I had fallen asleep at some point, overwhelmed by the unexpectedly pleasant storm of emotions that had bombarded me in the depths of Hell. As if they had scoured my soul clean. I woke to discover that the Baby Beast – B, for short, I decided as a temporary name – had huddled up against me, as if seeking protection. And I had subconsciously held him as I slept. He didn’t shift, so I assumed he was sleeping. I didn’t want to give him a true name, because then his name would be forever tarnished by the man he had met in Hell that one time, since I still had no way of getting out.

Thinking of that, B needed to get going. He couldn’t just hang out down here with me. What did he eat? What did he need to stay alive? What if someone found him and attacked him? Imprisoned him? I began to panic, and this, apparently, woke B up.

He darted away in a blink, and metal spines like a thousand needle-thin razors suddenly erupted from the soft, huggable cloud. He zipped back and forth aggressively, but not against me. Against… whatever it was that had made me afraid. He was essentially barking at the burglar that had woken me up in the night, ready to rip him limb from limb.

“It’s okay,” I said with a smile, hiding my surprise at his sudden ability to kill. “I was just thinking of your safety. That you should probably go home soon. To your mother.” I patted the wall behind me. “I’m not going anywhere. I don’t even know where the door is,” I admitted.

“I don’t think my mother would like that answer,” B said slowly, the silver spines slowly retracting back into the cloud.

I grunted at the understatement. “Well, you obviously know the way down here. You can find your way back out. How did you even find me?” I closed my mouth, realizing that it sounded eerily close to do you know how far from home you are, how worried your mother will be?!

And that would only serve to scare him. And make me sound like a grouchy old man.

B didn’t even hesitate. “I followed your soul. I could hear you crying out. You are… a part of me, I think. But I don’t know how to find my way back. Your parents said you could help me. Help your family. I’m very tired…” he said, drawing the words out as if he really was at the point of exhaustion. I stared at him. My parents…

I suddenly knew what my dreams had been. It had been B searching for me. Listening in on conversations with my friends, stalking everyone. I wondered if they had been able to see him. Many had acted like they could not. But my parents had.

I watched in horror as he ever so slowly began to descend lower to the ground. When kids got like this, they were minutes away from a coma. Like a sugar crash. Oh, no.

“B, listen to me. You have to go home. Right now. I can’t keep you safe. I have no power.”

“You have powerful toys, they are just tired, too. And you know the way out. I heard the black one say so. Maybe it’s this room…” he said sleepily.

I blinked at him, feeling a surge of excitement. “When did you get tired, B?”

He shifted lazily, sinking lower to the ground. “After I came in here to talk to you.”

“Shit…” I cursed. The cell was exhausting him. He didn’t have a body, and I was pretty sure he wasn’t a soul, since he’d had no problems traipsing about Hell. He was a Beast, something I barely pretended to understand. Maybe he was celestial, a being from another place, or a realm I simply identified as celestial. Whatever it was didn’t matter right now. He’d gotten in here without a problem. I needed him to help me get out. Not only because I wanted to get out, but because he couldn’t find the way out on his own. He needed someone with a map.

The new guide to Hell. Me.

And I had unleashed something deadly into my world – because I was sure my brief roommate was an asshole of the highest caliber.

And he sure seemed interested in some of the same hobbies as Matthias and me.

Arthur. Camelot. Guinevere.

B had said my toys had power, but they were just tired. Did that mean… outside the cell they would work fine? “B, I need you to do something. We’ll take a nap in just a minute. Can you… get rid of this wall? Quietly?” I asked, not knowing how to phrase it so that he might understand, not sure how many words he knew. It sure seemed like he knew a hell of a lot, but I couldn’t waste time. We had to act fast. He was my only way out. And I was his only way out. We had to work together.

“As you wish, Catalyst,” he murmured as if in a trance. I jumped, but seeing how slowly he drifted over to the wall, I didn’t pester him about the word he’d so casually used. He bobbed in a weaving pattern, like a child dragging his feet on the way to bed. I quickly gathered up my stuff, took one last look at the glow-sticks in the dark cell behind me, grunted, and turned back to B.

The wall shimmered, and a thousand pounds of diamond grit collapsed to the floor, some of it rolling over my feet. I hefted my spear and dove through, not caring what was on the other side as B suddenly sagged completely to the ground like fog in a valley. I grabbed a hold of his… fluffiness where I thought his hair would be and tugged him after me.

Startled whistles shrieked at me from my right, and I cut loose with my spear as three Candy Skulls lurched after me with their glass sword-hands. With each second, another arm appeared with another blade until each of them sported six or more arms – a shitload of glass.

Magic surged up inside of me, and I smiled at their prettily-painted faces.

“Early checkout, Candy Asses.”

And I threw myself into them, drawing deep on the Fae powers that Barbie had rejuvenated me with. Remembering how difficult it had been when trying to take out the monsters in the white arena, I gave it more effort than probably necessary.

A dozen silver spines – like I had seen B use – erupted from my hands, impaling the first two Candy Skulls. I didn’t stop, even as they shrieked, higher pitched, like teakettles about to explode. I swung my spear laterally, decapitating them. Their robes crumpled and their Candy Skull Masks bounced on the ground loudly as the ruby on my spear flashed twice, drinking in their… souls? The third Candy Skull warden took one look at me, the spear, and turned to run. I scooped up one of their Masks – not a full skull like I had seen others donning – and pointed my spear at the fleeing warden. A bar of blinding red lightning hammered into his spine.

He simply ceased to exist, and my spear gobbled him up, too, the gem flashing brightly one time, devouring whatever it was that kept the Calavera vertical. I frowned at it before spinning to check on B. Now that we were out of the cell, he should be fine. Less sleepy.

But he wasn’t. He was a deflated lump of cotton, not moving. Dying or dead.

“NOOOOOOOO!” I roared at the top of my lungs, loud enough to… well, wake the dead.

And not knowing what else to do, I pointed my spear at B, unleashing a torrent of arcing red light into the Beast. The walls exploded all around us, shrapnel pelting my body and face.

And I fell from these Hellish Heavens.