The next morning, I headed to Ren's tower to check on him. He wasn't there, so I checked the Fairy Fort, where he and his allies were in the middle of a meeting. They were discussing a name for their alliance.

"The people down south have got Southlanders, there's Team B.E.S.T, there's the Scottage, what's our name?" Cleo was saying.

"What if we're the Castle Alliance?" Bigb suggested.

"Or the Forest Fairies?" Lizzy suggested hopefully.

"I wanna be a Forest Fairy!" Ren said, which brought to mind images of him with butterfly wings and a magical wand. I giggled.

"Ooh, we're the Forest Fairy Castle Alliance!" Cleo said. Big brain, Cleo. Wow.

They all agreed to call it the Castle Alliance for short.

Lightning cracked the sky, signaling the selection of another Boogeyman.

They went to their separate homes to avoid the possibility of one of them being the Boogeyman and killing someone else in the Castle Alliance.

3...

2...

1...

Oh, no.

Ren had the Glow. He gasped in fear and choked, "no..."

I hurried to check on the rest of the alliance. Cleo and Lizzy were safe. Bigb was not.

That was two people in the Castle Alliance who were Boogeymen. This would not end well.

When I went to them, the Southlanders were talking in relieved voices about how none of them were Boogeymen. Thankfully, it was true. None of them had the Glow.

They all went separate ways to work on separate things. Grian stayed to strengthen the wall. Jimmy went to mine copper. Martyn went to spy on Team B.E.S.T. for some reason. Impulse and Mumbo went to make a ghast farm so they could make end crystals.

Wait, hadn't Impulse and Mumbo been the two names that I managed to read off of Pix's list? If Pix really was traveling between Realms, and there really was an end crystal war in Hermitcraft, then Mumbo and Impulse really had something going on with end crystals.

I went back to Ren's new tower after that. He was headed to the Fairy Fort, probably to talk to Lizzy.

Lizzy would not let him in for a minute. "Are you the Boogeyman?"

"No," Ren lied.

"Are you sure?" Lizzy said, narrowing her eyes.

"No," Ren said, hanging his head.

Lizzy put a comforting hand on his shoulder and promised not to tell the other members of the Castle Alliance unless he decided to.

Ren went back to his tower and started digging a huge hole in the ground under his tower, probably for a trap.

I wandered around nearby, making sure that no one was there to see that Ren was planning to kill someone. When he covered his hole with wood and headed over the river and through the woods to the Fairy Fort, I assumed that Lizzy had called a meeting.

"Okay, is anyone the Boogeyman?" Bigb said once the whole Alliance was there.

You, I thought.

"Nope," said Cleo

"No," said Lizzy.

They all looked at Ren.

Ren hung his head. "Yes."

Cleo and Bigb backed up, panicking.

"But I promise, I'm not going to kill anyone in this alliance," Ren swore.

Cleo and Bigb relaxed a little.

The rest of the meeting was spent in the tunnels and Nether wart farm, discussing what they would do if the farm was discovered. Then they went back up to the surface to do their various tasks for the day: mining, building, setting defensive traps.

Ren went back to his tower to finish his hole in the ground. He dug so deep that from where he was, the top of the hole was a small square the size of my ghostly thumb.

Ren then realized he hadn't made a way back up. So he grabbed his pickaxe and started digging a way up out of the wall of the pit. It took an hour and a broken pickaxe before he was out. Then, he repaired the floor and put a TNT minecart under it, and set it to blow at the press of a button.

After that, he started to work on a wall that surrounded the tower, enclosing it in a safe courtyard.

While he built that, I went to check on the Southlanders. Grian was still working on covering the flammable wooden wall with cobblestone. Mumbo and Impulse were gathering materials for the ghast farm. Jimmy was attempting to sell a spyglass to Joel, which would probably get him killed since Joel was red. Martyn was nowhere to be found.

