OKAY I KNOW I DON'T NORMALLY DO THIS

BUT PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS WHILE YOU'RE READING

https://youtu.be/OIFDRVzPsu4

it sets the absolute perfect tone for this chapter, and this book in general. Also this chapter contains feels and sadness and pain.

SO

get out some comfy blankets, put on your pjs, dim your lights, make popcorn, shine a flashlight under your bed, and get ready.

It's the second last chapter.

It's happening.

~~~

Small streams of grey blue water trickled down past the dirt, fallen autumn leaves fallen beside it and being carried across.

The small burgundy haired girl shuddered, her small but oversized black pullover not being nearly enough to keep out the cold.

The small girl was pretty young, only about 19 or so, and not very tall. Her glass were cracked and her hair had streaks of mud in it.

She hated being banished.

The small girl made her way blindly through the autumn trees, the sounds of the stream signaling her path.

All of a sudden, the girl stepped on something, and she felt her head fall to the soft wet dirt marked with light lime colored grass.

The girl spluttered as something hissed and a small white blur brushed past her. Dirt and leaves fell from her mouth.

Spitting and wiping it away, the girl looked to see what had made the disturbance.

There stood, bending and stretching all its four paws into the soft dirt, was a calico cat. Not older than a year, maybe two, it hissed.

Its fur was matted and streaked with dirt, and its eyes showed uncertainty and shock. The small almost-adult gasped.

"Hello, little guy," She said, bending down, the smell of the autumn post-rain swirling around her.

The cat tensed, his cream colored pelt sticking up around him, the sleek wind of his back and sides showing ribs.

"Oh...you okay? I have some food," The girl mumbled, albeit a little bit awkwardly, and she held out a small silver fish, its scales shining.

The calico's ears perked up and turned, and its fur lay flat once again onto its pelt. The small cat came closer, and without warning, took the fish.

The girl laughed rather abruptly, but she couldn't stop smiling as this small cat tried to drag a huge silver shining fish towards safety.

About two minutes later, the cat had almost eaten through the entire thing, and the fish had begun to turn a light teal, its bones cracking lightly.

The cat went up to the girl, ever so cautiously, and sniffed her leg. The girl and beast looked at eachother.

The girl put out her hand. The calico reeled, its cocoa and black splotches seeming to rise slightly in alarm, but it relaxed once again.

Cassie leaned down and could tell the cat was instantly a boy. The calico then sniffed her hand, and something rumbled within his belly.

A purr.

The girl smiled.

Maybe this world wouldn't be so bad after all.

~~~

"CRYSTAL!"

Crystal yelled out at the noise, and shot up. Darkness met her sight, and although she blinked a lot, it remained an abyss.

Crystal's head hurt with a fury like seawater, her hands sweaty and her heartbeat thundering. Sweat splashed against her forehead, and her eyes crossed as she tried to get her bearings.

"You okay?" A weakly concerned voice asked through the darkness: Stacy's. Crystal nodded.

A couple seconds passed and Crystal realized Stacy probably couldn't hear her, and told her she was okay.

There were scattered mumblings and moans, and Crystal rubbed the back of her head. She shivered as she felt almost dried blood.

"What happened?' Came a weak voice, clearly Boredom's.

"What is this place?" asked another voice, this time a bit more high-pitched and cowardly. Stampy's.

"I think one of Cassie's traps..."

Stacy abruptly gasped.

"Where is Cassie? Who's all here?"

"I'm here."

Stacy shook her head.

"No, we have to say our name, I have no idea, who, 'I'm,' is, okay?" Stacy asked.

An abyss suddenly seemed like an awkward obstacle.

"Crystal."

"Boredom."

"Dawson."

"Phoenix."

"Liv."

"Stacy."

"Stampy."

No one else spoke.

"I guess the others got killed somehow..." Stacy mumbled, realizing that Silver, Kyril, and Investigator had been killed off.

"Probably when we fell," Came Boredom's comic relief reassuring voice, which at the moment was more awkward.

"I can't believe they're gone...all of them..." Came Stampy's sad voice. Stacy pat his back, even though she couldn't see him.

There was an awkward silence.

