I am feeling about the same level of surreal that I did when I woke up here, except because I was being led by Skull, his shaggy photocopy, and all of Ghost’s group out onto the street in front of the hotel that Dark Sol had forced me to call home for several weeks. I don’t fully understand what exactly Skull was hoping for, unless it was to see Bass squawk, then his plan was a success.

“Why are you going along with this? How do we know this isn’t a trap set up by Pyros?” He was loudly protesting the entire time.

I’m beginning to see him as a parrot. An angry parrot. Does he ever take a moment to breathe?

“Which is why you aren’t coming,” Skull says simply.

And he just went louder, “What!?”

But the minute Skull mutters something to him, he shuts up and scampers off somewhere. Hopefully far away and not looking at returning any time soon.

“I’m coming along as well,” Shadow pops up behind us like a-well a shadow.

Skull shrugs, “Do what you want.”

“What’s made you decide to come along?” The twin asks with genuine surprise.

“I don’t want to lose sight of Ghost,” Shadow replies simply.

“Makes sense, eh?” Skull answers back while ruffling Shadow’s hair before heading over to Ghost. “You lot are playing by our rules.”

“Wouldn’t want it any other way,” Silver quips before Ghost could stop her.

Ghost glares at Silver before looking back at Skull, all emotion masked, “Lead the way then.”

Why am I even going along with this? They know the way…if anything goes wrong, they can be the distraction… and I can finally get away from Moon and –

“Want me to tag along?” Echo says beside me.

-Her, “No.”

“Aw.”

“Echo.” Moon stood in front of me. “You know half of Necrosis would take pleasure in taking pot-shots at you from the buildings.”

“Never stopped me before.”

“Echo!” Moon snaps.

“Yeah, yeah,” Echo waves a hand back at her. “I got it.” And like that she disappears back into the building, probably to find her next victim to annoy.

I turn back to Moon, “You’re fine with Shadow coming along?”

“You try to stop him, then.”

“Moon…” I warn her.

She smirks. “Exactly. This time, I’m going to stay put. I have this weird feeling that something else is going on and I need to figure out what exactly it is…and I don’t want to risk..”

“Why are you defending yourself to me?” I raise an eyebrow.

“Because you’ve done a lot and I feel like we haven’t repaid back properly.”

“You’ve given me a bed and food. Isn’t that enough?”

“I suppose…”

I look back at her. “Look, Moon. I’ve been wanting to say that I need to move on pretty soon.”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.”

I frown, “Why?” Why would she want me to stick around so much? It’s not like I have an award-winning personality.

She sighs, “Don’t worry…look, if you want to come back after this… I’ll keep the door open for you.”

“…Thanks…”

It’s…a new and unfamiliar feeling…that someone actually wants me around… But after this…I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. It was nice having a bed but…it was so exhausting dealing with people as it is. And was never directly involved in anything to do with the group. Fully involved? I’m getting tired just thinking about it…

No. I need to get moving. And soon. This search into the Gardens is getting me back on the right track. And it’s not like I can’t come back one day, if I survive.

I look over at Skull motioning at me with his head to get moving.

I needed my bag and my knife.

As if by magic, Poppy was beside Moon, holding out my bag. She pushes it at me, looking away. I take it from her and she runs back inside. I feel kinda guilty for some reason…

Looking back up, I see Moon watching me intently. “I will be back after this.” I sling my bag over my shoulder. I could feel the familiar weight of my dagger inside and some other things. Poppy probably snuck some food into my bag, but none of my books or my maps were in it. …She’s damned well made sure that I’ll come back…

She gives a relieved smile and nods. “Good.”

But I can’t promise that next time.

So, the most eclectic group of people to walk the streets into the territory that caused all this mess…All I need is Blondie boy showing his smug ass and it’ll be a complete set. But It was interesting that Skull went along with this so easily. Let alone with only his brother. Was he that confident in his territory? Especially with Ghost and his company. I wouldn’t be surpised if he had his group watching from the sides.

