this time -- Melissa in the middle, holding Jana's left hand with her right, Runner's right hand with her left. In their free hands, Jana and Runner each held a small coil of rope.

They paused, about ten feet out from the door, until they were noticed -- first by one of Benjamin's friends, and then by all as the word spread through the crowd, which immediately was hushed. At that time, Amy emerged, and closed the guesthouse door behind her. She giggled briefly at the thought of closing the door being symbolic of leaving her life behind. At this point, she told herself, I can probably find some symbolism in pretty much anything.

She took a deep breath of the day's fresh air, and fixed her eyes on the stage, giving only minimal attention to her friends walking ten feet ahead of her. As before, applause spread through the crowd, in pockets at first and then general.

Bill and Karl, as soon as they observed Amy's approach, took up positions on the stage on either side of the hanging platform, several paces behind it. Bill flipped a switch on the device that generated interference with any local electronic devices, the usual precaution against any images of the hanging being recorded. Both men then stood with their hands folded in front of them, as still as statues except for the movements of their eyes, scanning the crowd.

Scott now mounted the steps to the stage and stood beside the platform, beaming with pride.

The girls broke their formation as they reached the steps, Melissa stepping up to the stage first, then Jana, then Runner. They took up a position on the side of the platform opposite Scott, with Melissa nearest.

As before, Amy, as she approached, picked out the people she knew in the crowd, her own invitees. The men from the boat, of course, were standing together. Amy smiled, thinking how none of them knew what the girls had planned for them during the post-hanging partying.

More surprisingly, Amy's father was still standing with Steffi. Good, thought Amy, that cuts down on the number of different directions I'll have to face.

Matty and Sharon, their duties done for the moment, stood together, each with her arm around the other's waist, Sharon whispering something in Matty's ear, Matty nodding, her eyes going from Amy to the stage. Amy suspected they were considering asking Benjamin to hang them together when their time came.

Amy beamed at Dean Porter, giving him a thumbs-up signal. He smiled and nodded in return.

She fixed her eyes on the noose once more. Sparing barely enough attention to the steps leading up to the stage, she found that the level of her excitement, which she had thought was already at its maximum, reached a new higher plateau with her rise to each step.

On the stage now, she approached Scott's open arms, and felt them enfold her. She sought out his lips for another kiss.

He let go of her, and she walked around him to stop behind the platform. Between Scott and the platform, lying on the stage, she saw the huge carving knife. She smiled. Her father didn't yet know that Scott was going to ask him to make the first cut, the same privilege Preston had given to Kevin Warren, Miranda's father, so long ago.

The circle, she thought, keeps closing in so many ways.

Beyond the stage, she saw the air shimmer with waves of heat rising from the coal bed of the barbecue. She closed her eyes briefly, breathing in the aroma of heated charcoal again. In just another hour or so, she reminded herself, a woman will be cooking there -- me!

Facing the crowd, she felt her connection with them grow stronger. It's exactly the way I always pictured it! she told herself. These are the people who will see my show! They're very excited already, she observed easily. In their own way. They can't know how I'm feeling, but they have feelings of their own. Already aroused, some of them, already uncomfortable with growing erections or moistening panties, the ones who have some idea what to expect.

Miranda! her inner voice shouted silently, triumphantly. I'm here!

She stood still, her eyes sweeping across the gathered audience. Scott had told her he wanted to speak first.

To her right, Scott held up his hand, and the applause quieted, conversations were hushed.

"And now..." Scott said, and for the moment the quiet seemed to extend even to the birds chirping in the trees. He paused and went on. "My wife tells me she has a little show she'd like to put on for you."

The silence was shattered by whoops of laughter and renewed applause.

Amy stepped up onto the platform, her face almost hurting from the breadth of her smile. Burying a moan as she felt the noose brush her shoulder, she clasped her hands together in front of her, to keep them from visibly shaking in her excitement. Just let me get nooseborne, she told herself, and I'll be perfectly calm.

