In Mae's dream, she was floating through space. It was the stars in the evening sky that she spent studying through Mr. Chazokov's telescope. She bet she could name all the constellations she had learned with enough focus.

She could feel her body being propelled by the lack of gravity, spinning like a Ferris wheel. She reached out to touch a nearby star that glowed brightly with the rainbows of the cosmos. Her fingertips tingled as they approached the luminous spot, as if she was being imbued with static electricity. Just as she was about to make contact, a sudden bright crimson and violet glow came from below.

Mae glanced down to see two giant sets of eyes, each the respective glaring colors. She was locked in a staring contest with the huge twitching pupils that began to outshine the galaxy that had previously surrounded her. Her own eyes strained at their intensity. A primal instinct within the young woman screamed to keep her distance. But curiosity won her over as she once again reached a stray finger.

The sound of a choir ebbed throughout the air, perpetuating her trance-like state. She could feel her heartbeat synchronize with the thudding bass that were the screeching backing vocals. Any sort of meaning was lost as they were beyond the young woman's comprehension.

She opened her mouth to speak, then paused. She didn't know if she wanted to jump straight to "eff off" or "what are you".

The power these eyes gave off and the singing felt similar to… Him. The creature at the center of everything. The—

Her inner monologue was interrupted by a series of appendages latching onto her legs. They were black and tar-like, threatening to swallow her whole. They coiled around her body and held fast. Mae tried to scratch them away as they enveloped her neck, to no avail.

She couldn't even let out a scream as her body began to plummet to the center of the widening retinas.

Mae woke up on the floor near her bed, blankets and pillows all askew. Her shoulder throbbed in pain, and she was stuck, all tangled in her sheets. A deep vibration through the floorboards of the house rumbled through her skull. Her eyes began to widen at the realization. Was she still dreaming? No… it was an earthquake!

"Oh shit!" she gasped.

From the years of practice drilled into her head from the local public schools, she rolled under her bed for cover, kicking away the sheets. She could hear her bass clattering on the ground as well as her laptop, which made her grimace. Hopefully, they didn't break. Her mirror toppled over and crashed to the floor. Now that definitely broke.

"Looks like I'm cursed with seven years of bad luck," she mumbled. She put her hands over her ears as the sounds increased in volume. She felt like her house was sinking with all the noise into some kind of tunnel. The cat continued to brace herself for the next several minutes.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, it all came to a shuddering stop. The floorboards settled with a resounding creak. She tentatively glanced around to make sure all was in the clear.

Mae dragged herself out from under her bed with a groan. " That's definitely one way to wake up in the morning." She rubbed whatever residual sleep was left out of her eye.

She then heard the collective worried calls of her parents from downstairs. Right, they should all check in with each other. She answered that she would be right down.

The young cat leapt to her feet and began to pull on her shoes. Wouldn't be the best idea to try and walk through the shards that were now scattered across the floor, thanks to her broken mirror.

The young cat stopped and went back to her dresser, rifling through its contents. She pulled out an orange pill bottle that read: Margaret Borowski, Fluoxetine 20mg. The small capsule fell into her hand, which she promptly swallowed with a nearby bottle of water. Lately, the medication had been causing her to feel tired, so she just had to see how long she'd make it through the day. At least it kept any possibility of the shapes coming back at bay.

As she stumbled down the stairs, she glanced at all the portraits that were now askew in the hallway. It would take some time to put them back together. Unlike the state of her family portraits, she was happy to say that things were now relatively good with her family. She attended biweekly therapy sessions with a new therapist from out of town. She'd definitely be talking with them about this at her session later this week.

Mae leapt down the rest of the stairs to join her parents in the kitchen. Her mom was holding her dad's hand in desperation for comfort. They spoke in soft, worried tones.

"Hi family! That sure was something, huh?" She sat at her usual place at the counter, moving aside some of the fallen knickknacks.

