We rush through the place, although Star is slowing down the pace more than he should. That vamp crashes through airships when he feels like it, but now he’s moving this slow. Ugh. The world around us darkens. Thin white threads spring around us. Pale cracks leak through. Something weighs over my head, pulling me down into a headache. 

The black splotches violently snap around us, whipping in rotations. One of them snags Wendy by the foot, pulling her. I contemplate calling over for my bodyguard or using my bullets. Before I choose one or the other, that vile beast from before rushes to Wendy’s rescue. It bites onto the splotches that latched onto her owner. 

That abomination liberates the girl. However, it takes her place as the void takes it deeper inside. “Cola! W-Wait, come back, girl,” our young scientist desperately calls for her creation with a trembling voice. I take her wrist before running back closer to Star, “We don’t have time for this!” 

Star swats an onslaught of shadowy figures, ridding them of our way. Left to right. Right to left. They all spray white with each swipe of the vampire’s hand. Still, I feel a mere rhythm without the vigor I noticed in Star before. Sure, I guess that’ll allow us to pick up the pace. But we need to get out of here as soon as possible, and I'd rather my bodyguard get rid of everything.

“Star, why are you taking your sweet ass time with this? This isn’t a hike. We need out!” I yell over at Star. Wendy, freed from my hand, continues to adjust her strange contraption. The thread displays monotone images of Pete looking down from the point of view.

“I’m still thinking about what happened earlier,” Star confesses. Wendy stops tinkering for a moment before looking to the side, trying to hide her face. The displays resume, more and more of the same bastard’s face haunts the world.

“I don’t need this shit right now, just pick up the pace,” I urge. Star’s cold breath leaks through this glooming void, inhaling and exhaling. The threads collaborate on displaying a massive image of my vampiric bodyguard from above. Like a floating corpse, staring down at him. I glance over at the real Star, looking up at this projected world like the display shows. Almost mirroring him. 

“I STAINED MY HANDS, MABLE!” Star blurts out in anger as he rips a massive hole in the world around us. It glows bright white. Its lights shine on us, guiding us out. The loose visions from before fade away.

I contemplate telling him to “get over it”, but I pull in Wendy with me as we break out of this void. Star goes in first, with the kid and me being close second. The world glows bright white before fading to reality. I find myself getting up, as if waking from a dream.

“Huh, what happened?” I ask out loud. “I was pulled into that before, and I still don’t understand much about it. Best to not overthink it,” Star admits as he stands up. I glance over at Wendy, who is currently encased by the Shadows, latching onto her legs. She’s just now waking up. I fire rounds from my gun till the clicking starts. They did a decent bit of work on them; however, it’s not enough. I’ve got nothing left.

Star fortunately pulls Wendy out of the dark splotches, freeing her from that prison. While four-eyes herself looks mostly unharmed, black patches remain on her leg. It latches onto her limb, stringing bits of itself as it moves ever so slightly. Like a plant grown around an object. “Ack, my leg!” Wendy shouts in panic. “What the fuck? Is that bad?” My concern grows over this strange situation.

Wendy, still holding onto Star for support, eyes at whatever the hell she got on her leg. “Well, either I’m in the middle of a transformation or my leg just hurts like hell, and I can’t move it,” Wendy shakes as she holds onto that device that she’s been working on. I see that she’s got a lot to worry about. I offer to help her, “Ugh, fine. I’ll carry you.”

I’m doing so much for this damn kid. She'd better be worth all that trouble. Whatever. She’s useful. Like Star.

“Uh, you don’t have to.” “Go and walk on your own then, cause I don’t need Star to be distracted.” “Alright, alright!” Wendy responds. I lift her, giving her a piggyback ride. “I’m useless either way, and Star needs his hands for killing,” I say out loud. My gun is empty. Wendy is still trying to figure out the mechanism of her small machine, twisting and wiring parts together. Star should solely focus on what’s ahead of him. 

We walk through the storm of Shadows with Star cutting them apart with his bare hands. He’s picking up the pace that I need him to reach. He recognizes that he can’t just fuck around, and now he’s tearing apart anything in front of him, regardless if they struck first or not. He’s not letting anything get a chance to retaliate. I believe this is what Pete meant by a lawnmower. Someone who can wipe out the Shadows like it’s a housework chore.

