"Molly went back home, remember?" Nico said. "She was only there for a couple seconds before she came back. So I'm going to assume that I'm real and you're real and all our friends are real and work from there."

She frowned and reached up to wipe her chin. Her hand did indeed come away with a little blood on it.

"Huh, wow, I must have gotten something embedded in it or something if it's still bleeding like this," she said. "All right, kitchen it is. Celebratory cookie time."