up with, "Jinx." She did follow up with, "This is definitely like a horror movie. We really don't want to encounter the locals any more than we have to."
Isabella looked around again. "We can't stay in this park. I don't think the exit is here anyway." She looked at the stone walls that seemed to surround the area. "We go that way."
"To the mountains? That's so far away," Maryann said.
"I don't think they're as far away as they seem. Space in this place is as off-kilter as everything else."
"So we'll to climb the mountains?" Nora said.
"At least we wear decent shoes," Leah replied.
"Yes. We can't stay in this valley. This is a bad place for us."
"Can't argue with that," Nora sighed. "Lead on."
"And go fast," Maryann added. The general feeling of unease was starting to seriously unsettle her. She felt uncharacteristically anxious. Neither Nora or Isabella were comfortable, but of the four, Leah was adapting to the creepiness of the place the best.
They turned sharply towards the mountains. Once they were off the path, the terrain became much more difficult to navigate. The trees seemed closer than they would have expected in a maintained urban park, and the animals almost seemed to watch them pass by instead of running away. Now they saw a few squirrels, which had black eyes that gleamed like glass and hissed at them like a cat would. They passed by a snake in a tree that glared at them with ruby-red eyes and seemed to laugh at them.
"We're being followed," Isabella murmured softly.
Maryann, who was behind her, clutched her arm.
"Calm down," Nora said from the rear, glancing behind her. "What do we do?"
"Keep moving," Isabella answered.
And so they did, until a female voice asked, "Hey, are you lost?"
They turned to see yet another person in a park ranger uniform behind them. She was wearing glasses that distorted the size of her eyes, making them look huge, but her nose and mouth were just too small.
"No, we're just exploring," Nora said quickly.
"Okay, well, you know the park is going to close soon." She peered at them more closely and adjusted her glasses as she did so. The eyes in the glasses did not seem to move even though she was moving them. The effect was deeply disturbing. "Well, your faces look a little odd, but not too strange. Why are you dressed like that?"
"We're a band," Maryann squeaked.
"Oh, musicians," she said, shaking her head. "That explains a lot. Nearly as bad as actors, which are the opposite of people. Are you any good?"
"We're working on it," Leah answered.
"Well, show me what you can do," she said with an odd undercurrent of a threat in her tone.
"Um, how about, 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat,'" Nora suggesting, trying to think quickly. "It's a round, so we can do three verses each."
"Oh, that would be nice," said the ranger.
"I'll go first," Isabella said quickly, and started to sing the first verse.
The rest of the band jerked at her in surprise. She was off-key, and obviously deliberately so.
Isabella pointed at Nora, who chimed in and followed the blonde's lead and sang off-key as well. Confused, Maryann and Leah followed suit.
When they were done, the ranger clapped. "Not too bad, not too bad. I think you'll do alright. But I suggest you finish exploring soon. The path is back that way, and if you get lost, there's a ranger station that way. And watch out for animals and falling rocks," she said, and walked back into the woods.
"What the hell?" Nora asked as they started walking again.
"Everything's off here," Isabella replied. "Did you hear what she said? Our faces look odd to her."
"We look creepy," Maryann said. "With the make-up we don't look normal..." she said, her voice trailing off as she started to understand what the blonde was getting at. "We don't look quite human. These people aren't quite human. And if they thought we were human, you think we'd be in trouble?"
"Exactly," Isabella answered grimly. "That's why I sang off-key. If the birds were singing off-key, I figured we should too. I'm glad you picked up on that."
"It was confusing," Leah said.
"I don't like horror movies," Maryann said. "I don't like this place."
"None of us do," Nora replied.
They fell silent and continued to walk as quickly as they could. Isabella had been correct; the mountains seemed to get closer more quickly than they would have expected at their pace and what they had judged to be the original distance.
Suddenly Isabella halted them. "Maryann, do you have time to cast some protection spells?"
"Well, I, er, don't really have most of the materials, but I'll do my best," she said.
"Do we have time for this?" Nora asked.
"I think it would be time well spent," she answered, still grim. She took the time to pull some pieces of paper out of her pocket and write some charms on them in Japanese kanji.