“You’re not much of a chatterbox,” Skull cuts into my thoughts.

“IS there anything to say?” I look to my side. I don’t remember him getting there.

“I dunno…Favourite colour?”

“You should get used to silence.” His brother cuts in.

“Oh shut it, Crow.”

Crow? Skull and Crow? Try my best not to smirk. Seriously… “Where do you guys keep getting these names?”

Skull shrugs, “…It lets me be what I needed to and he likes shiny things.”

“And you talk too much.”

“Someone has to.” His smile changes in a heartbeat. “Now…” Skull stops and a black van pulls up behind us, “we’re going to drive a bit of the way.”

Yes. Nothing suspicious about a van at all…

He must have seen the look on all of our faces. “Hey, it’s either this or it’s a three hour walk. It’s up to you.” He slides open a side door, stepping on without a care and Crow not far behind.

Nothing suspicious at all.

Silver shrugs and jumps into the van, ignoring the boys protesting at her and her head pops back out at them, “Shut up and get on.”

I was the last on and saw it was a simple enough interior. I barely had a second to find a spot next to Crow as the door shuts behind me and the van took off down the street.

“How much fuel do you have?’ Ghost stares over at Skull.

“Enough that you don’t need to worry,” Skull leans back. “If you’re looking for some, I’m afraid you’re gonna have to look for your own cars to siphon from. We aren’t open for negotiation.”

I could almost hear Ghost click his tongue. He was probably hoping for a deal.

“We should be near the University ground in about…fifteen minutes. But we’ll stop a few streets back, we’re getting too close to Bailey’s prowling grounds and she’s a nosey bitch.”

I try my best to remember the streets leading towards the University. We passed abandoned houses, parks, apartments, businesses and a few shopping complexes. Nothing looked different from being on Earth. Except…no traffic and all the cars were abandoned on the streets.

We stop in the middle of the street and the door flies open and Skull says, “Scout ahead.”

“Always do,” and with that Crow disappears out of the van and down a side alley.

I step out next and see a massive glass manor with a huge dome behind it in the distance, passed a number of gardens and several large ponds.

“That is the Botanical Garden,” Skull steps out. “I’ve been told they keep a lot of rare plants in there.”

“And that’s why I’m here.” Silver steps out and starts heading towards the glass castle.

The walk over was humid and hot but luckily there wasn’t much sun as heavy clouds were forming again. It was eerily quiet, even Skull was silent, and I still haven’t seen Crow return either.

We were on the main path leading up to the front doors, lined by trees being choked by overgrown wisteria and bougainvillea. It was a bright pink and pale purple mix with a heady and overly sweet concoction that I could smell from when we passed the second pond. Surrounding the glasshouse was a dense forest, like we were in the middle of a mountain range instead of the campus grounds. It was probably the pride of the university.

“Are the doors open?’ Ghost looks around like a startled cat.

“Yeah…”

But Silver didn’t wait around, she went up and swung open the heavy doors with ease.

“Don’t just go in!” Ghost snaps.

“Yes, Mother.” She stuck her tongue out and went inside.

The first thing that greeted me was the impossible…scale of plants that were in here. It was like we walked into another world, completely filled with thick tall trees, all unable to break out from the glass that was their sky. I could still hear running water in the distance, but the trees were too thick to see much in front of me. The grass was somehow still as a tame level, like it didn’t need much maintenance. The place was still somehow surviving without their human carers.

Silver bounded off into the thick of trees, immediately off the provided path, towards the ferns and other random things on the ground. She was busy collecting and checking with her books she had hidden in a bag that was under her coat. She was also instructing Dragon and Bulldog on grabbing and digging at the plants. She then discovered a sign to a nursery and pulls on them to follow her back on to the path to find the shed.

“It’s like watching a kid in a candy store.” Skull muses.

“It’s so much worse than that…” Ghost lets out a noise but then follows along with them.

We follow up the rear, but I felt a weird…niggling sensation and look deeper under the trees.

This quiet was too disturbing. Like something was watching us…