I went back to Ren, because I didn't want to miss the Boogey Kill. I wanted to see if the trap worked, even though part of me would rather Ren fail and go to red than possibly destroy an alliance.

Nobody stopped by except for Joel once, and Ren didn't think that it would count to kill him. So he didn't tell him about the trap or the Boogey Curse. Joel, claiming that he had another target, left Ren alone. I wondered who that target was, desperately hoping it wasn't any of the Castle Alliance or Southlanders. But the two groups made up such a large portion of the Last Life population that the probability was high. Also, the Southlanders had been responsible for one of his deaths.

I knew Ren was going to take his chance when Skiz came, though.

Skizzle, one of his most loyal subjects back in Third Life. Skiz, who only a week ago had told Ren that the part-canine had his respect.

"Can I come in?" Skiz asked from outside the wall.

"Yeah, I guess so," Ren replied. He sounded reluctant to let Skiz inside, but I have said many times that he's a great actor. I was pretty sure that the only reason he hadn't been able to fool Lizzy was because part of him wanted her to know he was the Boogeyman.

Ren gave Skiz a quick tour of the courtyard, then invited him inside the tower. Skiz accepted without hesitation.

"It's not much, kind of private around here, but yeah..." It seemed to happen in slow motion as Ren backed up and hit the button.

The TNT exploded instantly, blowing a hole in the floor under Skiz's feet. Ren covered his head with his arm to protect it from the debris as he dove to solid ground. Skiz yelled and grasped for the edge, but he already had too much momentum and his fingers slipped.

His screams ended soon after.

Skizzle Man fell from a high place

Ren stared down into the pit for a while. The red Glow faded. A single tear ran down his face and dropped into the hole as he felt the guilt that came with being cured.

Ren went down his staircase to the bottom of the hole and gathered Skiz's things. He brought them back to the top, and by the time he was at the surface again, Skiz had returned. Bigb also arrived, and I hoped that he wasn't planning to kill Skiz as well. The guy had already been through a lot.

"I'm really sorry," Ren said.

"Well, I said that I had nothing but respect for you before," Skiz said angrily. "That changed."

Then he grinned. "Now I have double the respect. Chef's kiss dude, that was awesome!"

He turned to Bigb. "Let me tell you something about this genius jerkface here: I walked right into it. I asked to be let inside, and Ren was just like, 'come on in!'"

The three of them laughed. Ren gave Skiz's weapons, tools, and armor back. Then Skiz left.

I was immensely relieved that Skiz had forgiven Ren. If he hadn't, then Ren would have made an enemy. And enemies were bad, they tended to kill people I was friends with. Or, had been friends with in Third Life.

Lizzy suddenly ran into the courtyard. "What's going on?"

"I'm cured!" Ren cheered. Bigb nodded in agreement, but his smile didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Did you kill Skiz?" Lizzy asked.

"Yes, and he told me that Team B.E.S.T and the Castle Alliance are still on neutral terms," Ren confirmed.

Lizzy sighed with relief. "Good," she said. "We can't afford to have them as our enemies."

To me, Team B.E.S.T. was just a group of people who got angry too easily, liked trees too much, and wouldn't mind their own business. The only one in that alliance that was worth worrying about was Etho. And Third Life had proven that he could and would be killed. But if Lizzy thought they were no one to be trifled with, well, her word was law to Ren.

When Lizzy went home and Ren started to work on the wall again, I headed to the Southlands.

Grian was climbing an incredibly tall ladder to a Nether portal. He didn't notice Mumbo on a nearby hill, trying to wave him down and tell him to stop.

After reaching the top, Grian finally noticed Mumbo, sighed in frustration, and started climbing down the ladder back into the Southlands.

Mumbo apparently had entered the Nether through that portal, but when he left he ended up in a portal outside of the Southlands. He waved Grian over to the new portal and led him into the Nether.

