From her perch on top of the luminous mushroom, Bow wondered how easy she would be able to regain her time pieces in such a dark place as this.

The forest she'd been directed to by the Conductor to snag an essential prop for his next movie. Some kind of hook she'd need for a special effect she had not yet learned— he'd teach her when she recovered it, the bird had said. Now she just needed to find it…

This forest, as per usual, was not like any others she had previously been in. The plant life was inconsistent, being either dead or alive in varying places, there were ice crystals when it wasn't even below fifty degrees, mystical, colored fire barriers prevented her from exploration of all but seemingly one path, and there were rope nooses strung up through tree branches almost any which way she looked.

Saying that woods like this were creepy was being nice about it.

Biting her lip, Bow hopped off the mushroom and passed by a squigly, red worm-like thing that was just making it's way through the air. There were others like it, as she would soon observe, but they were different. In fact, it would seem this place was lousy with the buggers. Some had masks, the ones that did floated idly in place. The ones that didn't wriggled and squirmed, glowy worms on a mission to parts unknown.

Wherever they were going, she could only hope it would satisfy them.

The girl kept her magenta eyes peeled, and went deeper. She'd already found quite a few time pieces already, and having gone through hell and back to retrieve them was starting to weigh heavily on her body and mind. For starters— who did that red-caped blonde think she was?! All Bow had wanted was a friend, but Mustache Girl had wanted far more. And in the end, her greed for forced change had overrode her desire for a companion to share it with.

Had it hurt Bow to lose a potential ally? Of course. But she kept reminding herself that on a foreign planet, the inhabitants were not guaranteed to be on your side.

Maybe it was just how certain Mustache Girl had been that they could have been close friends even without the time pieces standing in their way that made it hurt so much.

She's the enemy now… Bow told herself, fighting back the lonely aches within her. She's out to take all the time pieces, and unless you stop her—

Her forlorn musing was interrupted, though, when the small alien heard something completely out of the ordinary. Something so dissonant to the rest of the rest of the woods that she was questioning whether she had even heard it at all.

A giggle. A tiny voice giggling, somewhere in the distance.

…?

There wasn't anyone in sight, though, meaning that whatever had made the sound had to have carried. A lilting, mysterious voice on the wind and the feeling like you were being watched with every move you made… No WONDER people said this place was haunted!
Against her better judgement, Bow walked onward. In the direction she'd sworn to have heard it. But true to her newly-reduced trust in her surroundings, she didn't dare cry out while she investigated. It was a surefire way to get oneself killed, especially in a dark, dreary place like this was.

But all she heard now was leaves rustling, or the ambient sounds of campfires. No more little voices. And it was here at this moment that Bow elected to stop chasing shadows and continue searching for her prop. So there she went, following the only available wooded pathway that seemed to be taking her deeper into the gloom.

"Think fast!" Someone behind her cried out shrilly.

Before she could even turn to look, Bow found herself stunned and laying on the ground. A mass-blob of shrouded figures were tearing off down the same path she had been. But they'd none-too-politely knocked her out of their way in order to do so. "Sorry!" The one from before called over their shoulder, but didn't stop running. It only threw it's head back, laughing cavalierly in a sing-song tone as it veered down the path.

Wait.
The voice—
It sounded like another kid!

Now, Bow couldn't tell for sure because all the forms in that mass that'd ran past were cloaked in black. But this time she knew she had heard a lighter voice. At least of those figures had to be a child, just like her! And there was only one way to find out whether her theory was correct or not!

"Hey, wait a minute!" It was time to do some investigating. So there Bow ran, fervently after the group, in search of movie props and answers alike. "Come back here! Hold on a second, I just want to talk to you!"

The two separate parties kept up like this for some time. The group several paces ahead, and Bow trailing behind them. They had her outran now by a little more than forty feet, and it seemed unlikely she could readily catch up with them until they either slowed down or stopped all together. But before one or both of those could occur, something entirely different happened.

From all around Bow, a white tarp-like thing had sprung the MOMENT she stepped on it. Her weight, light as the girl was, had triggered a forest trap that now held her suspended who knew how high-up. And while she sat there in shock that she had walked into something like that so easily, that she HADN'T seen it, the voices of the group she'd been chasing began to dwindle almost as fast as her hopes did.

"Don't go…" Bow groaned, her voice trailing off into hopelessness. "I need your help…"

All she could do then and there was struggle to get free of the trap.

Even so, it wasn't long until the sound of something else took the place of the mirth she'd heard only moments ago. Trees crashed in the distance. Crows cawed out in protest, their wings beating fast as Bow heard what had to be dozens of birds vacating the area.

Was something… coming for her? Something big, with a taste for little girls?

Bow squirmed harder in the sheet-net. The sensation of unknown company drawing nearer and nearer to her increased. So much so that by the time she managed to break it, she didn't even have to look behind her to tell that something was wrong.

Because from the moment her feet touched back on the soil, the world seemed to fade into an abyss of angry purple clouds, light magenta fire surrounding her, and cracking lightning that lit up the clouds, filling the small space with a menacing aura.
And the one causing it materialized in front of her only seconds after she found herself trapped.

A towering, demonic being with an eerie smile stood grinning down at her.

"AHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The figure boomed. "FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!"

Bow didn't like the looks of this one bit. But despite her masked alarm, the girl stood solidly in place and remained as neutral as she could in the face of certain destruction as she knew it.

"YOU BLEW IT! You totally screwed yourself! Nobody enters my home and leaves in one piece!" It continued to mock her, much to her chagrin. If he was so concerned about me in his forest in the first place, Bow asked herself. Then why rub salt in the wound? Why not just kill me and get it over with—

"Tell you what, though," her questioning was interrupted. "Hang on a minute! You get to liiive! That's right! Aren't you lucky?!" The smirking spook asked the befuddled child before him.

Oh, sure. REAL lucky, all right.

Bow sighed heavily.
This was going to be a much-longer process than she'd anticipated.


Hello, everyone! Long week, no see!
I don't have much to say about this other than it felt kind of rushed and boring even though it wasn't. It was originally supposed to be a bottle chapter. You may also notice that I had to change my update days to Fridays. This is because of a shift in my schedule that'll be going on for some time, so I hope that's okay with you. With that said, I'm also hoping that the surprise I have in store for you guys will be well worth it👀