Casey jogged through the woods head back to the party spot where H-G was still at, he still held the gas canister and candle lighter from before in his hands. Although he tried not to remember the strange series of events that just happened they still replayed through his mind almost like they were trying to torture him for something, he could still hear the sound of the yellow eye's echo through his mind, he could still hear the sound of the gun shot that let him leave that strange world echo through his mind. Casey shook his head which let his mind get focused on the task ahead, killing the Shadow Stalker, or die trying "Don't think like that... Who am I kidding, that guy is a literal monster and I'm some guy from a small town. I might as well die here."

But Casey continued heading forwards despite his own self deprecating words. It took him just as much time to get back from the gas station as it was to get there but it seemed longer due to the almost traumatic memories that plagued his mind, but once he did reach the party spot he saw that H-G was asleep in a chair he had set back on it's legs, the chair and H-G where sitting in front of the fire pit where the Shadow Stalker was currently resting, Casey walked over to the sleeping hallucination and placed the gas canister on the ground next to himself, he then poked H-G on the head "H-G, wake up."

H-G stirred slightly "I'm... I'm... A... G- Good."

Casey raised an eyebrow at H-G's words "Dude, wake up."

H-G flinched slightly "Don't... Say... That."

Casey sighed "Last warning. Wake up."

H-G's head slumped forwards "Fine."

Casey then shoved H-G's chair over and it took H-G with it down towards the ground. Once H-G hit the ground his eye's opened quickly in panic and he just as quickly stood up "DUDE! WHAT THE EFF?!"

Casey shrugged "You wouldn't wake up."

H-G struggled to find out what to say next so instead he resorted to just growling at Casey which made the cat smile, Casey picked up the gas canister and showed H-G both it and the lighter "I got what we need."

H-G didn't look to excited but that was probably because he was still mad at Casey "Cool... Now what?"

Casey looked over to the fire pit "Now, we cover it in gasoline, set it on fire, and see what happens next."

H-G also looked over to the fire pit "I'm not too sure about this now."

Casey sighed "Wasn't ever sure, but it's really the only option.. Of course other then die."

H-G grinned "Wouldn't want that."

Casey nodded and walked over to the fire pit, he then squatted down inspecting the ashes that covered both the pit and the Stalker. Casey took the cap off of the gas canister and stood up, he then tipped the canister over and started to pour gasoline on top of the ashes and the Stalker, while he was pouring gas he circled around the fire pit making sure almost every inch was covered, once the canister was finished Casey stepped back from the fire pit and stood next to H-G "Think that'll do."

H-G rubbed the top of his head "This is gonna be fun.."

Casey then set the gas canister down and walked over to the fire pit, he then turned the candle lighter on and touch the flame on a spot covered in gasoline and it immediately caught fire, in fact it ignited so fast it made Casey jump back. The fire spread across the fire pit fast and soon there was a large bonfire sitting directly in front of Casey and H-G with the Shadow Stalker still under the burning ashes, H-G looked over to Casey "Do you think that... Just setting him on fire made him die... Instantly?"

Casey sighed "Oh I effing wish it was that simple and if it is I'm gonna cry, but I highly doubt it. I don't know why he's waiting down there but I don't think we killed him instan-"

Suddenly a large gust of wind erupted from the fire pit and into the air, in the gust of wind was the Shadow Stalker in it's mist form, it then flew off into a shadowy area of the party spot and turned into it's Casey form. Casey grabbed his M16 and ran towards the Stalker and H-G followed picking up a small tree branch off of the ground as he ran, Casey fired a few shots at the Shadow Stalker but it quickly turned into it's mist form and used it's strange wind power to pull Casey in close, it then went into Casey's lungs by entering his nose and mouth. Casey gasped for air almost collapsing from the sudden lack of oxygen, H-G's eyes widened and grabbed the hood of Casey's hoodie and pulled him closer to the fire, the Stalker then exited Casey and turned into it's Casey form hissing and steam rising from it's body. Casey took in a deep breath of air before grabbing his hand gun and shooting at the Stalker, while H-G ran over to monster's side and started to hit it with the tree branch he still had in his hand, Casey struggled to find a good time to fire so he would hit the Stalker and not H-G due to the Stalker running from both H-G and Casey "Dude! What are you doing?!"

H-G looked over to Casey while still hitting and chasing after the Stalker "I don't know! I've never been in a fight like this before!"

Casey then quickly fired another shot at the Stalker and the bullet just barely missed H-G's left hand but it did hit the Stalker causing it to hiss in pain. The Stalker quickly jumped into the shadow of a tree and turned back into it's mist form and quickly flew up into the air, Casey shot at the mist as it flew into the air not really caring that it wasn't doing, Casey ran over to H-G who was standing next to the shadow of the tree staring at the mist as it flew away "Did it just... Run from the battle?"

Casey clenched one of his fists "I hope not."

