When Marco woke up darkness had swallowed the town, the snow was still falling and its howling effect only worsened the feeling of cold that was already present in his room.

«It’s so quiet. I can finally think in peace.»

Marco started remembering everything that had happened so far. His arrival to this world, the countless steps he took alone uncertain of what was to come, meeting up with Ford and Rachel, the centipede attack, Charles. And now, they had arrived at a populated town which seemed to be made up fully of marked people.

«Wait a minute… My nose!»

Marco had completely forgotten about it, but somehow his nose was back to normal. It seemed to have happened no too long after they started setting up camp. How did it happen?

«I can’t believe I’m only realising now. Has my body gained some sort of ability?»

Ford was lying down on his bed, Marco wasn’t sure of how much time had passed, and it seemed like the dream wasn’t triggered this time around.

«I guess this might be a good time to test my power out. I was lucky Charles didn’t do anything unexpected, my plan did not go accordingly.» Marco had set up his plan to discuss with Charles while he was asleep, he told Ford to watch them from far away, this way he wouldn’t hear the conversation but would be able to set up a barrier in case Charles did anything hasty.

The problem in Marco’s plan was the fog, it obstructed Fords view and completely threw the whole plan out the window, he was lucky he could pretend to still have the situation under control after that.

«So far when I use my power I can only get answers to yes or no questions, whenever I ask for information or something of sorts everything turns purple, I don’t know what this means.»

«There was also the question I posed about Charles. It turned yellow when I asked if Charles would attack me. This meant that it could both be a yes or a no, it all depended on how things would go down.»

«This power is actually quite handy, I just have to ask the right questions.»

«Do purple responses all mean the same?» Green

«So it isn’t any sort of information I can’t perceive.»

Marco’s power had potential to go far, however he still held back, not everyone is willing to have the answers to some questions. But if he was to test his hypothesis on how the purple responses worked then he would have to ask more daring questions.

«What is Ford thinking about?» Purple

«Am I in a different universe from where I was born?» Green

«Was I chosen by any specific reason?» Purple

«This time the yes or no question also failed, it should have been either green or red, this proves that purple is not simply something that doesn’t fall into these categories.»

«Is purple an indication of what can’t be answered with this power?» Green

«Bullseye, so I got four forms of feedback, positive, negative, ambiguous or unknown.»

«What about non-objective questions? Will I still receive an objective response?»

«Is Ford an evil person?» Red

«Weird, I thought evil wouldn’t be an actual concept, unless…»

«Is Ford an good person?» Red

«I see, no one is good nor evil, so the answer can actually be objective.»

Marco took out a nutrition bar from his backpack and split it in half, he didn’t want to wake anyone up for food but the bars were also valuable so he decided half a bar would do it.

Sleeping early was a mistake, there was nothing he could do now, night entertainment did not exist in this era without artificial light. Or did they?

Marco got out of his bed and set foot on the creaking floor, the sound was not enough to wake anyone from their deep slumber.

As he put his ear on the wood floor he couldn’t hear much aside from the snowstorm. Looking out the window was not an option as he would have to let the storm inside.

Everything was probably closed if not due to the night then due to the storm. He had no choice but to lay down and let himself fall asleep again.

Hours went by and he was still awake, the snow was calming down and the light of day was piercing through the window.

Marco opened the window, the snow was falling gently, everything was covered in white, the colour shades of the sunrise painted the horizon, it all felt like he had entered a scene from a movie.

«Is any establishment open right now?» Green

Marco got ready and headed downstairs, he would go by the hospital to see if everything was fine with the person they had picked up, then he would explore the rest of town.

As Marco went by the common room he saw two intriguing figures. A man with long black hair and a dense beard alongside him was someone who was not human.

This person was some sort of lizard like humanoid. They were wearing what seemed like a Knight’s armour.

“What are you ssssstaring at boy?”

“I’m staring at you, is that your power?”

The lizard let out a laugh.

“There are not that many newcomers that are so nonchalant about my appearance.”

«Is this appearance a result of their powers?» Red

“So there are other people aside from humans in this world”

“Yes, unlike you marked however, we don’t have any markss of powersss like yoursssss”

“Has he arrived recently as well?”

“If you want to ask me something ask it to myself.”

“I just assumed you weren’t the talkative time”

“You would be correct.”

The man awaited silently for Marco to respond, however this just resulted in a silence stare between the two, he had no idea what he wanted him to say.

“So have you?”

“Have I what, finish your damn questions.”

“Have you arrived at this world recently?”

“See, it isn’t so hard to talk decently is it? No, but I’m a marked just like you.”

“I see, are you a friend of Theresa’s”

“I guess you could put it that way yes.”

“We also partake in the search for the newcomerss.”

“Did you go out in the snow to look for them?”

“Yes, but all we found were corpses.”

“So everyone that didn’t find shelter in time is dead…”

“Everyone we found were dead yes, but some might have lived.”

“Jusst are warning boy, if you think ssnow was what killed all those soulss, then you are not prepared to leave thiss town.”

“You mean something else got them?”

“Not somethfing elsse, someone.”

“Someone thirsty for fresh meat.”

The hairy men slammed down on the table a piece of cloth, wrapped inside was something that had tainted it blood red.

“Take a look.”

As Marco unwrapped the cloth his heart skipped a beat. Inside was a hand cut into three sections, all of them parallel and perfectly cut.

“Shocking I know, but its not all that surprising, the snowstorm was a good time to go on a killing spree.”

“Yess, you may see each other when you are up close but when that time comes you won’t live to tell the tale, and your killers footssteps and attacks will all be masked by the snow.”

Theresa opened the door, she had returned from the market with some meat and a basket full of something alike to nuts. As she announced her returned she looked at both of the men and then at the severed hand on the table.

“Why do you two insist on terrorizing my guests?”

“Makes for a worthfwhile converssation what can I say.”

“Well what bout you discusssss normal things?”

“That wass a low blow Theresa, I sstudy the marketh tongue and this is how you repay my care?”

“Please you snakes have a easy time learning any language.”

“Still I have dedicated my time and that should be enough.”

“Are you two going to go on for much longer?”

“Oh!? You want my attention Cole?”

“Yes I do in fact, there is no marked left standing near town.”

“How far did you search.”

“Far enough, no new faces will be coming here soon. The only newcomers left standing are those inside Turtle.”

«Is Turtle the name of this town?» Green

“This town’s name is Turtle?”

“Oh yess, because from afar it lookss like shell!”

“Did no one actually survive? Not even a wounded?”

“They were all killed the same way, cut in perfect lines like these ones here.”

“It’s not him again right? You blew him up! You made he was dead! Right!?”

“Oh he was as dead as the folk of Pompeii”

“No power is the same but this looks exactly like it.”

“It could be a follower of his.”

“They say only four cards of the same roam through the same paths.”

“The hell doess she mean?”

“It’s an old saying between marked, it means it is unlikely you will find many others who possess similar powers to yours. Although reality is far different.”

“Even if its not like that, this definitely looks like the same ability.”

«Is the person they are talking about alive?» Red

«That’s probably for the better, unfortunately I can’t tell them without revealing my ability.»

“Theresa I’m going to check if the girl we found is doing fine.”

“Okay but do not leave town.”

«It doesn’t seem like they will change topic anytime soon.»