"We're here!"

Xiu stopped the car in front of the resort. Sam looked outside the window, and looked at the sign on the entrance. "Xue Fu, are you here?" he thought. Then, he let out a sigh. Since they both broke the engagement, they had not talked for a long time. And somehow, he kind of missed his childhood friend. Xue Fu is the only person that reminds him of Brent. 

"I'm so excited!" Marcus said. "I wonder if there's a lot of pretty girls inside." Ian asked. "But my eyes are on one pretty girl." Riley said, eyeing his boss. Jenni just rolled her eyes at the younger guy. Jenni clapped her hands to get their attention. "OK, everyone. Let's get inside now." Jenni told them. 

Everyone got out of the van, and proceeded to check in at the counter. "Hello, welcome to Sea Stars." the girl by the front desk said. As Sam looked at the front desk, he saw a familiar figure. 

"Xue Fu?" he called. The girl looked at him, and smile. "Oh, hello, Sam. Long time, no see." Xue Fu said. Everyone looked at Sam curiously. He let out a smile at his colleagues. "She's my childhood friend." he explained. "Aahhhh..." everyone said. The two just smiled at each other, making Pets a little suspicious about them. "Who is this girl, and what is she in this ert's life?" she thought. 

--

"Time to make to write the new chapter!"

Grace said to herself. She put on her glasses, and began to type. As she is writing her new update to her web novel, she was eating the food she bought from the street market. As she is typing and eating at the same, the lights suddenly went off. As she was about to save her work, her laptop shut down. "Oh no!" she exclaimed. Then, she realized, she was running on batteries and didn't plug in her laptop to charge. 

Meanwhile,  Aaron, Wayne and Ben went out of their rooms and to the living room after the lights went out. "What happened?" Wayne asked. "Did you pay the electric bill, Xiao Le?" Aaron asked. "Of course, I did!" Ben said. Wayne went to look outside the window, and saw everything is pitch black. "It's not only us who had no electricity..." Wayne said. 

Aaron and Ben joined him, and saw the same thing. "Why is there no lights?!" they heard Grace say. The three looked at him. "Xiao Xing?" Wayne called her. "Wayne? Where are you? I can't see anything." Grace asked. 

She walked in the dark, trying to find them. Then, she felt an arm, and clung to it. "Wayne, I can't see anything..." she said. "I'm here." Wayne told her. Grace held tight to that arm she was holding her. "Why is there a black out?" she asked. "I don't know too..." Wayne said. 

Wayne and Aaron looked at each other. "Wayne, don't leave me, OK? I'm scared of the dark." Grace said. "Don't worry, I won't leave you." Wayne said.  Wayne could only scratch his head. While Grace is talking to him, it's Aaron's arm that she's clinging to. "This girl is as blind as a bat in the dark." he thought. 

"Wayne, let's get some candles so we can have some light." Ben suggested. "Ah, Wayne, don't leave me!" Grace said. Wayne looked at Aaron, and Aaron just nodded his head. "I won't leave you." Wayne said. Then, he slowly moved away from Grace so he and Ben could get the candles. 

Aaron looked at Grace, and she just hugged his arm. He couldn't help but smile at her. "Silly girl... so you're scared of the dark. And you seem to have night blindness..." he thought. Shortly,  Wayne and Ben came back to the living room with the candles. 

"OK, we'll light the candles now." he said as he placed the candles on the coffee table. As he and Wayne lit them up, Grace saw Wayne. She was confused as she knew she is hugging Wayne's arm. "Why are you there?" she asked him.  Wayne let out a laugh, and then pointed at Aaron. Grace slowly looked up, and saw Aaron suppressing his laughter. It was him who she was hugging the whole time.

Grace immediately let him go. Good thing it was still quite dark, that they didn't notice the pink tint on her cheeks. This time, the boys just laughed. "What's so funny?" she pouted at them. "I think it's funny that you thought you're holding Wayne, but you're actually clinging on to Aaron." Ben pointed out. 

Aaron looked at Grace, and he could see how embarrassed she is. "Hey, it's all right. Who told you to call Wayne's name and cling on me?" he told her. "Who told you to be silent and say nothing? You should have said anything since my sight is not that good when there's a black out." Grace retaliated. Ben and Wayne just laughed at them. "Look at you two. You look like a couple having a lovers' quarrel." Ben teased them. This made Grace pout even more. 

--

"I didn't know you would be with that group today..." Xue Fu told Sam as they were strolling along the sea shore. "I didn't expect you to be here." Sam told her. Xue Fu let out a smile. "Of course I need to be here. You know that I'm handling this new business." she told him. 

Xue Fu let out a sigh, as they stopped walking. Both of them looked at the horizon. "Sea Stars... why that name?" Sam asked her. Xue Fu let out a sad smile. "Because of Brent..." Xue Fu said. Sam paused, and looked at her. "Brent loves the sea, remember? If he isn't sick, he would always be by the sea." she explained. "I know that part. And the stars?" Sam asked. "Brent said in his letter, if he's gone, he'll be the brightest star shining down on me." she said. Then, she looked at Sam, and smiled. "So, I named this resort in honor of him." she said. Sam smiled at her. "That's very clever of you." he told her. 

She let out another sigh as she looked at the sea. "Our dads are still stubborn, still hoping we could still continue with the engagement." Xue Fu said. Sam nodded his head. "But don't worry, my father already disowned me, so I don't think they would pester us with that." Sam said. 

"Sometimes, I wonder if we should continue with it..." Xue Fu said in a low voice. Sam looked back at her. "What do you mean?" he asked. Xue Fu looked at him, and smiled sadly. "Brent said in his letter..." she said. "... that maybe I should give you a chance when he's gone..." 

