That night was the night a spark of hope started up in her heart, a hope that there is something more to this four-cornered world. A hope that a creator and an almighty God is real. But most of all, a hope that Cathy would be waiting for her help, that she'd be back. 

"Sally?" Layana asked, plopping down beside her.

"Layana you scared me," she exclaimed dramatically and placed her hand to her heart. "What is it?"

"I was just thinking," Layana stared at her emerald green eyes. "Have you ever thought about what might be...outside?"

"What kind of question is that? Were you asleep when Cathy told us about that?"

"No. But think about it, what if they were lying to us?" Layana's voice dropped to a whisper as she drew near Sally.

"You already know the answer! It has always been the same, ashy, poisoned land behind the walls!" Sally whisper-shouted.

"I found-"

"What are you trying to do now, Layana? Don't tell me your planning on taking a peek beyond the walls?" She frowned. Sally has always been the one who was afraid of adventures, she would cower behind Layana everytime Cathy tells them a tale with ferocious creatures. 

"Not a peek," Layana grinned "an escape."

She watched Sally ponder, her eyes averting to the far corner of the room. She could practically hear the gears turning in Sally's head.

Layana sighed when Sally continued her silence.

She stopped midway from standing up when Sally clasped her wrists and said, "That sounds stupid, Layana."

Her half-smile deepened into a pout but just before she was about to retort, her friend looked at her with sparkling green eyes and said, "I am so in."

Convincing Sally was the easy part.

She knew that whatever she ask of her, she would follow her. Sometimes it bothers even Layana just how loyal Sally is to her.

But now she sat at the end of the room, the tiny box in her hand. The hushed conversations and soft murmurs were punctuated by the silent ticking of the clock and Layana's falling gut. She waited there for a long time, just observing for the right moment to strike.

Kring! The tiny, handheld clock chimed, and Layana nervously let it slip to the ground, almost subconsciously. Wiping her hands to her black shirt, she walked up to the middle, legs quaking underneath her.

She stood there as everyone minded their own business. Sally looked up at her from the other side of the room and her eyes widened with panic before she immediately slipped up a thumbs up sign. Layana exhaled, ignoring her friend's futile show of encouragement. She appreciated it, really, but it did nothing to sooth her nerves.

So Layana closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The clock ticked off in the distance. Small whispers of cloth. A disinterested "what."

Layana opened her eyes and blurted the first thing that came to her mind, "let's escape."

The first snort came from Andriette, "what's there to escape for?"

She cleared her throat and looked away, fiddling with her sweating fingers, "weren't you at least suspicious? Of all..."--she awkwardly demonstrated her hands, trying to replicate Sally's story telling skills--"of--of everything that's been going on with Cathy's death? Isn't it suspicious that--"

"What makes you think I thought it was suspicious?"

"Nothing! I just know. But what I'm trying to say here is that..." Layana took out the Bible from behind her and raised it to the air so everyone can see. "The day before she passed, she left me this."

Mason hummed, "okay? I still don't get it, what does this mean to us?"

"M-Mason...it means that we--that..." Layana sweated profusely, she wasn't one to get anxious at the thought of speaking, in fact, this emotion was new to her. But right then, her mind went blank, and all the words she needed to say tied her tongue. Maybe because even she thought it was ridiculous? 

Layana closed her eyes and tried to ignore the looks her family gave her and instead, she focused on her heart yet again. Her feelings, her emotions, she brought up that giddiness, that hope, that passion that filled her when she red the Bible. And for a couple minutes, she was able to breath out, relaxed, and ready. This is for Cathy, I'm doing this for Cathy. Layana started praying for guidance.

"We know that we've been living here all our life, we've been living here rather splendidly yes," she started, looking directly at the wall behind Ian, pretend they're not there. You'll be fine. "But that sense of hope, that beam of light, was rather mysteriously crushed with Cathy's passing."

"Layana I swear if this is some sort of speech-"

"I mean, it was weird wasn't it?" She kept her eyes to the wall. "I want you to think for a second--" Andriette scoffed, somehow being able to pull her out of her trance. "I...y--yeah think..." she couldn't even dare to look at Andriette, her thoughts were already swarming to her mind.

But to her utter disbelief, Andriette gave out a heavy sigh and said, "sorry go on, let me hear you."

Layana gulped, well that was unexpected, but I'll take it. Now all she has to do is focus, convince, communicate.

Connect.

She continued, "Cathy's last moments with us...Have you ever thought that maybe she isn't dead?"

"Layana, you're holding on to false hope. We've haven't seen her for so long, we know she's gone," Mason butted in. Layana's eyes widened a little, she thought Mason would be as easy to convince as Sally. 

She was at a loss for words, barely piecing herself back up together before butting back in, still staring at the wall lest she show too much emotion in her eyes. "No, I've seen her."

Silence.

Layana finally took this opportunity to watch as their faces crumbled to shock. Mason's crumbled to despair, Ian's to confusion, Andriette to rage and Sally to betrayal.

Until she instantly took her hands to her ears, as all at once their rebuttals came surging in. Sally whined, "wait--why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

Andriette had her eyebrows drawn in pure, indisputable anger, "are you nuts? Have you finally gone insane?"

