Hakuren sneered when Jasper inched towards Inadi.

Birds of a feather flocked together, so it was only natural that the weak would stick together in an attempt to feign bravery. Even Lesley and Martini were huddling together like soaked puppies in a cardboard box. The young man whistled a cheery tune as he stayed behind both Harper and Ace. The two of them were doing all the work and his path was vine free.

It began to rain, but while the others sulked he merely stared on, amused.

Ah, a haunted house in the middle of the forest? How convenient. Hakuren arched an eyebrow at it but followed after the others when Lesley rushed in with Inadi. "Well Leon, we best get going." He snapped a finger, making snowflakes fall on the wind mage's head. "Or else you might catch a cold."

The wind mage grumbled beneath his breath before letting out a sneeze and both boys broke into laughter.

The inside of the house was definitely a splendid sight, however, it was marred by the passing of time. Funny, considering time didn't seem to work in Nowhere. Still, the place looked like it had seen better days. Now, it was dusty and smelled of earth. Lesley began rummaging through a closet and eventually found jars filled with lights. "Interesting, they're very much like our fireflies back at earth, hm?" He gave Lesley a grin and pulled one of the jars right out of his hands. "Good find, Pinky."

Avian called their attention towards the stairs and he stared at the dragoon with a smile. "Splitting up doesn't sound very smart," he didn't say the next part, but he thought it. Tsk, tsk, aren't you a trained soldier? In horror movies, splitting up always leads to death. "But if the leader says so then it shall be." He turned to look at Leon with a smile. No one else really cared for his jokes, but Leon despite being somewhat naive and silly, wasn't exactly bad company. "So queen Leon, shall we search the west wing?"

"Shut it queen Elsa." The boy returned a smirk of his own before Avian began passing out the bug lamps. "Thank you." He wrinkled his nose at their surroundings. This place was far from fabulous. It was rather dusty and in need of a good cleaning. He really didn't want to get his crown dirty. "As long as we don't head to the basement or attic."

Hakuren chuckled then began walking away. "Scared you'll see something?"

In response Leon puffed out his chest. "No, this place is just very unhygienic." He grumbled something about hand sanitizers then stormed off after the ice mage. The duo disappeared down a long hallway and soon enough they were out of sight and sound.

That well was one angry old tree.

Leila carried on walking, among the group, in the Forest of the Ancients, their pace slowed down significantly by the raging rainstorm that hit them. Leila struggled to keep her eyes open in the heavy rain and as droplets accumulated and dripped down from the strands of soaked hair that stuck to her forehead. Her hands, aside from trying desperately from shielding her eyes from the pouring rain, were also busy scratching bits of moss and leaves and twigs out of her head and clothes.

Hardly being able to see made it much harder to maintain her pace. Already having trouble keeping up without the distractions, Leila fell back a bit in the group, now walking along the group of guides at the rear of their march.

“The greatest witch hunter alive eventually died here.” The tree had said.

So is the Midnight Man dead or alive?

It was of Leila’s knowledge, of course, that it is a perfectly valid state for one to be in dead and alive simultaneously; and in the absence of sufficiently detailed information Leila later abandoned thinking on about that question.

* * * *

The lights in the mansion weren’t switched on, if there were any. All the illumination in the scene, in fact, was only provided by the faint fluorescence of the magical amulets, the lights emitted by whatever light-emitting critters in the area, and the occasional, frighteningly bright flashes of lightning, which provided glimpses of the entirety of the scene from time to time. Aside from that, most of the time, the place was nearly entirely dark.

Leila, along with Songbird, Brandy, and the continuously gleeful Martini blowing heart-shaped bubbles that contradict many principles of fluid mechanics, were some of the last to enter the mansion in the woods. Leila did not like the darkness. Subconsciously, she clutched onto the edge of Songbird’s baggy sleeve - as it that would make her feel any more secure - and she struggled to decide between the darkness outside in the forest, and the darkness inside the house. The rain was unpleasant, yet shelter lay across the door through which she cannot see, so she hesitated.

Brandy tugged Songbird forward into the mansion. The idea of staying outside along coupled with the discomfort caused by the rain eventually prevailed, and Leila followed.

* * * *

The glass jar of fluorescent plankton was absolutely fascinating to watch.

She had read about things like these back at home, though she had never actually seen them. Groups of microscopic creatures, hovering around in the water, concentrating their excess energy into the generation of various light-emitting pigments for whatever reason - seen in the scale of a human being who is incapable of distinguishing individual sources of faint glowing, streams of light, swirling in mesmerizing patterns inside the translucent fluid - like stars and galaxies, a universe in a glass jar.

The jar was also quite heavy.

Leila held the one Avian handed her close to her chest, with both arms wrapped around it, one hand supporting the bottom, and the lid just high touching her chin.

Having the jar of light did make Leila feel much more comfortable being around the place. The disturbed population of critters in that particular bottle glowed a blueish-green hue, much like that of her amulet. The light was actually much brighter than she expected, providing a quite decent range of sight, and the soft, hued lighting that fluctuated slightly as the creatures twirled around inside projected an atmosphere that was somewhere between somehow soothing and borderline eerie. Leila decided she liked the feeling, though..

The mansion was more spacious than it looked like from the outside. Snippets of chat and discussions rang repeatedly beneath the high ceiling in a mixture of distant voices and faint echoes.

Leila carried the jar carefully as she inched upwards on the grand staircase that curved to one side of the entrance hall, following Riley. The staircase led upwards to what seemed to be the second floor, where there was a gate still too far away to see beyond.

* * * *

At the gates of the second floor, Leila held the glowing jar high and gazed into the space in front of her. The green glow illuminated rows of old, decorated wooden shelves, in series with corridors between them that extended beyond sight and into the distant darkness. Between the shelves there were places where oil lamps can be hung, but she couldn’t find the lamps nor an available fire source. Numbers and text were inscribed into each shelf in an ordered manner, although only traces remained of the golden paint. On the shelves were books - a very, very large collection of books.

The second floor of the mansion was an enormous library.

Before she realized it, Leila was wandering through one of the corridors, the jar creating a circle of illumination around her position, fading out into the distance. She didn’t go too deep in, yet the entrance was already some distance away, and she didn’t see Riley or anyone else anywhere. She didn’t notice that, though - she had the light, and that alone made her feel secure enough.

The shelves were rather tall. Tiptoed, she could reach the sixth row counting from the ground, but the shelves seemed to reach all the way up to the ceiling - she couldn’t be sure for the tops were too far away for the light from her jar to reach already.

She placed the glowing jar on the ground, and with her fingertips she drew out a book from the sixth row of shelves.

Traces of cobweb still attached to the edges of the cracked leather cover. The title was mostly worn away as well, and the thick layer of dust that accumulated on the top side of the stacked pages was nearly the only way to tell the correct direction of the piece of scripture was to be read. The binding, which almost fell apart as Leila flipped the book open, was in the same direction as one would expect for a regular English book, but whatever the pages were written in wasn’t decipherable.

She always liked libraries. Mainly because books provided a great source of information, but she felt like it was more than that. What more, though, she couldn’t tell.

Carefully, Leila closed the cover and put the book back.

The scent of dust, aged wood, and old scripture filled the air. The shelves were like walls of a labyrinth, although it was one that Leila wouldn’t mind getting lost in. It felt almost like back at home - the library, on the top floor of the complex. The place where she read, and where she looked out of the window panes into the city below when she wasn’t reading. The place where she saw the fireworks, the night she was led here.

glowing jar in hand, Leila continued to stroll along the shelves.

“As long as you're nearby we won't let anything happen to you. I promise I'll do whatever I can to help.”

She was rather thankful for his reassuring words and bravery is always something that brought comfort to fearful. Especially a man's comfort ahem. The walk started out at a decent pace with Harper hacking the path clear for everyone else that followed, but when rain spontaneously began to shower down on them, the trek became much less pleasant. Mud and slush were sucking at her shoes and water seeped right in through her soaks causing her feet to become frigid. The sudden down pour turned the scary forest into a literal nightmare, but eventually, a mansion came into view not too far from where they were. Out of mutual agreement, it was decided that they all spend the night there to rest up and she wasn't one to disagree. Plus, continuing along in this bad weather clearly wasn't an option.

It was certainly a bone-rattling sight. The mansion was dark and spooky, bolts of lightning zig-zagging behind it. Every roar of thunder seemed to shake the house which already looked to be on the brink of falling apart. An atmosphere of hesitance settled down over the bunch, but Lesley eagerly broke that when he snatched Inadi and whisked him away towards the entrance. Crowding around the two, Jasper craned her neck to see the big reveal of the home interior. It was quite grand, but at the same time very nerve wracking. The more space there was available, the better chances of her getting lost or being attacked by a monster without having someone by her side. There was no way in heck she was going anywhere by herself in that place.

Once everyone was inside, she carefully shut the large door behind her and joined the glowing jar observation. They were highly fascinating indeed, the different colors piqued her interest and the light-bugs mesmerized her. She wondered how an eerie place like this could hold such wonders. Clinking the side of the jar carefully with her finger, it seemed to irritate the bugs within and cause them to shine brighter in annoyance.

"Let's split up and scour the rooms. You can go alone or with a partner of your choice. Check for supplies and most importantly clues. Who knows, we may find a map leading to the Stone if we search hard enough."

