Scene 3: Mark's Home

After the Wake concludes with a minute of silence, the students return to their classes, though there is no real teaching happening anymore for the rest of the day. The students are in no condition to focus on schoolwork today and the teachers realize that, so most classes become simply sessions for the students to discuss Mark and his death.
Not all these talks are somber, many students joke and laugh about how this weird kid was dumb enough to climb an electric pole and get himself killed.

The four of you notice increased occurrences of strange behavior among the students and teachers throughout the day. One girl threw up during lunch, blaming it on a horrible smell of feces and blood. None of you smelled anything but a couple of students agreed with her that it was there.
One teacher broke down sobbing in the middle of the class and had to be escorted to the nurses office because he was unable to stop.
During a break, you spotted a group of four people sitting together in a corner, hands pressed firmly over their ears and begging for "the heartbeat" to stop.
After school, you overhear the school nurse quietly talking to Rektor Järnek over a cigarette about a few students coming in complaining about intense pains as if something was drilling into their skin, despite them having no injuries.

The police stay at school all day to answer questions or simply offer the students someone to speak to as the school doesn't have any actual counselors. The only people who seem to take them up on that offer though are some older boys who use that opportunity to inappropriately hit on Granfors' partner, Officer Målhammar, a very attractive woman in her late twenties.
They also notice the strange occurences among the students and teachers but are unable to explain them and do little more than offer moral support where they can.

Once school lets out, the four of you, accompanied by Peter, take the bus up to Sånga-Säby. As you sit down on the bus, Peter, almost too eagerly, sits down next to Yumin. He is mostly quiet during the entire ride, though, spending most of it looking at her and then quickly turning away whenever she looks in his direction.
Kajsa is with you for most of the bus ride but gets off a bit before you. The bus driver eyes you all curiously in the mirror, not being used to anyone except Peter staying on the bus this far north.

Once you get out at the Sånga-Säby bus stop, you turn east and walk for quite a while, even leaving the town proper. Mark's house is located right next to the small Igelviken lake, a few minutes outside Sånga-Säby. It stands alone, surrounded by a dense wall of trees. As you approach it, the muffled sound of loud psychedelic rock music can be heard from inside. The house itself is covered in wind chimes and dream catchers, as are the surrounding trees.
The windows are open, though almost all curtains are drawn shut, obstructing the view inside.

Sabine says her goodbyes to Kajsa for now and promises, yet again, to be as careful as possible. She pulls up her hoodie at the bus stop and plugs into her sounds of her discman through the headset. As is her habit, she thrusts both hands onto her hoodie pockets and trudges along beside the others quietly.

When Mark's house comes into view, the rocker tugs down her headset and turns the sound down, but not completely off. She hears the music wafting out of the new-agey adorned abode and nods for no particular reason. 'Not her brand of tunes, but she would never hear anything like it coming out of Slott Vass. Mark may just have had it a touch better than she. Good on him.'

Yumin sits absolutely still the entire bus ride, just turning her head on the occasions where she fees a watchful presence catch her eye. She finally drums up the courage to speak:

"I was wondering…"

The bus announces its arrival at the stop they were looking for, and the others all begin to dismount. Yumin awkwardly rises and beckons for Peter to follow.

"Nevermind. It’s alright…!"

She wrinkles her brow when they come across the strange scene. The dream catchers were nothing. A fad, most likely. But the music? Now that’s a puzzle.

As they prepare to part ways with Kajsa, Mikael makes sure she has his phone number written down. He already has her number saved in his phone.

As they approach Mark's house, Mikael lifts one eyebrow in response to the music wafting through the air. "Is that the aunt?" he asks the others quietly. "I guess she's home. Should we, I don't know, just go up and knock? Use the cover story - we're friends, he had a part of our school project and we wanted to offer our condolences and see if we could find it? Or, I don't know, maybe while the music's blaring, we can look around the outside of the house a little bit, see if there's anything interesting?"

As the others look to each other, debating on what to do, Mikael rolls his eyes."Screw it," Mikael says, crouching slightly and moving forward. Due to the loud music and the windows being covered over, he's not too worried about being spotted, but he's still mildly alert. "I just want to get a quick look around the house, guys, make sure there's nothing out of the ordinary and maybe see if I can spot Mark's room from the outside."

Mikael intends to circuit the house, somewhat carefully, watching for open windows and trying to avoid being spotted by anyone inside the home.

