What I'm about to give you is partially my own imagination while another is shown on camera. It won't take long to figure out which parts are what. Let's now respond to input from the prior chapter.

Lightblade1121: While you definitely are the first person I know of to call the swamp scene your least favorite part of the movie (other viewers have praised it for how Eddy shows humility takes blame for getting himself, Double D, and Ed into a big pickle), it's easy to see why people wouldn't like that intensity as much as other scenes. Some of what follows is much lighter in comparison.

We once spotted an apple tree after the sun had set. Not seeing any other way to get nourishment, the three of us promptly began feasting on the ones that hadn't rotted. It thankfully was free food. After finishing our meal there, we each took another bathroom break among secluded woods. While I hated not having any toilet paper with me, I already knew there was no way to get that in our circumstances.

Once that was over with, Edd and I went back to our spots on Ed's arms, and the lattermost continued onwards. He walked past a motel at some point, but the three of us decided against staying there after witnessing an unidentified guest loudly complain "Fuck this shitty place! I can damn well find something with much better offerings."

Later that night, a swarm of fireflies had gathered in front of us as we crossed over a highway bridge, and Ed ignorantly remarked "Look! Alien spaceships are attacking!"

Hearing such remarks prompted me to bluntly state "That's stupid."

Double D corrected him with "Coleoptera Lampyridae, Ed." while opening a jar to capture some within it, placing said jar on one end of a stick, and holding that out in front of us to light up our path.

Not recognizing that term, I asked "Say what?" in confusion as I shielded my eyeballs with both hands from the brightly shining jar.

"Fireflies, Eddy. These nocturnal luminescent beetles will help shed light on our journey." he explained as I began to feel drowsy.

Monobrow said "Fancy bug butts, I must say." before yawning while I rubbed my eyes a bit.

It was hard not to notice how our walker was growing tired, and I couldn't blame him. Foolishly hoping we could still find Ben before midnight, I tapped on the jar and inquired "So these things know where my bro lives?" prior to yawning myself and laying my right arm on top of Ed's head as I held my chin with it as we all had droopy eyes.

Mr. Hat Lover's response was "Hardly." and yawned before continuing with "Oh, pardon me. But they can help us find a safe place to rest for the night.

Before yawning again, I looked behind us with regret over not choosing a place with beds and remarked "We passed a motel a way's back. We could've stopped there."

"Motels cost money, Eddy." Double D reminded me, giving another yawn afterwards, and asked "Excuse me. Do you have any money, Eddy?"

I yawned once more and held my arms across my torso as I bitterly replied with "I would if that stupid scam worked."

A few seconds later, Monobrow stopped in his tracks to sit on the ground and gave another yawn after declaring "Ed pooped. Sleepy time, guys."

Edd and I looked beneath us to see the guy's arms were laying at his sides, and we dropped right down ourselves. I landed on my face quite painfully, which was made worse by the firefly jar landing on the back of my head. Mr. One Eyebrow let out an additional yawn after this. As I yanked the jar off me, Double D got up to walk around a bit and told us "An appropriate place as any, I suppose."

Ed's next words were "Nighty-night!" before unexpectedly digging a hole into the ground, and I shielded my eyes to prevent dirt from getting into them.

To my surprise, he used a rock of some sort as a pillow substitute and dirt diggings as a blanket. The dude even declared "Ahh, comfy!" while holding onto some of the dirt.

I snickered at how ridiculous it was. No way I could ever comfortably manage that! Neither could our hat-loving pal. It's not like we had many other options, though, and even fewer were preferable to Monobrow's choice. Double D took the jar of fireflies with him and walked off. Before I could say anything about it, Ed grabbed the back of my shirt with his bare right foot and followed up with "Psst, psst! Eddy, can I have a goodnight kiss?"

I turned around to face him and asked in disbelief "What are ya?" before walking off, refusing to give him any smooches.

Have you ever tried to hold onto something with your toes? Well, that's what Monobrow did, and his foot somehow had quite a strong grip! I couldn't get it off by yanking on the shirt with my own hands, and ended up dragging him through the dirt as I walked off to a large idol carved onto a boulder and climbing atop that. Mr. Hat Lover in the meantime was needlessly sticking labels on lots of things around us, adding "Excuse me, Ed." while placing one on the rock I chose.

