It had been two days since Spoons had been attacked. Two days since anyone had seen the strange dark thing. The storm had blown the whole boat off course by a week or so, and everyone had to settle down for a longer journey than had been expected.

Colonel was still reeling from the fact that his party was left to deal with the slither-thing all by themselves. Everyone else seemed to be more or less convinced that they could pull this off, but Colonel, now standing in the dark corridor all by himself, was very sure that he would die a slow painful death this way.

The group had decided that they would take up different posts at different times to try and spot any signs of the creature. This unfortunately meant splitting each other up. It was late at night and all of the pirate crew had retired to bed. This left Colonel standing in the hallway outside their sleeping corridors with no light whatsoever to guide his way. He stood there rocking back and forth on his heels, hugging himself and wishing that he had company.

River was in the tiny hallway beneath the level Colonel was on. There wasn’t much down there, just a couple of storage rooms and such. It was pretty dark down there too, but River didn’t usually seem to mind stuff like that as much. Colonel envied that.

Aziminil had been entrusted with watching Derik’s study, and she was stationed in the room at the end of the hall that Colonel watched over. She had a small source of light in there, and Colonel could see the dull light leak out from under the closed door. It was Derik’s night-light, as he was still asleep. At first, he had heard a bunch of crashing noises from within, followed by squeals of delight from Aziminil and sounds of annoyance from Derik, but as the night had worn on, she had subsided into a state of “quietness.” This meant that he only heard her hum out of tune a couple times per ten minutes.

Aniko was in the medical bay watching over the sleeping patients in there. (Spoons, Salty, Cabin Boy, and Dr. Leech, who apparently slept in there most of the time despite having a perfectly good spot with the rest of the beds.) She had the light switched off because everyone was trying to sleep around her.

Marigold was in charge of the corridor outside the medical bay, a whole floor above Colonel’s own. He could occasionally hear the floor creak above him as Marigold probably did some kind of dance to pass the time.

Colonel had been standing there for some hours now. His feet ached, and he kept shifting his weight around to try and get comfortable. He thought about sitting down, but that didn’t feel like a good position to start running away in should a murderer with an axe come trying to kill him.

He yawned. The group had been doing this more or less every night, and they’d been getting very little sleep. The pirate crew still needed assistance with patching up some spots on the ship that had been damaged in the storm, now that it was easier without the pounding rain. They usually did this in the morning, when they were all up, leaving the party to try and get snatches of sleep when no one was bothering them.

Colonel leaned back against the wall, trying to get the pressure off his feet. He pushed his head back up toward the wall and closed his eyes briefly, yawning again. It was in this position of vulnerability that he heard a door slowly creak open.

Colonel’s body froze, snapping his eyes open. Through the dark, Colonel could see a figure right in front of him. It was outlined against the rest of the darkness, and was closing the door to the sleeping corridors softly. Colonel’s breath quickened, and he prayed that their eyes weren’t yet adjusted to the dark, and they wouldn’t see him. You’re probably overreacting, he told himself, it’s probably just someone getting a drink of water or going to the bathroom. But Colonel was very tired, generally a nervous person, standing aboard a pirate ship, and currently trying to spot a dangerous creature that had tried to kill someone. So, Colonel just pushed himself up against the wall and held his breath.

The figure was a normal height, with a firm build. He could only guess at who it was in the dark. The person began to turn away, and their face turned to look directly at Colonel.

Colonel’s breath quickened again. He stood absolutely still. The figure before him turned their head so it was entirely facing Colonel, and he could have sworn they smiled.

They took a step closer to Colonel. Then another. Colonel simply pushed himself into the wall, wishing it would consume him. Each step forward toward Colonel increased his anxiety.

“H-Hello?” he managed to squeak.

They said nothing.

“W-What’re you d-doing?”

Two steps closer.

“U-Uh, would you please say something?”

The figure face was now right in front of his, staring into his eyes. Colonel stood there like this for what felt like a full two minutes to him. As time passed, his breath slowed a bit. This person didn’t seem like they were going to try and kill him, maybe they were just–

Two strong hands closed around his throat.

