Message

Don and Gilda stared in horror as they watched the door open up in front of them. A little kid's giggle was heard, and they looked down to see, much to their relief, Phil waddling in the room, shutting the door behind them.

"Phil-" Don began, his heart pounding.

"Shh!" Phil turned to them, grinning and putting his finger to his mouth. "I'm playing hide-and-seek with Nyla and Eugene!"

Don slumped, sighing in relief, his heart pounding. Gilda shared the same expression. "Oh, I see."

311045

"So...." Norman began.

"The next thing we look at is..." Emma added.

"Outside." Ray, Norman, Emma, and Penny said in sync.

"So how do we plan this part?" Penny asked, resting on the bed.

"We already got lots of stuff done on the inside." Ray responded.

Norman crossed his arms. "Training's going well, the trackers can be broken."

"Which leaves...." Penny began.

"Learning about the outside and outsmarting the adults." Ray muttered, taking a seat next to Penny on the bed. "Once that's done, we can clear the wall for sure."

"Clear the wall..." Penny muttered, feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of this planning.

"Next is checking out the escape route." Emma said.

"The escape we planned out consists of three steps." Norman said, walking as he spoke. "One. We ascend the wall. Two: We get away as far away as we can. Three: We learn how to survive and become self pelerine." He stopped walking. "We have everything we need to pass the first step. As for the second..." he walked towards the window and glanced outside. "The outside is key. When we leave, we should run as far as we can. So let's examine and prepare."

"We need info about the area outside." Ray pointed out.

"When I climbed up a tree, I saw a big forest!" Emma volunteered.

Ray nodded. "Okay, but we've gotta confirm stuff like that."

"Let's look into it starting tomorrow." Norman said.

"Oh, yeah, Emma, don't forget we have one important thing we should mention!" Penny suddenly said, giving Emma an excited look. "Let's show them the books!"

"Great idea, Penny!" Emma said. "I almost forgot about that. You guys, Penny and I have someone we want you to meet!"

Norman and Ray glanced at Emma and Penny curiously.

Don waited silently in a corner of the house, waiting for Isabella to walk closer. He ran off, "accidentally" bumping into her.

Isabella let out a startled grunt of surprise, turning to Don. Don grinned at her. "Oh, sorry, I'm in a hurry!"

The boy turned heal and ran off.

"Hey, Mom!" Mark cried. "Down here!"

Isabella turned to Mark and Sherry with a smile.

Don ran as fast as he could back to Gilda, who was waiting anxiously at her corner. He grinned at her, opening the palm of his hand. "Look, I actually did it!"

Gilda's eyes widened, and she looked up at Don's face, which held a vicious smirk.

Emma grunted as she rummaged through the books. "The person Penny and I want to introduce is..." she opened up a book cover and pointed to an owl stamp in the cover. "Right here!"

"Mr. William Minerva..." Norman read aloud. He glanced up at Emma. "Really?"

"Yes!" Penny grinned. "This guy will be a key to our escape!"

"Who's he?" Norman asked the girls, taking the book from Emma and glancing at the photo.

"We don't know." Emma responded, climbing down with Penny's help. "All we know is that he's the former owner of these books. But, Penny thinks that it's possible that he's on our side."

"What do you mean?" Norman asked.

"Don't you see it, Norman?" Penny asked, a little impatient. "What Emma is trying to say is that the guy who wrote these books has been secretly giving us a special message that only we can decipher. Right through the books of this library."

Emma nodded. "And not just a few books, lots of them! Penny did an examination yesterday and found a huge pile of those books. We spent the whole afternoon today and yesterday just hunting for his books and the owl mark."

"It was so cool," Penny grinned.

Using the key, Don slowly opened the secret door in Mom's office. He and Gilda jumped a little, but they looked at each other and nodded.

Don turned the nob, and the door slowly creaked open.

Norman flipped open one of the books Penny held out for him, and sure enough, there was the owl mark. Resting right on the top corner of the book covers.

"So this sticker is..." Norman hummed.

"A bookplate." Emma finished.

"It's a label who shows who owned the book before it came here." Ray explained.

