Note: While I reused the names from Mystical Island, the characters are completely different.

It’s said that every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. My problem? I can’t remember the beginning, I’m still in the middle, and how the hell do I know what the ending will be? Still, I should probably tell you what I do know…Least I can do, for dragging you into this story. Not that anyone will ever read it, mind you-how could they, even if I wasn’t on this blasted ship. I’m not writing it down. Just putting it in my head, trying to figure things out. But still…If you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right, right? I mean, what else can I do? What other ways do I have to spend my time?

I’m on a ship. A space ship-maybe. Kinda. I don’t really know…I don’t know anything, anymore. None of us do. None of us will-that’s what The Professor told me, when I got here. He’s one of the half dozen people on this ship, along with me, Walter, Ethan, Eilonwy, and Sam. He told me all about this place, when I got here, just a few hours ago. I think. The Professor I mean-I don’t actually know what his name is. He probably doesn’t, either.

That’s what this place does to you: It makes you think you’re going to die, keeps you afraid, stops you from concentrating, and all the while it steals your memories, until you can’t remember a single thing. It uses every bit of you up in order to keep itself running, until you can’t even remember your own name anymore.

I can still remember a bit of my life, though. I remember family. I remember-

“BOO!”

“Ethan! Don’t do that!”

“What? You know I hate it when you get that boring look on your face. For god’s sake, we could be crushed at any moment now, Kev, and you’re thinking of…what? Your past life? As if it means something? As if you can ever get back to it?”

“I’ll get back there.” But I wouldn’t. No one ever did. One minute, you’d be walking around a perfectly normal teen, and then…Bam. You’re on a ship, your past life slowly slipping away from you until there’s nothing left. And then you start to fade. At least, that’s what The Professor told me. That your body will start to fade away, that you start to become transparent, and disappear, like you’d never been there at all. Slowly but surely, you’re imprint on the world would disappear as everyone forgot you.

I think The Professor dreads that more than any of us. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t exactly look forward to that either-but no one’s as close to it as The Professor, and he knows it. Sometimes soon-an hour, a day, a week, maybe even a month or a year, and he’ll suddenly find that he can’t grab on to anything anymore-that his fingers will just slip through anything he touches. And then, not so long after, he’ll disappear. It’s only a matter of time, and none of us are sure what to do without him.

We’re just teens, except for hm./ We don’t know how to survive out here. We have no idea how to control the ship, or operate the doors that this ship must past through every day if it’s going to keep on flying. And in the meantime, even with him still here, he’s getting closer and closer to the Fade-more and more absent minded, and taking us faster and faster to our death as each call gets just a bit closer.

At least, that’s what Ethan’s been telling me. I’ve hardly been around here long enough to see any of it in action. I think that’s why I still want to escape, though: I still remember enough to know what’s out there, while, for the others, it just starts to disappear. Maybe if I could just hold on long enough-

Boom.

“Ethan!”

“Don’t look at me!”

“Not that you don’t deserve it,” said Eilonwy, embracing me. “You really do get an annoying look on your face every once in a while.”

“It’s not annoying!” I disagreed. Though not too loudly, mind you-I could never really seem to raise my voice towards Eilonwy.

“It is a bit, actually, considering the fact that the rest of us hadn’t in time to think in, what? Three years?”

“Three months,” said Sam.

“A week!” cried Ethan.

“Does it really matter?” demanded Eilonwy. The others weren’t listening though-they’d already forgotten the conversation, most likely. That’s what this ship does to you…It makes you forget/ It’s why I’m writing this down, filing it in the back of my head-so that I can remember, at least for a while. Before it disappears, like everything else.

The ship shook as another explosion of sound blasted through the ships interior.

“Ok, what’s happening?” asked Sam, though, in truth, it came out more as a mutter. He couldn’t even care enough to raise his voice.

“Can’t a guy get scared out of his wits in PEACE?” asked Walter, rousing from what passed as sleep onboard this ship. You’d think you’d get used to all the near deaths aboard this ship, but somehow every time something clipped the ship, it scared you just as badly as the first time. Maybe because you can’t really remember the first one anymore, by the time it happens again/

“That’s not normal,” said Ethan.

