They awoke the next morning and began to plan their trip. Jocelyn began informing Haile and Hudson of what she knew of the star. “I’ve left this house to continue following the star several times, but I always turned back because I was running low on food. Every time I left, no matter how long I traveled, it was a one day trip back.”

“How does that work?” Haile asked.

“I don’t know, whether we can only get one day away, or space bends to make the trip home easier, I don’t know, it just happens. We don’t necessarily need to find out how to get past it, we can always make our way back here. Sound good?” They both nodded, “Good, let’s get going.”

Jocelyn packed lightly, most of their things were carried by Hudson. Jocelyn walked in the middle, with Hudson on her right, and Haile on her left, Dante walking beside Haile, trying to hold her hand, though he knew he couldn’t.

The days were peaceful, wind blew over the field, birds flew overhead, it was relaxing. Days were warm, nights were cool. A few days passed, which turned into a few weeks, which turned into a month. Jocelyn still kept track of the days, and brought up when they had been traveling for a month.

“A MONTH?!” Hudson exclaimed. “We’ve been traveling for a month and have made zero progress.”

“I know, it sucks. If we are able to continue finding game, we can make it for another.” Jocelyn added.

“So, we just continue walking?” Hudson questioned.

“Maybe not.” Haile chimed in, “I had an idea the other day.”

Jocelyn spoke after a short pause, “You going to share it?”

“I dunno, it’s not a terribly good idea.”

“It’s better than nothing.” Hudson added.

“Well, -Hudson, do you remember the idea Dante had back at the crossroads?”

“Yeah, use the Threads to push through the crowd.”

“What if we used the same concept to run faster?”

Both Jocelyn and Hudson looked down and thought for a moment, Jocelyn broke the silence, “It’s worth a shot, I don’t know you two rather well, so you’ll have to slow down so I can keep up.”

“Alright then, let’s give it a shot! You know how to summon your Threads, yes? Hudson asked.

“Yeah, my then boyfriend and I found a Thread-reader in town, she was cool.”

“Really, we did the same thing, strange how that works out. Let’s do this then.” Hudson said, closing his eyes.

A dull white Thread danced between Haile and Jocelyn, followed by a similar one between Jocelyn and Hudson. A bright white Thread wound its way between Hudson and Haile, it snapped into place, a red Thread spun its way around the white Thread.

“Well then,” Hudson said, opening his eyes, “Let’s get running.”

“Last one there is a rotten egg.” Jocelyn said, taking off.

“Cheater.” Hudson said under his breath, beginning his chase.

“Oi! Don’t leave me behind.” Haile began running after them.

Haile’s plan worked, in half an hour they had covered a full day's travel. Better yet, they had begun making progress towards the star. After an hour of running, a mountain range began appearing over the Horizon. Another hour later, They had reached the base of the mountain, and were running uphill. Haile and Hudson had caught up with Jocelyn, she was struggling to keep up with them. Jocelyn closed her eyes and began giving everything she had, she pushed to overtake them. The wind on her face got faster, and faster, she was doing it. She felt a hand grab the back of her collar, which began pulling her back. She opened her eyes and looked behind her, it was Hudson. She batted his hand off, he reached to grab again, but he missed. Hudson rolled his eyes and quickly ran ahead of Jocelyn, bent down and grabbed her by the waist, he pushed his feet into the ground to stop her. They slowly came to a stop, when they did, the rocks beneath Hudson’s feet began falling, he barely stopped her in time. Hudson turned around and looked over the cliff he almost fell off of, it was a few hundred feet down into the ocean, that would have hurt.

“Don’t close your eyes when going that fast, it’s dangerous.” Hudson said, his breathing heavy.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know there was a cl-” Jocelyn began.

“I know, just don’t do it again.” Hudson placed his hands on his knees, and took a moment to breathe.

Haile ran up and slid to a stop, “Good save, Hudson.”

Hudson looked up and pointed to Haile, “You’re a rotten egg, sucker.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. It doesn’t matter, look.” Haile pointed up, they were almost perfectly under the star.

“Would you look at that, we made it.” Jocelyn said, “It looks like we need to head a little-” she began spinning a little to find out the direction they needed to go, “-that way.” She looked down, a few hundred feet away stood a small looking shack.

