"ISAAC!" Someone shouted.

        Gertrude rushed back into the room, dropping the glasses of lemonade that she was holding. The glass shattered, making a mess of the floor. Not as messy as the bloodstained window with a gaping hole in the middle. "What happened?!" She cried. "There were three of you before!"

        Johnny Toast burst into the room, a huge gash down his arm and panting heavily. "Ghost has gone Casket," He wheezed. "It was the fox-" He then noticed that the room was in a panic. "Where's the fourth one?"

        "I don't know!" Cierra said, looking around frantically. "The lights went out, and then he was gone!"

        "It wasn't one of the animatronics," Toast said, furrowing his brow. "They've gotten themselves busy with a poker set I lent them. Toilet Toucher found his way into the bathroom and left, so here's how I see it: One person missing, one psychopath at large. Put the pieces together."

        "Jimmy's the one who attacked us, right?" Bethany asked, acting as if she didn't know. After all, Toast didn't know them and they didn't have enough time to explain how they knew him.

        Toast nodded. "That's right... You don't know. I will explain later, then. For now we need a safe place to hide."

        "What is going on?!" Shouted a man's voice from the next room over. "You haven't broken my TV, have you?"

        The owner of the voice stepped into the room, a shotgun in his hands. His white shirt was stained with various foods, the jean jacket that he wore over it torn in places. He scratched his disheveled beard with his free hand, his bald head reflecting the lights in the room(it was evident that he had not showered in quite some time).

        "Well," Gertrude stuttered. "Honey, there's been an issue-"

        "Yeah, I can tell!" He snapped, voice raspy. "We have robot animals gambling in the backyard. Is the toiler man gone?"

        "Yes, he's gone, and the robots won't hurt us." Gertrude said, ushering him out of the room. "Just go upstairs and... play dolls with Sally."

        "What?!"

        "Yeah Papa! Come play dolls!" A young girl's voice from upstairs shouted enthusiastically.

        "Oh, you've done it now!" Another young voice said, but this time male. The siblings recognized the voice as Billy.

        "Gertrude!" Achachalla shouted. "I will not play with dolls-"

        "Of course you do," Gertrude said hurriedly, pushing him up the stairs. "Have fun, you two!"

        Papa Acachalle went into Sally's room muttering something about "Boxes" and "Hostages."

        Gertrude clapped her hands together. "Now that he's gone, we can get to the bottom of this. Who are you four, where is the fourth, and who took him?"

        "Well," Jordan started.

        "Jimmy Casket-"

        "Our computer-"

        "Exploded and then we-"

        "This huge tunnel-"

        "Ok, stop." Toast said. "One at a time. I am getting the feeling that you four are not from around here. Which Realm do you come from?" He sat down on a chair and waited for a response.

        "Earth, I think." Bethany said uncertainly.

        Toast didn't seem amused. "I mean which realm, not which planet. There are tons of Earths. Which one are you from? The Fallout realm? We've had a few of them get lost here over the last few weeks."

        Jordan glanced at Cierra for a moment. 'Cywren,' he mouthed. Cierra shrugged in response.

        "Do you not remember?" Toast asked. "Realm jumping nor Casket are ever known to cause amnesia, but-"

        "We don't know," Cierra said honestly. "Reality is the most specific-"

        Toast fell out of his chair.

        "What?"

        "You're- You're not from a game!" Toast sputtered.

        "Well, no." Jordan admitted.

        "Makes sense," Toast said. "That's why Casket wants you."

        "Wait, please explain. I still have no idea what's going on," Bethany said. "At all."

        Toast took a deep breath. "I understand. It may take a while to completely understand, but I will do my best to explain. The worlds are divided into various realms, each with a different timeline and different people. Most people have to stay in their own realm, but others are free to come and go. Making sense so far?"

        "Sort of."

        "Good, because it get confusing about here. There is one central Realm, quantum-locked in time so that it never wavers from a specific moment in time. There is a place we refer simply to as 'reality' that can connect to certain realms, but it depends. Whenever reality wants to access a realm, the central one duplicated itself and removes the quantum lock, placing the passage of time in reality's hands. There are many different realms out there, the timelines of each different." Toast took a breath.

        Jordan was beginning to understand. Apparently video games were the realms, and reality could access one of them to "manipulate," or play. When the game is restarted or deleted, a new realm is added or replaced. Okay, made sense so far. Well, as much sense as finding out every single video game was true.

        Toast continued. "You four apparently broke the wrong connection port, or a computer, at the wrong time. Sometimes when they're broken or old, the connection extends just too far and a portal is opened in between them for a short period of time. You want to go home, correct?"

        The siblings nodded in sync.

        "Then we have to overload a realm. It's easy to come here, but hard to come back. Many people go missing in your reality, right?" Toast asked.

        "Well, yeah. Murders and stuff." Cierra said slowly.

        "With no evidence sometimes?"

        "I suppose it's happened before."

