After Harry had been slain, and Lory and I were confused about a ghost from my past, we decided to set up camp. According to Funk, it is getting dark outside. We only saw darkness but alright. We put down our tents and lit the campfire. Funk looked at me as I told him about the ghost from my past. Funk seemed to be thinking as he grabbed some coffee out of his inventory. “I think it all makes sense.”
Lory looked up, “What, it does to you?”
Funk nodded, “Yes, it makes perfect sense.”
I scratched my nose, why is my nose this small? “Well, if you know the answer, Funk, explain to us what is going on.”
He took a sip, “Alright, this is what happened.”
“You told me your ex-wife is dead, she is confusingly named Haley as well. You blew up the dark core that made Harry come back as a dark monstrosity,” he pointed at Lory sitting on my lap, “Those nasty little buggers bit her a few times.”
Lory giggled, “They bit you too.”
Funk nodded, “Then that purple hole appeared, the ethereal vortex that claims dead souls. Haley is dead. Hence, she is in the ethereal vortex. You were about to get sucked in, Steve. If Haley is dead, then she came out of that hole to save you. You mentioned her muttering she is not allowed to interfere, she is dead, a ghost. Thus, she is not allowed to help you. This also explains why the vortex had no pull on her, she had leaped out to save your ass. Then, when the hole in reality closed, she went back inside.”
Lory looked at me, “that actually makes sense.”
I put my hand on my chin, “It does make sense. It makes a bit, too much sense.”
Lory nestled against me, “Perhaps it is best to be grateful she saved you. Her golden eyes must be because of the time she spent in the ethereal vortex.”
I nodded, “My ex-wife coming back as a ghost to save me. I did not deserve that.”
Funk looked at me, “Why is that? You were married, right? Of course, she would save you if she could do so.”
Then I remembered, I never told Funk what happened. Lory knows. I sighed, “It is complicated, Funk.”
He chuckled, “Tell me about it, life is complicated. What do you think Haley is doing now? Your daughter.”
Lory giggled, “Yep, confusing. She is probably working her charms on Melin to get to Purgatory.”
I looked at Lory, “Seriously?”
She shrugged, “You saw them at the BBQ.”
Funk nodded, “Yeah, they were all touchy.”
I shook my head, “Haley is most likely still clinging to Shirley, there is no way she can let that go.”
Funk sighed, “Maybe you should learn to let things go.”
I laughed, “That is not my forte, I cling to people like, I don’t know a metaphor. But if they are dead, I can still bring them back!”
Lory nodded, “He has a point Funk, you should keep holding on, no matter how tough the fight will be. You need to give it your all to get the person you lost back.”
Funk shook his head, “If you guys want to live like that, then be my guest. It is only going to make your life hard. I am turning in for the night, we need a watch.”
I raised my hand, “I will keep watch.”
Lory nodded, “Alright, darling.” Funk went into his tent and Lory kissed me before turning in.
I sat down on a log and looked around, “Back on the brick road, but this time to head to Sector 07, and in a shadow world.”
Eris stepped out of me, “Mind if I join you?”
“No, not at all.”
Eris smiled at me, “The others are sleeping. Lory is a nice gall.”
I nodded, “She is perfect. Without her, I would go insane. This quest will be hard. I am sure we can find those gems. If we pick up our pace tomorrow, and hope for little trouble, we might make it to Sector 07. Do you think, we made a mistake? With letting Haley, my daughter, go alone?”
Eris shook her head, “She had to leave the nest to make her own choices. She will be fine, Abby and Bella are with her. Once we are done with this quest, we will meet again.”
I sighed, then I heard something, a clicking noise. I wanted to look behind me, but Eris grabbed me, “Don’t look, remember?”
“Do you hear it too?”
“Behind me, but I am not looking.”
“Eris?”
“Yes?”
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“I don’t see anything behind you.”
She grinned to distract me, “I see nothing behind you either.”
I closed my eyes, “This place is fucked up.” After a few minutes, the clicking faded away.
