Liona quickly closed the door behind them before turning to face them. “I thought—I thought you’d be dead by now.” Her gaze settled on Luca, scrutinizing him as if she needed to confirm he was really there, before shifting to Nagato. “The museum—the T. Rex is there now…”

  Luca grimaced inwardly. So, he’d been right to avoid that area at all costs.

  “Yeah,” Nagato replied with a wince, his voice tense. “You—are you still looking after them?”

  Liona sighed. “We’re taking shelter here for now,” she said, her gaze distant for a moment before she looked toward the other shops. “Only a few of us managed to escape. The Orkoraptors—” She suddenly fell silent, as if the words had caught in her throat. Then, changing the subject, she added, “I’m glad you made it,” she said to Luca, her voice trembling. “I couldn’t say anything to you earlier—”

  “It’s fine,” Luca smiled at her, a small but comforting gesture. “I got lucky and finished before the power went out.”

  Liona nodded absently, her fingers fidgeting with the edge of her soaked jacket.

  Outside, the rain seemed to ease again, only flashes of light crossing the sky and continuous rumbles of thunder.

  “Are you planning to stay here…?” Luca asked, breaking the awkward silence, gesturing vaguely to their surroundings.

  “I was thinking of heading up,” Liona admitted, pointing south with a sharp motion of her hand.

  “To the base?” When she nodded, Luca shook his head gently. “The gates are blocked. The people there locked me out after I finished the tour,” he explained, noticing how Liona’s expression darkened.

  She pressed her lips together, a thin line of frustration and fear.

  “You could come with us,” Luca suggested, lowering his voice even further. “We have an active side mission to leave the park early.”

  Liona’s eyes widened in surprise, a flicker of hope lighting up her face. “Really?” Her expression then calmed, though the tension didn’t fully disappear. “What do we need to do?”

  “Pull three levers,” Luca replied, his tone serious.

  Liona scrutinized him, as if searching for a sign that this was a joke, a lie to calm her down. But there was no trace of humor in Luca’s eyes, only determination.

  Nagato snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. “It’s true. We’ve been working on the mission, and we only have one step left.”

  “I’d like to leave…” Liona murmured, turning toward the shop across the way, her expression conflicted. Her eyes settled on the shadowy figures moving behind the glass. It wasn’t a pretty sight. They were pale, with desperation etched into the lines of their faces, and it didn’t help that they kept staring in this direction.

  “You realize they’re ghosts, right?” Luca asked softly, noticing how she shuddered at his words. “Liona, the three of us are the only ones who can get out of here. The rest—the rest are trapped in this cycle. They’re part of the Mystery.”

  This was a reality that many characters—people, especially those like Liona, took a long time to understand. Many only realized it when it was too late.

  Liona clenched her hands, her knuckles whitening from the force. “I—” she began but was interrupted.

  Just then, a sharp screech pierced the air, tearing through the false calm like cotton. Something moved outside the shop, a shadow sliding just a few meters from the glass. Luca’s hand slid toward his revolver, his sharp eyes taking in every possible detail.

  For a moment, nothing happened. He saw nothing.

  And then he locked eyes with a pair of yellow eyes on the other side of the glass—moving slowly, curiously toward them.

  An Orkoraptor.

  Tension flooded the space, stealing the air.

  The predator moved with an unsettling slowness, tilting its head from side to side. Sniffing. It approached the glass, as if studying what it was. Luca kept his hand near the revolver but didn’t draw it yet. He remembered they hadn’t seen Liona inside the shop, so technically, the dinosaur shouldn’t be able to see them.

  He glanced at the other two—Nagato stood frozen, his breathing shallow, his hand tightly gripping his weapon, while Liona held her breath, her eyes locked on the predator on the other side of the glass, her hand slowly reaching for—a knife?

  Returning his attention to the Orkoraptor, which didn’t seem willing to leave. It took another step closer, dragging one of its claws across the glass, as if testing the barrier’s strength. The screech made Luca fight the urge to cover his ears, his face wrinkling in discomfort. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Liona take a step back, seemingly unconsciously, while Nagato tensed even more, raising the arm holding his weapon.

  The Orkoraptor tilted its head, its dark feathers soaked by the rain, and let out a series of chirps that sounded nothing like any bird Luca knew. Not from here or from ‘there.’

  Luca thought for a moment. If he moved to the door, if he dealt with the creature—would the Orkoraptors stay away? Would fear be enough to keep them at bay for the time they needed? But in the end, he couldn’t act.

  With a sudden movement, the Orkoraptor turned its head to the side, as if it had heard something in the distance. A second later, the creature moved away, disappearing into the darkness with surprising speed.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  After a moment, Liona let out a sigh of relief, leaning against a nearby counter. “God… I thought…”

  “We’re not safe yet,” Luca said. “We need to move before it comes back or other predators show up. This place isn’t safe,” he sighed.

  Nagato nodded, though his expression remained tense. He looked at Liona, pursing his lips. “What will you do?” he asked, nodding toward the other shops.

  Luca looked at Liona, who seemed to be wrestling with herself. “If you stay with them, you might survive until morning,” he said, surprising both of them. He gave her a small smile, “or maybe not. Can you really take that risk?”