"I feel gross," Crystal offered as conversation, staring around in hopes of seeing something – anything.

Stacy turned to her.

"Yeah, I don't blame you. We were killed off one-by-one, stuck in a spooky old house with no air conditioning, we all were pushed down into his abyss and out cold for about two hours, and we all feel like throwing up. Of course you would-"

Crystal's voice turned softer, and she felt her own eyes become watery and more like a stream.

"I mean..." She said sadly..

"...other than that...all of the things that we've experienced in the last few hours...our friends dying...you know..."

Stacy sighed.

"I get what you mean."

Boredom propped herself up onto her own arms, her head swarming with pain, feeling dull and heavy. She placed a hand on Crystal's shoulder, feeling dizzy and like puking all of a sudden.

"At least we're all okay..."

Crystal sighed at her friend, smiling.

"Yeah, I guess so..."

All of the survivor's heads flooded with pain, like rain and seas and sand and gravel crushing them beneath tumbling waves. Boredom coughed and moaned a bit in pain.

"I hate this,' she mumbled, sounding a little stuffed up.

Red light and seas seemed to stream into the participants's heads, nothing to see, but pain streaking across their bodies.

Stacy sighed.

"Can you even think of us as, 'okay'? we're all barely even conscious," Stacy pointed out miserably.

All of the pain, the killings, the White Pumpkin, the pain that flooded their heads like an ocean, suddenly seemed absurd.

Memories of the past hours came swirling back, of the dim crisp flickering lights of the torches, the cream or navy blue costumes that swam by, the blood splashed across the white pumpkin's navy blue uniform.

All of it seemed to...odd. Too odd, and they were taking it so seriously.

The past events slowly started to melt as anyone in the survivors thought of their killed of friends.

But it was so...odd. A man in a white pumpkin mask running around with a cyan blue axe. It was almost funny.

Almost abruptly, Crystal started to laugh. All of the participants turned towards the sound from her voice.

It sounded like she was crying tears apart from laughing.

Dawson laughed slightly.

"This is insane..." the small girl stated weakly, a trace of laughter in her voice as her head swirled with slight pain.

Stacy laughed.

"It is."

Crystal laughed and sighed.

"W-what's wrong with us?"

Soon, everyone was laughing, and relief seemed to mix in with the heavy gravel sea sand feeling of the pain in their bodies.

It felt so good to laugh again, as seas almost flooded into everyone, dissolving any worries.

"Why do these things always happen to us?" Stampy asked, shaking a little, then sighing.

The lighter tone in the air as everyone calmed down, Stacy stood and brushed herself off, swaying on her feet slightly.

"Okay, as of now, no squabbling, no wandering off, and no dying. We're sticking together now, okay?" Stacy said, more so than asked.

"Okay," The rest agreed in unison.

Boredom suddenly shook her head very violently.

"Does anyone else hear that?"

Slight, ever so slight silence.

Crystal's eyes widened.

Small scrabbling sounds.

"Are those..."

"Stacy!"

Almost abruptly, Crystal bolted herself forwards and caught Stacy's t-shirt by its scruff. Stacy spluttered.

Her stomach dropped.

There was nothing beneath it. The two girls sat back down onto this safe haven above certain death.

"That..was close..." Stacy mumbled.

"You're welcome," Crystal replied, smiling sheepishly. Beneath then could be anything.

"So...silverfish below us, we can't see anything, and our brains feel like dissolving...what now?" Stacy asked.

All of a sudden, brighter lights came on, and everyone yelled out in agony, covering their faces.

Above them, spiraling above to the top, were sand pillars, going side to side, gravel lining the walls. All around them in an almost dome, was all sand, a few wooden slabs above them.

Looking down, they were also on a wooden slab. Below them, silver silverfish snuffled and scrabbled around the bottom of the dome.

And at one of the very top wooden slabs sat a face with sleek dark black hair and icy cold blue eyes.

Investigator.

"YOU!" Crystal yelled out.

"Me," Investigator sing-songed, smiling warmly and lightly, her feet swaying just at the edge of the slab.

"Investigator! You're alive! Please, get us out of here," Boredom begged, shuffling through her inventory for some sort of ladder.

Investigator sighed.

