The Guide to Living Through the End of Everything

by Lunar Resonance

Three years after leaving his tiny hometown of Shibunsen Springs, Soul returns after dropping out of college to find that much has changed since the shutdown of the town's mines and the opening of the Gorgon Mart. Night in the Woods AU.

20. At The End of Everything

Lesson 20: At the end of everything, hold onto anything.

---

When Soul regains consciousness, he expects to be in the forest, or inside the mine, surrounded by cultists. Instead, when he opens his eyes, the familiar sight of Black Star's apartment greets him, and he realizes that they must have gone after him. It strikes something in him, and for the first time in three years, he finds himself fighting back tears.

"I think he's waking up." Kid's voice comes from the side of him, and his head pops into his vision, brows furrowed together.

"Hey," Soul croaks. The vague feeling of unreality wraps around him as he feels around himself, and comes to the conclusion that he's lying on their couch. "Did I miss anything?"

Relief crosses Kid's face as both Maka and Black Star join him. "How are you feeling?" asks Maka, reaching out to touch his forehead, which he now realizes is wrapped in a tight bandage.

"Like I banged my head against a tree root." He attempts to sit up, a move his body immediately rejects. Even though, it was only his head that hit the root, he feels like he ran a marathon, and then got hit by a freight train. In his mind, the voice from the mines continues to echo, calling him back to the forest.

"Here." Maka's voice brings him back, and she helps him up, sliding a pillow behind him. She takes a seat next to him, while Black Star takes the armchair closest to Soul and Kid leans against the arm rest. "Better?"

He nods, because what's wrong with him isn't something anyone can help with. There's a brief silence as they go from staring at each other to looking away. Deciding to break the stalemate, Soul goes with the easiest question, "How did you find me?"

Maka is the one to answer. "Black Star messaged me when you weren't answering his or Kid's texts," she says. "I went to check on you, but I couldn't find you. Then, I saw the path leading to the mines, and put two and two together."

Blinking, Soul tries to keep the surprise from showing on his face. He wouldn't have thought she would go back to check on him after what happened, but it's something he can examine later. He clears his throat, his mouth feeling like sandpaper. "Where did you find me?"

"We went all the way to the mines," Kid says. "Through the woods, because we weren't sure if you were taking the direct route."

Black Star jumps in. "Well, almost all the way to the mines. We saw these guys in cloaks surrounding a dude on the ground," he says. "We overheard their conversation. I think they called him Beade or something like that."

"I saw that, too." Soul grimaces as he reaches up to scratch his face, and finds that the side of his face is bandaged again-the cut he got when he returned home must have reopened. Shoving away the pain, he says, "Beade was the one that dropped the arm in town."

"Idiot," Black Star snorts as Kid says, "Maka saw you around the same time the others did."

Soul looks sharply at Maka, relieved when he doesn't spot any injuries on her, and then to Kid and Black Star. "Did they see you?"

"Not until the end," answers Maka. "I threw a rock at the person that tried to shoot you, and then Black Star created a distraction so we could get you out of there."

"The good ol' Excalibur call," Black Star says proudly. "People still respond to it, even when they're drunker than a fish in a barrel full of vodka."

"I guess I should thank Excalibur sometime then." He looks at all of them again, feeling the same lump in his throat as he did when he woke up. There is still a fog in his head, but it clears temporarily. "Thank you for coming after me. I know I've been...difficult."

"Dude, just because you're difficult and an occasional asshole doesn't mean we're just gonna ditch you," says Black Star. "Plus, now you know what you've been seeing this week wasn't a ghost." He reaches out to slap Soul on the shoulder, which makes him wince and earns Black Star a glare from Maka.

"Yes, but now there is the fact that we apparently live in a town full of cultists," Kid interjects. "And I find that infinitely more concerning than ghosts."

"I'd prefer if it was ghosts," says Black Star. His face scrunches up as he thinks. "What was it that they said they sacrificed people to?"

"The Black Goat," Kid answers. "I've never heard of it before."

At the mention of the Black Goat, the voice in Soul's head seems to swell, and he feels heat like a fever under his skin. If he could, he'd get up and go back to the forest, in spite of everything, but he doesn't think he could even rise from the couch.

"I read a story once that featured the Black Goat," Maka says thoughtfully. "I think they were called one of the Great Old Ones."

"So, we have a cult of people that are sacrificing people to a fictional character," says Black Star, eyes darting from Maka to Kid and Soul. "Which means they're delusional, in addition to being murderers."

"What do we do?" asks Kid after a moment of silence. "Call the police?"

Maka shakes her head. "We don't know if we can trust them."

Soul speaks up. "I didn't hear Marie's voice," he says. "I know they were wearing hoods and one person had a mask on, but from what I could see, none of them looked like her either."

"Even if Marie isn't a part of it, there's no telling if one of the people she asks to help out at the station is a cult member," Maka answers. "I counted about a dozen people out there, but we have no way of knowing if we saw the entire cult or not."

"I think they said their numbers were getting smaller." He strains to remember what he can, but the memories slip through his fingers like water. "But you're right."

"How long have they been doing this?" Black Star asks. He looks as exhausted as Soul feels. "Why are they doing this?"

Kid takes his hand, rubbing the back of it, while Maka answers. "They mentioned the storm five years ago, so for at least that long," she says. "Although the way they talked about it, I think they've been doing it for much longer." A disgusted look crosses her face. "I think that they think the Black Goat is keeping the town alive, but even if that were true, this isn't the way to do it."

Black Star wears a similar expression of disgust. "It could have been going on our entire lives and we would have never noticed."

A horrible realization dawns on Soul the moment he says that. "What about Jackie?" he says abruptly. "And that other girl, Meme?"

The tension in the room tightens as his words sink in, along with the implication. Black Star is the first to react, ripping his hand out of Kid's grasp as he jumps to his feet. "That's impossible," he says, but it's with the desperate conviction of someone who doesn't want to acknowledge the truth of what he's hearing. "Jackie ran away."

"She never left a note," Maka says. "And she never answered my messages either."

"Or mine," Kid replies. "Her parents are still insisting that she wouldn't have run away."

Black Star still insists, however. "But we don't know what actually could have-"

"That's right, we don't know," Kid agrees. "And the longer we go without knowing, the more likely it is that she was taken by the cult."

The stubbornness on Black Star's face persists, but then it crumples as he deflates, sinking back into his chair, head in his hands. "Do you think she was waiting for someone to come help her?"

Kid loops an arm around his shoulders while Maka speaks. "It's not good to think about that," she says, although her voice quavers. "Or anything else like that."

Black Star lifts his head. "Doesn't keep it from being true, though."

There's a grimness in the silence that follows, tainted with a frustrating kind of helplessness, because there is nothing any of them can say that will make the situation better. In Soul's head, the voice is swelling to a crescendo, a bleak melody underlying its lament. He speaks so he doesn't have to listen to it in silence.

"So, we're back to where we were before," he says, straightening even though it takes nearly all of his strength. "What are we going to do?"

"Going to the police is out," Kid answers. "Unless we go to the police in Eibon, or somewhere else."

"And what if they're in on it, too?" Maka replies. "The towns aren't that far apart. Besides, what proof do we have?"

"We can tell them what we heard." Black Star rubs his face, shaking out his hair.

"Because that will work out so well." She crosses her arms. "We don't even know who these people are, much less how they're killing."

"But we did hear the name of one of them," says Kid. "Beade, wasn't it?"

She gives a shake of her head. "I already looked up the name. There's no one by the name of Beade, or anything close to it in town, or in any of the neighboring towns. They have to be using fake names."

"Okay well, we do know they're doing their stuff in the mines." Black Star gestures towards outside. "Otherwise, why would they have been gathered there?"

"If we tell the police that, they're going to laugh in our faces." Maka pushes her hair out of her face, pressing a hand to the side of her head. When she moves her head towards the light, the circles under her eyes grow more apparent. "And all we'll have done is alert the cultists and put a bigger target on our backs."

Her words send a ripple of unease through Soul, reflecting back at him from Kid and Black Star's expressions. "Do you think we should leave?" Black Star asks, exchanging a look with Kid. "What if they're coming now?"

Hesitation crosses Maka's face. "I don't think so," she says finally. "It's been almost two hours since we left the forest. If they had tracked us from there, they probably would have done something by now."

Black Star relaxes slightly, but there is still a tense look on Kid's face. "They saw us in the forest," he says. "They know what we look like, and if there are any members who know us, then they know our names and where we live."

