Cary woke up with a blanket wrapped around her and her head resting on a pillow that wasn't there the night before. The fact that she was still in the lounge chair didn't surprise her any; she had woken up there often enough over the years. Her grandparents were too old to carry her up to her bed, if they had noticed her sleeping there early enough to have bothered. But with the sun already shining outside, she knew that the day was dawning, and that they were probably both long gone.

With a quick glance at the clock in the corner to check how long she had till she needed to leave for school, she rushed upstairs to change into a clean set of clothes. While she was up there, she grabbed her journal from its secret place under her bed. With everything that happened the day before, she hadn't made an entry just yet. It was sure to be the longest, and most exciting, by far. But it would have to wait until she was at school.

It wasn't until she came back downstairs, heading into the kitchen for some cereal, that she noticed the note hanging by the door there. It flitted in the wind, threatening to pull free of the wall where the old sticky parts were wearing thin. Cary reached out for it, almost without thinking, reading it as she came into the kitchen.

"Cary, please send out the letters on the counter on your way to school. Be careful crossing the street. Love, Grandma."

As she poured herself a bowl of Apple O's, she glanced at the stack of letters over there. They were all addressed and sealed, with stamps in the corner. Cary knew that she could just stick them in the mailbox on the way out, letting the mail carrier bring them back to the post office themselves. But then she remembered the hooded figure from the night before. About how they somehow disappeared behind the building. Suddenly, her curiosity peaked, she wanted to go over there and check it out herself. And with that note, that was permission to cross the street. She didn't get that often.

Cary took her time getting ready for school, retrieving her bible from the floor by the chair, making sure her homework and journal were all stowed away properly, and the letters were properly stuffed into the front pouch of her backpack. The letters stuck out through the zipper, but they were secure enough that they wouldn't fall out when she went across the street. Once she was ready to head out, she stood by the door, watching the clock for a moment, as she struggled with her usual sense that she was forgetting something. Once she was certain that she had everything, she headed out the door, making sure that everything was locked up tightly before heading off.

"Hey, Cary," David called out to her, as she was just crossing the porch. David was standing at the gate, waving over at her. He had a habit of waiting out there for her in the morning. The two of them would often walk to and from school together, whenever neither was occupied with other activities. He was her best friend, her only friend most of the time, and they spent most of their spare time together.

Whenever Cary wasn't being punished for something.

Cary waved back at David, but then she pulled out her bible, showing it to him as she crossed the yard. She watched as the disappointment spread across his face. He wasn't disappointed in her, though, just in that they would be seeing less of each other for the day. David nodded his understanding, waving over at her as she came through the gate.

"I still don't see why we can't just walk to school together," David said. He looked around at the otherwise empty road that they were standing on, his expression quickly turning to worry. "It's safer to stick together. Safety in numbers and all that."

"I'd love to, but you know my grandpa has spies everywhere," Cary said. It was an old joke that the two of them had made over the years, whenever her grandfather had seemed to know things that he shouldn't have. "Besides, I have to drop off some letters anyway."

Cary looked over at the post office across the street, still eager to check the place out. She wasn't quite ready to talk to David about the events of the night before, but she knew it would come up the moment that her punishment was over. As she moved towards the side of the road, David moved forward, as if to join her in crossing. But he had the same restrictions as Cary did, so he wouldn't be able to come with her. Not yet, anyway.

David just stood there as Cary made her way across the street, making sure to use the crosswalk and to wait for the light. She had a feeling that David was still waiting for her. That he would follow along with her from that side of the street until she went up a block further and could cross safely back. But she barely spared him a glance as she made her way over to the post office.

There were two cars in the parking lot outside, though the place wouldn't open for another hour. Cary barely spared them a glance as she made her way between them, heading over to the blue mailbox that was set up by the door. She reached around to her backpack, barely slipping it forward to pull out the letters, quickly sticking them into the box. But the entire time that she was doing that, her eyes were trained on the back corner of the building. Her full attention was on where the hooded figure had disappeared the night before.

Or where she thought they did.

With the letters properly deposited, she glanced back over at David for a moment. He was still standing there, watching her from across the street. Cary gave him a quick wave before ducking down behind the cars, slipping forward towards that back corner. If the whole thing was just in her head, she didn't want to have to explain it to David. She was worried that this would be the one weird thing about her that he wouldn't just shrug off. But she needn't have bothered, as David could see her just fine as she slipped behind the building.

