‘No,’ Leo whispered back, ‘and you shouldn’t be either.’ Then he stopped walking.

    ‘Don’t try to hide it. It’s alright if you’re scared. I mean, you should be. We’re wandering in the streets alone at night, going to the unknown with some kind of danger in the atmosphere.’

    ‘I’m not scared,’ said Leo conclusively.

    ‘You look scared. Admit it, you’re only human after all.’

    ‘I’m thinking Ursula, thinking, will you please let me do that?’

    ‘Are we lost?’ asked Ursula stubbornly, just to talk.

    ‘No! We’re only a few streets away from home, how can we be lost? Now, will you please shut up?’

    ‘What needs thinking then?’

    ‘According to the map we’ve reached our destination,’ Leo checked the map again.

    ‘So where is the Rest House?’

    ‘This is what I’m trying to figure out. What I’m seeing on the map is that the Rest House—must—be—here, but all that is actually here is the usual, still, dark streets.’

    ‘Are you sure you were holding the map the right way?’

    ‘This is not the time to be funny really,’ said Leo.

    ‘This cannot be the place, Leo. Look at that.’ She pointed at a big house with a lovely exterior and a neat garden. ‘That’s my friend Claudia’s house, and look around that house, there are more like it.’

    ‘I understand that this is one of the most inhabited neighbourhoods in town. What exactly is your point?’

    ‘Well, what I understand about that Rest House is that it must be some kind of a station to whoever is going to go to Hozafia; that strange place that nobody should know about. I’m guessing that the station must be as strange as the destination. So, that Rest House must have been placed somewhere no non-Hozafian eye can reach, somewhere deserted maybe.’

    ‘Very clever theory Ursula,’ said Leo derisively, ‘but I don’t think there are any deserted places in this town. It’s got to be here somewhere; certainly, they have given us the right map.’

    ‘You mean that it’s hidden here somewhere and we just can’t see it?’ said Ursula making use of her imagination.

    ‘Look!’ Leo pointed ahead of them. Ursula gazed at the darkness where Leo was indicating. A man was sitting on a chair next to a small building. The man was sleeping and snoring. He was old, he had a bald head, large facial features, a pair of bushy eyebrows that covered his eyelids, a large blackhead in the corner of his nose and a stomach that was swollen like his nose except that it was fifty times bigger.

    ‘What is that man doing outside in the cold?’ asked Ursula; surprised to see a man sleeping in the open, a sight unusual in their polished little town.

    ‘I don’t know,’ Leo was surprised too.

    ‘Could that building behind him be his house?’ said Ursula.

    ‘I don’t think so,’ said Leo. ‘I know that building; that is house number 12 of Ludwig Strike Street. I don’t recall it was ever inhabited.’

    ‘A deserted place that’s what it is,’ said Ursula. Indeed it even looked a bit deserted. It was a house with the same external design as all the houses in the neighbourhood, but it was old and substandard; the wild plants of its dirty garden almost reached its second-floor windows, and parts of the building’s paint had fallen off the first floor to reveal an ugly red-brick wall that was covered instead with graffiti.

    ‘Can that be the place we’re looking for?’ Leo shifted his gaze from the house back to the map. ‘The map only says the Rest House. No building numbers are written here.’ Leo looked back at the old house then he smiled, unexpectedly. ‘I used to come here with my friends when we were young. We believed it was a haunted house. We used to come looking for an adventure, but we were never able to enter it.’

    ‘Why couldn’t you?’

    ‘There was no door.’

    ‘A house with no door?’ said Ursula. ‘No silly, it’s got to be at the back.’

    ‘We checked, it has no doors,’ said Leo. ‘We tried many times to enter it through that window, but no matter how much we tried, it would never open. We even failed to break it.’ Leo pointed at a low window next to the sleeping man.

    ‘But, if that is the Rest House, then how people are supposed to enter it?’

    ‘Maybe that man is there to tell us,’ said Leo suddenly feeling a rush of excitement, and so, they decided to go wake the man and see how far of their strange story he would follow.

   Above the man’s head, there was a lamp post. It lit up half of the man’s face and part of the street in front of the house, but the wall next to him shaded the rest of the pavement where he was sitting, and as they moved closer, they could see something moving in the shadows.

