Judo awoke in her room. The room in the "real" world. Faded paint, cold breeze, cracked window. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Judo! Breakfast!" Wendy called from downstairs.

Judo got out of bed and glanced around her room. Only when her eyes met gazes with the button-eyed doll did the memories of last night hit her like a slamming door. Her other mum and dad, the dinner, her beautiful room. Only for her to wake up here.

Judo jogged downstairs. She immediately opened the crawlspace door. A brick wall stared back at her.

"Judo! Breakfast!" Wendy called again.

"Hey, mum! I had the wildest dream last night!"

As Judo gobbled down her cereal, she recited her dream. Wendy, brewing her coffee, was listening and enjoying her daughter's little tale of button-eyed folk. She hadn't started her work for the day so she was enjoying the few moments she could have with Judo before being busy all day.

"And after you ate all that quail, what happened?" Wendy said, pouring creamer into the coffee mug.

"I fell asleep in my room! The picture we took at the pizza place was alive and everyone was alive!" Judo answered.

"Nice Judo." Wendy chuckled. Her phone rang. "Shit! Oh, my bad Judo, I didn't mean to curse." Wendy apologized. "I need to start my workload. Judo, visit downstairs. I'm sure those actresses would love your story!"

Judo froze. "Ms. Spink and Forcible? Didn't you call them loonies?"

"Mh-hmm!" Wendy chuckled.

Judo exited the front door. She was wearing a sweater and raincoat. It was a chilly Autumn morning. The fog was beginning to set in and dew made the ground wet and runny. Judo zipped up her coat. As she steps on the 'Welcome' rug, her foot knocks over a stack of packages covered in stamps.

"Any from Bluey?" Judo asked herself, examining the stack. The packages were sturdy and slightly heavy. As she examined the sender label, she didn't see her name or her mum's name. Instead, it read some random Russian letters and had the name 'Bobinsky.'

"Bobinsky?" Judo asked herself. She knew Ms. Spink and Ms. Forcible lived in the basement of the home, so she concluded Mr. Bobinsky lived in the upper part of the home.

She took the stairs that ran up the side of the flat to what was the attic of the house.

As she approached what she presumed was the front door of the attic, she could see a lot of Russian memorabilia. A Russian flag hanging over the door. A rug in front of the door had a phrase written in Russian. A military-style chest sitting outside with a pair of militant boots lying up against it.

Judo placed the packages on the front step against the door. As she was about to go about her day, the packages slowly creaked open the door. Curiosity killing the cat, Judo slowly pushed it open and peered into Mr. Bobinsky's home.

It was dark, cold, and very unorganized. There was a bed with a worn-down mattress in the corner. A table with a plate of half-eaten bread and jam. A chicken staring back at her from a makeshift chicken coop. A small kitchen area by the window. A clothesline goes across the ceiling with worn-down clothes hanging to dry.

"What the fuck?" Judo muttered to herself.

Unbeknownst to her, a figure walked up behind her.

"SECRET!"

Judo gasped in horror and spun around and saw a Siberian Husky hanging upside down flying towards her with his arm reaching out. Judo ducked in time as the man's hand shot past her, grabbing the door and pulling it shut.

"Famous jumping mice circus not ready!" The man shouted. He swung backward, his ankles hanging onto the flag pole over his door. "Hmmm!" The man muttered to himself, examining Judo. "Little girl…"

"O, I, uh… just left packages for you!" Judo answered back, gesturing to the knocked-over stack of packages.

Bobinsky glanced at the stack and his eyes lit up. He extended his arms (which were longer than Judo first realized) and plucked up the packages. He gave them a massive whiff and his eyes rolled into the back of his head, dropping the packages.

"Mhmmm! Красивый сыр!" Mr. Bobinsky moaned pleasurably to himself.

"Uhh…"

"New cheese wheels!" Mr. Bobinsky replied, leaping from the flag pole and landing feet first. Standing on his own two feet, Judo saw he was a good 6'10. Mr. Bobinsky was buffed, way more than Bandit, with a huge bubble belly.

"Very clever pomeranian! Using this mix-up to sneak at my home and peak at my мыши!"

"You're…. What?" Judo asked.

"The circus mice!" Bobinsky corrected her.

"Right. Well, I'm Judo! You're downstairs neighbor!"

