Ferrah

"Leah?"Selene called out quietly.

Surrounded in make-shift bookshelves, the scent of the old yellowish books soothed readers as well as non-readers.

"Leah?"Selene called out once again softly.Her footsteps could easily be heard despite the red carpeting covering the rusty metal floor.

"Looking for someone?"A deep voice surprised Selene.Her shoulders jumped a little as she quickly turned around.

The mysterious person stared deep into her soul.

"Dan...Daniel...Hey…"The awkwardness in her voice was obvious even for someone who was from afar.Her hands were fidgeting constantly out of fear.

"Looking for your sister after what you did huh?"Daniel's voice was threatening, scaring Selene.

Selene rolled her eyes in her head. He must've heard about 'Selene attempt to murder her sister' from her sister. Daniel raised his eyebrows waiting for an answer.

"Uh...haha…"Selene didn't know how to answer him.

She was always scared of Daniel since the first time they met.No one could blame her,everyone was intimidated by him. His stare could easily penetrate someone's soul.

"Do you know where she is?"Selene asked uncertainly if today was the day of her own death.

She stood in front of him waiting for Daniel to murder her since her own sister didn't have the heart to do it.

"Medbay."he replied with a tone no one would like to hear from anyone especially Daniel."Taking care of your victim."His anger in his voice gave Selene chills down her spine.

"Thank you!"Selene bowed before running off to find her sister.

Daniel casually followed her walking briskly.

"Why are you even looking for her?"Daniel's voice clearly showed his anger that was burning inside of him. It was as if he knew something that Leah didn't.

"I want to ask her what i can do to make it up to her."Selene sighed apologetically.

Daniel frowned, feeling that something was amiss.Apologising to the sister instead of the victim was absolutely different from an actual sincerely apologetic person.

"Hm…"Daniel smiled a little as his mind was guessing his best friend's answer.

"Leah?"Selene called out her name as she pushed the "wall" away.

"Look I'm really sorry about the incident…"Selene continued,"maybe I can take care of dad as an apology?"

"Ooo...Bad choice of words."Daniel added fuel to the fire.

"Really?"Leah stood up, her voice trembling with pure anger.

"After what did you wanna take care of dad?"Leah paused for a moment."You are absolutely crazy.Look at dad you should make it up to him not me."

Daniel realised that the tension was suffocating him so he decided to place his hands on Leah's shoulders hoping that he could try to calm her down.

"Are you even sincere at all? Do you want to tell me that you accidentally killed our father and that you're sentenced to death causing me to lose all of my family members?"

"Ok…"Daniel had enough.The air was more than difficult for him to breathe in.

"Let's find Amil."

He pushed her all the way to Amil's office."Whiskey please."Daniel sat Leah down, closing Amil's office's curtains.

"What happened?"Amil asked, pouring four glasses of whiskey."I asked you to bring Leah here, not a dead person."Amil looked at Leah lifeless eyes.

"Long story short Selene is not even a human. I mean seriously she wants to make it up to Leah not her own father that she herself knocked out."Daniel vented,"Anyways quickly get us some whiskey.She needs it."Daniel sat down with a loud sigh.

"Luna is coming, she needs to settle the plants first."Amil informed.

He served them whiskey before going to get some juice for Luna.When Luna entered the room she saw Leah's emotionless eyes.

"I don't like this atmosphere.Anyways did you get me a special order?"Luna set her belongings down before taking her drink.

She wasn't a fan of alcohol.

"What happened?"Luna sat next to Leah who was still emotionless.

"Long story short Selene is a horrible sister."Daniel refrained from any vulgarities."Why are you here anyways and not reading like you always do?"Daniel continued.

"We have something to discuss with you two…"Luna trailed off"Like a team discussion…"

"Before you freak out, do know that this is like a brainstorming thing."Amil warned looking at Leah, signalling that the warning was specifically for her.

"We were thinking of sending people down to earth."Luna announced."Leah started to laugh, scaring all three of them.

"Sorry don't freak out?"Leah suddenly looked up "What did you say last night? Amil what did you say?"Leah furrowed"I swear I'm not doing that again? Did you even mean what you said?"She mocked.

"Look, that's why I'm hesitating.I need some help. Can you help me out please."Amil's desperation was easily heard from his voice.

"How can we help."Daniel proceeded to offer some help.

"I found a library a secret one it was hidden behind this shelf...The books inside are probably almost a hundred years old it would probably be our best help."Amil suggested while opening the secret door.The scent of the old pages gave Luna a comforting feel.The amount of books amused the two newbies as it was their first time seeing this library.

They sat around a makeshift coffee table and decided a chat would be more than needed.

"So the last time humans were sent back down they all died immediately right?"Leah asked

"Not actually, one survived and returned but died within a few hours."Luna continued"He was severely burnt and said there was no oxygen there as he was suffocated."

"But there were plants and animals?"Daniel questioned, to receive a nod from Luna.

"But those need oxygen."Silence washed the room.

"I think…"Luna tried to explain but no reason came to her mind.

"I need a whiskey."Daniel continued Luna's sentence, hoping to annoy them.

"I see you have made yourself comfortable here."Daniel added as he looked at the mini fridge as well as the couch and a make-shift coffee table.

