[Special Appearances]
Chris Lai Lok Yi – Chris

------

The sound of thunder followed by a flash of lightning stirred Myolie from her sleep. As she groggily removed her bed covers and sat up to rub her eyes, she could hear the closing of a door coming from outside her bedroom. Slowly, she made way out into the hall and found Sammul's bedroom door opened, the room unoccupied. "Sammul?" She called out as she started a search around the large mansion, "Sammul, where are you?"

"Shh, I'm over here," His whispers came from the sitting area at the end of the hallway, also where the grand staircase was located. "There's something strange going on around here." His eyes darted around the area to make sure no one else was present to hear his story.

A curious Myolie took a seat on one of two armchairs placed against a wall of the area overlooking the entryway below. "Something strange? Like what?"

In order to properly demonstrate, Sammul decided to reenact the scene before her eyes. “Follow me,” He dragged her off the chair and took her downstairs to the kitchen. “I came down for a glass of water earlier, and when I was about to head back up, I saw your brother and Bosco standing there by the staircase.” He pointed upwards to show her, then took her hand and brought her back up to the exact spot. “It looked like they were going to go down, but they never went down. I checked the whole upstairs too, they're not here."

Myolie once again retrieved back to her original spot in the armchair. This time, she had a bag of chips in hand which she managed to snatch from the kitchen counter when Sammul dragged her down earlier. "Are you trying to say they just vanished right in front of your eyes?"

"Well, no. They walked to the deeper end of the room, over there!" Sammul pointed, there was nothing but a wide wooden wall in that direction. "But of course, from the view downstairs, you can only see half of this sitting area."

"And you're positive they didn't go downstairs?" She ripped apart the sealed bag and began munching away, “Maybe they went out through a back door or something."

"Is there a back door upstairs?" Sammul fell back onto the other armchair and twisted his body to face her, taking a few chips from the bag occasionally.

She shook her head and swallowed before speaking, "Not that I know of, but I've been away for 6 years. Maybe Kevin decided to renovate and added one?" She could hardly convince herself, let alone Sammul.

Meanwhile, the doorbell rang furiously, startling the two. Myolie jumped up as the bag of chips tumbled down onto the cream carpet. She exchanged nervous glances with Sammul and bobbed her head in the direction of the front door, gesturing for Sammul to answer it. "It could be them, but why would they go out so late at this hour?"

Forced to walk ahead, Sammul made his way to the front door with Myolie close behind, her hands on his shoulder as though they were making a human train. Without much effort, he unlocked the door and opened it up.

"Bosco, Kevin! Help!" The paleness of his skin gave him a ghostly appearance, frightening the two. Drenched by the rain, Chris leapt inside the mansion and fell to his knees, crawling down the entry way.

"Who... Are you?" Myolie asked in a shaky tone.

It was absurd for Sammul to see Kevin and Bosco coming down the stairs. Just a moment ago, he had searched the whole floor, yet no traces of them could be found. 

"Chris? Are you all right?" Kevin helped the petrified man off the floor and into the living room while Bosco dashed around the kitchen and laundry to make fetch him some hot tea and towels to warm him up. “What happened?”

"He's after me. I'm telling you. He's after me. He-" Chris was breathing more rapidly than usual, concerning everyone present in the room.

Being able to assume the possibilities of what may have triggered Chris' unusual behaviour, Kevin thought it best for Sammul and Myolie to leave the room before he started asking the young man some peculiar questions. "Sis, aren't you tired after a long flight?”

“Nope,” Myolie simply answered with big round eyes, showing just how energetic she still was. “Maybe it's jetlag.”

Rolling his eyes for asking the wrong question, Kevin decided to try again to drive his sister away. “There's a TV room upstairs on the left wing. I bought some new DVD's last week, you want to go check them out with Sammul?"

She pursed her lips together and shook her head, "That's okay, I'll sit here and talk with you and your friend." Despite the circumstances that brought Chris into the mansion, Myolie was far too curious now to leave.