She swept her gaze over the crowd. "Most of you probably know the usual thing is to perform a little skit before the hanging. We're not going to do that today, for a lot of reasons. One is, we couldn't work in any rehearsal time, because Scott and I have been, ummm, kind of busy for the last twenty-four hours or so." She giggled, and her audience laughed appreciatively.

She went on, "The biggest reason, though, is I don't want a piece of fiction to take away from the... realness, of today, my wedding day. I never thought I'd love any man the way I love Scott, right now." She looked down at Scott, and saw him mouth "I love you." She mouthed the same back to him, and returned her attention to the crowd.

"I never knew, when I was going through the Academy, exactly what the circumstances would be, for my hanging. I knew I'd be excited, no matter what. But I never imagined being so happy. So many people I love are here right now. Scott -- Daddy -- Steffi -- Dean Porter -- Justin -- Paul -- Jimmy -- Melissa -- Jana -- Runner -- Benjamin... I love you so much I want to give you everything, and what makes me happy is that I can do that. Those of you I just met today, I love you too. Either Scott or Benjamin invited you, so you're special to them, and that makes you special to me too. I'll give you everything I've learned in the last four years, and then I'll give you my body, so I can always be part of you." She grinned. "So let's start on that right now."

She looked down and gave a little hand gesture to Scott and to Melissa, who both jumped up beside her on the platform, and the crowd grew very quiet once more. Amy put her hand behind Scott's head and gave him a long kiss, during which he let his hand drift casually up to the low neckline in front of her dress. She whispered, "Goodbye, honey. Thank you so much. I love you."

He whispered back, "I love you too. Always."

Behind her, Amy felt Melissa's fingers curl around the top of her dress, against her back. Amy could see Scott locking eyes with Melissa, and nod. Melissa whispered, "One, two, three..." and together they both pulled. As the uppermost stitches gave way, both of them jumped away, off the platform, keeping hold of the dress, its front and back halves separating down its length and along its sleeves.

The last of the dress tore away, and Amy stood, alone atop the platform, naked and glowing in the sunlight. A single collective gasp emerged from the wide-eyed crowd. At every hanging, this moment was always so dramatic in its suddenness, giving the witnesses just a small hint of the powerfully erotic vision to come. Amy put her hands behind her, arching her back, standing proudly with her feet apart.

Runner and Jana jumped onto the stage with their ropes. Jana quickly looped her rope around Amy's waist, while Runner was tying Amy's hands. Runner had wanted an active participation role so badly that Amy had relented from her earlier determination that Runner should only watch. Jana, finishing her own knot, passed the remaining loose length of rope from one end of the knot through Amy's legs to Runner, who tied it around the rope between Amy's wrists. Runner had done Amy's crotch rope many times for practice sessions over recent weeks, and Amy trusted her by now to do it exactly right.

Amy kissed Jana, giving her an "I love you" and hearing it in return, then turned to Runner. Runner's eyes were blazing now, and Amy had the odd thought that she wished she could tell an astronomer that she understood what caused a star to go nova -- some inhabitant of a planet circling the star, Amy's theory went, radiated so much excitement, in the way Runner was now, that it made the star explode. Amy kissed her and said, "Thank you for saving me. I love you."

Runner put her arms around Amy, and rubbed her cheek against Amy's. At last she said, "I love you, Amy. Thank you for bringing me here." She turned and followed Jana in jumping down from the platform, and sat on the stage with Jana, a few feet away.

Melissa stepped up once more, took hold of the noose, and lowered it over Amy's head. tightening it around her neck. Any of the three girls could have done this, but Amy had wanted Miranda's sister to have the privilege. With the knot placed and adjusted, Amy kissed her, and said, "I love you. Tell Miranda all about it tonight." Melissa told her she would, and jumped down from the platform, leaving Amy to stand alone once more.

She evened out her breathing, trusting Melissa to signal Scott when it was time. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Scott, standing beside the platform, pull the lever. The platform began sinking.

