The Strings Between Us

Shadows of Regret

She swallowed.

"If he was so afraid... why did he hold me like that when I slept? Why did he give me a place beside him?"

"Because even cowards crave warmth," the wizard replied. "But when it gets too close, they burn."

His eyes were glowing faintly. Not threatening, but alluring.

"You were made with magic far older than you realize. Not for love, Belinda. For power. Let me show you where you came from. Let me teach you what you were meant to become."

A cold breeze drifted through the trees.

She wrapped her arms around herself.

Something inside her screamed no.

But another voice — tired, small — said,

"Maybe I need to know".

She stepped forward.

~~~

Slappy trudged through the haunted trails of HorrorLand's forest, his footsteps squelching against damp moss, every footstep laced with frustration.

He called her name again and again.

Nothing.

He stopped near a crooked tree and slammed a fist into its trunk, the bark splintering.

"She's gone," he muttered. "I drove her away."

He remembered the way she looked at him in the candlelight.

The softness in her eyes.

The way she reached for his hand.

And the way he had shoved it all away.

Not because she didn't matter — but because she did.

"I told her she didn't mean anything. I told her—" He broke off, covering his face with one shaking hand.

He had pushed everyone away for over a hundred years.

He thought he was beyond this.

He thought he didn't feel.

But now?

His chest ached in a way it hadn't since the last time he was human.

"You idiot," he whispered. "You complete idiot."

Slappy made his way over to a moss-covered stone and sat down, breathing hard.

He had to be smart.

He couldn't just stumble through the fog until something found him.

He needed information. Direction.

And he knew where to get it.

He stood.

There were creatures in HorrorLand who dealt in secrets. In maps. In whispers.

And he ruled them.

For now.

"Hold on, Belinda," he murmured. "Wherever you are... I'm coming."

And then, more softly:

"I'm sorry."

~~~

Far from the castle, hidden in the twisting geography of HorrorLand, the wizard led Belinda to a strange, shifting building — part observatory, part cathedral, part ruin. It seemed to grow and breathe, like it had been stitched together from a thousand nightmares.

Inside, the walls glowed with etched gold runes.

Floating candles hovered in the air like stars.

A mirror sat at the center of the room — old and silver-framed, but utterly pristine.

"This is my sanctuary," the wizard said. "Beyond Slappy's reach. Beyond the laws of HorrorLand."

Belinda stepped inside slowly.

It was... beautiful.

Yet felt wrong.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked. "If you want Slappy gone, why not just destroy him?"

"Because I don't want to destroy him," he said gently. "I want to replace him."

She turned to him sharply.

"But with me?"

"With us." He corrected. "You and I were both touched by the same dark power. You just don't know it yet."

"What do you mean?" She asked faintly.

He walked to the mirror and whispered something under his breath.

The glass rippled.

Images flickered — Slappy as a human, pouring wax over books, casting circles, creating the dummy.

Then... someone else watching from the shadows.

A young man with gold eyes.

"You were made with the same magic that made him," the wizard whispered. "But you were never meant to be his."

Belinda stared into the mirror, heart pounding.

"And what am I meant to be?"

The wizard smiled.

"Free."