"Whoa, nice music!" Eric rocks his head a couple of times, though he doesn't recognise what's on. He sees Mikael rush around the house and unfortunately doesn't hear him so assumes he's going to pee, "Hey wait, I'm sure we can just ask..."

Eric walks up to the door and knocks loudly several times. "Hello? Anybody home?" Eric shouts, trying to make himself heard over the music. "We're some friends of Marks, just wanted to say hello and pay our respects." He takes a step back and waits for the door to be answered.

Mikael sneaks around the house, trying to see if he can spot anything out of the ordinary. The small garden next to the house is messy, with gardening equipment just strewn across the unkept yard. There is a large glass door leading from the yard into what appears to be a kitchen in the house. It is empty, so Mark's aunt must be in a different room. The music is also quieter on this side of the house, further supporting the assumption that Emilia is on the other side of the building.
Mikael conpletes his round and rejoins the others. All windows that might give a view of Mark's aunt have their curtains closed as she seems to have hidden herself inside to deal with her nephews's death alone.

Peter watches as Mikael disappears around the house. "Is that legal?", he asks. "I mean, I guess he's not really breaking in but the garden is still kind of private property, right? I don't want to get in trouble."

Eric meanwhile knocks on the door and calls for Emilia to open. There is no reply and when he knocks again, the only response is for the music to turn even louder.

"Hello!" Eric shouts as he knocks on the door a second time. He staggers a few steps backwards, flailing his arms out trying to hold onto anything to keep his balance, eventually finding a friends shoulder.

It's a feeling he's somewhat used to, concussions happen from time to time on the ice, but somehow this is different, more vivid. Concussions also don't usually happen when knocking on doors.

As his eyes regain focus and he's able to see his friends again he utters "Umm... Is everyone okay?" He takes a deep breath and continues "Was that just me? Maybe best not to go through the front door..."

"Herregud!" Mikael gasps as he lunges forward to try and catch Eric. Luckily his friend steadies himself before falling down. "Dude, are you okay?" Mikael asks with a hand still slightly outstretched. "What the hell was that? I didn't feel anything." His eyes look up at the door, but it doesn't seem that there is anything amiss with the entryway.

"I saw another door, around the side of the house, looks like it goes into the kitchen. No sign of the Marks' aunt over there that I could see. Maybe we could try there?"

Yumin’s eyes go wide when her companion starts to flounder for a second. Wide eyes give way to darting ones as the young girl looks here, there and everywhere. She tries to spy anyone looking out the window, and then in a sudden panic she looks behind them to see if anyone is behind them.

"What was that? This whole place is weird, isn’t it?"

"Eric?" Sabine's attention is pulled from the house and its amenities, as their friend suddenly appears to be on the verge of collapsing to the ground. She moves to help steady him. "Are you okay? What did you see around the house? The aunt is obviously aware of us now and trying to avoid answering the door, by turning up the tunes."

"If have an idea. Let's split up. I am going to try to find Mark's room and get it, Who is with me?" She shares. "The rest can stay here an continue to try to get her to door and distract her from the other side of the house."

"Unless, anyone has a better idea? I really don't like this, but it may be our only choice, if the aunt doesn't respond."

"I don't know... I don't think the door is a great idea... I saw nothing but a red glow, and smelt blood. There were voices, were you talking? I couldn't quite hear them. I have no idea what it was, but probably best avoided."

Eric looks towards Mikael and Sabine "Yeah, lets maybe try the back door... I'd rather not hang around here and have that thing happen again. I'll try to be a little quieter this time."

Sabine moves off to give the house a slow circuit and try to determine which room is Mark's.

As you continue to circle around the house, you try to determine which room is Mark's. Even though the view into most windows is blocked by curtains, you notice one thing that gives you an idea. In the window of the room right above the kitchen backdoor, there are some photographs taped to the glass. They face inside so you can't tell what is on them, but knowing that Mark was an enthusiastic photographer, there's a good chance this is his bedroom.

Mark's aunt is either unaware of your sneaking around or is still consciously ignoring you.

With Sabine and any others who follow, Mikael circuits the house back to the kitchen door. He takes a deep breath and walks quietly up to the entryway, reaches a hand cautiously to the door and looks for a way to open it.

"Someone’s going to have to climb up there. And what if its locked from the inside?"

