Hello.

Wow, it has been a HOT minute, huh?

Or, rather, more like a hot half-year at this point.

There's a lot I want to say. But I hope that this chapter will suffice, at least for now.

I will say, despite how long I've worked on it, and how hard it was for me to write it…

I think it might actually be one of my favorites so far.

So, without any more delay…

Let's get in. =D

Chapter 54: Reverie of Siblings

"What's wrong with Zach?" I asked, handing the note back.

We were just outside of Zach shop. People were bustling around, and a few guards were mingling, but no one paid us or Zach's shop any mind.

"I don't know. I can only assume Blake hand-delivered the note this morning, but… I have a very bad feeling about this." Paige responded, still biting her lip in that nervous way she does.

I took a deep breath. "Well… no point in beating around the bush, I suppose."

We entered the store. Jerry was nowhere to be seen, and things looked a tad out of place (sorta like no one had cleaned up in a little while), but otherwise the store was exactly the same as it had been. Unsure of whether it was a good idea to wait or not, we both opted to just go ahead and push through to the back.

We knocked on the door. Blake took almost no time in answering, sweating rather heavily. "You came. Thank Notch. Come in."

The blacksmith part of Zach's shop felt alive. Almost every furnace along the wall was currently ablaze. I could smell the coal burning just barely entering. The room was stiflingly hot: none of the windows were open, the curtains all drawn. Blake was wearing a tank-top and some shorts (which had a hole cut out for her tail), and she looked like she was burning up. I could see a fresh bandage wrapped around her arm, so it looked like she was still taking care of herself as best as she could.

Zach was nearby, working away with vigor at an anvil. A sword was there, and he was beating it furiously with a hammer. He held it up, looked down at it closely, approved what he saw, and tossed it into a giant pile that was overflowing from a nearby chest. Other chests also were nearby, with some daggers, some bows, a sarcastic amount of arrows, and much more.

Blake wasted no time in catching us up. "He's been working almost non-stop on Reginald's order ever since you left the other day. He's barely slept, he almost never stops to eat, drink, or do anything. He's basically become a zombie. He's not focusing on anything other than work."

"What's th-that *cough* got to do with us? *cough*" Paige asked, coughing from the air.

Blake looked at me desperately. "He's your friend. Can't you get him to stop working and talk? I… I need to talk with him when he's not distracted by work."

My thoughts flashed back to the note Blake passed me just the other day.

"I fear for our safety. We're just as trapped."

"You…" I started to ask, before glancing over at Paige. I took a step forward towards Blake and asked, in a whisper only she could hear, "You want to figure out how to leave, right?"

She said nothing, but her eyes were the tell: the answer was yes.

Paige looked between the two of us curiously. I mopped my forehead, wiping away my (somehow already sweaty) bangs. "Alright… let's see…"

I slowly approached Zach. On closer inspection, he looked much worse than usual. He was still wearing the exact same outfit he wore when we visited him the other day underneath a blacksmithing apron, only it was drenched in sweat and torn in places. Bags were clearly marked under his eyes, like he hadn't slept in days. His hands were absolutely covered in bruises, calluses, and fresh wounds.

"Um, hey, buddy? How are things going?" I asked, in a would-be casual tone.

If Zach heard me, he didn't make any motion of it, not even glancing up at me.

My eyes widened and I looked over at Blake. Blake gave me a helpless little shrug. "This is what happens when he gets hyper-focused on things… anything and anyone else becomes second rate."

I looked back at Zach. He was pounding away at another iron ingot. "Ummm… Zach?"

Again, Zach didn't bother answering. All he seemed focused on was pounding at the ingot.

"Here, lemme try." Paige asked, pushing me aside gently and clearing her throat.

I already had a feeling what she was going to do, and plugged my ears. Sure enough, Paige started screaming at the top of her lungs, shouting all sorts of random nonsense. Pretty sure she even swore once or twice.

If Zach heard any of that, he absolutely did not show it. He barely even flinched, to be perfectly honest.

Paige started getting agitated. "Oh come on! No one just ignores someone screaming like that!"

I scratched at my neck. "I don't get it… he's not responding to anything… he's hyperfocused on a single task… doesn't respond properly…"

And suddenly, a horrible, horrible feeling started rising in the pit of my stomach.

Blake and Paige both noticed my face becoming pale. "What?! Did you realize something?!" Blake asked.

