The house was dark and quiet. 32A was wide awake in her own room. Toivo was wide awake in his bunk in the basement. Toivo got up from his bunk and got dressed up. He quietly left the basement and got all the necessary warm clothing because outside was very cold at night, especially in the sea. He stepped outside and the cold wind instantly hit his face. The snow was falling almost horizontally. He walked to the boat of the neighbors and made sure to check that all the lights were off at the neighbors' house. They were.
32A felt a painful pulse in her own room. She wanted to stay inside for maybe an hour more but the pulse surprised her.
"What? Where is he going at this hour? Don't tell me he has the same idea." She thought to herself.
She got up from the bed, got dressed and grabbed her backpack from the floor and left her room. On the floor outside the door was a folded note standing up. She picked it up and read it.
"This day will be painful for you, but I had to go. Sorry." The note said.
"Oh no, he has the same idea. I hope he hasn't left yet and taken the boat. I have to go now!" She thought and went downstairs.
She saw that Toivo's jacket was not on the hook. She took her own one and stepped outside into the dark where she didn't see too well but went to where the boat is and where the pulses were coming from. Once she was close to the boat, she no longer felt any pulses.
"You're really intending to go too?" 32A shouted to the direction of the boat, knowing that Toivo is there.
"What? Did you change your mind then?" Toivo shouted back.
"I didn't change my mind. I was intending to go all along. I didn't know you were too." 32A said after she got close enough to actually see Toivo.
"So I guess we'll share the yelling we'll get when we return." Toivo said.
"That's okay for me. We'll do better out there together. You really were about to go alone and cause pain for me? Do you know how much those pulses hurt when you're far away?" 32A asked.
"I obviously can't know. But I thought that bringing our friend back would be worth it." Toivo answered.
"Well, it is. I appreciate that you care about her that much, even after all this time."
"Of course I do, even if I don't let it show or talk about it that much."
"Well, let's not waste any time talking here then."
"You're right. Are we ready to go?" Toivo asked.
"I'm ready."
"Well, let's go then!" Toivo said and untied the boat from the dock.
"But we don't have the keys." 32A pointed out.
"But yes we do. Sampo never returned the keys when we came back on this boat. The keys should still be there." Toivo pointed out.
32A climbed on the boat and found the keys there. Once Toivo was in the boat too, 32A put the keys in and started the boat.
"We'll be in so much trouble when we come back." 32A said jokingly as she was controlling the boat.
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The sea was dark at night, and even in the cockpit it was cold. 32A was controlling the wheel while Toivo was sitting down. 32A was not bothered by the cold because her combination of excitement and nerves were too distracting.
"I can't believe this is actually happening! We're going there. I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope that she's still there and that she's still... That she's still alive." 32A said with excitement that turned into worry.
"Whatever way we find her, we won't have to wonder anymore." Toivo added.
"Don't depress me now. We're going to bring her home! We're going to be a family like we always should have been and everything will be right." 32A said and got a little emotional about the possibilty.
"You think she'll recognize us?" Toivo asked.
"If she doesn't, she will once we tell her who we are. I'm certain."
"What if she doesn't remember us?"
"Don't you even dare suggest that. She'd never forget us if we haven't forgotten her."
"I hope so."
"When we find her alive and set her free and sail home together, I'll have so much to tell her. And you probably too."
"Ha! I do. But do you think we'll recognize her? She has aged too." Toivo replied and wondered.
"She can't have changed too much. I'm not worried about that." 32A said and focused on the screen of coordinates as she controlled the boat.
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After some hours on the dark sea, land became visible. 32A could see the treetops and looked at the compass that was in the boat. She didn't remember the coordinates of the spot where they landed the last time. She decided to steer the boat north just to see if she could see a sight that was familiar.
"The last time I wanted to find you, I went south and found nothing. This time I won't give up searching for you like I did then. This time I'll keep searching until I find you." She quietly said to herself.
After going north for a while, she spotted the same truck that was there the last time.
"This is the same place where we were the last time. Did the prisoners not take the truck?" 32A wondered out loud.
"Maybe they did but you went further than you meant to." Toivo said.
"No, this looks exactly like the place."
"Well, let's have a closer look then." Toivo suggested and 32A looked into the dark coast with the headlights of the boat.
"I'm not going in there at night. Evil people live there." 32A said and sounded scared.
"Yeah. We should wait in the boat until the morning. I'll keep an eye on the coast." Toivo said.
"Could you do that? In that case, I'll try to get some sleep before morning." 32A replied.
"If you can sleep when it's this cold then go ahead. I couldn't." Toivo said.
