April 24, 1978Alex was the first one to wake up, not as disoriented as he'd be if the sedatives were to be long-term. He must've been out for approximately a quarter of an hour.The floor he lay on was aloof cold, made from hard stone. A weird smell got to his nose—the smell of rotten bodies mixed with the untold secrets of chill. This smell was oddly familiar. Listening to the soft hum of machinery and steps belonging to more than one person, his eyes still closed with the heavy weight his eyelids carried, he began to recall once hearing that—the sound hadn't changed a bit. The temperature and the smell were the same as well. Even the dark atmosphere which was contrasted by the warm light of torches outside the cages. And he didn't need to open his eyes to see that. The sound of the whipping flames dancing in the ebon veil and the far warmth they weaved into being was enough for him to put all the pieces together and realize that it wasn't the first time he was anchored to this ground. He was in this place before. Not once.To his side lay the others, Victor's blood soaking through the T-Shirt Ethan lent him, his pain seeping into his dreams as he slept. Alex finally lifted himself up from the ground, sitting up, his eyes still heavy. The cage they all were locked in was surrounded by more. So many that an eye couldn't see where it all ended. These cages were usually occupied by literal insane monsters. And people. Those who survived the experiments and their bodies weren't dumped and eaten by the flames of fire, yet. The disposal of their bodies—and their souls along with them—still waited upon them.The people, the monsters, everything living and dead played their own haunting melody in those cells. If alive, the deafening thuds of banging against the walls accompanied the utter silence of those—living—who sat in quiet contemplation filled by the melancholy of their hearts. If a heart was even a part of their organism anymore. And those who were dead and their bodies rotted in the cells until someone was tasked to clean them weren't as silent as the dead should be. But they weren't speaking either. It was the feeling coming from them, captivating enough to evoke a mental sound of distant cries.Alex then finally looked in ahead of him, finding a guard standing in front of the cell, gazing into the staircase that seemed eternal from Alex's view. He recognized this tall man—about 6'4 feet, just by the awkward way he stood, the way his hands were clasped behind his back. It wasn't the first time he'd served as a guard to make sure Alex didn't escape."Hey, Jasper!" Alex almost beamed.When Jasper Grim didn't respond, Alex continued."Don't be so grumpy, man. How long has it been? Three years?"Jasper, not turning to Alex, took a moment to respond. At that moment, Carmen and Ethan awoke, both sitting up but not saying anything and only listening."It's been a while. I almost did not recognize you, you've grown a lot. I wouldn't be surprised if you were almost just as tall as me," Jasper said, his voice steady. "I remember you as the smart kid that got to work here at fifteen. Too dangerous to sleep in a real bed, so they locked you up here.""Maybe it was traumatic, a little dramatic, but still chill. And hey, I've made some friends in this cage back then," Alex spoke, his eyes fixated on Jasper already knowing he was gonna turn to him.And Jasper indeed did. He slightly turned his head towards Alex, revealing the contempt smile on his lips. "Friends with whom?" he said, looking away again. "The ghosts?""No. Like Ben right here," Alex glanced over the crumbling bones of a creature two cells next door that weren't even worth disposing of. "But I see it's... Over for him... Now..." he gazed further into the complex. "I see that Theo is here, too.""What? Where?" Ethan immediately broke his silence—not even Carmen noticed he had been awake till now as he watched him search for his Theo. Except what he found wasn't his Theo anymore. It was the Theo that had been turned into a monster by a monster. Theo lay there, on the cold floor, his now-long arms covered in dark matter, stretched. He didn't move, he didn't seem to breathe. He was like a flower stripped of its petals. Some men opened Theo's cage as Ethan kept watching and dragged him away, chains around his neck. He was obviously under sedatives, though, he seemed so drained that he just let them do whatever they wanted with his body. Like if he was a withered flower. No amount of water could save the flower in him.As soon as Carmen saw the heavy sadness etching in Ethan's gaze, his own gaze shifted to Alex. Alex heard Carmen's eyes speak; they reflected Carmen's wishes to cure Theo and release his body from the pain he shall never remember if his consciousness will linger dead. But Carmen didn't want to tell Ethan about that yet and potentially give him false hope, so instead of staring, he actually let words leave his mouth."Alex. Who's... " his eyes searched for the bones Alex gazed at before. "Ben?""It was a creature I talked to often when I used to sleep here," Alex replied, his voice lacking the coldness of the topic, instead conveying its usual playful charm."First; You're insane," Carmen admitted.Ethan, in the back, chuckled."I know," Alex said casually."Second; why were you even ever here?""You heard Jasper.""You knew I was awake?""I could feel you breathe. This cage ain't that big."Just then Velvette woke up, immediately