Chapter 21: Rescue

Greg continued to sulk as he thought about the event that occurred hours ago. His parents had already come home, and they were completely unaware that Wirt wasn't even in his own room. His body was drifting hopelessly inside the freezing lake they both fell into the first time. Jason croaked a saddened croak.

Greg stared at his assignment, knowing he would never get it finished at this rate. Winter Break would soon be over in a couple of weeks, and the deadline was coming up soon, but Greg just didn't feel like he could continue.

"What are we gonna do, Jason?" the frog could do nothing but croak in sadness. Greg closed his eyes for a second and thought. When he opened them back up, he sighed again for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Greg felt a cold chill coming from the outside, but he really didn't acknowledge it too much due to the certain predicament.

The younger boy got up from his desk chair and walked over to his bed where Jason Funderburker lay sad and worried for Wirt. Greg slid into bed and pulled the covers over him and Jason and then he pulled the frog into a tight embrace. "I know it hurts, but…we'll get through it somehow, I just know we will." A tear fell form Greg's eye as did one from Jason's eye.

The thought of never seeing his brother scared Greg. He wished that Wirt could be right there with him, comforting him and telling him that everything is okay. But of course Greg knew that it couldn't happen right now, but hopefully if Greg could save him, then maybe there was a way. It began to snow outside again and the room started to feel colder than before, but Greg and Jason were hidden under the covers, so it really didn't matter to them.

Greg got out out of bed and walked back over to sit in his desk chair. He eyed his essay over again, trying to find a new determination.

Then he realized something.

Greg read through the essay with wide eyes, determined not to miss a single detail. Jason was concerned about Greg's actions and decided to watch as he kept looking at the paper. The cold wind pierced through the room, but Greg was too busy scanning through his assignment to notice. The younger boy looked up from his paper with wide eyes.

"I just figured out how to save Wirt."

Wirt kept walking through the darkness as he mostly did these days, either talking to himself, or singing a depressing song, reciting depressing poetry, or not saying anything at all. He wasn't doing anything but walking at the moment. He had no other goal except to get out of the void, but that wasn't currently possible at the moment.

He stopped for a second and closed his eyes as he collected his thoughts. He took in a deep breath and opened his eyes again. All of a sudden, a huge sound exploded form outside the barrier. The loud sound caused the ground to shake.

Wirt tried to keep his balance, but in the end, he ended up falling over. He figured that the hatred must be trying to break in, and once that happened, Wirt would drown in it and die. He'd have nowhere to hide from it. He decided not to stand back up, but instead he just decided to sit for a while and think. The older boy buried his face in his hands and thought about certain things.

When he looked back up, he saw the strangest thing. He saw…a shadow, and it looked a lot like Greg for some reason. Wirt had been seeing the shadow a lot, but decided not to think too much about it. The shadow came closer and closer to Wirt as he wondered whether or not he should take it as a red flag.

Eventually, Wirt decided that shadows that look like Greg were the least of his problems right now, so the shadow approached and held out its hand to Wirt. The older boy accepted and put his hand inside the shadows. The little shadow pulled him up off of the ground.

"Uh, thank you."

The shadow nodded and gave a thumbs up before running off into the darkness. "Um, okay." Wirt sighed and started walking off into the darkness again. What was that shadow that kept helping him? It seemed sort of like Greg, but Wirt could tell that it wasn't.

Something weird was going on inside the mind void that even The Beast didn't know anything about, and whatever it was, something was telling Wirt that it was on his side and that it wouldn't be any danger to him. Wirt continued to think about the shadow as he walked off into the darkness of the mind void.

Greg was home, packing everything he needed to take with him into The Unknown. Jason would also be accompanying the boy to help save his brother. Greg was packing some essentials in a small sack. He packed some food and water and some more essential, but more importantly, he was taking his essay assignment.

He knew how to save Wirt and he was going to do it no matter what, and that was a personal promise he made to himself and to Wirt. Jason croaked a croak of determination, or at least a croak that sounded like determination anyway. Greg smiled at the frog and went back to packing his things.

"Is there anything that you want to bring along?" Jason croaked in what sounded like a 'no' answer. "Okay, just tell me if you change your mind." The smile faded as Greg continued to pack his belonging for a trip that could possibly risk his life.

Going into The Unknown on purpose was a risky, dangerous thing, as it could possibly be the death of someone who tried to risk their life just to get there. Greg sighed as he thought about the huge risk he was going to take. His parents had always taught him never to gamble because you could end up losing everything, and now, Greg was doing exactly the opposite, but for a good reason.

There was a chance he would get to The Unknown though. After all, it was a place for the lost, and Greg felt lost without his brother, so chances were highly likely that Greg could enter The Unknown again as he had done these past two times visiting Beatrice.

Greg continued to pack his things as the cold air from outside made the young boy shiver a little. "Now, there's just one thing missing." Greg went over to his bed and picked up the very teapot he wore in The Unknown. "Let's do this."

The elephant and the frog headed off to the graveyard, where they had just been in a chase scene with Wirt only hours ago. Greg held Jason as they hopped over the garden wall and hopped down on the other side.

Greg crossed over the tracks and tried not to tumble down the hill. The lake was still freezing, but the ice was still cracked from when Wirt crashed into it.

"Here goes nothing."

Greg took a leap of faith with his frog in hand and was caught by the freezing lake. Greg sank to the bottom, where he couldn't feel the cold anymore.