"Did you bring a drawing with you?" 32A asked.
"I didn't. I didn't think that you'd come along so I didn't have a reason to bring one."
"Well. If I seem like I'm having a bad time, wake me up." 32A said and sat down on the wide seat that's in the side of the cockpit and then lied down on it on her side.
She tried to sleep on it but it was just too cold. She didn't actually want to fall asleep either because she was scared of seeing nightmares again. So there she layed for hours while Toivo kept looking into the shore. The boat was floating close to the ice on the shore, but not so close that anyone could walk into the boat. When the darkness was turning dim and the Sun was rising, 32A concluded that her chance to sleep this night had passed. She raised her head up and then got up from the seat. Toivo was leaning on the steering wheel standing and facing the floor. 32A quietly said his name but he didn't respond. She noticed that Toivo was asleep.
"At least somebody gets some sleep here." She thought to herself and then stepped out of the cockpit and looked at the forest that wasn't as scary now as it was in the dark.
"I should go alone. That way I can find my way back here no matter where I go." 32A thought.
She looked around the cockpit and saw Toivo's backpack on the floor. In the side pocket of the backpack was a notebook.
"Hey! He could have made me a drawing if he wanted to. That doesn't matter now. I should use that to tell him that I'm going so he doesn't come looking for me." She thought to herself.
She quietly took the notebook and wrote on it that she's going alone and that Toivo should stay on the boat. She then tore the page out and put it on the bench where she had just slept. She then took her own backpack and climbed over the edge of the boat. There was a little bit of a jump between the boat and the ice. She sprung forward and jumped on the ice but the edge of the ice broke and her feet got in the water. Feeling the cold water and the surprise of the ice breaking spooked her and she yelled out a bad word. She crawled onto some stronger ice and then crawled slowly closer to the shore. In the cold weather her wet shoes made her feet freeze to the point that it hurt. Once she made it to the shore safely, she looked back at the boat and then into the forest.
"Should have just parked the boat at the shore, but I didn't want to wake him up. Already off to a great start. Into the woods then." She said quietly and took the dead man's jacket with the directions from her backpack and read it again.
She went to look at the truck that was still parked there. Behind the truck was still the corpse of the man who grabbed her and who Toivo killed. The body hadn't rotted much, as the cold had preserved it. 32A only caught a glimpse of it before she looked away. That one glimpse was enough to get the image of the dead man's face tattooed into her memory. She then looked inside the truck what she saw shocked her even more. The same prisoners who were there tied up the last time, were now there laying on the floor and not even breathing. In the corner was a corpse that was leaning on the wall and curled up. 32A put her hand over her mouth and her eyes widened.
"What happened here? Why did they not get away from here?" She wondered quietly and looked away again.
After a moment she climbed into the truck and saw the faces of all the people on the floor.
"Maybe I can still save them. I hope they haven't been too damaged." She said.
She then looked at one of the bodies and focused on it. It was disturbing and disgusting to her but she made herself do it anyway. She focused as hard as she could and after a moment that felt longer than it was, the body started breathing. The now living person took a heavy breath and looked at the ceiling with wide eyes.
"Don't get scared. You were out. Now you're awake." 32A calmly said.
"W-what? I thought that I'd die at the hands of that lunatic." The revived survivor said.
"Hold on. What lunatic? Did somebody attack you?"
"Somebody? It was one of us. It was that guy!" The survivor said and pointed at the curled up corpse in the corner.
"He attacked you? He's the first one who I freed and that's what he did?" 32A asked.
"Looks like the rest of us weren't as lucky as I was. And looks like he himself decided to freeze to death in that corner."
"So how did it happen?"
"After you and the others left, he just attacked us. He choked us one by one, and we were all too weak to fight back. He had enough strength to attack us, it seems." The survivor said.
32A then remembered that she gave the attacker a little bit of strength with her ability when she freed him.
"I can't let them suffer such a cruel fate. And I don't have anything to hide here." 32A said and then stepped up to another corpse and focused on it.
She managed to bring that one back to life too. The reaction of the first revived one was confusion and shock.
"Did you do that?" The first revived one asked.
32A didn't answer anything. She just revived the next one, and then the rest. The people were confused and amazed. 32A didn't revive the attacker who remained in the corner. She jumped down from the cargo of the truck and turned around.
"Now you all get out of here for real. If I come back here to find you all dead, you'll stay that way." 32A said to them.
"Wait. How did you do that?" One of them asked her.
"I wish I knew myself." She replied and turned her back on them and went into the forest.
