Mary should have known better. She really should have demanded a lawyer. But it took her just the tiny bit too long to come up with that idea, and her fate was already sealed in the leather briefcase of a madman. Well, at least it was just a normal leather and not anything creepy. Or… that’s what she thought...

Those and many other equally cheerful thoughts crossed her mind when she was looking out the window of a - surprisingly small, and just as surprisingly blue - car. Mr Venture gave her only a few minutes to pack her things (which, to be honest, turned out to be enough). She didn't get any time to say goodbye, but there wasn't anyone that she'd really miss - she wasn't really close with anyone - the staff were, well, adults, and other kids were just weird. Besides, according to the book she'd read, if there was anything consistent about being a hero, it was having amazing friends, willing to sacrifice their life for yours - so she really looked forward to meeting them.

Finally, she began her journey to ‘become a hero’. And that journey happened to start at the registration office of the Adolescent Division of the Heroes Department, because of course it did.

They left the car in front of a rather unassuming building (well, at least according to taxpayers-money-funded-offices standards). It could probably swallow hundreds of orphanages and still have a room for a school or two. Mr Venture lead Mary into the great hall, which would probably make a king or two jealous, and froze in shock as he heard a distant bell.

“Oh my, it’s five o’clock already! Where’s my head…,” he frantically glanced at his wristwatch and sent Mary an apologetic smile that sent shivers down her spine. “I’m terribly sorry, I’ve completely lost track of time. Listen, I should deliver you to the counter, but you’re a smart girl, aren’t you? You can find your way, yes?”

He turned away without giving Mary a chance to interject and pointed to a door across the hall. “Can you see that corridor, over there? You need to go straight there, turn right, go straight until you see a painting of a cockatoo parrot, and turn right again. Then hold your breath for ten seconds, and take the second left. The correct office will be third from the left. Just say that you’re Mary Oceanwalker and you’re looking for Ms Key, she’ll take you from there. Oh, and before the first right, you need to take a left first. See? Easy enough for a girl as smart as you. Now excuse me, it’s all my fault, and I’m terribly, terribly sorry, but I’m already late for tea!” He promptly disappeared behind the entrance door… make it an entrance gate, actually.

Mary stood there, slack-jawed, for almost ten seconds until she was forced away from the door by a stream of employees leaving the office with clock-like precision. They were accompanied by a chorus of outraged applicants, now forced to wait until the next shift finished their pre-work coffee.

Right, what was it again? Down the corridor, straight, left, right until a… what was it, cockatoo parrot? What even was… She shook her head, and realised that Mr Venture left with her bag still in the trunk! Oh, come on… She didn’t have much, but that didn’t make losing nearly all of her material possessions any better.

She waited for the river of employees to dry up and shambled down the corridor. Maybe that ‘Ms Key’ would know Mr Venture’s number, and help her recover her things…

The corridor was lit with hundreds of tiny lamps, each placed above an office door covered by thick, leather cushioning. Mary doubted anyone inside could hear the knocking… but that may have been the point. She walked straight for long minutes and was already getting a feeling of unease, when the corridor ended with an intersection. If she was right, she should be going straight now… except that it wasn’t an option. In front of her, there was a solid wall, with a large painting of a medieval knight in shining armour. There were no birds of any kind present.

The corridor on the left was lit by an array of expensive-looking chandeliers, and the one on the right… it seemed to end with pure darkness a mere couple of yards from where the girl stood. She quickly turned left, and hastened to leave as quickly as she could.

There were no office doors this time, only windows left and right, showing lavish gardens. She couldn’t match this part of the building to anything seen from the outside… so it must have been somewhere on the back. Maybe she could give them a closer look on her way out? The sun was still high in the sky as if it was closer to noon than 5pm. She checked her watch - it was actually closer to 6pm already. Had she really been walking for an hour?

