The alarm screeched him awake, just like it did every morning. But it just sounded so much louder and more painful this time. Ken could barely find the strength to shut it up, forget pull himself out of bed. His entire body seemed to be cursing his decision to enter the mist world two days in a row.

Every movement felt like there were rubber bands tightening around his joints, and it didn't get easier once he'd started moving. Something told him today was going to be a long day. The price he paid for wanting to save Tina's life he supposed.

But he hadn't yet. She was still there, still suffering, still needing his help. Could he possibly manage a third consecutive day in the mist world?

He supposed he'd see what Gene and Courtney thought. Gene might be biased because of his sister being trapped in there but either way a decision was going to have to be made. The fact that it took him almost ten minutes to get down the stairs already had him leaning towards a 'no', however.

Calvin was present for breakfast today, which was a slight relief because the conversation helped keep his attention. Ken hadn't asked what he'd gotten up to yesterday, and honestly, he was a little scared of doing so. He already knew that Calvin did some fairly shady stuff around Bog Harbour, so there was a big chance he wasn't one of those people who 'needed to know'. He wasn't going to complain there, if Calvin wasn't actively going to tell him.

After a lazy breakfast of chocolatey something or other, Ken shouldered his school bag – which felt twice as heavy as usual – and made the journey to school. Every labouring step felt stiff and bruised, and the annoyingly good weather just made things difficult, because the overbearing sunshine and lack of wind just meant things felt twice as hot as well. At this rate he was going to be lucky to make it to school, forget a trip to the mist world afterwards.

Gene and Louise were there to meet him outside the restaurant as usual. He'd expected Gene to look exhausted and concerned, but not Louise too?

She was practically grey from worry, which was entirely unlike her. Louise, who oozed confidence and ambivalence, was suddenly ashen and demure.

"You… okay Louise?" He baited the obvious.

"Er, just… worried about Tina," she actually admitted. "It's not like her to be sick, let alone for several days now. I haven't seen her since Sunday too, and that's never a good thing."

Ken glanced into the restaurant, where Bob was similarly grey and lifeless. Standing to attention behind the counter, there was no intent in the damp rag he was pushing across the counter.

"Don't worry Louise, it'll all be fine." Ken offered a hug, only for her to hiss and back away. There she was.

"You sound awfully sure." She frowned at him. "What's your secret? You the one makin' her sick?"

"Hah. I wish…" Ken sighed, sharing a glance with Gene.

Forcing his tired legs forward once again, he mountaineered the streets towards Wagstaff, where an equally tired Courtney met up with him and Gene in homeroom. Lacking the energy to even irritate Gene, Ken didn't even need to ask; they needed a day off.

Just one, though. He didn't know if there was a set amount of time that someone could be in the mist world before whoever put them there killed them, but he couldn't afford that chance. This was Tina for heaven's sake.

Science was little more than a snooze, where Ken could find the energy to stare at the blackboard, but not to answer the question Blevins had thrust upon him. Barely even reacting when prompted, Blevins just gave him a quizzical look and then foisted the question onto another student. Which of course earned him all of the undeserved scorn.

Lunch was a muted affair, to say the least. Ken, Gene and Courtney were little more than zombies picking away at their tater tots, while Louise seemed like she couldn't even be bothered to be annoyed by Courtney.

Dropping his aching body into a chair for English to round off the day, Ken was determined to pay enough attention to at least be able to answer the question should someone prompt him. Ms Jacobson had ironically asked Courtney first, but she looked like she was half asleep at her desk.

"What is wrong with you kids today?" She shook her head in obvious disdain. "Okay then, Ken. Up for a grammar question?"

"Er, I guess so?" he shrugged.

"Okay, good boy. Could you tell me where the apostrophes belong in this paragraph?"

Ken blinked a few times, desperate to focus on the blackboard for just a few minutes longer;

'"Do you know whats for dinner?" Steve asked Amy. "Its almost time."

"Steak and fries," Amy said. "But its dads turn to cook."

"Awesome," Steve said. "Did you feed the dog?"

"I did but its not eating its food." Amy shrugged.'

Ken groaned. He'd always hated apostrophes. He shuffled out of his chair and walked to the front of the class, as per usual. Apostrophes were used to shorten things, weren't they? Like 'it is' becoming 'it's' and such?

There were plenty of those available for him to mark. 'whats' and 'Dads' both looked suspicious too, so he marked an apostrophe in those as well. Six in total.