Nausea roils in Soul's stomach; if he hadn't opened his mouth yesterday, none of them would be worrying about cults or masked figures. "The only one they know was at the mines was me," he says. "And I'm probably the only one they really got a good look at, so if I leave now, they won't be able to question me about who was also in the woods."

Maka gives him a sharp look, but in her eyes, there's fear and something else. "That's not happening either."

"Plus, if you've ever seen those crime shows, they always come after friends and family," adds Kid. "So, you leaving wouldn't do much anyways."

"That's very...helpful," Maka says in a strained voice. Glancing at her phone, she says, "Why don't we save this part of discussion for morning? Soul needs to rest, and we might be able to think of something better with clear heads."

"I'll let my parents know I'm staying over again. They're going to drag me to the emergency room if they see me like this." The receding fog has come back, flooding Soul's head again and making everything feel vaguely unreal, even as he tries to push it away. Meanwhile, the voice continues to echo, though it's softened to a hum.

"They care about you." Maka frowns as she reaches over and adjusts the bandage around his forehead. "I only learned basic bandaging in that CPR class I took so you probably should see a doctor. I have no idea how to tell if you have a concussion or not."

"I remember you saying I had a hard head once." He flinches slightly, although it's more from the touch of her fingers than the pain.

"Figuratively," she says, rolling her eyes. Pulling back, she stands up. Her boots and tights are stained with patches of dirt, while her skirt, jacket and shirt are clean. "I guess I'll come back here tomorrow."

"You're going?" asks Soul before he can think better of it. "What about the super dangerous cult that's looking for us?"

"It's going to be more dangerous for them than me if they try to ambush me while I have my toolkit," she says, a yawn bubbling on her lips. She covers her mouth, speaking around the yawn. "Plus, I really need a shower."

"We have a shower here last time I checked," Black Star points out. Before Maka can shoot him down, he says, "C'mon, it'll be better if we're all here together, instead of being separated."

"He's right," Soul interjects. "I'll move so you can have the couch again."

Maka blinks as she looks at Soul, a whole array of emotions sweeping across her face in an instant, far too fast for him to make out any single one. She doesn't look like she's going to agree, but she shrugs after a moment. "My dad doesn't care where I go anymore anyways," she says. "Might as well stick it out another night."

"Alright." Black Star gets to his feet again, gesturing to the hallway that leads to the apartment's rooms. "You can take the guest bathroom."

"And I will take ours," says Kid, rising from the arm rest as Maka disappears down the hallway. He looks at Soul. "You can take the bathroom after Maka, if you'd like."

"I think if I move any more than from here to that chair," he answers, pointing to the armchair Black Star just vacated. "I'm going to turn into spaghetti."

"That's unpleasant." Kid frowns for a moment, thinking. "I'll get you a few baby wipes from the kitchen," he says. "At least it'll get off some of the dirt still on you."

Soul looks down at himself with great effort as Kid walks away, the lightheadedness wrapping around his head increasing as he does. The shirt and pants Black Star let him borrow are ripped and covered in dirt, all but unsalvageable. "Shit," he says. "Sorry."

"They were getting old." Black Star waves a hand, taking a seat on the corner of the coffee table by Soul, something that makes Kid purse his lips when he reenters the living room, though he doesn't comment on it.

"I brought the whole package, just in case," he says, holding it out to Soul. "Please use as many as you need."

"I will." Soul manages to take the package of wipes from Kid without betraying how weak he is, although his arm and hand are shaking so badly he isn't sure how he's going to open the package. He finally notices the bandages on his fingers as he sets the package on his lap; the still-healing cuts burn from underneath the bandages, and he figures some of them most have opened up again.

Meanwhile, Black Star and Kid are watching his clumsy and awkward struggle to get the wipes from Kid's hand to his lap. "Yeah, you need help," says Black Star after a moment of Soul attempting to open the package. "Don't move too much."

"That's not a problem," he replies as Black Star takes a wipe and begins brushing at his face with more care than he would expect.

"Talking counts as moving," says Black Star. He glances at Kid. "You can go shower if you want, I'll be there in a minute."

Kid wavers. "If you're sure."

"Very." Black Star pauses in the slow assault of Soul's face to tilt his head up as Kid bends down to kiss him.

Kid's face has a faint flush to it as he straightens. He gives Soul a nod. "Good night."

Soul gives a feeble wave of his fingers as Kid leaves the room. "You two should get married already."

"We were planning to do it as soon as we moved," answers Black Star. "But Kid wants me to get my natural hair color back for the wedding photos, and he refuses to let me shave my head."

"It'll get there eventually," he says, attempting not to wince as Black Star moves to his forehead, which is starting to throb. "Do you even know what that looks like?"

"Not soon enough, and probably not as cool as my colors right now." Black Star moves the wipe away from his forehead, giving his chin a final swipe and tossing the wipe onto the table. "But we're still working on him being comfortable enough with PDA for a wedding kiss. I think right now was an improvement, but it's still a hang-up he has from his brother."

He catches Soul's expression and says quickly, "Kid told me about what he said to you in the cemetery. It's the first time he brought it up with someone other than me, or his therapist, so it's a good thing you know, actually."

"We can also talk about how to egg his brother's car without getting caught," Soul says, recovering from his surprise fairly rapidly. "And maybe his house, too."

"That would be a Christmas, birthday, and wedding gift rolled up into one," replies Black Star with a slightly dreamy sigh. "But there are more important things to talk about." He jabs the air next to Soul's shoulder. "You've gotta be the best man. No excuses."

"I'd be offended if you didn't ask me."

"Good." He sits back. "Maka is going to be the maid of honor. To be fair, we were going to have her share duties with-"

He breaks off, and Soul finishes the sentence for him. "Jackie."

"Yeah."

The warm feeling in the air deflates as Black Star and Soul look away from each other. In Soul's head, the voice seems to come forward from where it had settled in the back of his mind. The urge to get up and return to the forest surfaces again, and he clenches his hands against it.

He's relieved when Black Star breaks the silence. "Do you think it's true?"

"I don't know." He is glad Black Star didn't say it directly, what they're all imagining happened to Jackie, because he's not sure he would have been able to handle that. "I think Kid said it best."

"She could just be enjoying her life." Black Star's protest is feeble, and said without much conviction. "No offense, but you disappeared off the face of the Earth for three years and you came back."

Shame adds itself to the growing whirlwind of emotions in Soul's head. "But my family didn't report me missing."

"Oh." Black Star's shoulders slump. He looks at the floor at his feet. "Right."

Guilt prods at Soul to say something comforting, even if he doesn't feel it. "If she shows up one day and says she went to California or wherever, we'll all eat our words," he says. "But if that's not true, it'll hurt more if we shut out the other possibilities until we know."

There's a long pause, and then Black Star exhales loudly. "I guess," he says, looking up at Soul. "It's just hard to think about her not existing anymore."

"I know what you mean." Soul plunges into the next sentence without thinking too much about it. "When I was little, we used to spend our summers at my grandma's, and I used to think it was always going to be that way. Then she moved up here, and I thought it was always going to be that way, and then it wasn't."

"I remember that," says Black Star. There's a slight wariness in his voice, since it had been made clear to everyone after she died that Grandma Evans was a taboo subject. "She taught you how to play piano, didn't she?"

"The beginnings of it." The weight of Grandma Evans in his mind is heavy, but it's not quite unbearable. "She picked it up from my grandfather, I think."

"That's something that didn't die with her, then." His face freezes as soon as the words leave his mouth, but Soul shrugs in agreement.

"I guess that's a nice way of seeing it." He catches a glimpse of someone hovering in the hallway, and figures Kid came back to check on Black Star. With the greatest effort he's given since he woke up, he rises from the couch, and a huge wave of dizziness sweeps over him.

"A little warning, dude!" Black Star scrambles to his feet, helping guide Soul to the armchair. It's easier to move once he's in motion, so long as he doesn't stop, although he moves about as fast as a baby learning how to walk.

When he sinks into his chair, he lets out a groan, nearly all of the energy he had mustered gone. "Thanks."

"Sure thing." Rubbing his face, Black Star looks at him with bleary eyes. "Think I'm gonna follow the others and try to get some rest. Sorry we don't have an actual bed in the guest bedroom for you."

"In college, you learn to sleep everywhere," Soul answers, waving a hand. "Go sleep, dude."

