A few weeks after the fight, another occurred. This one was far worse, even though not a single drop of blood was spilled. It had nothing to do with Quintus Zima and his gang; there were only three players in this drama. But its happening colored Shannon Malone's actions for perhaps the rest of the school year.

One week before this catastrophic second fight, Clarence Edwards had found himself in the Clearwater Police Department. No one there was particularly happy to see him; he had a history of showing up with little more to relay than an unconfirmed rumor passed down through seven different people. He could never be deterred, no matter what any of the officers said to him. He'd be sent away with the certainty that a few weeks later he'd be back, and the whole thing would repeat itself.

That time things were a little different. He did, as usual, supply unsubstantiated gossip to the officers in the station that morning. These tales centered on an old ladies' knitting club and the disappearance of a stray cat that they'd been feeding and had named, enigmatically, Finnie Jim. That had not been the real intention of his visit, though. After relating in vivid detail the exploits of Finnie Jim and his knitting lady providers, Clarence Edwards had lectured the officers for nearly a half an hour about the state of safety in the town of Clearwater.

Clarence Edwards was not without a point. It had been quite some time—since August at least—that anyone had felt truly secure in Clearwater. As far as any civilian was aware, the police had made absolutely no headway in investigation of any of the crimes that had plagued the town recently. The public unrest in Clearwater was great; every day tensions grew. Clarence appealed on behalf of his wife, who went into fits whenever a dog in the neighborhood got loose. He appealed on behalf of his sons, both still so young and spirited and full of life. He appealed on behalf of his teenage daughter, only one grade behind the late Sarah Benadine. He would've appealed on behalf of Finnie Jim if he'd had the chance. The officers had gotten the point by then and they knew that this time Clarence Edwards could not be ignored.

The decision was made—after a fair amount of arguing—to have an officer patrol the streets at night, hopefully resulting in giving some piece of mind back to the townspeople. It took Horace Strickland personally promising four times that this measure would be put into place as soon as possible for Clarence Edwards to leave the station. Strickland got someone out there that night, not eager to have Clarence back in the morning harping on him. None of the officers were under the impression they'd seen the last of the man; they knew he'd be back soon enough with another story that was shaky at best. But the night patrolman had not been implemented just to get Clarence Edwards out of their hair. All of the officers, to varying degrees, thought something like this was long overdue.

Shannon Malone and Toni Guaraldi were graced with insider knowledge of this story from Clarence's son, Robbie. Clarence was never shy about what he said in front of his children—he was never shy about what he said in front of anyone. Because of this, Robbie Edwards ended up with a play-by-play of everything that had happened in the police station, allowing for some exaggeration in Clarence's favor. Toni dragged the information out of him in her usual fashion, refusing to take anything close to 'no' for an answer. They discussed it at Toni's house over a game of Crazy Eights one week after Clarence Edwards had been at the police station—the night of the fight. Toni's parents and two oldest brothers were out; she, Gianni, and the third Guaraldi boy, Francesco, had the run of the house.

"I can't believe your dad did it," Toni said, throwing a card into the pile.

"It shouldn't surprise you," Robbie said. "My dad spends more time in the police station than he does anywhere else."

"That's what my mom says about my cousin Matteo," Toni said. "Of course, he's usually there for being drunk and disorderly."

"Is he the one who sang 'How Dry I Am' all night in front of Town Hall two Christmases ago?" Shannon asked, putting an eight down. "Spades."

"Ugh, spades? Really?" Toni groaned, reaching to draw. "Yeah, that was Matteo."

Robbie snorted. "He wasn't the only one, though, was he? Somebody else was there with him."

"Steve Bellfrey joined in at about midnight," Toni said. "Their harmonies were pretty good considering how much they'd both had to drink."

"You heard them?" Shannon asked.

"They came back to my house at about four in the morning, after someone had finally chased them away," Toni replied. She played with the edge of one of her cards. "Hours of nothing but 'How Dry I Am' over and over again."

