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peered down at Carole, who had become very still. "I do not say such things to
frighten you Miss Sylphwood, only to warn. It is through no fault of your own that monobrain
schooling is not up to snuff when it comes to real knowledge, but there is little we can do about
that now except fill in as many gaps as possible. May I continue?"
    Carole opened her mouth, but before she could speak her ears popped and the world
whipped violently off kilter.
----

- 7 -
    Carole pitched face first into cold, slimy muck. "Ew, gross!" She pushed herself to all
fours and spat the foul sludge out of her mouth. "Disgusting!"
    Thankfully, the world had stopped spinning. Unfortunately, it was now totally blanketed
in a gray mist. "Professor, are you still here?"
    There was no answer.
    "Professor Philamount?" She jumped to her feet and let out a small sigh of relief. The
mist came only to her knees, but, along with the fog, she was now surrounded by a murky tangle
of shriveled and misshapen trees. Most had only a few leaf-like globs stuck to their sparse
branches. Oddly enough, they all seemed to be pointing in her direction.
    She inched towards the nearest tree. It resembled a stunted apple draped in gooey black
moss, or was it folds of rotting flesh? She crinkled her nose. The air certainly smelled bad
enough.
    As she stood staring, the mist began to flow around the tree.
    Strange, she didn't feel any breeze.
    She glanced over her shoulder. The fog was perfectly still. She looked down. Again, no
motion. There only seemed to be movement around that one tree.
    It wasn't the mist at all. The apple tree was moving.
    Heart pounding, she backed away, while looking wildly about. There was nothing but
forest in all directions. The tree suddenly lurched her way, revealing a small patch of light in the
gloom.
    Carole dashed for the opening, but a thick root snaked across her path. Diving over, she
flipped a perfect handspring, fought off a branch that grasped for her throat, and kept running.
Seconds later she burst free of the forest and sprinted across open ground, not stopping until
she'd put at least a hundred yards between her and that sinister wood.
    Breathing hard, but satisfied the trees were no longer following, she examined her wrist.
Blood was dripping from a long, thin gash that had begun to sting. She squeezed the cut with her
other hand, and looked around, only to realize that she was now standing in a field strewn with
familiar looking gravestones.
    "Not the Spook Realm again!" She kicked at a headstone, expecting her foot to pass
through and started in horror as her toes smacked against solid rock. The headstone toppled over
and shattered. A shadowy form rose up, shrieking, from the rubble and sailed towards the forest.
Carole strode quickly away.
    Once out of the graveyard, she took stock of her situation. What had appeared almost
bright from within the forest, turned out to be a bruised-looking sky. The air was definitely
colder out in the open, but at least the putrid damp didn't extend beyond the trees.
    She climbed a nearby ridge and looked over into a narrow valley that stretched
towards an ever darkening horizon. Wide hollows, probably marshlands, were already shrouded
in fog, but partway down the slope she could make out a winding trail. It led towards a squat,
warped structure with light shining from its tiny windows. The building was less than a mile
away. There were other buildings too, farther off, some with lights in their windows, others dark,
but all were perched midway between the valley floor and the ridge.
    She chewed on her bottom lip. Obviously she'd managed another transdimensional jump
into the Spook Realm, only this time it looked as if she'd crossed all the way over. She had no
idea what was normal in this world, or more importantly, what was safe. For all she knew, that
building could even be some creepy crawler's home.
    She didn't know how long she'd be stuck in this realm, but it was going to be dark very
soon.