***Trigger warnings for a panic attack and vomiting,***

Start the song. It's One with the Freaks by The Notwist.

Since Josh wasn't going to school today, he had an abundance of free time on his hands. He didn't really know what to do with that free time though. It wasn't exactly like he had a friend to call up or even a way to call someone in general. He didn't want to spend all day with his parents either. That was never enjoyable. It had only taken about twenty minutes with his father to solidify for him that he needed to get out of the house.

He and his dad had been sitting on the couch, Mr. Dun watching the news and Josh disinterestedly tugging at the rope toy Jim was fighting with all of his might to keep in his mouth. His father had sighed, resting his arm along the back of the couch and looking at Josh.

"Did I hear a girl's voice in your room this morning?" He asked his son curiously.

"No," Josh replied quietly.

His father chuckled, looking back at the television. "It's okay, son. I'm not mad. Just be safe."

Josh shot his dad a look of annoyance before turning his attention to Jim, who had finally released the toy. Josh threw it across the room, making Jim scramble and slide across the hardwood floor as he tried desperately to get to the rope that was only a few feet away. He picked it up and scurried back to Josh, thrilled to be starting the game over again. Once again, he refused to release the toy in his mouth.

"Isn't it crazy how quickly life changes?" Josh's father asked him wistfully. "It seems like just yesterday you were being conceived on this couch, and now-Where are you going? Josh? Wh-"

Josh slid Jim's vest and leash on him once they were outside, picking his skateboard up off of the porch. Jim was more than happy to flee from the house with Josh, running down the block as far as he could until he couldn't see his house anymore. That was when he dropped his skateboard on the flawless sidewalk and climbed on, letting Jim pull him along the street.

"He's crazy, Jim. He's fucking crazy. I can never sit on that couch again. Never. I'm going to have to sit on the floor to watch TV for the rest of my life," Josh vented to his dog irritably as they turned the corner and left his street.

The service dog's tongue dangled happily out of his mouth as he looked over his shoulder at Josh, seemingly unaffected by the gall of Josh's father. Josh smiled slightly at his dog's cheery nature though. No matter how annoying Josh's family was, Jim was still a treasure.

It was easy for Josh to lose himself in skateboarding, even when Jim was doing most of the work. He'd been doing this for so many years now that it was pretty much second nature to him. It didn't take that much concentration for him. Maybe that was why he didn't see the girl walking down the street until he was already crashing into her. They both squeaked in surprise, and Jim yelped fearfully as he hopped out of the way.

They were both apologizing frantically as they tried to collect themselves. It wasn't until they were standing that Josh realized the girl climbing back onto her own skateboard shakily was friends with Jenna. She seemed to recognize him at the same time, her eyes widening as she popped her board back into her hand and quickly walked around him, keeping her head down as she dropped her board again and started back down the sidewalk.

Maybe Josh should've just gotten back onto his skateboard and kept going until he was nowhere near the girl, but he couldn't help himself from asking, "So you can't talk to me, but you can watch Jenna humiliate me in a room full of people?"

The girl stopped, putting her foot down to stop her board before looking over her shoulder at Josh. Surprisingly, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. Guilt washed over him immediately.

"I'm sorry. I didn't-" he tried to say, but she abandoned her board on the sidewalk and ran over to him, smacking against his chest as she wrapped her arms around his torso and cried against his chest.

Josh was so shocked by this turn of events that he hugged her back, patting her hair awkwardly as she cried. It seemed like she cried forever, and Jim seemed torn about whether he should protect Josh from her or help her. After about ten minutes of profuse crying, she finally pulled away from his chest, wiping her eyes on the sleeves of her button up shirt. Josh was at a loss for words.

"Sorry," she told him quietly. "You're right. It's just.... She's only trying to help. That's the only way she knows how to help though. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." And just like that, she was crying again.

This was somehow just as uncomfortable for Josh as sitting on the couch he was apparently conceived upon, but he felt like he couldn't just leave her. He let Jim come closer to him, nudging his nose against Josh's arm as he tried to figure out what to do about this girl.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" Josh asked her.