"Okay..." Norman turned to Penny. "Penny, you mentioned about a message. Where is it?"

"Really?" Penny muttered, shifting to Norman's side. "Take a closer look at the circle around the owl."

"They're all the same owl bookplate..." Norman began, but his eyes widened in realization. "Wait. The circle..." He quickly moved his finger to them and traced the marks. His eyes wide. "It's Morse code!"

Ray grinned, lifting his own finger. "Correct."

Don and Gilda carefully entered the secret room, remembering to close the door behind them. The two scanned around the secret room, their hearts pounding.

Don walked around until he stepped on something. He glanced down and opened the lid.

Gilda struck a match and placed it in the lantern she found, and slowly followed him.

Norman narrowed his eyes as he glanced at the Morse code marks. "It says... run. And this one says, 'doubt.' Then there's...'danger.' And this last one says, 'truth'."

He looked at Penny, frowning. "But still, these don't mean..."

"Hey, check these, too." Emma announced, walking up with a load of books in her arms.

They opened those as well, and sure enough, the owl mark was on there. Norman read each and every one of them in Morse code. "These ones are 'harvest'. 'Monster'. And finally, 'farm." Norman gasped. "This is..."

"It's a message to us from the outside." Ray concluded. "Hidden from everybody else. I think we can at least trust these."

"You sure?" Norman asked.

Ray thumped his fist on Emma's head. "I tend to be more suspicious then Emma, so yeah." He glanced down at the books. "It's possible that this Minerva guy could be an ally to us. Unfortunately we don't know if he's dead or alive. So we shouldn't get our hopes up too much."

"You're always so negative." Emma snapped.

"William Minerva..." Norman muttered. "He's someone from the outside who's aware that our farm exists. And while it may be indirectly, he's definitely trying to help us."

"That's right!" Emma and Penny cheered together.

"An ally on the outside..." Norman grinned, looking up. "He might even still be there!" He turned to Emma and Penny. "In which case, it's possible a society of humans may exist!"

"Exactly!" Emma grinned.

Don shuddered as he walked to the house's basement, followed closely by Gilda. He moved the lamp and the first thing he saw was...

Little Bunny.

Don's eyes shrunk.

"These messages..." Emma hummed as she glanced at the books. "Are only in books that belong to him. It's hard to tell exactly when these labels were put inside. But at least we know that this one was done after the year 2015."

"I see." Norman said. "Are we aware of anything else? Like, if the books have some kind of similarity?"

"Nope." Ray shook his head. "The Johns are varied. Same goes with the publishers and the years they were published."

"But what about..." Penny glanced at the stack of books. "Emma, which one was it?"

"Let's see..." Emma muttered, quickly scanning the books. She pulled out two of them. "We don't understand the Morse code in these two.

"One is a run of the mill adventure novel, the other's a confusing mythology book." Ray said as Norman picked up one of the books. There was a complete circle on the owl. "As for this one..." He opened the book and read. "Prom-ise." He narrowed his eyes. "What does that mean?!"

"Why is...Little Bunny here?!" Don shuddered as he glanced at Connie's favorite stuffed bunny.

"So what Emma and the others said..." Gilda turned to Don. "All of it was true, Don! No one was sent to foster families!"

Don stared at her with wide eyes. "Stop it!"

"Because if they actually had been...this wouldn't be here. It would've been delivered straight to Connie!" She took the lamp from Don and scanned around the room. "And it's not just Little Bunny. Mom took all of these toys from them when they left the house. Then..." Gilda's eyes shrunk in horror. "They were taken by the bad people!"

Don shuddered, backing up towards the bookcase. "Hey, would you cut it out?!"

His back hit the bookcase, and he felt it part behind him. He and Gilda turned to it, their eyes widening with horror.

"I'm pretty sure there's some kind of meaning in these." Emma muttered as she glanced at the books laid over the table. "A book with the message "promise" and one that doesn't have Morse code, but has a few ripped pages in it."

"So you think these ones are special?" Norman asked.

"That's gotta be it." Penny said, nodding in Norman's direction.

"If I'm right," Emma continued. "Then I think it's extremely likely... that these will become a perfect guide for us."