“What do you mean it’s not normal?” I asked. “What exactly is not normal about that particular near death experience in comparison to all the other three thousand near death experiences I’ve gone through recently!” Okay, so maybe I was being a bit snappish-but let’s see how you take to almost getting killed a thousand times over. It takes a toll on a teen.

“I’m going to wager a guess, and say the giant robotic shark outside my window,” said Walter/

“What the fuck is a giant robotic shark doing outside in the middle of space?” demanded Sam. Even his curses sounded bland.

“I don’t know!” cried Ethan. “Maybe it’s a space shark robot!”

I just had to take offense at that one. I mean, “A space shark robot?”

“What! it could happen!”

“There are no such things as-“

The shark slammed into the ship again.

“Tell that to them!”

Another ram form the shark rocked the ship as The Professor’s sleepy voice drifted past us. “The sharks keep coming one by one, hurrah, hurrah, they’ll kill us all before their through, haroo, haroo, the world shall end, the pieces rain, the land shall fall, we’ll all be slain…cause the sharks keep coming one by one, hurrah, hurrah, the lands are falling bit by bit, harroo, harroo, and when we’re gone, the land is doomed, hurroo hurrah hurray, hurray. The-”

I tuned him out, after that. He did that every once in a while…Rambled insanely, barely wakeful enough to drive. It had only started a few days ago, according to Walter, but already it was a part of everyday life for this little unwilling crew.

It’s surprising how much you can get used to, once you start to forget that there was ever anything else.

The shark slammed into us again, quickly joined by two others of its kind. Whatever that kind was.

“Ethan, take the wheel!” I cried, running forward and dragging The Professor from his seat.

“Me! I don’t know how to drive!”

“Will you please stop arguing, and start driving? I’m not exactly skilled at carrying grown men across my shoulders, either, but you don’t see me complaining!” Without a second glance, I began to drag the singing, sleeping, Professor away. Only thing is, The Professor didn’t want to go. Guy grabbed onto the consol and refused to let go, no matter how much we pulled at him, until, at last, the very wires broke from their slots, destroying our ability to steer even as two sharks slammed into the ships side, taking control of the ship and steering us to what would almost certainly be our deaths.

The Professor was instantly forgotten, left simpering on the floor crying, “I don’t want to go to school mommy!” As for the rest of us, we were hectically grabbing whatever wires we could, trying desperately to plug them into the proper places without knowing the tiniest thing about the ship.

Except for Ethan, mind you. Wire after wire flew from his hands, each finding their proper place. He was like a machine. A warm blooded, wire-putting-in-boy-I-need-a-better-description-machine. Unfortunately for all of us, an actual machine beats a like-a-machine any day of the week. As fast as Ethan was going, the sharks were going just a little bit faster.

Before we even knew what was happening, the sharks trap became apparent: Even as the two sharks bore our ship forward, a third lay in waiting, jaws stretched wide, layer upon layer of teeth just waiting to grind us into the dust. And by the time the last wire was placed in, and the last gear checked, it was already too late. The teeth were just centimeters away-it was too late to turn, even if we knew how.

In that single moment, I think that every single person onboard that ship knew that they were about to die-and I don’t think a single one of them had enough life left in them to care.

“We’re doomed,” said Walter, blandly.

“Yep,” agreed Ethan.

“Good to know,” said Eilonwy. “I’m going to go read Mystical Island before I die... only have a few sentences left, anyway.”

“See ya,” said Sam.

“Nonsense!” cried the professor, leaping up and hitting the gas. Instantly, the ship launched forward, breaking free of the two unsuspecting sharks, and going straight into the gullet of the third.

Teeth slammed into us, grinding against the metal, as the ship groaned and creaked beneath he pressure. The ship began to shudder as the teeth struggled to find a grip, and tear us to pieces. And then, suddenly, we were through, as the ship blasted down through its stomach, and burst through the weak metal of its tail, setting us free.