She sniffled, shrugging. "I went home for lunch."

Josh nodded. As much as he didn't want to be around this girl anymore, he told her, "Um, we could walk you back to the school if you want. I promise not to knock you off your board again."

The girl smiled slightly. "I don't think Jenna would like that very much."

"Fuck Jenna," Josh replied simply, making the girl blush.

She hesitated before saying, "I'm Bea."

That caught Josh's attention. "You're the one who moved here from somewhere else. Jenna told me about you. Where are you from?"

She seemed a bit nervous, but climbed back onto her board and waited for Josh to do the same anyways. It wasn't until they were moving again that she answered him.

"I'm from Brooklyn, New York. You're from a city too, right?" She asked curiously.

Josh nodded. "Yeah. Columbus."

She smiled. "Why'd you move here?"

"Because my parents are crazy. You?" He asked, following her around the corner at the end of the road. Jim trotted happily alongside them.

"Because my moms thought I was going to get into trouble if I stayed in Brooklyn," Bea explained. "They sent me to live with my aunt because there's a shockingly low teen pregnancy rate in Applecrest. There's only one or two teen pregnancies a year. It makes sense when you consider the fact that most of the parents here don't let their daughters talk to boys, and the entire community thinks that any girl who isn't a virgin is completely useless."

"That's bullshit," Josh commented simply, making her smile.

"Agreed," Bea said with a smile. "So did your parents move you out here because of their jobs?"

Josh chuckled. "Yeah, you could say that."

"What do they do?" She asked curiously.

There it was. The question Josh dreaded most. He already knew how this conversation would go. He'd say they were writers. She'd ask what kind of books they wrote. He'd try to keep it simple by saying fiction. She'd ask if they'd written anything she might have read. He'd say he hoped not. She'd ask why. He'd have to tell her his parents wrote erotic novels. She'd never talk to him again.

"They're writers," Josh replied despite having played out the exact scenario that always occurred in his mind before responding.

She nodded. "Cool."

After a moment of waiting for the questions that always inevitably followed his first response, it became apparent that she wasn't going to ask. She didn't care. Josh liked that.

"Do you like living here?" Josh asked Bea conversationally.

She was quiet for a moment. For a split second, she glanced over her shoulder at him before saying, "No."

Josh appreciated her candour. He was getting sick of people telling him he'd like it here. "Why not?"

The girl on the board in front of his shrugged. "I don't know. There are too many secrets. Weird stuff happens all the time, and everyone pretends not to see it. I'd understand it all not being noticed in a city, but hardly anyone lives here. They have to see what's going on. When I asked my aunt why no one sees anything, she said that seeing things isn't their job. It's Gefjon's. She said it like that's supposed to be comforting, but it isn't."

"Everyone keeps telling me about Gefjon watching and stuff, but isn't she just a scarecrow?" Josh asked curiously.

He nearly fell off of his board again when the girl in front of him stopped abruptly. She was off of her board with her hand over his mouth in an instant, looking afraid.

"Don't talk bad about her," Bea whispered, her eyes wide. "She'll hear you."

Josh's eyebrows drew together as he pulled her hand off of his mouth. "She can hear now too?"

Bea looked frightened as she hurried back to her board. "I can't talk to you anymore. Hayley was right about you."

"What? Hayley? I don't even know her," Josh said, picking up his board and following her when she started running. "What did she say? What's going on?"

Jim ran beside Josh, looking at Josh again and again as his anxiety grew to be more and more intense. Bea had seemed so normal. She was an outsider like him. She wasn't from here. She was supposed to understand why he hated this place. She didn't like it either. She'd said so herself. Why was she suddenly so afraid of him?

"Bea, wait!" Josh yelled.

