Something whizzed between Mary and I.

"Oh," Ash said. Ash, who had been quiet and observing up until now.

Ash, who now had a hole in her head.

She was looking up at it, even as she fell backwards from the impact. The vast, empty space in her forehead then squeezed inwards, resealing itself. A moment later, Ash's pale head swelled three times its original size before popping like an over inflated balloon. There was still no blood, no gore, just a headless body that crumpled to the ground.

Mary, the wolf, and I did not move save for turning in unison to see the Hunter standing in the shore of the lake beside us, like he had always been there. His gun now trained on me.

It went off again with a popping noise like Ash's head had made when it exploded. Someone shoved me from the side as it did. I was expecting the wolf, and felt my heart freeze in my chest when, amidst my fall, I saw Mary instead. Her eyes no longer glaring, but wide open. Her mouth no longer scowling, but slightly open as well. Desperate. Desperate to save me.

Then the bullet tore into her, cutting a huge, gaping hole through her side. Her body was gone before I even hit the ground. No swelling. No pop. Just, gone.

"Kid, run!" someone screamed at me.

I was up and running, even if I barely felt my legs or my arms or anything. The Hunter moved his gun back in my direction, but an explosion of something tearing up through the ground beside me gave him pause. Pause enough for the roots of a nearby tree to reach out and grab his arm, pulling it out of my line of sight.

My feet reached the water when he brought his free arm up, a second gun ready to shoot me down. Something burst from the water and caught hold of the arm just as he pulled the trigger. A creature of mud moved the Hunter's arm just enough so that the bullet only grazed the side of my head. It hurt, but it wasn't enough to stop me.

Whatever reached out from the Hunter's chest was enough. A third arm extended out to meet me, it's third hand catching me by the throat and hoisting me up in the air. The arm was far too long to be human, the nails digging in my flesh far too sharp.

"Better," his sickening voice whispered in my ear.

Before the third arm could do anything further, the wolf rushed between us, his massive jaws tearing into the appendage. He kept running with the thing still in its mouth, giving me the opening I needed.

No new arm came out and stopped me from punching the Hunter as hard as I could across his face. His hat fell to one side, revealing—

But it wasn't the pale face with the sculpted darkness. It was smaller, heart shaped. It's eyes were no longer black, but a cold, unforgiving, brown.

"You think you know everything, don't you?" It whispered in my ear. Whispered in her voice.

I hit it again, just as hard, and the roots and mud man fell apart. The Hunter stumbled back, but not deeper into the waters of a lake. It's boots slid on polished marble. It caught a hold of a nearby pillar to keep itself from falling. It looked up at me again with her face.

"What have you ever done for me?"

I ran for the monster again, but he jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding my fist. Instead, it connected with the pillar made out of stone, nearly shattering it through the middle. I felt nothing.

I felt something when a shot from the Hunter's gun ripped apart one of my arms from the shoulder. There and gone in an instant. Like I never even had that arm. Screams escaped my mouth even before I felt the pain. Wherever the arm went, it had to be in a blender. Something that was crunching it and shredding it to pieces.

Through what little left I could see, I knew I was heading for the polished floor. Maybe splatter against it. Maybe never move from it again.

"You are no better than them."

It was still using her face. It was still talking to me with her words. Mocking me? Taunting me? What did it even want from me?

The pain, somehow, was receding. With it, my vision cleared and I saw I had not made it all the way to the ground. I was on my knees, with one of the Hunter's guns pressed against my forehead, keeping me from falling all the way.

"Show me more," It whispered. Not in Mary's voice. It's face was once again the pale mask. "Is this all?"

There was a pounding of footsteps somewhere to my right. Quick as lightning, the Hunter balanced his free arm on the arm still extended out to me and squeezed off a single shot. A high pitched whine followed and then a heavy thump of something hitting the ground.

"Show me," it's voice commanded inside my head, the force of which making it feel like my brain was being squeezed together.

"You damn witch bastard!" the wolf shouted from somewhere beside me. "If you're gonna kill him, you better do me in too! I won't be your prey any longer!"

