[Saunders Residence]

Melissa takes a deep breath.

It's dark out. And snowing a little bit. Which is weird.

Hadn't it been early September when all the goblins invaded Plothook Elementary School? So why is there Thanksmas stuff up everywhere? She can see the tree through their big front window, all lit up with lights and baubles and those goofy gingerbread people they always made together.

That makes her heart sink a little.

She and Isaac and mom always ALWAYS made the gingerbread people together. It was one of the first things they did after the tree was put up!

But there they are.

Hanging on the tree.

And she didn't get to help at all.

Maybe... maybe she had been gone for months? It had only felt like a few hours while she was lost in that spooky forest, but maybe time got mixed up? Like in the story of Rip Van Winkle. Or the one about the kids the witch and the magical closet! That must have been it. Her parents have probably been worried sick about her. Her brother, too.

Melissa runs her hands along her dress again. It's a weird dress. Mostly black with a little bit of white on it. All frilly with that weird swirly blue broach right under her chin. She's been wearing it every time she made herself look human again. It makes her look like one of those magical girls from Isaac's dumb black and white comic books. She glances back at the Y-shaped cat tail sticking out from under the dress. She tries to curl it around her left leg a little. Maybe mom and dad won't notice it. They hadn't ever noticed Isaac's fat elephant butt, so maybe she could hide a kitty tail, too?

She knows mom and dad wish their kids were normal. Maybe they should have gone to that school for normal kids instead of the one for magic kids? What was it called? Melissa can't remember.

Another deep breath, another straightening of her dress, then she knocks on the door.

A few moments later it opens up, flooding the night with warm light and the smells of Thanksmas.

"Daddy!" Melissa exclaims, darting forward and wrapping her arms around her father's legs. "I'm sorry I was gone so long it wasn't my fault it was that stupid cat who did it!" she loudly insists.

Her dad seems... hesitant? "Do I... do I know you, kiddo?" he asks as he cautiously steps away.

Melissa looks up at her father, befuddled. "That isn't funny dad. It's me, Melissa. I got lost in a creepy forest but I got away and now I'm home."

The look of confusion on her father's face doesn't go away, but concern joins it. "Why don't you come inside and sit on the couch, kiddo."

"Who's at the door, Henry?" comes mom's voice from the kitchen.

"Some lost little girl, she seems really confused," dad calls back. "Give Intersection a call. Have them send some officers over. Maybe there's been a missing persons report?"

"I'm not a lost little girl!" Melissa exclaims, stomping one foot on the floor. She thrusts an arm toward a particular ornament hanging on the Thanksmas tree. "Look, my picture is right-"

A closer look. Something is missing from the little picture-frame ornament.

That something is her.

"-there... No... no no that isn't right, I was in that picture. I was giving Isaac bunny ears..." she mutters.

Dad continues to look more and more concerned. "Hey, kiddo, everything is going to be fine, okay? Why don't you come sit down on the couch and Sara will get you some hot cho-"

"NO! This is all WRONG!" Melissa shouts, a few stray tongues of blue faerie fire licking along her hands and frizzed up tail. "I'll PROVE that this is my house and that you're my dad!"

And then, quick as a shadow, she spins on her heel and goes running up the stairs! Up the stairs, down the hallway, to the door right after the bathroom, and she yanks it open. "Ha! SEE!"

Melissa's look of triumph slowly wilts to confusion.

Then decays from confusion to pain.

Then from pain to sorrow.

She slumps against the door-frame, face buried in her hands, as she slides down the floor weeping.

Her room is gone.

There's nothing in there but boxes, dust, and some old unused exercise equipment.