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I had a nightmare, it was vicious. I dreamed of many of my smurfs possessed by the Dark Presence and were sent against me, I was running for my life. But they kept coming, and coming, and coming. Eventually they surrounded me, and just when they were about to kill me, I woke up.

I was under the mercy of the sun once more, I felt so relieved. I looked around the room and saw Chernov's smurflings sleeping against the wall, they looked tired, exhausted. I looked back at the concrete table and saw Chernov's counterpart lay there, he was still breathing, I can tell by the rise and fall off his chest. Suddenly he stirred, he was waking up.

I got up and rushed over to the bedroom door and opened it, there I saw Rachael sleeping on the bed with her mouth open. "He's waking up!" I called out to her.

She jumped, till dozed in sleep she followed me out the bedroom and back to Chernov. The completely lost counterpart opened his eyes and us, standing right before him. He did not say a word, he looks like he's scared. "Chernov?" asked Rachael, "Can you hear me?"

Chernov turned her gaze towards Rachael, responding to his name. We helped him up to his feet, when he stood back up he hugged Rachael tightly. "Its okay Chernov," she said, "Everything's fine."

Rachael guided him and sat him on the chair, Chernov was acting like a zombie, he stumbled as he walked. She managed to get him on the couch where laid back, he stared straight at the ceiling in a catatonic state. "The Rational Chernov said not to let the Hopeless Chernov near a typewriter," I instructed, "I'll head out to the village to check on things, stay here and keep an eye on him."

"Yes Pappy." said Rachael.

I left their house and head out into the Smurf Village to inspect the damage, I discover broken windows and axes lodged within some doors. The smurfs happened to be gathering around a pit where I saw them burying the smurfs who had been killed by Taken, their were only 3 who had died, they were simply chucked into a hole and Miner Smurf fills it in. By the time I arrived, the hole was completely filled in.

"How bad's the damage?" I asked.

"I'm going to be busy all day," said Handy, "So many broken windows and destroyed doors, to be honest I'm not sure if I could repair the emotional damage that had been done."

"You can leave that to me Handy." I said.

"I never understood what Chernov feels on a daily basis, but after what happened last night, I understand completely."

Many smurfs agreed with him, then I continued, "You think you can make some outdoor lamps for the village?" I asked.

"I saw the Dark Presence attacked houses with lights on," said Handy, "It simply blew out the candles, I don't know if it will do much good. We're going to need to talk to a professional about the Dark Presence, someone who knows more about it than Chernov."

"I think Mother Nature would provide us with some answers," I replied, "I'll smurf over to her home and ask her myself, maybe there is a light in the darkness after all."

"Okay Papa Smurf," said Handy, "I'll stay here and fix up things awhile you're gone, don't be gone when night falls, I don't trust the forest anymore."

I head out of the village walked straight for Mother Nature's cottage, hoping not to find it abandoned. The Dark Presence could be haunting me in the day time, it can't do anything but only watch me. If anyone knows about the paranormal of darkness, its gotta be Mother Nature. Its just little more than a hope I have, I'm not sure if she would give me an explanation about the Dark Presence.

When I approached, I saw nothing wrong with Mother Nature's cottage. Everything seemed fine, I just hope its also fine inside. I walked up to the door and knocked on it, Mother Nature opened it a moment later. "Papa Smurf?" she asked, "What's wrong?"

"I need help Mother Nature," I answered, "I got an evil that had been woken up by Gargamel and its attacking my smurfs, its called the Dark Presence."

"The Dark Presence?" asked Mother Nature, "Sounds like witchcraft to me, come in."

I walked in and jumped onto a table where Mother Nature offered me tea, I declined. She soon sat down on her rocking chair and sighed, "I knew this day would come," she said, "The birds weren't singing as usual, it had been like that for weeks. I had a run-in with the Dark Presence before but I never knew it would be released by a human, do you know the Dark Presence's intentions?"

"It used Chernov to write a story," I explained, "Word for word, the story came true. Chernov though managed to find the upper hand and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, after reversing most of the damage done by the Dark Presence it came back for him and kidnapped him. There, he was split in two, a Rational Chernov and another who's just wanna give up and die. I had to fight his Taken last night."

"What does the Taken mostly consist of?" asked Mother Nature.

"Possessed smurfs," I replied, "Both my smurfs and green smurfs."

"Green smurfs are trouble," said Mother Nature, "No wonder Chernov doesn't live with them. I think I can help you, but I need to know where is the two Chernovs are at the moment."

"The one who went insane is at our village, the other one is deep within Squeamy Squirmy Grotto, he can't find his way out of there."

"Chernov and his green smurfs are technologically advanced, what do they used to fight the Dark Presence with?"

"Flashlights, flares, flare guns, and conventional weapons."

"Light, of course. There is not much I could help you with, all I can do is place caches of supplies in various areas in your path, the green smurfs might help me set the caches up into place."

"Thanks Mother Nature, I best go now. The smurfs are worried that I will be gone too long and the sun will set."

"Don't worry Papa Smurf, I'll be sure I could give you as much support as I can."

I came for answers but left with insurance, turns out she doesn't know much about the Dark Presence more than I do. If that's the case, then the Dark Presence must be either young or so ancient that it only exists in faded spell books. No one whose that old are aware of its existence, nor do they know how to destroy it. My best bet is finding Chernov to help fix everything. He's right, I am the protagonist this time, not him.

When I arrived back at the Smurf Village an hour later, I discovered that all the smurfs were struggling to get by. Their activities were slow and unmotivated, they appear more sad than any time in their history. I've seen such depression before but nothing like this. The loss of their fellow smurfs was not only stressing, its the fact that they were turned against them, I wonder how Chernov managed to deal with his own smurfs turned against them.

A quick flashback suddenly appeared in my mind. "The body means nothing, the soul means everything." I heard Chernov's voice say.

Hearing Chernov's voice in my head also made me wonder if I was losing it, driving towards insanity. I was having a partial meltdown of reality, everything doesn't make much sense anymore.

"Pappy!" I heard Rachael's voice cried, snapping me out of my delirium.

I turned and saw Rachael rushing towards me, "Something's wrong with Chernov!" she cried.

I followed her back to her house and found Chernov on the floor, shaking in fear. "Handy comes down with an ax," he blurted, "Tasting Papa Smurf's death!"

That was frightening, not to mention he was speaking in Russian as well. Cherskey and Nelly were no where in sight, so they haven't seen what's happening. We tried to get Chernov back on the couch, but he was fighting us. I cannot compare Chernov's strength to Hefty's, as Chernov can pulverize Hefty with his bare hands. But Rachael got the upper hand, literally, by doing a nerve pinch on Chernov's weak spot.

Chernov stopped screaming and squirming immediately, then he goes limp as he calms down. "There we go." said Rachael.

"You seem to know what you're doing Rachael," I said, "I haven't even done anything yet."

"I know how to tame Chernov," said Rachael, "You gotta know his physiology, he enjoys massages so that's how I discovered his weak spot."

"Why did he went crazy?" I asked

"He just went ballistic without warning."

"He said Handy will come down with an ax, does that sound like a prediction to you?"

"Since his writing can come true, why not his quotes?"

The thought caught me by the cross-hairs, if this is the case then Chernov don't need a typewriter to make scenes come true. "I'm going to prepare for this Rachael," I finally say, "I'm going to go out there tonight and rescue Chernov, I had enough of this nightmare."

"I don't think its called a nightmare anymore Pappy," said Rachael, "Its hell."

TO BE CONTINUED...