        "There's no such thing as a perfect murder," Toast said, as if to prove his point. "They probably ended up here and got lost. It's not so bad, if you're a Traveller."

        "Traveller...?" Jordan asked.

        "Oh, sorry." Toast apologized. "Someone who can travel through the realms. They're hard to come by. I assume that you four are, seeing as you were not damaged in any way during your trip here. If you're not a traveller, then there are a few unpleasant side effects."

        "Like what?"

        "They're not... Fully human anymore."

        "...Oh."

        "You understand how that you're here, we need to find out why." Toast said. "Why would Jimmy attack you?"

        "And how did he show up in my room?" Jordan asked.

        "He's a ghost," Toast replied. "And Mr. Ghost is also partially a traveler. That makes it easier for Casket, whom is not."

        "That's also probably why Ghost is in a lot of other games," Bethany answered. "But Casket only appears with a host."

        Toast snapped his fingers. "Exactly. Did he kill anything?"

        "No, but he cut me pretty bad." Jordan said, rolling up the sleeve of his hoodie, revealing a long, partially healed cut.

        "But he didn't kill, and the wound is only skin deep." Toast observed. "Half travelers can't killoutside of their game without a host. Don't you agree that he would have hurt you worse if he could?"

        "Probably." Said Cierra. "But what does he want? Why does he need us?"

        "You control this realm, right?" Toast said simply. "That makes you valuable. Maybe he needs Jordan as a host and is luring us to him with Isaac."

        "I don't think so," Bethany said hopefully. "We'd probably have a bond with the characters we role-play as. It'd be much easier to take Jordan."

        Toast opened his mouth to counter, but then slowly shut it. "Yes, that seems accurate. That leaves us with nothing, then."

        "Wonderful," Jordan muttered. A short silence of thought ensued.

        "Back to the matter at hand: Where is Isaac?" Cierra interrupted.

        A banging at the back door interrupted their conversation. "Hello?" Said a groggy voice. Everyone, including Gertrude, who had remained silent for most of the explanation, recognized it.

        "Ghost!"

        Toast jumped and ran to the door, opening it to see his teammate standing at the doorstep. His hair was disheveled and his eyes were sleepy, blinking every few seconds as a display of confusion. "What happened?"

        "Where's Casket? I thought that he was the one that took Isaac!" Bethany cried.

        "He was," Toast said. "Sir, are you okay?"

        Ghost yawned. "I think so. I passed out a few minutes ago. What did I miss?"

        "Hold still a minute, Sir." Toast instructed abruptly.

        "What?"

        "Hold still."

        Ghost shrugged and obliged. "Something wrong?"

        "Roll up your sleeve, sir."

        "Okay..."

        Ghost rolled up the cuffs of his sleeve up to his elbow, holding his arm out for Toast. "What is it?"
"The scar. The scar that Casket gave you." Toast suddenly recoiled. "Wait. You don't know, do you?"

        "Of course I know."

        "You- What?!" Toast shouted, face aghast.

        "I knew about Casket. I always did."

        "But how?!"

        "I forgot to take my pills about two years ago one night, and I began to remember things. Eventually I stopped taking them and kazam, there was my past right there." Ghost shrugged, as if to say no biggie.

        "And you didn't tell me?"

        "Course not!" Ghost snapped. Toast seemed offended, so he quickly explained. "You'd make me take them again. Plus, just making me forget about Casket won't help anything. I need to learn to control him if I'm to-"

        "He's a ghost, Sir! You can't control him!" Toast shouted.

        Ghost was silent for a minute. "...I didn't know that part."

        "Of course you wouldn't. I was the only one to figure it out." Toast said quietly. "And now the scar on your arm is halfway gone. Casket is only partially inside you now."

        "Really?" Ghost said, excited.

        "I don't think he has complete control anymore," Toast said, nodding. "Remember that case in Zimbabwe?"

        "Yeah."

        "The level 6 had spread himself across two different hosts, but couldn't control them both completely?" Toast continued. "It could only manipulate their thoughts until they grew an immunity to it. After that, it was forced to enter just one."

        "Perfect!" Ghost clapped. "He can't control me for a while!"

        "That's only part of my point." Said Toast. "Who is the other host?"

        There was silence in the doorway, until everyone spoke at once.

        "Isaac."

        "If Casket has Isaac, then we need to find out where he's going!" Cierra cried.

        "What should we do?" Asked Bethany, her voice full of anxiety.

        Toast sighed. "I-I don't know. We should find friends who can help. Maybe we could organize a search."

        They began arguing about where to go, trying to name random characters who weren't that insane and might be able to help. Only Johnny Ghost stood silently, thinking.

        Ghost glanced at a picture hung in the hall, examining it closely. Sally stood next to a tall, pale teenager with no face and a suit. Ghost smiled, turning to the three siblings and Toast.

        "Johnny," He said. "I think I have an idea."

___

Music above provided for theming and foreshadowing.