“Told you I could get you to your meeting on time, sir,” said The Professor, and promptly fainted.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, the sharks…weren’t doing so bad. Despite being short ashrk, they just kept on coming. And, I’m saddened to say, they were going a lot faster than we were leaving. The only bit of good news was that an unconscious Professor, deadweight or no, was proving t be a lot easier to carry around then a wakened, struggling one. Slowly but surely, I began to drag him away, leaving Ethan to employ every evasion trick he could think up in an effort to escape our pursuers. He actually knew a surprising amount, as it turned out. Nevertheless, it was only a matter of time before we were all destroyed.

The ship kept on turning, the sharks kept on coming, and only one species didn’t need any sleep. You get one guess. Give you a hint though: It wasn’t us.

Which is why I’m the first to admit that when a giant tunnel, maze, thing jumped into existence out of nowhere, it actually seemed like a bit of a godsend. If we could reach that tunnel, something in me seemed to shout, we’d be safe. I know it was irrational-but when you’re options are slim, every chance seems wondrous. Problem was, with no way to turn that fast, ever way to die trying, things weren’t exactly looking up.

Until, that is, Ethan turned the ship just in time to catch a blast from a shark, herding the herder into ramming our tale and sending us spinning into the very tunnels that had seemed so far out of reach just a few seconds ago. It also sent me and the professor tumbling into the window.

Even as we hit, a thousand spidery cracks began to spread, making the most horrid crackling sound it has ever been my misfortune to hear as the glass began to splinter beneath our bodies. The ship continued to spin, now on its side, with us pressed against the window, coming closer and closer to oblivion with every burst of inertia.

Have you ever heard the line, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” by Robert Burns? Well, newsflash! The Worst laid plans? They don’t necessarily do that well either. And dragging an unconscious Professor across a splintered glass window, while suspended in space, was definitely on the list of worst laid plans. Of course, standing around doing nothing wasn’t exactly that high up in the ratings either. So on we went, the glass creaking and the ship groaning with every step we took, as the ship went came closer and closer to the tunnels. We were only centimeters away from the ships end when it happened: The professor’s eyes snapped open with a scream, as he pounded against the glass, causing it to shatter, and us to tumble through.

There was weight, though; and oxygen. Some distant part of my brain probably even realized this, as my hand desperately searched for a handhold, barely catching on to the lip of the window. The glass cut into my hand, and I felt my own, warm, blood trickling down my arm, but it was a small price to pay for my life. Our lives, rather, I amended, looking down at the professor, his mouth still open in a silent scream, even though nothing would come out.

Finally, even as the shark that had sent us spinning along this course came towards us, The Professor squeezed out three simple words, horror in his eyes and voice alike: “The Shadow Tunnels.” And, with that, even as the Shark made its final charge towards me, he let go, knocking the shark from its course as both man and shark alike tumbled into the tunnel. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but I could almost see shadow, struggling to get free and make its way up towards me, barely held in check by his form.

I had more important things on my mind than optical illusions though. With The Professor no longer dragging me down, I thought I might I might be able to drag myself back into the ship. Only, I realized, as my arm began to give way, it was a bit too late for that. Too late for anything.

Even as I realized that, even as the glass cut into my body, and the blood trickled down my arm, I fell from perch and ship alike. Away from Eilonwy. And, for one glistening instant, as I tumbled from the ship and towards what could only be my doom, I could remember. For one shining moment, I knew why we had been brought to that ship, where it was taking us, why the ship had been given us, and allowed our memories. Why it had to keep us constantly scared and distracted, with slamming doors, looming obstacles, and chasing monsters. Anyway it could manage. I knew who we were, and what we were doing. I knew all of that-and then a hand grabbed my wrist, pulling me onboard, and all of it fell away once more.

“Hi,” said Eilonwy.

“Hi,” I answered. And I didn’t care about the loss one bit.

“The Professor?”

I looked, a hint of sadness in the depths of my eyes, at the mass of tunnels he had fallen into-the very ones we were beginning to enter. “The Shadow Tunnels,” I whispered.