"Same to you," Black Star says around a giant yawn, heading for the hallway just as Maka steps out. Her hair is damp, loose around her shoulders, and her face has a freshly scrubbed look, faintly pink. With no pajamas, she obviously had no choice but to put her clothes back on, though she is barefoot and carries her tights in her hand.

"I never knew that the water heats up here so fast," she says as she pads over to the couch, taking the seat closer to Soul's chair. "It takes forever for the water to warm up at home."

"Perks of living in the best apartment building in Shibunsen Springs," says Black Star. "The neighbors aren't as great, though."

"I'd take noisy and annoying neighbors over cold water and broken heaters any day." Maka tugs the blankets she used last night from the back of the couch to her lap. "Maybe you can give me this place when you and Kid move to South Harbor."

"I don't think it works that way," he answers. "But I could let you know when they're going to list the apartment if you want."

"Please do." Maka finishes arranging the blankets, glancing up. "I think a change of pace would be nice for me."

"You got it." Black Star gives her a salute, and nods at Soul. "See you in the morning."

"You're really thinking of moving?" asks Soul before an awkward silence can descend upon the room. A nervousness different than the anxiety running through his body takes over as he glances in her direction.

"Yeah, I think so," Maka says, not quite looking at him, although she slants in his direction. "I mean, it's close enough that I can still keep an eye on my dad if he needs anything, but I can live my life the way I want to."

As soon as the words leave her lips, her eyes widen and she says in a rush, "It's like you said before, people can only carry other people for so long, and I've given him too many chances to change."

"It makes sense," he says when she finally looks at him. "Though you don't have to justify doing what's best for you."

Some of the guilt leaches from her expression as she nods, playing with a loose thread in her blanket. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she says. "Thanks."

Even as a delicate kind of equilibrium settles over them, the knots of nerves in Soul's stomach refuses to allow him to be satisfied with the fact that Maka is talking to him more or less normally again. His heartbeat pounds in his ears as he struggles to find the best way to bring it up, before he realizes there is no good way to bring it up.

Instead of continuing to agonize internally, he decides to do what he's done for the majority of his life and wing it, letting out a breath before he speaks. "I wanted to talk about what happened earlier."

He starts to flounder as soon as her gaze meets his. "And you know, everything else," he gestures awkwardly to nothing, "that happened before." In a rush, he adds, "I don't want to keep hurting you, or my family and friends, or anyone else. And I don't want to keep creating messes that you, or they, have to clean up."

Instead of cutting him off, Maka is quiet for a long moment. "We do," she says finally. "But there are more important things going on, so I don't think that now is the right time to have that conversation."

But Soul shakes his head. He's sick of things happening that suspend this conversation, either because he catalyzed the interruption, or it's something from the fallout of being gone for so long, or just the universe spinning out his misery, and then the moment for talking is gone and they shunt their feelings to the side. "You're more important."

She raises an eyebrow, although the surprise on her face is genuine. "I'm more important than a death cult that's been part of our town for years?"

"Much more important than a dozen people playing out their version of Dungeons and Dragons in real life," he says, mostly to get her to smile, which she does, briefly but undeniably. He pauses. "The most important."

Part of him wants to die for being so honest without anything to shield him from her reaction, but he didn't figuratively rip himself apart, and somewhat put himself back together, under Stein's supervision for nothing.

Maka's face turns pinker than it already was as she looks down at her feet, then back up at him. "Okay." Her voice is soft. "I'm listening."

Opening his mouth, Soul immediately closes it, hesitating. He doesn't want to guess at what hurts her the most. "Where do you want to start?"

She answers more quickly than he would have expected. "Right before the show, you started shutting down," she says. Something twists on her face. "I thought it was nerves mixing with the grief."

"It was, in a way," he agrees, swallowing. The voice dwelling in the corners of his head croons as he thinks; its melody almost sounds like a countdown, but he forces his thoughts away from it. "Everything got worse after she died," he says after a moment, working hard to focus. "Everyone was giving their condolences and talking about her, and all I could think about was how nothing seemed real.

"Sometimes, things became clear," he continues. "And that was worse. I signed up for the show during one of those times." He braces himself as the memories from then surface. "Then the show happened."

Maka gives a small nod. "You don't have to talk about that if you don't want to."

"It's not as bad to think about," he says, which he is surprised to find is true. He thinks for several moments about how to describe the show and the immediate aftermath of his attack on Hiro. "It was like my mind broke," he says at last. "Or, more like reality broke. One minute, I was trying not to have a panic attack, and the next, everything became blood, and when I came out of it, there was actual blood.

"It felt like I died." This part he has to get out quickly, or he won't say it-he's never even said it to Stein. "Not just a part of me, but everything. And I didn't know why, only that there had always been something wrong with my head."

Next to him, he can feel Maka watching him, waiting.

"I didn't feel like I deserved to be around anyone, or to ask for people to be with me." He wants to look up as he finally answers the questions she lobbed at him at the train station, but he continues to stare at his hands instead. "My parents and Wes were the only people I couldn't shut out, but that was because they lived with me. I barely spoke to them when I went to college."

"Your mother told me the same thing when I went into Gorgon Mart once a couple years ago," she says in the quiet that follows. "She asked me if you and I were still talking."

"She didn't know about what happened at the station," he says. "I never told anyone about it."

"Neither did I." There's a soft rustling as she shifts closer to him. "Is that why you said what you did at the station?" she asks, a vulnerability in her voice that he hasn't heard in a long time.

"I didn't want to care about anything, and I didn't want anyone to care about me." He does lift his head now, although he still can't quite look her in the eyes. "So, I said what I had to so I would be left alone.

"It was probably one of the worst decisions I've ever made," he says. "And that's saying something."

Maka processes all of this in silence, but when she speaks, she only says, "And after?"

"Lots of having my mind prodded at by people in lab coats with clipboards." This part is easier to talk about. "I finally found one that wasn't so bad, and I worked through a lot, but it kinda fell apart when I went to college."

Her eyes are as intent as when she's in the middle of a book, but she says nothing.

"It's a pattern that continued when I returned," he says with a shrug. "Caring and acting like it were hard to get to, and I lost it in college. And then everything was different when I came back, and I just wanted to act like it wasn't, and that fell apart, too."

A long silence trails after his words; the voice and its song returns to the forefront of his mind, and he lets it stay there, too tired to keep pushing it back.

"Are you done?" she asks quietly after another moment.

He shakes his head, because this is the most important part. "I want to do better and be better, for you, me, and everyone," he says. "I'm sorry for what I said to you when I left and what I said tonight, and for leaving and not talking to you until I came back, and for stealing the nail polish at the mall, and breaking the boiler-"

Breaking off, he thinks, searching for anything he missed, when Maka leans towards him and grabs his hand. He is still too weak to resist any kind of force, so it's easy for her to pull him forward.

Her other hand cradles the side of his face as Maka studies him, her own so close that he has no choice but to look her in the eyes. "You don't have to list out everything you did to apologize, you know," she tells him, before she kisses him again.

Like before, Soul is completely unprepared, but this time he reacts more quickly, kissing her back with as much intensity as she's kissing him, cupping his hand around the side of her neck.

They're both breathing hard when they pull away, though Maka keeps a firm grip on his hand. He blinks a few times, the lightheaded feeling sweeping through his head not entirely because of their kiss, and tries to think through what people might say after their first proper kiss.

"That was very nice," he says finally.

Maka makes no attempt to hide her grin. "We should do it again sometime," she agrees, eyes tracing over his face. Her smile dims slightly. "But maybe when you don't look like you're going to collapse."

"I feel perfectly fine," he says, even as the world starts to sway lazily in front of him, and the voice continues to tug at him. "I bet I could run a marathon."

She rolls her eyes, intertwining her fingers with his. "Let's not do that," she says, leaning forward again to press a light kiss to his mouth. "Let's sleep instead."

He frowns, but gives in. "Fine."

"Excellent." Maka doesn't let go of his hand, reaching over with her other hand to switch off the console that controls the living room's lights. Then, she lays her head on the arm rest, letting their hands dangle together in the space between them.

Soul does the same thing, rubbing small circles on the back of her hand with his thumb. This wasn't everything, but it was possibly the start of something. They watch each other in the dark, Maka's eyes turning silver in the moonlight streaming from the window, until she yawns.

She tightens her hold on him as she closes her eyes. "Good night."

"Night." He closes his eyes too, even as the voice in his head swells in the silence. Sleep comes for him quickly, to his relief, and he shoves the voice away as much as is possible.