I kept my focus—what little of it I had—solely on the black eyes of the Hunter. His face wasn't so much a mask. It was practically quivering in fury. The black eyes weren't even so black. The red hot fury was there too. The contempt. I had seen those eyes before. I remembered the feeling of seeing someone I hated to the core, hate me just the same.

I smiled. "Show's over."

The Hunter moved the gun away from my forehead, then struck me across the face with the handle of it. The meat of my cheek split open like over-ripe fruit and I screamed again as hit the floor. Those screams were cut off when he planted a booted foot firmly over my throat.

"I'll hunt her next," he said in her voice. Wearing her face, yet smiling down at me with such twisted deformity that I could never be fooled that it was her. "When I'm done with you, she'll show me inste—"

The Hunter was knocked off me and thrown clear across the room. He smashed into a painting and stayed there, suspended in the air. The walls around him cracked and fell away as he struggled against some all-powerful force.

"Hello again, Alex," Ash greeted. She was back with her head and still wearing the faded, torn gown. While she walked close to me, her listless eyes never left the Hunter. "Sorry."

"Sorry for what? You saved my life," I said as I stood up, only to fall again when I tried to use the arm that was no longer there. "Well, most of it."

"Your life is not in danger," Ash said, keeping her half-assed focus on her opponent. "If you fall here, your body still lives on. Your conscious simply ceases to be."

"That still sounds an awful lot like dying."

"Perspective," Ash said with a shrug. The shrug turned into a wince when the tops of three of her fingers were blown off. "Sorry," she muttered again while taking a few steps to the left, "I probably shouldn't talk."

I looked from her missing fingers to the Hunter. Still pinned to the wall, but a heavily shaking arm had extended. The gun in its hand was now moving painfully slow as it tried to angle itself towards Ash's new position.

"Can't you just kill that asshole already?!" the wolf shouted. He was lying on the polished marble not far away, in a pool of black blood.

"I cannot," Ash said, her brows furrowing in concentration as the Hunter's other arm began to pull itself from the wall. "This is not my dream, either. This is as much as I can do."

"It's gotta be you, kid." The black beast tried to stand, but only managed to slip on his blood. When I approached him, he snapped at me. "Now! You've got the real power here! Kill him!"

"I think ending his existence here would be unwise," Ash countered. She side-stepped again as another shot from the Hunter grazed her shoulder. "Mary and I still do not know where this Hunter has taken you. Unless we get the location from him here, you may never know how to return home."

"Cross that bridge when we get to it. Kid, if you don't kill him now, he could keep us here for as long as he wants. Eventually, you're gonna forget where home even is. Don't waste this chance!"

"You only need to buy time," Ash pressed. "I am bringing help."

I looked from the wolf, still struggling to find footing in his own blood, to Ash, visibly sweating and panting as she strained to keep the Hunter in place. Finally, I glanced down at my arms. The one that was shaking and the one that was no longer there.

"What can I do?" I asked. "I'm weak. I can't do anything on my own."

"You are never on your own," Ash's soft voice answered, making me flinch. I hadn't meant to say that out loud.

Her eyes were on me now, a small twitch of a smile pulling at her lips. "Not as long as you have my drug inside you."

"Do something, kid!" the wolf snapped. "If the Hunter doesn't kill you, I'm going to if you don't stop just standing there!"

"Alright, alright, I'm on it!" I shouted back, breaking into a sprint before the nerves could get a hold of me again. "Feel free to join me when you're done laying around!"

The Hunter stopped struggling when he saw me coming. I was halfway between him and Ash when his face changed back to her face. Another smile not meant for her face stretched wide a moment before the third arm burst from his chest again. This arm was not hindered by Ash's attack, but I ducked just in time.

"Oh."

Ash's voice again. My heart sank when I turned my head and saw the clawed hand gripping her face. Our eyes met for a split instant.

"Sor—"

The Hunter's hand twisted and Ash's head went with it. It went almost all the way back around before the claw let go and the witch's body crumpled.

