We followed the sound of singing down the halls of whatever dungeon Reed had trapped us all in.

"What is that?" Oka asked. "Oh my god, why is that so familiar?"

Lillia sighed, a pained sigh of someone who did not want to discuss the knowledge they shared. "It's...the main theme from Avel-Bee."

"That's it!" Oka snickered. "Why would anyone play that?"

"What's Avel-Bee?" I asked.

"Don't worry about it," Oka laughed. "Seriously."

As we got closer, I could make out lyrics. It sounded very old, and had the warbly notes and tones from musicals my untrained ear would have guessed to be at least a hundred years old.

"Avel-Bee, Avel-Bee, Avel-Bee what do ya seeee~?"

"Avel-Bee, Avel-Bee, Avel-Bee I see a treeee~!"

We finally reached the room the sound was coming from. A recliner was set up in front of a bunch of huge, old monitors. Someone sat in the recliner, hands lazily drooped over the rests, nearly touching the floor. Tik, Kara, and Mars entered first, checking to make sure it was safe before waving us in.

On the monitors was a black and white musical where an old man with wiry hair danced around with a much younger woman. That was uncomfortable enough already, but the sight of a dejected Penteldtam staring at the screens made it worse. Raytris shared my discomfort, staying in the back of the room.

"They get cable in here," Penteldtam said. "Good reception, too."

Mars and Kara each took a corner of the room in front of Penteldtam.

"This is my favorite, actually," Penteldtam said.

"Really?" Oka said, wincing before she caught herself.. "Uh, I mean. Great...!"

"Tch," Lillia rolled her eyes.

"Why, golly gee! Tis a day of beauty and wonder! Mayhaps should I become the principal today! Tee hee, we shall see, my dear!" The old man said, skipping around with the woman.

"What...uh...do you like about it?" Oka asked.

"Avel-Bee's ambition is a lot like my own," Penteldtam said. "He wanted to become a principal, just like me. He did it, he had it all."

The old man in the musical kept dancing around, leading the woman with him to a bedroom.

"Golly, you're super swell," Avel-Bee said, leaning and batting his eyelashes. "I sure do love you, Miss Tess."

"It's...kind of cute...?" I said.

"You don't have to be nice to Avel-Bee," Lillia said. "No one does."

"Avel-Bee, Avel-Bee, Avel-Bee, just you and meee~!" The woman sang. Avel-Bee suddenly gasped.

"Oh ding dang, my wife's gonna be home any minute!" Avel-Bee said. "Miss Tess, you gotta hide yourself!"

"Wait...what...?" I squinted.

"I told you, you don't have to be nice to Avel-Bee, it's a trainwreck," Lillia said. "The same person wrote, directed, and starred in it. He couldn't get the stage version off the ground, so he ran some finance schemes to get a movie made. It's just a bizarre semi-autobiographical tale of his many affairs and other shady dealings, trying to paint them in a better light."

After hiding his mistress in a closet, Avel-Bee dove out of a window, except he didn't really jump, his image froze and they did a corny effect where they turned the still around (fingertips of the production crew turning the sheet were visible at the edges of the screen) as he yelled, "Whoaaa!"

"Oh," I said, shivers running down my spine from secondhand embarrassment.

"Yeah." Oka said. "I have no idea how it's retained any kind of classical status."

If Penteldtam was listening to Lillia's scathing review, he didn't show it.

"Would you like to talk about what's going on, Mr. Kilander?" Tik said, taking point right in front of him.

Penteldtam leaned forward, burying his face in his hands. "Where do I even start? I lost my job, my main man Mantorvel...couldn't even get the demonic super powerful void guy to stay interested in me."

"How did you meet him?" Tik asked. "Reed, I mean."

"Well...I got some other news, and it was the last straw," Penteldtam said.

"What was it?" Tik asked.

"I..." Penteldtam sighed. "I adopted my daughter, right? 09...she requested to...not have me as her ol' pappy anymore."