Squeezing Maka's hand, he decides he can ignore it, the woods, the mines, and everything else until morning.

---

But when the voice wakes him up less than an hour later, so loud that he feels like he's shaking from the force of it, he can't ignore it. His mind is clear, even though the rest of his body feels like it's on the verge of giving out as he gets up from the chair, pulling his hand free of Maka's loose grip.

He finds the keys to Kid and Black Star's car in the kitchen, moving in a slow hobble across the apartment and to the door. There, he hesitates, but the melody of the voice rises, and he only listens to make sure he's woken no one up before he leaves.

His bike is in the trunk where Kid had put it last night. Briefly, he contemplates taking the car instead as he hauls out the bike with difficulty, panting as he sets in on the ground, but he doesn't want to create a bigger problem than he already is.

More messes, he thinks sourly as he limps out of the garage with the bike. But he can't live with shadows following him and voices from unseen things echoing in his head forever. He's winded by the time he gets to the corner of the street, and he stops to catch his breath. On an impulse, he takes out his phone and messages Stein.

[2:51 am] Soul: hey doc i know you're probably sleeping but i wanted to let you know that i figured it out

[2:52 am] Stein: You figured what out?

[2:52 am] Soul: shit you really don't sleep do you

[2:52 am] Soul: i figured out what was keeping me stuck

[2:52 am] Soul: to absolutely no ones surprise it was me

[2:53 am] Stein: Congratulations on becoming more reflective. May I ask why you came to this epiphany at 3 am?

[2:54 am] Soul: a lot of things doc most of them unpleasant but a couple that weren't

[2:54 am] Soul: i just wanted to say thank you.

[2:54 am] Stein: When people try to thank me in the early hours of the morning, it usually comes off more as a goodbye.

[2:55 am] Soul: im not gonna off myself doc don't worry

[2:55 am] Stein: I'll trust you on that, but I have to ask if you're planning on doing anything dangerous.

[2:55 am] Soul: just a little field trip to the mines

[2:55 am] Soul: see you around doc

Putting his phone back in his pocket, Soul gets onto the bike and starts his trek to the mines.

---

In his office seventy miles away, Stein stares at his screen, waiting for Soul to reply to his message. When ten minutes go by, he takes off his glasses and rubs his face. There had been a lot of ups and downs since he met Soul in the hospital, and he's not quite sure how to classify this latest series of messages.

He waits for another five minutes, and then he searches for his phone.

---

Maka doesn't panic when she wakes up and Soul is no longer holding her hand. With her eyes still closed, she feels for her phone in her jacket, bringing it to her face and pushing the button on the side.

It's a little past three-thirty, which means she can sleep for many more hours, and she tosses the phone unceremoniously on the couch, remembering belatedly that Soul is sleeping in the armchair right next to her.

She opens her eyes again, searching for his outline in the dark. Her heart starts to beat a little faster when she sees the chair is empty, but she keeps her mind from jumping to conclusions, sitting up and looking towards the kitchen.

Like the living room, it is dark and empty, and Maka gets up from the couch, still listening to the voice that's telling her to stay calm. She grabs her phone again, rattling off a message to Soul before she realizes he might be in the office bathroom. Making her way to the guest bedroom, she tries to stay as quiet as possible as she enters. There is no light coming from the bathroom, but she hopes that Soul is so sleep deprived he forgot to turn on the light.

However, when she pushes her hand and ear against the door, it falls open easily, just as empty as the living room and kitchen.

Maka's heart is somewhere in her throat when her phone lights up.

[3:42 am] Soul: im sorry for leaving please don't think im messing up again

Her hands shake slightly from relief as she reads Soul's message, and she takes a deep breath before answering.

[3:43 am] Maka: I didn't think that, I'm worried about you. Where are you?

[3:43 am] Soul: i can't say

[3:43 am] Maka: The mines, then.

[3:45 am] Maka: Why?

[3:46 am] Soul: i want to deal with this without you black star or kid getting hurt

[3:46 am] Maka: By giving yourself over to the cult?

[3:47 am] Soul: theres something else there i know that sounds crazy but i can feel it calling me

[3:48 am] Maka: After today, I don't think anything can fall under the realm of crazy.

[3:48 am] Maka: Come home. If you're worried we won't believe you, that's not true. We can deal with this together.

[3:49 am] Soul: i know that but i care about you being safe more

[3:49 am] Soul: i gotta go

Maka stares down at the phone for a moment before her mind starts to work again. "Shit."

Then, she springs into action, striding to Black Star and Kid's room.

---

Soul shuts off his phone to keep himself from seeing Maka's response, breathing hard as the outline of the mining station stretches out in front of him. He's slightly impressed with himself for managing to bike all the way out to the mines in his condition, although fatigue hits him now that the adrenaline is gone.

Sucking in a breath, he drops his bike at the edge of the makeshift parking lot from earlier. It'd be too hard to manage the bike on the dirt path, and besides, he doesn't have enough energy to pedal anymore. There are no cars at the station anymore, and the lights and music coming from the auditorium before are now absent, turning the mines back into a ghostland.

The voice is his companion as he makes his way to the dirt path that will take him to the mining entrance. It had dimmed when he arrived at the station and seen Maka's message, but it's back now, guiding him forward. But his body, exhausted and stretched thin, can only obey the voice so much, and just after he's made it past the halfway point on the path, he feels his legs crumple under him. Gravel presses indents in his face as he lands face first on the ground.

He stays like that for a moment, and then he grits his teeth, forcing himself to roll onto his back. The stars wink into existence as he stares up at the sky, and his words come out as a wheeze. "Help me."

But like every other day, the stars are silent, and he gulps down big breaths, struggling to summon enough energy to get up. After a while, he starts to feel less like he's on the verge of dying, and he wrenches his body into a sitting position.

The world spins like a kaleidoscope; he screws his eyes shut for a few seconds, and opens them again to find it spinning a little less. It's as good as he can ask for, so he plants his hands on the ground, and pushes himself onto his feet.

He balances unsteadily for a few moments, pleased when he doesn't fall back down. "Not bad."

He doesn't fall when he takes a cautious step forward either, which gives him a boost of confidence. However, he does feel like he's going to lose his balance every time he lifts his foot from the ground, though that never happens.

However, when he's almost at the mine's entrance, he spies the masked figure that nearly caught him earlier.

A groan escapes from Soul's mouth. "Please go away."

The cultist does not do that, stalking forward like a predator. Soul does his best to hobble off the path as quickly as he can, but he remembers what the figure said to the other cultists, and the way he moved through solid objects like smoke.

There's no way you can outrun this, a voice in his head screams at him as he attempts to move faster, but he has no other choice. He forces himself into a weird jog, dodging branches, rocks, and roots as best as he can.

He risks a glance behind him as he steps over a rock, surprise running through him when he sees the figure is no longer stalking him. It's too much to hope that he simply disappeared off the face of the earth forever, but Soul still hopes as he slows his pace, turning his direction parallel to the path.

The cultist is standing right in front of him.

A pit forms at the bottom of Soul's stomach. He tries to back up, but finds himself pressed against a tree. "Hi."

The skull mask that covers the cultist's face wears a mockery of a smile as he moves closer to Soul, a hand stretching out towards him.

However, before the cultist reaches him, there's a hiss as something sails through the air, and sinks into his arm. From behind the mask, the cultist lets out an enraged howl as Black Star's yell fills the forest. "There's more where that came from!"

He and Maka burst through the foliage while Kid follows behind, calmly slotting another bolt into the crossbow he carries. Soul thinks he's dreaming until Maka reaches him, throwing her arms around him in a fierce hug while Black Star thumps his shoulder.

"What the hell were you thinking, dude?" he asks when Maka releases him.

"I wasn't," Soul answers, although he isn't entirely focused, casting a look at the area around him. "Where's the cultist?"

"He must have ran off when I hit him with my crossbow," says Kid, lowering the weapon to his side. "Which was a wise decision."

"Where did you get a crossbow?" Soul asks him. From what he remembered, Kid hated harming even spiders. "How do you know how to use one?"

"It was the one good thing my brother taught me," he replies. "And I bought it on eBay, but I hadn't had the chance to test it out yet."

Still flabbergasted, Soul looks down at Maka and Black Star's hands. She's holding the wooden staff Black Star bought for a Halloween costume once, and he has the blue switchblade he used for Knife Fight.

"We didn't know how we were going to find you," Maka says, answering his unspoken question.