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When she was far enough away from them, she sat down and leaned her back on a tree.
"This place is even more evil than I thought. I shouldn't have come here." She said to herself while sitting there on the snow.
"But I'm already here. I can't go back empty handed. The place can't be too far away. I have to do this." She continued and got up.
She looked at the directions once again. They instructed her to go through the forest road and onto a highway. From there she followed the instructions more and hoped that she was in the right place. She walked along highways and kept an eye on landmarks. She walked past every forest road that wasn't mentioned in the directions, and only took turns that were mentioned. She constantly kept her eyes on the forests that surrounded the roads, remembering what kind of people ambushed her and Ilona from those forests so long ago. The stronger the pulses got, the more scared she got as she knew that she'd have a longer way to run in the case of an ambush. She knew that just because she couldn't see the figure of a person, didn't mean that a person wasn't there, and on some level she convinced herself that someone was looking at her.
"They won't be up this early. It's still morning." She thought to herself to comfort herself and kept walking with quiet steps.
As the pulses got stronger, she also knew that her only help had less of a chance of finding her, and that her calls of help would be more and more impossible to hear. As she kept walking the highway, the sound of a crow made her jump and almost fall down, but she knew that she was too close to turn back now, no matter how scared she was. She just kept her eyes on the instructions while paying attention to her surroundings.
"It's a real puzzle working out these directions. I think this is the turn that's mentioned here. If I'm lost then at least I can find my way back to the boat." 32A said and felt a pulse.
She took the turn that she thought was right, and after another bit of walking, she saw a road sign that mentioned a lake and had an arrow on it.
"This is it! That lake has the same name that's mentioned in these directions. I'm here!" She said with excitement.
She took the turn to where the arrow pointed and walked the forest road there. After walking on the road surrounded by trees for some time, she saw a lake. On the other side of the frozen lake she saw a large house between rocks.
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"This is it! This is it! It's the same one as the directions. Ilona is here! I told you that I'd come back for you! Your suffering is over." 32A said with joy in her voice and a tear in her eye as she looked across the lake.
She wanted to just sprint across the ice but after her earlier experience, she figured it would not be the best idea. She walked along the shore of the lake and kept her eyes glued to the house.
"You couldn't have gotten my message. I hope you still remember me." She said while being winded and walking closer to the house.
"How should I get in? Walking in and saying that I came here to take your slave probably wouldn't work. Maybe I should wait outside and see if anyone comes out. Maybe I should look inside through the windows." She said as she was getting close.
Once she was so close to the house that whoever came from there would spot her, she got low and kept her distance from the house. She went among the trees and kept low, looking at the house. She stayed still and low on the snow, occasioanlly switching positions between standing on one knee or laying on her stomach.
"If this house is abandoned, I will murder the first living being I see." She quietly said while peeking from behind the trees.
Not long after that, a door on the backside of the house opened. 32A squinted her eyes to see better. It was of course a man with a brown beard and a fur hat. He looked older and thinner than she remembered.
"That's him. He has Ilona. This is the right place. What do I do now? Asking nicely won't get me anything." 32A thought to herself.51Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RzKetqkAW
She then saw how the man started chopping some firewood in the back yard.
"I could just sneak inside the house while he's distracted. But what if there are other people in there? I'd be caught and then he'd get me too." She kept thinking.
"I have to get him out of the way somehow. If I had somebody else here, we could do that. I can't beat him in a fight either or barge in as a conquering hero really. I'll have to sneak up on him and get a lucky shot. I'll grab something to help me do that." She said and quietly and slowly got closer to the back yard.
Once she was in the back yard, she looked for anything that she could grab. She took a piece of firewood from a pile and snuck up behind the man that she so hated.
"I know you're there." The man simply said while swinging his axe at some firewood.
32A was ready to swing the piece of wood but the man just raised his arm and blocked the hit. He then struck his elbow in the chestplate of 32A who then fell back to the ground.
"Not the first thief trying to get a piece of my pie." The man said calmly.
"I don't want a piece of anyone's pie. I want what you took from me!" 32A said back with disdain and hatred.
"Whatever I took from you, you probably shouldn't have sold it in the first place then."
"You bought my friend! And it wasn't me who sold her!"
"If you came back to rescue any of the slaves I've had, then this was a pointless trip. I haven't had any slaves in years now."
"Then where is she?" 32A asked angrily.
"Which slave are you even talking about?"
"My friend was called doctor Ilona Kovanen. I was there when you bought her and took her from me." 32A said with hurt in her voice.
"I remember Ilona. I also remember when I bought her there was this little girl who screamed at me when I bought her. Wait. She looked like you a little. You're that little girl aren't you?"