“There! I see a crack, it’s glowing like the one we saw. I think that’s our exit!” Wendy excitedly shouts over. “So loud…” I comment. “Huh,” Star momentarily stops to look around. “It’s right in front of you, idiot!” I try to redirect him. There it is. A large golden glow emits from a massive crack in the invisible barrier. It really reframes this island as nothing but a self-contained world. We found it, the way out.

We get close, however, countless other Shadows fly over the area as if they were willed to organize. Thousands and thousands swarm around us. It’s acknowledging our presence rather than passively attacking. And finally, a familiar face hovers above the eye of the tornado. A dark figure taking the form of a tyrannical tween now in this faceless void-like puppeteer.

Its hands wave around, commanding the swarm to strike. Many figures follow, falling into a hailstorm of splotches. They rocket for our vampire.

Star propels the momentum of his current pace, accelerating it as he thrusts his hand through the swarm. He pulls back, dragging them all with a single mighty hand, twisting and turning them. My bodyguard swings the Shadows around in a whirlpool of hell, beating the shit out of the figure resembling that fairy-dust-loving fuck. With each hit, many of the dark blobs fall apart.

Just as I was about to tell Wendy to quell her worries, the dark puppeteer rockets towards Star. Sure, my bodyguard can handle this little shit on his own. Sure, he can do a lot. But a wave of splotches rises like a tsunami, overtaking Star and scrambling him around in its own mess. A mess of Shadows.

I witness the black sea pull Star in and out, stripping his autonomy in this suffocation. His body rattles in this jet-black flood. This flood contains itself in a bubble, tightening itself in this mass as both of us watch. 

“Hey, four-eyes! You done with that thing?” I panically ask. “N-N-No, I’m not yet done! I can’t deal with p-pressure!” Wendy tenses even more than I as she responds. Her fingers slip around before dropping the device that I caught with my hands.

The gooey orb rips wide open in front of us with Star holding his bare hands, mustering his vampiric strength to keep this thing from closing. “Run for the exit. N-Now!” Star’s flat voice cracks as he yells. The blob collapses on Star. I don’t have time to argue with him about shit. I run off as I hope that Wendy gets her shit put together.

“Hey, now would be a great time-” “I’m almost done, Ms. Sable!” Wendy blurts out in frustration. The void-like world chases us, its odor getting stronger. Four-eyes is spinning the wires on her device. 

“Please! Shut up, I have to think!” She continues. I continue sprinting through, avoiding as many lashes as I can. The young scientist rapidly types on the board of her contraption. 

“I’m sorry for telling you to shut up, but my mind is feeling numb, and any moment all of us can-” Wendy gets interrupted as something tugs under my feet. I trip over. Fuck. I tumble. Wendy separates from me. Her anti-Shadow device—or whatever the hell it is—flies in another direction. Me, Wendy, and that thing she was working on are now distant from each other. Separated. I’m closest to the crack. It’s so close that I can get there if I book it. 

I glance back at Wendy. She might be able to crawl somewhere, maybe even to the exit. No, the Shadows might claim her before she gets there. Her only hope is either me or that device. Star is presumably dead. I can’t waste time. I could survive, but… I don’t wanna get trapped in a loop. 

I watch her for perhaps the final time. Her eyes scanning between me and that gadget of hers, she tries to call out to me, but I block my ears in an attempt to ignore her. I can’t be guilted into fucking myself over again. I run for the exit and finally…. I’m outside.

Tendrils try to reach for me, but they’re too fat to squeeze out. I’m out in yet another forest, but this time at night. A half moon beaming down in place of the constant sunlight from Neverland or whatever that hell was called. I’m safe from the carnage. For now.

I can’t worry about anyone from that side. I shouldn’t. I have to keep moving. I have to keep myself alive and-. What the fuck!?

A hand strikes through the black tendrils, poking through. I can’t tell whose hand this belongs to with all the shadowy stuff stuck to their arm. “Hey, kid? Is that you?” I ask, hesitant to get closer. “Look, I don’t wanna get too close but-.” The black goo bursts open.

Before me is Star, tattered and bleeding from whatever the hell just happened. His cold breath flows out of him. Blood and splotches taint his curly hair. His cloak is now missing from everything. However, despite everything, he comes empty-handed. Shit.