Daniel and Jen collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Daniel's head was spinning both from the run and everything he had learned.

In the distance not only had the beast and his followers and their hounds seemed further away, it seemed they were going in the opposite direction.

"I think... we lost them..." Daniel gasped out.

Jen said not a word, but picked Daniel up with renewed strength.

"This way" she said. "I know of a place close by..."

Soon they entered the mouth of a cave and he, with some of his strength returned, followed her inside. They collapsed against opposite walls, panting for breath. Daniel picked his hand off the cave wall and discovered it blackened, covered by the same kind of soot he'd seen on Jen's face.

He looked around and say some supplies. She'd been living here awhile.

"Three weeks--" she said, as if reading his mind. "Maybe more. Time is easily lost here"

She fetched a canteen our of a nearby bag and a small sack.

She took a swing and then tossed it to him.

"Drink" she said, more of an order than an offer.

She opened the sack and biscuits came out, the same kind the man at the grocery had given him. She tossed one to him and they both stuffed their faces like they had never tasted food before.

"I didn't know it was you at first--" Jen said. "How could I?"

Daniel was puzzled for a second, but then remembered their first interaction and her placing his hand on her crotch.

"I had to show you I wasn't... one of them..." she said, as if reading his mind. She looked to the ground and the redness of her cheeks was so bright the soot could not conceal it.

"It's--it's okay" Daniel finally said. "You were thinking fast, I'm sure..."

She nodded.

"I don't... this is all... too much" Daniel said, rubbing his face not thinking of the consequences. Now his face matched hers.

"We really are siblings" she said, smiling.

"I can't even believe this" he said. "I don't even really remember you. Just flashes... I blocked it all out. I didn't want to remember. I..."

He trailed off. She grabbed his hand.

"I understand" she said. "I recognized you eventually. Somehow. But it wasn't until.... he said it was you that I knew..."

"That can't be..."

"It is. It's dad."

Daniel was remembering more and more now. The self-released fog was lifting. Years and years of it he had worked so hard to build up dissipating in minutes.

"There's a lot I don't understand either, Danny. I can only tell you what I know."

Danny. That was what he had been called when he was a kid. When the foster home had asked what he liked being called, he hadn't said a word, so they just used the name off his birth certificate.

"Dad told the cops that night that you had attacked me and when your mom tried to stop you she fell down the stairs. He admitted to hurting you, but said he did it out of self defense."

"That's bullshit!" Danny shouted and it echoed through the cave. He was still remembering, but he knew that was a lie.

She nodded. "Still, dad was drinking buddies with the entire goddamn town, including the judge. He couldn't get custody of you back, so you went to foster care. They sent me to live with grandma and grandpa -- but not mom's parents, dad's parents. So, of course, a few months later when everything cooled down and he came to get me they never reported it. He moved us all the way to Pennsylvania overnight. Didn't let me keep anything of mine, mom's or yours... except one thing..."

"Don't tell me..." Danny said, meeting her gaze.

"That goddammit stuffed monster. He made me keep it on top of a shelf in my room to watch over me, just like he did you. I never knew why he was so obsessed with that thing, but obviously there's more to that."

"It couldn't have been easy for you with him--" Danny said, looking at the cave floor. "I'm sorry you went through that. Sorry I shut everything out."

"You were just a kid" Jen replied. "I would have done the same thing if I could. But I couldn't and it was horrible. He got worse and worse. Wouldn't even let me have friends. He'd come pick me up from school and he'd see me talking to a boy and call me a 'slut' all fucking day and night. I guess... I guess he just wanted me all to himself."

Danny looked up, his stomach in knots.

"Do you mean?"

Jen looked down and nodded, turning her head as to hid a single tear drop that plowed through the soot and plopped on the ground like she was leaking oil.

Danny didn't know what to say, but his fear and confusion and sadness was replaced by anger.

"How the fuck could he do that to you!? To us!?" he shouted, pounding a fist hard against the wall, sending another echo into the unknown.

"But he wasn't always like that Danny. Do you remember? He changed... and it wasn't just the drinking. That was part of the change..."

Danny reached into the recesses of his mind and was able to retrieve happy memories. Him and his father playing with a train set on the floor. Him swinging him higher on the swing as he laughed.

"I remember" Danny said.

"When did it change?" Jen asked. She was getting at something. Danny thought hard. He could remember now... but what had caused it...

Then it hit him so suddenly he jumped to his feet before his legs gave out sending him crashing back down.

"That fucking stuffed monster! He started changing right after he brought it at that flea market!"

Jen smiled and sighed.

"Thank God I'm not crazy afterall"

They spent a few minutes drinking and eating more as Danny continued to remember.

"Jenzora?" he asked. "But your name... is Jennifer. Jen for short, yes. But Jenzora!?"