--

Ben placed the flashlight below his face as he tell the three a scary story. "Then, she slowly opened the door. There was no one outside..." he said in a scary voice. As he tells his story, Grace held on tight to Aaron's arm. 

"But as she looked back, there was the ghost behind her all this time!" Ben said. This time, Grace buried her head on his arms. "T-t-t-t-t-then, what happened next?" Wayne asked, obviously getting scared of the story. "And then..." Ben said. Aaron and Wayne moved closer to listen. "And then..." Ben said. Again, Wayne and Aaron  moved closer to him again. "And then the ghost was just an illusion, and she opened the lights and it was gone." Ben said. 

And angry tick formed in their heads at how Ben concluded his story. "Xiao Le, we're supposed to tell scary stories!" Wayne told him. Grace sat up, and looked at the three. "Hey, why is it when it's dark, we have to tell scary stories? Why can't we tell other kind of stories. Not the scary ones!" she told him. "Because it's fun!" Ben said. 

Grace let out a sigh. "All right. My turn to tell a scary story." she said. Ben handed her the flashlight, and she put it on her face. "This is called, the murderer at the haunted mansion." she said in a low and scary voice. 

The three moved closer, and listened to her. "A group of friends went to a haunted mansion to ghost hunt. However, a psycho killer was on the loose, and made the mansion his sanctuary. The friends went to every room to find a ghost, but one of them disturbed the killer." 

As this point, the three boys were getting scared. "When one of them got into the room he was in, the killer did not hesitate to kill him, as he knew if he was found out, he will go back to the asylum. After he killed one of the friends, he roamed the mansion to find the others. Killing one of the friends made him hungry to kill more. And so, he went to haunt all of them to kill. 

He found one of the girl alone by the bathroom. He immediately caught her, and tortured her first by punching her and piercing her body. Then, he slowly killed her by decapitating her. As he haunt for other friends, he dragged her head around. One of the friends saw the killer, and warned  the others. The other friends thought he was just joking, so they ignored him. But then, they all saw the psycho killer with the head of their dead friend. Everyone scrambled to get out of the mansion, but it was too late. The killer locked the whole mansion so no one could escape." 

Wayne and Ben were hugging as they were listening to Grace's story. Aaron, on the other hand, hugged Grace. "T-t-t-t-then? What happened? Did all of them got killed?" Wayne asked. Grace let out an evil smile. "One of them had a phone so they were able to call the police for help." she said. Everyone sweat dropped at her. Grace just let out an awkward smile. "I don't know how to tell a scary story." she explained. 

"That almost got us..." Ben said as he scratched his head. "But it sure is quite scary. Except for the ending." Wayne said. Aaron nodded in agreement. Ben looked at Aaron, who is still hugging Grace. "Aaron, you're still hugging Grace..." he pointed out. Aaron looked at Grace, and then looked down at his arms. True enough, he's still hugging her. He let go of her as he laughed awkwardly. "I got carried away. Sorry." he said as he scratched his head. 

--

The electricity came back an hour later. The first thing Grace did is check if her work was saved. Unfortunately, it didn't. "Oh no... my work!" she said. She stared at the blank wall. She worked hard on that scene, and it was gone in an instant. "What should I do now?" she asked as she slumped her shoulders. 

She had no energy to type another scene. She can't even sleep as Pets is gone for the weekend. She decided to go out of the room to clear her mind.  

She went to the living room, and sat on the couch for a while. A few minutes later, Aaron came out of his room, and went to the living room. "Xiao Xing, why are you here?" he asked. He heard her let out a sigh. "I can't sleep because Xiao Yue isn't here..." she said. 

Aaron remembered that Grace is having a hard time sleeping alone. He heard her let out a yawn. He knows she's sleepy, but doesn't want to be alone in her room. He walked up to her. "Hey, are you all right? You might fall asleep here." he said. Grace nodded her head. "I'm going to be OK. I still can't sleep even if Spongebob is with me..." Grace said with a pout. 

Then, he made a decision. He can't let Grace be alone in the living room. "Do you trust me?" he asked. Grace gave him a confused look. "Of course, I do." she said. "Come with me." Aaron said. He held her hand, and lead her to his room. 

Grace's eyes widened as they entered his room. "Aaron..." she said. She covered her chest as she called him. The kiss they had was still fresh in her memory, and she doesn't know what Aaron had in his mind. 

"Hey, don't worry. We're not going to do anything. You sleep on the bed, then I'll sleep on the floor." Aaron said. He took pillow, and was ready to make a bed on the floor. "You don't have to do that. I can go back to my room." Grace said. 

As she turned to leave, Aaron stopped her by holding her hand. "You can't sleep without Xiao Yue, right? Then, sleep beside me." he said. Grace looked back at him. He knew his intention is good and sincere. She let out a sigh, and smile at him. "All right. You don't have to sleep on the floor. Just make a division on the bed for the two of us." she said. Aaron smiled and nodded her head. 

The two of them laid on the bed with a long pillow in between them. They also kept the door open so no one would suspect they are doing something bad inside the room. "Good night, Xiao Xing." Aaron said. "Good night, Aaron...." Grace said as she yawned. 

While Grace fell asleep in an instant, Aaron can't sleep. He felt his heart beat fast having Grace beside him. "Why am I always feeling this way when I'm with Grace?" he asked himself in his thoughts. He looked at Grace, and saw her already asleep. He stared at her for a long time, and found himself smiling. 

He saw Grace shift to her side, facing him. He shifted to face her as well, and stared at her sleeping face. "Actually, you're just as pretty as your twin. Well of course, you two are twins so you two look alike. But... I never thought you would be this prettier up close..." he thought. He lifted his finger, and touched her nose. He let out a silent laugh as she mumbled something while asleep. 

He stared at her for a long time. That is until he fell asleep facing her.