"Merely the touch of the artist," Toffee said archly. "Just fitting myself into a part."
"Have I ever thought to tell you," Marc said, "that you are the most unprincipled, low-minded...?"
Then suddenly his voice dried in his throat. His gaze darted away from Toffee's face and swept frightenedly across the horizon.
"Oh, my gosh!" he cried.
Suddenly, like a slow dissolve in a movie, the little valley was simply melting away into black nothingness. Already the distant trees had disappeared. Marc jumped to his feet.
"Look!" he yelled. "Look!"
Toffee was instantly beside him. For a moment she gazed on the horrifying spectacle, then tugged imperatively at his sleeve.
"Come on!" she cried. "Let's run!"
But as they turned in the other direction the blackness only rushed at them anew; it was coming all around them. They stopped short.
"Will we drop away into nothing?" Toffee wailed, "or just melt away with everything else?"