Colonel gasped, then tried to breath, but found he couldn’t. His fingers clawed wildly around the hands choking him, but they were useless. Red began to cloud around his vision, and he looked desperately up into the eyes of his attacker as he legs fell out from beneath him.

Black Molly.

Blackness of the deepest kind consumed him.

---

Aziminil was sitting in Derik’s big chair pretending to be some big-important boss.

“Why yes, Barbra, you may have a raise, but only if you increase your numbers by 23.45% by the next quarter!”

She unfortunately had to do it quietly, as Derik, the real boss, was asleep in his bed next to her. So Aziminil had to be content with doing her business deals in a whisper.

Aziminil sighed after she had sent Barbra out of her office. She was kinda bored of the same thing after awhile.

“Oooh!” Aziminil suddenly sat up straighter. “Puppets!”

On a shelf to the other side of Derik’s desk, out of direct sight, were a row of crappy sock puppets. Aziminil knew a good puppet from a bad one, and, even though she would never say so, these weren’t very good ones. They seemed to be replicas of the pirate crew, but Derik had seemed to give up in the middle of completing his set. All he had were Pistol Annie with terrifying red string hair that dangled off her head in scattered clumps, Spoons with stick arms that stuck off from his shoulders, Scurvy with a strange clump of fabric around his bucket leg, Salty (not even gonna mention his face), Barnacle Bill (did he even have legs?), and Nightmare the cat with one ear dangling to the side.

Aziminil scoffed. “Such bad super glue.”

She reached down and pulled them up onto the desk, sticking her hands in two of them. “I’ll do… you and you!” she said, choosing Nightmare and Spoons.

She made them dance around for awhile, but kept losing her train of thought and forgetting what part of the story she was on. She was tired, though of course she would never admit it. She pushed the puppets aside and closed her eyes just for a bit.

As she began to doze off, she heard a rustle. Remembering that she was supposed to be on the lookout for suspicious things, she opened her eyes again and looked around.

Nope, she thought. Everything was the same. Derik asleep in corner snoring, the door closed and locked, the discarded puppets laying in a pile staring at her.

Staring at her? Did she do that? All the puppets had their little beady eyes turned upon her. It was kind of frightening, mostly because Derik’s puppets were terrifyingly bad with their creepy crooked button eyes. She turned the pile to the side so that none of them faced her. She closed her eyes again.

Rustle, rustle.

Aziminil opened her eyes once more, confused why something kept interrupting her sleep. She stood up, looking around the room for the source of the sound.

She found nothing. Still the same old room with the same old stuff. She checked under piles of stuff shoved to the sides, but only found some cute tiny spiders. Nothing of real importance for the mission.

Aziminil skipped back to her seat and sat back down. She closed her eyes again, pretending she was sleeping beauty and some squirrel would have to come give her a hug (that was the original tale, despite what Colonel tried to tell her), but, halfway through her fantasy, she heard a new sound. Muttering, outside the door.

“Silly Colonel!” Aziminil chuckled to herself without opening her eyes or moving at all. “He must be talking to himself!”

Eventually, Colonel’s voice cut off, rather suddenly, and silence returned. Aziminil was trying to remember were she had left on off in her dream but couldn’t find her spot, for the noise had returned again.

Scuffle, scuffle.

Aziminil opened her eyes for the third time. She glanced around the room yet again. Yep, everything’s in place, exactly where she–

Hold up. Aziminil’s face squeezed tight in confusion.

Aziminil pointed her finger at the pile of puppets. They were still turned away from where she had moved them, but…. One, two, three, four… five.

Odd, Aziminil thought. She could’ve sworn there were six. She turned her head to the side to look by the side of the desk where one could have slipped off. Nope, just small piles of grime and dust from shoes. She stood up a bit and looked over the desk to the front of it, checking for the M.I.A puppet but found nothing there either.

She sat back down. Finally, she bent down and peered under the desk.

There, stuck to the top of the desk by discarded chewed up gum, was the missing puppet. Its blank button eyes stared straight into Aziminil’s own.

Giving a squeak of distress, Aziminil scrambled backward in the chair, but there was no space to back up.