looking for Victor, her vision slightly blurry, her movements slightly shaky. Before even realizing she was trapped in some cell, her sight gradually turned into a clear motion as she spotted Victor's trembling body. His breaths came out shallow and though he remained asleep, the pain cut through him like a hundred blades seeping deep into every inch of his body.Velvette reached for his hand, finding it cold and clammy, slick with sweat. She held it for a brief before managing to take a deep breath. "Where are we?" she asked."In the laboratory," Alex began. "But I am already working on our way out.""Hm," Velvette murmured. "Victor's not doing good... He needs medical help. Fast."Alex didn't answer, instead, he turned to Jasper again. "Hey. Any chance you'll help us out?"Jasper didn't respond."Jasper!" Alex repeated."Why?" Jasper's voice was as cold as the room itself. "Why should I help you?""Because my aunt—I mean Agnes—Dr. Jacobs—has to be stopped. She's going to ruin the world, don't you know that?""She already did that. And it's not like I'm giving up the monthly ten thousand dollars just because a child told me to.""I turn eighteen in less than three months, I don't think I should be considered a 'child' anymore."Jasper didn't see the point in responding to that."You won't get any more money if she destroys the world. She'll get rid of you sooner or later anyways," Alex paused before continuing, perhaps, for a longer than he should. Though he expected an answer between his pause, giving him a reason to refrain from talking. "Do you think she gives a damn about some guard? She doesn't care about her family. She's getting rid of you sooner or later."Those words left a mark on Jasper's thoughts, yet, he still did not respond. The words lingered in Jasper's mind for the entire minute when no one spoke until Alex did, his voice atypically soft. "Jasper. Please.""You're annoying. Though, I get your point, I'll help y'all out.""Oh my God, Jasper. I so wanna hug you right now," Alex's voice was filled with new-found hope."Please don't."Jasper turned around to unlock the cage, revealing the dark coarse beard covering his chin."You guys have a few hours. They gave you the wrong sedatives," Jasper said, already looking for the right key in the bundle, the keys jingling against each other. "Find a laboratory coat and you'll fit in, without evoking any suspicion." He found the key—it was tinged with rust, and unlocked the door. "Good luck. I'm already tired of standing here all day—" Jasper's words trailed off as Alex jumped to hug him tightly. It was the first embrace they both felt in a long time. Years."Easy there, kid." Jasper said, gently patting Alex's back, not fully wrapping his arms around him. His movements were jerky, as if unsure of what to do with his hands.Alex reluctantly pulled away a sound coming from one of the cells made him. Velvette chose to stay with Victor, so it was only him and Carmen. They made their way up the 'endless' stairs, which were way shorter than what infinity should be. As they reached the upper ground, the temperature turned less cold. 'Less' cold felt so warm after hours spent strolling down snowy roads and paths. Even if sitting in that car for hours warmed the skin, the goosebumps and stinging pain from the chill returned the second the soreness from the legs disappeared after leaving the vehicle. So now, the interior was finally colder than its temperature. But as the temperature got warmer up there, the light got brighter along with it. That was weird a weird sentiment, their eyes were already used to soft glow. Not brilliant.Thanks to Alex's knowledge about the laboratory' corridors, he and Carmen found themselves the named coats without encountering anyone, persisting unnoticed. Before continuing down the laboratory, Alex had to sigh in relief as he realized he hadn't lost the heart in his pocket. I love you, pockets deeper than... whatever, I always complain about, he thought, squeezing the heart, likely overly gently—careful not to damage it, and sensing its softness through the plastic bag seal. After tucking it into his pocket again, and putting on the coat, he and Carmen continued their way to a special room Alex remembered working in for a while. He knew every part of the room by heart by the time he was placed to work somewhere else.On their way there, they have only encountered a few people, whose eyes didn't quite meet theirs. The lack of wandering souls suggested that it might have been late at night. From inside the cells, it seemed like hundreds of people were drifting through the halls, though there were far fewer. The illusion was created by the mind amplifying the sound, making it feel as if the corridors were teeming with life.The room they later approached was enveloped in darkness, the only light piercing from the halls, casting a soft illumination over the room. Alex gestured for Carmen to enter first and shut the door behind them. No light casted an illumination for now but an eye could spot the hallways' luminance behind the blurred glass door. Carmen was disoriented in the darkness, unaware of his own steps. When Alex turned on the light switch, without any trouble finding it, Carmen had to squint his eyes until he got used to the light again. But gradually, his vision turned evident and he could observe the room. First thing he noticed was how well maintained and clean the room was, hinting that it was