“Wasn’t it all about trust?” Blue questions

“If you ask them right now, Natasha wouldn’t agree. Ray would follow her, he’s like her personal slave. That leaves Vince and Eve. Trust me on this, they’re both fine.” Julie states.

“How do you know that?” Blue wonders.

“Hmm? Which part?” Julie smirks.

“Everything of course!” Blue rolls her eyes.

“Well, Natasha doesn’t like you. So obviously she wouldn’t want to be bound to you. As I said, Ray is like her personal slave so would follow her in that. And the last part, just trust me.” Julie explains with a smile.

April joins in. “I’m with her, you can trust them.” She says with a gentle smile.

Blue carefully looks at the both of them. They both have a smile on their face, but not the extreme fake one. Just the nice kind of smile, as if they are trying hard not to scare a little animal. ‘It’s the same smile my sister always uses when she needs me. She also once used it when there was an animal at our window.’ Blue thinks, she gets a little flashback to when her sister tried to lure in an animal.

Something had been scratching the windows in the middle of the night, it woke up the both of them. Lilianne was the one checking the window, and when she saw a little animal she opened the window. She tried to be as approachable as possible, nice smile, soft words and one arm a bit in front. In the end the little animal came in, it had greyish fur and black fur on its face like a mask. Blue had never seen one before.

Lilianne closed the window behind the animal and started talking. “You see this little guy? It’s a raccoon. They don’t usually live here, but one of the richer families might have bought it.” The raccoon quickly jumped on Lilianne’s bed, climbing under the blanket. Lilianne had no choice but to give away her bed, she jumped into Blue’s bed and stayed there instead.

‘I don’t remember what happened the next morning...’ Blue tries hard to recall, but to no avail.

April and Julie are still waiting for her answer. ‘Lilianne said a soul contract still needed permission for anything, so maybe it’s fine?’ Blue ponders. “Alright then…” She slowly responds.

‘Let’s start with Natasha, to see if Julie is right.’ Blue decides. She walks towards the girl who’s sitting alone. “Hey, do you want to form a soul contract?” Blue directly asks.

Natasha looks up at Blue. Her snobby face replaced by a quiet and scared one. Her eyes are red and puffy. “Go away.” She says as she looks down again.

‘Well, I tried.’ Blue sighs. ‘Now Ray?’ She looks around and finds Ray standing near Eve. ‘Then where is Vince?’ Turning her head she sees Vince, jumping to try to get the attention of the guard. The guard annoyedly looks away. ‘I guess that helps…’

She heads to Ray and asks him the same question. He looks confused and walks towards Natasha. A few seconds later he comes back and shakes his head. ‘I guess Julie was right… I hope she’s right about the rest too.’ Blue sighs.

Since Blue’s standing near Eve as well she just turns her head and repeats the question. To her surprise Natasha just nods. ‘She didn’t even ask anything?’

Eve quickly grabs Blue’s hands and bumps her forehead. The process finishes after the usual, and Eve goes back to talking with Ray.

‘Uh what?’ Blue finds it hard to follow. She has trouble walking as she returns to Julie and April.

“Go rest, you did a lot already.” Julie pats Blue on her back.

Blue lies down against the cage and closes her eyes.

----------------------------------------

An unknown amount of time passed as Blue opens her eyes. Looking around she sees that she isn’t in the cage anymore. ‘I don’t know this place?’ Blue thinks. She’s in a small room, with just a couch, a window and a door. The walls are white and the floor is made of wooden planks. She’s currently sitting on the couch, as if someone had put her on it.

Blue gets off the couch and walks towards the window. The window shows a forest, it’s dark with only the moon as a light source. Some shadows are moving around and Blue quickly moves away from the window. ‘It’s fine... It’s fine… It’s just your imagination, nothing is actually moving…’ Blue slightly freaks out. She moves back towards the couch and stares at the wall.

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‘Let’s not look at anything. That’s a great idea.’ Blue shuts her eyes, but she can’t keep them closed. Every so often her eyes open again, to only be closed right after.

There’s a sound behind the door. ‘Someone’s there?!’ Blue carefully looks at the door.

The door opens and two people walk in. Blue stares at their faces and realizes that they’re Lilianne and Thomas.

“Oh, you woke up...” Lilianne remarks.

Blue nods. “How much time has passed?”

Thomas looks at the roof and closes his eyes. “Should be around 10 hours?”

“I think that’s it yeah.” Lilianne agrees.

“You just fell down and didn’t wake up until now.” Thomas explains.

“Then why am I here?” Blue wonders.

“We thought we would go explore the world a bit. We’re trying to get clues as to what this is.” Lilianne says.

