Alice had followed Taija and Lilly out for a well-deserved lunch, only to come back to a catgirl laying in front of the “Angel”.

The poor girl had by some reason sneaked in and somehow activated the machine, while she must have been standing right in front of it. Getting affected by it just as Alice had.

“She seems to only be unconscious.”

Lilly had walked straight up to the body and searched for signs of how the girl was doing.

Alice felt relieved. If the girl would have got seriously hurt by the machine, so where there a risk that Taija and Lilly would like to have stopped the researching. Or at least she thought they would since they still didn’t want to get out of their comfort zones.

She took a look at the machine. If the girl was fine, it meant that the “Angel” was safe to use at that speed. Which meant that they could go a little further, even try to aim more for the head.

“Wonder what she is doing here?”

Taija was just as curious as Alice.

They hadn’t invited the girl to the clinic, and she seemed to not be known by any of them.

“She might be a thief that hoped to find something to steal.”

Lilly was most probably right at it. Since no one of them even had seen her before and they had absolutely not invited her to the clinic. Yet they did decide to take good care of her and carried her to a bed where she later woke up.

Upon some questioning, it came out that she indeed was a thief and had trespassed in hope of finding money. She had got a little curious about the “Angel” and touched it, which had activated it and left her unconscious.

The reason that she had searched for money wasn’t to feed herself, but instead it was that she needed to finance her crystal addiction.

Crystal, like the one that Jack created. And that he tricked Ellen into making them stronger, “to help him”.

Lapin, as it turned out to be the catgirl’s name, was surprisingly open about her addiction. Which could be because she apparently was feeling dizzy after the incident. But otherwise she seemed to be just fine, and ready to get thrown out if they would wish to do that.

Just to be sure that the girl was fine so were Lilly suggesting that they took turns to look over her.

Those two was afraid that something would turn out to be wrong and that Lapin would be suffering because of it.

Taija took the first turn and was told that she would wake Lilly up if she noticed any difference in Lapin’s condition.

Alice and Lilly shared the bed in Lilly’s working room. A small bed that wasn’t made for two people to share at the same time.

She wished to be able to tell Ellen about this incident. Even if it maybe would scare her sister at first, so was she sure that this could be a step in the right direction.

Lapin had shown emotion after waking up, so it didn’t go as “bad” for her as it did for Alice. Only that was a prof that it was good, even if they would need to research it more. But that maybe was something they could trick Lapin into helping them with.

The girl had after all trespassed and by only that committed a crime. So with the threat of leaving her to the guards, she might agree to it. If only the other two could agree to follow the idea, which really wasn’t guaranteed at all.

They had been able to, almost, sleep through the Taija’s pass when she suddenly came in and interrupted their sleep. Lapin’s condition had changed, her heartbeats had increased and she seemed to be feeling sick.

Lapin seemed almost depressed when Lilly examined her. She had been calm when she woke up, but now she only acted depressed and anxious.

Alice recognized the behaviour, she had seen it far too often back in the other world. But had never understood what it was about until an ex-junkie had come to the school and talked about drugs.

Lapin, that stupid small and addicted girl was simply dope sick. Or had withdrawn symptoms in better words. Which even the increased heart rate proved.

Alice tried to simplify what she knew and told the others about it. Harshly pointing out that there was nothing they could do about it.

“So it will be all better if I smokin` a crystal?”

Of course so would a junkie try to find a way to be allowed to go on with the addiction.

“Of course it all can feel better if you do, but if you want to stop with it. So is this a good opportunity.”

Alice knew how mean she sounded, but she was serious about it. If that girl would like to get free from that addiction, so was this a perfect opportunity.

“Was you not feeling sick when you woke up?”

Lilly seemed to somehow understand the situation.

“No. I felt very at ease when I woke up. Didn’t even felt the carvin` that was painin` me back when I came here.”

So simply said, she had been feeling at ease and got rid of her carvings for the crystals, because of the “Angel”. Which really had to mean that the machine could be used to help others, even if it only was temporary.

“How long do you think this will be painin` me?”

“Probably for a week or two.”

It was a hard question, Alice didn’t pay much attention to what the ex-junkie said about time after finding out what it was for kind of behaviour. So there was no chance that she could answer that question honestly. But a lie and a kind smile seemed to be enough to calm the girl.

While sitting of the time with the Lapin so was Alice trying to hold a conversation about everything and nothing, except crystals. Which Lapin in the end succeeded to lead the conversation too.

She talked about it as in was her lover. Explaining how it had helped her get back up after a period that she had been physically and sexually abused.