Just out of curiosity to see what it said, I peeled off this label and read aloud "Yet another boulder" before opening my eyes wide upon seeing how many more had already been placed throughout the sleeping area! It's baffling how quickly they all got applied. After glancing around and seeing him add more of these, I stated "Hey Sock-head, quit turning everything into your bedroom!"

He insisted "It's just that it's difficult for me to sleep in an unlabeled environment." while walking closer towards me and rubbing his eyes.

Those had no hope of making things any more comfortable. Double D was also ignoring how we had a couple impromptu sleepovers in Ed's house where their absence wasn't a concern. We did admittedly have bigger issues to focus on during both nights, namely a belly button eater (which we later learned was Rolf after hiding in a closet out of fear from 3 consecutive days) and preventing Monobrow from getting loose from sleepwalking and eating our neighbors' food. There was another night when the three of us once planned a campout within a tent in its back yard before heading off to Peach Creek's swimming hole, and sock-head didn't have trouble sleeping when no labels were around. However, I felt too tired to point any of this out at the time after a very long day, and simply rolled my eyes before responding with "Snore! I'm getting some shuteye." and lying on my left side.

It was very uncomfortable! As Sock-head continued to apply labels, I nearly slid off my boulder before using both arms to pull myself back on top. After grumbling a bit to myself, I laid flat on my back, which didn't work well with the uneven top of the boulder. I groaned in pain and whined "This bed's killing me!" while watching more labels being placed as the hat-wearing brainiac continued with those.

Mr. One Eyebrow offered "Trade ya, Eddy!" with an enthusiastic smile.

Believing he'd just fall on top of me while asleep, I brushed it off with "Quit talking in your sleep, Ed!" and briefly turned over onto my right side before going back to my back.

After drifting off to sleep, I had a very odd and disturbing dream that caught me off guard. It started with me as an adult wearing a blue suit and standing in an empty dressing room. The dream version of myself just stared at a mirror for roughly 10 seconds and couldn't recall anything that happened during the years that had apparently been skipped after the amusement park fiasco. Monobrow and Mr. Hat Lover were also nowhere in sight. My staring ended upon hearing somebody knock on the door from the other side. Hoping it would lead to some answers, I simply replied with "You can come in." and noticed my voice sounded somewhat deeper than it did during my adolescence.

In walked a figure wearing a white strapless dress and sandals walking towards me. Once the woman took off her hat, I immediately recognized this was an adult version of Nazz. With slightly deeper-sounding vocals than I was accustomed to hearing, she subsequently asked "What are you waiting for, dude? Our big moment is about to arrive!"

Realizing that it meant we were about to get married in this dream, part of me felt very excited; I had spent many nights hoping such a day would come! Another was highly confused since I had no memories of even dating let alone getting engaged and setting a wedding day. I also found myself wondering how the hell I had earned Ms. Van Bartonschmeer's forgiveness. Of all the romantic dreams I ever had involving us, this was the first one to involve a wedding instead of just going on simple dates or sharing kisses, all of which were harmless things my mind came up with in my sleep. Anyway, once we walked outdoors and approached the scene of a nearby beach wedding, it surprised both of us to see that nobody was in the seats. Even the cabin next to it wasn't making any sounds. We simultaneously asked aloud "Where is everybody?"

Behind us, a mysterious voice I never heard before slurred "They decided not to show up after all, so this will just be a private ordeal between the three of us."

We turned around to see where it came from. There was a tall figure with black robes and no visible facial features. Before long, I picked up on the scent of alcohol coming from the unidentified person. As gorgeous as I thought Nazz looked in this wedding attire, not even the sight of her or the thought of us marrying could stop me from getting paranoid. Why would nobody arrive after being invited? I would've thought at minimum that Monobrow and sock-head would be around. Did they feel too jealous of me to be around when the woman they loved didn't want them back? In the meantime, she openly complained "That is not at all what I wanted! We'll have nobody else to share the memories with."

As we walked over to take our wedding vows, my next words were "I hope that they're simply late when traveling over here."

