1... 2... 3... 4... Do you know what number comes next?
"Wow, sounds like you all had some pretty good times!" Said Blake, listening eagerly to Mel's stories.
Mel laughed. "Yeah, they were, and I was thinking how much you would've loved it through every one of them." She said calmly. Blake smiled gratefully and responded.
"Yeah... Hearing about Ty... I really wished I hadn't just left him the way I did, and I still feel awful about it to this day. Of course, I'm glad I left with you; I just wish I had the opportunity to still communicate with him, to speak with him one last time. I wasn't even there when he got adopted for the first time. It's my greatest regret, and I hope he can forgive me one day."
Mel grew a worried look on her face and replied to him. "Don't worry, Ty loves you dearly. You are one of the few things we have in common, and if it weren't for our mutual affiliation with you, we might never have been able to rescue Xavier from the volcano. My point is that I know he still has a special place in his heart for you."
Blake smiled again, out of reassurance. Seeing Blake again after all that time and saying those things to him made her remember what it was that she had always wanted to tell him if it were only possible.
Mel sighed. "I have something I need to say to you now." Blake drew closer to her as if asking her to continue. He was shocked to discover that Mel was shedding a tear. "I'm so sorry!" She shouted, weeping.
"Mel, what could you possibly need to apologize for?" Replied Blake.
"I'm sorry that I couldn't save you, and I'm sorry for taking you for granted, but most of all, I'm sorry for just not being good enough."
"Mel, nothing that happened was your fault, and you know that. If anything, I should be apologizing for not fulfilling my promise to you."
Mel seemed to calm down a little, and she walked to Blake and hugged him, spending time simply enjoying each other's company. After a while, the mood lightened on its own.
"Well, anyways, what brings you back up here? You couldn't possibly have passed away, could you?" Asked Blake.
"So, I have been here before." Mel thought. "Then, I wonder why my memory of it last time was erased. Perhaps it happened after we escaped the building."
Mel thought for a bit and then answered. "Actually, I don't really know. Tera read us a book about spirit world travel and taught me how, but it didn't work. Next thing I know, I'm in bed and I end up here."
"Huh, alright. Of course, travel between realms is only possible during the spirit world's perihelia." Blake thought out loud.
"Sorry... Peri-heli-a?" Mel struggled to pronounce.
"You know, when the spirit world is closest to the earth? It happens every, like, five years? I thought you had a book on this!" He said jokingly. Mel felt slightly embarrassed.
"Well, the perihelon is obviously happening now, so I'd say you still have a couple more days where you're still able to travel between worlds before their connection gets cut off for a really long time." He continued. Mel was fascinated. She had no idea there was so much happening under her nose.
"Well anyway, you should probably be heading back to Earth before the sun goes up there." He said. Mel was confused by that statement.
"But it's only been like an hour." She pointed out.
Blake laughed a little. "Fun fact about this place: time works way differently here, but don't worry about it." He said. Mel smiled at his comment, but didn't know if she believed it. Time felt pretty normal to her.
"Well, you leave the same way you came. That staircase right there; it means you have a way back. And, it's yours alone. Very bad things happen when someone tries to return to Earth who's not supposed to, you know." Said Blake. Mel turned to leave, but looked back at him.
"I should expect you here again soon, right?" He called out happily.
Mel laughed. "Definitely!"
She turned back toward the staircase she had climbed up earlier and briskly went back down. As she descended, the atmosphere gradually began to grow brighter. Everything began glowing brightly, and she compared it to when she had arrived for the first time. When she neared the botrom of the stairs, she felt the light completely egulf her, just like earlier. She let it take her naturally, and she walked on.
Mel woke up in her bed as from a deep sleep. She looked around the room calmly and saw she was in Xavier's bedroom, right where she was when she left. She examined herself; she once again had her metal parts and her scar over her eye. There were bright sunbeams shining in through the window, illuminating the small dust particles floating close by. She also noticed that no one else was in the room; they had all left.
She immediately got up and had the thought of running to tell the others about what she had just saw, but then she convinced herself to keep it a secret. What if she had simply dreamt the whole thing? She personally didn't believe that, but she didn't want to take any chances and talk about it with everyone, once again out of fear of causing disappointment.
Right as she decided with herself, Xavier came through the door, seemingly in a hurry. "Mel, you're awake; we were beginning to think something was wrong with you!" He said.
"What? Why?" She asked worriedly.
"Why!? It's almost 3 P.M.!"
Mel was shocked; she couldn't believe it. "So that's what Blake meant." She thought.
"Well, I'm glad you're all right. Come on, sleepyhead; we're gonna be late." Continued Xavier.
At first Mel wondered what he could be talking about, but then she remembered on her own. She had almost forgotten that today they were planning on visiting Shelter 17. She began to walk toward Xavier, but then began to notice something terrible. Her legs were wobbly, her eyelids were heavy, and her movement was slow and lethargic; she was extremely sleepy. When Xavier left the room, she trudged behind him, trying not to look tired.
