"What are you doing up here?" Scott asked.

I fiddled with a piece of straw. In the couple days since I had built the tower, it had become my thinking spot. And I thought a lot.

My current reason was the dream. I didn't know what the Watcher - Watcher 1, by the sound of his voice - meant by the Shadow, but I didn't like it. I especially didn't like that the Castle Alliance had renamed their base to the Shadow Tower only a day before I had that dream. And Ren had already proved that he was very vulnerable to mind control, if the attacker promised him enough in return. I had also got a similar warning right before the tests of loyalty, when Ren officially became the Red King.

I didn't think it was a coincidence.

"Thinking," I finally answered Scott.

"I told you, the whole Shadow thing hasn't happened yet. We can't stop it any more than we could stop the Red King. We just have to wait for it to happen, whatever it is, and hope that it isn't another band of weirdos who call themselves soldiers and are way too possessive of banners and tables."

I laughed despite my worries. Scott had a way of simplifying things to the point that they were just ridiculous.

I followed him down the ladder to the main floor of the Scottage Tower. Pearl, Cleo, and Scott had all moved into the new tower. There was enough space for them there. There was enough space in my tower, too, but not for a long time. If we were attacked, we would demolish the bridge and all go into my tower until we were safe again. Foolproof.

We gathered in the Scottage Tower when thunder rang across the landscape, announcing another Boogeyman.

3...

2...

1...

Crossing my fingers had not worked last time. So I didn't.

You are...

Not the Boogeyman.

I sighed with relief.

Pearl, however, tensed. "It's me."

"Why is it always us?" Cleo raged. "Why can't they choose someone else for a change?"

Then she added, "Can you kill Bigb again?"

I shuddered as I remembered the fight. I was still guilty, even if the Castle Alliance had forgiven me. "Isn't he fine as he is?"

Cleo's expression darkened even more. "I want him out."

"Bigb betrayed you once, and now you want to kill him until he's out?" I asked. "What kind of revenge is that?"

"No, I'll do it," Pearl said. "I have to kill someone, right?"

"But that will put Bigb on red, and probably put the Castle Alliance against us," Scott reasoned. "Just because you're the Boogeyman doesn't mean that you do whatever you want, you still have to do what you can to help the Scottage Alliance."

Pearl bit her lip. The curse was telling her to go kill someone, even if that someone was one of us. But she wouldn't kill one of us. We were telling her not to kill Bigb, but Cleo was and it was a free opportunity.

"Tell you what," Pearl said. "I will set a trap, and tell you where it is so you don't fall into it, and whoever falls into it falls into it."

Cleo grumbled a little, but she agreed. So did Scott and me.

Pearl gathered some various redstone supplies and set out to make the trap. Scott, Cleo, and I went into the mines.

Since it was my first time in the secret catacombs under the Scottage, Scott and Cleo showed me around the upper level first. We had a sugarcane farm, where all the sugarcane had been stolen, so Scott went to get some more from a secret chest. We also had a Nether wart farm and about ten secret chests, hidden around the catacombs with secret stashes of extra sugarcane, Nether wart, and cactus. They also showed me their secret chest that had their real valuables, including their iron, redstone, lapis, and four of the shiny blue rocks that were so hard to find. Then we actually went down into the mines.

We spent two days with no sunlight. It sucked, and we only found two more diamonds. But we were all determined to find more, so we kept going. That is, until Bigb died from fireworks.

Bigb Statz went out with a bang

Cleo cheered. "Nobody kill him now, I want to get his last life!"

"You can't until you're Boogeyman or red," I said. "You better not go red on purpose."

"I won't," Cleo said. "Which is why I'll do everything I can to keep Bigb safe until I am."

Cleo's methods were complicated, but they made sense. To her.

We went up to the surface to see if Bigb's death had been somehow caused by Pearl. Maybe her trap had involved a lot of fireworks. Her ways of killing people were usually very creative.

Pearl had been there when it happened, but she hadn't killed Bigb. The death had happened at the Shadow Tower, while she was trying to negotiate for an observer. Lizzy had randomly turned up, accused Bigb of helping to cause her turning red, and asked, "Do you want to go out with a bang?"

Bigb had replied, "I'd rather not go out at all, thanks," and then Lizzy had taken that as a yes and killed him with a firework crossbow. Pearl, who had been standing next to Bigb, had gotten hit as well, although he took most of the damage. However, the force was enough to knock her out.

Once Pearl woke up, Ren had helped her get back home and told us the story of what happened.

