Clover felt as her insides squeezed. At first, she was blinded by a bright light, then it became sharply dark around her. After a while, the outlines of an alley similar to the one they had just been in began to dimly appear ahead.
The only difference was that the gray pavement turned into dark brickwork, and instead of the abandoned houses standing on both sides, there were two ivy-covered walls of some unfamiliar old buildings. There was a fresh pile of garbage on the floor next to her. From the smell of it, it looked like it had just been thrown away.
"Heatherfield is such a fragrant city," Clover grimaced.
Sam and Alex went a little ahead. Coming out of the alley, Clover caught up with her friends, who for some reason suddenly froze in place. Breathing a little, she gasped.
Dark clouds were gathering in the sky, making the atmosphere seem Halloween-like gloomy. The weather suddenly became sharply cool. Of course, in large cities it happens that the weather is sunny at one end of the city and rainy at the other, but as far as Clover knew, Heatherfield was not a metropolis. Yes, and the temperature drop from plus twenty-three to plus five was a clear anomaly, just like a sharp change in the style of architecture, and like that blue glow through which they had just passed.
Clover had the feeling that they were in a completely different place. So it differed from the just seen sunny and friendly town.
- Halloween decorations. That blue glow must be a fancy door to this medieval theme park," Sam said admiringly as she watched the medieval architecture and the people passing by. Most of them didn't look human at all.
"Their costumes are cool," Alex remarked admiringly.
After the girls took a little walk, Clover began to become more and more suspicious and doubt that they were still in Heatherfield. The place looked more and more like a medieval village than a park. The building types were the same everywhere. Not a single modern building was visible.
- Don't you think that the area is a bit big for a park? she asked, then added, shivering, "It's too cold and gloomy even for Halloween."
For some reason, this reminded Clover of one of their first missions related to the Middle Ages, when they could not contact Jerry, and she almost became the queen of some crazy person who wanted to change the future with a time machine.
- Girls, don't you think we're done with the mission here? I suggest going back and shopping and then home to Beverly Hills," she suggested in a slightly anxious voice.
Sam stopped walking and turned to Clover.
"Hmm, you're probably right, it's none of our business, after all, the glow turned out to be just a door to this huge park... or suburb... Whatever it was," Sam stammered. Besides, it's unlikely that Mister Popster was hiding something here. Alex, let's go, - Sam called her friend, only then noticing that she had disappeared somewhere.
- It's a portal! That blue glow is not a door, but a portal! Alex exclaimed after she returned, interviewing local residents.
- Why did you decide?
- Remember that mission with the Middle Ages?
Why did you remember her? - stung asked Clover.
"We're definitely not in Heatherfield. No one here has ever heard of such a city. Think back to those cumbersome instruction books that Jerry made us learn.
- And where are we? At what time and place? Sam asked in a matter-of-fact tone, as if going through portals to unknown places was something ordinary for the agents of the WHO. -Alex is right, Sam thought, -in such a strange way, you can only be transported with the help of a teleporter or a portal.
- From the name, it was only clear that this place is located on some meridian or latitude ... I didn't quite understand, - Alex smiled innocently.
"I-I-I see," Sam said pointedly. "Be that as it may, we should try to return the same way we got here," she suggested after a moment's thought.
"I agree," said Clover. - And let's hurry up. I get goosebumps from this creepy village.
As soon as the girls returned to the alley with the uncollected pile of rubbish, for the period while they were gone seemed to be replenished with a fresher batch, they found that the portal had disappeared.
Some time after many failed attempts to find him, the girls became desperate and decided to try contacting Jerry through their powder boxes. Clover's intuition really didn't let her down. As in the mission with the Middle Ages, their powder boxes did not pick up a signal here. They tried to catch him wherever they could. But wherever they went, the network icon stubbornly refused to appear.
- Why was it necessary to scan this nonsense? And even more so to put your hand in there? And it's clear to the child that this will not lead to good, - Clover grumbled all the way, unhappy that their plans for the evening were upset for such a stupid reason.
On the other hand, she thought, at least they saw one of Heatherfield's landmarks. True, there were no nice guys here. Maybe it's because everyone was dressed up as strange monsters.
- What do we do now? Alex panicked.
"I don't know about you, but I'm hungry, let's go see what food is here, and then we'll think about what to do next," suggested Clover.
"Let's get changed first," Sam said, seeing passers-by chuckle at their defiantly tight outfit.
After changing into Halloween costumes, the girls went to the nearest tavern with the funny name Prancing Larvek. Apparently they were taken for the upper class, as they were treated there to the most noble food by local standards: mashed potatoes with poultry, which the girls believed was chicken, rhubarb pies, berry juice.
Everything was going great until the girls were asked to pay in a currency they had never heard of before. Some copper "two".
- Umm, are you sure you don't accept dollars? Sam asked in bewilderment.
- Go away! the tavern owner barked, slamming his fist on their table.
The girls immediately ran outside.
- What is this place that does not accept US currency? - more and more perplexed, indignant Alex.
"Judging by what we managed to see here, as well as that lonely and menacing castle in the distance, this is some kind of Transylvania," Clover pointed to a large Gothic castle towering over the city. "Surely, Count Dracula or some other local freak lives in that castle to intimidate the population," she suggested.
"Though they speak fluent English here, which is amazing," Sam pointed out. - Alex, what did the locals say about this city?
- I already said that I did not understand the name.
There was an uncomfortable silence, which was interrupted by Clover.
- Great, we lost the blue glow, which, as it turned out, was a valuable portal, which initially should not have been lost sight of, powder boxes do not catch a signal here, dollars are not accepted, Alex did not understand the locals. What else is left for us to do now, how not to look for this stupid portal elsewhere?
While the girls were walking back and forth, Sam asked about the city in which they are with a passerby dressed as a blue beast.
- Meridian? What is Meridian? She looked at him in bewilderment.
Like Heatherfield, she had never heard of this city or this place before. And in the database, if their compacts worked, Sam somehow was sure that she would not have found information about him. Unless, if they are not in the states of Mississippi or Idaho, which is unlikely, given not so much the fact that dollars are not the local currency here, but the cold climate and this strange atmosphere of hopelessness and sadness on the faces of passers-by people or creatures, which is already difficult was to be dismantled, not to mention the village buildings that stood everywhere, because of which the girls mistakenly took this place at first for a medieval theme park.