"Hello, Luc."

  Mark's voice was steady. Almost casual. Like he was greeting an old acquaintance rather than the literal Devil.

  Lucifer's smile widened. "Mark. It's been a while." His ember eyes flickered with amusement. "Still playing shepherd to lost little lambs, I see."

  "Someone has to."

  "How noble. How tiresome." Lucifer stepped forward, his broken wings folding against his back. Each movement was graceful, deliberate—a predator who knew he had all the time in the world. "You know, I've always admired your dedication. Twenty years in this grey purgatory, and you still haven't given up."

  "Hasn't felt that long."

  "Hasn't it?" Lucifer's smile widened. "I wonder what keeps you going. Hope? Stubbornness? Or just the fear of what waits for you on the other side?"

  Mark's jaw tightened, but his voice stayed level. "Still having daddy issues?"

  The temperature dropped.

  Lucifer's smile vanished. Something ancient and terrible flickered behind his eyes—a glimpse of the being that had waged war against Heaven itself.

  He moved.

  Maggie didn't even see it happen. One moment Lucifer was standing ten feet away. The next, a massive crimson trident had materialized in his hand and punched through Mark's chest, lifting him off the ground.

  Mark gasped, hands gripping the shaft. Blood—or something that looked like blood—dripped from the wound.

  "You may be strong, Mark." Lucifer's voice was soft now. Almost gentle. "But you're thousands of years too young to challenge me."

  Mark coughed. When he spoke, his voice was strained but steady. "I heard... a certain deadly lady... is looking for you."

  Something flickered across Lucifer's face. Not fear, exactly. But close.

  "Come now, Mark." The trident dissolved, and Mark dropped to his knees, one hand pressed against the wound that was already closing. "You don't have to resort to such veiled threats with me. We've known each other for a while now."

  Mark pushed himself to his feet, breathing hard. The hole in his coat was still visible, but the flesh beneath had knitted itself back together.

  Lucifer had already turned away from him.

  Toward Maggie and Jayden.

  "Now," he said, clasping his hands behind his back. "Which one of you called me?"

  His ember gaze swept over them. Jayden was frozen in place, eyes wide, all his earlier bravado completely gone. Maggie had positioned herself slightly in front of him, fists raised, though some part of her knew it was pointless.

  Lucifer's eyes settled on Jayden. And he smiled.

  "Ah. It was you, wasn't it? Jayden." He said the name like he was tasting it. "I see. You want power. Well—not power specifically. Just... anything that will make you feel better about yourself."

  Jayden flinched like he'd been slapped.

  Lucifer turned to Maggie.

  "And Maggie." His voice softened, almost sympathetic. "Such a tragic incident, what happened to your father."

  Images flooded her mind. Flashes. Fragments. A street at night. Shouting. Someone running. Something red spreading across concrete. The smell of copper and—

  "Do you want me to make it go away completely?"

  Something tore out of her throat—raw, desperate. She didn't mean to scream. It just happened as the memories crashed against the walls she'd built around them. Her knees buckled. Her hands flew to her head, pressing against her temples like she could physically shove the images back down.

  "Lucifer!" Mark's voice cut through the chaos.

  "Fine, fine." Lucifer raised his hands in mock surrender. "I'll stop poking around in their minds."

  The pressure vanished. Maggie gasped, trembling on her hands and knees. The memories receded—not gone, but pushed back behind the door where she kept them.

  Lucifer was looking at Jayden again.

  "So. Since you called me, would you like to make a deal?" A crimson card materialized in the air before Jayden, floating at chest height. "I'll leave my card with you. Think it over."

  Jayden's hand moved before he could stop himself, plucking the card from the air. It felt warm against his fingers.

  "I'll also leave one for you, my dear." Another card appeared before Maggie, but she didn't move to take it. She was still on the ground, breathing hard, eyes unfocused.

  The card drifted down and landed beside her.

  Lucifer's wings unfurled slightly. The portal behind him pulsed, ready to receive him.

  "Well, this has been fun." He glanced back at Mark one last time. "I'll be sure to tell everyone you said hello."

  Then he stepped backward into the crimson light and was gone.

  The portal snapped shut behind him.

  Silence.

  Mark moved immediately. He crossed to Jayden in three quick strides.

  "Throw the card away. Now."

  "But—"

  "Now."

  Something in Mark's voice made Jayden obey. He threw the card to the ground like it had burned him.

  Locke was already moving. The husky snatched up Jayden's card in his jaws, then trotted over to collect the one lying beside Maggie. He carried them both away, disappearing around a corner.

  Mark crouched beside Maggie.

  "Hey." His voice was gentler now. "How are you doing?"

