Lettuce stumbles for the 3,000th time. Darn this catacomb! Darn this whole town! She feels a lump form in her throat. She tries to push it down, but to no avail. Suddenly she feels a hand on her shoulder. It's Pai. "You okay?" he asks quietly. She nods weakly. "Oh, shucks!" says Candy suddenly. "This shouldn't be here!" Pai suppresses the urge to re-kill the cursed ghost. Lettuce takes the situation less calmly. "You mean we're lost?" she screeches. "We are not lost! I just don't know where we are right now," says Candy. "Oh, screw this whole darn place! What happened to that bleepin' sense of direction!" Pai takes a deep breath. "WHAT IN HEAVENS NAME ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!" he bellows.
Candy and Lettuce blink. "My sense of direction," Candy explains. "I'm supposed to have this great sense of direction. But I think I left it with the man-eating spider. I can't seem to figure out whether we go right or left at this fork." Pai considers banging his head against a nearby wall. He'd sure appreciate being unconscious right about now. Instead he sighs. "what about those directions you were mumbling?" asks Lettuce hopefully. "That was for a tunnel we seem to have lost right now," says Candy. Pai places his head in his hands and stifles a whimper.
Suddenly, he feels an all-too-familiar cold creeping up his scalp. His spine tingles. He opens his mouth, but is engulfed in the cold before he can speak. Hello, says the voice from behind Pai. 'who are you?' he thinks. that is not important now, speaks the ghost. Later it will be. Listen to me. take the right branch of the tunnel you are on. DO NOT TAKE THE LEFT BRANCH. with that, the cold begins to seep away, leaving a drained, shaking Pai.
"I think we should go down the left side. It looks so much nicer, and cleaner. not to mention brighter. What do you think, Pai? Pai?" Lettuce turns and finds her comrade white faced and shaken. "What happened?" She asks, kneeling in front of him. Pai snaps back to reality. "Huh? Oh. We need to take the right branch. Not the left," Pai says. Lettuce just stares at him. Just a minute ago he was fine. Now why does he have goosebumps and chattering teeth?
Lettuce puts her hand on Pai's arm. "Maybe we should rest a bit," she says to Candy, holding on to Pai's arm. Candy give a almost nonexistent nod of agreement. "No," says Pai. "I'm fine. Just cold, is all." "But Pai," says Lettuce. "It's warm down here." And it is a decent temperature. "I know," says Pai. "But I'm fine now." Lettuce looks at Pai in concern. Suddenly, she has an idea. She takes her jacket from around her waist, where she tied it, and puts it on Pai's shoulders. "I'm fine," he protests, but Lettuce only respond with, "Keep it on. You'll warm up that way." Pai sighs. "I can continue on," he says. "You sure?" asks Candy. "The path might get rough." Pai nods. "But we have to go to the right," He says. He can't help but remember how the ghost had helped him on the stairs. Why would she do that if she wanted Pai dead? She wouldn't have. So she must be on his side, somehow.
Lettuce looks at Candy doubtfully. Candy responds with a shrug. "It's worth a shot," she says matter-of-factly. "But if you feel faint or dizzy, we stop. Deal?" Pai nods. "Good," says Candy. With that taken care of, the head up to the fork. "you're sure we go to the left?" asks Lettuce worriedly, peering into the darkness. Pai nods. "Yes. This is the way," he says.
They trudge into the darkness. after three steps, Lettuce pulls out her cigarette lighter. She doesn't smoke, but it sure comes in handy at a time like this. As she turns it on, the darkness recedes a bit. She continues on, trying to appear unfazed by the darkness. Trying and Failing. Pai reaches out and squeezes her hand. They can only pray they'll keep their lives...
Melody is walking down another lonely street, when she stops. ahead of her, the mist thins enough for her to see a massive wooden barricade surrounding some kind of hole. It is massive, and right in the middle of the street. Melody notices a girl standing by the barricade. she is holding dried daisies in her hands. She has on a dress with a skirt that has a pattern of lilies, and a velvet top.
Suddenly the girl looks up. "Hello," She says quietly. "Hello," Melody responds. "What is this hole?" "It leads to the underground," says the girl. "Are you Melody?" Melody nods. "Then you are the one that is chosen to go down there," The girl states. "It's time." Melody walks towards the girl, who doesn't flinch. She stands by the girl's side, and her radio begins to hum quietly. "You're telling the truth," says Melody with a smile. "I'll go down.
Melody walks towards the barricade. there is a hole just big enough for Melody to fit through. She gets down on her hands and knees and crawls through the opening. She looks back and smiles at the girl with the lilies, and the strange girl smiles back at Melody. Then, Melody stands at the edge of the hole. something catches Melody's eye. It is the copper rung of a ladder! Melody walks over and survey the rung. It should hold her. In fact, Melody would be shocked if it didn't. She takes a deep breath, and begins to climb...
In the room, the black-haired girl waits. something will happen. She knows it will. And, like clockwork, her charm glows. The girl opens it to the small mirror. Immediately she hears a sound like metal against stone. "Someone is using the ladder," she muses aloud. "Maybe..." But she does not dare hope. Instead, she sets the bracelet down and lays upon the mattress. 'I can always hope...' Is the last thing she thinks before drifting off.