I had just gotten done with another void incident, so I was truly hoping this wouldn't be one. But it was hard to think of this being anything else as I walked down a store that went from a relatively small one in a strip mall to one that went more than a mile backwards, it was clear something strange was afoot.

I had gone to the store with my friend Michi, and our acquaintance Tay tagged along as well. Michi was someone I greatly respected at Rising Shards. Both of us were completely fine sitting in silence, something my other friends struggled with.

"You thinking this is another stupid void deal?" Michi asked.

"Most likely," I said.

We both activated our wristbands, which gave a helpful note from their projected screens that we were in an unknown locale.

"And of course pinging for help does nothing," Michi said. "Why do they even give us these?"

"The idea is to not let our powers get out of control," I said. "But the manufacturer must have cut every corner imaginable in production."

"Which always bodes well for our safety, doesn't it?" Michi asked. "I've pretty much resigned myself to ending up in one of those void rescue facilities one of these days, and it's gonna be the wristband's fault."

"Hopefully that doesn't happen today," I said.

Up ahead, the devils we'd encountered earlier were waiting. I wasn't particularly thrilled about further interactions with them, particularly Anastasia, but we didn't have much of a choice, it seemed like it was just us in the store now. They didn't react with open disdain as Michi and I approached them, so at least we were somewhat on the same page to start on our latest strange adventure.

"So you're all here too," I said. "Or, we're all still together, rather."

"Yeah, one minute we're in an arts and crafts store, the next...an arts and crafts store, but...longer." Myles said.

"Just waiting for some annoying guy to show up and be all, 'I trapped you in my silly game!'" Ash said. "Watch it be Reed again. Or another book guy."

"It better not be another book guy, that last one was painful," Sai said. "Hopefully not any guy! No more guys! Especially weird little evil mascot dudes!"

"If it's another E.M.G., I won't hesitate destroying it," Anastasia said.

I had no doubt the devils alone could defeat a strong foe, but there was still too much we didn't know. We weren't even sure if there was a foe to face off against this time.

"Before we figure out if we need to fight anything, we should try to determine our surroundings," I said.

"Well, we're in the store," Sai said. "Kind of the same store. Now it's all long."

The Althea sisters browsed the shelves for a moment. Despite their best efforts to pull some of the merchandise from the shelves, nothing budged, as though the stock was one with the wall.

"Yeah, these aren't moving," Ash said.

"Should we just keep walking?" Michi asked.

None of our wristbands could get a scan of the environment. The store was like a long hallway now, so the only choice we had was to go forward or backward. We chose to continue ahead, we all had an unspoken sense that things would be worse if we went the other way.

In class, we were taught to observe our surroundings in any situation in the void and try to note important details, potential escape routes, places monsters may come from, potential sources of food and water, that sort of thing. It was easier in a void node that had more easily identifiable landscapes, the more abstract ones were harder to find any regular clues. I spotted one, though.

"Look here," I said, pointing at around the fourth row of would be products melded into the wall. There were creases in the wall like branches on a tree. In any other environment they'd just be creases in wallpaper, but here they were like a compass. "They say to follow the direction creases like these point to, so we're on the right track at least."

"I probably would have found that eventually if you didn't," Anastasia said. Sai and the Althea sisters all rolled their eyes. "So don't think you're better than me for catching it first."

The dynamic of the devil group was interesting to me. Since unmasking, Anastasia was typically hanging out with these three along with Esther and Charmaine. Caeda and Chickadee were devils too, but I hadn't seen either around recently, which was more troubling than relieving. Chickadee had been scheming against us far more than a classmate should ever since we first encountered her.

I couldn't begin to imagine what annoyances she could be preparing against us in the shadows. But with her and Caeda not around, I felt strangely more trusting. Even with Anastasia being the way she is.

"Hey!" Someone shouted out from ahead. The devils recognized the voice before I did and ran ahead.

Within a few hurried steps, the landscape around us shifted, going from a store to more like a backstage area in a theater. I almost wondered if we were in some kind of recreation of the school's theater until I saw monitors set up. They all had different camera angles of the set of what appeared to be a game show, one with lots of hearts around. The stage itself looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place it.

"Up here!" Sitting on the first of a row of chairs was Charmaine.

We hurried out to find her with energy bindings around her wrists.

"Y'all just forget about me? " Charmaine asked.

"We...well," Anastasia said. "I wouldn't say forget, just.."

"We were going to look for you," Sai said.

"How'd you end up here?" Myles asked.

"I dipped out when Tay showed up and started asking about prom, then I see this bright light and the next thing I know I'm stuck here!" Charmaine said.

The clunking noise of spotlights turning on made the rest of us turn around. I'm not sure what the others felt, but I felt a lurching feeling common in void expeditions, and a moment later I was in one of the empty chairs, bound like Charmaine.