either barely used or everything had to be returned in its place by the end of the day. Apart from that, the room was cold as any other, the walls sterile white. A painting on the blank walls would look just as nice as a plant would look in those empty spaces between furniture.Alex meanwhile moved to a table on which he placed the heart as he searched for gloves he could borrow. Carmen, not even understanding that part, sat on an office chair and started spinning on it. Alex lingered dead silent, focusing on his work, so really the only sound in that room was the wheels on the chair scraping against the floor.Eventually, Carmen got dizzy from all the rotating and stopped, facing Alex as the chair slowed down until the spinning progressively ceased. "How did you learn all that?""What? How does it all work? How to mix the chemicals correctly and you know..."Carmen nodded.Alex was oblivious to the nod as his focus remained intensely fixed on preparing the heart, meticulously tearing it open. Even so, he guessed that was what Carmen meant and replied. "Well, I learned a lot while I worked here," His voice was calm. "And I spent months alone."Carmen realized he was referring to his time spent in the Eclipsed Abyss now."I had a lot of time to learn things, to read, to experiment on creatures. I could say that it got quite lonely, but it was always lonely, even after I wasn't alone anymore. So in short, I learned it all with the passing of time," Alex continued."Do you still feel lonely?""Not really. Not after meeting Svan,""Svan is literally a creature.""Alright then. Don't be so jealous." Alex looked back at Carmen, his lips curling slightly upward, leaving Carmen troubled with recognizing whether it was closer to a smile or a smirk. "I don't feel lonely after meeting you, too," Alex added, now an actual smirk on his lips. "But Svan is my priority.""God. You two should get married," Carmen chuckled, changing his sitting position to a cross-sit."I can't. Svan's dead." Alex turned away, his eyes disappearing behind those spectacles, his voice carrying a quiet weight, the kind of sadness that lingers after it has worn itself out. Though he didn't feel mournful, the words slipped out heavy with a melancholy he barely noticed. Realizing the shift, he washed them over with humor. "I bet you added something to the injection to kill him because you were jealous of our beautiful relationship.""That's exactly what I never did.""What if, instead of lying, you got someone from the orphanage to call the police. They don't have a phone here, nor in the orphanage.""So what do I do?""Find someone who will drive all the way to the town.Carmen walked out the room, opening the door wide enough—though far from fully open, for him to slip through, in case someone who would pass by would look inside—if he pushed the door open all the way—and found Alex vaguely familiar, because that is what he'd do himself. Look inside rooms that were unveiled to the gaze.He moved like a mouse through the laboratory's corridors, unsure where each turn led and what horrors he'd find. He met a significantly larger number of people, suggesting that the new part of the lab he just encountered needed more intervention as the infamous monsters creatures appeared more frequently now—whether trapped behind a thick layer of glass or floating in cylinder tanks filled with a strange blue liquid which he planned to ask Alex about. Though, as he studied it all better along his way, he came to a speculation that the thick liquid might serve as a stabilizator or something to keep the bodies from decomposing. Most of the eyes he met—but forgot their color a moment later looked at him as if he didn't belong in this place because he looked younger—after all he only turned fifteen a month ago. He tried to avoid them but still felt the stares crawling on his skin even as the people were far behind him. It made him wonder if Alex knew the feeling, too.Eventually, after minutes of wandering, he found the heavy metal door that he was sure led to the orphanage, though just as he was about to open them, he felt a hand on his shoulder. His heart grew on speed, expecting it to be Agnes but as the woman spoke, the weight fell from his chest."Excuse me," the woman released her hand from his shoulder. "Employees can't use this door."Carmen turned to her. "Oh," he fidgeted with a strand of his hair. "I'm sorry, I didn't know.""You're new here, right? Never seen you before.""Yeah. And I'll go look for the exit now. Thanks for your help," Carmen began to walk away, unsure if he took the right path.Though, the woman followed him. "Day shift ended a few hours ago, so you must be here for the night shift. You can't just leave."Can she just shut up already? Carmen thought. He kept walking, avoiding the woman's eyes, yet she was desperate to see his, it seemed."It's an emergency. Dr—" he forgot what her last name was for a moment. "Jacobs. Dr. Jacobs.""Okay."The woman stopped trailing behind him as he walked to the left."Uhm. The exit's on the other side," she called after him."Oh yeah. My bad," Carmen awkwardly returned, hoping she'll stop following him now.But she didn't."So," she began and at that point Carmen wanted to drink one of the chemicals lined on the table with the intention of killing himself. Fast, preferably."You look young. How did you even get this job?" she continued."Ah. Ehm." Carmen, normally able to lie smoothly struggled