"Amanda! How's my number one best friend in the afterlife doing? Go to any wild parties lately?" Ghostface entered her workshop. It's a small haven in a miserable world wrought with eternal suffering.

It was a mistake removing the bolts and locks from the door…

Danny bothers her daily with nonstop jokes and nonsense adventure stories.

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"Can you leave pest?" She grumbled while tinkering with her deadly devices. The workshop is identical to Jigsaw's. Amanda was surprised that her mentor wasn't in the afterlife and wondered why she had been stuck here around Purgatory. Did I fail? Or was I brought here to continue Jigsaw's tests?

.

Ghostface curiously picked up various unfinished traps and chuckled. He traced their serrated surfaces. "What evil bastards are gonna get tortured with these?"

"Don't touch those! They have fragile mechanisms and if I have to spend another full day fixing them-"

Ghostface returned the traps to their original places. Amanda is always grumbling and has insults ready like a loaded submachine gun, but she's dedicated too. That's why Ghostface likes her. Unlike most of the dead souls here (like Evan and Hillbilly) Amanda withstands his presence. She hasn't (miraculously) stabbed him yet.

.

"The Big Guy has a job for us." He merely stated.

"Torturing more irredeemable souls?"

"No, sadly. Two Betweens fell down here and are lost. We gotta escort them back to the living."

Amanda sighed angrily. "I don't babysit."

"What about your tests?"

"The tests are different," she spat. Tools clinking fill in the abrupt silence.

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"If we don't find those Betweens they could get trapped in Entity's territory or worse, be killed by some monsters. We'll get tortured if they die."

Amanda rubbed her face, feeling a headache forthcoming. "Fine. But only because I don't want to die twice."

"That's the spirit!"

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Multiple entities oversee the countless floors of the afterlife. Every human soul is promptly organized at death. Shockingly they rank just above unforgivable bastards, even though they are murderers, and are seen as useable soldiers. Purgatory is a sweeping territory between Paradise and Hell. Some souls who die in unexpected or tragic ways are sent to the Entity or are stuck in Purgatory.

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Pulling the pig mask over her she opened the workshop door to be greeted by a dark-grey nothingness. Two steps outside and Amanda's brought to a long corridor full of eerie paintings. The Hall of Fears. Whoever walks by the rows of paintings are shown their worst fears. Keeping her gaze straight ahead, Amanda walks down the hall. Ghostface follows.

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Complete darkness surrounds them. Small bobbing lights wink into existence. What would at first be called comforting is just falsehearted. They arrived at a demon den. The lights are fragments of destroyed souls.

A small cavern rises from the murky depths like storm-hewn rocks from an ocean at night. Demons carry an arsenal of glinting fangs, malicious grins, sharp claws, and huge mallets. They dance and scream at two unfortunate dumbasses that walked right into a demon hideout.

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Amanda tries not to vomit. Demon stench is fowl. Even through a dense mask her nostrils burn. She lunges. Knives effortlessly slice demons. Shocked by the ambush the demons shriek and swing their mallets. Ghostface slays them with artful stabs. By the time it's over the cave is saturated with demon blood.

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The dark-haired and stuttering man wipes blood from his glasses. "Thanks for saving us! I'm Dwight and this is my friend, Claudette. We…I think we're dead?"

Amanda crossed her arms. "You're only half dead. You two are in the in-between."

"How?" Claudette asked.

"Do you remember anything?"

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Dwight gasped. "Our trip! Jake, Meg, and Nea! They aren't here with us!"

Claudette smiled warmly and put a hand on his shoulder. "They must be alive," she turned to her rescuers. "We were all going on a trip across country. I think we crashed."

"No," Fairfield shook his head as if disbanding dense fog. "We were lost and some stranger in the woods was helping us out."

"Seriously?!" Ghostface laughed. "You're probably getting chased by some crazy slasher and you two are bleeding out."

"Who are you guys?"

"We work for the entities here. Danny and I are going to guide you back to the living."