“I think that’s our destination.” Hudon said.

They began walking to the shack, it became apparent as they drew close this shack was either old, or in poor care, or both. There were boards missing from the wall, what was left looked rotted and old.

“Here’s a question I should have asked earlier:” Began Haile, “Why were you told to follow the star?”

“I wasn’t entirely given a reason, I was just told to go there.” Jocelyn answered. “The Thread-weaver showed up after my boyfriend started back to town, and told me I would find help there.”

“Well, I guess we’ll find out, won’t we.” Hudson said as they reached the house.

Standing on the porch, if you could call it a porch, were two old looking women. They were wearing dark cloaks, and had long black hair.

“Is it them?” One of them began

“I think it is.” The other one responded

“They are here.”

“Yes.”

“Does it begin?”

“Perhaps, Are they ready?”

“Yes”

“No”

“Yes, none are ever ready.”

“Good”

“We shall test them.”

“Let them be tested then.”

“We are the barterer-of-death, welcome.”

“What have you to trade in exchange for the life of your friend?”

“What would be a fair trade?” Hudson asked.

“We make our living on nothing more than the suffering of man, if you want him back, one of you must suffer.”

“Seems simple enough, I’ll do it.” Hudson said, stepping forward.

“Ah, I see, you have already suffered much, did you know him well?”

“I did, he was my brother.”

“Ah, perhaps you will do then.”

“You must drink this,” She said, holding out a vial with a black liquid.

“This is bottled pain.”

“Put a drop in a gallon, take a sip, it may feel like a light punch.”

“A gulp of that same gallon, a small cut.”

“Drink a pure drop, perhaps a broken bone.”

“This whole vial shall be the ultimate suffering.”

“Then give it to me, I will drink it.” Hudson said, holding out his hand.

“No”

“You are not ready.”

“How can I be ready? I want him back!”

“You shall never be ready, one of the others must take the vial.”

“Which of you knew him well, which one shall suffer to have him back?”

“That leaves me then.” Haile walked in front of Hudson.

“Ah! PERFECT”

“She shall do well”

“Come child”

The witches began to approach Haile, but Hudson put his arm on her shoulder. “I can’t let you do this.”

“And why is that?”

“This is ultimate suffering, this is some Princess Bride crap, I can’t let you suffer like that.”

“I suffered more than I ever have when he died, I can do it again to get him back.” Haile turned to face the witches again, “Give me the vial.”

“Come child, stand at the edge of the cliff.”

“When the pain hits you, do not jump, you will want to in order to end the suffering.”

“Very well, give me the vial.”

“Are you ready, child?”

“No, but I’ll do it anyway.”

The witch placed the vial in her hand. She pulled off the cork, and the scent of death and rot hit her nose. She poured the liquid into her mouth, and swallowed it. An ache began forming in her heart, it grew and grew, it felt like a stake being driven through her chest. She felt her heartbeat, and the pain began spreading through her veins, to every part of her body. She arched her back and threw her arms back and screamed in pain. She fell to her knees, unable to stand. Each of her fingers, her feet, every nerve in her body was activated. Her heart began to beat louder, and louder, her vision began going black. Her mind began filling with fears, and nightmares, she tried to push them out but couldn’t. Her heartbeat got louder, and louder. She looked up to the sky, lightly whispering, “You’ll be back soon, Dante!” The world began spinning around her, she was falling. Her heart beat louder, and louder. She felt a warmth hit her chest, she looked to see a slight glow from the necklace, it brought her some semblance of peace. Her heart beat louder, filling every part of her mind, the world began growing dark, louder and louder and then, nothing.

Hudson ran to the edge of the cliff, “HAILE!” He watched her fall off, he saw her body hit the ocean. She was gone. Jocelyn walked to Hudson’s side, she grabbed his arm and leaned her head on his shoulder, she began crying. Hudson wanted to pull away, but decided against it, she could stay.

“She will be back, along with your friend.” The witch's voice was no longer old and scraggly, instead it was young and smooth. they looked back at them, the house looked brand new, the witches looked like young women.