He distributed glow jars to every individual and she stared patiently as people paired up and scattered the area, disappearing into various sections of the home. Approaching Avian in a coy manner, he had been directing others on where to go, but since everyone was split up she decided that being with one of the guides would clearly be one of the best routes. Inching towards him, she then turned around and stood to face the same direction he was looking. "I'll follow you," she said in a formal tone, almost like she was a new recruit in the army. The only thing missing from her comment was a salute.

The library was dusty and old and filled with books that looked like they weighed a ton.

Whoever lived in this house must have been an avid reader. Riley raised her jar of glowing jellyfish above her head and squinted at the books, trying to make out titles or author names. As a journalist in training, she believed that the books people read told others a lot about what they were like. Unfortunately, the books this person had weren't all to exciting and she rolled her eyes at all the boring titles.

"The Existence of the Universe Explained by Oreo Milkshake." Well, at least the author had a really interesting name.

Most of the books she found were encyclopedias and text books, so she guessed whoever owned the place was a curious individual. The kind of person who enjoyed mathematics on rainy days and philosophy on cloudy days. In other words, Hakuren, or a teacher, that worked too.

It was pretty quiet and she heard the voices of the others slowly growing farther away, everyone seemed to be splitting up. The girl began looking around, wondering if anyone had decided to tag along. There didn't seem to be anyone else, but eventually a faint glow farther down several aisles caught her eye. It had to be one of them, since Avian handed them these glowing bottles. Riley made her way towards the faint glow only to see the dragon tamer strolling down one of the corridors.

A mischievous grin made its way onto the girl's face and slowly, she began following after Leila. "Boo!" It wasn't exactly terrifying, but she figured the atmosphere would help her out. I mean, they were in an old mansion, one that was possibly cursed and all. "Hey dragon tamer," Riley grinned, "did you find anything interesting? The only thing I could find were text books and encyclopedias." She scrunched up her nose in distaste. She liked books, but honestly, textbooks weren't her favorite.

The girl began walking around the corridor, her jar of jellyfishes tucked beneath one arm. "This place is really amazing, huh? It's like a giant maze. Almost like one of those libraries you see on medieval TV shows." The quiet girl managed to pique Leila's curiosity, at first she merely thought Leila was shy, but her stunt with the dragon pretty much changed everything. Quiet people were interesting, they rarely told people about what they were thinking and getting into their heads was a lot harder. "Hey," her eyes flitted from book to book. "Hey Leila, why did you get on the train? Lesley told me that he saw his acceptance letter and Vinvin," she was about to roll her eyes, but then it hit her like a sack of bricks, he was dead.

Riley lost some of her cheer but tried not to let it show. "The guy saw girls and wine and as for me, I saw the job of my dreams." She gave Leila a smile. "So what did you see, dragon tamer?" Riley paced around with gestures that were almost comical. "Did you see a mountain of gold? The largest icepop in the world?" She popped up behind Leila looking like devious imp. "Maybe a devilishly handsome guy with a smile as bright as the sun and a rock hard six pack? C'mon, spill it." The girl placed both hands on the girl's shoulder and waited for Leila to say something, she definitely wasn't taking silence for an answer. Riley waited for Leila to speak then made her way towards a shelf that was propped up against one of the walls.

Her eyes landed on a giant grey book on the fifth row, it looked ancient.

"That looks interesting," Riley got on her toes and yanked the book out. As soon as she had, the shelf let out a low rumbling noise. It slid open, much like the doors of a train would, revealing a dark stairway that led to who knows where. "Secret entrances, ooh, how enticing." Riley held out her jar of jellyfishes before glancing at her partner in crime. "Should we take a look? It could lead us to some clues." Or lock us in for all eternity. She shuddered at the thought but pushed it to the back of her mind.

There was no time to fear, especially when one was in the presence of a dragon tamer.

---

Everyone was starting to split up. "If anything happens, we'll meet back here, okay?"

The boy stared warily at their surroundings before his eyes landed on the jar in his hands. Several bugs buzzed around inside, smothering the darkness around him with a soft orange glow. It was comforting, but it wasn't enough to make him feel much better. Something about the mansion just screamed eerie and haunted, but they didn't really have a choice. The rain outside wasn't the kind of rain that one could walk in, it was the noisy kind that fell in torrents and made puddles go splash.

Harper tucked the jar beneath one arm then felt the hilt of his sword with his free hand. The amulet on his neck began to glow a little and it helped him feel a little bit braver. They had survived a fight with a giant mushroom, had even rode a dragon, so there was no way they were giving up anytime soon. He looked around and noticed that most of his companions had already left in small groups and pairs. Harper deflated at the thought of looking around by himself. Oh well, he was just about to head towards the left wing when he noticed Ace looking at what seemed to be a small door. "Hey Ace," he made her way towards her with a smile. "Mind if I tag along?"

Going alone wouldn't be the smartest choice on either of their parts, and he had to admit, Ace's courage was contagious and he'd need it in a place like this. She was probably one of the bravest people he had met and in a place like Nowhere, that was invaluable.

"This place looks at least a hundred years old, don't you think?" He twisted the doorknob and pulled, there was a bit of resistance but after a forceful tug, the door creaked open, creating a cloud of dust. Harper sneezed then began swatting at the air with his free hand. He tucked his glow in the dark jar into his messenger bag, making sure that the top portion stuck out then switched on his flashlight.

The dark room was filled with jars and all sorts of unrecognizable trinkets and machines. Deeper inside the room was a wooden staircase that led downward into darkness. It looked old and it didn't look safe at all. The boy shone his flashlight all over the room before focusing on the wooden steps. He didn't want to go there, he really didn't, but he couldn't let Ace go by herself either. "I think I saw a nice function room somewhere, so are we really going through with this?" He gave his friend a quizzical expression before regretting his question.

This was the girl who leaped onto the dragon's head, the girl who ran into Yonder's city hall without so much of a protest. Of course, she was going to brave through this, there was almost no doubt about it. Harper steeled himself for the inevitable answer, as much as the unknown scared him, he would watch his friend's backs and they would all go home, together.

This kid was bringing out the worst in him.

Hakuren smirked and said that splitting up wasn’t a great idea and Avian had a feeling that the human mentally lambasted him after that comment. Ah whatever, the brat talked big but hasn’t contributed to the group so far. It would be petty of a royal dragoon to pay such people the slightest bit of attention. At least, that was what he wanted to think. Victoria, despite her aggressive tendencies towards sharp tongues which rivaled her own, was better with handling these sorts of people. He didn’t know why; it’s just that she was easy to offend and yet impossible to insult. Avian could feel his mood growing lighter at the mere thought of his wife and exhaled, returning himself to his current duties as bodyguard and guide to the Lost Souls. He watched as the humans played with their respective jars and then teamed up with their friends to discuss where to go. Hmm, it was almost like those field trips from the Academy of Sol.

Some of the humans went upstairs while the others ventured branched out over the first floor. Avian was slightly nervous when he saw the red-haired girl staring down at the base of the wall, and when Harper fiddled with whatever it was Ace was looking at, the soldier decided to step forward. He watched as the door was opened and narrowed his eyes when fumes of dust swept up at their faces.

“Are you really going down there?” He asked Harper, concern apparent on his face, but Avian didn’t bother to jab the question at Ace. From what he has seen, the girl was pretty much a younger version of Victoria and it would probably take hell and high water to dissuade her. “Hmm. Take care then. I don’t want to impede your little adventure, so here,” The dragoon handed over a thin brass whistle to Harper and shrugged. “It’s nothing special, but apparently some of the lurkers here in the Dark Side get stunned by high-pitched sounds. Not that I’m expecting you to bump into any of them… Good luck,” Avian grinned and watched as the two descended into the basement. They should be able to handle whatever comes their way. Maybe. Wow, he was being irresponsible now, wasn’t he? Just to make sure the humans had an escape route should they ever want to hightail it out of there, Avian jammed a piece of wood under the door so that it stayed ajar.

Avian felt something approach and he immediately spun around to face it, but the “it” was a human, a white-haired girl whose name was a rock. Ah, Jasper. She proclaimed her intent to follow him and the dragoon nodded.

“Let’s head upstairs then,” He said and the two of them climbed the stairs, some steps squeaking under a weight which the old wood may not have borne for centuries. Avian saw the slightest flicker of a glow jar over in the other corridor, so he took the opposite hallway and tried the doors.

The walls were a dark wood paneling with intricate curlicues at the beams and there were various paintings pinned up, along with large exotic cloisonné plates which stood proudly near the ends of the corridor. Unfortunately, some of the plates had been broken and jagged pieces were spilt over the floor. The floors were of a lighter shade than the walls and were made of designed boards, with the center of the entire hallway carpeted by a lush velvet strip. The place must have been a real beauty back in its day…
Too bad that its splendor had to be lost in years of neglect.

Avian Rider tried one door after another until one finally yielded; he and Jasper strolled inside the room after he ascertained that it was safe to go inside. It was a massive room with a glorious-looking canopy bed at the very center, with an end table and a boudoir nearby. There was even a coffee table and chairs near the wall; on closer inspection, the ‘wall’ was actually a curtained stained dark grey by dust and grime. The dragoon tried to slide the curtains open but to no avail; it seemed as if they were stuck due to rusty hoops or something like that.