Bea stopped running, but only when Jim started barking and growling, yanking at his leash as he tried to run across the grass. He yanked Josh away from the sidewalk as he growled and barked. It wasn't until Josh tore his eyes away from Bea that he realized they were right next to the scarecrow, which Jim was trying with all his might to get to. Josh had never seen his dog snarl so ferociously with all of his teeth on display. Bea stumbled slightly as she walked back over to Josh and Jim, not taking her eyes off of the dog.

"Why can't you see what Jim does?" Bea whispered, not seeming even remotely afraid of the suddenly crazed dog fighting the get away from Josh as she sat down beside him.

The fury in Jim's eyes immediately melted away when Bea wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered, "She won't hurt him. It's okay. We're keeping him safe, just like you. It's okay."

Jim whined, hooking his little snout over Bea's shoulder and looking pleadingly up at Josh, who slowly sat down on the grass beside them. The golden retriever immediately started trying to soothe Josh's anxiety despite his own, licking Josh's face and climbing into his lap. Josh couldn't stop staring anxiously at Bea though. She was crying again.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to him. "You have to understand that we're trying to protect you. That's the only reason we're doing this. Jenna wasn't trying to hurt or embarrass you. She's trying to keep Gefjon's eyes off of you. We all are. It works, Josh. We've done it before. We've protected someone else from her, but he had a lot less to lose. As soon as Solána saw Jim, she knew you were at risk. You aren't safe here, and you can't leave. We're just trying to keep you safe."

"Safe from what?" Josh asked shakily.

Bea sobbed, looking up at the scarecrow. Josh's eyes followed hers, but he wished they hadn't. The scarecrow was far more terrifying up close. Her burlap face looked like it had been slowly withering away for decades. Her eyes were dark spots, burnt into the fabric. They were empty, but they still seemed to be watching Josh. She didn't feel like a strange prank or a town quirk anymore. Josh almost thought he could see her breathing.

Jim kept whimpering, but Josh couldn't move. He was too afraid. Even when Bea tried to coax him away from the scarecrow, he couldn't look away. He was terrified of what would happen if he broke eye contact with the scarecrow first.

"Josh, we have to go," Bea whispered.

Josh was starting to hyperventilate. His body was completely frozen. It felt like Gefjon was holding him there herself. Suddenly, four hands were pulling him back and away from the woman stuffed with straw. It wasn't until Josh reached the sidewalk that the spell seemed to be broken. He blinked as he tried to reorient himself.

"How long has he been out here?" A familiar voice asked.

"A couple hours. I couldn't move him. She wouldn't let go," Bea said quietly.

Josh looked around. He didn't see Jim. Where was Jim?

Hayley's face swam into view. "You're okay. Your dog ran off, but the other girls went to find him. You need to breathe. Drink this. Solána made it for you," she told him.

Josh felt disoriented, but he trusted Solána, so he drank whatever was in the water bottle Hayley gave him. The taste of blended herbs and spices mixed with a thick, milky substance was so intense that Josh sat forward and vomited onto the sidewalk. He was still vomiting when he heard Jim's claws ticking rapidly across the sidewalk as he hurried to him. The dog dropped down beside Josh, resting his head on the small of Josh's back.

"He went back to Josh's house. I think he was trying to get help," Solána said as she stopped beside Josh, taking the water bottle from him. "Did that help, honey?"

Josh nodded, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his jacket as he sat up. When did his life become a horror movie? Why did things like this keep happening?

He calmed slightly when Solána sat down beside him and pulled him into a hug. That familiar smell of herbs made his heart rate slow.

"What's happening to me?" He whispered to her.

"You're going to be okay, baby. Don't worry. You're safe. Just breathe for a minute, okay? Then we'll take you home," Solána told him softly. "Jenna and Ashley are going to be here in just a second. They went to go get Jenna's mom. She's a nurse. She'll help."

Josh's eyes squeezed shut as he started to cry. "I don't like this place."

"I know. That's okay. Let's see if we can get you away from all of this puke, okay? You got Gefjon out of your system. Now you need to get away from her," Solána explained as she broke the hug. She looked at the other girls. "He's shaking really hard. We might need to drag him."