The chair barely fit in the room as it was.

As the small pile of puppets began to slowly clamber up, the missing puppet (Aziminil saw now that it was Salty) lunged toward her. As it came forward, Aziminil stared right into the button eyes and wished she hadn’t.

---

River was cold. She wrapped her shawl closer to her shoulders now that she had acquired her spare from her bag after having lost her other one to the sea. It had been some time since she had almost drowned. The experience wasn’t brought up anymore (thankfully), though River could still remember the feeling of sinking deeper and deeper into nothing. She shivered, not just from cold. The thing was, below decks was quite chilly. River was about as far in the boat as you could get without going into the hold, and, being this close to the cold waters and far away enough from any source of heat, it wasn’t the ideal temperature. The hold, which was behind the door in front of River, was very small with only some old pieces of furniture or something. River didn’t really care. The group had already searched the hold a while ago and had found it considerably uninteresting. That is, all of them but Aziminil, who found literally everything, even her own impending doom, amusing in some way.

River had been down here for several hours now, and she was very angry about this. Honestly, she didn’t want to be up at this hour at all, especially since no one in their party was getting good amounts of sleep, but the fact was made all the more miserable because she was cold. “Chilly” and “sleepy” were never good pairs.

River was standing there uselessly fantasizing about normal beds that weren’t straw piles when she heard a creak. Her head shot up quickly. That hadn’t been just any creak. It hadn’t been the shifting of River’s weight on the ship’s wood tiling. It hadn’t been the ship itself settling itself into a better position like a mother hen over her eggs. It hadn’t been the creak of Colonel Popcorn or Aziminil above her head.

It had come from River’s left, where the stairs were that lead up. It had sounded like someone descending the stairs to her level.

River ran through options in her head quickly. Colonel would call her name. Aziminil would pound down the stairs quickly, so would Marigold and probably Aniko. It could be one of the pirate crew members, but what were they doing up so late? And why did they sound as though they were trying to sneak up on her?

A dull voice in the very crevices of River’s mind told her that she was overreacting. She was simply either hearing things or reading too much into simple sounds because of sleep deprivation. However, River was in the deep stages of tiredness and lack of sleep, which meant she had far surpassed logical thought. And anyway, she was on the lookout for a dangerous slither-thing, for Pete’s sake! Maybe it was something.

River had her hand on her rapier hilt, ready to whip it out quickly, but then she heard a voice. A familiar one.

“River.”

It was Colonel!

“Hey, Colonel! Whatcha doing down here?” River turned her head to try and see him. “Is something the matter?” She could only see his faint outline on the stairs, and something about how he held himself seemed out of place.

“River.”

“That’s my name,” River replied slowly, concerned. His voice sounded raspy and different somehow. River tried to force her tired mind to puzzle out what was the matter with him, but she couldn’t quite place it.

Colonel moved closer, a bit forcefully. River, though she didn’t know why, moved a step back, toward the basement door.

“Colonel, are you sure you’re okay? You seem….” But River couldn’t find the word to finish her thought.

“Seriously, Colonel, say something.”

“River.”

“Something that’s not my name.”

His head turned slowly to the side. A creaking noise dragged out from behind River, but she didn’t turn her head to see what it was, afraid to look away from Colonel.

He took another jagged step forward, and River glanced quickly at his feet. They were twisted the wrong way, awkwardly and unnatural.

River reached for her rapier hilt again. This wasn’t her Colonel. But Colonel took one more step.

Now, she could see his face.

His mouth hung wide open, stretched out abnormally. His eyes were wide and staring but with no pupils. His throat had red marks clawed into the skin.

River gasped, at loss for words of any kind.

Colonel’s hands, which had hung limply by his side, flew up quickly and pushed River into the recesses of the dark basement.

As River toppled down the stairs, she caught small glimpses of Colonel’s form outlined against the rest of the darkness, his limbs hanging awkwardly by his side.

As River hit the very bottom, laying sprawled out, she saw Colonel push the door closed.

She heard the lock click.

And then the jagged receding foot steps.

And then nothing.