She tried to remember what was she supposed to do next. Mr Venture said something about holding breath? She had no idea what it would have to do with anything. And was it now, or…

She stopped abruptly when the corridor around her fluently turned into a modern reinterpretation of black and white, office-like interior. Instead of windows, other corridors branched from the main path, each of them sharing the same, monotonous design. And next to each entrance was…

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Mary murmured. Next to each entrance was a small painting of a bird. Every possible bird she could think of. There were eagles, pigeons, crows, ravens, even flamingos… and parrots, dozens of parrots, each different from the others in every way possible. Some were bright green and seemed to almost shine in the light coming from white, fluorescent lamps. Others were violently red with black-and-white eyes, matching the design. Mary also noticed one or two that pulled the memories of draconic monsters from their usual place at the back of her mind, where they nested shortly after she finished reading about each of them, straight to the first seats.

She would have probably stood there for another hour, but at some point she turned around, and what she saw made her heart pound heavier in her chest. The corridor with beautiful chandeliers was no longer behind her - after a few yards, the office corridor ended with a smooth veil of pure darkness. It didn’t seem to move… at least when she was watching.

It was too much for her. She yelped and broke into a run, no longer trying to recognise that damned parrot, and only turning her head around every couple seconds. The darkness was always just behind her, always motionless, and slowly being left behind, only to reappear almost on top of her the moment she checked the next time.

In desperation, she turned around and… stopped herself at the last moment. She was no longer at any office area, and was instead facing… something. It consisted mostly of staircases, but apart from that… she couldn’t make any sense out of the thing. There were staircases on the walls, even on the ceilings! Mary whirled around, trying to see if the darkness was still chasing her, and found that there was just a simple, red-brick wall behind her back. She rubbed her eyes for a moment, then placed a palm on the wall. It didn’t seem to be going anywhere, and it looked like it was standing long before her orphanage was built.

She was going mad. That, and coughing her lungs out… Mary was not built for running. And why hadn’t she thought about bringing some water with her? Oh, right, probably because she thought it would be a bit saner here...

“Excuse me, young lady.” Mary started with a yelp and turned around to face a wrinkled, old woman with an unlit cigarette in her shaking hand. “Do you have fire, maybe?” She asked, apparently not bothered by the fact that she was standing horizontally on the wall.

“N-no, sorry, I don’t smoke,” Mary said shakily.

The old lady sighed in disappointment and begin to leave, when Mary found the courage to ask, “excuse me, Ma’am, can you tell me how to get to Key’s office?”

The lady looked at her with surprise on her face and exclaimed in understanding. “Oh dear, you’re new here! Don’t worry, dear, we’ll get you there in no time!” She brought two fingers to her lips and let out a whistle so piercing that it made Mary jump backwards and fall to the cold floor. Despite old age and smoking, that woman had some lungs.

But before Mary could collect herself, a giant, three-headed husky loomed just in front of her. She yelped again and tried to throw herself away from the monster, which ended up quite unimpressive from her starting position of almost standing.

“Don’t worry, dear, he’s very friendly.” The dog sniffed at Mary, probably judging whether to swallow her whole or in pieces. “His name is Ziggy. Can you see that red collar on the middle head?” She did, but didn’t like where that was leading. “You need to grab it tightly. Very, very tightly. He’ll take you to Ms Key, alright.”

It’s not like she’d been given much choice. She definitely didn’t want to offend this very friendly dog’s master. With trembling legs, she stood up completely and climbed on the beast’s back. The looks she received from the creature weren’t really reassuring. She couldn’t tell if the dog found her funny (and potentially playful) or good-smelling (and potentially tasty), but she had her guesses.

“Now, who’s a good boy, hm…? Who’s a good boy,” said the lady, scratching one of the cerberus’s heads - she could barely reach it from the wall, but then again - it would be even harder from the ground. “This poor girl is lost, and you need to take her to the Key, won’t you? The steak lady, that’s right! Good boy, I knew you could do it. But don’t you eat the girl like the last one, or there will be no petting for you for the entire week, is that clear?”

The dog licked the lady with one of his enormous tongues, almost knocking her down in the process, and launched into a wild run before Mary could ask, “WHAT?”