A BELL KIDNAPS ME… IN MY SLEEP

When Steven fell asleep, he was greeted by a light, but slightly snarky voice. 

"Well, look who's here. Welcome back, Master."

His eyes slowly focused on his surroundings. Wisps swirled around his feet. He noticed that he was standing on clouds: ones that stuck to his shoes like cotton candy and allowed him to stand there without slipping through.

The voice came from a girl with dark olive hair tied in a braid. She was sitting on a small fluffy cloud above him, letting her legs dangle. Beyond her was the indigo night sky, filled with innumerable stars. 

"Stop," Steven said, annoyed. It was like everything she uttered could turn annoying. He glared at her and then sniffed. "Don't call me master, 'stoop-id coz'."

"Fine. How was your first day of school, mister?" She smirked. "I'm sure it was great."

Steven groaned, smacking his face. "When I open my eyes, why is the first thing I see your ug-lee… yes, it was okay."

"Don't tease him, Olive." An orange-haired, slightly older teen calmly admonished her. 

"Don't call me Olive," Olive said, indignantly, "It's Olivia."

"Olive," Steven smirked, "Don't tease me."

"Yeah, yeah whatever," Olive shot back.

The older boy brought up that they had work to do today, and that they had to get a move on. 

"Alright, Mr. Lucky, whatever you say. You're the boss!" Oliva teased.

"Sis, don't call me that, please." Mr. Lucky's purple eyes flickered. "No need to bicker every day."

"Every night?"

"..." The orange-haired boy stared at her, and then addressed them as a group. 

"Today, we're transporting important personnel to somewhere she needs to go. She's already waiting for us." 

"Already at the border?" 

"Yeah." Mr. Lucky answered.

Olivia sniffed in disdain.

"An escort mission? What a low-level job..."

"Rank corresponds to how fast the vessel can travel," Mr. Lucky shrugged. "And this mission is urgent."

"You know they're only doing this to us, right?" Olivia complained, throwing her hands up, "Don't you remember what they did last time? Damn it, we're not servants! That girl at reception always goes out of her way to find a way… UGH! That conniving little b-"

Not much they could do anyway. Mr. Lucky told them that they had to get a move on, to which Steven agreed. Olive grumbled some more. 

Masks suddenly materialized, hiding their faces, while cloaks fluttered onto them. When they left, the tumbling clouds were overtaken by the sound of wind.

* * *

The OCEAN seemed to cry here, where the mist crept everywhere. It was the edge of a place, but the beginning of another, and not many ventured here.

"She's there," Olive whispered. 

Across the ocean, a gigantic landmass that seemed to stretch out across the horizon was revealed. The only sound that could be heard was the black water crashing onto the shore where more mist loomed. The skies were gray and dreary, filled with dark, black clouds while the sea seemed to pull away more land with every touch. A figure stood there, waiting patiently by the sandy shore.

"We've arrived," Mr. Lucky declared to the woman. "We will ferry you across."

His voice was slightly obscured by the mask and sounded eerie, like it had been replaced with something much more ancient. The woman looked at him, nodded, and agreed to be ferried by them.

A boat appeared.

Without speaking a word, the woman got on.

Time seemed to distort while distance warped around them.

A few minutes? A few hours? It was hard to tell. Behind them, the landmass was slowly covered by the mist, and now, nothing except the fog and dark clouds resided beside them.

Steven looked over the edge when suddenly, his view was drawn to a dark shape in the waters. He held its gaze, and it seemed to pull him in like a siren to its prey. 

"?"

"???"

* * *

When he finally realized what was happening, he realized he wasn't on the boat anymore. 

Nor was he at the sea anymore. 

The domain he was in seemed to phase in and out of existence, with the space shifting like it was wrapping itself together in another reality. When he squinted, he made out a figure, who he recognized as:

"You're that bell guy." He pointed at him, vaguely recalling him from earlier. "The… Baker."

That didn't seem right. The Bell-guy stared at him. 

"The Waker," He corrected. 

"Yes," The bell guy floated closer. 

Now that Steven could inspect the bell-guy more closely, he realized that his earlier description of the figure wasn't very accurate. He was draped in white cloth, sure, but if he looked closer, the cloth seemed to be made of otherworldly fabric, with golden patterns that screamed for help. The Waker's black limbs didn't merely flicker like smoke. Instead, glowing tattoos vibrated and shifted with every slight, perceivable movement. 

Dead, silent, screams. 

And he finally realized that those little squirming pictures were hieroglyphs. They became stories, upon stories, in an ancient language that only the Waker had walked through.

"Didn't you say you were my greatest threat?" Steven asked again, after taking the view in.

The bell figure, though it had no face, looked like it was laughing at him.

"Yes," The bell figure spoke, its voice echoing with a metallic quality. "I can be if you want." 

"Ok, I don't. Let's be friends." Steven agreeably replied.

It seemed to smirk at him, "You do not have to act like that around me. I already know who you are."

"Well," Steven asked, "Who exactly are you, then?"

"In forgotten times, they called me the Waker. They worshiped me because I collected dues and I warned them that time always settled its debts. Regardless of their… allegiances." 

"How come I never heard of you?" Steven asked again.

"That's because I am an 'Outer God'," Its voice dripped with a spine-chilling tone. "And I am not referring to outer gods."

Steven wanted to ask what the difference was, but the figure continued to speak. 

"I can tell you that the consequences you seek will be given to you if you so desire. Let me be your patron. You and I… we are not so unalike." It whispered. "We both seek to show what is inevitable. And you know the pain of being late to the party well, it seeps in your blood unspilled… I'm sure you want to gift it as well."

This bell figure was talking in riddles now. Steven scratched his head.

"Here's a gift from me." Its hands reached out and dropped a bell charm into Steven's hands. "You will find it useful… but know that it cannot change your fate… little dreamwalker."

Then the world swirled around him, and when he awoke, he realized he was looking at the edge of the water again. He rubbed his heads, a slight ringing sound pervading his thoughts. 

Whatever had happened, it didn't seem to alarm those around him. 

At that moment, Steven realized that whatever he saw was just a fragment of the Waker's true form… He realized that any peek into its reality might drive him insane. And he wasn't even sure if that was the real essence of the Outer God. Maybe it was just one part of it, speaking to him, while the rest of it lulled elsewhere.

Suddenly, sunlight peeked through the gray skies, breaking up his thoughts. The mist disappeared, revealing a blue sky. The dark clouds were replaced by white clouds and a harbor appeared on a sandy beach.

The group reached the harbor and the woman stepped off.

The boat disappeared. The waves were calm again. Even though it wasn't his first time across this… 'ocean'… he could hardly believe that the two parts were linked by the same waters.

"Alright, we're done, right?" Olivia asked after the woman had walked away. "Free time for us?"

They took their masks and cloaks off.

"We don't have any other requests, so I assume so," Mr. Lucky, whose actual name was Locust, answered. The three of them decided to take the rest of the day off, and the beach fell into the lullaby of the waves.