Amy worked to clear all thoughts from her head, and chanted in her mind, Hanging Girl, Hanging Girl, Hanging Girl...

The rope around her neck tightened and lifted her. Her feet came free of the world, never to return to it in her lifetime.

A sensation of power, of being in control of the emotions of all of the people around her, came over her more intensely than at any time since she had last performed with Megan. Now it's just me, she told herself. They all came to see me.

Along with the power was the feeling of floating, a familiar friend she had known since her first time hanging.

As she oriented herself, kicking, preparing for her first moves, she smiled to herself, reminding herself that, as familiar as her routine was to her friends, few of the others watching in the crowd had ever seen anything like what she was about to do. Not even Scott.

She felt, suddenly, the mental equivalent of listening to a dozen songs on a dozen radios, while somehow keeping all of the tunes separate in her head. Images were flooding her mind, all simultaneous. Of Megan, showing to Amy and her classmates those special moves of hers for the first time, in that first hanging class. Of Susan, trying her best with little formal training, a lock of her cropped hair now pressed against Amy's neck, feeling the last beats of Amy's heart. Of Linda, looking like Zoey Hillcrest, kicking and squirming in the noose and helping Steffi conquer the anger that had clung to her for so many years. Of Runner, hanging for the first time, entering a world she had never imagined. Of Holly and Haley, hanging together, expressing a connection to each other that went far beyond mere love. And behind all of the images, surrounding them and unifying them, the image of Miranda, her dying performance as seen by a directionless high school girl whose life was changed forever.

Amy heard the gasps as she began her hip thrusts and Megan-style leg wraps, and saw several hands drifting towards their owners' crotches. She saw the open mouths, the widened eyes, as she transitioned to Shawna's downward-straining wriggling, and the high-diver move Holly that had first attracted Amy's attention to her. She heard the soft moans and sighs from all directions in front of her.

I'm all Hanging Girls who have ever died for their art, ran the thought through Amy's head. All of their blood flows through me, and mine through them.

She turned to face Scott, projecting her love for him through her body movements, seeing his wide eyes following her. I can't thank you with my voice anymore, my dearest, her motions said, but I can thank you this way.

She swung herself around the other way, to face Runner, Melissa, and Jana, all sitting together on the stage looking up at her, unblinking. Of the three, only Runner was moving, her body swaying slightly, her hips, arms, and legs twitching, the muscles contracting in synchrony with Amy's. Her body is echoing every move I make, Amy observed. She's imagining herself here, in my place, the crowd watching her performance. For a time, Amy concentrated on Runner alone, dedicating the dance to her. At the back of Amy's mind ran a small trickle of regret that she wouldn't see Runner grow any more, see her evolve into the greatest Hanging Girl ever seen -- if anyone ever takes that title from Megan, Amy told herself, I'd be glad for it to be Runner -- but the trickle was overwhelmed by a flood of satisfaction, of joy in just having known Runner at all.

Turning now to face her father, and Steffi. Thank you, Dad, for giving me my first chance to be an Academy girl. And thank you, Steffi, for working so hard to try to get me a second chance.

Facing the dean, now, projecting her gratitude for giving her the home she needed, the direction she craved, and surrounding her with the friends who showed her what a real family could be.

Justin, Paul, Jimmy. Especially you, Justin, she thought. Deciding to help me when you didn't have to, and giving me my life back. Giving me this, giving me today. Amy did the double-kick she had promised Justin, and saw the smile curl his lips, the nod of his head.

Her mental hanging clock, developed to perfection over the years, told her twenty-two minutes had gone by.

Turning to face directly away from the crowd now, to give them a view from behind. So much harder to make the effort to breathe now, falling badly into oxygen debt.

She let the rope itself slowly turn her back to face the front, too tired to do it herself. Twenty-five minutes. There, she thought, though her thoughts were cottony, puffy things that were hard to grab onto. Wanted twenty-five. Might make thirty, but okay if I don't. Everybody satisfied. Can hear orgasms in front of me. Got to work on myself now.

