 
# Saturday Night Séance

### By S.J. Drew

Story and Cover Copyright 2014 S.J. Drew

Smashwords Edition

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Introduction

Track 1 – Bad Fairy

Track 2 – Unhappy Medium

Track 3 – Always Less

Track 4 – Heart's Desire

Track 5 – Page of Swords

Track 6 – Looking-Glass

Track 7 – Haunted Castle

Track 8 – Uncanny Valley

Track 9 – Möbius Strip

Track 10 – Crazy Like a Fox

Track 11 – Bridge to Nowhere

Track 12 – Saving Grace

Track 13 – Where Silence Reigns

Wrap-up
Introduction:

Jana Henrike: Hello everyone and welcome to "Entertainment Now!" I'm your host, Jana Henrike.

Nico Syv: And I'm your other host, Nico Syv.

Jana: And tonight we're talking with Nevermore and the Ravens, Anna, Belle, Lee, and Lenore, about their third album, "Saturday Night Séance."

Nico: And we'll ask them questions about things other than their album and music, and they probably won't answer us.

Lee: That's what we do. Or, well, don't do. I guess.

Jana: So should we start with questions about the album, or the other questions?

Anna: Whatever you want. We've got time.

Nico: That's right. The whole interview will be available at the "Entertainment Now!" website under "Entertainment Extras!" We've even included the song lyrics so you see how the inspiration behind the song turned out. Well, if they actually answer us.

Jana: Yeah, you're notorious for not answering questions about your private lives. Why is that?

Lenore: We don't like being stalked by paparazzi.

Nico: Obviously, but you never appear out of make-up and you always use your stage names. Why is that?

Lee: KISS did the same thing.

Jana: They also took off their make-up. On camera.

Belle: That's a career move we're not ready for yet. We enjoy mystery and think that helps us sell more albums.

Nico: But it's like you have secret identities. You're rock stars, not superheroes or CIA agents.

Lee: As far as you know anyway.

Jana: [laughs] No, really, why the obsession with privacy?

Anna: For the fans.

Nico: How is that for the fans?

Lenore: Because to me there's almost nothing more depressing than recognizing your favorite celebrity and then realizing they've just bought groceries or something. That's so mundane, you know. Who wants to see their rock icons buying milk or socks or whatever? I guess it's nice to know they're like other people, but they lose some of that larger-than-life glamor.

Jana: Who did you see buying socks?

Lee: More childhood icons than I want to think about right now. But anyway, we like our secret identities and the mystique.

Lenore: And honestly, it's not like people can't find out who we are. It's pretty hard to hide, really, but we'd rather not make a big deal of it.

Nico: Okay, fine, we'll leave that one alone. So this is your third album in only three years, plus you've done two concert tours. Short concert tours, but still, and there's rumors someone got married or had a baby, or both. You've been really, really busy.

Lenore: We do push ourselves, but one thing we learned when studying really successful musicians was that they were generally prolific. Now, there is always the question of whether quality will be sacrificed for quantity, but if we take too long to produce an album, even if it's our best album, we may have lost too much of our relevancy and audience.

Lee: We want to be appreciated for good work, but we also want to, you know, eat and stuff. Art alone, no matter how great, isn't enough to pay the bills.

Jana: Aren't you concerned this kind of pace will cause you to burn out?

Belle: Of course. But remember, we were active for several years before we got our big break. We've got lots of material from those years that we can use.

Nico: Do you recycle songs from those early years?

Anna: No, but we were careful to limit the number of songs we put on our early albums just in case.

Jana: You really thought you'd make it big that long ago?

Anna: I did!

Belle: And the rest of us figured it didn't hurt us to prepare.

Track 1 - Bad Fairy

The Interview:

Nico: So the first track has is a straight up modern pop-rock tune. What was your inspiration for this song? I mean, besides the obvious?

Jana: Is this part of the dark fantasy genre you're known for using?

Lenore: You know, that question has been asked before and we still don't know what that even means.

Lee: And Anna owes me ten bucks.

Nico: What for?

Anna: She bet me ten bucks one of you would bring up that "dark fantasy genre" thing. I was wrong.

Lee: And I get ten bucks.

Belle: The inspiration was fairytales. But who hasn't been influenced by the modern interpretations of fairytales? Usually the villain comes out looking a lot better than the hero, especially in the case of a wicked fairy versus a princess.

Lee: Being sympathetic with the villain isn't really a new concept. Heck, this is pretty mainstream for us.

Lenore: But you can only be so sympathetic. At some point, the wicked fairy chooses to be wicked. Cursing a baby, for instance, as revenge on the parents is pretty unforgiveably evil.

Nico: I guess that's true, but this song still seems firmly on the fairy's side.

Anna: Well, we want good to win, but, well...

Lee: It'd be easier to write a song about that if the side of good wasn't so dumb.

Lenore: Or had some style.

Jana: Evil does always seem to get the best fashions.

The Story:

Maryann burst into the study lounge. "Hey, everyone I got us a job!" she said excitedly.

Leah, Nora, and Isabella looked up from their study group with much less enthusiasm.

"You're late," Nora said. "And you didn't bring dinner like we asked."

"But I got a job!"

"Okay, what job?" Leah asked.

"The Fairytale Ball!"

The other three groaned.

"Really?" Leah sighed. "And you're going to make us dress up too, aren't you?"

"It's for charity," Maryann retorted, looking put out. "It's a pretty high profile event, you know. It's better than playing prom or something, right?"

"We're trying to get a job doing that too," Isabella said mildly.

"Oh, right. Come on, I thought you'd be excited. It's a good job!"

"You're right, Maryann. We should be excited. We need the exposure and practice."

"A Valentine's Day dance for charity with a fairytale princess dress code," Leah said, clearly disappointed. "It's like a bunch of grown women trying to re-do prom."

"What's wrong with that?" Maryann asked. "Our proms didn't turn out the way we expected, right? And I don't think any of my girlfriends got the romantic night they were hoping for. What's wrong with romance?"

"You are such a hopeless romantic," Nora sighed.

"So? There's nothing wrong with that."

"If you're such a hopeless romantic, why do you hate the Twilight girl?" Leah asked.

"She doesn't do anything," Maryann said. "She's just there while Edward and Jacob fight over her. She's not interesting. I like heroines who do stuff, who are awesome by themselves before the guy ever comes along."

"Spunky? Plucky? Dynamic?"

"Sure!"

Leah paused a moment. "You wanted to be a Disney princess when you grew up, didn't you?"

"Um, no."

"Oh, yes you did. Which one did you want to be?"

She crossed her arms, annoyed. "I'm not telling," she huffed.

"Ariel, obviously," Nora said.

"Hey! I mean, no."

"And this also explains why you worked to get us a job at the Fairytale Ball."

Now the redhead was pouting. "Why are you all so against this?"

"It just doesn't seem to fit with our theme," Leah said. "We're Nevermore and the Ravens. Ugh. If we were playing prom at least we could be ourselves. Prom organizers would probably want a cool indie band. This is like playing at a wedding. We'll just do covers of cheesy pop songs and '80s power ballads while wearing fluffy dresses that won't even match. Ugh."

The other three were startled at the forcefulness of her reaction.

"I'm sorry. I thought you'd be happy."

"It's fine," Isabella said. "It's just fine. We're sorry. I guess we've just been frustrated."

"Yeah, we're sorry," Leah said sincerely. "And I know a lot of girls like princesses and stuff, but I wasn't into that at all. And my parents didn't really get that, so I'm kind of resentful. So, um, sorry about that. I'm just not that kind of girl. But a gig is a gig, so, well, just don't put me in pink."

"Actually, pink would be a good complement to your skin tone," Nora said thoughtfully.

Leah glared at her.

"I'm just saying."

"No pink," she said with gritted teeth.

"Okay. Well, we will need dresses. I've got my old prom dress and a bridesmaid dress too."

"Ugh," Leah said again.

"We've got some time, and you've got a sewing machine. I'm sure you could make them look better."

"Damn it, Jim, I'm a seamstress, not a miracle worker."

Isabella sniggered and Maryann smiled uncertainly.

"Get the dresses soon and I'll try to do something with polyester satin," Leah sighed.

"If you can do anything with that kind of fabric, you are a miracle worker," Nora said dryly.

A few weeks and a couple of trips to the second-hand stores, and Leah had worked what magic she could on former prom dresses. Maryann's old prom dress was, in fact, pink, and she insisted on wearing it again. Nora had her old prom dress shipped to her and it didn't need even the tiniest alternation, much to the secret jealousy of the others. Plus, the dark blue dress was legitimately fashionable, even if slightly out-dated. Leah wouldn't admit to having gone to prom, so she made a lot of alternations to a second-hand dark green dress. Isabella had given away her prom dress, so Leah did her best with a second-hand, rather sparkly silver-gray dress.

The night of the Fairytale Ball arrived and the band got ready at Maryann's house because that's where they stored their gear anyway.

"Look, I found it!" Maryann said as she emerged from her room, fully dressed, and pointing to a rhinestone crown on her head. "I thought I lost it but I didn't!"

"I'm not surprised," Leah said. "Are you surprised?" she asked, looking at Nora and Isabella.

They kind of rolled their eyes and shook their heads.

"What?" the redhead pouted.

"You just seem really into this, that's all," Isabella replied diplomatically.

"I love to dress up! If I could sew, I'd make so many costumes for us!"

"We don't have the budget to make as many costumes as you want," Leah said.

Maryann looked blankly at her.

"Yeah, it costs money to dress up."

She sighed. "You really take all the fun out of this."

"Sorry," Leah said.

"You know, Mee-maw gave me this crown. I ran for Homecoming Queen freshman year and I lost. Mee-maw gave me this as a Christmas present and said I didn't have to worry about winning contests because I was always her princess."

"Now I really do feel bad," Leah said.

"Well, let's finish getting ready and go play a good show tonight, okay, ladies?" Isabella said.

The venue was everything they imagined; Maryann was delighted while Leah was dismayed. Isabella and Nora felt only ambivalence. The event was held at the historic Crown Hotel Ballroom. The ballroom was a large open space with oversized crystal chandeliers and mediocre acoustics. It had been renovated to accommodate tables, a dance floor, and a small stage as the venue was extremely popular for weddings and other large events. It turned out that Maryann was not the only woman who wore a crown to the event. Leah rolled her eyes but held her tongue for the most part, although she did quietly curse in Spanish under her breath when she saw the song list. But the job wasn't that bad, even though they weren't allowed to play their own songs. As they packed up their gear, several young men approached Maryann. She got a few dates set up, and the band got help packing up their gear.

"Maryann is taking a really long time," Leah said as she and the other two waited by the van for Maryann to finish talking to a young man.

"I thought she said she had to go to the restroom," Isabella said.

"Yeah, but still, it's been over twenty minutes."

"Then I'll go get her," she sighed, and went back into the building. She came back just a minute later and without Maryann. "We have a problem," she said seriously.

"What, did she decide to go home with someone?" Nora asked, also seriously.

"No. That would be easier. This is weird." She held out a pink, satin high heel.

"Is that Maryann's?"

"Yes, yes it is."

"Should I call the cops?" Leah asked.

"No, I don't think that will help. Do you mind if I, um, cast a spell on you?" Isabella asked.

"To do what?"

"Well, I think there's magic involved, and I thought it might be helpful if you two could see into the spirit world like me."

Leah and Nora looked at each other with a mixture of confusion and anxiety.

"Is it really necessary?" Nora replied.

"I think it would be helpful to find Maryann."

"Find Maryann?" Leah repeated.

Isabella nodded.

"Um, okay, sure, I guess, do your thing."

Isabella cast a spell on herself and the other two that allowed them to see partially into the spirit realm.

"That's it?" Leah asked.

"Yes. What did you think was going to happen?"

"I wasn't sure. I don't know much about this stuff."

"Well, follow me. I think you'll be able to see the problem now."

The other two followed the blonde through the back door and to a door near the ballroom that opened to a pair of restrooms and another door to the kitchen. The idea of the door was to hide the restrooms and kitchen entrance from the main area. And that's where there was a problem, but luckily everyone who was around at that hour was busy cleaning up the ballroom and paying no attention to the band.

"Why is the door glowing?" Leah asked.

"Because it was recently a doorway into some other realm," Isabella said. "And I'm almost certain that's why Maryann hasn't come back."

"She went through the door into another world and didn't notice?" Nora asked.

"Some doors only open one way. If she wasn't really paying attention, the door might have closed before she could have gotten back through. Also, considering I found her shoe, she might have kind of tripped through the door."

"Yeah, sometimes she's a little clumsy," Nora agreed.

Leah just shook her head. "This night just got weird. You're saying Maryann just walked through a door into another world."

"Yes. And what's really weird is that the door is still there," Isabella said.

"What, you mean we could open that door and end up in another world?" Nora asked.

"Yes. And that worries me. That makes me think this wasn't some kind of accident."

"Does that happen often?"

Isabella looked uncharacteristically grim. "More often than you think."

"So what do we do?" Nora asked after a minute.

"We have to go get Maryann. But we need to be prepared for something bad on the other side."

"What do you suggest?" Leah asked, feeling a bit lost. "I can get the tire iron from the van."

Nora shot a dark look at Leah. "Why do you think that will help?"

"Actually, having a weapon might not be a bad idea," Isabella replied.

Leah looked startled, but ran off.

"Isabella, this is weird," Nora said while she was gone. She gripped her cross necklace.

"I know. I'm sorry. Please trust me as best you can."

Leah went to the van trying to think about what she could bring that might be useful even though she had no idea what was going on. She also changed her shoes from the high heels to her normal sneakers. She thought for a moment and pulled out a backpack. She emptied it and threw in everyone else's shoes and the tire iron. Near the tire iron was the small toolkit that the group kept in the van to repair their equipment. Leah put that in the backpack as well, and then anything else fairly small and light could think of.

"Why the backpack?" Nora asked when she returned to the hotel.

"Um, so I'm not walking into a hotel armed. And here are your shoes," she answered.

"Oh, good idea."

The other two changed their shoes and Leah threw the impracticle ones into the bag. "So what now?" Leah asked.

"I'm going to open the door, and then we go in. I'll also close it fully so nothing else can get through," Isabella said.

"Can we get back?" Nora asked, worried.

"Yes, I can open it again. Think of it like a door that's unlocked. I'm going to lock it, but I can unlock it and open it. But if I just leave it here unlocked, something from the other side could come through. That might not happen since it's not obvious the door is unlocked, but I don't want to take that kind of chance."

"Okay, that sounds smart," Leah said. "Then, um, let's do this?"

Isabella pulled two pieces of paper out of her purse and wrote on it in Japanese kanji. She stuck one to the door. "Let's go," she said, and opened it.

They could see a stone hallway lit by torches. There didn't seem to be any immediate danger, so Nora hesitantly walked through. Leah followed her, and finally Isabella, who closed the door and stuck the other piece of paper to it.

"Where are we?" Leah asked in a low voice.

Isabella looked around. There was nothing distinctive about the stone hallway or the torches. It reminded all of them of a stereotypical Medieval castle. "I'm not sure."

"How do we find Maryann?"

She looked around again. The stone hallway terminated in a 'T' intersection. With her spirit sight, the passage to the right looked very slightly brighter. "We'll just have to look. Let's go this way."

The other two followed Isabella as quietly as they could. They turned to the right and again the long hallway terminated in a 'T' intersection. And again Isabella thought the right passage looked slightly brighter.

After a few minutes of this, Leah said, "We're going in a spiral, aren't we? To the center of this castle?"

"Yes. I'm following the magic traces and taking the path that seems stronger."

"Why?" Nora asked. "Wouldn't it make more sense to go away from that?"

"Well, I'm kind of going on the assumption Maryann can't get out, or she would have," Isabella said. "So I figure she's as far away from the door as possible."

Nora looked skeptical but then sighed. "I guess that's as good as any theory for now."

They continued to spiral towards the center.

Maryann returned to consciousness and found herself literally trapped in a gilded cage that was rather like a large bird cage. She was in a large room made of dark stone and illuminated with candles along the walls that gave off a dim and sickly orange light. Squinting, she could make out pillars and arches but she didn't get a good idea of the size of the room.

"Hello?" she said. "Is anyone there?"

"You are a bubble-headed princess, aren't you?" said a slightly echoing female voice. The level of light increased to reveal a throne about thirty feet from the cage. A tall, unnaturally thin woman was standing one of the two steps to the throne. She was wearing a very dark purple dress that oddly covered over her head, hiding her hair. The dress seemed to have a pattern of spiderwebs woven into it with silver thread. Her skin was a grayish-white and her eyes were black with a purple sheen; the black was from edge to edge. Her high cheekbones were clearly visible but she didn't seem to have any eyebrows. She was holding an eight foot tall staff made out of dark, twisted wood and the top looked almost like a claw holding a violet crystal.

"What I am doing here?" Maryann asked the odd woman.

"You're the princess. You're obviously going to get rescued by Prince Charming. Isn't that how the story goes?" she asked snidely as she moved towards the cage. Her steps were so even her movement was more like gliding than walking.

"Um, I'm not a princess."

"Then why are you wearing that?" she asked, gesturing the top of the staff slightly to the pink dress.

"I was at a ball."

"Yes, the Fairytale Ball, full of fairytale princesses."

Maryann frowned. "I think you don't understand. We're not really princesses. We just dress up and pretend. It's supposed to be fun, that's all."

"And where is your shoe?" the fairy asked.

"Oh, I tripped when I fell into this world. It must be sitting outside the door," she answered. "But that doesn't mean anything."

"Have you no understanding of the stories? There are princesses who start out as such, but there are many more who become princesses either by marrying the prince or finding out they were secretly princesses all the while. Your world is confused about the true nature of the fairytale princess. But I am not."

"Who are you?"

She smiled and showed slightly pointed teeth. "Ah, that is the first intelligent thing you have said. I am the bad fairy of course. Isn't it obvious?" she asked, spreading her hands slightly and gesturing at the room. "Unwholesome, dim lighting, cold stone arches, the twisted staff and of course my charming self. Should I have worn black? I thought the dark purple would be dark enough to convey my evil and malice."

"Okay, maybe I am confused," Maryann said. "Every woman was dressed up like this."

"You have a crown, do you not?"

"Well, yeah, but I figured hey, when I am ever going to get a chance to wear a crown? But it's not real. Just rhinestones and glass. And some of the other women wore crowns too."

The bad fairy was now standing in front of Maryann's cage. "I really have no interest in explaining the story to you if you don't understand it. I'm not surprised, of course, as so many fairytale princesses seem to lack the least modicum of intelligence."

"Then how come you lose and the princesses live happily ever after?" she asked sharply.

Ugly purple flames enveloped the fairy. "And you said you didn't know the stories!" she roared.

Maryann backed as far away from her as she could.

The fairy held up her hand for a moment and the flames subsided. "How indeed? It is a question I often ask myself. I think I wouldn't mind losing so much if I didn't lose to such unworthy idiots." She paused. "No, I would still mind losing but at least I would be dignified in my loss."

"So why am I here?"

"To be rescued," she snapped. "Honestly, you are more bubble-headed than many. You will remain there until your Prince Charming comes to rescue you, and then I will destroy you both."

"But, um," Maryann started, and then shut her mouth.

The fairy rolled her solid eyes. "You were going to ask why I thought I would win this time, weren't you?"

"Um, no."

"Oh, yes, you are quite the catch for a Prince Charming. Fortunately, I suppose, they tend to be no more intelligent than princesses. As to your unasked question, well, I'm not going to tell you why I think I can win. It's not as though I think you can thwart me, but I don't feel any need to enlighten you. Anyway, it will all become clear soon enough. Based on past experiences, I anticipate your prince will arrive in about an hour or so, so make yourself comfortable. I'll be back when my trap is sprung," she said with a manical laugh, and then vanished in ugly purple flame.

Maryann started to look over the lock. "I'm not going to wait for some non-existent prince to come rescue me," she thought irritably. She heard a hissing sound and looked up.

Isabella was peering around an open archway at the end of the room opposite the throne trying to get her attention. She had a questioning look.

Maryann deduced she was asking if the fairy was gone, so she nodded.

Isabella, followed by Leah and Nora, jogged up to the cage although they were hampered by the dresses.

"Are you alright?" Nora asked. "That fairy or whatever was pretty terrifying."

"Yeah, and ugly," Leah said. "I've never seen fire the color of severe bruising."

"You saw all that?"

"Yeah," Leah said. "Isabella got the door open really fast. We had to get through the castle, but we heard you talking and knew we were on the right track."

"It was really easy," Isabella said. "Maybe too easy."

"Or maybe this fairy really thinks the dashing prince is really that stupid," Leah offered.

"Can you get me out of this?" Maryann asked.

"I don't know, but I'll try," Isabella replied, looking the lock.

Leah handed Maryann her shoes. "If we have to run, you will totally fall and break your ankle in those."

"Oh, good idea," she said, and immediately exchanged her high heels for sensible shoes. "My feet were killing me anyway. Those look so pretty but I can't wear them for long."

"Leah, is there a screwdriver in that backpack?"

"What? Yeah, I brought the emergency toolkit. Here you go," she said, and handed the small box to Isabella.

"Why did you bring that?" Nora asked.

"I was just trying to bring stuff that could be useful. I just kept thinking of all those horror movies my brothers watched and how if the people had just had some gear maybe they could have lived. I mean, I know they wouldn't have because that's how it goes, but I still thought maybe they could have done better."

"Let me guess; you ended up watching those same movies because your brothers were babysitting you?"

"Yeah. They got in trouble for that, too."

Isabella was busy taking the screws out of the hinges of the cage. "So what are we dealing with here?"

Maryann told them about the fairy.

"That's weird," Leah said. "I mean, it is, isn't it? I actually have no idea if this is weird. I mean, it is. But I don't know if it's weird in context."

The other three stared at her for a moment.

"Well," Isabella finally said, "fairies' motivations don't always make sense to us."

"But she thinks this is really a fairytale?" Leah asked.

"Isn't it, though? You don't have fairytales without fairies," she replied mildly. "There. Help me with this door." She put the screwdriver back, handed the kit to Leah, who put it in the backpack, and then they all carefully opened the door. Maryann hopped out and they set it back so it wouldn't fall and make noise.

They had nearly made out of the throne room when they heard a terrible screech behind them and the open doorway suddenly turned into a solid rock wall.

"What is this! What is this?" the fairy demanded, marching up to them and glowing with fire. "This isn't right."

"I thought you said I had an hour," Maryann stuttered. The other three were too stunned at actually seeing the fairy to reply.

"Oh, well, yes, so did I, but I decided to come back and torment you a bit more. And here you are sneaking out! Where is the Prince Charming? You-you are being rescued by other princesses?" she snapped, looking completely aghast. "No, wait, they are not princesses, despite their dresses. However, this is absolutely not how the story is supposed to unfold!"

"So can we go?" Maryann asked.

"What?" the fairy stammered. "You can't go! She's supposed to be in that cage until her stupid prince comes bumbling along to save her!" she shouted, pointing the staff at Maryann.

The room erupted in ugly purple fire and suddenly the band found themselves standing in front of the throne, upon which the fairy was now lounging.

"What the hell?" Leah blurted in Spanish, and turning around to see the now open passage well behind them.

"Magic, child, it's magic," the fairy said. "Now, what makes you think you three can come in here and interfere with the story?"

"Um, because there's no story?" Leah said.

The fairy slammed her staff down on the ground with a harsh crack. "No story? No story? Stupid humans. There is nothing but the story! The princess is put in harm's way by the evil fairy and then rescued by the Prince Charming. That's how the story goes. I am the evil fairy and you are the princess."

"But-but you were going to mess up the story yourself!" Maryann protested. "You set a trap and everything!"

"Of course I did, because that's what I do," she replied irritably. "And as much as I detest losing to the inevitably vapid Prince Charming, I understand why it happens. That's the story. My destiny, as yours, is inescapable," she said. She did not look exactly sad, but she did look less angry and more resigned. "And this is unacceptable," she snapped.

"Wait, so you trying to win is just fine, but us coming into rescue Maryann isn't?" Nora retorted. "What's the difference? You're trying to go off-script. We actually did."

"'Off-script?'" the fairy repeated, looking confused.

"Or off-dialogue, or off-story, or whatever. You get the idea," Isabella explained.

"Oh, yes, I do. How ever am I supposed to win if I don't try to go off-script, as you put it?" she asked.

"And why should we let you win by going along with a story we didn't ask to be part of?" Nora shot back. "We're not princesses. She's not a princess just because she has a crown. There is no Prince Charming. And believe me, there's no guaranteed happily ever after either. There's just real life and real work and a lot of heartache."

The fairy blinked her purple-black eyes in surprise.

"Look, we're not even wearing princess shoes," Maryann offered, showing off her battered sneakers.

"We were working at the place you opened the door," Isabella said. "This isn't a fairytale for us."

"No!" she screeched. "No, no, no! This is the story. There is a princess. There is a prince. And there is the evil fairy, and that is me. If there is no princess and no prince and no story, then there is no evil fairy!"

Spiders fell from the ceiling and scurried away quickly. The band stumbled back a few steps without even meaning to, although this seemed to gratify the fairy.

"Do what I say," Isabella whispered to the others as she reached into her purse.

The fairy regained her composure. "Your world has gone strange. You tell the stories, and I have seen them retold in many different ways, and yet you don't believe them. You don't understand their power. Even now, when you can clearly see the elements of the story before you, that is, the princess," she said, gesturing at Maryann, "and the wicked fairy, you try to deny this. Although I must say, this presents me with a slight problem. She obviously must go back in the cage to await rescue, but you three shouldn't be here in the first place."

"Maybe we're stand-ins for the good fairies," Leah quipped.

The crystal on the staff flashed. "Good fairies," she almost spat. "There is little practical difference between us; only our roles in the story. Good fairies would warn monarchs not to anger me with their pettiness. Good fairies would gift the princesses with intelligence or common sense so they wouldn't stumble into curses and open doorways to other realms."

"You wanted me to trip!" Maryann huffed.

"Good fairies would actually let the humans stand on their own accord instead of arming the princes with enchanted swords and armor and showing them the way to the castle. Good fairies might even teach the princess how to fight and give her enchanted items so she never gets captured or cursed in the first place. Good fairies would confront me directly instead of manipulating stupid humans to do their mischief. Good fairies would tell the truth to humans instead of perpetuating the myth of 'true love' and allowing the foolish to walk into great danger underprepared." she snapped. "Oh, dear children, do not be fooled. There are no good fairies or bad fairies, although I call myself a bad fairy. There are only fairies, and our roles in the stories, and none of our kind are to be trusted. You should not liken yourselves to them, or to me." The fairy gestured to the cage and the door opened. "Now, Princess, we finish the story."

"Wait, wait, look, the story is changing," Maryann said. "I mean, I'm not the kind of princess you're used to. We don't have to do this. If I don't have to be the princess, you don't have to be the evil fairy."

The fairy seemed to think about this for a moment. "Perhaps." She stared at the group and smiled, showing pointed teeth. "But perhaps I like being the bad fairy."

Isabella had pulled a piece of paper out of her purse. She took two steps towards the fairy and stuck a piece of paper to her forehead. "Run!" she yelled.

The crystal topping the fairy's staff flared purple but she seemed unable to move.

The band picked up their skirts and ran for the doorway which remained open. They turned into the passage and kept going.

"Which way is out?" Maryann puffed.

"Just keep turning left!" Isabella shouted back.

"What about that-that fairy?" Leah asked.

They heard a terrible screech behind them.

"My charm just wore off," Isabella said. "Just run!"

They heard the sound of skittering, insect-like legs running up behind them. Leah, who was the shortest and had the shortest stride and therefore the slowest runner, risked a look behind her. "My God," she yelped in Spanish.

"I know what that means," Nora said.

"If you don't like spiders, and I mean really don't like spiders, don't look back," she said, feeling a stitch in her side but trying to speed up.

They said nothing else as they followed the spiral pathway out of the castle to the final door. Isabella yanked the door open and ripped the piece of paper off. The other three barrelled through and Isabella followed as the entire corridor behind them seemed to be filled with spiders. She slammed the door shut. The other three expected it to burst open, but it did not.

"Is that it? Is it over? Is she coming through?" Maryann stuttered.

Isabella shook her head. "No. The door to the other realm is now closed." She pulled another piece of paper out of her purse and stuck it to the door. It glowed a moment, then fell off. She crumpled it up and stuffed it back into her purse. "Come on, I'll talk more outside. We should get out of here before someone asks what's going on."

"We don't want that," Leah agreed and they quickly made their way back outside and piled into the van. "So, what the hell just happened?" she asked when they were on their way.

"Exactly what you think happened," Maryann said. "Isabella, is she going to be able to come through again?"

"I don't know. I sealed the door, but if she's powerful enough she can break it. I don't think that was a natural door, so it probably wouldn't be very easy to do, even if she wanted to."

"But why this Fairytale Ball? Why not all the others?"

The blonde shrugged. "The others didn't have a real princess, at least not according to her definition of one."

"So is this going to be a thing?" Leah asked. "I mean, a murder mystery dinner theater going wrong is something I kind of get. Not expect, or like, but I kind of get it. That seems like the kind of thing that could get us mixed up in weird stuff. But this was just a job. Just an ordinary job."

"Just an ordinary Ren Fair too," Nora sighed.

They were silent until they reached Maryann's house.

"You know," Maryann said.

The others looked at her.

"There is a nice thing about fairytales. We know how they end. But like Isabella said, this is real life. We don't know how it ends. But I just thought of something else too. In fairytales, we know why things are the way they are. We know why the princess gets cursed or captured. We know why the prince goes to save her. We know why the fairy is evil. The story says so," she said. "So that's the thing."

"What's the thing?" Nora asked a touch harshly.

"About tonight. We don't know how our story ends because it's not a fairytale, but because it's a fairytale we also don't know why we're there. We aren't princesses, no matter what she says. Our dads didn't insult a bad fairy and get us cursed. We don't have wicked stepmothers trying to kill us for being too pretty or making us slaves to our stepsisters. We don't have fairy godmothers. Leah, you asked if this was going to happen again. Well, that's the answer. I don't know. This isn't a fairytale. We don't know our roles. I don't know why this happens to me, or to you, or to Nora or Isabella," she said anxiously. "The answer is I don't have an answer."

"I know you don't," Leah sighed. "It's just kind of frustrating to have things happen like that. I don't know what to do. I'm glad Isabella knew what to do."

"You did know what to do," Maryann said. "You got our shoes. I wouldn't have thought of that. You guys?" she asked Nora and Isabella.

"No, not until I twisted my ankle," Nora admitted.

"Me neither. I was too focused on the magic part of it."

"I guess that was helpful."

Maryann brightened up. "So we'll figure this out. Somehow."

Nora and Leah exchanged skeptical looks, and both unconsciously touched their religious necklaces.

"If we're together, we can do anything!"

The other three just stared at her a moment.

"Are you sure you're not a fairytale princess?" Leah asked dryly.

Maryann pouted, but the other two laughed, so they put the evening's strangeness behind them to focus on the more pressing matter of unloading their gear and getting some well-deserved sleep.

The Lyrics:

Fairies are mischievous and nice

Or so ignorant people say

They forget about the dark ones

Who are nice as Morgan le Fey.

A wicked, evil fairy

Is anything but light and airy

Wearing darkness like a dress

She is beyond merely scary.

Refrain: When good wins because the story says it must

Let us fight for an ending that's more just

Let us side with the villianious fey

And hope victory will be hers one dark day.

But there's more to the story;

With a wish and a wave

Good fairies are there to help the heroes

Making it easy to be brave.

The hero and princess need do nothing

And they will be handed a good fate

No wonder the bad fairy is so angry

And her heart so full of hate.

Refrain:

What comes of the bad fairy

She's done her job and played her part

There is no happy ever after for her

Outcast and alone in the dark.

The heroes lack competence

She's the one who must be clever

But for them victory comes easy

But for the bad fairy, never.

No matter who deserves to win

The stories all end the same way

A reward for the royal pair

And doom for the dark fey.

Track 2 - Unhappy Medium

The Interview:

Jana: The next track title is kind of a pun, right?

Lee: Kind of?

Nico: Okay, it's a pun. So the music shows a definite '80s pop influence. Why?

Lenore: We liked the juxtaposition between the concept, which is an unhappy person, with the generally upbeat and slightly synthesized feel of '80s pop.

Jana: Wow, okay, we're going to have to up our game here, Nico.

Nico: Yeah. So I'm guessing this was where the album title and cover design came from?

Lee: Yep.

Nico: So what was your inspiration for this?

Anna: Well, we've all seen commercials and stuff for psychics and people who say they can talk to the dead.

Lenore: And of course there's the classic romance, Ghost, about a medium. By the end of it, she was not very happy with her gift.

Jana: So you ran with that idea?

Belle: Pretty much. Being a medium is one of those things that sounds like it should be cool and there's a bunch of stories about it, but practically, don't people have enough problems dealing with the living? So this song really is straightforward. It's not much fun listening to the dead all day.

Nico: Your albums seem to have this theme, like, you take the supernatural and then kind of twist it to show it's not that cool. How come?

Lenore: It's an easy target.

Lee: That, or superpowers, like comic book characters. And we didn't want to go there.

Jana: Easy target?

Belle: It's a monkey's paw sort of thing, or a genie's wish. A lot of media portrays the supernatural as ultimately this totally awesome thing everyone should want to be part of, with a few exceptions.

Lee: Like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," for example.

Belle: Right. So we think about the consequences. Again, like the medium, being able to contact the dead seems like a great gift, but what if you can't turn it off? There are a lot of ideas we can play with like that.

Nico: I didn't know you thought about this so much.

Anna: Hey, we're trying to be rich and famous with this concept, so we'd better think it through, right?

Jana: [laughs] I guess that's true.

The Story:

"Halloween shows are the best," Leah said as they got ready for the show. "Our theme does the work for us."

"I'm not always happy with the costume choices," Nora replied. "We look like witches again, and not in a good way."

"Hey, I'm a musician, not a miracle-worker. Witches wear black dresses and tall pointy hats."

"And short skirts?" Isabella asked.

"Hey, you've got leggings too."

"With skulls on them."

Leah rolled her eyes. "Everyone's a critic. I can't wait until you see my next idea. I'm working on a set of costumes based off of Queen."

"Whoa, how is that going to work?" Maryann asked. "We're supposed to look identical."

"Well, yeah, of course, but you have to admit, it would be interesting if I dressed us all up like Freddie Mercury in any one of his stage outfits."

"Fine, witches' costumes it is," Nora replied with a sigh.

"Hey, it could work!"

"Please just don't start sewing until you show me your sketches."

"Ladies, let's just get out on stage," Isabella sighed.

"I'm just happy these costumes are warm," Maryann said as they followed Isabella's lead.

The Downtown Halloween Festival took place at a large central park. Two streets were closed off and thronged with vendors and people in costumes. There were two stages set up; one for Nevermore and the Ravens, and one for the various costume contests. The night was clear but chilly, even for a Midwest October. The band had their own songs to perform, but they mixed in Halloween-themed covers and started with "Witchy Woman."

Isabella felt the wind shift and frowned. By the fourth song, she had the distinct feeling of something being off in the area and so when the women switched up instruments, she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. The banishment charm was written in Japanese kanji. She stuck the charm to back of the bass and started the next song.

Maryann felt the spell activate and gave Isabella a puzzled look, but since she was on drums, Isabella didn't notice. The air seemed to clear as they played.although the atmosphere didn't quite go back to normal. Maryann didn't get a chance to ask Isabella about the spell until the end of the show when they were packing up their gear.

"Isabella, why did you cast a banishment spell?" Maryann asked.

"She did what?" Leah blurted. "I never notice these things."

"There was something in the wind I didn't like," Isabella answered. "I'm not sure what, exactly, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have some protection. I don't like to take chances around Halloween. The Veil is too thin."

"And we've already had too many weird Halloweens," Leah agreed.

"Weird Halloweens? You say that as though other days are normal," Nora said wryly.

"That's a good point."

They had almost finished packing when a person in a black hood and cloak hurried up to the van. "I need your help," said a female voice.

"Okay, and things have taken the predictable turn for the weird," Leah sighed. "It's Halloween and all, but you're going to drop the mystery."

The woman pulled down the cloak, revealing a familar face but unfamilar pale blond hair. "Do you remember me? I'm Rowan Weber."

They stared for a moment at Isabella's doppelgänger. With her hair now a shade closer to Isabella's, although lighter, the similarities in how they looked were even more obvious. Even her clothes looked like the band's costumes.

"Oh, Madame Crow Jinx," Maryann said finally. "You're hair looks better blond."

"Thanks, I mean, that's not the point. I need help and I think you can help me."

"And I'm going to guess you don't want to talk here but go someplace safe so you can explain the whole problem to us?" Leah asked, thinking, "I wonder if she dressed up as a witch for Halloween or if those are her actual clothes?"

"Well, yes, of course," Rowan said, looking agitated.

"Great. We love Saturday night seances."

"It's not really like that," she replied.

"Well, we need to finish loading up and then we can head to the hotel. You're a long way from Florida," Nora said.

"Yeah, tell me about it. Listen, can we go back to your hotel room to talk? Maybe it won't look for me there. Also, I took the bus so can I get a ride?"

"Sure," Maryann said brightly.

"Can you maybe load that stuff up faster?" she said.

"Can you maybe help us?" Nora replied snidely. She hadn't quite forgiven Rowan for using her ability as a natural medium to take advantage of the grieving.

"Fine, fine, just tell me what to do."

The group was soon packed up, although Rowan's anxious aid was barely more of a hindrance. They rode in silence to the hotel as every time they tried to ask Rowan what was going on, she asked them to wait until they got "someplace safe."

Finally they checked in and went up to their adjoining rooms. They sat down in Isabella and Nora's room. Rowan pulled some chalk out of her purse and made wards on the doors and windows.

"Well, that's going to make tomorrow pretty weird for the cleaning staff," Leah said, watching her work.

"Hey!" Rowen snapped. "I'm not doing this because it's funny. I'm really worried."

"Okay, I'm sorry."

Maryann and Isabella noted that Rowan's wards were derived from Western ceremonial magical traditions, although not within any specific one they were aware of.

"Would you mind if I put up some protection too?" Maryann asked.

"Please."

Finally Rowan finished her work and sat down in the chair by the desk. "I won't bore you with the details since they don't matter right. After the visit by your great-grandmother," she said sullenly, looking at Isabella, "I got out of the medium business. It was a hell of a thing too."

"What made you realize my great-grandmother was right?" Isabella asked.

"Oh, just the fact she bypassed all my protections and metaphysically slapped me upside the head," Rowan replied. "I should say, I'm not ungrateful for that, but it was pretty upsetting at the time. I've gotten my life straightened out and I thought everything was fine. Not fun, but fine."

"What did you do?" Nora asked sharply.

"Well, I don't have a lot of resources, so I got on a Ren Fair circuit. Called myself 'Sable Rose' and did tarot readings and things like that."

"So still cheating people?"

Rowan glared at her. "I didn't cheat anyone. I gave them a full reading with a full deck. I'm just not very good at divination, and well, as they say, buyer beware. People who go to those kinds of things looking for real magic are just fooling themselves."

"Usually," Leah muttered.

Rowan didn't hear her. "Anyway, it wasn't a bad way to make a living while I tried to figure out something better. I thought I'd be fine. And I was wrong which is why I came looking for you."

"Why did you look for us?" Maryann asked.

Rowan rolled her eyes slightly. "Once I actually thought about what happened, it didn't take me very long to figure out Isabella was some kind of spirit mage, or at least had contacts that were spirit mages. When I realized I needed help, I decided to track her down. That took me a little time, but I obviously figured it out. The hardest part was getting myself to a place I knew you would be."

"We always post updates to our schedule so that shouldn't have been too hard," Maryann said.

"Yeah, figuring out where you would be wasn't hard. Getting the funds together on my part was hard. The Ren Fair circuit doesn't pay that well."

"So what is the problem?" Nora asked sharply.

Rowan sighed. "I got out of the business, but I guess I made myself too well known while I was in the business. I made some enemies, or got someone's attention. Something is coming after me. I'm sure it's some kind of spirit, but I don't know what kind. I can hear it laughing in the wind sometimes. I put up so many wards but I think it still gets to my dreams. I-I did everything I could to banish it, but I'm not strong enough, or I just don't know enough about it to banish it properly. This has been going on for months and I don't know anyone else who does this kind of stuff. That's why I remembered you and why I've been looking for you," she said. "It's Halloween and the Veil is thin. I'm afraid it's going to find me. Can you help me? Will you help me?"

"Of course we will," Maryann answered immediately. "We're so sorry you're in trouble. Please, tell us everything you can about this spirit that's chasing you."

