We got to my house in no time, mainly because we got there in such a hurry. This resulted in us wasting all of our energy which caused the both of us to be remarkably tired and worse yet, hungry. We arrived there hoping not only for my family but also for any type of sustenance. No matter if it was the worst glop I'd ever seen.

Angel agreed with me by one, her stomach growling, and two:

"UGHHHH! I'm hungry..!" She whined. I would've whined and complained too but I was just too tired to do so. A friendly reminder that I hadn't slept in nearly twenty-four hours and had consumed all of my energy by the mud pit, Ruby, running, and jumping around Altandor. I was exhausted.

"Don't worry Angel, soon enough we'll get some food from my fridge and pantry! If it isn't expired yet." It was most likely expired since it had been three damn weeks after we entered that damn factory but oh well.

However, once we entered my house, instead of seeing an empty house, we saw a house with a singular tall figure inside with two distinguishing purple eyes. I knew immediately that this was the creature I saw back when I was at the factory based on its eight arms extending out of its long, stick-like body and numerous teeth shining in the sunlight.

The creature that Mr. Foyager had been talking about was right in front of me, the one who sees all.

The beast in question was in the middle of the living room obstructing me from going upstairs, or the kitchen, or anywhere where food might be or even water. Hell, the only reason the creature didn't see us already was because there was a wall that was against the living room and the main hallway that we hid behind. I didn't know what to do or where we could even go!

I took a peek out of the wall while Angel remained completely silent. I hoped her stomach wouldn't growl or else we were going to be the ones eaten! I peeked from the wall and saw that the creature in the living room hadn't obstructed me from going to the garage or the basement that was right next to the garage. So, I told Angel in a whisper,

"Hey, I'm going to go inside the garage,  follow me and walk down into the basement. We can't let this thing see us."

"How!? That thing is standing right between us and your garage! There's no way we're going to cross over there without being spotted!" She whispered back. She did have a point though, the creature was eyeing the torn-up table in the living room. Even if we miraculously avoided it and got it to not see us even for a second, we would still make too much noise opening the door to the basement.

The creature made a low squeaking sound that sounded like a mouse amplified by a microphone. It kept staring directly at the table which gave me enough time to pull my body from the wall and crouch next to my overturned couch. As soon as I knew the coast was clear I gestured for Angel to come toward me.

Angel nodded as we headed behind the couch while crouching. We were only a handful of feet to the garage but there was a huge problem. The creature had halted its distraction from the table and was now roaming around the living room.

I looked at Angel and she was tense, as one should be if a creature three times your size was standing 20 feet from you.

I didn't know what to do in this situation. If I went ahead and ran to the garage door I would be caught before I could even reach the door knob. I didn't even know if the entrance to the garage was even locked or not. However, if I stayed here behind the couch though, eventually that creature was going to come to the other side and the both of us would be their breakfast.

I peeked over the couch and saw that the creature was heading down a new hole in the wall to the kitchen. It was now or never.

"Angel, let's go!" I whispered loudly. She, however, didn't move. I thought maybe she was stuck on debris or an obstacle. I turned around and looked towards her legs. They were perfectly fine. I looked up at her face and saw her head shaking. Her whole body was trembling, she was terrified for her life.

"Hey, hey. Look at me." I whispered to her. I placed my hands on both sides of her head as she made eye contact with me.

"We're going to make it out of this, okay?! We have to be strong and get to the garage. It's okay to be nervous, hell I'm terrified. But we have to remain calm and focused. Now, let's go before that creature is back, please." I whispered to her. She glanced at her right arm which still had the bloodied leaf on it and breathed in a shaky inhale. She exhaled and wiped a tear away, then suddenly grabbed my hand and we ran to the garage door. I reached my hand for the knob and turned clockwise.

It was unlocked.

You have no idea how relieved I was for the door opening without a creak. I lightly pushed Angel inside the garage and closed the door silently behind me while turning the door knob. I leaned against the door and closed my eyes. I knew my family was long gone, why was I searching through the house then?

I locked the door.

Angel looked toward the basement, entered the staircase, and went downstairs while I searched around the garage. My garage was small, so obviously I could tell that my family wasn't there. However, the first thing I noticed immediately was the car being there. Meaning my family had likely come back from the shop only to discover Altandor had turned into a literal aftermath of a hurricane. Secondly, footprints covered in ink, one big and two small, had come from the basement to the garage. And finally, a bottle of water on the car hood.

