Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bode thrusted Kinsey's door open and strolled into her room.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" Kinsey said. She continued sketching on her bed.

"What? It's not like you're getting dressed or anything," Bode said.

"But I could've been. You didn't know that. Anyways, what do you want?"

"Nothing. Just wanted to be here with you." Bode jumped onto the bed and snuggled up against Kinsey. "What're you drawing?"

"Just doodling, really. Can't you go bug someone else? Tyler? Mom?"

"They're both busy. That's why I wanted to come here with you. What, you don't like me?" Bode made a sad puppy-dog face.

"I just wanna be left alone right now. How come you don't have any friends from school?"

"I dunno. The kids at school are sorta mean. They think I'm weird."

"How come? Is it 'cause you're the new kid? And you live in this creepy, old house?" Kinsey said.

"I guess that's part of it. But also because I like to play pretend a lot. Even by myself."

"Well, you shouldn't be ashamed of that, Bode. Just means you have a bigger imagination than they do."

"Yeah, but still… they see me as 'different.' They make me feel like I'm some sort of freak."

"I know how that feels." Kinsey closed her sketchbook and set it aside on her nightstand. "Alright, you wanna do something, Bode? Whatd'you wanna do?"

"Well… I was thinking we could go into your head and eat some of your memory candy!" Bode looked up at Kinsey with a wide grin across his face.

"Bode… no."

"Come on, Kinsey! You asked what I wanted to do!"

"I know, but… I'm not in the mood to use any keys right now."

"Fine… guess I'll have to go into my own head and just play with my Glee." Bode got up from the bed and sulkily made his way toward the door.

"Wait," Kinsey said. "Okay, we're just gonna go in to get a few candies, then we'll come straight back out. Okay?"

"Okay!" Bode perked up.

Kinsey opened her sock drawer and took out the Head Key. The keyhole appeared in the back of her neck; she stuck the key in and twisted it. Her arms went limp and she stared out blankly. This was the one part of the Head Key that Bode hated; the soulless body of whoever was using the key was extremely unsettling to him, even if it was his own body. Kinsey's surrogate-self appeared a few feet away, along with the revolving door to Kinsey's mind.

"Come on, let's go," Kinsey said. She stepped into her own mind. Bode followed along.

They entered the M.C. Escher-esque shopping mall that was Kinsey's head. It wasn't as cool as Bode's own head, but he still enjoyed being there—mainly because of all the bright colors and candy. It was certainly more exciting than Tyler's head. Bode needed only one trip into there to decide it wasn't worth revisiting.

Kinsey and Bode walked onto a set of escalators that led to a wall. But it wasn't really a wall—rather, it was the floor set at a ninety-degree angle. Miraculously, they managed to step onto the floor and walk up it, or forward, depending on how one looks at it. Gravity had a strange way of working in Kinsey's mind. So, they walked up the floor to a store labeled "Bode Being Bode." They pushed open the wide, glass doors and entered the rainbow-colored candy store.

"I'll let you in on a little secret," Kinsey said, "these are the sweetest candies in my head. Know why?"

"'Cause I'm the sweetest?" Bode said.

"Exactly."

"I wanna get the red ones!" Bode pointed to the red candies, which just so happened to be on the highest two rows.

"Of course you do." Kinsey sighed. "Okay, come on." Kinsey knelt down, and Bode sat on her shoulders. She stood up, and Bode touched one of the cubes of red candy, causing it to pop out from the wall. He took out the cube, and Kinsey set him down. Bode looked into the memory cube.

Bode was sat at the kitchen table in their old house back in Seattle. Nina was sat next to him, and in came Rendell, Tyler, and Kinsey holding a big birthday cake with a "5" candle lit in the center. They came in singing "Happy Birthday," much to the excitement of little Bode. Kinsey must have been around eleven years old at the time. The cake was placed in front of Bode on the table, and the young boy was quick to blow the candle out.

"I hope you didn't forget to make a wish!" eleven-year-old Kinsey said.

"I didn't forget! I wished that—"

"Well, don't say it!" Tyler interrupted. "Or else it won't come true."

Bode covered his mouth with his hands. The three siblings all shared a laugh.

Bode—the nine-year-old Bode of today—was back in the candy shop, holding the memory cube full of red candies. He took a handful of them and stuffed as many as he could inside his mouth.

"Bode!" Kinsey said. "You're gonna get a tummy ache if you eat 'em like that!"

"But they taste so good!"

"Give me that!" Kinsey yanked the cube out of Bode's grasp and she placed it back where it belonged. "You already have more than enough."

Bode put the rest of the candy in his jacket's pocket.

"Okay, we got you your candy, now we can go," Kinsey said.

"Aww, but I like being in here."

"I don't feel comfortable with your grubby hands all inside my head." Kinsey and Bode began to walk out of the shop and back into the main mall court.

"My hands aren't grubby."

"Yeah, they are." Kinsey grabbed one of Bode's arms and touched the palm of his hand. "Ew, see? It's all sticky."

"That's because I just touched the candy. They weren't like that before."

"Sure, they weren't." The siblings traveled down the escalator back to the first floor—and back to regular gravity.

"Oooh, look at that! Christmas morning memories! Let's check it out! Come on, Kinsey, please?"

"Another time, Bode."

"You always say 'another time' for everything, and we end up never doing anything."

"I'm sure you have tons of your own Christmas morning memories to look through, anyways."

"My memories aren't as well-organized as yours. I lose mine a lot."

"That's what you get for being a dum-dum," Kinsey smirked.

"Dum-dum? I'm way smarter than you, and I'm six years younger!"

"Oh, yeah? What makes you so sure about that?"

"Dad always said I was the smartest one. And Dad was never wrong."

"Okay, prove it. Let's go to your head."

"Okay, fine."

Chapter Text

Kinsey wasn't quite sure why they were taking this journey. She wasn't particularly dying to know the truth of if their dad had ever off-handedly remarked that Bode was the smartest. But taking a trip to her little brother's head was at least better than getting lost in her own thoughts—and she didn't need the Head Key to do that.

Bode and Kinsey pushed themselves back out through the revolving door into Kinsey's bedroom. Kinsey walked over to her other self, who was standing in the corner of the room, and she took out the Head Key from her neck. Surrogate-Kinsey disappeared, and the key dropped to the ground. Kinsey regained consciousness in her original body. She picked up the key from the ground and handed it to Bode.

"Okay, your turn now," she said.

Bode inserted the key into his neck and twisted it. A large toy chest appeared in the room with "BODE" written on it.

"Come on," the newly created, second Bode said. He opened the chest and began climbing down the ladder into the hyperactive domain. Kinsey climbed down as well.

They arrived in the wondrous arcade of Bode's head. The walls were built out of giant Legos, and Spyro the Dragon was displayed on large screens along the walls. There were video game arcade cabinets, a bubble hockey table, an air hockey table, a crane game, a fortune-telling machine, and a helicopter ride. The arcade was littered with giant toys, like cars, planes, G.I. Joes, and dinosaurs. A huge, spiral slide coursed down into the center of the arcade.

"Hey, Bode! Welcome back!" Bode's Glee said, wearing rainbow light-up shoes and jumping on a trampoline. "Whatd'you wanna play today? Minecraft? Fortnite? Mario Kart?"

"Nah, not right now, Glee. I wanna show Kinsey one of my memories."

"Oh, okay! That's fine, too! Have fun!"

Bode and Kinsey walked over to a circus ring filled with a giant pile of jack-in-the-boxes. "Let's see… I believe that memory is right over… huh?"

"What?" Kinsey asked.

"I coulda sworn that memory was right here," Bode pointed to a specific spot among the pile.

"Well, how do you know it's not there? How do you know what any of these memories are? They're not labeled or organized whatsoever."

"I just know. It's hard to explain, but it's my head… I guess I just know. And I thought for sure that memory was right here. But it's not."

"Whatever, it's not a big deal. I believe you anyways."

"No, something's wrong here. I know it."

Kinsey noticed a small figure scurry behind one of the giant toy dinosaurs. "Did you see that?" she asked.

"See what?"

"I don't know… it looked like another person."

"It's probably one of my feelings."

"Which feeling? Your Fear?"

There was an impish giggle from behind the dinosaur.

"No, that sounds like my Mischief."

A Bode in a bright red devil costume bolted out from behind the dinosaur and straight past the Locke siblings. The real Bode saw that he was holding one of the jack-in-the-box memories.

"That's it! He has my missing memory!" Bode shouted, pointing at the mischievous perpetrator. "Come on, we gotta get it back from him!" Bode ran after his Mischief.

"Are we really doing this right now?" Kinsey groaned as she ran after her brother.

Bode followed Mischief down a long, twisting tunnel illuminated by rainbow neon lights. It felt like running through a giant, glowing, rainbow slinky. The tunnel subtly sloped downwards, leading the three of them deeper into Bode's mind.

When they came out of the tunnel, they were in a gigantic aquarium. The glass walls stretched up to an absurd height. It was dimly lit; the only sources of light coming from within the large tanks, flooding the corridor in a cool, ocean blue glow.

"Where are we now?" Kinsey asked.

"This is where my deep thoughts are stored."

"Cute. Even your head can't resist making puns."

"Hey, where'd Mischief go?" There was no sign of anyone else around them in the large, empty aquarium.

"Let's just look around in here. He couldn't have gone too far," Kinsey said.

As Kinsey and Bode walked along the path in the aquarium, they looked at all the fish behind the glass. All the fish were blue, and they all had large frowns and deep, sad eyes.

"What's up with the fish here, Bode? Why're they all depressed?"

"These are all my sad and grieving thoughts."

They started to hear loud sobbing and crying. As they turned around the corner to the left, they saw a Bode curled up into a ball on the floor, crying.

"This is Sadness," Bode said. "I don't like playing with him. That's why I banished him down here."

"Well, no wonder he's so sad, then."

"Nah, he's always been like this."

"Maybe he can help us find Mischief."

"I don't think he would be much help. But I can try anyways." Bode knelt down and poked Sadness. "Hey, Sadness. Did you happen to see Mischief pass by here?"

"Yes, I think I saw him run down this corridor here," Sadness said in between sobs.

"Cool, thanks!" Bode said. He and Kinsey continued down the path.

"Oh, of course now that you got what you wanted, you're just going to leave me here to rot. You're leaving me, just like how everyone else has left me. I'm going to be all alone forever."

"Do you want to come with us?" Bode asked.

"No… no, I would be too much of a burden. I would just mess everything up."

"Well, at least we agree on that. Come on, Kins."

Chapter Text

As they ventured further into the aquarium, the path started sloping downwards again, leading Kinsey and Bode even deeper into Bode's head. The aquarium was becoming darker and darker, until it came to a point where no light was coming from within the tanks anymore. It would have been completely pitch black if it weren't for the bioluminescence of the sea creatures in this portion of the aquarium.