"But I still don't get it, why would you come up with such a conclusion, Layana?" Ian, calm as ever, never raised a slight octave higher than his usual monotone voice.

"It's because she's having delusions, Ian. I'm sorry for the term, but I think that's what's happening right now," Mason looked at her with a bit too much concern. "Layana, you've got to accept the facts and move on. That's the best possible way for you and us."

Layana had her eyelids deadpanned over her steely black eyes, "no. And before you start again, let me tell you what I saw first."

She looked straight at the wall, arms dotting with goosebumps. Again, the spotlight was shining bright upon her and she couldn't look into their faces once again.

"I dreamt about her--" 

"Yeah you for sure did,"--Ian stuffed a roll of blankets in Andriette's mouth to keep her quiet. 

Layana continued, "she was just...tied up to the nothingness. And she was putting these thoughts into my head, saying stuff like, 'nothing is certain in this world' and towards the end of every dream, I could hear her faintly whisper, 'I'll be waiting for you."

Layana smiled at the wall, "if that isn't enough to make you believe..." She gave a sideways glance at Andriette who was under Ian, that had apparently pinned her struggling self to the ground.

Layana raised the Bible yet again, the smooth leathery cover standing out in the brilliant warm light. "This...is the truth. Cathy gave it to me before the guards took her, she essentially told me to look for clues in it. And I found a ton."

From the back of the book, she slipped out the parchment and red it out loud, "'Everything you read here is true.'"

"If you look at the evidences, possibilities and clues, you'd know that Cathy knew she'd leave us on that very hour. She knew that I'd come looking for clues. I've also come to put the pieces together, she might be telling us she's still alive, that we can still save her. So tell me, will you be ready to face the real world with me and save Cathy?" She finally took her eyes off the wall and looked at her family staring at her.

Andriette had finally scrambled out of Ian's grasp in the middle of her speech and was now pondering it all over with him. Mason was looking away, but she could see him shifting his weight around, indicating he was thinking hard. 

While Sally only looked at her with much respect. "I was in from the very beginning, I'll do whatever it takes to save Cathy." She said determinedly, eyebrows drawn and fists high in the air. Her high spirits lifted Layana's as she looked expectedly at the three.

Almost as soon as she laid eyes on them, she felt the tides of doubt kicking in and she had the urge to kick herself in embarassment. 

Layana gulped, looking at Mason instead who still had his face tilted the other way. When he finally met her gaze he had a winner smile plastered on his face, "of course! I'd give Cathy a huge old hug once we see her again."

His pretty smile widened, stretching the signature red scar that ran across his face from underneath his tear ducts to the underside of his chin. Nobody really knows how he got it, but it sure didn't ruin his reassuring smile as he stood up from his place in the ground.

Layana saw him look expectantly at Andriette and Ian. She knew he knew what they were thinking. They were thinking too hard on the subject, and when that comes to happen. Layana's own smile dropped along with her gut, when you think too much about something, you end up choosing the wrong path. She remembered Cathy's lesson on that one.

Layana gulped and took a step in front of Andriette. She held out her hand and said, "would you like to help me live a life worth living?"

Andriette had her head bowed down. Beneath them her fingers were fiddling with each other, fighting the anger, fighting the emotions she wanted to say or the outbursts she could have. She knew it was irrational to give in to Layana's requests, it was a futile effort of trying to bring back the dead! But somehow...somehow it makes sense. Or maybe she didn't want to believe in a shaky hope as well?

No matter how much she tried to look at it on all angles of logic, the proofs and the evidences, even her own observations line up...to this very moment. She's seen it, that way Cathy looked at them for the last time that night, the way she pulled Layana away and talked to her in 'private.' But Cathy knew her children too much, and she knew she was listening in.

The clock ticked again, filling the silence at all times as the first slivers of silver lights spills across the cracked cement. Layana still had her hand outstretched, Andriette lying underneath it. Until slowly, at last, she raises her head with a smirk, "I thought we were saving Cathy?"

Andriette took Layana's hand as she helped her up. Layana chuckled, "yeah, yeah. That too of course."

They both looked at Ian who was beside Mason, already standing up from his position in the ground. "I don't see why not," he shrugged and smiled, revealing the dimples on his brown cheek.

The five children gathered together in the center as Sally placed her hand in the center of them all and looked at them with bright green eyes, "let's find Cathy!"

"Yes!" Mason and Layana say at once, placing their own hands in the circle.

"I don't see the purpose of this...ritual but..." Ian shrugs again and places his own hand on top of Mason's timidly. They all look at Andriette with teasing gazes.

"What," she snapped before hesitating. "Don't think I'm doing this 'cause I've gone all mushy on you guys. It's just so you can stop this nonsense," Andriette looked away but placed her hands in the circle anyway.

"Let's save Cathy!"

In their obliviousness, the red dot behind Layana's head blinked awake, like a monster being tamed for death. Behind its fiery red gaze, two different colored eyes watched the screen, one an oceanic pool of blue, the other a smoldering honey.

The young man continued to trace his fingers on the blistering hot mug in front of him and he says out loud, "I never thought you'd cause this much trouble." He sighed.

The radio to his left played static, and a familiar code of dots and beeps followed. He quickly pressed a button and raised it to his lips.

The young man smiled, pearly white teeth gleaming under the light, "everything's under control, dad."