In that very instant, as if called forth by those three simple words, the shadows that gave the tunnel their name attacked.

I looked, a hint of sadness in the depths of my eyes, at the mass of tunnels he had fallen into-the very ones we were beginning to enter. “The Shadow Tunnels,” I whispered.

In that very instant, as if called forth by those three simple words, the shadows that gave the tunnel their name attacked.

I don’t know what you think of when I say shadows-whether you think of furitive shapes, half seen from the eyes, or dark figures that lurk in the back of your imagination. Our shadows were neither and both of those.

They were us, to extent…Our shadows, brought to life to attack us, dark figures that never quite seemed to settle, yet always seemed to reflect us. But they were more than that too. They were our dark sides, our hidden thoughts, our bestial nature. They were everything that we hated to see in ourselves-and they could not be denied. Not only because of how they were attacking our ship, but because of what we saw when we looked at them. No matter that they did not have our features, no matter that, to the outside observer, they could have been the shadows of any one in a dozen men or women, we were not allowed such illusions. When we looked at those things, that hidden part of ourselves, we saw the truths we were so desperate to avoid.

Ethan saw something bloodthirsty, tearing through raw food, drinking hot blood, shaking the ship and howling its raw animal fury.

Eilonwy saw something vindictive-something that would push you down, and laugh as you struggled to your feet, watching you with a grin on its face before delivering a final killing blow.

Walter saw a monster, something would go out of its way to destroy, and maim, and torment. Not because of any joy, but just because it could.

Sam’s was probably the worst, because, of us still on board, he was the one most lost. His was the clearest defined, the clearest in its intentions…He saw something that would kill us all, and relish it. Something that would make friends, and family, just to betray them and see the looks on their faces when it did so.

I guess, if you follow that logic, though, I was the luckiest. I’d been there for less time than any of them, had a better hold on myself than any of them, and it showed when my shadow appeared. The monster howled with the rest of them, shook the ship with the rest of them, drew blood upon the windows with the rest of them, and howled its defiance. But when I looked its eyes, it was muted and slow. When it turned to do evil, it could do nothing more than make faces, and rip pages from books. It could not draw upon me, and thus I was saved. So when the others began to grow incapacitated with fear, I was left active.

When the ship landed, and the doors flung open, the shadows ready and waiting to greet their guests, I was the only one still active. The only one left who could resist.s

I wouldn’t be enough to stop this. I didn’t even know what this was.

The shadows parted as a man strode through their mists. A man so familiar to my addled brain, yet still unrecognizable. He recognized me though. Even called me by name.

“Hello, Kevin,” he said. “So glad you could join us.”

“Like I had a choice, Doctor Booger Breath.” The words tumbled from my mouth as if following long forgotten scripts. They were mine, but I had no knowledge of what they meant. They seemed to upset the man though.

“My name is Doctor Boogeath. Not Doctor Booger Breath!”

I let the words flow through me, unsure of what else I could do. Just following a script. “Your point? Look, just tell me what you want from us so that we can go ahead with the whole stopping you plan.”

“How can you stop me when you don’t even remember how you did it in the past?”

“Who says I don’t remember?”

“You. The old you would never have paused this long for a conversation-we’d be battling even as we spoke…Face it, Kevin. You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know who you are. You’re not even entirely certain what you are saying. You just like to torment. But I-I have a few torments up my sleeve as well, you know. Would you like to see them?”

“Not particularly.”

“Who said you have a choice?”

“You did-just a couple of seconds ago.”

“I-you-Just come along! Shadows, grab your counterparts!”

The others went unresisting, not even caring-it would take a while for their memories to come back, particularly surrounded by these shadowy monsters.

As for me-I went with a smile on my face, and horror in my heart, not sure what I could do, but not willing in the slightest to let this man no it.

It made him uncomfortable, that I was like this. Even if I could do nothing else, I would make this man who feared us teens uncomfortable.

“So, what’s the plan?”

“The plan? Like I’m going to rant on about my plans for universal domination?”

“Oh, universal domination. Lofty goal.”