They were strange, nightmarish creatures from another world. Ghoulish squids with three eyes, writhing tentacles, and snapping beaks. Long, slimy eels with dead, white eyes and spikes along their backs. Monstrous fish with thousands of needle-like teeth protruding from their mouths and tongues with smaller mouths of their own at the end. They all glowed surreal colors, like hot pink, or lime green, or electric blue. One of the eels produced an intensely bright light that continuously turned on and off, creating a strobe light effect in the area.

"I can barely see anything here. What is this place?" Kinsey said.

"This is where all my fearful thoughts are stored," Bode said nervously, clinging onto Kinsey's arm.

"It's okay, Bode. Nothing's gonna happen to us here. We're in your head; these are only thoughts. Thoughts can't hurt you."

Of course, Kinsey knew this was false. The first time she and Tyler went into her head, her Fear attacked Tyler, and he still had those scratches on his abdomen, even after they left her head. But she wasn't going to tell that to Bode, especially not at a time like this.

Through the brief flashes of light, they started to see a figure off in the distance. It looked to be around Bode's height.

"Do you think that's your Mischief?" Kinsey asked.

"I don't know."

With every flash of light, the figure appeared closer and closer.

"That's not my Mischief," Bode said.

"What is it, then?"

From what little of it Kinsey could see, it looked like a thin, feral version of Bode with sunken-in eyes, disheveled hair, and razor-sharp teeth. It reminded her of her Fear, but in Bode form. The creature leapt onto Bode and started biting his left arm. Bode screamed as he fell to the floor.

"Get off of him!" Kinsey screamed as she kicked Bode's Fear. "Get off! Get off!" Her own fear wasn't there to paralyze her anymore. She didn't hold back. She kicked Bode's Fear in the head with all the strength and rage her body could muster. If she didn't know that feelings couldn't be killed, she might've even felt concerned for it.

His Fear eventually let go and scrambled away into the darkness. Kinsey pulled up Bode from the ground and started running with him in hand. She had no idea where she was going, but she knew they had to get away from that thing.

They weren't in the aquarium anymore. They were in a nebulous, cloudy, blue space.

"I think we lost him," Kinsey said. "You alright, Bode?"

"No." Bode looked down at his arm, noticing all the bleeding bite marks. He started to cry.

Kinsey hugged him. "It's okay. It's okay, buddy, we made it. You're safe now."

"How do you know? He could come back at any moment."

"If he does, I'll be here to protect you, like I did just now."

"Okay." Bode wiped his tears away. "Thanks, Kins."

"Of course, Bode. You know I would do anything to protect you." Kinsey looked around the blue void. Thousands of glowing, blue orbs floated around in wavering paths. "So, where are we, exactly?"

"This is where all my dreams are. As you can see, they're not as clearly defined as my actual memories. These are a bit fuzzier."

Bode grabbed one of the orbs and looked into it.

They were taken to a dream where Bode was sitting in a classroom. The teacher said, "Bode, would you please come up to the front of the class to give your oral presentation?"

Bode—the Bode in the dream—got up from his desk and walked to the front.

One of the kids in the class started laughing and said, "Look, Bode's not wearing any pants!"

Bode looked down and saw that he wasn't wearing any pants. Only his underwear. The entire class started laughing at him. Even the teacher.

"Nice underwear, dork!" one of the other students said.

Bode pulled his shirt down over his underwear and walked back to his desk in shame.

Kinsey and Bode came out of the dream.

"Wow, that was an embarrassing dream," Kinsey said.

"Yeah, not one of the best dreams I've had as of late."

"So… where do we go from here?"

"Well, I think this is the very deepest part of my mind. It's sort of a dead end. So, nowhere to go but up!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look behind you."

Kinsey turned around and saw a roller coaster car on a track. Above the car was a sign lined with flashing lightbulbs that read, "Back to Top." None of that was there a second ago.

"How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Created that roller coaster."

Bode shrugged. "I dunno. I just thought about it, and it appeared."

"Whatever, I'm not even going to question it at this point." Kinsey climbed into the front row of the roller coaster car. Bode climbed into the seat next to her.

"At this point, I don't even care about finding Mischief anymore. I just wanna get out," Bode said.

"Same here."

They pulled their individual harnesses down over their chests, then the coaster jolted to a quick start.

The car clattered up a long chain lift, going up and up and up. It seemed to take forever, but the car finally reached the top of the hill and plummeted down its first drop. Kinsey and Bode cheered, raising their hands up and feeling the wind in their face. It went up again, it went down again, it took sharp bank turns, it went through loop-de-loops and corkscrews and helixes. The roller coaster even traveled through tunnels made to look like the mouths of worm-like creatures. It was the most exciting roller coaster Bode and Kinsey had ever been on.

Finally, the car came to a stop, but it wasn't at the same loading station they entered through. This loading station dropped them off right at a carnival.

The harnesses released, and Bode and Kinsey both got out of the car. "This is still inside your head?" Kinsey asked.

"Of course. Where else would we be?"

"I just didn't realize your head was so big."

"Well, I guess appearances can be deceiving."

Chapter Text

With every step Kinsey took as she and her brother walked toward the carnival, she heard a musical note play from underneath her feet. She looked down and saw that the ground was laid with hexagonal spots of light in various bright colors. Each spot created a musical note when stepped on. Bode jumped from spot to spot, creating a little tune as he went.

The fence around the perimeter of the carnival was made up of crayons, colored pencils, and paintbrushes. There were tons of spinning and twisting carnival rides adorned with colorful, blinking lightbulbs. There was a Ferris wheel decorated with candies. A carousel, not with boring, old horses, but with fun animals, like elephants, giraffes, rhinos, lions, and dragons.

There was a balloon stand selling hundreds of balloons. Bode's Glee grabbed them all in a single fistful, and he began to lift off from the ground. "Hey, look at me!" he shouted. "I'm floating! Woohoo!"

Kinsey and Bode came across some food stands selling a variety of carnival foods. "What do you want, Bode? Popcorn, cotton candy… deep-fried Doritos? Chocolate-covered bacon? Gross, what kind of food is this?"

"Delicious food, that's what!" a version of Bode said as he stuffed several deep-fried Doritos into his mouth.

"That's my Gluttony," Bode said.

"I'm surprised you even know what gluttony is."

"I told you, I'm smarter than you give me credit for."

Gluttony guzzled down a handful of chocolate-covered bacon. "This is so good! I could eat this all day!"

There was another version of Bode beside him who said, "Don't eat too much. You'll get sick."

"That's my Responsibility."

"He should be in control a little more often," Kinsey remarked playfully.

"Hey, you're one to talk! I'm way more responsible than you!"

Another version of Bode arrived. He belched loudly.

"Ew, excuse you," Kinsey said.

"This is my Rudeness. I apologize on behalf of him."

"Oh, I'm all too familiar with this one," Kinsey said.

"Oh, shush! You're lucky I don't act half as bad as he does," Bode said.

"You look so stupid with your hair like that," Rudeness said. "Looks like a highlighter puked all over it." He picked his nose and wiped a booger on Kinsey's shirt as he walked away.

"Gross! You little shit!" Kinsey lunged out to slap some sense into Rudeness, but Bode held her back from doing so.

"I don't want any more fights in my head! How about we go check out the carnival games?"

There was a balloon pop game, a ring toss, a test of strength, and Bode's favorite: Whack-a-Bode. The game consisted of a grid of holes, and numerous Bode heads popped out of and into the holes at a quick pace. Another Bode was holding a mallet, whacking as many of the Bode heads as he could. Unfortunately, he wasn't doing very well.

"Why can't I hit any of you?!" His face turned bright red, and smoke expelled from his nose and ears. "This game is so unfair!" he shrieked. He began swinging the mallet around aimlessly.

"That's my Anger."

"Oh, really. I couldn't tell," Kinsey said sarcastically.

"What are you looking at?!" Anger said to Bode and Kinsey.

"Nothing!" Bode said. "We're just moving along. Minding our own business."

"Yeah, you better run!"

Bode saw a flash of red off in the distance. "It's Mischief! I just saw him!"

"I thought you were done chasing him."

"Well, we can't just give up now that we have him in our sights!"

"Okay, where did he go?"

"I think he went inside the big top."

Kinsey and Bode ran toward the large, red-and-white-striped circus tent. Inside, the audience seats were filled with giant action figures, stuffed animals, and Lego minifigures, intently watching the "show." Inside the ring were even more jack-in-the-box memories—this pile even larger than the one in the arcade. Mischief was standing in front of the pile.

"Where's the memory, Mischief? Give it back!" Bode said.

Mischief revealed his two empty hands. "I don't have it anymore," he smirked. "I dropped it off here. Guess you'll have to find it on your own," he giggled deviously.

"Great. How are we gonna find that one specific memory in this huge pile?" Kinsey asked.

"Hold up," Bode said. "If I know my Mischief, and I do know him very well, I'd think that he wouldn't put that memory in this giant pile here, because he'd know we'd be expecting that. I think it's hidden somewhere else in here."

Bode looked around to spot any possible hiding places. There was a giant toy circus elephant and a toy lion, but there wasn't any way to hide something around them. There was a tiny clown car parked beside the ring. That had some potential as a hiding spot. Bode walked over to it and opened the door. The car was empty. He checked inside the trunk; that was empty, too.

"Where could it be?" Bode asked.

"Bode, look," Kinsey said. She pointed upwards.

Bode looked up and saw that the jack-in-the-box was sitting directly in the center of the tightrope above them, about fifty feet high. "Oh, great," he said.

Mischief snickered. "Good luck getting that."

Bode climbed up one of the poles holding up the tightrope.

"Bode, it's okay! You don't have to do this!" Kinsey said, but her little brother ignored her.

Once he reached the tight rope, he carefully placed his right foot on the rope first. After he stabilized himself, he placed his left foot on the rope. Very carefully, he let go of the pole. He inched his way across the rope toward the center to reach the box. He almost lost his balance a few times, leaning too much on one side, but luckily, he managed to steady himself each time. Eventually, Bode finally reached the jack-in-the-box!

"I got it!" Bode said as he held the box in the air. "Look, Kinsey, I got it!" Just then, Bode leaned too far back, and he fell off the tightrope.

This was it. As Bode fell, he thought for sure this would be the way he would die. Was it even possible for someone to die within their own head? Well, for better or worse, Bode never got to find out the answer to that question, because he landed on a safety net before he was able to land on the ground. The safety net wasn't there an instant before, but that's one of the perks of being inside your own head.

"I'm okay!" Bode said. "And I still got the memory!"

"Bode," Kinsey said. "Even without my fear, you still managed to almost cause me to have a heart attack just now."

Bode jumped down the short distance from the safety net to the ground.

Mischief scoffed. "You're lucky you thought up that net. Otherwise you'd be nothing but a big splatter in your own head."

"Now I can finally show you the memory!" Bode said to Kinsey. He turned the crank on the box and the lid popped open. They looked into the shining hole.

Bode climbed into his dad's car and shut the door.

