Bodies surrounded me. Bodies of my friends and family. I was pretty sure I even caught a glimpse of Slenderman's proxies further off. Each one sprawled out in the area of obsidian trees around me. A few even hung from tree branches like animals at a slaughterhouse; their blood dripped to the forest floor beneath them to form dark puddles.

A choked sound tore my attention away from the scene around me and I looked down; letting out a strangled scream as I found Tim lying at my feet. Fresh blood bubbled in his throat as he struggled to breathe. His dark eyes were dull and glazing over, though they still held a betrayed, accusatory glare. Looking down at myself I found my hands and clothes were stained with an all too familiar dark red. I shuddered and took a step back. My eyes never left Tim's as the life drained out of him.

"No... no... I know this isn't real!" I turned away, feeling sick, only to yelp in alarm as I found myself staring at... myself?

Pawn stared straight through me and down at Tim's body while holding his knife in her hand. Yet, just for a second, I could feel her gaze meet mine in full recognition of my presence. Another chill went through me.

"This could be you." Alastor snuck up behind me, hands brushing my shoulders as he walked around to face me. I flinched at the contact, dreading whatever he was about to do. "Powerful. A perfectly obedient killer... just like the toothpick wants."

"You can't be here." I didn't dare take my eyes off the demon as he stepped to the side.

A playful smile crossed his face as he stared at me with glowing eyes. "I'm not. You're unconscious... Still, even in a dream, I won't be allowed to stay long."

"Then why are you here? You aren't exactly helpful."

"Careful what you say, mortal." A low growled echoed in his velvety voice. "I made a little pact with Ethan- given we're stuck together for eternity- and came to the conclusion that I won't do anything to hurt you so long as I don't have to help you either, after this moment."

I glanced back at Pawn as she stood there unmoving.

"And you're welcome by the way." He huffed and glowered at me. "If it weren't for me holding you under that excess azoth might've made this scene a little closer to reality."

Fear flashed through me as I wondered what had possibly happened. I could remember HABIT finding us and being given that injection but everything after that... My head throbbed as I tried to remember and I gave up as Alastor started speaking again.

"You're the only being born here with human blood. That interests them. HABIT's search for a perfect vessel seems like it could benefit from this and Tentacles is curious what potential you could hold, which is the only reason you're still alive. However, iterations before this haven't proved much to your durability outside the ARK... and neither has this one."

"...Iterations?" I didn't understand anything he was talking about.

"Cycles. Part of the game Stick-figure plays with you. Your grandfather did something foolish and the curse of being hunted down by Him passed down to your father, who meddled and made things worse, and then to you. You should've died... but your strange birth changed plans." The area blurred and Alastors form flickered momentarily as he set up a new illusion.

The building we now stood in looked like an old college and now I was facing Tim rather than Pawn. His knife was in his hand and I glanced behind me to find he was staring down at Pawn. Blood and azoth ran from the long cut across her throat and several stab wounds, her breathing gurgling faintly until it died out.

"You wouldn't remember this, but in another cycle you were killed by Tim. In others it was Alex, or Toby, or Hoodie, your father, Zac, random events... It's funny how small differences can change everything. That mark on your wrist helps you fight it- something early iterations didn't have most of the time- while the people you met changed the path you took. Sometimes they ended up killing you as mercy, others in betrayal, and some as plain enemies."

"This doesn't help anything." I could barely get the words out, as I was too busy trying to process what he was saying. "Why does it matter?"

"This might be the last iteration." His form flickered again, this time staying faded. "Ethan might not be able to reiterate... and He's getting bored of this game."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"If you don't want to be dead or a proxy it is." The illusions broke and exposed pure darkness around us. Alastor's voice sounded faded. "I... I'm being blocked out. This is my last piece of advice... Your last chance... Ash to ash burn the ARK."

His form was swallowed by the darkness before I could even comprehend asking what that could mean.

The burning sensation still lingered in my veins as the azoth wore off and I groggily woke up. I felt drugged, though in a way I guess I had been. My head pounded as I tried to remember what happened while nausea swept through me. My muscles felt too weak to move and I fuzzily wondered if this was even real. The numbed, cloudy sensation didn't feel real. I stayed limp against whatever I was leaning against and let my eyes close again in hopes of clearing up my hazy vision.

The sound of a heartbeat drummed evenly in my ear as my senses began clearing up. I struggled to lean away, though it was getting easier to move again. New wounds revealed themselves from the movement and I gave a low groan. The person I'd been propped up against shifted and I tensed before observing Tim as he settled back down in his restless sleep. Dried patches of blood and azoth stained his clothes where I'd been leaning and mixed with his own blood in places.