"I don't think I can do that, now can I?" She said simply, twirling an axe in her hands.

A cyan axe...shimmering light aquamarine and splashed with...blood. The ice in the young girl's eyes turned cool.

"I mean, look at the condition your team is in," She said, smiling, but not a cute-happy-to-see-you smile.

Crystal looked around.

Dust covered everyone.

Stains of blood, splashed and drying, lined Stacy's blue-and-white striped t-shirt. Crystal herself saw blood on her ankles.

Stampy's face had a small tan scar, as well as a limp foot. Dawson had a long cut lining her knee. Boredom's cape was torn and bedraggled.

"..You..." Crystal said, understanding clouding her eyes, which then cleared and welled up with tears.

"...it was all you..."

"Well yes," Investigator commented as if it was obvious, twirling her axe around and around, a little dazed.

"What was it you said, Liv?" She asked, her tone turning sharp towards the girl in the ocelot onesie. The blonde backed away, absolutely abashed.

"'it has to be someone who's small and agile to place traps, someone's who voice is younger...'" The young girl said sweetly.

"..or, was that Kendall who said it? The dead one?" Investigator sneered, her icy blue eyes shining with sudden hatred.

"Investigator..." Crystal breathed in disbelief.

"This isn't you..."

"So, you were the one who expanded the portraits secret halls...the one who put those redstone traps...and they didn't work because you said earlier you were and at redstone...the one who stole Cassie's tassels to turn the lights off...it was all you," Boredom stated in shock.

Investigator stiffened.

"How did you know about the clips?" She asked. She had been alone in the room with Cassie and Papisuu before Papisuu burnt to death.

"Simple." Boredom replied coolly.

"Cassie had them when she was welcoming us into the mansion. When Fangirl died, you had them." Boredom's stare was cold and stony.

"And, to add anything, the lights only went off when you with us. Not when any others died."

"Ah, I'd have to be careful about that, but thanks," Investigator said offhandedly, starting to pace around her wooden oak slab.

"Investigator, I still can't believe this, this isn't you! You're so sweet and innocent, you wouldn't do this!" Crystal barely begged.

The small girl, admittedly the youngest one of all of the participants, stopped pacing and looking down at her friend.

Her eyes went ice cold once again, seeming to simmer in an arctic barren wasteland beneath their icy glass.

(...pftt what did I just write? I'm sorry this is supposed to be suspenseful I'll stop...)

Only now did everyone notice that Investigator was wearing a navy blue uniform, zipped up to her neck, with dark grey-blue gloves twirling the axe.

"..It wasn't you...I won't believe it," Crystal stated, tears streaming down her face, her hands visibly shaking.

Investigator and Crystal were such close friends: surely she was dreaming...maybe? It seemed likely.

"Well," Investigator continued, as if she hadn't heard her friend, "one of you has the flint and steel, I know it."

Stacy's eyes widened, but she refused to shift her gaze towards Stampy, who she was sure was also screaming on the inside.

"I've narrowed it down to you seven, since you're all the most likely to have it, I do have to get back, you know."

Dust swirled in Stacy's head, making it pound and fill with unwelcome seawater, like sand settling into her skin.

"...you're not from here?" Dawson asked softly.

"Nope. I lost someone in my own world, a nice one, much like this one, but we had to run, there was a fire..." Investigator trailed off.

Fire swarmed around them in shades of a deep red and white, no in-betweens. Water, coming down like buckets, splashed into the world.

Wooden huts crumbled beneath the soft but terrifying waves, dark with a tinge, splashes of aquamarine and a dark cyan, encircling the fires.

Smoke rose and filled the air in light greys and creams, with small rain the size of pins and needles pierced the swirling thick blanket of smoke.

People were screaming, running away, towards an open portal, one will a curved circle to its frame, just leaning against a small hut, the colored tinted red.

Light grey-blue rain, shining through clearly, made small holes in the sky, the smoke swirling around, dirt staining everyone's knees and arms.

Investigator's foot burned, having been cut on a piece of wood near a smaller hut, and her feet begged her to stop running, but she continued on.

Once we're safe, I can stop.

