She must have said it aloud. Three of the unicorns approached her. As she looked up, it seemed to Nina there was something different about them. Then, as she saw what it was, her eyes widened. “Oh. Oh no.” She reached out to touch each of them on the cheek. As she did, each one shimmered and became a human girl—white-haired like Nina herself.

Nina recognized them from the office; they had been temp workers assigned to the secretarial pool. They had each failed to show up for work, a few days apart. Everyone had assumed they’d just found better jobs.

“Flora? Michelle? Jane?” Nina looked at them in turn. “What happened to you?”

“I was looking at Alan’s terrarium,” Flora said. “I thought it was so neat…”

“Yeah, me too,” Michelle said. “And then he had me touch a metal plate.”

Janie nodded. “And then I ended up here.”

“He gave me this book on building shelters,” Flora said. “But I couldn’t make it work. And then it started raining…”

Nina looked at the other unicorns. “Yeah, I think I get the picture.”