The man just glared at me, as my own gaze tried to take in the surroundings. We were surrounded by trees, and vines, and animals chirping happily, now…But another image was entering my mind-another world, filled with plants made of solid jade. Another lab. I had done this before-defeated this man before. I knew that suddenly. Didn’t know the how, didn’t know the why, or the when…but I knew that I had done it before, and that, just maybe, I could do it again.

“What harm could it do?” I asked. “I can’t remember anything, after all. Or are you afraid to talk to a simple teen like me?”

“I’m not afraid of you, Kevin.”

He was though. I could remember now, a little bit. Nothing like that former burst of memory, long lost, but something all the same.

This man was terrified of us. Terrified of what we might do to him, horrified that all his plans might be wasted because of us. That’s why he’d tracked us down, one by one, and put us in that ship. That’s why he allowed it to destroy our memories, and suck away our humanity.

It’s also why he needed the shadows. Why he wanted these negative feelings, torn from the back of our mind. He needed to stop us-to keep us captive, and hold our memories down beneath the fear and terror.

“You should be,” I said.

“You can’t stop me.”

“Then why won’t you tell me the plan?”

“Oh, but Kevin…I already did. You just can’t remember. That’s the beauty of the entire thing. You know every detail, every method in which to stop it-every single one of you do-and you can’t remember a single blasted thing!”

“I remembered you, didn’t I? The rest will come.”

“Then perhaps a little distraction is in order, hmm? Since your shadow seems to be doing such a poor job.”

“Wasn’t on the ship long enough,” I said. “Face it doc-you failed.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that…But, the distraction? I believe I have a friend of yours, who’s oh so anxious to meet you. Driver!”

“You called, sir?” came a voice. The Professor’s voice. The voice of a man who, for a few short hours, had been my friend. And it was calling the man who sought to destroy us all, “Sir.”

“Yes…I’d like you to meet an old friend of yours. I believe you met on the ship.”

“You know I don’t remember much of what happened there, sir.”

“No. But I’m sure our little Kevin remembers you.”

“The Professor.”

In some ways, it wasn’t really all that much of a surprise. Not because I had expected or anything, but because I really hadn’t known that man so long. In other ways, though, it was probably the biggest betrayal in my life. On a ship that small, with no memories, you learn to depend upon those around you. Not for many things, I guess-not much to need help for-but still…You depend on them to be afraid with you. You depend on them to support you, when you can’t do it anymore yourself. And, for The Professor, we depended on him to save our lives, every single moment of the day.

Finding out he was on the wrong side was…Horrific.

“How?” I asked.

“He was my driver,” said the evil Doctor. The Professor, actually, I realized…That was his title. It seemed a slap in the face now, remembering that. “He helped me with all my schemes-until the day I said I was going to put you children in a space shuttle. He got a stroke of conscience after that, most unbefitting for anyone around me…So I locked him away with the rest of you. Until you were kind enough to set him free, erasing the entire episode from his mind. No, I’m glad to tell you that your…Did you call him The Professor? Figures he would take my name. Anyway, I’m happy to tell you that he’s back to normal, same as ever, ready as ever to kick some butt, and destroy your lives.” We were coming up to a door now. Dark mahogany, I’d guess. He always used mahogany for his doors, I remembered. Didn’t matter what world he went too. And he’d gone to a lot of them. Then again, so had I.

“Here, though, is where things really get interesting.”

We were through the door now, and the other side was…Interesting. To say the least.

The left and right walls were a solid glass, maybe three inches thick. And on the other side of that glass? Think of a scorpion, add a long snake stomach, and add a few hundred thousand others. The walls were latterly crawling with spitting, venomous, monstrous skapes. That’s what they were called. I think. Difficult to remember.

“You remember my little pets, don’t you, Kevin? No? Nevertheless, you’re about to see them in action.”

“You’re going to feed me to them?”

“Dear god no-what would be the fun in that? No, I’m going to feed your little Professor down it…His real name is Ernie, you know. Try to remember that-I know it’s hard, but a man deserves to have his memory known when he dies. Least, that’s what you always said, Kevin. One of the various places we disagree, as it happens. I prefer to forget them all together. Ironic how we’ve ended up, I suppose, isn’t it?”

