Cary and David managed to make it to school in one piece, with no signs of Greg chasing after them. In fact, they managed to make it through the entire day without seeing him. While Angelica was there in Cary's math class, and she had seen the other three around the school over the course of the school day, there was no sign of Greg himself. And without their ringleader, the other four left the two of them alone for the whole day.

Despite what her grandfather said, Cary spent much of the day skimming through the bible. Whenever she got to a new narrative, she'd instantly remember everything that was happening in it. While she saw plenty of lessons to learn from it, she couldn't figure out what lesson her grandfather was trying to teach her this time around. By the end of the day, she had made it all the way through the old testament, still scratching her head over what she was missing. However, as she had finished the assignment, finished the punishment, that meant that she would be able to walk home with David without any guilt.

As science class was wrapping up, with Mr. Henderson finishing his explanation of the periodic table, Cary couldn't help but stare over at the empty desk in the back of the classroom. Science was the only class that she had with Greg, so this was her first real verification that he was absent that day. That she had gone without seeing him, simply because he wasn't there. She tried to think back to the beginning of class, when Mr. Henderson was taking attendance. But she was too focused on finishing the Book of Malachi to notice if he had called out Greg's name. If he was ditching all of school or just that class, or had gone home sick at some point. He had seemed fine the day before, when chasing Cary all around her block. But then, maybe his interaction with the haunted house had affected him as well.

Much like Cary thought it had her.

When the bell rang, Mr. Henderson stopped mid-sentence, letting the class head out without him finishing his point. Cary wasn't sure if he was making a point, but she figured that would be obvious from the homework assignment. As she had spent the day with her nose in her bible, she'd need to catch up on her homework at home for once, rather than getting it in between classes.

By the time she had her books stowed, and she headed out to the hallway, David was there to greet her. His last class of the day was two hallways over, but he always seemed to be there at a moment's notice. If Cary didn't know better, she'd almost think him magical. David stood there against the wall opposite from Mr. Henderson's door, looking both ways down the hallway. He was no doubt searching for signs of the bullies, but Cary was ready to call the day as bully free as possible.

"Hey," Cary said, as she came over next to him.

"All done, then?" he asked, his way of greeting her whenever she had a punishment pending.

"All done. Let's go."

The two of them made their way through the congested hallway. David led the way forward, using his extra five inches he had over Cary to their advantage. While they weren't the tallest in their class, their school ended with the fifth grade, giving them an advantage over all the other classes that were swirling around them. The fourth and third graders all parted in front of them, making way for the older kids to pass them by. But the two of them stayed close to each other, guarding against the return of the bullies. Guarding against what could still be a very bad day. While they were inside the school, the bullies could come from anywhere.

And Cary wouldn't put it past Greg to skip an entire day's school just to jump out at them at the end.

They didn't relax until they made it out of the building, into the afternoon sun. With her punishment over, and still no sign of Greg or the other bullies, Cary was beginning to think that the day might be a good one after all. And if Greg stayed away for another day, the week would end on a high note as well.

"So, are you ever going to tell me what happened this morning?" David asked, as the two of them emerged from the group of kids that were heading out of the school along with them. Most of the kids dropped away quickly, heading over to the buses lined up along Howard Street. This just left those fellow walkers heading along with them down the street, and most of them minded their own business, not bothering the two of them. "And maybe what happened with Greg. Did you do something to him or something?"

"What?" Cary asked. She looked towards David with wide eyes, surprised that he would suggest such a thing. "No, of course not. I just ran out of there as soon as you said he was coming. Are you sure he was coming, though? Was he chasing me? Did he see me?"

"I... I don't... Honestly, Cary, I started down the street the moment that I saw him. I kept those cars between me and him the entire time. I didn't see nothing till we made it out of there."

"Huh," Cary said, thoughtfully. She thought back to the weird graffiti that she had seen, wondering if it was still there. Wondering if it was still spinning there on the wall. Or if, whatever it was that the haunted house had done to her, had faded and the world would start to make sense again.

"So... What did happen? Why were you back there? What did you see?"

As the two of them walked down the street, Cary started telling him about what had happened the day before. She wasn't one to keep secrets from her best friend. Not for long anyway. David was the best listener, too. He gave just the right responses, oohing and ahhing and gasping at all the right times. When she got to the part of heading into the haunted house, though, he stopped her.

"No way," he said. "You went inside? Not just on the porch, but inside? I can barely make it past that fence."

