I attempt to comprehend these two pieces of information: one, that Norton had slipped back out of the Lingerance and into Life. Two, that there's so much that Amisha knows concerning me that I myself am oblivious of.

Do you think Norton wrote that stuff? I ask Darryl as silence settles down between Amisha and I.

The shrug in his voice is eminent. He's annoying, but he won't stoop to that level.

Amisha continues watching me, her sad smirk transfiguring into a sad smile. The sun gently begins to set over the wisps of smoke from Coral's fire. Eventually I smell it—like bittergourd, but with hints of berries. How does she change her fire's smell? I realise that I hardly know anything much about Coral.

And judging on what Amisha said, I hardly know much about anything.

I get up and stride over to West Brook, feeling the cold sunlight on my face. An eerie sheen, like moonlight on water, rises onto the horizon. The more I walk, the less unchanged the landscape becomes, until I wonder if I'm even moving forwards at all.

My feet are sore, as red as the fading, ruby-tipped sunbeams. I sit down for an instant, on a similar rock to the one I had just left, to rub my soles. As I turn my head, I catch a fleeting glimpse of Amisha, spread-eagled in the same place.

Just as my hands touch the rock, the entire Room is plunged deep down into the pit of darkness.

Knowing better, I refuse the instinct to jump up and run. "What's going on?!" I yell. Did someone kill the power? A disguise for another horror? I don't know. All I can think is...not again.

"I don't know!" someone shouts back—Seamus, I think.

"Where are you?"

"Ow, watch it!"

"Argh, sorry about that—"

"Where is everyone?!"

"What's happening—"

I can't find Norton in this darkness! Darryl cuts into my head.

"Okay, everyone, STOP MOVING!"

Even though I can't see a centimetre ahead of me, I can feel the whole place freeze like we're attacked by stun guns at Coral's echoing voice.

"I don't know what's going on, I don't know where half of you are, but one thing's for sure—this was obviously meant to disorientate us! If we run around, more likely than not we're going to crash into a flock of Stymphalian birds, like last time. You really don't want THAT to happen again, do you?!"

Mumbles of assent ripple across the Room, and I have a vague feeling that I'm missing something.

"So do not stay where you are," Coral continues bossily, and be on guard. Who KNOWS what'll happen?" She pauses, as if considering something. "Hey, Ersline!"

"Yeah?" I call back?

"Seamus tells me that you're an Eletrolist, right?"

"Uh-huh..."

"Can't you shed some light around here?"

Spannit. Why didn't I think of that? "I'll try."

I concentrate on gathering my core energy, gradually letting it build up like bottled emotions, then picture a light glowing within me. Closing my eyes, then opening them again, I channel the energy out, to create the spark, and—

Nothing happened.

"It's not making a dent in it!" I shout to Coral.

"Spannit," she swears, before a new voice joins the chorus of babbling.

"Where are we?"

I think I nearly faint.

Because—oh my Norton—

That voice is Kristen's.

"Kris—ten?" I croak.

"Ersline!" he exclaims, cadences echoing with relief. "Ersline, where are you?"

"Don't move!" I gasp. Kristen's here? In the Room?

Darryl's right. He did get Snatched.

Then, just as suddenly as it had dropped, the night lifts to reveal the ability to see.

I blink in the sudden light as I instinctively raise my hand to prevent myself from being blinded. When the sun has softened ever so slightly, I lower my hand again to grab my blowpipe, but all I find are shards of broken wood, and I curse myself for breaking it before.

Something's wrong with the ground. How could something so barren start glistening like crystals, like diamonds? It laps at my swollen, bare feet like a little puppy, leaving my feet drenched with warm wetness. The several cuts I have on soles begin stinging as just a second later as my brain finishes reorienting itself from dark to light, and I know what's wrong with the ground.

There is no ground.

Only undulating salt water.

Now marooned on my rock like a mermaid without a tail, I stare into the waves, swaying and frothing almost magically.

"Coo—ee!" Kristen's voice shrills into my head. He's treading water like a swimming crab. Coral, Seamus and Anton drift along on a log like castaways. Amisha's clambered up a tree, hanging on precariously to a thin, unreliable branch. The height of the rocks and tops of trees above the the surface of the water's the same as when there was ground, but when Kristen disappears underneath the water in a gurgle of bubbles for a few seconds, it's obvious that the real ground's far below us.

Do I dive into the water, or stay where I am? I'm only so-so at swimming; no one can call me a fish or a dolphin. Most likely I'd crack my head open on a rock, and then what? The sun continues blaring angrily down as it always has, and I wish that such a thing as sunblock exists in the Room.

Yo, Eclipse!!!

The shock of it is so electric that my problem's solved as I topple into the water. Spluttering indignantly, I hoist myself back up. For the love of the Lingerance, Dosser—!

I hear a muffled chuckle echo through my mind and I glare at nothing in particular.

Norton's right behind you, he said through his laughter.

What?! I spin around, like I'm expecting to be able to see him, and promptly topple into the water again.

Darryl snorts with laughter in my head once more. He's asking you if you saw his...little note to the Manistromy. What's he talking about?

Ugh. I sloppily paddle over to another rock, glancing warily at my previous one. Is Norton on this rock, or the other one? Which rock is he even on? Is he even ON a rock? How I hate not being able to see Pariahs anymore. When I was with Moppet and Zipper and Sprinkle and the rest of them at the Manistromy, Norton slipped a note beneath the door after Sprinkle did some...stuff. It read, and I quote, 'You are all just a load of dumbos, thank you very much. Signed, your best pal, Norton.'

