Slowly at first, then her heartbeat picked up and she felt the prickly rush of fear as she fell faster, faster until the darkness was whipping by and her hair was slashing her face. The wind pulled at her and it got louder and louder and she opened her mouth and screamed as hard as she could but nothing came out. And she was falling so fast now her breath was being pulled from her lungs, the wind was shrieking in her ears and she closed her eyes tight, the sickness rising in her throat.

When she opened her eyes, she was on the ground. She was in a dark place that smelled like wood, a deep, damp smell like outside after a thunderstorm. And it was different, very different from before. This felt sharp and mean, this felt real. It was night but she could see; the light was from the moon through the window, yes, that was it. She looked all around for Johnny Bear but he wasn’t there; there was no one anywhere. It was still very cold. This was a different kind of cold, though, not a windy cold but an ice cold, something that climbed deep inside of you and settled like a sickness. She felt it, probing her arms, her legs, her private parts, chilling, searching. She shivered from the inside out, crossing her arms and hugging herself. This was not home. This was someplace scary.

There was a sudden noise like a whimper, and she realized it came from her own mouth. Backing up slowly, she found a corner of the room and slid down the rough wall until she was sitting on the floor, and it was like falling down on the ice skating pond. The numbing cold crept up her back and spread all through her body, and she shivered uncontrollably. Then her mouth opened to scream, but she held it back; she must stay quiet because something was moving; there was a shadow on the wall in front of her.

The long, dark shadow on the wood slid forward. It looked like a hand and arm holding something large and round.

She waited in desperate silence, her breath coming in soft gasps of fear and her teeth chattering. She wrapped her arms around herself and squeezed, trying to stuff everything back inside and keep the nasty thing away, shut out this horrible creature made of black arms and shadow limbs. Wake up Jessie wake up wake up I want to go home—

The hand and what it contained slid out from around the corner into view. It was a huge and roughly muscled arm, and it held a head, someone’s furry head with a round button nose and glassy eyes.