“Wait!” cried…Ernie. “You’re going to do what with me?”

“Once a traitor, always a traitor, Ernie. Just because you’ve forgotten the action doesn’t mean you won’t do this again.”

“But…Boss! I’ve been your faithful servant for years!”

“Shame, isn’t it?”

“You can’t do this to me!”

“Should have gone into another line of work, my victim.”

He always called them that, right before he killed them. Obliterated their names from his mind, so that he wouldn’t have to think about them. So that he could lock it all behind him, and never think about it again.

He’d done it often enough before.

“You can’t do this!”

“Can’t…already am...do the semantics really matter? Good luck on the other side of the glass, victim.”

The glass wall opened, the creatures backing up to welcome their newest feast, as Ernie was shoved past the glass. They knew how this worked. He’d done it before.

Ernie, on the other hand, had a different plan then them. The moment he was through, he grabbed a skape, and through it right into the real Professor’s face, before the glass could begin its closing.

The Professor stuck his hand into the glass, halting it and grabbing the skape and puling it from his face. “Did you really that that could work,” he whispered into the small hole that was left. “Did you honestly think that I would be that easy to defeat-that I could be so stupid? Did you not know that I would train these creatures to know my sent, and never bite their master?”

“Did you really think that I would let it smell a thing when I threw it at you?” asked Ernie, before turning his look to me. “I don’t forget, Kevin. Run.”

The Professor was staring at his hands, horrified, as the creature raised it’s segmented tale for a strike, blood shining upon its nose from the cuts Ernie had administered. Letting my bodies muscle memory take over, I kicked the Professor to the ground, before grabbing the creature by its tale, and turning to the shadows.

“Let them go.”

The shadows grinned at me.

“Attack!” cried the Professor.

“Let them go, or I will slice you all to pieces, with the venom.”

The shadows continued to advance, continued to grin, believing that I could not hurt them.

Sad thing is, I was fairly certain I couldn’t hurt them either. But I knew who could. “Get up!” I yelled to my friends. “Wake up! I know you’re in there!”

My friends gave no response.

“They’re you! I get it! They’re scary-I understand-but you’ve got to wake up!”

My friends said nothing, as The Professor struggled to his feet. I knocked him down with another blow, turning to Eilonwy. “Wake up,” I whispered in her ear. She didn’t respond. Didn’t say a word, didn’t give her a flicker. The tail darted in front of my eyes, slashing towards my face. I caught it in my teeth, the stinger centimeters from my cheek. I spat it out hurriedly, turning back to Eilonwy. “You can do it.” I popped a piece of gum into my mouth, minty fresh, and kissed her, pulling her close.

“You think that can do anything?” wheezed The Professor, as I kicked him again. “You think that a kiss will save the day? That love will always triumph over evil?”

“No…But I do know that the venom from a Skape, mixed with human saliva, and the chemicals found in the average stick of chewing gum make for a burst of adrenalin like nothing you’ve ever seen.”

Eilonwy gasped. “Game over, Professor.”

“You’ll never get off this world!”

“Worry about yourself, Professor. We’ll find a way for ourselves. We always have before.”

“You can’t possibly remember.”

“I remember enough.”

“What’s going on?” whispered Eilonwy, the adrenaline in her system burning through the vice the others had on her.

“Good enough,” I said, spitting my gum into pieces and popping it into the mouths of the others. Only Eilonwy gets my kisses, thank you very much.

“Come on,” I said, dragging the others to their feet. “We’ve gotta get out of here.”

“Why?” demanded Sam.

“Because there’s a madman on the ground who wants to kill us! Look, just start running!”

We did, too, the shadows following behind, our thoughts racing-it felt so good to be able to think properly again, as the haze burned away. But I did one other thing besides run, something the others didn’t, something The Professor never would. I looked back, and watched Ernie, his eyes filled with terror, as the glass in front of him closed and the Skapes began to consume him. I’ll never know, for certain, why he helped us when he did. Was it always his plan, or simply a stab of vindictiveness towards the one who would kill him? Did he really remember, or just want to be good in someone’s eyes before he died. And, last of all, did it really matter? Or was it enough that he had sacrificed for me-that had been killed so that I can survive.

