“Can we go back to your mansion if the human officers can’t see us anymore?” I asked.

“Don’t you want to live here?” Lay asked me, not answering my question.

“I would love to but then I feel like a burden wherever I am.”

“You’re not, they all treat me like family and they will do the same to you too,” Lay assured me, “I need to go back to the mansion because I want to grab a few books and that self-writing book as well.”

“Would it be safe?”

“I’ll ask the others when they come up.”

As soon as he finished his sentence, footsteps were heard plundering up the stairs.

“Lay, Raine!” Sehun shouted, “Try my new recipe!”

We both stood up and saw Sehun came in with a slice of cake in his hand. He had flour covering his face and his apron but he had a large smile on his face.

“Try it!” he said happily, “I just finished decorating and brought a slice for you to try before it goes on sale.”

I took a fork and scooped up a mouthful. The soft sponge melted in my mouth and the cream and strawberry lingered for longer leaving a sweet vanilla taste in my mouth after I have swallowed everything.

“How does it taste?” Sehun asked eagerly, “And be honest as well.”

“It tastes amazing!” I praised, “The best cake I’ve ever tasted!”

“Really?”

“No lie!” I said, though the last time I ate a cake was probably on my seventh birthday.

“Thanks so much, Raine!” Sehun said, “Here, have the rest!”

He handed me the plate and jogged out of the room again.

“Hey, Sehun!” Lay shouted after him, “Can we go back to the mansion to get something?”

“Better to go at night because then, the officers won’t be around,” Sehun replied.

“Okay, thanks!”

I was still eating the cake when Lay told me what Sehun told him.

“Okay,” I simply replied, mumbling through a mouthful of cake.

“Hey, I want some!” Lay said, digging his fork in and chewing.

After finishing the cake, I went upstairs to have a nap. Two hours later, Lay woke me up and said that we can go back to the mansion and pick up the books. I slipped my shoes on and we both quietly snuck out without waking the others up. It was one o’clock at night and everyone and everything was asleep.

“Be careful,” Lay whispered as he closed the door.

It was so dark outside on the streets. There were no lights on whatsoever and I held my hand in front of me helplessly, hoping not to bump into a post. Then I screamed when I felt something.

“It’s only me,” Lay said, grabbing my hand and leading me down the alleyway again which led to his mansion.

This was déjà vu; the first night I spent at the village was like this but only without my suitcase.

“Can I get my suitcase as well?” I pleaded.

“Of course,” Lay replied.

The alleyway seemed to be longer than last time. All of a sudden, one of the gutter pipes swung down and hit my on the back. I fell forward into Lay.

“Are you okay?”

“The pipe hit my back,” I said, the pain swimming around slowly.

Suddenly, four figures fell from above and landed, two behind us and two in front, caging us between the walls.

“And who do we have here?” one of their voice sneered.

I couldn’t see their face because it was covered up, but I guessed they were ghosts as well because they glowed.

“Died not that long ago!” another voice sniggered.

Lay gently pushed me behind him, protecting me. Slowly, they closed up the gap, two of them attacked Lay, punching him in the stomach, but Lay swung his arm and smacked one of their head whilst his leg kicked another in the shin as someone fell and landed near my foot.

“Get off me!” I shouted, when someone grabbed my arm.

I bit it and slapped whoever it was in front of me. Fighting in the dark was very hard. Those guys probably have night vision goggles on because I could hear Lay crying out in pain like they have made a direct hit. I felt a figure near me and reach upwards and smack him across the face. I was happy at the aim and realised that they did have something over their eyes. I reached up again and grabbed it, pulling it off his face; the elastic snapped back and pinged me on the knuckles. I quickly put it on and everything was bright again. Seeing Lay being attacked by three other guys, I hurriedly grabbed a pole nearby and swung it at their legs. They didn’t see me coming so they all collapsed and I hit them a few more times, before getting hold of Lay’s hand and ran down the remainder of the alleyway.

The fountain was soon in view; I pulled the goggles off my face and ran up to the door. Lay opened it and fell in.

“Are you okay?” I asked, worried.

 Now that we were in light, he had blood running down his mouth.

“Who the hell were they?” I said angrily, “Let me find a wet cloth.”

“It’s dangerous here at night, in case you have forgotten, I’m fine, just going to get loads of bruises,” he said.

Then he got up and leaned on me for support. We walked upstairs towards the study to collect the books. But a nearby door creaked open.

“Lay, is that you?” the spooky voice said, “Are you back?”

I turned my head around to the voice behind us and let out a blood-draining scream when I saw what was in front of me.

“Miss Raine?” the old man recognised me and slipped out a hand towards me, “You came back for me.”

“Aaa!” I screamed and slapped the hand away.

The carpet was already soaking wet with blood from their eye sockets and then the other doors started opening. Like before, more ghouls appeared with their arms outstretched.

“Get away from her, you’re scaring her,” Lay said.

The old man’s voice suddenly changed into a mean, nasty growl. In a blink of an eye, he had turned into a beast. His eyes bright yellow with a red iris in the centre, brown mucky fur covering every part of him and his mouth gaped open, revealing a set of yellow fangs.

“Aaa!”

“You don’t tell me what to do in that tone!” the beast roared and charged towards us.

All the other ghouls have transformed too. Beasts with different colour, glowing eyes, their features showed signs of hunger, hatred and desperation. I pulled Lay back and ran down the hallway.

“What the hell are they?” I shouted, a little out of breath.  

Both of us were too busy running so he couldn’t reply. Suddenly, one of the beasts had caught up and ripped half my jeans from the back. I quickly stepped forward, I can feel it's claws penetrating through my flesh. The pain was excruciating, blood instantly trickling down my leg and soaked into my socks.

Eventually, we reached the study door and I twisted the knob and pushed Lay in and closed it again. The banging outside ultimately stopped and I let out a big sigh and slid down the door, panting.

“Lay, are you okay?”

I clambered over to him and he was lying on his back, completely out of breath. At least the beasts didn’t claw away any of his clothes. My leg was still bleeding. Though we’re ghosts, we still live like humans but just invisible, so I still bleed and my heart pumped blood around my body but just without a heartbeat.

I got up and turned the light on. The chair behind the desk started to swung around. Another figure on the sofa got up and I started to scream again.