I first had to do something before heading off to Ulfstead Castle, and I decided to clean my legs off of the blood and other things clinging to them disgustingly.

So I stopped by a creek and washed the blood off the best I could with the fresh water, even my socks, which ironically had turned a faint pink color.

I dried off my pant legs the best I could, as they were stained a purple color, but at least they were not a light pink like my socks.

Once I had cleaned myself off and washed the blood off, I started to clean Luna's fur off from the blood as she stayed still, allowing me to clean her paws and legs off.

The last of the blood from Luna's fur was cleaned off, and we started heading off to Ulfstead Castle, but the walk there was a little awkward for me because I was not used to walking barefoot or even in socks.

Yes, a few times before the alien abduction, but not this long during the alien abduction.

It even stinks that most of the shoe stores around here are destroyed due to alien attacks or people scrambling to get extra shoes.

So I made my way towards Ulfstead Castle and soon arrived at the front gate, pausing from entering the castle as I looked around cautiously for any signs.

After looking for any destruction or tire marks on the ground, I started heading toward the castle and walked up to the gate, noticing it was closed.

I pushed my glasses into place before hearing static noises coming from my walkie-talkie, which caused me to perk up after hearing the noises.

I took it and clicked on the button, saying, "Grom? Is that you?"

There was no response after I asked.

"Grom, come in," I said through the walkie-talkie. "Are you okay?"

There was still no response after the second attempt, and I wondered if a vehishifter or a Searcher had discovered him and started eating him.

I looked around for any way to get through the gate when I heard Luna bark and looked over, seeing her standing in front of a wall.

"Luna," I softly spoke as I walked over to Luna. "What are you do-?"

I paused when I noticed something that looked like a hallway and stepped back, seeing the wall blend a little, but when I stepped forward, it revealed the hallway.

"Clever," I remarked with a smile.

I stepped through the secret hallway as Luna followed me before coming across a dead end, and I perked up, wondering where I had come across.

So I felt around with my fingers, and they soon bumped over something that went inward after I nudged it a little.

I pushed against it, and a click came from the round indent, and the wall turned slightly to the left, revealing a secret door that led to a dark hallway.

Curious, I pushed the door open more and stepped into the dark hallway, seeing that I had entered Ulfstead Castle as I closed the door after Luna stepped inside.

Once inside Ulfstead Castle's hallway, I cleared my throat before calling, as I cupped one hand over my mouth, "Hello? Grom?"

There was no response to my call, and I worried about Grom.

I reached into my satchel and took out my flashlight, turning it on as the light shone down the castle's hallway.

I looked around the darkness of the castle and looked at the sides, seeing suits of armor standing in a straight row in a guarding position.

The way my flashlight shone through the darkness made my stomach clench nervously as I continued walking, searching for Grom or anyone else around the castle.

As I walked through the castle, I soon entered a much larger room and noticed empty areas with description labels in front of the spots.

I looked at one of the description labels near me and noticed it had a picture of a coffee pot-shaped steam locomotive, but there was no steam locomotive.

That bad feeling sat further in my stomach after seeing there was no steam locomotive, and I started to look around, seeing there used to be engines around… but they were all gone.

The thought of that car-like creature lingered in the back of my mind, and I started to become worried, knowing that Grom's life and whoever else was trapped in here were in danger.

So I need to find them before something worse happens.

I started to look around the castle worryingly, looking from top to bottom to search for Grom or anyone else, but I could not find anyone.

As I was about to head outside, my flashlight's light suddenly went out, and I instantly stopped walking, gasping as I reached into my satchel to get the batteries.

I fumbled a little in the darkness to take the batteries out, but I got them out and opened the flashlight's bottom, taking out the dead batteries and putting them into my satchel.

I put the new two batteries into the flashlight, and it turned on, accidentally shining the light into my eyes.

I groaned after accidentally blinding myself, pushing my glasses up as I rubbed my eyes with my thumb and first finger.

Why did I do that?

I waited a few minutes for the spots in my eyes to disappear before blinking a few times after they were gone, silently reminding myself not to do that again.

Something shifted in the darkness, and I freaked out, shining my flashlight at what moved in the darkness, but there was nothing there when I shone it over.

"I swear," I mumbled to myself as I sighed. "I need-"

Whispering suddenly hit my ears, and I stopped talking, being silent as I listened to the whispers and cupped one hand over my ear.