No wonder that the girl was addicted to those things if she used it to escape problems that she needed to solve. Maybe it really was about time that she got a grip of her life and solved those problems. Just by the way she talked and acted she seemed to be a nice girl, so it would be a waste if she died by the hands of those crystals.

Alice tried to fake her emotions so it would give off a feeling that she cared for the girl, which she surprisingly did. It was a hard task, and something that she felt she needed to train. But at least it did seem like the girl was buying it.

Like help sent from somewhere Taija and Lilly came into the room.

“Do we interrupt a good conversation.”

Alice had succeeded to sit off the whole time while keeping an even more depress acting Lapin calm.

That had to be the first and last time she did something like that, it had been a huge pain. Especially to try to lead the conversations away from crystals, time after time.

“So how are you feeling Lapin?”

Lilly was quick to take over the conversation, all to Alice happiness.

“I feel. I feel horrible. Sad, down. Really awful.”

To everyone’s joy so was it only that she felt awful mentally. But physically she seemed just like the last time that Lilly examined her.

“How long ago was it that you last smoked, and has it been becoming worse since you woke up?”

That was just a pair of stupid questions that even Lilly would be able to figure out with her rear.

Lapin didn’t really know how long ago it was since she last smoked a crystal, but she was indeed feeling worse than when she first woke up.

“It`s like the world is fallin` apart around me.”

“If you were feeling a lot better when you woke up, that can be because of the “Angel”. So do you want to take the opportunity to get treated by it again?”

Alice felt like she needed to push it up their face for them to even think about taking the opportunity.

“Do you really think that will help?”

For the first time since Alice took the turn so was Lapin showing genuine happiness.

“There is a possibility that it will work, but there is also a risk that you can get hurt by it.”

“If it can help me from wantin` those shiny crap, so am I ready to risk it. And it ain’t anyone that will care anyway.”

Lapin seemed to be sure about what she did want, and didn’t care about what hinders that could be in her way.

“How can you say that Lapin, don’t you have friends and family that will care?”

There were no real friends that would care. All her so-called friends were other junkies that only cared about her since they would help each other to get those crystals they needed. Otherwise they were barely friends, barely knowing each other.

Her family wasn’t something to mind either since they had thrown her out after she got lost in her addiction. So she was simply nothing else than a nobody to them by now.

Taija showed clearly that she regretted to have asked that question.

She knew that the reality wasn’t kind to those with small flaws, but she seemed to never think that it could be so harsh as Lapin painted it up.

“So by knowing that, do you still really want to get the treatment?”

“I really do want to get the treatment.”

“Even though there are chances that you will get hurt, and that the treatment is under development?”

“Yes, I DO still want to get the treatment. I want to stop carvin` for those shinies.”

That was it. They could now go a little further with their experiments. With Lapin there, they could really see how the treatment worked at someone. Finally making use of the “Angel”, and making a name for Ellen.

Ellen couldn’t believe that she already had worked with Chris for two weeks. It really hadn’t felt like it was for that long, it felt like more about a week or so. And that was even if all her muscles had screamed in pain after the first few days there. He had warned her when she started to study it that it was a heavy work, but she could never have guessed that it would be that bad.

“Do you have all your stuff?”

They had been gathering all the things they had got in the hotel room that they had shared.

It was finally time to get back home. Not that she hadn’t enjoyed the time that she spent with him, but she wouldn’t mind getting some time alone from time to time. Which had been more or less impossible.

“I am all ready to go.”

The work with installing the warmth giving gears had gone really smoothly, mostly thanks to that Chris had acted like a great working leader.

Sure they had worked late into the nights a couple of times, but things like that do happen. And especially when there is someone that don’t quite know how to install those things.

“Do you think someone has missed us back home?”

Ellen didn’t really care, but asked anyway since it could be nice to hold a small conversation while sitting in the waggon.

“How knows? Maybe, maybe not. It’s something that we will find out.”

Chris was apparently not in the mood of talking, showing it by giving her an answer she couldn’t follow up at.

Ellen let out a light sigh, if he didn’t feel like talking she wouldn’t force him.

Instead she started to think about what possibly could have happened at the mansion. How much work would there be for her to do?

It couldn’t be too much, right? She had repaired the light giving gears only a short while before she left for this work.

Which reminded her. How had it gone for Alice and Taija, had they find a way to use that machine to help others? Had there been anyone else hurt by it? If there was, then she would make sure to take it back and not letting anyone else even touch it.

