I felt like I was drowning for a moment, but the moment was brief. 

After the darkness, I looked up. I was back at the beginning, sitting at my desk in my room. The count was sitting next to me, holding my notebook and smiling at the drawings.

What was going on? 

I briefly looked around. Every inch of my room appeared exactly the same as it did before. But something still felt... off. I felt uneasy.

"Um... Count?" I asked. "What's going on?"

"Count Bleck will not take up much of your time," the count started, still flipping through my drawings. "He's just wondering if you know where Dimentio has disappeared to." 

I frowned slightly.

"Oh. Um... he's not here?" I asked, mentally facepalming. Why was THAT what I asked?! That hardly mattered anymore. 

"No." The count explained calmly.

"Okay..." I trailed off, confused.

What was going on? Was everything that just happened to me some kind of dream? Was the nightmare over? No, it felt far too real for it to be a dream, right? 

Like always, I had so many questions!

The count waited for a moment before shaking his head and letting out a sigh.

"My apologies, Count Bleck sighed," the count said. "It appears he has simply vanished. We must press onward without him."

He seemed slightly saddened. However, I couldn't help but wonder what he really knew. What was going on in the count's mind that I was not yet aware of? 

"You remind me of him, Mr. L," the count breathed.

"I know," I emptily replied.

The count stilled for a second as if he wasn't expecting that answer. Then, he nodded down at my old sketches. "These are quite good," the count muttered, flipping the page. "Have you named them?"

"Yep." I huffed. "Can you put the book down now-"

"Ah yes, it's written in here. This one is named Inky....?" The count laughed, showing me one of my sketches of a random character I came up with earlier that day and smiling. His smile looked different than usual, I noted. Not that I cared. I was too busy feeling humiliated.

I frowned, seeing the name and information about each character I had added to the pages all that time ago.

"Inky the demon..." I muttered.

"Is he a demon?" The count questioned, turning the book around and looking at the drawings once again.

"Yes. Can't you see his horns?"

"Those are horns?"

"Yes." 

The Count shrugged with a small chuckle. "I just thought he had an oddly shaped head."

I frowned, then suddenly felt the need to grab that book and get it as far away from him as possible.

But, I didn't move. I COULDN'T move, no matter how much I wanted to.

"Is this one a demon as well?" The count asked, pointing to the sketch on the next page.

"That's Angel," I huffed.

"Lovely name. She's very beautiful. Ooh, and this bunny over here is wearing a tophat-"

"That's Brooks the wolf. Now, Count, as fun as this is, I've gotta ask, what are you doing?" I questioned.

He looked at me, then the emotion from his eyes slowly began to seep away, making him look more like himself.

"Ah. My apologies, breathed Count Bleck," he sighed. "I was simply... looking for a distraction."

A distraction? Is that what he was looking for?

Or was he looking for an idea?

The count closed my sketchbook, then handed it to me, bowing his head slightly.

"Count Bleck thanks you for distracting him, even if it was brief. He must now return to his work."

He smiled a slightly sad smile at me, then turned away, walking to my door, but pausing in the doorway.

"Um, Count?" I asked, when he held up a hand, cutting me off.

"I know, I know. You have questions..." He muttered, turning to face me once again. 

I frowned, noting how he kept going back and forth from speaking third person to first person. "How do you know?" I asked.

"You always do." The count breathed. "The only important question is this: Who are we, Mr. L?"

"What?"

He chuckled and shook his head.

"I thought I knew who I was. But... the grief starved me until there was nothing left but fear and desperation. In the end, we followed two different roads. Me, my road led me to this crooked empire. And my road burned. I let our creations-"

"My creations," I interrupted. 

He paused, then nodded.

"I let YOUR creations become my life." He explained.

I was confused.

So was everything that happened real or not? What even WAS reality anymore?

He briefly smiled at me, sending shivers down my spine.

"The truth is, Luigi, you were always so good at pushing. Pushing people to do the right thing."

Luigi? Since when did HE call me Luigi?!

"But..." he continued. "You should have pushed a little harder..."

He shook his head, then gestured out the door, smiling.

"Mr. L, it seems now like a lifetime since we've worked together. Time really tends to slip through our fingers like grains of sand, doesn't it? Since you're around, why don't you come visit the old castle? There's something I need to show you."

Then, he stepped away, vanishing from my sight.

I frowned, then stepped through the doorway.

...

In front of me, nothing but hallways. Long, dark hallways.

....If you asked me, I wouldn't have been able to tell you where I was a second ago. What was even weirder to me was the fact that I didn't really care about where I just came from.

I stepped forward. Next to a few posters were big, bold black letters that said Dreams Come True.

I frowned at the message, then looked down at the flashlight in my hand, flicking on the dark light device.

On the wall in front of me, written in invisible ink, was the phrase:

Welcome Back

"Alright, Count. I'm here," I breathed.