The kid’s Carnival had been a success. Almost everyone from church who had children aged 5-11 had come. Felix had given a short speech about how guarding yourself against the evils of the world needn't be about not having fun, and then the games began.

But after a few hours it had been wrapped up. Almost all the families had left, and the two who hadn’t, one that harboured a curious fascination with the last, half way full free candy dowl, were told that the carnival was now over, and gently escorted to their cars.

Felix could remember most of the festivities in vivid detail, but now that it was over, it felt like it hadn't lasted one for half as long as it had. Like all the good things in his life, this too seemed to make itself known quite a bit more after it was gone.

“Great job, pastor Drover.” Jack, who had been one of the young men the church had drafted to assemble and disassemble the carnival, offered Felix a high five, and he reciprocated it half-heartedly.

Jack went on, packing the final carnival boxes into the u-haul.

“Well,” said Felix, “we all better get a move on before dark.”

---------

Benny Baxtor paced around the large basement of the Baxtor estate. The building itself wasn't much by today's standards, though Benny was sure he could turn it into a tourist attraction, the kind you talked about on a guided tour, whenever you decided you were old enough to start going on guided tours. But Benny hadn't wanted that for the estate. It had been in his family since before the civil war, and it held a great deal of arcane power within its walls.

Benny continued to pace, watching from a slit window by the top of the basement wall as the sun slowly set.

Was it going slowly? Benny thought it was. He was dimly aware, in the back of his mind, that it was only his malleable perception that dictated the sun set so slowly, and that he could speed it up if he chose to. But he was too occupied with other things to focus on doing that. Laid out on the floor of the basement was a red cloth, angled to the corners of the wall to form a diamond shape. In the middle of the cloth Benny had arranged a circle of grey-black stones, each barely small enough to fit in his closed hand. Inside the circle he had placed a fig leaf and a dead rose. Outside the circle he had placed a small lock of his hair into each corner of the red cloth.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Finally, Benny thought, turning his attention away from the window. The sun had set, andhe could start the spell.

He opened the book, and began to read.

After about half an hour, the reading portion of the spell had been completed, and Benny laid the book down and opened himself up to the forces of the prime elementals of time and place. He felt a great rushing pressure from within and around and outside his ears, straining as if to get in and get out at the same time. He closed his eyes and the pressure engulfed the sides of his skull, just beneath the thin flesh of his skin, and in that moment he thought he might pass out then and there, ruining the spell.

But he did not pass out, and moments later he realised that he had broken through to the other side, a realm in which you could see anyone and anything if you searched hard enough.

He knew nothing of how long it had taken him, but he wasn't about to question it. He opened his eyes and gazed through the fiery nothingness of the realm’s material side. It was time he got to looking.

----------

Felix turned on the coffee maker. He’d gotten home about twenty minutes ago, and arrived to a curiously empty house. Kyle had, no doubt, left for his new apartment. He hadn't actually been staying at home for two weeks now. And Micheal… well. Mike was a bit of a mystery to Felix. In a way, he always had been.

Felicity had texted him, told him she needed to get some groceries from E-Mart. She should be back any minute now.

The garage door opened. A moment later, it closed, and Felicity came through the washing room door, carrying a small plastic bag.

“What did you get?”

“Nothing of interest.”

“Jeez,” he muttered. “What did I do to poke the bear this time?”

Felicity took a punnet of blueberries out of the bag and put it into the fridge.

“What did you do?” She turned to her soon-to-be ex-husband. “What did you do? I’ll tell you what you did, you slept with that slut who owns the craft store. You’ve been sleeping with her for months, and I know all about it.”