"Five…four…three…two…one!"

"Happy New Year!"

New Year's Eve at Richie Paulsson's place was better than Adam had expected. The teenagers got their own party in one of the machine sheds, while the adults remained in the house, keeping the younger kids with them. As Adam reflected on the fact that everything was so much better nowadays, he got a reminder as to why that was.

Eve nearly knocked the can of beer out of his hand as she jumped him for a kiss.

"Happy New Year, Scarecrow!" she cheered after letting him come up for air.

He spoke into her mouth as she lashed at his teeth with her tongue. "If you give me a boner, I'll carry you around in front of me until it goes away."

Knowing she had him at a disadvantage, with a can of beer in his hand, she crawled further into his mouth. When he could take no more of her passion, he pried her from his face.

"You big stud! You sure say the right things to me." Eve busied herself with seeking the warmest spot on Adam she could find to stick her ice-cold hands. "Let's see how you're doing in there," she said as she searched his pants.

Adam didn't care if he spilled beer on Eve as he swatted her away. "I am gonna punch you, Girl. Now knock it off."

Eve struck a diminutive pose, knowing far too much about Adam's whims and fancies than a woman should. "I am your girl now. Right?" she asked, all cute and sassy. "Like, totally? That thing we did in the field. That makes me your girl. Right?"

Adam was glad of one thing in their new relationship. He didn't have to hide the way he rolled his eyes from Eve as much as he used to. "And that time in the straw barn," he said down to her moon sized face. "And last week, when you got home from school. And yesterday, and the day before… "

He realized he had to stop talking, because Eve was getting ready to jump him for another kiss. She pressed her body full against his, raising herself up on her toes to smother him with silly with her love.

"Shut up!" she said into his mouth. "We only made out once!"

Again, Adam pried Eve from his face. He held her out before him.

"We're making out right now," he said to her wild and drunken grin.

From below, he felt a familiar fist whack him in the ribs. "I mean… you know… with this." She dug into his pants again with her ice cold hands.

"To me, it's pretty much all the same."

"Really?"

"Yeah. As far as I can tell, we haven't stopped making out since that night we spent in the blanket."

She threw herself onto him. "You say the sweetest things!"

Since she was so much shorter, he was able to look over her head and take in their surroundings. Nobody was smiling.

"Ah, guys," Richie Paulsson said. "Has anyone got the time?"

At least a dozen teenagers dug for cell phones in their pockets. "Eleven fifty-nine," one said.

"Yeah, I got that, too."

"It's been eleven fifty-nine for a long time now."

"That shouldn't be right."

"What time is it then?"

With gentle firmness, Adam set Eve off to his side. He dug out his own phone and looked at it with her.

"I got eleven fifty-nine as well," he said. "Why do you suppose that is?"

"Maybe something's wrong with the phone company," Eve replied. "You know, like a glitch."

"Guys?" Richie said with great concern. "You should come and see this."

He was the nearest person to the massive and partly open, sliding metal doors of the shed. Equipment that would normally be parked inside, where the teenagers' party was, sat outside on the gravel drive. It was strategically positioned to keep their parents from getting a bird's eye view into the shed from the house. A house that now could barely be seen, as something dark and sinister swirled in the space between.

With Eve plastered to his hip, Adam moved to a position better suited for looking over the heads of the partygoers in the shed, and out through the doors. He was tall enough to see what was going on, but Eve, being short, could not.

"There's something out there," he said to her. "A whole lotta something. Everywhere."

"It sounds like bats," she said, clutching him for protection.

"Why do you say bats?"

"Well, we got owls in our barn, but they don't sound like that. I think those sound like bats."

Just then, a collective scream from the crowd competed with an earth-shattering crash. A giant elm tree had fallen, smashing the combine outside. Another tree soon followed, as did another scream from the crowd.

"That tree hit your combine!"

"Look out! Here comes another!" someone else cried as a third tree fell.

"What the heck is happening? The trees are falling down!"

"Oh my God," Eve said in a whisper, pushing away from Adam to get a better view. As the teenagers continued commenting on the havoc outside, she watched in stony silence, holding a fistful of Adam's jacket.

Her face became whiter than he had ever seen. "The trees are giving up," she said.

"The trees?" he asked. "They're losing?"

"They're escaping from the ground. The roots are coming out." Another crash followed, as a towering hardwood destroyed a second piece of farm equipment.

Adam had always thought of Eve as being a bit more than crazy, ever since they were young. None of the things she did made him believe that more than watching her examine trees, measuring them and assessing them for their size and strength.

Now she seemed to be the sanest person in the room. "Why are the trees escaping?" he asked, despite knowing how crazy that sounded.

"To let out what's inside."

"Inside the trees?"

"Inside the earth."

"And what's inside the earth?"

Eve tore her eyes from the panic of the crowd and stared wide-eyed up at Adam. "Crow, you call me crazy and you may be right. But I'm not crazy for the reason that you think. It's just… I know things people ought to know, but in fact they don't. There are things inside the earth. Stuff that should never be seen. Stuff that should stay in the ground, and should never come out. And trees and mountains, and big things like that—they keep that stuff in."

"And stuff is escaping now?"

"The trees are losing the fight against the stuff that shouldn't be seen. Somehow, trees are losing. Stuff is getting out."

The panic in the shed was reaching its full throat. Most of the group huddled around the huge sliding doors, some screaming, and all fearing the chaos and destruction.

"So what exactly is this stuff?" Adam quietly asked.

Eve peered into the night. "Well, like I said. It sounds like bats."

Richie Paulsson ventured just outside the door to the shed, still remaining close. "What's going on?" he asked in confusion, staring up at the swirling cloud.

"Get back in here!" someone cried.

"It looks like…" he began.

A smaller cloud broke free from the mass, engulfing him in an instant. From the few glimpses into the cloud the crowd was able to manage, he could be seen getting torn apart with surgical precision.

Frightening and efficient, Richie Paulsson was soon rendered into pieces. The only thing keeping people from hearing his death scream were screams of their own.