Stanley Pines, Our Hero (TEOC series #1)

The Relief

It took me a moment to figure out what he meant by that. But then the memory of what happened on that inner island came back to me in full detail.

"Yeah," I answered numbly, reviewing everything that happened during the final battle in my mind. "Bill's finished. Dead for good this time."

Ford's face transformed to a look of absolute elation; something you didn't usually expect after delivering news of a death. But as the realization of those words washed over me - Bill's dead, and he's never coming back - I began to feel as though a balloon of joy were swelling in my chest. The demon would never ever haunt any of me or my family's dreams again.

Sally came back with a plate of sandwiches and a bowl of blue chocolate-chip cookies. The three of us dove for the food at once, but as I reached for a sandwich, I caught a glimpse of my hands. They were hardly recognizable; the skin that wasn't covered by thick bandages was a dark, blistery red, and in places it was slightly crusted over. Some of the pustules had burst and spewed yellow pus, which had by now dried on my skin.

"The burns aren't as bad as they look," Poindexter said; he had been watching me examine my hands. "Well, they're still bad, but you can pick stuff up without too much of a problem. We can discuss your physical condition after you eat."

Those words were ... actually extremely concerning. But my empty stomach was growling loud enough to wake up China, so I took a cookie and a sandwich, and began to eat. Sally's cooking seemed to taste even better than it had last time. In five minutes we had emptied the dishes. Sally chuckled. "You three eat like teenage boys," she commented with a small smile. "Trust me; I should know." She took the plate and bowl back into the kitchen.

I looked back at Ford. "So Bill's taken care of, the axolotl's gone, and all the monsters have returned to their normal homes? And the connection between the two dimensions is actually closed this time?"

He nodded affirmative. "The Nightmare Realm is no longer connected to this dimension. You would have to travel by magic or extremely advanced technology to get from there to here now."

I nodded. "Good." My eyes flickered back down to my mutilated hands.

"You were nearly dead when we finally managed to pull you out of the fire." Ford was watching my face tentatively, almost in a scared way. Your entire body was burned, but it didn't seem like it was the lighter flame that affected you so badly - you seemed to have been burned from within. Like the fire was already inside you, and it was burning you as it left your body. Most of your clothes were destroyed. Your face isn't as badly burned, but ... " I saw Sixer glance uneasily at Bella out of the corner of his eye.

"What? What about my face?" I asked sharply, sitting up a bit more.

"It may be permanent, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily bad," Bella cut in quickly. "Well, okay, it's not exactly something you'd wanna see when you look in the mirror everyday, but - " She stopped at a look from Poindexter.

"What's permanent?" I asked them, and when they didn't respond, but only gave each other silent glances, I added, "Look, eventually I'm gonna see whatever it is, so you might as well show me now. Save yourselves a bit of trouble."

After a wordless argument of looks, the other two seemed to decide that what I had said made the most sense. Ford sighed. "Alright, Stanley. But you may not like what you see."

Bella pulled a small hand mirror out of her pocket and passed it to me, while Ford came around behind me and unraveled the bandages across my skull, so that when I held the mirror up to eye level, I could see my forehead clearly.

In the center of my forehead, peeking out from just beneath my hairline, was a mark that, when I put my hand gently up to it, felt as though it had been carved into my skin.