Angelo, Giovanna and Ursula were standing in the tunnel. Kafka was just about to chase them. The path was so dark they couldn’t see anything. The only source of light was the entry to the tunnel.

“We have to run!” Angelo said. “Through the tunnel! That’s the only way.”

Giovanna was thinking about something. She took her binoculars and looked through them. Through the lenses she saw the tunnel as brightly as if the Sun itself was illuminating it.

“It’s still before noon,” said Giovanna. “The spell is still working!”

Angelo and Ursula took their own binoculars and put them against their eyes. Everybody could see the tunnel perfectly. It was very long and reinforced with wooden pillars. For sure Kafka must have dug it out himself. It had several steep steps. In the far back there was a wooden door.

“No use in waiting. We have to run!” said Angelo.

The three were trying to get to the door. It was the only place they were seeing as a possible escape.

 

Kafka smiled. He had three new subjects running to his lab on their own. He couldn’t wait to test them. If only he had the real berries. But that was not a problem for him. He would get them. Sooner or later. For now he had to simply trap them inside. Kafka came to the closet and stepped on the ladder to the tunnel.

 

Angelo and the girls have reached the end of the tunnel. Giovanna reached for the door and tried to open it. She could not find a door knob so she tried to push the door. But she couldn’t move it even an inch. Giovanna looked a bit at the door through her binoculars and saw what was blocking it. Near the frame there was a padlock holding the door in place.

“Wonderful…,” said Giovanna. “We have to get rid of this padlock or we’re stuck.”

“Let me see it,” said Angelo.

He looked at the padlock and touched it with his fingers. It was completely covered in rust and did not seem to be very durable.

“Alright, let’s see if I can crush it,” said Angelo.

He opened his backpack and took out a metal tool. It looked like a hammer head with a thread. Angelo screwed it to a quarrel he took from his belt and loaded it to his crossbow. He slid his binoculars into the crossbow’s tactical rail. He pointed it at the padlock. With a swift pull of a trigger Angelo sent the quarrel hammer into the padlock. The shackle has shattered and the padlock has fallen on the floor. Angelo pushed the door and opened it.

“Let’s go,” Angelo said.

Suddenly they saw a flash. They turned towards its source and saw Kafka. He was holding a flashlight and staring at them.

“There’s no escape from there, my dear guests!” Kafka laughed.

He dashed towards the three.

“Go!” Angelo shouted.

He and the girls quickly went through the door and shut it. Angelo looked around the room through the binoculars. He saw a shelf standing near the door. He jumped and grabbed it from the top. The shelf has fallen on the floor. Kafka tried forcing his way inside, but the shelf was successfully blocking the door. The only thing Kafka could do were loud bangs.

“That should buy us some time,” said Angelo. “Let’s look around and try to find the exit from this room. Or some meaning behind it.”

Ursula tapped Giovanna on the shoulder. Giovanna looked at her. Giovanna’s binoculars had too large a zoom to show Ursula’s face with details, but it seemed she wanted to tell something to her friends.

“What is it, Ursula?” Giovanna asked.

Ursula has answered with shock in her voice.

“I saw his aura… I have never seen an aura like this before… It suggested the will to achieve goals regardless of the cost… And lack of morals…”

“I see,” said Angelo looking for anything helpful on the wall. “Definitely unlucky.”

“But it also suggested curiosity…,” said Ursula. “Curiosity and the will of discovery…”

“Just as if he was an evil version of you?” Angelo joked.

“Now that you mention it… Yes!” said Ursula.

Just then Angelo has found something on the wall. He touched it with his fingers from all sides. It was a plastic box with a switch sticking out.

“I think I’ve found a light switch!” Angelo said. “I’m switching it. Watch out for the flash.”

As Angelo flipped the switch a lightbulb made a few flashes and ticks. Soon it calmed down and the room was illuminated. The three friends looked around, but were frightened by what they saw. In a closet with glass doors there were countless jars. Inside them there were more fairies. Some of them looked starving. The fairies were banging on the walls of the jars with their hands. They all were screaming.

“Help me!”

“Help!”

“Let us out!”

“Turn us back!”

“Let it end!”

“Help!”

“Help us!”

Ursula remembered she was holding the jar with Lifkip. She tried covering it with her hand so that she didn’t have to see it. Giovanna was listening to the fairies’ screams. Something didn’t seem right for her.

“Why are they all speaking English?” she said.

“And why are they all adults?” said Angelo. “Adult fairies are too difficult to capture.”

Suddenly Angelo saw one more door in the corner. It had a padlock too, but next to it there was a keyring hanging. He thought he could always try using them.

“Hey, Giovy, I’ll try opening that door,” Angelo said.