Eris still held me, I looked at her, she turned red and quickly backed off. “Is something up, Eris?”
“No, not at all, nothing going on here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, just, ignore me.”
I chuckled, “You are a bit weird, aren’t you?”
Eris giggled, “Only a little bit. This place is gloomy, and those weird sounds are not making me feel better. Why don’t you go to sleep, Steve? I will keep watch.”
I nodded and went to my tent. After getting comfortable, I snuggled against Lory, she grabbed me and mumbled a bit, “Who is keeping watch?”
“Eris is keeping us safe.”
“Alright.” She quickly dozed back off. It did not take me long to fall asleep, but some things went through my mind, what is going on with Eris? What is going on with my ex-wife? And why is Funk hell-bent on letting people go?
The next morning, Lory woke me up, “hey sleepyhead, it is time for breakfast.”
“Oh, did I sleep in?” She nodded. I climbed out of the tent, Funk and Eris sat there. Eris handed me a sandwich. “Thanks for that,” Lory handed me a coffee. “I was thinking, if we pick up the pace, we can reach Sector 07 before night falls.”
Funk nodded, “that sounds like a good plan but if we get ambushed on the way, we might have to set up camp near, or in the swamp, let us hope there are no shadow mosquitoes”
I snorted, “I think, except for the weird clicking sounds I occasionally hear, and the moving shadows, we should be fine.”
Lory looked at me, “You hear them too?”
“Yeah, but Eris told me not to look.”
She nodded, “I looked at Steve, but there was nothing. I heard something behind me, but I did not dare to look.”
We finished our meal and packed up camp. Eris stepped back inside of me, and we started following the brick road. Lory looked at Funk, “Why did the ethereal vortex not pull you through that hole?”
I chuckled, “Maybe he is dead.”
Funk sighed, “I am an Insectine, that must be the reason.”
Lory shook her head, “You are making lame excuses each time I ask you about it.”
Funk shrugged, “Perhaps, I would rather not share.”
“Just let him be Lory, he is good at keeping secrets. Everyone is being vague and keeping secrets. It is a whole thing, Thanos told me that some things can only be revealed when the time is dire.”
Lory sighed, “Fine, we will just have to wait.”
We kept on walking, I felt as if I were being stalked, but no monsters were around. A lot of the dead souls must have gotten sucked up by that portal, but as we kept walking, I had the idea, we are doing exactly what this place wants us to do, we are walking towards an ambush.
It took many hours to finally reach the swamp. I drew my blade, Lory looked at me and drew her blade. Funk did the same. “What is going on, Steve?”
“We haven’t seen a single monster, Rose tells me, an ambush is up ahead.” Lory nodded, and we slowly crossed through the small piece of swamp, heading into Sector 07. As we looked around, it was the same, only gloomy and dark. Funk did not seem to appreciate the view.
Shadows started gathering around us. They crawled out of the ground, they started surrounding us. All the exits got blocked by shadows. One of them charged at me, and I slashed it apart with silver energy. More and more shadows came our way. We started slashing them as we ended up back to back.
As we got more space to fight, I jumped around, slashing them in half, throwing tentacles around, blasting them with ice. Funk gently dodged between strikes and easily took them down. Lory seemed to be dealing with the shadows with ease as well. After a few moments, I lost sight of Lory, but she will be fine.
These shadows are weak, but there are large numbers of them. Funk called out, “Where the fuck do they keep coming from?”
“Dude, we are in the shadow world!”
Lory laughed with glee, she loves fighting a bit too much, “Can one of you guys help me? There is a giant shadow coming towards me.”
I sliced another shadow into pieces. “One second Lory” with my tentacle I slammed a few shadows aside, Lory stood behind me, in my peripheral vision. I glanced at her, without moving my head, as I was still busy fighting shadows. Not only did I hear the clicking sound when looking at Lory, I saw something that was not a shadow behind her, I have no clue, what that, thing was.