I didn't know why Grian and Mumbo were going to the Nether. I assumed it was something to do with the ghast farm that Mumbo and Impulse had planned to build, but why was Grian involved now? I knew from experience that Grian and anything explosive did not mix very well. Heck, that combination had killed me. If Mumbo was from Hermitcraft like Grian was, then surely he knew that.

They climbed a short ladder to the bedrock at the top of the Nether. Then they used Ender pearls to teleport to the roof of the Nether, a flat expanse of bedrock with nothing but mushrooms as far as the eye could see.

I had never been up here, in any world. It was weird.

Mumbo and Grian built a portal at the top and made sure it connected to the one back in the Overworld. It did, conveniently. Grian and Mumbo pillared dangerously high above the roof of the Nether and started construction on the ghast farm.

They bridged over about 20 blocks from the top of the pillar. While Mumbo bridged, Grian made railings to prevent them from falling while traveling in between the pillar and ghast farm.

"Is this a bad time to say that I'm the other Boogeyman?" Grian said, looking up slowly to seem mysterious. He wasn't actually the Boogeyman, of course.

Mumbo looked up as well and stared at Grian. After a long silence, he looked down and said, "It's a terrible time, Grian."

Grian burst out laughing. Mumbo, realizing that he was joking, laughed as well.

"We're not Boogeymen, but guess what we are?" Mumbo chuckled.

"We're BOOGEYmen!" Grian cried, and danced back and forth across the narrow bridge.

I was pretty sure I had missed something. But I laughed just as hard as I would have if I had gotten the joke. I had never seen Grian dance before, and I had to admit it looked pretty ridiculous.

They continued bridging until Mumbo decided they needed to expand out to make the actual farm. It was taking a while, so I popped out real quick to the Fairy Fort Tower.

What I saw was not what I expected.

Ren was not home, but Bigb and Cleo were nearby, on the banks of the river that curled around the tower in a natural moat and turned back toward Spawn. They were just walking and talking, on some unknown mission. Cleo hurried ahead, toward the side door into the courtyard.

Bigb's Glow intensified. He ran up the stairs, pulling out his sword, and slashed it through his closest ally.

Cleo barely had time to scream.

Cleo Zombie was slain by Bigb Statz

Bigb's Glow disappeared. He put his head in his hands, ashamed at what he had just done.

I had seen some pretty big betrayals in Third Life. But even Tango killing Impulse and Cleo killing me were nothing compared to what I had just witnessed. Sure, I didn't like Cleo, but from what I had learned about Bigb, he didn't seem to be the betrayal type. Maybe the Boogeyman curse was like being red, but worse: a ruthless urge to kill and not hold back until the curse was gone.

I decided right there that I would end this, one way or another.

I wouldn't if I were you, the sinister voice of Watcher Two said in my head. This is not your battle.

So I didn't. I don't know why I listened to her.

I hurried back to the Southlander ghast farm. I didn't want to see Cleo's reaction when she came to get her items back.

What Mumbo and Grian were doing wasn't much better, though.

"-Two other Boogeyman up here," Grian was saying. They burst out laughing and dancing - boogying.

The Boogeyman wasn't a topic to be joked about. If either of them received the curse, they would know why.

After the chuckling died down, they went to work on different parts of the farm. Grian built out a meter-wide bridge while Mumbo filled in the gap he left.

Then, disaster struck.

"Grian! Joel's here!" Mumbo cried in alarm.

Grian snorted in disbelief, assuming Mumbo was joking.

He wasn't. Joel had somehow climbed the ladder unnoticed and stood at the end of the bridge, aiming his bow... straight at Grian.

Ren's Boogey kill had seemed to pass in slow motion. This happened too fast to process.

Joel released the bowstring, Mumbo cried out and instinctively reached for Grian, even though he was like 30 meters away. The arrow flew through the hot, smelly Nether air and just as Grian turned around to see why Mumbo was yelling, the arrow pierced his stomach and the force pushed him off of the ghast farm. His screams died soon after he disappeared off the ledge.

