Layers.

This is the Verwirrung Layer.

Layer 3: Verwirrung

Lucy Loud starred the ground. She tried to notice any changes because she could have sworn there were some. Very small differences with the ground that was there before. Not changed through the digging those changes were easy to see.

"Lucy?"

The Goth turned her head to Lana who had just said her name. "Yes, Lana?"

"I am scared."

"Are you so scared that you want to go?"

"I…" Lana hesitated. "I don't think so."

"Do you need a break?"

"No, I mean… Yes. I don't understand. I know fear but this fear feels… Different."

Lucy stopped to dig and turned to Lana. "This is beyond mortal comprehension what we are doing. We probably enter a place only a handful of people entered during human history while they were still alive."

"Why did only so few tried to enter hell?"

"They either fear hell, don't know how to do the ritual, get stopped by others or had no reason to do so."

"Did all who entered hell were able to return?", asked Lana fearfully.

"Not… All. And some of the ones who returned were stark raving mad."

Lana started to shake.

"But we are not going that deep into hell," tried Lucy to assure her younger sister. "I promise you we don't have to go into the deepest depths of this place."

Lana looked a bit more assured now, yet still weary. "How deep do we have to dig?"

"Two layers more… We are in the third layer right now."

Leni was knitting to forget Charles death. She was knitting a black blanket from wool because her thoughts were too somber for anything more colorful. Charles had been there since she was born, the oldest of their family pets. Loyal, friendly and always eager to play with one of them. Now he was gone and the house felt a lot emptier.

"Like, I miss you so much Charles…"

She fought back more tears. She had cried enough. Cried enough for four Charles'. She had to move on but it was so hard. Her knitting helped her to get her mind away from this. So, she continued to knit and knit.

"Black is so a nice color, my white blanket will… Like, what?"

Leni blinked. For a moment she had seen a white blanket instead of the black one he was knitting. Leni thought about it for a moment but then shrugged her shoulders.

She continued to knit as suddenly something behind her fell to the ground with a bang.

"What was that?"

Leni stood up and looked behind her. There was nothing. Nothing behind her lay on the ground, all was in its place.

"Like, how odd."

Leni sat down again and continued to knit on her red pullover. "Wait… I could swear it was a blue scarf I was knitting?"

Leni was holding her head. She didn't feel so good. "I feel confused, but like worse than usual."

She heard another sound but this time it came from above. It sounded like some wet living thing crawling around. On the second floor.

"Hello? Lana is that you or one of your pets?" Leni shouted above. "Were you bathing in the pond again?"

Only more wet movement was heard in response.

"Lana, like I come up now."

Leni went up the stairs to the second floor and then the third one.

"Wait, a third floor? We have only two… Right?"

Leni looked around. There was nothing on this third floor just an empty hallway. No doors, no mobiliary, no pictures on the walls, just an empty hallway.

"What is… I am totally freaking out now!"

Leni knew something was not right, she knew that they had four floors and the third was usually filled with plants. The fourth floor was the place the first 11 children of the family had been buried.

"No, wait… Nobody died, Mom and Dad only have eleven kids!" Leni hold her head again. "Am I so stupid? No this… Like this feels different than being stupid."

Leni thought hard about the situation. All what came to her mind in this Moment though were ideas about how to rotate like a whirlwind to fly out of this house. Then that thought was replaced with a billion bugs who ate her brain and then her liver.

"No, why do I think about this on the tenth floor? I should think about it on the fifteenth floor."

Loni scratched his head and took out his smartphone to call his big sister Lisa for help.

"Lisa, help me I hear strange noises without any source."

"This is Lola speaking. I am in the middle of praying, what is so important?"

"Lola, I think I am going crazy, the bombs are… What bombs? Do we own bombs? What do we need bombs for? To bombard the transforming evil robot Mr. Grouse?"

"No, the plans have changed," explained Ronnie Anne Santiago with the voice of Meryl Streep. "Now get over her und help us with breeding Emu's."

Leni… Now, she was Loni…. No, she was Leni. Leni had to get out of there and get help. She had to find her mother Rosali- no, Rita Loud! Or Lanchester L- No, Lisa Loud, she could probably help as well!

"I am Leni Loud and I will figure out why the walls bleed!" Realizing what she just said, Leni's face changed from determined to confused and desperate. Leni got on her knees, holding her head. "Oh, why is this all so confusing, like what is real?"

Lana looked up from her work. She could have sworn that…

"Lucy, I think… Ehm… What is this fire?"

Lucy turned around in surprise to Lana. "What fire?"

"I mean… Sorry, Lucy I meant the flood."

"Flood?"

"No…. The Locusts I think."

"Locusts?"

"Or… The color yellow?"

"Lana, are you well?"

Lana hold her head. "I am not sure."

Lucy put a hand on Lana's forehead. "You don't have fever. Maybe you should take a break."

Lana nodded. "I feel so confused. Do you think the others are confused as well?"

"Who?"

Lana thought for a Moment. "Leni."

"She is often confused," said Lucy in a unconcerned tone. "That is normal for her."

"But she may be more confused than usual."

"From what?" asked Lucy.

"From… From…" Lana massaged her forehead. "I don't know, I feel so confused."

"Take a break," said Lucy. "You need it."

"Yes, of course," said Lana and took a break. Still, something inside her said to be still worried for Leni.

Layer 3: Verwirrung has ended. 5 more layers await our two heroines.

Dein Kopf ist Klar.