Mollie Macaw got her plane running. She smiled at herself and said, "It's finished!" She turned towards Doug and asked him, "What do you think? Doesn't it purr like a kitten?"
He looked at her plane. "Don't tell me, you want me to get in and you want to take us on a joy ride, or you want to put as many miles between you and Salem."
"I don't trust her." Mollie said. "Besides, we need to get the next ring piece." Mollie leaned on the plane. "So you never told me, why are you taking Bierce's orders?"
Mollie’s gaze sharpened, her playful "pilot" persona dropping for a split second as she waited for an answer. The engine's hum vibrated through the floorboards of the Ballroom, a constant reminder that time was a luxury they didn't have.
Doug went quiet, his eyes drifting toward the Ring Altar where the shimmering fragments of the Riddle of Heaven sat. He thought about the life he’d left behind—the mistakes, the guilt, and the crushing weight of a soul that wasn't quite whole anymore.
"It’s not about trust, Mollie," Doug said, his voice dropping an octave. "You think I like being a glorified errand boy for a woman who treats life like a theater production? I'm here because she’s the only one holding the keys to the exit. I did things... things I can’t undo. She promised me a way to fix the past. A way to get back what I lost."
"Doug, are you a desperate man? You sure are acting the part." Mollie asked.
Doug let out a harsh, jagged breath that was half-sigh, half-shudder. He didn't look at her; he couldn't. Instead, he stared at the Ring Altar, where the cold light of the soul shards flickered like dying stars.
"Desperate?" he repeated, the word tasting like copper in his mouth. "Mollie, I passed 'desperate' about three nightmares ago. Right now, I'm just a man with a very short leash and a very long list of sins."
He finally climbed into the cockpit, the metal groaning under his weight. He buckled the frayed seatbelt, his hands shaking just enough for her to notice. "Bierce doesn't pick people who have options. She picks the ones who have nowhere else to go. She’s the lifeboats on the Titanic, except she’s the one who steered us into the iceberg."
He looked over at Mollie, his expression hardening. "You’re running from Salem because you don't want to be her puppet. I’m running for Bierce because I’m trying to buy back the puppeteer. We’re both just trying to stay out of the scrap heap."
Mollie nodded. "Alright, Mr. Houser. If you say so." she turned to the nightmare critters. "Anyone want to go with me? I sure can use a lookout!"
"Not me, I have a twisted ankle." Icky Licky excused himself.
"It sounds like to much hard work." Alastor Gator grumbled.
"I'm not going barnstorming with you." Baba Chops disagreed.
Mollie Macaw said, "Whoever said anything about barnstorming?" Mollie said brightly, "We are going to be taxiing and flying if we have to take to the skies."
Doug looked at them. "Mollie is going to help us get the ring pieces so we can get out of here. She can't afford crashing the plane and stranding us in a dangerous situation."
Icky Licky squinted his glass eyes, his long tongue flickering out to taste the grease-heavy air. "Help us? Or help herself to a better view of us screaming?" he muttered, but he shifted his weight, his "twisted ankle" suddenly looking a lot more functional.
Mollie sighed. "I guess it's just you and me, Doug. Just fasten your seatbelt, we are off!"
Bierce called out to them, "And bring him back in one piece, I lost too many people." Mollie gave Bierce the thumbs up and the planed taxiied into the portal. Bierce looked at the nightmare critters. "One of you is missing."
Baba Chops muttered, "It had better not be Simon Smoke who decided to take off again!"
"I'm right here, Baba. Besides, I escaped the hospital, didn't I?"
"Uh, where's Maggie Macho?" asked Touille.
"She was taking a nap in Mollie's plane." Raby Baby said. The critters looked at each other.
"Uh, oh!" Poe said.
Bierce said, "Hopefully she can protect herself from clown gremlins."
"If she wakes up mid-flight and realizes she’s in a confined space with Doug Houser, that plane isn't going to need Clown Gremlins to bring it down." grumbled Baba Chops.
***
The plane taxiied through the carnival stands. "Looks like a circus." Mollie said. She drove the plane over to a carnival tent and saw a bell a guest would hit with a mallet to ring the bell.
Maggie Macho poked her head out from the baggage area, her heavy, stitched brow furrowing as she looked at the environment. "Where the heck am I?"
"You're in Crazy Carnevil." Mollie replied. "You must have fallen asleep and dozed while we entered the nightmare portal. Guess you're coming with us!"
Maggie Macho’s massive, stitched jaw dropped as she looked at the neon-streaked nightmare of the Crazy Carnevil. She rubbed her eyes with a fist the size of a ham, the metal rivets of the plane's interior groaning as she shifted her weight.
"Crazy Carnevil?" Maggie growled, her voice vibrating through the floorboards. "I thought I was just taking a five-minute power nap in the cargo bay! Last thing I remember was the smell of Bierce's floor wax."
