---

"This...doesn't feel like another dream..."

June found herself standing at a crossroads intersection, near where the library she worked at was located. She had been wandering the empty streets of her town for a little while now, not having met another single soul the entire time. Where ever she was, it certainly looked like Araminta, but it didn't quite feel like Araminta. However, something about it didn't make it feel exactly like a dream either; she'd had weird dreams lately and none of them ever gave off the same vibes this place was currently giving. Something was just...off.

She too had woken up in this anomaly after witnessing the purple light, just like the others, though that was currently unbeknownst to her. Up until now, all she had done was wander, aimlessly at first but then wondered how accurate everything was to the Araminta she remembered, so she decided to check up on places she was familiar with. The library had been one, and now that she was there nothing seemed any more off than anywhere else. But she didn't want to enter the building, not on her own. The idea made her feel uneasy, and now that she was noticing that the sun seemed to be setting much faster than was naturally possible, she really felt like entering the building on her own was a stupid decision. A sense of dread hit her as she turned and began to walk a little more briskly in a different direction. She'd seen a chasm earlier, maybe she should follow along it and see if there was an end point...?

It was then that she finally saw movement, causing her heartbeat to speed up for a moment since she honestly didn't expect anyone else to be around as well. Relief quickly washed over her as she saw a humanoid figure running down the street; some guy, maybe around her own height or a bit taller, and wearing clothes that didn't really seem to fit him well. She had no clue what he could possibly be running from or where he had even come from, but she knew she needed to flag him down and see if he knew anything about what the hell was going on.

"Hey! Hey! Guy, wait a second! Over here!" She called out to him as she waved her arms to try to get his attention.

Agatha Loom

Agatha veered around cautiously as the streetlights burnt out, only to immediately reignite. When they did, the entire group was surrounded by shambling monstrosities.

To Agatha, they were abnormally tall with massive eyes. All of them were affixed directly on her, even as they reached closer proximity to other bystanders and obviously turned their bodily attention towards them.

There were far too many. Jaden, the dark-skinned man, shouted what was on all of their minds,

"Make a way out somehow!"

He then threw more blue spheres at the approaching crowd, Despite being able to subdue one of the reaching tentacles that grasped at him, it did little than force the creature he hit to recoil, before bearing down upon him. In retaliation, they threw up a blue energy shield, but were obviously stuck and unlikely to make their own escape. Kaitlyn made a better escape, riding along a wave projection that simply let her bypass straight over the heads of the crowd, as well as knocking a few of them down and out of the way.

"Fly!" The Lady Bug intoned. Suddenly, Agatha remembered she had that ability, despite her massive size. Peering around, she saw-- Rita. Out of the entire bunch, she was probably the most helpless, only carrying a rock to nervously fend for herself. Agatha scuttled straight up to them, before letting out a loud chitter, one that very probably scared the crap out of them more than the approaching mob. Agatha then pushed her head forward between Rita's legs, hopefully giving a signal of some sort for her intents. She then started lifting her up off the ground, trying to pull Rita back and onto the small space towards the back of her head yet still in front of her wings, forcibly mounting her atop the sedan-sized ladybug.

After a few seconds, Agatha's wings started fluttering rapidly, letting her gradually rise up and off the ground, despite her massive size. She then flew straight over the heads of the mob, avoiding their grasps and gropes at her as she completely bypassed them. Her first target was straight over Jaden, who was still struggling to keep off one of the monsters with his shield. With a swift swing of her front leg, she knocked the creature right off and to the ground. She then lowered herself in the air slightly, holding one of her legs out to Jaden as a sort of monkey-bar for him to grab onto.

Tristan Douge

Tristan kept running through the interwinding city, until exhaustion finally dropped on him. He stopped near a large wooden pole, grasping onto it as he rapidly inhaled and exhaled air, deciding to try and get his bearings and take in the surrounding area. He stopped at an intersection, with the biggest visible building being the public library. He was content to just stand around there, letting him recover his strength, before he set off again. Obviously, it seemed the monsters from earlier weren't as interested in him. He didn't know how things went-- Did they manage to defend themselves, or did they all get pulled off to god knows where? He wasn't very sure. All he wanted to do right now was find a way to get back--

"Hey! Hey! Guy, wait a second! Over here!" He heard a voice call.

Tristan turned his head, looking over across the intersection. There stood a bright-red haired woman, calling and hollering after him. She didn't look very familiar; He didn't remember seeing if she was with the group earlier. Well, she didn't look like an impossibly long tentacle with faces along it. That was trustworthy in his book. He made a brief jog over towards her, before sharply responding to her calls.

"Quiet! This place is really dangerous." He warned, scanning around himself carefully, "Did you see that pillar of light too?" he asked, in a hushed voice.

Suddenly, the street lights burnt out, for a brief moment, before they turned back on. When they did, Tristan could see in the distance a mob of strange creatures shambling towards him. They all had no faces, and blooded right hands with incredibly sharp fingers. They each casually walked towards him, flexing and sharpening their razor fingers.

"Oh shit."

---

“Y’can’t just ask me to stop taking pictures, kid. I’m a journalist, that’s what I do. Araminta Daily? Almost all the pictures in there are by me.”

David shrugged as Abigail accosted him for taking a photo of her. She had been on the outline, at the edge of the shot he’d framed of the gaping abyss that used to be their town, but now she was accusing him of taking exclusively her without her consent? He raised his camera to her and scrolled to the picture he’d just taken, but before he could show her, she lit a cigarette and then bolted down the slope.

“H-hey kid! Wait! God damn it-”

David took off jogging after Abigail, almost tripping down the grassy slope as she moved to one of the warehouse walls to lean on and smoke. He came up to her, with his camera in his hands, and he deleted the photos he’d taken that contained her in the frame with the little LCD screen facing her.

“See? All gone. Now let’s get back to-”

”David! A little help over here!”

His head whipped around as he heard Archie cry for help, followed shortly by screams of terror from the rest of the group. As he charged back up the hill, he saw the retreating forms of darkness that dove back into the chasm, looking like tentacles that had grabbed onto three of their group. But there was no time to rest; shadow monsters appeared out of the darkness that came when the street lights flickered out for a brief moment and were charging towards the group en masse. And shortly after, the revelation that some of their group had paranormal abilities; one young lady transformed into an insect, another man could fire bursts of sound from his hands. All he had were his special eyes. But no matter. Things were escalating very fast and out of control and David couldn't stay behind. Not when everyone was in danger.

David turned and ran back down the slope to Abigail, grabbing her wrist and yanking her away from the melee. Then he made sure to raise his voice as he shouted up at the group that was still up the hill, running in the direction of Tristan and June.

"Archie! Anyone! C'mon let's get outta here!"

Archie and Kayla

---

Archie's world was peaceful, comparative to the rest of the groups. While they dealt with yelling and blood and fear, Archie saw... nothing at all. He felt, physically, very little- but he could hear the world around him in stereo. He heard the shapes of their bodies in the dark when they yelled and could see their very souls keeping them alive. He saw the heat in their chests and the pinpoint flashes of electricity coursing through their veins telling their muscles to get up and strand up and run or fight and to keep moving forward. It was surreal, because it was like he was far away and right there all at once.

His world was brought alight by an explosion of sound the left his head ringing- brought about by being in such close proximity to the very man he was trying to save- who launched into Archie. They both fell, but didn't move from the rooted spot where Archie had taken hold- the roots of his being having anchored him into somewhat of an immovable object. While the tinnitus in his ears rang and faded away, Archie marveled at the fact that he could see everything.

And then feared for how many he saw coming for them.

The entity inside him stirred further- more in interest than anything else. Wherever it had come from, and whatever it may be, well, this was home. Or at least something close to it. These shadowy beings were lesser beings serving the will of something greater.

"You're welcome." Archie said to Terry, his voice coarser and deeper than any humans. Entities were gathering around them all now, and unbeknownst to Archie himself he had lost the ability to hold back as much as he had been. Numerous tendrils of some sort of tar like substance surged out of the space between his shoulder blades and down his spine, jagged and composed of some sort of shifting matter that seemed to constrict and solidity and then liquidate at will. They coiled like snakes ready to strike and shot out into the crowd of entities as they approached on their own accord, skewering and then tossing the offending beings away like rag dolls, using the roots they had laid at Archie's feet as a point of leverage.

Archie snapped his head towards the direction of Kayla- who he could see underneath a literally pile of these shadow monsters. She was curled in on herself as she had been before, but the beings were unable to reach her. It was as it she had some sort of protective barrier preventing them from making it within six inches of her. He could hear her screaming. He uprooted, the tendrils in his feet disappearing from the earth in an instant while the ones on his body continued to do crowd control. He felt the substance soak into his shirt, matting it to his body engorging body, but was rapidly beginning to relieve himself of the worries he had before. They were surrounded- and if it came down to survival he would do everything that became necessary. Another one of the group had changed into another state- taking flight above the crowd. Smart.

He heard Kayla's scream intensify, and then suddenly everything and everyone in the entire surrounding area within a thirty foot radius were hit with what could only be defined as the force of a bus. The entities that were on top of her were thrown fifty or more feet out and away, while those further out were taken up and off their feet as a tidal wave of telekinetic energy toss them away like a child throwing baseballs from Kayla's epicenter. Trees, stones, dirt, everything not nailed down to the ground was uprooted- including Archie himself. Even the giant sedan sized ladybug was hurled several yards through the air despite her size. Everyone else was tossed off their feet and away in an outward direction.

Archie had been ripped up and tossed maybe ten feet from his original location- and while he was definitely shaken, the tendrils and the entity inside his body had no use for directions such as up or down. He hit the ground, but the tentacles of pure ink softened the blow somewhat, spiking into the ground and careening across the ground as like a wheel- with him at the center of the dark carousel. He came to a stop, shaken but mostly okay- and without a second thought sprinted to Kayla.

Everyone was alive still- he could see their heartbeats. He could see their brains firing off electricity to their muscles. Kayla's was weak. Weaker than it had been. He reached the woman moving far faster than he should have- and then tendrils spiked the ground around her again to absorb the impact. He couldn't see her- so he couldn't see the state she was in, but her eyes were sunken from exertion and blood was flowing freely from her nose and eyes. As if her tears were wells of crimson. Archie picked Kayla up, and snapped his head in the direction that David was yelling from.

"Everyone! This way!" he roared, unable to tell if they could see or were even paying attention. The warehouse had entrances they could use as choke points- where numbers wouldnt matter as much.

The creature that was on top of Jaden was knocked to the ground by a giant fucking ladybug. At this point, Jaden couldn't be weirded out by the weird shit that this town seems to house. He didn't know to thank the thing - mostly because he had no idea if the fuckin' thing could understand him. He turned his attention towards the freaks. These things were... familiar. He didn't know why, but Jaden wasn't going to overthink this. They needed to get the Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo out of here ASAP. However, the monsters were piling on one of the people. Because Jaden was distracted with the whole preventing himself from getting murdered thing; he couldn't tell. What he could tell was that she was screwed, and he didn't have the firepower to get them off.

A massive scream erupted from the pile followed by a massive shockwave that sent everything flying. Jaden, out of sheer instinct, Jaden put both of his hands up and created a barrier. He managed to withstand the onslaught which destroyed the shield instantly, but he still fell over. Fortunately, all the monsters were knocked over. What in the fuck was-

That was her abstraction, telekinetic in nature.

