June 30, 2022

The closet door shakes. Every hour that passes is another moment trapped in an endless undying hell. Cole knocks on Harmonia’s bedroom door, but there’s no response. He phases through the door and walks over to the closet, staring at it. The closet door is shaking. In response, Cole opens the door and rests his hand on his glock. Upon opening the door, Sparrow was sitting with her back on the door, and she falls on her back on the ground. She seems to be convulsing in pain and the eye of the horse skull has a single white ring in each eye.

"Uh oh." Cole stares. There are hairs creeping out from under the sleeves wrapping her arms and hands like another layer of skin. Cole starts to panic internally as he draws his combat knife and debates cutting the hairs, but instead messages the group chat for help.

Upon reading the chat, Luna walks over to Harmonia’s room with some pyrite shards and knocks on the door. "Yo Cole, am I safe to come inside?"

"Yup," Cole responds.

Luna enters and hands Cole one of the pyrite shards. "Hopefully this is enough to quell Sparrow." Cole takes it. He takes a deep breath, says a small prayer seemingly to himself, and touches the pyrite to the skull. "If doesn't work, I might need to try the ichor claymore. I'm just a bit worried that it won't work or it'll hurt Sparrow."

Nothing happens.

"Shit." Luna curses.

"Fuck!" Cole exclaims.

Luna sighs and claps her hands, summoning her ichor claymore, holding it in front of him. "Cole, do you want to try this? I know it works amazingly on the hair, but I'm scared of what it'll do to the skull." Cole stares at Sparrow, lost in thought. Luna closes her eyes, deep in thought, unsure what the correct move forward is. Actually no, it's less uncertainty and more a deep-rooted fear in losing another nonferal.

"The soul," Cole says out of nowhere, as if having a eureka moment

"...remove the soul from the mask?"

"No, no"

"Oh, wait, you're referring to Sparrow’s weird soul. like with the barbs right?"

"Something isn't quite right with Sparrow's entire soul and I’m gonna fuckin check it"

"Do it."

Cole plunges his hand into Sparrow's chest, leaving no wound, and reaches around for the soul. He feels a soul and Cole grips it and rips it out while Luna watches. A soul of a thin paper mobius strip tangled in a mobius strip of black hair is pulled out as Sparrow sighs. She goes limp and the eye flickers off.

"What the fuck? Why is it tangled in the hair?" Luna asks

"Hmm, that's the issue"

"Well yeah, it's that puppet string 'hair' stuff that makes limbs go numb."

Cole's other hand's fingers go featureless with rounded points on them as he tries to cut the mobius strip with the black hair off with his fingers. Thankfully it cuts. He sighs in relief and stares at the black hair strip.

"Wait, I'm confused though. Wasn't Sparrow's soul different?" Luna checks her notes and finds a discrepency. "When you put her soul back in last time, there was a black stem with long straight thorns on it. You even said it hurt to hold onto.” When the black hair strip is removed, the white paper strand turns a less off white and brightens slightly.

Cole puts the white paper strand soul back into Sparrow and continues to stare at the black hair strip. “I'm gonna eat this."

"Are you serious?" Luna looks at him in confusion. After a moment, Sparrow takes a shaky breath.

"Yeah" Cole drops the black hair strip directly into his mouth.

"...why? That shit is hadal as fuck."

Cole is struggling to swallow it as he puts a hand on his mouth and black tar slightly leaks out.

{- Did he really just eat the puppet strings?? -}

Sparrow still isn’t moving. Luna goes to check on Sparrow. "Hey Sparrow, are you okay?" She realizes the hair is still wrapped around her and her breathing is shallow. Luna tries to get the hair off of her, using the pyrite on it.

Cole gags again as more black tar gushes out of the side of his hand but is starting to actually swallow it as he struggles less.

"Cole for gods sake, get it down and come help me with Sparrow." The pyrite shard cuts the hair well but there is a lot of it. Luna spends as much time as needed to get the hair off of her, especially around her throat since it’s likely impacting her breathing. And if the pyrite breaks, she has more shards. As she continues, the horse skull seems to loosen up a bit.