Josh couldn't look away from Solána to see the reactions of the other girls. Solána was comforting. He needed her right now. He needed her to keep reminding him that he was okay. She was the only one of these girls that he trusted.

The fearful sound Josh made when he was pulled backwards along the sidewalk made Jim growl at the girls, who immediately took their hands off of him. As if to prove that Josh was not to be moved, Jim climbed back into Josh's lap. Josh held the dog tightly, trying as hard as he could to even out his breaths.

When Jenna sat down in front of Josh, he felt nothing. There was no rush of need or desire. He didn't feel any kind of connection to her at all. She was a complete stranger as she explained to her mom that Josh had looked at Gefjon and gotten sick. She said a lot more than that, but Josh couldn't focus. He was too afraid.

Thankfully, Solána was able to advocate for him. "He has an anxiety disorder or something. It's really bad. That's why he has that dog. He's panicking right now, and we don't know how to calm him down."

Jenna's mom nodded, asking all of the girls to take a few steps away from Josh and to give him some space. She smiled warmly at him then.

"What's your name, sweetie?" The woman asked gently.

Josh didn't know how she expected him to answer her when he couldn't even breathe, but all she got in response was a sob. Jim was licking his face again, Trying to put enough pressure on his body to calm him down.

"His name is Josh," Jenna said after a moment.

"Do any of you know where he lives?" Jenna's mom asked the girls. "Okay. Jenna, go see if either of his parent are home. Run fast."

Josh couldn't look at anything but the ground in front of him as he sobbed. He squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to calm himself down. It wasn't helping. He knew he'd pass out if he didn't slow his breaths down, but he couldn't do it. Jim was trying so hard to help Josh, but it wasn't working. Nothing was working. He was too afraid. He'd felt something terrible when he looked at that scarecrow, and it was crawling along his bones beneath his skin.

"Josh, I'm going to lay you down, okay? I want you to keep your eyes closed and try to focus on slowing your breaths," the woman said gently.

One of the girls slid a bunched up jacket beneath his head as he was laid back. He kept his eyes shut, feeling Jim move up onto his chest to keep licking his face. The pressure slowly started to calm Josh, but he didn't fully calm down until he heard his mom.

"Josh, honey, can you look at me?" Her voiced asked gently.

His eyes opened slowly, but he could hardly see his mom through his tears. Still, he felt calmer knowing she was there. He felt her sit down beside him.

"Can you open your mouth and put your tongue up?" She asked him softly.

He knew the drill, following her instructions so she could put his emergency medication under his tongue. It would enter his bloodstream faster that way. He was still struggling to breathe, but the pill would soothe him quickly. His mother kissed his forehead, staying beside him as he tried to breathe. Slowly but surely, he started to calm down. Jim kept licking his face until his breathing began to regulate. His mother kept speaking to him softly, telling him that he was safe and that everything would be okay.

The smell of fresh herbs filled his nose once again as Solána picked up his skateboard from beside him. He watched her wearily, wanting nothing more than for her to lay beside him and absorb his anxiety like she'd done the night before, but he knew she wasn't even allowed to talk to him. Laying by him on the sidewalk was out of the question.

"Let's get you home, okay?" Josh's mom said softly as she helped him to stand up.

Jim stood right beside him although no one was holding his leash anymore. Solána's fingers brushed Josh's as she handed him his skateboard, and he felt a million times calmer at the touch. She met his eyes, and he felt comfort wash over him. He would be okay.

He met Jenna's eyes as well as he passed her. She looked afraid, but he didn't know why. After everything she'd done to him since he'd moved here, wasn't he entitled to a panic attack or two?

Jenna was still watching him as she walked over to the scarecrow, pulling off her backpack and reaching into it. Josh's feet stopped abruptly as he watched her pull a pomegranate out of her bag and set it at the scarecrow's feet.