I didn't respond. Instead, I went around so that I was facing Zach head on. In the hazy air of the smithy, I hadn't really paid much attention to the specifics of his face.

But now, I looked directly at his eyes. Under normal circumstances, they should have been red and bloodshot from being open for so long.

But all I could see in his eyes was a dark, eerie gray.

"Th… this…" Vivianna in my head spoke, her voice quivering.

"I knew it…" I whispered, my hands shaking.

"What?! What's happened to him?!" Blake asked.

I looked over at her. "He's become a shell. I… I've seen this before… in a way."

I looked back at Zach. Even standing directly in front of him and within his eye-sight, he did not make even a passing notion of recognizing me.

"He's been cursed… he somehow must've drank a Potion of Living Death…" Vivianna whispered.

"Living Death…" I whispered back, seeing just how glassy and unfocused Zach's eyes were.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa! Time out for a moment! Care to explain what you've found out?" Pagie asked.

I moved back around and sat down in a nearby chair at Zach's desk. Paige and Blake stared at me as I slowly explained.

"I… somehow, I don't know how, but a long time ago, I somehow swallowed a potion that… it's only known as a Potion of Living Death." I started explaining. "It… it causes the drinker to focus on one single task… never stopping, never doing anything else, barely even focusing on anything or anyone around it… until you finally succumb to it."

Vivianna slowly explained it to me, and I did my best to explain it to the two as well. Living Death is more than just a simple disease, it's a curse. Once ingested, the drinker can only focus on one specific task until the potion finally kills the drinker. My task, apparently, had been to do nothing but stare at a wall. Only by Susie and Snowy tying me up and forcing me to move elsewhere was I able to do something else, and even then it was blindly following them. The task seems to be related to whatever you were doing beforehand, and from what I remember, the last thing I had done was fall asleep, which sorta explained the lack of action on my part.

Zach must be hyper focused on building weapons, since he really had his mind on that big order when we left, but he isn't even aware of it. As far as anything is concerned, Zach is basically asleep inside his own body, while his body continues his task.

"He's not even consciously aware of it. As far as he knows, he's asleep, probably dreaming away, his dreams slowly turning into living nightmares." I continued. "I… I barely made it out of that state alive."

Blake looked desperate. "B-but, there IS a cure, right?!" she pleaded.

"Well, yes, of course…" I responded.

"But… there's a catch." Vivianna added in my mind. "It can only be made using water from a natural body of freshwater, preferably a lake the size of the one near your house."

I reiterated this to the other two, who were quiet.

No one made a sound, other than Zach still pounding away at the anvil, oblivious to anything else.

Blake was shaking. "Oh Notch… I… Z-Zach… I can't…"

She looked like she was about to start crying. Paige immediately moved to give the poor girl a comforting hug.

I, on the other hand, was thinking hard, with Vivianna trying to tell me how it would work. The cure was fairly straight-forward, all things considered, but it requires both the freshwater thing, as well as a piece of someone close to the afflicted. Something like a piece of hair, or what have you. And the more that you get and put in, the more likely the potion will work. But if you take too long, you'll basically be feeding a dead body some liquid.

"My guess is that, since the color has only affected his eyes right now, he's probably got a week at best before he succumbs. Meaning we need to get him out of here and to the lake by seven days, if we want a chance of reviving him. The sooner the better." Vivianna explained.

I sat there, looking at my best friend work away at something he couldn't stop. A living shell.

A fate much worse than simple death.

Then, I stood up. Blake and Paige both looked up at me.

"Alright… we gotta go." I said to Paige.

She looked shocked. "What? W-where?"

"To the mines. We don't have enough time to sit here." I explained. "We're going to explore those mines you talked about earlier, and see how they could work. We didn't explore every building for your flying machine idea the other day, so we can do that more tomorrow, but today while we still have light outside, we need to go look at those mines. Our challenge is trying to find the safest way to lug a guy who's a shell only focused on one task out of the city."

I turned to Blake. "I know this is hard on you Blake. And trust me, we're going to help him. What I need from you is to find out information on Living Death for us. If you can find anything out, how Zach could've gotten his hands on it, where he drank it, whatever. And see if you can find a way for him to focus on something other than building weapons. Tying me up and forcing me to my feet worked for me. I don't know if it'll work for him, but it could be worth a shot."