Yumin chews her nails as they take in the house. She’s almost certain she could wiggle a window free, if needed, but she’s also certain that she couldn’t climb up the side of a house to save her life.

With his hand fiddling with the door, Mikael calls back in a loud whisper, "Yeah, no way I'm climbing up there. Maybe Eric can do something like that. I'll try and find some stairs inside, and talk my way put if I have to."

Mikael tries to open the door but it won't budge. It doesn't seem locked but it only has a real handle on the inside so just by virtue of being closed, it needs to be opened from inside.

Mikael continues to try and find leverage on the door, or a way to spring the locking mechanism. He glances around for anything he might be able to use. Seeing nothing he tries to wedge his fingers into the gap between the door and its frame, gives it a pull and yelps as his fingernail is ripped backwards.

He steps backwards, down from the stairs and stamps his foot, sucking in a sharp breath, then releasing it through pursed lips. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit," he hisses, "Ouch, ouch, fuck." He cradles his hand close to his chest as the pain subsides. He looks at his digit to find no blood, but the nail had separated a fair amount from his finger. A shudder moves through his body and he shakes it off. "Sorry," he says to the others, "All good now. Shit." He's thankful Kajsa wasn't here to see this play out, but dreads the story Sabine will surely tell her later.

Yumin cringes as Mikael tries to pry the door open. Less is more with these things and a delicate touch is required. Still… she won’t embarrass the boy by pulling an "ummm… actually…"

Perhaps she’s glad that the door is stuck.

"Maybe we had better just go. Come back when she’s not listening to… whatever that is in there? She’s obviously going through something."

Eric looks around showing some uncharacteristic nerves, "I'm still a bit uncertain about the whole plan. If it was something physical I'd be all for it, but I'm not so sure about those mental effects. What happens if we all end up like Mark?"

Seeing his friend struggling with the door Eric gives out a slight sigh, "We're sure that's his room right? If we need someone up there then I can give it a go."

Eric looks around for the best way to get up there, plotting his route as much as possible and starts climbing towards the window.

As much as Mikael works the door, he can't get it to open until he has to give up in frustration.
Eric meanwhile finds a couple of handholds to get up the wall - the outside of the window frame, a loose brick... - and makes his way up to the window to Mark's room. Looking through the window, it definitely looks like a teenager lives (or rather, lived) here. The walls are covered in photos, there are dirty clothes on the floor, a small TV with a Super Nintendo is standing in one corner. There is no bed, just a couch and a desk with school books, many of which you all also own.

Eric grabs hold of the window frame and tries to rattle it to open up but in the process loses his footing and drops, his hand catching between the window and the frame. Pain shoots through his arm but he doesn't fall, held in place by his hand before he manages to regain his footing. By a stroke of luck, this fumble of his managed to force the window to swing open on its hinges, allowing him to climb inside, his hand throbbing with pain."Yumin?", Peter asks suddenly, looking at the girl next to him. "Are you okay? You look kind of pale."

Sabine moves to lean quietly against the lintel of the kitchen door, as if somehow remaining silent and not overly reacting to situations she is somehow invisible to would-be onlookers. This should have been a far more simple task than it is turning out to be and the rocker waits and hopes that there is something up in the dead boy's room that will assist them in putting an end to all the weirdness and bring the murderers to light.

Yumin reels back, almost puking with the smell. She sits down in the back garden, and takes shallow gasps of air. A wave of nausea wracks her body, and then passed quickly. She stands back up, legs shaking under the effort. She grabs onto Peter for stability as she climbs to her feet.

"Yeah… yeah. Just felt a little weak all of a sudden." she swallows the saliva that has pooled in her mouth.

"I’m okay now! Thank you."

"Eric! ERIC!" she whispers up to the window!

Eric releases a slight grunt, barely audible to his friends below, though internally he was screaming... What was that? Broken fingers? Dislocated shoulder? Shattered elbow? Maybe just a bit of a bruise?

Realizing he'd probably achieved what he wanted nonetheless, and had somehow got his hand through the window, Eric wasn't about to give up. He grits his teeth and pulls himself up onto the windowsill. Taking a quick scan to make sure it's empty, he steps carefully into the room beyond. Unfortunately he's not so sure of the plan beyond that.

Hearing Yumin's frantic whispers, he holds his hand close to his chest and sticks his head back out of the window quietly replies "Err guys... I'm in... Is anyone else coming? What should I look for? Can I help anyone else up?"

