The suggestion just made Zin mad. What, was he stupid? Ripping stuff out was one thing, but putting something back? Whenever Zin ripped, she always kind of felt like a midwife, helping someone give birth. To her, the living world was truly that—a living thing, that could feel everything that happened to it. You don’t put back stuff that gets born. “Sir, you can’t take sumpin’ that crossed into Everlost and shove it back into the living world—that ain’t the way it’s done.”

And then the Ogre asked, “Have you ever tried?”

Zin was about to explain to him just how ripping worked, but her words caught in her throat, because she realized that she never had tried. The idea of putting something back had never occurred to her. Why should it? It was all about taking.

“No, I ain’t never tried that,” said Zin. “But what if puttin’ sumpin’ back is one of them weird scientifical things that blows up the world?”

“If you blow up the world,” the Ogre said, “you can blame it on me.”

Which was good enough for Zin. He was, after all, her superior officer. If and when she got to the pearly gates, she could always claim she was following orders.

“Well, all right, then.”

She steeled herself, then held the sucker in her ripping hand, and tried to shove it through, into the living world.

It was not an easy thing. Just opening a hole into the living world was different now that her intentions were different. It was like picking a lock. Then when the portal finally began to open, the living world resisted.

“It won’t work, sir,” Zin insisted. “I think the livin’ world’s got all the stuff it can stand, and don’t want no more.”

“Keep trying.”

Zin gritted her teeth and doubled her efforts. As she tried to force that sucker through, she felt a powerful battle of wills between her and the living world. The question was, did the world want to keep the sucker out more than Zin wanted to put it in?

To Zin’s surprise, she won the battle: The living world relented, and took the sucker back. When Zin was done, it sat on a counter in the candy shop, its bright colors faded and slightly out of focus, just like everything else in the living world. Zin pulled her hand back, and shivered.

“You did it!”

“Yeah,” said Zin, pleased, yet troubled by this newly discovered power. “I felt like I done something wrong, though …”

“It’s only wrong if you use it for the wrong things,” the Ogre said.

“But the world don’t like it, sir.”

“Did the world like you ripping when you first started?”