[Noah’s Perspective.]

  Four people. Four people have died trying to figure out this book.

  Four people who wouldn't be dead otherwise.

  Four people Fay killed by giving us an incomplete book.

  This is what they wanted.

  “Food scraps are getting low...” Anne sits on one of the storage crates in the food clinic, we had completely reorganized everything, moved crates outside to use as compost boxes, its clear they arent going to feed us again.

  They are starving us? Why?

  “Just please... be quiet Anne... I know, I've known, stop reminding me.”

  I go through the pages, there's only theory in here, a few ‘variables’ but nothing precise. It's clear Fay for some reason wants us to experiment on ourselves to figure this out.

  Healing magic, that is what the book is mostly about, it works fine but most of the time the person doing the spell dies after losing a lot of blood. The book says we need to drink blood to not use our own in the spell but no matter how much we drink it's not enough.

  I've been trying to figure out a way to grow the tomato plant faster, healing is a sort of regrowth so I've tried multiple different variations of symbols.

  “Noah go to bed, and I mean that in a selfish way, I want to sleep.”

  Anne moved the tomato plant into the food clinic a day ago, had almost everyone in the town carrying it safely, now its seen as her prized possession and she sleeps beside it every night.

  “I just...” I write down another spell, “one more, before bed.” I walk towards the plant, wrap the paper around it and say the special words, “morva eris.”

  Yet again it feels like a hammer had hit me in the top left of my skull, “FUCK.” I fall to the ground, shaking violently, I never get used to it.

  “You done?” Anne had seen this happen enough times to know I'd be fine, my first reaction to magic was vomiting blood, but now I just get super bad headaches, an improvement.

  I wipe my nose, some blood had come out yet again, “yeah I'm done...” me and Anne share few words nowadays, I just stare at her, she hasn't been getting much sleep, and neither of us have the will to talk about Fay.

  The last thing she said about Fay was ‘at least he is taking the option any one of us would take if we had the chance, to live a life.’ Which I disagree with completely, its either all of us or none of us, you don't kill everyone to save one life.

  The dark circles around her eyes almost looks like makeup, I haven't tried to argue about fay, there's enough going on.

  I just can't believe who I considered to be one of my best friends just... joined them, started doing what they do, of course he seems like he doesn't want to, but he is still doing it, even good people can be pushed to the edges of insanity.

  The sound of a carriage comes through. “It's way too late, is it fay?” Anne stands up and walks to the open hole in the wall, it's an expensive carriage, white and gold.

  A woman in a fancy black dress jumps down, the floor she stands on turns to grass, “urgh, can't people do landscaping around here? So, this is the human's home...” She walks to the back of the carriage and takes out a body, Jackson.

  I run out, my feet splashing in the freshly rained mud, “what did you do to him?”

  The woman just stares at me, “who might you be? I didn't think you things could talk.”

  I open my mouth but she snaps at me, “actually, I was under the impression this experiment site was empty, terminated due to the use of...”

  She pushes past me and walks over to the food clinic, stepping inside while Anne hides in the corner.

  I check on Jacksons body, he has strangulation marks on his neck, but overall, he is breathing, alive, Fay didn't kill him. Thank God.

  I hear a squeal, “my my! You are just wonderful Anne.”

  I sprint back inside, seeing Anne being cuddled by this strange woman, “Anne are you okay?” I yell a bit too loud, people are starting to leave their huts, staring at the green grass this woman left for us.

  “The pursuit of life is a wonderful one!” She guides Anne’s hands to touch the plant, “the growth of beauty in a box, much like my own but stricken with the limitations of poverty.” She touches the plant, and it grows multiple sprouts, plump green tomatoes appear that quickly turn red.

  She just did what I've been trying to do for multiple sleepless nights. “How’d you do that?”

  “You have an affinity for the living too I see... are you by chance that boy's friend... what's his name... Fay?” She looks over at my notes and failed spells, “Fay Fay Fay Fay.” She repeats as she scowls.

  She picks up one piece of paper, “Why are you using general healing magic? That is silly.”

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  “It's the only thing in this book.” I pick it up, she quickly snatches it from my hands.

  “Well, this is authoritarianism at its finest, the pursuit of knowledge should not be limited to 10 pages of dirt.”

  pink threads pierce a piece of paper, turning it into two, she begins to write using a piece of thread with blood dipped at the end.

  “I'll write you some information on growth magic so you can go down this beautiful road of knowledge, I'll even throw my own secret formula’s in here... since you are all probably going to be dead soon anyway.” She smiles and hands me the piece of paper.

  She taps us both on the head, “mind if I pay a visit next week? I want to see progress. I want to see this place covered in greenery!” She jumps up and down for a moment, “I'll bring more... wait!”

  She runs out, me and Anne just give each other a look of astonishment, who is this lady? Is she on our side? Probably not. But she just gave us crucial information and food.

  “Do you trust her?” Anne says in the quietest voice possible.

  “I...” she brought back Jacksons body, which has obvious connotations to Fay, only Fay would bring someone back alive... Does Fay trust her?

  She comes back in with a chest, “Chest full of seeds, it's all sorted randomly so don't try to figure out which are which. That’s the fun of it!” She opens it in front of us and it is indeed just a chest full of seeds, no labelling, just seeds of different shapes and sizes.