"Hey, bud! How was school today?" Rendell asked. Once Bode was buckled in, he pulled the car out and began driving home.

"Good! I got my history test back!"

"Yeah? And how'd you do?"

"I got a hundred percent!"

"Whoa! No way!" Rendell exclaimed. "That's awesome, buddy! You know, don't tell your brother and sister this, but… I always knew you were the smartest one out of the bunch." Rendell winked. "How 'bout you and I celebrate by goin' to get some ice cream?"

"Yeah!" Bode cheered.

"Alright! What flavor are you gonna get?"

"Chocolate chip!"

"Chocolate chip? That's your favorite, huh?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Yum! Chocolate chip has always been one of my favorites, too." Rendell patted Bode's lap. "I'm proud of you, bud. I really am. I wish I was as smart as you are when I was your age."

"Thanks, Dad," Bode said warmly.

Bode and Kinsey came out of the memory. They were back in the big top.

"I guess you were right, Bode. Dad really did call you the smartest."

Bode's lip started quivering. His brows furrowed slightly.

"Bode? You okay?"

He nodded, but he couldn't help his face from contorting or the tears from falling. He was crying. It had been so long since he had cried about Dad, but he couldn't hold it back any longer. Kinsey pulled Bode into a tight hug. "I miss him so much," Bode said, sobbing into Kinsey's shoulder. "I forgot how much I missed him."

Kinsey patted Bode's back. "I know, Bode. I know. I miss him, too. I miss him more than anything." Kinsey thought about saying something cheesy like, "At least we still have each other," but she knew that wouldn't help any. Dad never used bullshit platitudes; he wouldn't have wanted that.

"When will it stop? I thought I got over it. When will I stop feeling sad about it?" Bode asked.

"I don't know. I don't think ever. There'll always be a part of you that will feel sad about it. But you just gotta… well, I guess push forward. I'm still trying to do it myself. It's not easy. I know that as well as you do. But I'll be here for you. And so will Tyler. And Mom. And Duncan. We've all been going through the same thing as you. We're here to help if you ever need it."

"Thanks." Bode lifted his head up from Kinsey's shoulder and wiped his nose. His eyes were red and puffy.

"How're you feeling?"

"A bit better. I think crying helped."

"How 'bout we get out of your head and just relax? Maybe watch a movie together?"

"Okay," Bode smiled. It was a forced smile, but at least it was a start.

After leaving the big top, they went through another rainbow tunnel—this one leading back to the arcade. They climbed back up the ladder and out of the enchanted toy box.

Chapter Text

Kinsey and Bode climbed out of the toy chest just as the door to Kinsey's room opened. "Oh, there you guys are!" Nina said. "I've been looking for you. Come on, I need to show you something."

The two Locke siblings followed Nina downstairs to the kitchen.

"Check this out!" Nina said. She gestured toward a box sitting on the dining table. "I was cleaning out the basement, and I found this box with a bunch of old plates and silverware!"

"Wow, old plates. Super exciting, Mom," Kinsey said.

"Yes, but not just old—vintage! Not exactly sure how far back these date to, but they're amazing!" She took out a couple plates from the box, causing a dust cloud to erupt. Bode went into a coughing fit. "That's the only problem: these things have been down there for years. They need a good clean. So, I wanted you guys to help out a little while I continue cleaning up down there. I just want you to polish up the plates and the silverware. Shouldn't take too long."

Bode sighed. "Fine." He took a seat at the dining table.

"Hey, it can be fun," Nina suggested. "You can turn it into a game. Maybe, whoever polishes the most dishes wins!"

"I rather play Whack-a-Bode," Bode said.

"Come on, just do this for me real quick. Then you can go back to goofing around."

"Let's just get this over with, Bode," Kinsey said.

"That's the spirit!" Nina said as she went back into the basement.

Bode dipped his towel into the bucket of hot water and began polishing the dishes, wiping off a thick layer of dust and grime. "These plates are disgusting."

"Well, that's why we're doing this—so they're not disgusting anymore."

"Yeah, I know. Still doesn't make it any less disgusting to clean, though."

"Kinsey!" Nina called out from the basement. "Come here! I wanna show you something!"

"'Kay, coming!" Kinsey said as she got up from the dining table and went down to the basement. "What'd you want to show me, Mom?"

Nina was crouched over a box filled with papers. "Look at these. They're a bunch of Duncan's old artwork. Probably from when he was around your age."

"Lemme see." Kinsey picked up a stack of the papers and flipped through Duncan's various drawings, paintings, and sketches from when he was in high school. "These are awesome! Honestly, I think he was better than me at that age."

"Oh, don't be so modest."

"I'm not! These are honestly really good!"

"Yeah, they are. But not necessarily better than your art. Just different is all. He never got accepted into Parsons."

"That's true," Kinsey smiled. "We should definitely save these. I wanna show them to Uncle Duncan next time he comes over."

"Yes! I'm sure he'd love to see his old artwork again."

"Or he'd absolutely hate it," Kinsey chuckled. "Either way, it'll be an interesting reaction." She put the stack of papers back into the box. "Alright, I should get back to helping out Bode."

"Thanks for doing that for me," Nina said.

"No problem, Mom."

When Kinsey arrived back in the kitchen, Bode wasn't at the table. Most of the plates and silverware were still left unpolished. "Bode?" Kinsey called. "Bode? Where are you? Don't think you can run off and get away from doing the rest of the dishes." She walked into the winter study, but he wasn't there. He wasn't in the drawing room either. "Ugh, did you go up into your room, you little snot-gobbler?" She walked up the stairs. "I swear, I leave for a minute, and you just run away from your chores like you always do," Kinsey muttered. She opened the door to Bode's room, and she did see Bode in there… it just wasn't the Bode she expected.

Bode's Glee was jumping on the bed. "Oh, hi, Kinsey!" he said. "Wanna come jump on the bed with me? It's super fun!"

"Umm… what are you doing here? How did you get out of Bode's head? And where's the real Bode?"

"Bode left his head open, so me and the other feelings thought it'd be fun if we came out here for a change!"

Kinsey looked around the room and saw Sadness crying in the corner and Anger tearing out pages from books and ripping them up. "Oh, shit. This is not good at all. Where's the real Bode?"

"I don't know," Glee said. "I haven't seen him."

Kinsey rushed back to her room. Bode was standing in the corner—the same spot his original body was standing when he put the Head Key in. "Bode! There you are!" Kinsey said. But Bode didn't respond. He just continued to stare blankly. "Bode?" Kinsey walked up to him and checked the back of his neck. There was no key in it. "Okay, come on, Bode, I know you're messing with me. Just stop so we can put all your feelings back in." He still didn't respond. "What the hell is going on with you?" That's when Kinsey remembered Erin Voss. She was in a state much like the one Bode was in now. Maybe the same thing that happened to her happened to Bode. She just hoped to God it wasn't a permanent state. She really didn't want a vegetable for a brother if she could help it. Kinsey picked Bode up and set him down on her bed.

The door to Kinsey's room opened. She looked back and saw that it was another Bode. "Whatcha doin' in here?" the Bode said.

"I'm just setting Bode down on the bed."

"Why?"

"Because he's not being responsive, and I don't want him to get hurt. Now, who are you?"

"I'm Bode's Curiosity."

"Oh. Do you know who was responsible for all this? For all of you coming out of Bode's head?"

"Hey, I'm the one who's supposed to be asking all the questions here; I am Curiosity, after all."

"Just answer my question."

Curiosity began opening and looking through Kinsey's drawers. "It was Mischief's idea, and it sounded fun to me, so I followed along. Ooh, look at this!" Curiosity took out a bra from one of the drawers.

"Give me that!" Kinsey snatched the bra out of Curiosity's hand. "Stop looking through my stuff, you little snoop!"

"Sorry!"

"I should've known it was all Mischief's idea. He's been nothing but trouble today."

"You're lucky you don't live in there. He's nothing but trouble every day."

"Do you know what happened to Bode? Or where the Head Key is?"

"No. I've actually been wondering that myself. Certainly is a mystery."

Kinsey walked back out into the hallway, where she saw Rudeness walking by. "Hey! Do you know where Mischief is?" Kinsey asked.

"Like I'd tell you, barf breath."

She didn't think he'd be any use, but it was worth a shot anyway. Suddenly, she heard the front door open. She looked down below from the railing to see who it was. It was Tyler. Oh, shit. Just wait until he sees this mess.

Chapter Text

Tyler walked upstairs. He saw Kinsey standing in the hallway. "Something wrong?" he asked.

"Very," Kinsey replied.

Tyler heard raucous shouting coming from Bode's room. "Who's that? Does Bode have friends over?"

"Not exactly."

Tyler opened Bode's door. There were six Bodes in the room—one jumping on the bed, one crying in the corner, one ripping out pages from books, one eating pages out from books, and one keeping away a toy robot from another one.

"What. The. Hell?" Tyler said.

"These are Bode's feelings," Kinsey explained. "That's Glee, that's Sadness, that's Anger, Gluttony, Rudeness, and Curiosity. They escaped from Bode's head."

"Hi, Tyler!" Glee said.

"What's Tyler doing here?" Curiosity asked.

"Oh, no, now he's going to be angry at us," Sadness cried.

"I hate you, Tyler! You always ruin everything!" Anger shouted.

"How did they escape?" Tyler asked Kinsey. "Was he using the Head Key?"

"Yes. We were both using it. Then Mom came in and wanted to show us something in the kitchen. Bode must've forgotten to take out the Head Key from his original body, so that's how they got out."

"Okay, so let's just put all his feelings back and close his head. Where's his head toybox?"

"Well… that's the other thing. The Head Key's not in him anymore. But his body is still acting like it is. He's unresponsive. And I don't know where his body duplicate went."

"How do you not know where he went?!"

"Yeah, how do you not know where he went, idiot?" Rudeness said.

"Shut up, Rudeness," Kinsey said. She turned back to Tyler. "I was in the basement with Mom, then when I came back, he was just gone."

"Well, if the Head Key's not in him, that would explain why his body duplicate is gone, too. But that doesn't explain why his consciousness hasn't returned."

"Ooh, the suspense is terrible!" Curiosity said. "I can't wait to find out the answer!"

"So, what do we do?" Tyler asked.

"First we gotta find Mischief. He's the one who was responsible for all this, so he's most likely the one with the Head Key. He couldn't have gone too far."

"Sounds good. We'll split up; you search the upstairs of the house, I'll search downstairs."

Tyler went downstairs and checked the drawing room, the winter study, the kitchen, and the great room. Then he went down into the basement.

"Oh, hey, Tyler. How are you, sweetie?" Nina said.

"Uh, fine, Mom. Did you see Bode around here? Or, at least, something that looks like Bode?"

"Well, Bode is supposed to be polishing dishes with Kinsey up in the kitchen. Is he not there?"

"It's… hard to explain. Thanks for letting me know, though." Tyler went back up the stairs.

"How is it hard to explain? It's a yes or no question," Nina said, mostly to herself.

