"We're done playing games, right?"

I was suspended in the air, hanging from something I could not see. Ash was sitting with crossed legs at some sort of kitchen table. She had the most interesting, scrunched face as she rapped her fingers on the smooth tabletop.

"What?" I asked back. My mind was hazy, but I knew right away what was going on. Who she really was. Why I was here.

"Yes, you know everything. I know everything." Ash stopped her rapping to wave her hand at the space around us. "So what is all this?"

'All this' seemed to be nothing more than a small, orange and white kitchen set up. Or, most of one. There was the table Ash sat by, a counter, a fridge, but details just stopped a few short feet after like. Like a painter who hadn't finished his painting, everything else was pure white. We were surrounded by nothing, trapped in an unfinished kitchen.

"Am I dying?" I asked.

"No," Ash said with a hmph, like she was disappointed. "You are hiding. I've peeled apart everything there—everything I thought was there. I saw your whole dull, violent life and was ready to move on. But then these started appearing. Little fragments of things I have never seen before."

The witch wiped her hand over the smooth surface of the table. She looked at her fingers as if expecting something to be there afterwards. Of course there was nothing. Everything in that damn house was perfectly clean.

Ash and I both gasped when the table cracked in half.

"There," she said, her eyes growing big like saucers as she looked from the ruined table to me. "You must tell me what this is. What it means. You must show me."

"Careful," I said with a little smile, "you're starting to sound like the Hunter."

"Maybe I am." Ash looked back down at the table. "Yes, maybe I am. There is so little time, though."

"Before your drug wears off?" I couldn't hide my excitement. It would just be one less problem to deal with.

"No."

Ash moved in the blink of an eye. She stood in front of me—floated right before my face. Her hands caressed my cheeks much like the witch who created me had wanted to do.

And, just like that, Ash was the witch. White hair, wrinkled hands, and dark, dead eyes.

"Soon, you won't remember anything."

"Let me go!" I cried, shaking from side to side.

"Whoah, easy there!"

I was deposited on the ground and felt the tightening of grasses come around my body almost immediately. Stallion stomped some free while I was able to pull apart the rest. I was stronger, but still weak. Still bleeding. My leg was just as numb as before.

"Sorry," Stallion said as he lowered himself beside me. "You were so quiet before, I wasn't expecting that. Think you got enough strength to climb on?"

Thankfully, I did. But it was panicked and jerky as more wildlife stretched to catch hold. Their efforts didn't do much to stop me, however. The vines and grasses broke down easily against my flailing as I clambered on top of the horse.

"We're still on the stairs?" I asked as I surveyed our surroundings. My voice was weak, ragged. Coughing didn't seem to do much to clear it.

"Did you pass out or something, man? It's only been a few flights since we last talked."

"Yeah." I shook my head and looked up. There were still layers of stairs caked with moss, flowers, and grass above us. All shaking with reaching, clawing life. "I guess I did."

Stallion kept moving. With me on his back and the foliage significantly weakened, we moved a lot faster. But, in just a few short flights, we started to see what might be causing the plants to wither before they even reached us.

A massive flower was blooming. It was attached to the ceiling of the building. Or, what I assumed was the ceiling. The flower took up what I could see above us with its oranges, yellows, and reds. As we continued to ascend, the greens of the plant life that coated the stairs were gradually changing in color. As if to match their mother flower, these orange and yellow plants remained stationary. But, whenever Stallion stepped on one, they released a strange, blue mist that coated his legs.

"Does that hurt?" I asked him after we ascended a few of the warm colored flights. He was moving a lot slower now, despite the lack of forces actively trying to stop us.

"It's cold." His voice shook. "Like, freezing."

That was new, and definitely unsettling. Was Lilly getting stronger? Or had she been holding back this whole time?

"You going to be alright?" I asked Stallion as I awkwardly petted his neck. "It's only a little further."

It had been a long time since I had tried comforting someone that wasn't Kat or myself. I think Stallion could tell by how his laughter filled my head.

"Yeah, I'll be alright. Thanks."

I stopped petting him as my cheeks burned. It was embarrassing, but not more so than the simple fact that I was being embarrassed at a time like this. What happened to the social butterfly I used to be? Was that Alex swallowed up by the familiar now known as Foxy?

It was stupid to think about at a time like this, but I had to know. If I was ever going to have a life outside of witches and familiars, I had to know if that Alex was still in there somewhere.

"I think he is. If he wasn't, you wouldn't be worried about it in the first place, right?"

"I thought I said to stay out of my head," I snapped back, but I didn't try to correct him. There was nothing to correct.

We were near the top, the flower laying just a few flights ahead, when we found Tusk and Mary. The boar and the girl lay across a landing, coated in the blue mist. Neither of them were moving.

"Foxy, wait!" Stallion shouted, but I was already leaping off from him.

My leg cried out when I hit the ground, but it held. My time atop Stallion had given me more time to rest, and I wasn't about to let it complain now. The chill of the mist hit me as soon as my shoes connected with the warm plants. It was as Stallion described. Freezing.

"Mary," I said as I feel down next to her. I winced as the cold sprayed against my arms, but I still reached out for her.