"And I am the amazing Bobinsky! But please, call me Mr. B! Amazing, I already know that I am!" Mr. B replied to her, doing a backflip off the porch. Judo gasped and ran over and peered over the edge. She expected to see him lying on the grass with two broken legs. Instead, she saw the plain grass.

"You see Judo," Mr. B replied, standing right behind Judo, making the girl jump, "the problem is, my music goes OOMPA! OOMPA! But the jumping mice play only TOODLE TWEE AND TOODLE THA and whatnot. But now with these cheese wheels! Прогресс!" Mr. B opened his door. "Here, have a beet!" He dug into his pocket and dropped a beet in Judo's hand. "Make's you a strong girl! До следующей встречи, удачи Judo!" He took one step into his house and closed the door.

Judo took one look at the beet and chucked it over the porch railing. She walked downstairs and around the house to go downstairs. The fog was setting in more heavily, all the color fading from the world. Judo looked up at the sky and could see the clouds becoming black.

"Great. It's going to rain again." Judo grunted. She couldn't go out and play later today.

"Hey! JUDO! Подожди!" Mr. B yelled from above her. Judo looked up and saw Mr. B leap from his porch and fall towards her.

Judo screamed and covered herself, too frightened to move and bracing herself to be crushed. Mr. B landed right next to her, not even sustaining a scratch.

"The mice asked me to give you a message!"

Judo glanced at him in uncertainty.

"The circus mice… told you… to give me… a message?" Judo questioned.

Mr. B nodded.

"Ok… what did they say?"

"They told me to tell you… 'Do not enter the little door.'"

Judo's blood turned to ice. Her 'dream' ran through her head again. The food, the glamour, the allure.

The buttons.

"The door behind the wallpaper? But it's all bricked up!" Judo replied.

"Hm." MR. B answered. "So sorry, the jumping mice are a little mixed up in the mind!"

Mr. B chuckled. He climbed the window seals and pipes on the side of the house instead of taking the stairs to get back to his porch.

Judo watched him, unsettled about the warning she had just given. Was the dream real? Could the mice read her mind? Was that 'world' through the door?

She tried to shake off the thoughts before continuing.

Feeling hungry, she paid a visit to her mum's car. She popped open the trunk and pulled out two sandwiches from the cooler. She gobbled them down and noticed a little shoebox wedged in the trunk. Her eyes lit up as she plucked it out and opened it. Inside was a Japanese schoolboy hat Mackenzie had given her. He had forgotten her birthday present so his mum swung by the thrift store and got something she might like, which she liked a lot. She liked it enough to kiss Mackenzie on his cheek. She wore it all the time back in Australia and refused to have it packed up with their other stuff for fear it might get damaged.

She plopped it on her head and continued on her way to see Ms. Spink and Ms. Forcible.

The fog was heavier. The ground nearly vanished.

She skipped down the cobblestone stairs to the front door of the basement. On the last step, she slipped and almost hit her head. Reaching the final step, she knocked at the door. Underneath her feet, she noticed the front door rug read "Don't Whistle Inside!"

"What the hell?" She muttered. Judo knocked harder before pressing her face against the window.

A set of horns lunged at her from the other side, banging against the glass, making the puppy jump backward.

The door opened and three goats clopped out bleating. The smallest goat bumped Judo with its horns.

"Oh seize your eternal bleating!" An old woman with a walker yelled at the three goats. "Oh, Judo! Sweetie, how nice to see you! Would you like to come in!" The lady opened the door wider, letting Judo enter. Judo entered, constantly being rammed by the young kid (baby goat). She hung her hat on the coat stand and placed her slightly wet raincoat on the front door rug. She followed the old lady through some curtains and was in awe.

Their living space was decorated in a whimsical theater style. Purple glittery curtains hung from the ceiling with red wallpaper. Glow lights hung from the corners of the walls and posters from theater shows were framed. Judo looked at the posters closely. One read "Kings Leer", having a picture of what looked like younger versions of Ms. Spink and Forcible with a king looking at them, clearly in a sexual way. Another poster read "Hunglet" a play on the title 'Hamlet', showing a younger version of Ms. Forcible lying on the floor and a man looming over her with an obvious boner. Judo gasped in shock.

"April! I think someone broke in!" A voice called from the kitchen. Judo turned a saw Ms. Forcible putting on a pair of glasses and observing Judo.