"I first noticed that something was wrong about seven or eight months ago. I stopped doing active magic, but I did still keep up wards and protections. I noticed that something was testing my wards but they held up so I didn't think too much of it. That sort of thing has happened before. It wasn't until I came home one day and realized my wards had been broken that I started to get worried. I put them back up and stronger than before, and that held for about a week. The situation continued like this for over a month. I'd set up wards and in about week the thing would break my wards. I started to wonder if whatever it was even needed that much time and it was just messing with me. I started to do more spells to try to figure out what it was and I think that might have made the situation worse, but I wasn't just going to let some thing break into my apartment." She sighed. "When I realized I couldn't keep it out, that's when I started to hear the whispers and have strange dreams."

"Have you tried any divination or anything?" Maryann asked.

"I told you, I'm not very good at that, but I did try anyway. I found out the thing was a spirit, but I had already guessed that. Still, I guess it's something to know it's not another person messing with me, or a fairy or something. I'm not even sure if this thing was always a spirit or used to be a living person."

"What difference would that make?" Leah asked.

"Motivation," Isabella replied. "If the spirit used to be a person, we may be able to better understand its motivation in going after Rowan."

"But if it was always a spirit," Rowan continued, "that makes it much harder to guess its motivation. Spirits don't think or feel the way we do and using human behavior as a predictor of their behavior is not always a good idea."

"Although it may be the best we've got right now," Isabella finished.

The other three were staring at the two blondes.

"What?" they asked in unison.

"Creepy," Leah murmured to Nora.

Nora nodded slightly.

"Um, anyway," Maryann said, "so we should try to figure out if this is an undead spirit or a spirit-spirit, right?"

"That would be a good first step," Rowan agreed.

"I'll get my cards," she said brightly, and fetched her personalized tarot deck. "I'll just do a really simple spread," she said. "Do you mind if I shuffle?"

"Go right ahead. I told you, I'm bad with divination."

Maryann tossed out the first card. "First card, who is this about?" It was an upright Queen of Swords. "In this context, that confirms the subject is Rowan."

"Is that your card usually?" Rowan asked Isabella.

"Yeah."

"Weird," they said in unison.

"Okay, second card. Is the thing bothering Rowan a proper spirit or a ghost or something?" She tossed down a reversed Death card.

"Ghost," Rowan and Isabella said in unison again.

"Okay, this starting to creep me out a little," Leah said to Nora in a low voice.

"Me too," she agreed.

"Final card. Why is this ghost haunting Rowan?" She revealed the High Priestess. "Oh, er, hm."

"Is that good? Is that bad? Is that just confusing?" Leah asked.

"I'm going to go with bad and confusing," Maryann finally answered. "Um, in some contexts, the Death card can be interpreted as a threatening figure. I think since Rowan's being bothered by this thing and thinks it's malicious, that's a good interpretation. In some contexts, the High Priestess can be the object of desire."

"You've got a ghost stalker?" Leah asked Rowan.

"If Maryann's interpretation is correct, yes I do. Ugh."

"Oh, Isabella's had that happen before," Maryann said.

"Really?" Rowan asked.

"Yeah, some ghost thought I looked like his dead wife. I had to get kind of, um, forceful, to convince I really wasn't his reincarnated wife after all."

"It was really a kind of sad story," Maryann sighed.

"Okay, so it sounds like you've had some experience with this. How did you get rid of the creepy ghost?" Rowan asked.

"I didn't have to," Isabella replied. "He was bound to his ancestral home and place of death. I just had to leave. You say this thing has followed you along the Ren Fair circuit, so clearly it's not bound to any particular place."

"So I can't get away from it," she said. "Which means we'll need to banish back to the Other Side."

"It would really help if we knew what it really wanted," Isabella said.

"I know, but I believe it is malicious so I'm not sure I really care. I just want to get it away from me. And with the Veil so thin right now, well, I'm really worried."

"We understand," Isabella replied. "But I think we're going to have to draw it out before we can banish it."

"And maybe it's not really malicious," Maryann offered. "Maybe it's just not good at communicating."

"Not likely," Isabella and Rowan said in unison again.

At that point even Maryann was starting to feel a little weirded out by how in sync they were.

"So where do we draw it out?" Rowan asked.

"A graveyard would probably work pretty well," Isabella offered.

"Er, I don't know about that. Technically it's a good place but if this thing is dangerous I want some protection," Rowan countered.

"A graveyard should have some protection if the ground has been hallowed," Isabella said. She was about to say something else, but was interrupted by Leah.

"We passed a church when we came into town this morning," she said. "It's not too far away, but I'm sure we're not really allowed to sneak into the cemetary at night."

"Oh, I remember that place. Good stained glass windows," Nora said, "but I don't know if that makes a good candidate for calling up an angry ghost."

"I think it'll be fine," Isabella replied firmly.

Rowan looked like she was about to protest but Isabella shook her head slightly, so she closed her mouth.

"Do you have enough supplies for a banishment spell if it comes to that?"

"I can make do," Rowan said.

"I'll get the emergency kit," Leah said, and pulled a heavy duffel bag out of the pile of luggage.

"Emergency kit? What have got in there that will help us?" she asked, somewhat disdainfully.

"Baseball bat, crowbar, antique fireplace poker, some antique horseshoes, and some other stuff. You know, odds and ends and things."

"You can't hit a ghost in the face with a baseball bat."

"But you can draw a circle of iron with an antique fireplace poker," Leah retorted. "And I wouldn't hit a ghost in the face with a baseball bat. A Dalek, maybe, if I had Ace's bat."

Everyone looked confused.

"Never mind," she sighed. "The point is these things have come in handy so I'm taking it with us."

"I got my stuff," Maryann said, stuffing some items into her overlarge purse.

Isabella got a few items together and put them in her purse. "Alright. Rowan, are you sure about this?"

"I'll have to confront it sometime," she replied. "It's clearly not going to leave me alone. I'm glad to have some help for this kind of confrontation. I never had help before."

They loaded up into the van and headed to the church Leah and Nora identified. Rowan sat in Maryann's usual spot and Maryann moved to the middle of the backseat. Fog rolled in as they drove.

"Are we really doing this? Are we really going to a graveyard, close to midnight, on Halloween, to get the attention of something mean and nasty and possibly dangerous?" Leah asked.

"It looks that way," Nora answered dryly.

"Yeah, I was just checking. All we need now is some ominious horror movie music." She dug around in her purse. "Sugar skull anyone?"

"That's just weird," Rowan said. "Also, it's Samhain, not Halloween."

"Also, it's All Hallow's Eve, not Halloween," Leah snapped back.

"How come you put up with that?" Rowan asked Maryann in a low voice.

Maryann frowned. "Because I don't own holidays," she replied.

Rowan got the hint and didn't ask any more questions or make any more comments.

Isabella parked the van a few blocks away from the church and cast a spirit sight spell on the band. "Rowan?"

"I can see fine," she said, recognizing what Isabella was doing and subsequently casting her own spell.

They got out of the van and started to walk towards the church. The thick fog was dimly illuminated by the orange street lights.

"So how do we get into the graveyard?" Leah asked.

Rowan suddenly stopped walking. "It's right behind us," she said in a low voice.

"Of course it is," Leah sighed, and turned around quickly with her hand in the emergency kit gripping the baseball bat. The others also turned around quickly, with Rowan being the slowest to react. Maryann and Nora both had a hand on their necklaces and Isabella had her hand in her purse ready to pull out a charm.

A man that they guessed was a ghost was standing beneath the dimmed glow of a streetlight. He had long black hair that partially hid his face. He was transparent, so it was difficult to make out his facial features or his complexion. The one sunken eye they could see was black, or possibly just hidden in shadows. He was wearing a black suit of some sort and a cape. Rowan and Isabella knew that he would have been visible without spirit sight, but that the effect of the spell allowed them to see much more clearly.

"Nora, what's your fashion sense guess?" Leah whispered.

"Possibly Victorian by the suit, but the cape is too long. Could be his own look," she replied.

"Good evening," he said with a slight bow. His voice was about a tenor but there was a thin sort of echoing quality to it. He looked at Rowan. Then he looked at the others. "I did not expect so much company. You are traveling with an ever stranger group, dear Rowan." He looked specifically at Isabella, who was standing next to Rowan. "Odd. You two are so alike, and yet so different. Strange indeed."

"Who are you and how do you know my name? And why have you been following me?" she demanded.

He sort of smiled. "You may call me Aximander."

"That's a Greek name," Nora said in a low voice.

"I learned your name when you were in business as a medium. When I still breathed, I was a natural medium as well, although I never met another in my life time." He flicked his eyes over to Isabella. "I've been following you because I've been trying to get your attention."

"You couldn't just manifest like this?" Rowan asked.

"You know as well as I do that such manifestation is easier on a night like this."

"Yeah, and if you know I'm a natural medium, you know I already have an easier time seeing ghosts no matter which night," she countered. "But hey, you've got my attention now, so what do you want?"

He looked at the other four. "I had hoped for a more private conversation."

"You aren't getting it," Rowan replied coolly. "So why have you been invading my privacy and my dreams? I don't appreciate nightmares."

"Nightmares?" he said, looking geniunely confused. "That was not my intention at all. My apologies," the spirit said. "I did not realize my attempts to communicate would result in undesirable consequences."

"Well, since we're here now and you can just talk to me, what do you want from me?" Rowan asked.

"I was hoping since you clearly have some skill summoning spirits you could help me cross the Veil."

"Wait, you want out?" Isabella asked.

"Isn't he already out?" Leah said. "I mean, he's standing there."

He glared at her, at least they guessed since his hair was still half in his face. "I am no more free of the Veil than any other spirit on this night. The Veil is so thin you can see me, and I can see you, but it still bars my passage to your side," he explained. He turned back to Rowan and now his gaze included Isabella. "I wasn't certain you could help me, but I see you have somehow managed to find another medium, and so I'm sure both of you together to open a door for me."

"Why should we do that?" Rowan and Isabella asked in unison.

Even the spirit seemed slightly taken aback by this. "To help a fellow creature."

"Why do you want out anyway?" they asked. They looked at each, but shrugged.

"This is just getting weirder," Leah whispered to Nora.

"Agreed, and I don't trust this spirit."

"Oh, he doesn't look too bad," Maryann said in a low voice. "No worse than we've seen before."

"I have a bad feeling," Nora said firmly.

The spirit paid no attention to their hushed conversation and addressed the two blondes. "There are clearly some loose ends from my life I have never quite tied up or else I could have moved on. I can't tie up those ends from this side of the Veil. I am quite certain if I could have free range in the physical realm, I could get closure on my life and finish my death."

Rowan and Isabella looked at each other again. They seemed to be having a kind of silent conversation through body language which left everyone else confused and left the other women a little uneasy.

"Alright, I'll summon you through the Veil," Rowan said.

"What?" Nora, Maryann, and Leah exclaimed.

"Do you mortals always talk like this?" Aximander commented and looking like he might laugh.

"We have to help," Isabella said, giving the three of them a look that they understood to mean, "I have a plan now be quiet."

"Yes, we do have to help," Rowan agreed. "I know I did bad things when I was in the business and I want to fix that. If you need help resolving your life and death, I can help you with that."

"I'm so glad you agree," he said. "I knew I was right to come to you. And again, I am so sorry for my unintentionally threatening overtures."

"Okay, we need a place to set this up," she said, trying to peer through the thick fog. "I guess the best open spot is in the church parking lot. I just hope there aren't any cops out to get us for trespassing."

"I don't think many people are out at this hour and in this weather," Maryann said. "I haven't seen a single car since we parked."

"Is a parking lot as you call it the best place for such a ritual?" Aximander asked.

"Well, I'm not drawing magical circles in the street and I want to try to keep this quiet. I think it was that way. Come on," she said and started to walk to the parking lot.

They noticed the spirit hesitate for a moment, but he followed.

Leah heard her phone chime and checked it, very confused. There was a text from Isabella with the instruction, "If it all goes wrong, go to the graveyard." She shared this with Nora and Maryann.

Maryann frowned and sent her own text to Isabella. "I can help."

Isabella replied, "Not with the ritual. If things go wrong."

"What are you doing with those devices?" Aximander asked.

"Updating our social media, of course," Nora answered immediately.

The spirit shook his head. "The world has become so strange."

Once they got to what they guessed was the middle of the parking lot, Rowan took some sidewalk chalk out of her pocket and started to draw a circle with several symbols from the Western magical tradition. Isabella took a piece of chalk from Rowan and added a few of her own kanji. Maryann watched with interest since this wasn't a branch of magic she worked with and she was curious how the two magical traditions would merge but stifled her urge to ask questions. With a final chalk mark, the entire circle glowed with an eerie light. Aximander disappeared and reappeared inside the circle.

"I am free," he said. His appearence was no longer transparent. "If I had the ability to breathe, I would take a deep breath and declare I finally breathe the free air. But I do not breathe." He turned to Rowan. "Thank you. Now I can finish what I started so very long ago." He stepped out of the circle and his appearance abruptly changed. His skin seemed to shrink, turned gray, and made his hands and face look like a leather-covered skeleton. His body contorted and stretched out and with spirit sight they could see his aura turn an inky black. The asphalt beneath his feet seemed to start smoking. He said something in a language they didn't understand but was most likely a curse.

"What in the hell?" Leah blurted.

"His form reflects his intention," Rowan replied.

He suddenly leapt right at Rowan with a terrible, twisted expression, but Isabella stepped forward and slapped a banishment charm on his forehead. He screamed and stumbled backwards. "How dare you?" he hissed. He finally pulled the charm off his forehead which left a blackened burn mark. He looked up at them with eyes that were black from edge to edge.

"Told you I had a bad feeling," Nora said.

Rowan had gotten to work writing other symbols on the ground around the circle.

"What are you really?" Isabella demanded, readying another charm.

"I am Aximander, a once living being with some loose ends to tie up," he snapped. "Oh, no you don't!" he shouted, and lunged for Rowan again.

Isabella got the charm on his chest and then performed a kuji-rin to focus her energy. The fog suddenly seemed to come alive and wrapped misty tendrils around the freed spirit.

"Damn it," he yelled, and pulled the charm off. He cast his own spell and the five women were knocked down by the force of it.

"You are not the only ones to have learned of secret incantations," he snarled. But the fog coiled around him like a constrictor and dragged him backwards towards the circle.

Isabella stood up and performed another spell and a gust of wind, combined with the fog, had enough force to move him back to the circle.

Rowan stood up and said something in a language they didn't understand and the circle glowed again.

The spirit lunged forward and slammed into an invisible wall. He cursed in a language they didn't understand and glared at them with his black eyes. "I will find you!" he howled. "All of you! I found you before and I will again!"

"No, you won't," Rowan and Isabella said coolly. They each started to mutter an incantation while the spirit clawed and screamed at the invisible wall. There was a flash of cold, eerie blue light, an unearthly howl, and then complete silence.

Leah, Maryann, and Nora finally stood up. Rowan and Isabella fell to their knees. Maryann was kind enough to go to Rowan and the other two attended to their band member. Even in the dense fog, they could see what looked like scorch marks on the parking lot, although there was no trace of the chalk circle.

"Can-can we go anywhere else to talk about what just happened?" Isabella mumbled.

"Sure," Maryann said, brightly, helping Rowan stand up.

Nora took charge of the situation. They went back to the hotel and brewed some hot tea using the coffee pots. Neither blonde said anything until they had a drink and the tea seemed to revive them.

"So, what happened?" Leah asked.

"A spirit that can be summoned can be banished," Rowan said.

"That didn't work with Isabella's great-grandmother," Nora reminded her.

"No, because I knew that she was a spirit mage and could probably resist that," Isabella said.

"I didn't use a strong enough spell at that time because I had no idea what kind of spirit I was summoning," Rowan said, adding, "and yes, that was really stupid of me."

"We figured the only way to get this thing to leave Rowan alone was to summon it properly and then banish it," Isabella said.

"And you figured this out when and told each other how?" Leah asked.

They shrugged in unison. "It just made sense to us," they said together. They looked at each other, and the looked at the other three. "This is getting really weird, isn't it?" they asked.

Nora, Leah, and Maryann slowly nodded.

"We've had so much experience with spirits I guess we were just thinking alike," Rowan said.

"And I was afraid if we banished this thing to keep it away from Rowan, it would just latch on to me, or one of you three," Isabella said. "So Rowan and I realized we'd both have to summon it and banish it if necessary. That's why we wanted to be closer to the church. A parking lot isn't exactly hallowed ground, but it's close enough to be helpful."

"That's why there were scorch marks and the pavement seemed to be burning him?" Leah asked.

The blondes nodded.

Isabella continued. "Since sometimes spirits are geniune and maybe he really didn't mean to cause her nightmares..."

"... so we added a kind of true seeing effect to the circle. Once he stepped out, his illusions were dispelled and we could see what kind of aura he really had," Rowan said.

"Which of course was what we suspected in the first place. Then we just had to modify the circle so that he couldn't come back and get him back into the circle."

"Isabella used the fog and the small banishment charms to hold him back..."

"...while Rowan modified the circle."

"Then we just had to finish the incantation," they finished together.

"Did you know he had magical abilities too?" Maryann asked after an awkward pause.

"We thought it might be a possibility," Rowan answered.

"We're probably pretty lucky it was foggy and he agreed to be summoned on nearly holy ground or we might have been in a lot more trouble," Isabella said.

"What was your contingency plan?" Nora snapped.

"Go to the graveyard. It is proper hallowed ground. He couldn't follow us there," she replied.

"I mean, if he got free?"

"He wouldn't be able to," Rowan said. "His summoning was conditional. As soon as Samhain was over, he would have been banished back to the Other Side. But in that case he would still be able to harass me."

"This was the only permenant solution," Isabella said.

"Is this permenant? Are you sure he won't be able to find Rowan, or you, or us?"

The blondes looked at each. "It's the best we can do," they said together.

"The protection may wear off, but it will take some time," Rowan said.

"If it does, hopefully by then we can find a better solution," Isabella finished.

"I hate it when there are loose ends like this," Leah sighed.

"Well, thanks for you help," Rowan said, finishing her tea. "I really couldn't have done it without you, Isabella."

"You're welcome. I hope your life gets a little easier," Isabella said.

Rowan sighed. "You know how it is better than anyone else."

"If you get in trouble again, let us know and we'll do what we can to help," Maryann said.

"Thanks for that. Hopefully I won't get into trouble like that again. So if you could please take me to my hotel, I'll get out of your lives again."

"Rowan, do you have any siblings?" Isabella asked suddenly.

"Nope."

"Who taught you your magic?"

"My grandma. She actually got into the pagan scene back in the 1950s when Wicca was first getting started. I don't think even she believed the magic worked though," Rowan said with a bit of a laugh. "But the spells work for me. She was the only one who didn't tell me I was just imagining things when I told her I heard voices and saw ghosts."

"You know, I think your doppelgänger theory is insane, right?" Nora asked Leah in a low voice.

"Yeah," she answered dryly.

"But this is getting too weird."

"I thought we'd sailed past 'too weird' a long time ago."

"Here, Rowan, here's my cell and personal email. You don't have to wait for an emergency if you want to send a message or something," Isabella said.

Rowan smiled for the first time. "Thanks. By the way, I do like your music. I'm jealous. I can't carry a tune in a bucket." She gamely tried to sing a few verses of one of their songs to demonstrate. Not only was she off-key, but her voice did not have the depth or purity of tone Isabella's did. She blushed a bit. "I think even an autotune wouldn't be much help."

"That's okay," Maryann said. "I'm sure there's stuff you can do that we can't. Isabella, what's something you're really bad at?"

"Drawing," she answered promptly. "I have no sense of proportion or color or composition. Why do you think I wear so much white and gray?"

"That's funny," Rowan replied. "I'm a pretty good artist if I say so myself."

"Maybe we'll hire you to draw our album covers," Maryann said brightly.

Rowan smiled again. "Sure. If you get famous, I'd be happy to overcharge you for an album cover design."

"Great! I'm so glad we're all friends now. I'll take you back to your hotel."

"Thanks again."

And so the long All Hallows' Eve ended and All Saint's Day was looking pretty bright.

The Lyrics:

I don't know how they find me

Drawn like moths to a flame

A bridge between life and death

Is a macabre claim to fame.

From beyond the grave

They come to talk to me

To tell me their tales of woe

Why can't they just let me be?

Refrain: Listening to the dead all day

Is nothing but hours of tedium

Having such a magical gift

Makes me an unhappy medium.

I listen to stories of lost loves

And other matters of the heart

Why do you come and bother me?

You should finish what you start.

I really am quite sorry

You just can't make it through

But why tell me about it

What do you think I can do?

Refrain:

You want me to help you

Finish what isn't quite done

Take a number and get in line

You're not the only one.

I've only got so much time

To try to end your strife

Pardon the expression

But I do have a life!

Refrain x2:

Track 3 - Always Less

The Interview:

Nico: Your band is also known for playing in a variety of genres, and it sounds like this album is no different. This track is, well, progressive metal. Why?

Anna: That's the sound this song needed.

Jana: What does that mean?

Lenore: Like most musicians, sometimes we write music before we have lyrics, and sometimes we write lyrics before we have music. In those cases, we have to kind of sound out the music. We try out a few hooks to see what takes.

Lee: We're fishing for a melody.

Nico: Haha. Okay, so the inspiration here seems to be a bad relationship.

Jana: So, who was the inspiration?

Belle: We get asked this all the time when we have a song that's in first person. Just because the lyrics use the word "I" doesn't mean it's about any of us.

Anna: We pay attention to stuff, you know. People get in bad relationships all the time. So this is about a person who was treated badly and is angry about.

Lenore: Which is why we settled on prog metal for the tune.

Lee: I mean, I guess we could have gone with death metal, but I don't want to do that much screaming.

Nico: [laughs] That makes sense. You don't want to wreck your voices.

Anna: Nope, we don't. It'd be hard to make more music if we did.

Jana: You could switch genres again to something that doesn't require vocals.

Lee: That's an interesting idea for our next album. Belle, make a note of that.

Belle: Will do.

Nico: Glad we could help.

The Story:

The band Nevermore and the Ravens pulled into a hotel driveway in town a little after eleven at night.

"I can't wait for the day when Mr. Rafel doesn't book us these gigs that are so far out in the middle of nowhere," Nora said as they untangled their luggage from their equipment. The December air was chilly and damp.

"Oh, it's not so bad," Maryann replied.

"Tonight I'm siding with Nora," Leah said. "This is too much driving and for what? The County Fair? The Snowman Festival? The Pine Tree Festival? Why are we even here again?"

"Eddgers University's Annual Poetry Festival," Isabella answered.

"I've never even heard of this school," Nora said.

"It's a small, private, liberal arts university that apparently takes the liberal arts very seriously. The founder, Alan Eddgers, graduated from New York University and was a member of the Eucleian Society."

The other three stared at her a moment.

"How do you know that?" Leah asked.

"I try to make a point to learn about our gigs," Isabella said with a sigh. "I want to know the audience so we can tailor the playlist accordingly."

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense," Maryann said.

"What was the Eucleian Society?" Nora asked.

"Well, I haven't done a lot of research," Isabella answered, "but it sounds like a kind of proto-fraternity club thing. Guys got together and talked about literature and philosophy and all that kind of thing."

"Oh, I see. Well, that explains why the guy would found a liberal arts college," she replied.

The hotel was actually a converted manorhouse that had belonged to the university's founder. It dated back to the 1840s although it had been extensively remodeled, expanded, and upgraded since the original construction.

The desk clerk was a co-ed wearing a black suit with a white blouse and looking generally bored. She perked up as they approached the desk.

"We have a reservation," Isabella said. "Under Nesmith, or possibly 'Nevermore and the Ravens.'"

The young woman typed on the keyboard and her long red nails clacking noisily against the keys. "Um, there's a problem."

"Of course," Leah sighed.

"I show a reservation for two double rooms, but there aren't any openings. I think someone gave away your rooms."

"Then we'll take what you've got left," Isabella said.

"We don't have any. We're all booked up because of the festival."

"Fine," Nora said. "Just give us a list of the other hotels in town and we'll go there."

"Um, they're booked up too. That's probably why your rooms were given away."

"Okay, then I think it's time you got your manager," she said acidly.

The young woman actually looked grateful to dart into the back area and turn the problem over to the manager. In a few minutes, a stout, middle-aged man with thick glasses walked up to the desk.

"I'm very sorry about the mix-up," he said. "We do have one suite available, and I can transfer your reservation to that room."

The young woman gave her manager a confused look. "But I just checked..." she said.

He cut her off. "The Master Suite is open."

"What?" she blurted. "Oh! Okay, yeah, I guess."

It was now the band's turn to looked confused.

"As I was saying, I'll give you an upgrade to the Master Suite at no charge," he said with a wide, fake smile.

"How about you give us a discount since we clearly had the reservation and you clearly made the mistake in giving away not one but two rooms?" Nora said with an icy stare.

He blinked behind his glasses and his smile turned even more fake. "Not a problem, ladies, not a problem. I'll take twenty-percent off your original room rates. Do you feel that compensates you for this mistake?"

"Yes, thank you," she said politely.

He finished typing into the computer. "I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to be patient for just a bit longer. I need to ensure the Master Suite is ready. Please wait in the lobby." He pulled out four business cards and wrote something on them. "Here, have a complimentary drink in the bar area while you wait. I'll personally come find you when I am certain your room is ready."

They took the cards and their luggage to the spacious lobby, which was adjacent to a retro-fitted small bar and restaurant, which seemed to be doing such good business they didn't think they could find a seat. They took over a pair of small couches in the lobby and Maryann was sent to redeem the gift cards. In a surprisingly short amount of time, she returned with drinks and a few snacks she said were on the house.

"Why wouldn't any room be ready already?" Isabella asked. "I mean, even if they weren't renting it out it should have been cleaned."

"Maybe they got in over their heads with all this business and didn't bother with rooms that weren't going to be occupied," Nora offered drily.

They nodded in their heads in agreement as this seemed like the most likely scenario. They discussed plans for the show, finished their drinks, and finally at nearly midnight the manager came and found them and personally escorted them to their room.

The Master Suite was located in the oldest and least modified section of the house; it was reached through a narrow and mostly private staircase. It was on the top floor and occupied a corner, so there were a lot of windows and what was probably a good view if it wasn't too dark to see anything. There were four rooms in the Master Suite: a proper bedroom, a small adjacent bedroom that had been presumably built for a servant, a bathroom, and a sitting room. The sitting room had built-in wooden bookshelves, an old-fashioned couch and two chairs, two in-tables made of heavy, dark wood, a coffee table also made of heavy, dark wood, and a fireplace with a wrought-iron grate with what looked like an abstract feather pattern. There was even a small fire that had nearly burned away to nothing.

"I'm surprised they'd have a room with a fire," Leah said. "I mean, that's a liability, right?"

"I'm kind of surprised it's still burning if they had to clean the room up," Nora said, as they continued to look around. There were two table lamps with glass, dragonfly lampshades and two wall sconces. The windows were large and wood-framed and could be covered by heavy purple curtains that were currently drawn back. The upholstery looked like it had been replaced at least once and the lamps were electric, but overall the room looked very old-fashioned.

"Wow, this stuff looks old," Maryann said.

"The bathroom looks modern anyway," Leah said. "Well, the bathtub has feet on it but it looks like modern plumbing."

Nora was staring at a lamp and searching online for something. "Don't touch anything," she said.

Isabella was looking at the marble busts that decorated the bookshelves seemingly at random. "What?"

"I'm pretty sure this is a Tiffany lamp," Nora answered. "I mean, it could be a replica, but I don't think so."

"That's expensive, right?" Leah said. "So this room is pretty fancy. And kind of weird."

"Yeah. I'm going to guess from the related articles that most of the furniture in here dates from the early 1900s or so. Maybe this is why the manager had to make sure it was ready. I'm sure this room needs to be cleaned, but I'd be real careful about having college kids messing around a real Tiffany lamp."

Maryann yawned and sat down on the couch. "I'm tired. We should figure out who sleeps where."

"Yeah," Isabella said. "But I kind of wish we had more time to look around. These books are odd."

"These aren't books," Leah said. "These are clearly dusty, leather-bound tomes of esoteric knowledge."

"Actually, I get that," Isabella said after a minute. "'Book' is just not the right word for these things. I'm not exactly getting a bad feeling about this place, but I am confused. And there's no order to these books. Look," she said and pointed at one next to a bust of a woman. "A Comprehensive Study of Owls is followed by Palace."

"What's that?"

Isabella pulled it out and looked at it. "Some kind of novel, I think, but I've never heard of this writer or this book." She shelved it on the other side of the woman's head. "And who are these people supposed to be?"

Nora now took a closer look. "Well, some have wreaths, so I'm going to guess Greek or Roman gods. Maybe the Muses, since this is a library?"

"We really don't need to worry about this now," Leah said, pointing at Maryann, who was almost asleep on the couch. "We should get to bed."

"Yeah," Maryann said, yawning. "I can't wait for tomorrow. It feels like we've been on the road forever."

Suddenly there was a faint tapping sound on the suite door.

"What was that?" Leah asked.

"What was what?" Maryann replied with a yawn.

"Didn't you hear someone knocking?"

The others shook their heads in the negative.

"Okay, guess I was just hearing things," Leah said.

The wood on the fire popped and cracked as it continued to burn down.

"Okay, let's figure out who sleeps where," Isabella said. "Maryann, do you just want that couch?"

"Yeah, as long we put that fire out."

The purple curtains rustled noisily. The band looked at each other and Nora sighed and checked the curtains. "I'm sure it's just bad insulation," she said. "This place is really old."

"I hear someone knocking again," Leah said.

"Are you sure it's not just creaking floorboards?" Nora asked.

"Yes."

"Who'd be knocking at this time of night?"

Leah shrugged. "I don't know, maybe the manager, or maybe someone who actually reserved this room and didn't realize it was given away too. Look, I'll just open the door." But there was no one in the dark hallway.

"Told you," Nora said.

"No, I heard something. I know I heard something. Hello?" Leah asked. She thought maybe she heard an echo of her own voice, but the passage seemed to be empty. "Huh."

The band got ready to get some, but not enough sleep, when they were interrupted by another noise which they guessed was something tapping at the windows.

"What's that?" Maryann asked. "I don't think I want the couch after all."

"Honestly," Nora sighed. "It's just the wind blowing a tree branch into the window. Look, I'll show you," she said, and fully pulled back the curtain. "See? Nothing."

"Yeah, there's nothing," Leah said, "and that's the problem."

"What do you mean?"

"There's no tree out the window," she said, looking around. The glass was starting to fog up due to the temperature difference, but she could see out. "There's no tree. So what was making that noise?"

"Maybe the room is haunted or something," Maryann said with a yawn.

"It's not haunted," Nora sighed.

And the front door burst open with a loud bang. A translucent apparition walked into the room, right past the startled band members, up to the bookshelf near one of the busts, and sighed.

"You had to say it," Leah snapped. She turned to shut the door but realized it had never been opened in the first place. "What the heck?"

They stared a moment, unsure of what to do as the apparition didn't appear the least bit interested in them.

"Excuse me," Maryann said, looking at the ghost of the very aged man. "Excuse me."

The grim figure didn't seem to hear her. He looked at the bust nearest to his face, shook his head, and sighed again. "Always less."

Isabella cast a spirit sight spell on herself, and to her surprise the ghost looked as translucent as before.

"Um, hello," Maryann tried again. "Isabella, what's going on?"

"This is strange."

"There's an understatement," Nora said wryly.

"No, Nora," the blonde replied impatiently, "I mean compared to what I usually see, this is strange."

The ghost seemed to be staring at the slowly dying fire as though the band wasn't even present.

"This is just weird. I've never seen a ghost like this."

"Hey," Maryann said in a louder voice. She even was brave enough to wave her hand in front of the ghost's face. "Hey! You need to leave, or whatever."

He didn't respond at all.

"Well, I'm not sleeping in this room with this ghost," she said, and crossed her arms, clearly annoyed.

"I'm not sleeping in this suite with that ghost," Nora replied.

The ghost pulled a watch out of his pocket and looked at it. "Always less," he said with a heavy sigh as he put it back.

"Nora, what's the time period for this guy?" Isabella asked.

She looked at the translucent figure. "Hard to say. He's pretty old, so what he's wearing is probably not the latest fashion of whatever time he died. But I'm going to guess the 1920s."

"Okay, I thought he might be." She pulled out her phone and looked up some information. "I'm going to guess this is the late Alan Eddgers."

The ghost turned and scanned the bookshelves without moving from his spot near the bust near Palace.

"And does your search give any insight as to why he's here now?" Nora asked, somewhat snidely.

"Not really," Isabella said in a puzzled voice. "According to this he died of old age."

"He looks like it," Leah remarked.

"He devoted himself to the university, never married, never had any kids as far as anyone knew, family lived in Boston, and he was known as a generous, if reclusive, philanthropist. There's nothing unusual that I can find, at least not right off-hand."

Maryann frowned a bit. "Dying of old age doesn't seem tramautic enough to produce a ghost. I mean, that's not always the reason, but most people don't stick around unless they feel they can't leave. At least, in my experience. Isabella?" she said, deferring to the group's natural medium.

"That's pretty true. But this guy doesn't even seem to be much of a ghost. It's like he half-crossed over or something. This is just really weird."

They were silent for a few moments.

The ghost was staring at the fire again as it popped and shot off ashes into the grate. He shook his head. "Always less."

"You know, I'm not really that interested in why this guy is here," Nora said. "I'm really more interested in how we get rid of him. We've got a gig tomorrow and he's creeping me out."

"Er, well, I don't know," Isabella said. "It's really, really hard to exorcise a ghost in the first place, and harder to throw them out of their own home. And I'm not sure what this guy is. I mean, he's clearly a spirit, but he's not behaving like a ghost."

"I don't know how a ghost is supposed to behave," she said primly.

"Well, not like this," Maryann interjected. "They're supposed to interact, or at least do something. It's like we're not even here."

"Is that really a bad thing?" Leah asked. "I mean, we're talking about kicking him out of his own house. Maybe it's better for us that he's not really paying attention."

"Are you sure there's nothing keeping him here?" Maryann asked Isabella.

The blonde shrugged. "No. I mean, there could be. There's clearly something about this room and that phrase he keeps repeating that's significant in some way, at least to him. But I don't know what."

"Probably a woman," she said.

"You're such a romantic," Leah said dryly. "Just because he never married doesn't mean he's still pining for some lost love."

"You don't know," Maryann pouted.

"I'll try the direct approach," Isabella said. She in front of the ghost as directly as his position near the fireplace and bookshelf would allow. "Dr. Eddgers, you need to leave."

The grim specter paid her no attention.

"Now what?" Nora asked, crossing her arms irritably.

"Well, I guess look around and check if anything's out of place," Isabella answered. "Maybe something will give us a clue about why he's here. Like, I'll start looking through these books to see if there's some kind of lost letter or something."

"What makes you think this place wasn't completely cleaned out before it was turned into a hotel?"

"Hey, they left the Tiffany lamp," she retorted.

Nora sighed. "I guess that's a fair point."

Without a clear idea of what they were looking for, the band carefully tossed the Master Suite. The gaunt specter paid them absolutely no attention. The personal effects had been cleaned out of all the drawers in every piece of furniture that had drawers, which were quite a few. Isabella pulled out book after book and while she occasionally found notes in the covers, there were no hidden letters or papers of any kind at all.

"Hey, what's that smell?" Leah asked, now resorting to looking for hidden doors or safes behind picture frames.

The others stopped in their tasks.

"Hey, yeah, I smell incense," Maryann said.

They looked at the ghost, but he was standing with his arms crossed and staring at the fire. There was nothing unusual in the fire.

"Maybe some of the other guests are smoking something they shouldn't," Nora suggested.

"That could be," Leah agreed. "But I'm surprised we're smelling it."

"These old houses can be really drafty. You'd be surprised the way air can move through them," she said. "Anyway, as long as the smell doesn't make any of us sick, we need to get back to figuring out how to get this ghost back to where he came from."

Fruitlessly they searched for some kind of answer while the night slipped away from them. The apparition provided no lead except for the words, "always less," which he said at seemingly random intervals with a sigh in his already echoing voice.

"I think I found something," Isabella said. She pulled a yellowed envelope out of one of the books.

"What is it?" Marynan asked as they all gathered around.

The ghost still did not react.

The blonde carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the equally yellowed sheet of paper. In faded, old-fashioned script, there was a short note. "'Eleanor,'" she read, "'Such a fair and radient maiden. I'm sorry I could never give you more. Alan.'"

"I told you it was a woman," Maryann said.

But the ghost still did not react.

"Is there anything else?" Nora asked impatiently.

Isabella shook her head. "This is it."

"So now what?"

"I-I don't know."

The band watched the ghost for a few minutes and nothing changed. He still stared at the fire as though lost in thought.

Finally Isabella put the letter back in the envelope and replaced the book. "I'm out of ideas."

"Get another room?" Leah asked.

"Everything in town is full," Nora retorted.

"Yeah, well, we might have to drive a little out of town, but I'm not getting any sleep with this ghost standing here," she snapped.

Then suddenly the ghost moved away from the fireplace and went straight to the book Isabella had just replaced. He pulled away a transparent book and opened it up to the page with the envelope. He pulled out a ghost envelope, opened it, read it, then put it back and the book back. "Always less," he sighed, and then walked out the door.

The band stared blankly at the door for a few minutes.

"What the hell just happened?" Nora finally burst out.

"He left," Maryann replied.

"Oh, you are so much help. I can see that! Why did he leave? Is he coming back? Can I get some sleep?"

"I'll put up some wards," Isabella said. "And I'll sleep in here. I don't think he's going to come back tonight."

"Why not?" Maryann asked.

"Because I'm not sure that was a ghost, exactly. He didn't even notice us. He was doing something I'll bet he's done this over and over and over again. He's almost like an echo of a ghost more than a sentient spirit. So I don't think he'll be back tonight, but he probably does this sort of manifestation on a regular schedule. It may not be every night. It may be once a year, like on the date this Eleanor left him, or he left her." She yawned. "I don't mind sleeping in here."

"Great," Leah said. "You do your thing and we'll try to forget about this."

Maryann helped Isabella put up some wards of protection and they finally went to bed. They didn't rest well and had to wake up earlier than they wanted. A different manager was on duty when they went to check out.

"You were in the Master Suite?" the manager said with a start. "Who put you in there?"

"The night manager," Nora said irritably. "And it's not very comfortable. It's drafty and there are a lot of weird thumps and bangs."

"Many people have said so," the manager replied. "I'll give you another ten percent discount and I'm very sorry about that."

They took the discount and headed to the show. It actually went pretty well and soon they were on the road again.

"So is this kind of thing going to keep happening?" Nora asked after about an hour of silence in the van.

"I don't know," Maryann said. "It could."

"But I thought all the weird stuff had to do with, well, your home," she replied.

"What, like it was cursed?" she asked as indignently as she was capable.

"Well, kind of," Nora admitted. "I know that's ridiculous, of course, but I kind of thought if we ever got on the road we'd get away from this kind of thing. But we haven't."

"Oh, it's not like we run into something weird every single day," Maryann said.

"Yeah, but most people only run into something weird once in their lives," Leah suddenly said. "But then again, maybe we're just not most people."

"What, this is just our lot in life?" Nora asked.

"Maybe," Isabella said quietly. "But maybe the better question isn't is this going to keep happening but what do we do about it if it does?"

"What can we do?" Nora asked.

"Pretty much what we've been doing," she answered. "And I know that's not what you want to hear."

"No, it's fine," she sighed. "I mean, not really. It is what it is." Privately, she wished the strange happenings would stop happening to the band.

"Anyway, we could get some ideas for some really great songs," Maryann said.

"That's it, always look on the bright side."

"Thanks!" she said without the least hint of sarcasm.

Nora rolled her eyes in the front seat but smiled.

The Lyrics:

You were all that I wanted

You were all that I needed

But I had just a few doubts

Doubts I should have heeded.

I went out when you asked

And did what you wanted to

But when I suggested something else

That just didn't work for you.

Refrain: You only thought of yourself

There was so little I asked for

As for what you gave me

It was always less and never more.

When you finally did join me

You acted like it was such a chore

Neither of us enjoyed ourselves

Would it have hurt to give a bit more?

You showed me your world

And mine I wanted to share

But when I made the offer to you

You acted like you didn't care.

Refrain:

I've finally had enough of this

I'm tired of dealing with this mess

All you had to do was care a little

And give a bit more instead of always less.

I'm completely over you

I'm walking out the door

As for what you felt for me

It was always less and never more.

Refrain:

Track 4 - Heart's Desire

The Interview:

Jana: You switch musical genres again with this fourth track. This is a slow, minor-key rock ballad with just a hint of the blues.

Lee: Sure.

Nico: This is kind of a dark, angsty song. What was your inspiration?

Anna: Well, generally, life on the road as we tried to make it big.

Lenore: There's a lot of heartbreak and frustration in this business. Sometimes we were offered shortcuts to fame and fortune. Or, at least, opportunities that seemed like shortcuts.

Belle: But when we looked closer at what we were being offered, we realized that shortcut would cost us so much more in the long run.

Lee: As much as we wanted to make it big, we realized that there were just some things we couldn't give up. Some things we shouldn't give up.

