“Hello?” she called out into the darkness as she stepped inside. “Michael? Jose? Anyone?”

“Anyone?” a voice answered behind her. Maria spun around to see a figure step from the darkness. “That would be me.” The figure took another step forward into a shaft of moonlight, the dim light illuminating his face and form. He was wearing a long dark coat and top hat, a strange grin on his face. Something about his smile unnerved Maria. It seemed almost…mad.

“Who are you?” she asked him, backing up as he approached her.

“Well that depends my dear.” He said taking another step forward. “Who do you want me to be?” Maria continued to back away as the stranger continued to approach her. “I could be your guidance counselor” he said, his face suddenly morphing into that of Ms. Topolsky’s. “Or your boss,” his face continued to shift into Liz’s father as Maria felt the edge of the countertop against her back. “Or even,” he said, placing a hand on either side of her, trapping her against the counter, her heart pounding so hard she thought it would burst from her chest as his face made one last transformation “your father.” Maria watched as the stranger’s face mutated into one she hadn’t seen in almost ten years.

“What are you?” she asked, her voice trembling in fear.

The stranger leaned in to her, placing his lips against her ear and whispered “What do YOU think I am Maria?”

“Insane.” she answered, barely trusting herself to speak without screaming.

“Well, what’s that they say? ‘We all go a little mad sometimes’?” he said, pulling away from her with a jovial grin and happy banter. Maria tried to rush past him to the door but he caught her by the arm and pulled her to him “Now, now. What’s the rush? The party’s only just beginning.” The stranger waved his hand towards one of the booths and a dim light appeared, illuminating its two occupants. One of the patrons had his head on the table, snoring in a deep sleep, so she couldn’t see who it was. But the second one she knew all too well.

“Sheriff Valenti?” she asked as the stranger pushed her into a chair at the end of the booth. “We have to get out of here.”

The sheriff looked at her strangely. “Of course we do. After you answer some riddles of course.”

Maria looked closer at the sheriff and realized that there was something definitely wrong with him. “Riddles? What kind of riddles.” She asked him warily.

“Well, why is an alien like Isabel Evans?” he asked her. The stranger in the hat giggled madly and poured himself a cup of tea.

“I don’t know.” Maria said nervously. “Why?”

“I don’t know either.” Valenti told her, his smile wide and his right eye twitching. “I thought that you would.”

The third figure grunted as the stranger poked him and then sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Maria was surprised to see it was Kyle.

“What did I miss?” he asked groggily.

“Everything, as usual.” The stranger said. He leaned across the table and whispered to Maria “He sleeps through everything. Never knows what’s going on.”

“Hey, that’s not true.” Kyle protested as he looked about the room, slightly disoriented. “Where am I?”

Maria had had enough. She pushed her chair back and tried to stand up, but the stranger grabbed her arm. “Now where are you off to?” he asked her. You haven’t even had your tea yet.

“I just want to find Michael and go home.” She told him, biting back her tears.

“Why then, why didn’t you say so?” he told her. “He’s just down the street at the concert hall. There’s going to be a trial you know.”

“Trial?” she asked him.

“Oh yes.” The stranger said his eyes wide and his teeth gleaming white in the darkness. “You don’t want to miss it. It’s going to be lots of fun! Someone did something bad.”