She began working her hands, pulling the rope taut through her crotch. The tingling, there from the beginning, growing more intense now at the stimulation. A small burst of new energy. Feeling as though she was physically lifting her own body to float higher, higher, into the sky. The tingling spreading, pulsating.

Visually, the world seemed be fogging like a windshield on a cold, moist morning. Sounds fading, heard through soft cotton earmuffs. The fog, the whiteness, the silence growing. Wait, she thought. I didn't finish yet...

The whiteness was all. Amy could see nothing else.

She felt entirely weightless. So many times she had experienced the sensation of floating while hanging, but it never before engulfed her perceptions to this extent. The rope around her neck was a comforting caress, and she found she could breathe easily in spite of it.

She wasn't aware of turning, but another naked hanging figure, hands tied behind like Amy's, swung into view from her left. She saw that it was herself, as if she were watching herself in a mirror. She had done that one time, but had found that the sight of herself hanging distracted her to such an extent that she couldn't do the proper breathing movements. Since breathing was, at the moment, not a problem, she watched, the tingling between her legs growing, as the dangling figure kicked and wriggled in echo of her own movements.

I never thought of myself as beautiful, thought Amy. Not like Megan, not like Runner. But when I'm hanging... A fish is lovely and graceful in water. A bird is clumsy and awkward hopping around on land, but when you see him riding a current of air, wings outstretched, his beauty can take your breath away. When I hang, when I'm in my element, I am beautiful.

The image of herself drifted closer somehow, the ropes holding herself and her reflected image aloft slowly converging. Amy was not aware of the figure in front of her changing until the transition was already complete. The figure's hair was blonde now, not brown. Long, not short. She gasped in recognition. "Megan!"

Megan smiled, and drifted still closer. Her body seemed to emit a glow that went beyond mere reflection of the ambient light on her oiled skin. Her face, while so familiar, somehow carried the quality of being new, unknown. Amy was conscious of feeling that instant physical attraction she had known at the first sight of Megan, at the Academy's orientation for new students.

Her hanging seemed not to interfere with Megan's ability to speak, any more than it had Amy's. "I'm so glad you're here, Amy."

Amy looked around, but there was nothing else to see in the whiteness. "Megan... where is here? There were people all around, watching my hanging. I was doing my show!"

Megan giggled. Somehow, though Megan's hands were tied, Amy felt one of them tap the side of her head. "We're in here."

"In... you mean in my mind? Like I'm dreaming?"

Megan nodded. "Remember that article we read once? I showed it to you. When I started looking up stuff about the 'brain flood,' at the moment of death?"

Amy looked at her, startled. The memory returned to her. She and Megan had both become interested in a phenomenon seen by neuroscientists -- that there was, in Hanging Girls, an intense burst of electrical activity in the brain in the last few instants before death. Several Hanging Girls, during demos at schools of hanging throughout the world, including the most esteemed of them all, Amy's own Hanging Academy, had worn wireless sensors on their heads during their final hanging, aiding research into general brain activity, during which the existence of what scientists dubbed the "brain flood" became known. A much less dramatic version had been recorded in non-Hanging Girl deaths, but not at the level of intensity seen in Hanging Girls.

The exact cause and purpose of the burst of activity was widely debated. Further research to pinpoint the part of the brain involved was needed, but no one was quite sure how that could be done -- a Hanging Girl's final performance could not be done in an fMRI machine, nor any other electro-mechanical diagnostic tool that could determine the location of brain activity. The consensus among scientists held that the girl could not possibly be conscious during the time the brain flood took place, occurring as it did so near the time of death. It was most likely a final panic reaction within the brain, the girl herself already gone at that point.

