Snatcher looked at the door, astonished by what had just happened: someone locked him inside his room. He couldn't help but stare at the doorknob until he was able to pull himself together. Putting his hand back on the knob once again, he tried to turn it, in vain.

There weren't many hypothesises on the culprit, at this point… Either Vanessa had asked a servant to lock him up after the diner, or "Simeon" had heard their argument and had decided to take the matter in his own hands. Instinctively, the latter theory seemed more credible at the moment: after all, Vanessa seemed to have wanted to be "forgiven", even if it wasn't real. Her accomplice, on the other hand, apparently was someone who liked to work in the dark. When the ghost had listened to their conversation, the mastermind had expressed his bitterness about Snatcher having discovered his existence…

The spirit gritted his teeth and punched the door several times, not liking where this was going at all.

-"Hey!" he roared, with a very authoritative and furious tone, his breathing quickening as he spoke: "Reopen this door immediately!"

Snatcher then stuck his left ear against the wooden frame of the door, trying to catch any noise behind it. It lasted for a few seconds until the shade started to hear footsteps slowly moving away from him. Whoever was behind that door, whether it was "Simeon" or any other stupid servant listening to him, Snatcher was ready to murder them, painfully ideally. Well, supposing this door wasn't in his way of doing so.

He hammered the door once more, faster and louder than before, feeling his rage increasing as he heard the person moving away.

-"Open this door, or I swear I'll make you! I won't repeat myself!" He threatened, hoping to be convincing enough if he was menacing a servant. However, there was no reply to his order. Instead, the steps slowly faded, no matter how hard the spirit pounded on the door. The steps had been calm, slow-paced, as if the person behind the door expected this reaction out of him and wasn't afraid of the consequences of his actions. Snatcher realized he was right in his previous hypothesises: "Simeon" was probably responsible.

-"I'm going to kill him… I'm so going to kill this guy, whoever he thinks he is to mess with me…" muttered Snatcher, gritting his teeth even tighter. His hands hurt from the hits on the door and, when he finally looked at them, he noticed how red his skin had turned. His attempts to bend his fingers only resulted in pain and he quickly stopped moving them. Pain was certainly not a human experience he would miss.

"Now what?" he wondered, looking back at the room behind him. It was just like he left it… Or so he thought, until he noticed that something at the window seemed off. The ghost frowned and got closer, trying to see what had seemed weird to his brain. It is only when his eyes fell on the lock of the window that he understood why it had felt different to him: there was a black padlock on it. "Someone" must have come into his bedroom while he was talking with Vanessa and locked his window. Did "Simeon" guess his intent before he even got the chance to put his plan into motion? Or did the butler act "just in case"? Whatever was the reason, it seriously put Snatcher's intentions to a stop, at least, unless he figured a way out of this room.

Now quite hesitant about what to do in a situation like this, the spirit looked around him, hoping to find any new idea to leave this room. His eyes fell on the desk and chair near the door: sure, he could break the window with the chair, but he wanted to leave discreetly. This would not be discreet.

Just as he was about to make a few steps in the room to look for more ideas, he felt something in his boot. Then, it hit him like a train: the brat's remote! Of course! That was his way out of here!

The spirit almost facepalmed: how could he have not thought about it in the first place? He hid it so well that he even forgot about its existence! Without losing any more time, the shade squatted down to take it out of his shoe, careful not to do anything wrong with it. He certainly didn't want to break it by dropping it on the floor or press any button that should never be pressed under any circumstances… It was a wonder Snatcher didn't press any button on accident while it was hidden in his boot.

The device was intact and functional. A small green light was blinking repeatedly on the yellow surface, indicating that the remote was on. The red button on its centre was surely the one that needed to be pressed. Well, that was what the shade supposed since he knew nothing about technology. Isolated from the outside world, Snatcher knew very little of what had been invented since his death, only learning about it from his victims, either dead or alive.

Well, what was life without its usual risks? After everything he had been through, one more dangerous situation didn't make much of a difference… And so, shutting his eyes tightly, the ghost pressed the button and braced himself for what was to come.

Just like he expected, teleportation was still not something he enjoyed. It felt like the floor underneath his feet had just disappeared, making him fall in an empty white void. It didn't last long, though in the few seconds he had to endure this awful this process, he could feel his own body disappearing, only to be replaced by something else, something he was much more familiar with. It was a very strange and horrible sensation to experience and, once again, he couldn't help but wonder how could the hat-wearing child endure a process like that so often. He hated it so much. No matter how much he would need to go through teleportation, he would never get used to it.