Her skin was like ice. Just as cold, and just as hard. Her eyes were open, but they weren't staring at anything. They weren't blinking.

"Foxy, its okay, man. They're alive."

"How would you know?" I asked. I said it with a growl in my throat, and I meant it. He didn't know what dead looked like. Not really.

"You can't hear her? She's talking. She's talking to you."

I gasped, and then felt stupid for doing so. Was he trying to make me feel better? If so, he was far worse at it than I was.

"What's she saying then?"

If he was going to go this far, I was going to see just how far he would take it.

"She's saying Ovidia and the kids are in the room just above us. And to stop being stupid, wasting time, and get up there and save them already."

"Stallion." I looked away from Mary to glare at him. How dare he. How dare he. "Knock if off before I seriously hurt you."

And Stallion collapsed. Just like that. He fell to his side and blue mist erupted from the numerous plants he crushed.

"Shit." His black eyes widened and frantically looked all around before they settled on me. "Foxy, I didn't—"

His words stopped. I could almost feel his physical presence leave my mind. Just like with Hornroot. Just like when the Hunter blew him to bloody pieces.

"Hey, you didn't say it was that bad." I tried to stand, but my legs only gave out on me. Not from pain, but from nothing. The cold had taken me and I hadn't even noticed.

I fell face-first into the waiting foliage. They were crushed easily beneath me and for a split, horrible instant, I was consumed by an excruciating cold.

Then, nothing.

I awoke sitting at a table. It was lined with food of immense and elaborate proportions. Scores of meats and fruits. Colorful things on trays I had never seen before. Actually, most of what was laid out before me was things I had never seen before.

But something was wrong.

A chill, like a strong breeze, swept through me. Enough to make me shudder.

I couldn't smell the food.

"Nuh-Nicely duh-done, Ah-Alex."

Mary was sitting across from me. Thanks to impossible width of the table and the stacks of food, I hadn't seen her at first. She was wearing her green armor with the yellow cape again. It clattered together as she shook in her seat.

"No dress this time?" I asked her.

Indeed, I was wearing what looked to be a black suit. It made me think of a butler, which then made me think about the Lady and Rosetta. Not something I needed to be worried about right now.

"Wh-What?" Mary shook her head side to side as she rubbed her hands up and down the plate of her arms. "S-Stop it, Ah-Alex."

"Stop what? I'm not doing anything. Am I doing anything, Stallion?"

Stallion was sitting a little ways down on the same side as Mary and had been busy looking around the room. His eyes trailed over the stain glass windows and pillars made of solid gold before they fell on me. "I dunno, man. You are acting kind of weird. Where are we?"

"Mouse's dream," I answered with a wave of my hand. "You can tell by how over the top this place is."

"S-Stop!" Mary squeaked. I think she had meant it to be more of a shout, but her voice could barely contend with her chattering teeth. "Do you guys not remember what's going on? And why do I seem to be the only one freezing here?!"

"It is because they do not remember that they remain unaffected," Ash spoke up.

She sat at the head of the table, like she had always been sitting there. Like we were all here for her.

Our eyes met and I felt my tongue shrivel inside my mouth. I tried to move, but so did the chair I was sitting on. The armrests and legs suddenly came alive, wrapping around my limbs and holding me in a vice grip.

"Ah-Ash?" Mary asked between shivers.

"Oh, hey, it's been awhile," Stallion said with a little, polite nod.

They obviously remained unaffected. The witch gave me a little smile before turning her attention to them.

"Yes, Stallion, it has. I have to say, I am pleased to see you all here, sharing in Mouse's dream. Though you three must be in serious trouble if you decided to allow each other in now of all times."

"W-We are!" Mary gasped out. "Ah-Ash, pah-please. I-f you cah-can get to Cah-Kat, y-you n-need to tuh-tell—"

"I understand," Ash interrupted, holding up a hand to silence Mary's stutters. "But you should know that our time is running out together. This may be the last time I can help."

"I cah-can guh-get muh-more!" Mary exclaimed. "Puh-please!"

"Wait, what's going on? What's happened to us?" Stallion asked. He looked at me—right at me, and I watched his expression go from confusion to pure horror. "Alex?"

A hand fell on my shoulder, and the grand dining room fell away. The food, the windows, Mary, Stallion, all of it was swallowed up by darkness. A darkness even my special eyes couldn't see through.

"Sorry to do this when things were getting so interesting," Ash whispered into my ear. "But I can't have you spoil everything for me. Not yet."

I imagined I was flying. Sailing through clouds. Everything below me just specs and splotches of color. So many things could be happening below me and yet I wouldn't know about it. None of it could affect me, way up here.

But then the bodies of Mary, Stallion, of Tusk broke through the misty, white clouds. Skin coated blue. Eye's open but not staring at a thing. Mouths still open in shock and horror.

I opened my own mouth to scream, and was answered by pain as my cheeks and mouth split open. The cracking of ice filled my ears and I screamed some more. More pain, and nothing came out my mouth. That wrenching, splitting sensation moved down to the flesh of my throat. Shards of ice rubbing and breaking became the only thing I could hear.