Tyler walked back into the kitchen, where he saw Gluttony gorging himself on leftover lasagna. He wasn't even using a fork; he was shoveling it into his mouth with his hands.

"Hey!" Tyler shouted. "What are you doing? That's our food."

"What?" Gluttony said with sauce dribbling down from his mouth. "I'm a part of the family, too; I'm still technically a part of Bode."

"As far as I know, feelings don't need food to survive, so you're just wasting our food." Tyler picked up the plate of lasagna and put the pasta back in the Tupperware where it came from.

"But I'm hungry."

"What's going on in here?" Kinsey said, walking into the kitchen.

"Uh, nothing," Tyler said. "No sign of Mischief down here."

"I couldn't find him anywhere upstairs either," Kinsey said.

"We could help you find Mischief," Gluttony said.

"Who? You and the other Bodes?" Kinsey asked.

"Sure! I mean, we're all from the same head; maybe we'll have a better sense of where he is."

Tyler and Kinsey glanced at each other.

"It's worth a shot," Tyler said. He turned back to Gluttony, "You seem uncharacteristically smart for Gluttony."

"Hey, I'm just thinking with my gut," Gluttony said.

Tyler, Kinsey, and Gluttony walked back into the foyer. They could hear the other Bodes causing trouble in the downstairs rooms. "Okay, stay right here while we go get the other Bodes," Tyler said to Gluttony.

Inside the drawing room, Glee was swinging around one of the swords that was hung on the wall. He laughed. "This is fun! I'm like a knight on a quest!" Glee continued swinging the sword, even with Sadness sitting in a chair nearby. "Careful, Sadness! I don't wanna hit you!"

"Go ahead. Hit me if you want. It's not like I can die, anyways. Sometimes I wish I could. What's the point of living anyways?"

"No need to be such a downer!" Glee swung the sword and knocked a vase off one of the tables.

Tyler rushed in and caught the vase before it hit the floor. "Be careful with that!" he said. "Put the sword down!"

"Aww, but I was having so much fun with it."

"You're gonna decapitate someone with that." Tyler took the sword from him and put it back on the wall. He then grabbed Glee and Sadness by their wrists and dragged them into the foyer to join Gluttony.

Kinsey entered the winter study. Rudeness was taking out books from the bookshelves and dropping them on the ground. "Boring. Dumb. Lame. Gross."

As he was dropping the books, Curiosity was picking them up and looking at all the titles. "I don't know, all of these seem super interesting to me."

"That's because you're an idiot," Rudeness said.

"I've really had enough of you," Kinsey said as she grabbed Rudeness's wrist.

She saw Anger on the other side of the room frustratedly scribing something on the desk with a red crayon. She walked over to the desk and read what he wrote: "KINSEY SUCKS."

"Okay, I've had enough of you, too." As Kinsey reached out for Anger's arm, however, he quickly moved out of the way.

"I hate you!" Anger yelled. He then ran toward the kitchen.

"Hey! Get back here!" Kinsey ran after Anger with Rudeness still in her grasp.

"Ow! Stop pulling on me so hard!" Rudeness said. But Kinsey ignored him.

Kinsey chased Anger through the kitchen, through the great room, and straight into the foyer, where Tyler finally got ahold of him.

"Let me go!" Anger screamed. "Lemme go, lemme go, lemme go!"

"What is going on with you guys?" Nina said as she entered the foyer. "It sounds like you're bullying Bode. Don't pick on your little bruuhh—" She saw Kinsey and Tyler corralling five Bodes. Was she seeing this right? Yes, five! It was more than Nina could comprehend. She immediately fainted and fell to the ground.

"Mom!" Kinsey rushed to her mom's side, though she was still holding onto Rudeness. "Mom, wake up!" She stood up and walked over to Tyler. "Here, take him," Kinsey handed off Rudeness to Tyler to join the other four Bodes. She walked back to Nina and started dragging her toward the great room.

"Here, let me help you, Kinsey," Tyler said.

"No, I got it, Ty. Just keep watch on all the Bodes." Kinsey lifted Nina onto one of the couches in the great room. Then she walked back into the foyer. "Alright, I just need to go get Curiosity. Then we'll have all the Bodes under control," she said to Tyler. "Where's Responsibility in all of this? Out of all of Bode's feelings, he'd be the most helpful."

"Responsibility? That boring wet blanket? What do you think?" Rudeness said. "He never came out of Bode's head. He said it wasn't 'the responsible thing to do.' But what does he know?"

"Probably a lot more than you, dumbass," Kinsey said.

"Takes one to know one, dingus!" Rudeness retorted.

Kinsey rolled her eyes. She left the foyer and walked back into the winter study, only to see Curiosity's body lying on the ground before an opened Ghost Door. "Aw, shit."

Chapter Text

"Tyler," Kinsey said, entering the foyer from the drawing room. "We got a problem."

"Another one?" Tyler groaned.

"Yep, Curiosity went through the Ghost Door."

"Shit." Tyler thought for a moment. "Okay, you stay here and keep an eye on the other Bodes, I'll go and try to find Curiosity's ghost."

"Wait, but you've never even been a ghost before," Kinsey said.

"Neither have you."

"Okay, good point. I just really don't wanna be stuck with the band of twerps."

"Well, consider that a punishment for using the keys irresponsibly."

"Stop acting like you're my dad. It's so annoying."

"Look, now's not the time to argue; we can discuss this later."

Tyler walked into the winter study and stepped through the Ghost Door. His body dropped to the ground, landing on top of Curiosity's body, but his spirit remained floating in the air. Tyler took off in search of Curiosity's ghost.

"Bode!" Tyler called out. "Curiosity? What do I call you?" If I were the most curious nine-year-old, where would I go? Tyler first went to the well house. That was a place that always fascinated Bode. Curiosity wasn't there, though. Tyler checked the family graveyard next. He remembered hearing Bode mention going in there a couple times before. Curiosity wasn't there, but he did see another ghost in the graveyard.

"Hello," the other ghost said. He was a very old man, and very familiar.

"Hey," Tyler said. "Who are you?"

"Chamberlin Locke. And you are?"

"Tyler Locke. Now I remember you. You're the guy in the painting in the winter study. Bode said he met you as a ghost before. He said you were our great grandpa or something."

"Great-great grandpa. Yes, I love that little Bode. So much energy in him," Chamberlin chuckled.

"You got that right. So, speaking of, have you seen Bode's ghost around here just now?"

"No, can't say I have. I haven't seen Bode in quite some time. How's he been lately?"

"Well, being perfectly honest, he could be better. Almost all of his feelings have escaped his head, and he's pretty much all but braindead."

Chamberlin laughed. "I'm guessing he's been using the Head Key lately."

"Yes, but… this isn't a laughing matter."

"I know, I know. I do apologize."

"His Curiosity went through the Ghost Door. Now I'm trying to find him."

"Ah, I see. Well, if you'd like, I can help you find him."

"Yeah, sure, that'd be great."

Chamberlin floated out of the cemetery, and Tyler followed his lead. "You said it was his Curiosity that went through the Ghost Door, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Well then, he probably went to a place that Bode is very curious about."

"I already checked the well house and the cemetery. Those were the two places I thought of first. I don't know where else he's curious about. He literally could've gone anywhere."

"Actually, not exactly," Chamberlin said. "The thing about being a ghost is that you can't leave the property. So really, he couldn't have gone far. I believe the farthest a ghost can go are the sea caves."

"Wait a minute, that's it!" Tyler said. "Bode's always been curious about the sea caves! I bet you that's where he went!"

"Great idea, Tyler! I say we investigate there."

Tyler and Chamberlin soared through the forest, above the trees at a breakneck speed.

"I'm so sorry I've disturbed you, Chamberlin. All of this could've been avoided if my stupid siblings had just not used the keys."

"No, it's no bother at all, Tyler. This is the most excitement I've had in quite some time. And don't be too hard on your siblings. The way I see it, these keys were never supposed to be something to be feared. They're not supposed to be weapons. That's why only children can remember the magic; children want to use them to have fun. Adults would just abuse their power. Your siblings are using the keys exactly as intended by your ancestors."

"Yeah, well, if my ancestors knew what we went through earlier this year, I think they'd understand why I'm a tad hesitant to use them."

They arrived at the cliffs above the sea and dived down to the mouth of the caves.

"Bode! You in there?" Tyler called. There was no response.

"We should take a look further in," Chamberlin said. "There's no harm for us ghosts."

Tyler and Chamberlin floated into the caves. They ventured deeper, but Curiosity was still nowhere to be found.

"I do hope your brother is in here," Chamberlin said. "Otherwise, I don't have the faintest idea of where he could be."

"I have a feeling he's in here. And I think I know exactly where," Tyler said.

"And where's that?"

They reached the end of the caverns, where the Black Door lied. Just as Tyler suspected, the ghost of Curiosity was floating before it, peeking through the keyhole.

"Bode!" Tyler yelled. Curiosity jerked his head toward Tyler. "Get away from that door!"

"But I wanna see what's behind it! It's hard to make out through the keyhole. I tried flying through the door, but it didn't work."

"You're damn lucky it didn't." Tyler grabbed Curiosity's arm, and to his surprise, he was actually able to have contact with it. Huh. Everything else just passes through me, but I guess ghosts can touch other ghosts. He yanked Curiosity away from the door. "C'mon, let's get back to Keyhouse."

"Oh, hi, Great-Great Grandpa Chamberlin!" Curiosity waved. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello, Bode! Or rather, Bode's Curiosity. I came along to help your brother find you."

The three ghosts floated their way back through the cave passage.

"Both me and Kinsey are pissed at you. You know that, right?" Tyler said.

"Why? I was just having fun," Curiosity said.

"Because we're trying to find Mischief so we can get you all back inside Bode's head where you belong, and you just wasted all of our time!"

"I'm sorry. I promise I won't do it again. But I don't want to go back inside Bode's head. I like it out here so much more."

"Well, too bad. Bode can't function properly without all of his feelings back in his head."

"But Kinsey can—"

"I don't care what Kinsey thinks she can get away with," Tyler said. "She made a stupid decision that she still hasn't fixed, but that's her problem to deal with. I just don't want the same to happen to you. I mean… to Bode."

"I am Bode."

"Only a part of him. His whole is greater than the sum of his parts."

"I agree with Tyler," Chamberlin said. "You need to do the responsible thing and go back into Bode's head along with all the other feelings."

"But that's Responsibility's job to do the responsible thing," Curiosity said.

"I think you can manage being responsible just this one time." Chamberlin winked.

They emerged from the cave and flew back through the forest, returning to Keyhouse. Tyler and Curiosity floated down to the threshold of the Ghost Door.

"Thanks for coming along, Chamberlin," Tyler said.

"You're welcome. I'm glad you were able to find your brother's Curiosity. I wish you luck on returning all his feelings to his head."

"Thanks. See ya later… maybe."

"Bye, Great-Great Grandpa!" Curiosity said.