The small two-year-old cradled in her arms, sleek black hair, short and slightly curled, whimpered in the 12-year-olds arms.

Investigator shushed her softly.

"It's okay, it'll all be okay Jo..."

Someone screamed out, and Investigator turned, her ankle twisting and feeling on fire, her throat aching with burns and screams.

Instantly, the faint shadow of an attack helicopter flew over, just clearing the smoke, a light olive.

Once again, seawater melted into the fire in big waves, swirling with pieces of driftwood, oak wooden birch planks, and other stuff.

Investigator kept sprinting across the burning field of seafoam splashed grass, the water licking at her ankles.

The two were instantly swallowed up in the water, seawater, cold and icy, filling Investigator's lungs with stings like ice crystals.

Almost like origami, cutting into her skin, cyan swept all around her, pushing her back down, suffocating her.

She knew she would be scared of water ever since.

Trying to breathe but being pushed back under the surface by another angry wave, hot salty tears streamed down her cheeks.

Sharp shards of teal cut through her skin.

It was unbearable.

Then another thought: Josephine. Investigator swam back to the surface, taking a big breath, crying and coughing softly.

Looking around, trying to keep above, the water started to rise again, coming to about her neck, red and blue-grey streaking the dark night air.

"JOSEPHINEEE!!" She called out, her throat splashed with cold ice water, sore and burning. Her arms were scratched and on fire.

But the 12-year-old didn't care.

She just needed her sister.

She turned, panting heavily, struggling to stay above the dark cyan cerulean pantone sea, her insides screaming.

She felt herself begin to sink.

Cold water licked her chin, and another wave sent Investigator tumbling back into the cold water.

Oak wooden birch planks made cuts on her knees and legs, her arms and her face. She thought she could hear crying.

Was it her sister's crying? Or her own? It didn't really matter now. All that matters was that she was okay.

Red light seeped into the waves, and salt stung the backs of the girl's eyes as she was tossed in the currents.

Then, she saw it approaching; a small coral and sandy beige clay hut, wooden at its tips, coming straight at her.

Her back hit the structure, and she turned over, her eyes rolling into the back of her head, and she floated up to the surface.

Everything was blurring...

Josephine...

She snapped back.

Investigator looked back, in absolute alarm. The others were looking at the girl in sympathy.

How long had she been daydreaming of her past? Stuttering ever so slightly, Investigator felt her face grow hot.

She streaked across her face to feel hot salty tears that were splashed across her face messily.

Swiftly brushing them aside, anger bubbled inside of Investigator. She had to stop being this soft.

"This is about Josephine, isn't it?" Crystal asked from below, covering her mouth in shock.

Back in early Autumn, when Investigator had first come to this dimension, Crystal had been the first to help her.

The two had talked about Josephine, and how badly Investigator wanted to get back to her.

How she would do anything.

"It doesn't matter now..." Investigator stated, turning away from the others, basking in the sand.

"We shared cookies together, investigator! Cookies!" Crystal yelled out.

Investigator sniffed.

"Well then..." She commented to the others. Pulling out a white pumpkin, twirled and coiled with a light grey stem, out of her inventory, Investigator sighed.

"I didn't want it to have to come to this..." She put on the mask, and it seemed to click into place with the navy blue jumpsuit.

"ALRIGHT. WHICH ONE OF YOU HAS THE FLINT AND STEEL?" A deep dark voice asked. Everyone gasped audibly.

Behind them, Boredom tilted to the side, then smiled slightly, even snickering under her breath..

"Heh, hey, your pumpkin's an auto-tuner," she stated, smiling ever so slightly. Crystal stared at her with a look of bewilderment.

"Silence!" Investigator yelled out.

Swiftly jumping in the air, she landed down heavily besides Stampy and Dawson.

The two screamed.

The younger girl was trying to stand, but stumbled and screamed in agony.

Liv instantly shot forwards and helped the small girl stand. Dawson raised her left leg, which was now splashed with clean blood. She blinked gratefully at Liv.

Investigator swung her axe towards the two, but namely at Stampy, the glimmering cyan light splashed with light dusty rose blood.

Crystal stepped in between the two, her diamond sword out, enchanted and glimmering with a light sky blue light, ever so slightly lavender.

