Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Past the portal there was a Subcon Forest that looked practically identical to the forest outside of it, except for one thing, everything inside the horizon was mirrored.

It was disorienting to say the least. Now every place in the forest to the west was on the east and everything on the east was on the west. The house of the everlasting fire seemed to still be there, and its orange light coming from the heat seemed to extend to a big part of the forest inside the realm.

Moonjumper walked around the place seemingly lost, it had been a long time since he had been there, and even when he had spent all of that time underground, he could still remember his sense of longing deep inside his mind the time he had been buried, left to rot away for more than a century.

The corpse finally reached Mustache Girl and invited her to the small room inside the tree, and he settled down where Snatcher usually did to read back in his own tree room in the normal Subcon Forest.

“So, my child, what do you think of my little home?” Moonjumper asked while Mustache Girl sat down on a small stall in front of him.

“I just have to say, even your home is a copy of the creepy ghost dude from the other forest.” Mustache Girl replied, unamused.

“So funny, dear.” Moonjumped smiled. “This realm it’s not a copy, and let’s get one thing out of the way, I’m not a copy of Snatcher either.”

“Uh huh, right.” She nodded.

The thing that worried Moonjumper the most was being called just a mere clone of the ghost, he didn’t want to be considered one. Could he even be a copy of the fallen prince, when he had lived all his life too? He had his memories, he had lived his life, he had his body, so that had to count for something.

Moonjumper was not the copy, Snatcher was. He might have been a spirit without memories before, but spirits were only energy, right? The question was, to whom did his soul belong to anymore?

It was better to not think about it. Moonjumper was back, he had tried being nice in the past, but it hadn’t worked, it had backfired on him, so that was over, he was finally going to try to get his own place in Subcon, and people would finally see who the real ruler of the forest was.

“Okay so, can I ask, why did you bring me here? I would rather not deal with that purple straw, but I also would leave this place if I can help it, so…” Mustache Girl looked around still trying to make sense of the place.

“Well, listen, child. I want you and your little friend to help me out, we are going to defeat Snatcher, together, for good and once and for all.”

“...” The girl didn’t answer.

“What?”

“I am all in to defeat bad guys. But, one, that creep has my soul, and I would rather have it back before I can help it, and two, you are just the same thing as him, so, what is even the point here? I’m just really tired of this place!”

“Well that’s where you are wrong, kiddo.” Moonjumper tried to comfort her. “Snatcher is a mean spirited ghost fed by the disillusions and grudges back from when I was alive. But I for one am the real prince, and I also want to fight for what is fair and what is true.” Moonjumper put the hand on his chest, trying to appear emotional.

“...”

“And I will give you your soul back if I can get back control of the forest.” He deadpanned.

“Yeah? And how are you supposed to do that?”

“If I can defeat Snatcher myself, I will be able to take his power, and therefore, his souls, I just need to take control over the forest first so Snatcher can’t feed from its energy before I can do so.”

That was a lie, Moonjumper, as a corpse, didn’t have the same abilities of Snatcher to take over souls, and even if he could, he didn’t know how to get it out of Snatcher himself, but that wasn’t important yet. The important part was to get someone to help him out, he wanted to convince the girl and use her to go further in his plan of taking over the forest.

“So, let’s see…” Mustache Girl looked at the palms of her hands as if trying to measure the weight of things out. “I could try and finish the contracts of this one spirit that has my soul in the hopes he can give it back soon, or, I could try and defeat him when I still have no power whatsoever because Hatkid ruined everything, and get myself destroyed even before I get my soul back.” She looked back at Moonjumper. “Yeah, I think your option is the killer deal here!”

“You don’t have to be so sarcastic.”

“Why do you need control of the forest anyway? It seems to me that you have already a nice cozy place here in the wood–”

“Because when such a cozy place becomes the only place you can live in, it is not a cozy place anymore, it’s a prison you know? I want to be able to leave without having to be afraid of him.”

“Of who?”

“Of Snatcher.”

“...”

“What?”

“I think you better ask Hatkid, she has already defeated him once.”

“Is that so?” Moonjumper looked at her pensively, scratching his chin.

“Yeah, perhaps you could ask her about it, although she might say no, since you kicked her off to space!” Mustache Girl started chuckling and ended up laughing.

“Hmm. Yeah, perhaps I should. Are they sworn enemies?” Maybe it had been a mistake to mess up with her after all.

“Ha! Them? They are practically best friends!”

“Best friends? That ghost is a friend with the brat?”

“Yeah, shocking, I know.” Mustache Girl had stopped paying attention and was just stroking her mustache.

“What do they even do?”