One published article, however, proposed a different thesis: that the burst of activity signaled the occurrence of a dream, experienced by the girl like any other dream. In the absence of more accurate brain scans of the phenomenon, or any interviews with girls who had experienced it (proposals to attempt reviving girls after the brain flood had never been approved, not by the schools, nor by the girls involved), the idea that some sort of dream was involved would have to remain pure speculation for now.

Megan grinned. "Looks like the guy was right. I always did think it made sense."

Amy nodded. "Yeah, I know. Because of the way we're always talking about our own hangings as 'the dream,' the ending we want more than anything, the day we're always imagining and visualizing. You said you thought we were emotionally conditioning ourselves to have a real dream, in the end."

"Right. And you're living through the proof right now."

Amy laughed. "So you came back from the dead just to say 'I told you so'?"

Megan shook her head and, again without using her bound hands, somehow tapped Amy's head once more. "I'm in here, Amy. You're thinking all this yourself. You're just picturing me as the person who would remind you about it."

Amy looked at Megan and grinned. "You had such a great show! And Kathleen... She went straight home and started reading your books. Honey, you did everything you were hoping for! You found the Hanging Girl in your sister!"

Megan smiled beatifically. "I know. And you found one too, sweetie."

Amy sighed, letting the feeling of satisfaction wash over her. "You know about Runner?"

Megan laughed. "Amy!"

Amy shook her head, amused by her denseness. "Yes, okay, okay, you're in my head."

Amy looked to her right, aware of sudden movement where there had been nothing before. At some distance, seen more clearly than Amy's normal visual acuity could account for, she now saw a barred gate. Only the gate, with white blankness on either side of it. Behind the gate, Andrew was pounding for entrance. The gate was clearly too strong to yield to his efforts. Amy smiled. "He can't get in here."

Megan grinned. "Real subtle symbolism, Amy."

Amy laughed. "Don't make fun of my subconscious. You're in the middle of it. As you keep reminding me." She looked to her right again. The gate was gone. Andrew was gone. Amy knew, with certainty, she wouldn't see him again.

She frowned suddenly. "Megan, this has already lasted way too long. The whole brain flood only goes on for a few seconds."

"It's a dream, Amy. Your time sense is on vacation."

"So what happens now?"

"You're asking me? It's all up to you."

"I..." A wave of feeling washed over Amy. That same physical attraction she had felt moments ago was back, stronger than before. She tried willing herself to move closer to Megan, and found that she could. Their bodies came together softly, their breasts touching, and then their lips. Though she still retained a perception of her hands being tied behind her, she nevertheless felt her arms go around Megan, and Megan's tighten around her.

Amy held Megan's lips with her own, for a long, long kiss. She closed her eyes. When she opened them, she found the eyes looking at hers were no longer Megan's. "Linda!"

Linda, her skin giving off an internal glow in the same way Megan's had, gave Amy a typical smile, from her original face. Not Zoey Hillcrest's face. It was the Linda Amy had known and loved for years before she spent her last months as another person. "Hi, Ames."

"Linda, I'm so glad to see you here!"

Linda grinned. "Where else would I be, Amy?"

"Linda... I wish you could see Steffi! She's changed so much! You changed her. Exactly what you said you wanted for your hanging, to change somebody's life. You did that."

Linda responded with a happy sigh. "I know. I saw her, honey. I've seen everything you've seen."

Amy groaned, exasperated with herself again. "You're in my head. This is just really hard to get used to."

Linda laughed, and then looked at Amy pointedly. "Amy, you changed a life too. A lot more than I did."

Amy smiled. "I guess I did." Imagine, she told herself, what Runner's life would be like right now, without my intervention.

The wave of sexual need returned once more. As she had with Megan, Amy moved herself closer to Linda, feeling the front of her body press against her, Linda's arms encircling her. The contact seemed more complete than before, as if the dream was solidifying. She was intensely aware, at a superconscious level, of touching Linda bare skin to bare skin, stomach to stomach, breast to breast, mound to mound, and at last lip to lip. An energy of a type Amy had never known seemed to flow in both directions between them.

