As they walked, Kipo poked her head out a window, taking stock of their surroundings. The mountains and hills rose around them, snow piling up on the highest points. A little bit past them, Kipo could see the sea that Coraline and Luz had explored before. Or, kind of explored. They didn't get too far, but its not like it looked like there was anything there. No islands, and certainly nothing on the horizon. Kipo wondered what other continents would look like in this world. Would it be a strange and mish-mashed as this one?

Well... Kipo didn't want to stay here long enough to find out. Looking away from the horizon, she glanced down, and nearly stumbled from the sudden wave of dizziness. Kipo didn't think she was one who was afraid of heights, but the sudden realization of just far down the ground was from the third floor was a real shock. The river that meant out the other side of the castle was basically just an icy green line in the dirt, and the shrubbery and evergreen trees looked like they could fit in the palm of Kipo's hand.

"Wow..." Kipo breathed. She twisted around, looking up, and found the top of the castle looking much whiter than the rest of it. Like the taller mountains around it, the top of the castle reached the clouds, and had collected snow on it as a result.

It looked so high, but based on what had happened so far, Kipo was going to assume that there were only three or four more floors left.

Kipo hummed. Was this a castle or a tower? She prepared to pull herself back inside, but before she could, something caught her eye. Kipo paused, staring intently up at the top of the castle, but the flurry of movement she had seen at the top of one of its tower was either gone, or it never existed in the first place. Kipo frowned, but she resumed pulling herself back into the castle.

"Well?" Kai asked her when she came back in. He had refused to look out himself, for some reason, and Fei Fei didn't argue when Kipo offered herself, or Kipo had been the only one to look out at the view. "What'd you find?"

Kipo shrugged. "Nothing worth mentioning, I think."

"Nothing?" Kai asked, looking disbelieving.

Kipo shrugged again. "Were you expecting something?"

Kai opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. Kipo suspected the answer to that was a 'yes', but not something he wanted to share.

"Are we continuing the looking?" Fei Fei asked. Kipo nodded. She hadn't been expecting much from the window anyway.

Unfortunately, the actual castle seemed like a dying hope, too. Other than the furniture, there were no person items here, nothing to suggest that someone was living here. It was as empty and soulless as if it was a dollhouse, and Kipo was starting to get desperate. Maybe Arlen was lying, but if there really was nothing here, no danger or answers, it seemed like a weird thing to lie about. Besides, wouldn't those previous kids have left some sign of being here?

The entire emptiness of the castle reminded Kipo of the rest of the world she had found herself in. It was grand and mysterious and cool, but it was soulless, and unlived in. This place looked like it had been set up like a prop, and not an actual place with history and life in it. No people. No history. What kind of world was this?

Kipo looked into a room, a bedroom, and found Kai inside of it. He was doing as they agreed and looking through the room, but he was ringing his hands nervously, and he kept glancing around, as if something was going to jump out from the corners of the room.

Suddenly, it occurred to Kipo what Kai had been nervous about before.

"Oh," she said suddenly, nearly making Kai jump out of his skin. "You're still worried about Hurricane, aren't you?"

"Well, DUH," he huffed, clearly trying to act as if Kipo hadn't scared him half to death. "Doesn't... Doesn't that seem like something worth worrying about?"

"No, you're right," Kipo agreed, sighing. "But I can't help but think that if he wanted to find us, he could. Especially with that cabin of his. In fact, he would even need to find us himself if he could send his wooden creatures after us. I admit that he's definitely suspicious, but it really doesn't look like he wants to find us."

Kai shivered. "I... guess. But we don't know anything for sure."

"That's right..."

Kai seemed to wait for her to say something more, but when she didn't, he huffed, crossing his arms with a scowl on his face.

"Ugh, this is so FRUSTERATING!" he cried. "Why are we being killed like this?! Why is this happening?! Why do we not KNOW ANYTHING?!"