As I tried to piece the puzzle together, I felt a sharp pain right then and there in my body. I tried to push this pain away, however Black formed in front of me, saying in all of his "wisdom",

"ꃅꂵ, ꒒ꂦꂦꀘꌗ ꒒ꀤꀘꍟ ꌩꂦꀎꋪ ꎇꍏꂵꀤ꒒ꌩ ꀤꌗꈤ'꓄ ꃅꍟꋪꍟ. ꀤ ꂵꍟꍏꈤ, ꓄ꃅꍟꌗꍟ ꎇꂦꂦ꓄ꉣꋪꀤꈤ꓄ꌗ ꒒ꂦꂦꀘ ꒒ꀤꀘꍟ ꓄ꃅꍟꌩ ꁅꂦ ꂦꀎ꓄ꌗꀤꀸꍟ ꓄ꃅꍟ ꁅꍏꋪꍏꁅꍟ. ꀤ꓄'ꌗ ꌗꍏꀸ ꋪꍟꍏ꒒꒒ꌩ, ꀤ ꎇꍟꍟ꒒ ꍏ꓄ ꒒ꍟꍏꌗ꓄ ꃅꂵꂵ.. ꍏ ꒒ꀤ꓄꓄꒒ꍟ ꌃꍏꀸ ꎇꂦꋪ ꌩꂦꀎ."

"Ok one, can you shut the actual FUCK up!? There's a monster literally in the next room. Two, I know my family abandoned me, but they would've tried their hardest to find me and they're still trying their hardest! They would never do a thing like completely disregard me! Even if they did, I know they had a good cause... no. They're trying to find me!" I half-whispered.

"ꌩꍟꍏꃅ, ꀤ ꓄ꃅꂦꀎꁅꃅ꓄ ꓄ꃅꍏ꓄ ꓄ꂦꂦ, ꌗꂦꂵꍟꂦꈤꍟ ꅏꂦꀎ꒒ꀸꈤ'꓄ ꍏꌃꍏꈤꀸꂦꈤ ꂵꍟ ꀤꈤ ꓄ꃅꍏ꓄ ꀸꍏꂵꈤ ꉓꍏꉣꌗꀎ꒒ꍟ. ꌃꀎ꓄ ꒒ꂦꂦꀘ ꅏꃅꍟꋪꍟ ꀤ ꍏꂵ ꈤꂦꅏ! ꌗꂦꂵꍟ꓄ꀤꂵꍟꌗ ꓄ꃅꀤꈤꁅꌗ ꌩꂦꀎ ꌃꍟ꒒ꀤꍟꃴꍟ ꀸꂦꈤ'꓄ ꃅꍏꉣꉣꍟꈤ, ꀸꂦ ꃅꍏꉣꉣꍟꈤ. ꀭꀎꌗ꓄ ꒒ꀤꀘꍟ ꃅꂦꅏ ꌩꂦꀎ'ꋪꍟ ꌃꍟ꒒ꀤꍟꃴꀤꈤꁅ ꌩꂦꀎꋪ ꎇꍏꂵꀤ꒒ꌩ ꀸꀤꀸꈤ'꓄ ꍏꌃꍏꈤꀸꂦꈤ ꌩꂦꀎ." The spirit whispered. My teeth were clenched as warm tears came to my eyes. I wanted to strangle Black.

Just then though, Black disappeared as soon as Angel walked in.

"Hey did you find anything? All I found in the basement were footprints and a home phone. Though the phone itself is well... you can see for yourself." Angel whispered. She took it out of her pocket and handed it to me. I looked at it in dismay.

The phone was broken, smashed into a million bits as the pieces went into my hands. I was exceedingly confused and heartbroken at the possibility that my family had abandoned me. That they weren't going to look for me after three weeks, that they might've just already thought I was dea—

My thoughts were then, however, interrupted by the GPS in my pocket starting to go off in an obnoxiously loud noise that sounded like... I don't know how to explain it, perhaps like a doorbell?

But it was inexplicably loud. This noise from my GPS attracted the monster which ran its way to the garage, smashing through the walls of the house and the door.

