Alice woke in the comfortable bed, carefully tucked in again. Just as the day before there was only the dim light and patter of rain on the window. She sighed as she sat up and thought of her mother, surely very worried for her missing child after so many days. With some effort Alice pushed those thoughts away as they would do nothing to improve the situation. She picked one of the dresses - all those she had worn before were clean and hanging from a line strung rather inconveniently for anyone else. It had not been there they day before and were an adult to not see it they would be caught in the neck just inside the door but Alice was able to walk under it without any difficulty.

It must have been the Faceless Old Woman. She thought to herself and looked around, wondering where she might be hiding. "Thank you for hanging my dresses."

Once dressed she went to see what Mr. Carlos had left for breakfast. "Good morning, Mr. Cecil."

He glanced up from the paper that seemed to be covered in strange symbols this time. "Good morning. Glad you made it back alright from playing yesterday."

"If you were uncertain I would return why did you send me outside?" She asked, indignant.

"Oh, I was certain of everything but your reaction." He answered casually, turning a page. "Carlos said you fell asleep before the weather last night so you missed some interesting things. My old friend Earl Harlan called the station. It seems one of the children found their way into his restaurant. He's hired the boy as a dishwasher. Says the boy calls himself Charlie Bucket. Such a strange name."

"It is a rather unusual sort of name." Alice nodded. She felt a little sorry for the boy, though. She was lucky to have found nice people to care for her while seeking a way to get her back home. That poor boy was immediately put to work. She would have been most unhappy if it happened to her.

"It seems the editor of the Night Vale Daily Journal, Leann Hart, saw the door next to Teddy William's yard open and a strange looking girl come running out. The rain made it hard to see much more than her ragged clothing as she darted away."

"Do you think Mr. Carlos will figure out how to open the doors soon?" Alice asked.

Finally Mr. Cecil set aside the newspaper and looked at her. Those dark, knowing eyes seemed to look right through her as he stared in silence. She was almost unnerved enough to leave the room when he finally spoke. "And what if he can't?"

"I… don't know." She admitted. That was the last thing she wanted to consider. Mr. Carlos was very smart! Surely he would find a way…

He nodded and picked his paper up again. She went to the kitchen and quickly ate the breakfast that consisted of scrambled eggs and vegetables, though she picked the onions out. Surely she would be able to go home to her mother and her nice, comfortable and safe home.

"Since very little was accomplished yesterday, Carlos wants you to return to the lab today. We should probably go sooner rather than later, though, the storm seems to be getting worse." Mr. Cecil said with a smile. Alice nodded and followed him to the door where a red umbrella was leaning against the doorframe. "Carlos left that for you, by the way. It seems he wasn't impressed with my umbrella yesterday."

"It was quite ingenious." Alice said, bringing a wide smile from him. Of course it hadn't worked very well and she was glad for a real umbrella but she saw no reason to mention that.

They hurried through the heavy rain and rumbling thunder. There was hardly any sunlight making it through the dark, low clouds and the ominous feeling seemed to be a little worse. There were even more buildings boarded up and most people were no longer attempting to look outside.

"Are people always so scared of rain?" She asked Mr. Cecil.

"Well, this is the most rain we've had at one time in…." He trailed off in thought but seemed to give up after a few moments when they heard wild laughter from ahead.

A girl of perhaps ten years turned the corner, skidded on the wet pavement and turned their direction before resuming her run. Long orange braids stuck out in defiance of gravity on either side of her head and her scattered freckles seemed to make her gleeful blue eyes brighter as she dashed by still laughing. Not far behind were three of the Sheriff's Secret Police doing their best to catch her but she was much faster than they were.

Mr. Cecil laughed once they had gone by and it was safe to do so. "So that's the new girl… Tamika will love her."

Alice nodded agreement, the girl seemed to be exactly the sort Tamika would want in her army. She could probably already fight. After spending the day before with the army learning to shoot guns and reading on breaks, being in Mr. Carlos' lab was unusually quiet and calm.

In spite of that Alice enjoyed her afternoon as she asked a great many more questions than she was able to answer and Mr. Carlos did his best to answer though it prevented him from doing as many tests as he wanted. Even with her occasional interruptions he seemed quite pleased to have someone working with him other than his team of scientists. The others were very friendly and he sent many of them to do tests so he could look at the results. Mr. Cecil left to see if he could find out more information from his sources early in the afternoon and even though no tests had proven useful, Alice felt as if something were finally being accomplished.

"The doors are gone." Mr. Cecil interrupted a quiet conversation between Alice and Mr. Carlos.

"What?"

"The last door was opened some time in the last few hours and all of them disappeared."

"Uh oh…" Mr. Carlos sighed.

Alice felt tears stinging her eyes but kept quiet. They were too late - she was trapped in this place… never to see her family again.

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out." Mr. Carlos rested a hand comfortingly on her shoulder. She nodded but was certain she would cry if she tried to speak.

The door burst open and Pollyanna virtually danced in, smiling brightly in spite of being drenched. "Isn't this weather fantastic? I bet there will be flowers everywhere when the sun comes out! What's wrong, Alice?"

"The doors have disappeared." Mr. Carlos said gently. "Unless we can figure out where they came from so we can bring them back you may all have to stay here."