Maryann quickly cast some protection spells, but she disliked being rushed and not having all the components. "There. But they're aren't very strong. This place doesn't like my magic, and I don't have the right stuff or time!"
"It'll do. Come on," Isabella said, and they headed out again. While the sun had seemed stuck at sunset for a few hours, now it seemed to abruptly get dark.
Leah mentally wished she had the emergency kit which contained a high-powered flashlight, but got her penlight out of her pocket. The other three band members did the same; experience had taught them to always carry some kind of illumination device with them.
But within thirty minutes by Isabella's watch, they didn't need to have worried about light. A full and too large moon rose over the horizon and trees casting a cold, white light on the park. The already deep shadows actually seemed to deepen and the colors washed out. Even so, the moonlight was brighter than their penlights, so they put those away to save the batteries. With the costumes and make-up, the band looked more inhuman than ever.
"So what is it you like about horror movies again?" Maryann whispered to Leah.
"Sometimes it's fun to be scared."
"Like now?" Nora asked sarcastically.
Leah rolled her eyes. "I mean, it's fun to be scared when you know you're safe. This isn't fun at all. This is totally creepy in every way. I want to get the hell out of here as much as you guys do."
They heard a crashing sound in front of them and stopped. Isabella pulled out a charm and waited.
A gigantic black buck came to a screeching halt about twenty feet in front of them. It stared at them with black eyes.
"Is that, um, a real thing?" Maryann asked.
"Yes, but they're very rare," Isabella answered. "And I'm not sure how real this one is."
"Why is it just looking at us?" Leah asked.
"No idea," Isabella said, still ready to use her charm.
The buck perked up his head and looked behind him as though hearing something, and then took off running.
"We should go very quickly," Isabella said. "Run as well as you can. Something is chasing that buck and I'm afraid it's going to chase us."
They went forward at the fastest pace they could manage over the uneven ground and within a few minutes of the encounter with the strange deer they emerged from the forested area and found themselves facing a steep mountain.
"I see a place I can open a door," Isabella said, and pointed.
"How are we going to get up there?" Maryann moaned. "It's so steep!"
The sound of a woman screaming bloody murder filled the air.
Maryann yelped and Leah clapped her hand over her friend's mouth.
"Quiet!" she hissed.
"Was that someone getting killed?" Nora asked in a low voice, visibly shaken.
Isabella had gone pale under her make-up. "No, it's something my cousins told me about. Cougars scream like that."
"C-cougar," Maryann stuttered after Leah removed her hand.
> "So that's what was chasing the buck," Leah said.
"If we climb, it'll hear us!" Maryann said. "Maybe it'll go after that deer."
"The classic horror movie conundrum," Leah said dryly. "Stay silent and hope the monster goes by, or make a mad dash and hope you run faster than it."
"That's not funny!"
"I'm not trying to be funny," she retorted. "Those are our options."
"If it wants the deer, it will ignore us regardless. If it's not that interested in the deer, it'll find our scent," Isabella said.
"Mad dash," Leah sighed.
"Mad dash," Isabella agreed.
Maryann nodded weakly.
"Let's do it," Nora said.
And they clambered up the rocky slopes as fast as they could with Isabella in the lead. Leah was the best climber and she and Nora helped Maryann, who was having the most trouble, while Isabella did her best to look ahead and scout out a decent path. But Isabella was in a hurry, so they slipped to their knees often and sent small rocks skittering down the hill.
The terrible scream ripped through the air again, and this time it was distinctly closer.
"Do not look back, Maryann!" Leah ordered with force. "We keep climbing!"
The redhead jerked her head to Leah and then up at Isabella.
"Come on!" Isabella said.
They scrambled faster. Their knees were bleeding through their tights and their hands were bleeding through their gloves. Their make-up was started to run as they sweated up the slope. Finally Isabella came to a small ledge and started the ritual to open a doorway for them.
"Do not look back!" Leah said, helping Maryann to the ledge. "Never look back!"
Now they heard a low, fierce growl from somewhere all too near them.
"Isa-Isabella..." Maryann stammered, nearly hyperventilating.
"Hush,"