“Seems like there’s an adjacent room, miss Jasper. Probably a study?” Avian fanned the air with his hand when he noticed that there was a door on the leftmost side of the room. It was barely visible thanks to the design which greatly resembled the wallpaper, but the jutting doorknob paved the way for keen eyes to notice its presence.

On another note, Avian approached the bed and got down on all fours before peering under, where only darkness and the musk of poorly circulated air met his inquisitive gaze. “I’ve always wanted to look under a bed. Back in Aven children slept in cots near their dragons, and Victoria doesn’t let me look under our bed because it’s ‘silly’ and ‘something a grown man like you, honey, shouldn’t do’,” Avian cheerfully disclosed these pieces of information to Jasper, unknowing of whether she was paying attention or not.

Inadi was dragged in arm first to the mansion and began looking around the dark entrance way as the others followed behind him and Lesley in. He had to admit it was quite an exotic looking little place, albeit a little depressing by the first look but at considering the surrounding it wasn't too surprising. Why go against the grain of the local atmosphere when making a home. God forbid that you actually want to smile and have a good day in this dark and nightmare ridden place. Wiping off the rain that had fallen on him outside and drying off his spear as best he could he began looking at the jars that Lesley had brought over that had small little bugs in them that gave off a strange glow to them. They seemed like some kind of firefly one would find back home but these glowed in strange colors that no firefly would ever hope of imitating. He took one out of Lesley's hands and began looking at the bugs a little closer.

Strangely they seemed to fly in small patterns in the jar, as if sending signals to the bugs in the other jars around them. Perhaps they were trying to communicate? Maybe something about how to run from the humans. Eventually the bugs just started hovering in place once the jars were split up and Inadi gave a shrug as he handed the jar back to Lesley. The groups began splitting their ways and started taking different rooms inside the mansion. If he had to choose Inadi would have liked to go exploring with Harper, maybe even Jasper if he had to be honest. The girl seemed rather jumpy still and this place was surely gonna have some dark room in it. However, his opinion didn't seem to matter much as Lesley had been hovering over him like a vulture over a freshly dead boar in the desert. Inadi let out a sigh and watched as they remained in the entrance hall. He gave Lesley a quick look and have a half smile. “Alright then Les, it's me and you I guess. Let's head upstairs ourselves. Probably a safer bet than staying close to the door in case something decided to follow us in.” He told him as he started walking up the stairs behind Avian and Jasper. He gave a quick wave to Jasper as they split off from them. "Stay safe there Jasper." He told he with a smile as he took the lead in front of Lesley down the darkly lit hallway.

Some of the rooms seemed standard, though not a lot else was going on in them besides cobwebs and dust. This place seemed to have been abandoned for a while now and that made Inadi all the more nervous. He had a few places near his own home that had similar atmospheres to them and police were always going in to pull out squatters that had taken refuge there. Here, the squatters could have been monsters from some strange world or even a powerful witch that could easily rip his head off with a whisper and a flick of a finger. The concept made him shutter as he entered a room that seemed to be a bit bigger than some others. He waved his hand at Lesley to follow him in and waited for the room to become a bit more lit with the help of the jar that his fellow explorer had brought.

The light exposed a room that was covered with papers and a desk near a window that was also covered in papers and what looked like folders of some kind. Books were scattered and an old and blackened fireplace was in the room as well. Inadi knelt down to look at the contents inside and saw that the wood had been blackened for what looked like ages. He poked at it with his spear tip and an entire log collapsed into dust, some spilling out and making him cough as he waved it away. Inadi looked around and showed a sign of confusion.

He set his spear up against the wall and began picking up papers to look at them. “I'd have to guess this was a study of some kind. A place maybe to read or go over something,” Inadi thought aloud as he brought some of the papers closer to the jar, making the distance between him and Lesley very small, though to him he didn't even recognize it as he was so focused on the papers. On them seemed to be some kind of pictures and notes that looked worse than his chicken scratch he would write during his days in math class. The drawings were dark and seemed to recreate some kind of acts that had taken place. One figure stayed similar throughout but it was hard to tell what exactly it was. “Or maybe to keep track of something instead.”

Inadi picked up other papers on the ground and brought them up to the light. On each of these there seemed to be similar drawings but with an addition compared to the previous. The letter 'M' was written on each, though it looked as though it was two M's being combined to make just one. A symbol maybe? Some kind of design? Without looking up Inadi gave Lesley a quick tap on the should to try and get his attention. He pointed at the design and waved his hand around, his face showing clear signs of frustration. “What does that mean do you think? Have you seen a symbol like that since we got here to Nowhere?” He asked as he began looking towards the desk. There was a large book sitting there, one that definitely looked weathered. The leather cover seemed to be wearing out and pages looked as if they were falling out of the seems as certain ones stuck out more than others.

He heard some slight rattlings in the room and immediately grew somewhat worried. Yet his fear subsided after he heard Avian across the way. Walking towards the now revealed door Inadi decided to acknowledge the man's claim. Reaching for the knob, he noticed it was stuck. Probably due to the years of neglect the knob was probably rusted to the point of no return, making the door a practical wall now. He knocked on it to show they were on the other side. "Yeah seems like it Avian. And next time you decide to move into the neighborhood you might want to warn someone about it. Nearly had be throw my spear through the wall there," He joked as he looked towards Lesley. "Why don't we get a look at that book there. Bound to be something interesting," Inadi told Lesley as he turned back at the curtain. "We found some interesting drawings in here that seemed a little odd. We'll continue to look at them but be on the look out for some weird symbol. It looks almost like two M's merging into ones or something similar to that." He told Avian through the curtain as he began walking back towards the desk to look at the book he had pointed out to Lesley.

Ace watched Inadi step forward and smirked a little. She started to notice him getting the 'Harper Syndrome'. How nice, he was discovering his inner bravery as well. She started to follow him inside, only for Lesley to dash in and take Inadi along too. Ace tilted her head slightly, but merely shrugged and continued. The place had the potential to be a nice looking place of it wasn't for the wear and tear from how old it probably was. "This place is huge. Cool, more stuff to explore." She stayed in the middle of the entry hall, debating which path would be best to take. "Two stair cases and a path straight forward... Which way do I go~?"

Lesley had disappeared momentarily and returned with a glowing jar of...stuff. And with a closer look, Ace laughed a little. "Glowy bugs. Cool. These would make awesome strobe lights." She mentioned as she looked back up to consider what path to take. Avian suggested they split up and take the glowy bugs, so when Ace got her reddish orange lights, she shook the bugs a little, seeing them glow brighter. "Why don't we have any of this stuff in our realm?"

Everyone started on their own way, grabbing someone to pair with. Despite being friendly with everyone, she didn't gravitate towards anyone. Instead, Ace made her way in between the stairs, catching sight of another door. "Another door. Light the way glowy bugs." As she was about to grab the handle, Harper walked over to her. "Of course I wouldn't mind. The more the merrier, eh?" Ace stepped back to let Harper open the door, only to be hit by a wave of dust.

Waving some of the dust out of the way, she laughed lightly. "I'm just glad it hasn't caved in yet." She helped shine a light over the place and looked around. There was nothing creepy about it besides the darkness and the wooden steps. But it was nothing she couldn't handle. Before Harper could ask his question, she was already taking steps in. When Harper spoke, Ace laughed and grabbed his wrist before pulling him along.

"Well, we can't stand at the door all night." Ace held the jar in one arm and pulled Harper along with the other. Her attention went to all the jars at first. When she looked into one, she could've sworn in the foggy liquid there was a hand floating in it. But as she tapped it, there wasn't anything there. "Weird." Ace looked at a few more foggy jars before going to the steps. "So, wooden stairs. ." She decided to step first, hearing the creaking of wood. This was either going to go by well, or someone would end up with, splinters. And three steps later, Ace found herself with the latter choice. Stepping down, the board caved in and the redhead's foot fell in.

There was an incoherent 'nyeeh' sound as she nearly dropped her jar. Thankfully, quick instincts had her catch it and hold it close. "Well then. That was close. Saved the bugs though." She removed her foot from the step as if nothing happened and continued.

"You see anything Harper?" She said, looking around in the darkness of the basement. The only thing she caught sight of was a shelf and some open paint cans. "This is pretty normal if you ask me." She shrugged before searching further. One thing that did catch her attention were those tiny elevators that linked to the kitchen to lift food to different levels. When she peeked inside, it was broken, but it was to be expected from an ancient house.

Avian: "Let's split up and scour the rooms. You can go alone or with a partner of your choice. Check for supplies and most importantly clues."

The guide reached into the cabinet with both hands and swiveled back around with an arm load of the glow jars. Lesley toothily grinned, rather proud of his find as he watched Avian pass out the newly found light sources to each and every person and guide. Meanwhile, people began partnering up; Haku and Leon, Leila with Riley, Ace tagged with Harper, and Avian went up with Jasper. Everyone disseminated in differing directions in order to inspect the grand mansion's every hidden corner. Lesley sneered and giggled evilly to himself, tapping his fingernails on the sides of his bright mason jar. He knew exactly which human was left over and there was no way he would be letting alone time with his baby slip away. Eyeing the framed man as he minded the others clearing the entrance hall, once the only pair left was them, a light exhale escaped the poor man's lips as he turned to his inescapable partner. Inadi appeared to give him a crooked smile and Lesley returned the obvious disappointment with a purse of his lush lips.

