I thought for sure that the cultists were rummaging the place for evacuation. But I definitely didn't expect them to be lounging on the sofa, watching a movie.

  "So we're just going to ignore the fire," I said.

  "Relax," Rustia said, sitting in the middle of the couch. He didn't even bother looking at me. "It could be a false alarm. Wouldn't be the first time."

  "Okay," Cana said. "But am I the only one who thinks this is too much of a coincidence?"

  Now she's got everyone's attention. Rustia turned off the television and finally turned our way.

  Dr. Yap took a few steps forward. "You're worried it's them?"

  "This place—" the new guy with a wispy mustache said.

  "Cannot be traced because it was bought with a fake identity, yes we know, you've told us that," Cana said, cutting him off short. "But you have to admit, it's a little bit suspicious."

  "You know why her dad chose a penthouse in the middle of the city instead of some hidden faraway place?" Dr. Yap said.

  We all shook our heads.

  "It's because of the security here," Dr. Yap said. "To even get inside the building, they'd have to walk through metal detectors with guards. So they can't bring any firearms. And they can't just wander around once inside. They will be immediately asked for the purpose of their visit and then led to the receptionist if their reason is valid."

  "What counts as valid?" Indigo asked

  "Visitation, most likely," Rustia said. "But visitation hours is from 8am to 6pm. And”—he looked at the wall clock above the tv—“It's already 8 pm."

  "And they have to provide the name of the tenant they wish to visit," Dr. Yap said. "But as you know already, this place is under a false name. So if they say our real names, the concierge downstairs wouldn't be able to find it, and they will be asked to leave. By force, if it comes to that."

  "Okay," Indigo said. "You said they have people inside places, right? Couldn't they come as a janitorial service or something?"

  "Okay, let’s say you are correct," Reina said. "So it is them and they got in as janitors. Let's not stop there. Let's take it even further and say they have help from the staff downstairs."

  I was starting to get annoyed because she was making fun of us all of a sudden.

  She paused.

  "I'm not trying to mock you, by the way," she assured us. I guess our annoyance showed in our faces.

  "Oh, thank you," Cana said. "And here I was thinking that you were being a bit of a prick."

  Indigo's neck whiplashed towards Cana's direction. Her jaw dropped in shock. But she didn't say anything.

  "I'm just saying," Reina said, unapologetically. "The only way up here is through the private elevators. And the Fire Exit, of course."

  She stopped again and pulled out from her jacket's inner pocket a rectangular plastic card and a key attached to their cult symbol. "Without this key," she continued. "They wouldn't be able to even open the doors of the elevators. They force it open, the alarm goes off."

  "And if they somehow managed to deactivate all sorts of alarms," Dr. Yap added. "They will still need the key to operate the elevators from the inside."

  "And they still need this magnetic key card to enter this penthouse," Reina said, flashing the rectangular plastic for all three of us to see.

  "Besides," Rustia said. "No services of any kind can just come up any floor and enter any room without scheduling it with the unit's owner. The owner or a representative should be present to tap them in and look after the place while they clean."

  "And if they did start that fire," Dr. Yap said. "What's their plan? Burn this building down? They should have known that the sprinklers will still be powered. Not to mention the fire extinguishers in every unit."

  "Well, do we want to stay in a burning building?" Cana said.

  "If there is a fire," Dr. Yap said. "And the building personnel deemed it necessary to evacuate the tenants, then we evacuate. That way, we can disappear among the crowds."

  "And if the fire is really a threat," another new face said. A muscular woman. "All elevators would be grounded on the first floor. The only way up through that Fire Exit right there," she said, pointing at the kitchen door with a very large sign with very big and obvious red letters that spell "Fire Exit."

  "That's it then," Indigo said. "What's stopping them from coming up through the fire exit?"

  "Fire exits have alarms to prevent unauthorized entry," Dr. Yap said. "The moment those go off, the concierge would immediately alert security. And make no mistake, security would be using deadly force in that situation."

  "And you'd bet on the staff stopping them on time rather than have us evacuating a burning building?"

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  "A fire alarm tripped," Rustia said. "Doesn't mean the building is burning. Could just mean that someone left the stove on for a little too long."

  "And yes, I'd rather we stay put," Dr. Yap said. "Because right now, we can neither confirm nor deny that there is indeed a fire and that the fire is indeed a ruse started by them. Evacuating right now, when it is not needed yet, just increases our chance of randomly encountering them in the streets. We would be fighting them in their full strength."