Kevin faked a smile and nodded.  He then turned to fix his gaze on Sammul, a notion for him to take Myolie away.  Surely as a lawyer, he'd be smart enough to catch on...

Seeing Kevin's expression, Sammul easily took the hint and held onto Myolie's hand, "There's a movie that we've always wanted to re-watch. Let's go see if Kevin has it on DVD." He dragged her all the way to the doorway until Myolie finally decided to follow him up on her own will.

Right as they reached the main hall, Bosco, coming back out from the kitchen, unintentionally walked into Myolie. The collision had knocked the cup he held in his hand backward, spilling the freshly steeped tea all over himself. "Urgh, could you hold this for me please?" He held the cup out in front of Myolie.

She paused and turned to look at him for a moment.  For a brief moment, it almost seemed as though she considered taking his orders.  Then again, the corner of rasied to one side.  With a snicker, she rolled her eyes and continued on her way.  "Nice ring," She managed to spot it on his finger while he had his hand out, "It's very feminine, suits you well."

When she finally walked upstairs, Sammul was already waiting for her in the sitting area. "I think they're about to start an important discussion... Uh, sorry, I think I drank too much water, I'll be right back." Sammul noted, red faced as he hurried away to the nearest bathroom.

She giggled as she watched him rush off, then thought back to the sudden reappearance of Kevin and Bosco from the mansion's second floor.  "They were up here the whole time, but Sammul checked the whole floor. Where could they have been hiding?"

Remembering how Sammul mentioned seeing the two guys walk towards the deeper part of the sitting area, she moved towards the wooden wall and spun herself around. Carefully, she observed the area for a hidden door or anything similar. "There's nothing here..." With her back facing the blank wall, she took a few steps backward, attempting to lean against the secure barrier. But the farther she moved, the quicker her steps became until she could no longer control her balance and fell backwards onto her bottom.  "Ouch!" She let out a cry after hitting the ground.  When her pain subsided to allow her other senses to kick in, she was alarmed by her stunning surroundings. "What is this place?" With the push of her hands, she was back up on her feet, her eyes wandering around the newly discovered area of the mansion.

A large, flat TV screen of some sort was firmly attached to the far wall. There were at least 3 computers placed successively across a rainbow shaped table about 10 feet in front of the screen. More electronics and gadgets could be found around the room, and by the opposite wall of where she stood, a large counter was in sight with a scanner set up on it.

What amazed Myolie the most wasn't only the advanced technology and equipment that lay before her eyes, but the size of the room, It was almost like a separate suite in the mansion that she never knew the existence of.  "That looks like a big closet," Her head was facing the direction across from the TV screen. After she approached it, she slid opened the heavy wooden door and gasped loudly at yet another discovery. Only this time, it wasn't as pleasant as the first one. "Hand guns, rifles, wires and... Swords?"

------

"Dude, you hit someone while you pulled out your driveway?" Bosco dropped his jaw and widened his eyes, "Did you kill him?"

That was the least of Chris' worries, "I was really scared. I thought I killed him too. But then I turned around. He was alive. He was mad. He was after me!"

With the same analytical expression he always bore when trying to solve a mystery, Kevin knitted his brows and asked, "Do you know who he is? Have you ever seen him before?  You didn't offend anyone by any chance, did you?"

"No! Never! But, there is something else. I left out a painting. It was supposed to be part of the collection you picked up. I took a look at the painting in the morning. And then I took a look at it at night. And..."

There were times when Kevin found Chris's communication skills highly irritating. As sympathetic as he was of Chris' situation, he always seemed to speak in short dispursed sentences with abrupt pauses every now and then. "What about the painting?"

"The painting changed. It was of a man with a mustache before. Then at night, it turned out to be me. Me, with the word 'murdered' by my face." He ultimately got to the end of his story and asked the two guys for their help and assistance.