Then suddenly a tree landed in front of the bonfire on the side next to Casey and H-G blocking the light from the fire, then the Shadow Stalker in it's mist form flew towards Casey, H-G quickly jumped in front of Casey and intercepted the Stalker's attack, the mist hit H-G directly in the face but it quickly backed away from H-G who then ran at the Stalker holding the tree branch in the air ready to swing at it, but when H-G was close enough the Shadow Stalker turned halfway into it's Casey form, from the waist down it was still mist, but from it's waist up it was all Casey and every part of it's body emitted black smoke, it then smacked H-G with the back of it's left hand and sent H-G flying towards the right. H-G hit a tree and broke right through it' bark, but he didn't stop there, something felt different when he hit the tree but he couldn't see what it was due to his eyes being closed in pain, the air felt cooler, the wind smelt better, it also seemed to be warmer then before, it was almost peaceful. But that peace was then broken when H-G felt himself tumble across dirt and rocks, after a while he then feel's himself skid across something that felt rocky and came to a stop.

H-G laid there on his stomach groaning in pain eyes still shut, it didn't feel like any bones were broken, nor did it feel like he'd have any lasting injures somehow but that didn't mean hitting a tree and tumbling across the ground wasn't painful, H-G opened his eyes slowly and saw sitting directly in front of his face was a bird, a raven by the looks of it, but how? There wasn't any ravens in that upside down world, was he? H-G stood up and the bird backed away slightly and H-G looked around, he was in the real world! The sun was shining, and it was a sunny day, not a could in sight, everything was so vibrant in color, he was even happy to hear the sounds of various insects flying around, the raven cawed at H-G and flew up onto his left shoulder "Wow, you really like me for some reason- WAIT! I'M REAL?! WITHOUT BEING NEAR THE STALKER?!"

He then looked straight ahead of himself and saw that there was a tree with a large hole in it, on the other side of the hole was the upside down world, when he hit the tree he went right through it and came out on the other side in a completely different reality. He made a gate way between the two worlds! H-G smiled like a mad man, he then heard the sound of a horn being honked and looked to his right, heading straight towards him was a semi truck, H-G's eyes widened in shock and he jumped out of the way of the truck landing on the side of the road in front of him, he landed on his side and as the truck passed H-G heard the gruff and gravely voice of the trucker driving it yell "Get outa the middle of the road, jackass!"

Then the raven landed on top of H-G's head "...Is this how you get pets?"

The raven then cawed almost as if it was telling H-G that yes, this is how you get pets. H-G stood up and the raven flew off of his head and quickly landed on H-G's left shoulder again, he then ran over to the hole between the two worlds, in the middle of the tree where wood was normally there was instead that weird, fleshy, fungus-y stuff that all of those vines were made out of, it almost looked like somebody's guts. H-G climbed into the hole and the raven walked onto H-G's back and kinda squatted down slightly to avoid the strange materiel, H-G reached the other side but fell onto the ground which caused the raven to fall off of his back, as H-G stood up so did the raven and it cawed at H-G in anger, but H-G didn't care instead he was focused on Casey, who was currently gasping for air, his vines a very dark charcoal black in color, he was squat down on his knees, the M16 was sitting in two pieces next to a tree, and the hand gun sat directly in front of H-G's pet? raven. Casey turned his head and looked at H-G gasping desperately for air, H-G ran over to Casey stepping over the raven and the handgun as he did, and just as he reached Casey the cat passed out from lack of oxygen and fell into H-G's arms "Casey!"

"Casey. Hartley."

He opened his eyes and found himself standing in a black void, and standing in front of him was the Shadow Stalker except it wasn't pure black, instead it was the same color as Casey but much darker as if it was covered in shadow "I. Know. That. The. Worst. Way. To. Die. Is. To. Die. With. Unanswered. Questions. So. Before. I. Kill. You. So. I. Can. Become. You. I. Will. Let. You. Ask. Me. Any. Questions."

Casey clenched his fists "Why do you want to become me so badly?"

"Because. I. Want. Purpose. Again... Before. When. Many. Creatures. Lived. In. My. World. I. Would. Go. Around. Taking. Many. Forms. And. Cause. Chaos. But. Now. That. It. Is. Survival of the fittest. There. Are. Very. Few. Creatures. To. Harass."

Casey felt two different things, first was that he did not want to see that world "teeming with life", and second was that he almost felt sorry for the Stalker in the sense that he kinda went through what he was going through, a few months before Mae went off to college he believed that he had lost his place in the world, so to try and find it and a purpose again he was gonna run from home, but when he got the news Mae was heading off to get a higher educations he realized that his purpose was that he was gonna be there for her when she got back... Of course now, he might not ever get to do that "Okay... Why did you create H-G?"

"I. Wanted. To. See. How. You. Interacted. With. Your. Friends. In. A. Strange. And. New. Environment."

Was that really all H-G was meant for? what would happen if Casey was in some sort of nightmare world and he had Gregg with him? What a shitty purpose in life "Have. All. Of. Your. Questions. Been. Answered?"

Casey didn't say anything "I. Take. That. As. A. Yes... Now. It's. Time. To. Finish. This."