I swear I hear the tiniest splash and see a breath of mist as Darryl laughs long and loud in my head.

Beside me, Kristen reaches my rock. He gives me a little smile as he clambers onto it, then holds out his hand to me. To be brutally honest, he looks almost like one of those cheesy princes in fairytales. I roll my eyes–here goes nothing–then grab hold and pull myself up.

The first thing Kristen does as I sit down is to bombard me with a hailstorm of questions. Where are we? What're we doing here? Who are all these people? What's going on? and all that blah-blah-blah. I quickly give him the brief, leaving out the parts unfit for Dracondese ears. While I talk, I try to drown out Darryl's mirth. Amisha's branch breaks and she dives into the water, then swims to a rock. Coral, Anton and Seamus seem to be role-playing a pirate ship scenario.

Kristen's mouth flops open when I reach the part with the bomb. Who can blame him, though? It has to quite a shock to hear that your best friend got killed by a bomb, and yet sitting here casually telling you about dying.

"So..." he says, "does that mean you're...a ghost?"

"Not exactly," I say just as slowly. I put my feet into the salt water to kill off the germs, and wince. "I was one, for a little while. But they made me come back to Life."

But what about the mission–Darryl interjects, finally cutting off his laughs.

He doesn't need to know, does he? I snap back.

Kristen blinks. "I don't need to know what?"

I open my mouth and shut it again, flushing. "Nothing," I say, and I can hear my own voice tinged with guilt.

Who's that other person in your head? Kristen sends.

Groaning, I hunch over and bury my face in my hands. Two boys in my head? What an absolute treat.

Darryl and Kristen begin arguing over who should have the right to access my mind, via my mind. If you've ever turned the sounds of two cats being territorial into human voices and chucked into your head and can't get it out, that's pretty much what it feels like. Coral beckons me over to her log/pirate ship, asking me to join what little fun they can have at this point. I wave her off though, and start whittling a new blowpipe from a piece of driftwood, my hands tremblings for some reason.

I concentrate fully on my work, attempting to drown out the distracting catfight echoing through my consciousness. Eventually, I can't help but notice that the sun's nearing the end of its arc, casting fiery shadows around and that the two boys still aren't exactly done with their little spat. Ignoring the calluses on my hands, I flick off a final splinter. There–one new blowpipe, all done. I carefully put that and my little whittling knife back in my pocket, crossing my fingers that they don't get lost again.

Honestly, I've known her longer-

But I got her alive again, useless!

So what?

Oh, just SHUT UP ALREADY!!! I tele-yell. Kristen looks like he's coming out of a daze to stare at me. Dosser, I DO hope that you've told Kristen about the Lingerance?

Uhmm...

I thought not. Curling my legs beneath me, I begin to comb my fingers through my already-tattered hair. Tell him then. And PEACEFULLY this time.

Well, ever since the creation of the Lingerance- you do know what that is right?

Yeah...

Right, after she died, she went there and...

While Darryl launches into an explanation of the events in the Lingerance, I stare out at the water. The ripples catch the tongues of the fading sun in such a gorgeous way that it's almost mesmerizing. Coral starts diving for sea-grass, or else known as the plants we used to walk over before the weird flood, which she promptly hands round. I give her a nod of thanks as deposits wet green leaves on my lap. In return, she offers me an almost-psychopathic smile.

...and that's what happened, Darryl concludes.

Kristen's still staring at me, like he can't quite believe his eyes. "What?" I ask slightly defensively.

"I can't believe we ended up on the same rock..."

"Ohhh my Norton, not this again, please," I beg him. And that reminds me–Dosser, where IS Norton now?

He's...uhhh....oh spannit, I lost him–heheheheheheheh...

DOSSER!

I'm sorry, I'm sorry! he says in a totally-not-sorry kind of voice. I'll go find him now, I promise...

Fine. Get back to me as soon as you can.

The temperature's starting to shrink out of our rock. "Hey Kristen?"

"Mmm?"

I'm glad to see that he's moved on to staring at the water.

"It's getting chilly. Should we get Coral over to pick us up on her raft?"

He shrugs. "If you want. I'm chill."

I smirk a little. "Pun intended?"

"Pun totally intended."

I open my mouth to shout for her, but no need–she catches my eye and rows over. She's been pretty resourceful, using floating logs and vines she found on the ground to make a solid, sturdy raft. Kristen and I leap aboard; it wobbles dangerously for a seconds but fortunately it doesn't capsize.

As the first stars begin to twinkle through the final blush of sun, we inhale the sea-grass things in just a few minutes. In no way completely satisfied but not too hungry either, I listen as Darryl gives me a determined report that he'd sen Norton over to Sprinkle when he finds him. We pick up Amisha as we float past her rock. Coral stands like a seafarer on the raft, gazing into the distance. After we finish our meagre meal, Amisha puts her head on Anton's lap.

I never knew Anton could sing, but he can. He drums his fingers on the wood as he softly sings,

Heart beats fast

Colours and promises

How to be brave

How can I love when I'm afraid to fall

But watching you stand alone

All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow

And for the first time in a long time, with Kristen asleep on my shoulder and Anton's gentle melody winging its way through the air, I feel almost at peace. 

(YASSSSSSS I FINALLY BROKE MY MOD HIATUS!!! IT'S LONGER, IK, HOPE YOU ENJOY THE PLOT TWIST (: (lyrics from Christina Perri's A Thousand Years ofc- hope you realised that lmho

Spicca -> out <3)