"you know the drill 3" Bea messaged.

Mae sat up from her bed and shifted her focus from her laptop over to the mirror. She really needed to get other clothes. After equipping her shoes, she made her way downstairs, making sure to catch up with her mom before leaving.

It was yet another nice day outside, birds chirping, sun shining. Ugh. Too bright. But, she needed to get her mind off of her weird dream. And, she had to say hello to Bea, so, she was off to the 'Ol Pickaxe.

But, before she could walk through the doors of the building, she was caught by Lori, who was standing by the nearby statue.

"Hey, killer," Lori spoke.

"Ugh." Mae groaned after turning her head towards the child, "Hey."

"Uh, so, remember how you told me about those weird murderous conservatives a while back?" Lori started.

"...Yeah," Mae responded.

"Okay, well I'm almost done with a cool horror movie adaptation of it. So, what do you say?" Lori asked.

"Uh, I don't know?" Mae answered, confused.

"Will you be in it when I finish it?" Lori nervously bargained.

"Oh, are you actually gonna produce it?" Mae wondered, a bit impressed. Lori wasn't exactly Mae's best friend or anything like that, but the two had hung out plenty before, and Mae was seeing Lori improving in her movie stuff. It was kinda cool.

"Uh, yeah, I'll try, at least. Also, I'll get to say that it's based off of a true story, which makes it look better," Lori joked.

"Sweet. But, um, maybe I'll do it? Last time I acted was during Harfest, in that play, and that was pretty bad. But, I'll try, I guess," Mae stated.

"Nice! I don't think I'll be ready for a few more weeks, but I'll tell you when I'm done, alright?" Lori proposed excitedly.

"Yeah, okay." Mae agreed, glancing over towards the door of the 'Ol Pickaxe, "...Uh, I'm gonna go in—"

"Ok ok ok ok. See ya!" Lori said, unusually excited. She was a cute kid, all happy and stuff. Mae made her way into the 'Ol Pickaxe.

Ring. Bea glanced up from her phone to see Mae.

"Hey," Mae said.

"Hey. Punctual as always, Mae," Bea joked.

"Thanks, I try," Mae chimed.

"Alright, well, I've gotta head out in a few minutes," Bea stated.

"Really? Again?" Mae asked.

"Yeah, Germ's family has been paying us a lot. I'm pretty much the closest one in this town to a carpenter, so I'm kinda exclusive," Bea explained.

"Hmmmm… Could I come with you?" Mae bargained. She didn't really have anything to do, and she needed to calm her paranoid mind, so it only made sense for her to join.

"Uh, sure," Bea thought.

"Nice," Mae said while Bea grabbed her tools. It was actually kinda amazing how much Bea could carry sometimes. God, she was great.

"Wait a second," Bea advised, pocketing her phone before picking up her tools again. Bea walked out the door with Mae following.

"So, how much more work do you think you have to do on Germ's house?" Mae asked.

"Hopefully not too much more," Bea blankly answered, lugging along the container of tools with no apparent difficulty.

"That's good," Mae sympathised. Bea clearly didn't want to do much more work.

"Yeah." Bea agreed, "How's looking for a job going?"

"Ugh. Not great. No one's really looking for more workers. Not even the new taco place!" Mae complained.

"I guess that's just a side effect of living in a small, dying town," Bea nonchalantly stated.

"Heh, yeah," Mae chuckled.

That was something Mae knew well, but she tried not to accept. She had seen the town, dead and dilapidated, yet she still couldn't believe it would ever be in such a state. But, more and more it seemed that the town would fall apart; more and more people left, while no one moved in. Mae wished it wouldn't collapse, but what could she do? She wanted her and her friends' childhood home to stay alive, but that seemed impossible, more now than ever. The town was going to vanish into nothing.

"Well, we're here," Bea said.

Mae snapped back into reality, realizing she had continued her walk all the way to Germ's house while thinking her extremely zoned out thoughts.

Mae looked around at the unfamiliar location. Sure enough, Germ's house, presumably, stood unfamiliarly in front of her. She glanced behind her, down the hill that she didn't remember climbing. She turned to look forward again, seeing that Bea was already walking into the house.

"You coming?" Bea asked, holding open the door.

"Oh! Yeah, sorry," Mae apologized, hurrying towards the front door.

"Well, you said you wanted to come," Bea teased, closing the door behind her and Mae.

"I know!" Mae huffed defensively.

"The least you could do is—" Bea began, turning around to talk to Mae, before bumping into Germ, "Oh, sorry."

"Hey. Working again?" Germ asked.

"Yeah, hopefully it'll be done soon," Bea answered.

"Cool." Germ said, before noticing the other guest, "Hey, Mae."

"Oh, hey," Mae responded, watching Bea as she left to begin working.

"Are you gonna help?" Germ blankly asked.

"Maybe if Bea lets me." Mae halfheartedly joked, "Uh, completely unrelated, but, do you think I could see the well in your backyard?"

Confused, Germ asked, "Why?"

Mae didn't really want to answer that. She had already made herself look crazy enough when the whole fiasco started, she didn't need to further that. She could simply say that she wanted to see how big the explosion was, or something.

"Uh…" Mae thought, "I wanna see what the dynamite did."

"Sure," Germ agreed, before turning around and walking towards the back door, presumably wanting Mae to follow. And so, follow Mae did, until the two had made it outside and down the hill. At the bottom of the hill was said well, collapsed and destroyed. It had collapsed in on itself, sinking into the ground in the process. There was no way the mines weren't destroyed.

"Cool, huh?" Germ excitedly chirped.

"Yeah, it's cool," Mae agreed, immediately becoming less paranoid. She had gotten that weird migraine simply because she was sick or something. Maybe it was because she had slept too much. Wait, was that a real thing? Too much sleep? Jeez, she hoped not. Also, she had suffered plenty of nightmares before, so this was probably no different. She was okay, as was the town. She just jumped to conclusions too fast, like usual.

"See you tomorrow!" Mae waved as Bea walked into the 'Ol Pickaxe, beginning the surprisingly long process of closing up.

"Bye. Oh, and thanks again for nearly killing me," Bea joked.

"That wouldn't have killed you!" Mae said defensively, slowing down.

"You dropped a hammer on me!" Bea reminded Mae.

"You survived!" Mae protested, practically standing still.

"Heh, whatever, you big dweeb," Bea said, walking into the store, letting the door slowly close behind her.

"Bye!" Mae shouted back, moments before the door closed. She began walking again.

Jeez, she really shouldn't be allowed near any blunt object, Mae thought, closing the front door behind her. Well, she and Bea were both lucky that Bea was able to keep herself from dying. And, Mae was lucky that Bea was so nonchalant about it. Sometimes she could be so forgiving. Mae really hoped that it didn't seem like she was taking advantage of that.

Mae sat down on her bed, surprisingly seeing no messages from her friends. That hadn't happened for a really long time. But, regardless, Mae shoved the computer aside, pulled the bed cover down, and laid down. Her eyes shut, and before long her thoughts ceased and she was embraced by sleep. Everything was okay, right?