His vision came back to him in a blink, once he fully materialized in the ship. Remembering the meeting between his face and the floor when he first teleported onto the kid's spaceship, the spirit made sure to start levitating as soon as he felt his spectral body again. That was apparently the right thing to do, as his ghostly face almost hit the floor again.

No, he would absolutely never get used to it.

Snatcher quickly came back to reality, and checked his own body, just to be sure. Just like he expected, he saw his spectral form instead of his fleshy body, which was quite a relief. He had been back in that inconvenient vessel for a few hours only and he was already glad to be back in his usual form. God, it felt so good not to have legs! He could float again, just like he used to! He then took a look at his surroundings, wanting to know if the teleportation had worked well. As soon as his eyes scanned the room, he felt a wave of relief engulfing him again when he recognized the kid's living room. Everything had worked just as planned! Finally something good in his current situation!

Just like the last time he came here, the lights were all out. The only thing lightening the room was a Time Piece set on the ground, next to the control station. This hourglass was probably one the kid had gotten out of her safe. How many did she have anyway?

A few steps away from it, a silhouette was lying on the ground, their head burrowed in a light blue pillow. Snatcher didn't need much more to recognize the hat-wearing brat. Suddenly, an unknown feeling rose inside of him at the sight of the child, who still hadn't noticed his arrival on her ship. Was he worried about her? The realization hit him like a train and he felt his inexistent guts twist at the thought. "Hah, as if!", he mumbled internally, as he could only float towards the brat, apparently oblivious to what was happening in the same room as her. Was she asleep? On the ground? But she had a bed!

Once Snatcher got close enough of the small body lying on the ground, he caught sight of several objects scattered all around her. Two books were next to her, one of them opened, displaying a language the spirit was not able to read. A few tools could be seen, such as a screwdriver, a monkey wrench as well as a wire cutter. Her hat was not on her head and was simply waiting for her, not very far away. Several cookies were disseminated near her head and the kid was holding one she hadn't finished eating, probably falling asleep before she got the chance to, from the look of it.

The control panel had been fixed… Somewhat. Inside it, a few wires had been reconnected with adhesive tape, while other wires still waited to be fixed. On the yellow surface of the machine, the hosepipes had been reconnected to the mainframe using the same method.

The kid herself, just like he thought, was sleeping soundly. Her breathing was calm, slow and repetitive as her body moved up and down. Some locks of hair were touching her face, yet she seemed too asleep to care. Without thinking, the ghost came closer and suddenly realized what he was doing. Was he watching a child sleeping? How creepy was that?! He was supposed to be creepy, yes, but not that way! The ghost straightened up immediately, looking away, ruffled by his behaviour. That did not happen.

A high pitched noise on his right caught his attention and he turned his head to the sound. His yellow eyes instantly fell on the brat's little vacuum cleaner, which seemed to stare at him with its awful pink eyes. It made happy-like sounds to him and Snatcher only frowned in response. Great. Now there was a witness. Sentient or not, it still bothered Snatcher and he had to force himself not to destroy the brat's stuff on impulse. Not that he didn't want to, but he just knew that he wouldn't hear the end of it if he did. Plus, the ghost had many important things to do and, for them to happen, he had to wake the kid up.

The shade floated back down and took a deep breath he didn't need… Before yelling, right above her ear:

-"WAKEY WAKEY KID!" his voice echoed in the living room, making both the child and her vacuum cleaner jump from the surprise and from how loud it was. The little girl let out a scared shriek and quickly got away from him, crawling on her back. The latter hit the machine behind her and, when it did, she appeared both confused and terrified at the same time, tears appearing in her eyes. They went from all their surroundings to him in successions, as if she was trying to understand what had happened. What a great sight for the shade, who enjoyed this prank profusely. It took her a couple of seconds until she seemed to get what the shade did and a furious expression replaced the confusion on her features.

-"Why would you do that?!" was the first thing leaving her mouth, as she stood up, anger clearly visible in her gestures. Her fists were clenched and she glared at the shade with a rage that was quite unusual for her. Though, to Snatcher, it was a pleasure to look at, especially after the rough evening he had.

-"Aaaw, did I scare you?" he taunted, his mischievous smile widening at her anger. The girl pouted and quickly squatted down to pick up her monkey wrench, throwing it at the ghost, before doing the same with the screwdriver. The spirit avoided them easily and laughed maniacally at her attempts to hurt him.

-"Did you forget? You can't hurt me like that! I thought you knew bet-"

He stopped talking when a loud sniffing sound interrupted him. The spirit froze and he stared at the child, as he noticed that she didn't act like usual. Normally, she would fight back, try to insult him and even turn him blue if she had the chance to. Now… She was just standing, motionless, right in front of him, her head bowed down. Another sniffing sound came from her, breaking the silence that had fallen between the two. The child's shoulders were trembling, just like her clenched fists.