The walk to Shelter 17 was legnthy, but it wasn't too tedious. The whole way, Mel was behind the group, which was particularly odd to the other three, who notice that she is always ahead of them, due to her speed. Xavier looked back at her.
"You okay?" He asked briefly. Mel ignored him for a second, but lifted her head to reply after a bit.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, just fine." She answered quickly. She then returned to staring at the sidewalk with her head hanging low. Xavier turned back to face front again, a little skeptical of Mel's response.
Underneath Shelter 17, the group and the Pound Puppies did what they usually do. Xavier and Ty talked with Lucky and Cookie about their home and how things are going with everyone. Lucky considers it thrilling to be able to talk to an actual kid about an adoption. Tera hung around Strudel's lab, pretending to watch her work while actually partaking in a guilty pleasure of hers, which was looking around the lab and criticizing Strudel's work to herself.
Mel usually was asked a million questions by Strudel when they visit, but she was working at the moment, so she was free for the time being. Looking around at everyone else and what they were doing, she quietly made her way to the back exit of the pound and snuck out of the tunnels. Hidden in the bushes, she sat down, looked up at the dusk sky, and prepared for what she was about to do.
Mel closed her eyes tightly and cleared her mind. She felt around herself for the spirit world. When she felt nothing, she became a bit discouraged.
"Come on, come on!" She uttered quietly. She tried even harder. She opened her mind, taking in whatever she could feel. She tried remembering what it felt like last time she was there. She kept trying, and eventually she opened her eyes to discover she was in the exact place she had started.
"Ugh, why can't I do this anymore?" She said. She thought of giving up, when she remembered what Ty had suggested. Mel closed her eyes one last time and, not thinking much of it, focused on her memory of the spirit world. She concentrated on what it looked like and everything she and Blake talked about. She was very surprised to feel that almost immediately, she felt pulled from her body and launched forward, landing in the same bright place she arrived at last time.
She looked around, verifying that what she had done had worked. She saw the bright blue sky, she saw the white mist that shrouded the area, and she finally saw the tall staircase directly in front of her. She was overcome with joy and, without hesitating, she started up the steps.
She reached the top in no time and once again laid eyes upon the magnificent paradise above the clouds. She took a deep breath and smiled; it was good to be back. She once again took a moment to become accustomed to her surroundings, and she didn't even have to guess who was waiting for her there.
"I knew you'd figure it out." Said Blake smiling.
Mel sighed. "Well, I did it for you." She replied.
She didn't have a chance to say anything else when she suddenly heard a voice from behind. This voice would haunt her forever. This voice instantly recalled several memories long supressed. As every hair on her body stood on end, she froze as the two words plagued her mind; "Hello, Mel."
The feeling that engulfed every inch of her was overbearing, and she could barely find the muscle coordination to turn herself around to look at the thing that uttered the phrase. There stood every ounce of sadism she had experienced in her life, and every memory of the taste of blood. Before her stood a tall black dog, looking down upon her as an evil deity looking down upon a pitiful creature.
Blake took a couple steps back, confused. The dog began a monologue to which Mel would listen carefully. His voice was deep and static, unchanging and inhuman.
"Deciding to become involved in something that cannot be stopped was not a wise choice. Your party is cursed with a tendency to make poor decisions, including attemting to control forces beyond your comprehension, and in doing so you made one critical mistake:"
Mel's eyes moved over her environment with extreme speed, desperate for an escape. She wasn't thinking about Blake, or Xavier, or anyone. She stood, quaking with fear, when she eyed the staircase she had climbed up on. She however could not finish her thought process before the black dog finished.
"You left the door open."
He immediately sprinted toward the staircase with impossible acceleration and extreme velocity. Mel gasped in surprise. She didn't know what was happening, but her instincts seemed to know. She ran after him with a hodge podge of confusion, terror, and curiosity.
"Mel?" Blake shouted. He, too, began to run after Mel.
The dog had reached the staircase to which he jumped off of, all the way down to the bottom. What would happen if he reached the bottom? What was he trying to do? She wondered.
"Hey! Stop! Wait!" Mel shouted franrically. She reached the staircase and ran downward as fast as she could. The dog was almost out of sight. She then began to witness somerhing terrible. The staircase began to shake and crack. She gasped in shock, though she did not slow her pace and continued to chase after him. The stairs began to crumble beneath her feet, and she observed large chunks of it falling from the structure.
Blake had reached the edge just in time to watch the staircase detach from the surface. He could no longer see anything beyond where he was standing, though he could hear the great cataclysm that was occuring and a faint continuous scream. "Mel!" He shouted into the void.
The staircase had completely fallen apart and Mel began to fall. Her ears were overwhelmed with the sound of destruction. She couldn't see anything below her, and she genuinely feared for her own life. She continued to yell, and the reverberation of her own screams was the last thint she heard before her consciousness was lost.