Investigator spluttered.

"I didn't have a choice!" She said, swinging her axe back, cyan meeting a light sky blue, and Crystal winced softly.

Converting all of her strength into energy, Investigator slammed Crystal into the wooden soft base with her axe, her sides heaving.

Going up to Stampy, the younger 20-something year-old yelped and leapt out of the way, where Investigator instead hit Boredom.

"Hey! Oi! Don't do that!" Boredom yelled out, drawing her blue-grey tinted iron sword, abashed.

Backing away, Investigator blocked her attack and managed to stick the two swords together, flinging the blue-grey sword across the dome.

Boredom stuttered.

"Holy crap, you're strong," She mumbled under her breath, and swiftly ducked as another blow hit just above her.

Crystal swung around and hit Investigator in the back. The wind went out of the younger girl, and she stumbled backwards into the birch slabs.

Kicking the air, Investigator flew back into the air and hit Crystal with the blunt side of the axe. Crystal crumbled.

Stacy spun and hit her iron sword onto the small girl's back, and something spilled from her inventory.

Stampy held up the small orbs from her pocket, a light blue-grey colour that seemed to mix and melt with the sand surrounding them.

"Oh no you don't," Came Investigator's voice, swiftly shifting from her voice to the deeper one.

'COME BACK HERE."

Stampy screamed and threw the small blue-grey swirling orbs, and instantly, his feet swayed.

Stampy looked down to see that he was on another slab, as a few of the wooden slabs stretched out from one end to another.

"Teleporters," Stampy said, almost stupidly, the words sounding awkward to say.

"Whoa! Stampy! How'd you do that?" Asked Stacy in bewilderment, turning around to face her friend.

Stampy shrugged and simply pointed to the small blue-grey swirling orbs in his hands, shrugging once again.

"She just dropped these, I-" All at once, a sickening pain seeped into Stampy's stomach, and he crumbled onto the floor.

Investigator stood over him, her sides heaving.

With his arm dangling over a wooden slab, Stampy threw an orb towards a gravel pillar, and instantly felt his arms relax.

Swiftly throwing a couple to his friends of the orbs, the killer turned towards him spitefully, spitting.

"GET BACK HERE."

Stampy yelped.

"No thank you!"

Below, Stacy and Crystal caught a couple of the orbs.

Investigator by now, in the swirling dark navy blue uniform, was already slamming into Stampy, pinning the 20-something down.

"Stampy!"

Abruptly, Stacy appeared, tossing the small girl off of her friend and helping him up. Both were shaking.

"Thanks," Stampy breathed.

"No problem," Stacy said, smiling.

Then the killer came out of the dust.

Swiftly shoving Stacy back onto the slab, dust swirled around her brunette dark low ponytail, and her back ached.

Standing up slowly, Stacy's foggy mind seemed to clear as she stood.

Sudden screaming made both turn their heads. Investigator had teleported away by now, on another wooden birch slab, walking slowly towards a lever.

The dome seemed to shift, becoming taller and longer with endless sand, wooden slabs, and gravel.

Dark black obsidian started to surface around the bottom, small, by a tint of the light, looking slightly like a light blue-grey.

Torches flickered in corners of newly spawned gravel, and the wooden slab below the others shook.

Crystal screamed.

The overall tone of the strange spiral became a bit darker, only illuminated by small flickering torches.

Investigator clicked the small wooden birch lever, and stared at the others, a smile splashed across her face.

But her cold icy eyes told a different story beneath her actions, beneath that innocent smile.

Instantly, the wooden slab began to break, two sides moving over towards two iron doors on either side.

With every movement towards the iron doors, the dust and swaying movement made the others feel seasick, sand settling into their skin softly.

"Um, Stampy? A little help??" Stacy asked desperately, clinging onto the wooden slabs as it swayed once again.

"Well, I'm try-" The younger youtuber abruptly tripped over his own feet, sending dust swirling up into his face.

Stacy facepalmed.

Investigator, though it hardly looked like her anymore, with the dark navy uniform, sprinted towards Stampy, pinning him down.

Instantly, Stacy was at his side, trying to shove The small one off of him, but Investigator's dark grey boots stuck to the sandy surface.