"You saw how much she meant to me and now you're so calmly asking me questions?"
"You think I care? I've never cared about the personal relations of my slaves."
"Just tell me where she is. Even if I can't see her, I just want to know." 32A begged.
"Didn't I say that I haven't had any slaves in years now. Ilona isn't here with me anymore. You won't see her again."
"What are you saying?"
"Well. About five years ago, she apparently decided that she couldn't take it anymore and didn't want to live like this anymore." The man answered.
"Don't tell me..."
"You came too late. Now get out of here while I still feel merciful." The man told 32A and clinched the axe in his hand.
32A stood up and took the piece of firewood from the ground and charged at the man. He just evaded her and shoved her down. 32A fell face first on the ground and got a mouthful of snow. She got straight back up and tried to swing at the man again. He just grabbed her by the arm and held her in place.
"You better get out of here or you'll end up in that hole on the other side of this house. I won't warn you again. Get out!" He told her.
32A was trying her best to rip her arm free but couldn't. She spat at the man's face which irritated him.
"Fine then. Let's get you there." The man said and started dragging 32A with him.
He dragged her to the other side of the house and then let go of her. On the other side of the house was a big hole on the ground. In the hole was just snow but something was sticking out. 32A tried to get a look at a wooden sign that stood at the edge of the hole but then she felt horribly painful strike in her back. The fur hat man hit her in the back with his axe, and then pushed her into the hole. She landed on the snow but hit her head on something hard.
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32A once again felt some wet grass under her knees. She tried to get up, but her hands were tied behind her back and she was stuck to a pole. She looked around and saw where she was. There was only one other pole, and on that pole Ilona was tied up by her hands.
"What do we have here then? The same old usual?" The fur hat man asked as he walked to Ilona's pole with Elk by his side.
"Are you not interested in the merchandise anymore?" Elk asked.
"No. Not really. It's really just wasting your space." The fur hat man said and pulled an axe from his back.
"You're right. No need to keep meaningless meat around." Elk said back.
The fur hat man raised his axe to strike Ilona with it. 32A looked at what was happening, but wasn't even flinched. The fur hat man struck his axe into Ilona's skull.
"About time. I couldn't stand her anymore." The fur hat man said.
"What about the other one? Might as well get rid of her too." Elk said and looked at 32A.
Elk and the fur hat man walked up to 32A and looked at her.
"You don't seem too bothered by what you just saw." The fur hat man said to 32A.
"Because I know that this is not how it went down. This is not reality." 32A said back.
"What is it talking about?" Elk asked confused.
"I remember exactly how it went down, and this is not how it went down. This is a dream. And in dreams everything is possible." 32A continued.
"What are you girl talking about?" The fur hat man asked.
"And that means that I can do anything too." 32A said and ripped her hands free from the pole.
"What the Hell?" Elk said and was about to strike 32A with the antler that he just ripped from his hood.
The antler exploded in his hand into thousands of pieces. 32A knew that this is a dream and that she could do anything, even use her brother's ability. The fur hat man then swung his axe at 32A but she just made the axe shatter too. She then focused on Elk's head and blew a hole in it. At that second the sky turned red and the trees turned black. The fur hat man watched with terror when Elk's body fell to the ground. He ran away behind the head tent of the camp. More people rushed out of the tents to attack 32A. The man known as Seer threw a rock at her but the rock shattered in the air. 32A then blew a hole in Seer's head too. The others didn't even watch but just ran at 32A. She focused on the ground under their feet and made the dirt fly everywhere, sending all of the attackers flying too.
"You took her away from me! And now she's gone! I've hated you from all my heart for all this time, and even if this isn't real, I'll get rid of you!" 32A shouted at the head tent.
The chiefs of the camp who were called Skull and Bone ran out from the head tent and were about to attack 32A. She just blew a hole in Skull's stomach and let him fall on the ground. She then grabbed Bone by his throat and made a large tumor grow in his throat. She watched him choke in the tumor and stumble around. Bone tripped on Skull and fell down. He hit his head on a sharp rock and layed on the ground with his head bleeding and with a tumor in his throat. 32A didn't know why, but that specific way of killing the man felt right. She took that rock from under Bone's head and focused on the head tent, compeletely tearing it to pieces in an instant. The man she hoped to find wasn't there. She focused on all the other tents in the camp at the same time and sent all of their torn pieces flying. Behind one of the tents was the fur hat man that she was looking for. 32A sprung forward and ran at the man. She jumped on him and they both fell on the ground, with 32A on top of the man with a rock in her hand and she started beating the fur hat man's face with the rock.