    ‘What’s that?’ Ursula pointed ahead. They walked closer and there, gradually through the darkness, appeared the shadows of two people who seemed to be fighting, and closer they went and clearer they could see that one of those people was a female with long hair and a skirt. They could not see the face of the other person who was wearing a hood. As they went closer, they realised that the girl was being pulled away by the other person. By then, they were close enough to hear their voices, and the girl screamed ‘HELP!’—Leo, instinctively, was about to run to help the girl, but Ursula stopped him.

    ‘No, Leo wait, let’s not get involved.’ Ursula was scared.

    ‘Someone needs help,’ Leo frowned at his sister, pulled his sleeve from her grip and ran to help the screaming girl. When he reached them, the hooded person was trying to muffle the girl’s screams, but Leo managed to pull him away from her and stood between them.

    ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ said the hooded person in clear frustration, Leo was still unable to see the face, but the voice was that of a man.

    ‘Me? Well, I’m stopping whatever you were doing,’ said Leo and without a warning, he punched the hooded person in the face sending him to the ground. The man fell on his back and before he could get up Leo went for the hood. ‘Let’s see your face scary guy.’ Leo pulled back the hood and an uncertain, thin, pale face was revealed. There was something very odd about how that man looked. He had long, straight, dull-white hair and a pair of alien-looking, beady eyes. Leo took a step back.

    ‘How dare you?’ the man barked then he quickly stood up and ran away.

    ‘What was that all about?’ asked Ursula looking back at the stunned-looking Leo and the still-frightened girl after the strange-looking man had disappeared behind a corner. They looked around them, the streets were quiet as ever. The snoring man was gone.

    ‘I’m not sure,’ said the girl a little out of breath but not panicky.

    ‘Are you alright?’ Leo asked the girl.

    ‘I’m fine! Thank you for what you did.’

    ‘Don’t mention it,’ said Leo secretly feeling pleased with himself even with Ursula rolling her eyes at him. Ursula stopped gazing at her proudly smiling brother to have a look at the girl he just saved. She was a tall, radiant, young woman. She had long, blond hair that was thick as a blanket and lovely, green eyes.

    ‘Were you lost? I see that you were going someplace,’ said Leo pointing at the suitcase in her hand.

    ‘Well, no—I was not lost,’ the girl replied.

    ‘If you were going to the bus station? I can—ouch!’ Leo was about to offer his help yet again, but Ursula unsubtly stomped on his foot to remind him of their appointment.

    ‘I see you were going someplace yourselves?’ said the girl pointing at their bags. Leo smiled widely and ignored her question.

    ‘My name is Leonardo Donner,’ Leo extended his hand, ‘and this is my sister, Ursula.’

    ‘Pleased to meet you,’ the girl smiled and shook hands with Leo. ‘I’m—’

    ‘Virginia!’ someone called her from behind. They looked back and there, through the thin fog that seemed intense under the light of the streetlamp, appeared a ghost-shaped figure running towards them in panic.

    ‘Donner, what happened?’ Erick asked concernedly.

    ‘Erick?’ Ursula looked shocked to see him. ‘Where did you come from?’

    ‘Are you okay?’ Erick asked the girl.

    ‘I’m alright,’ Virginia said steadily.

    ‘What happened?’ Erick demanded.

    ‘Someone came from behind me and tried to drag me away, but Mr Donner here came for my rescue.’

    ‘Thanks, Leo,’ Erick breathed in relief.

    ‘How did you know there was something wrong?’ asked Leo.

    ‘Maurice told me,’ said Erick looking contemptuously at the old man who was snoring minutes earlier by the wall and who was now standing a few steps away from them, ‘after he woke up. You’re supposed to keep a watchful eye.’ The man, who was shorter than Erick and whose back was extremely humped, looked at Erick upwards in embarrassment. ‘Everyone, please follow me,’ said Erick after he finished glaring at old Maurice.

    ‘Are we going to the Rest House now?’ asked Virginia who, to the Donner’s surprise, was just like them—a warrior.

    ‘Yes, we are,’ said Erick as he walked back to the old deserted building.