We sat in silence for another minute.

"Another red," Pearl mumbled.

Ren went home after that. Pearl was laid in her bed in the Scottage, since she didn't have the energy to climb the tower. We gave her some ice to put on her burns.

"But what if I don't make it?" Pearl worried. "If I don't get a kill before the next Boogeyman is chosen, I'll be red."

"You set the trap, right?" Cleo asked.

"Yeah..."

"You should be fine. Where is it?"

"At Spawn. I put a chest there that someone won't be able to resist opening."

"So, don't open any chests at Spawn," Scott said, as if Cleo and I hadn't heard.

We left Pearl to rest. But we also decided that we would take turns keeping watch over the Scottage, because a red name could just come along and kill her in her sleep if they wanted to.

I volunteered to take the first shift, since I really didn't want to go back into the mines. They were stuffy and claustrophobic, and you never knew when you would accidentally open up a cave and allow a bunch of monsters to get into your tunnel.

I checked my watch every few minutes, when a red name sent a message. I don't know why I did, because no red name would just post their plans on the chat, but I checked anyway.

Pearl woke up a few hours later. I got her some more ice and told her to go back to sleep.

She refused, so when Ren called for help, she insisted on coming.

I told her to stay in bed, much to her disappointment. Scott and Cleo ran up the mineshaft and into the yard, where they also told Pearl to stay, and then followed me out the door.

We ran all the way to the Shadow Tower, where Ren was surrounded by red names. Lizzy, Bigb, Skiz (when had he turned red?), and Joel were all there to take the defensible location (and the yellow name who inhabited it) for their own. The only reds absent were Bdubs, who was still probably trying to get Etho to throw himself off a cliff, and Jimmy, Mumbo, and Impulse.

Now, Ren had backup. At least now he wasn't outnumbered.

Cleo, Scott, and I rushed into the courtyard, ready to fight. Ren was hiding in the tower while the reds stood outside, waiting for him to shoot at them from a window. When we charged in, they turned around, surprised to see that anyone had come to the rescue.

Scott, who (being an elf) had always been good with a bow even in Third Life, pillared up on top of a wall and started to shoot at the reds. Joel, who was on top of the wall as well, charged him, but Scott dropped the bow and pulled out his sword. They engaged in combat.

I charged Lizzy, leaving Bigb for Cleo. She might have been a red name, but I wasn't scared of her. She was a builder, not a fighter. She was easy to take down.

Lizzy Shadow was slain by Bluemoon Tay

Joel yelled in anger and fought harder. I went to help Cleo.

Ren jumped out of a window and engaged Skiz. Their fight took them out of the courtyard and into the forest while Ren yelled, "This is what you get for messing with me!"

Cleo was fighting Bigb, and he was proving to be pretty good at combat when he wanted to be.

Joel, his face as red as his life heart, hit Scott a couple of times before pushing him off the wall. Even that short fall proved fatal.

Scott Major fell from a high place

Cleo managed to stab Bigb. He yelled, "It was one kill!" before bursting into red flames.

Bigb Statz was slain by Cleo Zombie

She had gotten her revenge.

My watch vibrated, probably signaling that Ren had won against Skiz. But I was too busy ending the rivalry between Joel and the Scottage, because a rivalry couldn't exist if one of the main players was dead.

Joel retreated, running into the forest.

I checked around me before realizing that there were no reds left. Cleo was standing triumphantly over the remains of Bigb, Ren was panting as he ran back into the courtyard, Scott was probably back at the Scottage. We had all lived to fight on the same side.

We invited Ren back to the Scottage for safety, but he refused. We weren't sure why.

Cleo and I started back to the Scottage. We met Scott along the way. He had not spawned back at the Scottage for some reason. Instead, he had come back to life at Spawn. We gave him his stuff and then together the three of us headed home.

Then, we realized the hard way that we had left Pearl unguarded.

We came home to find Joel in the main room with a sword to Pearl's throat. Too weak to fight back, Pearl hung limply, groaning with pain when he touched her burns.

"One more step..." he threatened. Pearl whimpered.

We stopped. The threat didn't have the same weight as it would have if she was red or even yellow. But we still wanted to avoid her death if we could help it. But looking at Cleo, she was practically exploding with anger and would run forward at the slightest signal from Pearl.

"You guys keep killing me and my friends," Joel said. "So choose which one of you I should kill as revenge, or I will."