Ignoring our concerns, the robed person asked me afterwards "Edward Skipper McGee, do you take this woman, Nazz Hale Van Bartonschmeer, to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

Even when blushing with some embarrassment upon hearing my middle name used, I knew I wouldn't want to pass this opportunity up and smiled as I happily affirmed "I do!"

"Nazz, do you take Edward as your lawfully wedded husband?" inquired the mystery figure.

She grinned and gave an eager "I do!"

The robed one next stated "By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you sucker and sucker!"

"Say what?" we both asked, feeling puzzled.

To my horror, the figure took off the hood, revealing himself as Ben. It turned out my brother had somehow been altering his vocals well enough to fool me! He told us "This whole thing isn't even valid; I have no legal rights to officiate weddings!" before bursting out with laughter.

Neither of us found it to be even remotely funny. My dream bride chastised him with "Dude, there's nothing cool or amusing about getting our hopes up for nothing! I thought you'd show more respect for your own family on a day like this."

I wasn't sure at first whether she recognized the guy after previously praising him on the day I lied to the cul-de-sac about him returning home. My cruel sibling took a small bottle of whiskey from his pockets and drank the whole thing before retorting "Actually, there is, and I'm honestly surprised Pipsqueak here even made any friends let alone found someone to date and get engaged to. My little bro here has always been a pathetic loser who can't make much profit and you're way out of his league. It's no wonder you don't have any guests present today."

"What happened to your rehab and giving up on the drinks?" I questioned. "You promised our parents as well as me that you were sober!"

Chuckling at my words, he scoffed "Well, obviously I lied about that, and you're a gullible dumbass!"

Before we could say anything else, Ben punched Nazz hard in the face, resulting in an instant nosebleed. The blood quickly dripped onto her dress. Not wanting to get hit again, she ran away in terror while yelling "This is a complete disaster, and my outfit is ruined!"

As terrified as I was of what could follow, there was no way I would let that slide! Grabbing one of the empty wedding chairs, I instinctively swung it towards my brother's torso in retaliation, yelling "Nobody hits the one I love and gets away with it!"

However, I completely missed as he dodged in time. His next words were "Now you're finally acting like a man and taking a stand for yourself, little weakling? Too little and too late. You still are worth nothing. Mom and Dad never wanted you and were content with having just one son instead of an accident."

I never knew for sure whether I had been planned based on the large age gap between us, but either way, our parents never treated me as an unwanted child. In the meantime, I had quickly figured that nothing else I tried as an attack would work, so I decided to run as well. Before getting very far, Ben had grabbed my suit jacket and dragged me into the cabin. My attempts to escape his clutches were futile. Upon opening the doors, I saw Ed and Double D wearing suits that looked like mine and those guys were laying on the ground unconscious. Both had two black eyes, bruised cheeks, bloody noses, and some missing teeth! A note on the ground read "Dear Pipsqueak: These idiots are the only ones who accepted your wedding invitation, and it's not like anybody else would show up anyway when you have no other friends. Now you have nobody to celebrate with!"

Gulping with fear and dreading the thought of what had happened to them, I couldn't decide whether to call for an ambulance or the police first. It ended up being moot since only a few seconds later, my brother locked the door tight. He was about to smash my forehead with the empty whisky bottle when I woke up screaming in a panic. This surprisingly didn't wake up Ed or Double D. After hyperventilating for roughly 15 seconds, I realized it was all just a nightmare. There was no way to know for sure what Ben would do to my pals or me whenever we found him. Part of me wanted to warn them about his unstable and violent past, but I couldn't tell whether it still applied. I regardless still believed that finding him was the only way I could avoid the wrath of everyone else from the cul-de-sac. While it wasn't easy falling back asleep, I eventually dozed off again after crawling towards the firefly jar and falling on top of it, not wanting to stick with the idol-shaped boulder for any longer.

Next chapter is when the Eds finally reach Ben! It won't be the last, and you'll see what follows. I realize the dream seen here came up completely unannounced, but I couldn't resist exploring what our narrator dreamed about, plus it helps give a transition to sleeping near the fireflies. Any thoughts on how it played out? Please do tell within your reviews, dear readers! Having a nightmare additionally goes with Eddy's underlying worries/uncertainty as well as the theme of rest not having any comfort here.

Chapter posted: April 21, 2023