  He knew the answer to that.

  She closed her eyes for a moment, clenching her hands tightly. When she opened them again, her expression had changed. “Where do we need to go?”

  Luca nodded, feeling a momentary relief. “The last lever is over there.” He pointed toward the garden across the street.

  “What about the Orkoraptors?” she bit her lip, gripping the knife.

  Nagato snorted, raising the weapon in front of the woman’s surprised eyes. “Don’t worry about them. This guy—” he pointed at Luca “—took one down with a single shot. And my aim isn’t bad either.”

  “Guns?” Liona seemed thoughtful for a moment, her eyes scanning the revolver Nagato held and then Luca’s. She sighed and nodded, as if accepting there was no other choice. “Sure, why not? To the garden, then?” She grabbed a flashlight from the counter and tested it, the light shining briefly before she turned it off again.

  Luca made a sound of agreement, sliding toward the entrance. Peering more closely through the glass to the other side, he checked for any visible danger or suspicious noises before slightly opening the door. The smell of petrichor hit him with the breeze, and he couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

  “Wait,” Liona murmured behind him, “I think you’ll need this more than me,” she said, trying to hand him the flashlight.

  Luca glanced over his shoulder. “Thanks, but I’m fine. Let’s go, it looks clear.” He gestured to his two companions before stepping out, slightly amused by Liona’s expression.

  Nagato’s muttered “don’t overthink it” almost made him smile.

  Raindrops hit him straight in the face, and he wiped them away with his sleeve without a second thought. He circled the shop to the east, his steps careful on the wet ground. He heard a noise behind him and turned to see Liona, who gave him an apologetic look for some reason before pointing at his feet.

  Ah. Right. He was still barefoot. He’d gotten used to it—and frankly, forgotten about it.

  Luca shrugged to signal it wasn’t a problem and turned back to the path. They had to pass two more shops, which turned out to be harder than it seemed when the ghosts pressed their faces against the glass, staring at them with a deep sadness that seemed to pierce through, trying to cling to them.

  This didn’t faze him, as he only glanced at them once, immediately noticing the blurriness at the edges of their silhouettes, as if they were already beginning to fade. Liona tried not to look at them, her eyes fixed elsewhere, but when she started to turn her head in their direction, she was gently nudged by Nagato, who was staring straight ahead.

  Good. He could leave it to them to keep each other in check.

  “The museum,” Nagato whispered suddenly.

  Luca turned his gaze in that direction and frowned. Something large was looming near one of the entrances, a massive shadow that—no, it wasn’t still, but moving with an unsettling slowness. Hadn’t Liona said the T. Rex was there…?

  “Let’s hurry,” he murmured in turn.

  Liona swallowed hard but bravely continued.

  They soon reached the end of the shopping area and slipped into the strip of garden surrounding the zone. There were only a handful of neatly trimmed rectangular bushes and tall, slender pines arranged in small groups of scattered rows—but it was enough for them to cross, sticking to the relative safety of the cover these ‘decorations’ provided.

  A deep, rough roar echoed from the north, a sound that had nothing to do with the weather.

  Luca stopped by a pine tree, squinting in the direction of the noise, his body tense. He could see the shadow moving around the museum. It was already outside. But it didn’t seem to be coming this way. He nodded to his companions, and they continued until they reached the street.

  It was an open space, so it wasn’t surprising that none of them really wanted to cross. But they had no choice. Luca checked that no dinosaurs were in plain sight, trusting that the T. Rex wouldn’t return to its enclosure for now—the entrance was over fifty meters away anyway—and that the Yutyrannus was still in its own enclosure. As for the others—well, he couldn’t see them.

  They hurried across the street in a straight line toward the garden on the other side, the fountain clearly visible amid the arrangement of shrub fences and resting benches. It was impossible to avoid the puddles, but Luca tried—and made a mental note to talk to his companions about the importance of not panicking. Not when they weren’t even being chased (and yes, he hated the voice in his head that added ‘yet’).

  “Is this the statue?” Liona observed the fountain with an unreadable expression, her eyes scrutinizing the grotesque figure rising from the center. Then, almost immediately, she began scanning their surroundings, positioning herself right in front of Luca, as if determined to protect him.

  “You haven’t seen anything,” Nagato muttered beside her, frowning. “That lunatic’s office is much worse.”

  After a moment of examining the statue, standing on the edge of the fountain and stretching toward it, Luca found the lever in the mouth of the monstrous parody of a human statue—a grotesque version, not unlike the ‘R-Titan’ and bearing only vague similarities to the official image of the park’s creator that Luca had seen hours earlier on the museum screen.

  “Liona, come and pull it,” Luca murmured, pointing to where the lever was. “It’s the only way for you to get the mission.”

  The woman blinked, surprised, but took Luca’s place, who ignored the look Nagato gave him.

  Brat.

  “What the heck!” Nagato hissed, frowning at the air.

  Luca grimaced. The exit was straight west —between the Spinosaurus and Raptor enclosures, past the shops, past the food court. It was a lot to cover in such little time.

  Liona quickly stepped away from the fountain, and the three shared a look.

  “Let’s go,” Luca murmured, “before it’s too late.”