Jana: But you've said repeatedly this is a hard business. How did you know you weren't making a mistake by giving up these opportunities? I mean, a big break doesn't come along every day.

Lenore: We considered that, sure. And I won't say we weren't tempted.

Anna: What's that saying? Everything costs something, and anything that's free costs even more? Something like that anyway.

Belle: The path to fame hasn't been easy or straightforward by any means. Sometimes we wanted to give up. Sometimes we wanted to take an easy out. And eventually we realized what we wanted had its own consequences as well.

Lee: We gave up a lot to be here, but we could have given up a lot more if we hadn't stopped to really think about what we wanted and what we needed and the best way to get that.

Lenore: We hope our foresight and planning will help us endure the pressure of this business.

Nico: It seems to be working for you so far.

Anna: Thanks!

The Story:

The band Nevermore and the Ravens was making their way through Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

"Okay, everything is confirmed for tonight's show," Nora said, putting away her tablet. "I didn't even want to do this sort of thing again, so let's try to avoid trouble this time."

"Hey, I'm fine with avoiding trouble," Leah replied.

"No pick-up games," Maryann said severely.

"How was I supposed to know the GM was some kind of mage or something?" she said. "Anyway, since we don't have a lot of time, I think I'd skip a game anyway to see more of the con. I've got to say, even if the GM wasn't very nice, he runs a good game."

"Yeah, that could have killed me or those other people," Nora said with venom.

"Let's not get into that," Isabella sighed. "We don't really know the GM's motivations."

"Right. Let's just focus on making AwesomeCon awesome," Leah said.

"You made costumes for us, didn't you? And you're just dying to show them off, aren't you?" Nora asked with a raised eyebrow.

"All I ever do is sew. You guys know that. And yes, I've got costumes for you all and I'll even tell you who you are."

"Do I have to wear fishnets again?" Isabella asked.

"Nope."

Isabella frowned slightly. "I'm wearing another leotard thing, aren't I?"

"Nope. I got you a full on body stocking costume this time."

"There aren't any weird cut-outs, are there?"

"Nope."

"Well, thanks for that," Isabella said.

"Am I running interference again?" Nora asked. At the last con, Nora had taken the lead in dealing with any attendees who got annoying or tried to harass them.

"You're really good at it," Leah said. "You have this way of saying, 'hey, back off!' and people actually do it."

"Well, thanks for that," she answered, but she was flattered.

They turned their attention to their social media and band management until Isabella pulled the van into a parking space at the convention center. They changed into their costumes in the van, which they were accustomed to.

"Okay, so tell me who I'm supposed to be," Isabella said, looking at her blue and white full covering costume.

"You really don't know? Look at the '4' on your chest," Leah replied.

"I'm the Invisible Woman?" she guessed.

"Yes! See, a full costume and you're awesome. She's the most dangerous member of the FF in my humble opinion."

"I'm just glad I'm not wearing fishnets again."

"Nora, do you like your costume?"

"I'm not real thrilled with wearing this white wig all day, but I'm not going to complain about being Storm. This is one of the more modern costumes, right?"

"Yep."

"I can't help but notice," Isabella said with an annoyed expression, "that the neckline on this black one-piece thing is so low you've added clear shoulder straps to hold it up. How is this supposed to stay up in the comics when she's actually fighting?"

"Um, suspension of disbelief?" Leah answered.

"There's definitely suspension of something involved," she muttered.

"I really am doing the best I can here. It's not like I gave you any of the swimsuit-style costumes and believe me there are lots of those to choose from if you'll remember the last time we were here. Besides, Nora looks great."

"I agree. I know we take your sewing skills for granted, but thanks."

"Oh, that's so nice. So, Maryann, you're Phoenix in the classic green and gold costume. I always liked that one best."

"Am I awesome too?" the redhead asked.

"You are a goddess."

"Cool!"

"And I'm Spider-woman Jessica Drew. And no, I couldn't think of a team theme, so let's go already," Leah said. The look of their costumes was slightly marred by their purses, however.

AwesomeCon was billed as the biggest board game, role-playing game, video game, sci-fi, anime, fantasy, and comic book convention in the country. The claim may have been exaggerated, but it was certainly a big convention. While the band did want to promote their show, Leah also wanted to go to the con for its own sake. The convention center hosting the con was the same as the last time they attended. The building had an outer perimeter for food vendors and a few short corridors with smaller rooms for discussion panels and other functions. The main attraction was of course the main floor, which was full of booths and people, many of which were in costume.

"And the geek-out will commence in three, two, one..." Nora said sarcastically.

"This is awesome!" Leah said. "Come on, come on! I want some new dice."

"Why? You hardly play anymore," Maryann asked.

"Because I can't go to a con and not get dice. Oooo, and let's check out the new board games. Maybe we can find one we can play in the van."

"We can download hundreds of games on our phones or tablets and you want a board game?" Nora asked.

Leah rolled her eyes. "Please, please, let me have my fun, okay?"

Isabella gave a stern look to Nora, who sighed. Leah led them around the floor clearly having the time of her life.

"Leah, hey, Leah," called a male voice.

Leah jumped, visibly startled. "Really? What are the odds?" she stuttered.

The other three looked at her, puzzled.

A young man dressed up in a steampunk-style outfit walked right up to Leah, hugged her tightly, and spoke to her in Spanish. "Leah, why didn't you tell me you'd be here?"

"I wasn't sure I could make it," she answered, also in Spanish. "Sometimes Mr. Rafel springs gigs on us and we have to change up all our plans. Why didn't you tell me you were planning on coming?"

"I wanted it to be a surprise."

"How did you expect to find me in a place this big?"

"I'm following the band's Twitter feed," he said, holding out his phone. Maryann had clearly just updated their location.

"Oh, right."

"Um, Leah, do you want to introduce us?" Isabella asked.

"Oh, right, right. Everyone, this is my brother Alejandro."

They were visibly surprised.

"Alejandro, this is Isabella, Nora, and Maryann."

"Oh, Belle, Lenore, and Anna. I see now," he said, shaking their hands and smiling pleasantly. "I like the costumes." He turned back to Leah. "Still sewing Halloween costumes?"

"Still sewing?" Maryann said. "I knew her grandmother taught her to sew but I didn't realize she did a lot of it before she joined us."

"Oh, yeah, especially Halloween costumes. We always had the best Halloween costumes," Alejandro said.

"So what are you doing here?" Leah asked.

"Trying to break into the business," he said, and pulled out series of comic book pages. "I've been working on this for a long time. I finally decided I wanted to work with a steampunk setting, and this is what I've got. Slightly augmented steampunk heroes fighting crime in Victorian America. I'm thinking of turning that into a tagline somehow."

Leah flipped through the pages. "This is really good."

"Ooo, let us see," Maryann said, and took the pages. "Wow, the artwork is really good. I like how detailed the background is. That must take forever to draw."

"Well, you know, I do have some shortcuts," he said with a smile.

"Oh, no," Nora muttered.

"Well, sure, so do we, but you're clearly very talented," Maryann said, handing the pages back.

"She's doing it again," Nora murmured to Isabella.

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Did you make your own costume?" Maryann asked.

"Oh, not exactly. I got the trenchcoat and hat from a thrift store. I made the steampunk gear though," he said, holding out the piston-like glove he was wearing and gesturing to the goggles on his forehead.

"I like it, Alejandro."

He smiled. "You can call me Al."

"Okay, but I don't want to be called Betty. Just Maryann is fine."

He looked confused but smiled politely.

"Anyway, Al," Leah said sternly, "What were your plans for today?"

"Get some autographs and check out some of the indie publishers. It's not like I think I can show my work to the big two and suddenly get a job. But this gives me an idea of the trends in the market and where I might be able most successfully get this published. Also, I need some new dice. And I was even planning to go to your show tonight."

"What, really?"

"Yes, really," he said with a laugh. "Leah, you know I support your career, right? I'm following the band's site and I watch the videos. I haven't gotten a chance to see one of your shows live and I'm not going to miss it now."

"Well, thanks," she replied.

"You're silly, little sister," he said in Spanish. Then he switched back to English. "Come on, let's go have some fun. I get to walk around a Con with my four favorite superheroines."

"You're not just saying that to flatter us, are you?" Nora asked.

He smiled charmingly. "Maybe. But I really like the costumes. And I'll even buy you lunch."

"That's sounds great," Maryann said, moving next to him. "This is going to be so much fun!"

Maryann, at least, had a lot of fun that day. Nora and Isabella were more or less just along for the ride. Leah, however, seemed positively put out. She smiled and laughed when her brother spoke to her, but otherwise was uncharacteristically withdrawn. She barely managed to smile when people complimented her or the other band members on their costumes. Eventually Isabella reminded the group they needed to leave in order to get ready for the show. Alejandro promised to go to the show and they left him at the Con. The band went to their hotel and checked in. As usual, they got adjoining rooms with Maryann and Leah sharing one and Nora and Isabella sharing the other.

Maryann was chatting amiably about Alejandro and oblivious to Leah's mood. Nora and Isabella, however, were more observant.

"Okay, what's wrong?" Nora asked as she dug out her outfit from the costume trunk.

"Nothing's wrong," Leah answered.

"No, something is wrong. So what it is?"

Leah sighed.

"Come on, you can tell us," Isabella said.

"You won't like it."

"It's fine, I'm sure."

"It's Maryann."

"What did I do?" she asked.

"Nothing you don't usually do, and that's the problem," Leah answered.

"Um, I don't see what you're getting at."

"Maryann, look, can you just leave Alejandro alone?" Leah asked.

"What are you talking about? It's not like I'm chasing him and he's telling me to go away," Maryann replied, sounding annoyed. "I know you guys worry, but Al's your brother, so what have I got to worry about?"

"I don't want you two to get involved."

"Leah! What's wrong with you?" she snapped. "We're both adults. You can't tell us what to do."

"It's not that. Not really."

Nora raised an eyebrow. "There's more to this. Leah, talk to us."

She plopped down on the bed. "Alejandro is a good guy. That's why I don't want you and him to be a thing. I mean, Maryann, you're my friend and I don't want you to get hurt if this doesn't work, which it probably won't because we're on the road. But anyway, I don't want Alejandro involved in all this," she said, waving her hands around.

"All what?" Maryann asked.

"What do you think?" she snapped. "The weird stuff. Magic."

"You're involved," she retorted sharply.

"Yeah, and you don't know how hard that is. Maybe Nora does."

"Nora, do you know what she's talking about?" Maryann asked huffily.

"Maryann, stop it," Isabella said.

Nora pulled her silver cross necklace out from underneath her shirt and gripped it in her hand. "It isn't easy to have faith sometimes. Our religion doesn't really have room for the kinds of things we see and go through."

"Yes, that, that's it," Leah said. "I pray. I pray a lot. A lot. And I'm confused lot of the time. I don't want Alejandro to get his heart broken, but I don't want him to know about the weird stuff. I make jokes and I pretend it doesn't bother me, and day to day I'm fine with it all. 'Oh, I'm in Fairyland. It must be Tuesday.' 'Oh, Isabella's talking to a ghost again. Must be Wednesday.' You know, that sort of thing. But sometimes I just stop and scream in my own head, 'What the hell is going on here?' I don't want Alejandro to go through that. I know I can't protect my brother from every crisis of faith, but I can protect him from this one. And if he gets involved in all this, who's going to look out for him? He doesn't know any natural mediums or pagan mages." She sighed and put her head in her hands.

The others looked at her sympathetically, and Maryann felt ashamed of herself for being so harsh.

"I love my brother. Maryann, you're one of my best friends. I think you might be a good couple. But please, help me keep my brother out of this-whatever we find ourselves in all the time."

"We don't find ourselves in magical messes all the time," she muttered. She liked Alejandro and rightfully resented being told what to do, even though she could understand Leah's point.

"Yeah, and when you say stuff like that, that's when all the bad stuff goes down," Leah snapped. And then her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell over on the bed, unconscious.

The other three just stared for a moment.

"I, um, wow," Maryann stuttered.

Isabella was the first to react. She checked Leah for a pulse and found she was still alive, although she didn't wake up despite gentle shaking or smelling salts stuck right under her nose. "Damn it," she sighed. "Maryann, we need to figure out what's going on or take her to the hospital."

"Oh, right." She dug out her tarot cards and was about to start a divination when her phone rang. She reflexively checked the number. "Oh, it's Al. Should I, um, answer it?"

"Yes, go ahead," Isabella said, and wrote out a charm for protection. She stuffed it Leah's hand, but there was no obvious effect.

"You know, if we'd seen that weird guy in the red robe thing, I'd think he was the cause. I mean, remember what he did to me?" Nora asked.

"I'm worried that just because we didn't see him doesn't mean he didn't see us," Isabella said. "Of course, this could be something else."

Maryann ended the call in a voice that the others could tell was artificially cheerful. "So Alejandro wants to come over and help us load up and unload. That's so nice."

"You told him not to, right?" Nora asked.

"Of course I did, but he's um, going to be here in half an hour. I tried, I really did, but he was really insistent. He actually tried to call Leah first. I guess she turned off her ringer."

"Well, great, then we've got less than half an hour to wake her up," Nora sighed.

"Maryann, deal your cards," Isabella ordered.

Leah opened her eyes and sat up. She blinked several times.

"Huh," she finally said.

She was wearing what looked like her stage costume from the last show the band performed around AwesomeCon. It was inspired by Victorian fashions and steampunk and incorporated a black fedora-type hat, black trench coat, heavy boots, and a ruffled white button-up shirt. She was in a very large cavern. Light came from metal torches and sconces affixed to the walls and stalactites and stalagmites. There was no obvious exit, but the torches' illumination was feeble compared to the size of the cavern. She also realized she was sitting on a hill of coins. Everything she could see was covered with glinting, gleaming, shining, sparkling treasure. As her eyes got used to the light, she could see gems, jewelry, armor, and other objects buried amongst the coins.

"Oh, no," she thought. She felt an odd cold sensation on her right hand and took off the glove. She could faintly see Japanese kanji glowing on it. "Ah, this is some kind of out-of-body experience," she thought. "And Isabella is protecting me. That's good." She looked around again. "I just know there's a dragon here somewhere," she thought. "I can't be a in treasure horde like this and be lucky enough that it's not guarded."

All the same, she stood up and carefully tried to make her way across the treasure chamber hoping to find some sign of an exit or at least the floor. Walking on the coins wasn't easy and she slipped more than she walked.

"I just hope I don't die in a goldslide. That's how Scrooge McDuck would want to go out, but not me," she thought.

Leah didn't think of stealing any of the gold or gems. She'd read too many stories and played too many games which involved cursed treasure. She also didn't want to anger the guardian, if there was one. Still, she did look at the massive horde. At first she thought it was just generic treasure, but then she saw things she thought she recognized.

She saw a longsword stuck in a short stalagmite and thought, "Is that supposed to be Excalibur?" Then she saw a spear so long it could only be wielded by a giant mounted to one of the rocky columns. She stumbled over a glowing bauble that revealed itself to be a glowing cube.

"Is this from a comic book?" she thought, confused, knowing only one reference to glowing cubes of power. As she slid down a hill, she was certain she saw half of a distinctive round, red, white and blue shield sticking out of the pile. The column she landed next to had a shield with a phoenix motif on it, which made her think of a cartoon her oldest brother Miguel had liked when he was young and she had seen in reruns.

"This is too weird," she thought, now wondering if all the items in the room had some significance and she just didn't know what it was. It took all her willpower to not touch anything or go examine the items she thought she recognized.

"Huh," said a deep, bell-like voice. The sound echoed in the cavern.

Leah ducked behind a stalactite that had a long, key-shaped staff topped with a giant garnet mounted to it and looked around for the source of the voice.

A hundred-foot long Western dragon dropped from the ceiling and landed lightly on the pile of treasure. Its skin looked as though it was made of diamond and the dim torchlight caused rainbow patterns to scintillate across the scales. It briefly stretched out its bat-like wings and then folded them next to its giant body.

She immediately thought of the categories of dragons in role-playing games but this didn't fit any of them. It was obviously some kind of gem dragon, which were supposed to be neutrally-aligned, but she wasn't going to trust to that.

"I know you're here, human," it said in its bell-like tone.

She gulped, crossed herself, and walked into view. "Hi," she squeaked, accidentally kicking an old, Middle Eastern-style oil lamp.

It brought its head down to her. Its large eyes were the color of gold. "You are not interested in any of my horde?"

"Nope."

"That's not true."

"Okay, yes, but I'm not going to take any of it, I promise, not a thing."

"Really? Why would a human come here if she was not interested in taking something from the horde? And where is your adventuring party, cleric?"

"I don't have a party. I'm not a cleric. I didn't come here. I was sent here."

The huge eyes blinked. "That should not be possible."

"These days, I don't make a lot of assumptions about what should be possible. If I did, I'd almost always be wrong."

The dragon laughed a bit. "Well, I believe you are telling the truth, cleric."

"I'm not a cleric."

"You aren't? But you cast a bless spell and you wear a holy symbol around your neck," the dragon countered. "I don't recognize the deity you worship, but I do recognize such magic."

"Um, okay, then I guess I am," she said, thinking, "I'm not arguing with a giant monster."

"But I guard my horde and I am surprised someone was sent here. Such a thing is a good way to lose one's horde."

"I'm surprised to be here too. I'm not, Ma-um, Anna," she said, stopping herself from using Maryann's real name.

"You have a friend that often finds herself in dragon hordes?" it asked, raising a brow ridge.

"She gets into trouble a lot. She's really a classic damsel in distress."

"And you are not?"

"Well, I don't like to think so. She doesn't either, but she's usually the one being rescued."

"So what is your name, human?" the dragon asked.

"Lee. What's yours?"

It sort of laughed again. "You may call me whatever you like."

"How about Arken?" In fact, she was wondering if the gem she was naming the dragon after might actually be in this fantastic horde.

"That will be sufficient. Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, we need to focus on the problem at hand, which is you in my treasure horde."

"Tell me where the exit is and I'll go."

"That's part of the problem. There isn't an exit, as such."

"Well, how do you get out?" asked Leah.

"Why do you assume I would need to use the same passage as one such as yourself?" it asked, blinking its deep golden eyes.

"Um, I just assumed you'd have to use a door."

It blinked again. "Not as such. In any event, I would not wish to leave my realm unguarded. Such a treasure must never be left unguarded."

"Realm? How big is this place?"

"As large as you think and probably larger," Arken replied. "I am curious; why have you not taken anything? That is the purpose of finding treasure, is it not? To take it for yourself."

"I, um, figured it was guarded," Leah said. "I'm not going to take stuff that doesn't belong to me."

"You are the most unusual adventurer who has ended up in my realm in a very long time. If you were truly sent here, then perhaps this was not a friend after all?"

"Hell no! I have a show in two hours, and I still haven't changed out of my con costume. Friends do not screw up my show!" she replied angrily.

"Show? That sounds like a bardic endeavour, not a clerical one," the dragon said.

"Oh, I guess I'm kind of a cross-class bard/cleric if you want to look at it that way. I'm in a band."

"With this Anna?"

"Yes, and Belle and Lenore."

"So you do have a party," the dragon chuckled.

"Well, I never thought about it like that," Leah said. "But I didn't come here looking for anything. I just want to get home."

Maryann pulled out her favorite tarot deck and performed a simple divination to try to help figure out what had happened to Leah. She used the usual three card spread. "Who is this about?" she asked. The queen of pentacles was the answer.

"We know that," Nora said impatiently, periodically checking Leah's pulse.

"I have to make sure nothing is interfering with my magic," Maryann replied equally impatiently. "Next, what has happened to Leah?" The next card was an upside-down ace of pentacles. "Um."

"That sounds not helpful," Nora said.

"Well, maybe it'll make sense in context," she said. "Who is responsible?" The final card was an upside-down hermit card.

Isabella sighed. "I'm going to hazard a guess and say that is the GM we met last time. Or some other dark magic-user type."

"You're sounding like Leah," Nora said. "Like some kind of game."

Isabella shrugged. "The GM trapped you in a game. Leah is in um, what, a bank? I don't even begin to know what that means."

"Maybe we're taking it too literally," Maryann replied.

"Your divinations tend to be kind of literal," the blonde countered.

"Can we break the spell?" Nora answered. "I don't care if creepy GM did this or someone else. Can you two break this spell?"

"We'll try," she said. "That's all we can do."

"And figure out what the hell to say to Alejandro if he finds his sister like this," Nora muttered.

"So, Arken, how does one normally get to your realm?" Leah asked.

"Adventurers find their way here. Usually they must seek scrolls of forbidden or lost knowledge to even learn this place exists, at least as more than just a legend. Then they must continue to quest for the location of portals or spells to bring them here, and often they must find items of power for such portals or spells are not unguarded. I have never seen a cleric nor bard of such youth and inexperience in this realm."

"I told you, I was sent here."

"Indeed," said the dragon. "This is why I believe you are telling the truth."

"Okay, so a party gets here. Then what happens?"

"Those who you might call evil wish to steal my treasure. Sometimes they only seek one thing to allow them ultimate power in their own worlds. Sometimes they seek as much coin and jewelry as they can take to allow them to buy ultimate power in their worlds. Those who might call good also wish to steal my treasure, although for different reasons. They too may seek one thing that allows them ultimate power but would use it to rid their world of evil. Or they may take my treasure confident it would be better spent in their world to help the disadvantaged."

"Well, that makes sense," Leah replied. "What happens after that?"

"What do you think?"

"I don't know. I mean, you're the guardian. I don't think you want anyone taking this stuff. And I'm not sure you care if they have good intentions or bad ones."

"You show wisdom."

"And you didn't answer my question," she countered.

The dragon sort of grinned and shifted its weight. The gold slid away revealing part of a leather-covered ancient book.

The very sight of the book made Leah feel light-headed and sick to her stomach.

Arken picked up a handful of the gold with the book and cast it away. "Many items are very dangerous in and of themselves."

Leah felt better as soon as the book was out of sight. "You mean cursed."

"That is one way such powerful items are often protected. Breaking such curses is not easy, even for powerful wizards. Some curses hide themselves so well they seem benign until it is too late. Items of such power can have motivations of their own, or enchantments that prevent unworthy wielders," Arken said, flicking its tail and touching a huge hammer that was mounted on the nearby stalagtite. "Some other items exhibit their power and it turns out to be more than an adventurer can handle," it said, gesturing to a normal-sized bloody spear mounted on a stalactite. "Legends tend to sometimes be a bit light or inaccurate on details, and those details can be crucial."

"You're still not really answering my question. Does anyone ever get out of here?" Leah asked.

"Perhaps that is part of the challenge," the dragon replied. "It really is most unfortunate you do not have your party with you."

"I'm not sure any of us could fight a dragon."

"That shows you have greater wisdom than many who have entered my realm."

"I wish Isabella was here," Leah thought. "Power isn't the answer. I need to think my way out of this, if there is a way out of this." She addressed the dragon again. "So what are you? Just a guardian?"

Arken raised a brow ridge. "Just a guardian? How impudent."

"Sorry. Really," she said, looking at the dragon's clearly dangerous claws.

"I am the god of this realm. This is the ultimate treasure. Anything and everything a heart has ever desired is here, for good or ill. Whatever you may want can be found here. And I guard it all, because it is all mine."

"So you wouldn't let an evil wizard leave with a magic wand to take over the world?" Leah asked.

"No."

"And you wouldn't let a paladin leave with a magic sword to slay some kind of evil lich?"

"No."

"Does anyone ever leave?"

"What do you think, Lee?"

She sat down on the gold and decided to do as the dragon suggested and think. Something about the situation seemed familiar. "Maybe I do play too many RPGs and read too much fantasy," she thought, sighing. "All the treasure in the world and a dragon to guard it. But who cares if it's all guarded if there's no way out? But there must be a way out. No bunch of adventurers would think of taking on that kind of dragon without a way out. I wish I had a teleport spell or something." She addressed the dragon. "Do teleport spells even work?"

It smiled toothily as it built up a tower of gold bricks to amuse itself. "Perhaps."

She thought a while longer. "I think this place is a trap," she announced.

"A trap?" it repeated, blinking.

"Even the best paladin who comes in here just looking for that one thing has got to be tempted by all this stuff. Maybe they even start to think, 'Hey, I know I just wanted this one sword, but maybe there's a shield in here too, or a suit of armor, or a whole bunch of other stuff that could help me save the world.' I don't know where you come into this, but even if you weren't here, I can see how easy it would be to get lost in here."

The dragon blinked its great gold eyes at her. "How did you come to guess all of that?"

Leah shrugged. "I'm genre-savvy. That means I know a lot about the fantasy tropes because I'm on the outside observing, not inside. And I think you're trapped here."

"Why would I want to leave?" Arken asked. "I am a god here. No other dragon can hope to acquire a horde such as this."

"So all you care about is making sure no one takes anything. It doesn't matter why they want the stuff."

"It is mine," Arken said with a shrug that tumbled the tower of gold bricks and sent a shower of gold skittering down the pile. "And what heart could not be tempted by all of this?"

"I've got it!" Leah said suddenly.

"What?"

"You're the boss monster. You're the last level. This is where a party figures out what it's really made of. That's why this all seems familiar. It's like a game, or a story. It looks like some GMs might mix a little bit of science fiction into their fantasy, but I get the idea. Heck, if was playing a strictly fantasy game, I'd sure like some of that sci-fi stuff too."

"So what are you going to do, cleric?" Arken asked.

"Go home," she said. "Can I borrow the glowing cube I saw, um, over that way, I guess?"

"Borrow?"

"Sure. Some things here can be used but I don't need to take it with me. I just need to make the door home."

Arken laughed. It sounded like the chiming of a thousand bells. "Well done, human." It drew a circle in the air near Leah with its claw. The circle glowed with bright, white light. "But you know there are items here that could grant you your dreams, right?"

"I know. Everything a heart ever desired."

"Even a life where this doesn't happen," the dragon said, and a glove with six gems embedded into it suddenly tumbled into view.

She swallowed hard. "No. It's not this easy. It's never this easy," she said, recognizing the gauntlet. "I have to find my own way in life, not try to change it with magic. I have faith, and I have friends, and I work hard." The six gems twinkled at her, and she thought she could probably snatch up the gauntlet and still get through the portal.

The dragon watched her intently.

She shook her head and grasped her crucifix necklace. "No. No easy answers. No easy way. Faith and hard work."

"Good luck."

"Thanks," Leah said, and stepped through the portal.

She woke up so suddenly she caused Nora to shriek in surprise. "Gah!"

"Gah!" Leah returned.

Maryann and Isabella rushed in. "What happened?" they asked in unison.

Nora helped Leah sit up.

"Oh, my head hurts," she said.

"I guess whatever you two did worked," Nora said.

"We, um, didn't finish," Maryann replied.

Leah handed the crumpled up protection charm back to Isabella. "Thanks."

Maryann's phone started ringing. "Oh, it's Al!" she said, looking at the number.

"What's he doing here?" Leah asked.

"We'll explain later, and so will you," Nora said. "Can you do the show?"

"Oh, yeah, I'll do my best."

"Then that will have to do."

After the show, which Alejandro agreed to record and post to their fansite for them, the band went back to the hotel and promised to meet Alejandro for breakfast before they headed out of town. Leah told them what had happened to her, and they agreed the most likely culprit was the mysterious GM.

"Do you think any of that was real?" Nora asked.

"As real as what happened to you," Leah replied.

"Do you think you could have taken something that could have really changed the world?" Maryann asked.

"I don't know, but I won't tell you I wasn't tempted to try."

Nora noticed a tone of regret in Leah's response and decided it was wise to change conversation topics. Soon the group broke up and Maryann and Leah got changed for bed in awkward silence.

"Maryann, about my brother..." Leah started.

"I understand," she interrupted. "I'll stay away from him"

"No, I can't tell you not to do that."

"No, you can't," she replied, "but I can choose that. Let's be honest; it probably wouldn't work anyway. And I understand why you don't want it to. So I'll just let this go, okay? We'll probably both feel better for it. Well, Al might not like it, but maybe it's better this way."

"Thanks, Maryann," Leah said. And finally they went to bed.

The Lyrics:

Here's all I could want

I don't even know where to start

I want to be certain

I know the desire of my heart.

I'm certainly tempted

You really know how to entice

But before I agree to anything

I want to know the price.

Refrain: You ask such a high price

To get what I require

What must I sacrifice

To gain my heart's desire?

There's so much I could use

But I know nothing is free

So before I make a bargain

What will this cost me?

You're not charging anything

I can't believe what you say

I can take what I want

And there's no price to pay?

Refrain:

This will fulfill my needs

But you get nothing in return

I'm still hestitating to accept

Until your motive I discern.

There's something I'm missing

There's some hidden expense

Unless gaining my heart's desire

Bears all the consequence?

Refrain:

Now I think I understand

Why you offer so much and more

If what I want isn't what I need

I'll regret everything I wished for.

Even so it's hard to back away

It takes all my strength to deny

Your offer of all I could want

Because I know the price is too high.

I can't just make a wish

To get what I require

There is no easy magic

To gain my heart's desire.

Track 5 - Page of Swords

The Interview:

Jana: And here we've got another song about a bad relationship, this time set to an alt-rock musical backdrop. You know, there are a lot of rumors about your private lives.

Lenore: Oh, yes, we are aware of that.

Nico: You can't expect us to believe all of these break-up songs are inspired by something that happened to other people.

Lee: Why not?

Jana: Well, I guess it's possible, but some of these songs, and ones on your previous albums, sound just too, well, personal, for me to think one of you isn't the inspiration.

Anna: It's really cool you think that, actually. We want our songs to sound personal.

Nico: Even though you say they really aren't.

Belle: We won't say none of our songs are personally inspired. We just won't tell you which ones.

Jana: And this is why interviews with you are so difficult.

Lee: And yet here we are again, continuing to get interviews. Maybe you're just gluttons for punishment.

Nico: [laughs] Well, we're in the entertainment business too, so that's probably true. But come on, can't you give us some kind of lead or hook or something? Anything?

Anna: Um, the Page of Swords is a tarot card.

Jana: Oh, so this also has kind of a supernatural connection.

Lee: There. Don't say we never did anything for you.

The Story:

"What do you think of this?" Leah asked Nora as she held up a black blazer.

"Some kind of take on a power suit?" she replied. "Nice shoulder pads."

Maryann and Isabella were a bit bored as the other two poured through the racks of clothes in the second-hand store. The redhead was trying to write out song lyrics while Isabella scanned the used books.

"I know we have to buy stuff for costumes, but why does it always take so long?" she sighed. "I got my stuff half an hour ago," she said, adjusting the plastic bag she was carrying.

"Sometimes spectacle and style are as important as substance, especially in this business," Isabella reminded her.

"Substance should always count for more."

"But you have your own style always wearing those orange and yellow things and those '60s-era red glasses."

"I like bright colors," Maryann replied. "Okay, fine, style is important, but I think we should rehearse or something."

"I gave them a time limit," Isabella said. She found nothing on the shelves so she opened up the big trunk and started to dig through it. As she did so, she started to feel as though something wasn't quite right, but all the books seemed normal if expectedly worn. She got all the way to the bottom and pulled out what appeared to be a blank journal that had gotten waterlogged and dried out at some point. It had a faux-leather cover and no identifying markings but there was a price tag.

Maryann knelt down next to Isabella. "What is that?" she asked. "That doesn't feel right."

"I agree. Why would a place like this take a book this damaged?"

"Are you going to buy that?"

"Well, I don't think it's a good idea to leave it here," Isabella replied.

"And you guys say I look for trouble," she said. "But I kind of agree. We should figure out what this is and figure out what we need to do with it."

Eventually the shopping trip was over and the band returned to their hotel room to get ready for the evening's show.

"What's with that piece of junk?" Nora asked Isabella,when she noticed the battered book.

"Something I don't like the feel of," she replied as she flipped though the stiff, stained pages.

"What, did you find the Necronomicron in the store today?" Leah asked, poking her head through the door that connected their hotel rooms.

"It's not real, you know," Maryann said, shaking her head. "And if a book that powerful was real, why would it be buried in the bottom of a trunk in a second-hand store?"

"Books like that want to be found," she answered with a shrug.

"It's not the book of the dead," Isabella said. "It's not the Sigsund Manuscript. It's not even Tobin's Spirit Guide."

"Ah, Ghostbusters. But what's the 'Sigsund Manuscript?'" Leah asked.

"From the Ghost Finder stories," she answered. "Anyway, the point is something isn't right with this book and I didn't want it where anyone else could find it. I'll look at it later. Wait, what is this?" The inside of the back cover now had a washed-out drawing of a sword pointing downwards. "This was blank when I picked it up."

"Isabella, are you sure you want to keep that thing?" Maryann asked.

"Yes. Well, no, but I will put a ward on it. Anyway, we've got work to do, right?" She set the book on the standard hotel desk in the corner. She wrote out a quick spell in Japanese kanji and set the paper on top of the book. Nothing happened, so the band went out and took care of business.

"So, do you want me to do something while you do whatever it is you're going to do with that book?" Nora asked as she got ready for bed.

Isabella, who was sharing a room with her as usual, shook her head. "Maryann and I will set up protection. As long as nothing immediately dangerous happens, I think I'll be alright."

Nora looked skeptical, but said nothing as Isabella and Maryann drew circles of protection around the desk and book. As Isabella got ready to open it, Nora said, "Don't stay up too late. You're our main driver."

Isabella smiled a bit. "I'll try not too."

Nora put away her various electronic devices, said a prayer on behalf of Isabella, and tried to go to sleep.

Isabella opened the book, and despite all the protections, the world changed.

She found herself standing in gray mist. She couldn't see more than a few feet in either direction. Then the mists seemed to clear a bit, and she realized she was standing on a hill of ordinary looking sand. At the bottom of the hill was a gate that opened into a giant dark brown stone maze. The maze seemed to climb up another hill, but the mists obscured it so she couldn't make out much of it. There was nothing behind her but mist so she assumed she should go to the maze, which she did.

"Is it made of paper?" she thought to herself as she examined the stone. When she tapped on the fifteen-foot tall walls, they seemed as hard as stone, but the texture was more like that of construction paper than stone. She knelt down and picked up some dirt and noticed it felt more like confetti than actual sand. She looked up at the top of the gate and could see a sword hanging from a thread over the entrance.

"The Sword of Damocles," she thought. "Or an inverted Ace of Swords. Either way, not an auspicious start. I wish I had my purse."

All the same, she cast spirit sight on herself and took a careful step into the maze. Nothing seemed to change with the use of the spell, which led her to believe she was not actually in a spirit realm. There was a wall in front of her, and the right and left passages were both empty.

"What was it Leah keeps saying about dungeons? Oh, 'right-hand rule.'" She turned down the right passage, and the right passage again, and the right passage again, hoping to find something to write on in order to make a map or write out a spell to help her navigate the maze.

The maze opened up into a small room with two doors out and to her surprise a young man staring at both doors. His clothes looked like he stepped out of a period piece on 1940s Brooklyn, New York. He was clearly agitated and didn't hear Isabella approach.

"Excuse me," she said politely. Her spirit sight showed him as something, although she wasn't entirely sure what.

He turned around, revealing a handsome if somewhat dirty face. "Oh, there's someone else here!" he said, with a Brooklyn accent. "I've been doin' nothin' but goin' in circles. What's goin' on here?"

She paused a moment, as his accent was so stereotypical she half-expected him to be saying, "Extra, extra, read all about!" She composed herself and answered, "I don't know. My name is Isabella," she said, holding out her hand.

"I'm Brendon," he replied, shaking her hand.

He felt real enough. "So, yeah, here I am at these two doors. And now you are too. So maybe we figure this out together?"

"Sure," she said with less suspicion than she felt. She examined the two doors. They superficially looked like wood, but up close they again more resembled textured paper. Each door had an upside down sword carved or drawn (she wasn't sure which was a more appropriate word) into it. "What's the trick?"

"They're both unlocked, but I've tried both doors and somehow I just end up right back here," he answered.

She considered this for a moment. "Do you have any paper or a pen or anything like that?" she asked.

"Sorry, no."

She looked on the ground and saw only bare rock with a few small stones. She picked one up and rubbed it against the ground. The stone seemed to rip, and she with care she unpeeled it. "So it is just paper," she thought.

"What're you doin' there?" Brendon asked.

"Hopefully figuring a way out of here," she said as she smoothed out the paper. "Um, could you step back a second?" she asked.

He looked confused but walked back to the doors and examined them more closely.

She had no ink to write with, so she stuck her finger in her mouth and used her own saliva to write out some kanji for a guidance spell. She wasn't sure it would even work with using the materials of the world she was trapped in, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to try. She put the paper in her pocket and then looked more closely at the doors. The door to the right now glowed slightly, but the one on the left looked darker. She guessed there was something she needed to do with the door on the left. She opened it and saw nothing but a stone passage like the rest of the maze.

"I told you that will just lead back here," he said.

"I'm not going that way," she said, and opened the door on the right. It also opened to a stone passage. The left door was no longer dark, so she headed down the passage on the right.

"It won't work," he said, but followed her anyway. They walked along the featureless passage for ten minutes or so when Brendon spoke up and said, "What did you do? I'm sure I ended right back in front of those doors by now."

"I just left the other door open. It must have broken the spell or been the key to the puzzle or whatever is going on," she answered.

"Oh."

"How long have you been in here anyway?" she asked.

"I, um, really don't know. I'm tryin' not to think about it. I think I might start to get real worried if I did, you know?"

She sort of nodded. "How did you get here?"

"Um, it's stupid."

"I got here through a magical book," she volunteered, watching for his reaction.

He stopped walking. "So, yeah, alright, that's what happened to me too."

She wasn't sure he was telling the truth, but he quickly caught up to her. "I hear something," she said quietly.

They slowed down to a careful and silent walk to find the passage had again opened up into a larger space. They saw a rocky human-shaped creature that was about nine-feet tall struggling with a pile of rocks. Isabella categorized it as a troll in her mind, and the most extraordinary feature of it was the longsword sticking into its chest and out the other side. The troll moved some rocks around and tried to lay on the pile, but it was clear the sword was interfering with it getting comfortable. There were a few doors out of the open space, but no way to reach them without attracting the attention of the troll.

"What the hell is that thing?" Brendon said. Then he blushed. "Um, sorry. I don't talk like that around ladies."

The troll didn't look any different to her than the rest of the maze. "A troll, I think. And I think we'll have to talk to it."

"Are you crazy?"

"Maybe. Do you want out?"

"Well, yeah, sure, but it's a monster or somethin'!"

She deliberately stepped into the open.

"Whut do you want?" the troll demanded immediately in a gruff voice.

"Just to get past you."

"You don't get past until you pay the toll."

"I don't have any money."

"Oh, too bad," it said. It started to shift the rocks for what was apparently its bed again.

"Why do you have a sword in your chest?" she asked.

"'Cause I got stabbed, stupid human."

"Okay, why haven't you pulled it out?"

"Can't. Stuck. Cursed maybe."

The sword didn't seem cursed as far as she could tell with spirit sight, but she wasn't going to argue with the troll.

"Um, can I look around?"

"Sure, and the other one whose hidin' can too, but don't you lay a paw on the doorknobs or I'll get mad," the troll said.

"I'm not hidin'," Brendon said disdainfully.

Besides the large rocks that made up the troll's bed, there were several smaller rocks and oddly two more longswords, although there was no sign of their wielder, not even bones. A close examination of the rocks confirmed they were probably made of paper, but she wasn't going to get close enough to the troll to find out. She considered the situation and noticed the troll seemed to want to lay on its back and that it was having trouble moving the largest rocks that made up its bed. She looked at the two swords and a thought came to her.

"How about we help you get more comfortable and take that instead of a toll?"

It laughed, which sounded like an avalanche. "Sure, sure, do yer best."

"Brendon, grab a sword," she ordered.

"I can't use one of these," he said, alarmed.

"Not as a weapon, as a lever."

"Oh. I'm, um, confused," he said, but picked up the sword. He suddenly looked very familiar to her, but then the moment passed.

She took the swords and jammed them as best she could between the two largest rocks. "Okay, now push," she said, and leaned with all her weight on one. Brendon leaned with all his weight on the other. "If we can just separate them, you'll be able to lay down with that stuck sword between the rocks," she said, groaning with effort.

"Oh, I see," the troll said, and waved both of them away. It used the swords as levers and pushed the rocks apart by a few inches. It then laid down on the bed, carefully slotting the sword in the space. "Oh, that's much better. You get out of here and I'll get some sleep," it said.

Isabella activated the guidance spell again and led Brendon through a door that was glowing to her. After several twists and turns she opened a door that abruptly opened into a room.

A creature that looked approximately like a human man, but with four arms and slightly taller than usual, wearing leather clothes, was sitting in the middle of the room with his head on his knees. He jerked up as soon as he heard the door open and grabbed a sword in each of his hands.

"Whoa, whoa," Isabella said, putting her hands up. "We just want to get by. That's all."