Cole seems to swallow the black hair strip and takes the hand away from his mouth, "I did it, I di-" Cole gags mid-sentence and smacks his chest as he coughs more black tar up. "I think I got it now"

"Okay, that's good. Now help me get this hair off of Sparrow. Also I think her horse skull is affected. We might be able to get it off of her."

Cole walks over, grabs on the horse skull, and tugs on it gently. It lifts some but then tugs on a lot of hair. Luna cuts the hairs near the skull. She's literally going to town destroying all of the puppet strings.

"If we can get this off, then we should be good" Cole says. Luna nods and continues to do her part. The horse mask lifts more untill there’s no more hairs attached, and the skull can be removed completely.

"Alright Cole, let's get that off of her and end this horse skull nightmare!"

Cole completely removes the skull from Sparrow. Sparrow’s face is completely wrapped in black tangled hair. It’s like one of those seals in those seal rescue videos with fishing line on them but on level 100.

"Bloody hell. No wonder she couldn't breathe." Luna continues to cut away the tangled hair, making sure not to cut Sparrow’s face in the process. Eventually they reach some of Sparrow’s skin, and it looks like the hair was tight enough all over to cause cuts everywhere with the hair embeded into them. "Gods damn." Luna says, worried. Cole is watching like a concerned parent. Minutes later, all of the hair is removed. She’s more pink blood than skin and is awake but out of it and exhausted. She squints some at being able to see more light than usual. "Cole, can you heal her please?"

Cole heals Sparrow and still has the concerned parent look. Luna stays by Sparrow's side, waiting for her. Sparrow looks like her nonferal form again for the first time in a long time but with slightly overgrown hair, goat feet, and the usb tail still. She shakily raises her arm and looks at it.

"Oh hey, welcome back Sparrow." Luna says, with glee in her voice. Cole is just staring. She drops her arm and goes to sit up with some difficulty Cole helps Sparrow sit up and the concerned parent look has shifted to a worried parent. Sparrow seems rather weak as she looks over at Cole. Cole looks back at Sparrow.

"Er..uh- sorry" her voice is weak aswell.

"No, no you’re fine, I was just worried that you might not be okay."

"Thank the gods that you did."

"I didnt mean to cause a panic like that" Sparrow reaches up and feels her own face.

"You’re fine. You needed help and it wasn't too much of a panic don't worry.”

"It really wasn't. Honestly, we're just glad you're safe and sound."

"Thank you dear"

"Anytime." Luna smiles warmly.

"Not a problem" Cole smiles slightly

"Now about the therapy pillow" she says still a bit out of breath.

Luna chuckles. "I don't think we do therapy pillows anymore Sparrow, though we could if you'd like to."

Cole goes quiet and stops smiling.

"No no dear, we still do we still do" Sparrow starts trying to stand, but she’s weak as fuck.

"...uhhhh okay, sure." Luna helps her up.

Cole stands up and is ready to help Sparrow at a moment's notice. Sparrow has little to no strength "Hmm..seems uhh...fighting for a few hours did a number to me."

Luna looks to Cole in confusion. {"Did Sparrow lose part of her memory?"}

Cole responds telepathically ("it's possible, but i'm sure it's just one or two small things")

Sparrow’s legs just give up completely

"Um Sparrow, would you like to be carried to the living room?" Luna asks quietly.

"Itsuhm...no I’ve I’ve got this" she doesn’t got this.

"Are you sure? It seems like fighting whatever it was really made you tired."

"Sparrow, it's okay to ask for help. It's not that big of a deal." Cole says.

Luna nods nods. "That's what friends are for after all. haha--"

"Suvishish" she looks ahead like trying to walk but doesnt move any

Luna, {"So uhhh do we just... leave her here until morning or? Doubt Harmonia's gonna be mad if we put her on the bed."}

Cole, ("I’m carrying them")

Cole moves to fireman carry Sparrow. Luna nods and opens the door. Sparrow’s a lot lighter than usual but some bottles in her sleeves’ pockets clink. Cole walks to the guest bedroom then throws Sparrow on the bed. Upon laying down in bed, Sparrow falls asleep.