Ms Jacobson just offered him a wry smile in response. Great. Where had he screwed up?

"Almost," she said. "Just one little mistake with that last 'its'. You don't need an apostrophe there because it's the food that belongs to the dog, and 'eating it is food' doesn't make sense, so it wouldn't shorten to 'it's' no matter what you did. Good try though."

Ken rolled his eyes. Yet again he felt stupid for almost getting it right.

English nightmare over, Ken followed after Gene to leave the school grounds and head off home. The silence between the siblings was downright unnerving; normally there would be so much chaotic energy, varying in content based on whatever had happened in the previous week or so. But this was just alien. Even Louise didn't seem up to her usual role of 'the sarcastic one'. Maybe they were missing their third and thus not feeling right. It made sense he supposed.

"H-how…" Ken broke the silence at last. "How are your parents holding up?"

"Weirdly oblivious," Louise groaned. "Like, I know something's up. You can tell. But they keep insisting that she's perfectly fine. Every time you ask mom how she's doing she says 'oh she's doing great! She'll be back to school tomorrow for sure!' and that day gets postponed every day you ask."

"Oof. That's rough. I noticed your dad was looking a bit grey this morning as well."

"Oh nah, he's just like that normally," Louise managed a smirk.

"Huh. Well I've got time to kill tonight. Want a visitor for a couple hours?"

"You sure you're up for that?" Louise asked. "You look like you're about to fall asleep standing."

"Uh huh, definitely." Ken insisted. "Just been doing a lot of studying and stuff lately so I'm kinda tired y'know?"

"Pff, nerd." Louise scoffed. "What's Gene's excuse?"

"I am just…" Gene heaved, waddling after them, "Peachy! No need for alarm!"

Louise just shrugged. "Fair enough."

Ken followed the two Belchers back to theirs, which was a sadder affair than usual. The rustic lustre had been washed out for a tired, neglected aesthetic. It hadn't looked like Bob had moved since this morning, while the three or four customers on the floor seemed muted, slowly picking at their respective meals. Even the Burger of the Day seemed bland and uninspired compared to the usual – the Toasty Buns Burger?

"A-afternoon Bob," Ken made an attempt. "You feeling okay? You look a bit… distracted."

"…huh? Oh, hey there Ken." Bob eventually responded. "Uh, yeah, I guess I am a bit. You see, Tina's still sick and Lin's not coping too well with it, so the workload's been doubled down here."

"Oof, that's not ideal," Ken said. "You need a hand with anything? I can work the floor or some-"

"Don't worry about it Ken," even Bob's smile looked strained. "You're here as a guest, not a worker. This is my burden, and I intend on-"

"For a man with a burden you sure do complain about it a lot!" Louise cried at him from the stairwell. Bob just stopped talking; didn't even chastise his daughter for talking out of turn.

Things were unravelling before his eyes here. They might've been off kilter whenever he was last here – Monday, wasn't it? – but this was dangerous. How much longer would it be before either of them just dissolved into a panic?

And he hadn't even seen Linda yet, but Bob's words promised a similar experience up the stairs.

Depressingly, the promise was delivered and then some. Linda was just splayed across the couch staring at infomercials rather than pottering about doing mom stuff like she usually would. It looked like she hadn't moved in some time and there was a half empty bottle of wine sitting next to the couch. She barely even reacted to the three of them arriving.

"Ohh, hey there Ken," The lack of a nickname brought with it a weird twang. "You stayin' for a while? How you been?"

"Kinda tired," Ken couldn't even be bothered lying. "Worried about you guys though."

"Oh, it's nothin'," Linda was still insistent. "Just been takin' care of Tina on toppa the house and it's wearing me down you know? She ain't well, the poor thing."

"You're not wrong," Ken swallowed down the knot in his throat. "She'll be better soon, I'm sure. Tomorrow, Saturday at the latest."

"She better," Linda wrenched herself upright. "Any longer an' we'll have to take her to the doctor's, and then we'll have to sell Gene to pay for it!"

"I won't sell for that much, woman!" A flicker of life returned to Gene's voice.

"Oh I know sweetie. You know I'd never s-" Linda began, only for a wave of grief to visibly overcome her. Pulling in her two remaining kids – who didn't even fight against it – Linda simply sobbed into them. Louise just looked forlorn while Gene shared a thin smile with Ken. This was just despairing. His favourite family was suffering, and it was all because they couldn't get there to save Tina. It had to be tomorrow, no matter what.