Angel and I made a collective effort to quickly get the garage door open and get the absolute hell out of the house. We reached below the garage door and tugged it above our heads which got the door open and I pushed Angel (again, I know) through the garage door. Just as I was about to get out, however, the door suddenly shut and nearly crushed my fingers. My skin crawled and my eyes widened. I repeated in my head,

"Don't look, don't look, don't look!"

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the mess that was my life right now. I barely survived against a bush, the Junisks, an explosion, Ruby, Ethan, my first encounter with this creature, and now here it was again. Ready to eat me with mostly its eyes and its mouth. I clenched the garage doorway as the creature crept near me with its "bird on a microphone" sound. I kept my mouth tightly closed while the creature placed one of its right hands on my shoulder. My heart pounded throughout my whole body while I felt its breath coming from the back of my head.

I needed to survive, I needed to survive!

So, I did something incredibly stupid. I tried to head-butt the creature without even knowing where the creature's head was and while my back was turned against it. I flicked my head up and somehow made contact with the creature's eye, it screamed and growled in pain as I sprinted out of the garage, through the door we had entered, and exited out of the back door instead of the front door.

Why? Because my head was bleeding, I hadn't slept for a full day, I was severely starved and dehydrated, and I was confused about where I was supposed to go in my own home.

Anyways, I rushed out of the back door and entered the back yard where I saw the Color tree that Obsidia had talked about what seemed like years ago now. The tree had grown taller ever since I last saw it to the point where it rivaled some of the other jungle trees with its overarching branches and colorful leaves sticking out of the tree. I desired to see this tree one more time in the future.

For now, though, the creature was still screaming because of its damaged eye in my house. I didn't take any chances to attack it further and rushed through the gate. I got to the front of my house and saw Angel desperately trying to open the garage door from the outside. She was banging and screaming my name repeatedly and I rushed over to her.

"Angel! I'm okay!" I exclaimed. She looked towards me, tears in her eyes, and rushed over to me. We hugged each other and I would've hugged her for even longer. But the garage door suddenly burst open and out came the creature with a crack in its crystallized form near its right eye.

I was half glad that I had injured it, yet I was also half horrified at how fast it could run if we ran. I knew I had to distract it one more time for us to escape freely but how could I?

I felt inside my pockets and touched over the GPS that I had. I knew I would likely need it later to escape out of Altandor but for right now, I needed to escape from the creature with my life. I grabbed the GPS from my pocket and just as the creature was about to pounce on us, I chucked it at its head, directly at its cracked eye. I was surprised in myself that I was able to hit its eye in the first place, I had horrible aim!

However that didn't matter, the creature squealed and roared in pain so loudly that I was worried that Ethan had heard it from across Altandor. I grabbed Angels' hand and ran through my street for possibly the final time. She looked behind us and yelled,

"THAT THING IS GETTING BACK UP!" My heart raced and I knew that if we ran through the street any longer, we would be an easy target for anything to come by.

As we ran, with tears and fear in my eyes. We decided to run towards an abandoned building not far away from my house, but far enough that the creature would hopefully gloss over it. We entered the building and hid there, watching the monster closely from a crack in the wall. Angel tapped me on the shoulder and I glanced toward her.

She was pointing to an extremely convenient home phone that had surprisingly not been excessively damaged from the destruction the jungle had made on this building with its cracked and broken wooden texture.

"Get it, I'll keep watch," I whispered to her. She nodded and crawled over to the home phone, making sure she didn't scrape her knee on any broken glass or wood. I looked out of the window and saw the creature searching a building not far from where we were. We desperately needed to hurry up, get the home phone, and get the hell out of there.

Angel got to the home phone and her eyes said it all. The home phone was locked with a code neither of us knew about. She rubbed her forehead and tried to input a password that looked similar to a '1234' and '1111'. But they didn't work as a red screen kept popping up across her face. She whimpered in fear as the creature was now only two houses away from us.

Suddenly though, her eyes went wide, putting the home phone on silent mode, and tried to see whatever was on the screen more closely. I crawled over to her quietly and examined where she was looking on the screen of the phone.

It was from Jack in our old group chat, saying that he hadn't seen his family anywhere.