Inadi: “Alright then Les, it's me and you I guess. Let's head upstairs ourselves. Probably a safer bet than staying close to the door in case something decided to follow us in.”

"Oh dear! If you scare me like that then I have no choice but to stay extra close to you (o 3 -)//" he blurted while latching himself onto Inadi's arm in a fake act with hidden intentions. Both started off towards the right staircase where his arch nemesis and the dragoon had just reached the top platform.

Inadi: "Stay safe there Jasper."

Lesley's pouted and scrunched up his face in distaste.'Why does he care about that scaredy-cat anyway?' he cursed within his thoughts as he let his partner's arm go, crossing his own arms in dissatisfaction. The pink-haired male's steps were a tad heavier than normal as he stalked after Inadi with a smug expression. Every now and again, he would crack open one of the doors in the long hallway filled with a dozen or so rooms. Poking their heads in, they'd survey each one and decided whether it was worth really digging into or not. Many of them were pretty bland with a bed, side table, and a cabinet. These chambers were dubbed unworthy of further investigation therefore the boys would retract their heads back into the hallway and move on.

Nearing the back wall of the corridor, Inadi finally decided to enter a room that was sizably larger compared to the others in terms of a couple extra square feet. Lesley had been lagging slightly behind, but when Inadi's hand stuck back out into the passage to call him over, he hurried his steps to comply with Inadi's eagerness. Holding out their bug jar whilst tapping it lightly to encourage a stronger glow, the surroundings revealed were a wreckage of papers and books stacked upon one another in wild heaps.

Inadi: “I'd have to guess this was a study of some kind. A place maybe to read or go over something”

"So much for a study room. There is absolutely no organization in this place," he commented without a motive for a reply as he moved some of the files around only to have the paper towers begin toppling down. Accumulated dust would cloud up and smother his face causing the man to cough and sneeze rapidly for a couple of seconds. Inadi then came over to him with a handful of documents, leaning closer in attempts to read the things using Lesley's glow jar. 'Yes. Yes. That's it... >:)' Lesley grinned mischievously as he too swayed towards Inadi to decrease the space between them even more. He wasn't paying much attention to what was on the pages until Inadi snapped him out of it and brought a partially overlapping double 'M' to his view.

Inadi: “What does that mean do you think? Have you seen a symbol like that since we got here to Nowhere?”

Scratching his chin thoughtfully, he tossed the inquiry around for a bit. 'Hmm.. a pair of M's? Oh! Could it mean what I think? 'M' as in 'man' and they're almost crossing over each other so... manXman?' Lesley snorted as he began snickering in delight, shaking his head in self amusement. Sudden mumbling from the other side of the wall caught both of their awareness as Inadi approached a smaller door at the side of the room, it was practically unnoticeable if you didn't pay close attention.

Inadi: "Why don't we get a look at that book there. Bound to be something interesting"

Lesley obeyed the boy's hinting and approached the book which was sandwich in the mid section of a hefty stack. He didn't bother moving the others topping it, instead, Lesley placed a firm hold on the jutting corner of the hardcover and yanked it straight out from it's forner place. A flock of papers flew up and danced their way back down in a side-to-side float. Opening up the thick cover upon dusting it off, Lesley flipped without much interest as he turned towards his partner who was currently letting Avian know about their discovery. "This is the one right?" he said before plopping the thing into Inadi's hands. "Conjoined 'M's. I think it means a man with a man," his voice was foxy when he paused as he slid a hand down the boy's back before sitting down on top of the desk with his legs crossed. "If you know what I mean." Narrowing his eyes at Inadi, a flash of light from a nearby bolt lit up Lesley's enticing image.

“Let’s head upstairs then" Avian decided as he ushered her towards the creaky staircase. She wasn't too sure on how old this mansion was exactly, but from the noises the floorboards were making, it was obvious that this home was ready to disintegrate at any given moment. Though she probably weighed the least compared to the others, she could clearly feel the steps curve down a bit under pressure and because of this, both hands were clutched onto the railings incase one of them decided to give up and send her plummeting to whatever lay beneath. Too bad Jasper was too worked up over the unstable flooring that she wasn't able to admire the beauty of the structure around her.

Artworks and fragile chinaware dotted the walls on the way up and also as they headed for an unexplored hall.

"Stay safe there Jasper," Inadi called to her as the two pairs parted ways into parallel corridors. His smile was comforting and the tilt of his hand was sincere. Her blinking quickened a bit as she watched him turn the corner.

Jasper cleared her throat and hastily followed suit after Avian who had already surveyed some of the rooms up front before signalling her to enter one with him. Though she did not have the chance to see the other suites available, she just knew that this one was marvelous. A king-sized mattress was placed in the center of the room cloaked in ceiling-high curtains. There was even a lounging section with a couple of classy looking armchairs surrounding a gold-trimmed coffee table.

“Seems like there’s an adjacent room, miss Jasper. Probably a study?” Avian pointed out to her.

Following the direction at which he looked, she too noticed the smaller door. It blended really well with the wall, camouflaged in the same wallpaper that the rest of the accommodation was designed in.

“I’ve always wanted to look under a bed. Back in Aven children slept in cots near their dragons, and Victoria doesn’t let me look under our bed because it’s ‘silly’ and ‘something a grown man like you, honey, shouldn’t do’,” the dragoon was reflecting on his past days as an adolescent.

"I always had my mother check when I was younger. It's better to be safe than sorry," she replied in relation to his memories. Though Rosen insisted monsters weren't real, Jasper had always refused to sleep let alone climb up on the bed unless she was sure that an arm wouldn't lash out from whatever was under there to grab her ankle and pull her down. The elderly lady would laugh and though it was painful to bend down, she would make the effort to look beneath the bed to provide Jasper with the satisfaction she needed.

The albino was about twist the petite knob on the door before she was stopped by a light knock coming from the opposite side. Out of shock, she tumbled backwards and landed on a piece of cushioned furniture.

"Yeah seems like it Avian. And next time you decide to move into the neighborhood you might want to warn someone about it. Nearly had be throw my spear through the wall there. We found some interesting drawings in here that seemed a little odd. We'll continue to look at them but be on the look out for some weird symbol. It looks almost like two M's merging into ones or something similar to that."

After hearing the familiar voice, she exhaled the fright that had welled up inside her. Dropping a hand down to the bed-end bench she had ended up sitting on, she was surprised to hear a hollow noise project from her movement. Standing up, she crouched down and inspected the short box-shaped chair and noticed a darkened line under its cushioned top. Pushing her fingers into the indented strip, she shook it a bit until it gave way and she was able to push it back.

"Avian.." she coughed as she came to look down on a pile of newspaper clippings that had been tucked away. Slipping a hand down into the compartment, she lifted up a couple from the surface and mentally scanned the sections that grabbed her attention, two of which stood out to her a whole lot more than the others since they were extremely relevant to their current situation.



Placing a hand on the royal dragoon's arm in order to get his attention, she wordlessly brought them into his line of vision as she too still had her eyes glued to the documents. After allowing him to read, she tapped her pointer finger at the words 'midnight man'.

"Him. Him. We need to find this guy," she concluded and began to fidget with the hem of her sleeve as she tried to imagine what sort of horrid creature held such a title.

Avian wished them luck, but before Harper could say a thank you, Ace yanked him down the creaky stairs.

"Slow down," he yelped as the wooden steps creaked and wobbled beneath their weight. If they weren't careful, the rotting wood could snap and send them tumbling into the darkness. Of course, Ace being Ace, continued to hurry down the stairs. The wooden steps beneath her gave way and her sudden stop sent Harper tripping over his own feet. The boy was launched into a battle with momentum, and soon he was hopping from step to step in an attempt to prevent himself from falling over. Unfortunately, in the process, his flashlight slipped through his fingers and rolled down the stairs with a clatter.

Harper narrowed his eyes at Ace, she was even more reckless than his sister. "We could have fallen down the stairs," he let out a sigh as he pulled the jar of glowing bugs out of his bag. The boy tucked it beneath one arm then stared at Ace with a look of both concern and disbelief. "Are you okay?" She answered his question by continuing down the steps as if they hadn't almost died, and Harper stared on in disbelief before a smile tugged on the corners of his lips. Ace's ridiculous amount of bravery was, though sometimes dangerous, was also refreshing. The duo made their way down, but nothing really seemed out of the ordinary.

Harper picked up his flashlight and began to look around the room. It seemed like an attic back from earth, just a lot older. He aimed his flashlight at the far wall on the left, but paled at the sight. The boy stumbled back, crashing into Ace as he did so, "pu-pu-please tell me, that is paint, right?" Thick blood-red lines were smeared all across the wall.


At first, they appeared to be nothing but scribbles, however, eventually Harper and Ace noticed that they were words. The boy shone his flashlight at the red streaks, eyes growing the size of dinner plates. "Whoever did this is crazier than Mado." The boy aimed his flashlight at a shelf only to see stuffed bunny soldiers. He felt a wave of nausea hit but continue to inspect their surroundings, above the words were several taxidermied heads of what appeared to be even more bunny soldiers.

He felt ready to run, but his amulet shone brighter and he stood his ground. He wasn't going to turn back and run, he just wasn't!

