Unfortunately, there were no backpacks available. I did find two canteens, so the mission wasn't a total failure at the very least. I didn't know if it had to do with the lack of plastic in the place, but the only thing I found that could serve as a makeshift backpack were the cloth sacks used for holding the kitchen flour. I also raided the servants' rooms and changed my torn clothes for new, clean ones. And yes, my shoeless status remained unchanged.

I should stop stalling, I thought. There was only one last thing on my to-do list remaining: going down that basement again. Just the thought of it made me anxious. After spending so much effort on escaping, going down there out of my own volition felt... wrong, unnatural. My instincts protested, but I knew I had to go; The girl might have woken up and the guy... well, the guy was a problem for future me.

Making my way to the dining room, I paused. Remembering something, I returned to the kitchen and searched for a cup. After filling it with water, I took one of the hard baguettes and one weird purple fruit that looked like a slightly too-big plum. Now I was ready.

Heading back to the room and setting everything on the large table, I approached the mysterious bookshelves by the walls. Before, I couldn't even recognize the language in these books. Now, however, I was able to read the titles of about one-third of them: "The Revised History of the Alameda Family", "The Duality Phenomenon and its Effects on Different Matter States", "The History of the Liamar Region", "Power and Social Order"...

Taking the second one, I examined it more closely — Written by Orpheu Duramo. Curious, I began skimming through it.

It was complete bogus. There were a bunch of awkward, non-sensical diagrams everywhere, interposed with descriptions of experiments I'd never heard of. Where was Young's double-slit experiment? And what were these... drawings? Was this referring to another duality phenomenon that I've never heard about?

Putting the book back, I chose the one about the Liamar Region and opened it on a random page:

"It is believed that the Mesoindigenous population of the Cuintille province played a major role in the trade of most artifacts and manufactured goods throughout the Troth and Megôn areas, as evidenced by the recent findings of Mustler (1212) and Vinker (1213). This suggests that the political fragmentation of the region in the following years could have been rooted in a different — and still not completely understood — set of underlying factors than those traditionally accepted by mainstream historiography."

Sighing, I closed the book. Yeah, never heard of that either.

What interested me more, however, were the books that I still couldn't read. There were a bunch of them.

"So you aren't all-powerful huh," I said, touching the cold gem of the pendant on my neck. Are all these other books in different languages?

Of course, all that assuming this really was a magical translation amulet — which, I'll admit, was still a pretty hard pill to swallow.

Putting the book back, I decided it was time. No more stalling. I approached one of the bookshelves and pulled. Nothing happened. Pulling again, this time with a bit more enthusiasm, I felt it move just a little. It ended up taking me much more effort than I'd expected it would — pushing had been considerably easier. Afterward, I just had to slide the bookshelf to the side, and bam, secret entrance. The entire process was almost soundless. I grabbed the food and awkwardly stepped inside the hidden evil lair.

Entering the dark room was terrible. I felt like a death row inmate walking down the hallway or like a cow going to meet its butcher. But I couldn't let fear and anxiety control me. Mind over matter, I repeated to myself, mind over matter.

Fifteen steps later, I was down in the dark corridor. My legs tried to tremble, but I didn't let them. Taking a deep breath and focusing, I picked up the pace. I'd already delayed this too much.

A few steps and soon I was in front of my cell. Old cell, I admonished myself, not a prisoner. Everything was the same as I remembered.

"Yep, still dusty and creepy. Checks out".

Briefly glancing around the place, I turned back to the hallway and continued walking. Arriving at the girl's door, I put down the filled cup on the ground and knocked thrice. Like last time, there was no response. I soundlessly opened the door and peeked inside. Nothing had changed and the girl still hung there, by her wrists.

"Hello?" I said while stepping into the room. "Hey? Can you hear me?" Facing her, I watched her breathing and verified her pulse. Both were normal. As I retrieved my hand from the side of her neck, however, I heard something. A barely audible mumble.

"Urhghb"

"Hey, hey, hey." I said hurriedly, "You are fine. It's fine. Are you awake? Can you speak?"

"Uurh"

Was her mouth too dry? Going back to the cell's entrance, I grabbed the cup off the ground and brought it to her.

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"Here, water"

I gently tilted the cup to her lips, letting a thin trickle of water spill into her mouth. Most of it splashed onto the ground and she didn't even open her eyes, but I saw her throat move; she was drinking.

"Hey, hello. Can you speak now? What's your name?"

"...."

"Come on, please. Where are we? How can I call for help?

"Itnibtowr," she slurred, just like a drunk.

"What? I don't-, What?"

"Tril. Tril-um"

That's a word I recognize. From that letter. Trillium? What is that? A material?

"What is that? Where?"

"Hurgh heu..."

"Hey, what does that mean? Hey, oi, oi, stay with me"

"..."

I snapped my fingers in front of her face in an attempt to wake her up, but it was futile; she was back unconscious already. Damn it.

I tried getting her to talk again, with no success. Offered food, asked for information, offered to free her. Nothing worked. She was asleep, totally out of it. Was she still under the effects of a drug?

After a few more attempts, I decided it was enough for now. No point in insisting when she was like this. Besides, I still had another 'appointment' today — one that promised to be far worse than this.

