Ava waited for her eyes to adjust to the swirling grayness, which felt a lot better on her eyes than the light in the hallway had, and saw they stood on a cracked cement street. Boulders rose on either side of them, and behind them was a huge, gray cement building. There was no one in sight and everything was silent and still.

She noticed that the gaunt girl stood far away from her.

Ava clutched her bag, that held that mysterious book, to her chest, and willed her throbbing headache to go away. She was so relieved to be away from those mountain men. She was never drinking again. God she hated Mark. She loathed him.

“What?” she finally asked the gaunt girl.

The gaunt girl just shook her head and frowned.

“We have to get away from here,” she said, voice muffled from the fog around them. “We have to get away from their oasis.”

Oasis? Now what was this girl talking about.

“I need to send the book back,” the girl said.

“You need to send me back,” said Ava, willing herself to wake up in her own bed, willing her horrible night with Mark and her parents had never happened. Maybe it had all been a bad dream. She’d do just about anything for a Tylenol right now.

“Yes. You have to go back,” the girl agreed. “Come on.”

Ava followed the girl down the cracked cement street, shivering. She thought about Elizabeth as they walked. She replayed their kiss in her mind. Her sexuality confusion made her throbbing headache worse though, so she tried not thinking about it. She tried not thinking about anything at all. And eventually the cracked cement street turned into damp earth. Huge, sharp boulders rose on either side of them. She thought she’d puke. The girl stopped and turned to her.

“What did you do to that bad man?” she asked.

Wasn’t that obvious? Why did this girl ask such stupid questions?

“Kicked him in the crotch,” she said.

“Yes, but—” the girl’s voice trailed off, and her strange, purple eyes widened. “Was that violence?”

“Well, I guess so,” said Ava. How could this girl not know what violence was? “How do you not know what violence is?”

“Rosalie told us about it. It’s in one of the library books.”

“Who the fuck is Rosalie?” Ava asked.

“One of my sisters,” said the girl.

“Oh.”

They stood in silence for a bit then. It was awkward. The girl fidgeted where she stood.

“My name is Ezzie,” she finally said.

“Okay,” said Ava.

“I—” Ezzie floundered for a bit. “I destroyed the controls on the rollercoaster. I don’t know if I can fix them. What have you done?”

“I didn’t do anything!”

Had she somehow led Mark on? The shame made her sick.

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“Like hell you didn’t!” Now Ezzie sounded angry.

“Don’t be pissed off at me,” Ava snapped. “All I did was sit down and pick up the book.” Now she took it out of her bag and flipped it open. “What’s in here anyway? Why is it so important?”

“Give it to me,” said Ezzie.

“No.” Ava put it back in her bag. She had a sudden fear that if she gave the book back to this strange girl she’d run away with it and leave her standing here, alone in the gray fog, and she’d never find her way back to reality. “Why are you interested in rivers of blood anyway?” Sudden revelation filled her. “Are you a vampire or something?”

“What’s a vampire?”

She didn’t know what a vampire was? Clearly this girl was an idiot.

“An immortal being that drinks blood.”

“Oh,” said Ezzie. “I—” she paused. “I guess so? We drink from the fountain of blood.”

Of course they drank from a fountain of blood. This girl didn’t even really know what violence was. Ava doubted she’d ever physically hurt anyone in her entire, ancient life.

“Of course you do,” she muttered. She needed to text Elizabeth. Maybe if she texted Elizabeth everything would go back to normal and she’d wake up from this strange nightmare, where there were belly bumping mountain men, strange girls who drank from a fountain of blood, and no violence. She dug around in her bag and pulled out her phone, noticing the girl flinch a little. She was clearly afraid of her. Ava found immense satisfaction in that. She realized, however, that the battery on her phone was dead. She realized, with dismay, that she must have left the flashlight on. She pulled out her pack of cigarettes and lighter, noticing Ezzie flinch again, and lit up a cancer stick.

The end glowed bright orange when she inhaled.

“What’s that?” asked Ezzie. “Oh!” She waved smoke away from her face. The smoke was almost the same color as the fog. “That hurts my eyes!”

“It’s a cigarette.” Didn’t this girl know anything?

“And you’re a mortal?” Ezzie asked.

“Well duh.” Ava puffed away. The nicotine helped her throbbing headache some.

“And you come from the place where the rivers flow with sweet blood?”

Why was she so seemingly obsessed with that? Wasn’t their little fountain of blood enough? And why did it matter if her sisters or whatever found out about it?

“Isn’t your little fountain of blood enough?” Ava asked, deciding not to answer that question. What if she said no and this strange vampire girl left her here alone. “And why can’t your sisters find out about it? What’s the big deal?”

Ezzie frowned. “Because they’ll leave me, and I can’t go to the mortal world—”

“Why not?”

“I just can’t okay!”

“Okay.”

Ava smoked the rest of her cigarette and threw it to the dirt ground, where she stomped on it.

“Are we going back to the rollercoaster now?”

“Yes.”

#

Ava followed Ezzie closely, not wanting to lose her in the chilly fog. It cleared her head some, helped her throbbing headache. She wished her phone wasn’t dead. She wondered if anyone was concerned about where she was. She wondered when she was going to wake up from this strange nightmare. Ezzie’s pink hair was a sharp contrast to the chilly fog, and Ava vaguely wondered if it were natural or dyed. She didn’t feel like asking. She wondered how Ezzie could even know where they were going. The fog was that dense. Ezzie moved slowly and cautiously, avoiding boulders and rocks as though she’d been this way many times before, as though she were a master fog walker. Ava hoped she’d be able to somehow fix the rollercoaster when they got there. She wanted this strange dream to be over with.

Sudden paranoia and fear filled her, as though someone or something were watching her in the fog, and she thought maybe it was just her imagination. This whole situation was just her imagination after all.

She glanced around herself nervously, clutching her bag that held that strange cold and damp book.

Something was watching. Something was waiting.

Something was waiting for her. She wondered if maybe it were those mountain men, but the fear reminded her of the demon in her dream, ripping its way out of her body and choking her with its sharp claws.

“Something is watching,” she whispered.

Ezzie stopped.

“What do you mean?” she asked, and her voice was loud in the muffled silence.

“I don’t know,” said Ava. “It just feels like there’s something watching us."

Something watching me, she wanted to say, but didn’t.

“No there’s not,” said Ezzie. “You’re just being weird. Come on. We’re almost there.”

Almost to the rollercoaster. That was a good thing. Almost back to her reality.

Her head throbbed.

Then she saw it—the demon from her nightmare. Out in the fog. She saw its glowing red eyes and grotesque shape and face. She saw it! It was there! It was waiting for her! The fear was icy cold, colder than the fog, and Ava ran from it.

“Wait!” shouted Ezzie. “You can’t just run! The spinning worlds—”

But whatever else Ezzie was about to say was lost to her as she was vaguely aware of running beneath a lightly glowing gray arch. The world turned to muddiness, and then she were falling, spinning downwards and downwards, into blackness.