now, probably choking on his own words because they only came out as cough. "Sorry," he paused before continuing. "My son is an orphan. Living in this orphanage.""What?"He realized how foolish his words sounded as he fumbled to escape the tangled web he'd woven, only to ensnare himself further. "I mean—he's buried in the orphanage.""He's what?"They reached the stairs leading outside."Oh. Uhm. I'm on drugs."Carmen began to walk up the stairs and paused halfway, the woman staring at him intently, not going after him as he added, "I meant that I'm running with mugs. No. Chasing bugs. Uh... Bye?"Carmen walked all the way up the stairs where he had to climb a short ladder and open a cover that seemed like a skewer from the outside. He then took a deep breath and scanned his surroundings; the place he found himself in was a parking lot in the middle of the forest with many cars belonging to the employees standing there. The parking lot wasn't far from the orphanage as he could already see its walls from there.Getting closer to the orphanage, he started noticing a few things he wouldn't think about if he hadn't been to the other world; the moon was grayish, there was no red hue painting everything in red, the air was easy to breathe and felt real. And of course, the night was welcomingly warm. Standing in front of the orphanage, he knew he couldn't go through the main gate because that'd be too loud. So he decided to use a smaller gate, a few meters away from the main. But he couldn't open it. Not because it freezed. But because it was simply locked, and his pockets were empty.He sighed before muttering to himself as his eyes found a tree he could climb. "Fuck you, Alex."He moved towards the tree and began to climb it, using all his strength to pull himself up on upper branches, his feet meanwhile getting stuck between the tender often. His jaw clenched tightly, the muscles working hard against the urge to snap at himself when he moved wrongly or couldn't pull himself up. Climbing further, the thick branches began to thin but a point from where he could jump on the wall was still far from reach."Oh, man," he muttered again, standing on the thickest point of a branch, knowing this was the only part of the branch where it wouldn't snap under his weight. Perhaps, it actually wouldn't snap if he moved closer to the edge but his hands were already shaking, holding onto the tree's bark for his dear life, which made him refute trying that theory out. Instead, he kept on pulling himself up the branches that seemed like thickest. He went on like this before reaching a point on the tree that was high enough for him to jump.The space between him and the wall felt vast, a chasm filled with the thrill of possibility and the weight of apprehension.But he couldn't get any closer to the wall.He had to jump from here.Perched high on the sturdy branch of the tree, he surveyed the formidable gap below his whole body trembling now. Below, the ground seemed to drop away, the drop from his perch easily twenty feet, giving him a dizzying perspective that made his heart race. Waiting any longer wouldn't get him anywhere, so he prepared to jump. Repelling from the tree's bark he ran briefly on the thinning branch, knowing that if just one of his legs slipped, he'd be dead. When he got to the right point, he leaped across the chasm, the distance between the two edges seeming to stretch infinitely as he soared through the air. He lent on the wall with one of his legs first, falling on the surface when his other leg reached it. Every inch of his body trembled standing there on all four, breathing rapidly. When his breaths came out less swift, he began to crawl towards the edge of the wall—the distance between him and the ground seemed bigger than when he stood down there. Realizing he couldn't jump from here and had to use the oak tree, he first began to crawl and eventually walk when he regained his confidence. It didn't take him long until he got to a point where the ancient oak tree's branches stretched almost all the way to the wall. He jumped there, nearly without fear, running quickly towards the tree's bark as he landed. Assured he won't fall, he slowly made his way down the tree, still not grasping how he even made the first jump.Soon he got down, and even sooner he got to the orphanage. The door, surprisingly, wasn't locked and he stepped in, the door shutting behind him with a loud bang. The scent of old food followed him all the way to the servant's bedroom where he knocked on the door two times, the sound echoing through the dead-silent corridors as everyone was already asleep. When no one stepped out, he knocked again—more loudly this time. The door opened, and a familiar face stood there. Sister Mary.She closed the door, already knowing that Carmen's sudden appearance didn't bring anything good."What are you—aren't you back in foster care?""Sister. I need your help, please.""Carmen... What's happening?""You don't know what happens to all the children who leave?"She shook her head."Down the basement... Behind the metal door... It's all there, all the evidence... Please inform the police.""Are you okay, sweetie?" She brushed her hand gently against Carmen's forehead, checking his temperature.He moved her hand away. "Yes. I am. But the children down there, they're being tortured, experimented on. I can't show you but I beg you to believe me."The feared expression on her face was unforgettable.