******

I stood in front of the third steel door, fingers trembling. I truly didn't want to do this, but alas, it was necessary. Following the same procedure as last time, I opened it and took a peek inside. Everything was the same, with the man chained in the center of the room. I stepped into the cell and awkwardly asked:

"Hey dude, erm... are you okay?"

He remained silent. The place still smelled terrible — of ammonia and iron. The stench reminded me a bit of the smell from that mangled carcass I'd seen earlier today, by that tree and I fought the urge to retch. Approaching the man — but still keeping a reasonable distance between us — I examined him with my eyes. He was eerily still and pale, with dried blood all over his body.

"Hey. Hello?" I asked.

"..."

"Oi, hey, can you speak?

"..."

Completely unconscious. This wasn't going how I'd thought it would. I was expecting more... insanity, I guess. Where was the bloodlust and the scary murderous rage from before?

Frankly, I hadn’t come to this cell just to check on my pal here. I couldn't be entirely sure, but I was hoping this man could give me some clues as to what those things from yesterday were. Maybe I could figure something out through him.

I snapped my fingers near him, watching for a reaction.

"No response to sounds," I stated in a clinical tone.

What had triggered him that time? Walking around in circles, I kept thinking. Was it proximity? Touch? I did get pretty close back then. Should I try it again?

I wasn't too keen on waking up a murderous psycho, but I really might need this information to survive. Given how close I’d already come to being caught — or worse — this was a golden opportunity. To evade an enemy, I had to understand them. I wasn’t naïve enough to think I was completely safe in this house. Sooner or later, I’d have to take risks. Between taking a calculated risk now or facing an unknown threat later, the choice was obvious.

Before going ahead and getting too close to the guy, however, I closely inspected the chains that bound him. They were all in good condition and considerably different from the ones used to restrain me — shinier. They also didn't seem as old as the rest of the cell. If I was not mistaken, one of the letters mentioned that 01 had a better structure than the other facilities. Was this what they meant? If so, then it didn't make me feel that much safer — I did manage to escape, after all. Granted, my circumstances might have been a bit on the easier side, but still...

Refocusing my attention on the chained man, I exhaled once and prepared myself.

"Okay, let's do this"

Touching his hand and quickly stepping back, I stopped and watched out for a reaction.

Nothing. He was still unconscious.

"No apparent reaction to a brisk touch on hand. Proceeding to the second test." I said to myself, as if I were a scientist, for no reason in particular.

The second test would be prolonged contact. Touching the same hand, I maintained skin contact for five seconds, making a conscious effort not to avert my gaze from his face.

Thanks to that, I witnessed the exact moment his eyes opened. Scared, I stepped back as fast as humanly possible.

"Hello? Can you understand me? I-"

"UUrghwaghhaa!"

He woke up and immediately started thrashing around, his bloodshot eyes laser-focusing on me. There was a glimmer in them; a craziness. The chains clanked and restrained him, but he kept fighting. His screams were muffled through his stitched mouth, making them extra horrid.

This wouldn't do. This guy was gone. Whatever they'd done to him, it was too deep. I already knew he wouldn't be able to speak, but I was hoping he would at least be able to communicate with me in some way. No chance of that. He was too far gone.

I tried giving him some food, throwing one of those hard loaves at him. He didn't even flinch; didn't even consider the bread for a single second, as if he couldn't even see it. He was only interested in me and nothing else.

That was good information, though. This single-mindedness. It seemed they were hyper-focused on their prey and didn't pay attention to anything else. Or maybe they really had a different way of seeing things. That might help explain why those guys didn't see me first back in 02.

While I was busy theorizing, the man gradually lost his enthusiasm, growing more and more lethargic. At the start, he was completely uncontrollable and frantic but now he was much slower and tired, as if his energy was sapped or exhausted. Within moments, he slipped back into total unconsciousness.

Approaching, I touched his hand once more and stepped back. He woke up, thrashed around for some time, then went back to sleep again. Almost like clockwork. It didn't take that long either — maybe one or two minutes.

Awkward.

I tried some variations, but nothing came out of it. I figured he was just too weak to do much of anything. By his state, it was clear that he had suffered for quite some time.

After a couple more tests regarding sound — he did react to it when awake, but remained indifferent when asleep — it was time to go. I'd need more time to think of more tests anyway, and relying on this too much did not feel right. I left the bread in the cell and exited.

As the door closed, however, a thought struck me: What about the other cells? Last time, I’d been too shaken to check everything down here. I should at least take a look now, just as a precaution.

Yes, that was probably for the best.

Soon, I arrived at the next cell. It looked just like the others, so I went with my usual MO: bang on the door and wait for a sound. Surprisingly, a weird low hiss resounded; there was something inside. Touching the door and applying some pressure to push it... it didn't budge.

It was locked.

The other three cells hadn't been, so why was this one different?

A spike of adrenaline flooded my system. My instincts were trying to tell me something. I fumbled around in my pockets and got the key bunch that had seen no use yet. So that's what it was for.

I knocked again and heard the low hissing once more. What even was that noise? Did they have a sn-

Wait.

Knocking a third time, I heard it again. The same hiss, louder.

No.

Closer.

A chill went over my spine.