---

Marigold was playing hopscotch. She didn’t actually have any chalk to mark out her grid, nor did she have the light to accurately play the game. But she was bored and this was just another solution her tired mind came up with the pass the time until morning, which probably wasn’t too far away.

When Marigold’s knees started to hurt from continuous jumping, she started to dance wildly without moving her legs. If she stopped moving she was sure she’d fall asleep, so she simply had too keep doing small activities until she could rest.

She really wished she had something to chew or lick. That always kept her awake and satisfied. She had already licked her fingers so much that it was unsatisfactory to keep doing it. Plus they were sticky now.

When Marigold got too tired to keep dancing she started kicking her legs out in random patterns.

She wished she could go talk to Aniko, who was in the room adjacent to her hallway. She was watching the people in the medical bay, which meant that both she and Marigold had to be quiet. This was, of course, torturous to Marigold, but she tried to make the most of it.

“I. Won’t. Fall. Asleep,” she whispered quietly to herself, punctuating each word with a leg kick.

It was when she started hopping up and down on the spot that she heard a door creak open behind her. Still hopping, Marigold turned on the spot to look over at them.

It was through her bouncing hair that she saw a figure move toward. Honestly, Marigold couldn’t tell if they were walking weird or if it was her bouncing.

“Howdy, partner!” Marigold whisper-yelled in a fake cowboy accent.

The figure didn’t reply. They just kept walking closer, slowly. Marigold slowed her bouncing so she could see them properly.

Squinting through the dark, Marigold saw what seemed to be Pistol Annie, but she was definitely acting wrong. Her posture was off, slanted and cramped. Her feet moved forward robotically and unnaturally. Having several years of adventuring experience behind her, Marigold judged that this was a bad scenario to be alone in.

“Heeeey, uh, Pistol Annie, would you stop being all weird and creepy?”

No answer. Another few steps forward.

“Yeah, okay, I’m getting Aniko cause she’s big and tough and you’re being all creepy.” Marigold turned and dashed down the hall toward the Medical Bay. “I’m no horror movie side character!” she reassured herself. “I’ma cowboy!”

When Marigold finally reached the door to the med center, Pistol Annie had started to quicken her pace. With her increased speed, Marigold’s heart started to pound faster too.

Yanking the door open, Marigold darted inside and shoved her body up against it.

Aniko, who was curled up in chair with her head leaning against the wall, suddenly sat up quickly. “Marigold?” she called quietly.

“Yep! It’s me! Howdy!”

Aniko groaned, not bothering to get up. “What’re you doing here? I thought we discussed that you need to stay at your post and not interrupt me?”

“Yeah, but I have a quick question.”

“What,” Aniko said through gritted teeth.

“If someone ambles up the stairs slowly like a psycho and comes at me all weird and doesn’t respond to my cowboy hails, does that mean its a red flag and I should go get help?”

Aniko considered this for a second then slowly said, “Yeeeees.”

“Are… you help?”

Aniko sat up a bit. “Marigold,” she said with the air of someone who was putting up with a toddler, “did someone come at you ‘like a psycho’ without responding and you’ve come to get assistance?”

Smiling and in the same tone, Marigold replied, “Yeeees.”

Aniko sat up quickly. “What? Why didn’t you mention this sooner? You’ve just wasted valuable time!”

“Aren’t you wasting valuable time right now by not immediately reacting?”

Aniko looked pretty close to tearing her own hair out. “This is different!”

“How?”

“Because-“

But suddenly there was a loud banging, and Marigold jolted forward a bit as someone from outside threw themselves against the door.

“EEK!” Marigold squeaked.

“Who did you say this person was again?!”

“Uh, pistol lady! Pistol Annie!”

“What?! Why’s she doing this?!”

“I don’t know!” Marigold smiled pleasantly before shuddering with another impact.

“Okay, okay. I think I’ve got an idea,” Aniko said, scooting over to the crack in the door where it would open, opposite the hinges. “On my mark,” she said, picking up a long wooden reflex hammer from other medical tools and raised it above her head, “open the door and get out of the way. Got it?”

“Yep!”

“Do you really got it?!”

“Yep!”