"Oh no! It's just the neighbor! Judo! She'll have the chamomile!"

"No no no! She'll much prefer Jasmine!"

"No! chamomile!"

"Ahh Jasmine it is then!"

Ms. Spink grumbled with Judo chuckling behind her. She did prefer chamomile over jasmine, however.

She followed Ms. Spink to a couch and sat down on it with the three goats hopping up next to her.

"You know how to play Go Fish?"

Judo nodded picking up a hand of cards. It was a random hand, one of the cards was the instructions card.

Judo looked to her left and saw a shelf full of deceased goat angel taxidermies.

"Are all those….real?" Judo asked a little shaken.

"Oh! Sweet departed angels! Couldn't bear to part with them, so we had them stuffed."

Judo grew nervous. She had never seen dead goats.

"Here! Have one!" Ms. Forcible chuckled, handing Judo a tray containing Jasmine tea with pink and green taffies in a bowl. "Hand pulled from Britain! Best in the world!"

Judo shrugged. She picked up a taffy, which took the whole bowl with it. Judo swore to herself silently as she tried to pull apart the single taffy from the remainder. She swung the bowl back and forth before the bowl slipped from her hand and hit the ceiling, sticking there. "Shit!" Judo cussed silently

"I'll read them if you want!" Ms. Spink assured her. Judo hadn't been listening to what she had been chattering about for the last minute.

"Uh, I'm sorry Ms. Spink. Read what?" Judo asked her.

"Your tea leaves dear! They'll tell me your future!" Ms. Spink chuckled. Judo turned her attention to the cup of Jasmine and began drinking the hot beverage.

"Not all of it! Leave a little tea!" Judo nodded, removing the mug from her lips. She handed her cup off as Ms. Spink took it and shuffled the leaves left in the leftover tea. Shuffling it, she stopped when the little bits of leaves gathered and made a shape. She gazed upon the shape.

"Oh! Judo! Oh, Judo Judo JUDO!" Ms. Spink began. "You're in terrible danger!" Judo gasped.

"I'm in danger?" Judo asked as Ms. Forcible came over and took the mug.

"Danger? I don't think so!"

"What do you see?" Judo asked the two old ladies.
"I see a peculiar hand! Very ill-intended!"

"I see a giraffe! Very warm and looking over everything!"

"Don't be stupid! Giraffes don't fall out of the sky!" As Ms. Spink said that, the candy taffy bowl fell from the ceiling and shattered on the cold ground, causing everyone to jump.

"If I'm in danger what do I do?" Judo asked, her legs shaking.

"We should ask Athena!" Ms. Forcible chimed in.

Ms. Forcible walked over to an altar on a shelf that Judo missed before.

"OH GREAT ATHENA! WE CALL UPON THEE TO AID JUDO WITH PROTECTION!" Ms. Forcible prayed aloud. She bowed her head for a few minutes. After about 5 minutes, Ms. Forcible walked over to her jewelry box and retrieved a triangle-shaped brooch. It was encased in emerald shards and silver stone. A huge see-through glass pebble was encased in the center.

"Here Judo!" Ms. Forcible said, handing it to Judo. "Athena told me that'll help you when you need it most!"

Judo, greatly weirded out by this whole debacle, took the brooch and got up.

"I should get going now!" Judo said. The two ladies bid her farewell as she quickly exited.

"Danger? Giraffes?" Judo asked herself. She climbed up the stairs. The fog was heavy now, completely making far distance view impossible to see. There was nowhere to go and nothing to do. Judo didn't want to go back inside; her mother would make her unpack or stay silent. She most likely wouldn't allow her back outside. As she sat by a tree by her house, she heard a twig snap behind her. Judo glanced behind her and Wybie in his mask trying to tiptoe in the fog next to her.

"Oh great the village stalker!" Judo said, shooting up and punching Wybie on the arm.

"I wasn't stalking you!" Wybie stammered as Judo sized him up, backing him up against the tree. "We're hunting banana slugs!"
"What do you mean by 'we'?" Judo asked.

The black cat leaped from underneath Wybie's coat.

"HA! Stupid cat's not wild! He's a wusspuss!" Judo mocked.

"What?! He hates getting his paws wet!" Wybie barked back. He put his mask back on as the cat leaped off him and wandered off nearby through the fog.

"So… that doll… why did you make me a voodoo doll?" Judo asked, walking side-by-side to Wybie.