His skin was dark green as was his hair. Again, he wasn't obviously paper, but neither was the maze, and again she wasn't going to get close enough to find out. He also didn't look any different her spirit sight, which only made her more suspicious of Brendon. The strange man lowered the swords. "I apologize. I have fought a battle and I was resting." He sheathed all the swords. "I am well enough to continue."

Isabella looked around and saw that the area had dirt and small rocks which might have been signs of a battle but no bodies. However, in this strange world, she merely made a mental note. She consulted the guidance spell and headed towards a passage.

"Ah, that is the direction I am going," the four-armed man said.

Brendon gave him a suspicious look and stuck close to Isabella.

"Do you know the way out?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I never get too far before I find myself in battle again," he sighed. "Any direction is as good as any other, or as bad as any other."

"Um, okay, well, we should go," she said.

"I'll go first," the four-armed man said.

He led them down the passage. As far as Isabella could tell, he was exhausted. Brendon looked torn between staying close to Isabella and keeping away from the strange man. The passage eventually opened up into another, larger area.

"You!" the four-armed man shouted.

He was shouting at a person all dressed in black and holding a longsword with its tip just sitting on the ground. At the shout, the mysterious person raised the sword. The four-armed man ran forward with his swords and they engaged in combat.

"Um, do we do anything?" Brendon asked. "I don't know what."

Isabella consulted her spell. "We have no way to stop them from fighting, so let's just get past them without getting killed. This way," she said, and darted into the space and through a door.

"Hey!" Brendon shouted, and darted after her.

They could hear the swords clanking behind them.

"What do you think that was about?" he asked.

"I don't know. I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in getting out."

"You're not curious at all about this strange place?"

"Curiosity is a luxury of safety," she replied.

He seemed quite taken aback, which she noticed, but wasn't sure why. The passage abruptly opened up to reveal a wide, straight channel of water. There were doors in the wall on the other side, but as far as she could see in the mist the water extended to her left and right. The channel was far too wide to jump across and there was no boat or bridge. She took a few steps forward to look behind her at the wall and saw six longswords hung up on the wall with their tips facing down.

"Huh," Brendon said. "Do you think we went the wrong way?"

"I don't think so. I mean, there could be another way around. But I don't know. I can't see with the mist but I get the impression this water may cut all the way across," she said, frowning at the swords.

"Great. So what do we do?"

Isabella sat down on the ground and started to unfold some small rocks into paper as she had done at the beginning of the maze.

"This, um, won't get us anywhere," Brendon said, but he sat down near here. "I think I should be hungry, but I'm not."

"How did you get here?" she asked, seemingly intent on her task.

"I found a banged-up old book and opened it. I ended up standing on a hill and looking at the maze. I think I stood there a long time. But there didn't seem to be anywhere else to go, so I went inside. I've met some of those green-skinned people, but they acted like I wasn't even there. I ran away from some monsters, and then I ended up at the doors over and over and over again."

She didn't reply.

"So, um, you're probably real, right?" he asked.

"Somedays I wonder."

"Um."

Isabella didn't try to strike up any further conversation. After salvaging a few pieces of paper, she stood up and contemplated the swords again.

"You have an idea?" he asked.

Without replying to him, she carefully took each sword off the mount and then leaned it up against the wall with the blade pointing upwards.

"What good is that going to do?" he asked when she removed the fourth sword.

"Maybe nothing," she said. When the sixth sword was upright, the channel of water suddenly started to flow quickly to the right. Isabella stood on the bank and in a moment a small boat could be seen in the mists. She got ready to grab the boat, but the sudden current brought it directly to the bank and then abruptly slowed. There were two paddles in it. "That's what I thought," she said.

"What did you think?" he asked.

Without answering, she got in the boat. He quickly joined her and they paddled over to the far shore.

"Just in case," he said, and pulled the boat up on the bank.

There was blank wall on the other side, but Isabella checked her guidance spell and walked to the right until it opened into a passage.

"You act like you know where we're going," Brendon asked. "But you don't, do you?"

"No, I don't know where we're going. I'm trying to find a way out."

"Didn't work for me," he muttered, "but better than going nowhere."

The passage opened into a large space that was full of short trees and underbrush. Closer inspection revealed they were probably paper like everything else, but the foliage, such as it was, was quite dense so she was having a hard time figuring out where to go and if anything else was in the area. Then they heard a screech coming from somewhere in front of them. They immediately got their backs to the wall and ducked down behind the bushes.

"Now what?" Brendon asked in a low voice.

She concentrated on the guidance spell. It was starting to fade, but she guessed that somewhere in the room were seven swords, and that gave her an idea of how to proceed. "We be very quiet," she whispered.

Their progress was slow. The foliage rustled like real bushes and they were not practiced at stealth. They heard more of the terrible screeching but never saw what was making the noise. Isabella wondered if there was anything, but wasn't about to risk finding out. They followed along the wall until Isabella finally led them into another passage. But they were quiet until the strange room had faded into the mists.

"You're real brave, for a girl," Brendon said.

"Thanks," she said dryly.

"That noise was awful. Weren't you scared?"

"Yes."

"Do you think we're getting close to the way out?"

"Yes," she answered.

"You do? Why?"

"I have a theory."

"So do you think you know what horrible thing we'll find next is?" he asked.

"No, but I'm worried."

Eventually they came to a wide, round room that had only one way out. It was littered with what looked like tree branches, some quite long, but there was no sign of any trees.

"Well, at least this is pretty easy," Brendon said. "If this is the right way, of course."

"I don't like it," she said.

"Oh, come on, this isn't bad at all. No monsters, no forest, nothing to get us," he said, and stepped out in the room. He kicked a branch to the side. "See?"

She followed him into the room and they were half-way across when the ground started to shake. Both were pitched to the floor and the entire room seemed to collapse. Isabella shrieked as the bottom dropped out from underneath them. Luckily the fall was slow enough that neither were hurt although some the tree branches rolled into them. When the dust cleared, they were in a hole twenty feet deep. The drop only exposed more walls, which Isabella expected, and there were eight swords hanging along the wall, which she also expected. The doorway out of the room was still intact but at least twenty feet above them.

Brendon dusted himself off. "Well, that was exciting. How the hell do we get out? I mean, how do we get out? There aren't any stairs or a ramp or a rope or anything. And that's too high for you to stand on my shoulders and try to get out."

And again, Isabella sat on the ground to consider her options.

"So, are you going to tell me what you're thinking so I can help?" he asked.

"I'm just trying to think of a way out," she replied absently. "You're right; there's no immediate way out. But since time doesn't seem to matter here, I'm going to stay calm and think about this logically."

He seemed to consider her. "You're really odd, you know that?"

"So are you."

"Me? I'm not the gal who's wearing pants. Did you steal those from your brother or something? Are you a farm girl?"

She sighed. "If you're trying to make friends, insulting me isn't the way to do it."

"Hey, where I come from, gals don't wear men's clothes. That's all. Where do you come from?"

"Georgia," she answered briefly.

"Oh, you are a farm girl! Why didn't you just say so? I'm sorry about that," he said.

"Brendon, please be quiet," she said.

Now he looked insulted, but he didn't say anything. He sort of scratched at the ground, drew shapes in the dust, and sighed.

Finally she stood up. "Help me move those," she said, gesturing to the longest tree branches. "Paper is wood," she remembered. "There's probably no way I could move this on my own." She arranged the branches into two parallel rows and occasionally glanced up at the doorway.

"What are we doing?" he asked snidely.

She grabbed a sword off the wall.

"I mean, what are we doing, Isabella?" he asked much more politely.

"Making a ladder," she said, and jammed the sword through the two parallel rows. "Hopefully."

"Oh! That's really clever," he replied, and helped her out.

It took a bit of time, some leverage, and a lot of brute force, but they finished the ladder and got it up against the wall. Brendon braced the ladder for Isabella and she climbed up, then steadied it from the top so he could join her. Unfortunately, the guidance spell had faded out. Isabella tried to reactivate it, but nothing happened.

"Damn it," she snapped.

"You can talk like that?" he asked. "Huh."

She walked slowly down the passage they were in until it came to a room that had nine doorways and nine swords mounted upright on the wall between the doorways. "Damn it," she said again.

Brendon poked his head into all the doorways. "Yeah, they all look alike to me. Straight down until that fog hides the rest. I thought you knew where you were going."

"I told you I didn't. And I really don't know where to go from here. And if I figure it out, I know I'm not going to like what comes next," she said, thinking, "I really wish the others were here. Especially Maryann. She knows all about the tarot. I know most of the swords are worse reversed but some aren't and I can't remember about the nine." She glanced over at Brendon, who was still peering down the corridors. "And I still don't know what to do about him," she thought. The longer she still stood in the middle of the area, the more she doubted she'd be able to choose the right path. Brendon didn't speak to her; he just paced the area looking agitated and occasionally looked down the passages as though hoping something had changed or would suggest one path over the other. "Damn it," she said again, and shook her head.

"Yeah," he agreed.

She walked over to the swords and started to reverse them. "I don't know if up or down is better, but this isn't working," she thought. When all nine were facing downward, she suddenly felt a little better.

"So, why did you do that?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I'm being affected by the magic here," she thought, but didn't answer. "Any passage is as good as any other if I'm right." She answered, "Figuring a way out. Come on," she said, and went down the one directly to the right of the entrance. She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and used her saliva to write out a banishment spell. "Ugh, I really wish I had something to drink," she thought, coughing a bit.

"Are you spitting on that paper?" Brendon asked.

"Something like that."

They walked down a long hallway that terminated in a round area with no visible exits. Ten swords were mounted upright on the wall.

"Oh, no," Brendon said. "And I really thought you'd figure a way out of here. We seemed to get a lot farther together than I did alone."

Isabella walked up to a sword and pulled it off the wall. "This is what I expected." She turned to him with the sword pointed at him. "So, who are you really?"

"Hey, what's this?" he asked, looking surprised.

"No games. You're the only real thing in this paper maze. We've gone through all of them and now we're up to the court cards. So who are you?"

Brendon blinked a few times. "You are clever." He pulled a sword off the wall as well.

Now Isabella recognized his stance as the most common depiction of the Page of Swords in a Rider-Waite tarot deck. "So you are the Page of Swords."

"Something like that. You're the first person to get through my maze," he answered, his accent completely disappearing. Now he had a different accent, but she couldn't place it.

"What happened to everyone else?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. They wandered around until they faded out of my paper world. But you seemed to know where you were going to begin with. And I think you know some magic, although I have no idea where you learned."

"Why try the disguise?"

"I thought you'd feel sorry for me since I chose a disguise that was obviously from your past. But you didn't ask any questions about where I came from. Everyone else was fooled. Why weren't you?"

"I want to go home now," she said, ignoring his question. She had no idea how to use the sword, but it felt right to hold it. With her other hand, she pulled the banishment spell out of her pocket.

"You still have to figure a way out," he said with an unpleasant smile.

"I have to get through you," she said.

He nodded, and suddenly charged at her with the sword.

She sidestepped him and stuck the spell on his back.

He let out an inhuman screech and stopped in his tracks with the sword pointing downward.

She pulled out another charm and waited.

In a minute, the charm turned black and fell off his shirt. He turned and looked at her with an angry expression. He appeared to be fatigued and again braced the sword with the tip on the ground. "That-that was not what I expected," he huffed. "Your magic is strong and seems to have some kind of particular resonance with paper. I should have guessed that since you write your spells on paper, but you don't use them in a way I understand."

"I'm not interested in talking to you," she said. "I'm not interested in satisfying your curiosity. I'm only interested in getting out of this maze. Are you going to tell me how to do it now?"

"You haven't quite beaten me. All things considered, I'd really prefer you stay here."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because you're obviously the Queen of Swords. And now I'm the King of Swords. It's only proper you stay."

"And do what?" she snapped. "Keep running through your maze?"

"Of course not." The world suddenly seemed to crumple and the maze folded away to be replaced by a grassy lawn and a stately New England country manor. Brendon's clothes changed to that of an early 1900s fine suit. "This world is infinitely malleable. I can create anything I want. I could create anything you want."

"I don't want anything here. It's not real."

"Who's to say what's real?" he retorted.

"This is just a book. It's just paper. This isn't real."

"It is as real as the world beyond the leather binding," he snapped. "It is the world I create and I shape. What's out there that's better than what's in here? In here, I know the hero will win. I know that love conquers all. I know there will be a happy ending. I can roam the countryside or ride dragons or spaceships," he said, as the pop-up world around them turned from the country manor to a fantasy world to a science fiction one. "Everything I could ever need or want is within the pages. What's so great about your world? There's no plot. There's no resolution. Things happen for no reason. Every day there is tragedy and death and loss." He rocked the sword slightly on its tip. "Why go out there? No matter what you do, what you want, how much you work or wish, you are still at the mercy of an uncaring, chaotic universe."

"I know."

"Then why not stay here? I realize I haven't been upfront with you..."

"You've lied to me and attacked me," she snapped.

"And I apologize for that. But consider the possibilities," he said, as the world collapsed and turned into a modern concert stage.

She sighed and traced out a spell on the sword. "I want to leave. I'll risk the world as it is."

"You'll fail. You know the odds are against you. The odds are always against you," he said bitterly.

"I know that. You can live through any story you want. But that's not for me. That's not my life. So you live your life, and I'll live mine. Now, show me the exit."

"And if I don't?"

She walked up to an ancient oak tree and sliced through it with the sword with no more resistance than cutting through construction paper with a pair of scissors. "Then I'll find an exit."

He looked surprised and then sighed. "Fine. I think you'll change your mind, though. And I won't promise to let you back in."

"That's okay."

A door popped out of the scenery and turned into what looked like a real door.

"That's the exit," Brendon said, looking unhappy.

"Thanks."

"The book goes where it will," he said. "It will be gone before you can dispose of it or destroy it."

"Alright. Well, good-bye," she said, opening the door.

"Good-bye, Isabella," he said.

She walked through.

Isabella sat up at the desk and rubbed her face. Her glasses had been smashed into her cheek and gotten slightly bent. She readjusted them as best she could and looked at the clock. She sighed, put a charm on the book just in case, and went to bed.

In the morning the book had vanished. Isabella told the others what had happened in the book.

"He sounds like he was once an occultist," Maryann said. "Maybe even a member of the Golden Dawn, especially with all the tarot stuff. I wonder how he got in that book."

"I think he wanted to go into the book. He sounded pretty bitter about the real world," Isabella said.

"I think you were very lucky," Nora said seriously. "That sounds like he wasn't sure about letting you leave."

"I agree."

"Where did the book go?" Maryann asked.

"I don't know. It'll go someplace else, I guess, for someone else to read."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Nora asked. "You were almost trapped."

"It is dangerous, but I don't know how to destroy that book. I don't think any of us know how to destroy that book, and I don't think trying to hide it or bury would work. I mean, it's not here now," Isabella said. She sighed. "I hate loose ends as much as anyone, but there's not much we can do now except try to be prepared in case we ever run across it again."

No one was happy with that, but agreed it was the best course of action, so they turned their attention to other matters.

The Lyrics:

I knew better with a guy like you

You played me and broke my heart

You acted like we could make it through

And instead we just fell apart

Nothing you said was ever true

We were doomed from the start.

Refrain: You wounded me with just a look

Your words struck a painful chord

Never again; it's time to close this book

And never turn another page of swords.

You said all the right things

Every syllable sounded so good

Each word tugged on my heartstrings

But then I started to be more shrewd

And realized there was a hollow ring

And that ruined the entire mood.

Refrain:

Every single word you said

Was just a manipulative ploy

To control the thoughts in my head

And turn me into your toy

I was supposed to keep your ego fed

And make life easier for you to enjoy.

Refrain:

I stopped holding your hand

And set to make my life my own

You issued a reprimand

To stay with what I'd known

But I started to understand

That I was better off alone.

Refrain:

Track 6 - Looking-Glass

The Interview:

Nico: Well, clearly the title of this next track is a reference to Lewis Carroll.

Lee: Yep.

Jana: So why gothic rock?

Anna: It's a dark song. We thought that would be the best music.

Nico: But you're not a dark fantasy-themed band?

Lenore: No, we're not, anymore than we're an '80s pop band or a progressive metal band or a country band. And I still don't even know what dark fantasy is supposed to be.

Jana: Fair enough. You play what you like.

Belle: And apparently other people like it too.

Nico: So we'll ask again, what's the inspiration for this one?

Anna: Mirrors are creepy.

Jana: That's it?

Anna: Pretty much.

Jana: So you wrote a song because you think mirrors are creepy?

Anna: Yep.

Lee: There are a lot of horror movies and superstitions about mirrors. We're not the only people who think they can be kind of creepy.

Nico: But Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass aren't usually considered creepy.

Belle: Well, no, true, but it's really hard to rhyme the word "mirror." "Glass" is easier to rhyme.

Nico: [laughs] I see. So there are some practical considerations?

Lenore: Always.

Lee: Writing lyrics is hard enough. Why make it harder on ourselves? Which means we will never write a song about the color orange.

The Story:

Nevermore and the Ravens were technically on the road again. Actually, they had stopped for lunch and to visit on of the off-track roadside attractions that dotted their journeys. They had seen several variations of "World's Biggest Thing" and some of the uncredited but clearly odder museums. This day's travels had brought them to the "Hall of Mirrors," which was billed as "America's Largest Collection of Mirrors," although they could find no confirmation of this claim elsewhere. The building looked like a small, converted warehouse, and was full of cheap shelving units stacked floor to ceiling with mirrors.

"Why? Just, why, Maryann?" Nora sighed as they turned over their hard-earned cash to the laid-back curator.

"Because it's my turn to pick, that's why," the redhead answered.

"The curator seems to have a broad definition of 'mirror,'" Isabella noted, looking at what was some kind of play or opera prop of a bedroom that happened to have a mirrored surface.

"Any magic mirrors?" Leah asked.

"Like you could just find those anywhere," Maryann said dismissively. "Honestly."

"What? Like that isn't a thing that could happen to us?"

"You're paranoid."

They continued down the hall of mirrors.

"So, are we really touring this whole place?" Nora asked impatiently.

"We already agreed it's part of the Great American Road Trip to see every ridiculous tourist attraction," Leah answered.

"Yeah, but we aren't on a road trip for fun. We're trying to get someplace. Do we have to see every last corner of this place? It's a maze!"

"We have time," Isabella said. "It's fine. Some of this stuff is pretty interesting."

"Makes me feel like I'm in a funhouse," Nora said, shuddering slightly.

"Funhouses are fun by definition," Maryann said brightly.

"No. No they aren't," she retorted flatly.

"Personally," Leah said to Nora in a low voice, "I'm with you. I don't really like being around this many mirrors. I'm sure there's a horror movie about it."

Nora considered making a frosty retort about not everything having a movie, but she understood where Leah was coming from and just nodded.

Maryann stopped in front of an eight-foot tall, four-foot wide floor mirror with a frame made of wrought-iron. "Ooo, this one's really big. Who would ever need something this big? Nora?"

"Interior decor is not really my thing."

"You know about Tiffany lamps," Leah countered.

"Okay, fine. I don't know about this, though. Giant floor mirrors with wrought-iron frames seem like the sort of thing some rich person might commission during the Gilded Age, but I can't place it specifically. It could be an art piece. Or could be someone's personal bedroom mirror. It is big enough to see your whole reflection."

Isabella suddenly felt a chill down her spine. "I think we should keep moving. I mean, we have time, but not all the time in the world."

"Okay," Maryann said, but as she turned to walk away, she twisted her ankle slightly and stumbled backwards. She threw her hand out against the large mirror to brace herself and fell right through the glass.

The others just stared for a moment.

Leah then actually slapped her palm against her forehead. "Good God," she said in Spanish.

"How does this even happen?" Nora snapped. "I just... I can't... argh!"

Isabella recovered from the shock first and immediately cast a spirit sight spell on all three of them. The mirror glowed oddly and unpleasantly. "Yeah, so, that's a door," she said.

"I guessed that when Maryann went through the looking-glass," Leah quipped.

"Leah, go get the emergency kit," Nora said icily.

The brunette shot her a nasty look, but did as she said. She retrieved a heavy duffel bag from the van and returned to find Isabella studying the mirror intently. The other two watched quietly, if impatiently, as the blonde completed her examination.

"I don't like it," Isabella declared finally. "The door is tied to the mirror, not the place. The iron scrollwork probably means something but I can't figure it out. I got a bad feeling right before Maryann tripped. I think that was the doorway activating."

"And her falling in?" Leah asked.

"I'm not sure that was an accident," she answered. "I mean, we all know Maryann's a little clumsy, but the timing was too good."

"So we have to go rescue her. Again."

"Yeah. But you have the kit. I'll write out some charms and let's be careful." Isabella wrote out some magic spells using Japanese kanji and stuck one against the glass. The polished surface shimmered like water and then turned dark.

"That's not ominious at all," Leah said. "I've got a flashlight if we need it."

"We might, we might not. Come on," Isabella said. "The spell will hold the door open for us." And the other three also walked through the looking-glass.

Maryann fell painfully on her wrist and arm. She stood up, massaging out her wrist.

"Nothing big broke, but I hope I don't have microfractures or something," she thought.

Then she looked around. She was in a hallway made of what she guessed was black, dull stone and lined as far as she could see in either direction with eight-foot tall, four-foot wide mirrors. Despite having no discernable light source, she could see as well as if she were in a modern office hallway. There were reflections in the mirrors, and they were hers, but not of a young redheaded woman wearing a fire-engine red sundress and baggy orange cardigan. The closest reflections she could see were of her in various, recent stage costumes. None of the reflections had any kind of background; only the mirrors endlessly reflecting against each other. She didn't see was any sign of a doorway. "How does this even happen?" she sighed to herself. She didn't move; instead she cast a few spells of protection on herself. She trusted that Isabella could find and open the door and she wanted to be as easy to rescue as possible.

"Now I get to wait," she thought. She shivered; the hallway was just a touch too chilly. The hallway was absolutely silent except for her own breathing. While there was nothing overtly dangerous that she could sense, the silence and being caught between endless reflections made her feel anxious.

Suddenly either the mirrors started moving or the floor started moving, or both. She couldn't tell because of the lack of landmarks and the fact she couldn't feel anything move. Something seemed to be coming towards her and the journey ended in a round room that was covered with the same mirrors. The reflections were still not what she currently looked like, but they were now more varied than just stage costumes. She could see a tiny baby with a wisp of red hair and wearing a pink onesie, a toddler in a tutu, a small girl with red pigtails and big glasses, a nervous tween with more stylish glasses, an awkward teenager in ill-fitting but supposedly stylish clothes and no glasses, and a few stages in-between. And there was one reflection she didn't recognize at all. The young woman looked identical to her but was wearing an elaborate dark red stage outfit Maryann knew she had never worn, and the reflection's hair looked just a few shades darker than her own. She was reminded of a woman she had met who called herself the "Red Queen" and whom Leah had considered to be Maryann's doppelgänger. Then the odd reflection stepped out of the mirror to be replaced with one Maryann did recognize of herself. She stepped backwards and noted the doppelgänger did not cast any reflections.

"Hi!" the doppelgänger said brightly and in Maryann's own voice.

Despite its cheery tone, Maryann was frightened. She'd encountered all sorts of spirits, fairies, and other supernatural creatures and this was one of the few that seemed to radiate an aura of evil.

"I hope the others get here soon," she thought, but replied in as cheery a voice as she could muster, "Hi!"

"What's your name?" the thing asked.

"What's yours?" she retorted.

It smiled. "I like 'Maryann.'"

"Hey!"

"You don't like that name? I think I could make it work."

"I think you should look up some names and find a different one," she said. She recognized there was some kind of active magic being performed, but she couldn't pinpoint it. "With all these mirrors and weird reflections, this thing could know how to cast illusions. I might not even be looking at it," she thought.

Some of the reflections were changing, although they were still of Maryann.

"How about, 'Ginger?' It goes with my hair," it said.

"I don't think it suits you at all," she replied flatly. "Don't you have your own name?"

"Of course I do," it answered. "But that doesn't mean I want to tell it to you and that doesn't mean I can't give myself a new name. You did, didn't you, 'Anna?'"

"Yeah, well, I didn't take anyone else's name."

"What, really?" it said in a condescending tone. "There's no one else named 'Anna' in all the world?"

"No, I mean, I didn't take a specific person's name. I just picked a pseudonym. It's not my real name. I wouldn't use someone's real name for my stage name," Maryann said.

"You wanted a new name, you tried that one on, it fitted, so you took it," the creature replied. "I like 'Maryann Ginger Blake.'"

"That's my name!" she snapped, stomping her foot. "What's your deal?"

"You didn't say you wanted to deal," it said, its eyes suddenly glinting.

Maryann noticed that its hair was now exactly the same as hers and in exactly the same style. It was also starting to feel less obviously evil which made her feel even more afraid.

"I can deal. What do you want?"

"To get out of here!"

"Oh," it said, looking disappointed. "I thought you were serious." It walked into a mirror and out another one, now dressed exactly like Maryann, even down to the red plastic star-shaped earrings.

"What are you doing?"

"I've got my new name. Now I need my new look, although I think my old look was more interesting, don't you?"

"No, because I'd never wear anything like that," she said indignantly.

"You wouldn't? Good to know."

Maryann scolded herself for telling the creature anything about her, although it did seem to have already gotten her name. "Why do you want my name and the way I look?" she asked.

"Because I can't get what I want with my own name and look."

"And what do you want?"

It smiled again and in a way that was distinctly not like Maryann. "I can't tell you that."

"Okay, then what are you doing?"

"Talking to you."

"No, I mean the magic. What are you doing?" she asked impatiently.

"Oh, something that should concern you, but it doesn't matter because you can't stop it," the creature replied.

It hardly felt evil at all anymore. Maryann gulped. "So you're going to try to take my place. Don't you think someone will notice? I mean, I fell into a mirror."

"That's hardly anything to worry about. Almost no one believes their own eyes, and if there any lingering doubts, I can take care of that with a few well-placed spells."

"So you've done this before."

"Of course, and I'll do it again."

"Which means whatever this enchantment is can be broken," Maryann said.

"Or it just means the spell is up." It tilted its head to the side. "What is that?" it murmured.

The rest of the band found themselves in the mirrored corridor. Isabella placed another charm on the faintly glowing door.

"So, this is creepy," Leah whispered. "Where's Maryann? And why doesn't she ever stay put?"

"I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she couldn't stay put," Isabella said.

"That's fair," she agreed. "So, any idea what's going on or how to find her?"

"Well, she didn't fall back out, so she must have gone that way," the blonde replied, pointing away from the door. "As to what's going on, your guess is as good as mine."

"No insight on the mirrors?" Nora asked.

"Oh, there are lots of myths and superstitions about mirrors. There are so many I don't even know where to start," Isabella answered.

"Should I break them?" Leah asked, hefting the emergency kit a bit.

"No! I've told you, violence isn't the answer," the blonde replied.

"No, you've told me violence isn't always the answer," Leah retorted. "Sometimes it damn well is."

"Okay, fine, that's true, but no smashing until I determine that it's okay to do that."

"Define 'okay.'"

"That's kind of the problem, isn't it?"

"I hear voices," Nora said suddenly. "I think it's Maryann."

They were silent as they walked down the mirrored corridor.

The doppelgänger looked at Maryann. "This is most unexpected. Well, there isn't too much they can do once I get rid of you," it said, grinning evilly.

Maryann screamed and tackled the creature which was clearly the last thing it expected.

"Maryann's in trouble!" Isabella yelled, and they ran down the hallway into the round room. In it, they saw two identical Maryanns rolling around on the floor trying to beat each other up.

"Soooo, this is weird," Leah said after a minute.

The two women stopped fighting and stood up.

"An explanation, if you please," Isabella asked, looking at the two. The mirrored room showed all their reflections and still no backgrounds.

"She's a fake! I'm the real Maryann," said one of the redheads.

"No, she's lying! She's a demon! I'm the real Maryann," said the other. Then they both stared at each other angrily.

"I am sure I've seen this in a movie before," Leah said.

"Okay, then how did they figure out who was real?" Nora snapped. "They look identical to me."

"I don't exactly remember that. We can ask them personal questions only the real Maryann would know."

"But she, it, whatever, cast some kind of spell on me to find all that stuff out," one of the Maryanns protested. "It's trying to be me!"

"No, you're trying to be me," the other yelled. "Stop it!" they yelled in unison.

"Isabella, tell me you can figure this one out," Nora said.

Isabella looked back and forth at them helplessly. "This thing has some very strong magic. It's stronger than mine. Their auras look absolutely the same."

"Oh, no!" wailed one of the Maryanns. "It's me, guys! Maryann Ginger Blake..."

"And my little brother's name is Skipper, I mean Jason," the other interrupted.

"You shut up!"

"You shut up!"

"You're a liar and a demon-thing!" one Maryann shouted, almost in tears.

"You're the liar and demon-thing!" the other shouted back. "You've got to figure out which one of us is which, or I'll have to stay here."

"Oh no you don't!" the other said. "I saw that in a movie once. You say you have to stay because it's the only way and then the others think I'm the demon-thing because I didn't volunteer to stay. Don't believe her!"

"Maryann!" Nora roared.

The two stopped shouting at each other and stared at her.

"Be quiet so we can think, okay? We'll get this figured out." She turned to the others. "Ladies, shall we talk a moment?"

The redheads pouted identically.

The other three backed off a few steps and lowered their voices.

"Isabella, there's no way you can magically tell the difference?" Nora asked.

"No. Like I said, this is strong magic. Whatever creature is doing this clearly understands illusion and imitation. The whole damn world is a mirror. I'm sorry; I'm just not powerful enough to see through this kind of illusion."

"What if we smash the mirrors?" Leah asked.

"Um, let's save that as a last resort. We don't want the world to collapse around us."

"Ah, okay. Do you have any idea what kind of thing could do this? The Maryanns keep calling it a demon-thing. Is it a demon? Or what?"

"It could be a demon, or a fairy, or many other kinds of spirits, or even some kind of human magic-user. These are powerful illusions. This could literally be anything." She frowned thoughtfully. "But I wonder why Maryann, er, Maryanns keep calling it a demon. Maryann knows as well as I do that this could be anything."

"She could be confused. Or it lied to her," Leah suggested.

Isabella's brow remained puckered. "Yes, that's true, but maybe there's something else and she can't tell us directly because this thing will try to confuse us more."

"I have an idea," Nora said suddenly. "Leah, follow my lead."

"Um, sure, I guess."

Nora unfastened the silver cross necklace she always wore and held it in her hand, hiding it from view.

Enormously confused, Leah unfastened her silver crucifix necklace and did the same.

Nora broke away from the huddle and walked up to one of the Maryanns. Leah more hesitantly walked up to the other Maryann.

"Um, so now what?" the one in front of Nora asked.

Nora brought her hand up and held the cross against the Maryann's forehead. It shrieked and stumbled backwards as the holy symbol burned into its flesh.

Leah quickly brought crucifix up to the other Maryann's forehead.

She blinked.

"Just checking," Leah said, and took Maryann's hand and yanked her backwards towards Isabella. "So this is the real you."

"Of course it is! I'm not allergic to holy symbols like evil demon-things!" she said.

The demon-thing snarled and looked up; there was a black cross burnt onto its forehead. "How dare you!" it howled and leaped at Maryann.

Isabella was already in the middle of a kuji-rin and stopped the demon-thing cold with a paper charm stuck to its forehead. However, the demon-thing, now a grotesque reflection of Maryann, started to appear in the mirrors around them as they backed down the corridor, and the reflections didn't have the charm.

"You can't escape my world!" it hissed, and one leaped out of the mirror again towards Maryann.

But Leah was ready for it and brought up a baseball bat into its face. It shattered like glass.

It laughed and another reflection appeared in the mirror. "You are surrounded, foolish mortals."

Isabella thought quickly. "Is it really that simple?" she murmured. "Everyone take a weapon!" she shouted, "and stay together." She got a crowbar, Maryann got an aluminum bat, and Nora grabbed a fireplace poker, and they all put their backs together.

Now suddenly the demon-thing seemed concerned. "What do you think you're doing with those?"

"Well, if superstitions are true, we're about to rack up a few centuries of bad luck," Isabella answered, and smashed a mirror with the crowbar.

The demon-things in the other mirrors howled with pain. "NOOOO!!" it shrieked, and dozens of reflections lunged at the band.

"We're going to get overrun!" Maryann yelled as they swung wildly. The real creature, it seemed, was still held by Isabella's spell, but until they could destroy the mirrors, the reflections, while fragile, were endless.

"You said violence wasn't the answer!" Leah shouted.

"No, I said it was when I figured it was okay!"

"So what happens now?" Nora demanded.

Then the mirror in front of the broken one shattered seemingly spontaneously.

"That! Just keep them away as best you can!" Isabella said. "We have to wait for infinity to circle back around."

"What does that even mean?" Leah shouted as shards of glass flew around them. "We're going to bleed to death of millions of micro-cuts at this rate!"

Then the mirrors on both sides of the original broken one shattered. And then it happened on the other side of the corridor, and then again on both sides of the newly broken mirrors.

"NOOOO!!" howled the reflections. "You've ruined everything! Go, go, go before all is lost!" The reflections stopped pouring out of the remaining mirrors and seemed to rush into the undamaged mirrors as though to shore them up against spontaneously shattering. The real creature's eyes had turned into mirrors, but it still could not move, although the charm was starting to smoke and curl around the edges.

"Run!" Isabella commanded.

As one mind, they all tore down the mirrored corridor at their top speeds with the sound of breaking glass behind them. Isabella let the other three run through the door first and pulled off the charm as she dashed through. It turned to ash and the one she left on the outside also turned to ash. The glass in the mirror itself stayed black. They took a moment to catch their breath.

"Um, we'd better go before the curator gets here and asks what the hell happened to this thing," Leah said.

They agreed and hurried exited the museum, piled into the van, and headed out.

"It wasn't my fault," Maryann said first. "It was going to steal my soul or something and pretend to be me."

"No one said it was your fault," Isabella replied. "How did you know it would respond to holy symbols?"

"Because it was totally evil. I mean, it was until it started trying to be me. We talked for awhile before I realized what it was doing. And I asked it, 'what's your deal,' and it was suddenly all about making a deal, you know, like demons, or devils. I mean, I know other things do too, but that thing was so evil. I mean really evil. It was already trying to be me so I didn't think my faith would faze it, but I didn't think I could tell you guys what to do because I was afraid its illusion would be so strong it could hide its reaction."

"It might have been able to," Isabella said. "I've never seen that kind of magic before. It was using mirrors to cast illusions and make itself more powerful."

"Except you broke one," Leah said.

"Yes. Mirrors reflect each other to infinity. I figured breaking one would break the spell. I just didn't know how long it would take. Luckily I think that branding Nora gave it probably weakened it considerably."

"You thought my faith would be that strong?" Nora asked Maryann. "And Leah's if she had gotten to that thing instead of me?"

"Absolutely," the redhead replied immediately.

She looked a little uncomfortable. "Well, um, thanks for that. So are we going to have more trouble with that?"

"There's never any certainty," Isabella replied. "Regular mirrors are just pieces of glass, just like regular doors are only wood frames that create open spaces in walls. Except, of course, when they aren't."

"Of course," Leah sighed. She brightened up. "But if mirrors are just pieces of glass, we should avoid the seven years' bad luck, right?"

"Oh, I never believed in that anyway. I've broken a couple of mirrors before and I don't think I've had really bad luck," Maryann said.

Leah and Nora looked at her with raised eyebrows. Isabella glanced at her in the rearview mirror.

"Okay, well, maybe this is all bad luck. Or maybe this is just my lot in life and any bad luck won't make a dent on what I already deal with," she replied with a slight pout.

"Don't worry about it," Leah said finally. "If you're cursed with bad luck, as long as it doesn't damage our music career, we'll get through it."

"Thanks!"

"But, you know, could you try not to fall into any mirrors?"

"You guys," she sighed.

And they continued on to their next gig.

The Lyrics:

Some say mirrors are cursed

And they'll steal your soul

Or they're doors to other worlds

But what does folklore know?

You glance at it in passing

Wait, did something just move?

You shake your head and leave

You've got nothing to prove.

Refrain: It's just a looking-glass

A mirror to look into

But when you look into it

What looks back at you?

When you get a funny feeling

But you immediately deny

Surely you're imagining it

That's just a trick of the eye.

Something just doesn't look right

Your complexion is too sallow

What's that behind you?

Is it a moving shadow?

Refrain:

Shadows in the mirror

What could they mean?

Endlessly reflecting back

What was once unseen.

You realize the danger

But it's too late, alas!

What was inside is now out

And you're behind the looking-glass.

Refrain x2:

Track 7 - Haunted Castle

The Interview:

Nico: This next track is, well, pretty retro. If I didn't know when this came out, I'd assume it was a rock and roll song from the '60s.

Lenore: Good. That's the sound we were going for.

Jana: Do you ever worry your albums suffer from tonal whiplash?

Belle: Believe it or not, we do consider that when we put these collections together. And we know that because we play with so many genres that making the whole tone of the album coherent is a pretty big challenge.

Lee: I suppose we could just pick a genre. That might make our lives easier.

Anna: But we think our fans appreciate the variety of genres on our albums. And like Lenore said, sometimes we write the music to fit the song.

Lee: So if we picked, say, alt rock as our genre, but the song needed a country beat, we either force the song into a genre it doesn't fit, or leave it out entirely. I mean, unless we decided to make a country album.

Nico: That would be weird.

Jana: Totally weird.

Anna: But we could do a lot with costumes!

Belle: Anyway, our inspiration is varied, so it seems only natural that our music should be as well.

Nico: That's a good point. So it looks like you've got another song on the theme of the supernatural isn't a lot of fun.

Lenore: A lot of people get caught up in the romance of the ideas without thinking out the practical considerations.

Lee: So that's our twist.

Jana: Did you ever stay in a castle that was supposed to be haunted?

Anna: Yes and no.

Nico: Are you going to explain that?

Lee: Nope.

The Story:

The band called Nevermore and the Ravens was on the road again, but this time they were not heading for a gig. They were heading to a Labor Day weekend getaway, courtesy of Maryann's cousin Stephanie. The beautiful Washington state scenery went mostly unnoticed by two passengers. Nora, who still felt the sting of a summer-time love affair that ended badly, was staring blankly at her phone. Maryann, whose beloved grandmother had died only a few weeks earlier, was staring despondantly at some pictures on her phone. Isabella was busy navigating the winding county road, so only Leah had the luxury and inclination to take in the autumn colors. The green cargo van turned up one last bumpy, gravelly road and stopped in a crude gravel parking lot. They all got out.

"So this is Rookwood Castle?" Leah said, looking at the stone ediface. "It's not as, well, impressive as a castle should be."

"It's not a real castle," Nora said acidly. "It's just a bed and breakfast with a gimmick."

"Maryann!" called a familiar voice. A bubbly blonde ran up the group and hugged the redhead tightly. "I'm so sorry," she said in a much more subdued voice. "I know how much your Mee-maw meant to you."

"Thanks, Steph," Maryann answered with tears stinging her eyes.

"This will be fun," Stephanie said. "I got us the Enchanted Cottage. It sleeps six, and has a kitchenette, and we can just relax and unwind, okay? Just like when we were kids and we went camping, only we don't have to pitch a tent." She squeezed her cousin's shoulders. "Come on. We'll drop off your luggage and then you can meet the innkeepers. They're really nice."

Rookwood Castle was a small tourist destination near a state park. The castle was a stone building with three floors and a basement, a large, Medieval-style dining area on the first floor and a rather modern pub in the basement. The castle had been built on a hill, so the basement actually opened out to a patio with a view of the back courtyard. The second floor had a gallery with some suits of armor, a few paintings, and a few tapestries also in a Medieval style. The castle had only a few rooms for guests, but there were other buildings that made up the "village" around the castle. This included a few shops, rooms over the shops, a bakery, a few large cottages and cabins for whole families to stay in, and a few tiny cabins with minimal amenities. There was also a small house marked "servants' quarters," which was where the innkeeper's family lived.

"Who painted these buildings, a five-year old?" Nora asked.

"They're fairytale colors," Stephanie answered.

"Or an Easter egg exploded," Leah remarked, looking at the pastel purples, greens, and blues that dominated the color scheme.

The Enchanted Cottage was near the castle; it had two floors, a kitchenette, a full bathroom, a half bathroom, two bedrooms, and a pull-out sofa. It was also pastel pink.

Leah looked at Stephanie. "Yeah, so of course we've got the pink one."

"Of course! It looks like a Barbie dream house!" Stephanie said.

The band stashed away their luggage and Stephanie gave them a tour of the rest of the village before circling back to the castle.

They helped themselves to the always available tea and coffee while Stephanie introduced them to the innkeepers.

"Glad to meet you," said Zac. He was a handsome man with thick glasses in his 40s. He had a pin with the symbol of the Rebel Alliance displayed prominently on his shirt.

"We hope you enjoy your stay," said Dina, his wife. She was a tall, blonde woman with a slight Russian accent. She had a necklace with a charm made out of a ten-sided die. "If you have any questions about the games in the library, please let us know."