…It sounded almost like the whispers I heard when I arrived at Briar's place.

"Hello?" I called, removing my cupped hand from my ear to my mouth. "Who's there?"

There was no response to my question as the whispering continued, and I started following where the whispering was coming from as it got louder and louder.

I soon approached a small pedestal as the whispering was now visible, and a triangle-shaped item was behind the glass.

I looked confused after seeing the item behind the glass and looked around it, wondering who was whispering.

But there was no one there.

Suddenly, the glass started to melt with nothing heating it, moving away from the triangle item as the glass disappeared and revealed the object.

I stared at the item confusedly after the melted glass, reached for the triangle object, and picked it up.

The whispering stopped when I picked the triangle-shaped object up from the pedestal and looked at the triangle object in my hands.

It looked like the Cube from Michael Bay's 'Transformers,' but it was much smaller than the Cube and had a more smooth appearance and even in a triangle shape.

As I ran my fingers over the sides of the triangle object in my hands, something lit up from the sides of the triangle.

I instantly removed my hand from the triangle and watched alien-like symbols appear on the sides, as they were on each side of the triangle instead of the bottom.

Then the top started to glow, and a translucent panel appeared as I watched with curiosity.

I watched symbols appear on the panel before me, reading, '⏚⍀⍜⍙⋏ ⏃⋏⎅ ⍜⌰⎅ ⏚⊬ ⎅⏃⊬, ⍙⊑⟟⏁⟒ ⏃⋏⎅ ⊬⍜⎍⋏ ⏚⊬ ⋏⟟ ⊑⏁, ⋔⊬ ⟒⊬⟒⌇ ⏃⍀⟒ ⌰⏃⌇⌇. ⟟ ⊑⏃⎐⟒ ⋏⟟⋏⟒ ⎎⏃ ⟒⌇ ⏚⎍⏁ ⋏⍜ ⊑⟒⏃⎅. ⟟ ⌇⟟⋏ ⏁⍜ ⏁⊑⟒ ⌇ ⊬, ⏚⎍⏁ ⟟ ⊑⏃⎐⟒ ⋏⍜ ⎐⍜⟟ ⟒. ⟟'⋔ ⋏⍜⍙⊑⟒⍀⟒ ⏃⋏⎅ ⟒⎐⟒⍀⊬⍙⊑⟒⍀⟒. ⍙⊑⏃⏁ ⏃⋔ ⟟?"

The symbols slowly fade into English, which reads, 'Brown and old by day, white and young by night, my eyes are glass. I have nine faces but no head. I sing to the sky, but I have no voice. I'm nowhere and everywhere. What am I?'

I softly hummed after reading the riddle before looking at the first side of the triangle, noticing the alien symbols on the side had turned to English, almost like a crossword puzzle.

I looked through the letters and saw the 'm' word and tapped on it with my finger, watching it light up underneath my digit.

Then I swiped to the left, and it stayed lit as I connected it with the 'oo's and the 'n.'

After I made the word 'moon,' the rest disappeared after I wrote out the word and showed a moon symbol.

The previous sentence disappears, and the second appears, reading, 'You see it rise in the morning and set when the day is done. It provides us with light and heat. It's a star that's called the _?'

I looked at the face with glowing words and did the same, spelling out 'Sun.'

After I spelled out the word sun on the face, it disappeared and showed a symbol of the sun before the sentence disappeared.

The next sentence reads, 'I'm bright but not clever. I burn, but I'm not a bonfire. I sound like a celebrity, but I'm not famous. I twinkle, but I'm not an eye. I can be seen at night, but I'm not the moon.'

I looked at the last face of the triangle and spelled out the word 'star,' and the letters disappeared, showing a symbol of the star.

Once all three symbols were shown, they all disappeared, and the panel showed the three symbols combining together to make a new symbol before the panel disappeared.

The triangle clicked, and it opened, showing a bracelet in the middle of the opened triangle in the palm of my hand.

I picked the bracelet up as I placed the now open triangle down onto the pedestal, watching as the glass that had melted away moved back up and resealed the opened triangle inside.

I looked back at the bracelet in my hand and took a closer look at it, seeing that it was all silver and made of metal.

It suddenly activated when I trailed my thumb inside, and it automatically wrapped around my wrist, causing me to shriek as I tried to get it off.

