Quietly, Quiggly stepped into the darkness as he stealthily approached and steeled his nerves. "Who is it?" Quiggly asked. In his mind Quiggly began to see something not of this world, a place so dark as to be almost a void; and within that blackness he could sense the existence of one not so much a being as an event. From its murky depths there emerged a dark force which at first he thought to be evil, but as it came closer it became apparent that the thing was very powerful, with a great purpose, and possessed of an extraordinary sense of humor. Quiggly had never seen the entity before, but he had seen his brother in this thing's image and realized that it had to be Gubbish. "That's me," Gubbish spoke up and stepped forward. "Where am I?" Quiggly asked, but it was clear that he had already been told this was Gubbish's home. "I think I have an appointment with..." "No," Gubbish interrupted, "it's just you and me." "What do you mean?" Quiggly was becoming agitated. "I am what the world believes, that's why you're here, there is only one of me, remember?" "Yes, I know that. Can I get a cup of coffee or something?" Gubbish stared at Quiggly as if confused and then shrugged. "Maybe later," it said and pointed down the stairs. In his mind Quiggly could see a vision of the stairway itself, and he understood the situation. "I think it might be later," Quiggly replied as he slowly headed for the stairs, and from out of the darkness came the sound of laughter. "The world is gone, Quiggly, we're all that's left of it. Don't you realize that? What's the point of having a world if there are no humans to experience it?" Quiggly had no answer. "You are like the last tree on an island," Gubbish said. "Its branches are bare, its trunk is withering and nothing can ever grow there again, but something within the wind keeps blowing, and there is a small chance, Quiggly, that a single leaf might have managed to survive all this time. Well, that's me. Do you see?" Gubbish turned to Quiggly with an enormous, mischievous grin on its face and then started up the stairs. "Wait," Quiggly called out, but it was too late. As it reached the top of the stairs, Gubbish turned its unblinking eyes on Quiggly once again and said: "Wouldn't you like to know, Quiggly?" Before Quiggly could open his mouth to reply, Gubbish raised its fist and a shock wave of absolute evil rushed out of its body and smacked Quiggly into the wall of the world. Just before he hit the ground Quiggly saw the light coming through the windows as they suddenly burst open and exploded. The world shook, the street disappeared in a haze of dust and Quiggly realized that he had been struck by a mighty gust of wind. He looked down to see what the hell had happened and he found himself laying atop the city of the dead. It was in a world all its own, surrounded by what appeared to be a cloud of smoke. The smoke was tinged with grey and yellow; however, the thing that was closest to Quiggly did not resemble any smoke he had ever seen and did not emit a sound. It was like nothing he had ever seen or heard and at that moment Quiggly began to fear the most dangerous thing he had ever seen. "Yes!" Gubbish said with a high-pitched giggle. "What are you afraid of, Quiggly? Look at what you've achieved." Quiggly stared out at the strange thing that was now a part of him and he knew that the strange thing was a part of him and he knew that this was him. It was the only world he had left now and Gubbish had just given it to him. "Wow," Quiggly said. "I can't believe I've been looking for so long for the only thing that's ever bothered me." Gubbish looked at him with a look of disgust. "Quiggly, you idiot," it said, "I don't care about what you want. Do you have any idea how fucking stupid this is?" Quiggly shrugged. "The fucking world has been dead for thousands of years, but you have the power to fix it? How nice. Now you can move about and screw anything in sight. You'll never grow up and you'll never know what it's like to love someone; do you have any idea how retarded that is?" Quiggly was thinking about the things that would have happened if he had been able to stay in the world, as the things he saw flashed through his mind and then it just as suddenly popped into his mind. The one thing he really wanted now was a good cup of coffee. "I want a coffee," he said. "Quiggly," Gubbish said to him, "think about it for a moment. How would you know what it's like to love someone?" Quiggly nodded with a sad smile and replied, "You know what, Gubbish? You're right. None of it matters. It's time for me to go home." Quiggly looked up and it was then he knew that he was going to die; there was no way he could leave the world, it was too perfect to leave and besides, he was not Quiggly anymore. Quiggly stood up on wobbly legs and stood up straight for the first time, he looked around to see what he was, but he didn't know what it was. "Don't you fucking turn your back on me," Gubbish said. "It's time to go home," Quiggly said. "I will blow you up if you dare turn your back on me." "It's time to go home," Quiggly repeated. "I will blow you up if you dare turn your back on me." "You know what?" "Don't you dare do that, Quiggly," Gubbish said as it started up the stairs. "I will blow you up if you dare turn your back on me." "You know what?" "Don't you dare do that, Quiggly, don't you dare turn your back on me." "I will blow you up if you dare turn your back on me," and with that, he turned and began the long walk home. As he was walking, Quiggly said, "How do you do it? How do you keep killing me?" "What?" "I don't mean that in a bad way," Quiggly said. Gubbish looked at him as if he had gone completely insane. "When was the last time you did a shit? What are you, an infant?" Quiggly thought about that for a moment. "Actually, I'm pretty sure I stopped one time." Gubbish sighed and shook its head. "Why do you torture yourself like that, Quiggly?" "Actually, I was talking to myself just now. It's very convenient." Gubbish nodded and said, "And that's why you don't need a soul. What a goddamned disaster." Quiggly shrugged. "I'm kind of in love with the world, but I really didn't like the loneliness I was feeling." "How nice," Gubbish said, "all that time you spent without a soul for a little loneliness. It wasn't much of a sacrifice." "My soul didn't cause any suffering," Quiggly said. "How nice," Gubbish repeated. "Well, it wasn't a sacrifice for you, Quiggly. There was nothing for you to gain." Quiggly stopped in his tracks. "There wasn't?" "No." Quiggly turned to look at Gubbish with a puzzled expression on his face. "I thought you were in love with the world as well." Gubbish sighed, shook its head and said, "What a disaster." "How come?" "Well, what if it died?" "Why would it die?" "We destroyed it." "What?" "We have a great sense of duty and it doesn't matter to us what kind of consequences our actions might have." "You shouldn't have done that," Quiggly said. "How sweet. Really Quiggly, what did you expect me to do, wait for you to bring your own self to me?" "I think you should have waited until I came to you." "Why would you come? We have a way to save the world; I didn't have to sit around here just waiting for you." "You're just angry." "No, I am never angry." "I know