  Maggie's hands were still shaking. "I remembered... some things."

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  "That's not entirely bad." He studied her face. "Can you stand?"

  She nodded. It took effort, but she got her feet under her.

  "Good. We have to go." Mark was already moving, scanning the grey streets around them. "Luc is such a blabbermouth. Half the Dreamscape probably already knows we're here."

  "Why does that matter?" Maggie forced herself to focus. "What's going to come after us?"

  "Stories." Mark's jaw tightened. "The Dreamscape is full of them. Characters from books, myths, legends—they all exist here. And they want humans."

  "Want us? For what?"

  "New content." He said it flatly, like it was obvious. "They're fictional. They only exist because someone imagined them. Without new stories, they stagnate. Repeat the same loops forever." He glanced back at her. "A fresh human means fresh imagination. New adventures for them to live through. They'll fight over you if they have to."

  Maggie processed that. "So we're... what, entertainment?"

  "Something like that. Some of them are harmless about it. Others..." He didn't finish the sentence. "Let's move."

  · · ·

  They walked for what felt like hours.

  Mark had given Jayden a thorough lecture—Maggie caught fragments of it through the fog in her head. Something about rules, about consequences, about not being a complete idiot. Jayden had taken it with uncharacteristic silence, the encounter with Lucifer having apparently knocked some sense into him.

  Or at least scared him into temporary compliance.

  Maggie walked slightly behind them, her mind still circling the drain of those memories. The flashes hadn't been clear enough to form a complete picture. Just fragments. Sounds. Feelings. The sense that something terrible had happened, and that she had been there when it did.

  Her father.

  What had happened to her father?

  "Hey, Mark."

  Jayden's voice pulled her back to the present. He'd apparently recovered enough to start asking questions again.

  "How did you get so strong?"

  Maggie lifted her head, looking at Mark's back. She expected him to deflect. To give some non-answer and change the subject.

  Instead, he slowed his pace.

  "I can answer that."

  Maggie blinked. "Wait. I thought you wouldn't answer anything about yourself."

  "I wouldn't tell you everything." Mark glanced back at her. "But I can answer some things. What do you want to know?"

  Maggie's mind raced. This was an opening. A rare crack in the wall Mark kept around himself. She should ask something important, something that would help her understand—

  Lucifer's words echoed in her head. Twenty years in this grey purgatory.

  "How did you get here?"

  Mark's expression didn't change. "I was bored."

  Silence.

  "That's it?" Maggie's voice rose with frustration. "You said you were going to answer!"

  "I just did."

  She wanted to punch him. But even through her irritation, she recognized that pushing harder wouldn't get her anywhere. Not now. Maybe with time, she could chip away at his defenses.

  At least it gave her something to think about other than the memories.

  "Well," Mark continued, apparently satisfied that he'd fulfilled his obligation, "you asked how I got so strong. First of all—I'm not that strong. You're just too weak."

  "Gee, thanks."

  "But like I explained, knowledge is absolute power in the Dreamscape. I was always a nerd. The studious type. I knew a lot about a lot of things." He stepped over a crack in the pavement without looking. "When I got here, I kept studying. Libraries, bookstores—all the books are here. Every book ever written exists somewhere in the Dreamscape. I spent years reading."

  "Years?" Jayden looked horrified. "That sounds boring as hell."

  "It was occasionally tedious. But necessary." Mark paused. "I also got lucky. I had a master."

  Maggie's interest sharpened. "A master? Who?"

  "Can't tell you about him."

  "Of course not."

  Jayden's eyes lit up. "Ha! So you ARE the isekai protagonist! You got transported to another world, found a mysterious master, trained for years, and became overpowered!" He pumped his fist. "That means I'll be the sequel! The next generation hero who surpasses the original!"

  "Yeah, no." Mark's tone was flat. "What do you even know besides anime and games, Jay?"

  Jayden didn't correct the shortened name. If anything, he seemed pleased by it.

  Jay's enthusiasm didn't waver. "Maybe I can use that! My knowledge of anime and games to create stuff!"

  He stopped walking, spreading his feet into a wide stance. His hands came together at his side, cupped like he was holding an invisible ball.

  "Let me try something."

  He focused. Concentrated. His face scrunched up with effort.

  Nothing happened.

  "Okay, maybe I need to really feel it." He took a deep breath. "HAAAAAA—"

  Still nothing.

  Jay's hands dropped to his sides. "That... should have worked."

  "It's not that simple." Mark had stopped to watch, arms crossed. "Those stories have their own rules. You can't just start from zero and become a hero by yelling loud enough."

  Jay's shoulders slumped. The brief spark of enthusiasm faded, replaced by the familiar look of defeat.