We looked at each other and came to a mutual agreement. We didn't want reds, and Scott and Cleo were both yellow.

"I'll do it," I said.

"I don't know. Pearl was the one who turned me red the first time. And she looks awfully pained, maybe I should put her out of her misery."

It hadn't occurred to me that if she died, she would wake up with all her wounds healed, good as new.

We exchanged glances again. That shed new light on the situation.

Pearl said weakly, "kill me."

"Make up your mind," Joel said. "Pearl or Blue?" If you guys can't choose, I'll just go with Scott or Cleo instead. How would you like your alliance torn apart by a red name? That would be interesting."

"If you turn me red, the only person dying because of that is you," Cleo growled. Scott nodded in agreement.

Pearl had four lives. I had three. Nobody could give lives anymore.

One one hand, I could sacrifice myself, turn myself yellow, and keep the Alliance afloat longer because of Pearl's lengthened green namehood. But on the other hand, Pearl had more lives, so she would be light green. That would make us all go red at roughly the same time, so the Alliance could persist even after we were all red.

Of course, there was a third option: resolving this peacefully.

"Joel, what happened to you? Why are you like this?" I accused him.

Scott looked at me, a silent warning not to mess with the red names, or they'd multiply.

"What do you mean?" Joel said, narrowing his eyes.

"You used to be fun to be around, back in Empires. You used to kill horses and chickens, not people!"

"What's the difference?"

"You can't," Scott said to me.

I knew that. Last time I had tried to make a red see reason, everyone's memories of the givelife spell had been erased.

But I still had to try.

"What would happen to Mezalea if you went back like this? What would happen to the other Empires? Jimmy. Scott. Lizzy. Especially Lizzy. What would she say if she saw this happening?"

"She's dead," he spat.

"She's probably watching this right now," I said.

"And since when do you know all about the workings of the dead?"

"Since when do you?"

Scott snickered.

"You're not like this, Joel. It's the Red name speaking, not you. Now CUT IT OUT."

Surprisingly, it did. "What in the..."

He dropped his sword. "Pearl, I had no idea what came over me! I'm sorry!"

Pearl studied him for a minute before determining that the apology was genuine. "Get out of our house."

Joel nodded and left.

Scott stared at me in amazement. "It worked."

"It won't last long, though. Pearl, get back in bed."

Without complaint, she staggered up the stairs into the bedroom.

"Where did you get that ability?" Cleo asked once she was gone.

"What ability?"

"That way of getting people to do what you want in a peaceful way."

"I don't know. I guess I've always had it."

"You must have been hanging out with Scar," Scott joked, referring to the fact that Scar could get anyone to do anything he wanted just by talking to them.

We laughed. We had made it out alive for the second time that day.

Cleo decided to watch Pearl while Scott and I went to talk some sense into Ren. He couldn't live alone forever. He would die very quickly, no matter how good he was at fighting. He didn't have any enemies that I knew of among the reds, but it was only a matter of time before someone decided they felt like attacking him.

On our way there, we discussed all that had happened at the Shadow Tower and the events right after. There were four reds (Bdubs, Jimmy, Mumbo, and Joel) and four ghosts (Grian, Skiz, Lizzy, and Bigb) that we knew of.

What if one or two of those ghosts were watching us right now?

Ren refused our offer again, insisting that he had allies. It was only then that I remembered the conversation I had heard between him and Martyn over two weeks ago, and the next day I had told him that Jimmy, Mumbo, and Impulse were perfectly good allies. Jimmy was the only loyal Southlander left, since Mumbo and Impulse were red now.

As for Magical Mountain, the two inhabitants remained separated. But we didn't exactly want Scar in the Scottage, even though he had technically never done anything to us.

Team B.E.S.T was down to Team E.T. because Bdubs was red and Skiz was out. But I supposed that if Bdubs still considered himself part of the group, it was Team B.E.T.

The Castle Alliance was all but gone. Ren was the only remaining member, and it was obvious that he didn't like Cleo very much for what she had done to the Fairy Fort. I didn't like her much for that either, but she had been red and not in control.

As for us, the Scottage, our alliance was still strong. I hadn't heard rumors of any kind of someone conspiring with the enemy. It was safe there, we all told each other if we were Boogeyman, and we trusted each other with our lives.

We were just about to leave when suddenly, a message popped up in the chat. It didn't have a name, meaning it wasn't from any particular person, like a death message. But it wasn't a death message. It was worse.

Impulse Esvee has spawned a Wither. Prepare to fight.