Either way, I wouldn’t forget. I would never forget.

“So, what’s the plan?” asked Eilonwy.

“Why are you asking me?” I demanded.

“Because you’re in charge?”

“Who says?”

“I distinctly remember you being in charge.”

“I distinctly remember no such thing.”

“I distinctly remember going out with whoever’s in charge.”

“Alright, people, I’m in charge here, and we’re gonna do things my way!”

“That’s my man,” grinned Eilonwy. “So, what’s the plan?”

“The plan…Is to do the same thing we always do.”

“What’s that?”

“I have no idea! Let’s keep it that way.”

“You can’t be serious?”

“Do I look like I’m kidding? It’s called improvisation!”

“You really can’t remember?”

“Can you?”

“I remember we beat him.”

“Then we’ll do it again.”

“We don’t even know what they’re doing!”

“That’s the thing, Eilonwy. We know exactly what they’re doing. We just have to remember it.”

“And how exactly do you intend to remember it?”

“Look, the way I figure it, all of our memories are still back there, right?”

“Right,” said Sam, his head snapping up. He was always the scientist amongst us.

“So we just need to get them out again. And if the ship can lock them away…”

“It can take them out again,” Sam finished.

“What do you think? Can you do it?”

“It would take a few modifications….And Ethan knows a lot more about ships than me.”

“So we’ll turn to Ethan when we want to drive the ship. You, on the other hand, need to figure out how to use the weapon.”

“I’m not making any promises.”

“I’m not asking for any-our universe, on the other hand, might want a few if we ever get back. Now come on! Ships this way!”

“How do you know?” demanded Eilonwy, teasingly. “Your sense of directions horrid.”

“Is not.”

“Which ways up?”

“Down?”

“See what I mean?”

I kissed her again, before running, the ship looming up in front of us. Our shadows were still behind us-but that was for the best. They were all part of the plan.

Could’ve done without The Professor catching up, though. We slammed the door on his face, Ethan and me doing our best to hold it shut.

“Do it!” I called to Sam.

“I can’t do this kind of modification in three seconds!”

“Use the shadows!”

“The shadows?”

“Where do you think he put the memories? Just reverse the polarity, or whatever, and channel the shadows back through the machine and into our brain.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“I’m close though, right?”

“Close enough,” he muttered, turning to the machine. The door began to buckle and turn, as The Professor banged against the door, and the Shadows stood there, glaring at us. They wouldn’t do anything though-they didn’t have enough power. Not now that we were drawing it back from them. All that was left was for Walter to draw them out completely.

“Get me a ray gun!” cried Sam.

Ethan threw his unquestioning, his hand seeking out what his mind had long forgotten.

The door blasted open, under The Professor’s assault, throwing us forward even as Sam connected wire after wire to Ethan’s ray gun.

The Professor strode forward, even as Sam connected the last wire, and blasted his gun right through the shadows, one by one, until only mine remained.

“NO!” cried the Professor, lunging towards Sam, knocking him down and wresting the gun away. It wasn’t too hard a feat, considering the sudden rush of memories entering Sam’s head, immobilizing him. “I won’t let you do this!”

“You won’t have a choice.” I kicked him, the gun going flying from his hands. My shadow caught it.

“Give it to me,” whispered The Professor.

The shadow, with a sad grin in my direction, shot himself, and the memories flowed freely, with the shadows last thoughts.

“Behold-the greatest evil I could ever bring you.”

I didn’t think about that though, as my fingers grabbed onto the gun, pointing it towards The Professor. There was no time to think about such things.

“I don’t know what this will do to you,” I said. “But some part of me-probably the part you just forced me to reabsorb-well, that side of me, it’s really curious. Want to find out with me?”

The Professor didn’t make a move. Probably for the best-I’m not certain I could have made a move, either. The memories were rushing back.