"We can thank god that nothing is severely damaged," her mom exhaled. "We haven't had an earthquake in a good while. I think the last one we had was around when you were still in diapers."

"Are we sure this wasn't just some huge sinkhole coming from somewhere?"

"The shockwave from this was much more severe than any regular sinkhole. I can always ask around if you're curious," her mom offered.

"I think I'd rather just find out, myself." Mae immediately let out the most pertinent question in her mind. "Does this mean you don't have to go to work today? I think this is a good enough reason."

"As much as I'd love to stay in, kitten, we still have responsibilities," her dad chuckled. "Ham Panther wouldn't stop business over a road closure, so they surely wouldn't over an earthquake."

"Aw, come on," Mae whined. She scratched the back of her head and jumped off the counter. "There is kind of a huge mess around…" She glanced at the cupboards that were flung open and the toppled chair that her dad lifted back upright.

Her mom went to grab her keys and her book of the week. "We can work together on putting the house back in order later. I'm going to head into the church to check with Pastor K. She'll probably want to provide any assistance to those who need it."

"Well, I'll check around town to see how everyone is doing."

"That's very considerate of you. It's about time I personally head into work, so I will see you both later tonight."

The Borowskis bid farewell to one another before starting their day. Mae pulled on her winter coat and headed out into the February cold.

It only just occurred to Mae how early it was in the morning. A thick fog hung in the air as the peaks of early morning light began to burst through the distant snowy hills. She could see her breath come out in light billows around her.

She had been getting better about waking up earlier, but it was still a slow process.

Some of her favorite people weren't even out yet to greet. Selmers and Mr. Chazokov were likely still in the comfort of their home, especially since it was getting chilly out. Not even the crotchety old Mr. Pendergast was there to berate her.

Lori also wasn't at her usual rooftop and was probably still at school. She supposed that Germ was out by the Food Donkey parking lots, but she didn't want to go that far yet.

To be fair, since the colder months have rolled around, most people have been staying indoors more often to avoid catching frostbite. She couldn't blame them for that as not everyone tended to run around town like she did, which kept her warm.

So Mae first turned to the good Ol' Pickaxe and found Bea hunched over at the counter, a cigarette hanging from her lips as she looked over some kind of list. Her employees were working on restocking the inventory that had fallen from their respective hooks to the floor.

The gator marked something off her list before pointing to one of the hooks. "Yeah, right there, put the framing hammers opposite of the flat shovels."

"Hey, Bea-Bea! Crazy morning, huh?" She rested her elbows on the counter by her friend.

"You're up early. I was sure you would've slept through it."

Mae recounted the events of that morning. "I had some kind of weird dream, fell out of bed, and a bunch of shit got knocked over. Wasn't exactly the best wake-up."

"You're telling me." Bea snorted out a puff of smoke. "It got me pulling out my old pack of cigarettes again."

"Aw, Bea, but you were doing so well with quitting!"

"I'll be fine, just means I have to restart my tracker."

"But Beaaa-"

"You're the last person I need worrying about me. But… thanks anyway." She focused her attention back to the list in front of her, picking up her pen again. "Right now, I just have to redo the catalogue for the inventory since everything got jumbled up."

Mae peeked over at the list that made relatively no sense to her. What the hell was a tooth chisel? That just sounded painful to use.

"Can I help?"

"Didn't you just get fired from your second job?" she said wryly, glancing up at her friend.

Mae threw out her arms in exasperation. "Dude, it's hard to get up at the ass crack of dawn! It should be illegal to have to get up that early!"

"Sure." Bea looked back down to the catalogue again and waved a hand. "Now get out of here, Maeday, I'm busy."

If Mae didn't know better, she would have thought Bea still hated her. But if it was any indication by the use of her old nickname, she knew her friend was just stressed. It was time for her to head out.

"Alright. See you at band practice tonight?"

"See you at band practice."

She pushed the door open and resumed walking down the street. As much as she hated to admit it, Bea was right. She really needed to be able to hold down a job. Not just for herself, but for her parents.