The Familial Reflection appeared for a second and answered his question... not that it was any use. Didn't she just shoot fire? Was she a Collective like Ja-

No.

Thank you. Jaden thought as he got up to his feet. The creatures were nowhere near him... and he heard what he thought one of the monsters shout for the group to come this way. He thought it was one of them because it was freakish, but it was carrying a member of their group and others were following. The sigil of the Chameleon illuminated as Jaden slowly vanished into thin air. The keenest eye could see him follow after the group but the creatures didn't notice him.

Kaitlyn was sent flying herself and the blast - while not as effective as a baseline human - hit her like a truck. She was sent flying, rolling across the ground as she was covered in scrapes and bruises. She lifted her head as her ears were ringing and her vision blurry. She lifted her body for a second as she saw all the monsters were sent flying too. Maybe this was a good sign... however, she was sent far away from help as one of the versions of Amelia decided to attack her. It grabbed her with one of its weird spindly hands and lifted her - choking her violently.

However, Kaitlyn still had her abstraction at her fingertips as the wave on her neck illuminated and a shark made out of water appeared from the creature's feet and chomped down on the freak. Katie was realized from its grasp and fell onto her feet. The water disappeared as the thing was still alive, but Katie stuck her hand out and a geyser of water appeared and sent the thing into a wall to its death.

Before the force hit her, Rita threw her rock at one of the creatures only for it to shatter on impact and do absolutely nothing. What was weird was that the monsters were being burned and attacked by... nothing? Rita couldn't see a damn thing because she was a Blind. When the blast from Kayla hit she was fortunately on the outskirts of it so she wasn't instantaneously killed. However, it still sent her flying into a wall that hurt like, well, a fuckin' wall. She looked up and saw strange shapes closing in on her - but her vision was blurry, rapidly fading.

Of course, the shapes that were approaching Rita were the creatures. Katie realized that she had to save the girl, she clapped her hands together as the wave on her neck illuminated. A massive geyser of water appeared at Rita's feet that was strong enough to launch her into the air and woke her up. It knocked her out of reach of the monsters and the water faded away, but she was about thirty feet in the air. With another exertion of her ability a waterspout appeared and carried Rita over to her.

Rita screamed at the top of her lungs the whole time and stopped when she landed on her behind right at Katie's feet. All that spinning didn't help her at fucking all and she was still blurry. All she could see was the chubby girl lift her to her feet. Don't suppose you can carry both of us, fattie. Rita thought to herself as Katie put herself under Rita's arm.

A wave appeared at their feet and carried them after the group and Rita's question was answered. The wave died out as their feet touched the ground as another wave of water appeared and carried the two after the group.

As Archie led them to the warehouse Jaden realized that the place had some tactical advantage. They might be able to hold them off here... but his vision was dark and he found it very hard to see. It was like Jaden was one of them four-eyes without their glasses. The creatures were approaching from all sides and Jaden wondered if it would be really smart to re-appear. Maybe he should just strike out on his own... but, strength in numbers. He would rather fight a hundred monsters with these guys, than without them.

However... a ray of hope appeared out of complete nowhere.

A ring of spinning purple light appeared and it quickly became obvious that it was a portal. On the other side, they could see street lights and a mousy girl stuck her hand through the portal.

"Guys, this way!" She shouted, "C'mon! We don't have much time!"

Each hit was another headache, another dizzy spell, the barrier cracked little by little, but Elle didn't stop so neither did he. He spent nearly a decade with it, Elle holding him up during his darkness times with comforting words and a will to keep him moving. Now it can protect him from monsters, the pent up frustration on not being able to do more for him let out at once. They made progress getting through the horde. The warehouse was close, but he wanted to rest. Give his mind a break. There's not enough advil to cure his symptoms.

A scream broke out and monsters, trees, dirt, and debris came flying towards them. Instinctively Elias dunked, but Elle kept strong. For every monster that careened into the barrier, Elle batted it away, but it didn't get everything. More damage was dealt and brought Elias to his knees, holding his head. Once the blast cleared he struggled to his feet, sweat on his forehead. He was cold before, now he was hot on adrenaline.

Eli we're almost there. We gotta keep going.

"R-right." He wasn't as fast as before, his legs weak, but he pushed through the exhaustion. Just a little more and they'd be safe. Just a little more, just a little more. His knee buckled and he went down, knees and hands scraped on the dirt.

Get up. Come on!

He heard the panic in its voice and got up again, then he kept moving. He barely made a step when another purple light appeared and a small girl stood on the other side of the portal, hand out beckoning for them to follow her. Elias recognized the street behind her. Araminta. Elias went towards her, energy back at the prospect of getting the hell out of here. The barrier disappeared as soon as he reached the portal, then he grabbed the girl's hand. She pulled him through.

Elias never felt so happy to be back. When he moved back home, old memories resurfaced, but he was stronger than he realized. He didn't have thoughts of laying in bed all day and crying into his pillow like in his teen years. After this experience in whatever the hell they were, he'd never feel apprehensive about being back home again. None of what he felt before mattered now. No more sadness when he passed by his sister's room, not more stilted conversations with his father. Was this what his sister felt after coming to terms with her disease? That petty things didn't matter when faced with life and death?

Such a drama queen. Have your epiphany later. Now's not the time.

"Right."

Elias stayed out of the portal's way, but was close enough to the girl to speak to her. "Thank you."

---

June surpressed a glare from sprouting on her face when the guy told her to be quiet, and instead a look of concern grew when he told her that the place was dangerous. She glanced at the setting sun that seemed to be moving unnaturally quickly, then looked back at him and nodded at him in a way that seemed to say "No shit." Nothing in particular had happened yet but she already knew the place was bad news. She was growing more and more uneasy by the minute and it was stressing her out beyond belief, but at least she'd finally run into another person, she supposed. He seemed a bit brash, but she still felt a little safer knowing she wasn't alone for the time being.

"Yeah...I saw that light too," she replied when the guy brought it up, "Ok, so it wasn't just me. I thought I was alone here this whole time, but it sounds like something brought us here...wherever here is. Look, I don't know how much you know but-"

It was at that moment that the street lights went out, interrupting her suddenly before just as quickly turning back on. Before June could question it, she heard what sounded like groans in the distance. Turning slowly to face where the noises were coming from, she soon saw the same mobs her new acquaintance had noticed as well, though they looked different to her just as they did to everyone else. However...

"W-What the hell are those things? Why do they look like me!?"

She took a few careful steps back as they approached. To her, she saw long stringy red hair that covered the creature's faces from view. Their arms ended in blunt cult-like hands that dragged across the ground as they shambled around. The scarce clothes they did wear looked tattered and torn, and scarily similar to her own wardrobe. The very sight of them caused her breath to catch in her throat, and she felt wobbly and weak.

This...this was just insane! They needed to get away! Now!

"Shit! Dude, ok, gonna need to know what's worse here!" June exclaimed as she shot him a terrified look, "These things? Or the shit you just ran away from?"

Agatha Loom

Just as Agatha would've safely pulled Jaden from the mob closing in on him, a massive wave of force slammed right into her. It didn't immediately swat her out of the sky, but it did send her kapulting in a spin until she landed onto the ground, likely knocking Rita off in the process. Her heart began to race, until she saw a glowing purple light from within the warehouse. Faintly, she saw a woman reaching out with her arm from it.

"Safe!" The Lady Bug cried in Agatha's mind.

She raced over to the portal, swatting aside any of the few monsters in her path, before barreling into the front door. Once she was inside, she shifted back into her human form, falling to the ground, before scrambling back up and in through the portal.

Once she hit the ground on the other side, she finally let gravity of the situation take over her, breathing heavily in relief and panic.

"Thank you." She said simply, before she could even understand who rescued them or why.

Tristan Douge

"Shit, shit, shit uh... Probably these fucking things. These are worse. I really don't see any of those tentacles monsters closing in after us." Tristan reasoned, watching as the mob closed in on them, "But I don't think we can really make a choice."

The shambling horde of knife-handed monsters had indeed blocked off their escape. While it was probably possible to outrun them, they'd probably need to be olympic athletes to run between the cracks of their ranks before they condensed by this point. All four of the roads of the intersection were blocked up. Tristan checked the surrounding buildings frantically, looking for any they'd be able to reasonably defend themselves in. Besides a few more ramshackle warehouses and what were practically large concrete bricks, the best option seemed to be the large library they stood in front of.

"Damnit, cmon! Let's try in here!" He called, rushing up the steps and in through the door. In all honesty, he knew this was a dumb plan with hardly any thinking put into it, but it was better than getting shanked and cut up by got knows what those things were. His best idea was to probably try and fortify it with some furniture. Hopefully, they'd be able to reach the roof access somehow, and maybe be able to bunnyhop along the roofs without having to pass through the mob. As soon as they were both inside, Tristan slammed the door shut. He then grabbed at one of the nearest tables, shoving it along the ground and then pushing it up against the front door.

"Okay, now we gotta find some stairs. Maybe we can get to the rooftops, and find some sort of way to get the hell out of here." Tristan explained, as he continued desperately trying to move anything not nailed to the floor to the door and windows.

---

---

Terry, even in his disoriented and survival instinct addled state, couldn't help but notice the... Strangeness in Archie's reply.

"You're welcome" he'd said in a voice that sounded like it hadn't spoken in years and struggled to relearn the concept. Though Terry could more easily wrap his head around Archie's voice than the tendrils that appeared to be spurting out of him and batting away the creatures advancing towards them. Terry's encounter with the tentacles earlier had sharpened and focused him in regards to the situation, so while the monsters appearances seemed tailor made to unnerve him, he did not recoil at their sight. Like the tentacle that bore the face of his late father, the creatures had their mouths stitched and stretched shut with decayed looking grey flesh, unlike his father they did not seem to bother with accuracy in regards to the rest of their humanoid face. Their skin grey and eyes also stitched tightly shut, for Terry it appeared that their limbs were broken and disjointed yet they scuttled around with alarming ease and speed.

Terry fired a few more blasts of pure controlled sound at the creatures that got too close for comfort. Knocking them into their fellow abomination or through a crack in the false Araminta and out of this world entirely. Though Terry's physical state paid the price as he found it harder and harder to keep balance, feeling the familiar warm trickle of blood emanating from his nose. Just then, a giant ladybird carrying some members of the group flew above the mass of powered beings and monsters.

'Giant flying bug. Alright' Terry thought, quickly disregarding the thought before being knocked off his feet by a powerful psychic blast.

Terry's body was already beginning to feel nauseous and pained, being suddenly and violently thrown through the air did not help matters. He moved his head from the ground slightly and saw Archie lifting up that girl who's name kept escaping Terry, he watched him move towards the photographer in a daze and yell something Terry struggled to make out amidst the chaos, but given they were grouping up and quite obviously frantic looking, Terry acutely deduced they were informing everyone to start fucking running.

Gingerly and without much grace, Terry tried to shoot himself back upright as quick as possible, he stumbled forward but was vertical enough to begin running towards Archie and the others, they were going back to the warehouse. Terry spared the briefest second to look back at the creatures attempting to recuperate after that blast form Kayla. Warehouse, that was fine by him.