Had this happened earlier on in their adventure, he would have run away without so much of a second thought. These people, and all the experiences they had been through, they gave him strength. He placed an ice-cold hand on Ace's shoulder, "what do you think happened here?" He took a step towards the wall, "why are the queen's soldiers here and more importantly why are they stuffed." Harper hesitated but ran his finger over the coarse stone wall.

One of the rocks felt loose, so Harper pushed it in. Suddenly, the entire basement shook and the boy fell onto his backside, as the brick wall before them opened up. It revealed stairs that led even deeper below the house, it was pitch dark. "Fancy secret doors," he grabbed his head between his hands and let out an exasperated laugh. "Ace, it almost feels like we're in a horror movie."

Watching as Lesley toppled over some papers to get the book that Inadi had mentioned, he was a little more than a little confused. Couldn't he have just moved the papers to the side or something while they looked through the book. His companion in the room seemed very disinterested in the thing as he flipped each page in the worn out leather casing as if they were all worthless and beneath him. So basically typical Lesley attitude in Inadi's eyes. He chuckled as he got the book from Lesley and watched him head back toward the desk.

As he looked down at the book for a moment his head picked back up and saw Lesley sitting in what seemed to be an almost uncomfortable position. He had a better look at the image thanks to a quick bolt of lightening and he had to say he was struck silent. For two reasons. The first being that Inadi wasn't sure how Lesley could look the way he did and be sitting in that position. Surely there had to be some uncomfortable points in that sitting pose, particularly in the pelvic region for him. Second was that Lesley seemed to almost eyeing him like some kind of piece of meat. It almost made him feel uncomfortable if he had to put an emotion on it. Though again, this was Lesley and like it or not Inadi was gonna have to deal with it for as long as they were in the room together.

At that point Inadi recognized what Lesley had suggested what the conjoined M's stood for and he let out a quick chuckle. “I don't know about that Lesley. At the end of the day it probably seems more likely to be a symbol for something rather than a code. Each one seems to be given a good amount of detail rather than the plain scribbles that surround them,” He deduced as he walked around the desk and set the book back down near the glass jar. Moving it closer to him so he could see he looked up at Lesley a few times before he finally had to ask. With a sigh he pointed towards Lesley's legs, which he had to do so by maneuvering his body so he was leaning forward a bit and his head was nearby Lesley's arms. “Just out of curiosity, isn't that painful at all? I mean, as a guy I can't imagine sitting that way is comfortable on the....ugh.....'boys' I guess you could say.” He questioned as he looked behind him and pulled up a nearby chair, not even bothering to wipe off the dust that seemed caked on for years there.

Inadi skimmed through each page, the next one seemingly more useless than the last. Again, more drawings of a strange figure and the symbol of the conjoined M's it seemed on every page. Though every so often a news article would show up for some odd reason. Most related to something in Nowhere which was a surprise considering how far out they were from the Queen's land. Most of the articles had things to do with new laws being passed or some kind of meeting of royalty. All the signs of someone who paid attention to the ground shakers of Nowhere. Perhaps someone who liked to stay informed on what all was going to happen in politics? He let out a sigh as he looked back up to Lesley while shooting a glance back at the pages every once in a while.

“This seems like a journal of some kind, maybe even a scrap book to be honest. Nothing in here really tells us anything about who had this study or what was going on nearby. Everything here relates to Nowh......wait,” Inadi quickly stopped his complaints as an article caught his eye. He slowly pulled it off the page and began reading it to himself more clearly.



Mr. Cuddles? A traitor? What was this article talking about? There couldn't be any way that Mr. Cuddles was some kind of helper to some rebel activity. Inadi didn't even know there was any kind of rebel activity in Nowhere. Everything seemed like it was at peace and there was no issues whatsoever. Reading it further the references to the cloaked figures bothered him further. He had felt that there was something he was missing and there was information being kept from him. Why did he know nothing of these kinds of things in Nowhere. Not even the Queen had mentioned it when he arrived at the castle all that time ago. He quickly shot up out of the chair and handed the article to Lesley as he began walking about the room in an almost lost state of mind.

He ran his hand through his fingers, slowly pacing around trying to figure out what was going on. “There can't be any truth to that story Lesley. I mean for goodness sake I lived with the bear for two weeks and saw nothing that said he was providing some kind of rebel assistance during all that time. What the hell could this be talking about,” He questioned further, his voice picking up as he began quickening his pace, panic beginning to show a bit past his glasses as he began wondering what all was true during his time with Mr. Cuddles. “A-a-a-and what about those so-called 'cloaked figures'? I've never seen a person in a cloak in Nowhere at all. Are they common there or was this a one time thing that the press blew out of proportion. Surely you've got some kind of idea of what this thing is talking about Lesley? So do you?” He asked, almost pleading as he became worried that perhaps the bear he had grown to consider his first friend here in Nowhere was just using him potentially? Maybe as a cover to fix his image? Or was he planning on making Inadi join the resistance as some kind of plan he had been making up all along? Inadi leaned on the wall where the door was and landed with a bit of a thud as he slid down wall, letting the worries and concerns pile on in his head and make it seem like his shoulders were twenty pounds heavier than they were when he sat down to first delve into the book a few minutes ago. Suddenly, he was beginning to regret that decision.

Ace had heard him ask if she was okay, but she continued moving. If she could still move, then everything was fine. "This place is a let down- oof!" She stumbled back as Harper collided into her. She grabbed his arms to keep him from toppling over and to keep her from falling as well. "Watch where you're going would you?"

Ace's hands moved to Harper's shoulders and she looked over him when he stammered. "Blood? Where- oh." She squinted a few times as he ran the light over the words. It was hard to read them in the dark. "The...rabb..its...are..n..ot...wha..t th-ey...seem...? The rabbits are not what they seem?" Ace let go of Harper and moved closer to the shelf. It did kind of look like blood, but was it really? "I couldn't tell you what happened. But maybe someone knows something about queeny that we don't. Oh, I wonder if she's a witch!"

"Well~" She took a closer look at the paint cans. Each one was opened so she peeked into the. Unfortunately, brown, black, and white were the only colors she saw. "Maybe the red paint is miss-" The basement suddenly shook and Ace fell along with Harper. Seeing the new set of steps, Ace stuck her tongue at Harper playfully. "Yeah, be careful you say." She mocked before standing and helping him up.

She grinned at the mention of being in a horror movie. "Well, if that's the case, we can't be the idiots who fall on our butts all the time!" She paused, taking a step forward. "But we will be the crazy psychos that go into the more dangerous parts of the place." She took another step forward into the dark. "We're just going to be the smart ones who don't die." Ace took a few more steps down the stairs, looking around in the dim light. For some reason, their glow jars weren't working as well in this darkness. They weren't as bright as before. Hopefully the flashlight would fix that.

"You're still here right Harper?" She spoke softly as she moved along in the dark. When she kicked something, Ace froze and stepped backwards quickly. There was a clinking sound, and Ace lowered the jar to see a saw. . . Stained with red- hopefully that was paint. Ace inched forward seeing more various tools. Some of them clean and others not so much. "You were right about horror movie Harper... And I think we found someone who really, really didn't like those bunnies." She looked down to see a can and noticed the red. "Um Harper don't freak but, I found that...paint from upstairs. Well, don't freak out at all really. It's too dark to panic. You might run into something."

Even Ace was a little cautious at this point. It looked like a massacre of bunnies mixed with stuffing in the secret sub-basement- even though she could only see glimpses and bits of it. "This is- something shiny." Something silver caught her attention and she moved toward it. It was a clip holding random pieces of paper. It didn't interest Ace in the slightest- what did was the old carrot rifle that was behind it.

"Oh look-" When she reached for it a loose newspaper clipping fell off the silver clip. Ace caught it and gave it a look. "Bring that flashlight over." Though as she said it, Ace moved closer to Harper to put the paper under the light.



"Whoa. Queeny has a bad side. Drownings are a little crazy don't you think?" Ace looked up at Harper wondering what he thought of it. But before she could ask, the sound of the door sliding closed above them made her sigh. "Well...isn't that dandy. There's either another way to open it- or there's another door out." Ace was thinking out loud and searching around. To keep things 'calm', she continued to talk and keep focused. "Hey Harper, what do you think? About the drownings?" She kept Harper close, but still wandered around to see if she could find a way out. These pays off scary movies, normally they quotidian end up getting separated and possibly attacked, so they had be careful which meant reckless Ace had to be a little more serious but reckless Ace.

"Hey Leila, why did you get on the train?...C'mon, spill it.”

Riley grabbed Leila by the shoulders from behind and asked enthusiastically, while shoving her chin onto Leila’s shoulder and somehow managing to deliver a piercing stare into her eyes from that angle.

Leila’s mind went blank for a moment.

“I-um…”

Why did she get on the train? Leila questioned herself, and almost came to suspecting that she herself didn’t know the answer to that question anymore. She tried hard to remember. Maybe she was just zoning out at the moment and accidentally stepped in. Perhaps it was one of those no-brain “why not” moments that she had every once in a while. Leila speculated, but she knew clearly that it was something else. Something...

...Why did she get on the train back then? Days...weeks ago? How long ago? What train? Where? Some questions she couldn’t find answers to and others, the questions themselves were pointless. She’s forgotten a lot since she ended up here. But of all that the one thing she wouldn’t forget...

