8.

Fire. It was hard to believe the thing I strove for moments ago was now directly in front of me; the thought as mesmerising as the flames that danced up towards the stone chimney, disappearing at the tips behind it.

The same could be said for the warmth I was now wrapped in. What I imagined would be leaves to keep me from the harsh drops in temperature for the night was now a poncho, draped around me like a blanket. The floor of the woodlands was now replaced by a soft leather chair; my form sinking into it so comfortably, it enticed sleep. Sleep, however, was far from what I would allow myself.

Not with a tall, blonde man whose face I'd never seen before staring at me from across the foreign room. It was discomforting, to say the least. And I was only a fraction grateful for the voice that chimed in next, effectively tearing the stranger's attention away from me.

'Jaehyun!' the other man who greeted me in the foyer earlier called from the home's deep confines. 'Would our guest like some tea?'

The blonde – now named Jaehyun – turned to look at me, as if him relaying the question startled him out of the trance he was in moments ago.

'Something to drink?'

'No,' I said a little too quickly, adding quietly shortly after, 'thank you.'

'To eat?' the voice from afar asked next.

'No, please,' I didn't mean for my voice to come out as a whisper, but it was a nervous, unsettled reaction, no doubt.

'Thank you, but no.'

An awkward silence ensued where I found myself squirming again under the stranger's scrutiny. Did I have something on my face? Was there something I said? Unknowingly did? These questions were relentless ever since I'd settled in the living room.

The nightmarish possibility of being found and interrogated by the men I'd heard earlier in the forest was one that remained just that: a nightmarish possibility. What I thought was being caught by them for eavesdropping was in fact not what transpired. The person who had found me knew nothing of the incident. Or at least he mentioned nothing of it, looking too startled to me to have known anything of it.

I knew I couldn't drop my guard. But when the string of concerns spilled from his lips in shocked whispers and he beckoned me forward, how weak my arms and legs were was a new, alarming discovery that made me follow him. And the moment he led me meters away into a clearing where a large farmhouse came into view, I knew precisely where I was: there was no doubt in my mind this was the ranch Detective Nakamoto spoke of. The place I was discovered near after the attack.

By the time we arrived, my conscience returned to me in slivers. This was no place to be, no place to allow myself to be led to. For all I knew, the man who found me had the potential of being the perpetrator, despite my convictions of it being anything but human. The possibility, however, was still a frightening concern for the present.

They were, after all, strangers. Capable of doing all sorts of things to me. I had an equal chance surviving with them than I did surviving in the wilderness at this point. I was more than conscious of this... and yet the moment we set foot on the property and the front door opened in the distance, there was something so terribly compelling about the man who appeared that such concerns left me.

He was beyond what I expected of hospitable. He ushered me in – still careful of his proximity upon doing so – and ordered the one who led me in to get the fire going, offering me the corner chair and a blanket to boot.

Much like the one who found me; Jaehyun; he spoke little if not at all. He had settled me in the chair, spared me a terribly concerned look I had no idea a stranger was even capable of, and after sharing a stare with the blonde I couldn't decipher, he disappeared into the depths of the house.

Maybe Jaehyun had a thing for staring. Because even as we sat in silence after the first real conversation we just shared, I felt his eyes on me, feeling as unsettled as I usually did in the detective's company. I squirmed in my seat, uncertain whether or not he took notice of my discomfort. But before the air could become any thicker than it already was, the sound of the front door rattling open and muffled voices dispelled it.

What was going on? Were they expecting someone? The thought of more than two people living here panicked me. As expected, it was a risky move to have so comfortably accepted their offer to help. I shifted, prepared to jump out of my seat at any second now and Jaehyun – to my surprise – seemed to notice; his hands moving from side to side as if to settle my growing panic.

'It's OK,' he said lowly. 'They live here.'

I had a good view of the foyer from my chair and stared dead ahead at the pair that had walked in. If I imagined Jaehyun was tall, I was gravely mistaken, because one of the two that entered probably towered a few inches over him, even going so far as to ducking his head as he passed by under a doorframe. I couldn't help but tense as they spoke; their voices unexpectedly loud and boisterous.

'For the last time, it was almond milk, Ten.'

'Shut up!' another one shouted. 'You know I'm lactose intolerant. That could have ended so badly. Imagine if I wound up in the bathroom for hours.'

'Not like it hasn't happened before.'

'What did you just...!'

The chatter came to a complete halt the moment the two laid eyes on me. I gulped; the sound deafening in the silence beside the crack