"Bye, Bode," Chamberlin chuckled.

Tyler stepped through the threshold first; his ghost returned to his body. The color immediately returned to his face, and he jolted up with a gasp.

"Um, Tyler? Can you please get off my body?" Curiosity's ghost said.

"Oh." Tyler rolled off Curiosity's tiny body. "Heh. Sorry 'bout that."

Curiosity's ghost rushed through the Ghost Door, and his body suddenly awoke. "That was fun!" he said, sitting up from the ground.

"That was not fun. Now, come on, Kinsey's waiting for us."

Chapter Text

"I'm hungry," Gluttony said.

"I know. You already said that five hundred times before. It's still not going to convince me to feed you anything," Kinsey said. She was sitting at the dining table in the kitchen along with the other Bodes.

Anger was tied to his chair with a rope. He struggled furiously to get out. "Get me out of here! You can't do this! Get me out or I'll scream!"

"You're already screaming," Kinsey said. "That's not going to help. Now, if you calm down, then maybe I'll think about it."

"I'm so bored. When is Tyler getting back?" Rudeness said.

"Don't know. However long it takes for him to find Curiosity's ghost," Kinsey said.

"I bet you Tyler will never come back," Sadness cried. "He probably lost Curiosity's ghost forever, and the wind will shut the Ghost Door, and he'll be stuck as a ghost forever. There goes another family member. Two down, only two more to go."

"If that happens, we can just open the Ghost Door again, idiot. Duh!" Rudeness said.

"I'm sure it won't be too much longer before Tyler gets here," Kinsey said.

"Let's play a game while we wait for him!" Glee said. "That'll make things more fun! How about I Spy? Or Would You Rather? No, wait! Serious Question! Let's play Serious Question!"

Sadness went first, "Okay, Serious Question: How miserable were you when you first found out Dad died?"

"I don't think that's a very appropriate question, Sadness," Kinsey said.

"Well, isn't the name of the game 'Serious Question?'" Sadness asked. "How much more serious of a question can you get?"

"That's not really the point of the game," Glee said. "We're supposed to ask fun questions, and then answer them seriously."

"Then really the game should be called 'Serious Answer,' not 'Serious Question,'" Sadness said.

Gluttony went next, "Serious Question: If you had to eat five hundred pounds of only one food, what would it be?"

"I don't feel like eating anything," Sadness said.

"Easy! Pop-Tarts!" Glee exclaimed.

"What kind?" Gluttony asked.

"S'mores! Without a doubt!"

"Yeah!" Gluttony and Glee high-fived each other. "Kinsey?" Gluttony asked. "What about you?"

"I wouldn't want to eat five hundred pounds of any food."

"But if you had to, what would you pick?"

"I don't know… pasta? What would you eat?" Kinsey asked Gluttony.

"Big, fat, juicy burgers! Mmm!"

"Count me out," Kinsey said.

Tyler walked into the kitchen with Curiosity. "Look who I finally found," Tyler said.

"Yeah, finally is right!" Rudeness said. "I've been waiting here forever with these boring dorks."

"Great! Thanks for getting him back, Ty," Kinsey said. "Now we just need to find Mischief."

They heard the front door open. "Hey, guys. I'm home," they heard Duncan say.

"Shit. I completely forgot. Duncan was supposed to come over for dinner tonight," Tyler said.

Duncan entered the kitchen. "Hey, guys, what's going o—" He saw the six Bodes sitting around the table. "Wh-wh-what is this? What is happening? Am I hallucinating? This can't be right."

"You're not hallucinating, Uncle Duncan. We see them, too," Kinsey said.

"Six Bodes?!"

"We know it seems crazy, but we can explain it," Tyler said.

"Oh, I don't feel so good," Duncan said, clutching his stomach. "Really don't feel so—" He ran to the kitchen sink and vomited into it.

"That's disgusting," Rudeness said.

"That's ironic coming from you," Kinsey said. She went up to Duncan and put a hand on his back. "You okay, Uncle Dunc?"

"No. Not really. But how come… what's going on here?"

"This house is filled with magic keys. You may not remember it, but you and Dad used to use the keys when you were younger."

"How do you know that if I can't remember?"

"Because we looked at your memories. Dad took out your memories of the keys when you were a kid, but we found those memories and looked at them."

"I just… I just don't understand. Okay, so, what's all this, then? Is there some sort of cloning key that you used on Bode?"

"No, it's the Head Key," Tyler said. "It's the same key Dad used to remove your memories. These are Bode's feelings. They escaped from his head. Now we're trying to get them back in."

"Okay… okay, yeah, that makes perfect se—" Duncan threw up in the sink again. "Listen, I'm really not feeling good from all this. I need to lay down for a bit."

"Okay. Sure. Yeah, you go do that. Hopefully we'll have everything sorted out by the time you feel better," Tyler said.

"Hey! Duncan!" Anger yelled. "Release me this instant! If you don't, I'm gonna blow your head off when I do get out!"

"Ignore him," Tyler said. "We all do."

"Right," Duncan nodded. "Sure. I'll… I'll just ignore the raging Bode clone threatening to murder me."

"It's easier than it seems."

"Okay." Duncan went upstairs to his room.

Tyler turned toward the group of Bodes. "Alright, Gluttony, you said you and the other Bodes might have a better idea of where Mischief might be. So how does that work? Do you have some sort of 'Bode-sense' or something?"

"Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I always follow my gut, and that usually leads me in the right direction."

"So where is your gut telling you to go right now?"

"Mmm, it's telling me… to go outside."

"What about the rest of you?" Kinsey asked. "Do you have some sense of where he might be?"

"Outside sounds good to me," Glee said.

"Yep, that's what I think, too," Curiosity said.

"I suppose," Sadness sighed.

"Why should I help you?" Rudeness scoffed.

"Four out of six said go outside. Let's go," Tyler said. He untied Anger from his chair and carried him over his shoulder.

"Hey! Put me down!" Anger yelled. He was ignored as usual.

Tyler, Kinsey, and the six Bodes left the kitchen and made their way to the front door. As soon as they opened the door, Nina called out from the great room, "Tyler? Kinsey? You leaving?"

Kinsey pushed five of the Bodes out the door so Nina wouldn't see them, leaving only Anger, who was hauled over Tyler's shoulder. Nina came into the foyer just in time.

"Yeah, we're just gonna… hang out outside. Get some fresh air. Maybe explore a bit," Tyler said. "We won't be gone too long."

"Well, good. That sounds nice. Sorry, I guess I must've fallen asleep over there. I don't even remember coming up here. Anyways, I gotta get back to sorting out stuff in the basement. Have fun."

"Thanks," Kinsey said.

"We will," Tyler answered.

Anger beat against Tyler's back and kicked his chest. "Put me down! Put me down!"

"Tyler, put Bode down! That's no way to treat your little brother!" Nina scolded.

"'Kay, Mom," Tyler said. He set down Anger but still kept a strong grip on his hand.

Kinsey, Tyler, and Anger left to join the other five Bodes outside.

"So… any idea of where exactly outside Mischief might be?" Kinsey asked.

"Hm, I'm feeling he might be in the woods," Glee said.

"Yep, same here," Gluttony said.

"Okay, to the woods it is," Tyler said.

Chapter Text

"These woods are huge; how are we ever gonna find Mischief?" Kinsey asked as she, Tyler, and the six Bodes trudged through the forest outside Keyhouse. "Is there some way you can hone in on your Bode-tracking senses and say like, 'thirty paces to your left' or something like that?"

"It doesn't really work like that," Gluttony said.

"So, what? We're really just going to wander around aimlessly through the woods until we happen to stumble upon Mischief?" Tyler asked.

"I guess so. That's the best I've got," Gluttony said.

"But you're positive Mischief is somewhere in these woods, right?"

"Yes."

As they continued searching, Tyler asked, "Hey, Curiosity, how'd you even get the Ghost Key?"

"I found it in the music box when I was looking through Kinsey's room. I was curious to see what it felt like to be a ghost."

"How did you know what that key does?"

"I'm still Bode, even if I'm just one part of him. I still know everything he knows."

"Guess I didn't think about it like that. So did you take any other keys?"

"No."

"Okay, good."

About ten more minutes of strolling through the woods passed, and Kinsey started losing her patience. "Ugh! We're never gonna find Mischief this way!"

"You're right," Tyler said. "What we really should've done is turn into a ghost to look for him. It's way faster to fly around."

"Damn it, Ty. You could've done that back when you were out looking for Curiosity. You know how much time we would've saved?"

"Well, don't blame it entirely on me; you never thought of doing that either."

"Is… is Mischief even in the woods?" Kinsey turned to the group of Bodes. "Do you guys know for a fact that Mischief is somewhere in these woods?"

"Um… well… no?" Glee said with a nervous smile.

"It was more of an instinct," Gluttony said.

"So it's possible that your guys' instincts are wrong?" Kinsey asked.

"Yes, it is possible," Gluttony said. "I'd even say it's likely. Like I said before, I always think with my gut, but my gut doesn't always have the best track record."

"Are you shitting me?" Tyler said. "And you didn't tell us this before… why?"

"Because I liked being trusted. It felt good."

"God damn it! I knew we shouldn't have trusted any of you!" Tyler said. "The only one of you who would've been trustworthy is Responsibility, and he's still in Bode's head!"

"We know we're horrible," Sadness sobbed. "We're horrible, despicable beings. If you decide to abandon us right here in the woods, I wouldn't blame you."

"Oh, stop crying. Obviously, we're not going to do that," Tyler said. "We need to get all of you back into Bode's head."

"Wait a minute," Kinsey said. "One, two, three, four, five… we're missing a Bode. Where's Curiosity?"

"You kidding me? He ditched us again?" Tyler said.

"I have a feeling I know where he went," Gluttony said. "Follow me, my gut will lead the way."

"Do you really think I'm going to trust you right now?" Tyler said. "After what you just put us through?"

"I know! I don't blame you for not wanting to trust me. But I really think I know this time."

"It's not like we have any better options right now," Kinsey mumbled to Tyler.

"Fine. I'll bite. Where do you think Curiosity went?"

"Follow me!"

Gluttony ran in the direction back toward Keyhouse, and the others followed. Ahead in the distance, they spotted a Bode-sized figure.

"See? I told ya!" Gluttony said.

As they got closer, Tyler could see that it was indeed Curiosity. "Wow, you were actually right this time."

"I think you owe me an apology."

"Alright, I'm sorry. But you have to apologize, too, for leading us in the wrong direction before."

"Okay, I'm sorry, too."

Once they reached Curiosity, Kinsey grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him toward her. "What are you doing?!" She scolded. "Are you trying to get lost out here, you little twerp?"

"No. It's just that I was thinking about everywhere we've already been. You guys checked the entire house, and when I was a ghost, I checked the well house, the cemetery, the forest, and the sea caves, but Mischief was in none of those places. But then I realized there was one place we haven't checked yet: the toolshed."

"So that's where you think Mischief is?" Kinsey asked.