“I don’t know, that rotten pasta always challenges Hatkid asking her to take her soul just for some stupid badges or costumes, and she just follows along.”

“Oh.” If Snatcher was friends with the kid, and if the kid had managed to defeat him once, she was probably pretty powerful herself! But still, maybe they were just on good terms and he could convince her to join him over, but that would probably be more difficult if he didn’t have anything to convince her. “But you are going to join me, right?”

“No.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I don’t want to!”

“But I know you still want to fight Snatcher, right? I saw you there, kid. You had the guts to yell at him mentioning how you didn’t like doing his jobs without flinching.”

“What do you even need me for?”

“I need a living soul to help me out on the things I can’t do yet!”

“Snatcher has my soul.”

“I need someone with really strong powers!”

“Hatkid has all the power now.”

“I need someone who knows Snatcher's biggest weaknesses!”

“I barely know who he is at all.”

“I need someone with a lot of resources to come up with my plan!”

“I don’t even have a place to sleep.”

“I need–”

“No.”

Moonjumper scratched his head. Getting an alive person to work under him was a lot harder than what he thought, maybe he should write a contract with them as well, but that would make him too similar to Snatcher, and he wanted to drift apart from him.

“Look, I just need someone who is ready to fight, someone who is a true hero.”

“...”

“...” They both ended up staring at each other, while Moonjumper ended up expressionless but Mustache Girl was struggling not to flinch.

“I think it would be better if you ask Hatkid.”

“Kiddo, please. What do you even fight for?”

“I fight for justice, and I want to rid the planet of all bad guys! Or at least, that’s what I used to.”

“Well, so do I! Why don’t you want to help me fight?”

“I'm not interested in your little quarrel with yourself over this stupid forest. As far as I’m concerned, both of you are bad guys and I would rather burn this haunted, creepy forest down before playing your games!” The girl stood up clenching her fists. If she just had control of the timepieces, she would have gotten rid of them already!

Moonjumper looked at her with concern. That girl had issues.

“Listen, I’m not fighting just with Snatcher. I’m fighting over the people's forest, I’m fighting for justice and for what I believe is right. I was trying to fix things over here, really long ago. A lot of people died here and are now lost, looking for someone to aid them now in their afterlife. I was trying to help them out even since Snatcher had taken over Subcon. But no, he locked me away, all of these years, just because he wants to keep his control over the forest. MY forest, my own home. I was trying to help, and he ruined it. Now I’m here locked in, hiding from the rest of the world.”

“Oh.” She sat down again and sighed. “I see now.”

For a while, the only sound that could be heard was the odd winds from the forest creeping through the leaves of the trees. The forest didn’t feel, inside the horizon, didn’t feel scary or even alive, it just felt lonely.

“So… are you ready to join my rebellion?”

“Alright… but don't try anything that could get me killed!”

“Just trust my abilities, you will see how we turn around this situation for the both of us in no time.”

“Ugh, right.” Mustache Girl looked around. “So, what do I have to do?”

“Your first take is going to be fairly easy! You’ll see, as the prince of the forest, there are so many things I can do myself, I can control and make puppets of my own to take over my control, but Snatcher has taken over all of the burlap of the forest itself, so I need you to go and get some for me, for I can’t get hit by sunlight myself outside the forest.”

“What happens if you get sunlight?”

“I would lose consciousness, leaving me as useful as any other normal corpse.”

“Burlap, burlap…Ugh, I guess I can go and steal some, somewhere in–” Mustache Girl’s stomach grumbled. “But I think I should have something to eat first, it’s getting rather late!”

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“There are some berries that you can get over there.”

“Ugh, not the berries again.”

“There was also a dead raccoon I think I saw somewhere that maybe I can cook for you–”

“I’ll take the berries.”

A little while after eating, Mustache Girl looked over to the sky trying to guess the time, but it seemed as if time inside the horizon seemed to be paralyzed, there was no night, no day, and all the forest seemed to be stuck inside that orange aura. For some reason, it felt as if most of what the fog touched ended up filled with a distant feeling of longing and sadness.

“Welp, I’m leaving, I want to finally get some sleep.” She stood up and started walking towards the end of the forest.

“Wait.”

“What?”

“Why don’t you stay for a while and sleep the night?” The corpse spoke back to her.

“What? Why would I even do that?”

“Because you don’t have anywhere to go, do you? You said so yourself.”

“Well, no, but–”

“Come to think of it, where have you been even sleeping on all these days you have been working with Snatcher?”

“I kinda just go to the top of one of the tree houses and sleep on the floor.” She scratched her head. Moonjumper clicked his tongue while shocking his head. “What? Where am I even supposed to sleep then?!”