  “Tell me, when you look at these seeds, do you think you are worth more than them?”

  “Yes...? Obviously.”

  She claps, “and that's the beauty of it, you created it, therefore you own it, it is really that simple.” She stands up, “It's been a while since I've had a talk with mud rats, perhaps I should get my own experiment site... there's a lot of government perks... what do you think?”

  We both nod. Not knowing anything.

  She clicks her tongue, “nah because then any research I do is funded by the government and therefore public to them... I'm a secretive person you know... I might just buy a plot of land... could find humans pretty easy... where are you two from?”

  Anne speaks up first, “Germany.”

  I speak up next, “Australia.”

  “Okay! I'll go to those two places and pick up some humans, thanks for the talk you two.” She leaves, hopping on the grass path she made that leads towards the carriage.

  It rolls off... “I... I'm going to get Jackson inside... but then we need to talk about what that means.” I walk out, the grass on my feet feels amazing but that's not what's occupying my mind right now.

  She just said she would take humans from the countries we were from. Does that mean the world isn't in a complete apocalypse? That all of us have just gone missing? The world didn't end?

  I drag Jacksons body through the mud and onto the stairs, I rest him down carefully on the wood as Anne stares at the potato plant.

  “Did you notice?” She asks.

  “Notice what?”

  “Shes the same girl who was with Fay in that carriage the other day.”

  I didn't even realise Fay was with anyone, I was fully focused on him, him as the enemy.

  “Do you think he told her to help us?” I ask without much thought, my mind is overwhelmed currently.

  She pulls a tomato off and takes a small bite, “God... I missed flavour... I think he did...”

  She hands the tomato to me, I refuse, “save it for the kids... take the seeds too...”

  I grab the piece of paper the woman left us, it has a custom formula with 9 symbols, there's a note below it saying it'll most likely kill a human with no potency... I don't know what that means.

  I copy all the symbols, putting the paper on the plant, before I say the two words a hand grips my wrist, “don't...” Jackson is sitting upright, staring at me, “just... I don't know why... just don't.”

  I let go of the paper and hug him, I never thought I would see him talking again, “you're fucking alive, Jesus Christ, you scared me... so the plan worked? You escaped? Why didn't you stay away man?”

  My face hits his shoulder, I feel on the verge of tears, “dude I had no clue what I was doing... everyone expected me to replace you... I was so scared, I'm so glad you’re back...” I squeeze tighter.

  I look into his eyes, all I see is confusion, like he doesn't know what's happening, “right you must be disoriented, hey Anne.” I wave over at Anne, “give him one of the tomatoes.”

  I let go of him, Anne walks over, “did Fay seem okay? Did he bring you back?”

  She hands him the tomato, while he eats, he nods, “Fay? Oh... uh... sorry I'm confused... in the... cabin?” he gives the tomato back after a bite and rubs at his head, “why don't I... where... why is nothing coming up?”

  Me and Anne exchange glances, what cabin? “You okay?”

  Jackson gets up and begins pacing, “there was... this ball of meat... they said it was me... and... but I don't remember... I don't... there's nothing going on... in my head...” He keeps stomping his feet like a child, “where am I?”

  “Home...” is all I can say, but it's not really true, is it?

  “Yeah?” He walks out, the crowd of people who were drawn to the green grass see Jackson walking down the steps, they all instantly gasp then cheer.

  One man jogs over and grabs him to his side, “couldn't stay away huh?”

  “that's why they don't fuck with us!” some kid screams, something doesn't feel right, this doesn't feel right.

  Jackson pushes the man away, “please don't... please don't touch me... I uh...” everyone stares at him, waiting for his next words in silence like he is about to speak the gospel.

  “I don't... its empty... its empty...”

  Anne looks at me, “okay that's enough.” She grabs Jackson and brings him inside, she speaks the crowd as she does so, “he is tired, just go to sleep, I'm sure everything will be fine come morning.”

  She sets Jackson down on the wall, he is breathing heavily and shaking.

  “Fay... I know him... the... the one with the girl... then the same girl? She got me while I ran to the forest... did I die?” He curls in on himself.

  “Just... sleep okay...” I take my shirt off and lay him to his side, letting him use the shirt as a pillow.

  He is wearing expensive clothes, probably given by Fay, grey sweatpants with a black jumper. “Go to bed... okay?” He closes his eyes and his breathing slows.

  I step back, Anne had already made her way to pick the seeds out of the tomato to plant some more, “Anne... I don't think Jackson is okay.”

  “You think?” She says sarcastically while digging her hands in the compost, planting the seed carefully.

  What did Fay do? Did he torture Jackson? Wipe his memories?

  Anne settles down, “lets sleep here, make sure Jackson doesn't try running into the water and drown himself.” She pats the space next to her.

  I rest my head on her shoulder, “he will be fine... Jackson is fine... he always is.”

  Anne strokes my head; my hair grows fast so it has gotten some length to it and cutting it off with sharp planks is time consuming. “Go to bed... we will figure this out tomorrow.”

  I rest more comfortably on her, “goodnight.”

  “Night.”

  My parents are still alive if the world isn't destroyed.

  My sister is still alive.

  I'm still alive.