Lily felt small, so helpless, as she watched the chaos around her. She couldn’t move as Oliver leapt onto his own sister and engulfed her in black smoke. Then as the smoke rose up there were more bodies lying on the ground that quickly rose up and began leaping into the crowd. The screams of glee from earlier in the festival were now screams of terror and pain. A girl screaming hysterically slammed into Lily and they both went down. Feet were pounding and running in every direction. Lily looked around, catching flashes of shadowy monsters that were once kids latching onto others, slashing their throats and letting black smoke escape from the wounds, only to turn into monsters themselves.

What’s happening...

I don’t...

Lily struggled to think. She made no attempt to stand up.

“I can’t leave, I can’t leave!” an older kid screamed, looking at the screen floating before their eyes. “What is–

A streak of black slammed into their body and they no longer screamed.

Wake up, I have to...wake up and leave...

Lily’s scroll clattered on the ground and she picked it up, shakily unrolling it. Unlike a regular dream, it was simple to leave Moon. One could either wait until the sun came up or they could leave early by using their menu and pressing the conspicuous sun icon. Lily remembered it being drawn in gold ink on her scroll, but now, as she stared despairingly at her menu, it was gone. There was no sun on her empty scroll. There was nothing. She tried thinking of the icon, willing it into place but was met with a sharp pain in her left eye. Her scroll vanished and she looked up locking eyes with something familiar, those yellow eyes she had seen in her dream. Except these were real and they were bounding towards her in the body of black smoke. She couldn’t let out a cry, too stricken with fear and disbelief.

Maybe this is all a bad dream, she thought, this can’t be Moon, this isn’t Moon.

As the black figure leapt, a shrill roar escaping its inky black mouth Lily kept willing to wake up, just to blink and be in her bed once more.

“Fuck. OFF!”

With a thick clunk, the beast was whipped from the air, into the ground. The cement cracked under its body. Lily stared at the body twitching below the flattened head.

“Get up! We’re getting out of here!” a voice yelled. Above Lily, Chrys was panting, gripping a large human sized wack-a-mole hammer in his hands. It was pure light, streaks of steam came off it from where it had connected with the monster.

“I-I don’t understand.” Lily said.

“I don’t care! Get up!” Chrys barked. He threw the hammer over his shoulder and yanked Lily up. All around them, kids were running, screaming, and explosions of smoke erupted near and far from them. The smoke was spreading, engulfing all of Festival Square. The puppet vendors kept calling out in their same cheery voices as they watched children run towards Festival Square’s exit.

“Where do we go now?!” Lily yelled. They were running through the crowd, at their feet monsters overtook others, clawing on their faces. Lily followed Chrys as best she could as he bounded across the center square towards the lone street leading towards Festival Square’s entrance. Some of the vendor carts had been crashed through and puppets lay broken on the ground. A steady group of kids were running around them, crying out when another explosion shook their bodies. They were making quick work towards the black gates that had once welcomed them in when they met a wall of other children slamming into them, screaming and clawing their way past them, trying to get ahead of others, back down the road. A boy slammed his boot on Lily’s foot, and she let out a harsh cry. Overwhelmed, she was swept backwards by the pool of people.

Chrys had no luck either and was bumped further and further back down the street. He grabbed a kid’s collar and yanked him close to his face.

“What’s going on?! Why aren’t you leaving?!” Chrys yelled.

“T-They’re waiting over there, attacking anyone who goes past the gates!” the kid cried. He shoved Chrys off him and ran off.

“Fuck!” Chrys swore. He pivoted on his feet and began running back, looking for Lily whose small stature made it easy for her to be swept up in the chaos. Where was that kid?! He tried calling out but to no avail. He wracked his brain on where to go. Festival Square was one big trap with only one exit and that was compromised. He could fight a few monsters if they ran towards him, but they were increasing and soon it would be a whole army of them after only the scatterings of kids left. He had also checked his menu, gawking at the blue screen that showed no traces of ever having a ‘log out’ button. Now he felt royally screwed and he couldn’t even find the one friend Riley had told him to look out for. He ran past a small child who sat on the ground, wailing and clutching another kid’s body as it lay still on the ground. Chrys made a move to help but as he struggled to reach them, they disappeared within the crowd. He practically screamed when he felt fingers gently touch his arm and whipped around. A worn-out Lily stared up at him.

“I know a way out.” she huffed.