"Oh, 'twould be wonderful if that happened!" Pollyanna bounced on her toes and clapped. "Miss Cardinal is such a lovely person and this is such an amazing town!"

Alice took a deep breath and nodded. It could be worse… though some parts of the town were scary, she had met some very interesting and nice people.

"Oh, Mr. Cecil," Pollyanna grinned over at him. "Miss Cardinal would like you to return to the radio station until the storm is gone. She's worried about it getting worse and she may need you to make emergency broadcasts."

"It's too bad they demolished the Night Vale Harbor and Waterfront Recreation Area. It would have been beautiful after all this rain." Mr. Cecil said as he made his way out into the storm.

Mr. Carlos turned the radio on and cringed at the odd noises coming from the speakers. Alice shared his opinion of the sound that was not quite music but she simply could not identify. Pollyanna didn't seem bothered by the noise and simply took to chattering at her about how much fun she's had playing with the City Council.

Alice was still lost in thought when Mr. Cecil's voice interrupted Pollyanna and she fell silent.

"People of Night Vale, I have been informed by the City Council and representatives of the Sheriff's Secret Police that all citizens are advised to remain indoors with the exception of absolute emergencies. The unusual storm that has filled our skies for the past few days has continued building and while the lightning has mostly remained in the clouds there have been reports of strikes to the Brown Stone Spire and near anyone who ventures too close to the subway station near Gino's Italian."

"Well, that's strange… predictable lightning strikes to certain areas are unusual without good cause. The spire is tall enough to draw the lightning but a single subway station?" Mr. Carlos mused.

"The Sheriff's Secret Police also warns that there is a potentially dangerous child on the loose and for any who see her to start shouting 'There she is! There she is!' while pointing. Citizens should be advised the girl is unusually strong, very fast and answers to the name 'Pippi'."

"We saw her on the way over." Alice said with a small smile. "I don't think she looked terribly dangerous. In fact, she seemed to be having fun leading the police on a chase."

"Pippi was last seen in the vicinity of Night Vale Elementary School heading east. We will keep you up to date on sightings of this potentially dangerous girl." Mr. Cecil concluded. His voice was soon replaced by the not-music noises.

Alice smiled to herself. Of course he would keep updating as to the girl's whereabouts - how else would Tamika and her army rescue the girl from the police? He was a very unusual but good man.

Pollyanna went to visit with Mr. Carlos' team of scientists and Alice returned to listening to him try to work out what was going on.

The thunder got louder, the lightning flashed through the window more often and much closer. At first Alice thought the wind was howling but then Mr. Cecil came on the radio again and said that the wolves had gotten out of the petting zoo and thanks to Mowgli, they were already in good enough shape to chase people. Those who had not heeded the warning to stay indoors had either changed their mind or it was too late. Alice tried to tell herself everyone was safely indoors. Surely in this town no one would ignore such warnings…

As the sun set the only sign was the dark clouds growing darker still - the weak light that filtered in from beyond the edges of the storm dimmed further and soon only the lightning succeeded in bringing forth any amount of light worth mentioning. Most of the street lights were on but the gloom seemed almost to push back their radius and it seemed with each flash of lightning another light was struck and fell dark.

Alice stayed well away from the windows and tried to focus on Mr. Carlos as he talked to himself, asked questions to keep her mind preoccupied, did everything she could to not hear the howling of the wolves.

Pollyanna seemed entirely untroubled, talking and joking with anyone who would listen and exclaiming about how very exciting this was. Mr. Carlos' team set up a couple of makeshift beds for the girls and located some food to share. No one was willing to brave the wolves and the weather even just to go next door to get food from Big Rico's.

Mr. Cecil was true to his word and gave regular updates on the situation and she was greatly relieved when he reported that a gang of children had abducted Pippi and the Sheriff's Secret Police were forced to give up the chase. By then sightings of feral dogs and wolves were being reported all over town by people peeking out their windows. Whirlwinds had been sighted along the edges of the city and shadows seemed to be moving of their own accord.

She was grateful for Mr. Carlos' preference for excellent lighting as it left few shadows to see moving anywhere. As much as she wanted to know what was happening she was scared to listen to the radio and hear about it. She wasn't at all sure she would ever get used to Mr. Cecil's pleasant voice saying such frightening things as he reported fights between the feral dogs and wolves, sightings of the two boys - Damien in the streets and Mowgli in trees and along rooftops. The boy seemed unaffected by the rain and was somehow surefooted even in precarious locations.

The Sheriff's Secret Police were patrolling as well though a few people reported them crossing through dark shadows and disappearing before coming out the other side. Alice fell asleep sitting beside the radio, listening more to the cadence of Mr. Cecil's voice than his words.

A/N : Have you ever had trouble falling asleep? Felt like someone was watching you from the shadows, peeking at you under the closet door? Listening to you breathe from under the bed and waiting for that sound to offer rhythmic proof you are no longer awake? That's silly. The Faceless Old Woman who secretly lives in your home doesn't have eyes so you can't feel her watching you and it's far too dusty under your bed. Shadows are unreliable, too. That pile of clothes over there, though….

Today's proverb: Marbles are abominations. Leave them on the doorstep of people you hate.