“Yeah, I just thought it’s odd how some rooms would exist if you made it. Like the black room, only Lilianne and me know of its existence. So maybe this place is made from our memories as well.” Thomas adds.

Lilianne nods “So we went outside, trying to find a place we don’t know about. See if it exists or not.”

“And? Did you find it?” Blue questions.

“Well. Do you see this room? We randomly found it in the forest…” Thomas answers.

“And now we’re absolutely clueless and wandering around.” Lilianne ends the story.

“... Then what?” Blue raises her eyebrow.

“Well as I said, we’re clueless. So, tell us more about it.” Lilianne says.

“Tell what?” Blue stares at Lilianne.

“Obviously about the effects or any clues you got.” Thomas sighs.

Blue silently thinks.

Thomas interrupts her. “Since when do you tap your chin? That’s something Lilianne does, you know..” He rolls his eyes.

‘What?’ Blue stares down and realizes she’s indeed tapping her chin. ‘How did that happen?’

Lilianne glances at Thomas before looking at Blue. “It doesn’t matter. Just talk, will you.” She returns her gaze to Thomas. “Don’t interrupt her.” She states coldly.

“I... Uh… once had a headache after returning from here? And 10 hours passed in both worlds?” Blue slowly answers.

“A headache could be a result of being mentally tired. 10 hours might as well be that too.” Thomas sighs.

“So we’re no further than we were before…” Lilianne sighs together with Thomas.

“So did you check that line thingie yet?” Thomas faces Blue and asks.

‘Line thingie? Wait.. The line with April?’ Blue thinks. “No...” She responds

“Try it now.” Lilianne orders.

“Not in the other place first?” Blue raises her eyebrow.

“Might as well see if it works here. If it doesn’t go ahead and try it there.” Lilianne explains.

“That reminds me, didn’t you say that you couldn’t leave? Then how did you leave?” Blue wonders.

Lilianne raises her eyebrow. “Since when do you care about details?”

“I’m just wondering what changed.” Blue stares at Lilianne.

“Well, what changed is that this world might be fake. Lilianne gave up on caring and we went out through the window.” Thomas rolls his eyes.

“So easy? Why didn’t you do it earlier then?” Blue reacts surprised.

“Hmm. I don’t know, maybe it didn’t work out before? It’s like you had an experience beforehand that pointed that out?” Lilianne remarks sarcastically.

Blue falls silent with that.

“Now will you start trying?” Lilianne sighs.

‘So how should I do this? Think about April?’ Blue ponders.

“How about you start with thinking about where the person is.” Thomas points out.

‘I didn’t say that, did I?’ Blue stares at Thomas.

“You’re like an open book...” Thomas sighs.

Blue shakes her head and ignores Thomas. ‘Okay. Where are you, April?’

A familiar feeling goes through her. ‘How is it familiar?’ Blue wonders. The feeling pulls her towards the door. ‘So does that mean April is that way?’

Blue heads towards the door.

“Hold up, where are you going?” Lilianne stops her.

“I don’t know.” Blue answers distracted.

“Useful…” Lilianne sighs.

Blue opens the door, ignoring Lilianne. The feeling tells her exactly where to go. Disregarding her surroundings Blue just focuses on the feeling.

Blue walks and walks, sometimes narrowly avoiding obstacles. But she doesn’t care, she just keeps going.

After a while Blue comes to a stop. She looks around and sees she’s in a town. It’s still dark, and nobody is on the streets.

Lilianne ends next to Blue. “So, found something?”

Blue nods and points at a house.

“We’re not breaking into a house, alright?” Lilianne sighs.

“Then what?” Blue sighs.

Thomas finally arrives in a relaxed pace. “It’s almost morning, we can just wait you know.”

“We could. But I don’t like being here at daylight.” Lilianne states.

Thomas rolls his eyes. “In that case.” He bends down to grab a stone and aims at a window. “We’ll get them out now.” He throws the stone at the window and the window breaks. Before anyone can look, he pulls Lilianne and Blue away to hide at a distant.

There’s some screaming inside, all kind of slurs being thrown out. Soon after a man in his pyjamas runs out with a slipper in his hand.

“See, it works.” Thomas smirks.

“And you just woke up the whole neighbourhood.” Lilianne points to all the people standing in front of their windows.

“So?” Thomas shrugs.

“Let’s get out of here before they find us…” Lilianne suggests.

“Just a bit longer?” Blue asks.

“Now.” Lilianne says in a way that she’s not taking no for an answer. She pulls both Thomas and Blue away from the scene.

Blue takes one last glance over her shoulder. A little kid with brown hair comes out and heads towards the man. Blue tries to focus to see better but instead gets pulled away. ‘Was that April or not?’ Blue wonders.