***

The kids had moved inside to one of the bedrooms to talk about the secret room. They were all gathered around one of the beds. Emma had drawn a diagram of the house in a notebook which they were all currently studying. It was definitely a surprise for the others when they heard about the secret room. There's been a hidden room all these years in the house and they had no idea it existed until now.

"There's a secret room... In this house?" One of them had asked.

Alex nodded, "That's what we're thinking." They had enough information to back it up too. Mom was always disappearing after eight and they were never able to find her. It would only make sense for her to be in the hidden room.

"Its location..," Emma circled a place in between Mom's room and her office, "Is right next to Mama's room. Mama's room... Has a washroom right next to it, and her office is right next to that," She colored over one of the lines that were right beside Mom's office, "But our theory... Is that this area in between isn't a mere wall."

"I noticed recently..," Gilda took over the explanation, "That every time, right before Mama disappears, she always enters either the washroom or her office." Both rooms just so happened to have that empty space between them.

"And so we decided to put the theory to the test and measure the distances of both the walls inside and outside the rooms," Emma said.

Alex turned to look at Norman, "Remember when I was counting my steps that one night?"

Norman nodded then asked, "So you were measuring the distance?" Alex gave him confirmation. He was wondering why she was doing, but he passed it off as her just being bored. She did have the habit of counting her steps when she was bored.

"And the results?" Don inquired.

"They were completely different," Emma nodded, "There's some sort of space worth about ten steps of mine in there. One side of that space is a wall... And one side is a bookshelf. But I think there's some sort of hidden entrance to get inside the space from both sides. Inside... Will be Mama's secret room."

Don hesitated before finally asking, "But what is it even for?"

"Well, that'd probably be..." Emma started.

"For her to make reports," Ray had ended up cutting the girl off, "Mama reports in to the HQ on a daily basis. That's probably what the room is for." The three girls shared a look. They had been right all along then. They were thinking that it was where Mom would talk with the people from the outside world.

"H... Q?" Don questioned.

"It's headquarters," Alex replied, "The people that are in charge of this place and others like it." She was sure that there were more places like this one. There was no way that this was the only one. They would definitely have more than one so they can get more meat shipped out faster instead of having to wait.

"The 'headquarters' that also send in both people like Sister Krone, and our baby siblings," Norman added. They're most likely the ones that supplied the house with all of the necessities that they needed.

Emma held up the notebook and pointed to where they think the secret room is, "Ray... Did you already know... That this room existed here?" Alex looked over at him with an expectant look on her face. If he had been Mom's spy for so long then maybe he had seen it and been inside of it before. It was a long shot, but if they were lucky-

"Nope," Ray responded. Just like that, Alex's hopes were crushed. She should have known that they wouldn't be that lucky. "But I have been suspecting that there's gotta be a room like that somewhere in this house."

How else would HQ know that they need more supplies? They could just bring up what they need when they shipped out a kid, but that would seem too unlikely. Something might come up and they need something shipped to the house immediately. Alex had a curious expression on her face, "You never thought about checking it out?" Ray shook his head.

"Let's go in then!" Don exclaimed, "It's where she communicates with the 'outside world'! If we investigate the room... We might even find some information on the whereabouts of Conny and the others!"

"But what about the key?" Gilda asked him, "It's a secret room, so she must have locked it!"

"She most likely keeps the key on her person too. There's no way she would leave it lying around for one of us to find," Alex was confident in her theory. Mom was smart, that was definitely for sure, so she wouldn't be so careless as to leave the key somewhere. It would end up with us finding it and wondering what it goes to. "There is one way to get in though..," Alex glanced over at Norman, "Can you pick the lock, Norman? You're a lot better at it than me."

"I mean, it depends on the type of lock..." Norman crossed his arms.

"Woah, hold up," Ray butted back into the conversation, "There's no need to do something like that! It may have a communication device, but it probably connects to only the headquarters anyway. Mama has no idea where our siblings have been taken to. There isn't much to gain from this investigation. On the other hand, if we try to break in anyway, there's too much risk. Remember that we've got trackers embedded in our bodies. On top of that, we don't know what the situation without the security of this secret room is. It's way too dangerous for us to attempt without good reason."

"I guess you're right," Alex said. "All it would take for us to get found out is for Mom to look at our location." That would lead to them being found out which was what they didn't want. There was a good chance that Mom already knew who they were so she could use the opportunity to reveal that she knows who we are.

"Still-" Don still wasn't going to let it go.

"Listen," Ray cut him off, "There's more for us to lose than gain if we attempt to break in. Forget it. We've discovered the room's location. That's great. However... It's still no place for us to try to break in at the current moment."

There was silence before Norman finally spoke, "Agreed."

"I see!" Emma exclaimed.

"It's probably for the best at the current moment." Alex agreed. At least they knew about the secret room now. Don and Gilda didn't seem to be too on board with just leaving the room alone though. They looked worried.

Ray changed the topic onto something else, "Anyways, we have other things we should be worried about instead."

"Right now, we just have to be careful that Sister Krone doesn't catch us doing anything sketchy," Norman stated. "If we rush to take action, we'll basically be digging our own graves."

"We also might slip up somewhere without even realizing it," Alex added. It was something that she had read in books. A lot of the times the main character would end up accidentally saying something they weren't supposed to which threw everything out of wack.