"I didn't. I found it that way." Wybie retorted. "Damnnit! I can't find any slugs!" Wybie grumbled.

"If you found it that way, then who made it then?" Judo asked.

"I not sure," Wybie answered.

"Why?"

"Grandma thought I made it for you because I…" He almost said he liked Judo, which he did immensely. Only known her for two days but already growing warm to her. "...wanted to give a welcome gift. I DON'T ACTUALLY WANT TO, BUT MY GRANDMA THINKS I DO!" He reassured her. Judo raised one eyebrow. "That still doesn't answer my question. Who made the doll?"

The two walked through the white fog into the dead garden. They both sat on the center bridge and swung their legs over the ledge.

"Hey, Wybie… why didn't your Grandma want to rent to me?" Judo asked, straightening her hat.

Wybie froze. He wasn't supposed to say, but she did deserve to know.

"Judo, you can't tell anyone! Grandma would kill me if she found out I told anyone about this."

Judo became intrigued. This had to be a killer secret. "What?"

"Judo… Grandma's had a twin sister who vanished."

"...That it?"

"She went missing. They moved in and eight days later, she vanished in the middle of the night."

Judo gasped. "Who took her?"

"It's something in the house. She doesn't talk about it. She believes talking about it brings bad luck."

Judo became slightly frightened. All the warnings she received began coming back to her. Danger! Don't go through the little door! Giraffes! But they couldn't be real, could they?

"And that's not all." Wybie began, Judo sat closer to Wybie. "When Great-Grandpa finally died and Grandma inherited the house, she looked into the families that owned the house before her. She found out that two times, a family with kids moved into the house, and both times, a kid vanished within a week of moving in."

"Really?" Judo asked. She was scared. Would she vanish? Was there something evil in the house?

"Do you think something is stealing kids?" Judo asked. Her dream suddenly shot through her mind again. The door, the food, the button eyes. "Wybie, did your Grandma mention anything about button-eye people?"

"No. What do you mean?" Wybie asked.

If Wybie's grandma didn't even mention button eyes, maybe it was a dream.

"Nothing," Judo answered back. Her dream wasn't really that special.

"I should get back. Grandma is shopping and doesn't know I'm not in the house. If she found out, I get a big whooping!" Wybie said. He called for his cat and mounted his bike. Judo waved him goodbye as he rode off through the fog.

As she walked back into the house, she could see the button-eye doll sitting in her window. She didn't leave it there, did she? It was facing the garden as if it was watching her.

Judo reentered her dark house.

"Judo! Come here!" Wendy called from the kitchen as Judo hung her jacket up. She entered the kitchen. Wendy was smiling at her computer screen. "Yes, mum?"

"Someone wanted to say hi to you!" Wendy chuckled and turned her laptop screen to Judo.

Bluey and Bingo were shown, Zoom calling from their dinner table.

"BLUEY! BINGO!" Judo gasped as she sat down to talk to them.

"JUDO! What's up!" Bluey asked happily.

"I'm fine! It's been so boring here in England. I miss Australia.

"We miss you too! Mackenzie really misses you!"
Judo chuckled, her heart skipping a beat.

"Oh Rusty and Jack also made you a picture."

Bluey held a poorly drawn picture of Rusty and Jack holding Judo's hand, one on either side, saying 'We Miss You Dearly!'

"Did they mention anything else?" Judo asked rhetorically. She knew the two were secretly gay. They told her when the three were alone and swore to secrecy on it.

"No. Though Mackenzie wrote you a letter. He really wants to visit you sometime."

Judo wanted to visit Mackenzie as well.

Bandit walked into the frame, making Judo's heart skip again. He still looked as dilfy as he ever did. One thing she would miss was being able to see him every day, being his neighbor.

"Ah hey, Judo!" Bandit greeted her. "How is Brita-a-a-a…" The call cut off to no signal.

"Oops! Must be the weather." Wendy remarked. Judo sighed.

"I have to get back to work," Wendy said, giving her daughter a short hug.

"I know." Judo flatly remarked, walking dully back up to her room. She didn't realize until now how alone she felt. All her friends are gone and everyone around her is weird. She crawled back into bed, not caring to do anything for now, having to be quiet.

Judo fell back asleep.

As she snoozed off, the button-eyed doll watched her silently.