She laughed. "You really don't remember that? It was my name in D&D. We used to play with our neighbor down the street, Andrew Clutchfield and his brother Mike. You gave me the name actually. Jenzora: Level 7 Druid Wood Elf. You were a..."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Fighter!" Danny shouted. "Dwarven fighter!"

"Yep!" she said grinning. "I don't know... I just always liked the name Jenzora. You told me Jenzora could find her way out of anything when we were kids..."

"I did?"

"You did" she nodded, smiling. "And that's what I did. When I was 15 I ran away from home. Got the hell away from dad and from that day I was Jenzora, because I found my way out just like you. We took different paths, bro, but here we are again..."

"It's good to see you, sis" Danny said and they embraced.

"You too, Danny" she said.

A few moments passed. Danny needed to know more about where they were and what this all was.

"How did you get here?" he asked.

"Same as you, I guess" she said. "Trying to escape that virus. I heard Maine had a refuge where no one was infected and it was safe, so I came here."

"When you came... was the old man.... I mean, dad... was he..."

"With the tree? Yeah. I didn't recognize him at the time, though. I guess you're not the only one who tried to forget things."

"It didn't take me long to end up in the same situation you did" she continued. "I managed to escape and have been hiding out and laying low ever since. Well, until I saw the take you, at least."

"Why haven't you left?" Danny asked.

"Oh, I've tried" she said. "You try to walk away from this place, you end up right back where you started. I even tried to cross where the tree is in the road, which isn't easy because it's out in the open and you can be seen. As soon as I stepped over I was facing right back towards the town again. Don't ask me to explain it. That's just what happened."

"Jesus" Danny muttered.

"Yeah, I don't think he's here."

"What about the people?" Danny asked. "Are they...?"

"All him?"

He nodded. She shrugged.

"I'm certain he's our dad, the priest and the beast" she said. "But from there it gets foggy. I think the followers are his slaves and are some of the townspeople. I also think the townspeople may be real people, including the Sheriff, but I'm not certain. Either way, I don't trust them, the Sheriff especially. He's on dad's payroll at the very least. The only one I trust and who I am sure is a real person who can be trusted is Archie..."

"Archie?"

"He runs the grocery store. He doesn't seem to be like the rest."

"He slipped me some biscuits when I first got here" Danny said, nodding.

"Yeah. He leaves me food out back of the grocery I slip out to get at night by pretending he's throwing it out, but it's perfectly good."

"Sounds like maybe we have an ally" Danny said.

"Maybe" she replied. "But I don't think he wants to be involved more than he is already and without him for food, I don't know what I'd do. What we'd do."

"Hey... what was that In the name of Mammal.... order of Gizmo or whatever stuff you shouted back there?"

Jenzora laughed.

"Order of Gizmo!?" she teased

"You know what I mean!"

"It's 'In the name of Mammon, under the order of Globohomo, make way'... and... I have no fucking idea to be honest. It's something Archie told me to say. He said pull out a wad of money and say it but told me only to do it if I was absolutely desperate... and, I don't know, things seemed pretty damn desperate so I just said it."

"Well... I saw that shit catch on fire and turn to ash" Danny said. "So it did something..."

"Well, I was hoping for Magic Missile and not Burning Hands" Jen laughed. "Needless to say, I wasn't impressed"

Danny smirked and then after a pause exclaimed: "OK! So what else!?"

Jen shrugged.

"Sorry Danny. There's a lot more that I don't know about this place than I do."

"You've been here all this time and that's it!?"

"Hey, first off, I don't even know what all this time is... and second off, I've been laying low. I only popped out to save your ass, remember?"

Danny nodded sheepishly.

"OK" he said after a moment. "What do you say we find out together?"

He stood, bumping his head on the top of the cave making Jen roll her eyes and smirk.

"OK" she said. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well... for starters, what's down that way?"

He pointed into the depths of the cave and its darkness.

"I don't know" she admitted. "I've only been so far"

"You haven't even explored your own back yard" he asked.

"Shuddup"

She stood, knowing the perfect time distance to raise without bumping her head and they walked together.

"This is the furthest I've been" she announced as the cave walls became tighter and lower. They crotchet and kept moving.

There was no light anymore.

"You got anymore wads of money?" Danny asked.

"Hardy har har" she said and suddenly with a spark there was light. "She raised a lighter and they could now see a few feet in front of them"

"Another gift from Archie?" Danny asked.

"Nah, I had this with me when I came" she said.

Soon something came to view on the cave floor.

"What the hell--" Danny asked as Jen held the lighter closer to it.

It was a melted piece of plastic in the shape of what almost looked like handcuffs and beside it a fluff of something burnt. Danny picked it up and examined it next to the light.

All and once they both knew what it was from and looked at each other.

"It can't be" Jen said.

"But it is" Danny said. "This piece was always missing from its back. Burnt off. I remember the spot."

He dropped the chard piece of fur back on the floor.

"How did it get here?" Jen asked. "Why is it here?"

"Let's find out" Danny replied and they pressed forward into the unknown.