---

Well, maybe the warehouse wasn't fine by Terry actually.

Things were just as frenzied here as they were back at the false Araminta's edge. Windows being broken and creatures spawned from nightmares pouring in wherever able. Terry, gingerly, placed his arms back up and prepared to throw out whatever power he possibly could before his body inevitably failed him.

But as Terry prepared himself for a no doubt heroic, if slightly anticlimatic, last stand, another flash of purple appeared presenting the street lights of good old safe, predictable, real Araminta.

"Guys, this way!" she yelled through. "C'mon we don't have much time!"

Terry watched some guy with long black hair he hadn't seen before go through it first, then that hysterical woman from earlier follow suit. Fuck it, at worst a lit street wasn't as bad a place to die as a shitty warehouse. Terry ran through and felt his legs collapse as he passed the other end. The coldness of the road providing some relief to his throbbing headache courtesy of his powers.

"Alright, man" he mumbled, rolling himself slightly to get out of the way of the portal.

"No more, like, purple portals for me."

The portal was open and Jaden and Kaitlyn knew the game was on.

Right now Kaitlyn was shivering. She was cold as hell and she felt a thirst like no other. If only she knew she was going to be using her abstraction, but she would only be using it for a short time longer. Hopefully. The wave she and Rita were riding was at its peak, but Kaitlyn hopped off and landed on the ground. She created another wave that sent Rita through the portal before she turned around to face the impending horde. Her head arced towards Jaden as he grinned as he stuck his hand out. A violent wave appeared out of thin air as it cut through a large swath of the monsters, then after that one faded she created another one. However, with each wave, she took a step back towards the portal as her body couldn't take this any further. Jaden was firing on whichever one of these fuckers got close, unlike Katie he didn't take steps back. When he fired one last blast he was knocked off balance right onto his ass.

"Shit!" Jaden kept shooting at them from the ground to get them off... before a fucking shark made out of water cut through the air and bit down on his jacket. "Yoooo what the fuck?!" It carried him through the air towards the portal and Jaden whipped his head towards it to see Kaitlyn on her hands and knees. Desperately sticking out one hand as the shark carried Jaden through. Once he was through, the shark disappeared and Jaden was sent rolling across the floor as Kaitlyn fell to the ground, unconscious.

The portal closed, and whoever was still on the other side was... well, trapped.

"Oooooooh shit!" Unfortunately, Jaden was too high off adrenaline to fall that easily. He almost immediately hopped up to his feet. "What sort of fuckery was that?" As the adrenaline died down he looked around, they were back in regular Araminta alright. It was the middle of the night and they stood in the middle of a road surrounded by woods, illuminated by the bright street lights anyone familiar with Araminta would instantly recognize.

"... That my friends," The mysterious girl spoke as she turned around to the group. "Was the Outside."

"And the fuck is that?" Jaden asked before a better question popped into his head as he pointed at Brianna. "Nah, I got a better question; who the fuck are you?"

"Oh, me? I'm Brianna W- Grier." The girl introduced herself, "And as for-" she had to finger-quote, "-what the fuck was that...?"

There was a pause as Brianna looked at the group, she ran a hand through her hair stressfully.

"... That's what I'm trying to figure out."

---

"... Oh, this is certainly interesting."

Two figures watched the group from a distance. One was a skeleton with frightening horns, wearing a black suit. He had his hands in his pockets as he casually levitated, he pulled out a box of cigarettes then slid one in between his jaw. Which was promptly lit.

"Kill... them..."

The other figure was gigantic Moose that stood behind the floating skeleton, but it was different from the average moose. Its flesh was rotted away, particularly at its face, legs, and torso. It was dripping blood as it stood... which was a mystery how it can still even stand.

"Come now, Elk, we're not like the rest of those sociopaths that roam this town at night," The Skeleton said with a chuckle as the cigarette burned in between its lips. "They are, as it stands, no threat to the plan - but..."

The skeleton rubbed a hand across its chin. "Let's report this to the mistress, just to be on the safe side."

A mass of swirly black darkness appeared around them and eventually swallowed the two of them up. When it was faded, the two of them were gone.



After the incident in the "Outside", the group went their separate ways and went back to their lives. Two days later, however, the strange occurrences in Araminta have not stopped. They've gotten worse, and it's getting much harder to ignore.

However, despite the growing darkness in the town; it was a sunny day in Araminta. One that anyone would enjoy.



It was another dream.

A Recollection that Jaden thought it was called. These things happened every night on a strange rotation with every person in his Collective. Each night they would see a memory belonging to one of these people. First, it started with Reese, then Jaden, then Mariah, then Cierra - but sometimes they would see memories belonging to his late sister, Lynette. It was completely random - like the cycle would be normal, then they would see a memory belonging to Lynette, then the cycle would continue like normal. These Recollections were sometimes of innocuous like Reese practicing shooting with his father, and other times it was... quite scarring for Jaden.

However, yesterday was Mariah's turn, that meant tonight had to be Cierra's.

Jaden was transparent, blue as he looked around. He saw some abandoned warehouses in an oddly clean Araminta. Like no cigarette butts or methheads.

Which couldn't have been right because this city was dirty as fuck.

But, the Recollection began with his twin-sister, Cierra, making a break for it, just absolutely running down the streets of the abandoned Araminta(?). She looked behind her to see some strange figures chasing behind her, but they were so distant that they were merely shadows. Cierra ducked around a corner and threw her back up against the wall, she clutched her side... which was oozing blood. She groaned as tears ran down her eyes, she threw her head around the corner to peek around.

"... Come out, come out, where ever you are!"

A very tall man with a switchblade shouted, as he maniacally laughed. He had on a leather jacket with a plain black pull-over hoodie over it, but it was a few sizes too big. It completely covered his face... Cierra could see his orange eyes piercing through the darkness. He was a lot like the person that attacked them earlier, and while Cierra wanted a rematch with that fucker that wasn't going too well... she looked at the blood that was pooling at her feet.

Fortunately, Cierra had a regenerative factor.

Unfortunately, it won't work if she's dead.

Cierra had to muster the will inside of her to get through this. Fortunately, it was only one of them at the moment. She could risk it and take him out, but she already took a beating as is. She needed to retreat and recuperate at the very least. Covering her mouth with her other hand, Cierra disappeared out of thin air, activating her camouflage. Cierra, under the veil of her abstraction, climbed up the wall to the rooftop.

Meanwhile, her pursuer came across her last known location and saw the blood going up the building and grinned behind his mask.

When Cierra reached the top of the warehouse she turned off her invisibility. Okay, she just needed to get out of here...

"... Gotcha!" The member of the Horde shouted as he lep to the top of the building and Cierra screamed at the top of her lungs as she fell backward. He brought down his knife on her but she teleported in a flash of purple light. He ended up bringing his knife down on the rooftop as he looked up to see Cierra had teleported... three feet away. She turned that three feet into twenty feet as she hopped to the other rooftop, but he pulled his knife out of the rooftop as he sprinted after her with his knife ready.

The bastard was right behind her as he grabbed onto her hair and yanked her hard as he could and slammed his knife directly into her shoulder. Cierra screamed as fight finally turned on... she manifested purple-claws that were reptilian over her hands as gloves. The claws they had were sharp, sharp enough to cut through the man's stomach when she turned around and slashed him. Her attack made him scream as blood covered her claws, however, she grabbed him by the collar of his jacket as she slammed him over her shoulder directly onto the rooftop. Finally, she jammed her claws directly into the back of his head and got them jammed in...

... However, he grabbed onto her arm and tossed her to the side. Cierra rolled over as she used her claws to control her movement as she hopped back to her feet. He did the same and realized his switchblade was gone.

"Ready to start fighting for real?" The Horde put his fists up like a boxer. Cierra narrowed her eyes at him as she finally decided to stop running and fight. She was still bleeding, her abstraction was pretty much the only thing holding her together at this point because without it she would have died twenty minutes ago.

But, hell, she'd take what she can get.

Cierra charged the member of the Horde as he swung directly for her face and got a jab as he followed that up by grabbing onto the top of her head and slamming it onto his knee. Cierra stumbled backward as her head was woozy, but she was still in the fight. He moved forward for another punch as she ducked downwards and slashed at his knees as she whipped past him. He grabbed onto his knee as he cried in pain as Cierra hopped up into the air and hopped onto his back. Digging one claw into his back, she violently stabbed his neck over and over and over again as blood got everywhere.

"Get off me, you bitch!" The Serial killer shouted as he threw himself forward, grabbed onto Cierra and slammed her onto the ground. He raised his boot up into the air to stomp on her but Cierra was quick to teleport away. He slammed onto the ground so hard his boot went through it and Cierra stuck both of her hands out as she fired a shotgun-style blast of energy balls that made him put his hand up as she hopped up into the air. She brought her claw down directly into his eye and cringed as she felt her hand go into his eye socket. He pushed her off of him, but she was not done. She violently slashed at him over and over again... until he just threw out a violent haymaker that struck her across the cheek that sent her stumbling over.

The serial killer was pissed off now, he charged her, picked her up by the neck and slammed her only the rooftop they were standing on before he began punching her over and over again. Out of reflex, Cierra teleported out of his grasp, but she couldn't handle it anymore. She was stumbling over like a drunk, her vision was blurry as she walked towards the edge of the roof as her mind went back to flight.

However, in front of her was a woman with a gas mask on with a metal bat and she was quick to hit Cierra in the knee with it bringing her down. Cierra screamed as she was at the woman's crotch... she looked up as the woman had the bat over her shoulder.

"Don't worry," The woman behind the mask said. "the boss lady had a change of heart; so we're not gonna kill you."

She put the bat at her chin.

"But, she does want to have a word with you. Just a polite Lil' chat. You'll love what she's got to say."



When Jaden came to, he was pissed.

He immediately grabbed onto a nearby lamp and threw it at the wall. It put a huge ass hole in the wall as it shattered on impact. Those bastards! They were... they were... he was surprised he didn't wake up sooner. He couldn't bear to watch them do those terrible things to his sister. So, what? That Psychopath couldn't kill them as a group so now he's hunting them when they're alone. Smart.

However, that was definitely not the masked serial killer that attacked them at the river. And there was another one. Who's to say that's not more? However, Jaden was barely able to think straight he was so pissed off. He needed to talk to somebody, now. Reese was off at Parris Island, but he knew of somebody else that was around...

Jaden pretty much immediately switched into some jeans, a long sleeve white t-shirt, threw his green jacket over it, and got into the black combat boots that he wears around just to prepare for boot camp. Jaden was out of the door and hopped onto his bicycle which, in normal circumstances, he would complain about needing some more swag, but he was on a mission. He biked over to the Discovery Church, were somebody he needed to talk to was here. It was about this time when it let out, so Jaden was met with a crowd as he approached the church.

He hopped off his bike and immediately went into the crowd of people that were conversing after church. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack looking the conventional way... where the hell is she? Eventually, he caught her aura in the crowd... Maria Jaylin Phoenix. A member of his Collective. All he had to do was get he-

... You're telepathically connected Jaden.

The Familial Reflection appeared and hinted to Jaden what he needed to do next. This wasn't something that Jaden liked to do, but Jaden closed his eyes and focused as he sent out a voice...

Mariah.

He spoke again, with no response.

Mariah!