Still looking slightly unconvinced, Aniko called, “NOW!”

Marigold flung away form the door, allowing it to bang open with Pistol Annie’s shove. As Annie was walking through the door, Aniko swung the hammer as hard as she could at her forehead. It hit her smack in the middle of her forehead, making a “thunk” noise. Pistol Annie stood dazed for a small second before her knees fell out from underneath her and she collapsed to the floor.

Aniko bent down to peer at Pistol Annie’s face.

“Huh,” she said. “I got her good.”

“Huh,” Marigold stuck her head beside Aniko’s. “You did.”

“I still wonder why she would do this? Do you think the pirate crew’s trying to get us killed?”

“Mm?” Marigold shrugged.

“Cause if they are, that’s really bad! We’ve gotta warn the others!”

“Предупредить их о чем?”

Aniko whirled around to see Spoons, rubbing his eyes and sitting up in bed.

“В чем дело? Кто рядом с тобой? Это … О Боже, Энни!”

As Aniko and Marigold stood next to the limp form of Pistol Annie, Spoon’s threw the covers aside and rushed toward Annie.

“Whoah, buddy!” Aniko threw her hand out to stop him. “How about we chill a bit, and be super careful.”

Spoons, who looked really nervous, began to talk really fast in a low voice. “Твой тон голоса действительно угрожает, и мой лучший друг лежит на полу без сознания, и я понятия не имею, что происходит, и есть этот огромный языковой барьер, который я не совсем знаю, как его преодолеть, и ты собираешься меня убить ?!”

“I think he thinks you’re threatening him,” Marigold said, peering over Aniko’s shoulder.

“I kinda am,” Aniko glared down at Spoon’s while he continued to ramble. “And for Pete’s sake, stop licking my shoulder!”

Marigold stuck her tongue back in her mouth. “Ooh! Look!” she cried, pointing to another bed. “Condiment-man is waking up!”

“You mean Salty,” Aniko sighed.

When Salty sat up and saw the scene before him, his face paled. “Ugh, what’s that noise? Something woke me up and I’m still tire- AAAAAH!! YOU’VE KILLED ANNIE!”

“HEY, HEY, GUYS!” Aniko cried over the ensuing panic from everyone else in the room (including Marigold, which honestly shouldn’t have been surprising). “Everyone just calm down! There’s a reasonable explanation!”

“REALLY?! IS THERE?!” Salty wailed.

“Yeah! Of course!”

Dr. Leech, who had woken up too, called, “Well, what is it?!”

“Well,” Aniko began, suddenly realizing that her logic might be a little flimsy. “S-She, was, um, kinda being… weird?”

“Weird?” Salty said through clenched teeth.

“As in crazy-killer-psycho weird!” Marigold threw in helpfully.

Aniko, seeing everyone’s disbelieving faces, hurriedly jumped in again. “You see, she came lumbering at Marigold in the dark of night-“

“Early morning,” Salty cut in annoyingly.

Aniko glared down at him. “Fine,” she said forcefully. “Early morning. Anyway, she wasn’t responding to us.”

“Maybe,” Salty interrupted again (he was turning out to be really annoying), “she was just tired and didn’t want to speak to you. Ever thought of that, huh?!”

“No, no, there’s more! She started throwing herself at the door really violently and still not responding, so….”

“YOU DECIDED TO BASH HER HEAD IN?!”

“HEY! The whole reason we’re still even up at this ungodly hour is because we’re supposed to be watching out for suspicious activity that could possibly threaten us! AND THAT WAS SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY!”

“Really?! Cause to me, it just seemed like you wanted a reason to beat us up! I bet you were gonna kill us in our sleep next!”

“If I were gonna do that, I would have done it HOURS AGO!”

“Well, maybe you just thought of the idea now!”

“Ребята?” Spoons muttered quietly from his spot on the bed.

“See?! You’ve scared Spoons!” How could you?!” Salty wailed.

“Нет, нет, это не так! Есть-”

“I DON’T CARE IF I SCARED HIM SINCE I SAVED HIS LIFE!”