Mae could try to pretend all she wanted that the worried glances on her parents' faces didn't exist when the bills came in, but they were there.

She had proclaimed her resolution for the New Year was to at least have one job just so she could have some financial independence. Presently, a month has gone by, and for one reason or another, she had been let go from each of them. She could sympathize with Dan, who thankfully still held his place at the Taco Buck.

She was so deep into thought about these matters that she felt herself collide with someone, letting out an 'oof'.

"Hello, Mae," a voice said.

She barely restrained a glare as her eyes met with the perpetrator, fixating on their glinting badge.

"Aunt Mall Cop."

After the events of the cult, Mae still had some very mixed feelings towards her aunt. On one hand, she was suspicious of her aunt's involvement. On the other hand, if that wasn't the case, she was disappointed by her aunt's ineptitude at catching them.

It wasn't that she and her aunt got along in the first place; it was just a new problem out of her multitude.

"How are you doing? I know that the earthquake scared a lot of people."

And now Mae kinda looked like an asshole. Her aunt was just worried about her, and here she was calling her names. Way to get the niece-of-the-year award. Still, she could live to be a little suspicious

"Yeah, it did. So what happened?"

Aunt Molly went over the mental notes of the day in her head with a tap to her chin."From what we can tell, our sources say the epicenter seems to have come from the old mines. We got a lot of calls from people on the outskirts…"

A familiar chill ran up Mae's spine. And the intrusive thoughts from the past fall scratched at her mind. The mine was buried. Everything and everyone from down there had been buried, and she knew it. Germ had even helped with his stick of dynamite. But what if…? No, no, no, she didn't even want to think about that possibility.

More thoughts of the bodies at the bottom of the hole clouded her mind. And the thing that supposedly lived down there. The Black Goat. Was the world ending like the crazy uncles said it would? A pinhole began to creep at the edges of her vision, and her breath quickened.

She was broken out of her trance by her aunt snapping her fingers in front of her face.

"Mae, are you listening to me?"

"Y-yeah. The mines. Wow. How about that," she stuttered.

"Yes, we'll likely send out a team tomorrow to investigate that nothing triggered them. The rest we can just leave to the reporters and seismologists. In the meantime, we're making sure that no one is hurt."

Her aunt grasped her shoulder. Mae had to use all her willpower not to wrinkle her nose at the display of affection, but she still kept her half-lidded glare.

"You'll tell me if anything important happens, right? I want you to know I'm here for you, Mae."

She gently shook her hand off, declaring, "I'm fine."

Aunt Molly quirked an eyebrow. She sighed while readjusting her hat. "Stay safe out there," she said with an ominous air and promptly turned to leave.

She watched her aunt walk down the snowy path for a bit before shaking her head to recenter her thoughts. Right. Check in with friends. That means Angus was next. She could worry about what her aunt said later.

The Video Outpost "Too". She could see it was a mess from the outside with all of the fallen DVDs that Angus was presently picking up. The big guy didn't often have to get up from his place behind the counter, so he seemed very frustrated at that fact.

She rushed inside to help him. "Angus! I'll save you, dude!"

"Hi Mae. You're up early. I thought you'd—"

"I get it, I'm a heavy sleeper," she groaned as she helped stack some of the movies. "This place sure became a mess. And I thought it was bad at the Pickaxe."

"One of the many reasons why streaming is preferable in this day and age." He adjusted his glasses. "Less clutter that way."

She nodded, "Mmhmm." She continued to stack the titles haphazardly until her attention caught one in particular. "Oh, hey! It's Swamp Husband! We gotta host a movie night sometime with this one."

Angus came over to take a look at the cover. "Oh, I think I know that one. Classic from the 40s. I love the special effects for its time."

"Me too! It's awesome when that guy gets his arm bitten off!"

"However, there is only one way to watch this movie properly, and it's on a projector. I think I still have an old one lying around to connect to my computer."