"Nope." Doug said.
Maggie looked at the mallet leaning against the bell. A slow, toothy grin spread across her face. "Well, if I'm stuck on this 'joy ride,' I might as well win a prize. Hey, Pilot! If I hit that bell hard enough, does a Ring Piece fall out, or do I just get a giant stuffed bear?"
Mollie said, "You'll never know if you don't try. Go give it a world!"
Maggie Macho didn't need to be told twice. She flexed her stitched biceps, the seams of her toy-like skin straining as she hopped out of the plane's cargo hold. She snatched up the massive wooden mallet like it was a toothpick. "I’m gonna ring this bell so hard, Malak is gonna hear it in the next dimension!" Maggie wound up, her body twisting with the power of a coiled spring. With a roar that shook the cockpit glass, she brought the mallet down onto the striker pad.
K-BOOM.
The sound wasn't a "ding"—it was an explosion. The metal puck rocketed up the track so fast it bypassed the bell entirely, shattering the glass bulb at the very top.
"Wowzy! You are strong!" Mollie gasped.
Maggie preened at the compliment, tossing the splintered remains of the mallet handle aside as if it were a toothpick. "Strength is my middle name, Macaw! Actually, it's Macho, but you get the idea!"
The Soul Shard that had been tucked inside the glass bulb began to drift downward, glowing with a cold, rhythmic light that felt out of place in the neon filth of the Crazy Carnevil.
"Don't just stand there admiring the muscles, Maggie! Grab it!" Doug yelled, leaning out the cockpit window as he spotted the first few Clown Gremlins somersaulting over a nearby popcorn cart. Their high-pitched, distorted giggling was beginning to drown out the idling engine.
Mollie gunned the motor, the plane's tires kicking up a cloud of pink, toxic dust. "I'm taxiing closer! Maggie, hop on the wing and snag that prize before the 'welcoming committee' gets a hand on it!"
Maggie snatched the shard. Next moment, a trap door fell underneath them and the fell into the funhouse. Mollie swooped her plane and caught the screaming Maggie in midair.
"Nice catch, Mollie!" Maggie yelled, her voice echoing off the distorted mirrors of the Funhouse as she slammed onto the wing. She clutched the glowing Soul Shard to her chest like a prized trophy, her heavy boots denting the metal.
The plane’s engines screamed as Mollie leveled out, the wings narrowly missing a set of giant, rotating polka-dot rollers. Below them, the floor was a dizzying checkerboard of trapdoors and neon pits.
"Don't thank me yet!" Mollie chirped, pulling back hard on the yoke to avoid a massive, swinging Clown Hammer. "This isn't a hangar, it's a glorified blender! Doug, check the scanners! Are those mirrors reflecting us, or are they spawning things?"
Doug peered out the cockpit glass, his face pale. The walls weren't just glass; they were ripples of dark energy. Every time the plane passed a mirror, a shadowy, distorted version of the aircraft seemed to peel off the surface and give chase.
"Mollie, we’ve got 'phantom' planes on our tail!" Doug shouted. "And I don't think they're friendly! Maggie, can you hit something while hanging onto a moving wing?"
Maggie Macho let out a guttural laugh, bracing her feet against the fuselage. "Monkey-man, I can hit anything if it stays still long enough to get punched! Tell the pilot to get us close to the glass!"
They look for the next area. But then, a cannonball was blasted at them. "What the hell?" Doug asked. Mollie looked over her shoulder. "How'd he get here?" Mollie asked.
"Whose he?" Maggie asked. "A rival?"
"No, that dastardly coyote!" Mollie said. "Skurv!"
"Skurv?" Doug asked.
"Skurv!" Mollie shrieked, her feathers puffing out in a fit of avian rage. "That mangy, backstabbing sea-dog! He’s supposed to be marooned on the islands, not playing target practice in a nightmare carnival!"
"I thought Salem was you're enemy." Maggie said.
"Besides her. Skurv was part of an old cartoon in which I played pirate with Pip, Chip, and Tikki. He's a mean one. I just can't imagine why he would enter a portal here just to come after me." Mollie said.
"Because in this place, Mollie, grudges never die—they just get sharper teeth," Doug shouted, ducking as Skurv let out a raspy, pirate-style cackle that echoed off the Funhouse mirrors.
Doug said, "Mollie, get us closer to Skurv. If he is just a coyote, I can take care of him."
Skurv’s one good eye went wide as the nose of the plane roared toward him. He dropped a cannonball—which landed squarely on a Clown Gremlin's head with a comical bonk—and scrambled to find his flintlock pistol.
"Macho, hold the wing! Doug, he's all yours!" Mollie chirped, pulling the throttle back just enough to let the plane hover precariously close to the platform.
