The sun was down, but the Feast blazed with light. There was a party, of all things, on the beach beneath the still-irritable head of the Episiarch, which had thankfully run out of blood to bleed. The blazing runes on its spike lit the area very well, and the Radio was blaring out swing dance numbers and alien commercials.

"Thank you," I said to Mandy. "You kept us all alive."

"Thank you," she said. "I've been trying to get these idiots away from him for a while now."

"Hand," I said, holding mine out.

She smiled and took it. We were holding hands on a beach, lit by a rainbow of party lights, the moon shining on the water. We faced one another. Beautiful Mandy. I felt myself tearing up, just looking at her.

"This was a date," she said.

"A date?" I was genuinely confused. "You mean monster head on a pike, the disappearing guy in a cage, the barbecue with the ghost, all that?"

"I declare it a date," Mandy said, chin up, gunslinger stance. "Retroactively."

"Then…thank you, I had a lovely time?" Goodness. My heart did a somersault in my chest as she grinned at me. Goodness.

"You know, Owen," she said casually. "Sometimes I think you have a thing for me."

"Ridiculous. I hate people." I swallowed nervously.

She smirked and, very deliberately, pulled at her dress, baring one of her coffee-with-lots-of-cream shoulders. She raised an eyebrow.

"Oh that's not fair at all!" I released her hand, made a show of stomping around angrily, savoring the snorting music of her laughter.

"SO into me!" she shouted, pointing gleefully into my face with both hands. She turned and yelled up to the picnic table. "Owen's into me!"

The Radio interrupted its big band dance music. "Special bulletin from guest newscaster, the Power known as Cassiedor!"

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Cassie's voice roared out over the beach. "Owen I swear to God you better get on this or I swear to GOD OWEN!"

"Okay, okay, jeeze." I took Mandy's cold hand, met her eyes as she was holding back laughter.

raised it to my lips, kissed the back of it. Gentlemanly, that's me.

The trees shook from Cassie's response: "BOOOOOO!"

And the Hunt, up there at the picnic table, yapped and howled their disapproval. "Bite her face!" screamed Schmendrick.

"All right, so I missed," I said, and grabbed the sides of Mandy's head. Hauled her close. She stood on tiptoe and I hunched over. Our lips met, but it didn't work at first; we were smiling too much to pucker. She grabbed my ears. We kissed, her lips cold on mine.

Turned each other loose, held each other's gaze, smiling hard enough to hurt my cheeks. I sniffed a tear; she wiped at her eyes.

"THAT'S MORE GODDAMN LIKE IT!" Cassie bellowed through the Radio.

The Hunt was howling, barking, screaming. The partygoers on the beach, who I hadn't known were watching, erupted in a roaring cheer.

To my amazement, Mandy stepped back, covered her face, giggling, spinning. She laughed, sinking into the ground, her watery form melting like a girly, gleeful Wicked Witch of the West. She was gone.

And out there, in the water, was something I'd given up on seeing. A spiky, spiny structure, smoothly approaching the Feast. Black ice, melting, withering, shrinking. It was Mandy's Human form in there, I knew. Coming here. Letting us help.

Danny Kaye, through the Radio, started belting it out:

"It makes me feel so good when I see a happy ending

I love a happy ending every time!

It makes me feel so bad when the curtain is descending

And lovers aren't blending, THAT'S a crime!

The crowd of Campers on the beach were clumsily trying to swing-dance. I hoped they wouldn't injure themselves. They were mine now. Mine, my responsibility. Idiots. No, not exactly: Fools.

The Radio:

"I wanna yip it wanna yock it

Leave that hanky in my pocket

I love a happy ending every time!"

The end

Thank you for reading!

GARY RETURNS IN

THE ISEKAI APP: MALWARE!

(the next chapter)

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.