"Awesome! Let's make it happen!" she cheered.

"Maybe we should save it for our party when Gregg and I move."

Mae's mind clouded over at the realization. That's right. Winter was ending pretty soon. Great, another thing for her to try not to worry about.

Silence followed as they gathered the rest of the movies and put them back in their respective shelves. It seemed like an hour had gone by as they spiraled through alphabetizing hell.

Mae dusted her paws and rested them at her hips. "I'm gonna go see Gregg now. See you at band practice, Angus!"

"Oh actually—"

The door closed before she could hear what he said. Oh well, it probably wasn't important.

The Snack Falcon was just a hop, skip, and a jump to the next part of town. Mae took note of all the obnoxious Valentine's decorations that the convenience store had put up.

Before she could even get a word in at the counter, Gregg had beat her, exclaiming, "Dude! This morning was crazy!" He waved his arms about in his usual excitable fashion.

"Hey, Gregg. Yeah, it really was."

She didn't mean to show a lack of enthusiasm, but Mae's energy was running pretty low with all the compounding thoughts of the morning. Gregg didn't seem to mind, though.

"Thankfully, I had my trusty earthquake detector."

"Huh? Your what?"

He pointed to some googly eyes adorned on the heart display for Valentine's Day deals."I set this up for fun a few days ago, but they were wiggling like crazy when the ground started shaking! Earthquake detector!"

"Dude, that's pretty awesome."

"I know, right!"

Mae felt she had run out of things to say and just stood there awkwardly. She resumed her previous smile

"Mae, you look really tired. Why don't you go back home?"

Crap, he saw right through her. She let out a nervous laugh and slowly moved toward the door.

"I think I'll keep going around town. I'll meet up at band practice later tonight, dude."

"Heck yeah, we're having practice! See ya later, dude!"

The young adult went back out the door and trudged back home. Her body felt like a load of cinderblocks. This was gonna be a long trek back home.

The Party Barn was filled with the sound of warm conversation and various instruments. The place had been well-maintained by the band members despite being relatively abandoned. Colorful streamers swayed slowly in an invisible breeze, and balloons laid on the ground.

Mae strummed a few notes absentmindedly on her bass to warm up on the counter of the Party Barn. She held onto the hope that focusing on music tonight would help better than any journaling did for her jumbled thoughts. The song hadn't been announced quite yet, but she could figure it out.

Germ came to observe, as always. He had brought a Fiascola with him and sat quietly in the corner, unblinking and drinking in a slow, constant chug. She was going to ignore that for now.

Mae had invited Lori to come and join them this time. The young girl seemed slightly anxious yet happy to be a part of the group. Mae had certainly hyped up band practice for her, so she had to come.

With how chaotic the morning had been, she'd figured it would be better if they all kept each other company for the night.

"So what are we playing tonight?" Bea spoke as she set up her laptop.

Gregg flipped through their song book, carefully considering a selection with a small hum.

"We're playing Effin' Rats!" Gregg pumped a fist in the air for emphasis.

Mae didn't think she was familiar with this one, but screw it, what Gregg declared during band practice was law as far as she was concerned. And she liked rats, she was the rat queen after all. And she may or may not have had something to do with a small infestation that had been in town for a couple of weeks.

"Lemme warm up a bit more, and we can start," Angus said. He let out a few hums from his throat to expel any cracks.

Bea clicked the button for the drums on her computer to indicate their start.

The edges of Mae's fingers tripped frantically across the strings of her bass. The beginning was pretty easy as she had learned to play by ear throughout their practices. Today was not that day, as her mind and body still sagged. She just kinda strummed whatever felt right. A few stray stares from her bandmates were sent her way when she let out a particularly ear-piercing wrong note.

When they came to the finale of the song, Mae was breathing heavily, stress sweat hanging on her brow. The surrounding stares were drilling through her back. She turned around to see worried faces.