He shouted in her head as she whipped her head around. Mariah awkwardly tried to slide her way towards the woodline as Jaden followed behind her. He pushed past some branches to see his sister's bespectacled friend wearing a white dress like she always did to church walking away from him.

"Mariah!" Jaden shouted at her in person, "I know you can hear me!"

"... What!?" Mariah screamed back at him as Jaden was stopped in his tracks. "What is it that you had to chase me here at church for?"

"You had that dream last night, right?" Jaden asked as he crossed his arms.

Mariah craned her head.

"You know, where Cierra was getting attacked."

"Look..." Mariah turned away from Jaden, "I really would rather not think about that."

"Well, I'm asking you to," Jaden said as he approached her before a barrier appeared separated them. He stopped dead in his tracks. "Look, Mariah..."

"Jaden... what do you want?"

Jaden sighed as he wondered about how he can get to Mariah-

Don't be a dickhead, Jaden.

The Reflection appeared just to say that then disappeared as Jaden sighed. "I want to know if anything seemed off about it like you know... in that dream; that was obviously the warehouse part of town where all the meth heads have orgies and shit. Except it was completely clean."

Mariah still turned away from Jaden, and he sighed as he decided to cut to the chase.

"Mariah... I think I know where Cierra is," Jaden asked. "There's this place known as the Outsid-"

"Look, Jaden," Mariah said, cutting off Jaden, "Cierra is dead. They definitely killed her."

That sentence made Jaden's blood boil but he kept cool. "You don't know that." Jaden hissed.

"Well, it's the only thing I can think of that happened to her - next time it's her turn we're going to see them actually killing her. And if we do find her, I'm more than certain we're going to find her body. I don't want to see that."

"Look, I don't know what your problem is- well, I know what your fuckin' problem is; you're jumping to conclusions, you're giving up." Jaden started, calmer than he thought he would sound, "I'm not giving up on Cierra. I don't know what kinda 'best friend' you are, but I'm not ever going to give up on my sister."

"I'm trying to stay alive, okay? Keep my head down and honor her name," Mariah said. "I don't know if you realize it yet Jaden, but Araminta is... changing. Shit's going down here and I don't think any of us can handle it - it's best we just keep our heads down and hope it blows over soon."

"Oh, it'll blow over real soon," Jaden hissed. "I'm going after the Horde and I'm going to take out every one of them."

"Jaden, you're not that much stronger than she is," Mariah said. "But, trust me on this, you're going to get yourself killed for nothing."

"Fuck you, you're just being a coward." Jaden flipped her off as he turned around and activated his chameleon abstraction. He faded into nothing as Mariah quickly whipped out her phone and made a phone call.



Something wasn't right.

However, Jaden had a theory about where Cierra could be. It's not much but its something! However, Jaden didn't have any clue about this Outside or how he got there... or how he got back. So maybe his first step is finding this Brianna Grier chick. Jaden rolled on his bike as he ended up at the same spot he was before he was sent to the Outside. He also remembered that, even with his abstraction, Araminta was a big place, full of a variety of different faces. And he honestly didn't remember her face. So he had another idea. He ended up at the convenience store and looked at the woodline in the distance. It came from one general direction...

Just start riding, I'll guide you there.

The Familial Reflection appeared and Jaden felt a chill run down his spine. It put it's hand on Jaden's shoulder while he was on the bike and pointed in the exact direction the purple light came from. While he didn't like it... it was his only clue. Jaden rolled his way from one side of Araminta to the other as he approached the woodline and rolled directly into the woods. Eventually Jaden made it to a huge clearing that was surrounded by police tape. In the middle of the clearing was a crater as if the ground had given out and around it was gigantic cracks in the dirt.

Jaden walked up to it as the Reflection disappeared.

What the fuck caused this? More importantly...

... Can he cause it again to get into the Outside?



That was a night that Kaitlyn was trying to forget.

However, she couldn't take her mind off of it even if she tried. Katie spent a few days off from work while also off from studying like she usually does. Because of her abstraction's nature, it was hard to practice with it other than small as possible... she never used it like that before. She would have to remember that, or else she would push herself past her limits again. Also to keep a bottle of water on her at all times so she doesn't get overloaded. But, she had things to do; namely, see if there's any information on what the hell is going on in Araminta. Just if happened again.

And also return some overdue books.

Since the Library wasn't that far away, Kaitlyn walked over to the Araminta Serenity Library. She stepped in and the lights were dim as always and the person watching the desk was Daria Wallace. The woman was reading a book and didn't even offer to say hello. Her eyes were baggy and if Katie had to be... nosy, it was obvious she was crying as of late. Of course, Daria Wallace was a complex woman, who lost her husband. Perhaps she also lost the ability to get a good night's rest. However, she noticed a strange odor coming from her - almost as if she hadn't showered lately!

Quick to move on away from Daria, Katie moved onto the library. A part of her didn't know where to start - namely because she didn't even know what she was looking for. Katie gravitated towards the occult and free religion section and immediately began scanning. It was cliche but maybe there was a hint here... somewhere. Katie paused for a second as she realized she was not alone.

Appearing seemingly out of nowhere was that girl that saved them that night... what was her name? Kaitlyn couldn't recall since, you know, she was knocked out. The girl was staring at her with similar baggy eyes to Daria. "Hi," Brianna said. "You're not going to find the information you're looking for here... or anywhere for that matter."

"And how do you know what I'm looking for?" Kaitlyn said with a catty grin on her face.

Brianna looked up at the sign that said occult and was about to spout a lengthy explanation about how she was probably researching the occult after what happened. Before she stopped herself and answered with a short and sweet, "Just intuition."

"Well, are you just sitting here in the library waiting for one of us to show up?" Kaitlyn said as she grabbed a book and slid it underneath her shoulder. "That sounds suspicious in and of itself, Ms...?"

"Grier," Brianna said, "I do volunteer work here, I help out Daria because... umm...." Her eyes drifted towards Daria who was staring dead at her. Before she went back to her book. Brianna leaned in as she said, "Her work ethic has gone down the drain since her husband died."

That doesn't sound fully correct. Kaitlyn trailed off as she turned towards the chairs in the back of the building. "I assume you know something about what's going on... let's talk."

"Of course, let's," Brianna said as she sat down.



Because of this whole getting teleported to Pennslyvania thing; Rita's bed was about a few hundred miles south.

In other words, far away from her as possible.

After that craziness, Rita was quick to beat feet and find somewhere to rest. Which was an abandoned house in the woodline that was conveniently broken into? She was no stranger in setting up shop in abandoned houses... or on hard concrete. So that made it easy to fall asleep... but, Rita was getting hungry out here. Like really hungry. She hadn't eaten a meal in an entire day and realized she couldn't stay in this place forever. Also, it was fucking cold. Super cold. Rita got up as she kicked open the door and almost pissed herself when her eyes landed on it. She would have pissed herself if she wasn't so dehydrated.

In the clearing in front of the cabin was a... ghost dog thing? It was about ten feet tall at its shoulders and made out of whispy black darkness. The red of its eyes immediately told Rita it was evil, Rita crept back into her cabin and hoped for the best. Peaking outside, the dog was gone. Or was it there?

Sighing out of relief, Rita took that as the sign it was time to leave as she quickly walked down the steps...

"... Follow me."

Rita immediately whipped around to see the Black Shuck standing right behind her and she screamed at the top of her lungs. However, since she's in the middle of the woods few were around to hear her. The Black Shuck ran into the woods and Rita decided to obey the spooky ghost dog thing.

Little did she know other people were being led to the same destination by the Shuck.



After the portal closed the lights snapped back on and all the monsters disappeared.

It may have been two days on the other side, but it was only a few minutes in the Outside. Or was it? Time seemed to change at complete random - given how the sun went down unnaturally fast. The group that was stuck there had no clue what was going on... but, they had everything a city could offer. Except for the people.
Tristan and June (and whoever else was stuck here) ended up in a different part of the "Araminta". Like they went from the industrial area to the suburbs, in which they set up shop for the night. There were houses as far as the eye could see... which was strange because there were never this many houses in regular Araminta. The houses had everything; food, water, and a place to sleep. Where they slept, taking turns keeping guard. What probably threw them off was that the sun remained exactly where it was.

Now it was up to them to decide whether or not they were going to strike out or stay where they were.

"̸̢̨͇̫̝̜̓̆͆̍̿H̵̙̟̣̊̾͊̓é̶͈̞̣͓̻͖͂̀̾h̸̰̠̣͖͇̋̽̎̑ȩ̸̝͑̑͝h̶̡̗̬̘̱̎̆͋̈́̍̎͐̕e̸̟͓̮͈̭̼͚͆͋̓͌̋͝͝h̷̰̭̗̮̪͇̥͙̓̈̊̋̕ė̷͚̏̌̍̓̇̅͜͝ȟ̵̟̈́̑ȇ̶̻̃̀h̷̲̻͒̾e̶̤̣̱̠͖̤̾͋͜ͅͅḩ̴̢͚̖̦̙̀̂̔̂͜͝é̴̺͍̖͕̈́̾̎͗̀̒̚h̷͉͉̮̠̱̦̓̂̾ȇ̶̢̲͔͉̐͛͊̀h̶̞̪̥̃̈́̄̉́̀͝ē̶̯̗͖̬̟̞͖̲͋̿͐̂̄͗h̸̝̐̓̓̋̈́e̶̯͓͛͛̄h̷̞̜̰͓̫͕͆̄̐̀̀͊͝͝ę̷̡̧̲̰̼̉̾̓́͊͝h̶̡̧̦̥͍̱̟̮̩̽è̷͉̞͖̝ḩ̶̭̖͎͚̱̣͈͐̈́̀̃͝ḙ̷̈̿̈̀h̴̛̩̣̭͔̙̘͙̀̎̑͋̓̓̀̕͜e̴̱̤͔̦͍̝̯͑̽̀͜h̷͕̺̤͚̪̮͋͐̂̀͗͜ḝ̶̨̭͔͚̻h̵̰̳̩͐̄͋͗͋̏̃̋ͅé̶͓́ͅh̶̨͙͉͚͆̂͊̍̒͝ë̷͖̣ḧ̷̨̛̪͖̣̲͍͐͒̿͑̌͑͝ͅe̶͔͖̰̥̙̝̬̅̈́̋̽͆̅͑̒̏h̸̝̙͍̬̩̖̺̬̆̈́̀͜͠e̸̡͙̝͍̭͐͜ḧ̸̢̛̥͍̺́̈́̋̈́̏̃̏̏ȅ̸̞̟̇͐̃ẖ̴̖̯͕͕̹̓̅͋̿̈́̌̐̌e̵͍̣̖̱͉̙͂̐̽̀̚h̵̡̰̰̭͍͎̜̮̍e̷͓̠̣̹̽͒́h̷̬͎͕̄͐e̶̠̪̮̤͈̪̳̊̀̌̾̕.̸̦̄͛̓̓̏"̵̢̡͔̭̤̫̒̇͌͐̄͝

Elias was curled up on his bed with a mug of caffeinated green tea like it'd do shit for him. There's not enough caffeine in it to give him slightly bit of energy, but he hates coffee so if he can fool himself into staying awake then as far as he's concerned there's enough caffeine to help him.

You have to go to sleep eventually.

"I'll sleep when I'm dead."