Doug unbuckled his seatbelt, bracing his boots against the dashboard. He reached out the open cockpit window, his hand inches away from Skurv’s tattered vest.
"Hey, flea-bag!" Doug yelled over the engine. "You want a piece of the pilot? You gotta go through the passenger first!"
Doug slammed his palm against the Primal Fear trigger, and a massive surge of blue electrical energy erupted from his hand. The Shock Blast tore through the neon-soaked air of the Crazy Carnevil, hitting Skurv square in his tattered pirate vest. The coyote’s fur stood up in a jagged, electrified frizz. His jaw unhinged in a classic cartoon shock, his eyes bulging as the current rattled his stitched-together frame. He let out a high-pitched, yapping yelp that sounded like a broken slide whistle before stumbling backward.
"Bullseye!" Mollie cheered, pulling the yoke to keep the plane steady as the platform shook from the discharge.
Skurv fell on his back. He stared at Doug.
Skurv lay sprawled across the dented metal of the platform, his fur still smoking from the Shock Blast. For a second, the cartoonish malice vanished from his eyes, replaced by a hollow, flickering static—a reminder that he was just a nightmare projection fueled by this realm.
He stared up at Doug, his one good eye twitching. "You... you’re not a pirate," he wheezed, his voice cracking like dry parchment. "You're just... another soul in the grinder. Why fight for the bird? She’s just a ghost in a machine..." Skurv stood up. "Blast that bird! Blast that man! He casted a spell on me to protect Mollie." As he watched the place disappear into another tent, a voice behind him say, "Skurv Coyote, right?"
Skurv spun around and spotted Malak. "Who are you?" he asked.
"Malak, the lord of the realm we are standing in. You hate that bird, I want that man in pieces on my desk. Care to help me? I can send you back to your world and rid you of both of them. Just get me the ring pieces."
Skurv’s one good eye narrowed, the electrical sparks from Doug’s Shock Blast still fizzing in his whiskers. He looked at Malak—the towering, demonic entity draped in shadows and ancient spite—and let out a low, predatory growl.
"Back to my world? Without that feathered nuisance squawking in my ears every Saturday morning?" Skurv spat on the ground, his rusted hook-hand clicking. "You’ve got yourself a deal, ‘Lord’ Malak. I don’t care about your desk or your fancy rings, but I want to be the one who clips those wings for good."
***
Mollie next found herself as the plane was gliding on a rail through a funhouse to the next level. She saw giant clowns beckoning them forward. "Woah, they're huge." They found themselves in the funhouse maze. "We need to get to the ring shard and get out of here." Up ahead, they found it but they ran into a dilemma. "Shoot! My plane is too small!"
"I'll get it." Maggie said as she jumped off the plane. Skurv appeared in a puff of smoke and grabbed the ring piece. He held his cutlass to Maggie's throat.
"Let him go you scallywag!" Mollie yelled.
"Choose, the shark or the ring!" he cackled.
Mollie gripped the yoke so hard her feathers began to smoke. "You flea-bitten, bottom-feeding bilge rat! You wouldn't know a fair fight if it hit you with a broadside!"
Doug leaned out of the cockpit, his hand hovering over his Tablet. He knew he only had enough charge for one more Power.
"Mollie, keep him talking!" Doug hissed. "Maggie, on my signal, drop low!"
"Times up, Pilot!" Skurv yelled, his thumb hovering over a remote detonator on his belt. "Decide, or I’ll decide for ya!"
Doug blurred into a streak of blue light, the Speed Burst making the rest of the Crazy Carnevil look like it was standing still. Before Skurv’s finger could even twitch on the trigger, Doug snatched Maggie Macho by her stitched arm, hauling her back toward the safety of the plane's wing.
As the world snapped back into real-time, Doug didn't let up. He pivoted on his heel and unleashed a massive Shock Blast. The electrical arc slammed into Skurv’s chest, the current leaping from his rusted cutlass to his metal hook-hand. Skurv was slammed into the wall.
"Who’s the 'scallywag' now, flea-bag?!" Maggie roared, scrambled back into the cargo bay and slamming the door shut. "Nice moves, Doug! I didn't know the monkey-man could move that fast!"
Mollie didn't wait for a thank you. She slammed the throttle forward, the plane's tires screaming as they left the rail and took to the neon-lit skies of the Funhouse. "Fasten your belts, everyone! We've got the piece, and Bierce is waiting for her jewelry!" The plane flew upward and finally outside. Malak stopped in front of them.
"Leaving so soon?" Malak asked. "You’ve made a mess of my attractions, mortal. And you, Mollie... you've brought a piece of Indigo Park rot into my pristine nightmare." The ground started shaking and giant clown gremlins bursted from the ground.
"Goliath Clowns." Doug said.