I tried moving, and it was the worst mistake of my life. Worse pain. Ice crumbling and snapping loud enough to make my eardrums ring. But even those—my ears, felt like they were splitting apart too. It felt like my body was crumbling apart.

That was when I saw my arms and realized the terrible reality. It wasn't like my body was crumbling. I could see literally see my skin, frozen with ice, crack apart at my every movement. Each pain was worse than the last. Every movement agony.

But I didn't stop moving. If I stopped, I would be just like Tusk and my friends. I would be dead.

"Let me go!"

As the constant shifting and splitting of ice slowly fell away to background noise, other sounds began to replace them. Like shouting. Rapid shuffling of feet. Banging against walls.

"I'll make them eat your eyes, brat. I really will. I don't need those to get us home!"

"I don't care! I won't leave her! I won't!"

I was standing up now. My body was practically alight with needles and knifes stabbing into every open spot. Frozen pieces of clothing and skin flaked off me as I moved, but I couldn't stop.

The room where the shouts came from was just one more flight above. We had been that close. I wasn't just going to let it end like that.

The monstrous flower still made its home on the ceiling. It's blood red vines lined and coated the door I wanted to get through. They looked more like veins than any sort of plant I had ever seen. For a moment, I was worried about what I would have to do to myself to get through, but the vines shuddered when I raised a hand towards them. When the tips of my crumbling fingers touched them, they fell away like I had forcibly pulled them off.

They weren't protecting a door at all. What remained of the door lay in pieces in the center of the room. Ovidia and Leaf stood amongst it, the witch standing over the prone body of Maple while the boy hugged and pulled at a young girl who appeared melded to a wall coated in more of the orange and yellow plants.

These particular flora were in constant motion. Like a field of grass blown by a strong gale, they rolled and waved and hugged close around what was visible of Lilly's body. There wasn't much. Leaf was grasping a single arm as he cried and pulled.

He hadn't noticed me, but Ovidia definitely did. She had cut herself off mid-threat, screaming and cursing as she tumbled away from Maple and nearly into one of the walls breathing with life.

"What the hell?" she said after a series of nonsensical words.

"Mmm..." I said. It was all I could say. I pointed down at the witch who remained lying on the floor.

Leaf stopped his struggling when he heard my voice. I only knew it was him by his voice. Otherwise, he was a beaten, gangly, sunken-eyed child who didn't look like he had eaten in months. Somehow, he looked even worse than his sister.

"Foxy?" he said.

I don't know why it set me off, but it did. I rounded back on the witch, and she screamed again as I took slow, purposeful steps towards her. She shot out a hand, as I was momentarily halted by an explosion of buzzing and chittering as bugs erupted from her palm. My world went black again as they swarmed around me. I still couldn't feel anything besides the pain of my body falling apart, but I watched as bugs of every shape and color latch on to me. Or, rather, what was left to me.

What they intended to do, I'd never know. Every last one that landed was instantly coated in the blue mist that coated me. Their bodies froze up and they fell off with the rest of my skin and clothing that continued to rain down at every step.

And I was still moving. Walking towards a witch who was quickly realizing her attack did next to nothing.

"Wait, wait, wait!" She cried. When I didn't wait, she spoke faster. "You're Foxy, right? The familiar with the red hair? If you came all this way to save those brats, then you should know something!" She pointed at Leaf, making me pause for another second to look. "You may be immune to my babies, but they sure aren't. Their bodies are swarming with them. You came because of them, right? Well if you do one thing I don't like then my babies will eat them alive. They'll start at the brain, just in case you think you have enough time to kill me before anything permanent happens to them."

"She's lying!" Leaf shouted. "She needs us!"

"I need you, you little brat. Your sister, on the other hand, has played her part for me. Except for a gambling piece of course."

Ovidia smiled wide at those last words as she turned back to me. "So, what'll it be, Foxy? You let me go, let me take the boy and this bitch here, and I'll let you keep flower girl—no bugs attached. You can even keep tree arm, if he's still alive of course."

Shit. I could feel it. Even as my body crumbled and cracked, even as Leaf cried and Ovidia's remaining bugs swarmed threateningly in the cramped room, my legs wanted to move. My arms wanted to grab her and squeeze her until she broke. I wasn't going to let her go. Not again.

"Just kill her, Foxy," Leaf said. Tears still dripped down his cheeks, but his eyes were clear. "Don't let her hurt anymore people."

"Shut-up!" Ovidia shouted, her voice cracking. "You're not the one bargaining for your sisters life. He is."

The witch's face fell when she looked back to me. She was screaming again when I lunged for her. I was screaming too, at the pain of more of my body falling apart, but it came out more as a dull grumble.

"Liebling!" Ovidia shouted as she tried to tear through the plants in the far wall, "Hel—!"

Her shouting was cut off by my cold hands on her throat. Even as my body shattered to pieces, I was still strong enough to pin her to the ground. I felt nothing as her feeble hands clawed at my broken body or when her bugs swarmed me. They ate at my eyes and burrowed into my mouth, but I could still feel her neck in my crumbling hands. Through the cracking ice, buzzing insects, and the continuous ringing, I could hear her chocking gasps slowly fall away to nothing.