"Ready?" Coral asks. Without waiting for an answer she sets her face and lugs Amisha's foot off the branch. There's an answering groan from Amisha as her feet are pulled off asynchronously. I brace myself as her torso slips into view, nothing more than a ragged piece of fabric. It's nauseating, I don't know how Coral can stand it, but then I see that her face is struggling against her feelings. Well, that makes two of us.

Amisha's face falls into sight, and I heave a sigh of relief. That, at least, is unharmed. It's a little torn, yes, but not as mauled as my imaginings. I can see that Coral's relieved as well.

The next few minutes are a blur- I don't know how we got Amisha off the tree, followed by Seamus AND Anton, but we somehow manage it. Now for the real test-

Healing them.

Somehow.

I've forgotten that Darryl's even still here, so it's a bit of a shock when he suddenly sends into my head, Eclipse, you okay there?

Yeah thanks- where are you?

Exploring this place. It's. . .weird.

It's the Room, what would you expect? Anyways we've got them down from the tree, you said you'll help...?

Righty-ho, wait a second... After one second I hear him again. I'm here- oh wow.

I can see why he's a bit stunned. The macabre display isn't a pretty sight, what with the blood, gore and unconscious bodies. Mhm. Can you help?

Sure...lemme investigate first.

There's a moment of silence while me and Coral exchange looks, mine a worried glance and hers a completely expressionless one.

It seems like they got mauled or something, like with sharp pieces of bronze. I whisper Darryl's transmission to Coral and she gives me the tiniest of tiny nods. Ask Coral if she dragged them up the tree, because it seemed to have just made it worse.

I already did, duh. She denied it. Totally didn't believe her though.

Mhm. ..ask her again anyways.

I lower my voice so low that Coral has to lip-read. "Did you drag them up the tree or what? Darryl's asking, he says it made them worse."

She bites her lower lip, looking unsettled for the first time ever. "Yeh I did."

Well, that explained a lot.

So do you know how to fix them? I ask Darryl.

Yeah. Go grab some lumenitum, I've seen some over by the rocks there, near the brambles- actually the brambles ARE lumenitum, just called by another name. After that, grind the berries together to make a paste, and- Coral, ask her if she can make Nothing. I can sense the capital N as clear as anything.

She can make...Nothing? What on Ether Earth-

Just ask her, and stop asking so many questions on what Nothing is. Okay?!

FINE. It takes all my self-restraint not to burst out into questions as I ask Coral. She nods in assent.

Good. Now once you've got the paste, ask her to put Nothing into it, and force it into their mouths. 

This is as confusing as heck, but I obey the instructions anyway. He said he knows what to do, right? So adding Nothing into berry paste is absolutely sensible, right?

It's a short while in an almost trance-like feeling as I gather berries, smash them on a rock and watch while Coral adds Nothing to them. And it's true- she literally added nothing to the paste. Then, almost medically, I open Amisha's, Seamus's and Anton's mouths and force an equal amount of the weird nothing-paste into them. I'm not sure if it even works. I leave it to fate, and collapse, exhausted, and fall asleep.

************

As I lift my groggy eyelids ages later, I feel myself on the ground again, waiting...waiting..waiting...but waiting for what I have no idea. I hear snoring coming from next to me like a gurgling stream, and so I turn my head and see Coral, asleep. The slight rattling of pebbles as I move awakens her though. Apparently she's as light a sleeper as a piece of paper. She immediately jumps up, alert, but un-tenses when she sees that it's just me. "Hey," she says quietly.

She stands up like she wasn't even asleep, before whisking out of my line of sight.

I panic. "Coral? Coral?! Where are they, Coral? Are they alright? Coral? CORAL?!"

When she either didn't hear me or ignored me, I freaked out even more. I struggle to get up, but the ground refuses to move away from me, holding me prisoner. Then I realise: I'm somehow tied to the ground.

My heart drumrolls in my chest as my breath strangles. Darryl! I scream into my head. Darryl! Come in, Darryl! Please, now!

Whoa, Eclipse, Chill it. His voice is so calm, so aggravating-

You tell me how I can chill it! I tele-shriek.

Well, take deep breaths, focus on your happy place, let go of your worries-

That was a rhetorical question! Tears are burning into my eyes now, and I furiously blink them away. Tell me where they are, how they are, where Coral went, why I'm secured to the ground and...and...

One at the time, okay?

I nod numbly.

They're fine, didn't I tell you that they would be? They're over by West Brook by the way. Coral went to check on them. And the reason why you're secured to the ground is that, knowing your personality, we were afraid you would do something radically unreasonable.

Yeah, yeah. The tears are still burning into my eyes; but not from desperation, from relief. They're safe. We're alive. But still the fact remains that we're still trapped within the Room like bugs caught beneath a cup.

Darryl, I ask slowly, how long have I been asleep? And for how long, in Life time, was I in the Lingerance?

Oh, let's see...he tele-considers. From when you arrived in the Lingerance to when I took you back here it was around one Life day- time flies there, am I right. And you were asleep for around half a day, but don't worry, those who come back to Life in their Life body tend to be more exhaustible. So it's the second day since you died.

I calculate with my sleepy head. So I had died on day 2—then one day in the Lingerance, day 3—then half a day of sleepy-headedness. Which means...

"It's only day 4," I groan.

But still. I had never expected four days to pass so quickly, even if day 3 was spent in the Lingerance. The entire thing just feels so..unreal. Like a dream dissolving into mist. Almost as though I'd been moved from the home to directly I am now.

And once I become a slave and part of that confounded rotation, I'll be living in a nightmare and this and my past life will all be dreams, I think bitterly.

Then all of a sudden, Bradbury-Jones's cursed voice cracks the sky, filling me with some kind of nausea. I feel Darryl's presence jump; I would have jumped too, if I wasn't strapped down.

All she says is:

"Be prepared. You'll need to be."

With no one to exchange looks with, I tele-hiss to Darryl, Get me out of here. Now. Then go help Coral bring the others to safety.

What about you—

I'll be fine, I tele-assure him with more conviction than I really feel, trying to ignore the gnawing dread in my stomach. The others are more important. Save more lives. Now GO.

Fine, sure.

I feel my bonds loosen. Remembering to act as if we're being watched, I pretend to struggle before slipping myself free. As I wobbily stand up, I see a brook out of the corner of my eye—how did we not notice that in our search for water?—and catch a glimpse of Coral, seeming to fight an invisible force, which is, of course, Darryl, but the Puritans don't need to know that. They're shoving makeshift stretchers into shelter beneath a grove of trees, so I get up and make my way over.

The first hits me on the arms and a scream tumbles out of my mouth.

(Heyy! It's finally out! Tho idk when the next chapter will be out tho DX Soph -> out!)