Ib ran through the forest, trying to put as much distance as she could between Mary and herself. Her mind flashes back to the gallery, every scary moment flooding back to her- headless manikins reaching for her throat, black claws coming out of walls, Mary’s enraged face as she charged at her with a knife… Ib wouldn’t dare look back for fear of seeing monsters following close behind.

Making it all worse was a strange noise just barely audible- yet even through her gasps for breath as she ran, the noise was impossible to ignore. Thinking that perhaps she had run far enough to stop for a moment, she paused to listen. She was unable to really make out the sounds clearly, but she thought it was maybe the sounds of a far off monster or something whispering. As she strained her ears, she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye, but no matter where she looked, she was alone…

But still she couldn’t shake the feeling she was being watched, and it drove her forward. Desperate for some sense of security, she ran back to where her camp was- of course, she had been tricked into dismantling it, but at least it would be further away, out of this forest. And there aren’t any living trees or giant spiders there, just rabbits and bees.

She soon came out of the forest, relieved to see the bright sun shining down on the grassy fields, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. That noise still hadn’t stopped; if anything it seemed louder. She felt a headache growing, and when she finally allowed herself to look back at the forest, she definitely saw a shadowy beast staring back before it faded into the shade.

She shuddered and kept moving forward, reassuring herself that it probably couldn’t leave the shadows, that she had left everything bad behind in the forest. Yes, here in the sunshine there could be nothing wrong! That was what she had missed so much while stuck in that gallery, right? The light of the sun. Now that she had that, nothing could go wrong…

This and other half-formed platitudes floated up, trying to dispel her fears, but none of them seemed to be working. Ib was hardly a foolish child, and she knew she was in almost as much danger here as in the forest. But she also knew, if there was anything wrong, the rabbits would have hidden. So if she checked on them, surely she could see if everything is alright.

As she saw the rabbits moving about normally, she finally managed to smile. They didn’t seem to sense anything wrong, so surely she could relax. And yet… those shadows she saw moving were in front of her now. So close to them, she could make out a giant jagged mouth and many pointed legs. It seemed darker now, more substantial.

And yet, the rabbits didn’t seem notice it at all, even when it walked right through one- but as it did, the rabbit shook for a moment, then its white fur turned black and its eyes took on the same bright evil glow. Ib backed away in fright, and the beast seemed to smile, its maw growing larger. The noises she had been hearing grew along with her panic, and soon all the rabbits had been transformed the same way.

Seeing the friendly little bunnies being turned into monsters, Ib couldn’t help but shout in fear and run back the way she came, but where could she go? Mary was back in the forest. This evil shadow followed her into the grasslands. Nowhere was safe.

Madotsuki had a hunch Ib would run back to her campsite, and that scream confirmed it- though she had no idea what would get that scream out of her, the place seemed perfectly safe before… all the more reason to get her to safety. She ran out of the forest. Despite the lack of trees, she found the girl hard to spot, but she finally saw her through a large shadow being made by nothing. Seeing its glowing eyes, she instantly knew what was after her, and ran into battle.

The shadow beasts, two of them, were focused entirely on the terrified Ib, but the one blocking the way to the forest soon staggered as the dreamer stabbed it in the back. It turned to face her, too slow to retaliate as she slashed at it faster and harder, soon falling over as one of its legs is hacked off. Madotsuki couldn’t help but smile a little as she saw shock in its eyes before she finished it off. The corpse was reduced to a shadowy blot, and she turned to face the second one.

Unlike that night when she fought them before, they didn’t seem any fainter after one of them fell- if anything more of them were starting to appear. Ib was curled up in a ball out of sheer terror, but thankfully the monsters were focused on Madotsuki now. She ran forward to slash at the second one, but it reared up to avoid the attack as a third snapped at her from the side. She gasped in pain, wrenching her arm out of its grip and backing away to rethink her attack, clutching her arm as the pain subsided. Luckily these things didn’t leave any physical injuries, but she had a feeling they could still kill her if they got the chance.

Ib must have heard her gasp, because she finally looked up. “Y-You...”

“Run, Ib! I’ll catch up later.”

“But… you’re hurt...”

“Just go! I won’t let these things be the end of me.”

Ib trembles as she gets to her feet. “You promise?”

Madotsuki nods, and Ib runs off. The monsters tried to give chase, but she quickly put herself between them and their prey, slashing the monster in the lead. It backed away in pain, and Madotsuki could already see the others in the back looking less substantial. So there was something about Ib that was drawing them to her… now that she was escaping, they were losing power.

Emboldened by this news, she charged at the monsters, quickly leaving a large gash in the lead shadow, killing it before moving on to the next. However, before she could hit it, the creatures all vanished at once. Madotsuki blinked in surprise, but soon realized Ib was probably too far away for them to appear. Or maybe they were scared of her? Probably just wishful thinking.

Stowing away her knife, Madotsuki let out a sigh. At least they were gone. And they left behind those strange shadow blobs too. She had the urge to take them, but there were more pressing worries. She had to find Ib again, before more of them show up…