Suddenly, however, Spoons’s eyes widened, and he yelled out, “РЕБЯТА! ОСТОРОЖНО!”

Aniko followed his pointing finger to Pistol Annie, still sprawled out on the ship floor. There, wiggling and writhing, was the strange black shadow that had attacked Spoons, the very thing they were trying to find, and it was seeping out of Pistol Annie’s eyes.

Spoons scrambled back in his bed, jamming himself up against the wall. Marigold screeched and fumbled in her bag for who knows what, while Aniko whipped out the first weapon that her hand found purchase on. A dagger?! she thought, How’s that gonna help me?! This thing’s incorporeal!

As she began prepping a spell, twisting her fingers into the complicated pattern, the thing slid faster and faster until it was simple a blur, heading straight for Dr. Leech.

He tried to scramble out of the way, but the thing caught his leg and twisted up it. Aniko stopped just before firing her spell; the shadow was already spiraling up Dr. Leech’s stomach.

When it reached his face, it crawled quickly into his eyes and nose and mouth. Dr. Leech screamed all the while.

As everyone was staring aghast at Dr. Leech, Cabin Boy lunged towards him. What he was planning on doing no one knew; part of the strange shadow split off from Dr. Leech and invaded Cabin Boy as well.

Salty screamed and dashed for the door. Aniko waved frantically for Spoons to follow suit as Marigold ran out after Salty. As Aniko slammed the door shut behind her, she shouted, “Head for the stairs! We’ll move down a level!”

Salty screamed the whole way down the steps.

“PLEASE SHUT UP!” Aniko called down to him from the back of the group. “YOU’RE ALERTING EVERYONE TO OUR POSITION!”

That shut Salty up. When the group reached the stair bottom, Aniko lead them into the nearest room, which happened to be the mess hall. Slamming the door behind her once everyone was inside, Aniko jammed a chair in front of the door.

Salty sunk to the floor. “Aaaaaaah!” he wailed. “What was that?!”

“Shh!” Aniko put her finger to her lips, “they’re both still out there!”

“Как вы думаете, что это было ?!” Spoons whispered.

“I think…” Aniko breathed in and out, “I think that… thing’s… possessing people now!”

There was silence after this.

“Hey,” Marigold snapped her head up. “Do you think our buddies are okay?”

Aniko, who looked prepared to answer another stupid question, suddenly froze. “I didn’t think of that…” she said quietly.

“Look,” Salty rolled his eyes. “I’m sure they’re absolutely- HEY! Where’re you going?!”

“I’m checking on the rest of my party! We need to warn them and everyone else!” Aniko said, already moving the chair away again. “That is, unless you want to deal with the Annie situation but multiplied by however many people are on this ship!”

Salty considered this, then sulkily joined Aniko’s side. Spoons stood up and he and Marigold both got behind Salty and Aniko, hugging each other in silent fear. Aniko stuck her head out the door tentatively, peering to side to side to see if anyone was there. Stepping out into the hall, she muttered, “Huh, that’s weird. No one’s here!”

“Hey,” Marigold whispered from behind Aniko, “wasn’t this where Colonel was supposed to he watching?”

“Oh.” Aniko looked both ways again, now trying to spot Colonel. “Oh, oh, oh! This is bad!”

She dashed down the hall, half expecting to find Colonel’s limp and broken form, already killed by a stray meat-puppet-person. But no one was there. The hallway was just… empty.

“No one’s here!” Aniko quietly called back down with relief. “No Colonel!”

“But,” Salty said slowly, clearly being condescending, “Isn’t that bad? Doesn’t that mean he could be captured by possessed people or even one himself?”

Aniko’s spirits sunk. “Could be,” Aniko bit back, annoyed by his tone of voice, “but it also doesn’t mean he was killed here in cold blood! I’ll accept all victories.”

“Fine, fine!” Salty rolled his eyes.

“ARGH!” Aniko clenched her fingers. “You’re so annoying! You think you’re so special and above us all, but you’re just pathetic!”

“Pathetic?!” Salty cried indignantly. “I’m not pathetic!”

“Really?! Please prove so!”