Biting into Stacy's shoulder, the girl stumbled backwards, shocked as the girl's shoulder tensed as a warning.

Holding both of Stampy's hands, Investigator held up the cyan splashed axe, shimmering in the calming night light.

"Nope!"

The axe slashed across her face, sky streaming towards the other end of a sandy pillar.

Investigator turned to see what had caused her axe to betray her, and saw Stacy, poised with her wooden bow, an oak arrow in place.

"WHY YOU LITTLE," She started.

By then, Stampy was high-tailing it towards the lever that controlled the ever-swaying oak slabs.

Scattered scares still sounded about the sandy pillars, and Stacy stiffened, backing away from the killer.

"Silver died because of you, Kyril died because of you, Cassie died because of you," Stacy said angrily, still backing away.

"And yet, none of them have what I'm looking for," Investigator shot back, the small ice-colored slits in the white pumpkin narrowing.

Stacy scoffed at the cold-soul of this girl who seemed so innocent, who could easily talk about these survivors...

...like they were...casualties.

All at once, the screaming from below stopped, and everyone stopped to catch their breaths.

Stampy was at the lever, smiling at Stacy, humble soft pride swimming within his eyes. Investigator scoffed.

"I HATE YOU BOTH."

Before the two knew it, hard wood hit both of their backs, and Stacy's vision blurred softly as wood and sand melted together.

Stacy's back ached, and her head swam with pain like sweater and oceans, flooding into her skin and shooting ice down her spine.

"Stacy!"

Stacy stayed still.

"I killed Kyril...I killed Kendall...I killed Fangirl...I killed all of them, I can just as easily get to you." Stacy caught some of these words.

She then heard a light pause.

"Oh, well, not all of them..."

Stacy propped herself onto her elbows, her head lolling to the side, her lime shoulders swirling with pain.

Sand and gravel dissolved into eachother, and then back out again. Stacy winced as she felt someone helping her up.

"Useless teamwork."

Investigator shot into the air and tossed a shimmering white orb onto a higher up gravel platform.

Instantly, everyone felt dizzy with shock, and Investagator stood in front of them all.

Investigator was poised on the edge of a sandy gravel slab, stretching one end to another.

Investigator took off her white pumpkin head, her face showing once again, smiling coolly.

Crackling her shoulder bones, the survivors looked down. Sand and gravel and torches all spiraled down to the bottom.

If one of them fell, they were surely dead.

"So, look who we have here." Cracking her shoulder bones once again, her sides heaved slightly as her icy eyes shone.

She slowly began to walk towards them in that navy blue uniform, twirling her newly regained diamond axe.

Her feet crunched against the gravel/sand.

"Liv, the publisher, Dawson, the softie, Stacy, the big ol' crab, Stampy, the coward, Phoenix, the bad OC-"

"THAT WAS A PHASE!"

"..."

Phoenix backed away awkwardly.

"...Crystal, the anime weeb, and Boredom, the, 'superhero.' All chosen by myself to see who had this item..."

Survivors backed away awkwardly and sheepishly, in shock, and Investigator made her way towards the middle of the sand pillar.

"All about to die."

Nobody knew, but Investigator punched the middle of the pillar with all of her strength and energy.

Small crumbling, small shaking.

Then complete crumbling.

Crumbling like soft melting cookie dough, the sand gravel pillar crumbled below towards the ground.

The survivor's stomachs dropped.

All at once, Investigator let out a brutal icy laugh, but was cut off by the lights shutting off.

Stacy screamed.

Things seemed to go in slow motion; the rise and fall of Stacy's own breathing, ice crystals that seemed to pierce along the youtuber's back, slicing open her legs in shoots of ice.

All at once, the light came back on. The spiral was no longer dim, but lighter, the flickering of the torches brighter.

Sand once again covered everything, gravel lining the soft crumbled walls, no light blue-grey obsidian in sight.

Survivors looked above them, their feet swaying. The wooden, gravel, and sand pillars stayed stationary.

Below them, their wooden slab was back together once again, and the crumbled sand pillar filled the bottom, the silverfish scrabbling around warmly.

But not just that.