I knew who we were…Or weren’t. Not superheroes. Not super powered agents. Just a few geniuses who’d gotten together one day, thinking we were all that. We’d learned moved, laughed about it, never expected to put it into use…Until one day, we found ourselves in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and ended up foiling up a stupid madman. The guy, of course, blamed us, rather than the squadron of police who’d actually made the arrest. That day forward, things got a lot more complicated, as he dragged us into plot after plot, forcing us to learn move after move, just trying to survive.

We weren’t the heroes of this situation. We were the victims, and we always had been. The only difference between us and Ernie was that we kept on getting lucky, kept on surviving, and kept on getting noticed so that we could do it all again. It had been easier when we thought ourselves trapped heroes.

I also knew his plan though, and I for one was going to stop it. “Sam?” I called.

“On it!”

The plan was simple, really…The dimension was artificial, the trees animals and buildings all a series of machines designed to carry forward the signal of the ship, and slowly erase the minds of our own universe, creating an army of shadows which would go on and do it everywhere else, until the man ruled it all. He didn’t even need us, really. He just wanted someone around to gloat at.

“What’s the plan?” I asked.

“The ship is designed to set off a signal at a predesigned time, through the transceivers, through a whole, and into our dimension.”

“And your plan is to what? Take it offline?”

“Not enough time. I’m going to redesign it like the gun, make it go from forgetfulness to memory. Not difficult.”

Sam was always hard to talk to when he was like this-immersed in work.

“So what? You’re going to make everyone in our dimension remember everything? Ever think they won’t be that appreciative.

“’course not. Need new target. Ideas?”

“One. The greatest evil I could ever bring you, to quote someone I know. Put it in the Professor.”

“Certain? Might be bad idea.”

“Trust me on this.”

“No,” the professor said, his eyes filled with fear, his lips quivering as tears sprang to his eyes, and Sam connected a last wire to the gun. I fired it at him, forcing myself to watch as the gun burst to pieces from the power, and The Professor crumpled to the floor, for us to dump him out the door.

He would remember everything, from now on. Remember every victim, remember every face filled with fear, and it would cripple him. Forever. He would never do a single bad thing again, I knew, for the simple knowledge that he would remember it. Forever.

We’re on the ship now, going home, back through the Shadow Tunnels. They’re kinda beautiful, from this end. A blend of blue, and red, and purple, a rainbow of colors blended together to form something that could only be described as beautiful, no matter how horrid it is…Kinda describes the journey, in a weird way, I suppose.

Sam tells me that we’ll start to forget again, now…That these last few days, since we left the ship, will probably be obliterated forever, even when the rest come back. The others are fine with that, for the most part. Even happy. Eilonwy was the only one with even the slightest bit of remorse, besides me.

I’m different, though. I won’t lose it. I won’t forget it. I refuse to forget Ernie, who gave his life for us, no matter his reasons. I refuse to forget the shadow, no matter how bad it was. I refuse to forget The Professor, who we’d left to rot forever, or the men The Professor had no doubt tested the ship on-who had most likely faded away. That’s what the shadow meant when he talked of the evil he had given me…He gave me this-my memories, and with them the knowledge that I will never let myself forget. Never.

If this story has one message, it is the dual sidedness of us all. It is filled with our own shadows attacking us, which in turn are really made up of the evil within. Sometimes, they are truly evil, while other times, they are simply annoying, but one and all they represent that other side of us we try to keep hidden, though in various degrees. We see how our own inner demons can betray us, (again the shadow) and the horrors of having our own identities stripped from us. This being, quite arguably, the worst fate of all…it shows what fear can do to us. How easy it is to forget who we are, surrounded by new things. It shows many things, many of them frightening, though some of them wondrous as well. As horrid as the shadow tunnels are, they cannot be denied a fascinating beauty about them; and as horrid as it is to lose our identities, and our ability to think, it is also wondrous to be able to explore the world around us, if only we could keep the memories as we did so. (Obviously impossible for the characters, at least in their present state, but it’s still a nice thought.)