The man in black was free, his feet falling to the floor, but I had not stopped running. And now, I had no nerve trying to hold me back.

The Hunter tilted his head to one side, avoiding my punch. The blow tore apart the wall instead. I had smashed a hole, but the hole stretched itself out wide around the two of us, like a doorway I could not see the other side of. Before my opponent could react, I grabbed him by the scruff of his coat and pushed us both through it.

The Hunter grunted when we came out the other side careening into schoolroom desks. His body twisted and flailed as he took the brunt of the metal. When he was on the ground, I made to capitalize, to hit him until there was nothing left, but something gripped my arm as I had it in the air.

The damn third arm. This close, in the split instant it held me, I saw it for what it was. A human hand, all things considered, with charred grey skin and ruby red, pointed nails. It was all I took in before it lifted me into the air and tossed me with ease out of a nearby window.

I should have had a great fall. The classroom – if it was the classroom I was thinking of—was on the second story. But there was no fall. What waited for me out the window wasn't even the grounds of the school. It was somewhere I had no memory of.

I landed in a bed that was far too small for me. My body bounced once before tumbling off the side. The carpet was pink and dirty. The smell that invaded my nose as I laid there and breathed was some mixture of perfume and sweat. I couldn't explain why, but it made me sick. But not just sick, chills were running up and down my body. I still couldn't explain it, but I wanted to get out of that room. More than anything else, I wanted to get away.

The door to the bedroom creaked open, and I was up and and scooting backwards frantically, without thinking. I knocked over a lamp with hearts and flowers on the shade and some giant stuffed bear with a bow on it's head. My breathing was ragged, my chest clenching with every breath, when the Hunter stepped inside.

His third arm stretched into the room, brushing over the rosy red blanket and pink and yellow curtains, as he surveyed our new surroundings. The pointed red nails scrapped over everything, leaving streaks of tears in its wake. I honed in on that third hand. Somehow, it was a part of all this. It knew what all this was.

"S-Stay away from me!" I shouted.

But it wasn't my voice. It couldn't be. It was too high-pitched, too strained. I sounded like Gust, or Leaf.

"Interesting," the Hunter said, tilting it's head at me. The damned hand reached out to me. Growing wide enough to fill the room. Wide enough to catch me, no matter where I ran. "Show me more."

It was coming closer. The hand with the pointed nails. It would dig into me. It would hurt me. No matter how much I begged it to stop. How much I cried. Please. I don't want to do it again. Don't make me do it again. Please, just—

"STOP!"

The voice was still not mine, but it tore out my throat just the same. It screamed with the passion I wanted to scream. It made the Hunter stop, just how I wanted him to.

The hand trembled and twitched, but did not move closer. His pale mask trembled with effort, but it did not heed him. The black eyes searched my face, looking for the answer.

"What—"

"GET OUT!" that voice cried out from me, and suddenly everything was moving. The bear and the lamp lifted from the floor and flew into the Hunter. Books on beauty, love, and popularity pelted him from the shelves, forcing him to back track. Finally, the small bed shot like a bullet from the ground and impacted with his retreating form, lifting the Hunter off the floor and back through the door he came in from.

He and the bed crashed through it, pulling the third arm into the darkness with them. As soon as they were gone, every toy, book, and piece of furniture still floating around came crashing down to the floor. I was surrounded by broken things I could not recognize, but it made me sick all the same. The tears came all the same. I screamed and cried and broke down without even knowing why.

...

I came to at the cool breeze blowing against my face. What I awoke to was so familiar, I did not even care that the Hunter lay across from me, attempting to stand just as I was. We were both on the hill that overlooked the mountains. The moment of overwhelming relief vanished when I turned and saw the Quincy cabin.

Destroyed. Burned. Decayed. Overgrown with vines, trees, and flowers. Ruined. It was completely, utterly, ruined.

"What did you do?"

The Hunter kept his face and his voice when he asked his question. It was a pale mask of a barely controlled mixture of anger and apprehension. His guns on his hips, but hands hanging close beside them. Body tense, but ready to move if needed. To run or attack, I couldn't be sure.