...It was hard to think looking into Riley’s anticipating expression. Leila shifted her eyes to avoid eye contact. When Riley’s followed, she would turn to look in another direction, in a way that would remind one of someone who did wrong and was struggling to lie in the face of an interrogator.

Eventually, the little lapses of time of not being under the thought-halting stress were collectively sufficient for her to compose a coherent response:

“I - I saw … an … an answer.”

She uttered as her sight dropped to the floor and stayed there for a while. And then, silence.

Coherent? Probably, just barely. Informative? Questionable. It seemed enough to satisfy Riley’s curiosity at least temporarily, though.

Leila allowed her heart rate and breath to restore themselves to their normal state - having Riley so eagerly look at her for those few seconds happened to somehow be more frightening an experience than the surprise she pulled earlier when approaching her.

The two of them then resumed examining their surroundings. With Riley as a companion and her jar as an additional light source, the area around them was lit up more clearly, they could see further out, and the atmosphere suddenly became much less intimidating.

Still, she had no clue what to do now. In fact she had not thought about it thoroughly until now - being too absorbed in the atmosphere of an ancient library didn’t leave much time for that. So once again they split up to look for clues in this mansion...but where to start? Extracting any traces of information they were looking for from the amount of data this library contained must be centuries of processing work. Certain things can be prioritized and others can be ruled out to increase the efficiency of such a search, but still the feasibility -

"That looks interesting," Riley noted as she proceeded to pull one of the books out from its place on the shelves.

Before Leila could bring her attention back to what Riley was doing, she heard the click and the sound of machinery. The entire floor rumbled as the bookshelf, with all its weight and its height reaching near the ceiling, moved. The two girls made way as the shelf pushed itself forward, rows of books wobbling and dust projected into the air around it as the shelf vibrated, until it had enough space to start sliding sideways. When the shelf came to a halt and Leila was done coughing from the tickles sent up her nose by the particles in the air, the area behind where the shelf once stood was revealed to be a gateway, opening into a staircase downwards into another impenetrable darkness.

"Should we take a look? It could lead us to some clues..."

* * * *

The two of them descended, glows from the jars illuminating the path. The hallway was tall, but was only wide enough for one person to go through at once. Leila walked in front, not having thought about it much when she walked through the entrance first when Riley suggested they do so. The two of them did, as an afterthought, went back up after going down just a bit, and shoved a volume of one particularly large encyclopedia at the entrance, and another behind the tilted book on the shelf; in hope that those would keep the gate open and leave a way out, lest the shelf decides to fall back into its place, by the time of which it would probably be too late if they realized they couldn’t find a switch from the inside.

Locked from behind them. In a dark, restricted space like this one. One end sealed and the other leading to who knows where, and how long it’ll take to reach -

- Leila preferred not to think about it.

She wrapped her arms around the glowing jar as she stepped carefully down the stairs. The air inside the passage was stale and very dry, which made Leila quite uncomfortable. It was also slightly chilly in there. Leila looked like she was hugging the jar to try to warm herself, even though the jar didn’t emit heat as it did light. The actual reason she was doing that, though, was probably her intention to protect the jar in the case of her slipping and falling even at the cost of cushioning the impact with her own body, for they couldn’t afford to lose their source of light in a scenario like this.

And so they walked. Once in a while Leila would turn around just to make sure Riley was still there, although she dared not do it for too long, in the fear of situations suddenly arising in front of them.

To be honest Leila felt the urge to just drop the light and cling to Riley and do nothing until something happens or someone gets them out of there. But then that is utterly unproductive, so she resisted.

She counted the steps as they walked, perhaps only to provide an indication of distance because time was unreliable, and there was no distancing entrance to look back towards for there was no light source back there once they left - and the other end of the staircase, where it led to, was still nowhere in sight.

Leila also pondered about Riley, and how she managed to identify the book that was the trigger to that entrance. How did she know? Did she know? The odds suggested - wait, flawed premise. Who knew how probability worked in Nowhere? But then - the question turned into gauging the possibility of a different mathematics against that of just accidentally hitting that one book - Leila still decided she had strong enough evidence to believe that Riley knew something - no, that Riley knew much more that she didn’t, and that she must ask her about it when she had the chance.

Eighty five, eighty six...

Songbird and Brandy left the entrance hall and ended up in the kitchen.

“Hmmm,” Songbird muttered to himself as he tapped the side of his glow jar. The bugs inside, probably tired from the relentless throttling he gave them earlier, flickered for a moment before returning to a more muted output of light. The kitchen was wide and roomy, with chipped stone counters piled with all sorts of dirty pots and dishes- the item hunter turned towards the bunny, expecting more or less a negative reaction from him- where insects crawled out of. Eeew.

“So, uh… Let’s go look at the cupboards,” Since he was taller than Brandy, Song elected to look at the upper shelves although some were too far up for his reach. Cringing, the nobody ran his hand over the dusty wood, only for the tips of his fingers to brush past something hairy.

He shrieked and careened backwards, and his black hat slipped down his head from the impact when he slammed against the opposite counter. Bright circles pierced the darkness where his hand had been earlier, and there was a hiss before the two points of light disappeared. Songbird realized he had been this close to losing some fingers.



Avian stood up and dusted his pants off when he heard voices from the other side of the wall. From where he was, the voice wasn’t loud enough to be coherent, but Jasper looked relatively calm so he assumed that it wasn’t anything he should be worried about. Perhaps that pair of humans that was behind them earlier? Anyway, he decided to approach and caught a few of Inadi’s words.

“Two M’s… Midnight Man? Ha. Too close for comfort. Thank you!” He mulled over the clues and then called out for the boy to hear, only for Jasper to tap him on the arm and present her own evidence. Newspaper clippings… Old and torn at the edges, clearly leafed through frequently by their previous owner.
“Thank you, miss Jasper,” Avian murmured and nodded at the girl before touching the papers. “The one about the Forest of the Ancients seems older, doesn’t it? That’s not a good sign,” He noted out loud, waving the thin papers in the air to show Jasper the difference. “Yes, if he’s the only one who knows where the Stone is, we’ll need him. But the newspaper is too old… Which meant that he had been missing for a very long time now. We may have to accept the fact that he’s dead,” The dragoon winced, but continued, “So I guess our next priority is to find a memento.”

The next clipping caught his eye. “Hooded figures…? Why would they be included in this?” Avian seemed genuinely distressed when he read the publication about the vandalism in the castle. However, he realized that Jasper was watching his face for his reactions and composed himself, giving back the papers before scanning the other ones she hadn’t read.

“Has your group, by chance, met these ‘hooded figures’ they’ve been talking about?” The soldier breached the topic delicately since she might mistake him for a nosy upstart trying to worm his way into Delirium’s political problems. “What do you think of them?”

Inadi merely laughed off his poky suggestions at what the conjoined 'M's meant which lead Lesley's malicious grin to curved down at the sides. It was so hard to turn this man on. The boy currently seemed to be utterly absorbed on that good-for-nothing book that Lesley had just recently retrieved for him. Flicking his tongue in boredom while swinging his crossed legs, he observed the framed male survey through each and every page and he raised an eyebrow every single time Inadi would turn to look up at him with what seemed like a slightly confused expression.

Inadi: “Just out of curiosity, isn't that painful at all? I mean, as a guy I can't imagine sitting that way is comfortable on the....ugh.....'boys' I guess you could say.”

He stopped swinging his legs momentarily as he looked down towards his crotch region. Licking his lips, he glanced back up at Inadi who was now sitting comfortably in an ancient executive chair. "Nope. Don't feel a thing, but I do appreciate that you're taking cautionary action in protecting my baby-makers worrying about me." Lesley sincerely liked that Inadi wasn't just concerned about the pale stick woman in the other room and was also looking after him as well.

Since he knew that his partner would be scanning through the pages for a couple minutes, he decided to lean over and peek to at least see what the heck all these books and papers were about. Unsure of what might be running through Inadi's head as he flipped from one page to the next, it was quite clear that the owner of this home was some crazy lunatic obsessed with collecting information that pertained to Nowhere's significant happenings.

Inadi: “This seems like a journal of some kind, maybe even a scrap book to be honest. Nothing in here really tells us anything about who had this study or what was going on nearby. Everything here relates to Nowh......wait-"

A particular newspaper cutout appeared to have caught his attention off guard. Lesley observed Inadi's eyebrows slowly begin to scrunch together in frustration as his pupils also zipped back and forth to read the passage displayed. It seemed like whatever may have been revealed through the text was quite disturbing given the obvious multiple rereadings that Inadi had done and the flustered facial emotion implanted across his features. Just as he was about to reach out and grab the article out of curiosity at the boy's sudden change in persona, Inadi suddenly bolted straight up and shoved the excerpt into Lesley's hands. This gave Lesley quite a startle and he stared at Inadi who was now pacing around the room like some kid with ADD who couldn't sit still for more than a few seconds.

Briefly going over the contents of the news piece, Lesley now came to understand why Inadi had been so unsettled.

Inadi: “There can't be any truth to that story Lesley. I mean for goodness sake I lived with the bear for two weeks and saw nothing that said he was providing some kind of rebel assistance during all that time. What the hell could this be talking about?”

