[color=gray][i]"911 dispatch, what is the address of your emergency?"[/i][/color]

After establishing that no one was injured or otherwise in danger -- thus, there was no emergency warranting a 911 call -- the dispatcher promptly transferred Mister Reis to the office of the Sheriff of Duskwick.

[color=gray][i]ring

ring

ring[/i][/color]

Should Mister Reis decide to check the pictures he'd just taken of the booths in the diner, he might notice there appeared to be blurry, almost human-shaped lights occupying a couple of the empty seats. Of course, it could just have been a trick of the foggy light streaming in through the picture windows.

D, too, may have caught them in her brief video. They almost seemed to turn their heads to watch Maddie run past.

To look at the same spaces with the naked eye would reveal only dim, empty seats.

By the bathroom door, Eleanor had just tried the locked knob when she was startled by Gary's presence. She stared up at him, a hand over her heart in shock, then released a quick breath. "Listen, honey, I think calling her parents is up to the sheriff, but I'm sure everyone appreciates you trying to help. But if you stand right there -- back up a little -- if this door opens and she bolts again, you'll catch her won't you?" Gary seemed like the prime sort of person for catching speeding children.

Eleanor put a finger to her lips and leaned her ear against the door.

Upon comparison of the two photographs side by side, David and Gary would discover that they were indeed exactly the same photograph -- only the paper one was worn and had been folded and unfolded, as if it were at least a week old.

D's scan of the milkshake machine would reveal little evidence -- except the fact that the strawberry flavor was empty, with a post-it on it scrawled [i]BROKEN[/i].

[color=gray][i]ring

ring

ring[/i][/color]

Eleanor heard a short, terrified yell inside the bathroom, followed by banging noises. "Maddie, honey, are you all right?" Eleanor called through the door, her voice calm and motherly. "Maddie?"

Meanwhile, inside the bathroom, Jill might feel something tickling the top of her head.

It was a long green vine, one of many that now grew out of the rotted ceiling; they shimmered translucent, as if they had only just emerged into existence.

The walls of her stall were decaying and rusting around her; the toilet she stood on was suddenly an older model from the 70's, dry and cracked.

The tiled floor had become overgrown with weeds.

[i]"Maddie, it's all right, I'm here, tell me how I can help,"[/i] called the manager's voice across the door.

[color=gray][i]ring

ri- "Duskwick Sheriff's office, how can I direct your call?"[/i][/color]

"Jeremy!" called Eleanor. "Go get the bathroom key, quick!"

[i]BANG[/i]

The stall door crashed open, and a full-grown Bengal tiger stepped silently out onto the weedy tiles of the transformed bathroom. It slinked past the cracked sinks and calmly faced the door.

"Something's happened, JEREMY THE KEY HURRY!"

While Eleanor waited with her hand outstretched, the floor underneath the bathroom door began to crumble and grow with thin roots and stems.

The door decayed and cracked, the walls dulled and aged --

-- then Eleanor was gone.

One moment she was there, pressed against the door, and the next moment seemed as if she had never been there at all.

A thin silence fell upon the diner.


The decay was spreading.