Where did you get that from?

I walked alongside Henry and the unknown boy, with the orange streetlights casting strange shadows in the alley we were walking through.

Everything that had happened was strange enough, but what intrigued me the most was the situation I witnessed—and Henry did too. Dying and coming back to life shouldn't be something taken as normal, yet it seemed like I was the only one who found it odd, and Henry didn't even seem to care.

"Hey, Henry," I called out, moving closer to him.

When I got nearer, I asked the question that had been nagging at me.

"Who is this boy? Is he someone you know?"

Henry smiled casually, as if I'd asked a trivial question about the weather.

"Are you suspicious of something?"

"It's not that, Henry. I just want to know who I'm walking with." Seriously, the last thing I wanted was to find out we were with some little demon disguised as a child or something.

Henry shrugged, clearly uninterested. He seemed to think my questions were a waste of time, but I was determined to get some useful answer. I continued, shifting the subject slightly to see if I could get any information.

"I met a group of people who said they knew you. They mentioned you warned them about a factory in the north of the city... but where exactly is that? I need to head north because they're going there, and they seem to be in danger."

He finally stopped walking and looked at me.

"The north is... well, to the north," he said, and continued, "And about the boy, he's just someone I found. Don't worry about him."

"Seriously, Henry? 'To the north'? Big help."

He started walking again, nonchalantly, as if nothing strange was happening. I couldn't get out of my head what he had said—or rather, what he hadn't said.

"Damn it."

"Are you ready?" he asked, stopping in the middle of a street with a tram track.

"Does a train pass here?" the boy asked spontaneously, confirming that all children are both dumb and naive at the same time.

I didn't know what drove me crazier—Henry's calmness or the madness of this city. Suddenly, a track in the middle of the street? Not that it was abnormal, but I had walked a lot and hadn't seen this before.

"We're going to take a ride on the tram. It'll take us where we need to go."

"You're kidding, right?" I asked, still trying to process everything. "A tram, here? Now?"

"Yes, a tram. It's kind of a shortcut, you know?"

"A shortcut to where?"

Before he could respond, the boy interrupted.

"Is it safe?"

"Safe enough. So let's go, we don't have all day."

The tram appeared, creaking along the tracks as if it did this every day. We boarded, with Henry in front, followed by the boy, who seemed to be on some sort of magical adventure.

It took me a second to get on, still trying to figure out how a tram worked in this strange city. I eventually climbed aboard too because, honestly, what else could I do? Stand in the cold?

"Well, here goes nothing."

The interior of the tram was peculiar, with decor that seemed from the 1920s mixed with elements of science fiction. It looked like a scene straight out of a bizarre movie.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked, trying to sound casual but probably coming off more desperate than I intended.

Henry leaned back on one of the polished wooden benches, crossing his arms behind his head.

"The plan is simple. We'll go to the end of the line and see what we find."

"You've got to be kidding." Seriously, what kind of plan was that? Even if I had diarrhea and the flu, I could come up with something better.

"Of course I'm kidding. This tram is going to take us far, but we'll get off near the city's cathedral," he said.

I didn't know how confused I was until Henry suddenly said:

"Hey, why don't you introduce yourself already?" At first, I didn't understand, but then I realized Henry was talking to the boy.

"My name's Eric." He looked cautiously at me, as if expecting some kind of reaction.

Outside, I saw the cold wind intensify, fogging up the windows. It reminded me of something.

"And the wind, Henry? I always remember what you said about the wind always blowing towards a place. Don't you think that might be related to the exit?"

"I don't think it's the exit."

"But do you have any idea where it is?"

He let out a slow sigh and replied.

"The exit is where no one imagines, not even me. It could be anywhere, which is why it's so hard to find."

"Then why did you send Laura and the others to that factory in the north?" I asked, remembering what I had heard earlier.

From the beginning, I found it strange why Laura and the others were trying to reach a place in the north of the city, especially since the concepts of north, south, and so on were practically non-existent.

"The fact that the exit is in a place no one imagines makes the vast and imposing areas of the city candidates for having clues that tell us where the exit is. This New World seems to be a dangerous place, but also one of patience," he said.

"But don't you remember anything about the place from the time you managed to get out?"

"Phil… I'm sure you've noticed that food, objects, and other things appear in one place and then magically in another, as if someone is testing us or playing tricks on us,"

He continued.

"It's as if everything here is being manipulated. So, it's impossible to have or impose logic here."

At that moment, the wind grew even stronger and colder. The sound of the tracks creaking was audible, and the tram began to stall. I glanced at Henry and said,

"We're going to freeze to death if we stay here!"

The boy pointed to the windows, as nothing outside was visible. Suddenly, Henry jumped up and ran to a window at the back of the tram that wasn't yet covered in ice.

"Over here, quickly!" he shouted, struggling to open the only window that hadn't fogged up with icy mist.

Eric and I followed him and jumped out the window. I fell onto the frozen tracks, slipping and stumbling, but quickly got up while the boy was already ahead with Henry.

"Oh, wait up!" The cold was bone-chilling, and moving as much as possible helped warm my body just a little.

"Come on! Let's go!" I heard Henry's shout.

And I heard the cursed kid's shout too.

"Hurry up, slowpoke!" HUH? WHERE DID THIS KID GET THAT FROM?

When I finally caught up to them, we ran together as fast as we could, searching for shelter in one of the many dirty alleys of this city.

How was I supposed to know that things would calm down? Seriously... They never seemed calm.