Scenes from a day at Wonderland, the Most Wonderful Place There is….

Rafferty and Sheridan found Colin in a hole he dug at the edge of the park. He screamed when Sheridan grabbed him by the ankle and tried to pull him out. Rafferty had to help, and she only barely avoided being stabbed in the eye.

When they finally got him out, Rafferty saw that he was missing the ring finger on his left hand.

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Rafferty got separated from Sheridan in a weird little house that was mostly made of mirrors. In some of the mirrors Rafferty looked short and fat, and in some of them she looked tall and thin.

In one of the them, she was screaming.

Rafferty thought she saw Vincent in one mirror, except that his eye sockets were empty and stuffed full of tiny seeds. When she looked again he wasn't there, but neither was her reflection.

She finally found Sheridan, sitting curled up on the floor, weeping inconsolably.

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Sheridan's eyes kept flicking back toward the front of the park as they walked.

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Rafferty tried to ask her about it. Finally, on the third try, Sheridan had answered.

"That giant bear is watching us," she said.

"It's not a real bear. It's just a statue. It's, like, made of plastic or something," Rafferty tried to reassure her.

"You're made of plastic," said Sheridan, with a serious edge to her voice, and walked faster.

Rafferty looked up at the bear.

Its one eye looked back.

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They found Oscar, who had barricaded himself in something that Rafferty thought must have been a store at one time.

"About time," said the lanky Jack as he let them in.

Rafferty was glad he recognized them, but worried that he was hiding in here rather than out looking for Blaspheme. That wasn't like him.

"Blaspheme and I have been waiting for you forever," he said.

"Where's Blas—" Rafferty started to ask. Sheridan cut her off with a gentle touch of her hand, and nodded toward something sitting on a chair in the corner.

It was a balloon. Someone had blown it up and put a cowboy hat it. The hat said Sheriff of Wonderland. A face was drawn on the balloon, along with a few strands of blonde hair.

There was a piece of duct tape over the mouth.

"She's been in a mood all day," Oscar said.

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Rafferty watched a flock of geese fly over the park against a darkening sky.

"Lucky pricks!" she shouted at them, the anger that rose in her chest surprising her.

She stepped up onto a small brick ledge, the edge of what used to be a fountain, and shouted it again, even louder.

And again.

Sheridan had to pull her down.

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Rafferty was behind the counter of a little stand that had a sign that said FORTUNADA FALCON'S AMAZING FORTUNE COOKIES. GUARANTEED TO ASTOUND. She was bent over looking in some cupboards. They still had friends to find, and after discovering Colin in that hole, she wasn't leaving anywhere unsearched.

"Found you, beautiful," someone whispered in her ear.

Rafferty spun and lashed out with her right hand. She struck it hard on the metal handle of one of the cupboards.

There was no one there.

She looked down at her hand, and saw that there was a nasty gash between two of her knuckles. Rafferty saw a tiny piece of white in the wound, which she was afraid might be bone.

When it fluttered in a slight breeze, she knew that it wasn't.

She gripped it, and, in one of the most horrifying moments of her life to that point, pulled a piece of paper out of her own hand.

This isn't weird. This isn't weird. This isn't weird. This isn't weird.

Rafferty's hands were shaky as she unfolded the bloody scrap of paper. There was a message on it. Guaranteed to astound.

A day at Wonderland stays with you, even after you leave.