"Dude… what was that? You missed your solo!" Greg exclaimed.

Angus coughed, "Well, that was a less than ideal performance."

"Wow, that was…wow." Bea didn't even bother hiding her concern from her normally stoic face.

"Are you okay, Mae?" Germ spoke up. Man, if Germ was worried about her, then she knew things looked bad.

She sighed and laid her bass down next to her. She couldn't hold it in anymore. She needed to speak with her friends.

"Guys… I need to talk about what's on my mind right now."

Gregg came over and rested a hand on her shoulder for support. "Sure, dude. Lay it on us."

Mae could feel her pulse quicken and roar in her ears, but she took a few deep breaths before starting."Did you hear that, apparently, the earthquake came from the mines?" She paused to gauge their reactions.

The group went silent. Nothing could be heard except the sound of Germ's slurping from another Fiascola he had brought with him. Those who were in the know glanced nervously at one another.

"For real?"

She nodded. "The realest. We need to investigate. I don't know if it was that thing down in the mines or the crazy uncles or–"

Bea interrupted Mae before things got too out of hand."Look, there's no need to jump to conclusions. Sometimes cave-ins happen, but it doesn't mean the cult is still alive. They've been down there for months. They're dehydrated husks by now."

"And those were just some crazy people I thought we were never going to bring up again," Angus interjected.

"I'm sorry, what?" Lori asked. She was at a loss for what they were talking about.

"We can explain later," Mae grimaced. She felt bad if she got Lori involved. She was just a kid and needed to be kept safe. "Lori, you should probably go home."

"O-okay. I think I'll call my dad to pick me up then. Bye, guys." She waved nervously as she got up from the ground. There was somewhat of a sad expression on her face that twisted at Mae's insides. The young cat hoped she was doing the right thing. They all watched as she left for the door.

Their focus then turned to Germ, who replied, "I'm staying." There were no objections there.

Mae continued with another breath, "I just can't rest tonight if we don't go out there. I need to know if the mines opened again."

The group looked at one another with confirming glances. It was practically unanimous that they didn't want their friend to go alone. They never wanted her to be alone again after what had happened last year.

"Alright, we'll go. Let's just get some supplies first, just to be safe. I can also drive us all there," Bea said.

"Yeahhhhh, adventure!" Gregg shouted, with his arms flailing. "Oh man, it's just like in those movies! If we see a zombie, I'm gonna shoot it with my crossbow!"

Angus chuckled, "Doubt there will be any zombies, Bug, but it's good to go prepared. We can grab some flashlights from our apartment."

"I can get some leftover rope from the Ol' Pickaxe."

"And I can bring more dynamite!" Germ declared.

Mae was moved to tears and felt a tug at her heartstrings. "You guys…thank you. This means a lot to me."

"No sweat, dude. We all get what you're going through," Gregg smiled.

Mae smiled back. "Okay, so uhh, we all meet back here in like thirty minutes or however long it takes to get our stuff, then go?"

They all nodded in agreement.

Good. The plan was settled. Drive over, then investigate, then head back home. Mae felt a pit open in her stomach. Whatever they found, she hoped it wasn't horrible. No zombies or any kind of strange creature. Just a normal mine that had caved in with no entrance or exit.

The young cat gulped.

AN: Anddd it's finished! Man was editing this chapter a process. I'm a journalism major, so I've become accustomed to forgoing the Oxford comma, but I've realized how much I've needed it in this narrative format. This chapter was a tiny bit of a slog for me as I am just setting up the beginning and the states of the characters. I hope you all think I did a good job! Been a bit disheartening with all the bots that have been on this site, so I'll probably also start posting on AO3. Also when you are editing and reading something over and over again, it can become very easy to get... bored of your own work?

Next chapter, things are bound to get interesting! I've been reading some really great Night in the Woods fanfics on this site that have inspired me! I'm basically humming with excitement while I type this!

Please leave any critiques or reviews as I love hearing how I can improve!