"We've played all of them. We can also hook you up with a one-shot role-playing game if you want."

"Oh, I might do that," Leah said.
"You're such a nerd," Nora sighed, crossing her arms.

"Hey, we all are," Dina said brightly. She suddenly snapped out something in Russian, and then two children sullenly walked into the front office. They looked to be about eleven years old and were in that skinny phase that portended a growth spurt.

"What is it, Mom?" the girl whined.

"This is that internet band you like, Carrie, Nevermore and the Ravens," she said.

The girl pushed her glasses up her nose and stared at them skeptically. "Are you sure?"

"Do you want us to break out in song right here?" Leah asked.

"Yes," she answered defiantly.

Nora rolled her eyes. "Not me."

Isabella sighed and sang a few verses of one of their more popular songs.

"Oh, it is you. Why are you here?"

"Carrie, don't be rude!" Dina said.

"Mom, can I go?" the boy asked.

"Oh, right, Mark, have you been in the tool shed again?" Zac asked.

"No," he said, looking guilty.

"We'll talk later. Oh, and are you still telling guests this place is haunted?"

The band looked at each other and Stephanie gasped slightly.

"No," they answered in unison, looking guilty.

"Kids, stopping saying that, okay?" Dina said. "You know the castle isn't haunted. Now, you two go help in the kitchen."

"Oh, Mom," they whined in unison.

"And Mark, we'll talk later," Zac said.

The two children sullenly stalked off to the kitchen.

"Sorry about that," Dina said brightly. "Twins, you know, and they're always in some kind of trouble. And I'm sorry about Carrie. I thought she'd like to meet you. She's always into some new band and she really loves music and theater."

"Oh, that's fine," Leah said.

"Did you say this place was haunted?" Stephanie asked.

"Oh, no, it's not. But for some reason the twins think it is, and they tell the guests, and then the guests tell other guests and soon we've scared away our target crowd," Zac said. "Which is families and gamers."

"Gamers don't want to stay in a haunted castle?" Leah asked.

"Well, some might, but that's not really what we're going for, you know? We want this to be a fun family getaway, you know, and host board game tournaments and that kind of thing. And sometimes have LARP parties."

The band and Stephanie looked at Leah expectantly.

"Live action role-playing," she said with a sigh.

"Anyway, we've bored you enough. Please, play any of the games you like. You can even take them back to your room. We've also got some nice hiking trails. Dinner will be at seven in the Great Hall. I'm running my one-shot on Sunday afternoon if you're interested," Zac said. "It'll be awesome."

"I'll let you know," Leah replied. "I've had a couple of bad experiences with pick-up games."

"You and me both," Nora murmured.

"Come on, let's go for a walk," Stephanie said. "Then we'll play some games. I've already picked out some I want to try."

The woods around the castle were fairly peaceful and Stephanie selected a beginner's hiking trail for them. They returned to the cottage and she pulled out some games, and through sheer force of bubbly personality managed to get Nora and Maryann engaged in them. When it was time for dinner, Stephanie changed into a sparkly cocktail dress.

"I didn't know there was a dress code," Leah said.

"Oh, there isn't, but I like to dress up," she replied with a laugh.

The food was good and put everyone in a good mood. The tables in the Great Hall seated ten people comfortably, and Stephanie's extroverted nature soon had the whole table in conversation as though they had been friends for years. And eventually the subject turned to the alleged haunting.

A middle-aged, heavy-set woman named Jen looked at the band members in a conspiratory fashion. "So," she said in what she probably thought was an undertone, "have you heard rumors the castle is haunted?"

"Yes," Isabella answered, as she was sitting nearest. Nora and Maryann had been carefully put in the middle so they wouldn't have to converse with strangers if they didn't want to. "But the innkeepers say that's not true."

"I told you, honey," said the middle-aged, heavy-set man next to Jen, "if it was haunted, they'd advertise that. So it's not."

"Oh, Darnell, maybe they just don't know any better."

Leah looked at Isabella.

"I'm pretty sure this place isn't haunted," Isabella said to both the couple and the rest of the band.

"But how do you know?" Stephanie asked.

"Well, I don't," she said uncomfortably, "but the innkeepers seem to think this is just something their kids are making up."

"Why would they do that?" Jen asked with a confused expression.

"Maybe they think it would bring more business," Nora offered.

Jen and Darnell's teenaged son looked up from his phone. "Or maybe they think just a Medieval-themed B&B is lame and a haunted castle is less lame."

"Matt, sweetie, what do you think?" Jen asked.

He flushed slightly at his mother's use of a pet name and shrugged. "It's all lame." He sighed. "But so am I."

"Nah, Deadpool's awesome," Leah said.

He looked up with watery, startled blue eyes. "Hey, you guessed right! Everyone else keeps guessing this is an Iron Man t-shirt. Well, if they even get that."

"If the castle isn't haunted," said Neil, one half of a young couple that rounded out the table, "why are there so many cold spots in the gallery?"

"Or those weird noises here in the Great Hall," said Patrick, the other half of the couple.

"What noises?" Stephanie asked politely.

"Oh, well, you can't hear them right now, but if you come down here at night when no one else is around there's this like, moaning noise, or this like, keening sound."

"Ooo, keening, yeah, like a banshee," Neil said.

"Cold spots are going to be common in a place like this," Nora said, but mostly politely. "It's an old place made out of stone. I'm surprised the HVAC system works as well as it does. The noise could just be the drafts too."

"Well, I hope you're right," Neil said. "We come here to relax, not be scared."

"Exactly!" Jen said suddenly. "So who wants to play Dominion after dinner?"

After the plates were cleared away, many guests elected to stay in the Great Hall and play board games, even Nora and Maryann. Many people were still playing at midnight, when suddenly the lights dimmed, brightened, dimmed again, went out for about twenty seconds, and then came back on.

"Well, that was weird," Leah said.

"Old wiring," Nora said matter-of-factly. Then she looked at Maryann and Isabella. "Right?" she asked meaningfully.

"Definitely old wiring," Isabella answered.

Maryann finally seemed to pay attention and looked around. "Well, I don't see anything to make me believe something else is going on."

But the incident seemed to put a damper on the general mood and soon the games ended the guests filtered back to their rooms. Stephanie almost immediately went to bed which allowed the band some time to talk privately.

"This castle is not haunted," Isabella said firmly.

"You know, we've been in places that aren't supposed to be haunted before," Leah said. "And they were definitely haunted."

"I can check the place out with spirit sight tomorrow," she replied, "but I'm not hearing anything. I'm not getting any bad feelings or feeling any changes in the wind. Maryann?"

"Well," she said slowly, "I'm kind of out of it, but I don't feel anything either. But it can't hurt to make sure, right? I mean, Leah is right."

They looked at Nora.

She sighed. "It's fine. We can investigate, but then what do we do?"

"We'll figure that out when we find the answer," Isabella said. Then she yawned. "I have got to get some sleep though. My contacts are burning."

They agreed this was a good idea and went to bed.

Breakfast was in the Great Hall of the castle, and the prospect of investigating another mystery seemed to cheer Maryann up a bit. Obviously they couldn't check out any of the guests' room without permission, but Zac and Dina had made it clear they were free to spend as much time in the public areas of the castle as they liked. The only potential complication was the presence of Stephanie. She knew nothing of her cousin's magical inclinations, and certainly nothing of the band's. But while she had a lot of good qualities, keen observation skills were not among them. Nora gamely tried to shake off her own malaise and keep Stephanie distracted so Maryann and Isabella were free to do what they needed to. Leah took over when it was clear Nora was getting too upset; Nora and Maryann often argued and Stephanie was a lot like her cousin.

Isabella cast a spirit sight on herself to enhance her abilities as a natural medium. Maryann wore one of her small crystal pendulums on a cord that day as a necklace and would occasionally hold it up to check if it was reacting. If anyone noticed, they would have simply assumed she was fidgeting with her necklace.

The basement level, what of it they had access to, turned up no unusual signs. The same was true of the first floor. The only public space on the second floor was the gallery, but it was relatively large.

"Do you think this stuff's real?" Stephanie said skeptically, looking at a suit of armor. "I thought anything real would be a museum, you know?"

"They're replica pieces," Nora answered. "Like you said, anything real would be a museum."

"But they're so short!"

"Well, they're decent replicas," she said, and launched into an explanation on Medieval fashion while keeping Stephanie slightly apart of the other three.

Leah hung back between the two groups, ready to tag Nora out, if necessary.

Maryann and Isabella carefully searched the gallery.

"Oooh, I felt a cold draft," Maryann said suddenly as she passed a suit of armor. They both immediately examined the suit again. "Weird. There's nothing."

"Nothing magical anyway," Isabella said, and they continued.

Leah passed by the suit next, and she also felt a brief puff of very cold air. "Um, guys," she said, addressing Isabella and Maryann.

They examined it again.

"Nothing," Maryann said, sounding annoyed.

Stephanie and Nora passed by the suit, but a few feet farther away than the other two, and either didn't feel the cold draft or didn't notice. If there were any ghostly groans or other sounds, they were drowned out by the conversation. Finally they finished their sweep of the gallery and went down the stairs to get some coffee and tea from the beverage station.

Dina poked her head out of the office and said something in Russian, and then quite clearly, "Carrie! Mark!"

"Is something wrong?" Isabella asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, blushing. "I wasn't shouting at you, of course! I'm sorry, but the twins are supposed to help out on weekends and I'm having trouble getting them to do their chores."

"Can't you text them?" Maryann asked.

Dina laughed. "Sure, if we got any cell reception out here. Text them! That's funny! That's why I have to shout, I'm afraid."

The twins were not summoned, but apparently Zac was.

"They're not in the pub," he said. "And I think Mark's been in the tool shed again. I keep telling him, I don't mind if he uses the tools but we need to be told first! Honestly." He shook his. "I'm sorry. Twins, you know, and now they're growing into teenagers."

"We're doomed," Dina said with a smile. Then she frowned. "But seriously, go find them."

"Darth Pater is on the job," he replied, and left the office in search of his children.

Leah giggled and Nora rolled her eyes slightly.

"Are you Darth Mater?" Nora asked Dina.

"No, I'm more into Star Trek than Star Wars. But Zac, well, let's just say when we found out we were having twins I had to fight long and hard to keep my children from being named 'Luke' and 'Leia.' Luckily for them, I'm pretty stubborn. We eventually compromised with something us and the kids could live with."

"Yeah, 'Leah' is fine, but 'Leia,' that's rough," Leah said.

The office phone rang and Dina excused herself. The group went outside to enjoy a walk in the brisk morning air. This time Leah distracted Stephanie while the others chatted.

"There's nothing I can find," Isabella said.

"What about those cold spots?" Maryann asked.

"What cold spots?" Nora asked.

They explained.

"I still think it's just a drafty old stone building," she said dismissively, "especially this time of year when the A/C is shut off and the heat isn't on yet."

"We should walk around the village, just in case," Maryann said. "And go into all the shops we can. Once they open anyway."

"That should keep Steph happy," Nora said dryly.

After their hike they did go to the "village" and first stopped at the bakery for a snack, which Stephanie generously paid for. Then they visited all the shops, although there really weren't that many. Stephanie gushed over many items, and Maryann gushed over some items as well and had to be reminded of what their purpose was. In the end, they came back around to the pink cottage and found no evidence of anything supernatural.

Maryann was sufficiently cheered up she continued to chat with her cousin and the other three seperated and went into Nora and Isabella's room to talk.

"This place is not haunted," Isabella said, "at least not as far as I can tell in any way, shape, or form. I mean, I could be wrong, but so far there's nothing out of place."

"I'll take your word for it," Leah said. She glanced out the window. "Hey, is that Carrie and Mark?"

The other three looked up.

"Yeah," Isabella replied. "But what are they doing?"

"Not helping their parents, obviously," Nora said.

The twins suddenly appeared startled and ran out of sight.

"Well, that's not suspicious," Leah said.

"They're probably just trying to get out of their chores," Nora replied.

"Yeah, probably. But it looked like Carrie was carrying a toolbox or something."

"They're not our kids; they're not our business," she said sharply.

They turned the discussion back to the subject of the haunted castle, and were interrupted a little while later by Maryann and Stephanie. Stephanie had convinced Maryann to go to the castle and play some games, so the rest of the group went with them. They spent the afternoon in the pub and it was actually quite pleasant. Isabella was half-listening to the other guests to find out if anyone else was discussing the alledged haunting, but most guests seemed to be focused on the games. They returned to the cottage to change for dinner and this time both Maryann and Stephanie were wearing fancy cocktail dresses.

"Where did you get that?" Leah asked. As she often roomed with Maryann, she was pretty familiar with what the redhead packed.

"Oh, I brought that," Stephanie answered. "I didn't know what I wanted to wear, so I brought a whole bunch of stuff, and Maryann and I are the same size."

"It all works out!" Maryann said, with something closer to her usual level of enthusiasm. "I'm sorry there's nothing for you guys."

"Hey, it's fine. Dresses aren't my thing unless they're part of a costume," Leah said.

They had dinner in the Great Hall again, and found themselves seated with the same group as the night before. Without the distractions of games, the main topic seemed to be the haunting. Jen was the most vocal and reported feeling cold drafts, especially in the gallery but sometimes in the hallways, and hearing strange noises. Patrick and Neil reported more strange noises in the Great Hall when it was empty enough to hear. Darnell and Matt were skeptical. After dinner they stayed in the Great Hall and played games. At midnight, as on the previous night, the lights dimmed, brightened, dimmed again, then went out for about twenty seconds before coming back on. The band noticed Zac frown and head outside. And as on the previous night, after the excitement died down, the games soon broke up and people returned to their rooms.

Stephanie immediately went to bed and the others had a quick meeting.

"We should go back to the Great Hall and investigate," Isabella said. "I want to hear those noises for myself."

Leah yawned. "Do we all have to go, or can Nora and I just go to bed?"

"I guess we can go by ourselves," Maryann said slowly.

"Thanks. Just make sure you don't split up," she replied, and went to her room.

"You know we aren't much help here," Nora said with a shrug. "Call us if you get in trouble," she said, and went to her room.

"Sometimes these gifts just aren't much fun," Maryann started to say, before she was interrupted with a yawn of her own.

"We'll wait about half an hour and head over. Do you want to play cards? It''ll keep us awake," Isabella said.

After forty-five minutes and Maryann's victory over Isabella, they quietly crept out of the Enchanted Cottage and back to the castle. By now all the buildings in the "village" were dark as shops had long since been closed and the other guests had finally gone to bed.

"It's a little spooky," Maryann said in a low voice.

Isabella cast spirit sight on both of them. "I don't see anything unusual."

The castle had been technically locked at 10:00, but registered guests were given a key to the castle along with their room keys. Only the games' library was fully lit; the overhead lights in all other public areas had been turned off and they were illuminated by wall sconces only. The sconces were bright enough to prevent anyone from tripping over the heavy furniture or decorations but that was about it.

"This is a little spooky too," Maryann said.

"But I don't see anything unusual."

"Aren't we supposed to hear something?"

The Great Hall was quiet. They could hear the faint hum of equipment in the kitchen, but that was all.

"Let's walk around," Isabella suggested.

They walked quietly around the room. Isabella examined the tapestries, suits of armor, and other decorations in the room. Maryann followed closely behind.

Suddenly they heard a low, soft groan that stopped after a few seconds.

"What was that?" Maryann squeaked as they stopped in their tracks.

Isabella looked around. "Nothing," she answered, much more confused than frightened.

"Are you sure your spells are working right?"

"Are yours?" she retorted with uncharacteristic sharpness.

"Sorry," Maryann said contritely, and got her pendulum out. It didn't budge. "Okay, yeah, I got nothing either. Just an empty suit."

Isabella suddenly looked thoughtful. "Is it?" she murmured, and got out her penlight and started to examine the suit of armor.

They heard the groaning sound again.

Maryann jumped. "There it is again!"

"I know; I heard it."

"What are you looking for?" she asked.

"I think sometimes we get so caught up in the supernatural we forget how to look for an ordinary explanation," she said, on her hands and knees as she examined the base.

Maryann started to help, but then they heard the ghostly groan again. "What is that?"

Isabella stood up and lifted the facemask on the suit very slightly. "Huh."

"What? What?"

"Come on, we need to look at the gallery."

"What are we looking for?" the redhead demanded.

"I'll show you," the blonde answered cryptically.

In about an hour they returned to the Enchanted Cottage and went to their respective bedrooms.

Maryann and Isabella were difficult to rouse the next morning on account of their late night, and the others ended up letting them sleep in and brought them breakfast. Maryann drew Stephanie out shopping so the others could talk.

"Well, I think we've solved this mystery," Isabella said.

"Doesn't Maryann usually hang the lampshades?" Leah asked.

"What? Nevermind. So yeah, the answer is really simple," she said, and explained her theory to them.

"So maybe we shouldn't always look to the supernatural for answers," Nora said when Isabella was done.

"Yeah, well, given that we're weirdness magnets," Leah said, "I think our current approach is probably the best."

Nora sighed. "So it seems. Well, we'd better go have a talk with Zac and Dina."

They went to the castle and found Zac in the office. "Are you going to join my game this afternoon?" he asked Leah.

"If they don't mind, I'd love to," she said.

"You're such a geek," Nora sighed.

"That means 'yes,'" Leah said brightly.

"You know, when you say it that way, you sound like Maryann."

"Well, I do spend a lot of time with her."

"Ladies, we had other business. Zac, I think I may have figured out what's going on with your haunted castle. Can you follow me?"

He looked confused, but got an assistant to cover the phones. Isabella gave him a brief tour of the Great Hall and gallery and finally returned to his office. "I don't know whether to be proud or angry," he said. "Probably both."

At that moment, Dina appeared with Mark and Carrie in tow. She looked angry, and they looked sullen. "They were both in the tool shed," she snapped.

"Kids," Zac said, "I know what you've been doing."

Dina looked puzzled and the twins suddenly looked guilty.

"You've been rigging up the castle to make people think it's haunted."

"What?" Dina exclaimed.

The twins stared at the carpet.

"I found the motion sensors, and the mini-fans, and the speakers, that you hid in the suits of armor."

"Wait, what?" Dina said again.

Zac turned to his wife. "They put motion sensors in the suits of armor that would trigger either a puff of cold air or a ghost noise. I think they were also messing with the breaker box."

"That's why the lights went out," Dina said. "And that's why you've been in the tool shed. Kids, that's very dangerous! Why did you do that?"

"Because haunted castles are more fun, and get more business," Carrie said. "This place is like totally spooky, especially at night."

"We didn't even have to add creaking noises," Mark said. "The floors creak enough. And a bed and breakfast is just lame."

"Who told you that?" Dina demanded.

The twins looked at each other. "The other kids," Carrie answered vaguely.

"You know, since this place isn't haunted, if we say it is then that's false advertisement," Zac said.

Mark snorted derisively. "Yeah, like you can prove a place isn't haunted. How'd you figure it out, anyway?"

Dina and Zac looked at each other, then the band members, and back at each other. "Because we pay attention," Dina finally answered. "You two have been up to something for quite some time, and we knew this place wasn't haunted. It was just a matter of time."

"So it's lame again," Carrie sighed.

"Listen, kids," Zac said. "We appreciate your initiative. But you can't go behind our backs like this. You can't ditch your chores. And you really shouldn't mess with the tools and the wiring in this place. You could get hurt."

"We're sorry," they muttered in unison.

"So you're going to have to be punished," Dina continued.

They whined a bit.

"But I think we should have a family discussion about the business. You give us some ideas, and we'll see what we can do, as a family, to act on them, okay?"

The twins looked at each other. "Maybe," Mark said sullenly.

"Alright, well, we'll talk later. Zac?"

"Right, Darth Pater is on it."

The twins rolled their eyes.

"Come on, kids," he said, and the followed him out of the office.

"Thank you so much," Dina said. "I'm afraid one of them would have gotten hurt. I'm sorry they've been such a bother."

"No problem," Leah said. "But I feel like I'm missing some obvious joke about meddling kids. Oh well."

"I hope the rest of your stay will be less eventful. Hey, were you still interested in playing in Zac's one-shot this afternoon?"

Leah looked at the other two, who nodded slightly. "Sure!"

"Alright, then I'll get you a character sheet and get you rolled up."

"We'll go check on Stephanie and Maryann," Isabella said.

The rest of the weekend was uneventful, but pleasant, and while neither Nora nor Maryann were quite themselves again, they were feeling much better.

The Lyrics:

The sun set long ago

It's the middle of the night

Oh, no here he comes again

The ghost of the black knight.

He appears like clockwork

Charging down the hall

And making so much noise!

That ghost has such gall!

Refrain: Oh, no it's started again

It's really such a hassle

The ghosts are such a pain

Living in a haunted castle.

There's the sound of bagpipes

Coming from the keep

The Scottish ghost is playing

And I can't get any sleep!

What's with that Highlander?

Why can't he leave me alone?

I suppose I should be grateful

There can be only one.

Refrain:

Why is the drawbridge wet?

What's that splashing the water?

You've got to be kidding me!

Now I have a moat monster.

It's kicking up ugly muck

Hopping around like a toad

And I have to clean up the mess.

Hey, monster, hit the road!

Refrain:

Sure the tourism is nice

But the commotion doesn't cease

I wish they'd just go away

So we could all rest in peace.

Refrain:

Track 8 - Uncanny Valley

The Interview:

Nico: Okay, so why did you choose a synthpop backing for clearly creepy lyrics?

Lenore: We liked the juxtaposition.

Belle: The key is minor.

Jana: Yes, but the beat is so, well, upbeat. In fact, it starts to speed up at the bridge.

Lee: Yeah, like someone's trying to run away from something.

Jana: Ah, of course. So even the synthpop beat serves the purpose of making the song extra creepy.

Anna: Well, what do you expect from the uncanny valley?

Nico: Okay, I get that. The video for this song is shot like a horror movie.

Lee: That was absolutely the idea.

Jana: Do you think you'll draw from the horror genre in the future?

Belle: I think we've shown we'll draw from any genre. We've used horror before.

Nico: Usually you have a twist on horror, though.

Anna: Well, to be honest, some of us are more squeamish than others and don't like horror too much. So we put a twist on it to make it less horrible.

Jana: So you're saying one or more of you is afraid of the dark?

Anna: Oh, no, not the dark. Just the scary things that could be in it.

Lenore: Everyone's afraid of something. Actually, the uncanny valley is a term used to describe something pretty much everyone finds at least creepy if not frightening.

The Story:

"I don't like these costumes very much," Maryann said as she and the rest of the members of Nevermore and the Ravens got ready for their show.

"Why not?" Leah and Nora asked in unison, as they were the main costume designers.

"Jinx!" Leah added.

Nora rolled her eyes.

"I guess it's not the costumes so much," the redhead explained, straightening out her crinkled black tulle skirt. "It's really the make-up that gets me." They had made-up their faces to be nearly completely white, including their lips, and even covered up their eyebrows. They used black eyeliner to draw in the outline of an eye quite a bit bigger than their own eyes. "It's just, well, creepy, is all I'm saying."

"I've done research on the crowd," Isabella said. "I think these costumes will play well here."

"I know, I know," she sighed, staring at her now unfamiliar face. "Still creepy."

"I agree, Maryann," Leah said. "Maybe we should play at less creepy places."

"Hey, the Dark Chambre isn't my type of club," Isabella said, "but we all know how Mr. Rafel is."

"Yeah, yeah," she sighed. "He gets us the jobs, but he doesn't get us."

The club seemed barely lit, even for a nightclub, and the band understood why Isabella had suggested such stark white make-up. It actually made their faces stand out against a black backdrop, although a lot of the detail of their dark costumes was lost. But the show seemed well-received, and the band mingled a bit after they were done playing.

A tall, wiry, good-looking young man with old eyes and something of a cat-like cast to his features walked up to Maryann. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," she replied, blushing slightly under the heavy make-up.

"Good show."

"Thanks."

"Lordy," Isabella muttered.

"My name's Sinclair."

"I'm Anna."

"Of course you're not, but that's fine," he said, with a slight exotic, refined accent. "Come on, let's dance."

"Okay!"

They disappeared into the crowd.

The other three shook their heads.

"What is with that girl?" Nora sighed.

"Like moths to a flame," Isabella murmured.

"You know," Leah said, "for all the hell we give her about picking bad guys, she really doesn't. I mean, yeah, they can cause us trouble, but none of them have ever drugged her drink or anything like that."

"That's true," Nora said grudgingly. "They are trouble, but not that kind of trouble. Speaking of which, Isabella, is this one trouble? I don't have a bad feeling or anything, but still."

"There's something strange with his aura," she said, and subtly cast a spirit sight spell on herself. "It's almost...fey...maybe?"

"Oh how I love dealing with fairies," Leah replied dryly.

"He's not a fairy. His aura is just, well, a little sort of fey as far as I can tell."

"He looks like a cat to me," Nora said. "I mean, he makes me think of a cat."

"Fairies and cats have many of the same characteristics," Isabella said with a shrug.

In a little while, Sinclair and Maryann returned.

"Hey, I'll get drinks," he said. "Help me carry?" he asked Isabella.

"I'll help!" Maryann said.

He smiled. "I think your friends probably want to talk to me."

"Oh, yeah, probably," she replied with a slight pout.

Isabella followed Sinclair to the bar and put in the drink order.

"I think your band should be careful tonight," he said while they waited on the bartender.

"In what way?"

"There's something unwholesome in the air tonight. A bad moon rising, if you will. I can't pin down what it is, and that bothers me, but I'm pretty sure it has something do with your band. Of course now I'm getting some idea as to why."

Isabella took this to mean he was aware she'd cast a spell on herself. She was slightly surprised, but didn't show any emotion. "Any idea on what specifically to watch out for?"

He shook his head. "No. I wish I did. I'm usually better at this. That makes me, and should make you, extra worried."

"I appreciate the warning," she said sincerely.

The drinks arrived and they rejoined the other three. Isabella quietly warned Leah and Nora that something bad could happen and that the warning came from Sinclair. They were suspicious, but even though they didn't trust the guy Maryann had just met, they trusted Isabella. And while they were glad of the warning, they weren't sure how to act on it. The evening overall was pleasant. Eventually they had to part Maryann and Sinclair to pack up their gear and head to the hotel. They were crossing the very short distance from the back door of the club to their van to finally head out when they were blinded by a flash of light and they felt the world change.

"What the hell just happened?" Nora blurted as she blinked furiously.

"I have no idea," Maryann replied. "I think we walked into a door or something."

"I thought Isabella said that doesn't just happen."

"It doesn't just happen," Isabella replied. "This was deliberate."

The band could see now, and they appeared to be in some kind of park. However, everything seemed just slightly off. It had been fully night in the real world, but seemed to be just at sunset in the world they found themselves in. The wind blew through the leaves, but the shadows on the ground moved just a second too slow. The brown of the bark and the green of the leaves were the wrong color. The wind itself had an unnatural chill in the air.

They turned to look behind them, but there was nothing except empty park. Isabella cast a spirit sight on herself to try to look for the door, but couldn't find even a trace.

"Well, Holmes?" Leah asked when Isabella sighed.  
"There was a door here. I can feel a bit of weakness in the Veil, but this isn't a natural weak spot, so I can't reopen the door. I think we're in some kind of near-spirit realm," she said, meaning that the spirit realm seemed close enough to the real world to show some influences of it.

"Near-spirit realm?" Maryann repeated. "We're nowhere near where we were before! I think I remember driving past a park on the way to the club, but that must have been five miles away or more!"

"Distances don't always correspond," Isabella said dryly. "Like I said, this wasn't a natural door, so maybe we ended up in the nearest weak point. We'll just have to try to find a place where I can open a door."

"How did we get here?" Nora demanded.

"Someone sent us here," she answered grimly. "We tripped some kind of trap. There was the flash of light and the spell to open the door was activated. I mean, I say 'door,' but I think it was more of some kind of trapdoor or circle on the ground since we didn't take any steps after we were all blinded."

"Who did this?" Nora asked.

"Who cares right now?" Leah countered. "We get out first and find out who and why later."

Nora looked like she was going to argue, but then nodded. "You're right. Getting out is the most important thing right now."

"Alright, I've got spirit sight so give me a minute to look around," Isabella said. She cast a guidance spell on herself as well to help her orient on any doors or other weaknesses in the dimensional fabric.

"I don't remember those mountains," Maryann said, pointing at the rock walls on either side of the park.

"It's like we're in some kind of valley," Leah replied. "Which is really weird."

"Everything is really weird," Nora said impatiently.

"Come on, ladies," Isabella said. "We'll try this direction." She didn't have a clear path; only a vague intuitive feeling of the correct direction.

So they started to follow Isabella. There were birds chirping in the trees and small animals scurrying through the underbrush. They couldn't see the sun but it seemed to be shining as though it was late afternoon. The more they walked the more on edge they became.

"So, um, guys," Maryann started.

"Yeah?" Leah replied.

"Do those birds sound weird? Like, sometimes I don't have the best ear for pitch, but they're off-key."

"Oh, I thought I was the only one thinking that," she replied. "Yeah, I mean, I never paid much attention before, but this isn't right. They sound like they've been un-autotuned, if that makes sense."

"Okay, well, I'm glad it's not just me."

"Their mouths are too big too," Nora said unexpectedly.

"What?" Maryann said.

"Just look at when they chirp."

The others did so and realized that the birds' mouths were too big, or opening too wide, and their jaws ended up looking slightly disdended like a snake.

"This place is super creepy," Maryann said, shuddering.

"But is it dangerous?" Nora asked.

"Any place in the spirit realm can be dangerous," Isabella answered. "But I agree with Maryann: this place is super creepy."

"Yeah, it's like how everything is almost normal but not exactly normal makes it so much creepier than if the birds had, say, four eyes and were talking to us," Leah said.

"That would still be super creepy," Maryann countered.

They made their way through the park. The light remained at the same level as though the sun was just about to set.

"The park wasn't this big," Nora said in a low voice. "I remember the one we passed, and it couldn't have been this big."

"I agree," Isabella said grimly.

Suddenly they heard footsteps and a woman dressed like a park ranger emerged from a side path. "Excuse me," she said. "Can I help you? Are you lost?"

Maryann started with, "We're..." and then lost her voice.

The woman, like the rest of the world, was not quite right. Her blue eyes were a little too big, her fair skin and blond hair were too washed out to just be pale, her voice had a very slight echo to it, and her proportions also seemed slightly wrong, as though she was just slightly too tall and too thin but her head was just slightly too big. The overall effect was deeply disturbing.

Maryann cleared her throat, tried not to stare, and tried to speak again. "We're, um, just looking around, thanks!" she said as brightly as she could.

"Okay. Did you see anything odd? I thought I saw a flash of light. I thought maybe some kids were playing with sparklers again. They never read the signs. No fireworks."

"Um, no, we didn't see anything."

She stared at them suspiciously. "Well, alright. If you need any help, the ranger station is down that trail," she said, and walked away.

They all looked at each other once she was out of sight.

"Oh, my gods, that was seriously creepy, right?" Maryann asked. "I mean, it's not just me."

"No, that was really freaky weird," Leah replied. "And I mean that literally. Freaky weird. I feel like we just fell into some kind of horror movie. Isabella, please tell me you can get us out of here."

"I'm trying, I'm trying," she said.

They quickened their pace but found the park was much larger than it should have been. After over an hour by Isabella's watch, they were still in the park. Now they were approached by someone else.

"Are you lost?" said the young man. His eyes looked like glass marbles. His features were just slightly too sharp, his hair slightly too uniformly blond, and he was just slightly too thin in the park ranger unifrom. The overall effect was something like a broken doll.

This time Maryann could not rally her voice.

"We're just looking around," Leah answered, her instincts telling her not to be honest. "Lovely day, er, evening, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, but the park is going to close soon."

"Oh, well, yes. The exit is that way, right?" Isabella asked, thinking quickly and pointed.

The young man looked in the direction she indicated and kind of laughed. The sound made the others want to shudder. "You sure you're not lost?" he asked suspiciously. "That just leads you to the picnic area."

"Oh, I guess we got turned around a little," Isabella answered. She made an effort to smile.

"Okay, well, I guess that happens. The exit is that way," he said with a kind of exasperated sigh, and pointed. "There's a ranger station that way if you get turned around again," he said, and pointed in another direction. Finally he walked away.

"Isabella," Maryann said in a low voice, her eyes wide. "Please, please get us out of here."

"Well, he wasn't helpful. I know that's not how we get out of here," she answered.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "It's the same direction the other, um, person, told us was the ranger station. And I think the last thing we should do is go to the ranger station."

"Agreed," Leah and Nora said in unison. And for once, Leah was so rattled she didn't even follow up with, "Jinx." She did follow up with, "This is definitely like a horror movie. We really don't want to encounter the locals any more than we have to."

Isabella looked around again. "We can't stay in this park. I don't think the exit is here anyway." She looked at the stone walls that seemed to surround the area. "We go that way."

"To the mountains? That's so far away," Maryann said.

"I don't think they're as far away as they seem. Space in this place is as off-kilter as everything else."

"So we'll to climb the mountains?" Nora said.

"At least we wear decent shoes," Leah replied.

"Yes. We can't stay in this valley. This is a bad place for us."

"Can't argue with that," Nora sighed. "Lead on."

"And go fast," Maryann added. The general feeling of unease was starting to seriously unsettle her. She felt uncharacteristically anxious. Neither Nora or Isabella were comfortable, but of the four, Leah was adapting to the creepiness of the place the best.

They turned sharply towards the mountains. Once they were off the path, the terrain became much more difficult to navigate. The trees seemed closer than they would have expected in a maintained urban park, and the animals almost seemed to watch them pass by instead of running away. Now they saw a few squirrels, which had black eyes that gleamed like glass and hissed at them like a cat would. They passed by a snake in a tree that glared at them with ruby-red eyes and seemed to laugh at them.

"We're being followed," Isabella murmured softly.

Maryann, who was behind her, clutched her arm.

"Calm down," Nora said from the rear, glancing behind her. "What do we do?"

"Keep moving," Isabella answered.

And so they did, until a female voice asked, "Hey, are you lost?"

They turned to see yet another person in a park ranger uniform behind them. She was wearing glasses that distorted the size of her eyes, making them look huge, but her nose and mouth were just too small.

"No, we're just exploring," Nora said quickly.

"Okay, well, you know the park is going to close soon." She peered at them more closely and adjusted her glasses as she did so. The eyes in the glasses did not seem to move even though she was moving them. The effect was deeply disturbing. "Well, your faces look a little odd, but not too strange. Why are you dressed like that?"

"We're a band," Maryann squeaked.

"Oh, musicians," she said, shaking her head. "That explains a lot. Nearly as bad as actors, which are the opposite of people. Are you any good?"

"We're working on it," Leah answered.

"Well, show me what you can do," she said with an odd undercurrent of a threat in her tone.

"Um, how about, 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat,'" Nora suggesting, trying to think quickly. "It's a round, so we can do three verses each."

"Oh, that would be nice," said the ranger.

"I'll go first," Isabella said quickly, and started to sing the first verse.

The rest of the band jerked at her in surprise. She was off-key, and obviously deliberately so.

Isabella pointed at Nora, who chimed in and followed the blonde's lead and sang off-key as well. Confused, Maryann and Leah followed suit.

When they were done, the ranger clapped. "Not too bad, not too bad. I think you'll do alright. But I suggest you finish exploring soon. The path is back that way, and if you get lost, there's a ranger station that way. And watch out for animals and falling rocks," she said, and walked back into the woods.

"What the hell?" Nora asked as they started walking again.

"Everything's off here," Isabella replied. "Did you hear what she said? Our faces look odd to her."

"We look creepy," Maryann said. "With the make-up we don't look normal..." she said, her voice trailing off as she started to understand what the blonde was getting at. "We don't look quite human. These people aren't quite human. And if they thought we were human, you think we'd be in trouble?"

"Exactly," Isabella answered grimly. "That's why I sang off-key. If the birds were singing off-key, I figured we should too. I'm glad you picked up on that."

"It was confusing," Leah said.

"I don't like horror movies," Maryann said. "I don't like this place."

"None of us do," Nora replied.

They fell silent and continued to walk as quickly as they could. Isabella had been correct; the mountains seemed to get closer more quickly than they would have expected at their pace and what they had judged to be the original distance.

Suddenly Isabella halted them. "Maryann, do you have time to cast some protection spells?"

"Well, I, er, don't really have most of the materials, but I'll do my best," she said.

"Do we have time for this?" Nora asked.

"I think it would be time well spent," she answered, still grim. She took the time to pull some pieces of paper out of her pocket and write some charms on them in Japanese kanji.

Maryann quickly cast some protection spells, but she disliked being rushed and not having all the components. "There. But they're aren't very strong. This place doesn't like my magic, and I don't have the right stuff or time!"

"It'll do. Come on," Isabella said, and they headed out again. While the sun had seemed stuck at sunset for a few hours, now it seemed to abruptly get dark.

Leah mentally wished she had the emergency kit which contained a high-powered flashlight, but got her penlight out of her pocket. The other three band members did the same; experience had taught them to always carry some kind of illumination device with them.

But within thirty minutes by Isabella's watch, they didn't need to have worried about light. A full and too large moon rose over the horizon and trees casting a cold, white light on the park. The already deep shadows actually seemed to deepen and the colors washed out. Even so, the moonlight was brighter than their penlights, so they put those away to save the batteries. With the costumes and make-up, the band looked more inhuman than ever.

"So what is it you like about horror movies again?" Maryann whispered to Leah.

"Sometimes it's fun to be scared."

"Like now?" Nora asked sarcastically.

Leah rolled her eyes. "I mean, it's fun to be scared when you know you're safe. This isn't fun at all. This is totally creepy in every way. I want to get the hell out of here as much as you guys do."

They heard a crashing sound in front of them and stopped. Isabella pulled out a charm and waited.

A gigantic black buck came to a screeching halt about twenty feet in front of them. It stared at them with black eyes.

"Is that, um, a real thing?" Maryann asked.

"Yes, but they're very rare," Isabella answered. "And I'm not sure how real this one is."

"Why is it just looking at us?" Leah asked.

"No idea," Isabella said, still ready to use her charm.

The buck perked up his head and looked behind him as though hearing something, and then took off running.

"We should go very quickly," Isabella said. "Run as well as you can. Something is chasing that buck and I'm afraid it's going to chase us."

They went forward at the fastest pace they could manage over the uneven ground and within a few minutes of the encounter with the strange deer they emerged from the forested area and found themselves facing a steep mountain.

"I see a place I can open a door," Isabella said, and pointed.

"How are we going to get up there?" Maryann moaned. "It's so steep!"

The sound of a woman screaming bloody murder filled the air.

Maryann yelped and Leah clapped her hand over her friend's mouth.

"Quiet!" she hissed.

"Was that someone getting killed?" Nora asked in a low voice, visibly shaken.

Isabella had gone pale under her make-up. "No, it's something my cousins told me about. Cougars scream like that."

"C-cougar," Maryann stuttered after Leah removed her hand.

"So that's what was chasing the buck," Leah said.

"If we climb, it'll hear us!" Maryann said. "Maybe it'll go after that deer."

"The classic horror movie conundrum," Leah said dryly. "Stay silent and hope the monster goes by, or make a mad dash and hope you run faster than it."

"That's not funny!"

"I'm not trying to be funny," she retorted. "Those are our options."

"If it wants the deer, it will ignore us regardless. If it's not that interested in the deer, it'll find our scent," Isabella said.

"Mad dash," Leah sighed.

"Mad dash," Isabella agreed.

Maryann nodded weakly.

"Let's do it," Nora said.

And they clambered up the rocky slopes as fast as they could with Isabella in the lead. Leah was the best climber and she and Nora helped Maryann, who was having the most trouble, while Isabella did her best to look ahead and scout out a decent path. But Isabella was in a hurry, so they slipped to their knees often and sent small rocks skittering down the hill.

The terrible scream ripped through the air again, and this time it was distinctly closer.

"Do not look back, Maryann!" Leah ordered with force. "We keep climbing!"

The redhead jerked her head to Leah and then up at Isabella.

"Come on!" Isabella said.

They scrambled faster. Their knees were bleeding through their tights and their hands were bleeding through their gloves. Their make-up was started to run as they sweated up the slope. Finally Isabella came to a small ledge and started the ritual to open a doorway for them.

"Do not look back!" Leah said, helping Maryann to the ledge. "Never look back!"

Now they heard a low, fierce growl from somewhere all too near them.

"Isa-Isabella..." Maryann stammered, nearly hyperventilating.

"Hush," she snapped.

Maryann couldn't resist and she looked back down the hill to see a large, black, and probably feline shape carefully picking a path up to the ledge where they were standing. With the moonlight and its black coat playing tricks with estimating distances, she couldn't tell how far away it was, but it seemed to her to practically be within leaping distance. Her voice left her and she could only point.

The cougar looked up at them with eyes that reflected red in the moonlight.