"Based on what?" Ray asked.

Emma thought for a moment and grinned at him. "A hunch!"

Ray stared at her, giving her a wry look.

"What's with that face?!" Emma snapped at him.

Don stared at the machine in front of them in horror. "So... who is Mom communicating with? Is it the base Ray was talking about?! Are they the bad guys?!" He turned to Gilda. "Ray mentioned that he had Mom under control. That we're done for if Krona finds out. What did he mean by that? If either of them catch us, will they punish us?! And what if, Mom is really dangerous, and our siblings are-"

"STOP IT!" Gilda yelled, not being able to handle Don's frantic ranting anymore. "Norman told us that he doesn't know what happened to Connie..."

"No." Don snapped. He gritted his teeth angrily. "Those four are just hiding things from us."

Gilda looked down. "There must be a reason for it...maybe..."

Don's eyes narrowed, and he gritted his teeth. "I can't trust them like that. Not when they obviously don't trust enough to tell us the truth!"

Norman finally stood up from his spot, a pleased smile on his face. "I think this is all worth looking into. Let's learn more about Mr. Minerva."

"We're not just escaping, right guys?" Emma asked with a determined grin. "We're going to find a way for us to survive in this world."

"You said it, Emma!" Penny grinned. She turned to Norman. "What do you think, Norman?"

Norman nodded, smiling. "Let's run. Let's live. No matter what things are like out there."

Emma and Penny glanced at each other and shared a happy smile.

Something clicked upstairs.

Don and Gilda jumped.

"Just a moment, Phil." Isabella called from upstairs. "I'll be right there."

Don and Gilda shuddered. Isabella was right upstairs, now how were they going to get out without getting caught?

"I'm kinda surprised." Norman smiled as they walked down from the library to the dining hall. "I expected Ray to find the book plates since he reads a lot. How did you even manage to find them, Emma and Penny?"

Penny shook her head proudly. "Nope. Not us. Phil did. He showed it to me and Emma while we were in the library the other day. Better believe it surprised me."

"Yeah." Emma nodded in agreement. "A kid's book he was reading happened to be Mr. Minerva's, and there was a part of it that had Morse Code, so...." She glanced at Penny, who had stopped in her pace, her eyes wide. "Penny?"

She glanced around the dining hall and realized what stopped Penny in her tracks.

Don and Gilda weren't there.

"Don and Gilda..." Emma gasped.

"They're not here, either!" Norman called.

"Could they be?!" Emma gasped, her eyes wide.

"No..." Penny shuddered, realizing what she was saying.

Don and Gilda turned off the lantern, listening carefully as they quietly crept up the basement steps. The sound of someone taking a seat on the other side of the room was heard, and the rustling of papers.

Don and Gilda looked at each other, and nodded.

Hearing the familiar click of her door being opened, Isabella narrowed her eyes. She stood up and walked towards the book case that was hiding the door to the secret room. She was about to open it when...

"Mom!"

Isabella turned down to face Eugene, who was smiling at her. She smiled back softly. "Oh, Eugene. What's wrong?"

Eugene grinned at her, holding a familiar looking key. "This was on the floor!"

Isabella's eyes widened, and she cautiously put a hand in her pocket. Yup, as expected, it was gone. She narrowed her eyes. Her suspicious expression faded as she knelt down and patted Eugene on the head. "Thank you."

Eugene giggled happily.

Once he left, Isabella clutched her key, narrowing her eyes.

Penny ran down the hall, searching everywhere for Don and Gilda. She turned around the corner and saw them walking towards her...Gilda with a quiet expression, while Don contained a furious one.

"Don! Gilda!"

At Emma's sudden exclamation, Penny jumped, glancing up at Emma, Norman, and Ray, who had joined her, all holding the same serious expression she had.

"Oh, good." Emma sighed with relief. "I thought that..." She was cut short when Ray stomped right up to Don and Gilda. He narrowed his eyes at his younger siblings and narrowed his eyes. "Where were you?"

Gilda looked down guiltily, while Don kept his angry expression.

Looks like they had some explaining to do, and Penny wasn't looking forward to it.