They all simultaneously gasped. For once, I felt the crowbar connect with something...

I had definitely hit something.

My eyes finally opened, and I just barely managed to glimpse the crowbar buried into not one of the balls of light... but its shadow. A wild scream erupted from the glowing orb, and it blinked out, bursting into a small shower of crimson.

"Their shadows!" I yelled out to Jared as I slowly regained the orientation of my surroundings, "Hit their shadows!"

As I looked more closely at the now backing up fairies... I noticed that the shadows appeared almost tangible compared to the illusory appearance of the lights. Were the shadows their true bodies? Did they operate on a completely different principle from reality, where their shadows were light and their bodies were darkness? I don't know... I don't know how any of this works and I don't think anyone could figure it out no matter how hard they thought about it... None of this even feels like reality anymore... but what I did know... is that we needed to strike at their shadows and not get touched by them!

The king seemed apprehensive for a second, but then giggled again and went back to staring at Aaron's closed eyes. The smaller things seemed reluctant to attack again, but at the urging of the king they slowly began to advance towards Jared and I.

A gunshot rang out, and I heard a squeal as one of the fairies exploded.

"Guns work!" Jared shouted.

I swung hard through the raindrops at the nearest fairies' shadows, causing the glowing lights to be torn to shreds. Without bothering to go after the others, I charged with everything I had towards the king, lifting the crowbar as high as I could manage.

Just as I was about to swing down onto his head, he lifted Aaron to the spot I was about to hit. I jumped back and stopped my swing, the thing sneered.

But little did it know, that's exactly what I was hoping for.

I couldn't help but laugh with relief when I saw Jared behind it, with the gun poised to fire at its shadow. It turned back just in time to see Jared pull the trigger. The sound of the gunshot echoed through the whole forest and a massive hole appeared in the king's ball of light, just under its mask-like face, blood spewing out of it.

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The thing dropped Aaron, and I rushed to pick him up in my arms.

The mask of the king turned to face Jared, the light around it flickering, and it let out a sad chuckle, like it was disappointed that its playtime was over. Jared fired again at its shadow, and the king's face exploded in a shower of blood. Its entire body vanished with a huge flash of light.

The other orbs were motionless in the air for a long moment, and we expected them to turn on us. Jared and I shivered, moving closer to each other, expecting the things to come at us all at once and tear us apart. We beat the big one, sure... but there was still dozens of the things around us... However, to our surprise, they all started to giggle hysterically. Their shadows flashed and danced violently, the grating noise of their giggles filling the air as they started to float upwards, going against the rain. Gradually, the giggling faded as the orbs disappeared through the black clouds and the only noise was the falling rain and howling wind.

My eyes widened with disbelief as I saw the empty clothes begin to fill up again with their owners. With a strange flicker, the bodies that the clothes belonged to slowly materialized around us. Dozens of skeletons, many of them crumbling and withering away like they were ancient.

Killing the "king" must have "broken the spell" or something of the sort, freeing those who had been abducted... but it was too late. They were all dead. How long had they been vanished? Where had they been taken to begin with?

I heard Jared vomit next to me, and I felt the urge to as well. But more than anything, I was relieved that Aaron had escaped that fate. I looked down at him with tears in my eyes. I was so worried... I thought I would lose someone else...

We had managed to save him.

"Let's get away from here before Aaron wakes up. Or before anything gets drawn to us by the all the ruckus we made..." I said, stepping forward with Aaron still in my arms. Jared followed behind me as we left the clearing, passing into the thick trees again. A twig snapped behind us.

I violently turned around to the source of the sound and saw nothing but the trees swaying in the wind. Aaron stirred in my arms, and his eyes fluttered open.

"...Dad...?" he muttered as he rubbed his eyes, "What happened?"

I gently put him on his feet, "Don't worry about it, everything's okay now... I'm sorry about what happened Aaron, but those things... they messed with my mind, or something, somehow. They made it so I couldn't see them until you ran away. But me and Jared took care of them... everything's okay now... everything's okay."

His eyes watered, but sparkled, "It's okay... I was so scared... but now... now I'm fine. I'm glad we're all together again!"

"We were really worried..." Jared started, "Aaron, no matter how scary things get, no matter how hopeless it may seem... We need to stick together, okay?"

He nodded, "Right!"

I'll be more vigilant... I won't let anything else twist my mind like that again... I will stand firm.