I turned to Zach. He turned to grab something out of a furnace, and I could just barely make out his grayed eyes. "He's going to slowly turn gray over the course of the next few days. We have about a week, maybe a little less, until the effects fully take over. We need to get him out of here. Just keep us posted as best you can, okay? Any change in behavior, or if he turns extremely gray all at once, get to us quickly."

Blake looked at me, took one more look at Zach, and nodded, suddenly a lot more in control of her emotions. "I'll… I'll do what I can. I'll leave the escape route to you guys…"

Paige, still a bit startled at how I had just taken charge, nevertheless appeared to understand the plan and stood, moving for the door. "You realize that I still support my flying machine plan, yes?"

"I know. But we can't leave a second option like this alone. The mining WOULD be safer, if slower. It all just depends on how we work things…" I reasoned. "And we haven't done anything to look at it. But now we don't have such luxury."

Paige had no comment on that bit. We said our goodbyes to Blake, who looked a lot more confident than she had been previously.

Soon enough, we were at the back of the residential area, where the houses turned from tall buildings to much smaller, shantier-style houses. Paige explained that this is where most people who either work in the mines or the otherwise lower-class people.

The mines itself started at the very back of the city, where the wall continued up the very mountain range and beyond. I briefly considered possibly just trying to climb the mountain, but it looked like such a sheer climb that it would be very, very risky, especially if we were trying to lug an unresponsive Zach alongside us.

The mines themselves were fenced off with a large wall of iron bars, topped with slabs for decoration. The only way inside was through a small toll-booth style gate directly ahead: I couldn't see any side entrances or anything.

I was somewhat worried about getting inside the mines, seeing as how I wasn't a resident of the city, but Paige assured me that was of no concern: the miners actively welcomed anyone and everyone, especially passing people that were even semi-useful, since mining work is always safer with more people (especially so with a back-up weapon-holder or three if a natural cave is discovered).

And she was right: the guard working at the gate paid me basically no mind apart from giving me a mild warning to turn in any and all ores mined up while inside, which I would promptly be paid for upon collection. We entered with basically no trouble.

"I can't imagine it being that easy late at night, though…" I whispered to Paige once out of earshot.

"Mm-hm. They'll lock everything down at night. I think there's at least one guard who watches the area at night, but the mines themselves are basically empty. Getting in would be the easy part." Paige agreed.

We entered the mines, which had been carved out of the mountain face and lead generally downward, torches lighting up every bit of the cave as effectively as it could. Only a handful of miners were present: either the rest were further in, or it was a slow day. None of them paid us any mind as we slowly descended further in.

Paige led me most of the way from here. She knew these mines pretty well (I kept forgetting that she works here normally), so she knew what paths were well-used and what wasn't. We took a turn down a path that had been pretty well picked clean, she explained. Nothing was down here anymore except a small bit of water pooling up at the very back.

We got to the very back of the cave, where Paige then pulled out a compass and a small map of some kind. "Okay… so, we're here… and this path is basically entirely dried up, so no one would really think of looking here if they happened to do a sweep of the mines before closing. They never do, but it pays to be safe. So, if your house is this way… and we're at this point…"

She did some math in her mind, counting on her fingers and thinking very hard. "Then that means… we'd likely need to go at least a hundred blocks forward, and then turn and do another few hundred to get out of the range of those watchtowers Zach mentioned."

I whistled, hearing it echo in the silent cave. "That's… a lot more than I expected…"

"Well, you have to remember, going diagonally is a lot harder when mining than just going straight and turning. And, also, we need to account for Andr if we did this way: she wouldn't fit in a simple two-block opening. Hell, YOU barely fit."

This was very true. It was obviously the safer option, but it was ridiculously slow and a MASSIVE resource dump. Not to mention, if we happened to make a mistake and surface early, then we'd likely get spotted pretty quickly.

"Hmm… I don't know…" I slowly mumbled, mulling it over in my head.

"C'mon, let's go back, the others will want to hear everything we've done lately…" Paige instructed.

I obliged, and we slowly began the climb out to the top of the mines. However, just as we reached the top…

"...-and that's why you need to use proper form. If you don't, you'll end up like my cousin- oh my! It's you folks again!"

We were suddenly face to face with Governor Reginald once again. He had been talking with a nearby miner, but saw us reach the top.