Leah looked down. "I told you not to look," she said grimly.

Isabella stuck a piece of paper to the air and a circle of light glowed around it. "Go!" she ordered, and the other three jumped through. She grabbed the paper and followed without looking back to see how close the black cougar had been.

They fell practically on top of each other in the ill-lit corner of parking lot for a grocery store.

"Where the hell are we?" Leah asked. "And what time is it?"

"Check your phone," Nora replied, as she was already doing so.

"Oh, I've got texts from Sinclair," Maryann said. "Wow, okay, that's interesting. He's been texting stuff like, 'are you okay?' and 'where are you?' I'm going to call him. We need a ride back to our van."

"Are you sure he's not responsible for this?" Nora demanded.

"Nora, it's alright. I actually don't think that was his doing," Isabella said.

Maryann called Sinclair, who seemed relieved to hear from her and agreed to pick them up. "Hey guys," Maryann said, "I'm sorry for kind of losing it back there."

"It's fine," Leah replied. "We've been through a lot of weird stuff. Everyone has different stuff that really gets to them, and that place got to you."

"I don't like horror movies."

"Yeah, that's obvious. But seriously, don't worry about it. We've got your back."

"Thanks guys."

In about ten minutes, he drove up to them.

"I'm sorry," he said immediately. "I felt the rush of magic right outside the club but when I went to investigate, I realized the spell was already done and you were already gone." He looked around. "I didn't realize the Veil was thin in a place like this," he said. "I thought I knew all the weak spots around here."

"Maybe it's just timing," Isabella said tiredly.

"Well, get in and let's get you back to the van. The club closed up an hour again and I've been trying to keep your van from getting towed."

On the ride back to the Dark Chambre, they discussed what had happened with Sinclair in general terms and he became more and more upset. "That was dark magic," he said.

"No, really?" Nora retorted.

He glanced at her in the rearview mirror. "I think you probably know what I mean. It sounds like you were deliberately dropped into a very small and dangerous near-spirit realm. In sci-fi terms, it's like a pocket dimension. I think of them more as realm fragments; places that were once part of the proper realms but were torn off or otherwise damaged or the remains of proper realms. I know there are some fragments that periodically approach this area, but I didn't know anyone else knew about them."

"Is that why you're here?" Maryann asked.

"One of many reasons. I'll investigate this matter. I don't like someone doing such dangerous magic in general, and certainly not in my home."

"We'll help if we can. I'm pretty good at divination," she offered.

"Thanks," he said with a smile. "I'll let you know what I find, if anything. I'm just glad you got out."

"So are we."

They retrieved their van, Maryann and Sinclair said their goodbyes and promised to keep in touch, and they headed to their hotel. The band was grateful to be safe, get some sleep, and concentrate on their next gig.

The Lyrics:

Something seems wrong here

Everything's a little off

It's not just a trick of the light

There's no reason to scoff.

The angles seem slanted

The birds a bit off-key

Something just isn't right

There's a sense of unfamiliarity.

Refrain: Nothing is totally strange

This place makes me uneasy

But nothing is quite normal

Here in the uncanny valley.

An android that's almost human

Should be a sight to see

But it makes me so unsettled

I don't want to stay; I want to flee.

A doll that's almost life-like

Should be a lot of fun

But it seems to look at me

And I just want to run.

Refrain:

People with eyes like glass

Twins that speak in one voice

Is just strange enough

I will leave if I have the choice.

Echoes without sources

Buildings that lean to the side

Faint whispers in the wind

And there's no place I can hide.

Refrain x2:

Track 9 - Möbius Strip

The Interview:

Nico: And now you shift gears to a retro '70s funk inspired song.

Anna: The last song ended on a fast beat, so we just continued that, even if we did change to a funky beat.

Jana: This might be why your critics complain of abrupt tonal shifts.

Belle: They're entitled to their opinions. We feel that this actually follows. We have a dark, horror inspired song followed by something considerably lighter. We don't want to weigh the album down too much.

Nico: So you claim there's a method to your madness?

Lee: We always claim that. I don't know if everyone agrees though.

Jana: So what was the inspiration for this song?

Lenore: Things come back around.

Nico: That's it?

Lenore: Sometimes that's all there is. Actions have consequences, and sometimes those consequences are not what you expect.

Anna: Sometimes there's a twist.

Jana: And we're back to the twist in your songs.

Lee: See? That totally proves our point.

Nico: [laughs] Okay, you got us there.

The Story:

"I really like this venue," Maryann said as the band packed up their gear after an afternoon show at the Cascade of Music Festival. "It's just so pretty and the crowds are so polite."

"Outdoor venues make me nervous," Leah replied. "Things keep happening."

"Things keep happening anyway," Nora countered.

"That's true, I guess."

Isabella thought Leah's body language indicated she was nervous, so she moved closer and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," she answered. "I'm just waiting."

"Waiting on what?"

"Finding Data's head," she said, and then moved away to continue packing.

"I really wish I knew more about geek culture," Isabella thought, shaking her head. "I'll look it up when we get back to the hotel." Then she felt the wind shift. "We need to hurry," she said to the group.

They had been together long enough they didn't even ask what she meant; they just doubled their packing speed. Leah, however, pulled a heavy duffel bag out from underneath the front passenger seat and threw it over her shoulder.

"Do you really think we're going to need the emergency kit?" Nora asked.

"Data's head," she answered cryptically.

As soon as Isabella shut and locked the back doors, toadstools started to rapidly sprout up in a ring around them.

"Um...." Maryann said, and then she vanished.

"Wait, that's not right," Leah stuttered. "We should all disappear."

"What?" Isabella and Nora asked.

Then the rest of them disappeared.

They reappeared in another mushroom ring in a dark, gloomy forest.

"That-that is not what I expected," said a high-pitched voice.

They looked around and saw a creature sitting outside the ring. It was about seven inches tall with blue skin, dirty green hair, folded bat-like wings, and some kind of garment crafted from leaves. It had a pointy face and it was difficult to determine if it was male or female or something else.

Leah knelt down to be closer to the creature's level. "Hello, your Majesty. You were trying to summon fire, water, wind, and Earth?"

"What?" the other three asked.

"Yes. How did you know that?" the queen asked.

"That's a really, really good question," Nora snapped.

"Your Majesty, is this a safe place to talk?" Leah asked.

"It's safe enough or I wouldn't have performed my spell here. I am very curious as to how you seem to know so much."

"So are we!" Maryann said.

Leah stood up, patted her pockets, and finally pulled out a piece of paper with something typed in a very small font. She handed it to Isabella. "Remember the greenlings?"

Isabella frowned and read through the prophecy given to them by the goblin-like creatures they had encountered at a previous Cascade of Music Festival. "Does this mean what I think it means?"

"What? What?" Maryann said impatiently. "I can see it's a greenling."

"That's not really what we're called, and I'm puzzled you seem to know most of my people are green," the queen said. "But I suppose that name will do for now. What magic is written on that paper?"

"Can we please drop the mystery and get a straight answer?" Nora snapped.

Leah sighed. "'A 4-D pair of drakes.'"

"That is totally not a straight answer," she retorted.

"No, it's a bad pun," Isabella said. "Time paradox. The fourth dimension is time. Drakes are male ducks. Time pair of ducks."

Maryann and Nora just stared at her for a minute.

"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!" Nora said. "What is going on here?"

"I need help," the queen said, flying up to their eye-level. "I thought I was summoning elementals but I got you humans instead. I see your souls do mirror what I asked for, but I am uncertain how you can help, although you seem quite knowledgeable about the situation."

"This is the prophecy we got from the greenlings, remember?" Leah said.

"Oh, yeah, I remember that. That was like years ago," Maryann replied.

"Right. And we are now in the greenlings' past."

"I am so confused," Nora said.

"Time doesn't flow linearly in Fairyland," Isabella said. "Remember what happened when we got out?"

"Yes."

"So relative to the point in time we entered Fairyland the first time, we are now in the past," Leah said. "This is the queen. We're the elements that helped her. Except we haven't done it yet. It's a time paradox. We have to help the queen now because we've already done it before. That's why I have a copy of the prophecy with me. I've always kept a copy in my pocket because I knew eventually the paradox would have to be resolved."

"So you're saying we have to fight that monster again?" Maryann asked slowly. "Because we already did and so we can defeat it in the future?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, this is insane," Nora huffed. "But I get what you're saying."

"Does anyone care to explain the situation to me?" the queen asked impatiently.

Leah turned to her. "We understand there is some sort of monster that is endangering your people, and you need our help to stop it."

"Yes, exactly. Since you seem to know so much, how do we stop it?" the queen asked.

"Well, why don't you tell us exactly what's going on," she countered.

"Wait, why?" Maryann asked. "We already know it's going to work out."

"Um, I don't trust time travel stuff. The future is never certain."

"Did you learn that watching TV?" Nora asked snidely.

"Look, being mixed up with magic at all means nothing is certain," Leah snapped back. "And now we're in the middle of some kind of sci-fi time paradox? Yeah, I'd rather treat this like it isn't a done deal, okay?"

Nora looked abashed. "Sorry," she muttered.

The queen looked both confused and worried. "Would any of you care to enlighten me?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Sorry," Leah said. "Please continue, your Majesty."

"There is a creature hunting my people. It comes from the borderlands of the dream realm. I know not whether it escaped or was exiled."

"Why is it coming after your people?" Maryann asked.

"I am not sure. It must feed off of something we have, although I don't know what. Our people have no great treasures or magics. However, there aren't a lot other creatures here with any magics or treasures." She sighed. "Perhaps we are merely unlucky and in its way."

"And your magic can't stop it?"

The queen shook her head. "It's not real enough. Just as creatures such as myself are not quite real to you humans, there are creatures that are not quite real to us. It comes from too near the dream realms to have enough substance for my magic to really stop it or contain it. I believe it may become more real the longer it stays here, but by then it may be too late for my people. I thought by summoning elements from your world, I could increase my magical abilities."

"So we have to help give the monster shape, just like the prophecy said we did," Leah said to the others.

The queen flew into the middle of them. "You are discussing prophecy? You knew you would be called upon to help me?"

"Um, yes."

"Prophecy is often misleading," the queen said doubtfully. "May I see this prophecy?"

"Um, I don't want to mess up their timeline," Leah said to the others.

"I don't think it will be a problem to let her see it," Isabella replied. "If she asks, we just won't tell her when the next fight is."

Leah reluctantly handed over the paper.

The queen read through it and her purple eyes widened. "This tells we shall be victorious for now, but the creature will return and must be vanquished again with your help. Such strange words that I do not understand. Where did you get this?"

"From a king of the greenlings, in the future. Well, your future. Our past," Leah answered.

The queen read through the paper again. "Very well." She handed it back to Leah.

"That's it?" Nora asked. "You don't have any more questions?"

"I am but a small creature with small magics but I have seen great and terrible things during my reign," she replied primly and sternly. "That time can be twisted like this is no surprise to me, nor does it truly affect the matter at hand, which is saving my people. This prophecy says we win, and hopefully we do, so do you have any insight on how to give a thing without substance some kind of shape?"

Maryann opened her mouth to answer and then realized she didn't have an answer. "Um. It would have been nice of us to write that down."

"There must have been a good reason we didn't," Isabella said. "Maybe it's because we couldn't figure out how to put the answer in a riddle."

"Why must the answers be in riddles?" the queen asked.

"This creature knows everything that's written down," Leah explained. "I don't know why, but that's what we found out. But it doesn't mean it understands what's written down."

"Ah, I see," she said. "You disguise the truth in riddles using references it does not know. It can read the words but it does not share your experiences. It is dangerous to make words appear to say something they do not, or hide what they truly say, but in this instance I understand why you must take such risks."

"So this is something that we can't hide or figure out how to hide, or something so obvious we didn't think we'd need to tell ourselves how to do it," Isabella said. "Before, er, later, we trap it with words. Maybe that's the solution. We trap it with words now to give it the shape it will have later."

"You trap it with words?" the queen repeated. Her violet eyes opened wide. "A naming. We must perform a naming."

"A naming? Like, give it a name?" Leah asked.

"Well, yes, in simple terms, but in a world such as this, that is one of the most difficult of rituals."

"Are you sure?" Maryann asked.

"As sure as perhaps you are. You say that this creature is connected to words when you encounter it again. That gives me insight on its nature. You say that you ultimately trap it with words. It is bound to words and so words bind it. It does not have a name but I can give it a name, at least one that will bind it. What did I call it?"

"The Serpent's Shadow," the redhead answered.

The queen nodded her blue head. "Yes, I understand. I know what must be done and I know how you will help me." The queen tried to explain her plan in great detail, but when it became clear the band wasn't following her line of thinking nor understood the particulars of the magic she was describing, she switched to a simpler explanation which consisted of, 'stand there' or 'do that.' She also enlisted their help in finding various ingredients for her ritual and eventually they ended up in a different, round clearing with a pile of rocks, twigs, and leaves, and although they hadn't seen the sun through the thick trees, the fading light suggested it was sun was setting.

"I sense you have iron in your possession," she said. "May I see it?"

Confused, Leah drew out the antique fireplace poker.

"Excellent. While I myself have no allergy to this metal, many creatures here do. It will help with protection. Follow me and draw a circle."

Leah did so; this kind of magic she was actually familiar with and the poker had been chosen especially because it was made of wrought iron.

"So is this dangerous?" Leah asked.

The queen was busy carefully arranging each gathered item within the circle. "The naming ritual and your role in it is not intrisically dangerous to you. However, we are attempting to bind an unreal, dangerous creature to a different plane of existence. Such acts have an inherent amount of risk."

"Like what?" Nora asked.

"The creature will likely attack us. The binding may not work, which could lead to wild magic. I can't tell you the specific risks of wild magic as that is highly variable. But I have seen wild magic lead to a meteor shower underground."

"Okay, yeah, that sounds pretty wild," Leah said. "How does that even work?"

The queen raised an eyebrow. "Exactly as you think it would, even though it should be impossible."

After several more minutes of the queen placing the items in what seemed to be a random pattern, she instructed them to stand at the edges of the clearing. Isabella was directly in front of the queen, Maryann was behind her, Leah was on the left, and Nora was on the right.

"So I know you explained this, but I didn't get it, so can you please try to tell us what's supposed to happen?" Maryann asked.

"First I will seal this circle to protect us. Then I will use a spell to call the creature to this spot. I am sure it will respond. Then I will start the naming ritual to bind it. We should be safe, but its powers are vague and the circle may not provide sufficient protection."

"Why not?" Nora interrupted.

The queen sighed impatiently. "My kind of magic must be very specific. If, for example, I wanted to protect myself from being struck by lightning, the spell would do only that. If I encountered a lightning imp, the spell would not protect me from it attacking me because it is not specifically lightning. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"The naming ritual is complex and long at the best of times. All you must do is stand where I have placed you until the spell is completed. Do not move! I have used your elemental natures to add... how can I put this... add reality to the spell. In any event, you should not be harmed by this but do not move."

"How do we know when the spell is complete?" Maryann asked.

"The Serpent's Shadow will assume the form you remember it to be, and if I understand your prophecy well enough, it will flee. Now, are you ready?"

"Don't move. Seems easy enough," she replied.

Leah groaned. "Now you've done it."

"I did not jinx us!"

"Ladies!" Isabella snapped. "Your Majesty, we're ready when you are."

The queen hovered in the middle of the circle about four feet off the ground. She spoke in a language they didn't understand, but the effects were visually obvious. A purple light appeared in the already drawn circle in the dirt. Then circles of light appeared beneath the band and the queen; Isabella's was pale blue, Maryann's was flame-red, Nora's was dark blue, Leah's was dark green, and the queen's was the same purple as the light that surrounded the clearing.

"Well, at least it's easy to see where we need to stand now," Leah thought.

For a few minutes, nothing else happened. Then darkness quite unlike night descended and surrounded the circle. The glow of the circles seemed to pale and the queen's chanting started to sound muffled. Then they started to hear whispers emanating from the darkness. At first they were indistinct but angry-sounding. The whispers became louder, more clear, and resolved into a single voice that had echoes of voices they knew. The voice grew louder still as though trying to drown out the queen.

"Stupid. Dumb. Ugly. Foolish. Crazy. Lying," said the voice, among other insults. "Run away! Go away! Stay way!" said the voice, among other warnings.

"Why do you want to be musician and waste your life?" Nora heard her mother yell.

"Stop daydreaming and pay attention!" Maryann heard her elementary school principle saying to her.

"Not now, Leah," Leah heard her father say, over and over again.

"Uh-oh, here comes weirdo Isabella," Isabella heard a middle school bully say.

More voices overlapped and echoed with each other. "Shut up! Get out of my way! What's wrong with you? You're stupid! You're in the way!"

The band members tried to shut out the horrible voices by putting their hands over their ears, but that didn't seem to work.

"Lazy! Ridiculous!" The voice and the echoes became a cacophony of the general insults, racial slurs, and specific hurtful words and statements. The voice seemed to know every hateful, angry, terrible thing that had ever been said to them and was repeating those things over and over and over again through the echoes.

Everyone of the band members wanted to run away, but they stayed within the glowing circles.

"Go away!" Maryann tried shouting back, but her voice was lost in the din.

"Shut up!" Nora yelled. But she only heard the cruel echoes of what others had said to her.

Isabella wanted to try to use magic to make the horrible noise stop but she was afraid that would interfere with the queen's spell.

Leah got down on her knees within the circle, put a hand on her crucifix necklace, and started to say the prayers should would normally use with a rosary only she didn't have one of those with her. She didn't yell but concentrated on the reciting the litany. The hateful onslaught seemed to lessen.

By the dim light of the circles, the others could see that Leah was now down on her knees. For a moment they were afraid she was hurt, but Nora quickly realized what she was doing. Nora also got down on her knees, put her hand on her cross necklace, and started to recite the Lord's Prayer. Maryann caught on and started to say her own prayers. Isabella had no one to pray to, so she recited some mantras she had been taught.

The voices seemed to lose power over them, and they continued their praying and chanting for what seemed like a long time until there was a bright flash of purple light. This was followed by a shrill shriek and a brief glimpse of something very large, black, and long smashing through the forest while howling in pain.

The queen was lying on the ground and looking much more gray than blue. They rushed over to her.

"Your Majesty!" Maryann said. "It's getting away."

The queen's breathing was uneven and shallow. "I-I know," she said in a low voice. "It is injured. There is only one place nearby for it to take refuge. A cave. A cave that was cursed long ago." After two attempts, she put her fingers to her lips and let out a piercing whistle. "I have called for aid."

"Is there anything we can do?" Maryann asked.

"I am overtired. That creature was powerful. It attempted to distract me with cruel voices."

"Us too," she replied.

"Yes. It is indeed linked to words as you said." She struggled to sit up. "You have my thanks."

"I don't think we did anything," Nora said.

"You have done more than you know."

They fell into silence. Maryann was concerned for the queen, but Isabella was wondering how they were going to get out of Fairyland with the queen being so weakened. Soon a group of four greenlings burst out of the forest carrying a litter. They helped the queen onto the litter. She was looking better, but still obviously exhausted.

"We will go to the circle. I can still get you home, I believe."

"Oh, no, we don't want you to hurt yourself," Maryann said.

She waved her hand. "I understand my limitations. Follow."

They followed the queen and her litter-bearers. They were surprisingly fast for having such short legs.

"Your Majesty, before we go, take this," Maryann said, and took off her twisted silver ring. "I think this could be helpful to you."

The queen took the ring. "Indeed, silver is quite valuable in this realm and will be an aid to my magic," she said, and put it on like a crown.

"You'll also need this," Leah said, and handed her a copy of the prophecy. "I'm sure you'll copy it down to something a little easier for you to manage."

"Yes."

"Should we give ourselves a better message for this time?" Maryann asked. "It would have been nice to know what to expect."

"If we didn't before, we shouldn't now," Leah replied. "We really don't want to mess with time paradoxes. Or if we really want to push our luck, whatever we write on may just get lost before we get here the first time."

"I guess," Maryann said, looking annoyed and confused.

"Are you ready?" the queen asked.

"Yes," Isabella answered.

"Thank you again." She raised her blue hand, and in a flash of purple light, they returned to their world.

It was quite dark in the park when they reappeared. The first thing they did was check the time.

"3 AM? Damn it," Nora sighed. "Isabella, does that match?"

"Nope. According to my watch, it's only 10:47 PM."

"Well, last time we got out early and that was way weirder," Leah said.

"Yeah, but this time we might end up with a ticket on the van. The park closed hours ago, even with the festival," Isabella countered.

"Oh, damn it." She pulled a flashlight out the emergency kit. "Let's go."

There was indeed a ticket on the van for illegal parking. Isabella put it in her purse to take care of later.

"What's that song? The one that goes, 'Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin', into the future?'" Maryann asked.

"'Fly Like an Eagle,' by the Steve Miller Band," Nora answered promptly.

"That was our day. Slippin' into the future."

"I could do without that."

"Yeah, me too." She sighed. "I liked that ring. I mean, I know I had to give it away so I can get it back, but still."

"You can always get another one if you really want," Leah said.

"I might do that. And maybe I'll write a song about this."

"It would be nice to get something out of this," Nora said dryly.

"Hey, we saved a whole village of nice little goblin people," Leah replied sharply. "That's definitely something."

"Okay, yes, that was the right thing to do," she conceded. "I'm just a little annoyed we lost so much time today. The right thing seems to set us back."

"I'm sure it'll all work out in the end," Maryann said cheerfully.

"You would think so," she muttered.

"You'll see. One day we'll be famous and we'll have to do all kinds of interviews and famous people will ask us where we get our inspiration," she replied brightly.

"And what will we tell them?"

Maryann opened her mouth and shut it again. "You know," she said, looking flustered, "that's a really good question. We should probably think of some answers before hand."

Nora rolled her eyes and kind of laughed. "Oh, Maryann."

The redhead got out her notebook. "Okay, help me out here..."

And they headed to a hotel for a short night's sleep before getting on the road again.

The Lyrics:

Everything new becomes old

Everything old is new again

The past and future get mixed up

And I don't know where I've been.

This place seems familiar

Does it seem familiar to you

Are we just walking in circles?

Or is this just déjà vu?

Refrain: 'Round and 'round we go

On this strange circular trip

But there's a twist in the middle

When walking on a Möbius strip.

We're run this circuit before

We've been around this track

I thought we were going forward

But maybe we're going back?

Everything old is new again

Everything new becomes old

History will repeat itself

And time will start to unfold.

Refrain:

This has already happened

We've done this before

Why is this happening again?

Going around is such a chore.

How can there be a loop

In what's supposed to be a line?

Better do what's already been done

And everything will turn out fine.

Everything old is new again

Everything new becomes old

'Round and 'round we go

On this strange circular trip

But there's a twist in the middle

When walking on a Möbius strip.

Track 10 - Crazy Like a Fox

The Interview:

Jana: This next track has almost a '50s or '60s bubble-gum pop feel.

Lee: Yep.

Lenore: This is a pretty light-hearted song.

Nico: Which one of you is the inspiration?

Anna: Why do you think it's one of us?

Nico: Artists write about what they know, right? And if the inspiration of this crazy girl isn't one of you, then who is it?

Belle: Could be any woman, or all women, or what any woman could be. It's just supposed to be a fun song.

Lee: We do try to include a few of those.

Lenore: Not everything has to be deep or meaningful or dark.

Nico: But isn't that your thing?

Anna: We like to think we're more than just dark or whatever. We play what we like and hope others like what we like. It's really just that simple.

Lenore: Honestly, it's critics that try to make our music more complicated than it really is.

Lee: But that's what their job is, I guess.

Jana: Hey, we don't want to make your music more complicated; we just want to understand it.

Nico: And you're notorious for, well, playing hard to get.

Lee: Because being mysterious is also our thing. See? It all comes around.

The Story:

"Leah, what are you doing?" Maryann asked as her friend cursed in Spanish.

"Failing to catch a Ducklett."

"What?"

"'Pokémon Black 2.'"

"Oh, for crying out loud," Nora said. "Do you still play that game?"

"Yep. Ever since I got Alejandro's Game Boy and Pokémon Red. Obviously since I'm still working through 'Black 2' I'm a little behind."

"That's for kids," Nora said disdainfully. "You're an adult. Or you're supposed to be."

Leah shrugged. "Growing up is overrated. Anyway, Alejandro still plays too. He's even farther behind than I am though."

Nora shook her head and turned her attention to the band's social media.

"Hey, I don't judge you for having so many pairs of shoes."

"Shoes are fashion," she sighed.

"I never finished Ruby or Sapphire," Maryann said. "I liked the fire-types best."

"Of course you did," Isabella replied.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm just not surprised at all."

"Are you going to make fun of me for trying to catch 'em all?" Leah asked snidely.

Nora rolled her eyes.

"No," Isabella answered. "We like what we like."

"And obsess over?" Nora asked.

"How many pairs of shoes do you own?" Leah snapped.

"I can wear shoes," she snapped back.

"Nora," Isabella said sternly, "it doesn't matter. We're just driving; we all need distractions. We need hobbies. We need things that keep us from going crazy."

They were silent for a few minutes.

"What keeps you from going crazy?" Maryann asked.

Nora and Leah rolled their eyes, both thinking, "Of course she asked."

"Driving," Isabella answered.

"Oh, that makes sense," the redhead said, nodding.

They were quiet until they got to the site of the afternoon's show. The band played yet another outdoor musical festival and had enough time in their schedule to attend the festival on the second day to try to drum up more interest in the band. They were walking back to the van to head to town and run some errands before they had to get on the road again when Isabella felt the wind abruptly shift direction.

Isabella slowly opened her gray eyes. "Was I unconscious?" she thought hazily. "Why would I be unconscious?" Her body felt oddly numb so she took a few deep breaths and tried to recall what had happened. "And now I'm laying on the ground," she thought as she looked around. She could hear music which she guessed was from the second day's shows but it sounded thin, as though the stage was very far away even though she knew it wasn't. "People must be having a really good time if they haven't noticed an unconscious woman in a Victorian steampunk-style costume lying on the ground." The light seemed somewhat dim. "Great. What time is it?" she thought, and tried to get some feeling back in her numbed body to look at her watch.

Her watch was missing. But more alarming than that, she was not looking at a human wrist. She was looking at a furry paw. "Oh, what in the hell is going on here?" she said out loud, but heard a strange barking sound instead of her voice. Her surprise sent adrenaline surging through her and she managed to get to her feet, and realized she had four of them. Isabella took several deep breaths to calm herself down, and then took another look at her surroundings. She was in a forest, but now that she was paying attention she quickly realized it was not the festival park. The light was dimmed through layers of impossibly tall deciduous trees. Where the stages should have been she could see a kind of dense shadow that seemed to be the source of the thin music. "So I'm in some kind of near-spirit realm," she thought. There had been a koi pond in the park she remembered passing on the way to the van so she started to walk in that direction hoping it existed.

The pond was there, although it was much smaller and definitely not human-made. The water seemed deeper and it was still, which made for a good reflective surface. She leaned over the edge and saw a medium-sized gray-furred, gray-eyed, two-tailed fox looking back at her. She stared at the reflection for several minutes. "Huh," she said out loud again, and hearing an animalistic sigh. "Well, this may be the strangest thing that's ever happened to me. So why am I a mutant fox and where are the others?" She hadn't seen anyone else or any other animals when she walked to the pond. She didn't hear any birds singing or see any rabbits or rats moving through the underbrush. "Well, hopefully my magic still works, even if I don't have any supplies or anything. I'll try a divination to find the others." She started to scratch out some Japanese kanji into the dirt with her paw.

"Well, well, you're in a bit of a bind, aren't you?" said a probably female voice from behind her.

Isabella jumped and turned to see a large golden-furred fox with nine tails looking at her. "What do you know about this?"

"Oh, my, how rude you are," the creature said.

"This hasn't been a good day," she countered. "You're a kitsune?" she asked, recognizing the distinctive nine tails of the Japanese fox spirit.

"Ah, I'm glad you learned something from your grandmother," the kitsune answered.

"My grandmother? What do you know about that?"

"I know many things. Many, many things. I am an ancient being and learned in many arts. I know you are Isabella and your grandmother is Ami and I know all your living family on your grandmother Ami's side and all her ancestors. I know a great deal of magic was lost when your grandmother Ami bred outside the standard bloodlines and I have no interest in her children or any grandchildren except for you. You are the only one of her descendants to exhibit any of the blood abilities, and yet you seem ignorant of me."

Isabella thought this over for a minute. "Grandma Ami told me that our family was descended from a kitsune. So I think not only is this true, but you are that kitsune?"

The creature nodded. "It seems your grandmother has done well to educate you in matters of some importance although I'm sure not nearly enough."

Isabella was put off by the creature's attitude, but if it wasn't lying then it was an old and probably powerful spirit. "Well, what's happened to me right now is well outside anything that's ever happened to me. Will you help me?"

"I intend to although what aid I provide will probably not be what you want."

"If your aid helps me find my friends and get back to the real world safely, that will be more than enough."

"Real world?" the kitsune repeated. "All worlds are real. Some are just more real than others."

"Okay, then get back to my world. As a human."

"That is a more accurate statement. First, some discussion."

"Is that necessary? My friends could be in danger, or if they aren't, they're probably worried about me," Isabella replied.

"They are safe now, and they will be safe for the near future, so you can exercise some patience while I take my valuable time and impart some knowledge to you."

Isabella managed to not roll her eyes and settled down on her haunches. Kitsunes in Japanese mythology were often benevolent, but Isabella had enough experience with spirits to know even benevolent ones had peculiar ways and it was best to go along with them, even if it was annoying and frustrating.

The kitsune fanned out her nine tails. "A long time ago for mortals, I took human shape and mated with a human man. We had two daughters before my nature was unfortunately discovered, which I do not care to elaborate upon right now. I still cared for my husband and cared for my daughters. I watched over them and it soon became clear to me that my nature had given my daughters some substantial magical ability and a particular affinity for spirits. I taught them spirit magic myself since none were around to help them. My daughters were eventually married and they had daughters, who also had this ability, and my daughters taught their daughters just as I had taught them. My daughters had daughters, and so on down the family line. Always daughters, and always wielders of spirit magic. Yes, may ask a question now."

"Did you plan that? I mean, did you want to introduce a whole family of spirit mages to my world?" she asked.

The kitsune seemed to think her answer over. "Your world has never been too kind to magic, and such abilities can make life difficult for those who possess them. All worlds are fraught with dangers both small and great. Some of the dangers are more easily fought than others. A world unkind to magic is vulnerable to magical dangers. I did not know exactly what would become of my children, but I did suspect they would possess abilities that might be useful in fighting magical dangers."

"Thank you," she replied politely, taking this as a roundabout way of saying 'yes.'

"But such information should show you how important blood is to magic, at least in my kind. Some of my daughters had a much stronger manifestation of magical ability than others, but none had no manifestation, until your mother." The kitsune shook her head. "The world was so much smaller when I first visited it. Sometimes it was too small and the blood mingled too closely and children did not survive. But technology opened up the world and your grandmother Ami married completely outside the historically available bloodlines. She had sons! Not until that generation did any of my daughters have sons! Two sons and finally one daughter and she had no manifestation of ability at all. I was greatly despaired. The line, I was certain, was broken."

"But you must have hundreds of descendants. Grandmother Ami was one of three daughters, and Great-aunt Michiru and Great-aunt Reiko lived in Japan their entire lives," Isabella said.

"It is true, but such a thing still worried me. Ami was the first but I had no doubt she would not be the last to move outside the family circle. Two sons and a daughter with not even the least expression of ability," the kitsune sighed. "And the sons had sons, but the daughter had a daughter. I had frankly given up hope but when I realized Ami was teaching you the traditional family magic, I took interest again. The manifestation of ability is fairly typical of my line. I'm quite surprised to see you have more than one tail. That's more than I ever expected, and you are so young. But you have fallen in with interesting people. My daughters have worked with others with ability, but only with family for a long period of time. Yet you travel with these other three young women and work with them to fight magical dangers. This may explain how you've so quickly grown into your power."

"About my friends..." Isabella prompted.

The kitsune sort of sighed again. "Such impatience. Although I am not necessarily happy with you straying from the traditional family magic, I can see how this would happen with such a large world and so much information open to you. But I know you have to find your own way in this world. These other women complement your ability, knowledge, and strengths. That is part of the reason I am helping you, and by extension them, right now."

"Thank you."

"Enough family history. To the problem at hand, which is why you are not in your human form and where your friends are. Have you ever heard of a type of spirit generally referred to as a collector?"

Isabella shook her head in the negative.

"Collectors come from a shadowy part of the spirit world that is also near the dream realm. The creatures that dwell there tend to express what you would consider darker human emotions such as hate, anger, greed, or fear. Collectors collect things. Their entire purpose of their existence is to collect one of whatever thing they've decided to collect."

"Why?"

"They think a complete collection will cause them to transcend into some new, better form. I don't know if this is true."

"How do they know if their collection is complete? I mean, the Post Office issues new collectable stamps every year," Isabella said.

"Well, I can only assume they know what is complete, but I agree it seems some collections could be infinite. I also don't know how they decide what they will collect but it must be something no one else is collecting or has collected. I do know they can stop collecting one thing and start collecting a new thing, but they don't like to waste time doing that. The ones that choose inanimate objects or knowledges are generally less dangerous than ones that choose sentient life."

"Is that what happened to the others?"

"Patience, Daughter, patience. You have encountered a particularly dangerous type of collector. This one collects certain kinds of human souls. Now, what does this suggest to you?"

Isabella was frustrated the kitsune wouldn't just give her all the information, but she realized the kitsune probably valued cleverness, so she just took some deep breaths and gave the matter some thought. "Okay, so this spirit must have some way of finding souls that it thinks might be what it wants, but it doesn't know for sure or I wouldn't be like this. So it finds souls and then does some kind of magic to force the soul to take a shape." She looked down at her paws. "I'm not sure I believe my soul is actually this shape, but that doesn't matter. So either my body has been forced into this shape, or my soul has somehow been removed from my body, which I don't want to think about. The others' souls must have been whatever shape it wanted, and it just left me here. Which means when I find it I may find other captured souls. Oh, this could get ugly." She started pacing back and forth. "I don't have my charms or other props, but maybe my magic is stronger like this and in this spirit realm. Well, I'll have to hope so. Does that sound right?" She turned but the kitsune was gone. "Great." First, she drew a series of kanji in the air as a protection spell. To her surprise, the symbols visibly glowed as she wrote them and she hoped that was a sign she was right. Then she scratched out a series of kanji in the dirt as kind of a locator spell. The kanji glowed briefly and a breeze passed by her and picked up some fallen leaves. The leaves turned over and over in the breeze but did not drop or move, so Isabella decided her spell was working. "Wherever the wind takes me," she thought.

The leaves did start to move in a direction and she followed them through the pathless underbrush and bracken. She was worried there were predators in the woods, but could only hope her protection spell was sufficient. It seemed like she followed the leaves for a long time before they finally halted around a large tree that looked to be oak but probably wasn't. The breeze wound the leaves up the tree and she could see a crude treehouse. Then the spell ended and the leaves settled gently on the ground.

The trunk was straight and smooth for thirty feet. "Great. I'm pretty sure even here I can't fly," she thought. A flash of movement caught her eye and she looked up to see the kitsune sitting on a tree branch that was clearly much too high for jumping. The kitsune jumped and very clearly flew to another, higher tree branch. The creature looked down at Isabella and vanished. "Okay, so some traditions say that kitsune can fly, but I'm not really a kitsune." She looked at her paws. "But I guess it doesn't hurt to try." She thought for a moment. "I don't even begin to know how to do this? What was Leah told me in that Douglas Adams' book? Flying is jumping and missing the ground." She took a breath, jumped as high as she could into the air, and to her complete surprise, missed the ground. She got control of herself and flew to the crude treehouse.

Her initial impression of a crudely constructed treehouse had been correct. It looked like one small hut made from badly sawn boards that weren't straight. The roof was made from boards covered with hay or thatch. The door frame was crooked and so was the door, and not in the same way so the door didn't fit. There were two holes in the walls that she assumed served as windows although there was no glass; they were covered with some kind of cloth.

"Some other legends say kitsune can turn invisible. That would be really handy right now." She closed her eyes and concentrated. She felt a bit cold and when she opened her eyes she couldn't see her paws. "This is just too weird," she thought, and flew in through the open window.

The inside of the treehouse was larger than the outside. She was in a room she might call a living room or a den. It had a fireplace with no fire, a chair and a footstool, and from the boards in the ceiling dangled crudely constructed birdcages of differing sizes. All of them were empty except for three. There was a common raven, a white ringneck dove, and a red and gold bird the size of a peregrine falcon. As the red and gold bird appeared to be on fire, Isabella guessed it was a phoenix. She also guessed these were her friends. There were two doors on the right side of the living room area. One was closed and the other was open; she crept up to the open one.

The small room was darker than the living room, although Isabella could see fine. There appeared to her eyes to be a four or five year old human child wearing Victorian-era clothes sitting cross-legged at a low, round table. Between the youth of the child and the oddity of the clothing, she couldn't tell if it was male or female.

"It's not a human at all," she reminded herself. "This is just what I'm interpreting. This must be the collector." She flew up a little bit in the door way to see more of the table which dominated the room.

The walls of the room were painted dark blue, although the paint job wasn't very good. There were no windows at all in this room. There were crystals hanging from the ceiling over the table. Now that she could see it properly, she realized it wasn't a table. It was more like a kind of compass or star chart. There was a complex series of glowing dots connected by thin, differently colored lines. They moved underneath a clear, crystalline surface. The Collector had some sort of instrument in its hands that looked like it might be an astrolabe or a compass of the type used in geometry. It wrote something down on a piece of paper, put down the odd brass instrument, and picked up a crystal pendulum. The pendulum swung around wildly, and it made some more notes.

Isabella quietly backed into the living room and examined the birdcages. She didn't have a lot of knowledge about birdcages, but the locks looked like what she expected. She wanted to try to talk to them to find out if she could and determine how easy the rescue would be, and she guessed the phoenix was probably Maryann, so she floated over to the raven and dove and finally settled on the dove, whom she guessed was Leah.

"Leah," she whispered.

The dove opened one beady eye and looked around as much as it could without turning its head.

"Leah," she said again.

The dove did look around, and reached through to the raven's cage and pecked at it.

"Hey!" the raven said in Nora's voice.

"Shush," Isabella said.

The raven looked startled but lowered her voice. "Um, okay, mysterious voice."

"It's me. I'm invisible."

"Yes, clearly," the raven said dryly.

"Seriously, Nora, it's Isabella! Tell me everything you can."

"Oh! Okay, well, I can talk, and Maryann can, but Leah can't. I'm not sure why. That, I don't know, creature? Spirit? Child? Thing? Anyway, it's been in that room since we woke up. It came out once to tell us to be quiet, and then put Maryann to sleep or something. We took the hint."

"Okay, then we'll move quickly. I'll get you two and then try to get Maryann. Hopefully I can wake her up quietly. Do you think there are alarms or anything on these?"

"Well, we didn't see that thing set any kind of alarm, but you know more about magic than we do," Nora replied.

Leah was flapping her wings irritably.

"She'll explain more when we get out," Nora sighed.

The dove looked annoyed but was still.

"I'll get you out and then follow me."

"You're invisible," Nora said, and Leah nodded vigorously.

"Oh, right." She concentrated a moment and felt a tingle of heat, and then she could see herself.

"Huh," Nora said. "I feel like I should know what you are. Anyway, better hurry since I don't know how long that thing will be busy."

Without opposable thumbs the locks were not easy for Isabella to open, but the task wasn't impossible. She opened Nora's first and there was no sign of alarm, so she let Leah out. She turned invisible again to be less noticible as she went to Maryann's cage. She found to her irritation no amount of poking or prodding through the bars seemed to wake her up.

"I can't use magic," she thought. "The collector will almost definitely notice." She unlocked the door and with a lot of trouble managed to pull Maryann's unconscious body onto her back. The phoenix form felt uncomfortably warm against her fur and flying was nearly impossible. She unsteadily flew back through the window with Nora and Leah following her and half-fell to the ground.

"You know, I still hate heights," Nora said. "Now what? It's clear you can't carry her like this."

Isabella turned visible again and performed another guidance spell to find the exit. Several leaves were kicked up by an unseen wind and floated around in a tight circle, waiting to be followed.

"And how are we going to get back to normal?"

"One thing at a time," she replied somewhat irritably. The phoenix body was too heavy and too awkward to carry, so she decided to risk some magic. "Be prepared to run."

Leah looked at her feet and pumped her wings.

"Of course she meant fly," Nora said. " Honestly."

Isabella cast a dispell and Maryann abruptly woke up.

"What's going on here?" she cried, trying to stand up but finding she had all the wrong body proportions and flailing uselessly instead.

"You're a bird, Maryann," Isabella said firmly.

"I-I, what?"

Isabella's ears pricked up and she thought she heard a faint cry of surprise from the treehouse. "We need to go. Follow me."

