The lingering light was obliterated by the rapidly falling night. The once salmon and purple sky transformed into a vast expense of jet-black that engulfed the town. Eva was making her way to the destination being instructed during the briefing yesterday. She was too engrossed in reading her storybook that she accidentally bumped into someone's shoulder. 

"Ouch!" she cried, softly

"Eva? Hey, you alright? I'm so sorry," Jay apologised and at the same time being a gentleman offering some help to get her up from the hard ground

"You must be on the way there as well," Eva guessed

"Yea. It's good that we bumped into each other. At least a girl like you wouldn't have to wander around alone especially on a peaceful night like this," he assured in a relief tone

"Umm..shall we?" Eva suggested

"Of course,"

They were walking when out of a sudden, Eva noticed a huge husky dog eyeing them from afar. Being terrified of dogs ever since at a very young age, Eva froze in fear. Jay was curious the moment he witnessed her went speechless with fright as a wave of fear gripped her entire self.

"Eva? What's wrong?" he wondered

The sound of the ferocious growl finally caught Jay's attention. 

"GGGRRRRR~~GGRRRR~~~"

*WOOF, WOOF, WOOF*

Jay was flabbergasted by that loud bark as he immediately grabbed hold onto Eva's hand by intertwining his fingers with hers ensuring that it was tightly secure enough for them to not let go. Eva was already on a stand by mode to run, predicting that it was the only solution and knowing the fact that the dog was getting nearer.

"Do you trust me?" Jay asked

"What?"

"Do you trust me?" he asked again

"Y..es..," she answered

"Then don't move a muscle," Jay instructed and quickly pull her to him, using his body as a sheild to protect the dog from attacking her

Sensing that the dog was inches close, both of them closed their eyes as frightening thoughts were flooded through their minds. They stood there for a few seconds but they realised the barking had stopped and nothing severe had happened to them. Still in an embrace position, they found out that the dog was after a group of rats located somewhere near the drain behind them.

They heaved a sigh of relief and  had their eyes locked onto each others.

"You alright?" Jay questioned

"Y..yes, thank you. We should get going cause we're almost late," Eva suggested and awkwardly move away from him

For some reason, Eva felt blessed that he was the first person who was so protective towards her but by trying not to have high espectations she treated it like it was a normal thing to safe people from danger. She wanted to stick to the fact that setting high hopes would not do her any good at all.

***

IN THE VAN, ON THE WAY TO THE MANSION

Eva was busy ransacing her bag once she realised that her story book had went missing. She tried to remember where she placed it but fail to do so and it was nowhere to be found in her bag either. She give up after the next few minutes of thorough search and let out an annoyance sigh when she overheard the conversation about the mansion history being told by Simon.

"It was being told that the mansion was once owned by a wealthy family a few years ago. However, rumors said that because of an affair that the husband had made with some women out there, his wife went berserk and was out of control. She wasn't in the right mind and accidentally stabbed her husband in the heart and venge out her anger on her children by beating them continuously until one of them were unconscious. The other one was lucky that he managed to run away and up till today he was nowhere to be found,"

"What happened to the mum then?" asked Chaerin

"Let me guess, she killed herself upon realising what she just did?" Monster guessed

"Smart guess. You must have watched too many ghost movies," Simon complimented

"So till today the mansion was remained abandoned and those who tried to demolished it will end up being demolished by the spirits living in there instead," Simon added 

"Damn, now I regret signing up for this," Suga sighed

"Too bad, there is no turning back. But ayy, you could make some business deal with the spirits in there ya know? I bet they would want to trade with you your calculator brain. Hahahaha," Zic teased

Jay felt restless upon hearing those creepy stuffs but tend to calm down when he laid eyes on Eva. His eyes were guarding her who was sitting at the back row of th van as he remebered the rescue incident earlier. Only God knows how his heart was overwhelmed with happiness upon getting to be in that comfortable embrace position which made him crave for more. 

Their conversations got Eva so curious and the urged to research more about this family case was so overwhelming. Using her psychology knowledge, she immediately her mobile data and search for all the information including about the family history when suddenly, Jay ploppled beside her.

"Woah, psychologist Eva doing some investigation eh?" Jay said in a cheerful tone 

"I just find this family background interesting though. See this, the little boy in every family picture has his face being covered with a mask or a cloth that robbers usually wears. Weird don't you think so?" Eva questioned as Jay took her phone from her grip and lock it

"Don't waste time on this alright? We are here for the cash, not to do some investigating job. Hahaha. Rich people are always like that. They cover their kid's face for protection because they don't want them to be hostage to bad guys because usually if they want their kid back they will have to give a load of cash to the bad guys," Jay explained, fidgeting with her gold IPhone 

"You seem to know a lot about this kind of thing eh?" Eva commented feeling curious about Jay's action

"Watched to many movies I guess? Hah. Wake me up when we reach will you? Thank you," Jay requested and immediately lay his head on her shoulder

Eva was spellbound by Jay's sudden action causing her awkwardness to be exposed. She felt strange as never once in her life someone have been this close or clingy to her in a very pampered way. Thinking back about the way he pulled her towards him like as if he meant that he really wanted to secure her caused her lips to curve into a small smile.

However, Eva was curious about Jay's reply to her opinion about the family. He seemed to avoid talking more about it and when they were having a conversation about the mansion, he seemed to be so quiet from what Sya observed when she steal some glances once in a while just now. In addition, just by stating his reason about hiding the little boy's identity, it some sort shows that he knows this family so well.

Suddenly, she remembered something during their introduction during their discussion yesterday...

"Apart from that, I'm here for....someone else..."

 The thought of it creeps the crap out of her. 

"Could it be...," her heart wondered as her eyes studied his complexion

"Nah, I must be thinking too much," was what her mind told her, because to her, his decent complexion and generosity in saving her from the dog was way beyond different than a murderers' characteristic

She just have to be wary and kept a look out at all times from now.