[CONTENTID1]Choice: Find the man.[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]Haera figured that she should at least thank the man first for guiding her to shelter. It was the least she could do considering that the man might have saved her from getting sick, or worse, getting hurt by something — or someone — in that forest.

Remembering that the man disappeared into the hallway by the right side of the staircase, Haera started walking towards that direction. She passed by a double door and stopped to take a peek inside. 

“Is this a drawing room for guests?” She surmised when she scanned the room. 

From her view of where she stood, there was a large beige-colored couch with two of the same colored chairs facing it separated by a long glass table. There was a baby grand piano with a little lamp on top of it that blocked the window at the opposite end of the entrance. 

“Wow, these guys aren’t holding back on the interior designs.”

Moving along, she entered an arched doorway and looked both ways. The wall was glazed with the same marbled designs except the linings were bronze in color. The top and bottom edges of the pillars were coated with bronze along with the swirls of designs that contoured the walls. The little light fixtures which came in twos that were screwed onto the top section of the walls brightly lit the path. 

Haera looked to her left and noticed that the passageway was longer than the one on her right. Her gut feeling urged her to search the right side first for the man who led her to the castle.

“Okay,” she took a deep breath. “Let’s see if my instincts are right.”

As she continued her way down the path, she noticed that the lights grew dimmer the deeper she went. So far, there wasn’t any sign of life, or any other thing for that matter. There were no pictures on the walls unlike she’d imagined after watching movies with old houses similar to this one. There were no tables with inconspicuous ornaments or displays either. The only thing was that the place was definitely eerie.

“Is it just me, or is it getting colder?” Haera crossed her arms across her chest and began rubbing her upper arms. 

Aside from the fact that she was a bit dry now from the rain thanks to the warmth she received by the entrance, it felt like she was reliving the experience outside minus the overflowing barrage of droplets on her exposed skin.

“D-Didn’t they say that cold places are known for paranormal happenings?” 

Her mind started to doubt if she took the right turn. She wasn’t even fifty percent sure that the man went this way. Haera looked back to see that the hallway was dim. For a moment, she thought of going back to walk down the other side of the hallway. That is, until a sound from behind scared the living daylights out of her.

“What the heck was that?!” She turned around and almost screeched out loud. She felt her heart pound, a feeling of adrenaline coursing through her. 

Haera hastened and took out both her pepper spray and pocket knife. She held out her left arm and positioned the spray’s nozzle directly towards the front. Her right hand sat on top of her left wrist and tightly held the knife in place.

The startling sound was now replaced with slow and careful footsteps. Whoever it belonged to stopped by the shadows, just past the last working light bulbs. A pair of piercing green eyes eventually revealed themselves to Haera, making her audibly gulp as a nervous bead of sweat trickled down to her neck.

‘That’s the guy alright,’ she thought to herself.

As much as she wanted to thank the man for saving her, she still had the basic human instinct to protect herself and be wary of strangers.

“I have pepper spray and I’m not afraid to use it,” she tried to make a firm stance with both her posture and words.

“People usually associate vampires with garlic,” the green-eyed man didn't even blink, “but either way, I don’t think this pepper spray of yours will work on me.”

“What?” She looked at him incredulously. “Have you never heard of pepper spray? It affects everybody.”

“Oh, I know how pepper spray works, love,” the man smirked. He then took a few steps forward and stood a few feet away from Haera. “I'm just saying that it won't work on me because you won't even get the chance to press the trigger or direct it to where you intend to target.”

After a long drawn night, Haera was finally able to see the man clearly. His light brown hair looked much more pristine than the one she saw earlier, although his hair before didn't look too damaged from the rain. His vampire costume was just as dry as Haera's outfit yet his shoes looked like they were newly polished. Unlike before, she could now make up his facial features and noticed that he looked sharp and had two scars that were a few inches apart right under his left eye. 

“Who are you?” She asked, still on guard. “And what is this place?”

“My name is Changkyun,” he did a curt bow with a hand placed lightly on his chest. “And you are standing in the halls of MX Castle.”

“Why did you lead me here?”

“Shouldn’t you say thank you first?” He raised an eyebrow. “You know, if I was a bad guy, something would have happened to you by now.”

“Not if this was one of your tactics before you kill someone,” she countered. 

“Good point,” Changkyun hummed. His right hand dramatically twirled in the air as if he was shooing something away. “Some movies do turn out that way. Anyway,” he sighed, his deep voice dragging his words. “I led you here to keep you dry from the rain. Pardon my decision, but we were closer to the castle than to where you humans were camped out so I decided to head here instead.”

Haera took a moment before she slowly nodded. “Thank you for saving me.”

“If you meant what you just said,” he motioned to the pocket knife she held above the pepper spray. “Would you mind turning that away? Wouldn’t want to harm anyone now, do we?” He crossed his arms. “Also, who might you be?”

“Oh, right. Sorry,” she did as told and returned the two objects into her pockets. “These were just a precaution, you know? And my name is Park Haera.”

“Hmm, if I may ask, why did you come to this part of the castle? I would have guessed you would have stayed by the entrance until the rain died down.”

“That was my initial plan but I honestly wanted to thank you — that is, if you weren’t a murderer — for leading me to shelter. And,” she shrugged, “I was bored so might as well tour the place.”

“Humans and their curiosities,” Changkyun laughed as he shook his head. 

“Um, by the way,” Haera’s body shivered as a cold drift touched her skin. “Why is it so cold here?”

“The end of this hall leads to a cold storage where we keep the bodies,” he pointed to the back and nonchalantly replied. “We vampires need human blood to survive.”

Her eyes widened when she noticed he didn’t look like he was lying. “Oh my—”

“Stop scaring our guest, you idiot,” a monotonous voice said from behind her.

Haera whipped her neck back so fast, she thought she broke it. She must have been too shocked about what Changkyun told her that she didn’t hear the man joining them behind her. 

There, standing five feet from her, was another man in a vampire costume. Except this one had a simple choker around his neck and had his black hair combed and pushed back. Aside from the distinct silver eyes, he was also taller in stature than the man she just met.

“Hyungwon, what are you doing here?” Changkyun spoke up.

“Could say the same thing to you, kid. Did you fix the air system in this hallway yet? It’s still just as cold as before.”

“I just finished and was on my way out when Miss Park Haera appeared before me.” He elaborated more when Hyungwon didn’t seem satisfied with his answer. “I fixed it, okay? It’ll take some time for it to go back to normal.”

“Snarky as ever,” Hyungwon rolled his eyes. After he was pleased with the news, he turned around and walked away. “Oh, and please fix these li