Glancing around, I could see splatters and other pools of the substance around the area- leftovers from the brutal session. My mask was lying on the ground nearby, a large crack over the eye as if it had been struck by something.

"Was I- Did I become the Pawn from my nightmare? Was I that close to becoming a proxy in this... cycle? ...Assuming Alastor wasn't lying about any of that." I shuddered and looked back at Tim, more worried about him at the moment.

"Tim...?" I shook him carefully, unsure how injured he was.

He woke up rather quickly and looked at me, his face going a shade paler. "...Ash?"

"What happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I mean, I'm as fine as I can be after seeing that... I thought you were going to die. You were losing so much blood. I could hear your bones breaking." He observed me with a fearful look that was reminiscent of the one in my nightmare.

"Did I try killing him?"

"I told you I wouldn't... I don't die here." I looked away, feeling guilty for scaring him and afraid of what I couldn't recall doing. "But... are you okay?"

"Thanks to you, yeah."

"Me?" A confused look crossed my face. "What... What do you mean? What did I do?"

"After they injected you with azoth you... you just kind of went full Pawn? Proxy? I guess. I don't even think you felt it when they attacked you." His gaze drifted to a deeper wound on my abdomen. "After they... finished the session and retreated... I thought you were going to turn on me. You looked ready to kill me and anyone else you came across, but... but you collapsed to the ground. I didn't think you were going to wake up."

"Surprise." I muttered, hiding the sickening feeling of fear to hear even a brief description. I changed the subject. "So, um... how's your shoulder?"

"It's only a graze." He was lying. There had been too much blood for it to be a graze, though maybe it was now. The ARK seemed to heal proxies as well as myself at a faster rate, so why not Tim?

"We should get going before they come back." I shakily got to my feet before dropping right back to the ground with a shout as pain shot up from my knee. "...Or... not..."

I felt him shift into a more comfortable position against the tree. "Then we'll wait until you can."

"I can't save you if they come back. This time was just a fluke- they let me win. You need to get out."

"I'm not leaving you behind, not after seeing that..."

"Nothing worse than normal." I shrugged and coughed; the taste of azoth burning my throat. "I'll get away eventually..."

"Or become one of them... what'll happen if they try that again? If Alastor did prevent me from killing Tim this time, that means next time I won't have anyone to stop me."

I once again felt him moving around but didn't look up from the ground until I felt him picking me up. Pain from half healed wounds made me jerk and tense up from the action. Wanting to hide the pain, I bit down hard on my tongue.

"Just tell me where to go." He carefully adjusted his grip and looked around as he slowly began walking, leaving the broken mask and gruesome scene behind us.

I sighed, giving up on trying to change his mind... Honestly, I was glad he wasn't going to just leave me here. "Well, The Operator probably doesn't think we'll be back just yet... we could go back that way... Otherwise we'll have to get through HABIT's Candleverse."

"I'd rather not see him again."

"Don't blame you." I coughed again and stared out at the trees around us.

We fell into silence, carefully listening for any sounds other than Tim's footsteps. The fact nothing seemed to be stalking us didn't help with my paranoia. I couldn't shake the uneasy feeling they were planning something, especially after my violent reaction to their earlier experiment.

"I don't remember what happened- if I hadn't been so injured, and I guess without Alastor's 'visit'... Would I have actually killed Tim?" I shivered subconsciously at the thought. "What if it's still in my system? What if I can't fight off Slenderman's control because of it now? What if they inject me again and he's able to take control permanently?"

A new thought struck me as I continued piecing together everything that had occurred. If it was true, then things might've just gotten worse. "What if Pawn isn't being controlled by Him?"

"Are we still going the right way? I feel like we're going in a circle." Tim broke through my thoughts.

"The boundary is just up ahead." I twisted in his grip, dull pain radiating from my abdomen still. "After that... um... I actually don't know the exact location we need to get to."

"What?"

"The only reason I know it exists over there is because of Skully... I think he helped me get out the first time I was trapped here but... I don't know. I think that thing wiped my memories of the exit."

"You mean the person in the skull mask?"

"...Yeah." I looked up at him. "I never said I trusted him. I said he helped me get out of here... In all honesty I'm sure Toby wouldn't have found me so soon if he hadn't been following me with that damn camera."

"I don't know what he's up to, but, he's the reason I knew where to find you." Tim paused for a moment. "He... I don't know. Something about him just seems familiar."

"Sooner we get out, the sooner we can hunt him down and find out why."

"I'd rather get both of us cleaned up and another refill on my prescription before that."