Maryann shook off the disorienting side-effect and took to the air, her wings and tail edged with fire, with Leah and Nora to the side.

The forest suddenly grew dark and threatening. Isabella ran, then flew with the others, focused completely on the guiding leaves. She pulled out in front of the others knowing she'd have to open the door.

"It's after us," Maryann said.

"No kidding!" Nora retorted.

Isabella saw the door as a ring of light in front of them. She performed a kuji-rin in mid-air and opened the door to their world. As soon as they crossed through, they reverted to their normal forms, which meant they crashed into a heap on top of each other. Isabella awkwardly cast a spell to close the door while the others extracted themselves from her back with much cursing.

"I can talk again!" Leah said.

"That's great," Nora replied dryly.

"Well, I've seen some weird stuff with you guys, but I'd say that ranks at about a 9.5 out of 10. So, Isabella, you're Tails?"

"I'm what?"

"Did none of you ever get a hand-me-down Sega Genesis?"

Suddenly, the collector appeared in front of them, looking just like it had in the spirit realm, only now they could see its eyes. It didn't have any eyes, or even bare eye sockets. Where its eyes should have been were portals to an infinite abyss. "Where do you think you're going?" it said in a high-pitched voice. "You go back into your cages. That's how it works." It sounded exactly like an irate young child.

"No, we're not," Nora snapped.

"Nora, please, let me," Isabella said, and stepped forward. The abyssal eye-holes were extremely disturbing. "I know what you are, and what you want. But you can't collect sentient beings."

"Sure I can. Almost no one does it either, so I got lots to choose from."

"Sentient beings don't want to be collected, and will fight back, and escape, like we just did."

"Stupid fox thing," it said, crossing its arms. "Next time I'll just kill anyone who isn't what I need."

"What?" Maryann blurted.

Isabella held up her hand. "It doesn't matter. There will be fights and escapes and you'll be set back and maybe even have to start all over."

"I already am," it said sullenly.

That was a great relief to Isabella who had been worried if anyone else had been captured. "Can't you pick anything else?"

"No!" it said, stamping its foot. "There are only so many things, and I have to collect something no one else has. I like animals because they keep me company, but I wanted to find something that wouldn't take forever and ever and ever, so I picked birds. But there are so many birds! So I picked bird-shaped souls. That seemed good. Yes, there would be lots, but not endless, and I'd have company."

"But people are being born every single day," Leah interjected.

The collector rolled its lack of eyes at her. "You don't understand how it works."

"You don't either. Any sentient beings are going to be more trouble than almost anything else you could pick," Isabella said.

It abruptly sat down on the grass and tears started to well out of its non-eyes. "But-but I have to collect something! Or I'll be empty forever and ever!" Then it started to cry.

"Isabella, please be explaining quickly," Nora said in a low voice.

"The collectors collect one thing and all of one thing to complete themselves, or so they believe."

"Oh, it is empty," Maryann said. "That explains the, um, eyes, I guess. Or, lack of eyes."

"Hey, kid," Leah said.

"What?" it asked sullenly.

"Do you have to collect something no one else ever has collected or just something no other collector has collected?"

"No other collector," it answered. "You don't know anything."

"Wait, that's a good point," Isabella said. "There's a lot of stuff humans collect and maybe you could pick one of those things. And then you'd have people to talk to about your collection."

"Humans collect things?" it asked, looking puzzled. "But you are not incomplete. Why would you do this?"

"It's fun," Leah said.

"This is not fun! This is my very existance!"

"Um, well, why couldn't this be fun?" Maryann ventured. "I mean, this is your existance, so shouldn't you enjoy what you're doing?"

It seemed to consider this a moment. "And you collect the same things as other humans?"

"Sure. Sometimes anyway. And we'll talk to each other and help each other find things too."

"You help each other?" It stopped crying. "We never help each other. We don't have time. We must complete ourselves."

"Listen, how about this? How about we show you some other things you could start collecting that aren't sentient beings?" Isabella said.

"Well, I guess," it said, "but if I don't like it, I'm going to put you back in cages, except for you, fox-thing."

"Er, well, we'll deal with that when we have to."

They spent a very strange afternoon with the collector showing it the things that sparked their interest. They got odd looks everywhere they went because they didn't have time to change out of costume, and the collector was also strangely dressed, although it seemed most people didn't notice its non-eyes. It was quite dark when they ran out of places to take the collector.

"I have made a decision," it said.

Leah had aleady grabbed the emergency kit from the van. Isabella and Maryann were mentally readying spells while Nora stood next to Leah ready to draw out a weapon from the kit.

"I will not collect bird-shaped souls, or any sentient beings."

"That's good," Isabella said.

"You really are a lot of trouble. I have enough trouble. So, thanks for trying to help. You are going to collect fans and money?"

"And maybe even awards," Maryann said.

"But probably just debt and heartache," Leah added.

"Maybe you are not complete after all. But you'll have to figure out that on your own. I'm going home now to get to work. I've got to catch them all," it said, and disappeared.

They stared at the spot for a minute.

"Of all the things, that's what it picked?" Nora sighed.

"Hey, at least it's not after us. This seems harmless enough. I hope," Leah said.

"Then let's get to the hotel. I'm exhausted. And apparently I'm really a raven." They clambered into the van and Isabella took the wheel.

"I'm a stupid pigeon," Leah said. "And Isabella's Tails."

"She's a kitsune," Maryann sighed. "And just because the collector's magic gave us those shapes doesn't mean that's what we really are. Just how its spell works."

"Except you're totally a phoenix," Leah said. "I even get how Isabella's a kitsune. I mean, since I met her grandmother. But why am I a pigeon and Nora's a raven?"

Isabella blinked in surprise. "Really, Leah, you don't know? That's Sunday School stuff. Even I know that stuff. Nora?"

They looked at her with confused expressions.

"Genesis. Noah's ark."

"Oh, of course," Nora said. "Noah sent out birds to find out if the waters had receded. The first was a raven that came back with a branch. The second was a dove and when it didn't come back, Noah knew there was dry land. You really think that's it?"

"Well, it's only my best guess. Also, since ravens are great mimics, that might be why you could still talk and Leah couldn't," Isabella said. "And ravens are magical birds in a lot of folklore."

"So you weren't a stupid pigeon," Nora said, "just a dumb one."

"Hey! That's the same thing!"

Isabella sniggered. "That isn't nice, Nora."

"Oh, oh wait, you mean dumb as in can't talk," Leah said. "Wait, you're making puns? Mean puns, but puns? We are all clearly way, way too tired."

"Don't worry, we're almost there," Isabella said.

"Is it going to get any weirder than this?" Leah asked. "I mean, I keep thinking this can't get weirder, and for awhile it wasn't, but now this? I was turned into a bird today."

"I don't know," she answered. "None of us do."

"Well, okay then. I guess."

They were silent until they got to the hotel. After checking in and hastily unloading the van they were grateful to get to sleep and put the weirdness of the day behind them.

The Lyrics:

The quick brown fox

Jumps over the dog that is lazy

Maybe that's not a good idea

But that fox is a bit crazy.

Look at what she came up with

That's really kind of looney

But you can't expect anything else

From that weird and wild kitsune.

Refrain: Look out, here she comes

Always thinkin' outside the box

Such a strange and clever solution

Because she's crazy like a fox.

Sometimes the plans don't make sense

And the final outcome is hazy

Don't fret; the plan will come together

Even if that fox is kind of crazy.

You make everything complex

She says it's just not that hard

Her thoughts are unconventional

But she's a cunning renard.

Refrain:

Her mind is nimble and quick

She does everything with glee

Maybe that's not advisable

But that fox is kind of crazy.

You really should know better

But you can't help but be smitten

By her oddness and her brilliance

She's such a charming vixen.

Refrain x2:

Track 11 - Bridge to Nowhere

The Interview:

Nico: This next track is a soft-keyed break-up song.

Lee: Yep.

Jana: Well, since there isn't much to say about this, let's discuss your music videos. Some of your videos are kind of old-school, especially this one.

Lenore: If by "old-school" you mean that it utilizes linear storytelling.

Nico: That's old-school.

Anna: Yes, but it's also something that isn't common anymore. Everything old is new again, right?

Nico: Or not.

Belle: Honestly, since we starting making videos before we made it big, we didn't have high production values, which is probably painfully obvious. But it was easier and cheaper to make a linear video, at least at the time.

Jana: But now you don't have the excuse of a lack of budget.

Lenore: True, and sometimes we try to push the boundaries of the art of music videoes, but our fans got used to our "old-school" videos, so we still like to make those.

Anna: This song just seemed to call for something kind of old-school.

Nico: It really is. This is the four of you in a van and you cross a bridge and cross back again. So you literally went nowhere.

Lee: You would have preferred some kind video featuring two people fighting over a relationship that isn't going anywhere?

Jana: That's still kind of linear.

Lee: Even if it ended with the set on fire?

Jana: Yeah, but that would have been cool.

Lee: Note to band, add more pyrotechnics to videos.

Belle: Duly noted.

The Story:

A green cargo van was navigating the narrow road as the rain poured down.

"We really need to stop doing shows out in the middle of nowhere," Nora commented.

"We're not successful enough to pick and chose," Maryann reminded her.

"Yeah, but I'm afraid we're going to get lost," she said. Lightning flashed in front of them. "Or wipe out."

"I've got it," Isabella said grimly, clutching the steering wheel. Her gray eyes flicked to the GPS unit stuck to the windshield. "This thing keeps losing the satellites though. Nora, can you find someplace to pull over?"

Nora tried to oblige. "No good. My phone can't find the network. Anyone else?"

Leah and Maryann also tried, but had no better luck.

Suddenly Isabella hit the brakes, although she was careful not to send the van into a skid. The van came to a safe stop in front of a large tree that was blocking both lanes of the road. The band stared at it for a minute.

"Now what?" Maryann asked.

"I don't know. This is the main road," Isabella said. She pulled the global positioning system unit off of the window and tried to find an alternative route. She frowned.

"What? No satellites?" Nora asked.

"Well, there's that. I don't think it's updated in awhile. But it says there's this road here and I don't remember passing a road."

"Well, it is dark and raining," Maryann said. "Maybe we didn't see the sign."

"I don't remember this road showing up on the route before."

"You probably didn't notice," she replied. "Does it look like we can get past this tree?"

"I think so." She replaced the unit. "Please keep trying to get some other map." She turned the van around and continued driving. After about half an hour and still no luck getting any sort of network on the phones or GPS, they abruptly came to a very small town. All they could see in the dark was a truck stop that appeared to be closed, a gas station that appeared to be closed, and a local motel called the "Motel San Francisco" that appeared to be open, although there were no cars in the parking lot.

"This feels like a horror movie," Maryann said.

"You don't watch horror movies," Leah countered. "Anyway, we haven't popped a tire."

As if on cue, the rear passenger tire suddenly blew out.

Maryann glared at her. "Who jinxed us?"

"Yeah, yeah, that one was my fault."

Isabella pulled the van into the motel parking lot. "What do we do?" she asked. "I have no idea where we are right now. It's past midnight, I'm tired, this storm doesn't seem to be letting up, and I really don't want to fight with changing the tire in this weather."

"I guess we're stuck," Nora replied. "Hopefully the storm will pass and we can try to get an early start to make up for lost time."

"This place is creepy," Maryann said.

"Of course it is," Leah replied. "If our lives had a soundtrack, right now it would be low-pitched and ominious. But I'm not saying I have a better idea. Let's just get rooms and get through the night. I don't think we even have to worry about someone breaking in and stealing the instruments. No one would be out in this weather."

They agreed on this point. Isabella parked the van at the entrance and all four ran inside, although their dash did not keep them dry.

A very old man was stationed behind the desk in the lobby. The lobby was small and dimly lit. It looked as though it was built and decorated sometime in the 1950s and never updated. "Terrible night," he said with a faint rural accent. He peered at them through thick glasses. "Got lost?"

"Yeah," Maryann said. "Can we get rooms? Two doubles, please."

He got up slowly and seemed to creak more than the chair he had been sitting in. He ran their band credit card through a positively ancient card reader and gave them actual keys. "Now, young ladies," he said, "Check out is eleven sharp. You won't be staying any longer?" His tone of voice did not suggest he was hoping they would stay longer and hence give him more business; instead, he seemed to almost be warning them against staying.

"Not if we can figure out how to get back on the road," Nora answered. "Thanks."

They took their keys and split into pairs; Maryann and Leah in one room and Nora and Isabella in the neighboring room. However, unlike a hotel, there was no adjoining door. In their separate rooms, both Isabella and Maryann did something quite similar.

"What are you doing?" Nora asked as Isabella wrote out Japanese kanji on a piece of paper.

The blonde stuck the piece of paper to the door. "I'm putting up some protection. I don't like this place. I don't like how we got here. Everything feels a bit wrong."

Nora silently said a prayer.

"What are you doing?" Leah asked as Maryann walked around the room muttering under her breath.

"I'm putting up some protection," she answered when she finished her spell. "This place is creepy. I want to leave as soon as we can tomorrow."

Leah silently said a prayer.

But despite their fears, they all survived the night and there was no sign they'd ever been in any danger. The storm had passed it the day looked like it was going to be bright and sunny. The only problem was that they had planned to wake up early and leave, but none of their phone alarms had gone off so it was late in the morning before they finally got up.

"So, everything okay?" Leah asked Maryann in the morning.

"I guess so. This place is still weird, but maybe it was just the storm making everything seem so scary, you know? I mean, we didn't really end up in a horror movie," she answered with a slight laugh.

The place had nothing resembling a continential breakfast, so they just met up and went to the front desk to check out. The very old man had been replaced by a young man just about their age. His blonde hair and blue eyes looked slightly washed out, somehow, and he wore '50s style retro glasses, a white collared polo shirt, and a pair of jeans.

"Hi!" Maryann said brightly.

"Hi there," he said. "Gosh, this really must be my lucky day!"

"Don't start, Maryann," Nora whispered to her.

"We'd like to check out, please," she said, ignoring Nora.

"No problem," he replied, taking the keys. "What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Maryann."

"What a nice name. I'm Albert." He finished checking them out. "I get an hour break at lunch. Can I take you to the malt shop? Bridgetown's finest lunch-time establishment."

"We're trying to head out early," Isabella interrupted before Maryann could say anything.

The redhead pouted.

"It's just lunch. I mean, you wouldn't stay forever. And anyway, it's not very early anymore," he said.

"Yeah, well, we know, so we really need to get on the road."

"Oh, well, um, if you change your mind, you know where to find me," he said. "Have a nice day, ladies."

The parking lot was still empty except for a red bicycle, which they assumed was probably Albert's.

"This place is so old-fashioned," Maryann said as Isabella started to work on the van to repair the flat tire. "I didn't really notice last night."

The gas station was now open but there weren't any customers. They could see trees lining the road, a brightly colored restaurant with a giant neon sign in the shape of a milkshake, a few anonymous store fronts, and a few blocks down what was probably a courthouse. They could also see a few houses tucked away from the road that appeared to have been built around the turn of the 20th century. The only traffic immediately visable was a person in a white uniform riding a bicycle towards past the motel and towards the courthouse.

"Leah, give me a hand," Isabella said.

The two set to work to change the blown-out tire. Nora and Maryann tried to amuse themselves with their phones but neither could get any reception.

"We really are in the middle of nowhere," Nora exclaimed with frustration. "Seriously, I have never not been able to get any data on this thing."

"I know, right? And we don't even have the same carrier," Maryann said.

It took nearly an hour for Isabella and Leah to get the tire changed. In that time, they saw two station wagons and one classic cruiser drive down the street. The person in white passed by them going the other way, and two old ladies emerged from a side street and went to the gas station, then went back to their quiet street.

"Okay, I thought this place was kind of pretty," Maryann said, "but it's so quiet. It's like no one's here. I mean, there are some people, but this really quiet. Is it a holiday we don't know about?"

"Well, the van's ready to go," replied Isabella.

"And so am I," Leah added.

"But our phones aren't working," Maryann said. "How do we know the way out?"

"We go that way," Nora said, pointing down the road. "Easy enough."

They piled into the van and set out the opposite direction they came in. The road curved through the woods and about five miles away from the motel Isabella screeched to a halt.

"Does anyone remember crossing a bridge last night?" Leah asked, staring at the flooded-over bridge. "Or seeing a river anywhere on our maps?"

"It was dark; we might have missed it," Isabella said. "Are any of our GPS options working?" They all answered in the negative. "Fine. I have a back-up," she said, and reached under the seat for a giant road atlas of the United States.

"That's old-school," Maryann said.

"No, it's only a few years old," she retorted. She flipped open a page. "He said we were in Bridgetown, right? Okay, let me see. We came in this way..." she said, tracing the route with her finger. Then she frowned.

"I know that look," Leah said. "That's the look that says things just got weird. What's wrong?"

"There's no Bridgetown on this map," she replied. "And there's no river. And the road doesn't branch here." She looked up at them with worry in her gray eyes. "Guys, we've gone off the map and I'm going to bet if we can't get out of here there are going to be some serious consequences."

"Great," Leah sighed.

"Let's go talk to Albert. Maybe he can help," Maryann said brightly.

"Why would you think that?" Nora retorted.

"Well, okay, maybe he can't, but at least he's someone to talk to. Maybe there's another way out of town and the map's just wrong. It never hurts to ask."

"That's not true," Leah replied.

"Ladies. We'll go ask. Maybe I am overreacting. Not everything has to be some kind of supernatural misadventure, right?"

"Right," Nora answered promptly.

In the back seat, Maryann and Leah exchanged skeptical looks and did not agree. They turned around and went back to the motel, which still had no cars in the parking lot.

"Hey, you decided you had time for lunch after all," Albert said as they walked in. "Great! I'm just clocking out."

"Actually, the bridge west on Main Street here is out," Isabella said. "Can you tell us how to get back to the interstate?"

Some of the color drained from Albert's face. "How's the bridge out?" he asked, going into the office in the back momentarily to presumably clock out.

"What do you mean?" Nora asked.

"I mean," he said carefully, "is it broken or is it just flooded over?"

"Oh, flooded over," Maryann said.

"What does that matter?" Nora said impatiently. "If you don't know another way out of town, just say so."

Albert put a sign out on the desk that read, 'Out to Lunch.' He faced the band and pushed his glasses up his nose. "There isn't another way out. Just the bridge. That's why this place is called Bridgetown."

"Not overreacting," Isabella sighed. "Fine, lead the way."

He got on a bicycle and they slowly followed him down the street to the restaurant with the milkshake sign. If the rest of the town appeared nearly asleep, the Malt Shop was doing swift business. There was no drive-through window, but there were rows for cars to drive into as well as a main seating area.

"This looks really old-fashioned," Maryann said. "Is this retro, or is it actually old?"

"I'm not sure what you mean by 'retro,''' Albert said. "And it's not really old, or old-fashioned, at least not for Bridgetown."

But the place seemed to be some kind of idealized 1950s diner/drive-in. What they had taken for a classic cruiser actually seemed to be the standard period car based on what they could see in the drive-in section. Carhops on rollerskates were bringing out food. For the diner itself, the decor was chrome and faux-leather with waitresses in neat little red uniforms and white aprons. Teenage girls were wearing big, poofy skirts and darted blouses while grown women were wearing neat suits with pencil skirts and wrist-length gloves. Business men were wearing full suits. A group of old people gathered in the corner away from the big-band music that was blaring from the jukebox. There was even an authentic soda fountain with a soda jerk. The scene was so surreal the band was fully convinced that everyone would stop and look at them as they entered, but no one did. Albert led them to an open table and gestured for them to sit down.

"This is weird," Leah murmured. "Maryann is actually wearing clothes that might not look out of place," she said, "but the rest of us don't fit in at all."

There were menus on the table, so out of curiosity they picked them up and read through them.

"Hamburger or hot dog or chicken strips," Maryann said. "Well, I guess we shouldn't expect vegetarian or gluten-free or anything like that."

"I suggest you just order the special," Albert said.

When a waitress stopped by to take their order, they did as he suggested.

"So what's going on here?" Isabella asked.

"You're going to have to learn some town history," he answered. "Bridgetown was founded around 1880 or so. The historical records aren't very good until the '20s. Anyway, this never was a really happenin' place, if you know what I mean. Bridgetown was always going to be a small town. But it was still a nice place. There was good fishing in Rock River and people always liked to go see the original covered bridge the town was named after."

"That's what we crossed to get here?" Maryann asked.

"Nope. That was closed before I was born because it was startin' to fall apart and wasn't safe. Anyway, everyone wanted the new concrete bridge so more people could come into town. No one really did, but that was the idea." He paused for a moment. "But then two big events happened. First, the Rock River was dammed upstream for a power plant or a drinking water reservoir or something. And two, the interstate was built. That almost killed our little town. There was no river and no reason come here. The interstate ensured everyone would drive by without even knowing Bridgetown was here. We were metaphorically off the map."

The waitress brought their orders out and Albert continued his story through some pretty decent hamburgers and geniune malts.

"As people moved away, the mayor took it particularly hard. He thought it was personal. So he decided to save his little town. If the world could do without Bridgetown, Bridgetown could do without the world."

"What did he do?" Maryann asked after Albert paused for what seemed like a long time.

"I don't know," he said finally. "But one day Rock River was flowing again like it had never done otherwise and the bridge across it was gone like it had never been built. Main Street east just dead-ends into the woods like it's always done, and the rest of the roads in town loop back around to Main Street. The only way in or out of town has always been across the bridge."

"That must have really upset people," Maryann said. "What happened?"

"Well, we were mighty puzzled for quite a while. A few people were foolish enough to try to swim across Rock River, but even when it's not flooded it's a deep, fast stream. They were washed away by the currents." He shook his head and lowered it momentarily. "Never found the bodies but we're pretty sure they drowned."

"Wait, so you've been here since what, 1957 or so?" Nora asked.

"Hey, good guess. How did you know?"

"The fashions. How is that possible?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Things stopped changing here, somehow. No one was getting older. No one was dying. The shelves in the general store restocked themselves each night with the same stuff that was in them before. Same thing happens here in the diner and every home. Clothes don't wear out. Nothing runs out, nothing runs down. Same thing, pretty much, day after day after day. I've been nineteen years old for nearly seventy years," he said, sucking down his milkshake.

"That's horrible," Maryann said.

"Yeah, well, most people don't know exactly what's going on. That's why they ignore your strange clothes. They don't realize how much time has passed or that they can't leave."

"Why do you?" Isabella asked quickly.

He sighed. "Because the mayor is my dad. I think whatever he did to cut us off didn't affect me so much. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm his son, maybe he did that deliberately, or maybe it was an accident. The minister knew something funny was going on; he ended up trying to swim across. So maybe it's better most people don't know."

"But you know what a credit card is," Nora said. "That wasn't invented in the '50s."

"Television," he said.

They stared at him for a minute.

"Look, I don't exactly understand this, but Bridgetown is kind of stuck right where it was on a nice summer day in 1957. Everything that worked then works now. So we had television. Not many, because they're expensive, but my dad could afford one. The minister could too, now that I think about it. One thing that did change was the television broadcasts."

"But we don't get cell phone signals," Nora protested.

"If this place is stuck in time," Isabella said, "we wouldn't. They weren't invented yet. This sounds like some sort of very large scale and powerful enchantment." She looked at Albert.

"Magic is as good an explanation as any," he said in reply to her unanswered question. "I would have started with calling this place cursed but I didn't want you to think I was crazy."

"So there must have been some conditions to get Bridgetown back to a better time which is why the river started flowing again. Magic like that must be very precise or there will be odd side-effects."

"Which means if TV worked then," Maryann said, "there's a loophole that allows it to keep working. Even though technically all the, oh, what's it called, free broadcasts, have been discontinued. In theory they should all need those scrambler box things or cable or a dish to get anything at all."

"But why not just continue the same old shows?" Leah asked.

Isabella and Maryann shrugged in tandem. "I don't know," Isabella said. "I'm guessing those people who were rich enough to afford TVs are probably the ones with the most awareness of the situation?"

"Yeah, although it's not that clear-cut. Some of them talk about shows they've watched and it's not real to them, not even the news. Other people don't have television and they seem to know something is off. I don't know." He fidgeted with the straw. "I'll pay for the check and then we should go to the park and finish talking, alright?"

Slightly confused, they agreed to this and soon they found themselves in a nice but empty city park.

"Where is everyone?" Maryann asked.

"At work, or at school. It's Monday, you know," he replied. "I work at the motel. Day in and day out and no one ever comes by. Well, no, that's not true."

"Obviously," Nora said acidly.

He pushed his glasses up his nose again. "Every few years the bridge reappears. I don't know why or how. And before you ask, yes, I know people who tried to cross it. They can't. They physically cannot step off the bridge to the west side. But that doesn't mean people can't come here, and sometimes they do."

"Do they leave again?" Isabella asked quickly.

He grimaced. "If you leave before the bridge disappears."

"How long is that?"

"About twenty-four hours."

"Well, hell!" Nora snapped. "Why didn't you tell us that to begin with? We need to get out of here!"

"You've got hours to go," he said mildly, "and the river may not recede before then anyway."

"And then what happens?" she demanded.

He looked at each of them in turn. "I know what, but I don't know why."

"Nora, let me ask some questions," Isabella said, cutting off her friend's angry tirade. "How do you know there's a twenty-four hour time limit?"

"I just do. It's not like I timed someone entering and leaving. I just know."

"Has anyone come and gone in that time?"

"Sure. Some people are lucky enough to just be able to turn right back around."

"And everyone else?"

Albert looked a little uncomfortable. "You need to understand that the bridge only seems to reappear under bad circumstances. Most people don't even realize they've crossed a bridge because the weather is so bad. Or they blow out tires on their cars. Or they come in late. So they end up in the same situation you do; they can't get back because the bridge is out. Sometimes it's broken and sometimes it's flooded but either way it's impassable. A few have tried to forge the river and their car got swept right downstream."

"And the others?" Isabella prompted.

"I tried to get them to leave. But I didn't meet all of them. Most thought I was crazy."

"Well, the whole story does sound crazy," Maryann said.

"No, no," he said, distressed, "I told you the whole story because I thought you'd understand it."

Nora opened her mouth, but Isabella gave her a stern glance which she took to mean that she shouldn't interrupt.

He continued, obilivious to their silent cues. "Most people I just told that they should leave as quick as they could. Some I tried to tell why; I tried to explain the town was cursed and they laughed at me." He sighed. "And then after the twenty-four hours, they disappeared."

"Are you sure they didn't leave?" Maryann asked.

"No, they disappeared," he said. "They were standing in the lobby trying to pay their bill and then they just faded away. Their luggage, their car, everything. And it wasn't quick. They panicked as they started to get kind of transparent and then fainter and fainter. They were screaming and begging for help..." His voice trailed off. "I'm sure it only took a couple of minutes, but it seemed like forever."

"Everything resets," Isabella commented soberly.

"Maybe those people just reappeared on the other side of the river," Maryann said.

"Maybe," Albert said doubtfully.

"But probably not," Nora sighed. "Well, I have no intention of just fading away, so let's go take a look at the river."

They drove back to the bridge and the water was in fact higher than before. As they stared forlornly at the water, the four of them knew it was much too deep to swim or try to ford with the van. It was clear they would be washed downstream.

"And of course without the phone I can't figure out when the river is supposed to crest," Isabella sighed. "Then again, this river isn't supposed to flow at all, so I guess that doesn't matter."

"I was afraid of this," Albert said.

"What are our options?" Nora asked the group.

There were several minutes of silence. "Well, I can try to find a place to open a door into a spirit realm," Isabella said finally. "But that's dangerous because I don't know where we'll find another way out of the spirit realm."

"Let's see if you can find a way in first," Leah said, "and then we can worry about getting out."

Albert looked confused. "You ladies clearly know some stuff," he said. "If you're going to drive around town, can I get a lift?"

They managed to fit his red bicycle onto the back of their van. Nora took the wheel while Isabella used a spirit sight spell to try to find weak points or doors to the spirit world. After a long and frustrating drive, they had circled the entire town and found nothing of use.

"This place is as isolated from the spirit worlds as the real world," Isabella sighed. "There are no doors, no weaknesses, not even any spirits to talk to."

"Okay, then what are our other options?" Nora asked.

Isabella and Maryann looked at each other. "We can try to break the spell," Maryann said.

"How would we even begin to do that?"

"Yeah, how would you do that?" Albert echoed. "And if you did, what would happen to us? Would we disappear? Would we suddenly grow as old as we actually are?"

"He has some good questions," Isabella said. "Albert, you said your dad cast this spell, right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think he's still got the stuff he used?"

"I don't know. I guess he would. Why?"

"Well," Isabella said, "if we can figure out what the spell was and how it worked, maybe we can figure a way out of here that won't completely break the spell since we don't know what the consequences are."

"I don't know," he replied doubtfully. "I don't want you to disappear, but I don't want to disappear either."

"We don't know unless we take a look," Maryann said brightly. "If we don't think we can figure a safe way out, we won't do it, okay?"

"I guess," he answered, still looking skeptical. He gave them directions to his house, which was a large, renovated, two-story farmhouse on a parcel of land nearly three times as big as the nearest neighbors. "Dad's busy at City Hall, so you won't be disturbed," he said, leading through the large house and up to the top floor to a staircase that terminated in a door. "The attic."

"What, really?" Nora sighed.

He shrugged. "I don't understand either." He opened the door to reveal a very narrow staircase that was somewhat boxed in by the support beams. "After you, ladies."

They walked single-file up the stairs. The door slammed shut behind them with a loud crack.

"Does it always do that?" Maryann asked, and then sneezed.

"Yes, but there's no point in fixing it, right?" he answered. "Dad always meant to get that spring fixed. It smashed my fingers real good one time."

The attic seemed to be nearly as large as the house and was surprisingly well-lit with a few flimsy but large windows. It was dusty, hot, and had a few cobwebs stuck to the rafters. It was also extremely cluttered with boxes, a trunk, a clothes rack with old clothes, a dressmaker's dummy, and broken sports equipment.

"So, where do we start?" Maryann asked Albert.

He shrugged again. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"We will get you trouble if we start going through this?"

"Eh, don't worry about it. It all resets, right? I'll go get some drinks. Be right back," he said, and disappeared down the cramped stairs. The door creaked and slammed shut behind him.

Maryann looked around. "Well, I wouldn't do any ritual magic here, but then again, people are weird. He'd certainly have enough props."

"Where do we start looking?" Leah asked.

"Oh, anywhere is good, probably. He probably would try to hide his stuff so Albert didn't get into it. So maybe there's a Book of Shadows buried at the bottom of one of these trunks or boxes."

"Can't you use a spell or something to find his stuff?"

"Leah, I've told you before, magic doesn't work like that," the redhead sighed. "Unless he's got some kind of epic artifact of power, his props are just props until he starts using magic."

"Great."

So they started digging. Nora found where the Christmas and Halloween decorations were stored. Isabella found a box of women's clothing she guessed belonged to Albert's mother. Leah found a bunch of old toys, some broken, and some not. Maryann found an old sewing machine, a family Bible, some sewing supplies that had gone a long time without being used, and some mason jars of pennies.

"This is ridiculous," Nora exclaimed. "There's nothing here but junk!"

"We don't know that for sure," Isabella said mildly. "But there is a lot of stuff to go through. We're looking for someplace that's easy to get to once you know to look there."

"Yeah, and how long have we been looking?"

The blonde checked her watch. "Over an hour. Hey, where's Albert? I thought he was just going to get us some drinks."

"Maybe his dad got home early or something," Maryann said. "I'll just go downstairs and get him and make sure everything's okay." She trotted down the narrow stairs and found she could not open the door. "Uh-oh."'

"Did you just say 'uh-oh?'" Leah asked.

"The door's stuck. Or something." She started to bang on it loudly. "Hey! Hey, Albert, the door's jammed! Albert! Can you hear me?" After several minutes and no effect, she stopped yelling and walked back up the stairs.

The others had all stopped in their tasks.

"He's gone, isn't he?" Nora snapped. "Or he's not listening."

"Um, yeah, it looks like it," Maryann said sadly.

"Why? Why would he lock us in his attic?" Leah asked.

Isabella frowned. "I'm guessing he didn't want us to try to break the spell but he didn't want to refuse to help outright, so he locked us up here. In the morning, we'll be gone and everything will be the same as it was."

Leah cursed in Spanish.

"I suppose it doesn't matter if we're locked in here," Nora said sullenly. "I mean, if we can't get out of this town, it doesn't matter where we are in it, does it? The only way out is the bridge, and that's totally flooded out."

"The bridge," Isabella repeated. "Oh, the bridge! I've been so stupid!"

"What?" the others cried.

"Find anything you can that looks historical. There may be another way out of this town. And just rip it apart. If Albert left us up here, I don't think he or his father are going to be back any time soon."

The band members tossed the entire attic. The mayor did seem to have a great interest in local history and in one of the less dusty trunks they uncovered a series of scrapbooks with yellowed newspaper articles. Slowly, achingly slowly so as not to damage the fragile paper, they combed through the articles.

"Okay, we might have a way out," she said as the sun set. "The old bridge was unsafe, but it wasn't torn down. See, it was made a historical marker," she said, pointing at an article.

"So what?" Nora said crossly.

"So it's still there and it's also higher over the river than the modern bridge. Hopefully it won't be flooded out. And I think I know how to get to it, if we can get out of this attic."

"Well, why didn't you say so before we wasted all this time?"

"It wasn't a waste," Isabella snapped, uncharacteristically ruffled. "It's no good breaking our legs jumping out of the window and falling thirty feet if there's no place to go. But there is a place to go, so let's find a way down. Did anyone find any rope or anything to make a ladder out of?"

"There's lots of junk," Maryann replied. "But nothing that easy."

"Then we'll make it up as we go."

"Alright! When we're rich and famous and someone makes a biopic of our band, this will be the part with the awesome montage," Leah said. "We should totally write the music for that."

"Only if we get out," Nora said dryly. "What happens if Albert or his dad come back try to stop us?"

"Then let's block the door from our side," Isabella answered.

They set to work trying to rig an escape from the attic. In the end, they made a rope of a few old clothes, some Christmas tree lights, and fishing line. They shoved an old mattress out a window.

"That isn't going to keep us from breaking our legs," Nora said, looking down at it.

"Better than nothing," Isabella said.

"Maybe."

They tied off their makeshift rope and stared at each other.

"I don't know if it's best to go first, or worst," Leah said.

"I'll go first," Isabella sighed.

"First you tell us how to get to that bridge in case you knock yourself out, or worse," Nora said.

Isabella drew out a map and handed it to Nora. Then she carefully headed down the rope. She made it safely and darted away to get the van in case they either needed a fast getaway or a first aid kit.

"Nora, are you going to be okay?" Maryann asked. "We're pretty high up."

"Yeah, I know that. Believe me I know that," she snapped. Then she took a breath to calm down. "But there's really no other way, is there? So I'll go next, okay, because I know you two still have to get down." She took a few more breaths and finally climbed out the window. She was the slowest by far but finally made it to the ground. Maryann clambered down fairly quickly, and Leah half-fell the last ten feet to land heavily on the mattress.

"I think I cut my hand on a light bulb," she said, referring to the strings of Christmas lights.

"We'll patch you up in the van. Isabella, I hope you're right, and you can find this thing," Nora said. It was completely dark now.

"I'll find it," she said grimly, and they drove off. Bridgetown wasn't very big to begin with and it wasn't long before they were out of the range of street lights. But finally the headlights illuminated a quaint wooden covered bridge. "Better take a quick look." They got flashlights and hopped out of the van.

"I'm no expert, but this doesn't look safe at all," Maryann said, noting the rotting wood and collapsed boards. "It's really narrow too. Will the van even fit?" The river raged underneath.

"Safe or not, I'm pretty sure we don't have a choice," Isabella replied. "There don't seem to be any holes in the roadbed that I can see. We have to take that chance. Come on." They got back in the van. Nora, Leah, and Maryann said prayers their respective deities, and Isabella slowly steered the van forward.

Maryann was right; the van was a tight fit. And with all their equipment, it was extra heavy too. Perhaps luckily, the sound of the swollen river below them drowned out the creaking of the boards as Isabella inched the van across. But finally they emerged from the cramped bridge to a dirt road on the other side. Immediately the passengers pulled out their phones.

"We have bars!" Maryann said.

"Good. Then put up the GPS unit and let's get out of here," Isabella said.

"Speaking of bars, I am starving," Leah said, "Anyone want a granola bar?" she asked, pulling a bag out from underneath her seat. "So what happens to Bridgetown?"

"There's nothing we can do about it," Isabella said. "Not until the mayor wants to break that spell."

"But other people are going to get trapped there," Maryann replied.

"Yes. I know. But there is nothing we can do about it," she said sternly.

"I hate that, you know," Nora said, crossing her arms. "I hate it when we come across these things we know are going to hurt someone else and there's nothing we can do. We couldn't leave a note. It would just disappear. And since Albert ran off like that, we couldn't even tell him there was another way out."

For a moment they were silent.

"Nora, find me a gas station, okay?" Isabella said.

And the band continued on their way.

The Lyrics:

You're on the road to anywhere

The destination isn't the goal

You'll know when you get there

This life is just how you roll.

You've learned a lot on your own

But sometimes you would like to share

You are comfortable being alone

But it'd be nice for someone else to care.

Refrain: You've crossed the bridge to nowhere

Look any and everywhere for another route

But don't give up hope for despair

You aren't trapped; there is another way out.

You met another who was so free

You thought yourself well aware

But then he got down on one knee

And you got up caught in the affair.

At first his presence was a perk

As he behaved with such a flair

But after a while it felt like work

And his attention was heard to bear.

Refrain:

Your feelings turned to woe

And you laid your soul bare

But concern he refused to show

So you decided to go elsewhere.

You didn't cry or debate or argue

You just up and walked out of there

Running down a forgotten avenue

Trusting the road to get you somewhere.

And you're on the road once more

And won't be caught unaware

You're more careful when you explore

And avoid the bridge to nowhere.

Track 12 - Saving Grace

The Interview:

Jana: Okay, we're nearly through the album. This next-to-last track is, well, how can I describe this?

Nico: A restrained power metal ballad?

Jana: Yeah, something like that. I didn't even know that was a-a thing, you know? And is there an electric harp?

Lenore: It's not electric, but yes, there's a harp in the background orchestration.

Nico: Who even plays a harp?

Lenore: Obviously, one of us does.

Anna: We like doing something new and unexpected.

Nico: This is definitely different. It's also an unexpected follow-up to "Bridge to Nowhere," which, as we just talked about, is about a bad break-up. This song seems to be the exact opposite.

Jana: Yeah. This is definitely someone singing about the person they can't live without like their soulmate or something. It uses overblown religious metaphors, but that's something that shows up in a lot of songs.

Belle: I suppose that's one way to look at it.

Nico: What's another way of looking at it?

Lenore: Huh. I really didn't think we were being that subtle with this one.

Jana: Wait, what are we missing?

Lee: Yeah, I thought we were being sort of obvious too. I guess not.

Nico: Come on, what's your take on this song, since it's obviously not ours.

Anna: Oh, no, your opinion is fine, it's just not necessarily what we were going for, and that's okay. Everyone's allowed to like something for different reasons.

The Story:

"Maryann, are you okay?" the short brunette asked the taller redhead who was sitting across from her in the cargo van.

She sighed. "I'm still worried about Derek, that's all, Leah."

"We'll be in New Roads soon," said Isabella, a blonde in the driver's seat of the van.

"Are you going to be okay with going back so soon?" asked Nora.

"Well, probably not. I still have dreams about Mee-maw, you know? She's still alive and I'm really confused because I know she died but I want her to still be alive. And then I wake up and I feel sad."

The band was silent for a minute. Maryann sighed and blew her nose.

"So what do you think is wrong?" Isabella asked.

"I don't know," she answered. "I asked Derek and he says nothing's wrong. But I just don't believe it."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm dreaming about Mee-maw every night. I never did that before, not even right after she-she died."

The other three had been with Maryann a long time and knew she often had psychic dreams but on the other hand they knew she missed her grandmother terribly, and were inclined to doubt if her dreams were due to anything but grief. Still, they were willing to take a huge detour and miss a gig to set Maryann's mind at ease. As they approached the town, the weather turned from overcast to light rain to heavy rain with thunder and lightning.

"Does this seem ominous to anyone else?" Leah asked. "Just me?"

"No, this is weird," Isabella replied.

"I really wish Derek would just tell me what's going on," Maryann sighed.

Isabella slowed down as they drove through New Roads. "Guys, this is bad. I mean, this is really bad."

"How bad?" Nora asked.

"It's just bad. This is all bad. There's nothing natural about this storm and I am seeing some weird auras." She also thought she was hearing an odd noise in the wind, but since the others weren't saying anything, she decided not to mention it.

"Do you need to switch out?"

"No, we're almost there," she replied. "And we're the only ones on the road. Haven't you noticed that?"