"Maybe. I was just so curious to find out that I forgot to tell the rest of you. Sorry for running off."

"It's okay," Kinsey said. "But I actually think you might be on to something with the toolshed."

Tyler, Kinsey, and the mass of Bodes walked back to Keyhouse and around to where the shed was. They heard some rustling from within.

"I think you're right," Tyler whispered to Curiosity. "I think he is in there." Tyler opened the door to the shed. It appeared dark and empty inside. Then, they heard a low growling sound and saw two shiny, golden orbs peering out.

"Is that a raccoon?" Kinsey said.

The creature leapt out from the darkness and onto Tyler—Bode's Fear. It latched onto him, biting and scratching his face. Kinsey screamed. So did several of the Bodes. And even the ones who didn't still jolted at the sight of the ghastly Bode. Kinsey struggled to pry off Fear from Tyler, and while the other Bodes were distracted by the shocking scene before them, Mischief slipped out from the shed and took out the Matchstick Key. He drew a large circle of flames encompassing the entire shed, trapping Tyler, Kinsey, and the group of Bodes.

Kinsey's attention shifted from Fear's attack on Tyler to the suddenly-arisen flames. "Where'd the fire come from?!" she screamed.

"Someone must have the Matchstick Key!" Glee said.

"It must be Mischief!" Curiosity said.

Kinsey glared through the fire and barely made out the figure of Mischief standing on the other side, dressed in that stupid devil costume. He ran off, but she couldn't see where he went. "Yeah, that was Mischief all right."

"Kinsey, help!" Tyler yelled as he wrestled with Fear. "I'm still getting attacked over here!"

Kinsey turned to the Bodes. "Everyone, don't just stand around; help me save your big brother!" She and all the other Bodes grabbed Fear, and with their combined strength, they managed to pull him off.

Tyler scrambled up from the ground. "Thanks for the help, guys," he said. "Even if it was a bit delayed." The others continued to hold back Fear, who was gnashing his teeth and clawing at the air. Tyler's face and arms were covered in scratches.

"Oh my god, Ty!" Kinsey said. "You're all scratched up."

"Yep, I can feel it. Don't worry about it; I'll be fine. The thing we have to worry about right now is what we're going to do with Bode's Fear."

The flames surrounding them had died down so that they were now ankle-high. "Hold on, I know just the thing," Kinsey said as she stepped over the flames and ran toward Keyhouse.

"Kinsey, where're you going?" Tyler asked.

"Just wait right there!" Kinsey yelled back.

Chapter Text

Kinsey came back a few minutes later with a rope in her hands—the same rope she used to tie Anger to the dining room chair.

"You're gonna tie up Bode's Fear with a rope?" Tyler asked.

"Hey, it worked for Anger," Kinsey said. She tied Fear's hands behind his back as the rest of the Bodes held him in place. "Who'da thought Dad's lessons on rope tying would've actually come in handy one of these days?"

"I know, right?" Tyler chuckled.

"Okay, I think we're good. You can let go now, guys," Kinsey said to the group of Bodes. Fear tried lunging out toward Tyler once more, but he was held back by the rope tied around his hands, which Kinsey firmly held onto, acting as a leash. "There! He can't cause much trouble anymore."

"I still don't feel super safe with him practically breathing in my face," Tyler said as he backed away from Fear. "I don't know how reliable your rope knots are."

"You'll be fine," Kinsey said. "But we have an even bigger issue on our hands right now: we still have to find Mischief."

"Yeah… so how are we going to find him?" Tyler asked. "Just check all the places again?"

"There's gotta be a better way," Glee said.

Fear lunged in the direction opposite from Tyler—the direction toward Keyhouse.

"Hold on," Kinsey said. "I remember with my own Fear, she would always attack things or people I was afraid of. It's probably the same with Bode's Fear."

"So Bode is afraid of me?" Tyler asked.

"I don't know. I mean, you can come off as a bit intimidating sometimes."

"What?" Tyler's face scrunched.

"I mean, I'm not intimidated by you, but maybe Bode is? But either way, you shouldn't feel too bad; his Fear attacked me, too, when we were in his head."

"That's… strange. But anyways, what's your point with all this?"

"Well, look—his Fear wants to go in a different direction now. Maybe he'll lead us to Mischief."

"Why would Bode be afraid of his own Mischief?"

"Well… his Mischief is the only one who holds any power in being able to get Bode back to normal. If we can't find Mischief, he'll never be normal again. That sounds like a pretty good reason to be afraid of him."

"Sounds like a weak reason to me."

"Hey, it's a better reason than any he has of being afraid of us."

"I guess that's a good point."

Everyone followed Fear's lead, which seemed to be headed toward Keyhouse. Kinsey opened the front door and let in Fear, still holding onto his rope. On one of the couches in the great room, Kinsey and Tyler saw a Bode lying down, fast asleep. It wasn't Mischief; he wasn't wearing the devil costume. But who was it?

The siblings walked up to the sleeping Bode to get a better look. He was dressed in a nightgown and nightcap. Tyler nudged him. He didn't wake up. He then shook him violently. That seemed to do the trick.

The Bode yawned. "Why did you wake me up? I was having such a good nap."

"Who are you?" Tyler asked.

"I'm Bode's Sleepiness. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to sleep."

"Wait!" Kinsey said. "When did you escape Bode's head?"

"It wasn't too long ago," he said. "I had just started to fall into a deep sleep before you woke me up." Sleepiness nodded off into his slumber.

"Do you know what this means?" Kinsey said to Tyler.

"Mischief must've used the Head Key again to let out even more of Bode's feelings," Tyler said.

"We've got to find him quick before he can do any more damage," Kinsey said.

"For what it's worth, I'll be happy to go back inside Bode's head once you guys get the Head Key back," Glee said.

"Well, at least one of you will be," Tyler said.

"It doesn't matter whether I'm inside or outside Bode's head," Sadness said. "Either way, I'll still be miserable."

"I really can't take much more of this," Kinsey said. "Come on, let's go."

They followed Fear into the drawing room, where they came across a Bode dressed in a safari outfit. "Oh, hello there," he said.

"Great, now who are you?" Kinsey sighed.

"I'm Bode's Adventurousness. Where're you off to?"

"We're trying to find Mischief so we can get the Head Key back and put all of you back into Bode's Head," Kinsey said.

"Oh, yeah! Mischief let me out of Bode's head just recently!"

"Where did he go?" Tyler asked.

"I don't know."

"Ugh, how come all of you are so clueless?" Kinsey groaned.

"No, that's Cluelessness over there," Adventurousness said, pointing to a Bode who was standing in a corner, staring blankly.

"Whatever. Come on, we're wasting our time here, Ty." Kinsey continued to let Fear lead the way.

"Wait!" Adventurousness said. "I want to help you on your expedition to find Mischief! I have a map!" He held up an old, worn-out map of the grounds of Keyhouse.

"Fine, you can come along. But that map isn't going to help any; we already know our way around this place."

"Still, you have to admit, it's a pretty cool map," Adventurousness said as he joined the group.

When they came into the winter study, they saw a bespectacled Bode sitting at the desk, reading a book on animal biology. He lifted his gaze from the book and looked at the others. "Hello," he said. "Can I help you?"

"Depends. Who are you?" Kinsey asked.

"Bode's Studiousness."

"I think you could be the most useful Bode out of all of them," Tyler said.

"I'd love to help," Studiousness said. "With what, exactly?"

"We're trying to find Mischief," Kinsey said. "We think Bode's Fear will lead us to him."

"Ah, yes, Mischief. He offered me an opportunity to roam free outside of Bode's head just recently. I admit, I could not refuse the prospect of being able to indulge in the wondrous knowledge found within the winter study library."

"NEEERRRD!" Rudeness yelled.

Tyler rolled his eyes and ignored him. "So do you know where Mischief is?" he asked Studiousness.

"Sadly, no. I came straight here after leaving Bode's head, and I've been here ever since, so I haven't seen where he might have gone. That Mischief is a wild one, though; he could be anywhere. But I'd say you may be on the right track by having Fear lead you to him—if Bode were to be scared of any one of his feelings right now, it'd be Mischief."

"Thanks," Tyler said.

"By the way, why are you wearing glasses?" Kinsey asked. "Bode doesn't need glasses."

"I know," Studiousness said. "The glasses just make me look smarter."

"At least you're honest," Kinsey shrugged.

Fear scratched at the Ghost Door. Kinsey opened it, and Fear proceeded to lead them outside. The Ghost Key wasn't inserted, so it acted as a regular door.

Fear seemed to be leading them toward the well house.

Chapter Text

Kinsey looked through the gate into the well house. Mischief was inside, sitting on top of the edge of the well with a smug look on his face.

"Well, this was a short-lived expedition," Adventurousness said.

"For you, maybe. But for us, it's taken all day," Kinsey said.

"I see you finally caught up with me," Mischief said, slow clapping.

"Give us the Head Key!" Kinsey said as she slipped through the gate—it was a tight squeeze, but she managed—taking Fear along with her. Fear clawed at Mischief, but Kinsey held him back from doing any damage.

"What makes you assume I have the Head Key?" Mischief slyly remarked.

"Enough playing around; we know you have it," Tyler said. He squeezed through the well house gate as well, only barely fitting through. "Bode's other feelings said they escaped because of you. We know you're the one behind all this."

"Yep, it's true," Curiosity said.

"I'd bet my life on it," Adventurousness said.

"Wow, what a bunch of traitors you all are." Mischief smirked. "After all I did for you, this is how you repay me?"

"You told us leaving Bode's head would be fun!" Anger yelled. "But it's done nothing but bring a bunch of trouble!"

"For once, I actually agree with you, Anger," Kinsey said. "So where's the Head Key, Mischief? Hand it over."

"Search me. I don't have it," Mischief said, showing that both his hands were empty.

Tyler grabbed Mischief and yanked him off the well. He padded him down thoroughly. "He's… right. He doesn't have the key on him," Tyler said.

"He must've hidden it somewhere. Where is it?" Kinsey said.

"Like I'd tell you," Mischief said. "You know I don't play like that. It's no fun to just give you the answer."

Tyler punched Mischief in the face.

"Tyler, no!" Kinsey held back Tyler's arm.

"The little shit isn't cooperating!" Tyler yelled. "Not to mention all the hell he put us through up until this point!"

"Still, he's our brother! You don't do that to him!"

"He's not our brother. Our brother isn't a little dick like he is. Besides, it's not like you can actually hurt feelings."

"Actually, Big Brother here is right," Mischief said as he rubbed his jaw where Tyler had punched him. "Ironically, the truth is, feelings can't be hurt. At least, not in any lasting way. See?" He showed off his jaw, which had no sign of damage whatsoever, as if it hadn't been hit at all.

"Just tell us where the key is," Tyler said.

"I'll just say this: the key is hidden somewhere in Keyhouse. But that's the only clue you're getting."