The Stalker then lunged at Casey and covered him in a black smoke screen. Black Smoke started to leave Casey's nose, ears, eyes, and mouth. It then started to swirl around Casey and caused H-G to back away from him, eventually Casey was completely blocked by a swirling vortex of black smoke, the wind created by the vortex kicked up dirt, rocks, leaves, and small twigs all of which hit H-G several times, all the while the raven struggled to keep it's feet on the ground it cawed at the air as if it was yelling at it to stop, then the vortex's winds started to pick up in power, it was almost knocking H-G off of his feet and had sent the raven flying, literally, into the air, then it picked up the tree that blocked the bonfire's now dimming light and tossed it somewhere far away from the party spot. Eventually the vortex started to slow down and dissipate, and after a few seconds it was completely gone and so was the winds, now where the vortex was once, there sat two Caseys, the real Casey, and the Shadow Stalker in it's Casey form.

The Stalker looked over to the fire and hissed as steam started to rise from it's body, it then started to crawl away from Casey and fire heading towards a shadow cast by a tree, H-G bent down and grabbed the handgun and at the same time the raven flew back over to him and landed next to H-G, he tried to shot the gun but there wasn't any bullets in the magazine so it just clicked each time H-G pulled the trigger, as the Stalker crawled over to the shadows his body started to steam more and more and it's limbs seemed to become stiffer and stiffer, eventually he was literally dragging it's self to just get to the shadows, eventually he was coming closer and closer but at the same time his body started to turn into ash and crumbled away, he then reached it's right hand out to the shadows at the same time it's head turned to ash, and just mere seconds before his entire body turned to ash his hand entered the shadow. It's entire body except for it's right hand crumbled into ash, after a second or two of the hand just sitting their in the shadows the ashes that once was the body of the Stalker emitted black smoke and the hand turned into smoke, both clouds of smoke came together to create the Stalker's mist form and it flew away into the cover of darkness, while H-G and Casey just watched it leave with no real way to stop it, H-G ran over to Casey and the raven followed him "Dude! How the eff did you survive.. Whatever that was?"

Casey shrugged "I honestly don't know, I just kinda resisted for awhile and, poof, here I am back in this... Weird, reality."

Casey then pointed to the raven "And what's with that?"

H-G looked at the bird "Oh yeah, well you remember when the Stalker launched me at that tree.. Well come to find out, that tree leads back to reality and while I was their this bird kinda came up to me and hasn't left me alone since... I'ma call him Seth."

Casey grinned "Seth.. Hallucination Gregg's pet raven. Wait. Did you say that the tree leads back to my home?! Like that hole your butt made can get me home?!"

H-G nodded grinning "Yeah!"

Tears started to form in Casey's eyes and he ran over to the tree with the interdenominational hole in it with H-G and Seth following him, he then felt a cool breeze come through it and it made Casey smile in bliss. After a little bit of blissfully feeling the cool winds of his home Casey looked over to H-G a concerned look on his face "What.. About you?"

H-G felt his heart sink realizing that he couldn't go with Casey "I- I can't come with you... It'll be, weird to have two different Greggs in one world even if I avoid him there's still that chance reality will start to collapse or something all because I'm in the same world as another Gregg."

Casey rubbed rubbed the top of his head with both of his hands "I- We- It might- Goddammit, I hate the fact that THAT is the only way to make sure everyone is safe!"

H-G sighed "I'll be fine Casey... I'll be fine here, nothing can hurt me, I know how to cook... Kinda, and I have Seth to keep me company. I'll- I'll be fine."

Tears started to build up in H-G and Casey's eyes "I'm- I'm gonna miss you, even though it sounds weird seeing as how, you're like. A ghost version of Gregg, I'm still gonna miss you."

H-G nodded tears starting to stream down his face "Me too."

He tried to hug Casey but his arms went through him "Heh, r- right."

The two started to giggle slightly before Casey waved and climbed through the hole. Casey emerged from the other side of the hole, he looked around the real world, he was near the side of the road in the middle of some forest, the grass had grown tall along with the flours that was peppered around the area, the road was made out of cracked black asphalt, the cracks weren't large enough nor deep enough to cause a car's trip to become difficult but it would make it slightly bumpy, the sun that shown through the trees and onto the road felt great on Casey's fur, the air was cool and there was a nice breeze that bowed the grass and flours downwards and made the leaves in the trees rustle, then a car of some sort drove past him along the road, the only thing he could make out was that it was blue in color. He walked over to the side of the road and looked both ways scan them, he then turned around and saw that despite the tree in that weird world being located in the party spot, the tree in the real world was somewhere else that wasn't the party spot, in fact the area around him didn't even look like Possum Springs, but that didn't matter to him right now, right now he was home, he was back in his home reality "I'm home..."

The End!

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There we go, Lost in the Upside Down completely remastered. This was a strange project I guess, but, it was kinda worth it. Seeing as how this story is the first installment of what I'm calling the "Beyond the Springs" AU, its kinda special. Alright that's all, see you in my next project...

NitW: Beyond the Springs (REMASTERED)!