Dinner at the Belchers' was another bizarre affair that day. Understandably, Linda still insisted on taking a meal down to Tina. What she was doing with it, Ken had no clue, but he managed to stomach his way through half a film before his common sense told him he had to get home and sleep. Strangely enough, Bob insisted on driving him, only after standing outside Tina's bedroom door for an awkwardly long time.

The car ride home was another silent, awkward occasion where Bob didn't even get angry as another motorist screeched through red lights, right in front of him. Calm and diligent yet an obvious shadow of himself, he pulled into the main driveway of Fischoeder mansion and bid Ken farewell.

"Come visit us tomorrow if you want, Ken." Even his voice was ashen and distant. Ken managed a friendly smile before Bob just gave the nod and drove away again. A glance up the purpling sunset only strengthened his conviction.

Tomorrow came far too quickly for what his body would've preferred, however. Still stiff and achy upon getting out of bed, he nevertheless forced himself into the shower and into fresh clothes, even if it was a Friday. The pounding heat did help soften his tired joints up a bit however.

Feeding Frank and grabbing Pop tarts for the trip to school, he met up with Gene and Louise on the way, where Gene seemed just as set in his ways as Ken felt.

"Everything okay at home?" He dared to ask. Louise just shook her head. She didn't even lash out at him for asking; things must've been awful.

Courtney joined up with them at lunch, muttering the usual niceties and not even bothering to annoy Gene. It was clear there were bigger fish to fry.

Ken was spared from answering a question in history for once, where instead Ms LaBonz just explained at length why Thanksgiving happened. Every. Last. Copious. Detail.

The usual Friday celebrations weren't present. While student and teacher alike were escaping from the building via whatever means, Ken and company were just slouching along at a slower pace than usual. Even Louise couldn't bring herself to muster up excitement for the weekend. Tina must've made so much of an impact on their little family despite being barely noticeable sometimes.

The four of them made their way back to the restaurant, where Louise immediately headed up the stairs back into the main house, and Ken ordered the day's Burger of the Day from Bob; the Open Sesame Burger today. Wasn't that just a normal burger?

A slight cause for concern, he had to be honest.

Ken gave him a thankful nod and took Gene and Courtney with him back to the Wharf Arts Centre – a bit of a walk, but buses were expensive dammit. This time they made sure to find somewhere a bit more secluded before crossing over; last time they got lucky, he thought with a chuckle. They couldn't rely on that.

The moment the fog started billowing in he knew something was different. It was heavier than usual; full of some energy he couldn't recognise. Just what was going on here today? Did the world somehow know of his intentions?

Nah, that sounded too far-fetched even for this place. How could a location do that?

Lona confirmed their route by and Courtney led the way. Dotting between buildings and other cover, they stealthily worked around the shadows, which were out in force today. Something was definitely making an effort to keep them away from this place.

"Take that!" Ken slashed away at the Koropokkuru, slicing his leaf in half and knocking him out, while Courtney literally blew up a Hablerie – also known as a creepy ball with a huge mouth – from the inside with a well thrown bomb. The two shadows dissolved into the mist and granted them entry into what would've been the Wharf Arts Centre in the real world. In the mist world it was little fancier than just an empty concrete cylinder.

Taking the obvious entrance, Ken opened an unguarded treasure chest which yielded some weird metallic cylinder thing. After studying it for a moment he just pocketed it. The guessing games could come later. Suddenly a shadow lurched from nowhere and knocked Ken back. Courtney reacted quickly to freeze it in place however, and Gene smacked it in the side with his harp. It recoiled in pain and split into three Jack O'Lanterns, which he and Ken quickly took care of by bombarding them with Bufu spells.

The many fire monsters were doused with little effort thanks to their ice magic, but unlike the previous times, Tina didn't seem to be immediately in sight.

"Tina!" Gene cried. "Where are you, T? I don't wanna be the elder Belcher!"

"Calm down, okay? We'll find her." Ken insisted. Hopefully they would in time, anyway.

Through the building they searched, scanning empty room upon empty room until eventually stumbling across what looked like her crying silhouette at the end of a corridor.

"Tina…? Is that you?" Gene called out, pacing slowly towards her. "Please be you and not some weird other you!"

"Huh?" Someone sniffled. "G… Gene?"

"Tina!" Gene actually ran towards her.