Steps hastening and voice audibly growing louder in volume, it was safe to say that Inadi genuinely thought well of his friend and was feeling defensive because of the way Mr.Cuddle's had been "falsely" portrayed in this message. Sliding off the table, he caught Inadi by the wrists just as the disturbed male turned around in another round of his useless pacing. Leading the still blabbering kid back to his previous seat, Lesley pushed him down on the shoulders to get him to sit and calm himself.

Inadi: “A-a-a-and what about those so-called 'cloaked figures'? I've never seen a person in a cloak in Nowhere at all. Are they common there or was this a one time thing that the press blew out of proportion. Surely you've got some kind of idea of what this thing is talking about Lesley? So do you?”

Seating the mentally lost child was a waste of time at this point because sooner than Lesley had just put him down, Inadi was already back up on two feet. Observing as the poor kid continued to sink further into his own befuddlement, it ultimately ended him in a state of break down as he helplessly plopped down to the ground with a far away look in his eyes. Lesley just stood there watching him with a hand planted patiently at his hip as he let Inadi chill out for a couple more seconds in silence before finally approaching him. Bending down to the boy's level, he looked the devastated being in the face with a cheeky grin and wide eyes.

"You're such a worry wart. Don't ever listen to what the news says. Even back on Earth, its only purpose has always been to cause peoples suspicions to rise. Besides, I know those so called 'cloaked figures'. Heck, they're just about the silliest people you could ever come across. Seriously, this article is just feeding you a whole bunch of spaghetti!" he spouted confidently. Luke, Gary, Sacha, and ??? should be the least of any Nowherians troubles. Reaching out towards Inadi who was still in a daze, Lesley landed a gentle hand on the boy's head. Ruffling his hair a bit in an attempt of reassurance, "No need to freak out. Mr.Cuddle's was just donating his delicious desserts to the poor(in reference to the penniless cloaked hooligans)." He took Inadi's hands within his own and helped the kid back up. "

Avian: “Two M’s… Midnight Man? Ha. Too close for comfort. Thank you!”

"Ah! So that's what these weird M's mean," he exclaimed at Avian's proclamation while studying the various Midnight Man signatures scrawled all over the sheets of paper. "Hmm.. Midnight Man, Midnight Man. Sounds flippin' creepy," Lesley mumbled as he nibbled on his upper lip.

Leila didn't think twice about entering the dark hallway and Riley gave the girl a quizzical expression.

Was there nothing she feared? Oh well, Leila's bravery was rather reassuring. If the girl could tough it out then she could too. After, propping up a few books at the entrance, they moved deeper and deeper into the dark hallway. The walls were covered in mold and everything smelled of old age, almost like the dinosaur section in the museum back home. The thought made her chuckle and with her jar of jellyfishes tucked underneath an arm, she braved onward.

"You said you saw an answer, right?" Riley decided to break the silence. Things would be less unnerving if they talked, right? "So we're you going to take a really important test or something?" She grinned from ear to ear. "Or was it something more magical, like the answer to life and all that. Heh, your wish sounds so mysterious and cryptic. To think all I saw was my dream job." She made a face.

They could no longer see the light from the entrance and jars were only strong enough to light up was directly in front of them. "Sooo, do you regret getting in the train?" Maybe Leila was the sort of person who kept to herself, the kind who didn't tell anyone about her personal life and maybe prying was rude, but Riley was curious. If she was going to be stuck with them for who knows how long then she wanted to make the most of it and become friends. "I mean, Nowhere's pretty cool. Kim, my roommate, would flip if she saw any of these. I bet she'd try to take one of those bunny guards back home too. I'm not too close with my family, but I miss them and I guess I want to go home too." You never really knew about what mattered until you lost it. "Sorry for rambling on so much. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm starting to feel really homesick and I was wondering if you were missing home too." She ran a hand up the stone wall, shivering a little at how cold it felt.

The hallway continued on and on for who knew how long before eventually growing wider. Riley hopped forward so they would be walking side by side then paused when they eventually ran into an old door. It even came with a creepy door knob, oh joy.

Her eyes flitted towards Leila before she leaned in to inspect it. The girl let out a low whistle, "whoever lived here had problems." She placed her hand on the doorknob, twisted it and pushed the door open, it creaked noisily all the way and sent puffs of dust flying all around. The girl batted away at the dust clouds and let out a sneeze. "Let's see what's behind the little door--GAH!" A giant rat ran out of the room, causing Riley to fall onto her backside.

The girl remained on the floor for a few moments in an attempt to catch her breath. She seriously thought she was going to die, and that a monster would emerge from the shadows and gut the both of them then and there. "O-Oh, it was just a stupid rat." She shuddered at the thought of dying in some ancient hallway and made it a point to stick really close to Leila as they entered the dark room.

It wasn't very spacious but it was filled with filing cabinets of all sizes and moldy notebooks and torn pages were scattered all across the room. She made a face at it all but began looking around. Eventually a few files caught her eyes. "How to summon the Midnight Man?"


She peered at the piece of paper before motioning for Leila to have a look. "Hey, isn't he the witch hunter the guides have been talking about? The guy who killed a lot of witches." The piece of paper had turned a dark brown and the worlds were scrawled in a rushed and almost indecipherable handwriting. Whoever had written this was probably long gone by now, though it was hard to tell since Nowhere's time was very messed up. She didn't even know if time existed here.

She jabbed a finger at the words 'midnight man', Riley looked absolutely serious. "He's the guy we need to find, I guess that means we'll all be playing the midnight game." The idea was a little frightening, but if they didn't ask him then there was a chance they'd be lost in this forest forever, right? "We should go show this to the others." As soon as they exited the room, a rumbling sound echoed throughout the room. It took a while to put two and two together but when she did, Riley cursed beneath her breath.

"Fuuuudge, that sounded a lot like the bookshelf..."

---

"But we will be the crazy psychos that go into the more dangerous parts of the place."

Harper dusted himself off with a frown. "We?" He laughed a little in an attempt to diffuse the frightening atmosphere. "Don't you mean you? I'm thankful with being the extra who helps out here and there." Ace added in something about them being the ones who don't die and it sapped the energy right out of him. In the beginning there had been ten of them and they met more and more people as they ventured into Nowhere, but sadly they had lost more friends than they had kept along the way. Who was to say they wouldn't die? No one could tell.

"I'm here, I've got your back." He mumbled it out in a weary voice, but it was the truth. Ace was one of the closest friends he had in this crazy world. He followed her down the steps into what looked like a small lab? He shone his flashlight around as Ace talked about the bunny guards and his eyes landed on the various tools and eventually the saw. "Yeah," he took in a deep breath. "It was probably paint, blood would smell wouldn't it?" He wasn't sure if he believed his own words but he hoped it would help keep the both of them calm even if Ace was handling herself really well at the moment.

He shone the light in his friend's direction. "Why are there so many bunny guards? Don't they usually stay in the castle? Why would the queen send them here." Ace was reading something and he shuffled closer in an attempt to read whatever it was she had in her hands.

Serena? The drowning in Yonder? None of it made sense.

The door slid shut and he felt shivers throughout his body. He followed after Ace, thankful that her chatter was drowning out the silence. "Remember the kid we met by the lake, the one who told us Serena saw something she wasn't supposed to?" His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Then back at the cave, when she sang, you saw it too, right? Those hazy dreamlike images of her life. The hooded figures were there, it was a blur but they were in a few of her memories." The queen had helped them ever since the beginning and he didn't want to think ill of her but things were somehow falling into place.

"Serena helped them out, didn't she? And the queen doesn't seem to like them." He shook his head. "This sure is a mess."

He let out a sigh, "I don't know, the queen's been with us since the start. It sound a little silly and far-fetched, but the visions at Yonder and the kid's words, they kind of make sense if we put them together, but this is Nowhere, things don't really have to make sense. What do you think is going on?" The room wasn't very large and eventually he shined his light on what appeared to be a lever. He aimed his flashlight a little lower and the next thing he saw sent him into a panic.

It was a skeleton.

"Um, Ace, you might want to look at this." Was this the man who owned the house, or someone else? It looked like it had been here for ages. Oh god, had he accidentally gotten trapped in this room? Would he and Ace be next?! "Let's get out of here!" He grabbed onto the lever, hoping it would turn on the lights, but it did something even better. One of the bookshelves moved upward and streaks of moonlight shone into the dark room, it was a way out and into the garden.

Harper let out a relieved sigh and made his way towards the exit with Ace. It led into a what appeared to be a maze, complete with tall skeleton like trees and rotting vines. Not too far away from the exit, they could see the mansion in the distance.

Brandy followed Song into the decrepit kitchen, the already eerie atmosphere only augmented by the green light his jar was emitting. He couldn’t help but glower at the mess, torn between wanting to grab a broom and sweep out all the dust and skittering insects or do a 180 and leave. He managed to suppress the urges, instead nodded at Song’s suggestion to follow him to the cupboards.

Since the item-hunter was taking care of the higher cupboards, the rabbit decided to check the cabinets. They were mostly filled with dusty and cracked china, though he quickly shut the door when one revealed a skinny rat with glowing eyes.

He couldn’t help but jump when Song shrieked, nearly hitting his head on an open cabinet door above where he was crouched. He stared over to where Song was looking at, catching a glimpse of the furry shadow before it scurried away through a hole in the back.