He took the keys off the wall. The first key he tried did not fit the padlock, but the second one went in smoothly. Angelo removed a padlock and opened the door. At the sight of the room he felt dread. Five people tied to chairs. When the girls saw it they ran inside and started untying them.

“Were you kidnapped?” asked Angelo.

“Yes!” answered a woman who got untied. “Professor Kafka kidnapped all of us. We all came to him to correct our grades. He brought us all here and has been keeping us here since August!”

“Were there more of you?” Angelo asked.

“Many more!” said a man behind her. “But many of them have disappeared!”

“And I swear I’m not making this up!” said the woman who was previously talking to Angelo. “Before they disappeared they were transformed!”

Angelo started to see what was going on in this basement. But wanted to confirm his suspicions by asking one more question.

“How?” he asked. “How were they transformed?”

“They were getting smaller until they were about the size of his hand,” the woman answered. “And I’m sure I saw them growing wings.”

With that the friends have realised everything.

“No!” Ursula tried denying her conclusion. “It can not be!”

She ran outside the cell trying to hide her emotions. But just after leaving it she saw the closet with the fairies inside. She fell on her knees and started crying. Giovanna looked outside to see if she was alright. It was evident that she was not. She then looked at Angelo and shared her horrifying observation.

“So all of these fairies… were once people…”

 

That was the effect of eating the fairy realm food that Anton Kafka was so desperate to neutralise. Just a single bite was enough for a human to turn into a fairy. Some humans were trying to do so as they felt they should have been born as fairies. And they felt delighted after they had done it. But for those who have done it against their will it was terrifying. Terrifying and almost impossible to reverse.

Ursula remembered reading about experiences from both sides. Willing and unwilling. Because her sister, Lily, was one of those who wanted to change. But because of all the negative reports it was hard for her to accept it. She begged her sister to resign. And she actually managed to postpone her transformation for quite a long time. Lily tried her best to show her that it’s nothing wrong. After a long time she succeeded. And when Lily finally turned into a fairy and moved to the fairy realm Ursula even felt happy for her. She even felt sorry for thinking it was something bad.

And that was what was going on in that basement. Experiments with fairy food. Kafka was feeding it to his kidnapped students to see if he could find a way for humans to not transform on ingestion. So far all the experiments were a failure. But Kafka was willing to continue his efforts.

 

Giovanna came to Ursula to try to cheer her up. She put her hand on Ursula’s shoulder, but she threw it off.

“Why?” said Ursula through her tears. “Why would he do such a thing?”

In that exact moment they heard a bang and felt a heatwave. Using his potions Kafka destroyed the door to his basement. Angelo readied his crossbow. When the dust settled Kafka entered the room.

“So you have discovered my little secret?” Kafka said to the rescue team.

 

Sarah was standing on the lawn. She was looking at the window she just came through. She saw her friends retreating into the closet and Kafka pursuing them. She was worried about them. She wanted to help them. She needed to help them however she could. She might not have magical abilities, but she had determination and she was clever. Sarah was looking around the garden. The window lost its magical engraving of a gate so she was sure it was completely solid again. Sarah was looking for the card that Giovanna used to make the window passable. She saw them on the lawn right under her feet.

“Oh, no…,” Sarah said thinking she had accidentally creased the card.

Luckily when she raised it it turned out it was still fairly straight. The only signs of shoes-induced destruction were stains of dirt that Sarah quickly shook off with her hand.

“Alright… You can do this, Sarah…,” she was talking to herself to raise her self-esteem.

Sarah placed the card on the window. She was sure she could replicate Giovanna’s spell. The spark she felt on the bus stop had to be her magic telling her she’s ready. Sarah was about to cast the spell. But she found out she couldn’t remember the incantation.

“What was Giovanna saying…,” Sarah tried to remember the words. “Api per… Apri der… Apple pear…”

Sarah gave up. She could not remember the words of an Italian spell no matter how much she tried. She put the card on the windowsill and returned to looking through the lawn.

“Well then, plan B,” said Sarah.

She found a nice pebble. About the size of her fist. After a few seconds of aiming she threw it at the window. It shattered into multiple shards and Sarah could enter. She was extremely careful not to cut herself with the leftover glass. When she entered the office she dashed towards the closet. At the last moment however she stopped. Sarah thought that she needed something to defend herself with. After all, Kafka went after her friends. So he might have still been standing. Maybe her friends were already defeated. She looked around the office, but saw nothing of use. She thought for a moment about using Kafka’s chair. But instead she found the loose bottom of the closet. That could have been a nice tool to slap him in the face. Sarah tried fitting it through the tunnel. She simply needed to put it in diagonally. With that she was ready and jumped in with determination to save her friends.