Two steps in, and the air felt different, warmer and tingly. Eight steps in, and Alex was reasonably sure the school was no longer behind them, though he dared not look back to confirm. Just over a dozen steps in, and they were holding hands.

Alex thought it best not to mention it.

Instead he asked, “Do you know why you want to go to her?”

Janine didn’t turn but answered, “Nope. Just that I’m going to her.”

“Nope,” Alex corrected, “She’s coming to us.”

They’d cleared the worst of the underbrush to emerge on a wide path of grass that tore like a shot through the dense woods. At the far end of the converging edges came a torrent of darkness and chaos, the woman in black at the head of a cacophonous horde tumbling in her wake.

“Yes…” Janine spoke the word but only in the most superficial sense, her face gone slack, eyes dull with enchantment.

Alex gave her hand a squeeze, “We should run. Shoot, nope. School really is gone. Any ideas? Nope. You’re gone, ain’t ya? Hoo boy, I am an idiot.”