Paige looked shocked, but did her best to remain composed as she greeted, "O-oh! G-Governor! What a surprise, I didn't think I'd see you out here…"

"Oh, no, it's no secret, really." the old governor chuckled, saying a quick good-bye to the miner and walking over to stand near us. Despite him supposedly being a super important individual and whatnot, I still couldn't make myself worried like Paige and Zach (at least, how Zach HAD acted) were. I knew he would no doubt bring the hammer down if he saw any of our half-monster friends, but…

In any case, Reginald continued, "You see, I'm just visiting some old friends here in the mines. Business has been rather slow as of late, so I'm just trying to catch up with them while I can. You understand?"

"Y-yes sir." Paige agreed.

If Reginald heard the nerves in her voice, he didn't really show it. Instead, he turned to me. "You said you were a traveller, yes?"

"Err… right, sir. Cameron." I agreed.

"That's good. I do appreciate seeing travellers, after all." Reginald said, smiling good-naturedly.

Suddenly, a thought jumped into my head. "So, um… about this whole lockdown of the city thing." I asked casually, ignoring Paige's stupefied expression. "Is it just because of all the monster attacks?"

"Oh, no. Well, partly." the governor replied, tugging gently at his shirt collar. "It's more of a… precautionary measure. No, the main reason for it is, come this time next week, a very important person is coming to visit. But since outsiders don't always have the best of intentions, the VIP in question has asked for all of these measures. I'm terribly sorry for any sort of, ah, trouble this may be causing you, my dear lad."

"In any event!" Reginald suddenly announced, tapping his cane to the ground sharply. "I have some more business to attend to. While I would absolutely love to stay and chat all day, duty unfortunately must call. So long!"

Without much other word, Reginald turned with a flourish and walked off, giving a short wave as he did.

Paige and I looked at each other, unsure of what to say. Eventually, we decided against it, and together we headed back to her apartment.

Several hours later, the situation hadn't seen any sort of improvement. Hell, if anything, things were only worse.

Susie, having already lived through what that Living Death does to a person before, was especially concerned for Zach's safety. Meanwhile, Andr still was commenting about the sheer improbability of being able to mine out a hole underground, while Diana still continued to feverently deny any chance at going on a flying machine.

I was quiet while the other four continued to talk. So many variables and players and questions were swirling in my head. A few very risky plans, over a billion ways to mess up and get killed, and now, a new time deadline. We had just about a week now to get Zach out of here. And if we wanted to bring anyone else with us, the sooner we figure that out, the better.

Afternoon was soon here. Blake decided to stop by the apartment. After we let her in (making sure she wasn't with anyone else), she gave a brief status report.

"So far, Zach's still not doing anything else. His eyes have maybe gone a little more gray, but that's about it." she remarked, leaning on a wall nearby.

"Well… no new news is technically still good news, for now at least…" I sighed, looking again at the maps of Blockington.

"Has any progress been made towards a solution on how to get out?" Blake asked.

"No… Diana still doesn't want to go in my flying machine, and Andr's still worried about the mines." Susie replied, looking at a rough sketch of some kind.

Blake seemed a bit upset that we hadn't figured anything out ourselves, but she seemed to understand. She offered to hang around a bit longer, to see if she could give any help, which we gratefully accepted.

"The main problems," I began, looking at the map of the city once more, "aside from the obvious, is that neither of these plans really feels great. The mines are super slow, and the would require so many materials that it would almost be impossible in practice. And just looking at this map, I can't really find any worthwhile buildings that could realistically be used as a starting platform."

"I'm pretty sure there was a really good one we found the other day." Andr reminded me. "The problem was it was very close to the wall, with a main guard patrol right there."

"Right…" I agreed, thinking it over again. If those problems could be fixed, then both plans might have a better shot… but as it stands right now…

…

…

Hang on…

…

"Wait a second… wait a second…!" I suddenly spoke, suddenly thinking about something. Two somethings, actually.

Suddenly all attention was on me as I stood up and started pacing again, this time very, VERY focused. "The mines aren't good, because materials are tight… and the flying machine is bad because our 'best' starting place is guarded too closely…"

"Yeah…?" Paige asked.

"Well… what if we could eliminate one of those problems?" I asked. "Then that plan could, in theory, have a much better chance of working."

"Hold on, hold on… what do you mean, 'eliminate one of those problems'?" Diana asked.

"The mines are the safer option, but they're demanding in terms of how many tools and other resources we'd need. We need to make sure we'd have enough tools to mine out the pathway, a large supply of torches to light the path, a proper way to either cover up or at the very least hide our tracks, and most importantly a way to dump all of the useless stone we'd be breaking through." I explained. "The flying machine is much less resource-heavy, but it's much more visible and louder, and trying to do it on this otherwise good building would raise attention way too quickly."

