Nikki scratches behind her ear. "Easier said than done," she says, her chipper mask starting to crack. "I mean, I've been lost here before from time to time, but never like this."

"Being lost has never stopped us before, right?" I tilt my head at Joe until he nods in agreement with me.

"No, good point," Joe says. "I just hope I can remember the way...it was all I could do not to start dropping bread crumbs."

"Assuming you had any bread to crumb," I point out. "In which case, that would've gone very well with my dinner."

Joe looks up, then sticks his head through the front door. "What is that, chicken noodle?"

I shake my head. "Stone soup."

Nikki snickers to herself. "I'm sorry," she says when Joe and I swivel our heads her way in creepy unison. "I just...I sort of remember getting that story read to me when I was a kid."

"What? Stone soup?" Joe covers his mouth as he starts to laugh as well. "You know what, she's right. I remember it too. Sort of."

I close the door - the aroma's making my mouth water again. "What can I say? Random childhood memories came to mind when I started cooking this, and the name just stuck."

"You mean like how this door's stuck?" Sure enough, as Joe tries to reopen the door, it stays stubbornly in place. He pushes hard, but it refuses to budge.

I gnash my teeth, then pull on Joe's arm until he backs away. No need for him to lapse into full-on Wendigo mode or anything. "I swear, if I had my gun on me, I'd have just shot the doorknob off years ago."

"But it hasn't been years," Joe reminds me.

"It feels that way to me. I know you said it's only been a couple of months, but..."

My voice trails off, and Nikki breaks the silence a few seconds later by clearing her throat. "Time just goes slowly around here. Sometimes, I think it's backwards, even. I could walk into this dimension, then come back and I won't have left for ten minutes yet." She chuckles to herself, a soft laugh that reminds me, strangely, of Jenny. "You can imagine how much I wanted to give myself a time paradox."

I have to ask. "Did you?"

"No, but not for lack of trying." She laughs again, then turns around and looks at the bushes. "So...where do we go from here?"

Joe raises his eyebrows. "I barely know any of the songs from Into The Woods, but..."

"Hey, don't look at me," I say, holding up my hands. "And I'm not gonna hold hands with you guys and start singing 'We're Off To See The Wizard' either. Just sayin'."

"We weren't gonna do that," Joe laughs. "Death sure turned you salty, didn't it?"

"The better for you to not eat me with," I say, elbowing his ribs. "Okay...we're going, I guess. Nobody's got a ton of baggage to bring along, right?" Pause. "Good, 'cause we're doing TSA rules on this trip. Carry-ons only."

"They still do that?" asks Nikki.

"That's one of my dad's jokes," says Joe.

"Yeah, you're right." I flash him a thumbs-up. "Now just make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their upright and locked positions, kids. Joe stiffens, then looks into the woods. "Another traveling companion?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "Get back!" he yells. "Other side of the house! Now!"

Again, I find myself reaching for a nonexistent gun. "What is it?" I ask.

Nikki follows Joe's gaze, then pales and curses under her breath. "Oh, this is really bad," she says. "Last time I saw one of these, I barely got out alive!"

"Someone tell me what the hell this is!" I whisper harshly as we run to the other side of the cabin. "And how we kill it!"

"Funny you should say 'hell,'" says Nikki. "Well..."

She doesn't have to keep on talking. Before she can finish her sentence, the bushes rustle. I peek around the corner just long enough to see a massive canine form leaping out.

A hellhound? Seriously?

Wait a second...why isn't it barking? Sure, it's leaping out and snapping its jaws open and shut, but there's no sound coming from its mouth.

"That's not right," I say. "I hear those things howling at the moon all the time. They're never quiet."

"Until now," says Joe. "I bet those guys that have Ichabod did this."

"Those guys being...?" I ask.

He swallows nervously as the hellhound paws the ground, then walks closer to us. "The Church of Atropos," he says.