Parading around a house, a conglomerate of four individuals danced: a Goblin who was clapping her hands and giggling, alongside her was an anthropomorphic shark who was grinning his teeth bright flashing and beautiful– behind the two was a skeleton dressed in a pirate attire, contrasted to the others, he was two-dimensional, flat from the sides and only visible from the front and back, it didn’t trouble him though, as he sang along with the crew.

“We are the Churnholl pack!” they sang however there was one of them that stayed silent the whole charade. A red short statured imp, blanched amber wings with a tail that was jagged and pointy. Ears poking out their skull, protruding, and bright golden eyes– it swirled, no pupils or iris in sight but instead just a swirl of emotions.

The skeleton turned around, they changed formations into a train, but the devil never put their hand on anyone’s shoulder, each of the hooligans realised one by one– turning around in a sequential pattern to face the Imp before all singing together in harmony.

“What is wrong? Mister Imp!”, their tone both joyous and saddened, unable to comprehend, unable to see a killer in front of them.

The Imp looked up to the sky, averting their gaze from the crew to look at the sky, the bright blue sky once before tainted with blood, pouring down from the clouds and replacing the precious clear rain. They looked away as blood started to target their eyes, before speaking to the people.

“I’m sorry family,” the Imp spoke in a formal tone, “I’m sorry to you Debra. I’m sorry to you Biteso. I am especially sorry to you, Skelsor. But I cannot stay at home anymore.”

The three bellowed instantly, tears flowing down their faces and so was the house- a face emerged on the front and it started to cry as well.

“But Masalor!” The ensemble sobbed, “It’s been such a short time.”

“Yes, only a couple of months– I’ve been tallying.” The Imp coldly stated before covering their face, “But I think it is time for me to go to my father, Thidos.” A slight grin could be seen underneath their palm but it wasn’t seen by the three, a house all alone in the middle of nowhere.

Skelsor began to speak, flapping his arms around, “You did say that your father sent you to our home as a holiday resort for your good grades! I’ll make sure to tell him how great you’ve been.”

“Don’t worry my friend,” The Imp chuckled, “I’ll tell father how good I’ve been”. All of a sudden a bindle appeared on Zero alongside sunglasses and a tuxedo.

The Imp then ran off.

“See you soon!” The family waved off, still sobbing but also chuckling.

2 Weeks Later In The Labyrinth

“I’m going to kill that bitch.” The Imp muttered underneath their breath, no form of bloodlust oozing or excitement just. “Sent me to the fucking boonies, with my dead friends from way back”. Zero was traversing a desert, pole vaulting with their tail to make the travel distance less tense.

“But Zero, whose fault is it that you’re in this situation? Whose fault is it that you have puppets replacing the dead and forcing you into a playhouse.” A quiet but stoic voice spoke.

“Get out of my head.” Zero muttered.

“But it is your fault, you should’ve never revealed your hiding spot!” A feminine and bold voice spoke.

“You aswell?” The Imp punched themselves in the head.

“Taking advantage of the deceased, it’s their fault that our friends are gone as well. Therefore, Amarze and Thidos will die.” A dorky voice spoke out.

“We have to find a way out of here.” The stoic voice spoke.

“You seriously think Thidos.. left a way out?” A sassy voice spoke, blowing bubblegum mid sentence.

“Have you tried everything Zero? I can take the lead.” The feminine voice spoke.

Zero began to talk outloud, “Growing doesn’t work, the sky just keeps moving further and further. That also ruled out flying. The distance between the desert and a potential escape is infinite I presume. Our best shot is…”

“You don’t mean..” The stoic voice broke and quivered.

“We’ll have to die.” The dorky voice spoke, “Thidos stated we’d have a better chance in our next life. But a chance of what? Doing well. No, it was a tease of course. With that demon it’s only about.. immortality.”

Zero screamed out loud, vitriol and passion blended, “That bastard wants to fight us!”. Thicky gooey saliva oozing from their mouth as their eyes swirled and swirled and swirled, “We come back to reality, all fucking smoking shit and we’ll kill this dunce and kill Amarze and that BITCH who survived the trial! Let’s hope we ain’t late for the special occasion!”

“Sure,”

A voice from the heavens spoke out.

“For such a pest, who troubled the games for decades. You catch on really late, 1 trial a day and over 5 decades, think of the people you ruined the chances of. Be more sympathetic. Let’s hope next time I see you, you aren’t a disappointment.”

The Imp laughed louder, echoing and combatting the volume of Thidos, “We’ll bring you some death as a souvenir you-”