"And if you're really set on doing this, you might as well be prepared," adds Black Star, pulling the red switchblade from his pocket and prodding it into his hand. "Though I am begging for you to have your next existential crisis during the day, dude."

"And after work hours," says Kid.

But Soul shakes his head. "The reason I left like I did was so you wouldn't come."

"Well, that was a mistake," Maka replies, giving him a look. "We're willing to forgive you for it, though."

"It's dangerous," he says after a moment of looking at their faces.

"Then, we go back and wait until the police station is open to go to Marie," Kid says with a shrug. "We're going to have to trust someone eventually."

The voice is tugging at him again, more insistently than before. "It can't wait till then."

"Either we all go, or none of us do," Black Star says. "Your choice, dude."

"It's no choice at all," he grumbles, although he's more than relieved that he doesn't have to enter the mines alone. "Let's go."

The air turns tense when the mines come into view, and they come to a stop in front of the entrance.

"If worse comes to worst, I can call Marie's cell phone," says Maka when none of them speak. "She'll know who to call."

"Shouldn't we just call her now?" Black Star asks.

"And if there was no one else here but that cultist?" she asks. "It'll create more problems than it'll solve."

"C'mon," Soul says suddenly as he studies the entrance. He swears he can not only hear the voice in his head, but also ringing distantly from the depths of the mines.

He doesn't wait for any of them to answer, plunging into the mine. There is nothing but darkness, the lamps that used to line the mine's walls long dead, but a beam of light comes from behind him.

Kid lifts the flashlight out of Soul's face as he turns. "Always be prepared."

"Good idea," he says, twisting back around.

He and Kid take the lead, while Maka and Black Star follow, the passageway of the mine too narrow for more than two people. They walk for a short distance, and then they come to the main elevator shaft that leads underground.

"I read up on the mines a while back," says Maka, examining the lever next to the elevator. "The elevators run on solar-powered generators so they should still work."

"One way to find out." Black Star puts his knife in his pocket, and takes hold of the lever. "Get on."

They cram onto the elevator, Soul and Maka squashed in towards the back. She catches hold of his hand as Black Star checks to make sure they're all in, rubbing the back of his hand like he did with her earlier. It marginally calms the growing pit of anxiety gnawing at his stomach, and he squeezes her hand back as Black Star pulls the lever.

It takes several moments for Black Star to yank the lever all the way down, and another for the elevator to come to life, groaning as it starts to move slowly. Kid helps Black Star in, and together, they watch the main passageway of the mine disappear.

"Well, that's that," says Kid when the passageway is completely gone, tilting the flashlight up so it illuminates the entire elevator. He glances at the others. "Hope no one is claustrophobic."

A nervous giggle comes from Maka while Black Star says, "I think that's the least of our problems."

Soul squeezes her hand again, and she looks at him, letting out a breath as she does. The worry on her face seems to settle slightly.

The wall in front of them opens up to the next floor, and the others look at Soul as he listens to the darkness. He leans back; the voice seems to be coming from further below. "Not this one."

It takes another two floors before Soul hears the voice emanating clearly from the darkness of the fourth. "Here."

Kid aims the flashlight down the corridor, revealing another elevator several dozen feet away at the other end. There are other tunnels that split off from the main corridor, but after a second of listening, Soul points to the elevator.

"Great," Black Star groans as they leave the elevator and march across, piling into the much smaller elevator. "Are you sure it's not the devil trying to get in contact with you, dude?"

Maka aims a glare at him. "Not funny."

"Someone has to make the jokes," he rejoins as the elevator starts to move, much more slowly than the first. It only goes down a short distance before coming to a stop.

The stone tunnel in front of them has a much more ancient feel to it than the corridors above, not reinforced by any wires, ropes, or wooden beams. There's not even the remnants of the lanterns that hang everywhere else in the mine.

But what Soul can hear as he steps out of the elevator is the song of the voice, melancholy and endless. It draws him forward like his body is looped with marionette strings, his hand escaping Maka's grasp.

He moves forward in spite of the exhaustion pressing down on his bones, despite how much his mind just wants to stop and not think for a very long time, maybe forever. The voice leads him on, and he would follow it to wherever it led, if only it would just stop .

"I wouldn't go another step, if I were you."

A red light shines squarely in Soul's face, forcing him to a stop and shaking him out of the trance he'd fallen into. He looks up, spotting hooded figures staring back at him just as Maka, Black Star, and Kid catch up, fanning out next to him.

He registers a gasp coming from one of them as Maka clamps her hand around his arm, dragging him back. "Look," she says.

Glancing at her, he sees she's pointing at something, and he follows the direction of her finger, eyes widening as his gaze falls on a narrow pit opening up to darkness at their feet.

Horror sweeps through him as he peers down into the pit, unable to see the bottom. "What is that?"

"The home of the Black Goat." The figure that warned Soul answers him. He steps forward from the group of hooded figures gathered on the other side of the pit. Like Maka had guessed, there are much more than a dozen cultists down here. "The Hole at the End of Everything."

"That's a pretty stupid name," snorts Black Star, which causes several cultists to hiss.

The cultist that spoke first raises a hand and the others fall silent. "We ask that you do not insult the Black Goat in our presence or anywhere in the mines," he says. "Especially when it is Its generosity that keeps our town alive."

"Why have you been calling me from inside my head?" Soul interrupts, ripping his gaze from the pit. He feels more and more sick the longer they're down here. "Why have you been stalking me?"

There is confusion in the cultist's voice as he answers. "The Black Goat grants special abilities to a few of our members, as it has since the days of our founder Ed Skudder, but it has never allowed us to commune with other people," he says. "As for you being followed, one of our members allowed their emotions to get a little out of hand, and for that we offer our sincere apologies."

He turns back to the group. "Geede!"

A recoil goes through all four of them as the figure with the mask steps forward, a white bandage wound tightly around his arm. Kid raises his crossbow halfway while Black Star jabs his knife towards the figure. "This asshole just tried to kill our friend!"

"A misunderstanding," says the cultist calmly. "Please lower your weapons so I may tell my group to lower theirs."

At his words, Soul looks beyond Geede and the cultist. More of the cultists carry guns than not, and they're all pointed at them. Next to him, Maka speaks in a sharp whisper to Kid and Black Star. "Put them down!"

Kid lowers his crossbow, but Black Star glares at the cult before closing his switchblade and putting it in his pocket.

"Thank you," says the cultist politely. "Now as I was saying, Geede was trying to bring your friend to us when you intervened, understandably so, after what occurred a few hours ago." He gestures to Geede. "It was also Geede who has been bothering you throughout the week, and for that, he would like to apologize."

Soul's eyes go to the masked cultist, but Geede says nothing, only nodding stiffly.

"There," says the unnamed cultist. "We can start fresh now."

Maka interrupts, and there is a strain in her voice as she tries to keep her patience. "Can you get to your point?"

The cultist's tone turns apologetic. "I'm afraid I have to start from the beginning to get to my point," he says. "Perhaps we should start with names. Mine is Dave."

No one on Soul's side offers their names; they only stare at the cultists across the way.

"Obviously, Dave is not my real name," says Dave after a moment. "But it's good to be able to address someone by a name."

Out of the corner of his mouth, Black Star mutters to Kid, "Can you just shoot them?"

"I don't have enough bolts," answers Kid back just as quietly.

"I know you must be wondering how a small town like Shibunsen Springs ended up housing a group like this," he says, gesturing to the other cultists. "But it's all for your benefit, I assure you."

Soul surprises them, even himself, by laughing loudly. The cultist called Geede appears to bristle at this, but there is pressure building at the back of his head, and he finds he doesn't care. "By killing people?" he asks.

"Not killing people," exclaims Dave as other hooded figures nod in assent. "It is an honor to be a sacrifice for the Black Goat."

He gestures to the hole in front of them with a flourish. "It was here, many decades ago, that our founder Ed Skudder and his mining partner Jim came across the home of the Black Goat," he says. "Ed was fortunate, but Jim was not so lucky. He fell in the Hole at the End of Everything, and according to Skudder, never hit the bottom. He may still be falling today."

Soul glances at the others, who are listening to Dave with a mixture of disgust and reluctant curiosity.

"The Black Goat began to speak to Ed," continues Dave. "It promised that It would never let the town disappear so long as he provided sacrifices for It to consume. Ed, in his infinite wisdom, saw a day when the mines would close, and he agreed. And thus, our circle was born."

