"Where's here?"
"I don't see anything in the distance!! Driver, where have you taken us? Where's the lights; the music; the dancing; the ballroom…..anything? I don't see them up here."
"That's because they are not up here, Dandelion."
"Then where are they?"
".....They're down there!!!!!!!"
"Huh? No!! No!! No!!! Willow, you can't be serious."
"Before you texted me, what did Shadow tell you to prepare for?"
"Shadow told me to text you, check into the AirBnB, wait for you to show up and then convince you all to come to our side. So I thought we have to give you a little speech or something to restore hope in all of you."
"Haaauckk!! Oops, sorry. That was meant to be a laugh, but I choked over the words!!!"
"What's so funny? Am I missing something? Do we not preach to them?"
"Hopper, there is a reason why they are all the way down there in the depths of Nowhere while we are all the way up here. In order for you to use their soul…..they need a soul."
"You expect us to jump off the edge? Are these….beasts as powerful as you say they are."
"Nightmaster, can I see your knife? Thank you. Watch and observe as I cut my hand and drop the blood into the abyss down below."
"Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrr
"Roarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
"IT'S MINE!!!"
"These aint no little toys you bring to a Halloween party to scare your friends. These are beasts that only come once one thing is met."
"That is...a sacrifice!!! If they don't get their meat; then let's just say they get hangry and when they get hangry they tend to break free of their chains and rise up to land level. That is why Shadow sacrifices Christians every year because they are who the beasts accept."
"Accepts?"
"You gotta be pure or else there is no cure. Now choose one of you to be the ultimate sacrifice who will help cleanse your world from all impurities!!"
"Huh!! That's why Shadow told us to convince you guys instead of just getting you on our side. He knew it would be hard for us to do."
"Times a ticking. I'll let you four talk amongts yourselves for a little bit unless one of you is ready."
"I'll go!!!!"
"Zeke, no!! What are you doing? You have your whole entire life ahead of you still. Let me go. I'm getting old and have already lived my adventure. My time has come."
"Hopper, I am not going to lose you. Shadow and I have fought hard to bring you back to life. Losing you like this would not make it worth it."
"Can't decide eh? I'll tell you what. One at a time you will each walk to the edge and whoever the beasts roar the loudest for…..dies!!!! Sound fair?"
"You would have us walk to our deaths?"
"Hopper, do these Ten Thousand mean that much to you? Are you going to use them for your gain, or to help defeat the Mists?"
"I get the point; NightMaster. You can peer into my soul and see all my true deeds because you are the soulkeeper after all, but I'll prove you wrong."
"It is not 'I' you must prove wrong!! Please, step up here close to me."
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!"
"You look scared, Hopper. The last time you were down there; you were the bad guy. They're moving a lot down there, but not enough. NEXT!!!"
"I won't let you down, Hopper."
"You know what to do, kid. Step up here by me and look over the side. I won't let you fall….unless you deserve it."
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr…roarrrr!!! Roarrrr!!! He's mine!!"
"You're causing quite the uproar down there, Zeke. Your life must have been proven special. Taking on a lonely girl and raising her as your own until one day…..you throw her back into the woods to fend for herself. Tell me, would a true brother really do that to his own sister?"
"I….I…..huh!! I get your point."
"NEXT!!!!"
"I'll go."
"Eli, wait. The NightMaster discloses all of the truths that you have buried deep down inside. Whatever you're hiding; he will make known."
"I have nothing to hide."
"We'll see about that!! Please, step up here close to me."
"Bring me your worst. My church has been built on nothing but the truth!!"
"Has it? Has it really been built on nothing but the Truth?
"Eli, what is he talking about? Was your whole entire journey...a lie!!!"
"Grandma, I can explain."
"Ha!! Explain? There is nothing to explain, little one. As a toddler, your mother was taken from you so your closest shelter became your grandma. She was the light to you…..but you showed no interest."
"Lies!!!!"
"You couldn't wrap your mind around how much love your grandma had and never turned to anger even when it seemed necessary. You had big dreams to change the church and one day lead it, but you knew that in order for people to take you seriously; you needed a strong, uplifting, motivational, inspirational, and heartfelt testimony. You had none."
"Enough!!!!!!
"You were thinking of using your dead grandma as part of your testimony but you couldn't bring yourself to say anything nice about her even though niceness was all she knew. So you made up a fake story about your dead great great grandma. Course you didn't tell people who she was. You only used her name and other characteristics about her, but to the skillful eye, they would've known that you were trying to use your great great grandmother to make others feel symphony for you."
"I said stop!!"
"You had no love. You had no friends, and you had no future!! You built your life on a lie….but when others just ate up your testimony even your own dad….you said to yourself, 'What is one itty bitty white lie going to do? I'm not lying. I'm just bending the truth.'
You said that to yourself over and over and over again just to make people rally behind you. It was working….for a while at least. That is until your sweet Willow came on scene and Shadow exposed you for all you were worth."
"I'm gonna kill you!!!"
"Eli, nooo!!"
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't drop you!!"
"Nightmaster, he's just a boy. You can't sacrifice him."
"Were we not all boys once? Do you hear the beasts roars and screams? They find him acceptable. Aren't the beasts what you want? Just let me throw him in and we can end this here and now. "
"No!! Bring him back away from the edge and put me in his place."
"You? Dandelion, you are a 'Pure', my girl. Throwing you in would defeat the whole purpose. Mists need you in order to come into this world."
"It's okay. There are other Pures."
"Are there? I heard your tale. There are so few Pures down there and if it is as bad as you say it is; then there are less up here. These fake 'Pures' you speak of may have love which is enough for Mists to pass through, but they are not pure. That means that once the Mists are eventually reunited with their earthly bodies….they still keep the same level of evil with them. True Pures help eliminate all the evil from the Mists so that once they are reunited; they no longer carry around that evil.
You are one of the very few Pures which means that you might be of better service up here then down there."
"But I….I…I left my sister. Although she physically left me….I abandoned her and turned my back. Doesn't that mean something?"
"Yes! It means that you went through a trial, but eventually came back to her. That trial showed your purity. Now enough!!!! I will hear no more from you. Zeke, will you take his place so he doesn't have to suffer?"
"I...Zeke, what are you doing?"
"I will not."
"Well then; it's decided. I expected more from you, Christian; but maybe the world has changed since last I visited. Who am I to think that this young generation knows what true sacrifice and laying down of one's life really means? If you are the future; then maybe Eli here is better off dead than living!!!!"