“I don’t have to-“

“Ребята! Пожалуйста, прекрати драться! Мы должны быть осторожны!” Spoons quietly called over their voices.

“Spoons!” Salty said over his shoulder. “I’m defending my honor here!”

Aniko snorted. “What honor?”

Spoons sighed. “Они оба такие невежественные. Если бы они только знали секреты, которые я знал.”

“I have an abundance of honor!”

“БОЖЕ МОЙ! Это не важно! Нам нужно спасать наших друзей, а не АРГУ!” Spoons finally cried angrily over their voices, a level up in volume now.

Aniko and Salty both froze, startled by Spoons’s outbreak. “Сейчас,” Spoons took in a deep breath, “что у меня есть ваше внимание, как насчет того, чтобы перевести взгляд на ноготки.” Spoons pointed over down the hall, now with his normal smile back on his face.

Marigold was down the hall, in Derik’s office with the door left wide open. Aniko, Salty, and Spoons followed in after her.

“What’s wrong?” Aniko asked Marigold who had a look like she’d just lost something very important.

“Aziminil’s not in here!” Marigold wailed. “Just a pile of creepy puppets!”

“Oh, no,” Aniko sighed. “This isn’t good. We’ve lost track of Colonel and Aziminil!”

“What’re we gonna do?” Marigold sniffed.

“I guess go down a level and find River,” Aniko nodded. “She’s stationed right outside the hold level.”

“Are you guys coming?” Marigold turned to Spoons and Salty.

“Well, I don’t know,” Salty whined. “I mean aren’t we safe right here? We could just let you gu-“

“Приходили,” Spoon’s nodded.

“I guess we are,” Salty sighed.

“Great,” Aniko said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “Let’s get going before Dr. Leech, Pistol Annie, and Cabin Boy find us.”

The group quickly descended the stairs, throwing cautious looks behind them occasionally. When they reached the bottom, Aniko peered around the corner.

“Oh, no,” Aniko’s voice actually had a hint of panic in it. “River isn’t in the corridor.”

“Maybe,” Marigold whispered, “she’s in the basement hiding with everyone else? Maybe they’re even trapped in there!”

“Okay, yeah, true. Let’s go look,” Aniko said, leading them down the hall to the door.

“Hold up,” Salty said, “There’s light underneath the door frame! Someone’s in there!”

“Oh thank goodness!” Aniko chuckled with relief. “They’ve gotta be in there!”

Spoons, sounding a little worried, said “Подождите! Что, если они были одержимы! не-“

But he was cut off by Aniko pulling the door open. But what she saw, made her stumble back.

There, hanging limply like discarded puppets in the air, hung everyone, floating two feet of the ground. They all had black eyes and open mouths, and they lined the edges of the room. Aniko let her eyes scan the room. There was Barnacle Bill, Black Molly, Derik, and….

Aniko gasped, for right there at the other side of the room hung her friends. River, Colonel Popcorn, and Aziminil were hanging limply right by each other, a darkness in their eyes that shouldn’t be there.

As Aniko, Marigold, Salty, and Spoons stood there, all in disbelief, the people around the room, their friends, all slowly turned their heads to stare directly at them in sync.

“Well, well, well,” a voice from the center of meat puppets said. “Look who we have here!”

Aniko looked down to see a small man standing in the air. He was constructed from the black shadow material, and you could see it shifting inside him. He wore a stunning top hat and a bow tie over a tuxedo, all in shades of black and grey. He had a charming, bright white grin, stretching creepily across his face. The rest was just darkness.

“I see the last survivors have come to visit me!” he said in his smooth voice. “How kind! Puppets!” He gestured to the limp forms surrounding him. “I have a task for you!”

They all turned to look at him now, and Aniko felt relived to have their creepy, pitiless eyes turn away from her.

“I want you to get them,” he said with a smile, “and I want you to recruit them!”

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Creators PotatoCat and SquirrelHat would like to apologize for the possibly horrible Russian translations used for Spoons’s dialogue. However, since they both don’t known Russian, they were forced to used Google Translate and have no idea if it’s accurate or not. Thank you!

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Writing done by PotatoCat. Editing and art done by SquirrelHat.