The brisk air of night plagued the land. Eddy found himself in the original Peach Creek. Trees still had warm-colored leaves. Grass blades were that same dark chartreuse green. The sky looked of a midnight blue shade, lit only by bright, silver stars in the skies. One prospect turned out different though. Eddy wasn't in the Cul-De-Sac. Instead, he was at the forest's creek, sprinting away from something—or someone. An ebony black gated fence appeared just around the corner. Eddy dashed through the terrain, leaped over wood logs, and panted.
The thunderous stampede of bolting feet surrounded the forest. Children clamored in Eddy's path as well.
"Dork…" mumbled Kevin. Barely visible in the shadow of the night, only Kevin's voice warned Eddy of his presence. Eddy's peers, Rolf, Jimmy, Nazz, Jonny, and Sarah stood behind Kevin. The mob chasing after Eddy each had pitchforks in their hands, raised like swords in the night.
Eddy raced to the gated fence and pushed the doors of the gate, trying to open them. However, the doors still stayed shut, as if someone glued them together.
Locked! Drats… Eddy thought, releasing the black metal bars.
Kevin and his gang got closer and closer to their prey by the second. Eddy grabbed onto the black bars with his hands and feet and climbed the gate. He reached the top of the fence, dangling his foot on the other side. Kevin forcefully shook the gate until Eddy tripped and fell back on his knees.
"Hey, Eddy, guess who's one of us now!" Kevin swiftly propelled Eddy into his direction with the pitchfork. Everyone else in his group grabbed onto Eddy's limbs. Kevin grasped the boy's body and covered his mouth. Eddy squirmed and whimpered in terror, but it was no use. He screamed at the top of his lungs as loud as he could.
The scream woke Eddy up, fortunately. "Morning already?" he asked himself. He looked at his surroundings. Darkness clouded the entire room. It was still nighttime. Eddy stared at his own body. It looked skinnier than usual, most likely because Eddy had not been eating very much hay. The kid had gone from a few pounds at risk of being overweight, to thinner than a twig in an instant. He looked at his wrists, seeing even more cuts. They looked fresh, too. Had they recently formed?
"Double D will be so mad at me when he sees this!" Eddy groaned. "Can he blame me, though? I've been having so much nightmares lately, who can handle that?" Eddy sighed, remembering how Double D always smacked him across the face every time he didn't give him his way. He hit Eddy for so much as daring to question why he was being collared! He hit him for simply speaking too loud! Even on the way home from the walk, he was slapped a ton for asking "stupid questions", as he put it! It was too much!
An escape was the only thing Eddy cared for anymore. He had no motivation to read the book anymore, he just wanted to leave the Cul-De-Sac. What's an easy method for getting that dang portal book? He pondered.
A memory popped into Eddy's mind. It was a conversation between Kevin and Nazz. He remembered how Nazz was telling Kevin about the American Revolution. After dealing with the abuse from the British parliament, the colonists essentially led a huge revolt against the king and his supporters!
Revolt! The word sprang into Eddy's head. I'll revolt against Rolf! I could find him wherever he is and take what little he's got! But how… he thought.
I know! I'll burn whatever shelter Rolf has! He'll be sure to surrender!
Eddy smirked in the pride of his plan and fell back asleep.
Meanwhile, Rolf and Jimmy were still at the ghetto, cooking human flesh on a bonfire. The settlers were cowering at the sight. They huddled together for comfort.
"This is horrifying…" murmured one of the villagers.
"Don't fret," consoled another voice. "He won't eat us if we stay calm and don't tell anyone…"
"Okay…" the villager replied.
Rolf breathed heavily and stared at Jimmy. "At last, we have diminished the burden of self-defense. Heh, not even the ghetto-boys have tried to attack Rolf! Nothing can go wrong!" the man marveled.
In the middle of the Cul-De-Sac, Kevin, Sarah, and Jonny were standing. Kevin goose-stepped in circles, trembling.
"Oh, imagine the things that can go wrong!" Kevin shrieked. Nazz stepped up to the boy, with a confused expression on her face.
"What's the matter?" Nazz asked.
"Ya know how Rolf left the Cul-De-Sac?" replied Kevin.
"Yeah, so?" said Nazz.
"Do you understand how dangerous the outskirts of Peach Creek are? Think of the awful stuff out there! Phantoms, savages, the Kanker sisters, they'll destroy Rolf to shreds! If we don't pitch in to help Rolf, and he comes out stressed from everything that happened to him, he'd treat us worse than ever!"
"Where is he?" questioned Sarah.
"I saw him going that way." Kevin pointed to the Phantom Woods. "He couldn't have gone to the Crimson River, that place is deadly and unsafe."
"Let's go search for him and do whatever we can to help him." Jonny proposed.
"Yeah!" shouted Kevin and Sarah in unison.
"Um… I'll just stay here, because I don't want to get hurt," Nazz stated.
"Go ahead. This job only requires the three of us, we can handle it," responded Kevin.
The trio trekked out of the Cul-De-Sac into the Phantom Woods to find Rolf.