IV. Unreal.

Highdell is a curious place.

Although Marie has said that it is a gigantic house, my imagination can only see it as a great tower, separated thousands of kilometers from its equal, perhaps in the other there is electricity and hot water, since there is none of that here.

Outside it rains most of the time, in my opinion it is great, I have been able to enjoy the rain with Marie on several occasions; which makes it even better.

There were a few hours until night fell, I took a quick look at the kitchen, Alwin was there, with Petra, preparing dinner, because of the noise that can be heard from below, Paulie surely has created another great "wonder" in his room.

The time I spent here helped me to clear up, and think better about everything, although I do not remember so much about my life, I still have a great need to know what happened.

I need to go home.

Marie was on her back cleaning a shelf full of books, I approached from behind.

"Would you like to investigate with me?" She, "she whispered in one ear, as she pointed up the stairs.

"My brother wouldn't like…" she whispered.

"It will only take a moment, I promise you."

She didn't respond, instead she led me, almost dragging me, to the other floor. No one would notice our absence, at least for now.

The third floor was much larger than the other two below, in fact, it had many more rooms, I tried to open the first door next to the stairs, but this one had a lock that left it half open.

Inside it was dark, the only trace of light that could be distinguished came from a lamp that illuminated two paintings, one of them totally white while the other painted black.

Seeing that reminded me of what Alwin once said, maybe the place was full of lunatics, I quickly closed the door.

Marie entwined my hand with hers, I held it tightly.

"I won't get away from you," I said, no idea where I got such bravery.

She nodded, giving me a smile.

We opened more doors, finding ourselves with the same thing, there was no sign that someone else lived here, I felt strangely discouraged and scared, a part of me wanted to meet someone, but at the same time I just wanted everything to remain the same.

My hands were sweating cold, I was short of breath, there were only two rooms left to check and we could go.

When I opened the penultimate door an empty paint bucket shot towards us, we barely managed to dodge it, take a quick look.

It was a small room, however, all the objects that were there proved otherwise, the walls had so much paint that it seemed that at any moment they were going to melt, the wood on the floor could barely be distinguished from all the books and brushes that he had.

A babbling could be heard from the depths of the room, when I got ready to enter the next door opened showing an old man, short and with huge glasses.

"Louse doesn't usually get visitors at these hours," he said, adjusting his glasses. What brings you here, ladies?

"We were just seeing the place…" Marie spoke, before she could even formulate a word.

"Just watching, huh." She looked at us from head to toe. Would you like a cup of tea? With this climate they wouldn't feel bad, besides, surely they've already gotten bored of seeing the same thing, right?

"How do you know ...?"

The old man moved to the side.

"I know this place perfectly, believe me, when the night comes it's even worse."

He beckoned us inside.

-Who are you? "I backed off."

The calm of him puzzled me, most likely paranoid about everything I saw, but even so, that kindness that he had along with his serene face was too disturbing to trust easily.

He smiled.

"Werner, my pleasure."

"Werner… I know him!" Marie moved closer to him, releasing our hands.

"It's been a while, Mary…" Werner greeted her with a short hug. Glad to see you again.

"I'm sorry I didn't visit you as I promised ...

She was puzzled. Seeing them talk like old friends bothered me, somehow they made me jealous, I sighed exhausted from my stupidity.

"I guess a cup of tea wouldn't hurt…" I said, drawing their attention.

Werner's room was full of shelves which had so many books that some were scattered on the floor, the place smelled of incense and burned leaves, in the middle of it there was a large table with just two chairs, an old stool caught my attention, I sat there, away from them who kept talking so happily.

This sucked. Not just the place, the situation, everything.

While Marie chatted with Werner, I stood in a corner watching the tea bag stain the water an orange color, getting darker and darker, the perfect representation of my soul.

-You feel good…? Werner looked at me.

I nodded without saying anything. They continued talking, I didn't want to take a sip of my drink, I just watched the raindrops hit the window without being able to knock it down.

Time advanced so slowly that I could not believe the great happiness I felt when we had to leave, although before we did, the old man warned us that we should never leave the "tower", since thousands of dangerous creatures inhabited the forest.

To prove it, he told us that one night he saw one of them devour an entire animal at the entrance of the forest, according to him, it was a warning of what would happen to us if we ever went out.

After that we went down the stairs, the first thing we saw was Petra and Paulie arguing, when they noticed our presence, Petra, she ran towards us giving us a big hug.

"Where's Alwin ...?" -I asked for.

Paulie and Petra looked at each other for a brief moment.

"He went out to look for them, he hadn't seen them upstairs, so…" I'm talking about Paulie.

Marie hurried down the stairs, before she opened the door, she was able to hold onto her wrist.

"It's dangerous, you heard the old man… we can't go out," I warned him.

She turned to see me, her eyes were crystallized, I had never seen her like this, from her surprise my grip on her lost strength. In a few seconds she and the forest became one, I looked at the sisters, they were just as surprised as I was.

I ran after Marie, from one moment to another I had entered the forest, the screams of Petra and Paulie were lost in the distance.

My legs did not stop, I shouted the name of the minor several times, getting the noise of thunder and lightning as an answer.

The darkness did not let me see anything, despite that I did not stop at any time, the mud that formed with the rain I tried to bounce several times, but in each attempt I managed to avoid it.

-Marie! Marie! I screamed into the darkness.

A flash of lightning lit my way, finally showing the little girl, Marie was crouched in front of Alwin, a small shiver ran through my body, none of this looked good.

A putrid odor began to mix with the wet earth. In the distance sounds of huge footsteps accelerated my heart, it was so little to reach her. She couldn't let anything bad happen to her, she couldn't, she couldn't, she couldn't.

The creature, of which we had been warned so much, appeared in front of us, when I saw it my heart stopped, it was a Chimera, This whole situation was so fanciful that it was absurd to think it was real, however, it was .

The screams.

The huge creature.

The blood and the gun on the ground.

All of that was real.