Each person seemed to be on a different oak or birch slab, away from the other. Crystal shook her head.

"Crystal!"

The light blue haired girl looked up, her vision still slightly blurry. The sight shocked her to the dusty swirling bone.

Fangirl.

There, painted in black and white, her Halloween costume, the girl's normally light brown hair swooping at the bottom, smiled down at her.

"But..."

Stacy and Stampy looked up from their slab, and Stacy swayed a little bit, dust thinning on her nose.

A girl about their age with coral and rose hair, swirling like seawater towards her side like light pastels.

Stacy almost choked.

"Well hi!" The brit called out warmly.

Her figure from above looked almost heroic, her sword placed down into the soft sands of a pillar, looking down, smiling softly.

"LIZZIE!" Both youtuber's mouths fell open. Their should-be-gone friend dusted herself off.

Stacy stuttered.

"B-but! We saw you DIE."

Relief flooded through the two like soft rose petals and coral in a sea that settled into their backbones.

She was okay.

"How?" Stampy choked.

Almost at once, a certain red head appeared by her side, looking a little bit awkward, but pride shone in her eyes.

"Well! That's the usefulness of potions, now isn't it?" She trilled lightly, amused with herself.

"Cassie!" Stacy called out.

"You three are ALIVE!?" Stacy heard Liv yell from behind, brushing some dust and settling sand off of her ocelot onesie.

"Yeah, turns out your friend isn't so good at redstone," Cassie claimed, pointing towards someone.

Anyone on there turned towards the small navy blue suited small bean, laying face down on a square sand pillar, out cold.

"I uh, glitched out through the trap in the living room, and decided to uh, respawn some of your friends," She explained calmly.

Investigator's hand shuffled around in the softened sands, coughing up mouthfuls of it, her limbs shaking with wet sand.

"I can't feel my...anything," She mumbled miserably from below.

Investigator's head swirled with pain, dust and sand settling onto her navy dark blue uniform, her eyes groggy.

She felt gravel on the sides of her face, and her vision blurred over many times. No...

Then came coughing, lots of coughing, the girl's heaving not so slightly anymore, but rather quite heavily.

She knew her energy had been spent.

"But HOW!?" Stampy repeated breathlessly. Stacy nudged his shoulder with her own, and the two stiffened.

"Simple. At my own home, I was taught how to respawn others. I didn't when I was the white pumpkin because..." Cassie trailed.

Stacy knew perfectly well why.

"She respawned me, as well as a couple other of your friends, too," Lizzie explained, still smiling.

She looked much better, her cheeks a rosy pink and her skin glowing, her hair brushed in thin strands like a lime field.

"I can't believe you're alive," Crystal said simply, her eyes wide with bewilderment.

"Well, nice to know someone cares about me," Fangirl smiled, leaning over the sandy beam and waving at Crystal nicely.

"Why does everyone always forget me?" Someone stated, and then teal, almost a seafoam green, came into view.

"Papisuu!" Boredom cried.

"Ooh, Dawson, your cut looks bad," Papisuu mumbled, pointing towards the smaller girl.

Dawson was still catching her breath from falling, trying to stand, but her left leg sheepishly bent.

"Thanks," She replied jokingly.

Lizzie smiled.

"Heh, sorry about that. Maybe trying to save you in that big of a hurry wasn't the best idea."

"So...you respawned everyone?" Stacy asked, still in bewilder. Lizzie sighed in a friendly sigh.

"Well, almost," The brit mentioned.

"Here, let's get you back," Fangirl said, throwing a small shimmering white orb towards where they were.

Instantly, everyone was there, and Cassie hit a lever on a small piece of gravel, opening up a sandy staircase.

"Let's go," She stated simply.

"Wait! No!" Investigator had stumbled backwards, looking desperately at the others, her icy blue eyes begging.

"...wait," Dawson stated, slowly started to turn around, attempting to throw a cookie into the girl's hands.

But by then, the sandy wall had swallowed them up.

(5000 words. Holy cow. But it was the climax, so I felt like I had to go all out. also, why the chapter was called redcrosses? because of the red crosses on the portraits. I also felt like being spoopy. and because it's the song in the soundtrack)