"What the…" wondered Snatcher, stopping his thoughts when he understood.

The hat-wearing brat was crying. He could hear her sobbing, just like he could see tears rolling down her face. The shade couldn't help but stare at her, not knowing what to do. This was not what he had in mind. Sure, he had expected her to be angry, but crying? This was new and probably not good. Usually, he felt happy when he made someone cry. Seeing them sobbing right in front of him, praying for their life to be spared, just before he killed them gruesomely… That was fun! However, in that particular situation, Snatcher wasn't enjoying it, for a reason he couldn't explain yet.

He lifted his right hand as he tried to catch the little girl's attention once again:

-"Hey kiddo… You okay over there?" He paused, waiting for her to answer, in vain. He tried again, this time coming closer, using a tone he hoped casual (despite being very much not casual): "I thought you were a strong kid! Why are you crying for something this dumb?"

Somehow, the spirit felt like he had crossed a line but it was already too late. The child rose her head, glaring at him with blue eyes full of tears. Her teeth were clenched and her breathing seemed to be harder and harder to control. And, just like Snatcher feared, she snapped at him:

-"Are you serious?" she roared, stomping her left foot on the ground as she kept going, her voice breaking as the words left her lips: "I… I don't need this right now!"

The kid pointed to their surroundings, absolutely livid:

-"Do you have any idea how hard it is to fix a ship like that?" she questioned. Snatcher opened his mouth to answer but she cut him short, visibly not wanting to listen to him in any case: "no, you don't! I know! I'm the one who just spent a whole night not sleeping to try to fix something, anything! But nothing is working and I don't know what to do anymore!"

The ghost tried to interject once more, only to be silenced as the kid continued, even more furious than before:

-"I'm not finished!" fumed the hat-wearing child: "I'm trying everything I can to at least fix the power so I don't end up suffocating in the next few days, but I can't! And the moment I finally fall asleep which, by the way, wasn't intentional, I get woken up by a pecking ghost who has no idea what I'm going through!"

Her yells faded out as she stopped to breathe again, still glaring at the spirit in the process. Silence fell once again as Snatcher didn't know if he could reply now. He was staring at the child, bewildered at her outburst. She had never acted like this in the past, even when she kept "dying" in his advanced contracts. But, now that he thought about it, she did seem pretty tired. She had dark rings under her eyes and her posture was the one of someone who would fall asleep anytime. Now, all the junk on the ground made much more sense to the shade, as he finally put the pieces together: she had spent hours trying to fix her ship, in vain, only falling asleep because she was completely exhausted. And Snatcher came here, only to wake her up violently when her mind was probably a mess at the moment.

A very unpleasant feeling of guilt rose inside of him, as he remained silent. He felt like apologizing was his best chance of ending the argument, but… Snatcher didn't apologize. Yet, he couldn't deny the need to do so. The only thing preventing him from doing it was his prideful personality. The kid seemed to guess his thoughts as she rolled her eyes, picking up her hat as she grunted:

-"Don't bother, I don't care."

The shade was about to retort when he realized something. She had mentioned staying awake for a whole night? But he thought time moved slower in her spaceship!

-"Wait kiddo, how many hours has it been for you since we last saw each other?"

She looked up, staring into space, visibly even more tired than before:

-"Uh… Almost a day for me, only a few hours for you, I think."

-"But… I thought time was supposed to move slower here? Did I miss something or…?" he asked confused, though quite relieved at the change of subject.

The hat-wearing child pointed to the mainframe, to which a Time Piece was (poorly) connected:

-"I tried to align our "time zones" but… All I managed to do was reversing the effect and worsening it as I tried to fix it," she explained, taking a deep breath as she continued, extremely tensed: "now, I only have a few hours left until my oxygen supplies start to be low enough to make me sick. Suffocation will come next, in a few days."

Snatcher could only stare back as he listened to her words. Normally, hearing about someone suffocating would morbidly catch his interest, but… In this case, it felt wrong. He understood with horror that he didn't want her to die like this, or die at all. What was happening to him? He was a monster, killing people and eating their souls! He made his victims suffer in very diverse ways before murdering them painfully! And now he felt worried for a child? This was ridiculous! Yet, the feeling was there and he couldn't deny it.

The shade examined the mainframe, which was in a very poor condition. He knew the kid had an engine room and he couldn't even imagine how much worse it could be compared to what was in front of him. And from what she had been telling him, she didn't have the tools to fix any of it, which only made the spirit even more anxious. He felt the need to change the subject, hoping the status of the rift was not as bad as everything else.

