Derek raced into the main house.

"Mrs Manica!...Mrs Manica!!...Mrs Manica!!! The reverberation of his screams echoed all around. He went to the cafeteria but was welcomed only by the tables and empty chairs. He checked the dorms and even the kitchen but there were all empty. Even the creche was empty of its toddlers. Like everything that survived on two legs had suddenly vanished including the caretaker, the helpers, volunteers. There were all gone.

Madeline and Tiny took Aesir to the sickbay and laid him on a bed.

"Don't worry I gat this." Madeline took down the first aid kit hanging on the wall. "The only people that know this room more than myself are probably the old nurse and 'the weak one'."

"The weak one...?" Tiny raised a brow

"Yes, Your boyfriend!"

"My boyfriend!?"

"Yes, Derek?"

"Oh! Do you mean Derek?... Yes...yes, he is." Tiny averted her gaze away from Madeline a little. "I think Aesir got a bad concussion at school." Trying hard to change the subject.

"Yeah! he did, didn't he?" Madeline was surprised by her reaction but did not pursue it. She took a wet piece of cloth to wipe off the bloodstains on Aesir's head. "I don't know what is happening but it is freaking me out a lot." After using some antiseptic on his head injury, she bandaged it good. "I am going to get some ice from the kitchen for his head. You should get yourself cleaned up too."

"Sure, I will." Still averting her gaze

Tiny entered the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror, she did look like a mess. She turned on the tap and put her hands under the flowing water. She used some on her face. It felt good. Looking at herself in the mirror again, she remembered what Madeline said. A smile crept at the corner of her lips. The word 'boyfriend' had made her feel a sense of achievement even though it might not be true.

Some moments later,

There was a heavy sound, like heavy punches on a wall. Tiny heard the sound and ran out of the bathroom. Derek and Madeline were also outside. "What is happening?" She asked, trying to dry her hair with a towel. Evidently, her glow up had been interrupted.

"I don't know but, you remember those things I told you guys were floating around the orphanage?"

"I do!" Madeline answered. "You said something like...ehm... symbols?"

"I don't know how to say this, but I think there are fracturing. I think that woman is breaking them."

Outside the dome of runes that surrounded the orphanage, the pile of garbage at the corner was already a mess scattered all around. Apparently, the woman had poured a little more of her anger on the unwanted gathering of disposables. She was wearing a feathered coat much like her counterpart had except it was a dusty brown and the quill pen it was connected to was much bigger and thicker in width. in fact, it looked more like a measuring cylinder but it still worked just as much. She was sending out rune after rune to the dome, hammering on it with big boulders of rocks one after another. "It does not exist a wall that can hold me back from what I want and I'll show you what true power is capable of doing!" she thought to herself.

"Oh heavens! What should we do?" Madeline sat on the floor, she could feel the already settled Dredd tap her shoulders again-and it made her shiver in response.

"What do you mean 'what should we do', it's quite obvious, we have to get out of here." Derek paced back and forth in thought.

"But, how? If we go out there, that woman will probably kill us."

There were at a loss for what to do when a thought struck Derek "I've gat it. I remember Miss Carla said something about ehm... I think a gate. Yes, she said there was a gate in her room." Snapping his fingers.

"Yes! I remember too!...but doesn't Miss Carla live off the orphanage property?" Tiny questioned.

"Most days, yes, but she has a room behind the main house. She sleeps over when she has much work." Madeline answered.

"That's true. If there is a way out of here it's probably through there."

"Through where?" Tiny questioned.

"The abandoned cottage!" They both answered in unison.

While the trio talked, Aesir staggered out of the sickbay. "Derek! Derek!!...Wha...What is happening? Aaahhh!...My head. It hurts a lot." He touched his head and felt the wrapping around it. The disorientation was getting to him and he leaned on a wall.

Derek saw this and hurried to take him by the shoulder "let's take you inside. I'll fill you in but first, you need to sit. I'll give you some pain killers that'll help."

Madeline wanted to help too but her mind was right now more focused on surviving.

"I'll go check out Miss Carla's cottage," Madeline stated as she sprinted to the back of the main house.

"Wait I'll go with you." Tiny looked at Derek taking Aesir inside and decided to let them have a moment.

Shortly afterwards, there both came back with grim on their faces.

"What happened?" Derek asked.

"I don't know how to describe this." Tiny answered. "it's like a force around the cottage. Every time we got close, it just felt like we were getting further away. It is like it's there, We can see it, but we can't reach it."

"Huh!? What do you mean?"

"Maybe you should just come, you'll understand what we mean," Madeline interjected.

Derek followed the women to the old cottage. He approached it and climbed up its creaking stairs. "What do you guys mean can't reach?" He turned to look at both women but they just stared fixedly at him in surprise. Madeline looked at him and could not believe her eyes. She proceeded to reach the cottage but every step she took, only increased the distance. Derek was surprised too, he could clearly see the earth and even the grasses beneath her feet multiply every time she took a step forward.

Derek came back and forth to where the women stood and back up the cottage stairs."But Why can I reach it, while you guys can't?"

When he came down the stairs a second time, Tiny noticed a little glow in his trouser pocket. "What is that?"

He reached his hand into his pocket and took out a little black sack, the same one Miss Carla had given him. The insignia on it glowed a faint gold. He opened it and brought out the gold pendant. The shine from it was bright but not glaring enough not to look at.