Wait... if we could see the group chat from this phone, doesn't that mean that this house was one of our friends' house? That doesn't make sense though, why wouldn't one of our friends be here then? Unless they either left the house as soon as they realized their family wasn't here or Ethan—

"BRRRRRROROROROROO!!!"

The creature roared out at the house right next to us. I spotted that the back porch door of the house wasn't blocked off and pointed at it to Angel. She nodded again and her wobbly legs barely stood up because of pure fear. I barely got up because I didn't want to make a noise to attract that creature. Both of us were so uneasy that standing became a problem.

However, if we ever wanted to see the next day, we had to keep moving. With one step at a time, me and Angel reached door and opened it just in time as the creature bashed through the wall I was leaning on ten seconds ago. We crouched down against the outside wall as there was a wide gap where a window used to be right above us. Angel covered her mouth with her hands and she hyperventilated while I looked for anything to throw.

I caught sight of a rock with a leaf and knew exactly what to do. I grabbed them both and wrapped the leaf around the rock. I covered the rock with the leaf as much as possible and threw the rock over the roof of the building and onto the street across from the house.

THUD!

The creature growled at the noise and rushed towards the street to investigate it.

"Go, go, go!" I whispered to Angel.

And just like that, we were running through the backyard of one of my friends' houses. Angel jumped over a small fence as I followed her; the creature roared in the distance behind us, presumably figuring out that it was merely a rock that made the noise.

Me and Angel both breathed in and out quicker and quicker. We ran through messy backyard after messy backyard, wooden and brick house after house, and empty streets until I told Angel, wheezing,

"Let's take a break!" Angel was out of breath too and she nodded. We jogged down another street until we both leaned on a gigantic tree. Both of us breathed heavily as Angel looked at the home phone she acquired. She didn't say anything but her expression said enough, she looked defeated. I overlooked her shoulder and saw a text from nearly everyone else from the group chat.

Every one of our friends was saying the same thing: They couldn't find their family anywhere. Angel tried to text back to them that neither I nor she had found their families as well. But since the phone didn't have any data because it was cracked at the back, the message didn't send. Regardless, Angel typed the message and tried to send it.

"Hey uhm... why did you lie?" I asked her. Angel, unexpectedly startled, said,

"Uhh, heh. What do you mean? I didn't lie in my message. Sure, the message probably won't send because of this stupid phone's connection problems but—"

"No. I meant why did you lie about you not finding your family? You said to me earlier you didn't even try." I said.

"What!!? I said that?! Pfft, I meant that I tried to find them, but I couldn't! Simple..." Angel said nervously. Her eyes looked away from me and she twiddled her fingers like a maniac.

"Really?" I said in a slow tone. She started to sweat even though the humidity was perfectly cool.

"I... heh. Uh, look. I just don't want to find out if my parents are here alright? Everything's changed with this jungle and Altandor being destroyed by everything we created. It's not to say that all of this is our fault! Whatever was in those capsules probably caused all of this you know! My parents, as well as probably my siblings, are probably angry, upset, and feel downright miserable right now since their house was turned into a mess. I don't want to add another disappointment to their list by them finding out I'm alive." She said, keeping her head down.

Her hair once again blocked her face but I could tell the disgust within herself that she had. I wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay, or give her some type of motivation! Instead, that "motivation" came out like this:

"What?! You think you're a disappointment? Come on. There are people in the world who are way more of a disappointment than you!" She looked at me in bafflement.

"Man, I suck at these motivational speech thingies uhm... oh! Here, look at me." I said as I pulled up three broken sticks that fell from the tree right next to us.

"Imagine these two big sticks as your parents and this little one as you. When your parents decided they weren't going to love you anymore as soon as they found out you were a girl, this happened," I said as I broke two sticks in half. She looked truly perplexed and glanced up at me, frowning.

"They shouldn't be a part of your life and think of you as a disappointment when they weren't even a part of your life in the first place," I said, now dropping the sticks apart from the one that represented her. I looked down and thought of my own family, how scared they must've been for me and their own lives. I breathed heavily.

"Anyways. What was I saying before uhm... oh yeah! I don't think you should—" Angel hugged me once again.

