Disclaimer: I don't own Don't Starve or any of the characters

Willow had been told several things about dying over the years. For starters, she knew that when you saw your death coming, you were supposed to have your life flash before your eyes.

That was a lie. Upon realizing that her life was in danger, nothing of the sort had occurred. Or if it did, she'd ignored the whole thing because of how intently she'd been in staring at that wicked claw. Any semblance of thought had long since fled her mind in favor of primal panic.

Another thing she'd heard was that your body would essentially shut off your pain receptors when suffering from a massively traumatic injury. She wasn't sure what qualified as such a wound, but after being impaled she was fairly sure that was pretty false as well.

She'd felt every moment of the pain. What's more, she'd felt the variety of it all. She'd been forced to endure the blinding wave of white hot agony that came when her flesh was pierced right through. She'd struggled against the anguish of being dangled on that claw like a fish on a line. She'd suffered the mind-numbing torment of having her body torn free as well as the hammer blow of being slammed into the ground.

It had been Hell. Too painful to even scream. Had she not emptied the contents of her stomach earlier thanks to the putrid stink of the swamp, she was fairly sure she'd have been sick at some point during the skewering.

The last rumor she'd been told was that, when you finally reached the end, you were supposed to see a light. She was beginning to think that was also a fabrication.

Upon opening her eyes, Willow was met with a sight that looked almost exactly the same as the insides of her eyelids had looked. Darkness. As far as she could see into the sky was nothing but pure, unbroken, darkness. No stars. No moon. No anything. It was like staring into a suffocating blanket of inky emptiness. The sheer weight of the non-substance pressed down on her chest like a tub of lead, making it difficult for her to even draw in a single breath.

Somehow though, air managed to find its way into her compressed lungs little by little. Breathe in. Breathe out. A simple steady rhythm that she could hardly believe was something she normally did without thinking.

After an indiscernible amount of time, she became aware of a crackling sound emanating from all around her. It was something she was very intimately familiar with.

Fire.

That was right wasn't it? She'd started that massive fire in the swamp. Was it the same fire she was hearing now? No, couldn't be. She'd been stabbed by that freakishly large spider. There was no way she could be in the same place after a wound like that. If she was hearing flames, it wasn't the ones she'd started.

That was strange though, if she'd been stabbed why didn't she feel it anymore? Maybe there was something to that whole 'nerves shutting down' thing after all. Idly, her hand made its way over to her injured shoulder to test the area. She pulled back the torn fabric of her top and her heart nearly stopped upon feeling the skin underneath.

Smooth, undamaged, and fully intact.

No. Nope. Not happening. That simply wasn't going to fly. Not even her slightly off-kilter mind could ignore the fact that her shoulder, having previously been splattered into a mass of meat and bone, was now perfectly fine as though it had never happened. This world might be ten different kinds of crazy, but that was pushing it just a little too far.

The way she saw it, there were two possibilities. The first, and the one she wasn't all that fond of, was that she was dead and this was all some sort of purgatory. That seemed pretty likely given how gruesome the injury had been. Even if she hadn't died outright from it, there was the distinct likelihood that she'd have bled out or simply shut down from the trauma after a while.

Despite the logic behind that conclusion, somehow it didn't seem quite right in her mind. She felt too… solid. Too here. If this was some kind of life after death, she didn't think it would be nearly as physical as her previous one had been. Souls didn't have a lot of substance after all.

The other option, which seemed to be the much less likely of the two, was that she'd been fixed somehow. Willow didn't know how long she'd been out for, but going from pulverized into something resembling ground beef to a perfectly smooth patch of skin wasn't something that happened overnight. Or at all for that matter. There should have at least been some kind of scarring assuming the wound was capable of healing in the first place.

One thing was for certain. She wasn't going to get any answers lying on her back.

Well… she might, but she wasn't feeling patient enough to wait and find out.

Bolstering her resolve against the looming unknown, the fire starter pushed off the coarse grass beneath her and worked her way into a sitting position. Her surroundings proved to be more ominous than she'd anticipated.

Darkness. Everywhere she looked, there was vast swathes of darkness. Just like the sky. Too thick to be natural, it drowned out everything it touched in a sheet of pure black. This wasn't the kind of dark you saw in the dead of night. It was the kind you saw in a place without any word for light. A world where the sun was such a foreign concept that it was simply inconceivable.

The only reason she could see at all was because of the five large campfires burning in a circle around her, set up equidistant from one another like some dark pagan ritual. Each flaming mound served as a barrier against the shadows, keeping them at bay with dancing tongues of heat and illumination. The whole thing was set up in a wooded area not unlike the one she'd first met up with the others in.

The others! Willow's mind immediately turned around at the memory of her companions. What had happened to them? Were they all right? Had they managed to escape?

