How It All Goes Down
- Two days pass, and still no Travis. Mary heads to the hill to find him, but nada.
- Mary wishes she could tell Jed about Gabby's history, but she's afraid the Sisters will toss her into zombieland if she blabs.
- Gabby's been dubbed the Fast One, and her presence puts a damper on the Edenmass extravaganza.
- The Sisters try to calm the panic by telling everyone that Fast Ones have always existed, and that though no one knows what makes them super-zombies, they burn out quickly. Edenmass still turns into the downer party of the year, though.
- Mary can't get over the fact that the Sisters know stuff the rest of the villagers don't know, and wonders if she could have done something to save Gabrielle.
- Then she starts sneaking around—without the Travster, she doesn't really care if she gets caught. It's all about figuring out what started the whole Unconsecrated mess in the first place.
- On the night before the Binding ceremony—when couples' hands are bound together for a night, giving them a chance to either wait it out or cut the rope to stop the wedding—Mary feels frustrated and hopeless, and decides to creep out one last time. Her destination? A moldy basement tunnel on the way to the death clearing.
- When she finally figures out how to open the tunnel door, she's pretty freaked out. Our girl Mary isn't a wuss, though, so she lights some candles, takes a deep breath, and gets going.
- She finds a door and when it opens, the air puts out her candle.
- Mary has a panic attack, starts tripping and almost screaming, running and flailing down the hall the wrong way, all while knocking old wine bottles all over the place.
- She climbs up the stairs beneath the death clearing and curls herself into a fetal position.
- She finds a big ol' shard of glass in her foot. Ouch.
- She's sick of everything and realizes that dreams are stupid and don't come true, which makes her feel like a blob of drippy Jell-O.
- She figures it's either die in the death clearing, let Sister Tabitha find her (also not good), or finish the job. She chooses the latter choice.
- She grabs a candle and steps back into the doorway she opened before her panic attack.