"At least that's a start. Come on, let's go." Kinsey squeezed back out the gate of the well house. "We're so close to finding the key now. With the help of all the Bodes, I'm sure we can find it in no time."

"That's assuming all the Bodes will be willing to help us," Tyler said as he followed Kinsey out of the well house.

"I'll help you find the key!" Adventurousness said.

"Me too!" said Glee.

"I'm in, too," Curiosity added.

"I can help," Gluttony said.

"Why should I bother?" Sadness said. "I wouldn't make a difference either way."

"You can count me out," Rudeness said.

"I'm not gonna help you guys," Anger huffed. "But I guess I won't try to stop you, either."

"Thanks… I guess?" Tyler said.

"Hey, at least we've got more than half of them on our side," Kinsey said.

"Hello? I'm here, too," Mischief said. "And I ain't gonna help you, either."

"Fine, half. But Bode's Studiousness will probably be able to help us out, too," Kinsey said. "Come on, we need to get back to the house."

Everyone walked back to Keyhouse, up to the Ghost Door. Kinsey tried opening the door, but something was blocking it from the other side. She pushed the door even harder, eventually forcing it open, at least partially. She handed off Fear's leash to Tyler, and she squeezed through the opening. Once she wriggled through, she saw what was blocking the door—a Bode lying on the ground on his back, playing on a Nintendo Switch.

"Umm, excuse me?" Kinsey said. "What are you doing? You're blocking the door."

"Can't you see? I'm playing a game." The Bode reached inside a bag of Doritos lying next to him and stuffed a mouthful of chips into his mouth.

"Can't you get up and play your game literally anywhere else?"

"I can… but I don't wanna get up."

Kinsey groaned. "Let me guess, you're Bode's Laziness?"

"Yep," he said.

"Of course. I'm surprised we didn't come across you earlier. Listen, we're extremely busy right now—something I'm sure you can't relate to—so can you please just get out of our way?"

"Make me."

"Fine." Kinsey hooked her arms under Laziness's arms and dragged him away from the Ghost Door.

"Could you bring me my Doritos, too, while you're at it?" Laziness asked.

"Nope. You're gonna have to move your butt yourself to get that."

Kinsey finally opened the Ghost Door all the way, allowing the rest of the group to enter the winter study.

"So, what's the plan?" Tyler asked Kinsey.

"Well, I was thinking we should all split up and search through one section of the house each. So, say, someone searches the kitchen, someone else searches the drawing room, and so on."

"I was thinking the same thing," Tyler said.

"I want to search the kitchen," Gluttony said. "I'm good at that."

"Fine, that works," Tyler said.

"What are you guys talking about?" Studiousness asked, peeking from behind an astronomy book.

"We're talking about how we're going to find the Head Key," Kinsey said.

"May I be of assistance?"

"Actually, yeah, you'd be a great help. You can search through the winter study for the key since you seem to like this room so much."

"Yes, I do!" Studiousness perked up. "I'd be happy to help!"

"Great," Kinsey said.

"Curiosity, you can search the drawing room; Adventurousness, you can search the great room," Tyler said. "Now for the upstairs rooms, Glee, you can search Bode's room, and then me and Kinsey will search our own rooms."

"What about Mom's room?" Kinsey asked. "And Duncan's room? And the basement?"

"Let's just focus on these rooms for now," Tyler said. "Once we're done searching through all our designated rooms, we'll meet up in the foyer. If none of us found the key, then we can split up again and search through the rest of those rooms."

"Okay, sounds good," Kinsey said.

"I'll hold onto Fear; I don't trust anyone else with him," Tyler said. "Well, except you, of course."

Tyler and Kinsey turned around toward the drawing room to start their search, but they were both startled by another Bode standing before them. A Bode they had never seen before.

"Jesus! You scared me, you brat!" Kinsey said.

"Hi," he said quietly.

"Listen, we're kinda in a hurry right now, so could you please stay out of our way?" Tyler said.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the Bode said as he stepped to the side.

"Wait, maybe he can help us, too. Which feeling are you?" Kinsey asked the Bode.

"I'm… um… Bode's Shyness."

"Please," Kinsey scoffed, "Bode has a shy side? He's certainly never showed it around me."

"Okay, this is fine." Tyler said to Shyness, "We need you to do something for us, but you don't need to talk to anybody or anything—you'll be perfect. All you have to do is look for the Head Key. You know what it looks like, right?"

Shyness nodded.

"Great. So just search Mom's room for the Head Key. You can do that, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Cool. Now we have another one of you on our side," Tyler said.

As the two siblings made their way toward the foyer, Mischief called out to them, "Good luck. Even with all those Bodes at your side, I doubt you'll find the key!" He leaned back into one of the chairs in the drawing room. He, along with Sadness, Anger, Rudeness, Laziness, Cluelessness, and Sleepiness, would not be participating in the effort to find the key so that Bode might return to normal.

Chapter Text

After a fruitless search of their respective rooms, Kinsey and Tyler went downstairs to the foyer to meet up with the Bodes. “Have any of you found the Head Key yet?” Kinsey asked.

“Nope, not yet,” Glee said.

“Unfortunately not,” Studiousness said.

“Nothing,” Curiosity said.

“Alright, that just means we split up again and continue searching,” Tyler said, still holding on to Bode’s Fear with his makeshift rope leash. “Curiosity, you can look in the storage room. Adventurousness, you can search the guest room. I’ll look through Duncan’s room; Kinsey, do you want to search the basement?”

“Sure,” Kinsey said.

Everyone split up again, and Kinsey went down to the basement to search for the key. This was one of the last rooms in the house that they hadn’t checked yet, so Kinsey knew her search had to be thorough. There were stacks upon stacks of boxes filled with old stuff inside.

“Hey, Kinsey. Do you need something?” Nina said, sifting through one of the boxes.

“Yeah, actually I do, Mom. I’m looking for a key shaped like a head. Have you seen anything like that recently?”

“No, I haven’t, sorry.”

“That’s okay. Can you help me look for it in these boxes?” Kinsey asked.

“Sure, just let me take care of this box over here and then I’ll come help you.” Nina walked over to a box that was sitting in the corner and picked it up. “It’s just filled with junk. I’ve been meaning to take it out all day.”

“Alright,” Kinsey said, looking through one of the other boxes.

Nina left with the box, and when she came back down to the basement a few minutes later, her face was pale and aghast. She said, “K-Kinsey, I just saw multiple Bodes up there. What is going on here?”

“Oh, yeah, right. I’ll just give you a moment,” Kinsey said.

“W-what do you mean you’ll just—” Nina froze, staring blankly, and when she snapped out of it, she acted as if nothing had happened. “Okay, let’s look for this key of yours,” she said as she started helping Kinsey. They managed to rummage through every one of the boxes, but the Head Key was not in any of them. Then they moved on to search throughout the rest of the basement, but the key was still nowhere to be found.

“Nothing,” Kinsey said.

“Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry,” Nina said.

“No, it’s okay, Mom. I really appreciate your help.”

Kinsey walked back up to the foyer, where Tyler and the Bodes were waiting.

“There you are,” Tyler said. “Took you long enough.”

“Well, sorry, Mom and I checked every single box down there.”

“And?”

“The Head Key wasn’t in any of them. We checked the rest of the basement, and it was nowhere else down there either.”

“It wasn’t in any of the rooms we checked either,” Tyler said. “Something can’t be right here. We must’ve missed it somewhere.”

“Hold on, let me check something,” Kinsey said. She went back down into the basement. “Mom? Where did you take that one box you said was filled with junk?”

“I threw it out in the garbage. But I didn’t see a key in there when I checked it.”

“Okay, thanks.” Kinsey walked back up to the foyer.

“What was that about?” Tyler asked.

“Mom threw out one of the boxes in the garbage,” Kinsey answered. “She said she didn’t see a key in there when she checked it, but Mischief could’ve slipped it in there after she looked through it. This could be our last hope.”

“Let’s go check it out,” Tyler said.

Tyler, Kinsey, and the group of Bodes walked out to the back of the house where the garbage bin was. Tyler lifted the lid, revealing that the box had sunk beneath several trash bags, near the bottom of the bin. The stench of rotting food assaulted everyone’s nostrils.

“Ugh, gross!” Curiosity said, covering his nose.

“Even I’ve lost my appetite,” Gluttony said. “And that’s saying a lot.”

“Alright, who’s gonna do the honors?” Tyler asked.

The Bodes all looked at each other, but none of them said a word. Finally, Curiosity spoke up, “Okay, fine, I’ll do it! I’m too curious; I need to know if the key is in that box! I’ll do anything to find out. Even… dig through the trash.”

Curiosity climbed up on the bin and leaned over inside. He almost fell in entirely before Tyler caught him. Curiosity managed to get ahold of the box. “I got it! Pull me back up!” he said. Tyler pulled him out of the bin, and Curiosity set the box down on the ground. He opened the box, and inside were a bunch of old, useless paper scraps, used pens, broken pencils, and fragments of plastic from some unidentifiable object. “No. No, the key has to be in here somewhere!” Curiosity said. He began scouring through the junk inside the box. “Come on, this is the last place we haven’t checked!” Then, he felt it. At the very bottom of the box. He pulled it out from beneath all the paper scraps, the used-up pens, the hunks of plastic. There it was—the Head Key, at last.

“You found it!” Tyler said, yanking the key out from Curiosity’s hand.

“Hey! Come on, you’re really gonna take it from me already?” Curiosity said.

“We need to use this on Bode immediately,” Tyler said.

Tyler, Kinsey, and the group of Bodes all went back into the house, went up the stairs, and entered Kinsey’s room. Bode—the real Bode—was still lying on Kinsey’s bed. Kinsey sat him up, and she inserted the Head Key into the back of his neck and turned it. The toy chest that led to his mind suddenly appeared. Kinsey and Tyler led the group of Bodes down the ladder into Bode’s head. Bode’s Glee, Curiosity, Adventurousness, Gluttony, Shyness, Studiousness, and Fear were all returned inside, but that still wasn’t everyone.

“Where’s the real Bode?” Kinsey asked.

“Hold on, I think I can follow my gut to find him!” Gluttony said. “Just follow me.” Gluttony led them through the arcade, through the rainbow neon tunnel, and down to the very bottom depths of Bode’s “deep thoughts” aquarium. Sure enough, Bode was there, tied up with rope along with two other Bodes.

“Bode!” Kinsey cried. She ran up to Bode and untied him from the rope as quickly as she could. “I never thought I’d miss you this much after such a short time,” she said, hugging Bode.

“I’m so glad to see you guys,” Bode said. “I thought I was gonna be trapped in here forever.”

“We never would’ve let that happen,” Tyler said.

“Who are these other two that were tied up with you?” Kinsey said, pointing to the other two Bodes.

“This is my Responsibility and my Kindness. Mischief wanted to make sure neither of them were able to help you,” Bode said.

“You did the right thing by setting us free,” Responsibility said.

“I can’t thank you enough for saving us!” Kindness said. “Is there anything I can do to repay you?”