"You killed her!" 32A screamed at the man while pummeling his face bloody with the rock.
"Who? Who did I kill?" The man asked desperately.
"Don't pretend like you don't know!"
"What did I do? Please. Stop!"
"I'll get rid of you!" 32A screamed with rage.
"Three. Please. Stop this." The man said quietly in pain.
32A realised what the man just called her. Only people who know her call her Three. The fur hat man had no reason to know that name. 32A opened her eyes and everything got brighter. The sky was blue and in her hand was a bloody skull. She then looked down and saw Toivo's bloody beaten face.
"Oh no! Toivo! Why are you here?" 32A asked loudly and stood up.
"I saw you coming here in my dream and came the same way." Toivo answered weakly.
"I told you to stay in the boat!"
"I saw your message but I couldn't let you come here alone after what happened the previous time." Toivo explained.
"What happened to you?" 32A asked and sounded sorry.
"I found you laying here with a big wound on your back. I immediately jumped down here to check on you but then you sprung up and jumped on me and started beating my face with that skull in your hand." Toivo answered.
32A then felt her back and noticed that the wound was no longer there.
"I'm... Really sorry for that. I was seeing a dream." 32A explained sincerely and healed Toivo's face.
"I figured that out. I understand. I'm not angry."
"Why didn't you stop me?" 32A asked.
"You know why. I didn't want to accidentally use my ability on you so I didn't want to touch you or even look at you. I just looked away and hoped that you'd stop. And by the way. Whose skull is that? What is this hole?" Toivo explained and asked.
32A swept the snow from around and under her and found more skulls and bones. She then looked horrified at the thought that she just had. She climbed out of the hole and looked at the wooden sign that was at the edge of the hole. The sign had a carving that said "SLAVE GRAVE" on it.
"Oh no. No. No. No..." 32A kept repeating.
"What is it? Is this the place that we wanted to find?" Toivo asked when he climbed out of the hole himself.
"This is the place." 32A answered quietly and looked at the wooden sign and all the bones.
"Did you find Ilona?" Toivo asked and sounded worried.
32A didn't say anything back. She just kept looking at all the skulls and bones in the hole and her eyes got teary.
"No. Don't say." Toivo said when he put the pieces together in his head.
That's when 32A completely burst into tears and lowered her head. Toivo then stood next to her and saw the sign too. 32A put her face on Toivo's shoulder and cried on it quietly.
"I should have come sooner." 32A quietly said while crying.
Toivo just stared at the sign while his shoulder was getting drenched from his sister's tears. He was filled with anger mixed with sadness. He made the wooden sign slowly crumble into tiny splinters.
"I should have come sooner!" 32A shouted in anger and separated herself from Toivo and then looked at the skull that she dropped on the ground.
She took the skull and focused on it as hard as she possibly could. She tried desperately to bring life to it while her tears were falling on the skull. However bringing life to an old skull was not something that she could do. All she could do was fix some of the cracks. She screamed at the skull as if that would work, but it didn't. When she gave up, she just tossed the skull into the hole and knelt on the snow.
"Why couldn't you just wait longer? I would have gotten you out of here. I missed you so much. I loved you." 32A quietly said into her hands that she was pressing into her face while kneeling on the snow.
Toivo was still standing on his feet, processing all of this. Ilona was the first person who ever seemed to care about him, just like what was the case with 32A as well, so Toivo was hurt too. He hadn't missed Ilona as much as 32A had missed her, but he still always remembered her and wished to meet her again, even if he didn't let it show as much as 32A did. He just stood there quietly and somberly.
"Destroy that house." 32A quietly said while her voice was mumbled by her hands.
"What?" Toivo asked and turned to look at her.
"Destroy that house! Make that bastard pay! Make sure that no one will ever suffer like Ilona did!" 32A screamed at Toivo with a red face after getting her hands away from her face.
"So that's where the guy who bought Ilona lives?" Toivo asked for the confirmation.
"He's in there right now! Destroy this house and everything inside it!" 32A screamed at Toivo angrily.
Toivo agreed and took a heavy breath and got angry himself while looking at the house. He took a step back and focused on the house with everything he could. When 32A saw the walls crumbling, she stood up and took several steps back. The wallboards and support pillars were snapping. Then suddenly the entire house exploded into pieces. Shattered pieces of wood went flying everywhere and after the explosion, all that was left was just a pile of shattered boards. Nothing that was inside the house could be seen from the surface.
Both the twins were looking at the pile of wood with disdain.
"Thank you."
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