It was after all from the beginning created for a bad deed, which most probably meant that it only would do bad for everyone.

Why couldn’t just Jack have taken that machine with him?

Two machines would have meant double the effectivity, right?

And even more important, why did he have to leave like that? Why hadn’t he come back, or even giving a sign that he was okay? Or simply that he was alive. It would have been so much better than that she needed to wonder how her beloved was doing. Wishing to search under every rock for him during all the free time she had.

Ellen let out another sigh, she wanted to be by his side once again.

Walking back to the mansion from Chris’s shop the city looked like it always had done. Nothing had changed since the day that Jack revived her, nothing except that he no longer was there.

Could it be that he hide somewhere in the city, maybe she needed to start wandering around and asking for him? But would it really be safe for her? If it was that he had fled to protect her and Alice, would it really be a good idea for her to do that?

The thoughts filled Ellen’s mind until she succeeded to shake some of them off, in front of the mansion. It would be a bother to think about that while she spends her time there, in the mansion. Someone could find out and start to ask a lot of stupid questions.

“Welcome back Ellen.”

Sain came up beside her and greeted her welcome, making Ellen do a small jump by surprise.

It seemed like the fox had been out and done some shopping, which more or less showed that Alice and Taija still were doing the same thing as when she left.

“Thanks Sain.”

The first things Ellen had to do in the mansion was to leave her stuff in the room and then tell The fat bowling ball that she was back.

She would rather have told Taija, but since that woman wasn’t there, she had no other choice than to tell him. Again.

Ellen had taken a place in her workshop and enjoyed the sweet fact that she was alone.

She had got a list from The bowling ball, of what she had to take care of in the mansion. But had decided that it could wait until the next day. Now she only wanted some enjoy the calming feeling of being alone.

A knock at the door and Alice came in. So much for that calming feeling of being alone.

After getting a quick hug and being welcomed back by her sister, Alice began to talk about that they had found a way to use the machine to help others. Even calling the machine for “Angel”.

It did sound great, and Ellen couldn’t deny that she was glad for her sister’s discovery of the machine with a bad purpose. Even better was the fact that they had found it out without anyone getting hurt.

Alice invited her to come over to the clinic the next day to see how they did use it.

She was curious to see how that, now, so-called-Angel possible could help others, so she accepted the invitation right of. Sadly she could only be there for a short while since she had to do all the things that needed to be done in the mansion. But it was still better than not to see it at all.

Left alone again she took a look at the list, it should not be hard for her to squeeze in the visit at the clinic. Most of the things that needed to be done were after all very simple.

So simple that it all easily could have been done in a couple of hours if Chris had helped her.

Ellen had almost missed how lively the breakfast was. With Chris so had they often only been making up plans of how the work of the day would look like, nothing more and nothing less.

Which of course had its own charm, just like it had its own charm that they could just sit there and talk about everyday things.

Mair told everyone what would be done during the day, or rather she told Ellen and Sain what they needed to do during the day. While giving Alice some glares from time to time.

“Pardon me Mair, might I ask a small question?”

Since Ellen had been given some few tasks outside the repairing she needed to ask the head maid if it still was possible for here to visit the clinic. Of course she would do her best to make sure that she could finish all the task she was given.

Mair really seemed to unlike the idea, but since it turned out that it was her machine they were using she did soften up a little.

Ellen was allowed to follow and see how the machine worked, but she really had to make sure that she took her time later on to finish the other tasks. Even if she would have to work late.

“It was about time that you came.”

Alice first patient for the day had already arrived, thinking it was disgracefully that Alice wasn’t there upon her arrival.

Which didn’t make any sense since the hag would get the treatment anyway.

Alice apologised as if she had done something wrong.

It wasn’t even the hag that would get treated herself, but instead her son that was sitting in a chair close by.

She talked about how Alice needed to help her son, in a way that didn’t only paint up her son as a pathetic creature but also disgusted Ellen so much it sent shivers down her spine.

It was no wonder that she had got a bad view of the “higher class”, not when they did prove themselves to be jerk offs like that.

The hag didn’t follow her son in for the treatment, all to Ellen’s relief.

She wouldn’t have been able to listen to that disgusting nagging more than she already had.

Alice was acting strangely professional when talking to the boy and leading him to a chair, a short distance from the “Angel”.

Taking her place behind the machine and started it. There was no difference in how she used it from how Ellen had used it herself. The spring charged up the purifying gear and as soon it went off, the boy fainted.

If it hasn’t been that Alice quickly told her that it was going just as it should, so would Ellen had run to the boy to check so there was no damage done.