"Hang on, wait!" Ken cried. Something about this didn't seem right. Firstly she seemed so much more guarded than the others, and now there wasn't another shadow in sight? It was a concern to say the least.

Gene was stopped mid run by a flurry of arrows firing out of a gap in the wall, missing him by inches. And then the doorway between them went up in flames.

"Hey, not fair!" He pulled one of the arrows out of his harp. "This is a mahogany finish!"

"Be a bit more worried about yourself?" Ken groaned. "Little more careful, okay?"

Meanwhile Tina had met up with them on the other side of the wall of arrows and fire.

"What're… what're you guys doing here?" She sniffled.

"We're saving you!" Gene's excitement was obviously getting the better of him. "It's time to get outta here, okay? You just… walk through this fire like some kinda reverse Jesus and we're good to go!"

"G-go?" Tina mumbled. "We can leave here? I've been stuck here for… what day is it now?"

"Friday."

"Friday?! I've been here five days?!"

"We're so sorry! We tried to get to you earlier but-"

"-But you decided I wasn't worth it."

Gene visibly recoiled away from that sentence. It sounded like typical depressed Tina, but even she wasn't that self-doubting, was she?

"Oh, no…" Ken muttered. The three of them spun around to see another likeness of her staring them down, only with the same bright yellow eyes that Gene and Courtney had had.

"…any clue what your sister's scared of?" He whispered to Gene.

"Uh, hygiene?" Gene just shrugged.

But this shadow Tina wasn't stalking after them, rather subjecting them all to a sullen glare. Meanwhile the three of them were just backing away from her, inching closer and closer to the wall of fire.

"Can we fix the fire?" Ken whispered.

"I am not a fire mechanic!" Gene hissed back.

"I mean with ice, you pudding."

"Ohh…"

Both of the boys held up a Chunky Blast-Off, summoning Nokken and Jack Frost respectively. Flurries of ice were launched at the flames in the doorway, smothering and extinguishing them.

"Phew," Gene wiped his brow. "I didn't like the idea of getting Gene kebabbed."

"I am a Shadow, I am the True Self, and I wasn't worth your time, was I?" The shadow Tina sniffled. "That's why you took so long to find me! I've been here for days!"

"Uh, what's going on?" The normal Tina asked. "Like, there's another me that looked like me but not really and you guys seem to be scared of her? A-and you guys can summon ice monsters?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it." Gene's voice was a notch higher than normal. "J-just don't listen to her, okay T? We tried our best!"

"Then why did it take you so long?!" Shadow Tina demanded. "You're just like everyone else, forgetting about me!"

"B-but that's not true?" Real Tina said. "Because they're here… right?"

"Yeah, after five whole days!" Shadow Tina immediately countered. "What were they doing for those five days! Were they just sitting on their butts?!"

"Only a little bit!" Gene insisted. "But we're here to save her now, so you can just go away, weird yellow eyed Tina!"

"You didn't even know I was gone!" Shadow Tina spat.

"I-is… is that true, Gene?" The real Tina asked of him. Her voice was heavy and mournful.

"Mom and dad said you had butt rot, and it was very believable!" Gene cried. "But it doesn't matter now, be-"

"It does matter!" The real Tina suddenly raised her voice. "Why am I always the last resort, the backup friend, the black sheep? Even you pick Louise before me Gene, ugh!"

The real Tina sunk to her knees. "Everyone… always forgets about me. You, Mom, Dad, Louise… everyone."

"But we haven't," Ken butted in. "We're here for you, Tina. We've been looking for you as much as we could. Trust me."

Tina glanced up at him. A sniffle escaped, "I-I don't even know you, Ken. Why would you care?"

She shuffled around, hugging her knees. Ken just looked back at his cohorts. Now what?

"I've always been the last one picked," Shadow Tina sobbed. "Even by you guys, who are supposed to be my friends! Even now you're making a weird clique and excluding me!"

"It's pronounced 'click-way'!"

"Whatever!"

"That's not true!" Courtney stood up to her. "Gene and Ken are good people, a-and they're doing their best! If that's not good enough for you that's your fault, okay?!"

Even Shadow Tina looked taken aback by her sudden outburst. Courtney knelt down next to the real Tina and made sure to hold her hand.

"I… I know what it's like to be the last one picked," she smiled. "No one would pick me for sports in case my heart went funny, because then they'd have to care. No one wanted to be friends with the girl who might faint, and no one wanted to sit with me at the lunch table. Except Gene and Ken."

