Sherry Book, the chair of ComicCon 2040, tossed an empty bottle of red wine into the recycling bin next to her chair. She'd been on the phone with lawyers all morning. Them, and the police. Everyone had questioned her about the driver they'd hired to deliver the authors to the conference center. Apparently, the man had a history of mental illness which he'd somehow concealed from his background check. Why hadn't she used a self-driving bus like everyone else in the modern world?

There was a knock at the door.

"Come," Sherry said.

Melody stepped in. Still in her cowgirl outfit. "I have the file on the driver."

"What does it say?"

"Um." Melody cleared her throat. "It says, he, uh, is an author himself. His books were about a were-aardvark who, uh, solved crimes."

Sherry twirled her pencil in her fingers. "That's not a mental illness," she said uncertainly.

"No, but he was also raving about some magical island he had to escape from. He said the bus is there."

"On an island."

"Yes, I've alerted the Coast Guard."

Sherry said nothing. Was the Coast Guard really searching for a bus in the ocean based on the ravings of a crazy man?

"Thank you, Melody. Please remember that we are professional staff, not attendees. Your attire should reflect that."

Melody glanced down at herself. "Sorry, Ma'am."

#

When Holly finished the story, the vultures began to take flight. They rose almost as one, ascending into the air in a swirling vortex, as if they were bits of black paper being swept aloft by a dust devil.

"Why did they leave?" Jinn asked.

Chay sat back from the table, a satisfied smile on his lips. "They were done eating, of course." He returned to gnawing a bone.

Alarmed, Steve unlocked the door and ran outside. "Oh, no," he said, staring down the patio toward where the dead woman in the rocking chair had been sitting.

The others rushed to see what was wrong.

There was nothing left of the woman but bones. They glittered like diamonds, or like crystals of ice.

Chay pushed past everyone, lifted the bony hand and licked a crystalline finger. He made a face. "Blech," he said. "It's sugar."

"I don't get it," K.J. said. "What happened to her remains? What could do that to her?"

"It's like she was a Day of the Dead treat," Holly commented.

"No," Steve said. "It's like Jesse's story. This woman was a witch, but not just any witch, she was a sweet witch. I didn't think such creatures were real, not in our slice of the multiverse anyway. If that's what she was, this is a more dangerous place than you realize."

"What do you know?" Kristin asked.

"All I know is a story," he said. "It goes like this..."