A slight shuffling of dead leaves brought her attention to one of the other forms which had gone unnoticed up until that point.

Wendy rose shakily to her feet from the bed of foliage she'd been deposited in. It was a frightening sight. In the sheer darkness of their surroundings, her pale features and piercing expression made her look nothing short of ghastly.

Willow however, felt nothing but relief upon seeing the gaunt child.

Not far from her, Wolfgang's bulky shape stirred with a large groan. He pushed himself over in a display that was not unlike a massive bear waking from a long hibernation. Oddly enough, he was missing his shirt but looked otherwise unharmed. Seeing their surroundings, he blinked in confusion several times. His utterly lost expression made the fire starter feel just a little bit better about her own confusion.

"Wendy! Wolfgang! Glad to see you're all right." She called, making her way over to the pair. Her voice brought both of their gazes back to her. "What happened back there? Do either of you know?"

The lumbering strongman rose to his feet with a shrug of his shoulders and a strained grimace.

"Not know what happen." He stated. "Fire get in eyes. Couldn't see anything. Little girl pull me somewhere, but I not see where. Can see now though, but not much around too look at."

"Oh… Right… Sorry about that." Willow replied sheepishly, cringing at the memory of her failed attempt to stave off the spiders. "I really didn't expect everything to blow up like that. Are you hurt? Did the burns leave any lasting damage?"

Seeing her obvious guilt over the mishap, Wolfgang put on a slightly strained, but still reassuring, smile.

"Is not hurt. I is too strong for little flames to keep down. Is mighty man!" He declared, sounding enough like his old self to keep her from worrying too much.

"I'm glad." She said, the relief evident in her voice. Turning towards the smaller of the two, she addressed Wendy. "What about you? How did you hold up? I didn't get a chance to make sure everyone was still intact."

Observing the fire starter with those too-large eyes for a pause, she simply offered a brief nod.

"I was unharmed for the most part." She said, directing a meaningful glance down to the object in her hands. When Willow realized what it was, she felt the lead weight of guilt drop right back into the middle of her stomach. "Abigail however, wasn't. I don't think she'll be joining us in this world after that. Then there's also the matter of… him…"

At this, her focus had shifted to something over Willow's shoulder. Turning to look at the object of the girl's attention, she met eyes with the last member of their group.

Wilson looked, for lack of a better term, like crap. His face bore the expression of a shell-shocked war veteran, and his entire body was shaking so badly it was a wonder he was even able to get to his feet. The sheer look of crushing grief in his form was so strong that Willow could practically feel it radiating off him in waves. She opened her mouth in shock, about to ask just what had happened to cause this when his eyes met hers.

Time stood still in that moment. The tremors that had been running up and down his body stilled instantly, leaving behind a kind of impossible motionlessness in his stature as though he'd suddenly been turned to stone. His face was unreadable, a mere blank slate as he stared uncomprehending at the young woman in front of him. The whole world held its breath, somehow being aware of the singular moment of absolute disbelief.

In an instant, everything came crashing down. Wilson's empty expression melted into one of pure shock before he lurched forwards. Willow didn't even have a chance to speak before his arms had wrapped around her in a bone crushing embrace, clinging tight as though he feared she might vanish if he loosened his grip even slightly.

"Oh my god…" His breathless words sounded jagged and broken, like they'd been forced out past a mountain of rubble in his throat. "Oh my god…"

Those three words were repeated over and over like the words of a sacred prayer. Judging by his tone, that likely wasn't far off the truth. He sounded nothing short of awestruck.

She didn't know how long the two of them stayed like that, held in a sort of desperate hug which would have been more fitting for two people who hadn't seen each other in years. The amount of time didn't bother her though. What bothered her was the fact that Wilson was reacting in such a way. Her mind, still fogged over by the rapid transition of scenery and events, had yet to connect his emotional outburst with her near-death experience.

"Uh… Good to see you too." She offered, struggling somewhat to get the words out. "Do you think you could ease up a bit? This makes it pretty tough to breathe."

At her request he, rather reluctantly, backed off so that he was merely holding onto her shoulders instead of cracking her ribcage. Despite the fact that she was unharmed, he was apparently unwilling to let go. The thought threatened to cause a flush of heat in her cheeks, but she held it at bay. Now wasn't the time for such things.

"Willow…" He choked out, his voice still sounding so very damaged. "How… How are you…?"

"You're welcome."

The flat statement caused them both to spin, realizing that they weren't alone. Wendy and Wolfgang stood observing them, the strongman looking somewhere between awkwardly and slightly embarrassed by the scene while the girl appearing decidedly unimpressed.

"You can thank me later." Wendy said, having been the voice that spoke up in the first place. "It seems I really am the only one who pays any attention around here."

"What are you talking about?" Willow asked while trying, unsuccessfully, to ease the scientist's grip on her shoulders.