The boy was only unconscious for a short while, and as soon he woke up so was Taija called into the room to help him out.

“That is how it’s working. And please look here Ellen.”

She opened the machine and picked out a box where the impurities would have been collected. Ellen was surprised to see small statues like scraps in there. All reminding of humans, but some with wings. Disfigured body part and some even remembering of mythical creatures.

“These are the demons that were torturing the boy. They come out at shadow like creatures, but it doesn’t take long for them to become these statues like things you see here.”

Ellen was impressed by the whole thing and felt that she had seen enough, even feeling that she needed to think through a couple of things.

Like how it could be that it worked and what those things Alice called demons could be.

Only a few days after Ellen had visited the clinic so was Taija starting to act, strange?

She had been showing clearly disliking to follow her father’s orders earlier, but all of sudden she started to do it. Leaving together with the fat bowling ball instead of Alice, probably not even visiting the clinic anymore. When they came back, so did she often directly heading to her room, locking herself in and not even coming out for dinner with the rest of them.

Alice even seemed to try to get in contact with her but without success.

“You don’t need to follow me in, I can handle this myself.”

Ellen had to talk with that damn, fat bowling ball. He had dared to give Alice an ultimatum to either stop her work at the clinic and come back as a maid at the mansion, or straight of leaving the mansion.

“But I want to help you.”

Alice seriously wanted to follow her sister in to show her support, and once again Ellen falls for her cursed charm. Once again letting her get her will through.

“I apologise for disturbing Mr Halluv.”

She didn’t get the chance to say much more to him before he noticed Alice and pointed out that he wouldn’t change his mind. Yet Ellen would try to threat with that if Alice was forced to leave, so would even she leave. Upon which the fat bowling ball only pointed out that it wouldn’t bother him at all, since he wouldn’t need to pay her anymore.

Ellen was seriously cursing that bastardly fat bowling ball while collecting her clothes. Nothing she said mattered to him, because he could do just like he wanted to. Really rubbing it in their faces time after time.

Both the sisters had packed their clothes and belongings during the night and was ready to leave the first thing in the morning. It was only Mair and Sain that bid them farewell. Taija was still locking herself up in her room and her father didn’t seem to even care that they were leaving.

Ellen had hoped that at least Taija would have come out to say bye to Alice after all the time they had spent together. But it turned out to have been only wishes and nothing more.

“I apologise for asking you this favour.”

“I see no problem with it. If you need to have a place to live while trying to get your own home, so are you more than welcome to live here meanwhile.”

Ellen had decided to ask Chris for help, but had never guessed that he would accept without a second thought. Almost making her feel that she was simply using him.

“We will of course pay for our time here.”

Alice seemed to feel less guilty about it, pointing out the most obvious thing.

“Of course, of course. I already know that, and I do expect Ellen to help me with some jobs to when it’s necessary.”

Once again they had a place to live, and once again they were sharing the same room. All to Ellen’s disliking. But luckily so would Alice still be spending most of her days at the clinic, so there could still be chances that she could get some time for herself. As long Jill didn’t disturb her too much that was.

“So you will be living here from now on?”

Alice had gone to the clinic and Chris to his shop, so Ellen was all alone with Jill.

“Yes. We will be living here until we get money to buy our own place, or in the worst case a house to rent.”

Jill looked at her and smiled.

“If you want to rent a house, so will it be more expensive than to buy a cheap place. It’s after all not as easy to rent houses in this world.”

In this world? Did that mean that she had experience from other worlds, or was she only comparing it with the old world?

“So how will we do now Ellen?”

The night had arrived and the two sisters had gone to bed, small talking about the situation.

“It ain’t much we can do right now. But one of the things we can do is to start saving up money to buy a house.”

Alice seemed displeased with the answer, but what else could be expected from a little “princess”? She might have hope that Ellen could do some magic to solve the problem, but there was no chance that Ellen could do either that or solving the problem on her own.

Why did Jack have to leave? It had been so much easier to solve the problem if he had been by Ellen’s side. Not only had there been one more that earned money, but he could probably have found a much better solution than she ever could. He was after all a lot smarter than her, and he knew a lot more of how the world worked as a whole than Ellen did.

Not only did she needed to solve the problem and find a way for them to purchase a house. It also had to be before Jack comes back. He would be so proud of her, getting a house where they all could live. A home where their love could grow strong. Maybe it even would bear fruit some day. A child between them, a sign of how strong their love was. Their love, between them. Only them.