Kipo didn't' say anything. She winced, but she figured that Kai wasn't asking these questions because he wanted them answered.

Kai paused, trying to find his words. "Maybe this is a video game, too. That would make sense. Then Mira and Adam and everyone else would still be alive and... and..."

Kipo frowned. She still didn't love that theory, considering it implied that she wasn't really, but she still didn't say anything.

"Maybe this is a dream and it's not real," Kai muttered to himself, sitting himself down on the neatly made bed that looked like it hadn't been slept in once. "Maybe I'll wake up, and this will all be fake, and everyone will be fine!"

Kai squeezed his eyes shut, and opened them again. He closed his eyes again, opened them, closed them, opened them, closed them... the process kept repeating, but nothing changed, and soon, Kai gave up, laying back on the bed.

Slowly, Kipo went and sat by him.

"It's real, isn't it?" he asked her, her voice flat as he stared up at the ceiling. "They're really dead... aren't they?"

"...I think so," Kipo answered, quietly. "I... I'm so sorry, Kai. I wish I had done all this differently, I wish I knew what to do. I want to keep everyone alive and ok, but I keep making mistakes and people keep dying-!"

Kipo paused, covering her mouth and trying to force her sob back down. She took a deep breath, and continued.

"Sometimes, I know what I did wrong, and other times, all I can do is wonder if I could have done anything different," Kipo told him. "But... I promise that from now on, I'll do everything I can to keep else all alive. I swear I will. No one else will die, and we'll all get out! I mean... we have to. We have no choice."

Kipo paused suddenly, listening for a reply. But Kai was silent, and when Kipo glanced back, wondering if he was asleep, she found him staring up at the ceiling, barely looking like he was listening.

Kipo turned away. Her promise had barely reached Kai, and truthfully, it hadn't made her feel any better either. How could see be confident when nine people weighed on her? This place wasn't fair, and she didn't understand it at all. How was she supposed to keep that promise? Kipo had to admit she had no idea.

Eventually, Kipo stood up. She turned to look at Kai before stopping herself. She didn't actually want to see that.

"I'm going to keep looking around," she told her. Again, there was no reply. After a minute of waiting, Kipo gave up, leaving the room. Fei Fei looked over to her as she came out, looking worried.

"Are you... okay?" Fei Fei asked. Kipo smiled back at her sheepishly.

"I'm fine," she lied. "Kai's not doing well, though... Actually, I don't think any of us are doing ok."

Suddenly, Kipo stepped forward, studying Fei Fei.

"What about you?" Kipo asked carefully. "Are you okay?"

Fei Fei frowned, lowering her head with a complicated expression on her face. But when she answered, it was with a nod.

"Are you sure?" Kipo insisted, stepping closer, and Fei Fei's face suddenly changed to one of irritation.

"It's fine," she replied, her voice snappish. Kipo backed away, putting up her hands, but she got the sense that Fei Fei's anger wasn't directed at her.

"Okay," Kipo said, deciding she'd drop it. For now at least. Perhaps it was the language barrier, but Fei Fei seemed to struggle with putting her feelings into words, far more than Kipo did, at least. "Okay."

They continued looking throughout the halls, searching in empty bedrooms and closets. As expected, the place held nothing, and the rooms were so big that it took a long time to search through all of them, especially since one of their trio wasn't even trying anymore.

Eventually, Kipo gave up, pausing by Fei Fei, who was looking out through a hole in the wall of the castle that had crumbled away due to weather. A soft breeze blew over them, bringing the smell of frost and snow. Kipo breathed in deeply, letting the fresh air wash over her. Much better that the stale, rotting air inside the castle.

Before these last couple of days, Kipo had never seen snow before. Obviously, it didn't snow inside the burrow, and if it did rain on the surface, Kipo hadn't been around long enough to see it. Despite seeing the awful side effects of snow (like Mabel's frostbite), Kipo decided that she liked it. She smiles sadly to herself, a sudden shock of homesickness running through her.

