Jaydestown (SPM)

Don't Look

Death had explained the rules. They were simple really.

Luigi would lead the way out. He couldn't touch Dimentio, he couldn't look at Dimentio, he couldn't turn to check on Dimentio. Since he knew the way, he would lead them all back to the real world. The only thing the shaydes and Dimentio were allowed to do to contact him was speak. But they weren't allowed to get too close.

Luigi himself wasn't allowed to communicate directly with them, but they were allowed to speak and reassure him.

He would only be allowed to look back once he pushed open that dimensional door. Until then, there were no exceptions. The rules were final.

And should he look back...

... Dimentio would vanish, immediately being teleported back to Jaydestown and sent back to work on the wall. He would go back to forgetting, as would the rest of the shaydes. And that would be that. A group of D-Men would personally escort Luigi back to the land of the living and lock the door on the way out, so he wouldn't be able to get back in until he actually died, in which case he would become a shayde and forget himself, as all the other shaydes had.

The stakes could never be higher.

But it was okay because this was an easy task. He just had to trust that Dimentio was behind him.

He never had problems with trusting the world before, so all would be okay.

"We're going to make it," Blumiere assured Timpani. "He'll lead us out of here."

And she believed him. Because from what she had seen of Luigi, he was brave. He was strong. He was a leader. She had no doubt that he could do this.

In fact, all of the shaydes believed in him!

They all had full faith he could do this. After all, this was a simple task. ANYONE could do it! They were all sure they would get their freedom, and excited by the idea of getting their memories from their lives back.

All the emptiness, all the suffering, it would soon all be worth it to feel again.

~ Music Start ~

Luigi began to feel a soft chill in the air.

Walking.

So much walking.

It hadn't seemed this long on the way in. Had the path out of the Underwhere gotten longer since he last walked it? Had it gotten steeper?

He didn't notice it before, but it was downhill on the way in. So it seemed much harder walking out. It seemed much steeper and much more brutal. Once he got beyond the wall, out of Jaydestown, there was no light. It was pitch dark, the air getting colder and colder the further he got from Jaydestown.

Had it always been this cold? How could he have not noticed it sooner?

The road was long, cold, steep, silent, and lonely.

The darkness surrounded everything. His footsteps echoed. Was Dimentio still behind him? Were the shaydes still behind him?!

Or did they give up? Did they go back? What if they got lost?! What if they changed their minds?!

Or, the more likely option, what if this really WAS just a trap. A trap to make Luigi simply walk away. Then, with his back turned, Jaydes would snatch Dimentio and lock the man in green out of Jaydestown. And that would be it.