Nathan leaned against the edge of a window as he watched the square from the safety of the church.
With unlimited food and water, he set about making a full recovery. Not just from the exhaustion he had acquired in the realm, but from the six months of malnutrition since he had fled the military facility and lost his way on the outskirts of the city.
It had been two days since he had entered the church and he already felt completely well. He spent his time looking out the window, exploring the church or trying to learn the new language, at least the translation that was available in the diary.
The first time he looked out of the window he shuddered, he knew the shadows weren't looking at him, but it was as if they were looking at him indirectly.
In any case, the diary made no mention of the shadows, so Nathan had no way of knowing what or who they were. Just like the null mention of the realm, it had probably happened after the death of the diary's owner, so it could never be recorded for the future, specifically for Nathan.
Nathan felt comfortable in the church, but he knew that sooner or later he would have to leave and find the house somehow. He searched every corner of the church for a map but could not find one.
He even laughed at himself for thinking that a church would have a map in the town it was in.
So, he could only hope that the boy would not find it while looking for the house.
Otherwise, Nathan began to think about the most likely location of the house from the location of the square.
Looking at the remaining buildings around the church, he noticed that all of them, without exception, had only one floor... if they had not already collapsed.
Nathan knew that the tallest building was probably the house. He also knew from the diary entries that it was the village leader's house, so it made sense that his house would be bigger than the others.
That gave him a good starting point to find a clue to look for.
The rest would be luck. Four possible directions, Nathan had already chosen one and discarded another.
When he arrived at the place where the boy was chasing him, he had just arrived on the other side of the church, so it was most likely where the house was.
He discarded the part of the village behind the church, as it was unlikely that he had gone all the way around the village.
Nathan remembered running for so long that his legs gave out, but it wasn't really long enough to cross an entire village.
The rest of the plan... there was no plan.
Nathan didn't know what he was going to come up with to get the boy to let him read and find time to translate the information on the walls of the room.
That would be something he would have to do as he went along.
But the most important thing was to find the house, because if he did not find it, he would simply not get there.
Seeing that the sun was beginning to set, Nathan took one last look at the shadows and walked away from the window to his room.
He would be leaving early the next day, so he tried to get as much rest as possible. He had prepared as well as he could, and he only had one chance.
It was make it or die trying.
The sun began to rise in the sky, the streets were still half dark, but the shadows were still staring at the church.
Nathan stood in front of the large church doors and took a deep breath before pushing them open and letting the sunshine in.
The wide view of the square opened up before him and the shadows, not even flinching at his presence, greeted him from the front.
Nathan knew that time was of the essence, and that the counter had started counting as soon as he had taken a step out of the church, so he left the square carefully so as not to disturb the shadows and set off in search of the house.
He carried a cloth bag he had found in the kitchen with several loaves of bread, bottles of water and finally the diary.
He had not seen the boy again in the days he had watched from the church. But as he walked through the streets of the village, his heart kept pounding with the thought that one day he would hear a terrible scream all around him.
'Don't look... just don't look at him' Nathan told himself as he remembered the words in the diary.
He continued to run through the streets as fast as he could, but the debris kept forcing him to take detours, losing him more than before.
He tried to remember the way back to the church, but try as he might, he couldn't concentrate on finding the house and the way back. So now he was more lost than ever.
But it was too late, he had no chance to turn back. So, he ran and ran, until luck smiled on him.
Eventually he turned into the slightly wider street he was on, and when he looked down, he saw a two-story house that was still standing.
'Good!'
Nathan smiled nervously and ran towards the house, the only problem being that the street was littered with debris that blocked his path. But Nathan didn't have time to look for another way, so he was forced to step over the rubble.
Between finding a good place to step and removing several wooden planks that were blocking his path, Nathan walked slowly through the rubble. Nathan walked slowly through the rubble, getting closer and closer to the house.
Seeing that the house was getting closer, he tried to move faster and more carelessly, which resulted in him stepping on a loose plank, which lifted up and more things fell on him.
Nathan moved to the side and raised his arm to prevent more debris from falling on him, but one of the pieces cut his forearm from the elbow to the wrist.
"Ughh!"
The wound wasn't that deep, but now his whole arm was covered in blood.
This took up more of his time, but Nathan didn't stop walking through the rubble as he put pressure on his wound with his other arm.
He had nothing to treat the wound with, so he had to finish it as quickly as possible. Luckily, he had just crossed the rubble and the door to the house was in front of him.
Without more than a second's hesitation, Nathan walked over and opened the door, revealing the interior of the house as he remembered it.
So far there was no sign of the boy, but Nathan knew that the cursed man would show up eventually, so he quickly entered the house and climbed up the stairs to the room at the end of the hall.
Nathan looked at the marks on the door and swallowed nervously.
It was quite possible that the boy was inside, just as he had found him when he first entered the house.
Nathan took the diary from the cloth bag and placed the bread and jars on the floor by the door, using the bag as a makeshift bandage to try and stop the bleeding.
There was a trail of blood on the floor behind him, and although Nathan didn't think it was important, the loss of blood from such a wound would affect him in the near future, so he tried to stop the bleeding, if only a little.
Having finished the bandage, Nathan took hold of the doorknob and turned it.
The door opened, revealing the room... where the boy was not in.
Nathan sighed calmly and quickly walked in, opening the diary to the first page, and looking at the letters on the wall.
It did not take him long to compare the letters with those in the diary and try to translate them. It was not difficult, he just had to find the right letter and see what the translation was. The problem came when some of the letters did not match those in the diary, as if they were slightly different.
This made the translation even more difficult for Nathan, but after almost 10 minutes he was able to complete the translation on one side of the wall.
"Locked up... Alone... Father..."
Nathan did not understand what was written on the walls. They were just words, without meaning or order. They gave him no clue as to how to get out of the realm.
Did he have to do something? Could he find some kind of rift like the one the old man had made to send him to this realm? Or would he be trapped forever?
Perhaps he would only die at the boy's hands before he could escape.
Nathan began to turn pale at the negative thoughts in his head. But he quickly began to translate another wall, hoping that this one would be different.
Only a few seconds into the translation, a thunderous scream echoed outside the house.
His skin crawled, he began to sweat, his heart pounding desperately.
The boy was getting closer, and Nathan had made no progress.