"Okay…" Andr started.

"So, rather than try to come up with a new way out, ask ourselves this: what do we have that we can do to make our chances better on either path?" I asked.

No one seemed to really have something, so I continued, "The answer is simple: either find a way to get loads of materials and tools quick and easy for the mining, or find some way to make it so the guards would either know something was happening, or that they are in on it themselves."

Diana seemed to get at what I was getting at. "Like what we had you doing during our… misadventure?"

"Exactly. Some way to make the obvious problems NOT a problem anymore, thus giving that road much more viability." I agreed.

Paige was already bursting with objections. "But that's impossible! You can't just BRIBE a guard to look the other way as someone's flying into the sky! And getting just the tools for the mine would cost me almost a years work in the mines! We don't have the ability for either of that."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked, turning to Blake. "Cause if memory serves… someone in this city right now is slaving away making weapons, and has more than enough access to materials right now, right?"

Blake didn't catch the hint at first, but then her eyes grew very wide. "H-hold on, you aren't suggesting we-"

"That's exactly what I'm suggesting. If there was a way to get Zach to make pickaxes for us, not only would he continue making them from now until the week is over, but it would cost us literally nothing as he's got the access to the material on his own. I'm pretty sure he told me once before that when he gets a big order, the city will automatically supply him with the raw material needed to make stuff. Right?"

"W-well, yeah… he's still got every furnace in the shop back home running full blast with all kinds of iron… but still, the order didn't ask for picks of any kind, so how-"

"That's where you'd come in, Blake." I responded. "If you could, maybe, get Zach to notice 'pickaxes' in the order, he'd do it without question. The Living Death curse makes him focus on the task. He won't bother to wonder why the city needs so many picks. He's barely aware he's even working on anything else anyway."

"B-but isn't this wrong? We're taking advantage of him while he's-" Paige tried to argue.

"It's better to use our resources while we have them. Besides, if we can get out either way, he'll surely forgive us for having him do most of the grunt work. Unless you'd rather give up your life savings now…?"

Paige didn't argue. I looked back at Blake. "Try to see if you can edit the order details in some way. Add a bunch of pickaxes, at least a double chest's worth. Get him to make tools for us, and the mining op will have one less problem to worry about."

Blake seemed nervous about this, but she finally agreed.

"On the other hand, the flying machine's main problem is it would be spotted by the guard working at the post near this building. But if the guard was someone who either knew it was happening, or would safely ignore it without raising the alarm on their own, then the machine could go way higher, much safer." I continued, moving back to the flying machine.

"Not likely. Outsiders aren't going to be able to guard the city walls, especially since the recent attacks. Hell, I doubt I'd be able to do so, and I LIVE here already." Paige argued.

"True." I agreed, looking this time at Susie. "But what if we could get someone who ALREADY worked as a guard? Who knew what we were doing and could, possibly, help us out in our escape that way?"

"I don't-" it was Susie's turn for her eyes to go wide as the realization hit her.

"What? Do you two know something we don't?" Andr rapidly asked, looking between me and Susie.

"It's more of a hunch than anything…" I replied, cautiously continuing as we were starting to enter dicey territory. "But that man who knocked me out the other day seemed pretty guilty about what he did and all that. It might be worth something to see if he knows anyone in the guard who could… work with us for a night."

Paige was practically exploding at this idea. "Okay, now you're just being flat-out insane. Do you realize exactly what you're trying to do?"

"Do you really want your flying machine idea to work?" I fired back.

"I do, but this is borderline insane!"

"I know, but right now it's more of a plan than anything else we've come up with."

"The amount of laws we'd be breaking, not to mention we'd need to trust that our 'friend' of a guard doesn't blow the entire operation the moment we start going up-"

"Do you see a better option right now? Cause I'm all ears. I know my plan has more holes than a sponge, but I'm not hearing any other plans."

"You're actually insane."

I looked over at our friends, who I just realized were looking between me and Paige like we were in some kind of sports event or something. I recomposed myself and continued, "Look, I know it's a long shot, but this entire plan is all a long shot. The longer we stay here debating plans and trying to find a fix for every problem, the less time that we have to execute said plan. I'm not saying that I like our odds either way, I'm just trying to find solutions that solve the biggest problems first, the smaller problems can be fixed or solved on the fly."