Bosco and Kevin exchanged glances.  Their minds were busy interpreting and analyzing every word of Chris' speech, trying hard to come up with a possible conclusion for the eerie happenings.

------

The opened drawer became empty the minute Tavia took out the contents inside. Counting and recounting the money she had, she wasn't sure what kind of excuse she should come up with this month.

A toddler's cry distracted her from her deep and wistful thinking, making her shift her body towards the bed. "Hey sweetie, what's the matter, are you hungry?" She carried Jacky securely in her arms and made way into the kitchen area. Just as she placed her hand on the refrigerator door handle, a loud bang on the door was heard.

Immediately, Jacky's cries intensified.

"Shh, it's okay." Tavia rocked him gently in her arms and tried to soothe him back to calmness. Hesitantly, she answered the door to find her expected visitors standing grumpily outside. “Mr. Yuen, Ms. Yuen..."

"Took you long enough to answer the door," Louis said rudely and pinched the toddler's cheeks. "I pity you little thing, such a useless mother you have."

"Eh, Louis, be nice." Kingdom tried to convince her cousin in a serious tone, "Now Tavia, it's the end of the month. Do you have it?"

Apologetically, she shook her head at looked at Kingdom with pleading eyes.

Kingdom sighed and walked past Tavia to enter the apartment, followed by Louis. "Now, it's not that we don't want to give you another month, but you must understand, it's been 3 months since you last paid your rent. With 3-month's rent due, plus another month, I just don't know how you'll be able to find that much money in time."

"I'll find it, I really will. Please, just give me one more month," Tears formed in her desperate eyes, begging for one more chance.

It was difficult and heartbreaking for her to do it, but Kingdom had no choice. "I'm sorry."

"You're kicking me out?" Jacky's cries grew louder in volume, it was almost as though he could understand what the adults were talking about.

"It's called eviction," Louis spoke out again with the same rude manner, "If you had stayed in school instead of getting yourself pregnant, perhaps you would've learned the word."

"Louis! Go wait in the car, I'll be down in a minute," Kingdom asked, displeased with his attitude. He shot Tavia a despising glare before exiting the room. "I know it's going to be hard on you from now on, so you can forget about the 3 months of rent money that you still owe me. I'll pretend you moved out 3 months ago. However, I'll have to ask you to leave. Immediately."

She rocked Jacky in her arms again, going back into her room to pack the few pairs of clothes she had and tucked the few bills - her whole life's savings - into a backpack. "Come on, Jacky, let's go."

------

"Myolie, I'm back, where are you?" Sammul walked into the sitting area and called out. He almost fell back when she came through the wall, "You just-"

"Shh!" She hushed him, covering his mouth with her hand and pulled him on his arm with her other hand all the way to the last room in the hallway. Once they were inside, she popped her head back out and looked in all directions, making sure that no one was nearby.

He was still stunned by what he saw earlier to respond to her comment.

"Sammul! You won't believe what I found. That wall, you can actually walk through it. And I also found a whole closet full of weapons." She described the sightings to him in a whispering tone, afraid that others might hear her.

"Rifles and even swords? Wow, what do you think they're there for?" Sammul wondered curiously. By now the thought of Myolie walking through a wall had slipped his mind momentarily.

"I think," She brought her hand up to her chin and tapped it, a habit she has when thinking hard. "I think my brother and snob-face are thieves. It's the only explanation for why they need to be armed with such weaponry."

Agreeing with her, he completely understood her point, "Then it's my job to turn them in."

"Wait! Sammul, you're only a lawyer, a lawyer who still hasn't started working yet at your new firm. I also want to look into this myself before the police gets involved. Kevin is my brother after all, maybe I can get him to turn himself in."

The two of them sighed at how complicated things were getting, and to think that this was only their second day back in town after being away from it for 6 long years. Most of all, it wasn't until after a few minutes of silence that they realized whose room they were in...

------