isn't it strange? l00king at y0ur st0ry list and seeing y0u haven't updated certain things in a wh0le year? exactly a year? i figured i sh0uld pr0bably update these, s0 here's a sh0rt chapter f0r y0u.

Howard and Nomi found themselves sneaking out of the school after the book-now-human decided on their first course of action. Nomi had said he'd go alone, but Howard was stubborn and insisted upon accompanying him because "Randy's his bro."

So, the two kept to the shadows and avoided the security cameras (which Howard always wondered if they were even real cameras and not those fake ones) as they left the school. Where were they headed? – Randy's house, of course. They turned corner after corner, stealthily moved down street after street, and finally reached the building that was their destination. The place had always been inviting and warm, but today it loomed before them, cold and unwelcoming.

Nomi approached the door and turned the knob, but Howard piped up behind him, "You're just going to walk in?"

"Why not? I live here." Nomi replied dryly. Technically it was true. Ever since Randy had become the ninja this became the Nomicon's place of residence, but he'd always been a book and had never been in the house as a person.

Howard frowned at the statement but followed him inside. All the lights were off and the cloud-cover outside made it seem darker. There were no games scattered about, or electronics left on. It felt empty, foreboding, and lonely, like nobody lived there. It actually made Howard uncomfortable.

They began heading up the stairs to the second floor. When they got to the top of the stairs though Nomi quickly shoved Howard up against the wall and looked around the corner down the hall.

"What the-" Howard began angrily, but Nomi shushed him and whispered.

"Quiet. Do you hear that?"

Howard scrunched up his nose in confusion but then he heard what the book had been talking about. The was a faint sobbing sound coming from down the hall. It was soft and barely audible. You could tell that whoever was making the sound had been crying for a while.

The two crept down the hall and quietly peeked into the room the sobbing was coming from. A woman sat on the edge of the bed in the center of the room. Her hair was a mess, hanging in long tangled strands, her clothes were rumpled, and her eyes were puffy from both staying up all night and crying. It was dark in the room. The lights were off and the curtains were closed, but Nomi could still see that she was holding a framed photograph in her hands. Though the glass was smeared with tears it was clear that the photo was of the woman and a purple-haired teen in a blue hoodie.

The Ninja saw two boys leaving the school building from his perch in a tree across the street. One he recognized as the boy who had found him on the roof earlier. The other was oddly dressed, not like other kids at the school, but more like… like… like him.

'Is he like me? Could he know what's going on?' Ninja wondered.

'Well, I'm not going to find out anything sitting around here'. He decided. Ninja swiftly got to his feet and began tailing the two. He kept a respectful distance away so as not to alert them to his presence and stuck to the shadows to keep out of sight.

The roads and streets he followed them down seemed familiar, but he had no idea why. As far as he knew he'd never been down this way before. He saw them stop at a house and he ducked behind a fence. As the two strangers entered he stepped out and gazed at the building. He felt like he knew this place somehow, like he'd been here many times.

Ninja found himself moving closer to the house, compelled to enter, but he stopped himself. It's not like he could just walk in the front door. No, he'd need to find another way in. Ninja circled the house and looked up and down it until his eyes settled on a window he felt belonged to a room he should know very well. Making his way to the window, he quietly slid it open and slipped through into the room.

The lights were off but he could see a bed with a ladder, a circular table, a TV, along with many other things. He walked around the room, running his hand over the objects, feeling a certain connection to them he couldn't place. Sitting down on the desk under the bed he took in the room as a whole and thought, 'What is this place…?'