Everything around me dissolved into gauzy, toxic, howling smoke.

I felt an intense invisible pressure against my ribs, and I felt my feet and my hands and my nose go stiff as a board, and I felt my head whirl like a tornado. I saw stars driving by and suspending into my eyes.

I felt myself grow wings and fly.

In my mind, the Grahi Witch shrieked her horrible laughter. In my mind, Garbo shrieked her horrible laughter. And, again in my mind, Niffy shrieked her horrible silence.

And then, nothing.

My feet were on solid ground, and not stiff at all. I could might as well still have been standing in front of that refrigerator. But I hope we all know what that amulet does.

There were no stars, no sun, no moon, in the sky above. Distantly I could hear the crows cawing. Clumps and clumps of huge, hideous trees stood indifferent on either side of me, twisting and turning intermittently. I was standing on a beaten path I recognized only too well.

The path which led to the dirty, dangerous lake.