Robbie shook his head in amusement, laying down a two. He looked at Shannon. "Draw two."

Shannon put down a two of her own, saying to Toni, "Draw four."

Toni glared at them. "In my own home?" Grudgingly, she reached for the draw pile. "Anyway, I guess I just didn't know your dad had it in him. I just figured he'd tell everyone else in town what he thought should be done. Like he usually does."

"Honestly, I just think he got tired of listening to my mom talk about it," Robbie said with a shrug. "I think she likes to fret all the time. She doesn't talk about anything else anymore. Neither does my dad really, just in different ways. She worries and he gossips. It's kind of irritating, honestly."

"My parents are the opposite," Toni said. She was trying not-so-subtly and very unsuccessfully to look at the cards in Robbie's hand. "I don't think either one of them have said one word to us about anything that's been happening in town. I hear them talking late at night in Italian sometimes, but my Italian isn't so good. I figure they must be talking about all the stuff that's happening, but they never say anything to me or my brothers. For all I know, they might believe we know nothing about it."

Toni tossed a card into the pile, looking ruefully at her hand; she had by far the most cards. As Robbie contemplated his next move, Shannon thought about how her parents had been handling all the things that had been happening in town. They fell somewhere in between Toni's parents and Robbie's, she supposed. Una and Liam had talked candidly yet carefully with their children—Faye and Shannon particularly—about the different crimes that had taken place in the city. They hadn't tried to ignore it. They couldn't have if they wanted to, not when their own daughter was one of the students at Briargate who discovered Douglas Wein's skull. Shannon thought something had changed between her and her parents when that had happened, particularly her mother. She thought there was something different in the way her mother looked at her: something like concern or fear, but mixed with something else as well. Something Shannon hadn't been able to identify no matter how hard she tried. But it was obvious that her parents were not trying to shield her from anything in the town. How could they? If they wanted to protect her, the powers that be had other plans.

Shannon placed a card onto the pile.

"I do wonder what's out there, though," Toni said, taking her turn. "Who's been doing all of this."

Shannon held her cards up a little higher, trying to obscure her face. Toni's word choice had sent up a flare in Shannon's mind. Neither Toni nor Robbie seemed to have noticed, though. Toni was still glancing over every few seconds, trying to catch Robbie while he was distracted and get a look at his hand.

Shannon hadn't told anyone about the things she'd learned the Saturday afternoon she'd spent with her classmates from Briargate, just as she'd promised. Her mother had been horrified when she'd come home with cuts and bruises all over her face, and Shannon had been forced to tell her about the fight. Una had been appropriately dismayed at the idea of her daughter getting into a fist fight in the middle of town, but Shannon could've sworn her mother had seemed just the tiniest bit proud when she told her how she'd defended Caleb. She'd told her mother she'd gone to a friend's house to clean herself up, and that they'd all talked together for most of the afternoon, but she'd given no details. Una had seemed satisfied.

What's out there.

It still occupied Shannon's thoughts much of the time. The events of that afternoon had become more remote and surreal as the days had passed, much like her encounter with the Follower had. It seemed more like something she'd read in a book or seen in a film than something she'd actually experienced. Yet still she believed. At least, she told herself she did. It didn't seem that much of a stretch to believe that there were dark things in town, not when all her life she'd heard the whispers. Kitty Sinclair, Alfred O'Brien, The Forest, the abandoned woodworking factory. All the things everyone in town wanted to pass off as isolated incidents and insist Clearwater was a safe town, a good town. Shannon supposed she could believe otherwise.

Do you think there's something bad here?

"My dad still says it was Sarah Benadine's boyfriend or something," Robbie said. "He doesn't really have a good reason why Sarah's boyfriend would break into the butcher's shop or kill all those animals, but he insists that's who it must be."

"Sarah didn't have a boyfriend," Toni pointed out.

"I don't think that would change his mind," Robbie said. He placed an eight onto the pile. "Hearts."

