I awkwardly bounced back, rubbing my bruised shoulder; hitting granite wouldn’t have been worse. The immovable object turned out to be a USPS uniform being filled by a fairly muscular body, one that probably wasn’t that much softer normally than its current rock-like state. I looked around and was unsurprised that nothing else had moved… however, something about my surroundings was nagging at me. I looked at the postal worker once more, then noticed for the first time that there was something odd about her eyes. I stepped in closer to try to determine why they’d seem strange in this already weird setting.

Then it hit me: there was life in those eyes; stilled for a moment, but ready to awaken any minu-