“It’s okay, come with me.”

Both of them walked over to what seemed to be a small cabin sellada with wood planks and illuminated by a weak but still lasting pole light.

“You want me to sleep in there?”

“Yes, you go ahead and look inside.” Moonjumped extended his hand over, inviting her to come in.

“I can’t see anything through these… wait, that’s a huge bed.”

“That’s right!” A queen sized bed was inside the cabin, filling in almost all of the small space the small cabin had, it seemed as if the bed was a bit crooked to the side, but the sheets looked clean and organized.

“What is a bed like that doing in a cabin like this? It doesn’t even fit in there!”

“That bed must be probably the bed of… you know, Queen Vanessa, or at least that is my theory, if my memory serves me right, but as a spirit, she probably hasn’t even used it in more than a century.”

“Okay but, what is it doing here?”

“Here inside the horizon sometimes objects appear scattered around the realm. This is a plane of existence created with the remaining energy of this haunted forest, and the memories and people who live outside affect what happens here in a way we can’t really understand.”

Mustache Girl looked back at Moonjumper, weirded out.

“Are you sure? I rather sleep in a treehouse, above all the weird animals and bugs.”

“Most animals and living beings that wander around the forest are very few, so you don’t have to worry about that, and also, if you stay inside the cabin, they are unlikely to come in either.” The corpse reassured her.

“Okay.”

“But for the love of everything that you appreciate in this world, if you hear your own voice calling you out in the middle of the night while you are trying to sleep, don’t open your eyes, do you hear me, do NOT open your eyes!” Moonjumper took her by the shoulders and shook her off with a scared stare.

“Why? Why not?” The girl looked confused, this had been the first time the corpse actually looked upset about anything at all.

“Just DON’T! No matter anything you do, just do NOT open your eyes, do you promise that?”

“Okay I guess that–”

“Promise me you are not going to open your eyes!”

“Okay okay, sheesh. I promise.”

“Good.” He said, returning back to normal. “Now, there is something I forgot, but I find it rather important. I have already presented myself, but I still haven’t heard you say your name even once before.”

The girl with the hood just pouted.

“I mean… I guess some people call me the Mustache Girl, so, there you have it, I guess.”

“I see, I see. But that is not your name, is it?”

“No.”

“So, what is it? What is your proper name?” Moonjumper asked but the girl turned away from him.

“Mu...”

“How is that?”

“My name… my name is Mu.”

“Mu?”

“Yes, Mu.”

“...”

The girl turned back to face the corpse, afraid of his reaction. Only to find him trying to hold his laughter.

“Pfft! Mu? That is just a short version of your own nickname!” He cackled. “Come on kiddo! You are kidding!!”

“Well! At least it’s better than Moonjumper! You stupid moonstruck sack of garbage!” Mustache Girl threw an explosive cherry at him while trying to hide the blush from the already red cheeks from her face.

“Oh but come on! That surely isn’t your real name, is it not?”

“Well…”

“Well?”

“I mean, it is not! But at least it’s better than being called a stupid nickname by others as if it was just the only thing that defined my complete and a-awesome p-persona.”

“Oh, see then? Why don’t you tell me your real name?”

“Because I don’t have one…”

“Because what?”

“Because I don’t have one!”

Moonjumper finally stopped laughing, she turned back to Mustache Girl, seeing how small tears were dropping from eyes.

“Oh…”

“Since I have memory, I never had a name to call my own. People always called me different names, one after another, and none of them stuck. When the Mafia came to town, my name just got stuck as Mustache Girl. It has always been like this. But still, that’s just because I had nobody to name me either, so…”

“I understand, my child.”

“You do?”

“Yes! That means, I should be the one to name you after all!”

“What? No! I don’t want to be named by a pecking corpse!”

“You shall be from now on… Wilhelmina!”

“No.”

“Zipporah?”

“No.”

“Gwendolyn.”

“No!”

“Chrysanthemum.”

“I said no! And all those names just sound ten times worse than being called Mustache Girl or Mu for that matter!”

“I will think of a good name for you in the meantime, my moody helper.”

“Ugh, peck off!”, Mustache Girl removed some of the nails of the wooden planks that were stuck in the door and carefully passed inside. Finally tucking herself inside the bedsheets. It felt a bit as if the maniac voice of a queen telling her to destroy the forest was whispering in her ear when she was tucked on the bed, but she was so tired that she just ended up ignoring it and finally fell asleep.

Moonjumper left afterwards. Now that he had a minion to help him out, his plan had finally been set up in motion, now it was just a matter of time. He finally went back to the small library he had under his tree, finally able to read a book after all those years.

The challenge was in having to read it backwards.

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