Paige stared at me, as though waiting for me to finally admit that I was joking. When that didn't happen, she took a deep breath, sat back down, took another breath, and said, "Okay. Okay. I'll let you… figure this out."

"Okay. So, to summarize, the plan is this: Blake, you continue to find out all you can about Zach and Living Death. It might be a good idea for you to go as well, Diana. Try to find a way to edit the orders, or find some other way for Zach to make pickaxes instead of weapons. Paige, you and Andr should continue to look for other buildings. If any of them are better than this building for our flying machine operation, then we should focus on that. Me and Susie will go and talk to the guy and discuss this plan. If he balks, then we'll need to re-strategize, but if he says he can help, then that gives us more power."

I waited for a moment for any objections. Although most of the group seemed to be thinking that these plans were not going to work well, none of them said anything negative. Perhaps they, too, realized that at least now we were trying to work towards something. That was much better than just blindly trying to come up with new plans. At least if these plans failed (and there was a very good chance they would), then we could refocus on other ideas then.

I nodded when no one said anything a few seconds later. "Alright. That settles that, then. We'll set out to do these things first thing in the morning tomorrow."

With that, everyone started packing up the supplies. Blake appeared to be psyching herself up as she stood by the door. I made sure that she knew the password for future reference, so we didn't have to guess if it was her or not.

"Are you sure that this plan could work?" she asked, worry leaking into her expression.

"Admittedly, no." I responded, rubbing the back of my neck nervously. "But right now, we need every advantage we can get."

Blake appeared to agree. She reached out as though to take my shoulder, thought better of it, started to lower her arm, tried again to, this time, take my hand, but stopped. Eventually, she just walked out after one final look at me.

I took a deep breath and, after helping the others pack up the supplies and hide them away, retreated to the bedroom once more to recuperate and think.

'I know the plans I came up with… they're basically insane.' I thought aloud.

"Not quite, but, fairly close to be honest." Vivianna agreed. "Still, it's more progress than we've made so far otherwise."

I took another deep breath. Only time would actually tell if anything would work come tomorrow. Hell, it might take much more than a single day for anything to work in our favor.

A sudden knock came to the door, and Andr called out from the other side, "Cameron…? Are you in there?"

"Andr? Yeah I'm here." I called back.

Andr didn't bother opening the door, instead she teleported inside the room to stand right in front of me.

She leaned over me, appearing concerned. "Is… everything okay? You look… troubled."

"Aside from the obvious?" I asked. Andr frowned a little harder at the sarcasm.

She knelt down to sit next to me on the bed. I sighed as she continued to look at me.

"...sorry." I apologized quietly. "Just… got a lot on my mind. I'm trying to figure out how we're going to do this tomorrow."

Andr didn't say anything for a moment. Then, after a moment of quiet, she asked me hesitantly, "Do… do you honestly think that your plans can work tomorrow?"

"That depends." I responded, lying back down on the bed again. "Are you asking the optimist in me or the realist in me?"

"The realist?" Andr asked.

"Then I'd say there's a slim chance anything works. Honestly, I'm not someone who's good at this kind of thing. I'm more surprised than anyone that I've gotten this far." I responded, rubbing my temples a bit with one hand. "There's… there's just so much."

Andr was quiet for a moment. Then she added, "What about the optimist?"

"Then I'd say there's at least a chance. A chance is more than anything we've had up to now. It's just… something, rather than just being stuck here thinking about things."

Andr seemed to be thinking about my thoughts. For a long while, neither of us spoke.

Eventually, Andr reached over and gently cupped one of my cheeks. "Well… I'm not thrilled about our odds either… but… I will say, you standing before us, suddenly talking all confident, taking charge and giving out instructions… It was actually really cool."

I looked over at the enderwoman. "Really? I thought I was sweating bullets the entire time back there…"

"It really was." Andr repeated, leaning down over me a bit. "And… and it started giving me a bit of courage about our plans, at least. So… I guess you've got something right, huh?"

Another brief silence. Andr was blushing slightly, gently running her fingers through my hair. Had our situation not been the way it was, I might've fallen asleep just from that alone…

Before long, however, Andr slowly stood back up. "W-well… I think I'm gonna go see if your sister needs help with dinner. She's… a bit of a clumsy cook, to be honest."