An idea stroke Tiny and she walked forward and took his hand in her own. "Let's try this again." Derek nodded and the two proceeded to the cottage. This time around, Tiny got to the cottage, climbed its stairs and even touched the handle of the door. Madeline saw this and instantly understood.

Derek put on the pendant around his neck and came down the stairs to bring Madeline along.

"Are you guys ready?" Derek asked the two. There both nodded. A lot had happened so far. At this point, a flying pig with lasers from its eyes would not surprise them. Or so they thought.

He held the old and nearly rusted handle of the door and pushed it slightly. It was not locked, but he still had to put in a little extra effort because of its worn-out hinges.

The door creaked loudly and eerily, reminding Derek of the interlude to a horror movie. He opened it slowly and gently in expectation of the worst, but all that greeted them was a dark room.

Derek took a step into the room and it suddenly lighted up. He looked around and was amazed by what he saw. The room was somewhat larger than expected, no, it was way larger than expected. It was as huge as a warehouse inside which was in great contrast to its little cottage exterior. There were no candles or even electric bulbs,  but rather the room was made bright by runes on the ceiling that gave light to the entire structure.

The three took careful steps into the room, but apart from the lighting, they were only greeted by the warm stuffy air inside-hinting at an ongoing battle between rustic wood and the thick smell of dried ink. There were symbols all scattered around the walls of the room, in different shapes and sizes. Buckets emptied of ink laid in one corner with paintbrushes of varying sizes.

"So where is the gate she talked about?" Madeline was the one that voiced out the thoughts of the trio.

"I don't know, maybe it's a secret passage on the ground or something!" Derek looked around but there was no chair to even heck under. They moved the empty buckets of ink from their original positions but apart from dark dried puddles of ink on the floor, there was no 'secret passage way'.

The banging intensity from outside had not diminished at all but instead appeared to have increased, apparently, the guest was becoming rather impatient with her hosts.

After checking the floor of the wide room for a while, Derek was already feeling a bit frustrated and tired. He sat on the floor and rested his back on the wall.

"I really don't know what to do. Miss Carla didn't tell me what to do...all she said was 'gate in my room', but here we are searching for heaven knows how long with a super-powered freak that wants to ..."

"Derek...Shut up!" Tiny scolded pointing to the wall behind him

"Huh! What do you mean by telling me to shut up!?"

"Am I not allowed to be angry? We are stuck here with nowhere else to go, with crazy people that want us DEAD!" His voice increased in intonation.

"Okay, Derek I know you are angry but just listen to me." Tiny talked in a low tone, trying to calm him down. "You need to slowly leave that wall."

Unbeknownst to Derek, The moment his back touched the wall. A rune had slithered all the way from the opposite wall making a fast but unnoticeable journey to where he sat.

Tiny was making efforts to tell him of his predicament without the alarm of the assault but he was too caught up in his feelings.

"What!" Derek looked to his right, only to see what looked like a black snake staring at him. He tried to back away in a panic but it was too late. The snake wrapped itself around his hand and with a sharp hiss, it took a bite into his neck. Tiny screamed in fear and rushed to pull the snake from him. but the moment she touched it, it turned back to ink and flowed to the wall.

Suddenly, like on command, all the other runes including the ones that brightened the room gathered towards the black ink that just took a bite into Derek's neck.

He moved away from the wall in a rush with his hands on his neck. The only thought in his head was that of his oncoming death. Madeline and Tiny rushed to his side but when there checked his neck, there was no blood or sign of a bite. The two women hovered above him like angels performing a miracle, trying their best to calm him down when more hissing sounds were heard. The trio looked up and was left amazed at the sight before them.

All the runes in the room had started to gather into a huge puddle of ink on the wall. The puddle glowed brighter every time one of the runes that brightened the room was added to it. When the last rune entered the puddle, a loud boom! was heard.

Outside the Orphanage, an angry woman kept murmuring to herself as she pounded on the dome hiding her terrible hosts. She was so engrossed in her hammering that she did not notice the arrival of seven men in gold overalls escorting a woman with a strong facial resemblance to hers.

"Vera!" Ellen called to her sister "You stupid blockhead! you caused me an Ink soldier. Do you know how expensive those are to make? Each is an accumulation of painstakingly made and maintained soul rune and you just chopped off its head like it was nothing!"

"Well, since you want to know, it WAS nothing!" Vera answered without even giving Ellen a look, "All I did was to aim the fangs of my 'baby' here, and BANG! the magic happened,"  patting the Whip that was strapped to her waist in a sarcastic and affectionate manner.

There was a short pause and the sly Vera looked at Ellen from the corner of her eyes to enjoy the catch of annoyance on her face, but what she saw was even more hilarious. Ellen's beautiful dashiki dress was in rags at different parts. Her fair tender looking skin even had blood-stained glaring cuts,  both on her hands and left knee.

"What happened to you!? You look like you were caught trying to steal someone's husband and got a beating from his wife." Vera laughed hysterically with no image of a lady from a noble house.

"This would have not happened if you were with me to apprehend Levinack but you insisted on checking out the human world first". Ellen said, eyeing her annoying sister furiously.

"Don't start, there was enough time. We don't always come here, if only you had listened to me and..."

Boom!!!

A loud sound from the orphanage was heard interrupting the two.