"So you've been throwing people in there for decades?" Maka's voice shakes as she speaks, pointing at the cult, and Soul is suddenly grateful she's not holding the crossbow. "That's not how you keep a town alive!"

"Oh, no you misunderstand me," Dave says, putting a hand to his chest. "Ed Skudder only had one rule, and that was to only take those who would not be missed. It is only in desperate times that we turn to town residents. We have only taken three residents from Shibunsen Springs in our history, and one of them was not a native."

"You're all delusional," Kid says flatly, speaking to the cult for the first time. "If a town is meant to survive, it will, but if it's surrounded by an environment that won't allow it to, it'll eventually die out, no matter what anyone does."

Dave shakes his head. "I know you do not see it now. I admit, it was hard for me to see in the beginning, too."

"Who were the people you took from Shibunsen Springs?" demands Black Star suddenly. "You said there were three. Who were they?"

"One was taken well before I joined, so I do not their name," Dave answers. "The others were more recent. Their names were Meme and Jackie, I believe."

It was exactly what they speculated less than four hours ago, but having the truth confirmed knocks the wind out of Soul as he looks back to the hole, a distant roaring in his ears. He's not sure if it comes from the hole or himself, but it doesn't matter. He can't even remember the last thing he said to Jackie. There hadn't been the chance to talk properly right before the recital, and it had been a mess afterwards.

Black Star finally explodes. "You're all trash!" he yells as he wrenches the crossbow from Kid, and takes aim at Dave. "Do you know how many lives you've ruined?"

"It's a small price to pay for our town's survival," Dave answers, unruffled by the crossbow pointing directly at him. "I believe I already warned you about the weapons."

"Put it down," Maka says, turning to Black Star while Kid talks quietly in his ear. She pushes down on his arm when he doesn't respond, looking at the cultists who have their guns raised. "Do you want all of us to die too?"

Kid says something else in a low voice to Black Star; all Soul catches is "please", but whatever he said must have connected with Black Star, because he allows Kid to take the crossbow from his hands without resisting. Breathing deeply, he leans on Kid, glaring at the cult.

"Very good." Dave says. "Now, we come to our proposal."

"Proposal?" Maka repeats in revulsion. "What proposal?"

"As you may have heard last night, our numbers are growing smaller as more and more people leave town," Dave begins. "You were all born and raised in Shibunsen Springs. That makes you the perfect candidates to carry on our purpose."

A sharp, tense silence falls in the tunnel as Dave's words sink in. Soul stares at him like he had suddenly grown a second head. "You want us to join you?"

"Nothing more, and nothing less," he answers. "You'd be the perfect start to a new generation."

"That is-" Soul searches for a word that fully encompasses his disgust.

"Vile," Maka finishes. "Depraved."

"Flat out crazy," agrees Black Star while Kid nods.

"All of that," says Soul.

"It does take some time for the offer to grow on you," Dave says. Next to him, a noise like a scoff comes from Geede. "And we'll give you that."

"You're letting us go?" Maka says incredulously.

"You need some time to think on it." He raises a finger. "However, remember that there are more of us here than you. Anyone in town might be one of us, so it would be best if you kept what you've heard here among yourselves."

There's a pause, and then Maka and Kid glance at each other. "We understand what you're saying," replies Maka, grabbing Soul's arm while Kid pushes Black Star towards the elevator. "We're leaving now."

"Don't take too long to think about it," calls Dave from behind them. Soul looks over his shoulder at the hole, supposedly the home of the Black Goat. He doesn't know if anything Dave said about Ed Skudder is true, but what he does know is that whatever is calling to him in his head lives at the bottom of that hole.

Kid ushers them into the elevator, pulling the lever and boarding quickly. Nausea sweeps through Soul as he leans against the wall; he thought he'd feel better once he left the tunnel, but his head feels like it's about to split open.

Maka is still holding his hand, but she's in a daze herself. "What the hell was that?"

"Utter and complete bullshit," answers Black Star as the elevator starts to move. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he crouches low to yell in the shrinking gap of the tunnel, "FUCK YOUR BLACK GOAT!"

Soul winces as the volume of Black Star's words reverberates in his head, and Maka rounds on Black Star. "Why would you say that to a group of thirty people when most of them have guns?"

"They're on the other side of that hole," Black Star says. "If they're going to come after us, they'll have to get across first. Hopefully, they all fall in."

"It's still not wise," says Kid. "I-"

"One of them can teleport." Soul speaks up for the first time since entering the elevator. He stares at the floor, praying he won't throw up. "The cultist called Geede is the one I saw take the guy on HarvFest and go through the fence. He also found me in the forest that way."

"Please," Black Star scoffs as the elevator opens up to the fourth floor. "Those people are just delusional, and think they have powers."

"It's probably something that Ed Skudder put in their heads," agrees Kid. He allows Black Star to get out before following.

"I think that's probably it, too," Maka says, giving his hand a squeeze as she exits the elevator, pulling Soul with her. "May-"

Her words are cut off as a hand clamps around Soul's leg and jerks him backwards. He lets out a cry as he tumbles back, getting a glimpse of Geede's skeletal mask as the man drags him backwards, gaze falling to the cultist's body, which comes up through the floor of the elevator.

Along with Soul's.

In the space of an instant, Soul's mind does a series of backflips as it tries to explain how his body is trapped in the floor of the elevator, but there is nothing to explain how his legs are dangling in midair while his upper body is firmly stuck above the elevator floor.

"Soul!" Maka seizes his hand, yanking hard, while Black Star grabs his other arm with one hand, attempting to stab Geede with his knife.

"Shoot him!" Black Star shouts at Kid over his shoulder.

"I can't, you're too close!" Kid drops the crossbow as he takes hold of the arm Maka is pulling, yelling at Geede. "Let go of him, you asshole!"

Geede's grip on Soul is iron tight. He attempts to twist, kicking at the cultist's legs. Getting a look at him up close for the first time, a spark of recognition rushes through Soul as he stares into the eyes peering at him in hatred through the mask.

One of Soul's kicks strikes home, hitting Geede squarely in the groin. An enraged grunt escapes from Geede as Maka and the others manage to pull Soul's body back through the elevator floor. He comes through the floor as well, wrapping his hand back around Soul's ankle.

"The lever," Maka yells as she continues to pull on Soul. "Get the lever!"

Kid lets go of Soul, yanking on the lever. "It's stuck!"

"Pull harder!" Soul tries to kick at Geede's face, but it's hard to manage in the position he's in.

"I'm trying," groans Kid, and Black Star lets go of Soul to tug on the lever as well.

Summoning the last of his energy, Soul grabs the side of shaft while Maka continues to pull him backwards, twisting and lashing out with his free leg. His foot hits Geede right in the face; his mask comes off just as Kid and Black Star yell, "It's coming free!", and Soul sees Giriko's face under the cultist's hood just as he snatches his leg free of the elevator.

The same cannot be said for Giriko's arm. The elevator drops suddenly as a cacophonous groan comes from above, slicing his arm clean off. Soul doesn't see where it goes as the elevator lands at the bottom of the shaft with a gigantic crash of crunching metal and something else, shaking the entire mine and sending debris falling down.

Clouds of dust waft through the air as the sound of the elevator crash fades, and then Black Star speaks. "Are we all alive?"

"Yes," answers Kid.

Soul puts a hand to his head, which still feels like it's about to split open. "Unfortunately."

"Me too." Maka's voice comes from below Soul, and he realizes he landed on top of her.

He scrambles off her, holding out a hand. "Sorry."

"It's fine." She takes his hand, standing up. "Is anyone seriously hurt?"

"A few scrapes, but nothing more than that," Kid replies while Black Star echoes him.

"Same here," Soul lies when he feels her looking at him. He hasn't felt this sick in ages, and he only hopes that he can make it out of here without fainting or throwing up. It's all he can do not to press his hands to his head.

"Was that Giriko who pulled you in?" Kid asks as they gather together, looking at Soul. "I thought I recognized his face before the elevator fell."

"It used to be him," Soul answers with a snort. "I think his arm is around here somewhere."

Maka glances at the ground around her. "Disgusting."

"And no more than he deserves for joining a cult that murders people," Black Star says. "Though it's exactly like him to be able to do that freaky shit that Dave dude mentioned."

"I think we should all examine that later," says Maka, taking the lead. "For now, let's go back to the main elevator shaft, and see if it's still working." She keeps a firm grip on Soul as they start to walk down the passage, which is something he's grateful for, although he doesn't know how much longer he can hold himself together.