"Listen.The animals were said to have two heads.To be descriptive, the first head seemed to have been rotten while the second head seemed perfectly fine however it had some sort of gill like thing intact to help it breathe."Amil read aloud.

"So...you mean that we really cannot go back to earth?"Luna sighed.The three of them nodded solemnly.

"If you have a gill then yes.''Leah's sarcasm implied how dumb Daniel was.

"We should find somewhere else to live, I guess,"Daniel hoped to prove her wrong.

"We already did."Amil rolled his eyes."Read more geez."

"Wait…"Luna took the book from Amil's hands gently."The man who survived hell's pit last words were,never go down to hell's pit.This ship is your last hope. He was then found dead within 3 hours after succumbing to his radiation burns."Luna read aloud.

"Your last hope?"Leah repeated.

They shared silence while trying to absorb all this information.

"How bad is the earth?"Leah's fear was obvious.

"From the name hell's pit, what do you think?"Amil shared the fear.

"Honestly…"Daniel prepared to annoy them."I need more whiskey."

There goes their hope for actual help.The three of them rolled their eyes in response, typical Daniel.

They sat around allowing the silence to consume them as they tried to think harder and harder, frying their brain.Daniel however walked around the library like a puppy at its first new home, exploring every nook and cranny. He's hand brushed along the book's old covers, his black coat brushed the dust that was collected off the shelf.While his friends were frying their brains, he explored every book.

"Uh… remember our parents told us about the tale of the two headed fox?"Daniel broke the silence.

"The fox who survived no matter what even without oxygen and high radiation."Amil's robotic tone conveyed how useless he found this piece of information was.

"Remember how he looked?"He continued trying to hint at them.

Leah sensed that he was on to something, just not sure what.

"It has two heads.One rotten, and the other perfectly fine?"Leah replied unsure how it linked to their problems.

Seconds later all three of them finally understood. The description perfectly fit the animals that were found in hell's pit.

"It was not a kid's tale, it was a memorial of hell's pit and the people who sacrificed themselves to go down.

"That's messed up.''Amil added.

"Did it look something like that?"Daniel showed them the diary that he found.They looked in his direction simultaneously. The picture of the face that was rotten scared them.

"Nature sure finds its way.''Luna cringed as she observed the fox's flesh and bones.

"This diary was Ferrah's.''Daniel informed, "Just me or it sounds familiar?''He continued.

Luna's eyes suddenly lit up.

"I remember that name!"She excitedly stood up running around looking for something while her friends kept turning their heads to where Luna ran to.

"Here, I was exploring this library without Amil since he was hungover and saw this book about Ferrah inside has a huge amount of newspaper bits about her." Luna showed them the book and pieces of papers to inspect.

"Ferrah was an outstanding scientist with her, survival in the ship was finally made easy." Amil read the first newspaper he could find.

"Ferrah biggest experiment was a success. Ferrah managed to send at least 5 people to earth. They have yet to return but the results should be exciting."Leah read the second piece of the newspaper."Ferrah's experiment failed. All 4 experiments did not return. According to the only experiment who came back, they will be announced as deceased. Experiment 5 returned with burns from the sun as well as respiratory issues."Daniel continued reading.

"I think from there we know what happened."Luna placed down the book that she was reading silently.

"But this is new."She carefully showed them the yellow, fragile page of the book which read:"Ferrah was accused of murdering her own sister, Odillia, for attempting to leak a certain information to which we are not sure what it is till today.Before her injection through hell's exit, her last words were 'You will never know what this is about not if you kill me.'She was then thrown into space after so.Her actions may have enraged many but peace returned after her death."

They were all stunned, scared and confused. So four teenagers are supposed to know what this was about? How are they supposed to know what was going on.They are just teenagers. Just teenagers. One was the leader of the ship, one was just a farmer, another was a secretary and one was just a soldier.They were only 16, just 16 and all by themselves. They have no parents to guide them, none, none at all. Their only parent was in the hospital wasting away, probably unable to ever wake up again.

Leah picked it up slowly and gently, flipping the fragile pages. One stood out.It was not printed but written. It was handwritten.

"Look."Leah quickly but gently showed them the pages.

"Laboratory. 4 kids. Save them. Poor kids. Experiments. Secrets. Help them. Help them.Help them…"Luna read aloud but was quickly cut off.

"Stop, enough. The rest of the page is just 'help them' , no need to read further." Daniel sighed sipping some of his whiskey.

"Poor kids.They were just kids.Like us four…" They remained silent agreeing with each other.

"Hold on....Laboratory. We don't have a secret laboratory right?"Daniel immediately ran around searching for more clues.

"Get up, move, we have to search this place!"Daniel urged.

Amil rolled his eyes."How do you know it's here?"

"Who's lab do you think it is."Daniel stopped in his tracks frustrated.

Why couldn't anyone understand what was going on?

"Uh Ferrah"s?"Amil was unsure what was going on in Daniel's mind.

"Then you would probably want to read this."Daniel threw a rusty metal signboard that was resting in a corner of the library.

"Ferrah's library…" Luna read aloud.

"Got your answer? Now help me move this shelf would you?"

They ran over to help him frantically to find answers.Answers they were not even sure they wanted to know.