"I swear both of you are determined to make this game hell for me," Toni grumbled. "I think your dad's wrong. I think there's something big going on. I don't know what it is, but there's gotta be something. All the bad things that have been happening...there's gotta be something more than Sarah's boyfriend or anything like that."

Shannon remembered the night of Sarah's memorial, the first time she and Toni had had this conversation. Toni's mind hadn't been changed since then; if anything, her suspicions had been strengthened. And as for Shannon...well, she knew that Toni was right.

"You're awfully quiet over there, Shannon, my dear," Toni said. She looked at the cards in her hand in disgust before reaching for the draw pile.

"Oh, uh, I'm...I'm just thinking," Shannon said.

"Care to share?" Toni asked.

Shannon gnawed on her bottom lip, keeping her face behind her cards. She had options now. The first was that she could tell Toni and Robbie everything. It'd be a lie to say she wasn't tempted, but she'd promised Allison about fifty times she wouldn't, and for some reason she was sure Allison would know if she told. She could tell Toni and Robbie nothing. That option ran no risk, but she couldn't deny she wanted to tell them something. She felt like an interloper with her classmates at Briargate; she didn't fit into their world. She felt more comfortable with Toni and Robbie, both of whom she'd been friends with since she started school.

There was a third option, which Shannon liked the best.

"I think I know what's been doing all of this," Shannon said quietly.

The reaction was not instantaneous. Robbie put his final card onto the pile. Toni looked at him, sneering.

"I think you cheat," she muttered. "You always win."

Robbie grinned shamelessly at her. Toni shook her head, tossing her cards onto the table. They carried on for so long Shannon thought they hadn't heard her. Then Toni looked at her, frowning slightly.

"You really think you know?" she asked.

Shannon swallowed and nodded. Toni raised her eyebrows. Robbie played with his hands.

"Tell us," Toni said simply.

Shannon's mouth felt dry. She tried to begin a sentence unsuccessfully a number of times, her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth. When she finally did speak, her voice sounded foreign, unknown to her ears.

"I think there are monsters in Clearwater."

She waited patiently, letting her words sink in. She was sure neither of them had been expecting her to say that, or anything close to that, really. The silence that circled her ears did not surprise her. She waited, giving them ample time to break it if they wished.

Toni did.

"Be serious," she said with a snort. She began to gather the piles of cards on the table into one, preparing for a new game. Already, she had dismissed the conversation.

"I am," Shannon said.

Toni's hands stilled. Slowly, she looked up at Shannon. Her face was blank, no hint to how she was feeling. Shannon waited, watching her curiously. Finally, Toni shook her head, hands resuming their progress on the cards.

"Right," she said. "What story have you heard? The werewolves in The Forest? The creature in Winter Pond?"

"I'm serious, Toni," Shannon said firmly.

"You are not," Toni fired back. "There's no such thing as monsters. That's little kid stuff."

"No, it isn't," Shannon persisted. "It's real."

Toni frowned. "Oh stop it, Shannon. I knew you'd been spending too much time with Mary Dent. You're starting to sound as loony as her."

"I'm not loony, Toni." Shannon looked conspiratorially between Toni and Robbie. "I've seen something."

"You've seen something?" Toni repeated doubtfully. "What was it? A little green man in a flying saucer?"

Shannon scowled at her. Robbie looked between the both of them uncomfortably. Shannon and Toni stared at each other, unnoticing of him. Toni crossed her arms over her chest, appraising Shannon with narrowed eyes.

"I'm not making this up," Shannon said. "The night of Sarah Benadine's memorial, when I walked home from here, I saw something. A monster or something—it attacked me in Dyer's Park—"

"Cut it out!" Toni said sharply. Stormy clouds of anger brewed behind her eyes. "There's no such thing as monsters."

