Chapter Text
That same scene kept replaying over and over in Riley’s head: Luna runs for the gap, the ground beneath them breaks, they miss the rope, then they’re gone. It constantly replays in their head, as if the world was trying to remind them just how terrible of a person they were for coaxing a child into doing something as dangerous as that.
Luna had even gone as far as to saying they loved them, and what do they do in return? Ignore their pleas to get some rest and disregard their safety in favor of chasing any hopes of escaping? How were they supposed to handle the fact that they’d indirectly harmed, or quite possibly killed, a child who placed all of their trust in them?
They had all the power to stop and rest, as well take control of the troop. However, they didn’t exercise it. It was only inevitable that their hands-off approach to this would eventually lead to someone being harmed. Maybe they weren’t really cut out for being a Scoutmaster after all…
They should’ve had more of a backbone. If they agreed to get some rest and told Jamie “no” when it came to these dangerous jumps, maybe Luna would still be here.
Instead, they were gone… probably dead—
They shook their head. Now was not the time to have such a defeatist attitude. Myres did promise them that something good would happen if they sacrificed the golden Bing Bong statue. They could only hope that “something good” meant that Luna would miraculously be alive. They could possibly have a chance at fixing this.
They chose to do it in secret because they didn’t want anyone to start getting reckless. Even if the kids have done an exceptional job at being cautious, they didn’t want the idea of what was effectively a cheat-death to allow them to disregard their caution. It was just far too risky.
They glanced over at Jade, who was just emptily staring at Jamie. They had no idea what was going through that kid’s head. Their lack of facial, or any, expression made it difficult to read them. Whatever they were thinking about was probably not positive though.
While they hadn’t played a significant role in the troop, instead mostly staying reserved to themselves, it was clear they had some degree of attachment to Luna as well. Not only that, but they also had to deal with the fact that their younger sibling was distraught by the situation.
Riley didn’t really like that Jade had the tendency to shut themselves in. Perhaps it was due to the fact that they had to be strong for Jamie, but that was incredibly bad for one’s mental health, let alone a child. They didn’t want to pry though. It just didn’t feel like the right time to.
“What now?” Jade whispered, their eyes still fixated on Jamie. It was clear the question was for Riley though.
I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to speak up about that statue now…
“Well… Myres… or, well, a ghost that looked like him, told me that if I dropped that gold statue in the lava, ‘good things’ would happen. My theory, and hope, is that this ‘good thing’ was used on Luna.”
“Get to the point,” Jade snapped. They winced immediately after, making it clear that wasn’t their intended tone.
“Right. So, I think the obvious thing to do here is to backtrack and keep an eye out for Luna. Ideally, they’ll be alive because of that… ‘good thing.’” They swallowed a lump that suddenly appeared. They hated what they were about to say. “And… if they aren’t… they at least deserve to rest somewhere better than here. But… I don’t want to start thinking like that, so…”
It seemed that Jamie had picked up on the conversation because they had perked up at the possibility of Luna being alive. “W-Wait! You’re saying… they could be alive!? The hell are we doing here, let’s go!” Their exclamation seemed more desperate than commanding.
Jamie then shoved Luna’s backpack into Jade’s hands. It seemed that Jade got the memo instantly because they put the backpack on right away.
“Well… if there’s a chance they’re alive…” Jade softly smiled. “Let’s go save them.”
Just as Jamie reached the edge of the platform to plot out the troop’s descent, a familiar ghost appeared from below.
Myres.
This time, he had some mysterious golden aura surrounding him. It seemed pretty close to the gold on the statue, so maybe dropping it in the lava had empowered him…? How was this good for them though?
Jamie jumped back instantly. “WHAT THE—”
“I apologize for the scare, but I must deliver some urgent news.”
“Urgent?” Jade asked. Surprisingly, they didn’t seem fazed by his appearance.
“Yes. First of all, thank you for your donation, Riley. If not for you… your little friend would be dead right now.” Myres paused as a proper staircase started to spiral up from below. “Now, with the power I have left, I’ve given you both a way down to Luna and a way out.”
“What’s the catch?” Jamie asked.
“The catch?” Myres laughed. “There is none. Riley held up their end of the deal, so I’m holding up mine. However… I didn’t have enough left over to get you all the way to the top, though I was at least courteous enough to have it drop you off near a cluster of rocks close to the top.”
“That’s perfectly fine. As long as we can get to Luna, I’m okay with whatever you can give us. And thanks for holding up your end of the deal.” Riley put out a hand to shake with Myres but then remembered he was a ghost. “Uh… right…”
Thankfully, Jamie butted in, getting the spotlight off of Riley for a minute. “Hey, why are you a ghost and not that creepy zombie looking guy? Did you, uh, die again?”
“Hmm… well…” Myres paused, as if he was trying to find the words. “When I died, the island claimed my body and expelled my spirit from it. Some dark force uses it as its puppet while my spirit is trapped in Nadir.”
