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."No.I could give you the whole explanation, but if none of those names mean anything to you, the explanation won't help either.But I know one thing: you really want me to go away and never have to see me again.""You got that right," Eric said feelingly."Okay, here's the deal.You walk out of the Faire with me, across the parking lot.There will be a doorway.If it's there, you walk through it with me.You can bring anyone with you that you like as far as the doorway, but only you and I go through.Deal?" Jeanette said.Eric had a strange expression on his face."Um.Jeanette, right? There isn't a doorway out in the parking lot.And we're not supposed to leave the Faire during working hours."She hardened her expression."This is the deal, Eric.You want me to leave.Do this with me and I will.Look, down inside you know you aren't supposed to be here.You know there's something wrong.It won't hurt to go look.I can't wait until the Faire shuts down for the night.We don't have that long.And don't give me the official party line.You know they won't miss a couple of you for a half hour or so.""Why should I trust you?" Eric demanded.What are you, deaf as well as paranoid? "I'm not asking you to trust me," Jeanette pointed out in exasperation."I'm asking you to walk across the parking lot with me and trust the evidence of your own eyes.""And if the door isn't there?" Eric said cannily.Then I'm in big trouble."Then I leave.You go back to the Faire.You'll never see me again." Because if the door isn't still there, I'm going to take Mystery and ride as far as I can before whatever's going to happen catches up with me."And this.Kayla? How do I know she won't just show up next?" Eric asked.Jeanette was losing the small amount of patience she'd started out with.Her voice was curt as she answered."She sent me because she couldn't come.Stop wasting time.Do we take a walk?" Or do I have to see if I have a hope in hell of getting you out of here at gunpoint? It was something she didn't want to try.It would definitely put a hole in his reality—but it might be the kind of hole that would turn dream into nightmare."What the hell," Eric said, shrugging.He turned away and went over to talk to Karen for a moment.She looked puzzled as he spoke, and kept glancing over at Jeanette, shaking her head vigorously.Jeanette got to her feet."Come on, Eric.You think I've got a van with the A-Team in it waiting for you outside the gate? Get real.If you see anything like that, run.We're just going for a walk.And I guarantee: whoever you think sent me, didn't.""You do anything to hurt Eric, and I will break every bone in your body," Karen hissed, walking over to Jeanette and leaning in close."Fine," Jeanette said.Just try it, and we see how well guns work in the Faire."Can we go now?"* * *Karen and her two girlfriends went with Eric and Jeanette.All three of them were armed with knives, swords, and axes: Jeanette had no idea of how well they knew how to use any of those things, but she did know that all three women were bigger and stronger than she was, and their furs and armor would get in the way of some of her better bar-fight moves, and maybe even stop a bullet.She really hoped it wouldn't come to that.They didn't go out through the Main Gate.Eric said that would attract too much attention, and Jeanette supposed he cared about that, still thinking this place was real.He took them around through the Faire and then out through a side gate that led through what looked like a campground.There were tents in all shapes and sizes."This is where we stay when the Faire shuts down for the day," Eric said."You don't have to talk to her, Eric," Karen said edgily.Jeanette looked around, wondering if all this ever had been real, some where-and-when.It actually looked like it might have been fun, she thought grudgingly.They passed through the camping area and worked their way through the players' parking and out into the main parking lot."Where's this 'door' of yours?" Karen demanded."I don't see it."Fine talk from a figment of somebody's imagination."It's on the other side of the parking lot," Jeanette said, not slowing down.I hope.She spared a longing glance for Mystery as they passed the bike again.Maybe someday, girl.The door was right where she'd left it, an impossible hole in reality.Eric stopped as soon as he saw it."Come on, Eric," Karen said nervously."It's time to go back.""There's the door, Eric," Jeanette said harshly."Right where I said it would be.The door back to the real world.Where you have people who love you, and a brother who needs you.This is a fantasy.It isn't real."Eric took a hesitant step forward."Eric!" Karen wailed."Is this a dream, Karen?" Eric asked, turning to face her."Is that why everything here is so perfect? Why the Faire never ends? Why the sun is never too hot, why it never rains, why the travelers never get drunk and ugly, and there's always a good take in the hat? Is this Neverland without Captain Hook? Am I a Lost Boy?""You're happy here," Karen said pleadingly, not answering him directly."It isn't real," Jeanette said."You know it, down deep inside.Face the truth.""I am happy here," Eric said slowly."But—" his face twisted, and if it hadn't been so sad, it would have been funny."But it isn't real.So I guess.I have to see what's on the other side of that door."" No," Karen said, a pleading note in her voice.Suddenly the air seemed charged, as if a storm was brewing, though the sun shone down pure and changeless."Don't make me get real, bitch," Jeanette said, stepping between Karen and Eric.She slipped her hand into her pocket, closing her fingers over the pistol."Get going, Eric."But suddenly Karen's face crumpled into tears, and she turned away.Her two friends put their arms around her, soothing and patting as they led her back toward the Faire.When she was sure Karen was going to keep going, Jeanette turned back.Eric had walked away.He'd almost reached the door, and Jeanette didn't know what would happen if he went through it without her.She ran until she caught up with him."Tell me.what happened?" he asked, hesitating on the threshold of the open doorway."What made me come here, I mean?"His brown eyes were wide and troubled, searching her face for some hint of hope or reassurance.Jeanette felt something twist inside her.He looked so vulnerable, so young and lost.No wonder Karen had wanted to keep him! She had to tell herself that this Eric wasn't real, any more than the Faire that she'd dragged him out of was real
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