The deeper tunnels of the OtherSide reeked of decay and something else—something metallic and sharp that made Kyon's teeth ache. Sarah led him through a maze of corridors that seemed to shift and breathe around them, her makeshift weapon gleaming in the amber light that seeped from the walls like infected blood.
"How long have you been planning this?" Kyon asked, his voice barely above a whisper. Behind them, the sounds of battle echoed through the tunnels—screams, roars, and the wet tearing of things that shouldn't exist.
"Since the day I arrived," Sarah replied, not looking back. "But really, it started long before that. With Marcus."
She stopped at what appeared to be a dead end, but when she pressed her palm against a section of the wall, it dissolved like smoke. Beyond was a cavern that made Kyon's breath catch in his throat.
Dozens of children worked in the flickering light, their movements precise and deadly. They were crafting weapons from materials that made his skin crawl—the broken bones of imaginary friends, the crystallized tears of fear, the hardened shadows of nightmares given form. Some looked no older than eight, their small hands skilled at weaving sinew and metal into instruments of war.
"Welcome to the Sanctuary," Sarah said, her voice filled with grim pride. "Or as we call it, the Graveyard Armory."
A boy who couldn't have been more than ten approached them, his arms covered in scars that looked like they had been carved deliberately. In his hands was a crossbow made from what appeared to be the ribcage of some massive creature, its string woven from hair that seemed to move on its own.
"Sarah," he said, his voice carrying an authority that didn't match his age. "The Shepherds are mobilizing. We saw three more breaches open in the last hour."
"This is Marcus," Sarah said to Kyon. "He's been here the longest."
Marcus studied Kyon with eyes that seemed far too old for his face. "You're the one they summoned. The one whose sister crossed over."
"Amy didn't cross over," Kyon said, his voice harder than he intended. "She was taken."
Marcus's laugh was bitter. "They all were, at first. But crossing over isn't about how you arrive—it's about what you choose to become once you're here." He gestured to the children around them. "Every one of us had a choice. Serve the Shepherds and feed on the fear of newcomers, or resist and learn to harvest the Shepherds themselves."
He handed Kyon a blade that hummed with an energy that made his bones ache. The weapon was beautiful in its horror—a sword forged from the crystallized screams of children, its edge sharp enough to cut through reality itself.
"This is made from the remains of a Dream Eater," Marcus explained. "One of the first creatures we killed. It took seventeen of us to bring it down, and only three survived the process. But we learned something important that day."
"What's that?"
"The Shepherds aren't immortal. They're just very, very good at making us think they are."
Another child, a girl with burn marks covering half her face, approached carrying what looked like armor made from overlapping scales. "This is from a Nightmare Hound," she said, her voice hoarse from screaming. "It'll protect you from most of the mind attacks, but not all. The deeper you go into the OtherSide, the more the rules change."
"How many of you are there?" Kyon asked, trying to process the scope of what he was seeing.
"Here? Maybe sixty," Marcus replied. "But we're not the only Sanctuary. There are others, scattered throughout the OtherSide. Some are... different in their methods."
"Different how?"
Sarah's expression darkened. "Some of the children who've been here too long start to think like the Shepherds. They build their own hierarchies, their own systems of control. They become what they once fought against."
"And some," Marcus added quietly, "choose to serve the Shepherds willingly. Not because they're forced to, but because they've seen what the alternative looks like."
He gestured to a corner of the cavern where several children sat in a circle, their eyes vacant and their movements mechanical. "The Hollowed. They pushed too hard, fought too long. The OtherSide took everything from them—their memories, their personalities, their humanity. They're still alive, but they're not really there anymore."
"How do you avoid that?" Kyon asked, though he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.
"You don't," Sarah said simply. "You just try to accomplish something meaningful before it happens to you."
A commotion near the entrance made them all turn. A group of children burst through the dissolved wall, their faces pale with terror. One of them, a boy covered in what looked like black ichor, stumbled forward.
"The Communion," he gasped. "They're performing the Communion of Despair. They have Tommy, and Lisa, and... and they're using the new technique."
Marcus's face went white. "How many?"
"All of them. Every Shepherd in the sector. They're trying to create a Despair Singularity."
The words meant nothing to Kyon, but the reaction of the other children told him everything he needed to know. Several of them began to weep, their tears sizzling when they hit the ground.
"What's a Despair Singularity?" he asked.
"A way to break through the barriers completely," Sarah replied, her voice hollow. "If they can concentrate enough terror in one place, they can create a permanent breach between worlds. The OtherSide would spill into reality, and everything that lives there would have access to billions of children."
"We have to stop them," Kyon said, gripping his new weapon tighter.
"We can't," Marcus said flatly. "We don't have the numbers, and we don't have the experience. The Shepherds have been planning this for decades. All we can do is try to save whoever we can and hope—"
"No." Kyon's voice cut through the despair like a blade. "There has to be another way. There's always another way."
Marcus stared at him for a long moment, then slowly smiled. It was the first genuine expression Kyon had seen from him.
"Maybe," he said quietly. "But it would require going deeper into the OtherSide than any of us have ever gone. Into the Forgotten Zones, where the original rules still apply. Where the first Shepherds are imprisoned."
"The first Shepherds?"
"The ones who created this system," Sarah explained. "The ones who built the barriers in the first place. They're still down there, in the deepest parts of the OtherSide. Waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
"For someone brave enough—or stupid enough—to wake them up."