"Apparently not," says Black Star when they come to the empty shaft, ropes that were supposed to be attached to the elevator hanging limply in the air.

However, Maka does not appear to be deterred, holding onto the side of the wall as she lets go of Soul and peers into the shaft. "There are safety ladders installed in the shaft of every mining elevator," she says, looking around. "Or that's what I heard once in the shop when the mines were still open and miners came in for parts."

She points to the left of the shaft, gesturing to somewhere Soul can't see from where he's leaning heavily against a wall. "There they are."

"Oh thank fuck," says Black Star, poking his head in to look at the ladder. "I would have died if you said we were stuck down here."

"Kind of like those cultists," observes Kid as he joins them.

A brief silence falls as they all glance at each other.

"Fuck 'em," says Black Star with a shrug. "Maybe they'll push each other into the home of the Black Goat to try to save themselves."

"That would be the best thing," Kid agrees. He looks back at the shaft. "Now, the question is who wants to out on the ladder first?"

"I will," Black Star volunteers immediately. To Soul, he says, "Or do you want to go first?"

"I have a confession." Soul's words come out as a gasp as his resistance crumbles, and he presses his palms to his temples, which only makes his head throb more. Whatever has been calling him has fallen silent, but he can feel it in his head, waiting. "I feel really bad," he says, bending down. "Like sick kind of bad."

"Do you need to throw up?" Maka asks, walking back to Soul and crouching next to him.

"I don't know." He lets one hand fall to his side. "My head just feels like it's going to burst at the seams."

"Do you think you can climb up the ladder?" she asks.

He shakes his head. "I'm not sure I can."

There's a loud kind of silence above him as he stares at the ground, trying to get his body to cooperate with what they need to do, while Maka, Black Star, and Kid engage in nonverbal conversation.

"What if one of us went for help?" Kid ventures out finally. "It probably wouldn't take Marie more than an hour to get out here?"

"And if there's another cave-in?" asks Maka. "Plus, if anything happened to the people left behind, the person who left would never forgive themselves."

"True," Kid admits with a sigh. "Then what?"

"It's like what I said before we entered the mines," Black Star says. "All of us go, or none at all."

Soul raises his head to see Kid giving his boyfriend an impressed look. "Not much of a choice."

"Exactly." Black Star moves to Soul's other side, looping an arm over his shoulders while Maka follows suit.

For his part, Soul throws his arms over their shoulders, and they move awkwardly to the edge of the elevator shaft. "Are you going to carry me up like this or are you planning on throwing me down like Giriko?"

"Hilarious," grunts Maka while they come to the edge of the shaft. She and Black Star keep a firm hold on him while Kid stays behind Soul, in case he falls backwards. For a moment, she studies the shaft, and then she and Black Star look at each other and nod.

"Okay, the ladder isn't that far away," she says. "But you do have to make a bit of a hop for it."

"I am no condition for hopping."

"One of us will be on the ladder with our hand out to grab you," Black Star says, pointing to himself. "And someone else could be below to grab your feet when you land."

"That would be me," Kid volunteers.

Maka measures the gap between them and the ladder with her eyes. "And I could be the anchor while you get on the ladder. I wouldn't let go until you say so."

Soul glances at the seemingly endless darkness of the elevator shaft. "This plan sounds perfect until one of dies."

"If we didn't get murdered by the weird cult or Giriko or the cave-in, it's going to be pretty pathetic if we die because one of us had sweaty hands," Kid says.

Aiming a feeble glare over his shoulder, Soul says, "That's a great vote of confidence."

"I try."

"Can we get going already?" Black Star pulls his arm off of Soul, gently, and before anyone can answer him, he reaches around the elevator shaft and vanishes from sight as a dull thud resounds in the elevator.

"That was easy!" His voice echoes up and down the shaft. "A monkey could do this!"

"A monkey is made for climbing, dear," says Kid as he takes Black Star's spot. "Tell me when you're out of the way."

Black Star's voice comes from just above them. "Go for it."

Kid does not move as effortlessly as Black Star, but his movements are careful and precise as he clambers out of view. There's the sound of his feet and hands catching the metal bars of the ladder, and then a moment later-

"I'm good." His words come from slightly beneath Soul and Maka. "Send Soul over."

"I just realized I never agreed to this," Soul says as he lets Maka guides him to the left side of the elevator shaft. Something else other than nausea swells in his stomach as he peeks into the shaft again. "Don't I have to agree?"

"Sucks to suck," comes Black Star's voice from nowhere. "Get on the ladder, Nightmare Eyes."

"What he means is that we won't let you fall," Kid says from his place on the ladder.

"I'm sure you won't mean to," he says, his voice coming out higher than usual.

"I'll be holding you until you're comfortable enough to let go." Maka squeezes his shoulder, looking up at him. "Okay?"

There isn't much he can say when she looks at him like that. "Okay."

"Good." She pulls his hand from over her shoulder, stepping back to allow him to get a hold on the wall and grab the hand reaching out to him from the shaft as he begins to edge out. There's a narrow platform jutting out between him and the ladder, but before he can ease his foot on it, he makes the mistake of looking down.

He yanks himself back, and Maka looks at him in alarm. "Are you okay?"

"Just practice." He goes back to holding the wall, although it's more of a one-sided hug at this point. This time, he inches out slowly, but he freezes before he even sees the platform.

Stay focused, dear.

The voice comes from inside of Soul's head, but unlike the other voice, this one is clear and recognizable. Glancing back at Maka, he asks, "Did you say something?"

She gives him a confused look. "No, did you hear something?"

"It was nothing," he says. "Me trying to psych myself up, I think."

"Okay." Her hold on him tightens. "I'm ready when you're ready."

"I am." Soul keeps his eyes on the ladder and Black Star's waiting hand as he places one foot on the platform, reaching for Black Star while Maka keeps an iron grip on his other hand. When he has both feet on the platform, and his hand securely in Black Star's, he calls out. "You can let go."

There's a brief moment, when Maka releases his hand, and Black Star helps him pull himself onto the ladder, that Soul thinks he's going to fall, but then Kid's fingers are clamped around one ankle and both of his hands are holding on tightly to the rungs of the ladder.

The voice from before speaks to him again. You were always a brave one.

He has no time to question it, or his sanity, however. Kid pokes the side of his shoe. "We have to move so Maka can get on."

"Oh." Soul pushes this new voice, and every other voice, to the back of his head. "Right."

Climbing up a ladder is a little like trying to climb a tree with no branches within reach: awkward, but not impossible. Soul is much slower than Black Star, making sure his hold is secure and his foot is solidly on the next rung before he lifts his other foot. Below him, Kid keeps a hand near Soul's foot, and he taps the back of his heel when they have moved up several rungs. "That's enough for Maka."

Risking a look down, Soul gets a glimpse of Maka moving lithely from the platform to the ladder, and he feels slightly embarrassed at how clumsily he had gotten onto the ladder. "All good," she calls from below. "Let's get out of here."

"You don't have to tell me twice," says Black Star as he starts climbing again. "Good riddance to this trash hole."

"The cult made the mine horrible," Maka calls as they move. "Not the other way around."

"All I know is this wouldn't have happened if Shibunsen Springs was a farming community," he retorts. "You can't throw people down a pit in a cornfield."

"Maybe we should move to a place with cornfields instead of South Harbor," Kid replies.

"Have none of you ever watched Children of the Corn ?" Soul asks as he attempts to stay focused on not falling,

"I work at Bid-n-Vid, so yes," answers Kid. "It's a fictional horror movie."

"After today, you never know," he grunts. His headache, which he managed to ignore, is back, along with the nausea.

"In that case, I hope leprechauns are real," Maka huffs. "I'd love to find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow."

"We should check a few rainbows after this, then." Soul grits his teeth as he tries to drive out the lightheaded feeling from his body.

"I wouldn't mind going on that adventure." Black Star is much further ahead than any of them, voice coming out tinny.

Soul doesn't reply, but instead pushes himself to go faster, energy draining quicker than he would have thought. They've been climbing for another few minutes when a wave of dizziness nearly breaks his grip on the rungs. Kid's hand wraps around his foot as he narrowly catches himself in time.

Panic edges Maka's voice as they stop. "What's wrong?"

"I don't feel right." Soul presses his head against the ladder rung, but the coolness of the metal doesn't help. He glances up, and thinks he sees a lightening of the dark a short distance above Black Star, who is climbing back down.