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Leaving the cave Ghostface elbowed Amanda and said, "How much you want to bet they'll die here?"

Claudette eyed them curiously. "Why do you guys wear masks? Can we see-"

"No. Our masks must stay on when we help Betweens."

Dwight tripped over some uneven earth and stone. "I didn't think the afterlife would be so scary and bleak!"

Ghostface laughed. "Welcome to Hell!"

"It's not hell," Amanda wearisomely said. "Quit being such a dumbass. Be observant and make sure the Betweens don't die."

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Eventually they reached a wide-ranging forest. Vegetation copied earthly woodlands but they exhibited an unnervingly phantasmal quality. The trees creak like ancient rotting ships at sea, the air hums like a dying man's breath, and smoky fog seeps into air. It feels lifeless and abandoned. Claudette frowned sadly at all the gleaming animal bones entrenched within the earth.

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Amanda wordlessly raised an arm. Quiet. The two slashers crouched. Something is moving through the fog.

Mortem. Grey decaying undead. Lost souls. Twelve of them.

"I thought Philip had control over these things!"

"Not all of them. Some can't be entranced by the somber tunes of his bell."

"Are they zombies?" Dwight asked nervously.

"No, Mortem. Worse than zombies. They'll try to drag you underground and steal your soul because they don't have one."

"Yeah!" Ghostface chuckled, his voice changer crackling. "I saw a Between get destroyed by one. The person's flesh peeled off and all the nerves fried like an exploding power unit –ow!"

"Moron!" Amanda hit Danny's head and he rubbed a sore wound. "Don't scare the Betweens. If they panic and die twice we'll be thrown into the Entity's games or worse. Now go kill those Mortem on this side. I'll go this way."

Saluting, he seamlessly blended into darkness.

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Amanda looked over her shoulder at the Betweens. "Stay close."

"What about you?"

"These guys can't kill us. We're already dead."

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Inhale. Exhale. Amanda steadies her frantic breathing. She's seen many horrors while alive and dead. But the Mortem are nightmares not even the depths of humanity's imagination could think up of. A pale aura clings to their waxy bodies; their decaying flesh is full of bugs.

Pulling an arm back Amanda lunges. One Mortem is slain.

.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Several more fall to Ghostface's attacks. Dwight, Claudette, Amanda, and Danny hurriedly sneak through another endlessly winding forest. Mortem appear in a cloud of wraithlike smoke. Claudette jumps away in time to avoid gnarled nails and hides by the trees. Dwight isn't so lucky.

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Dwight paled. His once-lively eyes dull. Screaming, he desperately thrashes to try and break free from a Mortem's grasp. Serrated teeth bite his neck and sharp nails cut gaping wounds on his side and chest. Blood spews onto earth. Amanda and Ghostface save Dwight –but it's too late.

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Red saturates forest floor in a pool. Fairfield coughs up blood and it trickles down his chin. Claudette kneels by her dying friend. She applies many herbs but even her botanical knowledge is useless when Death itself is hovering overhead. "Please don't die, Dwight! You're my best friend! Without you," icy tears fall and the woman smiles sadly. "I'd be a friendless loser and all alone. We met at the botany club, remember? Some kids were making fun of me and ruined my plants. Nobody cared but you did. You beat up those bullies. We got detention."

He grinned weakly. "It was the first time I wasn't so scared," Dwight's breath hardly reached past his lips. He took one final uneven breath and then his chest stilled.

.

Claudette wailed. Amanda and Ghostface watched on silently, but felt empathy for the woman.

For eternity this forest has been dark. Now a light, warm and steady, materializes on Dwight's chest. Is he being brought back to life? Amanda and Danny are shocked. They've never seen a Between die and come back.

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Dwight inhaled sharply. His face is no longer pale and pinkish hues return. Claudette hugged him and cheered.

Ghostface laughed. "How sappy! Gah! I'm gonna vomit! Whoever is writing this story sure loves wholesome and cliché endings! Dwight should be dead dead!"

Amanda punched his arm but she too, smiled warmly. "Let's get these guys to the gates."