“Oh god you all must be freezing get in quickly!”

“Thanks for letting us in lady.”

“The name is Theresa.”

“Well Theresa me and these boys have arrived recently to this world, if you could explain us the situation I would be very thankful.”

“The fact you already know this is a different world saves me a lot of explaining. I will explain it all shortly let me just go grab some food, you guys must be fed up with those nutrition bars already.”

Theresa went into another room which seemed to be the kitchen of the home. The house was not that big, in the base floor there was the common room with rugs all over the floor and a small wooden table near the end of the room, this room was where the fireplace was, which made sense since there was no electricity in the house the fireplace provided both light and heat, it was the best place for people to gather.

The room next door had all sorts of cooking utensils and ingredients, one of the most notable features of this room was the fact it had a sink, this town appears to have running water, whether it is for consumption or just for cleaning that was uncertain.

Near the end of this kitchen area there were stairs that led to the next floor of the house, presumably where Theresa would have her visitors sleep or perhaps it was where she stored some of her possessions.

“You can all sit down by the fireplace, I will be there in a minute.”

They all sat down on the floor, the texture of the rugs was not all that great but it was better then anything they had since they arrived. The sound of the snow hitting the windows and the fireplace cracking was somewhat comforting despite their situation.

Theresa brought some pastries with her they looked like rather hard and dark cookies with some sort of white cream over also solidified over them.

“It took me a while to find this, you guys need to try them they are a local speciality.”

They were in fact very hardened cookies, perhaps that had something to do with trying to reduce their spoilage, the taste of the cookie however was unknown to any of them, the cream seemed like some sort of sugary mix.

Overall they were not so good but they decided to play along and eat it while Theresa explained everything.

“Alright so I will start with the arrival week. Every decade new marked people like you come into this world, along those seven days people appear with the fog emerging, no one sees them arriving, they always appear when nobody is looking, that’s probably why fog always accompanies the arrival of the marked.”

“That must mean the girl we saw today had just arrived, the fog had started to rise recently and she seemed pretty out of it too.”

“It’s likely, today is the seventh day of the arrival week.”

“Hold up, if I understood correctly the arrival week is at the beginning of the decade, does that mean the new year has just started?”

“Yes, time here is different of that on the outside, in fact none of you got here at the same time either. There are those who arrived here on the same day however they say the last day they were on earth were different dates. People disappear throughout all the year over there but when they come here they all appear within the first seven days.”

“What year are we in?”

“It’s the 83rd decade of the fertile era.”

“The fertile era?”

“Well that one is a long story, to put it shortly eighty-three years ago it was impossible for us marked to have children.”

“Why was that? Was there some sort of rule or...”?

“You couldn’t even if you tried, it was a curse, if you want to hear the story I can tell you later.”

“So those guys could have all the fun they had with zero repercussions? No fair!”

“Ford keep those thoughts to yourself.”

“No problem he is right, but at the same time it meant entire civilizations end up perishing due to bad luck. You see people don’t just appear here on this island, you can be transported anywhere into the world, and if no new folks arrive in a place for countless decades you can guess what happens.”

“How many more normally arrive?”

“Every decade? That would be 9000 precisely.”

“That’s a lot of people to vanish of the face of earth.”

“It’s not Rachel, think about it, if they were only getting 9000 people in the whole world per ten years, its likely many civilizations fell just because no one was there to keep it going.”

“Who cares about civilizations though, those might be important at the start but our final goal is to get out of this place.”

“I’m afraid that cannot happen.”

As Theresa said that the entire room fell into a dreadful silence. All you could hear was the snow ramming into the walls and the brief cracks in the fireplace.

“What the hell do you mean.”

“The mark on your hand is the price.”

“What are you saying, what price, explain yourself!”

“There’s no need to get mad now just calm down.”

“Calm down!?”

“Rachel settle down, let’s hear what she has to say.”

“All of you have been marked with this number on your hands. It’s true meaning are lives; the number only goes down after you kill someone.”

“So are you saying if we kill nine hundred people, we get to leave?”

“That’s what most people think, it would make sense if you thought about it, we are told we were chosen and given powers, it’s like they are telling us to fight.”

“But to enter this village you need to show your mark, I see now. Even though you need to kill to get out of here, people still look down upon it, the lower your number the lower the reputation.”

“You are half right, there are many people that do not want to complete this task and refuse to give in to that sin, however, some people come up with different strategies, like only killing those who they think deserve it.”

“I see, is this all?”

“Not quite, you must still know, this world is nothing like where we came from, there are different rules on how our reality works, think of this world as something like a fantasy book, there are all sorts of creatures, curses and other stuff of sorts.”

“Like dragons and faeries?”

“Yes those are some of the things you could find in your journeys if you decide to set off. You will understand it better by yourselves soon”

“Theresa you’ve been a great help to us, unfortunately we can’t pay you back as of now, the doctor mentioned gold, is there a way for us to start making money?”

“Well there are always people looking for help, you should ask around town tomorrow, just don’t take any sketchy deals.”

“Thanks for all the intel, its really getting rough out there isn’t it?”

“It’s normally like this during winter, we are a cold weather island after all. If it lasts too long you guys will have to start getting used to vegetarian meals because most of my diet is just that.”

The storm had settled in and didn’t show any signs of slowing down. Theresa guided them to their rooms upstairs, both Ford and Marco would be sharing the same room. The beds seemed incredibly layered, since everyone arrives during winter it made sense that Theresa would be this prepared. There were actually two more other rooms which seemed to be occupied, perhaps other marked that had found their way here earlier.

Marco dropped his backpack and coat besides his bed and decided to rest for now, he was incredibly tired from everything that happened until now and he had a lot of information he needed to take in.

“I’m going to find a way back home.”