“Perhaps we should check another area,” Brandy suggested, looking to where the stove was. His nose wrinkled at the unpleasant smell emanating from the area, immediately regretting their decision to tackle the kitchen but tugged Song deeper into the area despite all the warning bells going off in his head in response to the rank stench that grew stronger the closer they neared the pots. At least there should be no rats here- his ears twitched, not hearing any scratching or squeaking.

Tentatively he lifted a lid, sighing in relief when it revealed nothing but cloth and metal. And yet, there was something familiar… Taking the cleanest looking ladle from the rack, he gingerly lifted up to reveal an old and tattered uniform of the bunny guards.

“Why is this here?” He furrowed his brows in confusion, only yelp and drop the ladle when a loud clang reverberated through the room.

He stared at Song with wide eyes, one hand over his pounding heart. The white-haired man had gone pale, having slammed the lid down on the pot he was checking, a rotten stench billowing out from the pot that made Brandy's eyes water, lifting up his sleeves to cover his nose and mouth.

“Song, are you alright? What-"

The light from his lifted jar now dimly illuminated the wall behind the other Nobody.



Brandy stared at the words, eyeing the rusted knife used to carve out the sentence that was still embedded in the last letter. What was it supposed to mean? Who was free?

Ace wasn't sure what to make of all the craziness going on. The Queen seemed like such a nice lady, but now she was apparently a part of the crimes? The hooded figures, the Queen, Serena, who else could be added to this little batch of crazy. Who else was going to turn on the seemingly nice place of Nowhere. . . Seemingly.

"Mary wasn't it?" She responded as Harper began to ask her questions. She nodded, remembering that experience from before. No doubt the hooded figures were in some of those hazy flashes. "So. . . Queeny could have killed Serena and possibly wanted to kill the hooded figures too. After all,isn't she the one sending us everywhere in Nowhere just to get home. . .?" Ace shrugged the idea. "I don't know, the more you say it aloud, the more it could be true. I mean, what if the list is something of personal gain and the bribe is to send us home? That lady for all we know could be-"

She walked over to Harper and froze for a moment seeing the skeleton. "I'm pretty sure that's, um, real." She looked closer to see if there was anything on the skeleton, but nearly jumped out of her skin when Harper yelled for them to leave. She accidentally kicked something, following Harper and it knocked the bones over. It was so old that some of them even cracked.

Ace hurried out the new secret door and looked around. "Oh great. We're back outside." She looked around and then up. It was still raining, but the only way back inside was through the maze of trees and vines. "So. . ." She looked at her partner and then towards the mansion. "Well let's get going. We should tell everyone our discoveries- and get out of the rain." She didn't too much care for the creepy looking trees and how they swayed back and forth. They made a creaking sound as they did, and Ace was sure she heard sounds of scuffling on the ground.

"This place is creepy." She occasionally looked down to make sure nothing crawled over her foot. "But I guess this is why it's the 'nightmare' area. Still, kind of messed up to throw us under the bus like that." The two walked through the maze-like area into a clearing. Well it was a garden, supposedly. In front of them was a faded and worn down archway with a bench facing a field. But because of the poor care, it was just an empty field with wilted and dead flowers and weeds.

"Well, it's no scenic view, but it's better than the blood paint." There was no time to waste staring at nothing, so Ace lead the way forward to the mansion. The squawking of a few crows made her jump in surprise. Two of them landed on a vine near them and squawked again. "Creepy birds. . ." She looked down at a few twigs by her and Harper's feet and debated if she should throw one at the birds to get them to stop eyeing them.

Inadi looked at up at Lesley as the pink haired man began going after him for being so pessimistic and concerned over something he read in a piece of paper. While every word had good reasoning behind them, Inadi could barely register them in his mind as he continued to wonder about things that were impossible for him to know. All the unknowns, all the chances, even the contradictions to things he believed in now seemed to swim in his mind faster than anything he could think of. He tried to erase them but they seemed to float and pile up in his mind. It took him a bit to recognize that Lesley had even picked him up off the ground he slid to due to his near panic attack he had.

Suddenly hearing the realization to the meaning of the two conjoined M's, it was just the distraction Inadi needed to take his mind off of his worry for the moment. He waved off the jitters he had previously and decided to look through some of the drawings again to try and find something else that would connect the drawings to the Midnight Man himself. Searching through many different sketches he began growing more than a little frustrated at what he found on each.

None of the drawings showed any distinctive markings. Nothing that would point out which one of them would be the Midnight Man himself. Everything seemed to be stick figures drawn in such a dark ink that even the shadows would be in awe at how dark these things were. Inadi began showing some frustration on his face, and the dimly lit beetles showed some of it in the dark room. As the light began to dissipate, Inadi quickly slammed his fist on the jar, causing the beetles to shine brighter than they were previously when Lesley first found the creatures. Realizing he may have let his aggravation get the better of him, Inadi let the drawings slip out of his hands and onto the desk.

Looking up at his searching partner, he let out a sigh. “Lesley I'm sorry I'm not being the most hospitable person I could be right now. I admit that I'm letting all this stuff get to my head and it probably isn't the prettiest sight. But one thing you have to understand about me is that, as you put it, I am a worrywart,” Inadi explained as he sat down in the chair he was at previously when he looked through the book and he sighed lightly to himself. “I've been that way growing up and it'll probably stay that way for a while.” Inadi explained as he looked at the jar that the beetles were swarming in now it seemed.

The jar actually looked like it had cracked somewhat from the punch he had thrown down. Deciding to look at his left hand, the fist he had thrown down on the lid, he noticed that it seemed a bit bigger than it was prior. Slowly removing the glove from it he felt a sudden twinge of pain as it shot up his wrist. The hand was visible now and it was not a normal color. It was starting to purple in some spots, but the majority of it was red from the flare up of skin that had thundered down on the jar. Letting out a hiss as he stretched it out to decide what was wrong with it, Inadi was happy to see that it clearly wasn't broken. More than likely just a minor bruise that would wear off over time.

He looked back up at Lesley as he slowly tried to slide the glove back onto his hand. “For me, life has to follow a certain pattern. I'm getting better at it, but I like to be comfortable in what I do and when I do it. When random things that I'm not prepared happen, I panic and begin running like a scared child. I don't know why I'm like that but it's the way things have been for me since I can remember,” He told Lesley as he stood up and began stretching his hand out again, trying to get the blood flowing through it so the numbness wouldn't affect it. “So when I hear that someone I thought I could trust turns out to not be that trustworthy in the end, I naturally.....or unnaturally maybe in this case....panic quite a bit more than the normal person. And it's worse when I end up doing favors for someone that I don't know if I ever could trust, in this case; The Queen.” He said as he began walking towards Lesley as his look of pain subsided and a very focused look appeared on his face. His speech was beginning to lower to almost a whisper now, as to avoid others from hearing him in case his words could be viewed as somewhat negative towards certain people, like Jasper of Avian in the room next door.

“I figure the only people I can trust are people in the same situation as me. You want to get home just as badly as I do Lesley. At least I would think that you do,” Inadi whispered as he pointed his finger towards Lesley's chest. “Same thing with Harper and Jasper and the rest. We have the same motive, therefore the same beliefs for the most part. That's why I'm doing all this dangerous and insane crap,” He said as he walked towards where he dropped his spear off and took it from its leaning position. “It will get me back to where I feel comfortable.” The framed man said as he turned back towards Lesley. Looking down at the floor he saw a piece of paper with the conjoined M's on it again. He quickly slammed his spear head into the paper and brought it back up to him. More than likely this Midnight Man was their ticket to beating the witches. They needed him, and Inadi was sure that there had to be something to bring him here. The only problem was, he had no idea what it was. He began wondering if any other groups had made better head way than he and Lesley had in the study.

They moved in further inside the kitchen and Songbird had to admit that this little adventure was getting more unpleasant by the second. As if that horrible smell wasn’t enough, a patina of gloom and doom hung over the entire area, which made the item hunter feel like something was going to jump out from the shadows and devour him whole. Considering his previous associations with the creatures of the Dark Side, that was actually a pretty high probability.

Brandy walked away to inspect a few curious-looking jars and pans, so Songbird did the same to the ones beside him. Without so much as a care for what may lay inside, the white-haired nobody lifted the lid of the nearest pot and at once his senses were assailed by the stench of something he would never entirely forget.

The musk of rot and death wafted from within the rusted container, the source of which was a darkened lump of food… Or at least that was what he thought at first. Songbird tilted his glow jar closer to the pot, aiming the artificial torch so that the orange rays fell within to light up the mysterious object. The man narrowed his eyes as the lump shone under the lighting… only for his mouth to clench as more sordid details came into view.

One side of the lump was frayed and rotting, but the entire thing was .. white? Clumps of matted white fur dotted the thing all over, most especially at the tip. Honestly, everything in the pot was unrecognizable save for the occasional patches of fur… But Songbird was able to comprehend just what it was he was looking at when he shone the light from another angle.

A rabbit head was lying faceup on top of the mound of indistinguishable meat, possessing the same fur color as all the other pieces within the pot.

It was a bunny guard.

The item hunter’s jaw locked of its own volition and he slammed the lid down, startling Brandy who was now staring beyond him in silent dread. Songbird turned around too, and he found himself staring at a second message writ underneath the one the black bunny was looking at.