Cecil stood up.

“I think it’s better if we go meet them,” he said.

“As you wish, sir. I shall clean up meanwhile,” the servant replied. Suzanne got up and followed him to the front door. Cecil opened it, surprising Tobias Fleisher, who had been just about to press the doorbell.

“Ah, there you are,” the older man said in greeting, smiling at them. “We knocked next door first and were told you were both here. Getting to know each other, are you? Good idea, we might be here for a while after all,” Tobias said. Suzanne saw his son Rory stand just behind him, blank faced. Both the old man’s and his son’s behavior had left a sour taste; she recalled the lanky young man’s laughing outburst at her description of meeting Mike for the first time. His father had made him apologize, but the violent way he’d done it had made her wary of him as well. She said nothing.

“I thought we’d say hello to our new neighbors! I didn’t fancy sleeping on the bus with all those people. So me and Rory took possession of the house on the other side of the street, if you can call this a street,” Tobias continued, chuckling. “I don’t know why we waited, to be honest. How can you say no to having a serf who can make you anything you want? I asked for some thirty year old bourbon and it conjured up a bottle out of nowhere, isn’t that right, Rory?” Rory grinned and laughed, but the mirth vanished as quickly as suddenly as it had appeared, and his face returned to a kind of sullen blankness. Suzanne noticed a faint smell of alcohol on their breath. Something about the way Tobias referred to the servant in “his” house bothered her, and neither was she all that happy to hear the Fleishers had moved in next door, but she couldn’t really object. It was first come, first serve in Haven, as far as they knew.

“Oh, that’s good, I guess,” Cecil said, neutrally. “We tried the kitchen too. I mean, we asked the servant here to make us some food.”

“Yes? How was it?” Tobias replied.

“It was good. Very good; in fact, I’d call it a five star meal. We should be very safe from starving,” Cecil said. Tobias’s smile broadened.

“You hear that, Rory? We’ll be fine. Might even enjoy our stay in this queer little place!” Rory grinned for the length of a blink of an eye, then his face returned to its baseline sullen state. Suzanne was taken aback.

“I’d rather leave sooner than later,” she said, reproachfully.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I want to get back home too. However, I haven’t the faintest idea how we are going to achieve that, for the time being at least. Until we know, I intend to keep up my strength, and my spirits. And fortunately, it appears that Haven provides the means to achieve just that!” Tobias replied.

“If you want to see this as a vacation, fine, by all means, enjoy. Me, I’m not happy to be stuck here, five star meals or not. My mother’s alone at a very bad time, and I hate to have to leave her on her own.” Tobias seemed taken aback.

“I’m sorry to hear that, I truly am. I truly hope we can escape this place soon, for everyone’s sake. But, we won’t gain anything by starving ourselves and being morose, are we? As far as being marooned goes, being here clearly beats being on some empty island in the ocean with no food and water. We’ll figure it out, as long as we stay healthy and sane.”

“The last part has me worried, I’ve got to admit,” Cecil said. “I feel like I’ve fallen into the rabbit hole and gone to Wonderland. Everything is so strange here. It’s like a dream, but I’m fully awake. All the usual rules have gone out the window. I’m not sure I’ll remember there even was a normal world if we end up here for too long.”

“Yes, that’s why I don’t want to stay here any longer than we absolutely have to,” Suzanne added.

“Yes, of course. I completely agree. Haven is, as you say, not like anything we’ve seen before, but it’s clearly not complete chaos either. We are being cared for, literally, and quite well at that. There’s got to be a reason for its existence. Someone wants us to live here, and I assume, they’re watching our every move,” Tobias said. Suzanne shuddered.

“What are they trying to learn from this, then? We’re just random people off a bus,” she said. “What’s the end result they’re looking for?” The others were silent; it was the crucial question, and nobody seemed to have the faintest idea what the answer was.