AN: Hey... This book is already more than halfway over... I'm so proud of myself for getting this far. If I finish this, it will be my third official novel. Yay ^^ Key for the confused: Dream Ooo-"Silent Hill", Other Ooo-"Other World/Reverse Side, Regular Ooo-"Actual Ooo from the show..."

Chapter Eight

The train ride lasted much longer than the trio had expected. Unlike last time, they encountered no monsters in the train, since they were already in the first train car. Turns out, it wasn't the ice castle the train dropped them off at, but the Candy Kingdom itself. The train, much like the rest of the town, seemed to know where they were going and what they wanted to do. It was foggy outside, indicating that they were in the Dream Ooo world, unlike the Other Ooo, in which it was always pitch-black outside.

"Hmm... I don't recognize this street," Finn said with a faint hint of nervousness.

"Well, it's a big kingdom. There's no telling where we could be," Heather said.

"James, could you get the map out of my pack?" Finn said while he stopped and leaned back in James's direction. Without replying, James dug his hands around in Finn's pack and pulled out a folded map. Finn thanked him and opened it. "Hey, this street isn't even on the map! But we're obviously in the Candy Kingdom... Oh, wait, it's here, at the bottom."

Heather looked at the map over Finn's shoulder. "Was that street there before?" She pointed to the street next to the one they were on. "Or this one, or that one..."

Finn squinted as he eyed the map with much more care. "I... Oh glob. I don't think they were."

"It still leads to the castle, right?" Heather asked.

"It should. I don't see any roadblocks," Finn replied confidently. "Let's go."

The trio began walking down the street they were dropped off at, "Blueberry Boulevard". It was an uncommon name, since most things after here were named after a candy or snack food of some sort, but everything resembled the Candy style so much that none of them questioned it too much. They made a turn onto what they thought was going to be "Lollipop Lane" but instead read "Gingerbread Avenue". Finn quickly unfolded the map and gasped.

"What?" Heather asked.

"We're on a totally different part of the map!" Finn exclaimed. He pointed at the upper left hand corner of the paper. "Look!"

Heather took the map from his hands and let out another tiny gasp. He was right, they were in a different part of the kingdom. "But... How did we..." She even noticed James looked a bit surprised, quite unlike the blatantly emotionless expression he had cemented on his face before.

Finn grabbed the map and began running back toward "Blueberry Boulevard". As he made the turn, he noticed another different street sign that said "Gumdrop Street". "Hey, guys! It's a different street again!" He yelled. He looked behind himself and saw that his friends weren't with him. "That can't be good."

Heather and James, meanwhile, were watching in amazement at what they just saw. The minute Finn got close to the street sign, he vanished. "Hey, I'm gonna go get him," Heather said while folding up the map and putting it in one of her vest's breast pockets.

"Don't. We'll all split up," James argued.

"Well, come with me, then," Heather said. "It's just like that train... But we could get permanently lost in here. We need to stick close together until we find Finn."

The two headed for the same curve that Finn ran to, in hopes of ending up on the same street as he did. When they turned the corner, they were pleased to see that they had not been sent to two different streets. However, their street was "Rocky Road". Because the duo did not know they were on a completely different street than Finn, they began loudly shouting his name. "Finn! Finn, where are you?"

They heard a faint voice cry out from many streets over. "Heather! James! What happened?"

Heather yelled in reply, "Everytime we cross a street sign, we're warped to a new street!" She turned around to see James holding his ears shut and taking a few steps back. Heather's eyes got wide. "No, no, no, don't!"

It was too late. James had backed up to the street sign and was now gob knows where. All three were in a completely different part of the massive Candy Kingdom. "Can you both hear me?" Heather howled at the top of her lungs. All she needed to hear was a reply.

"Barely!" she heard Finn reply. Duh, I just talked to him, Heather thought suddenly. She also heard an undefinable muffle in the distance, and she couldn't decide whether the Other Ooo was playing tricks on her or if that was James. She looked at her map again. "This isn't going to help at all," she unhappily grumbled and folded her map back up. She gulped and observed her surroundings. Looked the same as the rest of the Dream Ooo. She began to walk to the end of the street when she heard buzzing on her radio. It got louder and louder. She pulled out her handgun and held it up, but no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't identify the source of the static. Soon after, she heard faint giggling, then the fading of static. When it was silent again, Heather slowly continued walking with her nerves on edge.

Finn also heard static. Apprehension consumed him, and he shuddered violently while holding his steel pipe close to his torso. Shadows danced in his peripheral vision, but every time he turned his head, they disappeared. Only when he saw these shadows did his radio emit static. His inability to turn his head fast enough angered him. The next time he saw some shadows, he stayed completely still and watched them from the corner of his eye. It was difficult, but he was desperate to see what tormented him. The shadows, all of which seemed to be a black, misty reflection of himself, slowly approached him since he did not turn his head. One very short one that seemed very young held out a tiny, chubby hand and almost touched Finn's leg until he whipped around and began yelling like crazy. The minute he looked at them, though, they disappeared. His bottom jaw quivered.

