hello my little reader friends!

Villicus- AAAH YOU'RE TOO SWEET :3 to be honest I don't have much to do over my summer break, so I'm just writing as much as I can...

I know it's not possible to please everyone, and those are very good quotes to share. I want to encourage everyone to write if they have an idea, but be warned, some people don't have anything better to do with their time than bash on the stories of beginner writers. Sometimes this can be justified, if the author is a troll or something, but why even read it if it's a troll and leave a negative review? That's only feeding the troll... I personally believe that Mr. BL's reviews are more mean-spirited than the reviews are actually meant to be. No offense to him, of course, that is only my humble opinion.

I don't see any stories on that particular dude's account, so who's to say he's a better writer than any of us are? As Villicus says, just do what you love, and we'll be your support!

I don't own the Amazing World of Gumball. Now, onto chapter 5 of Love is Invisible.

(Darwin's POV)

It... it's so dark. Where, exactly, did I go?

The only light I am aware of is none other than the ghostly pale glow of my own form. It was no longer a body, of course. As a spirit, I am merely taking the shape of what my body looked like. But I'm not really all there. I'd need my body for that.

But no mortals are allowed in the Underworld.

The rest is unknown to me. Nothing but the shadows. I feel a sense of hopelessness arise, lingering within me. Fear. Panic. Dread. Anticipation for the very worst. My family, Carrie... They must be mourning, wondering how I could possibly be so stupid...

My family... was bound to move on sometime, right?

"Darwin Watterson?" A voice calls out to me. A pair of blank white eyes appear from the darkness. I don't think I've never been more afraid. I'm shaking, my legs fail me. The eyes just continue to stare.

"Ten years old," the voice continues, the eyes unblinking, but seeming to bear a glint of sympathy, "how unfortunate when they die so young. Cause of death, presumed suicide through... unorthodox means. Time of death: 3:17 AM. Last words spoken in the mortal realm were 'I love you'..." The voice trails off, perhaps confused. Its stare hardens, seeming to be appraising me.

"There is no need to fear us. We are merely the servi mortis, the servants of death. It is merely our job to evaluate new souls that arrive here. If we cannot decide your placement here, you are to be put in Limbo for the time being. However, since you are only a child, your judgement, even for your cause of death, must be less severe. That is the rule. The Underworld can be an unfamiliar, distressing place for the souls of children, who have not yet matured and most do not understand the circumstances of their deaths, so we must do what we can to ease their discomposure before they are judged for their actions in their former life."

I manage to get on my feet again, taking a deep breath. Was I really dead, necessarily...?

I can't bring myself to listen properly to the voice, though its next words merited my attention.

"You have proven yourself to be a very kind and very well liked person in your life. Your morality and forgiving nature made you well admired by your peers. You never knew your biological parents, but were adopted by the Wattersons. They love you as if you were their own, but you believe you are a nuisance to them... you hid a lot of negativity beneath a positive exterior, despite those who care and love you... Is this, perhaps, what drove you to your death?"

They were forgetting something, I knew. Perhaps the Underworld does not monitor everything that occurs in an individual's life.

"No," I reply, "that's not why I chose to become a ghost."

The eyes in the dark seemed bemused at my choice of words.

"Then, please explain your reasoning."

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(Carrie's POV)

Guiding Gumball and Anais through the purple haze was quite a challenge. We heard a sound from a short difference, something we couldn't see. It sounded like the laughter of a child, but warped and distorted. Gumball hides behind Anais almost instinctively.

"There's a monster that lives in here. It can see through this smog. It sneaks up on unsuspecting ghosts and tries to catch them."

Gumball whimpers.

"But it's probably the least intimidating labyrinth monster. Compared to the other ones, this one is like being pursued by a bunch of happy puppies or a unicorn that farts rainbows and poops butterflies."

Hmm... gross.

This doesn't really help Gumball and Anais, though. The laugh gets louder, the monster drawing closer to us.

"It knows we're here. We need to fly away, now! I know the way out of this labyrinth! Come on!"

I fly as fast as I can, Gumball and Anais following suit, as the monster appears from the haze, a serpentine creature with a messed up looking face- like its laughter, demented, heavily distorted- gnashing its fangs at us, eyes darting in every direction wildly. It flies oddly, in a slightly lopsided way, as if it couldn't focus on a single target.

"Eww... it looks like a giant snake with the face of a... what is that!? It looks really unnatural!" Anais obviously isn't sure what to think of this entire situation.

"IT HAS, LIKE, 1200 ROWS OF SHARP TEETH!" Gumball is screaming now, "ARE YOU SURE THERE ARE OTHER MONSTERS THAT ARE WORSE!?"

"Absolutely," I reply calmly. I teleport away for a moment. Just before the monster could do anything to the siblings, it notices me from far away. It returns that way to find me and gets confused upon finding nobody there. I teleport back to Gumball and Anais.

"What was that!? It could've eaten us and killed us a second time... I don't even know how that works! Would we... cease to exist or something?" Anais continues to talk about how this situation confuses her as I explain my actions, mainly to Gumball:

"The monster is easily distracted, so I made a diversion. I've been through this before. Let's hurry up and go."

I drag them out of the end of the maze, and the monster screeches at us in annoyance. Gumball makes a rude gesture at it as we go.

"Don't provoke it," Anais mutters.

The haze fades away as we make our way into far stranger territory, beyond the first labyrinth. No surprises there, but it only got worse from here on out.

stay tuned for the next chapter of TALES OF INTEREST! ...Wait, wrong show.