-"What about the rift?" questioned Snatcher, praying silently for some good news, at least: "how many days have we left?"

The kid pinched her nose, exhaling loudly. She then rubbed her tired eyes, looking up at Snatcher as she replied:

-"It's worse than what I first thought."

If Snatcher didn't want to anger her more, he would have facepalmed twice. It was as if the world was trying to persecute them more and more, always finding more twisted ways to make them suffer! Was it his karma coming back at him for all the wrong things he had done after his death?

The brat guessed his thoughts despite him trying his best to keep an impassive face:

-"Let me explain before snapping at me like last time, okay?" she commented. It was weird to hear her saying "last time" when, for Snatcher, it had only been a few hours since then. But time had been distorted between them. And even if he did want to yell, he couldn't deny how much exasperated the kid seemed to be: usually, she would put up with his behaviour, but the spirit had a feeling she would not be as patient right now, and, well, time was running out. Thus, he managed to put his pride aside for a bit and only nodded, not wanting to infuriate her more.

The child seemed briefly relieved at his attitude and elaborated:

-"This time rift isn't supposed to exist. Time rifts are a part of space-time shenanigans but, as I told you yesterday, this rift is artificial. And both time and space hate that, and they're trying to destroy it to, uh, restore the balance of space-time, if that makes sense to you."

It did not make sense to Snatcher. Well, he still got the idea but he couldn't understand why the reality was trying to make them disappear. Could it really tell the difference between a "wild" time rift and one that was not? The shade decided to keep his interrogations to himself, not wanting the kid to spend hours to explain things that were too complicated for him. It was just abstract. Law, on the other hand, was not.

Seeing his silence as a sign to continue, the hat-wearing child enunciated more information about their current situation:

-"So, as I was saying, this time rift is abnormal and the universe is trying to crush it. The thing is, it does that little by little. Have you noticed strange things while you were down there?" asked the little girl.

Snatcher remembered his experience in the bathroom. The mirror had become completely black, not reflecting anything anymore, and his shadow had taken the form of his spectral body. He had wondered at the time if the rift was collapsing and, now that he got explanations, it all made much more sense. So it was just collapsing very slowly. Good to know.

Snatcher kept his sarcasm to himself and answered his small ex-contractor:

-"I have. Things started disappearing and reappearing very quickly around me. And some surfaces lost their reflections too. My shadow looked like my usual spectral one, too."

The kid nodded, not surprised by his reply.

-"Yeah. The rift is having trouble keeping everything together. Stuff like reflections, shadows, small objects… The rift is trying to resist by making less effort on materializing unnecessary things, those that won't cause much trouble if they stop existing."

-"Wait, you mean that shadows and reflections aren't necessary?" asked the ghost, a little confused.

-"Well, yeah? I mean, it's not like you're going to die if you don't have a reflection anymore," explained the child: "However, having all water disappear from the rift might be problematic, so, uh… Just imagine that the rift has priorities, okay?"

-"You say that as if it's sentient."

The kid rubbed her face again, sighing:

-"No, it's not, it's just… Ugh, it's too hard to explain! It just… Acts on instinct? It just wants not to explode."

Snatcher wasn't convinced, though he felt that the kid didn't want to explain things further on that topic. Then, it was time to move on another subject:

-"So, if the time rift is going to collapse soon, and if the lack of oxygen is going to kill you…" started the shade, hoping to get more information about what they would have to do: "we need to find that Time Piece, and the sooner, the better. Right?"

-"Right. We need to go now-"

However, a noise interrupted her, making both her and Snatcher jump from the surprise. It sounded like… Growls? The ghost looked around him, on the lookout for any dangerous foe hidden in the kid's ship. However, when the growls echoed in the living room once more, he felt… Something moving in his inexistent stomach. Was he… Hungry? The shade lowered his gaze to his body, more than astonished. The little girl was showing the same surprise as him, not expecting that kind of sound coming out of him either.

Him being hungry it that form… That couldn't be possible!

His confused and nervous expression was soon picked up by the child, who apparently decided it was the time to make fun of him:

-"Well, looks like someone's hungry~!" she nagged, giggling when he replied by glaring at her silently. Well, in a way, he did deserve it, he supposed. Plus, he was feeling hungry. After all, his human body hadn't eaten for a while, yet… He was no longer in this useless vessel now, so why was he experiencing something like that?

-"How is it even possible?" snarled Snatcher: "I don't even have a stomach!"

To this, the kid hazarded a guess, gently tapping her lips as she spoke:

-"Well, I may have an idea about that. You said the rift messed up your shadow, right?"