"We'll fly around them." Mollie said. BOOM! Another canon was fired at the plane missing Mollie's beak."
"That mangy coyote just won't stay down!" Mollie shrieked, throwing the plane into a violent corkscrew to avoid a second whistling cannonball. The G-force pinned Doug against his seat as the neon lights of the Crazy Carnevil blurred into a dizzying streak of pink and red.
Bierce said in Mollie's head. "How funny! A Saturday morning pirate is firing at you from the ground and the Goliath clowns swatting at you from the air."
"Bierce, if you've got time for movie reviews, you've got time to open this portal wider!" Mollie shrieked, her voice cracking as she yanked the yoke to avoid a Goliath Clown’s massive thumb.
"Listen, love, I'm trying to save all three of you. Have the coyote hit the goliath clowns in the nose. That'll finish them off and the portal will appear." Bierce instructed. "Malak doesn't seem to understand how obsessed that coyote is with you. He doesn't seem very bright."
"Obsessed? He’s practically my biggest fan, just with more gunpowder!" Mollie squawked, a manic grin spreading across her beak. She yanked the yoke, putting the plane into a dizzying bank that lined their tail feathers up perfectly with the Goliath Clowns' towering faces.
"Doug! Maggie! You heard the lady with the jewelry!" Mollie shouted over the roar of the wind. "We need to play Matador with a pirate and a three-story clown!"
Mollie throttled down, letting the plane "dangle" like bait right in front of a Goliath's massive, bulbous red nose. Below them, Skurv let out a frustrated yelp, adjusting his cannon with trembling, hooked hands. "Stay still, ye feathered brat! I’ve got a 'Special Delivery' for ya!"
"Now, Mollie! Pull up!" Doug screamed, his eyes glued to the Tablet's proximity sensor.
As Skurv pulled the trigger, the cannonball shrieked through the air. At the last microsecond, Mollie slammed the Speed Boost, and the plane rocketed vertically.
K-BOOM.
The cannonball slammed squarely into the Goliath Clown’s nose. The giant let out a honking, pressurized wail that shook the very foundation of the Crazy Carnevil. Its head snapped back, colliding with the Goliath behind it in a massive, rubbery chain reaction.
"TIMBER!" Maggie Macho roared, watching the giants topple like oversized bowling pins.
As the Goliaths hit the ground, the dark energy Malak was using to choke the air shattered. A massive, golden-rimmed Portal tore open in the sky, reflecting the calm marble floors of Bierce's Ballroom.
"Look! The exit!" Doug pointed, his heart hammering. "Mollie, give it everything! Before Malak realizes his 'hitman' just did us a favor!"
"Blast... that... bird," he wheezed, his rusted hook-hand trembling. He’d had her in his sights, and instead, he’d just cleared her path.
"You let them get away!" Malak said.
"She outsmarted me again!" Skurv growled.
"Outsmarted? By a bird in a tin can and a mortal who barely knows which end of a Shard is sharp?" Malak’s voice dropped to a terrifying whisper. "You aren't just a failure, Skurv. You’re a cliché."
Skurv bristled, his fur standing on end as he brandished his rusted hook. "I’ve been chasin' that Macaw since before you were a glimmer in a nightmare’s eye! She’s slippery! She’s got friends! And that monkey-man... he’s got tricks I ain't never seen in the cartoons!"
Malak felt a new vibration. "Another dark presence from another reality. I think I know how to make this work."
"How?" Skurv asked.
"Simple, I'll open a door in Bierce's ballroom. For now I can't enter. They'll get curious and step inside. I'll find this area and open it up. For now, you come to me in my office and wait patiently. You can do that, can't you?" Malak asked.
"Wait? Me? Patience ain't exactly in a pirate’s code, Malak!" Skurv growled, his rusted hook clicking against his teeth. But one look at the Lord of the Realm's burning eyes made the coyote's tail tuck between his legs. "Aye, aye... boss. I’ll sit tight. But if that bird starts squawking near your office, I ain't promisin' to keep the peace!"
Malak watched the scruffy coyote skulk off toward the Shadow Realm, a low, rumbling chuckle vibrating in his chest. "Let them celebrate their little victory. They think they’ve won a piece of the puzzle, but they’ve only cleared the board for a much bigger player."
***
The Ring Altar pulsed with a new, golden light as the Crazy Carnevil piece snapped into place. Mollie was busy buffing a scratch on her propeller with a silk cloth she "borrowed" from a nearby mannequin, while Maggie Macho was doing victory lunges across the marble floor.
"Not bad for a Saturday morning, eh Doug?" Mollie chirped.
Doug shrugged. "No, I was wrong. You were great."
"Thank you." Mollie smiled. "We need to find Pip, Chip, and Tikki. We are going to need all the help we can get."

End of Chapter