“How are you here then if you’re supposed to be trapped?”
“The statue that Riley sacrificed to the volcano gave me just enough strength to escape momentarily and assist you. Of course, this isn’t permanent, so I will eventually have to return…”
“And how do we get to this ‘Nadir’?”
“It’s… impossible now. There were… four amulets scattered across this island that you needed to make the jump to Nadir. However, it seems you missed all of them. So… you can’t save me.”
“Can’t we just come back some other time and save you then?”
“I suppose you could, but why would you choose to come back to this forsaken island?”
“Oh, I dunno, maybe the whole ‘Rule 0’ thing you went on and on about in your journal?”
Myres seemed impressed by this. “Ah. So you kids do still pay attention…”
“I’m not here for a lecture, old man,” Jamie sighed. “Just tell me, can we come back and get you?”
“Of course. However… you need to go rescue Luna first.”
Jamie’s eyes widened at the mention of Luna. “Oh, uh, right! I forgot! I’m sorry Myres, but we gotta go!”
“Yes, you do.” The bottom of Myres’ ghost started to fade away. “Ah, it seems like my time is up. Perfect timing, I suppose.”
Riley reached out to Myres. “Wait! You’re… really sure we can’t save you now too?”
“I’m certain.” He winced as more of his ghostly form faded. “Please, don’t worry about me. I’ve had a good life. Don’t take away Luna’s.”
Riley sighed. They weren’t content with that answer, but he was right. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Well…” Riley saluted. “See you around, Scoutmaster Myres.”
Before Myres could respond, he completely faded out, leaving nothing but the staircase he created behind.
One day we’ll come back for you Myres… that much I can promise.
“I’m still kinda confused on why he’s suddenly a ghost now,” Jamie said.
“It’s a little weird, yeah. Let’s just get moving,” Riley replied.
Riley then promptly started walking down the stairs with the siblings in tow. It felt odd to be taking charge again after Jamie had done it for so long, but they decided now was a good time to play a bit more of an active role in the troop.
Despite the fact that the stairs appeared to be made of stone, they were as soft as a cloud. However, they were still firm, so they at least had something that was both nice on their feet and safe to walk on. The stairs had a slight gold hue glossed over them, which was likely just a side effect of the statue’s power.
For the most part, the descent was rather uneventful. The stairs seemed to perfectly evade any hazards and blockages, meaning it was as easy as just walking down. It almost felt a little too easy, but they weren’t going to complain when they finally got their lucky break.
Though, they couldn’t help but become increasingly nervous as they got closer to the lava. Not only did it go against their survival instinct entirely, but the fact that it was slowly rising meant they didn’t have much time left to find Luna.
Myres didn’t really give them any clues on where they were, but considering how far down the stairs were going…
“Woah! What’s that?” Jamie stopped and pointed over towards a blue rock across from them.
“Hmm… looks like a blue rock,” Riley ribbed.
“No shit, Sherlock.”
“Language.”
Jamie blew a raspberry at Riley and crossed their arms. Though, in the midst of them feigning being annoyed, a smile made its way through. At least they still knew how to do that in wake of… all of this.
During that exchange, Jade split up from the group and seemed to be looking somewhere past the blue rock.
Riley paid no heed to what they were doing though and decided to look elsewhere along the wall. However, it all just looked the same: ugly brown rocks with the occasional hot rock in between, as well as that lone blue rock.
There were no signs of Luna, except… a faint trail of blood very close to the lava.
Wait… a trail of blood? That had to mean that Luna was close, right?
That trail seemed to lead up to a suitcase which had been tampered with. That much was evident by both the drops of blood on it as well as the latches not being re-secured. Hopefully they were able to find something in there to help them out.
However, the trail didn’t seem to go anywhere beyond the suitcase, so unfortunately that clue just led to a dead-end. How frustrating. At least it did tell them Luna was likely close.
“Wait…” Jade stepped down a little bit and stuck their head out. “I see them!” Jade exclaimed. They were pointing over towards… somewhere out of Riley’s line of sight.
Neither Riley nor Jamie had any reason to doubt Jade, so they allowed Jade to take charge. They were soon led to the bottom of the stairs, where Jade once again pointed out where Luna was.
They quickly spotted Luna who was laying unconscious in a crevice. However, instead of being happy, Riley was actually quite concerned. Them being unconscious could mean so many things, most of which weren’t good. Considering they were nearly thrown into lava and had to deal with the fact they were alone… Riley wasn’t optimistic.
They approached Luna and started looking for signs of life. They first observed their chest gently rising up and down. They could’ve stopped there, but they also wanted to check for a pulse. The second they put their fingers on their right wrist, they felt a pulse, so they finally came to the conclusion that Luna was alive.
They then noticed Luna’s left hand was covered in bandages. Some spots of blood had leaked through, and the bandages seemed a bit dirty, so Riley made a mental note to examine their hand and replace them as soon as possible.