  "What you can do," Mark continued, his tone softening slightly, "is start from zero and slowly climb up. Like an RPG. You'd have to create your own rules—or use some from a game. That nightmare you manifested—the monster with the mouths. That was from a game, wasn't it?"

  "Yeah." Jay perked up a little. "A JRPG."

  "So you know that game's rules. HP, MP, stats, skills. That kind of system might work for you. Your brain already accepts it as real."

  Jay's eyes widened. The spark returned—brighter this time.

  "Wait. So I could actually have HP bars? And mana? And learn skills by leveling up?" His voice rose with excitement. "I could be a mage! Or a summoner! Or—"

  He started pacing, hands gesturing wildly as he theorized about stat distributions and skill trees and optimal builds.

  Maggie watched him, mildly amazed at how quickly he'd bounced back from existential terror to gaming enthusiasm.

  Then something caught her eye.

  A smile. Floating in the air about ten feet to their left. Just a smile—wide, crescent-shaped, with too many teeth.

  "Uh," Maggie said. "Mark?"

  The rest of the cat materialized around the smile. Grey and purple stripes. Large, luminous eyes. A body that seemed to fade in and out of existence depending on how directly you looked at it.

  "That's the cat from Alice in Wonderland," Jay breathed.

  The Cat's smile somehow widened. "Mark, Mark. Hello there." Its voice was smooth, unhurried, like it had all the time in the world. "I just heard there are new humans in the Dreamscape."

  "Cheshire." Mark didn't seem surprised. "What brings you here?"

  "Oh, this and that. Curiosity, mostly. We cats are prone to it, you know." The Cat's body rotated lazily in the air, ending up upside-down without seeming to care. "Alice wishes to extend an invitation. To you and your... companions."

  His luminous eyes drifted to Maggie and Jay.

  "An invitation to Wonderland."

  Jay's reaction was immediate. "No way. Who wants to go to some boring tea party place? We need a real adventure! Battles! Quests! Not—"

  The Cat appeared directly in front of him. Maggie hadn't seen it move.

  "Oh, don't worry." The smile was very close to Jay's face now. "We'll make it specially adventurous. Just for you."

  Jay swallowed hard.

  Mark was quiet for a moment, looking between the Cat and his two charges. Thinking.

  "Okay," he said finally. "We'll accept your invitation."

  Jay whipped around. "What? But I just said—"

  "Wonderland is technically an isekai, isn't it? A normal person transported to another world with different rules." Mark's expression was unreadable. "Don't you want to go? Or you can stay here on your own, if you prefer."

  Jay shook his head vigorously.

  "Marvelous." The Cat's body did a slow flip. "Let me show you the entrance."

  The ground beside them rippled. A hole opened up—not a crack or a pit, but a proper rabbit hole, circular and dark, leading down into nothing. Beside it, a small table materialized with several glass bottles on top. Each bottle had a paper label that read: DRINK ME.

  "You know what to do." The Cat was already fading—body first, then stripes, until only the smile remained. It lingered a moment longer, then vanished too.

  Maggie and Jay stared at the hole. Then at the bottles. Then at each other.

  "Isn't this hole too small?" Maggie crouched beside it, peering down. "Do we have to transform our bodies? I don't think I can do that yet."

  Mark sighed. "This generation is absolutely lost." He picked up one of the bottles and handed it to her. "Drink this, then get in. You first, Maggie."

  A shadow passed overhead. Maggie looked up to see an eagle descending, landing gracefully on Mark's shoulder. Locke trotted up beside him, having apparently finished disposing of Lucifer's cards.

  "Whoa." Jay's eyes went wide. "You have an eagle too? That's like having a full party! The loyal wolf companion AND the majestic bird scout!" He gasped. "Is the eagle also a manifestation of your soul? A representation of your desire for freedom?"

  "It's a husky, not a wolf. And the eagle is just a bird." Mark's patience was visibly thinning. "Now shut up and wait your turn."

  Maggie looked at the bottle in her hand. The liquid inside was clear, slightly luminescent. It smelled like... nothing, actually. Which was somehow more unsettling than if it had smelled like something.

  "Bottoms up, I guess."

  She drank.

  The effect was immediate. The world rushed upward—or she rushed downward—everything growing enormous around her. The rabbit hole that had seemed too small was now a gaping chasm. The grey flagstones were vast plains of stone.

  She tried to say something, but her voice came out too small for the others to hear. Mark's face, enormous from her new perspective, looked down at her with mild impatience.

  "Down you go."

  Maggie looked at the hole. Took a breath.

  And jumped.

  The darkness swallowed her.

  Above, she heard Mark's voice—distant now, fading—telling Jay it was his turn.

  Then there was only the fall.