When Fall woke up he saw Clair sitting next to him. Or at least, he was pretty sure it was Clair.

Everything was all blurry.

“Oh, thank God you’re okay!” she cried as she pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. “You promised you would stop scaring me like that!”

“What happened?”

“Your eye got poked out by one of those rocks and it cracked part of your skull to. It’s a miracle you’re still alive!”

“How long was I out?”

“About three days. You slowed us down quite a bit, I’d say.”

Fall got up and looked in the mirror, but fell down. This will take some getting used to, he thought. When he finally saw himself, something was off.

“Clair, do you notice something different with my eye?”

“No. nothing except for that you’re missing – W-what? What happened? Why is your eye red?”

“I owe you an explanation.”

“Yes, I’d say you do.”

“I’ll tell you when the time is right.”

“What? You can’t do that! Tell me!”

“No. I don’t want to. Was there another boy here at any time?”

“Actually, yes. He’s a weird goth kid who comes around every few hours with a creepy sickle asking about you. In fact, he should be coming by any minute now.”

“Let him in this time. I know him.”

As Ash predicted, Thenos came by with the sickle. “I see you’re awake now. I meant to leave this with you, but you’re girlfriend here wouldn’t let me in.”

“She’s not my girlfriend, Thenos.”

“Oh, God. I am so confused!” Clair said. “Can you please explain what’s going on? Who is this? Why does he want to give you that thing? Why is your eye red? WHY WON”T YOU EXPLAIN!”

“This is Thenos. He’s going to come with us. He wants to help. By the way, Thenos. Do you have the list?”

“Right here.” Thenos handed Fall a small electronic tablet. “It was really long, so I put it onto this.”

“Thanks.”

“Hmm. Can we finally go now?” asked Clair.

“Oh, okay.” Replied Fall. “Where do we have to go next?”

“Iceland. I rented a yacht to take there.”

“You’re wasting all of our money. Besides, I get seasick.”

“How would you know? You’ve never been on a boat before.”

“Yes I have. On your ninth birthday you got a little rowboat and we took it out to the lake. I ended up throwing up all over you.”

“Oh, now I remember! That was my favorite shirt.”

“Yeah, well, guess what you’re going to have to deal with for however long this shitty seafaring adventure is going to last”

Clair was silent for a while. “You just cursed…”

“Yeah, so?”

“You never curse.”

“Well there’s always room for new experiences. And honestly, I don’t even care at this point. It’s not like anyone is gonna stop me.”

“Are either of you going to acknowledge me?” Thenos interrupted. “I’m supposed to help you.”

“No I won’t! I don’t even know you!”

“Oh, my God, I just explained this.”

Look kid, you’re gonna need help controlling your new powers, Thenos said in Fall’s mind.

“You can talk about this in front of her,” Fall said out loud.

“Oh cool.”

“You know, I’m not even going to worry about this,” Clair said. “Let’s just go eat. I’m hungry.”