Don't say that. I hate when you speak this way.

"I'm afraid it'll happen again the moment I let my guard down. We're not going back to that place, Elle. I can't."

I don't want that either, but we didn't have a choice the first time and we probably won't the second.

Another time in that hell hole, large dual sex monsters with wrinkly saggy skin woke him up the first night back. He hasn't slept in 36 hours and he doesn't plan to, until he feels safe again. It's like when Ellie-Ann died, he floated between insomnia and blacking out when his body couldn't handle it anymore. He took another sip of tea, eyes focus on the window towards the woods on the back of his house.

"Eli." His father opened his door.

"Yes, please, invite yourself in." He muttered into his cup. He's not feeling like this today.

"What was that?"

He turned to look at his old man, "Nothing daddy. How may I help you?"

Edward was a big man, bulky, six feet, with hard brown eyes, crows feet and a full red beard, he'd shaved all his hair off when Ellie-Ann got sick and hasn't grown it back out sense. He's not the type of man to show any emotion other than anger and disappointment. Elias can't remember a time he's ever seen his father cry. According to his mother he did it when his sister was born, but he's not sure if he believes her or not. She's could've been lying to make him see some humanity in his father. His shiny scalp was the one of the few things that told him his father still grieved.

"It's been two days. I don't know what your problem is, but you're too old to do this moping shit. Shouldn't've missed your flight. Lunch's in fifteen. Be there." He slammed the door shut.

Fuckin' can't let him be scared shitless in peace.

Not much peace, but he's right. You can't stay cooped up. Put something in your stomach other than tea, take a shower, shave your face.

Elias rubbed his chin, scraggly patchy stubble lined his chin and cheeks. Oh, eww. It's right. He needs to take care of himself. Moved slowly off his bed, dizzy from not eating and went to the bathroom in the hallway. It took him ten minutes to shower and five to shave and wash his face, and brush his teeth. Even refreshed he still looked like shit. The dark bags under his eyes didn't do him any favors. Too bad he didn't feel like putting on makeup today. He grabbed his comb and ran it through his hair, then went downstairs to join his parents for lunch.

"Mornin' Eli." Ellen greeted, smile on her identical face and hazel-green eyes. He couldn't help smiling back and hugged her, because he felt like a toddler afraid of the things that go bump in the night and in need of his mother.

"Mornin' momma." He kept a strong hold, trying not to cry, before letting her go and taking his seat. Eggs, toasts, different jams, bacon sat on plates in the center of the table. He only took a little of each, too anxious to eat more than a few bites.

"What's wrong, baby? You're not eating. You're not getting one of them disorders, are you?"

Elias snorted, "No, momma. I just don't have the stomach for it right now." The smell of food makes his stomach roil. Eating isn't making it better.

"You're too thin. Eat more." Edward scrapped larger potions onto his plate, and it takes a lot for him not to vomit.

"I'm full. I really can't eat anymore."

"You barely ate, boy. You ain't gotta be thin to wear dresses. Eat."

Don't start a fight. Take it slow.

Slow. Right. Elias ate like a snail, chewed long between bites. Half his plate wasn't done by the time his parents finished.

Edward put the dirty dishes in the sink, then grabbed his cap and left for work.

"Don't force yourself, babe. I'll wrap up what you don't eat for later, alright?"

"Thank you, momma." He curled up in the chair, cheek rested on his knees while he watched her pack the leftovers in the fridge. Nine years and she stills makes enough for four people. Then he got up and went to the sink to do the dishes.

"What's got you down? Is it Ellie-Ann?"

"No, it's nothing I can talk about." Without soundin' like a total nut. Last thing he needs is to be committed.

"Keepin' secrets now?" She rubbed his shoulder. "Y'know there's nothing you can say that will make me judge you, right?"

"I know." He slowed down, washing the plate in small circles. "I think it might have something to do with the weird goin' ons lately."

"You're not doin' anythin' dangerous are you?"

"Not if I can help it."

She kissed his shoulder, then ran her hand through his hair. "Good. You're too lively, too beautiful to go before your time. Stay safe." She kissed his temple, then went on about her day. She had work in an hour.

"We can't go back there. If I die what'll happen to momma and daddy?"

I don't know, but nothing will happen to you. I didn't let it before with those monsters and I ain't going to let it now.



Elias decided he needed to go out. See the town. Be social, but not too social. Approachable, but not given a second glance, so he wore a dark gray t-shirt, dark wash jeans and his teal cowboy boots. He walked around his neighborhood, ducked into the cafe on the corner for more tea and pumpkin bread. He wasn't hungry, but he couldn't have his tea without the bread. It's a habit. One started by his sister. He sat at a table and scrolled through his phone. He's gained more followers on his instagram and decided why not take a bare faced picture today. He held it up, then saw his eye bags...whatever. He'll edit it in shop. His puffed out his cheeks and poked it with a long pink nail, then snapped the selfie. To eraser the bags took two minutes, then he uploaded the photo with the caption: Sometimes your face needs a break. Doesn't stop how cute you are.

He put his phone down and looked out the window. He jumped, almost yelling at the black wolf creature with red eyes staring at him through the window. No. Not through it, but replaced his reflection. What the fuck. He got up quickly, took his phone, almost finished tea and barely eaten bread, then booked it. Just for it to right outside looking at him.

"Come." It's voice deep, airy, and menacing, then it ran off in the opposite direction of his home. He noticed no one else could see it, but instinctively walked around it like walking through it would damn them.

"Uuuh, Elle?"

I don't trust it, but we don't have a choice. If it's asking nicely-

"Demanded."

-then let's follow while it's still bein' nice.

His protector has spoken and he's not in the mood for bad shit happening because he's afraid. At least he's not back in the Outside. "Fine." Elias went after it.

Archie

---

Nothing and everything changed that day.

Sure, on one hand it was... weirdly comforting knowing that he wasn't alone in this world. It was nice to find that despite everything that had happened to him, losing his wife, his daughter, becoming the horrible _thing_ that resided inside of him... it was a change of pace to feel less alone in this world. The thoughts and fears and emotions that he felt while not entirely unfounded had the most capacity to make him feel connected as well as alone. Until that strange purple light he had been completely unaware that there were any others like him. Granted, the others seemed to be far from abominations, but he would take what he could get.

Delivering that Kayla girl home had been... something. She was pale, probably more so due to exertion than blood loss- although he hadn't seen a nose bleed quite like hers in some time. She had only been semi-coherent in the car ride home. Enough to give him a general sense of direction before conking out and leaving a nice print of her cheek on his car door's window. She practically had to be carried in, and despite himself he was reminded of his university days when he had to help someone back from the bar like a drunk friend of his wi-

Archie tensed, and gripped his steering wheel so hard his knuckled turned white. He hated when that happened. He hated that he did it to himself most of the time. His penchant for self destruction and self inflicted isolation had flared up since the two loves of his life passed. Who could blame him? Inherently he was a man who was robbed of the two people who had made him feel more than he ever had in his life before and since them. His hands relaxed and he breathed out- doing his best to calm that dark thing inside him that coiled around his heart and stirred whenever the memories brought him back to that horrible day.

When he had delivered Kayla to her home, he had been surprised by the lack of greeted from anything other than the dog- which had regarded him with careful intent. Huskies were smart, he knew that, but the way this dog looked at him was unnerving. As if it was thinking and calculating beyond the comprehension of a predator. He had felt the big guy flash its own fangs, which brought the edges of his lips up in what was an attempt at a smile but was more of a grimace. The dog had, at that point written him off and gave him space. Yet it maintained its constant gaze, and he felt its eyes piercing his back from when he deposited Kayla on the couch of her room until he left that house.

Retrieving his boat was another matter, but all things considered it was fairly easy. It had been moored when he had been thrust out of this world and into another so unless something had happened to destroy the anchor or chain it shouldn't have moved. And it hadn't. Navigating the river via a rented dingy was simple enough. If the boat had been any closer than it was, he probably just would've swam. The river ran cold this time of year but...

Whatever it was, it took care of the cold.

But it had been broad daylight and despite his growing comfort with the thing that dwells inside him after the events of the previous few days, he was not comfortable enough to do that anytime soon.

Archie navigated the boat with practiced ease, scanning the water and riverbanks for any signs of life or activity or something to keep him distracted. Winds were nonexistent, and he knew the river like the back of his hand. He could navigate it with his eyes closed, and over the past six months he had found monotony to be a bad thing. Anything easy meant that he didn't have to think about it, and if he didn't have to think about things it meant he was going to be alone in his thoughts. That was not something he wanted anytime soon.

Thankfully, or maybe not thankfully, he heard a scream from the woods. Now, Archie was a simple man. You hear a woman scream, you do what you can to help. In a town with mysterious disappearances and equally mysterious killers, people had to look out for one another. If he had been in any other situation he might have called the police before dropping anchor and making for the shoreline and into the woods to help, but he wasn't any other person. He had been too and survived whatever distortion world they had been sent to, and if he was being perfectly frank he wasn't particularly worried about being killed by The Horde. He had nothing to lose.

That and- he housed something with bigger teeth.

He came crashing through the woods and into Rita's just in time to catch the last of the shadowy wisps and rotten stench of whatever had caught his attention. Something inside Archie leered in the direction it had gone. He knew that smell and could sense that presence by instinct- as if the thing inside him was screaming caution.

Archie had seen it before when it had called to him from the riverbank. He hadn't succumbed to it then.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He said, grabbing Rita's arm and stopping her from her stupid death march. Archie recognized her- she was one of the girls who had been in that other world with them. He didn't know what that entity was trying to lure her to, but she couldn't have been smart if she was so easily following it. The disregard for her own health with all the strange things going on all around them... it worried him to no end. "You're going to get yourself ki-"

Archie trailed off, finally turning his head from where the Shuck had gone to look at Rita. The frustration died in his throat.

She was obviously worse for ware. He vaguely remembered her mentioning that she wasn't from Araminta, and the pieces clicked into place when his eyes flashed to the shack. She was dirty, and smelt like she hadn't bathed in days- which was probably not far from the truth. He didn't see any fire pit, or anything that could be used to contain water. She probably hadn't eaten much of anything since he had seen her last, and if her sunken eyes were anything to go by if she had drank anything it had to have been straight from the river. That meant she likely had dehydrated herself even further with what no doubt came after. She wasn't in the right state of mind. She was likely dazed, confused, and ill.

"Shit. Shit. Shit. Okay, just... Just sit down." Archie said, forgetting about the Shuck and his own worries and focusing all of his energy on her. He lead her to the steps of the shack and with gentle pressure to the shoulders, sat her down. He knelt down in front of her. "Do you remember me? My name is Archie. You were with me when-" When we got teleported to some horrible parody of this town. "When we were in that strange place. Listen, you're not well. I have food and water on my boat. Would you like that?"

This girl was going to be in a bad way, if she wasn't already. If she had drank from the river she'd need to be checked out by a doctor. But first a foremost she would need something to keep her from getting worse.

---

David held onto Abigail's hand and ran as fast as he could. A group of the others, Jaden included, had found a strange young girl and a portal that had lead to the outside world. It almost seemed to good to believe. And yet, as the young man fired bolts of air and sound at the monsters that nipped at their heels, David hauled Abigail through the tear in the fabric of reality back into their home. He recognised it almost instantly; no more wrongness, no strange sense of extra-dimensional vertigo. Just the cool, Araminta night air and the bright orange, early 90s street lights of some back road through the forest near the city.