A slightly goofy grin spreads on Peter's face as Yumin holds on to him and he grips her in turn by her arms. "What happened?", he asks, trying to look serious and worried rather than happy about the pretty girl holding on to him. "Did you get one of those weird attacks, like the people at school?"

Sabine immediately follows Eric up the side of the house. "Help me up, will ya?" She asks quietly of him. Clearly, the rocker has some hidden athleticism of her own, as her lighter body makes it up to the window and she pulls herself up and inside.

"You alright, Eric?" She asks him in a hushed tone, as she notices him favoring the arm. "Let's do this quickly and the hell out of here."

Sabine takes in all the photos around the room.

"Is that what happened to those kids at school?"

She watches as Sabine climbs up the side of the house into the open window.

"Just smelled some blood. Don’t worry about it! Are… you going up there?" she looks up, indicating the open window.

Peter follows where she's pointing with his eyes and frowns. "I'm not great at climbing but if you're all going in, I won't stay out here all by myself. Are you climbing up? Do you want me to give you a boost?"

"Might be better if some of us stay down here. In case we need a distraction! Don’t you think?"

Peter considers this, then nods eagerly and says: "Yes, we'll be the lookouts! And cause a distraction if you need one."

Mikael shakes his hand again as he considers climbing up to join the others. "Yeah," he says, "I'll give it a shot. You're gonna have to help me up, Eric." Mikael steps over to the side of the house and tries to follow the others' lead as to where to place his hands and feet.

As he starts, he looks over his shoulder and winks at Yumin, "You two behave down here, huh? Can't be lookouts if you're makin' out, no matter how bad you want to. Just uh...make duck sounds or something if someone's coming." He laughs at the idea of making Peter as uncomfortable as possible. Yumin, being collateral damage, will get an apology later if she hates him for it.

Mikael makes his way up and in through the open window without much trouble.
Peter turns bright red and stutters something before giving up and just turning his face away so Yumin hopefully won't notice.

Mark's room is very messy. There are clothes lying around everywhere, as well as books and even some empty plates. The house smells bad, like an uncomfortable mix of mold, incense and rotting food.
There is a section of the room that has been closed off with a construction of cardboard, pressed wood and bedsheets. Peeking inside, the teens find an improvised darkroom for developing photos that Mark seems to have built himself.

The walls are plastered in photographs, a lot of which seem to be shot in the same general location, somewhere out of town, and a lot of them feature human-like robots in strange assortments of clothes.
On Mark's nightstand, a book captures the teens' attention due to its title: "Your Inner Primal Force" by Dr. Liv Himmelshöjd

Eric, with his left hand held close to his chest, greets Sabine and Mikael as they enter the room with him. "Hey,
it stinks in here... It was like that when I got here... So err what should we be looking for? I think I've heard rumours of those robots." Eric points towards the robots wearing clothes. "Do either of you know where these were taken? I heard the robots were near the quarantine zone to the north."

Eric gingerly takes his hockey stick and starts quietly rummaging around the room, flipping things over and moving things whenever anyone needs, keeping his eyes open for any clues about what happened to Mark.

Sabine searches through Mark's things and spends extra focus in the area of the makeshift darkroom with Eric's stick action. Then, turns her attentions to the photos of the robots to see if she can determine where they were taken or details of the different individual robots.

"Duuude," Mikael says in a low tone, "That. is. rank." He winces at the smell but quickly starts to get acclimated to it. He shakes his head as Eric points out the photos of the clothed robots. "I told you guys he was a weird kid," Mikael says. "This proves it. Why do you think he would take these? Was he in any kind of photography classes at school or something? No idea where they were taken - how about you, Sabine?"

As he awaits her answer, he starts looking around the rest of the room for anything bizarre or out of place that might speak to how - and why - Mark was murdered. He feels particularly drawn to the book next to Mark's bed and moves to pick it up.

Mikael picks up the book. He looks it over and rifles through it.
On the blank first page, there is a dedication in a messy, barely legible handwriting. It says: "To Mark, my apprentice, shooting for the stars". Glancing over the chapter headlines and skimming some paragraphs, the book describes methods for a person to get rid of their "conformity virus" (metaphorically) and to become whole, which the author claims will end all wars.
There is also a page about the author in the very back. It shows a picture of a very serious woman with hard eyes and the description describes her as a medical doctor with a holistic perspective, running a therapy center called Primal Force located north of Sånga-Säby.