The child heaved a light sigh before shaking her head.

"The rules, remember?" She offered. "Before, Wilson and I nearly died in the snow. After we went through the doorway, we were both back in fine health. The damage we sustained was healed. It stands to reason that being maimed by a spider before passing through shouldn't carry over either."

Willow wasn't at all sure what unnerved her more. The knowledge that her brutalization at the hands (claws?) of an overgrown arachnid had been real and not just a fever dream, or the way that Wendy managed to say such reality defying things with the surety of one saying that water is wet and gravity makes things fall. There were dozens of different questions she could have asked at that point, but one in particular stood out to her.

"Wait a minute." Willow said, finally prying Wilson's hands away and taking a step back for the sake of her personal space. "If that was all real, how'd you get past the spider?"

Wolfgang perked up at this question, looking curiously to the other two members of the group. Having been blinded, he hadn't seen much of what happened beyond exceedingly blurry outlines.

A dead silence fell. For a moment, it seemed almost like the inquiry had been a giant off switch which had rendered the two of them speechless.

Instead of looking to Willow, Wendy turned her eyes towards the scientist with a meaningful stare. He in turn, dawned an expression which could only be described as horrified.

"I… I…" He stuttered, unable to force out any words past the dread that had taken hold of him. For reasons the fire starter couldn't understand, his face was becoming paler by the second. "I… I… thought…"

"He killed it." Wendy said at last, cutting off his feeble verbalizations while offering the bare minimum amount of information necessary.

Oh no you don't. Willow had been holding her doubts in check for a while now. She knew something was up and she wasn't about to let her questions be brushed aside in such a manner. She turned back to Wilson to demand that he tell her exactly what had occurred-

And immediately felt her resolve crumble upon seeing his face.

He looked pitiful. Grief and worry saturated his features in equal measure with relief. There was no doubt that his reaction was caused by her injury and subsequent recovery. Knowing that was enough to still her tongue before she could bring herself to voice her interrogation.

"Willow, I'm sorry." He said, not sounding at all like he knew just what he was apologizing for. "I just… I'm just so glad you're all right. I had thought I'd… uh… we'd lost you back there."

He was like a kicked puppy. A big, dumb, genius puppy. The part of her mind that wanted answers grumbled in frustration at her weakness, but the rest of her just ignored it.

"You'll have to do better than that to get rid of me." She assured, doing what she could to make light of the situation. It wasn't like this had been the first time they're lives had been in danger. Maybe the closest call, but not the first. "Besides. Even if a spider could finish me off, I'd-"

The rest of her sentence was forcibly halted as hurricane force winds blasted through the clearing, nearly toppling over the group in their fury. The deafening gale threw up clouds of debris and stones, though strangely left their bonfires entirely intact. By the time it died down, its source became immediately apparent.

Just as with all their previous worlds, the host of this maddened competition had arrived to greet them in person. This time however, he was vastly different.

Gone was the feigned pleasantry. Gone was the aura of ease and condescension. This wasn't the Maxwell who was here to mock his playthings while they stumbled through his proving grounds. This was Maxwell the overseer. The lord and creator of all they could see. The absolute tyrant who held their very survival in the palm of his hands.

And He. Was. Pissed.

Though no taller than any members of their party, he loomed over them like an obelisk of obsidian rage against the backdrop of the darkness. His very presence exuded raw power, the likes of which no mortal had any right to possess. Every breath he took told the tail of barely contained wrath his mental fortitude was holding in check.

"You pitiful, worthless, insignificant, INSECTS!" He roared, his voice booming out across the silenced landscape. "You DARE throw my offer of paradise back in my face!? You DARE test the patience of the great Maxwell!?"

Even had she been at her most defiant, Willow doubted she could have come up with any kind of response. His sheer malevolence was like a physical force which drowned out any thought of resistance.

"So be it then. If you think so highly of yourselves, let us see just how strong your will to live is. No more games. No more toys. This time, your deaths are assured."

His eyes seemed to bore right into her, piercing into her very soul. There was so much fearsome power in that gaze. It was that of a dragon peering down at the peasants who'd intruded on its most treasured inner sanctum.

"Take a deep breath fools. You have precious few of them left."

Not giving them a chance to even think of a response, the sinister apparition of their demented host vanished as suddenly as he had appeared. Empty quite was left behind after the unexpected intrusion. Nobody knew quite how to react.

Something pecked at the back of Willow's mind. It was impossible to deny that Maxwell had been absolutely furious in his declaration. That fact alone was enough to instill true fear in her heart. He might have been a sociopath, but he didn't seem like the kind of man who was prone to such fits of rage.

That wasn't all though. There was one small detail, one minute piece that didn't seem to fit in her eyes. During his whole tirade, there had been one moment, one singular note in his enraged voice, where his anger had almost sounded like more of a challenge than a deterrent. It had been a tiny thing, so miniscule that she couldn't be sure she hadn't simply imagined it. But if it was real…

If she didn't know better, she might have thought Maxwell wanted them to come.