"And even then it was mostly-" Gene began, but received a sharp elbow to the side and got the hint.

Tina slowly looked up at Courtney. "…r-really?"

"Uh huh," Courtney said. "When we found out you were missing, Ken led the charge, and Gene was so worried about you he wouldn't rest!"

"I was willing to skip school to find you but Mom wouldn't believe me!" Gene added his 'input'.

"S-so yeah, maybe you were picked last," Courtney put a hand on her shoulder. "But maybe that's not a bad thing. Maybe they were saving the best until last."

"Y-you really think that?" Tina's eyes were shining.

"Of course they don't think that!" Shadow Tina argued from the other side of Gene and Ken. "They always leave me until last! Remember 'last one in the pool is Tina'?!"

The real Tina got back to her feet again. "…yeah, I remember that. But there's nothing wrong with it because it's true. I-I am Tina. And that's a good thing."

"No it's not a good thing!" Her shadow self retorted. "Being left until last is sad! It's pathetic! I don't wanna be left until last! What if Jimmy Junior leaves me until last! He'll marry someone else, have kids with someone else! What's up with that?!"

"That…" Tina's breathing hitched. "Th-that won't happen! Jimmy Junior loves me, he's just too complicated to say so!"

"He's full of crap!" Shadow Tina bit back instantly. "He doesn't care about me, and none of you guys do either!"

The four of them were thrown back by a sudden expulsion of energy, and for the first time the Shadow Tina finally looked threatening. Waves of golden energy were swirling around her while her glasses had gone opaque and expressionless.

"I-if they didn't care then why would they come to save me?" The real Tina countered.

"Have they?" Shadow Tina spat right back. Before Ken or the others could even react, innumerable volleys of arrows shot out of nowhere, pinning the three of them to the far wall.

"They seem a little… busy," Shadow Tina smirked. "Because of all those arrows?"

"Y-yeah, I get it," the real Tina mumbled. "But that doesn't mean I'm gonna just let you push me around!"

"I won't need to," Shadow Tina said. "Life already does that for you."

Another volley of arrows pierced the sky, cracking the floor below Tina. She fell back from shock, and immediately had to shuffle back farther as yet more impaled another section of floor.

"Tina!" Gene cried, flailing against the arrows embedded in his clothes. "Y-you leave her alone, dammit!"

The real Tina continued shuffling desperately away from continued arrow fire piercing the ground before her, meanwhile Shadow Tina just stood there.

And then the floor started crumbling.

Slipping away in small sections at first, rumbles quaked through the room as the entire corner began to wither. The walls either side of Tina were falling away before her eyes, meanwhile she just sat there releasing a low, groaning noise. As more and more bits of wall and floor were falling away around her, the groaning would slowly get higher.

"That's the problem with love…" Tina mumbled. She clenched her fists and shut her eyes, just as the floor fell away completely. Her groaning escalated to a high-pitched yelp as she disappeared from sight.

"Tina!" Gene managed to tear a few of the arrows out of the wall. "Tina, can you h-"

Suddenly a bright flash burst out from the hole in the ground where Tina had fallen, and she reappeared. Astride an enormous white stallion. With glowing red eyes and a gleaming, curly mane, the thing must've been at least twelve feet tall.

"Nothing can stop it!" She cried, wielding a fancy looking bow.

"B-but life was pushing you around!" Shadow Tina cried. "How are you fighting back?!"

"I… don't know," Tina just shrugged. "But I do know that I can't just let that happen! Yeah, so what if I'm the last one picked! Life is what you make it, not what happens to you! There's nothing you can do to me, other me!"

Her giant horse snorted, expelling plumes of fire from its nostrils.

"I'm…" her breath caught, as if she couldn't believe her own words. "I'm not afraid of you!"

End of chapter stats:

You almost got the grammar question right. Your Knowledge has increased!

Hey there dudes. I got like 7 chapters written over Nano, and I'll be slowly updating those over the next two months or so.

Understandably, the rest of the Belchers are getting all depressed due to Tina's absence, even if they don't understand exactly what the situation is.

Tina's fear is essentially the fear of being alone. Jimmy Jr ignoring her, combined with Tammy's recent passing, and her social awkwardness, culminated into this mess. And yes, of course her Persona is a horse. Officially named MacLir, it's named after the Irish deity. I know they're water based but hey. Giant horse.

As always, feel free to leave feedback in any way, shape or form. Thanks for reading.