Cary smiled over at him for a moment before pausing, right there on the sidewalk. Three kids came up behind them, skirting around them on the grass between the sidewalk and the street, to continue on past them. Once they were alone there, Cary reached into her bag, pulling out the baseball that she had retrieved from the house. She presented it to him like a gift, the irrefutable proof that she had gone inside.

"Wow," he said, stretching out the word as he took the ball from her. There was no doubt in his mind that this was the ball he hit through the window. "That is so cool. You have to take me in there... someday. Not-not today, alright?" His eyes flicked around the street, as if he expected the ghosts from that house to be stalking them in broad daylight.

Cary just smiled over at him as she continued her story, including the hooded figure that she saw the night before, though she was beginning to think that she hadn't seen anything. That being in that house had given her nightmares, and the graffiti was part of that.

"But the graffiti would still be there, right?" David asked, when she mentioned her doubt. "We could go over there and check it."

"Go over there?" Cary asked. She pointed over to the post office, which they were just coming up next to. They had already passed the first crosswalk, the one along Lincoln. But the light had only just turned green, so they would have to wait before crossing anyway. "That's... I mean, we're not allowed to cross the street."

"So?" David asked. It was the most rebellious thing he had ever said, for as long as Cary had known him. And Cary had known him since they were three. "We can just go over there, check out this graffiti, and come back. If it's not there, or if it's not moving like you said, we can just chalk it off as being some effect of being inside that house. And if that's the case, then I very much don't want to go in there. Like ever."

"And if it is there?" Cary asked. But before David could say anything, before she could even think of that possibility, she shook her head and asked the more important question. "No, what if we get caught? What if my grandparents find out?"

"Well... you still have that note, right? You still have permission."

"I think that ended when I put the letters in this morning."

"Nonsense," he said, smiling over at her. "Nothing more than a technicality. Come on. It'll be a few seconds. A minute at most. Who's going to see us? Who's going to tell?"

Before Cary could say anything else, David rushed forward, heading for the crosswalk at Elm. Cary followed along, more to try to keep David out of trouble than anything else. The light turned to red just as they came up to the intersection, which David pointed to with his "See? It's fate." look. He quickly looked both ways on the road, making sure that no one was turning onto Howard or trying to run through the light, before leading the way across the street and over to the post office there.

"So, where was it?" he asked, moving towards the far corner of the building. "Was it over here?"

Cary let out a deep sigh of exasperation, rolling her eyes at her friend, before moving in front of him. "It's back there," she said, heading around the corner and behind the building. She turned towards the graffiti as she turned the corner, once again coming face to face with the strange circle of mushrooms painted there. Relief flooded through her when she saw that it was still there. The fact that the mushrooms weren't dancing anymore didn't matter much to her.

"Well, that's... a bit of a let down," David said. "I mean, that could have been put there any time. It's not like we're allowed back here anyway."

"True, but it wasn't there the last time I looked back here. And the paint looked fresh this morning. It doesn't now, but that doesn't mean much."

"Yeah, but it's not dancing. I was... Well, I was expecting something weird. Something magical. This is just some drawing. Maybe a graffiti artist moved into the neighborhood and they started here. Dad always calls them a menace to the city. He's probably not going to like this one bit."

"I don't know why they're not dancing," Cary said. "They were dancing this morning after I touched them. Why... Why don't you touch them?" She pushed David towards the graffiti, too scared to move forward herself.

"Fine," David said, but he didn't move forward any. He just stood there, staring at the graffiti with Cary. After a moment of that, he turned back to her. "Maybe there was drugs in the paint and they made you see things."

"Drugs?" Cary asked. David just shrugged. "Sometimes, I think your parents are a bad influence on you. Now come on. We're not supposed to be over here."

"Fine, fine," David said. He reached forward, tapping the graffiti with the lightest tap, immediately retracting the finger. But nothing happened. The mushrooms didn't dance and the wall stayed flat. "See?" he said, pointing towards the wall. "Nothing happened."

"Well, that's... I'm not sure if I feel better or worse now," Cary said. She moved forward, standing next to David right in front of the graffiti. With the picture seeming less and less weird, the fear that it had created in her was quickly fading away. And since David touched it without anything happening, she figured that she could as well. So, she reached out, tapping the picture just as quickly, just as lightly, as David had.

Only, when she took her finger back, the painting started to move in front of them.

"Uh... You see that too, right?" Cary asked, looking over at David. David's surprise was plain on his face, answering her question.