It was obvious the animals pulling the carriage were not horses.

  Not unless horses could travel through the day, the night, and half the next day without stopping.

  I stifled a small whimper.

  The burning in my ear had spread — sometime in the night — to the rest of my body.

  Now everything hurt.

  The pain was excruciating.

  I hated myself for the whimper.

  And I think it was that self-loathing that delighted Marcus more than anything.

  “How are you doing over there, Beeg?” he asked cheerfully.

  I glared through my one good eye, not trusting myself to speak.

  If I opened my mouth, I might start crying.

  And that was never going to happen.

  So instead, I glared.

  “Would it help you to know none of this is personal?” he asked.

  Then, thoughtfully,

  “Well. Except the pain — I enjoy that.”

  Then he pulled back his hood, taking a grateful breath of air.

  “Ahh, that is much better,” he smiled.

  I watched in stunned silence.

  The man was breathtakingly handsome. Beautiful even, his golden curls framing his sharp, elfin ears.

  “What?” He said, looking at me with eyes like pooled shadows. He had no irises, no corona, just… shadows.

  “I admire your endurance — truly I do,” he said conversationally. “I almost wish we had met under different circumstances. I could use someone like you.”

  He sighed sadly.

  “But alas, even you will not hold up much longer.” He gestured to me.

  I refused to look, but if the pain was anything to go by, I was probably grotesque.

  “So anyway, no need to hide my face,” he finished cheerfully, pulling the curtain aside and cracking the window.

  I glared.

  I hated.

  And I glared.

  “You know what’s funny?” He continued after some time. “You are so different from the pathetic, sniveling weasel you were when I first saw you.”

  He didn’t say it cruelly. He said it simply as a fact.

  Yet it didn’t hurt like I thought it would. It didn’t hurt because I had realized it, too.

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  I had grown. I was no longer the same.

  I didn’t even remember my real name anymore.

  Or maybe Beeg was the name I was always meant to have.

  “But also, this never would have happened had you not met Vaarg,” he exclaimed happily, as if this was all such a wonderful coincidence.

  “You gained so much,” he exclaimed, holding up his left hand.

  “And it cost you everything,” he whispered, leaning forward and cupping my face with his right.

  “Was it worth it, Beeg?” He asked, his voice a cruel, shadowed whisper.

  I glared at him, tears pooling in my eye.

  I wanted to scream.

  And I wanted to sob.

  And I wanted it to stop.

  But I didn’t want to give up.

  I wanted it to be fair.

  He leaned back, smiling happily.

  It was true, maybe he had taken nearly everything from me.

  But he hadn’t taken it all.

  I grasped my rag and slowly started to clean the seat on which I was slowly crumbling.

  I still had this. If it was the last thing I would do.

  I would still clean.

  ____

  At some point, my eye had run dry of tears to shed.

  So I simply leaned against the wall, moving my rag in rhythmic circles.

  It was soothing.

  Cathartic even.

  When Marcus spoke, I paid him no mind — for he no longer mattered.

  Instead, I found myself thinking over the things that were important to me.

  Which, to my surprise, included only the last year of my life; my time before nothing but shadows.

  I thought of the granny goblin baker and her terrible pies. Terrible, but filled with love.

  I thought of Old Man Jenk and Mr. Mekopolis.

  But mostly, I thought of my friends.

  Of It and Ugly. Of the Cloaks.

  Of Stupid.

  I thought a lot about Stupid.

  Her friend fries — that drew a choked laugh from me.

  Her broken innocence.

  I even thought of Vaarg.

  His tyrannical mentorship.

  But mentorship, nonetheless.

  I thought of Matilda and her team.

  Of the utterly insane Asset Procurement team.

  And of Joe. I had only met him once, but he had changed me so much.

  I thought of the Store, who had somehow become something of a friend.

  How terrifying it was.

  But also how grateful I was for its quiet companionship.

  And I realized something.

  If this was how it had to end, alone and with this pain?

  I wouldn’t change it for anything.

  I sighed and settled myself back.

  The pain was lessening now, my body not having much left to feel it.

  And that was ok, because I had been allowed to feel a lot.

  I moved my rag slowly, with barely enough strength left to do so.

  And I smiled.

  ____

  The World shattered with the sound of a cannonball, blasting the carriage off the path and sending it tumbling, jostling me with it.

  “BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEG!” I heard my friend shriek.

  I cracked my eye and gazed at Stupid through the rubble, as she clambered through the portal she had blown through reality.

  The thing was easily 20 feet tall, and crackling the most ominous shade of green I had ever seen.

  My heart broke as I saw her smile fall from happiness to dawning horror as she looked at me, so I tried to smile to help her feel better.

  But I just wasn’t able to. I don’t think I had the muscles left to make myself smile.

  Stupid shoved an entire lemon in her mouth, and I watched as she dawned her “serious face.”