It was nothingness, Gunnar had been right about that. The darkness beyond the bars had swallowed her whole, but it felt no worse than falling into her bed after a long day and drifting into a dreamless sleep.

No. She tried to pull herself up, but her head felt heavy, drooping down. It had been so stressful, out there in the world where everyone hated her. Loud. Painful. In here, it was peaceful. Calm. Her arms weakened then gave out and she dropped down into the darkness again. She let herself sink into the quiet dark...

This isn't what Penelope hoped the afterlife would be. There were so many options, all hotly debated, and for it to be this? She would've been disappointed if she could muster the urge to care. A hundred thousand different arguments of what it'd be like in the so-called 'beyond' flitted through her emptying head. A final judgement, or a final choice, or ascending to a higher plane, or moving onto the next life, or—the worst of all, in Penelope's opinion—just nothing... A void, like this.

Now that she was in it, however, it didn't seem so bad.

Penelope had never been sure on what she wanted it to be. She never had a clear idea of what exactly her idea of eternal paradise looked like. But whenever she did imagine it, there were no winged beings or fluffy clouds, no harp music or golden sunlight... There had just been a person. The one person she wanted to see again more than anything...

She hoped that, at the end of it all, she might get to see her mom again.

Maybe she would. Maybe this was some in between step while her brain finished shutting down. Then, maybe, she'd see her again...

She could almost feel her mother's arms wrap around her... She could feel her fingers curling around her wrist, pulling her through the darkness to the other side...

The grip on her wrist tightened sharply.

Pain shot through her arm and she was yanked from the verge of sleep. She was still in the void, but no longer drifting. She was anchored by the hand holding her wrist. She couldn't see it in the darkness, but she could feel that its long, slender fingers were thin and bony. Something about them seemed familiar...

...In the shadows was a hand. It was splayed out against the floor, the attached wrist disappearing into the darkness. Even in the dark, Penelope could tell the hand was thin and pale...

All at once she remembered where she was, and what she needed to do.

The hand on her wrist loosened but didn't let go. Instead it seemed to guide her, leading her through the dark... She hit something. She felt out, trying to understand what it was. It stood upright, its surface jagged and rough and sharp, like a thorny branch.

In her ear, a croaking voice. "PULL."

She did.

It was not an easy task. It was like trying to pull a nail out of wood with your bare hands, but she didn't stop. Then, all at once, it slipped free, sending her reeling. Only the hand at her wrist caught her.

All around her, the darkness began to bristle. Another hand found her other wrist, both of them tightening their grip... And then, in one sudden and violent movement, she felt herself yanked upwards. There was a roar, like thunder, and she felt cool, fresh air wash over her.

She was in the sky, suspended above the trees. Then just as suddenly as she had risen, the hands let go and she began to fall. As she looked up, all she saw was a large dark shape against the moon, so dark that even the bright moonlight couldn't touch it.

Why'd they call it The Raven? Penelope wondered as she fell towards the forest canopy. It doesn't even look like a bird...

But then the trees closed in and it was lost.

Once she was through the canopy she went down fast, sailing past the braided trees, their branches whipping at her as she went... She wanted to scream but she couldn't remember how.

As the ground rushed up to meet her, she squeezed her eyes shut. She braced herself for the hit, but... none came. She peeked one eye open and found herself hovering, horizontal, several feet over the ground.

She blinked. "What—?"

And then she dropped again.

Her back hit hard earth and all the air in her lungs was knocked right out of her. She rolled over, gasping for breath as spots as bright as the moon filled her eyes.

When she was able to take her first real breath, she rolled over to her knees and sat up. As the spots cleared from her eyes, she realised she was still holding something in her hand. The thing The Raven told her to pull out, like a thorn out of a lion's paw...

She looked down at it.

It wasn't metal, or wood...

It was bone.

Strange, angular symbols were carved up and down its sides. It still had one of its usual knobby ends, but the other was sharpened to a point and bloodied. It was big enough to be from a deer, or moose, or even a hu—

She gave a cry and dropped it.

Glancing around, she tried to make sense of where she was and what had happened. A fog had settled in, snaking between the braided trees, making it harder to understand her surroundings. She spotted the old Christensen house behind her, but...

Where was the bunkhouse?

She pulled herself up to her feet, bracing herself against a braided tree. It had gouges in it and little pieces of wood and metal stuck in its bark. What the hell happened here? As she looked around, she realised was surrounded by scattered debris: scraps of wood, bent pieces of pipe, sharp peels of sheet metal. A hundred little pieces of nothing.

This wasn't fog... It was dust.

Penelope stumbled forward, her legs feeling a little weak. She walked through the dust cloud, weaving around the bits of debris, until she found it.

Where the bunkhouse had once been, now there was only a crater. It wasn't a true crater, more like half the house had been blown apart and whatever was left had fallen in on itself, into the cellar...

Did it explode or something when The Raven...? Penelope wondered, staring at the destruction in awe. She turned her eyes to the sky. Does that mean I managed to do it? She searched for a sign of it, but only the moon stared back at her through the leaves.

"PENELOPE!" Liam's voice echoed through the forest. "PENELOPE, WHERE ARE YOU?"

"H-Here," she tried to call back, but it only came out as a croak. She cleared her throat and tried again. "HERE!"