"There is," Shannon insisted. "I saw—"

"Stop lying!" Toni's voice was so harsh that Shannon recoiled as if she'd been struck. Robbie looked at Toni with wide, shocked eyes. Toni's jaw was clenched; the angry clouds in her eyes had exploded, fury swirling around in her brown eyes. The same kind of intensity slowly filled Shannon's face.

"I'm not lying," she said, somewhat indignantly.

"Hey, maybe—" Robbie began.

"You're not?" Toni said. "You can't honestly believe you saw a monster, Shannon. They're not real."

"How do you know?" Shannon asked stubbornly. "There could be all kinds of things in the world you don't know anything about."

"There's no such thing as monsters." Toni was beginning to sound like a broken record. "Adults just make up stories about them to scare kids into being good. They're not real, never will be. You didn't see anything."

"I did too!" Shannon cried.

"Shannon, Toni—" Robbie tried again.

Toni flew to her feet. Her eyes were wild now, outraged and belligerent, and her mouth was twisted into a frown that looked almost painful. Toni hated being lied to. Shannon knew that. But Shannon wasn't lying.

"Why are you doing this?" Toni asked, waving her hands in the air randomly. "Is it some kind of joke? Are you gonna tell your new friends at Briargate how you tricked me and Robbie into thinking there were monsters in town?"

"No," Shannon said immediately, getting to her feet as well. "It's not a joke, I'm not trying to trick anyone! I'm serious!"

"Stop it! You're being stupid!"

"Toni!" Robbie said, still sitting and looking between the girls like he was afraid they might attack each other.

"No, you're just too hard-headed to believe in anything you've never seen," Shannon said.

Shannon and Toni were getting loud enough now that it seemed certain Francesco and Gianni—just upstairs—would be able to hear them. Neither of them seemed to be bothered by that in the least. They had migrated closer to each other, invading each other's personal space. Toni had a good few inches on Shannon, but Shannon was standing as straight as her spine would allow, unbothered by the difference.

"Cut—it—out," Toni said slowly, paying every consonant its worth.

"I'm not lying to you, Toni," Shannon said. "Something attacked me in Dyer's Park in August, and it was some kind of monster."

"Stop!" Toni was near screaming. Robbie stood and got in between them then, just in case. Toni and Shannon stared around him like he wasn't even there.

"Fine," Shannon said after a long, tense pause. She stepped back and away. Her face was set; her mouth was a grim line. "Fine." She brushed past Toni and Robbie, heading for the front hall. "I'm going home."

"Uh, Shannon..." Robbie said uncertainly, but she did nothing to signify she heard him. She grabbed her coat and hat from the rack in the front hall, as well as her bag of clothes and toiletries—the plan had been that she would spend the night. Without another word, she threw the door open and walked out into the night.

It was still early enough in the year for the Wisconsin chill to have quite a bite. There were a few inches of snow covering the ground, the white blanket twinkling in the streetlights.

The wind was fierce, and Shannon was reminded for the millionth time of the night of Sarah Benadine's memorial, how the wind had taken the tree branches in Dyer's Park, made them move like they were alive. Dyer's Park itself was spread out in front of her now, leafless tree branches pointing jaggedly into the air. If she cut through, she could be home in less than five minutes. An obvious choice, it should have been.

The door opened behind her, causing her to jump. She couldn't decide whether she was surprised or not to see Robbie there; she knew it wouldn't be Toni, not this soon after a fight, but she hadn't really been expecting either of them to follow her. The streetlights cast eerie shadows on his face, and somehow it made him look older, disconnected from the gangly kid Shannon had known all her life.

"You shouldn't be out here by yourself," Robbie said, shivering, his breath coming out in a fog. "I'm sure Toni would let you call your parents to come get you. She's not that cruel."

"No," Shannon said, for reasons bordering on pure stubbornness. "It's not that far. I'll be fine."

"It's dangerous out here, Shannon." He looked around nervously, taking in the shadows like he was waiting for something to come walking out of them. "At least...let me come with you?"