Grian Buildoff fell from a high place

Mumbo screamed, "GRIAN!" and ran to the edge, leaving Joel laughing behind him. He turned around. "Are you going to kill me, too?"

"Nah, I don't think so. Goodbye, Mumbo," Joel said. Then he started climbing down the ladder, leaving Mumbo confused and afraid at the top of the ghast farm.

I didn't think Joel was capable of this kind of thing. He was usually the kind of person who acted mean but was actually really nice. Only people who knew him really well knew that. Lizzie saw his good side. So did I... sometimes. So did most of the other Emperors. But being red brought out the worst in people, and Joel was not immune.

It occured to me that maybe he hadn't killed Ren because he knew Lizzie and knew she would come after him, wife or not. That was kind of a hilarious mental image, but the gravity of the situation was a little too strong.

Mumbo stayed there for a minute, petrified. Then responsibility for his fellow Southlander took hold and he went down the ladder to gather Grian's stuff. He left it in a box at the base of the pillar with a note saying, here's your stuff, please don't hurt me.

It was probably one of the saddest things I had ever seen.

I found Grian headed to Magical Mountain, where Joel was still living. But he didn't go to Joel's house. Instead, he climbed the mountain itself to the dirt hut inhabited by Scar.

Once at the summit, Grian trampled crops, dug through chests, and stole items. Scar came out of his house with Tango in tow. I didn't know why Tango was there, but I didn't really care. I wanted to know why Grian was there.

"Nooo stop stealing my stuff!" Scar complained.

"Why should I? Give me a life and then maybe."

"If I give you a life, you have to give me a full alliance or a furry friend - preferably one I can ride."

"You know what? I'll give you that on pre-order. I'll see you later, Scar." He headed down the mountain.

As he passed the cave that had contained the pit trap when Joel was the Boogeyman, Joel himself came out of his cute little house that did not fit his red name status and said, "Hi, Grian. You wanna be friends?"

Grian stared. "You just killed me," he said slowly, "and now you want to be allies?"

Joel grinned. "Yeah."

Grian laughed. "Why not?"

That was just messed up.

Grian was about to leave when the Southlanders turned up. Or rather, Jimmy, Martyn, and Impulse did. Mumbo was still gone, probably still working on the ghast farm. And sulking.

"Grian, we have come to inform you that..." Martyn started.

"I'm being exiled, aren't I?" Grian said flatly.

"Yeah..."

"After all I did for it, too!"

"Thanks for founding the Southlands and then dying," Jimmy added unhelpfully.

Grian chucked sadly.

"We have a gift," Martyn said. He held out a single spyglass. "It's a reminder of good times in the Southlands. It's a shame we have to PA-HART ways like this."

Grian wheezed with laughter as he took the spyglass. Then the Southlanders left the two reds alone.

After the talk with Joel, Grian went back to the site of his death to collect his things.

Mumbo had finished the ghast farm when Grian came up the ladder. He had no weapons in his hands to tell Mumbo he had nothing to worry about.

There was an awkward silence.

"We can't be friends anymore, Mumbo."

Mumbo's shoulders slumped. "I know."

"Actually... there is a way..."

Mumbo shifted uncomfortably and stepped backward. "What's that?"

He knew what was coming. Unfortunately, so did I.

Grian pulled his pickaxe off his belt and examined it. Then he looked up at his old friend with crimson eyes. "You could join me."

He swung his pickaxe into the bridge in between him and Mumbo. Mumbo scrambled backward in fright.

"We can still be friends, Mumbo!" Grian pleaded, jumping the gap and trying to break the cobblestone underneath the redstoner.

This had to stop. Sure, Grian had been killed unfairly, but that didn't mean he had to go harassing the people who he had been friends with.

Even though I was a ghost and part of me knew it wouldn't work, I hollered, "STOP IT!"

Surprisingly, he did.

Mumbo yelled, pulled out his sword, and pointed it around in defense. It looked rather ridiculous. "Who's there?"

