Blink. That was all he did—blink. Then he turned around, and Clover was gone.

  “Clover?”

  Nik’s voice echoed through every surface in the room, even if he could hardly see any of them.

  “Clover!”

  He stood still, barely even allowing himself to breathe, to try to catch even the vaguest of noises. But he heard nothing. He didn’t hear anyone call back his name. He didn’t even hear something like a rustle, or a word too muffled or distorted to really make out. It was just silence.

  Silence.

  He resisted the urge to hit the nearest machine, instead just muttering one of the worst curses he could think of. Clover wasn’t here. He didn’t even think there was a way he could tell where she was, if she couldn’t hear him. And since the candle was still in his hand, that had to have meant that she was completely in the dark.

  Wait, the candle.

  It was definitely more melted than it had been before, far more than he thought should’ve been possible with how long they’d been here. Unless they were here a lot longer than they thought they were? No, that couldn’t be it. It looked completely fine until he blinked. Why did he have to blink?

  I have to find Clover, was the first thing that came into his mind. I have to get out of here, was the second.

  No one’s going to be able to help Clover if we’re both stuck here.

  He forced his mind to slow down, and try to grasp his surroundings. Not like there was really much to see. Just stupid machines, dumb notes, and the complete lack of his friend. But he couldn’t just plow through this.

  “What would she do?” he questioned aloud with a sigh. “She’s smart. Smarter than me. She’d probably have a system or something, right? A way to know what we passed and how to make sure we could meet somewhere…”

  The first thing he did was try to find the nearest note. He seemed to be in the same place he was before, so they should’ve been on their way back out the way they came, right? He had to, unless this scientist guy was also capable of manipulating time and space. Which, actually, he might very well be, given the fact a second was all it took for the friends to be separated.

  But as hard as he looked—getting as close as he dared to the machine closest to him, unwilling to see what it would suddenly do if he did so—he couldn’t find a note. Slowly, he moved to the one in front of him. There wasn’t a note on that one, either. Or on the third one he checked. Not even the fourth.

  Slowly, and with a growing sense of dread, he reached into his bag. He’d put a couple of notes in there from before, so that he had something more concrete that he could bring back to town. He knew that he put them in there.

  Yet when he reached in—even when he sat the candle up, took off his bag, and dug through it—he found nothing.

  All of the notes were gone.

  He even pulled out one of the log books, but that was empty, too. Before he was able to stop himself, he threw the book as hard as he could into the darkness.

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  His anger was soon subsided by curiosity as, when he heard the book hit something, it wasn’t a metallic sound. He would’ve figured it would hit one of the machines, but it didn’t sound like it did. So he quickly packed up his bag again and went to see what it had hit.

  It was the wall.

  He couldn’t remember the last time that he actually saw one of the walls to this room. Maybe not since they’d gotten there. But he knew that they had entered near one. If he could just follow the wall, then he’d be able to find the hatch again. He hoped. It was probably the closest thing he had to a plan, and it was one that Clover—if she ever saw the wall—would notice, too. Even if they didn’t meet up with each other before then, they’d see each other once they were out of this room.

  They had to be.

  Nik chose a random direction and just kept walking. He stopped for a second or two, to try to see if any of the notes had magically reappeared, but they were still all gone. How could someone have the ability to do that, anyway? Maybe this scientist guy did know some magic. That was just about the only explanation he had for something that, otherwise, would defy all other laws that he knew of.

  And if it was magic, that meant two things: one, that it was fake, even if it seemed pretty real in the moment, and two, it would have to come to an end eventually. Even those fancy enchanted things couldn’t last forever, right? He hoped they didn’t. That was just about the only reassurance he could give himself.

  The candle flickered after a little bit, and he looked down to see that it wouldn’t last much longer. Either I’ve seriously lost track of time, or this thing is burning faster than it’s supposed to. Great. He just resolved to walk a little quicker—he wasn’t going to get any further just by standing around and panicking.

  As he walked, he tried his best to be as aware of his situation as he could. Anything that he could use to help Clover, or to convince anyone else to come here in the first place, needed to be taken note of and remembered. He was probably lucky that they liked her. He knew what the town thought about this place, and the apathy they were capable of showing if they didn’t want to get themselves involved in something. Maybe if it had been the other way around—Clover had left, without finding him—they would’ve needed a lot more convincing. He was an outsider, after all. But he knew Clover was more important to them than he was. They’ll put in the effort if she was the one who needed it.

  But wait, wasn’t he just getting ahead of himself? Maybe Clover wasn’t really stuck. Maybe she was already out, waiting up in the shed for him. That had to be it. No way that she’d let some place like this stop her that easily. Right?

  It wasn’t long after the thought crossed his mind that he saw some light from above. That had to be the hatch back into the shed.

  Had they shut in on their way down? He couldn’t quite remember, and at that moment, he didn’t quite care. He quickly walked over to the hatch, then climbed up the ladder.

  “Looks like it’s all the same up here…” he mumbled as he took a look around. “Clover’s not up here…”

  He noticed something else, too. There’d been notes here before, but like all the others, they were gone now. From how the defense mechanism was explained, he would’ve thought that it only lasted in that room. Did it have a wider effect..? Or maybe someone else came and took some, even if that didn’t necessarily bring him any comfort.

  The candle had flickered out nearly as soon as he got up there, so he was just left staring into the darkness for a moment or so. As much as he hated to admit it, he really couldn’t go back for Clover; he didn’t have a light anymore, not one that would’ve taken a while to search for. And at that point, his time would probably be better spent just getting back to the town.

  They’ll know what to do.

  He did, however, decide to shout one last thing down the hatch before preparing to leave: “Clover, if you can hear me, I’m going to head back and get some help! If you’re stuck, just… focus on getting back up here! If you’re not stuck, then let me know! I can’t wait here for long if you’re in trouble somewhere…” There was no response. He’d even go so far as to say there were no sounds at all, aside from his own breathing and the gentle creak of the shed. “I… I’ll be back! I’m going to leave some supplies right by the entrance, but I should return before you need them. I’ll leave the hatch open, too. Maybe you’ll be able to use that light to get out. Okay?”

  He didn’t know why he was still waiting; there wasn’t going to be any more answers.

  He simply nodded to himself, then dug through his bag to pull out some emergency supplies. Food, water, and first aid kit, all tucked into a bag that, for the most part, would keep wildlife out of it. He sat it right beside the hatch, then forced himself to leave. The only thing keeping him from staying and waiting for her was a simple reality: that wasn’t going to solve anything.

  Only getting back to town as fast as possible would.