“Actually, there is,” Kinsey said. “We still need to put back your other feelings into your head. Maybe you guys could help us.”

“No, please, don’t let any of my feelings out of my head again!” Bode said. “Everyone should just stay here. Otherwise, if all my feelings leave my head, I’ll pretty much be an emotionless robot, and I won’t be able to help. Besides, if all of you stay here, you’ll still be a part of me, since you’re in my head.”

Kinsey said, “Okay, fair point, but I was just thinking about the extra hands we could use to round up all your other feelings.”

“We won’t need the extra hands,” Bode said. “They’re my feelings; I’ll be able to put them back.”

As Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode made their way back through the rainbow tunnel, Tyler asked, “Hey, how did Mischief tie you up in here anyways?”

Bode said, “When Kinsey was down in the basement with Mom, I was in the kitchen polishing plates. Then… well, I remember suddenly waking up in my head with no memory of how I got here. I think my Mischief must’ve knocked me out, dragged me upstairs into Kinsey’s room where my head was left open, and trapped me in here.”

“Where did he get that rope, then?” Tyler asked.

“It’s my head; I can conjure up anything I imagine in here. My feelings can do the same.”

Once the Locke siblings arrived back at the arcade, they climbed up the ladder out of Bode’s head. Bode walked over to his original body and took out the Head Key from his own head. He suddenly awoke in his original body, and the Head Key landed softly on Kinsey’s bed. He handed the key over to Kinsey, who put it in her pocket.

“Now, let’s go take care of my other feelings,” Bode said.

Chapter Text

“So let me get this straight,” Kinsey said, “You’re yourself again, just without your Anger, Sadness, Rudeness, Laziness, Sleepiness, Cluelessness, and Mischief?”

“Yep,” Bode said.

“So then tell me why we shouldn’t just leave you as you are right now?”

“Kinsey!” Tyler said.

Bode said to Kinsey, “You only removed one emotion from your head, and look at all the trouble that’s caused. So I don’t really want to find out what’ll happen if a bunch of feelings are missing from my head.”

The Locke siblings ran downstairs to the foyer, and Bode put the Head Key into his head again and turned the key. The second Bode appeared along with the toy chest. “Let’s go put back the easy ones first,” Bode said.

Bode dragged his Sleepiness off one of the couches in the great room. Sleepiness yawned and said, “Is nap time over?”

“No, you’ll have plenty more time to sleep,” Bode said, continuing to drag him across the floor into the foyer. “You’ll just have to do it in my head.” He dumped Sleepiness into the toy chest.

Kinsey entered the drawing room and grabbed Cluelessness by the hand, and she led him to the foyer. “Where are you taking me?” Cluelessness asked.

“Right here,” Kinsey said, in front of the chest. “I need you to just climb down this ladder. ‘Kay?”

“Sure, I can do that!” Cluelessness followed her directions without hesitation.

Tyler picked up Laziness off the ground in the winter study and hauled him over his shoulders. “Hey, what gives?” Laziness said. “I was so comfy in that spot.”

Tyler carried him back toward the foyer. “Yeah, well, I’m sure you can get comfy in here, too.” He dropped Laziness into the chest.

“That’s three down, four to go,” Bode said.

The siblings entered the kitchen, where they found Sadness weeping at the dining table. “Hey, Sadness,” Bode said. “We need you to go back into my head.”

“Why should I even bother?” Sadness said. “You never seem to care about me anyways. You always bury me in the deepest part of your head.”

Bode sat at the table next to him. “You’re right, I did,” Bode said. “But I shouldn’t have done that. I do care about you. I need you. I wouldn’t be complete without you. I may not like being sad, but… sometimes we need to be. Being sad can help us grow. And that’s where you come in.”

“Do you really mean that?” Sadness said, wiping away a tear.

“I do. I really do.” Bode held one of Sadness’s hands. They walked together back to the foyer, and Bode opened the toy chest. As Sadness climbed down the ladder, Bode could have sworn he saw the slightest hint of a smile on his face. Bode closed the chest, and he turned back toward Tyler and Kinsey. “Now we come to the hard part,” he said.

Anger and Rudeness were standing in the drawing room. “You’ll never catch us!” Anger yelled. He and Rudeness sprinted off into the winter study. Tyler ran toward them, meanwhile Kinsey and Bode ran toward the kitchen in the opposite direction so that they ended up trapping Anger and Rudeness on both sides.

All three Locke siblings tackled the two Bodes. Tyler managed to restrain the two of them while they were down, but Anger then started biting Tyler’s arm. “Ow! You little shit!” Tyler said. He flinched for just one moment, but in that moment, his grip loosened, and Anger was able to escape his grasp. “Shit! He’s getting away!”

“We’ll deal with him later; you still have Rudeness,” Bode said. “Let’s at least put him back.”

Tyler walked back to the foyer with Rudeness in his arms. “Put me down, nimrod!” Rudeness said. “I don’t wanna go back in there! There’s so much more freedom out here!” Tyler ignored him and opened the toy chest. “Don’t you dare put me down there, jerk!” Rudeness spit in Tyler’s face. “Ha! How do you like that?”

Tyler dropped Rudeness down the chest and shut the lid.

Bode said, “Uh, Tyler? You got a little something on your—”

“Yeah… I know.” Tyler wiped off the glob of saliva from his face.

“Okay, now where did Anger go?” Kinsey asked.

They heard footsteps upstairs. “I think he went into my room!” Bode said.

Kinsey took out the Head Key from the original Bode, and both the toy chest and the second Bode disappeared from the foyer.

Then, the Locke siblings ran up the stairs and into Bode’s room. Anger was sitting on Bode’s bed. “Get away from me!” Anger screamed.

Bode slowly walked toward the bed. “It’s okay. There’s no need to be upset,” he said.

“I don’t wanna go back inside your head!”

“We thought you regretted coming out of Bode’s head in the first place,” Kinsey said. “Didn’t you say it’s caused nothing but trouble?”

“I know, but… but…”

Bode hugged Anger. Anger wasn’t expecting it, but it caused his demeanor to soften.

“He just feels underappreciated is all,” Bode said. “That’s why you don’t want to go back into my head. Isn’t that right?”

“Yeah. It is.” For the first time, Anger didn’t shout. “I know you don’t want me, or even need me, so I’m better off out here.”

“Well, I do want you, and I do need you. You’re just as important as any of my other feelings. Anger can help me let off steam. Anger can help me stand up for myself when I’ve been treated wrongly. Anger can help me stand up for others who have been treated wrongly. At least, so as long as you’re kept in check.” Bode smiled.

“Hm. Now that you mention it… I guess I would be serving a better purpose within your head than causing trouble out here,” Anger said.

“That’s exactly right,” Bode said. He put the Head Key in the back of his neck again, and Anger climbed down the toy chest into his head.

“You know what this means,” Bode said to Kinsey and Tyler. “Now we only have to put Mischief back in. The one who started this mess in the first place.”

“Looking for me?” Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode turned around and saw Mischief standing in the doorway.

“You don’t have to keep running away,” Bode said, walking toward Mischief. “I need you just as much as I need all my other feelings.”

“Oh, really? Wow, I… I’m so touched,” Mischief said. “Okay, I’ll go straight back into your head right now.”

“Really? You mean it?” Bode said.

“Yes, of course.” Mischief walked up to the toy chest and opened the lid.

Then he slammed it shut. “Psych!” Mischief ran out the room and into the hallway.

“Hey! Get back here!” Bode said. He took out the Head Key from himself and ran after Mischief. Tyler and Kinsey followed.

Mischief was standing over the stairs. “Did you really think I wanted to go back in there?” he said. “There are still so many rules to break out here. And anyways, you can’t put me back into your head quite yet. Did you guys forget? I still have this.” He pulled out the Matchstick Key. “You’ll have to take this from me first.”

“Give that back!” Bode yelled. He ran after Mischief down the stairs. Once they reached the bottom, in the foyer, Bode tackled Mischief. Bode tried grabbing the Matchstick Key from him, but Mischief shoved Bode off and punched him in the stomach. Bode groaned in pain.

Mischief said, “You see, the difference between you and me is that I can actually hurt you.” Once he stood up, he kicked Bode in the stomach and ran off into the kitchen.

Just at that moment, Tyler and Kinsey arrived downstairs, and they immediately tended to their little brother. “Bode! Are you okay?” Kinsey said.

“No,” Bode murmured, “but go get Mischief. He went to the kitchen.”

“Here, I’ll help you get up,” Kinsey said.

“No, just leave me be,” Bode said. “You need to go get Mischief now!”

Kinsey and Tyler looked at each other. They left their brother in the foyer and ran through the great room into the kitchen.

Mischief was standing on the far side of the room with the Matchstick Key in hand. “Don’t come any closer,” he said, “or else I’ll set fire to the kitchen.”

Tyler and Kinsey stopped in their tracks. “Just give us the key, and then we’ll let you go,” Tyler said.

“Do you really expect me to believe you?” Mischief said. “If I give you the key, you’ll just pick me up and force me back into Bode’s head, like you did with his other feelings.”

“Come on, you’re still a part of Bode,” Kinsey said. “That must mean you still have some semblance of him within you. If Bode wants you to go back, shouldn’t you want to go back, too?”

“Sorry, not how it works, Kins,” Mischief said. “The part of Bode that wants me back is his Responsibility. I don’t have any of that in me. You’re never gonna get me to go back in there.”

“What do you want from us, then?” Tyler asked.

“I don’t want anything from you. I just want to be left alone so I can cause as much trouble as I want.”

“Yeah, well, that’s not gonna happen,” Tyler said.

“Fine. Then I guess I’ll set fire to the kitchen.” As Mischief dragged the Matchstick Key along the kitchen counter, setting it on fire, Bode came running up behind him from the other kitchen entrance. Bode grabbed a frying pan that was lying in the sink and whacked Mischief on the back of his head as hard as he could. Mischief dropped to the ground, knocked out cold.

“Way to go, Bode!” Kinsey said.

“Quick, we need to put the fire out!” Bode said.

Tyler opened one of the cupboards beneath the counter and pulled out a fire extinguisher. “Stand back!” he said, pushing Bode behind him. He squeezed the lever and extinguished the flames on the counter.

Bode took the Matchstick Key out of the unconscious Mischief’s hands. “I got the key. Now we just need to put him back in my head before he wakes up.”

Mischief started stirring and groaning. Bode said, “Looks like that’ll be sooner than we thought.” He took out the Head Key from his pocket and put it into his neck.

Tyler picked up Mischief just as his eyes started fluttering open. “Hey, what’re you doing with me?” Mischief said. Tyler walked over to Bode’s head toy chest. “No! Put me down!” Mischief screamed, struggling to get out of Tyler’s grasp. “If you let me go, I promise I’ll be good! I won’t cause any more trouble ever again! Please!” Tyler opened the lid. He dropped Mischief into Bode’s head, and he shut the chest.

For good, this time.