"I feel like we're in a horror movie and just took the fatal wrong turn," Leah answered. "Maryann, did you tell Derek we were coming?"

"Yes, and he told me everything was fine and not to worry."

"And did you tell him we'd be here anyway?"

"Yes. But he, um, didn't reply. He actually hasn't replied to anything in two days. That's part of why I'm so worried," she said.

Isabella parked the van by the side of the road across the street from the church. "Umbrellas or run for it?" she asked.

"Umbrellas," Nora said immediately. "He may not even be here. It's raining so hard I can't even tell if any lights are on."

They fished out two large umbrellas and made a break for the wooden double doors. Neither their haste nor the umbrellas made any difference; they were soaked. Maryann and Leah banged on the doors and called out but the storm was nearly right overhead and they could hardly hear themselves shouting. They were just about ready to return to the van when the doors finally opened.

"Maryann!" said a good looking, dark-skinned man who was a great deal older than he looked. "I told you not to come!"

"I'm here now. Please let us in," she said.

He moved to the side and they stumbled in and dripped water all over the floor.

"I'm sorry, Derek," Maryann said. "But I know something's wrong. I've been having dreams. And then you stopped replying to my texts and emails. You didn't even answer my calls!"

He hugged her and then kissed her.

"Um," Leah muttered. "Maybe I should ask Maryann more about the guys she hooks up with."

"Or maybe not," Nora said in an equally low voice.

"You should not be here," he replied breathlessly. "But I am glad to see you. You've been having dreams about your grandmother, haven't you?" he asked, shutting the doors and locking the doors behind them.

"Yes. How did you know?"

"It's a good guess given how I got this place."

The nave was lit by camping lamps set on picnic tables. There were blankets and sleeping bags propped against the walls.

"The power's been out for days," he explained. "Stay here. I'll get you some towels." He walked into the back to what had once been the minister's quarters.

"That is really weird," Isabella said as she looked up into the dark rafters.

"It's sparkling," Maryann said.

"No, those are fireflies," the blonde replied. "But I don't know why they'd come in here. I mean, it is raining outside, but this is really strange. Even for this place." She blinked a few times. "Do you guys mind spirit sight?"

"Are we going to regret it?" Leah asked.

"I don't know, but it might be helpful to figure out what's going on here."

"I'll just ask Derek," Maryann said.

"I'm not sure he'll tell us, or if he even knows." Isabella concentrated a moment and cast a spell to allow herself and her friends to see into the spirit world.

"Those aren't fireflies, are they?" Leah asked once the spell took hold.

"Of course they're fireflies," Derek responded, overhearing her question.

When they looked at him they could see his slight aura of death.

"But they are more than that." He handed them an eclectic selection of mismatched towels. "In eastern mythology, they represent spirits of the dead, right?" he asked Isabella.

She nodded. "But here they really are spirits."

"Yes, as well as being fireflies. Strange place this is. I thought I'd seen a lot of the world, and I had, but I've learned so much in my time here. Are you hungry? Do you need a drink?" he asked.

"I would love a drink," Leah replied.

"Then come on into the back."

"There's no one else here that we should know about, is there?" Maryann asked. "No vampires, for example?"

"Oh, no. William left a month after dear Grace passed. I finished her work and helped him find his peace. Then he just walked into the sun. I've helped a few others, but none have come here recently. They're afraid to."

The band took seats around the tiny kitchen table as Derek offered them various alcoholic beverages and some gumbo.

"Are you going to tell us what's going on?" Nora asked in a stern voice.

He looked at the four of them as he considered his answer.

"You can't pretend you're not in trouble," Maryann said.

"And if the weather is any indication, you're in some pretty serious trouble," Isabella added.

He sighed and drank a shot of rum. "Your grandmother," he said, addressing Maryann, "was a powerful woman. I'm guessin' you got a lot of your gifts from her. When I took over this place, I had no idea how powerful she was, or how many enemies she'd made. William, actually, gave me some information on that, but I was sure I could protect this place as well as she did. I've been places. I've seen things. But I was arrogant. And now I'm paying for it."

"Did-did you do something, Derek?" Maryann asked.

"No. This, whatever this is, isn't my doing, but I'm just about out of resources. I've called in my favors, called up all my old friends, or allies, or anyone, and no one's answering any more. The list wasn't very long to begin with. That's my arrogance. I always thought I could go it alone and handle anything. And I did, but I never realized the consequences of that path." He sighed. "I even asked for help from some of my divine contacts. They told me I couldn't pay the price; they wouldn't even tell me what the price was."

"So what is going on?" Isabella asked, sounding obviously irritated. The sound in the wind was setting her nerves on edge.

"Are you okay?" Nora asked her.

"The weather. This is so unnatural. It's making me anxious," she replied. "Sorry. But please, just explain what's going on."

"That's fair," Derek agreed. "For a year or so everything was fine. I helped William, and I helped a young man find peace with Selene."

"Um, what?" Leah interrupted.

"I think he means he helped someone with being a werewolf," Maryann explained.

"Oh. I guess that could happen."

"The garden grew and I even got people to stop dumping their trash on the lot. Things were going pretty well." He poured himself another drink of rum and took a sip. "The problems started with vandalism, actually. No more dumping, but things breaking. The back window of the truck was broken. A tire was slashed. Flowerpots smashed. Nothing was done to the church itself, and it started so slowly I just thought some kids were coming in from New Roads to have some fun. And then I started to realize I knew very little about the protection Mrs. Parker had put on this place. All of it had a purpose. The garden. The flowerpots. Even that damned truck. Something was dismantling the protection."

"Then what?" Maryann asked.

"I tried to rebuild what I could, of course, but I was distracted by trying to find out what was going on. I didn't know if something had come after me, because like I said, I have a lot of enemies, or if this was something that was coming after Mrs. Parker, or the church itself. I should have focused. I let myself get pulled in too many directions. I thought it would be easy to find the answers, and it wasn't. Even right now I have no idea what's howling on the wind."

"You hear it too?" Isabella cried.

The other three looked at her.

"That sound. I thought I was crazy but I can hear this sound, maybe like howling, in the wind. It's like that storm is a living thing," she replied.

"Really?" Nora said, crossing her arms.

"Yes, why would I make that up?"

"No, I mean, really, you thought we'd think you were crazy for hearing sounds the rest of us can't? We're kind of used to this by now."

"It's getting to her," Derek said kindly. "I can hear it too, and it's like a buzzing on the edge of your hearing, like a high-pitched squeal or a low-hum that makes you doubt your sanity. That sound was the second sign I had that something was seriously wrong. That only started about six months ago, maybe. It's hard to remember. It's so damn insidious it's like it was always there." He sighed. "And then, three months ago, the nightmares started. You probably won't be able to leave tonight, so just be warned, if you get to sleep at all, you'll probably wish you hadn't. And a month ago the storms started rolling through. Now, we've had bad weather before, but I knew this was different. This was an assault on the church disguised as a storm. Each storm has been worse than the one before, and I think this one may be the last push."

"How much have you slept, Derek?" Maryann asked.

"Not enough, and too much."

"What can we do to help?"

"I don't know that there is anything you can do," he answered. "You can set up your own protections. It may help. It can't hurt, I suppose. Leah and Nora, you can pray."

"Then that's what we'll do," Maryann said with determination in her voice. "Come on, Isabella, let's do what we can." She looked at Leah and Nora. "This is a church for your god. I think prayers may do a lot of good here," she said, sincerely and not condescendingly. She grabbed the blonde's arm and practically dragged her back into the church proper.

"Is this going to get better?" Nora asked when Maryann was out of earshot.

Derek shook his head.

"When will it get the worst?"

"Soon. I'm not sure we'll get through the night."

"Have you done everything you can?" she asked, eyeing the drink in his hand.

He saw her glance. "Believe me, I have exhausted all my options, and myself in the process. I've got nothing to bargain with. Whatever is out there is powerful; more powerful than anything I have ever faced. I do need help, but I didn't want you pulled into this."

"What do you think of Maryann's dreams about her grandmother?"

"It depends on what the context was," he answered. "It could be her grandmother trying to get her here to help. Or it could be something darker trying to lure her here. I don't know, but I'm thinking the latter. I'm not doubting Maryann's abilities, or Isabella's, or your faith, but this is probably beyond all of us."

They were silent for a few minutes.

"Leah, shall we do as suggested?" Nora finally asked.

"Yeah, I think we should."

They left Derek in the dim light and went to the altar to pray.

When Isabella and Maryann finished, Derek walked back into the nave.

"Um, is there any place I can park the van where it won't get smashed up?" Isabella asked.

"I don't know about that, but I put up a carport. You probably just didn't see it with the rain. Hand me the keys and I'll get it taken care of," he answered.

She handed over the keys.

He went to the back quickly and returned in heavy-duty rain gear. "Be right back." He disappeared into the raging storm.

"So, what do we do?" Maryann asked. "If Mee-maw's protections can't hold, I don't know if mine will either, even with Isabella's help."

Leah and Nora looked at each other, and then at the other two. "We, um, figured, you'd know what to do," Leah said.

Maryann looked at Isabella.

"I don't know. I've never come across anything like this. This is powerful. I'd even go so far as to say whatever's out there is evil. But what we do about it, I don't know," the blonde replied helplessly.

"So this is it," Nora said grimly. "We can't leave. The storm is too bad. So we wait for something terrible to happen to us, and hope we survive."

The other three looked at her, then at each other, but they had nothing to say.

The silence was broken by Derek bursting back into the church and the thin sound of a high-pitched wail.

"What's that?" Maryann cried.

"A tornado siren," Isabella answered immediately. She tried to check her phone. "No reception."

"I got a radio in the back," Derek said, and they followed him to the minister's quarters. After a few false starts, he tuned into an emergency weather report, and sure enough the sirens were sounding for their corner of the parish.

"Now what?" Maryann asked wide-eyed and obviously scared.

"Well, we should hunker down here with mattresses over our heads," Isabella said. "If this was a normal storm. But since it isn't, maybe we should hunker down near the altar with mattresses over our heads."

Leah blinked. "Sorry, sometimes I forget you're from tornado country," she said. "And your southern accent reappears when you talk about that stuff."

Isabella sighed and rolled her eyes.

"I think Isabella's probably right. I'll get some mattresses and blankets and we'll hunker down between the altar and the back wall and hope for the best," he said.

And that's exactly what they did. He also brought a small electric light. The storm intensified. The wail of the tornado sirens were lost in the screams of the winds. The lights flickered out and they were all in darkness illuminated by flashes of lightning. They huddled near the altar as a sound like a freight train approached them. The firefly spirits had all clustered in the deepest, darkest corners of the ceiling.

"What do we do? What do we do?" Maryann cried hysterically.

Derek held her closely. "Pray. We pray," he said, feeling frightened for one of the few times in his life.

But even in those terrifying moments, Isabella noticed something odd. "The windows aren't broken," she yelled over the noise of the impeding tornado.

"What? What does that have to do with anything?" Nora snapped back.

"The wind knocked out the power lines and I can hear hail bouncing off the glass. But the windows are just glass. Why aren't they broken?"

"Hey, yeah," Leah said, taking hope in this. "This place is still holding out. That tornado out there can't even break the windows. We might get through this."

The lightning outside turned red and thunder crashed all around them.

"Maybe," she said in a small voice. She clutched her necklace and started to pray in Spanish.

"Derek, what is it?" Maryann asked.

"Enemies. Maybe demons or devils or maybe worse. But your friend is right. So far whatever's out there can't get in," he replied.

"But how much of the town will be left?"

"I don't know."

The freight train approached and the tornado seemed to be right over the church. It spun around them for a few minutes.

"It's not going to hold," Isabella said, seeing cracks appear in the glass with her spirit sight.

She was right. Within in seconds of her statement, the windows shattered into thousands of multicolored fragments and rained down on them. They yanked blankets over their heads to shield themselves. Then the doors creaked and slammed open from the outside.

Something indescribly dark and evil stood in the doorway. It was less a shape as it was a thought, or feeling, of terrible cold and palpable malice. There wasn't much light anyway and what little there was seemed to be swallowed by its dark aura. With or without Isabella's spirit sight, it would have looked exactly the same. They were paralyzed by fear. It moved past the threshold and the rafters groaned as though the whole building was shuddering. The five stared at it in blank horror. It laughed. Even over the sound of the tornado they could hear that hideous laughter and nothing could shut it out.

Then the fireflies sped out of the dark corners and started to fly around the group. Their twinkling spirit light was not absorbed by the evil and oddly their flight seem to lessen the impact of the laughter. Butterflies started to manifest from the shards of glass like ghosts rising from a graveyard and they joined the fireflies to encircle the group.

"What is going on?" Leah whispered with great effort.

"The church. The magic in it; it's still trying to protect us," Derek replied.

"Will it-will it work?" Maryann gulped.

"Not for long," he replied grimly.

The dark being stopped laughing and said something in a language no one knew but understood all the same; it was going to kill them.

And then a shaft of light pierced through the raging storm and into the church only a few feet in front of where they were all still huddled within the protection of the firefly and butterfly spirits.

The dark being screamed obscentities with no translation.

The light coesleced into something that was the opposite of the dark being. It was light where once was darkness, hope where once was despair, and good where once their was evil. It was also terrifying.

The light being pointed at its counterpart and said in that same language that it was not welcome and should leave.

The dark being laughed and refused.

The light being suddenly manifested what the band and Derek's senses interpreted as a fiery sword and charged the dark being. There was an ear-piercing scream and an impossibly bright flash of silver light.

Leah came to first. The wind was still loud, but it seemed the storm was passing. The group was sort of awkwardly piled on top of each other and underneath blankets and mattresses. Leah threw off the heavy covers. The beings of light and dark were gone. The fireflies and butterflies were gone. She held up the small electric light. Faint lights glittered on the floor, so she guessed the floor was still covered in glass. Then she proceeded to wake everyone else up.

"What happened?" Maryann asked.

"I'm going to check the radio," Isabella said, and went into the minister's quarters and turned on the radio.

The others stood up and dusted themselves off.

"Well, it don't look too bad," Derek said. "It's quiet again. Whatever was attacking this place is gone." He took the electric light and walked over to the door. "And that was real. This mark ain't never coming out of the floor," he said, looking at a scorch mark.

There were puddles on the floor and a light rain was coming in through the broken windows.

"And this won't be cheap to repair," he sighed.

Isabella returned in a few minutes. "The storm's dissappating. I think we were out for over two hours," she said.

"Oh, that's why my neck hurts," Maryann said.

"It should stop raining soon. The wind feels normal again. Everything does."

"Does anyone have any idea what just happened here?" Nora asked.

Derek looked up at her, and looked at Leah. "Well, if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say some kind of demon attacked this place, and some kind of angel saved us."

"An angel," she replied flatly. "Really?"

"I can only go by what I see and what I feel," he said with a shrug. "The thing that stood here was as evil as anything I have ever encountered. What fought it off was as good, I guess, as anything I have ever encountered."

"But it was terrifying," Maryann protested.

"Just because something's good doens't mean it's not frightening," he replied. "With beings so powerful, well, that power alone is frightening to us mere mortals."

"I doubt you're a mere mortal," Nora said dryly.

"Or even us un-mere mortals," he said with a slight smile. "So maybe I'm wrong. But this was hallowed as a church, so it makes the most sense to me if anything was going to attack it, it would be the enemy of the church. Demons and angels."

"Huh. I thought angels were supposed to be nice," Maryann said.

"Not hardly," Leah said. "Derek's right. Good isn't nice. We should consider ourselves real lucky those other spirits were protecting us. I think that was to keep us safe from the angel as well as the demon."

"Leah, you don't really think that's what those were, do you?" Nora asked.

"I don't see why not."

"But really?"

Leah shrugged. "I know that we've seen a bunch of stuff that's way outside our faith, so why not something inside our faith for once? Why are angels and demons so much harder to believe in than fairies and ghosts?"

"I guess there's no reason," Nora said after a moment. "I'm just surprised, I guess."

"Oh, I am too. Anyway, right now we're safe, so we need to figure out what to do. It's the middle of the night, there's no power, and everything's wet. And possibly the van was wrecked."

"The van!" Isabella repeated, and dashed outside.

"Derek, do you think we're safe from whatever that was?" Maryann asked.

"I believe so. I do believe so. As for what to do, if the van is driveable and the roads passable, y'all can go get a room in New Roads. I'm going to stay here. The back is hopefully a bit drier, and I've got a mess to clean up."

Isabella returned. "Well, we'll need to replace some windows and vacuum out the water," she said, "but the engine starts up."

"Okay, you go to New Roads and get a hotel," Maryann said. "I'll stay here with Derek and help him clean up some. You can come get me tomorrow and we'll figure things out from there."

The other three looked at each other, and then back at Maryann and Derek.

"Alright," Isabella said, "but we can only spare a day or two to help you out, especially since we'll have to find a repair shop for the van."

"You don't have to do nothing else for me," Derek said.

"We're going to help," Maryann said sternly. "Mee-maw would want me to," she said in a softer voice.

"Okay, we'll see what we can do," Isabella replied. "You two ready?"

"I would dearly love a bed and some dry clothes," Leah answered.

"Sure," Nora said shortly.

They left Maryann and Derek and headed down the rainy road back to New Roads. Luckily only a couple of side windows had been destroyed.

"Nora, are you okay?" Leah asked.

"Yeah, yeah. I guess. I just-I just never thought we'd see anything like that," she said.

"An angel and demon?"

"If that's what they were."

"Why do you doubt that?"

"Because of all the other crazy stuff we've seen," she snapped. "I've had to recalibrate what I think of as normal so many times I've lost count."

"I get it," Leah said.

"Get what?"

"Why you're upset. Because we've seen all this crazy stuff and there hasn't really been any confirmation what we believe in is as true as what Maryann believes in, right?"

Nora just stared at the window.

"And so now there's this thing that happens right in front of us and it makes you wonder why all this other crazy stuff happens. Where does it all fit in?"

"I suppose you have an answer to that too?" Nora asked snidely.

"I sure as hell don't," Leah replied. "I'm confused and maybe a little angry too. Why let so much bad stuff happen when there's something like that light being who just take care of it? Why are we always stuck in the middle of something weird? I get it. I do. And we don't get answers. We get more questions."

"I guess maybe I'd like some answers every once in a while," she replied softly.

"Me too," Leah sighed. "Me too."

They were silent. They found a hotel, checked in, gratefully went to sleep, and the next day Isabella dropped Leah and Nora off at the church to help clean up while she got the van fixed up. They worked all day, spent another night, and left the next morning for another show.

The Lyrics:

When darkness is all around

And I feel I'm the only one

When dawn is too far away

You are the rising sun.

Such strength could eclipse me

And I feel myself quaver

But although I am frightened

My trust in you never wavers.

Refrain: You're full of hope and light

Whenever there is danger I can't face

Whenever I feel I'm losing myself

I can count on your saving grace.

When despair closes around me

And I am filled with only fear

I will never give up hope

Because I know you're near.

Sometimes I worry you're not there

But when the situation is most dire

Then I know I don't have to ask

Because you'll come with burning fire.

Refrain:

I love and respect all that you are

You frighten and inspire me

Please understand that I never

Would treat your power blithely.

Even though I have faith in you

Sometimes I can't believe what I saw

Once you step down from the choir

I am overwhelmed with awe.

Refrain:

As I walk through the valley of the shadow

I know that I can make it out of this place

As long as I focus on your shining presence

And love and cherish your saving grace.

Track 13 - Where Silence Reigns

The Interview:

Jana: Okay, well, now we've come to the final track, and this is another shift.

Belle: You really think so?

Nico: Well, you go from, erm, restrained power metal, to something like a cross between folk and slow-tempo prog rock. Again, I didn't even know that was a thing.

Lee: There's our new tagline - "Nevermore and the Ravens: Yes, that's a thing."

Jana: [laughs] This is pretty unusual. The music is so stripped down it's almost acoustic. And is there a cello?

Lenore: Yes. Yes, there is in fact a cello. And a violin, and a guitar, and drums.

Nico: What made you decide to use classical instruments?

Anna: It made sense with the song. We wanted something kind of mellow and deep and just a little bit haunting.

Jana: So you thought of a cello?

Belle: We've used a cello before for just that reason. It make sense to us. But we are musicians, which means we see things probably a little differently from everyone else.

Lee: Which is a lot of words just to say, "we're kind of weird that way."

Jana: This song also doesn't have a refrain, which is really unusual, to say the least.

Lenore: We didn't think it needed a refrain. The last line is repeated, so there's kind of a refrain already built into the structure of the song.

Nico: So is this song about death?

Anna: It could be.

Jana: But is it?

Lee: Interpret it however you want. We only make the music; we're not here to tell you how to listen to it.

The Story:

"Why do we do this to ourselves?" Nora asked as the Isabella navigated the borrowed recreational vehicle through the California desert. "It's said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

"This isn't the same thing," Maryann replied. "The festival was moved this year."

"They couldn't keep the same location for three years?" Leah asked.

"Something about permits, I guess," the redhead answered, looking confused.

"That is all beside the point," Nora cut in. "Why are we going to the Pandemonium Festival for the third time? The first time we had to run down a literal demon and the second time we ended playing a pick-up game of three-on-three to save someone's soul. Does anyone really think it'll be any less weird or less disastrous this year?"

"It could be," Maryann answered. "Or least maybe we'll miss the bad stuff. I mean, we're just coming in for the last day. Maybe they got all the bugs worked out."

"Isabella? Leah?"

"Yeah, it'll be a disaster," Leah said.

"We'll just prepare for the worst as best we can," Isabella replied. "We're not staying very long this time. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning."

"That's only because we're last on the schedule," Nora countered.

"We might be okay," Maryann countered. "Maybe the problems with the festival are because of the location. Maybe moving it will fix that kind of thing."

"It'll be less of a weirdness magnet?" Leah asked dryly.

"It could be. I mean, I don't know, but it could be."

"I'm not holding my breath," Nora said.

"Wow, you're getting almost as sarcastic as me," Leah said. "This is the first sign of the impending disaster."

"No, that is," Isabella said, looking at a sign that had been put up for the festival but had another sign with the word "detour" hastily put up over it and an arrow.

"So, it begins," Leah said, almost grimly. "I just hope the RV doesn't get busted up again. Mi abuela is a saint."

"She really is," Maryann agreed.

Isabella followed the rather confused detour to a dishelved attendant at a gate who directed them to another dirt path that eventually seemed to circle behind the main festival to an area marked off for the entertainment acts.

"I'll go find the manager or whoever's in charge to make sure our itenerary is correct," Isabella said.

"It won't be," Nora said irritably.

"I'll be right back," the blonde sighed. She fixed her floppy hat firmly on her head, adjusted her sunglasses, and stepped out into the bright sunlight. The moment she stepped out of the RV she knew something was wrong. She considering telling the others, but decided to take care of the practical considerations first. She found a manager and confirmed Nevermore and the Ravens was still scheduled to play the final show on the Anarchy Stage at eleven that night. As she threaded her way through the crowd, she caught glimpses of something inhuman. She tried to follow up but couldn't quite catch whatever it was, or even determine if there was more than one creature.

"We got costumes!" Maryann said brightly when Isabella returned.

The festival was officially opening for the final day. In the distance a band started to play.

"And we have trouble," Nora said, reading the expression on Isabella's face.

"Wow. Less than an hour. That may be a new record," Leah sighed.

"There's something out there and I don't know what. Let's go mingle. I'll cast spirit sight on everyone and maybe we can see what's going on. There are creatures or something out there."

"Oh, boy, creatures. This is great already," Leah said.

Having learned from previous years, their costumes were light-weight, light-colored material. The mostly white dresses were inspired by old-fashioned tea dresses, although they had shorter hemlines. They also all had floppy hats inspired by the same fashion, modern sunglasses, white sneakers, plenty of sunscreen, and their purses. Isabella cast the spell on them and they all stepped out of the RV.

"Oh boy," Maryann said in a small voice.

Everyone of them knew something was wrong.

"Now I'm really worried," Leah said. "I usually don't get these bad feelings, but I have a bad feeling about this. What the hell am I seeing anyway?"

"Echoes," Isabella answered. "After-images. I'm not really sure. We are really close to the spirit realm. We are much closer than we should be."

They set off to search for the creatures Isabella described, but they were hampered by the festival itself. Even on the final day, it seemed as though there were still numerous problems with coordination and equipment. The three stages seemed plagued by bad luck as circuits shorted, feedback loops were created, lights went out, and fuses tripped.

"I have never been to an event so well named," Nora said as they passed the lead singer of a band in an animated and agitated conversation with a manager.

"There!" Maryann said, pointing at a shadowy figure crawling underneath the Bedlam Stage. The backstage area was less crowded than the main festival area, but they still couldn't move quickly. By the time they reached the stage, some wires had shorted out.

"Sounds like the bass just went out," Leah said.

"Yeah, and I'm going to bet that manager isn't going to let us go underneath the stage now," Nora said. "Damn, this is going to get frustrating fast."

And it did. For over three hours they chased down the shadowy creatures but were interrupted by the festival-goers, entertainment acts, management, and even fans. By the time they regrouped for lunch and some water in the RV, they still hadn't gotten a good look at the things.

"One thing's pretty certain," Isabella said. "They're sabotaging the festival."

"Yeah. No wonder things are such a mess when these creatures are going around frying wires and stuff," Maryann agreed. "But why are they doing it?"

"If we could get close enough to see what they were, maybe that would help."

"We've been trying that all morning," Nora interjected. "Can't we figure out a better way?"

"Well, I think it would help if people didn't recognize us," Isabella said.

"But that's the point of getting here early. If we weren't going to engage in shameless self-promotion, we could have just stayed in a hotel and driven out here without bothering to borrow Leah's grandmother's RV."

"Yeah, I know, but right now it's kind of inconvenient to have fans finding us."

"Okay, so we go incognito for the afternoon," Leah said. "If we don't figure out what's going on, at this rate there won't be a working stage for us to play on."

"You're right," Nora sighed. "Still, this seems like such a waste of time."

They changed out of their costumes and back into their regular clothes, reapplied sunscreen, and headed back into the blazing afternoon heat.

Now that they were not in identical costumes (or as close as possible), the four young women could hardly have looked more different. Nora wore a light blue summer dress, fashionable sunglasses, and as always looked cool and put together. Isabella wore practical khaki shorts, a light gray t-shirt, a floppy hat to keep the sun off of her fair skin, and of course sunglasses. Maryann wore an orange t-shirt, a red skirt, cheap plastic red sunglasses, and a 1950s-style straw hat. Leah wore demin shorts, a light green t-shirt, cheap sunglasses, and a baseball cap.

The afternoon didn't go much better than the morning. The crowd was agitated by the heat and the problems with the festival. The people in charge were even more agitated. They still got glimpses of the shadowy creatures but couldn't get close enough to try to stop them.

"Well, that was pointless," Nora said sarcastically as they took a dinner break in the RV. "All damn afternoon and nothing to show for it. And I need a shower so bad."

"I don't know what to say," Isabella sighed. "It's obvious now those things are causing all the problems.and things are getting worse. The Bedlam Stage is totally out of commission and one of the amps is out on the Chaos Stage. At this rate, they're going to shut down the whole festival."

"But why?" Maryann asked. "This is the last day."

"Assuming that's what they're doing," Nora said dryly.

"Is there any way to talk to them?" Leah asked. "Chasing them isn't working. Can't you use a spell or something?"

"Not a spell," Isabella said slowly, "but I have an idea. These things are breaking stuff."

"Oh, no," Nora interrupted. "No, no, we are not putting out our instruments for bait. Anyway, these things are going after the big things. Why would they bother with our stuff?"

"I said it was an idea," Isabella retorted sharply. She sighed again. "I'm sorry. I can't think of anything better."

"Well, we might as well try," Maryann said. "What do we do?"

"Rehearse," she replied.

"Oh, we should do that anyway."

The other three kind of rolled their eyes. After dinner, Isabella and Maryann tried to inconspiciously draw some magical protections around the RV. Given the other commotion, they didn't have to worry too much about drawing attention. They pulled out their acoustic instruments and started to rehearse. And after an hour, they could see a shadowy creature approaching the RV. They had deliberately positioned themselves away from the door, and the creature slipped inside.

Maryann dropped a chord. "Okay, that worked!" she said, and they rushed inside.

They could see a spirit standing near their amplifiers and looking confused. It was as tall as a human but wore a black hood and cloak. It turned around and they could see an approximately human face. It looked a lot like a living anime-style cartoon character; a ten-year old girl with dark purple, short hair and bangs, overly large dark purple eyes, a tiny nose, and an even tinier mouth. Its skin was light gray.

"Um," Leah said.

It raised a long finger to what would have been its mouth in a gesture that clearly meant, "Hush."

"I trapped it in a circle," Maryann said in a low voice.

It shook its head again and made the gesture.

"So now what?" Nora asked.

The spirit rolled its eyes and started to draw symbols in the air. These turned visibly silver and into English. "You must be quiet!" it wrote. After a few seconds, the words vanished.

"Then, um, how do we communicate with you?" Maryann asked.

It looked thoughtful for a moment, then wrote. "Very well, but speak softly and only as you must."

"Why are you ruining the festival?" she asked.

"So it does not wake."

"Wait, wait," Isabella said, before Maryann could ask another question. "Why don't you tell us what's going on here? That'll probably be better and save some words."

The spirit nodded and continued to write. "I am one of many you may call the Noiseless. We are guardians, or perhaps keepers is a better word, of an ancient monster, a creature of destruction. I dare not even write its name, lest it that catch its attention and wake it. Long ago it was put to sleep and imprisoned within walls of silence. The prison drifts all through the worlds and we maintain the walls of silence."

"And this prison is near a music festival?" Maryann blurted.

They all looked at her sternly, including the spirit.

"Sorry," she said in a small voice.

"Yes, so it seems," the spirit wrote. "The prison was made to always move and to stay away from noise, for change is all that is permenant in the worlds, and what was silent when we settle may change into the cacophony of civilization. So we drift. Perhaps even in slumber it desires freedom and its power moves it here. There is an unfavorable alignment that brings us here, to this place, especially since we understand the music is only meant to be temporary." It sort of hung its head for a moment. "But," it continued, "we have tried to move, and we are unable to cast ourselves away from whatever holds us here. All of this wears down our walls. We do not wish to bring harm or misfortune on anyone, but since we cannot escape the festival, we must stop the music! We must stop the noise or it will be released. There is no saving you, or us, or anyone, if it is freed. So we have been trying for three days and yet we cannot effect enough. Your ingenious, noisy, loud devices are resilent, as is your will to celebrate and sing. There. Now you know. Had we realized there were any humans here with the power to see us and learn our motives, we would have reached out in the first place."

"How do we know its telling us the truth?" Leah asked immediately.

"Go in that direction," it said, pointing away from the festival. "Walk for one-thousand heartbeats to the jagged rock and you, with your gifts, will be able to see the prison, and the prisoner, and judge for yourselves if you want to risk trusting us."

"Maryann, will this hold?" Isabella asked.

"Yes, for a little while."

"Then let's go for a walk," she said. The others followed with Leah and Nora looking the most uncertain about the idea.

"You sure it's safe to leave that thing in the RV?" Leah asked. "I really don't want it to get trashed. I mean, really don't want that."

"Or our instruments," Nora added.

"Of course it's a bad idea," Isabella said, but she didn't sound angry. "But I'm out of good ideas."

"Have you ever heard of the Noiseless?" Maryann asked. "I haven't."

"Me neither, but there are so many spirits out there I'm usually more surprised when I've heard of one than when I haven't."

"Do you think it was being literal?" Leah suddenly asked. "I mean, about the heartbeats? Do we actually have to walk the amount of time it would take for one of our hearts to beat a thousand times? Or did the spirit thing mean, just walk a mile or so? Whose heart, anyway?"

Nora rolled her eyes but the other two looked thoughtful.

Isabella finally answered, "It's hard to say. Sometimes magic is really literal."

"When we get there," Nora said, "how do we know if what we're seeing is real, or the truth? Maybe these things can make illusions or something. And even if what we see is real, are we going to know what we're looking at?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "But we'll look anyway."

"I hope it's not Friedle-goth," Leah said. "'A creature of destruction' sounds like it could be a Lovecraftian horror."

"It could be an ordinary horror," Maryann replied.

"Yeah, that's so much better."

They walked in silence until they reached a very large and jagged rock sitting on the otherwise barren landscape.

"That's-that's not right," Leah gulped.

With Isabella's spell, they could see a sphere of purple energy superimposed over the rock; the rock was not real but an illusion to hide the sphere. The sphere was clearly trapping a huge, black, shapeless creature. It didn't look very pleasant, but it didn't seem particularly dangerous either. Suddenly two more Noiseless appeared in front of them. They looked exactly like the one trapped in the RV. They both started to write in the air.

"You have come to see for yourself what it is we guard," they wrote, with one writing one part of the sentence and the other finishing it. "Our walls contain all its malice and destructive energy. But if you wish to test this for yourself, touch the walls at your own peril."

"Oh, that's nice," Maryann said irritably. "We want to help."

"We understand which is why we're warning you."

The four looked at each other, and touched the purple sphere. They very nearly screamed and yanked their hands away quickly.

"Was that the prison or the thing?" Nora asked in a whisper.

"Thing," Maryann and Isabella answered immediately.

The two Noiseless shook their heads. "We did warn you," they wrote.

"What did you see?" Isabella asked. "I saw cities being wiped out by hurricanes and typhoons."

"I saw cities being drowned by tsunamis," Nora said.

"Raging infernos," Maryann said.

"Earthquakes," Leah said.

"Then we'd better go back," Isabella said.

They had no doubt the trapped creature was dangerous and while they weren't sure whether they should trust the Noiseless, they did not want to risk releasing the monster. Without another word, they turned and headed back to the RV as fast as they could.

The spirit was still standing in the circle Maryann had trapped it in. "I believe you found the prison?" it wrote.

They nodded.

"How long will your walls hold out?" Isabella asked.

"If they last long enough to cross the threshold of midnight, we should be able cast away before they completely crumble."

"What does that mean?" Nora asked impatiently.

"If the noise does not cease, they will fall. We need but only a little respite and we may be able to make it. However, my brethren have been forced to take more drastic measures."

"Like what?"

"No permenant harm will be done, but many of the music-makers may be too ill to perform their shows. It will pass by sunrise and they will be no worse for wear."

"I'm not sure that's going to work," Maryann said slowly.

"We are running out of both time and options. Can you devise a plan?" it wrote.

"That is the question, isn't it," Leah sighed. "We can't shut down the festival. Believe us, the people are determined to have a good time no matter what."

"Even at the edge of destruction?"

"Especially then," Nora sighed.

It sort of shook its head. "This is why we avoid civilization."

"We could not play," Maryann said.

"The managers will just replace us with another band," Nora countered.

"Okay, so we say we'll play and then pretend our instruments don't work?"

"An air guitar solo?" Leah suggested.

"You're just messing with me, aren't you?" Maryann asked.

"Maybe."

"Ladies," Isabella sighed. "There will be noise no matter who plays. Crowds don't stay quiet during concerts."

"Well, if the band is really, really, really good, they might," Maryann said. "But that like never happens."

The Noiseless started to write. "Could you use your magic?"

"What, literally hold them spellbound?" Leah asked.

"Oh, we can't do that," Maryann said. "I mean, we can't actually do that, and it would be wrong anyway."

"Can you do that?" Isabella asked the Noiseless.

"Wait, we can't use magic in a show! That's wrong!"

"Maryann, this is about saving the world. And like you said, we can't affect people like that."

"It may be possible," the creature wrote. "But I will need the aid of my brethren and time to cast such a spell."

"I guess," Maryann said. "It's for a good cause."

"Then release me," it said. "And I will let you know if this is possible."

Maryann opened the circle.

It bowed to them and slipped out of the RV.

"So if that doesn't work, what's our back-up plan?" Leah asked.

"Well, let's think of one," Isabella said.

But they couldn't think of any good ideas. They eventually had to give up and get ready for the show. As they approached the stage, a frazzled manager hurried up to them.

"You're Nevermore and the Ravens?" she asked.

The band's costumes were meant to resemble ravens, and they felt this should be obvious. However, Isabella quickly replied, "Yes, ma'am."

"Great. The only stage with any working equipment is the Chaos Stage. The Widgets will be done in a minute. You're the only band and you're the last band so please, let's just get through this," she said, looking desperate.

"So this is the worst festival you've ever been part of?" Nora asked.

"Yes!" She escorted them to the Chaos Stage as the other band finished up. The lead singer rushed past them to a trash can and noisily threw up.

"I can't believe he even made it through the show," the bassist was saying as they others went to help him.

"I can't either," the manager said. "Okay, the crowd is really restless but play your best. We want them to come back next year."

"Will you be back?" Leah asked snidely.

"Hell no! But it's a good venue," she said, and hurried off to take care of some last minute details.

The wind suddenly shifted and the stage seemed to glow slightly to the band, who still had Isabella's spirit sight spell.

"I guess the Noiseless did whatever they're going to do," Leah said.

"I just hope it doesn't hurt anyone," Nora said.

"Me too," Isabella said.

They got on-stage and started the show. The crowd was absolutely silent. No cheering, no clapping, no whistles, not even coughing. The uncanny silence was frankly quite disturbing to the band, but they tried to focus and ignore the complete lack of feedback from the audience. Their set lasted a little over an hour and ended ten minutes after midnight. The spell was broken the second the music stopped. After a few moments of awkward silence the audience burst into thunderous applause.

"I hope they got that monster away or the world is going to end!" Leah shrieked to the others.

But the world did not end. They even played an encore. Finally they stumbled back to the RV. In front of the door were words drawn in the sand that read, 'thank you.'

"That's nice of them," Maryann said, yawning.

"Are we coming back next year?" Nora asked as they settled down to sleep.

"It's a good gig," Isabella answered with a shrug. "Except for the bad things."

"We saved the world. How much worse could next year be?" Maryann asked.

Leah groaned. "We are so, so doomed. You totally jinxed us."

"I did not!"

"Ladies!" Isabella said. "Let's get some sleep and then get the hell out of here."

"That is a great plan," Nora replied.

And that's just what they did.

The Lyrics:

It always begins with a hue and a cry

But tends to end as merely a soft sigh

In the middle living is constrained

Until we all go where silence reigns.

When the last actor has left the stage

When the final encore has been played

And the song finishes the last refrain

Here in the dark where silence reigns.

Caught up in the clamor of the daily grind

Never knowing the rest of a quiet mind

There is a place that no noise profanes,

There, in the dark, where silence reigns.

When endless cacophony has ceased

When sound and fury is replaced by peace

Only calm noiselessness has domain

Here, in the dark, where silence reigns.

When the storm has worn itself out

And the howling wind no longer shouts

The rain stops beating against the panes

Here, in the dark, where silence reigns.

Not a whisper; not a breath

Unbroken stillness as cold as death

Only shadows and memories remain

Here in the dark where silence reigns.

When the ninth symphony is complete

And the heart's tempo slows in its beat

Life's essence runs cold in the veins

Here, in the dark, where silence reigns.

The Wrap-up:

Jana: Well, that's every single song. Are you going to stick with the number thirteen?

Lenore: We're three albums in; how likely do you think we are to change that?

Lee: Anyway, it's a lucky number.

Nico: Not normally.

Lee: Well, we aren't normal, are we?

Nico: [laughs] That's true. Everyone we talked to warned us this would be a weird interview, and that's saying something.

Belle: We aim to please.

Jana: Well, that's not true or you would have been more straightforward with your answers.

Lee: Yeah, you got us there.

Nico: Are you going to keep up this pace? Can we expect another album out next year? That's four years and four albums. That's got to be hell to manage.

Anna: That's what we're trying for, though.

Jana: How do you find time for a personal life?

Lenore: We manage. If you believe everything you read, we've already had about seven marriages and four babies.

Lee: Each.

Jana: [laughs] Well, if you'd answer questions, maybe there wouldn't be so many rumors.

Belle: Oh, come on, you don't even believe that.

Nico: Yeah, she's got you there, Jana. So, Ravens, what does the future hold? Are we going to see another best-selling eclectic mix?

Anna: Actually, we had something else in mind. It'll be way different, and a pretty big challenge for us to pull off successfully, but we're going to try.

Jana: What kind of different? Are you going to give us any other hints?

Lee: What do you think?

Nico: I'm taking that as a "no."

Lee: It's like you know us.

Jana: Alright, well I'm Jana Henrike.

Nico: And I'm Nico Syv. And this has been "Entertainment Now!"

###

First – thank you for reading! Hopefully Nevermore and the Ravens will release their fourth album next year which will be unlike the previous three. In the meantime, check out my blog, "A Writer's Hail Mary Pass" and Like me on Facebook. And if you missed the previous two releases, please check them out on Smashwords.com, or Nook, or any of Smashwords' fine affliates.

Second – thanks to Zac and Dina who keep a lovely castle. Good luck you krazy kids!

Finally – all trademarked and copyrighted characters and references in this novel/collection of short stories are the intellectual property of their respective parent companies and corporations.