He breathed a sigh of relief and let go of Abigail, catching his breath as he stood by the side of the road. Then he dove a hand into his satchel and pulled a foil packet, popped a tablet from its housing and then stuck it in his mouth to chew on it, before going back to Abigail. In his fingers was a business card and he handed it to her.

"Hey, sorry about all the force. Name's David, I work for the local papers. You ever need to uh, talk to somebody about this whole thing, call me. I promise it won't end up on Araminta Daily. No one would believe me anyway."

And as the group slowly dispersed, David added one more name to his mental store to research later.

Brianna Grier. Whatever this whole thing was, she'd pulled them through the portal that brought them back home. And he needed answers.

---

"Hey, Fred."

"Yeah?"

"You got a place for me?"

"Oh yeah! Here."

David rounded Fred's desk at the Daily office. His editor was hunched over his computer, typing a revision into the latest front page story that David had written, when the latter had arrived in the office. The last two days had been strange for David. He had to explain how he'd suddenly gone from his apartment to the woods outside Araminta without getting into all the otherworldly stuff, then figure out how to find this Brianna Grier with the connections he had. Only way he knew how was to search through old news articles with his editor to find the answers he sought. And today was the fruits of their labour. Fred jabbed a finger at his computer monitor as David stood next to his seat. The article open on screen was from several months ago, about Daria Wallace, written by one of their colleagues. How she'd lost her husband in a car accident, then how she had continued to be the librarian of the Araminta Serenity Library. True to form, the article mentioned the hired help: one Brianna Grier. It even contained a picture of her, not taken by David but by the other photojournalist with the Daily. The face was the exact same one he'd seen two days ago in the woods, after the portal.

"See her?"

"Yeah?"

"She's hired this Brianna girl you're looking for. Helps her keep the shelves neat 'n tidy."

"I can see that, Fred. Thanks. I owe you another dinner now."

"Hey man, you still owe me for vanishing the other day. What even happened?"

"I'll tell you that over dinner. I gotta run, the library's still open and I need to catch Brianna before she goes home."

Ignoring his editor's protests, David grabbed his jacket, satchel and camera and left. A few minutes by scooter later and he was at the library in all its gothic glory. The library had been built in Araminta's early days and was a shining symbol of the architecture of the time; stone pillars flanking the entrance to a building that he would've pegged as a mausoleum if it didn't have the words "Serenity Library" emblazoned on the sign atop the door. As he stepped in, he looked around and found Daria reading a book at the front counter. David approached her and gave her a warm smile.

"Hello Daria."

The lady looked up at him, sighed and closed her book.

"Yes? What d'you need?"

David leaned on his elbow and chuckled.

"I'm looking for your assistant, Brianna Grier? I need to interview her regarding a case I'm reporting on for the papers."

Daria disinterestedly scanned what shelves she saw and gestured vaguely in one direction with her hand.

"She's there...somewhere. Probably."

David's smile lost a little of its warmth as she dismissed him with a wave of her hand and went back to her book. She looked very much worse for wear indeed. Months after she'd lost her husband and it was only hitting her now? A little strange, but not his concern. Instead he thanked her and made his way to the shelves at the back where she'd gestured, perusing the books on display and wondering if he'd have time to start a new read in between writing and figuring out this case. It took him a few minutes but he followed the sound of conversation in the library deeper past the shelves to a small table where two women were seated. He recognised both; Brianna herself and the Chinese woman Jaden had been hanging out with in that strange otherworld. He gave them both a wave as he approached their table.

"Hey ladies. Don't mind me buttin' in, but I remember both of you from eh...two days ago? Big crack, purple light, scary nightmare version of Araminta? Miss Grier, you saved my life and I owe you big time. But I'm just as curious about what the hell happened as everyone else was. Do you ladies mind if I, uh, sit in?"

A lot of things happened in the space of a few meagre moments and Abigail was barely cognisant for most of them. The events from two days prior were mostly a blur for the girl. She was gripped at the wrist, dragged this way and that amongst shouts and crashes, then thrown into a purple light by the photographer. She stumbled slightly upon crossing the threshold. She watched the bodies get up and reorient themselves in the real world. The photographer approached her.

"Hey, sorry about all the force. Name's David, I work for the local papers. You ever need to uh, talk to somebody about this whole thing, call me. I promise it won't end up on Araminta Daily. No one would believe me anyway." A small business card was placed in her hand. She looked down at it, then back up at David. Clenching her jaw, she took a couple steps backwards and took off in a jog towards home.

It took Tyler a long time to recover from witnessing another disappearance and, as expected, Abigail didn't provide much of a commentary about her experiences in The Outside. "But," Tyler sniffled, "We've got to go to the police. The cops - they'll know what to do. The military…?"

"Mmn," Abigail responded distractedly. She was getting her homework done.

"How can you just sit there and do algebra after all that?! Fuck's sake, Abi, what if that's where Emily is?"

"Then she's probably dead." Abigail turned her gaze back up to Tyler reproachfully, glaring holes at her shining, tear-stained cheeks. "I told you. I'm not getting involved. Whatever it was probably wasn't real anyway, some stupid hoax for a reality TV show...I don't want anything to do with it," she waved her hand dismissively.

"You can't be serious. After everything that's been going on here!" Tyler shouted, slamming her fist on the table. Abigail flinched and froze as the woman slightly lifted her hand, let out a little choked sob and stepped back, rubbing her face.

"... Maybe I should get another transfer," Abigail said at length after a very drawn out and quiet moment in the house.

"N-no. I'm sorry. Don't go, you're right, I'm just-...what if it takes you too?" Tyler asked.

"Then I won't have to worry about getting a job?" Abigail offered up sardonically, watching the grief stricken woman deflate into nervous chuckling. "If it happens again, or I'm gone longer than three days straight, I give you permission to do what you want. But whatever's going on is dangerous. You should just cut your losses and move on."

"I can't," Tyler murmured. "You're still my lil' girl. You're all family to me."

"Mmn. Can I have some of your clothes?"

"...What?"

"They-...make me feel safe. Smells like you."

Two days later and Abigail was getting used to the weight of the backpack with the added gear. Homework, stationery, her charger - but now a full change of clothes, mace, a Swiss army knife. A torch. Matches. Food. A water filter...Joseph brought her to a Mountain Warehouse store to get some extra stuff after the incident and now she was traipsing around in thermals and a windbreaker. It was embarrassing and she could feel everyone's eyes on her, despite just looking uncharacteristically sporty and carrying a full bag with her. The girl had headed to the library that day to finish off her biology assignment and look up some campfire and shelter techniques to make notes about. As she walked in she passed three familiar faces - some overweight Chinese woman, the photographer and the mousy girl that opened the portal - and made brief eye contact. She made her way away from the occult section and sat at a desk, grunting as she took off her backpack and got out her notepad, biology book and pen. Pulling the brim of her baseball cap down a little bit further, Abigail got to work.

When the stranger approached Katie's eyes almost immediately shifted to him. She recognized him from that faithful night... he was the stranger with the camera. Though, it was an intuition of her own that leads her to believe that he wasn't just in the neighborhood. He probably came looking for Brianna... but this was merely speculation and she wasn't going to act on if she knew any better. The last thing Kaitlyn wanted to do was alienate one of the big reporters of Araminta.

"No, of course not," Brianna was quick to say. "That makes this a whole lot easier."

They all sat down at a square table with a lamp on it... the library was a bit dark. Moody, as it was illuminated by a few lights that are in the interior. The chairs at the table were fairly comfortable as Brianna had no clue where to even start. As the situation was... complicated. More complicated than any of them could have realized. The girl had lost sleep over it. However, she settled on starting with the Outside.

"Okay, so I figure both of you want to know what the hell was that place? Well... I'm trying to figure that out myself, nobody knows what it is..." Brianna trailed off as she looked off to the side. "It makes no sense what so ever - but I have made some attempts to understand it. Have neither of you heard about parallel universes?"

"Who hasn't?" Kaitlyn said.

"Okay, that was a dumb question," Brianna said, "But, there are other worlds out there - dunno how many, but each of them is different in one way or another. That place, the Outside, is one of those worlds, at least I think that's what it is. What's weird about the Outside is... well... I spent a bit of time in these other worlds and guess what?"

"... There's absolutely nothing like the Outside out there, is there?" Kaitlyn was intrigued by what Brianna was saying. However, she wasn't going to take it at face value of course... she wanted to see these other worlds for herself because she wants to see this for herself before she believes in other dimensions. Though she can summon the ocean out of thin air, her ex can turn into a spider, she saw monsters and geography that shouldn't exist with her own two eyes... Is she stupid enough to dismiss the idea of other worlds?

"Of course not," Brianna said, "The Outside follows no sense of logic and... it changes depending on who's there or, more accurately, who was recently there."

That made Kaitlyn raise an eyebrow.

"I guess because a majority of people who went there are from Araminta, it tailored itself to be like Araminta... but when me and my childhood friends were there it was tailored more towards our home town," Brianna explained. "If you were to wander off by yourself or in a smaller group... the Outside will begin to drastically change. Changing itself to you and what you've seen and experienced."

Brianna shrugged.

"The monsters there will change too."



Rita was stopped from following the Hound by a stranger... one that she didn't even notice was there until he grabbed her arm. She almost screamed again - until she heard his voice. She turned her head and Rita kinda recognized him. He confirmed it when he said they were in that "Outside" place, but he was acting like she was some lost puppy. Like she was going to die or something... though, he told her to sit down. Which she found inviting right now; more inviting than following that weird wolf thingy. "I'm not well? Look, I'm perfectly fine," Even though that was a total lie... but when he invited her to his boat. "Yeah... sure." She said, not thinking about if this man had an ulterior motive or anything.

Her ulterior motive was some food.



In the more rundown and poor areas of Araminta, that's mostly row house after rowhouse there was a racket like no other. A tall, skinny girl with blonde hair ran up the stairs to one of the houses and began banging on the door over and over again. "Jacob, open the door right fucking now!" Only for no response... which prompted her to bang on the door even harder.

"... He's not here," A African-American girl wearing an all-black Nike tracksuit and had her hair braided said. She had on sunglasses and twirled one of her braids in her hand and did not look happy. "Taylor, we've been at this all morning - he ain't answering his phone, he ain't anywhere you said he is."

"Oh, I know he's here," Taylor said with a grin. "This is literally the last place he'd be!"

There was a faint sound of music as the stranger to Araminta closed her eyes... and the sigil on her back of a ear illuminated as her hearing increased. The music got louder but so did the other sounds. One by one she gradually muted them until it was just... music coming from the building. Eventually, the stranger decided to mute the music and she heard the... "sounds" (which sounded like wet slapping) that the music was masking and the girl loudly gagged.

"Jasmine?" Taylor asked.

"It sounds like he's up there fuckin'!" Jasmine crudely said. "... And don't say my name, please, remember I'm looking for somebody."

In a fit of pure rage, Taylor ran up to the door and gave it one hell of a kick... and fell directly onto her ass with a hurt knee. Which made Jasmine chuckle. "Stop laughing!"