As Mikael and Eric search the room, they find multiple camera bags with cameras of different sizes and makes. As they open these, they find a small piece of paper, folded up next to the camera in one of them. Opening it up, the only thing written on it are the numbers 336699.

Sabine, meanwhile, looks over all the pictures on the walls in detail. She notices that many of the robots, which are dressed in strange assortments of clothes, ponchos, cowboy hats and feathered hairdresses mixed with thick coats, heavy boots and woolly hats in a strange mix of Russian looking winter clothes and stereotypical cowboy and Native American get-ups. She also notices that it seems to only be a small group which he has photographed many times and that they seem to be aware of it, as they even seem to be posing for some pictures. Mark must have known these robots. She also notices a small handwritten caption on one of the photos. The picture shows a damaged looking robot smiling at the camera and the caption underneath reads "The Shaman".
The landscape in the background of the images seems vaguely familiar to Sabine but it takes her until Eric points out what he has heard about robots to the north until she makes the connection and realizes these pictures have been taken in the Torslunda Marshes, a region in the evacuation zone that that has been turned into marshland by the mysterious floodwater that rose from the Loop and made the vac uninhabitable. Finding the exact spots where they were taken might still be difficult but she thinks she has a rough idea of where they would have to look.

As she walks from picture to picture, absorbed in what she sees, Sabine accidently kicks over a pile of dirty dishes, glasses and mugs standing on the floor that she hasn't noticed before. Before she can react, it topples and the mugs and glasses crash to the floor, shattering loudly. The music downstairs stops, then there is a moment of silence and finally, stomping steps towards the stairs and then coming up towards Mark's room.

"Scheiße!" Sabine exclaims, though in a rather subdued volume, as she momentarily digresses to German in her stress. She pulls the photo of The Shaman into her hand and quickly sits down on the couch, placing the photo across her knees and lowers her face into her hands. Her whole body takes on the visible posture of one saddened and in mourning over something.

It is not too much of a stretch for her. She had experienced much loss in her past and the similarities between her situation and Mark's were not so distant from each other. Sabine can feel her face reddening. She did not often let the sadness show to others, but in this case it may actually work to their advantage.

She trusts that the friendship she shares with Eric and Mikael, will let her show a vulnerable side of her, Sabine usually reserves for only her therapist or, more honestly, her voice trainer.

Mikael stops at the sudden noise from Sabine's direction. At the sound of footsteps he quietly echoes Sabine's sentiment, "Shit..." He takes the slip of paper with the numbers on it and shoves it into his pocket before replacing the book.

His eyes scan the room. He thinks he gets the play, Sabine crying over Mark's death, her sadness being an excuse for being there. He hopes he can talk his way out of this, but worries about Eric's presence, maybe being too much.

Pointing to the bed, he whispers, "Eric, try sliding under the bed, or hide behind the curtain, if you can. Quick."

Once able, he sits on the bed next to Sabine. "I'm here for emotional support, fall back on the class project idea. I'll back your play though. Please don't get weirded out, we need to sell this." He reaches up and gently rubs her back in a comforting manner while trying to force his own tears to the surface. Please let this work, he thinks.

"Ah crap... Someone's coming! Sabine are you okay?"

Eric looks at the bed and doesn't think he'd fit under it, and his feet would stick out from under the curtains. Unsure of where else to go he looks back towards the window. Hearing the footsteps approach he climbs out, lowering himself until he's out of view, ready to climb back in if needed, or drop and hide if someone approaches.

"Hey Yumin, Peter! Is there anywhere to hide down there? Someone's coming!" He whispers to the couple below.

Yumin looks up and her heart starts racing. Something has gone wrong inside!

"Maybe!If we ran for the trees again! Why?! Is everyone okay?

Come down. Before you fall!"

Sabine nods almost imperceptibly to Mikael, as she steels herself for an encounter with Mark's Aunt Emilia. She tries to keep reminding herself that not all aunts are as awful as her own, or at least she hopes not.

Just as Eric manages to climb out the window, the door is throws open and the woman from the wake at school is standing there, wide-eyed staring at the two intruders in her dead son's room. She's holding a pan in one hand, raised as if it was a weapon.
"What are you doing here?", she asks, her voice shaking. "Is this some joke to you?" Only after those words does she notice how visibly upset Sabine appears and her features, while still angry, soften slightly. "Who are you kids?", she asks in a somewhat gentler tone.