"Exactly," Ray said. "Mama aside, if Sister Krone gets the gist of anything we're trying to do, we're definitely screwed. Keep that in mind, guys."

Emma put a hand on Gilda's shoulder to comfort the girl, "Don't worry.  We'll be fine as long as we act normal!" Emma gave the girl a big smile. Don still seemed to be a bit on edge even after Emma tried to comfort them.

Gilda smiled nervously, "Yeah..."

She and Don started heading to the door. "Gonna go prepare for dinner," Don told them.

Emma waved, "We'll be there soon!"

The two of them leave, closing the door behind them. Alex could only hope that they wouldn't do something to reveal themselves. She was confident that Gilda wouldn't after overhearing the talk the girl had with Sister Krone. It was more that she was worried about Don. Don had a tendency to have an outburst when something angered or annoyed him. That was the reason why he always challenged Norman so much in tag.

"So..." Norman spoke when he was sure that the two of them were gone.

"The thing we should be worrying about now is..." Emma trailed off.

The four of them pointed to each other and said in unison, "How to investigate the outside world!"

"So what's the plan with that?" Alex sat on the bed.

Ray sat down with her, "We already have plenty of information on the 'inside world'. I've been investigating it for the past six years," Norman had a thoughtful look on his face that also looked a bit like worry. "As long as we're able to outsmart the adults with all the information we currently have, it honestly won't be impossible to get over that wall," They turned their attention to the scene outside of the window, "But that won't be the end. We still have to worry about what happens next."

"Next, we've got to plan our course after the escape!" Emma said.

Norman held up three fingers, "So in a nutshell, here are the three things on our to-do list right now. One, escape (get over the wall). Two, run away (get away from the premises safely). Three, survive (come up with ways to live on our own). We've finally figured out the gist of what we'll be doing for step one. Now we move to the second step. Our goal is to find out more about the outside world."

They were slowly, but surely, getting to where they need to be. They needed to pick up the pace a little bit though. If they were going to escape soon then they needed to make sure that everything was in place and ready. There was another thing that Alex was curious about, "We need to find out what type of stuff is out there. It could be a lot more dangerous than we think. Finding out what wildlife is out there will also help us find out more about what the outside world is like."

"Yeah," Norman crossed his arms. He brought up something else that they needed to take into account, "We've got to figure out a way to avoid the enemies and safely get away too. We've got to play a good route for ourselves."

Ray held up his index finger, "First is the area surrounding the plantation. We need our route... And a source of food. Are these grounds within a forest? Or are we located in the middle of a desert? That factor alone will change our course of action drastically."

"Oh," Emma raised her hand, "I don't think it'll be a desert out there. That one time I checked the other side from the top of a tree, I'm pretty sure I saw a forest in the distance!"

"I think I remember you saying that there were more trees beyond the wall," Alex commented. It was the first time that they went past the fence. They wanted to see if there were any more defenses to keep them in besides the fence and gate. That was when they found the wall.

Ray hit Emma on the head with something, "You don't sound confident. That's why you'll need these," Emma let out a noise of pain when he finally placed the item in her head. It was a pair of binoculars. Emma took a moment to look at them in awe, "A 'prize'  got a while back for working with Mama. We'll have to climb the wall and check out the other side with these. If we're gonna try to do anything risky, it's gotta be this."

"What's life without a few risks, am I right?" Alex shrugged, trying to make light of the situation.

"We need to return to the wall!" Norman stated, "Anytime starting tomorrow, let's go as soon as possible."

Emma hummed in agreement then smiled, "Oh also, can I tell you something else right after this? I want to introduce you guys to someone!" The other three gave her looks full of confusion. Introduce them to someone? They already knew everyone in the house though. Emma led the three of them all the way to the library. She ran off and called out, "Wait here!" The orange-haired girl started grabbing some books off of the shelves.

"What do you think this is about?" Alex leaned closer to Norman to ask.

Norman was still watching the girl with confusion, "I'm not sure."

"Hey, could it be... That dude with the owl mark?!" Ray inquired.

"Yeah!!" Emma turned to Ray and nodded, "I knew it, you've noticed it already, Ray!"

Alex thought for a moment, "The owl mark..," The guy with the owl mark? What could they be talking about? Then it hit her. She snapped her fingers when the realization finally dawned on her, "Oh! I know exactly what you're talking about! I've seen it once or twice in the books that I've read!"

A stack of books was placed on one of the tables by Emma. She opened one of the books and pointed to the owl mark on the inside. It had 'EX LIBRIS'  written on top and the name 'William Minerva' on the bottom. "This person!" Emma exclaimed.

"William... Minerva?" Norman questioned. Emma nodded. "Who is he?"

"No clue!" Emma replied. Alex sometimes wondered how the girl was able to not the answer to something, but still not be discouraged. She was really something else, "What I do know is that he used to be the owner of all of these books! Where he is... Who he is... Or even if he's still alive... We don't know at all. Still... He... Might be someone who can become our ally!"

"What... Do you mean?" Norman asked.

"This person has been using these books to send out a secret message. And it's not just one book. It's multiple books!" Emma explained. This caught Norman's attention. "This man will become our key and guide! We won't just escape! We'll discover a way... To navigate this world on our own!"

Norman smiled, "Yeah!"

"We should look through these books to see what we can discover," Alex said. So they finally put themselves to work. They started looking through all of the books that belonged to William Minerva to see if there was anything interesting they could find out about the marks.