"Where are you going, Cary?" he called from the other side of the road.

Cary didn't respond as she made her way behind the building. The place was dirty and smelled of trash, with a fence blocking off most of the back of the building just a few feet away from the corner. As Cary looked around the place, she quickly realized that the cloaked figure couldn't have gone through there. The fence was way too tall, with barbed wire along the top to keep people from trying to break in. It ran from the back of the building, over to the high stone wall that blocked off the lot from the next one over. For a moment, she thought that maybe they climbed up the wall, but there were pricker bushes all along the top, and deep growth that would keep people out of there. The figure must have come right back out and Cary had just missed them.

Or perhaps she had dreamed the whole thing. The more she looked around that place, the more she thought that was the truth of it. She was about to give up the whole thing when she turned towards the back of the building. That was when she saw the graffiti painted there.

The paint was still wet on the picture painted on the wall there. It looked like a circle of mushrooms, with red caps and white spots on them. For some reason, the words fairy ring came to Cary's mind, though she had no idea where she would have heard about such things before. She walked forward, her hand reaching out towards the graffiti. While the paint looked wet, she needed that tactile confirmation to be sure. She needed to know that it was really there, and she wasn't just seeing things.

And yet, when she touched it, the paint was quite dry. None of it came away on her fingers. She could feel the stone of the wall that it was on, as if it wasn't there at all. But when she took her hand back, the picture seemed to change. It seemed to almost dance around a little, the mushrooms starting to spin slowly and the section in the middle flowed out from the wall like waves on the surface of a pond. But the waves didn't drop down to the ground. It didn't flow in the direction that it should, given that it was on the wall of the building.

"What the..." Cary started, as she stared at the wall in complete confusion. She thought for sure that she was seeing things. That she hadn't gone as unaffected by her time in the haunted house as she had thought. Her hand reached forward once more, without her thinking much about it, moving towards that flowing pool.

"Cary," David's call came from the other side of the building.

Cary looked towards his voice, but she couldn't see him over there. She stood there for a moment, torn between going to check on her friend and looking at the wall in front of her. But when the next words came from him, all thoughts of the wall evaporated.

"Greg is coming," he said, his voice seeming to echo around her in that space.

"Oh, no," Cary whispered, her words barely loud enough to reach her own ears. She looked back towards Elm Street, heading past the lot there. Greg lived somewhere up Elm, and always came past the post office on the way to school. Cary and David always made sure to be out of that area before he came, lest he start bullying them early.

But with Cary still stuck in the back lot of the post office, with their bully heading their way, there was no time to spare. Cary didn't hesitate as she rushed back out from behind the post office, running around to the parking lot. Her eyes were trained on the road behind her, so she soon saw Greg off in the distance. Her only saving grace was that he wasn't running towards them. He hadn't spotted them... yet. Except, in her haste to get away from him, she accidentally bumped into one of the cars parked there.

The car's alarm sounded, drawing all attention towards Cary. Drawing Greg's attention towards her. She didn't look back at the boy heading her way as she ran forward, heading around the cars and down the street. All she wanted was to run back across Howard Street. To run to the safety of the other side of the road. But the lights weren't with her, and the traffic was already flowing. She kept to the sidewalk as she ran up the street, heading for the next block over, hoping that the light would change soon after she got there. Hoping that she could stay ahead of Greg until they made it close enough to school.

David was running along the street as well, shadowing her on the other side. She wanted to make it across to him, to have the added protection of having him by her side. The two of them against just Greg wouldn't be enough to keep him off them if he was angry. But it would be enough to keep them safe in the morning. Cary didn't look behind her, didn't look back towards Greg, until the light changed and she was safely back by David's side.

"Is he following us?" Cary asked in a low voice, once she got over to him. She wasn't brave enough to look back there.

"No," David said, shaking his head, as he looked behind them. "I don't think so. I don't see him. Let's just get out of here, okay?"

"Sure," Cary said, nodding her agreement, as the two of them ran off towards school.

"What were you even doing back there?" he asked. She didn't give him an answer.