Jasmine walked over to the door very casually as she lifted her leg up, knee bent, and kicked right next to the doorknob. The door was pretty shitty (probably wasn't the first time somebody kicked it down) so she caused one hell of a hole. She kicked the door again and viola; the door finally swung open. Twisting her braids with her fingers she smiled as she said, "Try kicking close to the knob next time." All cat-like.

"Let's just hurry up and get him! That dumbass knows he can get us all fucked up, why isn't he answering his door!" Taylor got up to her feet as she ran inside and almost immediately ran up the stairs that was right in front of the door and Jasmine slowly followed behind her. When Taylor reached the top of the stairs the door at the very top of the stairs was thrown open and the first thing that Taylor saw was her brother Jacob. Aiming a Glock 17 right down the stairs screaming, "You'll never take me alive!"

Also, he was completely naked.

"Wait, Jacob, it's me!" Taylor said, putting her hands in front of her face.

"Oh shit, Taylor!?" Jacob said, "Why in the fuck are you kicking my door like you're the feds?!"

Jasmine was at the bottom of the stairs and the first thing she sees is Jacob's little Jacob. "'Why in the fuck' aren't you putting some pants on right now?!"

"Because I didn't fini-"

"Okay, that's not important right now, the boss wants to have an emergency meeting!" Taylor said. "She wants everyone there and you haven't been answering your phone."

"So you kick down my fucking door?" The woman that was in the room Jacob was just in shouted.

"Well, just tell her to screw off," Jacob said. "And why is she here?"

"I'm here because 'the boss-'" Jasmine finger quoted, "Thought she needed some extra supervision to make sure the job gets done."

"How sweet," Jacob said. "Now fuck off."

"Apparently the boss lady was right," Jasmine said as she crossed her arms. "It's like dealing with a teenager. I don't know if you know, but everyone is there waiting for us. Getting more pissed off by the second. And I don't know about your arrangement with her, but you should remember there are other people who got shit to do and ain't got time for your bullshit, Jacob. Also, put some fucking pants on!"

She almost yelled at him.

"Fine," Jacob said as he ran back into the room and threw on his gray sweat pants and his hoodie and ran down the stairs. "Let's go! And this better be important because I'm sick of this bullshit already!"

And the three of them sprinted across town to this mysterious... "meeting" they had to attend.

---

The Woods about an hour ago.

---

A white-tailed deer was in the sights of his rifle. The middle-aged hunter that was a good distance away from his target - a deer just sitting in the clearing. He was in the prone position, completely camouflaged as the deer had no clue he was even there. He held his breath at the peak of his breath as gently pulled the trigger. There was a loud shot coming from the gun as the deer was shot in the center of mass but took off running with what little strength he had. The Hunter grinned as he knew the deer would probably bleed out soon, he hopped up to his feet...

But he heard a loud breath behind him as a twig snapped. He turned around with his rifle ready to see a fucking moose directly behind him. Except this was no ordinary moose - this moose was heavily rotted and decayed. It was almost like a zombie moose. Also, there are no Moose anywhere near here so that's something important too. He almost dropped his rifle as he took a step back... but with every step back the beast took another step forward.

"These woods... are... sacred... protected..." The thing whispered.

The Hunter finally gave up and cut and run, breaking off into a desperate sprint as the rotted Moose chased after him. It wasn't long until it caught him and gored him. Its antlers went directly into his back as he screamed at the very top of his lungs as the Moose rammed him directly into the nearest tree. Killing him almost instantly. The Moose took a step back as his lifeless body fell off his antlers. The Moose looked to the side and saw that the deer had collapsed from its wounds.

The Moose walked over the collapsed deer and said, "I... failed you... as your... savior..."

The Moose marched into the woods, as it had business to attend to elsewhere.

"... but not as your... avenger..."

Tristan Douge

By this point, Tristan lost count of time.

He and the girl he met, June, were the only normal they've seen in this warped version of Araminta, besides the massive group from when he first arrived. By this point, he stopped concerning himself on their absent presence. The biggest possibilities he settled on were as follows: They all got turned into mincemeat by the horde of monsters, dragged off to God knows where by the tentacles that came from the bottomless pit, or survived somehow and were squatting in the husk of the city like he and June were. Or maybe they found some magic portal out of here. Either way, they weren't Tristan's problem anymore.

Somehow, Tristan and June managed to escape the mob that closed in on them at the library. They found a means for climbing up and out onto the rooftops, where they hopped from roof to roof until they felt safe enough to quit running and take in their bearings. Obviously, they decided to stick together for safety, as they started looking for some sort of means of returning home. Until then, they just did their best to survive.

Surprisingly, actual survival wasn't too difficult. Most of the monsters in this warped version of Araminta were a lot less active and numerous. Even when they did see one or two, they hardly even noticed them and were easily avoided. Most of the houses, surprisingly, were also pretty well-stocked, giving them a lot of leeway to just crash in a house, helping themselves to the food. Still, running into both the tentacles and the monsters shook Tristan to his core. He insisted on keeping a rotating-watch system, while also trying to fortify their house of choice the best they could.

The two of them hunkered down in the living room. Tristan's choice of defense was a wooden plank, which he rhythmically slapped into his palm every few seconds while June slept. No problems so far, but he really didn't want to get caught with his pants down by God knows what.

Tristan didn't even bring his watch. He took it off before his nap on the flipside, and didn't even have the time to put it back on before getting spirited away by the light. How long had they been there? A few minutes? A couple hours? A day? More?? He had no idea. The best reference for time would've been the Sun, which... In this version of Araminta, sure liked hitting the snooze button. He didn't even see it budge since shit started hitting the fan. He felt incredibly frustrated. Despite the supernatural gravity of whatever hell he was thrown into, this all felt like a huge waste of time. What about his duties back in the normal world? Had the Horde struck again in his absence? Who would they have carved up next? Some homeless bum? An unlucky sucker? Someone else's little sister? Even brushing that shit aside, his mother probably would've been worried sick about him. Well, more than usual.

Tristan hurled his plank weapon at the wall in frustration, shattering the plywood and probably waking up Sleeping Beauty. Whatever.

"Goddammit", He said, almost surprised at the sound of his own voice, "I'm sick of sitting around here, hunkering in some abandoned house like rats. We really need to get moving. Find some way out of here."

---

Agatha Loom

Agatha quickly recovered from the horror and stress that came with getting taken off to a monster-ridden warped version of town over the next two days. Once she wasn't stressed out anymore, she returned to her normal, inquisitive state.

She retook to using the internet as her means of perusing for answers. Despite being a massive pillar of light that washed over the entire town, there wasn't a single report or news article about it. No accounts on social media, even. As far as it seemed, only she and the small group taken into that strange otherworld were the only ones who actually had accounts of it. After a good few hours of searching, she closed out her web browser and sighed in frustration.

Again, she found her gaze gradually being pulled outside of the window. She began to remember the exact details about the pillar; It erupted from the forest, as she could tell by it's rate of growth before it swallowed her whole last night. She couldn't quite gauge exactly where in the woods it came from, but knew it was definitely a good place to start.

Getting her things together, Agatha hustled down the stairs, just about to open the front door when her grandpa's voice called.

"Where do you think you're going, young lady?" He asked, sitting in his chair in front of the TV.

"I uh... Just heading out for a bit."

"Agatha, dear, where were you last night? I thought you were safe in your room, yet you came home later at night. What happened?"

"Just uh", Agatha thought of an excuse, "Hanging out with some friends."

Her grandpa turned around to look at her in mild surprise, then shrugged his shoulders and turned back around.

"Alright then. Don't stay out too late again."

"I won't. Bye!" Agatha called, rushing out the door. She went down a few blocks, hopped a bus, then got off at the forest entrance, walking along the road that cut into it. She didn't know what she would've found, nor was she certain she would have liked it.

As she walked, she eventually reached what had to be the epicenter. A massive glowing crater, surrounded by police tape. Nobody else was present, tho-- Wait.

Someone else was here. Jaden, the guy from the group in the otherworld last night. He stood next to the crater, looking down at it just as confused as she had been. She hung back a bit-- He hadn't noticed her yet. Her thoughts raced in her mind about what to say, before she suddenly just shouted.

"Hey!"

Wow, great reintroduction. Agatha felt she wasn't entirely the one in control when she called out at them. Maybe the Lady Bug was having a greater effect over her than she thought. Regardless, she revealed her own presence, quickly approaching Jaden.

"You came here looking for the cause of us getting abducted last night? Me too... Looks like we just found it" she noted, looking down at the crater they stood over.

'Course it wasn't long until somebody joined Jaden at the "fun crater".

It didn't seem all that fun.

Jaden raised an eyebrow and turned his head towards the newcomer and saw that it was one of the weirdos who he met in that weirdo dimension. It was that really tall chick - and Jaden meant really tall. Probably so tall her weirdo ass busts her head on the doorframe when she walks through. Probably gotta buy man clothes, too! Though, Jaden knew she was one of those magical whatever the fucks that are in Araminta. It was obvious that they were sent to the Outside because they weren't normal. Way too obvious. Just what kind of weird was Agatha? Awakened? Jaden also heard of other types, but he didn't know what they were or what to even call them!

Though, she didn't make too great of a first (... and a half) impression on Jaden.

"Hey!" She said, "You came here looking for the cause of us getting abducted last night? Me too... Looks like we just found it"

Jaden craned his head as he looked at Sherlock Holmes here.

"If by "Found the cause," you mean we found a random ass hole in the ground," Jaden started, flatly, "then yeah, we found it."

Jaden gave her his usual, award-winning™ shit-eating grin.

"Okay, I'm not gonna say nothin'," Jaden said as he put his hands up, still grinning. "But, we found where whatever gay ass magic was casted or whatever. What we don't know is who did it, or why. So, I gotta ask ya'; do you know anything about what happened? Or where that Brianna chick went?"

Jaden put his hands on his hips.

"Or better yet; any way to get back into the Outside?"



Eventually, the Shuck lead Elias (and any others) to the body of the man that was just skewered by the Moose. It was a brutal sight... and the trail of blood led off into the distance. However, the Shuck walked to the side of the man's body and lied down. Staring directly at Elias unflinchingly as it spoke in a menacingly deep voice.

"Elias Levi... I have two warnings for you, and it's up to you whether or not you share it with your fellow Extra-Normal beings, as I am only making this warning once," The Shuck started, "I am the Hound, the guardian of the balance between all life and death. If any of you attempt to cheat death or aid somebody else in cheating death; I will come for you. And if I do..."

The Shuck - or rather, the Hound - let those words hang into the air.

"... there is not a damned thing any of you can do to stop me."

The Hound stood up on its feet as it walked to the side of Elias as it said, "I also have to warn you about the Outside and the dangers of it. Now that you've escaped the Outside once; its attendant will want you back to play its sick games. And she will hunt you until the end of time itself."

The Hound chuckled.

"I may assist you, but my price may be more than what you can pay... I'll at least tell you to trust the girl with the cellphone."



While Tristan was venting about their situation, there was a black oily substance growing on the wall that he chucked his weapon at. It started as one spot as if someone spilled their drink on it. However more and more liquidy spots began appearing - until the substance was an enormous black mass on the wall. Suddenly, a girl with blue skin came out of the wall almost as if it wasn't there. Her eyes were just orange masses and her agape mouth was the same. Whenever she moved, there was an unnatural twitching to her movement. Suddenly she'd be standing still, then another she would have a dozen arms. Then another second her arm would be up.

