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When dawn came, and Mikey still hadn't returned, Allie was beside herself. The others kept their distance--not even Milos knew how to handle this. It was in that early morning light that she took special notice of Squirrel. He had nothing to say about the matter all night long--yet he was even more antsy than usual. He kept bouncing his knee and shifting his weight from leg to leg. He wouldn't meet Allie's gaze, and that clinched it. In an instant she had him tried, convicted, and sentenced.
"It was you!" She stormed up to him and pointed an accusing finger. "You did something to him!"
Squirrel's jaw dropped open and he shook his head. "Not me! Not me! I wouldn't do anything to him!" He looked to Moose, who backed away, hoping this plague of guilt wouldn't spread to him, but he was too late.
"It was both of you!" yelled Allie. "I know it just by looking at you!"
Moose's beady eyes seemed to widen within his helmet, like a cornered opossum. She half expected him to suddenly play dead. "We didn't do anything! Milosh tell her it wazn't ush!" But Milos was not taking sides.
"You're both lying!' Allie screamed at them. "Tell me what you did, or I'll tear you apart with my bare hands!" In that moment, she believed she could do it, and they believed it too.
"We didn't do anything! I swear, I swear!" pleaded Squirrel. "Cross my heart and hope to fry! I'd be afraid to do anything to him, honest!"
And that, coming from Squirrel, just sounded odd. It was just a further indication to Allie that he must be lying.
Finally Milos stepped in. "Afraid of him? Why afraid?"
Squirrel looked to Milos then to Moose, and finally to Allie. "I think ... I think your friend is some kinda monster." And the expression of horror and hatred that Allie gave him made Squirrel back away. "It's true, it's true! He's got all these eyes--and tentacles. He hides 'em real good, but I know he's got 'em."
"You're LYING!" screamed Allie, and she rushed him. "Take it BACK! You're lying, take it BACK!" She began pushing him, shaking him, hitting him.
It was Milos who pulled her away from Squirrel, and she collapsed, sobbing like she never had in life. Milos tried to comfort her, but she just pushed him away. "He's lying," she said over and over, her voice getting weaker each time she said it. "He's lying... ."
"Maybe Squirrel saw something else, and thought it was Mikey," Milos suggested.
"Yeah," said Moose, butting Squirrel in the head with his helmet. "You alwayz shee things that aren't there!"
"But ... but--"
Milos put his hand up and silenced him, then he knelt down to Allie, who still wept. "I think ... we need ... to consider ... "He spoke slowly, measuring each word like the tick of a metronome, "... that maybe ... Mikey took his coin ... and got where he was going."
"He wouldn't do that," said Allie. "No. He wouldn't just leave without saying good-bye."
"Maybe he did not mean to," suggested Milos.
"Yeah, yeah--maybe he took the coin out just to look at it," said Squirrel, "but once that tunnel opens, there's nothing you can do."
Allie still wasn't ready to believe it. "There's got to be another explanation."
Then, after a long silence, Milos said, "Then we will wait."
And so they waited till noon. They waited till sunset. They waited through a second night. Mikey still hadn't returned, and Allie had to face the very real possibility that he never would.
When the sun peeked over the eastern horizon the next morning, Milos finally said, "Come; I said I would get you to Memphis and I will."
Allie shook her head. "I'm not going. I'm staying here."
"Let her stay," said Squirrel. "It's not our problem."
"Shut up!" snapped Milos.
Allie closed her eyes. Things had not gone the way she had planned. In that way Everlost was no different than the living world. "You must let it go," Milos pleaded with her. "You must get to Memphis."
"Why? Why does it matter?"
Milos sighed. "Because ... there are things I have not told you."
Allie looked at him, a bit disgusted. "More lessons?"