"Let me go," I said, rounding on the Hunter, "or I'm going to do it again. I'll trap you in my head forever."

"Trap me?" he said, confused, as if he could not even imagine such a scenario. "No, this is my trap. You are here because of me."

"Then make a move," I hissed. "See how far it gets you."

The Hunter paused for a moment more before reaching down for his guns. My body tensed. I wasn't sure how I got to this mindset. Maybe I knew I was at the end of my line. Maybe the Hunter was pulling the strings in my brain, making me think how he wanted me to think.

Or maybe it was because my missing arm had come back.

A line of fire tore between us before either of us could do anything. I took a step back from the immediate increase in heat, but the Hunter fell backwards, letting out screams that were cut off by sudden fits of coughing.

"You did well," Ash said, standing beside me as if she had always stood there. "I was afraid we would be too late."

I was fixing to agree with her, but by then my eyes had followed the trail of fire to reach it's source. A skinny girl with a shaved head and deep frown on her face.

The frown lessened, somewhat, when our eyes met. "Surprised?" she asked. Before I could answer, her focus moved to the ruined cabin behind me. "You just can't let go, can you?"

"Make it go away!" the Hunter shouted through endless coughing. He was still backing away from the fire, but he was nearing a thick line of trees with no way to get through. "Now!"

Maple closed her eyes and a smile came to her face that sent a chill down my spine. When she re-opened them, now trained on him, I knew he felt the same thing I did.

"Stop? Why should I?" She took a few steps closer, and the line of fire bended around the Hunter, cutting off any hope of escape. "Does this bother you?"

"Pl—!" the Hunter started, but his coughing had become too severe. He seemed to be struggling to breathe as he stood up, his back pressed against the wall of trees.

"Maple, remember, we need to keep him alive in order to—"

"Yeah, yeah," Maple said with a few casual waves of her hand. The fires dimmed, and backed a few feet from the Hunter. The latter practically collapsed on all fours, sucking in deep breaths that were in-dispersed with hacking coughs.

"You know your position," Ash said, moving ahead of me, her eyes trained solely on the Hunter. "Release Alex or continue to suffer."

"No!" the Hunter cried. Still on the ground, he shot his head up at Ash, and I caught it all in that moment. The trembling fury, the sheen of tears still staining his cheeks. "This is MY world!"

The third arm burst forth at his final word, making a beeline straight for Ash. I had time to intercept it. My body leaned forward, as if I was going to make good on that short space I had. But I did not move.

My body was trembling. My breathing coming suddenly short. And I did not know why. I could not move an inch as I stared at the gray hand and it's red, pointed nails.

But then I was watching the nails and hand as they fell to the ground, separated from the arm. The one who cut them apart moved nimbly through the fire. She threw her knife at the Hunter who had started to raise his guns. It connected with one of his forearms, pinning it to the tree. The second gun managed to get off a shot that blew out a hole in her stomach, but she just continued to run until she had the arm in her hands and was breaking it at the elbow over her knee.

The Hunter's scream was cut short again by his coughing. It tried to persist, but he only managed to choke out a few more feeble moans before Kat pulled the knife out his arm and pressed the blade against his neck.

Ash let out a little sigh as I could only stand there in awe. "Shall we try this aga—"

I was forced to leap away as a ring of fire exploded upwards around the witch. I only caught her eyes widen before the flames reached up above her head and she was gone. The fire remained in place afterwards, like a red-hot pillar.

"You remember what I said, Alex?" Maple called. Her smile was long gone and she nodded once to Kat before her black eyes filled me. "Stay gone."

In one, smooth motion, Kat pulled her knife away from the Hunter's neck and plunged it deep into the top of his head. She backed away to let him fall to his knees. I saw the white mask through the hole in my friend's stomach. It felt like I could count the seconds it took for him to close his eyes.

Then, there was nothing.

...

*Author's Note*

And so ends Foxy's ordeal trapped within his own dream. But what awaits him in the waking world? Whatever you guys and gals think, I'd love to hear it.