Ț̴̼̓h̷̙̝̾ä̶̡́t̷͍̓̀ ̴̯͝ḥ̶̨͋̓ǘ̵̟r̸͚͐t̶̨͙̔.̵̭̆̅͜

The thing spoke... except there was something wrong with its voice. It sounded like a few hundred voices were speaking at the same time. All demonically deep, and very hard to understand. When it saw Tristan, it smiled.

Ǒ̷͈͍h̵̯̣͒̄,̶̨̈́̇͜ ̸͖̃͐ȧ̴̤̻͒ ̷̭͍̓̆ñ̸̻̤e̷͔̤̓w̴̙̼̽ ̷̤̒͘f̵̮͑r̷̝̭̔͝i̴̝̊̒e̴̛̥͓͂ṇ̸̯̓d̸̨̘͆?̸̲͌̑ͅ ̵̬̻́̍T̸̗̓h̸̓̍͜ē̷̛ͅ ̶͈̲̅Ŗ̸̲̅͘e̴͕̿̃d̵͎́̋-̴̹̙͆͋ò̸̧͓n̶̙͉̄͐e̶͕̒͂ ̴͈̭͒̐p̴̡̳͌ŕ̸̲̪o̸̧̓̕m̵͔͕͛͐ï̴̗̚s̸̼̅͝e̴̯̭͐̆ḓ̴̔ ̷̢̋n̵̰̈́͝ẻ̷̗ẅ̴̻́ ̸̛̜̰f̷̺̃̓r̷͕͗ȋ̵̪̘e̵̡̜̓͐n̸͍̩͑d̸̳̔̄s̵̡͙͠ ̵͉̲͑͂t̵̝̊o̴̥̓̕ ̷̘̜̀p̵̗̑l̸̙͛ā̵͍ỳ̵̥͜ ̶̨͋̈́ẅ̷̢́̎ỉ̵̹ṭ̶̊̉h̵̗͙̿,̵̭̮̎ ̷̨̻͂b̶͖͕̊̃ṷ̴̋͠t̶͕̜͆̔ ̶͖̿̅s̶̜̗̋h̵̳͋̕ͅè̵̪ ̶̢̬̚d̴̲͑̆i̶͕̬̚d̵̗̫͂̾n̵͉̾̀'̷͙̊̕t̵͎͇͐̎ ̶̢͇̽s̷͔̑̑ȇ̶̜͔n̴̥͚̎d̵̞̼̐ ̸͈͙̈́̽y̴͎͠o̵̥̾̐ͅu̵̙͍͒͂ ̶̭͒͑ḣ̸̙͂e̷̛̥͜ṟ̷̱̋e̴̛͉̰,̸͎͌͠ ̵̰͓͂͠ḑ̴͓̀ỉ̵̤d̴̢́̄ ̶̮͊͜s̴̺̚h̴͚͍͋̌ę̵̐?̸̣̘̓

The thing kept talking, moving unnaturally. In the blink of an eye, it had its hands over its face as if it was covering its eyes.

T̵̼̍̾h̴͖̺͋̅a̶͎̹̍ț̵̠̊͠ ̵͉̒͜m̷̳̉ē̷͚ả̶͕n̸̺͖̓͑ś̷̠͐͜ ̶̣̙̐́y̶̘͛ͅo̵̳͌ú̷̳ ̵̯̱́̂ç̶̳̓å̷̰m̵̧͎͑͊e̴̮̜͆ ̷̼͆̓h̵̟̀e̴̬̥͆r̶̩͒ḛ̷̚ ̴̰̘͗o̴̺͕̔͊ñ̴̮̍ ̸͍̓̕y̶̭͠ó̴̝̲͆u̷̪̎̀r̶̠̠̅͌ ̶̛͚͚͑ö̷̬w̶̟̿͛n̸̫̾ ̸͓͆͊ā̶̺͛c̶̫̈́͝c̶͙͔̿ò̸͚̋r̵̪͖̃̅d̷̗̜̈̕.̷̗̒ ̷̯̯͘T̶̝̖̆́h̸͘ͅą̸́t̷̤̂̀ ̴̼̋c̸̤̓h̴̘̃̕â̵̘n̷̞̒͗ǵ̷̛̜̘ḙ̵͍̾̓s̵͎̕ ̷̭͔̔̕t̵̩͔̋̕h̶͓̀̈͜į̷̉̋n̸͉̚g̸̖̈́ͅs̴̳̙̓͛.̴̩͠.̴̜̭̄.̶̘̳́̿ ̴̨̮̊s̴͔͋̕ͅȧ̵̞y̴̢͛.̷̲͋.̵̑ͅ.̶͎͒̓ ̵̠̰̈́͘d̴̺͊̐ô̷͕̭ ̴͍́y̸̭͓͐ọ̵̢̌u̵̧̹̎ ̵͈̈́͆w̸͙͕̿a̴̳̩͋n̷̠̚t̷͚̾͛ ̸̳̹͂t̴̥̍̅ö̷̭́ ̸̛̟̭p̸̯̈ļ̴̘̽͒å̶̟̚ÿ̸̻́ ̵̣̎ȁ̸̦ ̸̧̈́ḡ̴͈̕a̸̼͐̀m̸̪͂e̷̟̅̓?̶̼͆

---

David frowned. He knew that there were more of them than just the few of them that had run out of that portal. The lady that the young man...Tristan was his name? Or something? Those two hadn't run out of the portal. In fact they'd only gone deeper into that strange, shadowy, wrong place. He knew there were more trapped in that...labyrinth. There was a hint of a smirk on his face from how dreadfully ironic the whole situation was, but he suppressed the urge to chuckle darkly at other people's expense. After all, he'd been there at one point in his life.

Focusing on the task at hand, David pulled a notepad from his satchel, a pen from his pocket and began to write down everything that had been said thus far, not noticing Abigail also entering the library and making brief eye contact with their group. Admittedly, the curious cat inside of him wanted to know more. Much, much more. That taste of the Outside had sparked something in him, a dangerous curiosity that he could only sate with knowledge of the unknown. To him, that meant questioning Brianna (and by extension the other lady sitting at the table) about everything they knew about the Outside and pooling their information.

As Brianna and Kaitlyn spoke about parallel universes and got the part about the Outside here changing to fit the whims and minds of its current occupants, David scribbled down everything.

"So...that means this Outside is already changing to fit the people that are still trapped there? That's...not good. Is there a...way of getting back to that Outside? I remember...not all of us back in that strange place made it out of your portal, Brianna."

David thought for a moment, tapping the end of his pen against his chin, before continuing. His next question was something; it would either turn out to be total horseshit and make him look like an idiot, or shed even more light on the situation than he would hope. After all, the tattoo on his back was the question mark to end off that 'what if?'

"And then there's the matter of the how... If you opened that portal, Brianna, is it safe to assume that there are others like you out there? People with...special powers?"

Elias was out of breathe, leaned over, supported by his knees, and in need of a nap. Two days without sleep and running on and off for miles didn't do him any favors. Shit he shouldn't have followed this thing out so far. If he'd known the trip was going to be this long he would have gone back for a car, then followed suit. Now he's alone in the middle of the forest. Something smell putrid. He looked up and immediately puked his lunch and tea.

Eli, it's okay. Turn away from it.

Elias's skin turned a little green, his bags deepened, and tears swelled in his eyes. He was...there was...body...mangled and...he puked again. The corpse was seared into his mind. If there was any hope of him sleeping tonight this said fuck those plans to high heaven.

"Elias Levi... I have two warnings for you, and it's up to you whether or not you share it with your fellow Extra-Normal beings, as I am only making this warning once," The Shuck started, "I am the Hound, the guardian of the balance between all life and death. If any of you attempt to cheat death or aid somebody else in cheating death; I will come for you. And if I do..." The thing spoke to him, but he only heard half of it, his mind still reeling from the corpse. It's name was the hound and something about cheating death and coming for him if the rule's broken.

"... there is not a damned thing any of you can do to stop me." He believed it. Somehow it's connected to the Outside and he'll believe anything at this point.

Let's get out of here. It showed us what it wanted to show us. We can't stick around.

Too bad. He's tired, in shock, and didn't run all this way to leave a few minutes later. Besides, it said the attendant of the Outside will want him back to play her games. He has a feeling he's only seen a sliver of what she's capable of and that scares him. Anything that can make living nightmares isn't to be trifled with. He needs to know more. The Hound only offered to help for a steep price. He'll pay it for a chance to not die. As much as he trust and believes in Elle, it's not unstoppable. If Brianna had waited a few more minutes he's certain the barrier would have broken and he would have been dead.

Don't! You know not to make deals with demons.

"But demons aren't as bad as the Devil." He looked down at the Hound. "What's the price for your help and what exactly are you offering? And can you be more specific about the girl with the cellphone. There's not a girl in the country without one." As far as he knows he's talking about Becky down the street or Erica in Wisconsin.

Eli, please. reconsider.

"I'm sorry, Elle. I can't. Next time we could die and I can't let anything happen to you. You've protected me for along time. It's my turn to do the same for you."

"So...that means this Outside is already changing to fit the people that are still trapped there? That's...not good. Is there a...way of getting back to that Outside? I remember...not all of us back in that strange place made it out of your portal, Brianna."

Brianna's eyes shot open as her mouth went agape.

"I... I thought I got everyone out of there!" Brianna said, with an obvious hint of the guilt of her voice. This was not good.

"Evidently not," Kaitlyn said as she narrowed her eyes at the girl.

"Well..." Brianna said as she pulled out her cellphone and it glowed with vibrant purple color for a moment before it faded. She shook her head. "I can open portals to and from the Outside, we need to get them out soon as possible."

Though, there was a curiosity in Kaitlyn. If a purple light appeared before they were sent to the Outside and if the portal was also purple... this was very suspicious. Why would Kaitlyn send them there just to bring them back? However, David was quick to ask the question she meant to ask.

"And then there's the matter of the how... If you opened that portal, Brianna, is it safe to assume that there are others like you out there? People with...special powers?"

With a nod of her head, Brianna confirmed,

"Well, have you heard about any of the magical beings that are out there?" Brianna asked. "Like umm.... Adepts, Awakened, Apparitions, Aberrants...?" She trailed off as she averted eye contact for a while.

"Me? I'm an Adept; they're hard to explain because, um, but well," Brianna ran a hand through her hair as she regained that eye contact and tried to explain, "Basically, I have genes from another universe that lets me use magic..."

Kaitlyn raised an eyebrow, which Brianna caught on.

"Wait, no, let me explain it better;" Brianna back-pedaled, "There was a race of mages from another universe that could use magic and I inherited their abilities... yeah."

Nailed it.



The Hound neck twisted unnaturally until it's lower jaw was pointed towards the sky and the upper portion of its skull was pointed directly at the ground. The Hound licked its licks lips.

"The Adept girl who saved you last night... her phone is her channeler," The Hound spoke, "I will give you information to point you in the right direction and perhaps help you against the Witch's... forces, but you seem to be on the fence about it. I'll find you when you make up on your mind."

The Hound chuckled as they faded away into black fog.

"The girl with the phone as her channeler is at the Serenity Library."