Wait... they had heard me?

Grian looked around, confused. He checked the ladder behind him. Seeing no one, he squinted, trying to see the particles of an invisibility potion.

If they had heard me this time, then I might as well try again. I echoed what Grian had said to me months ago, in Third Life. "Just because your name is red doesn't mean your thoughts have to be too."

His eyes widened. "BLUE? Where are you?"

Mumbo stared at Grian, name colors forgotten. "Do you know this... magical invisible being?"

"Y-yeah," Grian said. "She was in Third Life but I haven't seen her in Last Life yet."

I tried to say, "Yeah, of course not, because I've actually been a ghost from the beginning," but they showed no sign of hearing. I assumed that that little burst of power had only lasted long enough to get my message across, then it went away.

Both of them seemed bothered by the random voice that had come out of nowhere. But they listened to it, and Grian left without much explanation to Mumbo. The poor mustached man was left at the top of the ghast farm, surrounded by cracks in the bridge, trying to process what the heck had just happened.

I followed the newest red name out of the Nether and back to Magical Mountain.

"About the whole 'allies' thing?" he said to Joel. "I think I'll do better on my own." His statement wasn't true (allies were always best), but I was pretty sure that I had managed to make him not side with the most destructive person on the map.

Joel pouted. "But that makes us enemies! And also I need someone to help me blow up the Scottage!"

He was referring to Scott and Pearl's cottage in between Magical Mountain and Etho and Bdubs' snow castle.

"We don't have to be enemies," Grian said. "Neutral. Not allies, not enemies."

Joel sighed. "Fine"

I thought he was being overdramatic.

Grian left Magical Mountain to find a way to live on his own.

But just as he did, he pulled out his phone. Apparently it had vibrated.

I cleaned in closer to see what the message was.

Cleo Zombie blew up

Cleo was red. Joel had a new ally after all. And not only would they be after Scott and Pearl, but Bigb as well.

Grian grinned and typed, My trap worked!

Joel responded. NO, IT WAS MY TRAP!

It was probably Joel's trap. I had been with Grian almost the whole time he was red. He hadn't set any traps.

I left Grian to check on the Castle Alliance. I found Ren at his tower, talking to someone with a hood. They were still exchanging pleasantries, so I assumed that the stranger had just barely arrived. I went down to their level to see who it was.

It was Martyn.

It turned out that he was scared that the Southlands was falling apart. Jimmy and Mumbo were both yellow and Grian was red. He didn't say anything about Impulse. If he still had Impulse, why was he scared? Even if the alliance fell apart, he would still have an ally.

My first thought was that he wanted the Red King to return. But if my theory was correct and they could remember memories but not the emotions associated with those memories, then he would feel completely neutral about everything that had happened during Third Life. And he knew that the Red King wasn't Ren. He had watched the Watcher take over and then watched Ren fight him. He knew it wasn't Ren... right?

But no, he just wanted an alliance. He didn't say anything about Third Life or the Red Army.

They agreed to meet again in a few days, where Ren would introduce him to the rest of the Forest Fairy Castle Alliance.

Martyn went back to the Southlands, where the others were just getting ready to go to bed. He joined them, but didn't tell them about his meeting with Ren.

After they had fallen silent, I was just about to leave when their communication devices all buzzed at once. I went to Impulse's phone to see what was going on.

Bdubs Onehundred fell from a high place

Bdubs was red. There had been three new red names in the past few days. Joel either had new allies to fight with him, enemies that could fight back, or somewhere in between. Either way, it was bad for the green and yellow names. Any loners - thankfully, I didn't think there were any - were in big trouble.

I didn't understand why Martyn was trying to make secret alliances if he already had a perfectly good one right here. But I had a feeling that Martyn was not acting on his own. The voice in the sky from a few days ago had proven that. Someone was helping him and advising him to make these decisions - and I didn't think it was one of the good guys.