Josh's mother tugged him along again though, asking him if he was okay. He nodded, but he couldn't stop watching as the girls each set something down at the scarecrow's feet. Solána, a sprig of parsley. Ashley, a baby carrot. Hayley, some dried kernels of corn. Bea, a slice of dark bread. Jenna's mom gathered the girls silently, leading them away toward Jenna's house.

"You can't tell your fathers about this. Promise me," the woman whispered to the girls as they hurriedly walked away.

Josh's mom didn't seem to hear the words though. She was already instructing Jim to take Josh to his room.

The pill beneath Josh's tongue hadn't even fully dissolved before his mom had him in pajamas and tucked into bed with a cup of tea and several kisses to his forehead. She kept asking him if he needed anything, but he just wanted to go to sleep. He just wanted this nightmare to end.

"I love you so much, Joshua. Things are going to get better here. Just trust me," she told him gently.

Josh nodded, setting his cup of tea down on the table by his bed before lying down and closing his eyes. Jim rested his head on Josh's thigh, watching him closely. The sedatives in Josh's pill and the exhaustion from his panic attack left him too tired to care when he heard his window open. He heard the quiet thump of someone climbing inside and the shuffle of their shoes being removed. He even heard them rummage through his closet.

Jim didn't make a single noise of concern as Solána discarded her school uniform in favour of wearing one of Josh's tee shirts before climbing into bed beside him. She wrapped him up in her arms, kissing his lips softly as she rubbed his back.

"Gefjon comes for men who have weaknesses," she whispered to him. "She's seen yours. We made sure she saw that you had us to strengthen you though. That's why we left her gifts. We won't let anything hurt you. If you need anything, you just let us know. We've got you covered."

Josh shifted to rest his head on her chest, letting her hold him. He swallowed the rest of his pill before whispering back, "Stay please."

"I'm not going anywhere, baby," she promised him.

He breathed her in before relaxing. "I'm scared," he whispered to her.

"I know," Solána said soothingly. "We're gonna be brave for you though. Hayley's across the street at Ashley's house. They're sitting on the porch keeping watch. Bea's still with Gefjon. Jenna's taking care of things from her house. She can see everything from there."

Josh nodded weakly. "Sorry you saw me being a fucking baby."

Solána hushed him gently. "Don't say that. Gefjon makes all men feel that way. That's what she does. She teaches women never to need anything from men and then makes women into the ones who give men what they need. That's why we know how to take care of you. We're taking what she taught us and using it to protect you from her."

"Do I only love you because you have a weird magic power thing like Jenna does?" Josh mumbled sleepily.

Solána giggled. "I hope not. You don't get horny whenever you see me, do you?"

He smiled slightly and shook his head. "I mostly just feel like I'm at home."

Solána kissed him again. "Is that what you need? To feel like you're at home?"

After a moment of hesitation, Josh nodded. "I think so."

One of her feet rubbed his softly beneath the blankets. "Then I'm happy to help. Not everyone needs to get off all the time. Not everyone needs Jenna most. She just wants them to. Don't worry."

"What do the other girls do?" Josh whispered, already falling asleep.

"Ashley makes people feel inspired. Bea makes people feel confident and capable of handling a situation. Despite how little Hayley is, she can either make people either feel strong and empowered or extremely intimidated. It just depends on what people need," Solána explained. "It sounds like you need me right now."

Josh nodded. "I do."

He whined sleepily when Solána sat him up. She pulled his shirt over his head before dropping it on the ground. Jim moved over when Solána climbed down the bed to ease Josh's pajama pants off, leaving him in his boxers. Only then did she climb back up beside him, wearing nothing but her panties and his shirt as she tucked the both of them in under his duvet. Her skin was soft and warm against his, making him even more drowsy. He'd never been this comfortable in his life. That is, until her fingernails started to lightly run across his back.

She sang to him quietly, lulling him to sleep. By the time he drifted off, it felt like he was still in his bed in Columbus with Valerie and Jim snoring beside him. It was like he'd never left his house or his bed or his best friend. He felt completely at home with his head on Solána's chest and her arms wrapped around him. This was exactly what he needed.