I gave a small huff of laughter, though it was more tired and sarcastic sounding than amused. "I kinda thought that was just a given priority."

***

We'd been wandering for hours now. My limp had improved, though the constant movement kept it from healing completely. I did my best to ignore it, Tim had already carried me long enough and I didn't want to make him continue. His claims that his shoulder wasn't bad were losing their merit; I could see the Rake had made the 'graze' worse. It had started oozing blood again due to the fact he kept reopening while carrying me. Knowing it was my fault just made me feel worse.

"At least the forest looks more like Rosswood's... that has to be a good sign, right?" I stared over at Tim as he began coughing again. "It's getting closer... This is the third time he's had a coughing fit."

I looked around, trying to spot The Operator among the trees but like before, couldn't see anything. Honestly, even I was starting to feel ill. I just hoped we could get out of here before the sickness got to us.

"Do you need to rest?" I glanced over at him. "I can scout ahead while you do."

"I'm... fine..." He panted and continued walking behind me.

I sighed and continued without argument. Getting out of here would help... hopefully. "What if The Operator follows us out? It's not stuck here."

We came to a stop a few minutes later as Tim collapsed to his hands and knees, a coughing fit wracking him violently. Concern washed through me as I saw blood but I refrained from asking him if he was okay; he'd only say he was fine. Instead I silently stayed by his side until he got back to his feet.

"Ash, behind you..." His gaze slipped past me as he unsteadily stood up.

A chill went through me at his words and I turned to see a man limping closer, his eyes glazed over and blood still running down his face from the headshot he'd taken. "Alex... That thing saved him again! It's keeping him alive... healing him."

I instinctively grabbed Tim and tugged him after me as we began to run. The pain in my knee worsened, slowing my pace as it threatened to give out each time I stumbled. I felt Tim pull me in another direction and immediately saw what he was aiming for; a tunnel. Our footsteps echoed through it as we fled, almost managing to get to the other side before feeling a high pitched sound go through my head that felt like a drill going through it. The Operator towered over us and I fell back onto the ground as I tried to back away. Glancing at Tim, I found him on the ground coughing and seemingly struggling to breathe.

"Tim..." The world tilted as I got back to my feet, my teeth gritted together as I fought against The Operator's influence. "Tim, get up..."

I managed to pull him halfway to his feet before nearly buckling as he put all of his weight on me. Through the hazy of panic and building nausea from the vertigo I could tell he was having trouble moving, not that it was hard to notice. Alex limped over from behind The Operator and I began backing away, practically dragging Tim at this point. We'd never make it out of here before Alex caught up or the faceless being took us god only knew where.

"I could get away. If I left him behind..." I forced the thought away. I wasn't leaving Tim here to die.

Another painful, slow step backward. Then another. Alex raised his gun at us. My heart was hammering in my chest. I could hear more footsteps behind me, running in our direction. Tensing, I prepared to attack... Only to see Skully slow to a stop next to me and stare down at Tim. Even with the mask over his face I could almost sense the man's pain.

"Where did he... but... the ARK was behind us...?" I glanced at the normal forest behind us before snapping my attention back to Skully as he spoke.

"Get him out." Skully put his camera down and stepped between us and Alex.

I nodded, hoping I could actually manage to get Tim far enough away before my leg gave out... After a few more steps it didn't seem likely. Nearly at the entrance, I shakily slid to the ground. Tim was completely unconscious, which was at least better than Masky coming out to deal with.

"Just once... can we get out of things without nearly dying?" I didn't know who I was asking, begging, but I doubted anything but the void heard me.

I began coughing, quickly tasting blood before seeing it drip to the ground in front of me with dark azoth accenting the crimson. Everything was growing fuzzy. The Operator was closer to us once more, making the attempt to escape all but worthless. There was the sound of fighting behind him but the bodies of Skully and Alex just seemed like blobs of color. It was agony to get back to my feet. My knee barely held me up as I glared at the thin entity and kept myself between it and Tim.

A gunshot and shout echoed through the tunnel. I didn't know who was hit. Between the ear-bleeding sound in my head and the disorientation it caused, I barely knew how to keep my balance.

"I need... to end this... Make... him leave..." I was about to collapse. "Will it hurt him... the mark... it could... I should try... It'll burn... Alastor... Alastor said to burn something... right?"

I used the last bit of focus I had to reach out and touch The Operator. Instantly white hot pain seared through my veins. For a moment I wondered if it was only affecting me. Black ichor dripped to the ground seconds later, relieving me of the fear that I'd made things worse.

The Operator vanished and I collapsed to the ground twitching violently.