[right][h3]The Fed Zone[/h3]11:40 am, Saturday
November 6th[/right]

Sheriff Valerie Chang had stopped on the step outside the door, and she listened with engaged interest to the crazy story that spilled out of Gary's mouth. Occasionally her eyes flickered over to Jill, then back to Gary; she pressed a finger to her mouth and nodded understanding.

"Yes, yes, [i]vines[/i] -- and a [i]tiger[/i] -- I see, well, this is certainly a matter for the police to take care of." She grinned and smacked Gary on the shoulder with a heavy hand. "Good job. Carry on. Shoo, shoo." She swatted her hands in the air, a gesture to move along.

"Lemme go in first," insisted Deputy Marvin Wicker, who already had his gun out of its holster. He peered through the glass door into the diner. "If there's a wild animal in there, I'll take [i]care[/i] of it!"

The sheriff let out a slow, annoyed breath and pinched the deputy's gun between two fingers, moving it so it was no longer pointing at anything breakable. "[i]Paperwork[/i], Marvin," she reminded him of the last time he'd discharged his gun unnecessarily. Sheriff Chang pushed through into the diner, while Marvin grumbled under his breath and holstered his weapon.

The two were inside for only a couple minutes before the door opened again. Marvin held the door open while the sheriff came out slowly, a comforting arm around Eleanor's shaking shoulders.

"He was [i]there[/i] and then he [i]wasn't![/i]" Eleanor sobbed, a fistful of napkins pressed against her eyes. "We were standing outside the bathroom door, and Jeremy went to get the key, and I [i]saw[/i] him come back -- and then he vanished! Along with a bunch of other people! Like they were never there at all!"

The Deputy cocked an eyebrow. "So did you see any vines or tigers?"

Eleanor sniffed and looked at Marvin like he'd lost his mind. "[i]What?[/i] No!"

Sheriff Chang huffed a sigh and clicked on her radio. "Yeah we'll need to tape off The Fed Zone as a possible crime scene. Multiple missing persons. Apparently vanished into thin air. Print out another missing poster for Jeremy Lindall." Eleanor, hearing this, burst into another round of sobs.

Marvin patted her shoulder. "There, there. I'm sure he just got sick of you and ran off." He got a swift elbow to the gut for that, and he stumbled away to sit on the step.

Inside, the diner was empty ... and clean. There were no traces of vines or decay anywhere -- just plates of half-finished food and the puddle of strawberry milkshake on the floor. The bathroom door hung open, and beyond it were only the clean stalls and four intact walls, with a small high window that looked out onto the parking lot.

Everything was [i]normal.[/i]

"Okay, I'm going to have to ask you three to come with me back to the station." Sheriff Chang hopped down the steps and gestured for Jill, Gary and Eleanor to follow. "You're going to have to squeeze into the backseat. I've got some case files I'd like you to take a look at, see if anything looks familiar." She stopped and stared at each of them suspiciously. "None of you are in trouble -- [i]yet.[/i]"

While the sheriff led the way to the car, Eleanor looked imploringly to Gary and Jill. "Did you [i]see[/i] what happened? Do you know where my baby brother is?"

[right][h3]Duskwick[/h3]▒▒:▒▒ apm, ₰₮€₺₻₧
₠₱₭№⅍₼₥ ▒[/right]

Just outside the hole in the bathroom wall -- where weeds poked through shattered sidewalks, houses sat crumbling with bowed roofs and hollow windows, and cobwebbed streetlights stared dark upon a cracked road -- a silent mist rolled low along the ground.

Everything was silent. Broken. Rusted.

David, Jeremy and Cheri were alone; D and Reis had run ahead down the street, lost in the shifting fog. The diner behind them had been completely engulfed in rot and plantlife.

There was no way back.

From here, they could see the sparkle of the lake, rolling with mist. There was something floating there -- something big, like a barge, its shape indiscernible -- that hadn't been there before.

To their left was the post office, heavy with vines. Its roof had been destroyed by a crashed propeller airplane, which stuck out of the shattered tiles at a precarious angle. The inside of the post office windows had all been plastered with envelopes, glued to the interior of the glass to shut out the light.

To the right was a row of houses and a few rusted cars left in the driveways. Their siding was faded and falling down, the eaves sagging and broken ... except one. In the middle of all the rest of the decay was a single small house with bright purple siding. A vibrant garden grew in front, softly accented by little stone sculptures and musical windchimes, gazing stones and birdbaths. A little sign outside the garden gate declared, in flowery painted writing: [i]Psychic Readings $20[/i]

A short walk ahead, at the crossroad, was the town arcade. Its huge windows were jagged and broken by the roots and branches stuffed through them; leaves and green growing things stretched through the roof and invaded every crevice, as if the interior of the arcade were its own little ecosystem. A few of the consoles inside blinked and flashed haunting colored lights, forever beeping and trilling off-key tunes. Something moved inside -- a shadow shifting across the lights.

[h3][i]Meanwhile...[/i][/h3]
As D rushed through the streets after the last traces of the tiger, she would find that her visual equipment tended to fizzle and switch between modes without her interference. The analyses were all wrong, citing her current location was a small village in Norway, beeping motion sensors where there were only trees, and insisting a certain small sub shop ahead was in fact an upside-down nail salon.

The sound filters, however, picked up voices that she wouldn't hear with her own ears. They were garbled whispers, several voices at once, speaking nonsense if not a long-forgotten language, fizzling at the edge of the equipment's frequency.

At D's call for Maddie, she might hear a low, rumbling growl in the alley behind the arcade.

D might get the feeling she was being watched.

Stones and pebbles on the ground began to shiver and float up into the air -- as if suddenly weightless, they hovered a few inches off the sidewalk.

The fog billowed white and blinding. An electric tension hung taut in the air.

Then, suddenly --

[indent][i]NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP
NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOOOOWN[/i][/indent]

Reis' phone blared noisily, buzzing and blinking.

All around D, pairs of glowing yellow eyes opened. They advanced upon her from all directions. The tigers growled.

[indent][i]NEVER GONNA RUN AROUND AND
DESEEERT YOOOUU[/i][/indent]

[h3][i]Meanwhile...[/i][/h3]
Mister Reis would hear nothing at all in the phone. It seemed completely dead and defunct, and it had just eaten his nickles. Except, after a moment ...

[i]help me[/i]

A staticky voice crept through the receiver. It seemed to be a child, voice quivering in fright. A little sob quivered in Reis' ear.

[i]Joao ... please ... Joao, it's dark. the water's coming in. you said you'd come back. come back ...[/i]

A sharp rapping noise sounded on the door of the telephone booth. Outside Reis' booth stood a figure draped in a ragged purple robe, its face completely hidden deep within the hood, which had been cut to allow room for the huge pointed antlers that protruded elegantly from its head. Something about the way it stood -- the slope of the shoulders, perhaps -- suggested someone young and female ... but it was impossible to tell for sure until she pulled back a sleeve and tapped on her watch significantly.

She was waiting to use the phone.