For a minute, Kipo let herself indulge in her hopes. She wanted to go back home, and see what her home looked like covered in snow and winter. She wanted to find her parents, and her friends, and... Kipo suddenly winced, but the age old aching pain in her heart didn't stop her from wanting to see Hugo again, too. Grief... it never did end, did it? Kipo would be feeling the pain of losing everyone forever.

It seemed impossible for her heart to hold all that hurt, and Kipo was worried she'd find herself buried under it.

Kipo put a hand on her chest, over her heart. She wanted to say that she wouldn't be able to handle another tragedy, another... accident, but she knew in her heart that there was no point in lying. Kipo knew that no matter what happened, she'd have to go on, and to save everyone she could and send them all home.

Kipo would do her best to save all of them. But she couldn't stop if one of them died, no matter how much it hurt. She'd keep going... no matter what.

Kipo frowned at that. That kind of thinking wasn't like her. She wasn't always so negative, was she? This place was changing her, and definitely not for the better. With significant effort, Kipo shoved those thoughts away.

She WAS going to save everyone. She wasn't going to stop until everyone was safe. She WASN'T.

A suddenly sound cut off Kipo's forced determined thinking. She looked around, wondering what that was, and found Fei Fei doing the same.

They both spotted it at the same time: two doors that definitely didn't belong here at the end of the hall. Kipo knew they definitely weren't here before, and that they didn't make any sense.

Fei Fei seemed to have the same thoughts as she tilted her head at the doors. They weren't normal doors, like everything else here was, they were... elevator doors, with a button right beside it. Kipo and Fei Fei exchanged looks. That ding came from the elevator, didn't it?

"I...I'll go get Kai," Kipo told her friend, the strangeness of the clearly advanced technology in this place clearly getting to her. Fei Fei nodded, not looking much better off.

Kipo hurried back through the hallway, checking about a million different rooms because she had no idea which on she left Kai in, and they all looked similar. But he wasn't in any of them, and when she reached the other end of the hall, Kipo frowned. How she missed him, somehow?

Kipo hurried back down the hall again, checking every single room again with only a little but of annoyance. Where was he?

But as Kipo reached Fei Fei again, a horrifying realization dawned on her.

"He's not here," Kipo realized. Fei Fei gave her an odd look.

"He left?"

"Wouldn't he have told us?" Kipo pointed out, before realizing that in Kai's state, he almost definitely wouldn't. "Maybe not."

Fei Fei hummed, looking back to the elevator. Kipo gulped, looking at it was well. In the time she had been searching, the elevator doors had opened up to an actual elevator, with mirrored walls and red carpet on the floor. Gold paint on the back spelled out 'WELCOME! :D'. It certainly looked inviting... but if Kai was in actual trouble.

Well, okay, Kipo frowned to herself, trying to puzzle it out. If Kai had gone back down, he was either with Tulip and Coraline or Luz and Mabel. If something had taken him, it was probably taking all of them, so, by all intents and purposes, this elevator led to the same place Kai was. Probably. Maybe. There was a small chance?

Kipo sighed, stepping forward. She motioned to it, looking over to Fei Fei. "Shall we?"

Fei Fei's eyes widened, but she nodded. They stepped into the elevator (Kipo didn't really think she would be thinking about elevators in this old timey castle... she was still surprised), and the doors closed behind them. They felt the elevator shudder, and then start down slowly as soft music played from an unseen speaker hidden somewhere. Knowing how long it took them to get all the way up here with the stairs, Kipo released a sigh. If this elevator was going to kidnap them, couldn't it be a little faster?

The elevator did not listen, continuing it's slow descent, and Kipo reluctantly resigned herself to whatever knew horrible trap was waiting for them down at the bottom.

She could NOT let any of them die. She had promised Kai that muc, at least. NO ONE else was dying here. She WOULD keep them all alive.

She hoped.