Shannon could tell just by his face that he didn't think his presence was a sure way to keep either of them safe. He didn't want her to be alone though, and Shannon had to admit she'd feel better with someone with her.

"Your parents are coming here to pick you up," Shannon said feebly, not really wanting to put up a fight anyway.

"I'll call them from your house," Robbie said with a shrug. "Don't go alone."

Shannon sighed and nodded. "Come on."

"You wanna cut through the park?" Robbie asked as he followed her up the Guaraldis' driveway. The skeletal branches of the trees in Dyer's Park cracked against each other in the wind.

Shannon watched the way the branches moved. It was snowy inside the park, but brighter without the cover of leaves. The streetlights and the moon lit the playground and the benches. The bare branches and the added light made it so Shannon could almost see through to the street on the other side. Almost.

For one moment, Shannon thought she would say yes.

"No," Shannon said. "Let's go around."

Robbie didn't say anything for a while as they made their way to the sidewalk. He was watching Shannon closely though; Shannon kept her eyes on the ground.

"What you said back there," Robbie said finally, "about the monster in Dyer's Park...you mean all that?"

"Yeah," Shannon said evenly.

Robbie nodded casually, as if her answer was of no real consequence, but his eyes had widened slightly. Shannon was still bristling from her exchange with Toni, but she tried to refrain from becoming defensive. She couldn't tell yet what Robbie was thinking, if he believed her or not. He was silent again, taking his time with his consideration. They walked briskly without noticing it, unnerved by the shadows falling across the sidewalk and the snow.

"You really saw something?" Robbie asked, looking sideways at her.

Shannon nodded. "I swear I did, Robbie. Something was there."

"Wow," Robbie said lowly. He looked shortly towards Dyer's Park and then away again. "What—what do you think it was?"

Shannon tensed imperceptibly. She knew what it was, but that was a whole conversation she didn't want to have right now. She didn't know if she could without breaking the promise she'd made to Allison and the others.

"I'm—I'm not sure," Shannon said. She began to describe the Follower to Robbie, but only in a general way. Talking about it this close to where she'd seen it raised icicles in her blood. She avoided looking directly at the park, something she hadn't done in months. Robbie listened very intently and didn't ask many questions. He didn't seem to be too curious for the close details.

"So you think this is what's been doing all the bad stuff in town?" Robbie asked. His voice was hushed.

"I don't know," Shannon said honestly, her voice as quiet as Robbie's. "I think it killed Sarah at least."

They were coming onto Quarry Street now. Snow had drifted onto the sidewalk and it crunched lightly as they walked over it. Shannon relaxed a little, now so much closer to her house. She supposed her parents would be upset that she'd walked home in the dark. Robbie had been right; she could've called them and they would've picked her up. But Toni had made her so angry...There had been reasons bordering on pure stubbornness as to why Shannon didn't go back inside and call her parents, all right, but there was something else, too. Something so terrible Shannon didn't want to give it a name or place too much thought on it. Something, she supposed, that had also been the reason why she'd nearly took the shortcut home through Dyer's Park.

Almost as if he could sense her thoughts, Robbie said to her, "Toni will come around. She's just being stubborn. I bet she's not even that mad anymore."

Shannon doubted that, but she didn't say anything. She shrugged weakly as they came to her front porch.

"You have to admit...what you're saying is pretty hard to believe," Robbie said gently. "Just give her some time to think it over. She'll come around, I'm sure of it." He bumped her shoulder gently. "You're the only person she actually likes, anyway."

Shannon smiled crookedly at that. Robbie grinned back. Neither of them knew, of course, just how much it would end up taking for Toni to believe.

Shannon pulled out her house key, knowing her parents would have locked up by now, thinking she was spending the night at Toni's. The lock always stuck, and she had to fiddle with it for a moment, but eventually it gave with a tiny groan of protest.

"Shannon? Is that you?" Una called as Shannon and Robbie stepped inside. Shannon's mother appeared a moment later, and Shannon didn't miss the relief that flashed across her face when she saw them.