But it was stuck to my wrist as it slowly started to grow from underneath my shirt's sleeve, spreading from my wrist up to my elbow before stopping once it was at the bottom.

I tried to get my fingers into the gap between the armlet and my arm, but it was stuck firmly on my arm and did not pop off when I pinned my arm between my legs and yanked upward.

After trying to get the metal thing off my arm, I stopped after feeling my arm getting sore and looked at it, pushing my sleeves up to look at it.

The front of the armlet suddenly lit up, and I watched with confusion, watching what looked like the same symbol with a medium blue background.

A loading bar appeared underneath the symbol, and when it was filled, the screen showed a diagram of the inside of the castle with the rooms.

A dot was in the middle of the rooms, and another appeared, getting closer and closer to the dot.

My ears suddenly heard footsteps, and I instantly whipped around, only for a spear to nearly hit my neck as it stopped mere inches away.

It was a human, and he had white hair with a beard and mustache.

He wore a black dress jacket over a red patterned waistcoat, a white shirt, and a blue ascot, with grey trousers and black boots.

After seeing it was me, he perked up and removed his spear, apologizing, "Sorry about that. I thought you were an alien breaking into my castle."

"No," I said, shaking my head as I had a hand on my chest to keep my heart from leaping out. "I came in here to see if there was anyone here."

"It's just me," he responded. "The others were taken by those machines when that spaceship appeared."

"Ah, then they must've been taken by Searchers," I sighed, removing my hand from my chest before remembering something. "Wait, what about Grom?"

"Who?" he asked.

"Grom," I repeated. "I received an S.O.S. from my walkie-talkie from him, and he said he is lying somewhere in your castle."

I watched as he thought for a minute before responding, "I never heard anyone named 'Grom,' but there was a giant inside one of the museum's rooms."

"A giant?" I perked up, looking worried. "There was a giant in Ulfstead Castle?!"

"Yes," He nodded. "It disappeared when I looked again."

I sighed with relief but still looked worried about Grom as I turned to him, asking, "Did you see anyone stepping out of the castle before I got here?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I was looking around to see if there were any aliens or survivors."

I felt confused and worried, thinking back to the walkie-talkie conversation I had before feeling the man look at my arm, asking, "What is this attached to your arm?"

"Something I shouldn't be messing with," I sighed before mentioning the open triangle. "There was whispering coming from that object, and when I picked it up, I completed a puzzle," I sighed. "And this happened."

"Did you try to take it off?" he asked.

"Nope," I responded. "It is permanently stuck to my arm."

He released my arm after I told him and asked, "What is your name, ma'am?"

"Stephanie," I responded. "Stephanie Allen."

Then I looked down at Luna and responded, mentioning to her with a hand, "This is Luna."

"My name is Sir Robert Norramby," he introduced himself. "And please make your stay at Ulfstead Castle."

"Thank you, sir," I nodded. "Do you know if there could be survivors?"

"I don't know," Sir Norramby responded. "The phones are all down, and I don't know if Sir Topham Hatt or the others are still around."

"What if I go find them?" I suggested. "Your castle barely has any aliens roaming around here or even has Searchers or vehishifters too. It's a safe place, too."

"Are you certain?" Sir Norramby asked.

"I'm sure," I said, nodding with confidence. "Everyone's safety is first."

Sir Norramby nodded after I told him before leading me back outside and opening the gate as I stepped back outside.

"Be safe, Stephanie," Sir Norramby warned me.

"I will," I said, nodding in agreement.

I returned to the city, hoping to find anyone hiding from the vehishifters or the aliens.

As Stephanie was heading back to the city, a large humanoid shape watched her enter the city, slightly hidden from the trees but wearing a hood over their head.

"Grom!" a voice quietly hissed. "Whit are ye doing?"

"Just watching a human," a familiar Russian voice responded. "I think it was her."

"Who?" the Scottish voice asked.

"Stephanie," the familiar Russian voice responded before turning around. "Let's find somewhere we can camp."

The large humanoid shape wobbled a little in the moonlight as a smaller shape, resembling a rectangle with arms and legs, instantly held the humanoid.

"God, this headache," the familiar Russian voice groaned.

"Let me carry ye then," the Scottish voice explained. "Juist follow yer steps wi mine."

The large humanoid nodded and followed the smaller being with him, walking further into the forest before disappearing from sight.