For three days, the Breaks had been promising a storm. The sky was a dark, unbroken gray, punctuated only by short lightning bursts at the horizon. Soft thunder would roll in the distance, like someone had knocked something over in another room.

Rafferty wished it would go ahead and rain already. She actually sort of liked thunderstorms, especially the big ones.

But she didn't like this. It was making her uneasy. It felt like a threat.

There must be a word for it.

"This is freakin' ominous," said Blaspheme, seated next to Rafferty, staring out the window on her side.

That's it.

Missing children weren't typically within their purview, but the girl in question was the daughter of a farmer who supplied a lot of wheat to the Abbey. She had walked to the shed to retrieve a wheel barrow, in the middle of the day, and never been seen again. Her brother, who was with her, said he couldn't remember anything, like he'd been drugged.

Or bewitched.

So witches were all anyone was talking about, and Max liked to do whatever he could to discourage such talk. He didn't want people to start thinking the Hunters were witches. Gus said people like to ascribe things they didn't understand to witchcraft, because it was easier than figuring it out. Gus said people liked things that were easy.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

They spent a few days asking questions without much success. What answers they had gotten pointed in the direction they were going. So here they were, heading toward the place there might be witches. If, you know, witches were real.

It was their third straight day of driving almost nonstop. Lena was behind the wheel now. Colin was next to her, map in one hand, and a thermos of old coffee in another. Occasionally, he would pass the thermos to Lena, who would take a sip, grimace, and then take a longer swig.

Oscar and Trevor were entangled on the second bench, and looked so uncomfortable that Rafferty doubted they were actually asleep. Rafferty was behind them beside Blaspheme, while Cody and Sheridan were tucked in back.

"Do we have to go there?" asked Cody, not for the first time.

"Yes," said Sheridan..

"But Rigby says the animals move around at night. She says if you fall asleep, they sneak up on you, and eat your legs," said Cody.

Rigby was Cody's best friend outside of J Hall, and had a reputation as a bit of a practical joker.

"Well, Rigby still has her legs, so how would she know?" asked Sheridan. "Besides, Foster's been there. She said it was no big deal."

"But Foster's not scared of anything," said Cody.

Blaspheme rolled her eyes to the ceiling, which got Rafferty smirking.

"Once," Cody continued "there was this giant spider in G Hall, you know, one of those black ones, except it was this big, and everyone was freaked out, and Foster just walked over, picked it up, and ate it."

"That didn't happen," said Sheridan, her impatience starting to show.

"Rigby said it did," said Cody, a bit petulantly.

The van finally stopped an hour later. Rafferty hopped out, her legs groaning gratefully as she finally got to stretch. The air hit her right away. It was damp and rusty, like the water some of the towns pumped through ancient pipes. Normally, she loved it out in the Breaks, but this place was different. There was another flicker of distant lightning.

Again with the threats.

Rafferty looked up. A great iron wheel dominated the landscape. The weird little buckets that hung off of it creaked in the slight breeze. Closer to the group, a giant bear in a top hat towered over the fence. At one time it was probably meant to be welcoming, but time and the elements had stripped away some of the paint from its face. The bear was missing an eye, and its smile had been extended into a wide sneer``.

Or a snarl.

Way creepier than any God.

As Rafferty pulled her bag out of the van, she looked at the sign above the gate.

Welcome to Wonderland.