"Just me mom," Shannon said unnecessarily. "And Robbie."

"Hello, Robbie," Una said with a confused smile. "What are you doing home? I thought you were staying over at Toni's house."

"I changed my mind," Shannon said. "I, uh...I have a headache."

Robbie shot her a look but she ignored him. Una nodded slowly, giving Shannon a queer look.

"Did you walk home?" she asked.

Shannon winced and nodded.

Una sighed. Much to Shannon's surprise, she didn't seem all that mad. There was definite concern in her eyes, but the biggest emotion was something unreadable, that same something that Shannon had been seeing more and more in her mother's face in the days since she'd been one of the students who'd found Douglas Wein's skulls. It was almost like she was coming to understand something better each day, but Shannon couldn't imagine what it was. It was there in Una's eyes now.

"You could've called," Una said. "Your father or I would have come to get you."

"It's not that far," Shannon said lamely. "I didn't want to bother you."

Una had that same queer look on her face. It was almost like a smile, but much too sad. Shannon looked at the ground. Una walked forward and held Shannon gently by the shoulders, tying to look into her eyes.

"Just be careful out there, all right?" Something told Shannon her mother did not just mean at night. "I don't want to see anything happen to you."

Shannon nodded. "Yes, Mom."

Una looked at her a moment longer, then dropped her arms and smiled at Robbie. "Do you need to call your parents?"

"If that's all right, Mrs. Malone," Robbie said.

"Of course, Robbie."

Una led Robbie into the kitchen to the phone. Shannon sat her things down to take off her hat and coat. Una came back out of the kitchen, and Shannon could hear Robbie talking lowly.

"You really should have called," Una admonished, but her voice was gentle.

"I'm sorry, Mom," Shannon said. "I wasn't thinking."

She figured she wouldn't mention why she hadn't been thinking; she didn't want to get into it. Some of her anger had dulled, but she was still upset. Never before had she been truly mad at Toni about anything, but Toni's refusal to believe her had cut her deeply and a bit unexpectedly.

"That's all right," Una said. "Nothing happened on your way home, did it? You didn't see anything, or anything like that?"

"No, Mom," Shannon promised.

"Good."

Shannon picked her bag of clothes back up just to have something to do with her hands.

"Are you all right, Shannon?" Una asked. "You look...upset."

Shannon turned her face away from her mother. "I'm fine. Just a headache, like I said."

"If you say so, dear."

Robbie came back out then and said, "My dad's on his way. He'll be here in a few minutes."

"All right, Robbie," Una said. "You can come into the living room and sit down while you wait for him, if you like."

"Oh, no, thank you, Mrs. Malone," Robbie said, going a little pink around the ears. "My dad gets pretty impatient and usually honks the horn until someone comes out. I don't want him to wake up the whole neighborhood."

Una smiled, her eyes twinkling with mirth. "If that's what you'd prefer."

She turned and walked towards the living room, leaving Robbie and Shannon alone. Robbie looked at Shannon with a slight frown.

"It'll be fine. Toni will get over it," he said.

"Yeah, maybe," Shannon said. Toni hated being lied to. But Shannon wasn't lying.

"I believe you, you know." Robbie was looking at her in a way he never had before. Shannon suddenly felt frightened for him, an old, painful kind of fear that knotted in her stomach and took hold of her nerves. She thought perhaps she'd put him in danger; then again, it seemed that everyone was in danger in this town. She grasped his hand and squeezed quickly.

"Your dad's here," she said, looking out the window of the front door and nodding at the black car that had just pulled up.

"I better go," Robbie said hastily, "before he starts playing 'Reveille' on his horn."

Shannon laughed. Robbie pulled the door open and was halfway out before he stopped and turned back.

"Look after yourself," he said, and disappeared into the night.

"Yeah, you too," Shannon said after he had gone. "You too."

***So much drama. Anyway, thanks to everyone who voted and commented. I greatly appreciate it :)***