Scans_Daily

Issue #3'd ended on Birdie realizing that her friend Wilson was also in danger from the VR game Nightmare Cemetery.

Her brother Pik was in a coma, mentally taken into the game by the " King of Sleep ". The King'd shoved one of his claws through her friend Enid's left eye while she was helping look for Pik.

Wilson had also been helping her - they'd both taken sleeping pills to get around the hard time-limit on their Dreamwaves, expecting to be able to wake each other up.

But she wasn't able to wake him. She was grounded by her worried and frustrated dad, able only to watch videos about other victims of Nightmare Cemetery.





' The game stole the fish fiends from her mind.. '

(The fish fiends were in #1.)



Birdie and Enid got past Wilson's dad (" We just want to drop off some soup. ")



(Wilson, without anyone to wake him up, went on playing past the time limit. Since nothing like dying in-game woke him out of it, he's like this.)

Birdie went " I know this might be too much to ask, but..

" .. I think Pik is lost in Swallowtail Court, and I'm hoping you'll help me find him. "

(She's going off what the puppeteer in #3 told her.)

" I'm in. " said Wilson.



They went in, Wilson and Enid with their Dreamwaves and Birdie with Pik's.

They died.

" So do we take more pills and try again? "



They went in again, this time getting close enough for the King to address them directly.



They got there.



Enid restrained Pik the thrall.



Wilson went left (the King's right) - Birdie went right (the King's left).



The King's right opened up.



Wilson was drawn into the King's further-shifting body.



' .. I didn't know what else to do. '

Birdie took Pik's head with Wilson's scythe, killing him in-game.

" Did we just wake [Pik]? " Enid wondered.

" Or kill him? "



(" Whatever that means.. " underlines the horror of incomplete understanding in how the protagonists were grappling with the King - they only understand him as a monster who took people's minds and populated his domain with their nightmares just because.)

In the real world, Wilson needed medical attention again.



' .. where Wilson's okay and Pik is at home rather than locked in a bed. '

Visiting Wilson, Birdie and Enid got a surprise.



" I can't believe.. you're.. awake..

" .. you look different.. "



(The last panel of the penultimate page..)



(.. flows right into the last page's " the King's in Pik's body and Pik's in the King's dead body " twist.

Pagecount's 7 and just under 1/4th of 22 from June 2024's Cemetery Kids Don't Die #4.

A sequel series, Cemetery Kids Run Rabid, is three issues in this month - part of it picks up on the King in Pik.

Writing's Zac Thompson, art's Daniel Irizarri and Gegê Schall, colors're Brittany Peer, and lettering's by Andworld Design.

Publisher's Oni Press.)