I cracked a small smirk as I sat up. "Yeah, that sounds about right. I'll probably join you in a bit. Just… need to think a bit more."

Andr nodded. She teleported out silently.

The room suddenly felt much more… empty. Filled with nothing but me, this bed, and my thoughts.

The silence started to make me very uncomfy. I suppose living with Susie and the others for so long has made silence a bit harder to achieve at home.

That thought just made me more sad, as I suddenly remembered about Snowy and Silk, both still at home, completely unaware of the situation we were all in. At absolute best, they would probably be concerned when we didn't come home the other day, but would ration that we probably wanted to stay a few more days with my sis. They wouldn't think to come here to figure out what's going on until much, much later…

I laid back out on the bed yet again. My thoughts were getting jumbled once again. I needed to stop them before they got completely out of hand.

It took a minute, but I finally sat up one more time, stood back up on my feet, and left the bedroom to go check on the others.

At least then I can drown out the thoughts for a while…

…

The room is dark.

Susie is mostly motionless, aside from the odd whisper.

I've been staring up at the ceiling for nearly an hour now. The room is surprisingly cold. Thankfully, cold weather always suited me, and the blanket is very cozy.

Susie, however, doesn't seem to like the cold. She's been very clingy ever since she fell asleep. She's basically using my body as a heating pad.

I didn't mind, of course. To be fair, I don't think I would have ever minded really, but I was too deep in thought at the time to really be worried about what Susie was doing then.

Bedtime was slowly getting harder and harder to do. Not because I wasn't tired, but my brain was refusing to let me sleep. It just kept mulling over the same questions, over and over and over.

At least over dinner, it was my friends saying these same questions. At least then I could focus on trying to answer them. Right now, all it feels like is my brain trying to come up with more questions. More problems. More delays. More worry.

Vivianna and Aira are, apparently, doing their best to filter out the more useless or, frankly, dangerous questions. I'd hate to see what I'd be thinking about if they weren't there, that's for sure…

I look over at Susie's face again. Her features are slack. It's still so hard to believe that less than an hour ago, she was wearing a very concerned expression and asking so many good questions. I have no idea how she does it.

Suddenly, I realize she's lost her hold on me. She's now stolen more of the blanket and is hugging it tightly to herself.

I briefly considered fighting her over it for a bit, but I decided against it. Instead, I use the chance to get up, slipping on the slippers Paige bought for me.

As quietly as possible, I leave the bedroom and walk to the main. Diana and Andr are here as well, fast asleep and just as peaceful, Diana having fallen asleep in the fluffy armchair and Andr using the cot.

And then I see Paige.

She's wide awake, sitting on her couch, wrapped in a thin blanket and looking out the window. She doesn't move as I slowly approach.

Then, in a whisper, she speaks.

"Can't sleep either, huh."

It wasn't a question.

"No." I agree, in the same whisper. "I don't know how they can all sleep so well…"

"They worry a lot." Paige said, looking at me sideways. "About me. You. Each other. Zach. Blake. There's a lot to be worried about lately."

"And yet they sleep so soundly, while… we're awake." I sighed.

We were quiet for a moment. The moonlight reflexed Paige's face. For the first time, I was seeing some very deep bags under her eyes, and some rather deep worry lines. The light was making her look twenty years older.

"Cameron… be honest." Paige suddenly said, her voice a tad sharper, facing me directly. "Do you really think… we can do this? Do you really think we can escape…?"

I was startled. "I thought you were just trying to help us escape…?"

"I… I want out too." Paige responded, her voice cracking. "I… I can't stop thinking about End. We haven't seen each other in so long. That letter I sent you for you to even come here? That was the last time I've seen him. That must've been… at least a week at this point. Maybe more."

Tears were beginning to form in the pits of her eyes. "I… I want to be able to see him more. I don't want to live in fear of being close to him. I…"

"I want to keep what I have left of my family alive."

Tears started falling. Paige silently was breaking down. In an instant, she leaned heavily into me. Surprised, I held her close.

"E-e-ever… ever since… I learned you were… you… you were alive… I… I couldn't stop thinking about… about how much I missed you." Paige quietly blubbered, still crying silent tears. "I… I thought I had lost everything. End was all I had left. And… and now… and now I've brought my only family here, and it's all my fault you and your friends are trapped… and… and…"

Paige couldn't finish her sentence. She just couldn't make herself talk.

I didn't know what to say. I'm still not even sure I should have, to this day.