In another life, Wilson might have been surprised by how quickly they all transitioned from being shouted at by Maxwell to taking stock of their supplies. They'd been through the routine so many times that it had become automatic. They could go through the motions with mechanical precision even while their minds were still reeling from their previous experience.

His mind however, was reeling from something else entirely.

Willow was alive.

Those three words meant everything. It was like witnessing a sunrise for the first time in your life. Experiencing the joy of a new day after you'd feared that you'd be trapped in an eternal night. It was indescribable. Pure and honest relief in its most brilliant form.

She was alive.

When he'd seen her ravaged in such a way, it had awakened something that had been growing in his heart for some time now. He'd lost all fear of what could happen to him. He'd no longer cared. All that had mattered was that she'd been hurt. He'd thrown himself at the monster with a total disregard for his own safety, allowing those intruding shadows to warp his reality until he'd become nothing more than a killing machine. All because he'd thought she was gone.

He didn't know the word to describe it. Despite his exceedingly impressive vocabulary, nothing quite fit. He wanted to say it was love, but could that truly be the case? He cared for her a great deal, there was no doubt about that, but his crumbling into madness had been so… dark. Intense. From what he understood, love was a pure emotion. Something that inspired songs and poetry, not fear and violence. He might have spent more effort agonizing over his questioned feelings, but there was one simple fact that kept him from worrying.

She was still alive.

As he held the divining rod, his mind was still stuck to the knowledge that she had survived. It was a salve that kept his terrors at bay, at least for the moment. And it was all because of-

"You still haven't thanked me you know."

Wilson jumped visibly at Wendy's voice. Struggling against the urge to whip around, he slowly turned in the calmest manner he could manage. Sure enough, the girl was standing behind him having snuck up without his noticing.

Not that such a thing would have been difficult given how enraptured he was in his own little world.

"You're right. Thank you Wendy." He said, bowing his head slightly as he did so. "I'd lost it back there. If it wasn't for your quick thinking… I don't even want to know what might have happened. Thank you."

She blinked once, observing him with her keen gaze. Wilson was about to say something else when she spoke up.

"I felt them too."

His breath caught in his throat as his mind ground to a halt. The words he'd half formed died without ever being uttered, forgotten in their entirety with the sudden turn. It took several moments for him to regain his sense, and when he did his voice was far less steady than he'd have liked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He lied. It was an obvious bluff, and she had no trouble seeing through it.

"Those things that were working their way into your head." She continued, speaking as calmly as if she were discussing a mild change in the weather. "I felt them. I know that they're the things behind your sword and armor. Why is it that you haven't mentioned this before?"

For an instant, he felt a surge of irritation run through him. Who was she to question him? She was just a child, where as he was the one who'd tapped into forces beyond human understanding. HE was the one with the power to control those things. HE was the one who'd struck down the spider queen.

Those thoughts were immediately crushed. He knew full well that they stemmed from the same source as his rage and power. They were not natural to his mind.

"I didn't feel the need to worry everyone." He said honestly, keeping all traces of the foreign emotion out of his tone. "These… things… whatever they are, are useful. Just like your spell book or Willow's staff. I need to use them, and there wasn't any point in making a fuss about them."

She continued staring at him, but this time he met her steady gaze with his own. He knew that they couldn't afford to throw away such valuable tools in a place like this. It simply wasn't intelligent.

"I see." She said at last. "Wilson. There are far worse things out there than death. I hope you understand that. I don't know what those beings you're using are, but I know that they're far from kind. They were old. Hungry. Wilson. They frightened me in ways I don't care to speak of. Whatever you're doing with them, be careful. Escaping this place won't do you any good if you become a prisoner of your own mind."

With that ominous warning, the morbid girl turned away from him to make her way over to Willow and Wolfgang. The scientist watched her go without making a sound. Her words sent a chill through his body that was colder than ice.

They frightened me in ways I don't care to speak of…

That couldn't be good. She'd always been sensitive to the strange forces that drove this place. If it was enough to scare her, he knew it was very sinister indeed.

There are far worse things out there than death…

True perhaps, but a tad dark for his tastes. Why couldn't they brave the unknown and get out alive? Why did it always have to be one or the other?

Escaping this place won't do you any good if you become a prisoner of your own mind…

That one stuck fast in his thoughts. How close had it been to becoming a reality? He'd slipped into the dark when he saw Willow hurt. Had Wendy not pulled that lever and opened the doorway, he might have fallen entirely. What would have become of him then?

Suppressing a shudder, the young man turned his attention back to the task at hand. They still had a job to do and he couldn't afford to be distracted now.

The cost of failure was far too high for that.