(CW: Cursing in this chapter. Sorry!

I whipped my head over my shoulder to hear screaming. Taco immediately rushed out of bed and headed for the door in a drunken rage.

"Taco, wait!" I yelled, waking up anyone who wasn't already awake by my screaming earlier.

"No! Mic, I'm not waiting anymore. I have to do this, I can't.. hah.."

Taco got out her ray gun, and with a war cry, charged out of the cabin. I got up and was hot at her heels.

The screams were coming from The Bright Light's cabin, so that's where Taco was heading. I tried to convince her to stop, but she ignored me and pressed on, seemingly forcing each step.

She got to The Bright Light's cabin and kicked the door down. What we saw was traumatizing.

Apple's body was on the floor, right next to Marsh's.

They were beaten, seemingly a head collision that killed them. The shadowed figure Taco was mumbling about was standing over them, and Taco must've recognized them, because she yelled in a drunken rage, "You!"

She started to fire at the figure, rapidly reloading.

The attacker charged at her, then pushed past her. They headed.. for me?

I backed up, staring at their stained hands. Blood dripped from them. A smile slowly crept onto their face, and I realized that..

They were wearing a mask and a hoodie. I made a mental note of that.

They grabbed me and pulled me out of the cabin. I tried to fight back, but I was too weak. They put something over my mouth and I felt my consciousness slip away. The last thing I saw was their smile, a gentle smile. Like they didn't want to hurt me.

When I woke up, I was laid against a tree, a pillow under my head and a heavyweight blanket protecing me from the late autumn wind. Taco was beside me, crying. When she saw me awake, though, she immediately hugged me.

"Oh my fucking God, you scared me! You're alive!"

"Did you bother to check my pulse?" I joked, smiling at her. Her face was grim, though.

"We lost Apple and Marshmallow. Died by head trauma, it was seemingly instant."

I stayed silent and hugged my knees, suddenly afraid.

"We need to find out who's doing this. Or else you might get hurt, Mic. Don't try to stop me. It's not worth it. You shouldn't be in this."

"They didn't kill me."

Taco looked at me. "What?" she asked.

"Whoever that was, it was like they had a soft spot for me.. they smiled at me, and not like a manic smile, a genuine smile. I don't know, I.."

Taco put her hand on my face. "Did you get a good look at them?"

I shook my head. "No."

She sighed. We sat there for a minute, before Lightbulb walked up to us.

"Taco. You want to stop this guy. So do I. We can do this together, if you want."

Taco studied her for a moment. "You're proposing an alliance, Lightbulb?"

Lightbulb nodded and snuck a glance at me. "We both have people that we want to protect. I don't want Test Tube to fall under the same fate that Fan did.. that was.. god, I.. yeah."

Taco nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I get it. Let's do it."

Lightbulb looked over at her notepad and gave it to Taco.

"Hmm.. You know MePhone isn't coming back, right? And Cobs? Really? Tch, Pi-.." she trailed off.

"Pickle. He's a possibile contender. As much as you don't want him to be."

Taco took a deep breath and nodded. "Y-yeah."

The other suspects were MePad, Knife, Baseball, and Paper.

"Why Paper?" I asked, looking up at Lightbulb.

"You probably weren't here, but Paper kinda turned evil in the first season of Inanimate Insanity."

I nodded and looked back at the notes. Small doodles littered the sides of the pages. Classic Lightbulb.

Taco returned the notes to her and sighed. "Try to remember the figure, Mic. What did the person's shadow look like?"

I shrugged. "Chloroform. Put me out and wiped some of my memory from last night. All I can remember was that they wore a face mask and a hoodie.

Taco nodded. "Okay, that gives us something. Anything else, like color or something?"

I shook my head helplessly.

"Well, Lightbulb, do you have any ideas?" Taco asked, looking over at her.

She shrugged. "Idunno."

I took a deep breath, then I gathered my courage to say what I'd wanted to for the entire time.

"I think it was Test Tube."