The ghost lifted his spectral brows, sceptic:

-"Yeah, but what does it have to do with me being hungry when I shouldn't be?"

-"What if you never really became a human in the first place?"

The question took the shade aback, cutting his thoughts short. The spirit frowned, not really understanding what she had implied:

-"What do you mean?" he asked the brat, who was staring into space as she developed a theory:

-"I've been thinking about it since the issue with your hand yesterday-, uh, I mean, a few hours ago for you. You being hurt was weird, since you should normally be invincible in your usual form. So, I wondered… You know how the rift is only an illusion? How everything was made from scratch?"

Snatcher really didn't like where this was going. It was a bit too abstract for him, after all. But he kind of knew what the kid was implying and he didn't like it.

-"Yeah?" he answered in a wary tone.

-"What if… Your human body is just a disguise you're forced to wear? Like, maybe the rift is forcing your appearance to change?"

-"Why would it? And… That doesn't explain why my hand was hurt or why I'm being hungry right now!" retorted Snatcher, feeling more and more lost as the kid continued her explanations.

-"Well… The rift might be manipulated by the one possessing the Time Piece. That would explain why it gave you this appearance in a world that isn't even your past, only a copy of it," she recited, pensive: "When you think about it, it just makes sense: why would you look like your human self in a Time Rift that is not actually linked to your past originally? It has to be intentional. As for why you feel human stuff right now… Maybe the rift is changing your body even on the inside?"

The ghost was truly horrified by what he was hearing. His form, being changed more than its appearance? This very idea made him terribly uneasy and sick to his -supposedly- inexistent stomach. It felt like his body was being violated by something, someone especially. "Simeon"'s face came to his mind as soon as he thought about it. Instantly, pure rage grew inside of him. Snatcher was sure that the rift itself was not the culprit he was looking for, but the butler, on the other hand… It just made sense. He felt his clenched fists warming up as his magic started to manifest through them, until blue flames appeared all around them, up to his wrists. As for his hair, it became pointier and pointier as he remembered the butler's face and what the brat had just told him.

So that guy thought he could mess with him? Snatcher would show him what he was capable of!

But if his human vessel had always been a forced disguise… What about Vanessa?

-"Snatcher?"

The little girl's worried voice interrupted his thoughts as well as his increasing rage. She was holding both of her hands together against her chest, staring at him with eyes full of anxiousness. Right. She knew nothing about what the spirit had found back in the rift, thus her confusion made perfect sense.

The shade did his best to calm himself down. The last thing he wanted to do was to lose control of his powers and blast a laser through the walls of the spaceship. The possibility of what could happen if he did so didn't appeal to him very much… The ghost took a deep breath and felt his anger waning, just like the magic around his hands, eventually disappearing too.

Snatcher then started to tell the kid what he had discovered while he was in the rift, as well as Vanessa's denial on the matter. The kid seemed surprised to learn that the mastermind had chosen to take the form of someone close to Vanessa and him. But, in a way, what was a better camouflage than taking the butler's form? Snatcher would have never suspected him seriously if he hadn't witnessed Vanessa's reaction to that guy being in the same room as her earlier that day.

The brat became pensive again, rubbing her chin as she tried to process everything the ghost had told her. After all, it was a lot of information. She then opened her mouth to talk, only to be cut short again by another growl from the spirit. Instinctively, the shade hid his stomach, ashamed of the sound. He hated it when his human body did things on its own, and now his spectral one was doing the same? It was extremely frustrating at the very least… Even more so when the hat-wearing child giggled at his reaction. It contrasted a lot with her previous tired expression which, as much as the ghost wanted to deny it, made him feel a little better. Only a little bit.

-"Well," laughed the kid: "I was about to say that we might want to start looking for the Time Piece now, but… Maybe you need to eat first? How do you feel about cookies?"

Snatcher had never been so humiliated in his entire life and after-life. However, his body seemed very much enthusiastic at the idea of eating. The ghost, now utterly resigned to do what had to be done, had no other choice but to accept the girl's offer. And, as much as his body wanted to eat, Snatcher did not. Food and its texture were just awful.

It was even worse when it came to cookies. Those didn't remind him of good memories at all.

-"Okay, fine, but not cookies!"

The child only beamed at him in answer. He didn't get the chance to add anything else as she was already running towards the kitchen, climbing on top of the first floor easily, just like usual.

This was going to be long and awful, he just knew it… But if everything went well after that, they would be out of there in no time! How hard could that be?

As much as he wanted to be optimistic, the ghost couldn't help but have a very bad feeling about this…