Amy had closed her eyes for the kiss. When she opened them, she gasped once more and instantly backed away, while sinking downward a few feet. It seemed only right to view this face from below. "Miranda!"

Miranda's body was whole, and exactly the way Amy remembered it from her hanging at Amy's house -- except for the glow. Her skin shone with a sunlike intensity, though Amy could look at it without squinting.

Miranda looked down at Amy. "Amy, come up here with me."

"I -- I shouldn't. Really."

Miranda smiled. "No, you really should."

Seemingly against her will, though she knew that couldn't be the case, Amy drifted higher, until her eyes were on the same level as Miranda's. She couldn't think what to say.

Miranda spoke. "You're one of us, now. Completely. And you're my equal. You can look at me as your mentor if you want, but you have to know there are girls, so many girls, who see you that same way. Including Runner, of course. And my sister Melissa. Thank you so much for that."

Amy shook her head. "Melissa was already at the Academy when I met her."

Miranda, in turn, shook her head. "I'm not talking about bringing out the Hanging Girl from within. I did do that with you. Megan did it with Kathleen, you did it with Runner. But a Hanging Girl can also be an inspiration to others who are already at the Academy, who need someone to show them what they're capable of. You heard the older girls talk about me. The girls at the Academy now talk about you that way."

"I don't... well, deserve that. Girls like Megan, Shawna, Holly and Haley. They're the creative ones. They made hanging into something beyond what it ever was before. Even Runner is already inventing new things, new moves."

Miranda shook her head again. "Still not what I'm talking about. Being a Hanging Girl is committing your life to one single thing. Did you ever doubt you were meant to do that, once you started towards that goal?"

"No. Never. How could I?"

Miranda smiled. "Girls do, sometimes. But then, Amy, they look at you. You are a very special Hanging Girl, Amy. In the same way you think I am."

Amy laughed suddenly. "I'm having this argument with myself. Why am I losing it?"

Miranda laughed with her. "If you want to look at it that way, you can. But these are things you've buried underneath your conscious mind, and wouldn't let yourself think them. You'll let me tell them to you. And you can believe me when I tell you."

And Amy saw. Suddenly, completely. As if through the eyes of all of the girls who looked up to her, she saw herself, and what she had done for them.

The love she had always felt for Miranda suddenly became a physical need. Wave after wave of desire suddenly washed over Amy as a rising tide.

The most intense orgasm Amy could remember in her life was the first one with Melissa, when Melissa had dyed her hair and worn Miranda's hanging costume, so that Amy could make love to her as Miranda. That earthquake barely registered on the scale of tremors Amy was feeling now.

Amy's body rushed forward to meet Miranda's, and she moaned as her open mouth met Miranda's. That intensity of awareness for every point of contact of their bodies, the sense of energy passing between then, was much stronger than before, double, triple. Just as with Megan and Linda, Amy could feel Miranda's arms around her, holding her, loving her, even though they were still tied behind her.

As Amy moved against Miranda, she saw, though her eyes were closed, that Megan and Linda were at her side, now moving in closer, touching, and again Amy felt the touching deep within her. All of the Hanging Girls Amy had known and loved were behind them, now with them, surrounding Miranda and Amy, enfolding them like a warm, soft blanket. Laney was there. Jackie was there. Shawna. Erin...

Amy was aware of all of them, felt all of them. As the energy intensified still more, Amy's own sense of self, the separation between her and the others, began to dissolve, her entire being uniting with all of the others who had gone before, the goal of lovers to become one body achieved at last, propelled far beyond orgasm to a state for which there is no word.

She/they faded together into the whiteness.

Lucas Benson, attending the hanging at the invitation of his friend Benjamin, watched Amy's body cease moving on its own, and swing slowly back and forth. In a tight voice, his ability to hold back his ejaculation nearing an end, he said to his wife Sara, "I think she just came!"

Sara, her own hands very busy in her crotch, gasped out, "No kidding!"