"Wait, huh?" Oka said. 09 was technically Oka's cousin, but they hadn't been on good terms in a while ever since she fell in with Ovie's clique. Still, she was family.

"That's what I said when she asked for it," Penteldtam said. "Said I wasn't very responsible, and not very present, that I was neglectful and, and that I was spiraling so it'd probably get worse...I get it. The case worker we met with told me it would probably maybe be good for all parties involved."

"Well, if everyone agreed, it might be good..." Oka trailed off, clearly going through conflicting emotions about a family member maybe not technically being family anymore.

"Yeah, that's what I said too," Penteldtam said. "Then I was like, wait a minute, they'll definitely agree to it then! But the case worker was all like, 'no takes-backsies,' and that was that."

"I hope they had better verbiage than that," Tik said.

"Then I just...wandered. Void trips are nice, you can go anywhere with a scrape of the ol' fang," Penteldtam said. "I searched far and wide until I found this weird library, and saw a cool and handsome poster that I was going to take home. Then the poster started talking! And it turns out he's this cool guy! At least, I thought so. He told me if I made a pact with him and did a few favors, he could get everything back, and then some. So I took it."

As Penteldtam spoke about the pact, a hazy cloud of energy became visible around him. Part of it stretched outward behind him, a tether presumably going to Reed.

"Mr. Kilander, you see now why that was a mistake, correct?" Tik asked.

"Yeah," Penteldtam said. "Because he got bored of me already and made me just sit here while he went to trade me in for a newer model."

"Eugh," Kara said.

"Are you ready for the pact to be over? We can take care of it for you," Tik said.

"What'll happen if you do?" Penteldtam said.

"We could beat you up a bunch until it goes away," Kara said.

"Or you could just agree, and we'll sever the tie in a much less exhausting way," Tik said.

"But...what about after?" Penteldtam said.

"Realistically? You're going to have to answer for what you've done," Tik said. "I don't know if anyone's been hurt by this, but you did aid a void entity into trapping many students in a killing game."

Mars and Kara inched closer. Kara remained in front of the recliner, while Mars moved to the back.

"Do you need us to...?" I asked. "Do...anything?"

Mars shook his head, mouthing, 'We got this.'

"I guess that's fair," Penteldtam said. "I'm sorry, if that makes any of this better."

"It's a start," Tik said.

"Also, is this going to hurt?" Penteldtam said.

"You won't feel a thing," Mars said. He reached into one of his pockets. I thought he was going to pull out a knife or some weapon, but instead he pulled out a tiny pair of scissors, like the kind a grade schooler would have for arts and crafts projects, and snipped the tether of energy. "There. Easy peasy."

"Did you just cut through the pact with...scissors?" Oka said.

"Uh huh, bloodsaber scissors," Mars said, snipping them in the air a few times. "Pretty cool, yeah?"

"Girls, would you assist me in bringing Mr. Kilander home?" Tik said. "I think we're ready to wrap this up."

"But what about the others?" Lillia asked.

"I'll stay here, go make sure that's taken care of," Kara said.

Mars helped Penteldtam to his feet, draping one of the former principal's arms over his shoulders, as he was a bit wobbly and unsteady. Tik handed us each a piece of gate rosin.

Oka, Lillia, and I watched Raytris before scraping our own fangs.

"Sorry, just curious how it works with the...slime," I said. "Is that rude? It feels kinda rude to ask."

"Kinda, right?" Oka said.

"You're fine," Raytris said. "I don't have to press it on my fangs or anything, just kinda..." She had her rosin in her palm, and clapped it together, the rosin going into her. "...bloop it like that."

We watched Raytris zap back home before we scraped our fangs as well. Tik and Mars joined us with Penteldtam in tow, the warbly notes of the musical echoing as we moved between worlds, sounding more haunting the further we got from it.

"Avel-Bee, Avel-Bee, Avel-Bee, just you and meee~!"