Sabine looks up as if startled. Wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands and the ends of her hoodie's sleeves, she looks across the room to the woman. "Sorry. This is all my fault. I wanted to see Mark's room. I'm Sabine. We were friends, he and I. I live with my aunt too since my parents both passed tragically. I wanted to see where he lived, if only once."

She wipes at the tears again and holds up the photo that been designated as The Shaman. "He was gonna show me some of his pictures of the robots for a school project I am doing, but he never got the..." He voice falters and trails off.

Mikael, his eyes watery but not yet shedding tears, pulls his hand back and looks up on false surprise as Mark's aunt flings the door open. "H-hi," he says quickly just as Sabine 'explains' their presence in Mark's room. He nods in agreement. "I'm Mikael," he says, "I was friends with Mark, too. Sabine's been really tore up about what happened to him. Me too. I always got on the school bus just after Mark. We were bus buddies. I...I told Sabine I could show her where Mark lived. Sorry, ma'am. We were gonna knock on the door, but were worried we'd bother you."

Aunt Emi's face softens at your story, especially when Sabine explains her own history. "Mark was always so proud of his photography," she says in response to Sabine. "What was your name again, Sabine? Yes, I think he mentioned you. And you as well, Mikael. I'm really glad he had some good friends at least." You're pretty sure Mark would not have talked about you to his aunt as you were never really close but it is most likely wishful thinking on her part that leads her to believe you.
"You still shouldn't break into other people's homes but I understand. And it's my fault as well, I guess, for leaving the window wide open. But I think it would be best if you left now."

She gently shepherds you out of the room and down the stairs where she leads you out the front door. "Thank you for being my boy's friends!", she says before closing the door behind you. If Sabine decides to keep the photo in her hand, Emilia is not going to say anything about it or take it from her.

The four of you can regroup outside now and decide where to go next. It's still pretty early in the afternoon. You should have another two or three hours of daylight left, though your parents might wonder where you are before then, especially considering the news of Mark's death.
Do you want to go home and pick up the investigation tomorrow or keep going today? And if so, what's the next place you want to have a look at?

Sabine holds onto the photo, as Mark's aunt issues them through the house and out the front door. "Thank you for understanding." She offers the woman, stepping out of the house and pulling up her hood.

Moving out of sight of the house, she links back up with the others. "Let's pay the Primal Force Therapy Center a visit before heading home. Its close, according to the address. We can talk on the way and compare notes on what was found up in Mark's room." She suggests

"Primal Force what?" Yumin asks!

"What is that? Sounds like hippy stuff…"

Sabine looks to Yumin. "Yeah. It really does, doesn't it? But, the Doctor Mark mentioned in his notes as having been kidnapped worked there. I am only guessing at this point, but I suspect that Mark witnessed the abduction there or near there. Maybe there are clues at the Center."

"The quicker we can get away from here, the better. I thought I heard voices up there? Was it his aunt? How was she?"

She pauses…

"That music. It was weird. Not weird... just in case anyone here liked that stuff … inappropriate! Gives me the creeps. Let’s get out of here!"

Mikael nods. "That was kinda awesome," he says with a wicked smile, "We kicked ass up there, Sabine." He leans in close to the others, "Yeah, it was Mark's aunt. We were almost in trouble but I talked us out of it." He looks at Sabine briefly. "Well, Sabine helped." He waves a hand -"What matters is she bought it." He straightened lets out a breath of air. "Man, I'm so amped. I agree, let's go to Primal Force tonight and get to the bottom of this."

He pulls out the scrap of paper he found in Mark's room. "I found this up there, does it mean anything, you think? It was in the case with one of Mark's cameras." He holds it forward, the numbers 336699 displayed on it.

"Also, I found a book up there that was inscribed to mark, looked like it was written by the doctor at Primal Force. The inscription called Mark her 'apprentice'...guys, I think he was part of this place, and honestly with the little bit I saw in the book, is sounds pretty...uhh...culty. Does his aunt go there, too?" he asks.

Eric puts his injured hand in his pocket, hiding it from his friends. "Yeah, lets see what we can find at this Primal Force place. See what's going on there, maybe we'll recognise something from one of those pictures... Any ideas how we'll get in? Can we just sign up and walk in, or are we going to have to sneak in again?"