But I did have something. I held Paige a little closer to me and whispered,

"You did not trap us here. We came here of our volition. We knew the risks. We wanted… I, wanted to see you. I wanted to be here for you. We've been apart for so long. I never want to let you go now that I know you're here."

I slowly got her to look into my eyes. I was tearing up a little myself, but I could've hardly cared at that point. "We are not here because of a mistake you made, Paige. We are here because I wanted to be here for you. I haven't been a good brother to you. I wanted to change that. I needed to change that."

Paige's eyes were sparkling with fresh tears.

Suddenly, I remembered. "Th-that reminds me."

I reached over to my bag, remembering I had instinctively taken it with me. I dug around in it and, before long, pulled out my photo album.

"I don't think I ever showed you this before, when we were first… reunited." I explained, slowly turning to the back.

Paige was confused for a moment, right up until I showed her the photo.

The photo of us. Of our family.

Of a life we desperately missed.

Her eyes were immediately filled with fresh tears as she stared at the photo. My eyes weren't far behind, to be honest.

"M… Mom… D-D… Dad…" she whispered, touching the photo gently with trembling fingers.

"I… I should have shown this to you so long ago. It… it never occurred to me that you never had this picture for all those years. You never could have looked at it in all that time… I-I can't imagine what that must have felt like…"

A single tear fell from my eye and landed on the page, but I didn't care. I took a shaky breath, trying my best to steady my nerves.

Paige and I sat there for the longest time, just looking at the photo of our younger selves and our parents. Longing for a time we can't have, a peace we will never remember.

Paige finally managed to stop crying. She allowed me to slowly put away the album. She was leaning heavily against me. She just looked… drained.

"C… Cam… Cameron…" she whispered, her voice slowly fading. "I... I missed… you… big brother…"

Before I even knew it, Paige was fast asleep, my shoulder her pillow and her blanket loosely draped around her.

I was surprised, but only for a moment. I let out a small chuckle.

"I missed you too… little sister…" I whispered back, an arm slowly wrapping around her.

My own eyes were finally growing heavy as well. I didn't have the energy to go back to Susie.

I finally fell asleep on the couch, gently hugging my little sister while looking out at the moon.

For the first time since arriving at this city…

I was finally at peace.

...

And that's why I think this chapter finally made me like it so much.

Gods, writing this chapter took far, FAR longer than I really had ever hoped it would. It went through a lot of edits and rewrites, that's for sure.

And then there was a point where I had a blast of inspiration, but it sputtered out too quickly for me to get to the end. So that's why this chapter took so long: the FIRST bit took me only, like, a week to do, but then I got stuck on it, and then after my burst of inspiration, I got stuck AGAIN, leaving me with half a chapter at nearly two months in, if that.

Even so… thank you guys so much for sticking with me for so long.

I'm not gonna lie: I've not been in a very good place mentalily recently, and things are only now SLOWLY starting to go in a more positive direction. It's an uphill battle, but somehow I'm starting to find the reason to fight.

And believe me, this story, and basically my entire Fan-Fiction career, has not been sitting idly by. I've constantly been thinking about this story and others. It's just hard to focus on writing when you have about a million other things you also want to focus on, and especially when I care about actually trying to deliver a quality product, with like an actual story and whatnot, as opposed to 'ooo human boi likes the cute anime mob lady uwu' that has basically been my go-to way of writing for a frankly long amount of time.

In any case… thank you all, once more, for your patience. I don't know what lies in store, but, I do have plans. Plans that will, no doubt, fall apart by tomorrow morning as things change again. But, at the very least, know that I will keep trying my hardest. If there's one thing I am above all else, it's persistent and willing as hell. Even if things seem impossible… I don't give up, even if it would be easier.

Hell, I wouldn't have gotten this out to you guys if I didn't care, or if I had given up on the chapter. I knew it could work. I just needed to find the right way to make it work. And, honestly?

I think I knocked it out of the park on this one. Which is a big deal, as even other chapters I really like don't hit the same notes this one did.

Is it a good sign for things to come? Who knows. I know what I'm like. My track record is not very good. But hey… what do I know?

I do so hope that you all have enjoyed the chapter. It's certainly a big step in a lot of regards: bringing back old story beats, giving lore, trying to do things and stuff differently… but maybe that's just what it needed.

Regardless, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day, your summer, and your life. And until next time, please, everyone, remember…

Stay awesome! =D