The orange flames cracked and burned, casting shadows on the dark walls around the old, rotting rabbit knelt before the fire.

Her dark, soulless eye sockets stared intently at the fire, ears perked up, waiting.

The door swung open, and Sammy stepped through it. He was dressed in new, beige cargo pants, complete with a Bad Girl Coven hoodie. He carried a tray of pancakes, water, and some cotton balls.

"You're gonna dry out your brain." He said, setting the tray on the ground and sitting down next to Scrap. "How long have you been here?"

"Two hours." Scrap answered.

"Alright, look at me." He grabbed the side of his face, turning Scrap's head in his direction.

Sammy picked up a cotton ball, soaking it with water and dabbing it inside her eye socket. "What did you think about Labyrinth Runners?"

"I'm glad Gus got some development." Scrap cringed, swatting Sammy's hand away.

"Shit, did I touch a nerve?" Sammy asked. "Sorry, bud."

"No worries, Samalyn." Scrap replied. "Anyway, I really liked how we got to see a new coven head in this episode.

"My man Adrian got beat by a twelve year old." Sammy laughed. He soaked the cotton ball in more water, wiping around the bony rim. "I'm just happy Hunter's ok."

"Did you see the books he had?" Scrap said, tapping his fingers on his thigh excitedly. "He was reading about grimwalkers!"

"Which means grimwalkers were well known enough to be written about. Do you think anyone knew about the Golden Guards?"

"Maybe. I think that Belos didn't invent grimwalkers, that he just perfected an existing recipe."

"Recipe. You make it sound like Hunter's a soup."

"Well, he is. You got the meat, the seasoning, the veggies, some liquid-"

"You did not just call a galderstone a seasoning."

"I bet if you ground a galderstone up, it'll be like magic sugar."

"That's just cocaine."

"Your mom is cocaine."

"That isn't even clever."

Sammy sat in silence, moistening Scrap's eyes with his cotton ball. Once his cotton ball was soaked with blood, he tossed the cotton ball in the fire.

"See, you big baby?" He teased, punching her in the shoulder. "It doesn't hurt that much."

"You hit a nerve on purpose." Scrap frowned.

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not!"

"Liar liar, ink on fire!"

"La la la la la, I'm not listening!"

Scrap tackled Sammy, swinging at him. Sammy shoved his face away, giggling.

"Get off me, corpse breath!" Sammy yelled.

Scrap responded by exhaling right in his face.

"Ewwwww!" He shrieked, kicking him off.

Scrap laughed, then stopped. His ears slicked back against his skull, turning towards the fire.

"Aww, widdle old Lily lost." Sammy taunted before glancing at the fire.

The flames had gone black.

Venus, Mars! The fire crackled. The end is near!

Three lights, one yellow, one teal, one magenta, shown through the black flames. Gather the three talismans and call upon the Goddess of Destruction! You have one month before the world tears itself apart! SUMMON HER!

The flames turned a bright purple, rising up until they touched the ceiling.

Sammy screamed, grabbing his glass of water and dumping it on the fire.

The coals hissed, going out without another sound.

"You heard that too?" Scrap gasped.

"Shit, dude, of course I did." Sammy panted.

"You weren't supposed to." She pointed out.

They sat in silence for a heartbeat.

"What do we do now?" Sammy asked.

"Tell the others, of course," he said. "They're gonna want to know."

Sammy grabbed her hand, pulling the two of them up. They fumbled for the door, practically tearing it open.

"Lefty!" Sammy screamed. "Molten!"

"Molten is sleeping." Lefty called back. "Keep it down."

Sammy hurried to the party room, dragging Scrap with him. "Lefty, we gotta talk."

"Samalyn, I could handle myself." Scrap felt for a chair, pulling it out and sitting down

"So, Lefty." Sammy faked a big smile, sitting across from her. Molten was curled up under their blanket, sound asleep.

"We've got bad news." Scrap added. "Can you wake Molten up?"

Lefty groaned, stroking Molten's nose three times. The bear blinked, lifting their head up.

"Good morning, little guy." Sammy smiled at them. "So, uh, the bad news is the world is ending."

"Samalyn!" Scrap snapped.

Yikes. They didn't mean to be so blunt about it.

"Anyway, we've got four weeks left." Scrap quickly commented.

"Oh, is that when the season finale airs?" Lefty quirked her eyebrow.

"Can I watch it with you guys?" Molten pleaded, putting on their best puppy eyes.

The pit of his stomach fell. Damn, they had forgotten about that. People online were talking about their theories for the finale endlessly, from the Collector possessing Luz to King getting killed by Belos.

"About that..." Sammy tapped their fingers together. "Um, there's not going to be a world where we can watch it."

Molten's jaw fell open.

"The world as we know it is ending." Scrap said.

"Can we stop it?" Lefty's eyes widened.

Sammy and Scrap exchanged a look.

"There is." Sammy said. "Scrap's fire said that for the world to end, we must gather the three talismans to summon the Goddess of Destruction."

"So if we prevent these talismans from coming together..." she nodded thoughtfully.

"Then I can watch The Owl House with you guys!" Molten squealed. "Oh, you guys are the best!"

"I thought I was?" Lefty frowned.

"All of you are!" They teared up, hugging Lefty. "I love you guys to itty bitty bits!"

"Love you too, little guy." Sammy pushed out his chair. "Guys, keep an eye out for anything suspicious. We don't know what's going to happen."

"I'm on it!" Molten saluted him.

He smiled, then left the room.

Rain thundered overhead, interrupted by flashes of lightning.

The cloaked figure shuddered, glancing up at the sky. He sobbed, ducking into an alleyway.

He tore off his cloak, revealing himself as a metal, purple and white bear, rusted and dull.

He sat down underneath the alley overhand, drawing his knees up to his chest.

This was the end of the line.

He remembered everything; the guillotine blade, the escape, coming here...

Millie Fitzsimmons was dead. She was gone, and now she was stuck as Funtime Freddy.

He rested his arms on his knees, cradling his face in his hand.

His other hand was just a mess of wires.

He sobbed, burying his face in his arms. He was going to decompose out here, alone, uncared for, unloved.

Living didn't seem so bad now, in retrospect.

There was a small creaking sound, but he ignored it. Nothing mattered now.

"This ain't my fucking pizzeria, take your own shit out!" A voice yelled, followed by the clattering of cans.

"Those are your soda cans!" A smaller, gruff voice yelled back.

"I'll drop kick your tiny ass to Mars!" The other voice replied. Something thudded open, and the cans rattled again.

"Your mom is gay!" The gruff voice called.

"You're gay!"

"Samalyn, I'm bi, there's a difference!"

The one with the cans, Samalyn, groaned.

He lifted his head up, staring at where the voice came from.

A tall, inky man was perched there, standing by the dumpster in the back. He had on beige cargo pants and a purple hoodie, with dynamic writing on it. He had on a cartoon devil mask, splattered with ink.

His pie-cut eyes focused on him. "Scraps!" he yelled. "Scraps, come here!"

"I'm not taking the garbage out for you!" Scraps snapped at him.

"No! We've got an animatronic out here!" Samalyn came closer, making him scoot back.

"Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you." He held his inky hands up. "What's your name, big guy?"

He flinched.

He didn't have a name anymore. Millie was gone, he didn't want to be Freddy... what was the last thing he heard before his death?

Counting down.

Counting... counting...

"My name is Counter." he whispered. Counter. That actually was a nice name. Maybe... maybe he could have that, just for himself.

"Well, Counter, let's get you inside."