"We're almost there," he says when he makes it to Soul. "It shouldn't take more than a minute or so. Can you handle that?"

"Do I have a choice?" His head is swimming, but he sucks in a breath, calling up the voice from before. You were always a brave one.

"Nope," says Black Star, Maka, and Kid in unison.

He manages to roll his eyes. "Then, let's go."

But even with the encouragement of the voice and the others, and Black Star staying only one rung above him, it doesn't keep Soul from feeling like he is about to lose his grip. His body is finally giving out after a week of him putting it through more physical exertion than he ever had, and not having a good night's rest in just as long, if not longer.

One more, he keeps telling himself as the light from the first floor gets bigger. One more.

Black Star moves out of sight as he clambers out of the shaft, his wild hair standing out in the dark as he peeks over the edge for Soul. "Come on!"

It makes a laugh bubble on Soul's lips as he reaches the top of the ladder, a bad idea as he steps onto a similar in-between platform as before. He wobbles, but Kid has a tight grasp on his leg just as Black Star grabs his arm. "Oh no, you don't."

He pulls Soul unceremoniously through the entrance, and they both topple to the ground as Kid follows behind them. Pushing himself up, Soul manages to get to his feet as Maka emerges from the shaft. Behind him, he thinks he hears sirens, but he's sure it's all in his head, like everything else.

"I'm going to take the stairs for the rest of my life," he says, backing up and trying to look at them all at once. "And I think they should abolish elevators."

He is aware of how stupid he sounds, but before he can say so, a wave of darkness washes over him and pulls him under.

---

He thinks he's dead at first.

The darkness is so much more encompassing than his dreams, than even his nightmares of the black blood, that he can't imagine this place being anything else. But then, he supposes, if this was death, then he wouldn't be aware of himself, or anything else. Unless something else did come after.

Which, if death was anything like what he just lived, would suck.

Eventually, he becomes aware of his body, and that his eyes are closed, although the darkness doesn't lift in the slightest when he opens them. He scowls at nothing, getting to his feet, even though there is no floor to speak of.

He tries to kick up and float away, like he used to do in some of his better dreams, but gravity apparently continues to exist even in death. His scowl grows bigger, and he finally speaks. "I've spent almost four years of being afraid of death and change for this?" He kicks at the ground. "Lame."

A giant glowing pair of crimson eyes suddenly open up in front of Soul, their gaze piercing right through his soul. Letting out a cry, he jerks backwards, but the being is all around him, everything and nothing at once.

Now he is floating, and he watches as the being rearranges itself, making itself fit into his field of vision, although it still feels no less immense. There's something even more ancient in the being's eyes than the Sky Cat, and he wonders if the two are related, but the question flees from his lips as he fully takes in the being.

The Sea Goat. His eyes trace over the dark glow coming from the goat's horns, and he corrects himself silently. The Black Goat.

The Black Goat studies Soul in silence for far longer than the Sky Cat. Even though he has not heard it speak, he is sure it is the source of the voice he's been hearing.

When it looks like the Black Goat is simply never going to speak, he clears his throat. "Hello."

The Black Goat does not answer him.

He tries again. "You've been calling me?" he asks. "Here I am, I guess."

Still, the Black Goat does not speak.

He starts to get annoyed. "Do you and the others just like to have fun with humans and then be assholes when you actually meet them?"

The Black Goat does not immediately strike him down, or do anything at all, so he figures it's not God, like the Sky Cat.

"I just want to know why you've been calling me, what you have to tell me," he says, deciding to bargain. "I can tell you about Earth, if you want."

The Black Goat remains silent.

Something in Soul snaps as those red, glowing eyes drill into his. "You know, I've had enough of the cold shoulder," he says, jabbing a finger in the Goat's face. "You call me here when I don't know who I am, or what I want to do, or who I want to be for the rest of my life, and you tell me nothing?" Staring into the endless red voids of the Black Goat's eyes takes an excruciating amount of effort, more than he's ever expended on anything in his entire life, but he's never seen anything through to the end before like today, and if he's going to die, at least it won't be looking down into the darkness.

"I constantly wreck the relationships and things that might make my life worth living, that might make me worth something, because I don't know if I deserve good things, if I deserve to be happy." Being this honest after his conversation with Maka is like peeling away his skin all the way to the bone, but there is an electricity running through his body that pulls him out of the hole of apathy and helplessness he's never quite been able to escape for the last three years. "I ruin everything I touch because I'm afraid the world will fall apart again, and it's better to burn my own life down than lose everything again, and all I want to know is if things might be okay one day."

He isn't sure if the Black Goat is listening, whether it speaks a different language like the Sky Cat; there is no sign of comprehension or emotion in the being's nightmare eyes, but he isn't speaking to it anymore.

"I don't know what I deserve, but I do want to be there to see it. Experience it." There is a tremor in his hands, but it's not from fear or anger; he can feel everything, he feels alive. "Even if it's bad, even if I keep on failing and I never stop failing, I want to stop being afraid and being my own worst enemy, I-"

He breaks off suddenly-he's spoken so fast that his words jumbled together, and his heart is beating fast enough that he feels its thrumming in his fingertips. The Black Goat has not blinked or moved even once, but he senses a shift in the air, a heaviness that presses down on his body like a physical weight.

Letting his hands go slack, he stares into the demon's eyes with as much force as he can muster. "I want to live."

The silence that follows is deafening. He doesn't know if a moment, or an eternity, passes before the Black Goat speaks. When it does, all Soul can decipher is the melody that's been haunting him since he came home, followed by a series of high-pitched screeches that makes a different kind of darkness rise up and sweep over Soul.

"I have no idea what you're saying at all," he says before the Black Goat vanishes from his vision.

"That is often the way with beings like that," says the voice from the mines. "They're awfully irritating."

The darkness turns into the glowscape of Shibunsen Springs as Soul turns around, his gaze falling on Grandma Evans. She shrugs, cane in her hand. "I like to beat them with this when they try to talk to me."

He rushes into her arms like he did when he was three, long before he became too stuck in his head to tell people how he really felt about them. She's as solid as she was when she was alive, smelling exactly like the perfume she wore. He speaks into her shoulder. "How are you here?"

"I remember once saying that trying to escape death was about as productive as squeezing lemonade from rocks," she says. "But a quick break from it or two is quite feasible."

He frowns. "But I'm dead."

"Oh, I don't think you want to be dead," she says, pulling away and looping her arm with his. Her hair is as perfectly coiffed as it used to be before she got sick, and her nails are her favorite shade of green. "Do you?"

His mind flickers back to the Black Goat. "No."

"Good, I'm glad we agree," she says, patting his hand. "It looks like we're on Market Street." He looks around to discover she's right as she points to the end of the street, which is only a few blocks away. "I'll leave you there."

"This is a different Market Street than I remember," Soul says, ignoring the pang in his chest as he glances up and down the street. All of the shops glow in soft, bright colors with their doors open, inviting them inside to look at their wares.

"It's how I remember it," Grandma Evans replies. "I thought it'd be good for you to see how it was, and that everything has a life cycle, even towns."

"I guess that's true." Her words bring up the memory of the last time he saw her, and he swallows before saying, "I'm sorry I didn't stay with you."

Grandma Evans' tone is neither reproving, nor judgemental. "That was the first time something so big was asked of you," she says. "Many people fail at that, but the important thing is that you learned."

"I've mostly failed the rest, too."

"More lessons," she says as they reach the end of the street. "You're still alive, so you have never failed completely."

"What if I screw up so much that I dig myself into a hole I can't get out of?"

"Didn't your friends help you out of this one?" she asks. "You should continue talking to your therapist, and try talking to your parents and brother about your problems, too."

He refuses to be comforted. "And if they get sick of helping me all the time?"

"I think you need to consider how you have helped them, too," she says in a voice that is firm, but gentle, pulling her arm from his, and placing her hands on his shoulders. "Instead of just thinking that all you do is hurt the people you care about. If you work to give as much as you can, you won't have to worry about asking for help."

He's quiet for a long moment, but only because he knows the end is coming. "I wish you could have been my therapist."

A laugh falls from her mouth. "Your therapist has done a fine job," she says. "Don't forget to thank him."

He looks up at her face. "For what?"

"You'll see," she answers, which is not an answer at all. One of her hands goes to his face briefly, and then she lifts her hands. "But I think it's time for you to go home now, Soul."