[CG]

Goo wanted nothing to do with it, though. She didn’t want to eat small birds and fish heads! Gross! So each time her parents would ask her to try some she shook her head, and kept insisting they’ll get in trouble and they should leave. But still her parents continued to eat, passing food to each other, spreads, toppings, everything in sight.

After a few minutes of watching her parents consume everything in their path, Goo felt a bit sickened at the sight. Knowing they’d be fine, she turned and headed off down the street of the ‘town’ and kept going. She passed many a store, each as empty and deserted as the last. Until finally she came to the end of the stores, and before her stood a bridge. A large red bridge, and just beyond that was a house.

The house was huge, amazing since she hadn’t spotted it before. Its bricks were red and brown in colour, a large entranceway, windows everywhere and steam emitting from the side of it. Goo stood, transfixed for a few moments at the sheer scale of it, and also what it was. It was a bathhouse. But she had never seen one in America. One time her father went on a business trip to Japan, she had gone with him, and had seen them all throughout Japan. But in America it was unheard of. Bathing with other people? Oh no, hide your shames!

She smiled a bit before walking out onto the bridge, and looked over the edge. Far (and I mean far) beneath her was a tunnel. And almost like it was waiting for her to look for it, the tram that was three carts long, shot past beneath her. “Hey there’s the tram!” Goo declared in delight at having spotted it. She thus rushed to the other side of the bridge to watch it vanish. It was here she suddenly felt that feeling you get when someone is watching you. She turned her head.

Who knew how long he had been stood there? It was a young boy, at least a year or two younger then her, and he was staring at her as if he’d never seen a girl before. His hair was brown, whilst his clothes were blue. He continued to stare for a few moments before finally finding his voice. “Wha, what are you doing here?” he asked, sounding worried.

“Huh? Well my folks got lost ‘n then we found the way into here ‘n now…” Goo started, but the young boy cut her off and grabbed her arm.

“You can’t stay here, you have to get out of here and get beyond the river before night time!” he insisted, managing to drag her along despite their weight and height differences. Goo was in a state of shock, but then she realised just how late it was. Already the sun was vanishing into the horizon, darkness over taking the light. The lanterns along the stores magically began to light themselves. The boy gasped as he looked over his shoulder. “Oh shoot, they’ve started to light the lanterns! Go, run! I’ll keep them busy just go now!”

He shoved her, and still in a state of surprise Goo kept going in the direction he had shoved her. Even if he was kind of bossy he still seemed honestly concerned for her well-being. Maybe this WAS going to become something out of a horror movie? Goo’s blood run cold at the very idea, and ran through the stores back tow here her parents were. Already some of the shops were opening, the darkness bringing them to life. She was so concentrated on locating her parents she failed to see that the store vendors were waking up as well, if you could call them vendors.

They were unlike anything any of us would have seen. They were like shadows, living shadows. Black in colour, but transparent so you could see what was behind them. They even seemed to move through walls, the floor, anything. Their eyes were white dots in their heads, and that was their only feature.

“Mom Dad!” Goo shouted as she finally found her parents. The mess around them was astonishing. Plates and platters were over turned, food was on the floor, and the mess was astronomical. Goo tugged on her father’s arm, “Dad c’mon we gotta go now before somethin’ awful happens ‘n…”

She stopped. The head that turned to greet here was not of her father’s. It was a giant pig. A slobbering, disgusting, massive pig. Besides it also was another pig, this one a sow. Both were wearing her parent’s clothes. The male pig closest to Goo flicked an ear before turning away, to climb up onto the buffet to get at some more food. But suddenly it squealed as a snapping sound filled the air. The vendor had returned, and using a used flyswatter (gross), was slapping the pig away. After enough terrible lashings the giant pig fell onto its side.

This was enough for Goo to handle, she screamed, turned, and ran through the streets. Unlike before, this time she realised the vendors. They moved around her, as if she was the one out of place here. She cried for her mother and father as she ran through the streets, but remembered what that kid had said. Make it beyond the river. She finally found the stairs and the frog and began rushing down the steps but suddenly found herself waist deep in water!

“Waugh!” Goo screamed, “Water?!” she cried, turning and climbing back up the steps. She looked again. An enormous river took up where the hills had been. Beyond the river, she could see the tower where her family had passed what just felt like a few minutes ago. Shops now surrounded it as well, lit in the darkness. It reflected off the river, and she could hear the commotion coming from there where she stood.