James was having a bit more luck than the other two. In the time it took Finn and Heather to realize the shadows were real, James found out how to stop them from bothering him. Although he didn't know, and didn't want to know, if they could hurt him or not, he did know that looking at them was not enough to kill them. All they did was scatter. These things could only be seen in someone's peripheral vision. He could wildly swing at a few of them with his wooden plank and injure them, therefore slowing them down. He had to avoid looking at them or else they would just come right back. Most of the time, he just ran from them. The small ones were really fast, though, so James had to do a lot of stomping to save himself from the nuisances.

Back on Heather's street, she glanced at her map and found herself close to the castle. Only one line of attached buildings blocked her way. Instead of risking her luck by trying to go around it, she attempted to go through one of the buildings. She soon grew weary of finding nothing but doors with broken locks. When she came to a small dress shop with huge windows, the used the skillet Finn had given her and began to bang the window. Cracks appeared after the first hit. Heather confidently hit the window a few more times, and finally smashed her way through. She crawled in the window and walked toward the back. She was soon stopped by more of the peripheral shadows. One nearly skeletal, gaunt shadow managed to get very close to her without being seen. Heather only noticed it in time to see herself get stabbed by a sharp, pointed tip of an arm. She grabbed her shoulder and cried out in pain. Instead of lingering long enough to fight the monsters, she bolted to the back of the store and left through the back door. She was rewarded with the sight of the tall castle walls. "If you can hear me, then go through the buildings! They are shortcuts!"

Without his map to tell him if he was anywhere close to the castle or not, Finn felt very frustrated. On one street, he saw a faint outline of it, but by running onto the next street that appeared to lead closer to it, he became more lost than ever. Everytime he ran to the end of a street, he thoroughly examined it to see if he could see the castle walls or not. After ridding himself of a particularly nasty peripheral shadow that cut him twice in his shin, he took a turn to a new street. He was pleased to see the castle in the distance. It was barely there, but Finn had a far more firm path to follow than he did before. Taking Heather's advice, which he had heard, he used a small candy shop and decided to go through there. It was one of the few buildings in Ooo that did not have a broken lock. Surprisingly, no peripheral shadows haunted this building. He walked through and exited with ease. However, when he opened the back door, he found himself on the edge of a huge gorge that split the road in half. Since the castle was to his north east, he decided to see if he could somehow cling to the sides of the buildings and crawl to the split street on the right. He grabbed the door with shaky hands and swung himself over to the next building, where he grabbed the window sill in a death grip. He slowly scooted his hands across the window sill as he dangled from it. He edged over until he got close to the edge of the street. Finn refused to let go until both of his feet were firmly planted on the street. He smiled in his success and continued journeying forward.

James, who had also heard Heather's advice, found himself pleasantly close to the castle. On one street, he could've sworn he saw Finn dangling from a window over a gorge in the street, but he shrugged it off as his imagination. It was a dark and faint figure, anyway. The castle, not two streets over, stood tall and was now clearly visible to him, which was rare in the enveloping darkness. This street, however, had one big problem: There were no buildings with windows, and the door knobs were broken. James cursed under his breath when he tried the last door. "How do I..." He slowly cut himself off when he saw a pretzel ladder leaning up against a repair shop. "If I must," he muttered as he began climbing the ladder. It was rickety and unsteady; the crumbling pretzels threatened to give away at any moment. He placed his right foot on the third to first step on the ladder and felt the bar crumble beneath his weight. His foot shot through, and James dangled from the top of the ladder until he could place his foot on another, sturdier bar. Finally, after nearly tearing the ladder to bits, he was on the firm roof. He took a quick breather before crawling over to the other side. He slid off the top of the roof and landed on his feet, but the force and unbalanced stance while landing knocked him down completely. He stood up, dusted himself off, and proceeded across the street. After going through another building, he met the eagerly waiting Heather outside the castle.

Finally, after about another ten minutes of waiting, Heather and James saw Finn emerge from one of the buildings. "Nice to be back together," Finn said breathlessly.

"Tell me about it," Heather remarked.

"Well, let's get into that room," Finn said. The trio began walking toward the castle when he suddenly stopped and said, "You know James, you're a really quiet guy."

James merely nodded and followed his two companions into the castle.

AN: I know, nothing very special takes place in this chapter, but I want to extend this book as long as possible. Not to mention, an ever-changing maze of that size would take FOREVER to escape... Okie dokie lokie, R&R!