"Thanks for that George. I needed it." Angel said. I couldn't count how many times Angel had hugged me but I felt warm in her arms. I hugged her back.

After our conversation with an extra side of a hug, we settled the lie and she promised to say the truth to them once we got to their house. Speaking of their house...

"Do you remember where any of our friends' houses are?" Angel asked me. I looked at her and looked up at the tree branches; the immense amount of twigs looked like what my grandma tried to knit when she was still alive. I sighed as I almost lost myself from looking up. I darted my eyes downward at Angel as she was still expecting an answer.

"Huh? Oh! Uh, I think so. We just have to go to the school again and I'll lead the way from there." I was thinking of Jack's house and how on the very first day of school, we had gone to his house to discuss Steve's discovery of the secret war. Those were good times when it was all just speculation right?

Right!?

So, off we went to the school. We used nearly the same way I had gotten to the school beforehand and by the time we got there, Redwood trucks were now present but since there were no soldiers or rather people around us, the trucks didn't exactly pose a major threat. We went past the school and followed a pathway to the perimeter of the C building where we turned left by crossing a street. We then proceeded through winding roads and steep turns while watching out for whatever that creature was as well as any other beast that wanted to sneak up on us.

We got to his house in surprisingly one piece. We hoped that everyone else had also decided that it would be the best thing to meet at Jack's house to reconvene and decide our next move.

We hoped so. I was getting worried for everyone else, especially Fron and his blind self.

Angel and I picked ourselves up and walked over to his street-long driveway. Of course, his driveway was now cracked because of the roots spreading from the trees around the house. Once we got to the front of his house—which again seemed like a mansion compared to the rest of our small houses—we walked up the front porch steps and saw that the door was wide open. We worried that someone else had gotten to his house before us and we rushed in.

We saw Jack standing at the staircase near the front door. We hurried over to him.

"Hey, Jack. Are you alright?" I asked him, nearly passing out on the staircase because of the pure amount of exhaustion I had endured. Once I sat down next to him on one side of the staircase, Angel sat on the other side.

"What do you think?! I'm all alone at my house, my family is now gone, and best yet, Ethan and Veronica are looking for us to do god knows what!!" Jack said. I was surprised he was able to see Ethan and Veronica around Altandor.

"Uh, he forgot about the huge monster that's lurking about," Angel whispered to me from behind his back.

"Mhm, I know," I answered back. I was astonished that he didn't hear us since we whispered only a few inches from his ears.

"Well, everything's going to be fine. Everyone else, based on the group messages, also didn't find their parents. They must've been escorted out of Altandor with how dangerous it is." Angel tried to reason with Jack. He didn't listen though, simply looking at the next step down the staircase.

"I'm going to see if there's any food here, I'm starving," I stated. I went down the stairs and proceeded to the main hallway. Instead of going to the kitchen to grab anything to eat, however, I started to look around the mansion. It was pretty darn fancy I have to admit.

I first went to the right side of the mansion and sought out a large corridor with its surroundings lined with column after column. Paintings were strewn across the walls with them being filled with a light green color, maybe pollen? In the corridor were shelves that were filled to the brim with books, this must've been the library. I went to a doorway at the back of the library and saw that it led to a garden where in the middle had a fountain as well as plants (duh). But these plants seemed to have been more exotic than not. The ceiling of the garden had nearly caved in with all of the leaves from the trees laying themselves on the roof.

I went back to the library and exited out into the main hallway. I looked up at the stairs where Jack was now sobbing lightly with Angel by his side. I sighed in sorrow and walked over to the living room.

I had been here once before on the first day but looking around, the living room looked more antique and now had a multitude of couches fit for anyone in the household. I glimpsed around the walls which had decorations from all over the world and if I had mentioned all of them, I would indefinitely go crazy. I went to the kitchen at the back of the house, where it was completely made of marble and other ores like hard rubies and obsidi...

I choked at the thought of my sister. I wondered how much fear she had within her for her own life.

I decided to shake that thought off and looked at a diamond-shaped decoration at the central table of the dining room right next to the kitchen to keep myself distracted. I muttered to myself,

"Damn... this family is filthy rich."

"ꌩꍟꍏꃅ, ꀤ꓄ ꀤꌗ." Black said, suddenly appearing from under the table with a handful of grapes in his mouth.