At some point, Jamie had appeared by Riley’s side and grabbed Luna’s right hand. They seemed rather distraught at what they saw, but before Riley could say anything, Jade intervened and dragged Jamie a little bit away.
Riley almost felt bad for them. They just wanted to see their friend again after being uncertain if they were alive or not.
With Jamie taken care of, Riley once again focused on Luna. They gently dragged them out from the crevice just enough to be able to properly examine them for injuries. However, they didn’t seem to be injured anywhere else, but they did have very deep bags under their eyes.
They suddenly felt bad again for being complacent in, well, everything. Had they gone a little slower and just got some rest…
Riley shook that thought out of their head. It wasn’t worth thinking about the past, they couldn’t change it. What they could change was the present, and consequently, the future.
They noticed something large shoved into Luna’s right pocket. They very gently stuck their hand in the pocket and soon landed on something cylindrical and… weird feeling. They wrapped their hand around the object as best as they could and fished it out, revealing that it was a roll of bandages.
That would explain how they patched themselves up…
They set the bandages down beside Luna and reached across to unwrap the bandages covering their left hand. They were extremely cautious with this, as they didn’t want to hurt them more or accidentally disrupt their rest.
There were several clots of blood near the base and knuckles of every single finger. What stood out was the fact that these were on the back of their hand as opposed to, say, the palm. Considering they had no other injuries…
The cause of it didn’t matter right now. They needed to replace the bandages. They’d have time to ask questions later.
They picked up the roll of bandages and began to wrap Luna’s hand, first starting at their palm before slowly spiraling up towards the base of their fingers. They were very delicate with wrapping the bandage around each of their fingers as to not accidentally re-open the wounds. Once that was done, they tore the bandage from the roll and patted everything down to ensure it was secure.
They weren’t the best at first aid though, so it did look a bit sloppy in the end. However, they still covered up all of the wounds, so that’s what really mattered.
During the process, they had noticed the tips of Luna’s fingers were also stained in blood, but at least that part of their fingers weren’t damaged. They couldn’t do anything about it anyway; liquids weren’t exactly a commodity given their predicament.
Actually… they did have a coconut in their bag. They recalled taking it from Luna’s bag at some point to ease their burden. Maybe they could use that? They’d be wasting all the water inside just to clean Luna’s hand though…
On second thought, maybe that wasn’t a good idea. Again, getting something to drink was incredibly difficult to come across, so they probably shouldn’t use it on something that was entirely a cosmetic issue.
Suddenly, Jamie appeared to their left and grabbed onto Luna’s freshly bandaged hand. They ended up just holding it while also gently patting the bandage. It would’ve been adorable, but given the circumstances, they were probably just scared.
They seemed to have calmed down a little bit after being consoled by Jade, but their eyes were still puffy and their breathing still a bit uneven. Being able to make contact with Luna did seem to aid in calming them down, so Riley made no effort in stopping them.
“Hey… I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think we need to get moving.” Jade motioned over towards the opening they were now standing near. “The lava’s still rising and we’ve got to account for the fact that we’re slowed down by carrying Luna.”
Jamie finally set down Luna’s hand gently. “Aren’t we gonna have to… leave a backpack or…?” they inquired.
“I can carry them in my arms, at least for now,” Riley replied. “If we’ve got to do some actual climbing later, I’ll leave mine behind so I can carry them on my back.”
Jamie nodded. “Okay… so… if what Myres said was correct, then we just need to reach the top of the stairs and climb the rest of the way to the top.” They paused to observe where the stairs led to. “Hmm… yeah. Can’t really see all the way to the top from here but I think that’ll work.”
Jade nodded. “Sounds like a plan then. Let’s get out of here.”
Riley gently scooped up Luna in their arms. It was only then they realized just how light Luna was, which was rather concerning. To make matters worse, they seemed somewhat thin as well. They hadn’t really noticed that before since their uniform did a good job at covering that up.
Poor eating was one of the last things that Riley could’ve speculated was wrong with Luna. They got the impression that Edmond was a pretty messed up guy, but to go as far as to deprive Luna of one of the things they needed to survive…?
Edmond was going to pay for everything he did to Luna, one way or another. Riley didn’t even care if they weren’t the one to deliver justice, as long as it was delivered. Such a sick bastard didn’t deserve to get off scot-free.
However… they needed to actually escape first. They couldn’t beat the sh— settle things with Edmond if they couldn’t even get out of this volcano. So, they turned that anger into motivation to keep pushing forward.
They finally turned around and saw that both Jade and Jamie were waiting near the base of the staircase, both of which seemed confused by Riley’s inaction. They then took one glance to their right and saw the lava slowly rising, so they took that as their cue to get moving.
If there was one thing they were glad they paid attention to during their troop meetings and their time on this forsaken island, it was the one rule that Myres’ whole identity would end up being formed around.
Never abandon a friend in need.