Disclaimer: I own nothing, save Cate and my own ideas. But ideas are fun, even if they apply to characters that don't belong to me.

After that embarrassing incident with the chimney, everyone's been keeping a much closer eye on me. I can pretend not notice it, or accept, but the fact remains that there's someone constantly watching me. The only escape I can get it when I stay up late writing. Then, and only then, can I do something without the apprehension of interruption.

You wouldn't believe how disconcerting it is, to be watched. It messes with your mind, makes you see things that aren't really there; people following you when they aren't. I've always been a bit paranoid about someone stalking me, but this is really too much. I can't believe my parents freaked out so much. It wasn't like I was going to let go of the chimney and kill myself – I'm not that desperate. Not yet. But I have a feeling that, even if I tried, all the things I see wouldn't let it happen.

When I walked to school today, I started seeing them more clearly. All the shrinks I've been sent to have said to ignore them – all but one. She says that I should try to see them, try to talk to them, ask them why they are bothering me. Granted, I think that she's crazy, but given my own state of mind, I really don't have the right to call anyone crazy, do I?

I headed home, and pretty soon one of them started following me. I kind of wanted to run, but half of me wanted to keep walking and see what happened next. The incredibly beautiful pair of...whatevers I had seen before drew abreast of me and were simply walking.

I supposed I should break the ice. "What do you want?"

They only glanced at me, and kept walking. When I was sure no one else was around to hear me going crazy, I blew a fuse at them.

"Seriously? You'll just pretend I'm crazy like all the rest? Now that's just...just...typical of a Sue and a Stu! I've been over you people for years. Bloody heck! Even the rat would be better than this!"

I clamped a hand over my mouth after I said that, but apparently my karma is bad. The rat – Ripred, I knew now – clambered out of a garden wagon he had been reclining in, as if he had been waiting for us.

"Nothing in this world is quite big enough for me, eh? I suppose none of you are ready for me yet. We'll see in a few years. Your name's Cate, right?" he yawned, as if this was all in a day's work.

"Why did I have to be the person to see you people? And...things? Animals? You're all fictional characters – you're not supposed to be real."

"I can answer that." The red-headed girl swung down from a tree hanging over the sidewalk.

Nice move, I noted, then asked, "And that answer would be?"

"Well...to put it quite simply, you believe that we're real, despite what you're told every day by adults. So, because others refuse to believe, refuse to see us, there aren't that many people that will see us. We're still here, living every day, and the few who can see us are those who write the books you take as fiction. That's why your world will never be ready for the giant rat – though even if they could see him, they wouldn't be ready, I dare say." She took a breath, then grinned ruefully at the pale, blue-eyed boy, followed by an enormous man, that progressed down the sidewalk towards us.

"I'm starting to talk like you, Mudboy. I can't see that being a good thing."

I massaged my temples, hardly daring to believe what she had said, but somehow believing it anyhow. "I used to believe that when I was asleep, my toys came to life, like in Toy Story...but I've never thought of all you people the same way. Maybe it's a different sort of believing..."

"Yes," the dark-skinned Egyptian boy grinned at me as he sidestepped around the huge butler. "A very different sort of believing..."

Well...someone asked me to continue this, and...after thinking about it for a while and getting an idea, I've decided to. It's a huge crossover - and yet not a crossover, so...it'll still be in AF fiction...but hopefully, it'll be mainly featuring our own favorite AF characters.

I apologize if this chapter is as...intriguing as the first, but I hope I can entertain you as I start writing more and getting more comfortable with it. Thank you to all who read this!

~SLS