“Her suffering has brought us life.” She said, recognizing their confusion.

“We shall grow old again until another comes along and suffers for the cycle to begin anew.”

“How long do we have to wait?” Jocelyn asked.

“Be patient, child, they shall return when they are ready.”

“Come inside, I’ll make some tea.”

The world was dark. Haile looked around for something, anything, but there was nothing.

“Took you long enough, loser.” It was Dante.

“Dante?! Where are you? I can’t see!” She began flailing her arms, hoping to run into him.

Dante placed his hands on her shoulders, “Hey, calm down bud. Open your eyes”

“What do you mean? They are open.”

“No they aren’t, you cannot see because you are scared to. Open your eyes.”

Haile tried to open her eyes, nothing changed, it was dark, “I can’t do it.”

“Yes you can, it’s safe here, we’re going to be okay.”

“I’ll try again.” Haile tried to pull her eyes open, she pulled for a moment, before light began appearing. She kept going, and her vision was filled with light. Her eyes began to adjust, and she saw Dante’s face a few inches from hers.

“Hi, how was the trip here?” Dante asked.

Haile wrapped her arms around him, and began crying.

“I missed you too buddy.”

“It hurt so much, it was terrible.”

“Oh, the vial? Yeah, I know, I watched.”

“It was worth it, just for you.”

“Well then, it’ll be more worth it when we get back.” Dante pulled away, “What’s this?” Dante said, placing the necklace in his hand.

“I don’t know, the Thread-weaver gave it to me, he said it ‘protects the souls of the fallen.’”

“Well, I’m safe, so I guess it works. C’mon, let’s go.” Dante took her hand and began leading her away.

Haile looked around, they were in the field where Dante died, “Do we have to make the trip back? That will take months!”

“Of course we do, we can take as long as we like though, it’s just you and I here, we have all the time in the world!”

Haile’s eyes began to light up, they were free for the time being. No gate to find, no friends to worry about, free. “I’d like to get back to them eventually, I don’t want them to wait for too long.”

“Very well, let’s go then.” Dante wrapped his arms around Haile and jumped into the air, they began flying. Dante flew towards the star, his back to the ground, with Haile lying on his chest. “You can fly too, you know, just think where you want to go.”

Haile thought about it and began floating off Dante’s chest, “This is awesome.”

Haile took off on her own now, Dante and Haile began swirling around each other, dancing through the sky. For hours they flew through the sky, working their way to the star. The midday sun crawled its way to the horizon, it had made its way there by the time they finally arrived at the cliffs.

Dante and Haile landed on the cliffs in front of the house. Dante placed his hand on Haile’s head, gently pulling her in. He reached his other hand around onto her back, Haile placed her hands onto Dante’s arms. They looked into each other’s eyes for a moment, before Dante pulled her closer and kissed her.

“So how do we go back?” Haile asked once they pulled apart.

“We restore the cut Thread.” Dante responded, “C’mon.”

Dante looked above the house, there stood the vaults that he searched for. Haile and Dante’s Thread was in one piece again, still red wrapped white. Dante placed himself between his and Hudson’s vault.

“What are these?”

“Thread vaults, they hold the Threads. The Thread that connected me and Hudson was broken, it must be restored for us to go back.”

“Let’s give it a shot then.”

Dante pointed to Hudson’s vault, and the Thread that reached for Dante’s. “Grab that one, and grab my hand.” Haile followed these instructions. “On three, pull with all you got. One… Two… Three!”

Dante and Haile pulled the Threads towards each other. The Thread between their vaults began to glow, a light flew from Haile’s side to Dante's; it transformed the Thread into a brilliant red Thread. It glowed even brighter as the ends of the broken Thread worked their way to each other. Once they got closer, Dante moved his arm around Haile’s waist. The Threads were pulled closer and closer, they were a few feet apart, then one foot, then six inches, then three, two inches.

Dante looked to Haile, “It’s time to go back.”

Haile met his gaze, she paused and started laughing, “Once we finally get home, there is going to be a whole lot to explain.”

Dante chuckled, “Yes there will be.”

The Threads finally reached each other. A bright light filled their vision, everything went white. They both felt a sharp pull from behind.