Soon, Liam appeared, running through the dust. He was covered in it, his dark hair and skin now coated in grey. "Penelope!" he cried at the sight of her. He ran at her and threw his arms around her neck. "Penelope, thank god! Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"No, no, I'm fine, I'm fine," she gasped through the tight grip of his arms. "W-What happened?"

He pulled back, his eyes widening as he held her at arms length. "I was going to ask you the same thing. What the hell happened down there? We had barely gotten out when suddenly—" he closed his eyes then flicked them open again, "—boom! Shit went flying everywhere."

"Really?" Penelope said as her eyes widened. She remembered a kind of boom, like thunder, but deep in the darkness, she had been so removed from it. "A-Are you okay? Henry? The others?"

"Yeah, yeah, we're all fine. It wasn't like it blew out, y'know, more like... up? So we just only had to dodge debris as it rained down, but the trees broke most of its fall." He motioned to the braided trees around them. Many of them had been impaled with bits of the destruction, though one or two had fallen or been split in half.

"I thought for sure that you were a goner..." Liam sighed and pulled her close again. "Since you were still inside."

"I wasn't," Penelope said. She suddenly felt tired, so she let herself lean into him. He was a little dusty, but he was also warm. She could feel his heartbeat begin to slow as she pressed her cheek against his throat.

"What the hell did you do?" Liam asked and she could feel his voice rumble through his neck. "Where's The Raven?"

"It doesn't matter," she mumbled, her mouth against his shoulder, her eyes sliding closed. "Not right now." She'd tell him later, when they were far away from here...

"What happened to Gunnar?"

Her eyes fluttered open and she frowned. She didn't want to be thinking of Gunnar right now. But if he had been in the bunkhouse when it exploded, then... She closed her eyes again. "Dead, I hope—"

"YOU STUPID BITCH!"

Penelope's eyes snapped open just in time to see Gunnar charging at them. He had his axe in his hands, raised high over his head.

She had just enough time to shove Liam out of the way before the axe came down between them, burying itself into a broken tree.

"You set it free?!" he snarled, pulling the axe free again, scattering bits of bark and wood. "After what I told you what would happen?" He lunged at her again.

Penelope screamed and then turned and ran back into the dust cloud.

"PENELOPE!" Liam called after her.

Gunnar paid him no mind. He raced after her, screaming. "The town is going to be destroyed because of you!"

"You were going to kill me!" Penelope cried, stumbling through the debris. The dust cloud made it hard for her to see where she was going, or what was in her way. "What was I supposed to do?!"

"You should've died like a good little girl!" he shot back. "Because now thousands of people are doomed!"

Penelope didn't have a good answer for that. Maybe they were doomed—she wasn't sure what The Raven was going to do now that it was free. But that didn't mean she was just going to let her friends die—

Her foot caught on something and she went sprawling. The debris, bits of wood and metal scattered around the forest floor, dug into her palms and knees. She looked back. She had tripped on one of the fallen braided trees, its splintered, jagged stump just inches away. If she had fallen a little differently, she could've gone face-first into it...

With a keening whistle, the axe flew out of the dust and embedded itself into the stump.

"Oh, we're throwing axes now?" Penelope muttered to herself. But she wasn't going to pass up a weapon when she needed it. She reached forward to take it—

But Gunnar was quicker. He appeared out of the dust and snatched the axe for himself.

"Why?" he asked, his eyes wide and desperate as he stared at her on the ground. "Why would you let it go?"

"I-It wanted to be free!" Penelope sputtered.

"It?" he spat. "I don't give a fuck what it wanted." He readied his axe...

Penelope clambered back, clawing her way through the debris, trying to find her footing to get up and get away. But Gunnar slammed his foot onto her stomach, pinning her down.

"It doesn't matter," Gunnar growled, glaring down at her. "If I make a proper sacrifice, I can still bring it back..." He raised his axe again.

Penelope closed her eyes, raising her hands to protect herself—

A shadow passed over the moon and the forest went dark. The darkness quickly grew deeper... closer. Gunnar cried out and Penelope opened her eyes—

The Raven had returned, its void-like form looming over them. Now that she got a better look at it, she understood its name. it was bird-like, in a way, with massive wings, their span larger than her dad's truck was long. Only it seemed to be missing a head and in place of legs it had those two long human-like arms... And the hands were now wrapped around Gunnar's neck.

Gunnar gagged, clawing at the hands as the thing pulled him skyward. It beat its massive wings and took flight, pulling Gunnar with it as it sailed through the forest and out of sight.

Penelope just laid there, in shock. It took her a moment before she remembered to breathe again.

Liam appeared again, staggering through the debris towards her. "Penelope!" he said, rushing forward again. As he reached her, he turned to look upwards, to the sky. "What the hell was that? Was that The Raven?"

"I guess so," was all Penelope said.

"So, what, it's just... free now?"

Penelope only nodded. She didn't want to get into that right now.

Liam offered her his hand to help her up. "Do you think what Gunnar said was true?" he asked. "That it's going to curse the town now that it's free?"

"I... I don't know," Penelope said, gladly taking his hand. Her legs were still shaky.

As he pulled her to her feet, Penelope glanced up, towards the tops of the trees. The moonlight was unobstructed, the sky clear, no sign of the creature that had saved her...

Something told her that they wouldn't need to worry.

It had kept its word.

She had helped it.

It had helped her.

She guessed what they said was true—ravens remember.