  "Okay, Okay," I said, definitely convinced. "Clearly you thought through all possible scenarios. But look, the Shade, Daniel, only appeared next to haunteds for the last decades. If you say that Azgarmoth now favors them, who's to say that they do not possess an ability that can track us haunteds the same way Daniel or the Shade did?"

  I was expecting an argument but I was met with silence instead. Dr. Yap's eyes were on me, but she wasn't looking at me. She was lost in her own thoughts.

  "If that's the case." She finally spoke. "What were they waiting for? They could have used their powers earlier. At 6pm. What was stopping them from going through the lobby and just start hacking their way up here?"

  The question lingered in the air as none of us haunteds answered.

  "You know why?" Dr. Yap followed up. "Because they don't know we're here. Because they don't have that ability you suggest."

  "Not yet," Indigo countered. "During our second night in Biringan, the Shade, Daniel only showed himself— she turned to Cana "What was that? 10pm?"

  "More or less," Cana said.

  "During the first night," I added. "The Shade appeared 2 hours earlier."

  "So you're saying that there is a chance that they might get that tracking ability anytime from now to morning?" Wispy Moustache guy said.

  "Yes," Cana replied.

  "But you're also saying that there is also a chance that they might not." Muscle Lady said.

  "Look," I said. "If we stayed here to find out, it will be too late. You wanna know how we survived? It's because we moved a lot. We didn't just stay in Biringan. Daniel destroyed our defenses. We survived because we were able to run away from the Shade and fought him head on the second night."

  "Granted," I added quickly. "Daniel was not in full control and lost his Shade form for the remainder of that night."

  Cana turned back her attention to Reina. "If we stayed here, we would be trapped in this luxury penthouse of yours, waiting for our deaths."

  "Reina," Dr. Yap said. "They have a compelling argument. But my job is to assess the risks among the options presented. If it turns out they are wrong, we would have taken a huge risk coming up against them at night when they are at their most strong. For basically no reason to."

  "But at least we can run!" Cana said. "We don't need to fight them, we just need to outlast them till morning."

  "See, that's where you're wrong, little girl," Rustia said. "This isn't like that Shade encounters you've had survived. We are talking about walking through the streets full of potential Shades just waiting to transform. Now the problem with that is they have this thing called phones to call back-up with, which the previous Shade don’t. Once we are discovered, make no mistakes, countless Shades will descend upon us. Can you imagine that? How do you plan on running away from that? Especially if you think they can track you down?"

  "Then we just have to kill them before they make the call and disappear again," I said.

  He raised an eyebrow. "We?"

  I looked down the floor, ashamed. He knows I won't be able to kill those cultist. Like how I couldn't kill him. "You..."

  He scoffed. "If it were that easy..."

  "And there is no outlasting them," Dr. Yap said. "Because come morning, they will simply just shoot you instead, not to kill you but to retrieve you, which would be more painful and horrifying than just outright dying. You think they would just stop because they no longer have their Shade power?"

  For a moment, us haunteds kept quiet, having no arguments to present.

  "Are you certain it is not them?" Cana finally said.

  "We didn't received any orders from Luca about this, this morning," Dr. Yap said. "Still haven't."

  "But a lot could have had happened since this morning," Indigo reasoned. "Plans could have changed."

  Cana turned to Reina. "You're in charge here, right? These people will listen to you? What do you think we should do?"

  She looked at Cana, then at Dr. Yap.

  "We should stay," Reina finally said. "At least wait until the staff confirmed if it was a fire or not. And what caused it."

  Cana sighed in frustration. "Stay then," she said. "We're going."

  "We are?" Indigo said.

  This is news to me too. But Cana was already on the way to the door.

  "Wait!" Reina called. I was just about to run after Cana too. "We'll do it your way."

  "Reina," Dr. Yap objected. "I must advise against this. The risk of encountering them tonight is too great. They will be looking for them."

  "That's why we have U.V. searchlight, right?" Reina said.

  "We are more than capable of fighting if it comes to that," Dr. Yap said. "But I wouldn't recommend it."

  "Well, we have no choice," Reina said. "Because I doubt they will listen to us anymore. They will go. And they will be exposed out there, with no one to protect them. They don't even have any place to go. They wouldn't last long on their own.”

  All three of us haunteds shared a look. Then I looked down at my feet. She got us there. About everything. We don't even know where we are. If we go on our own right now, I wouldn't know the first thing we should do. But the thing is, she's also right about Cana. I don't think Cana is bluffing. But Cana turned around and stayed. So I guess we are staying.

  "We still have some of the gas left," Rustia suggested. "I’ll put them to sleep. Just say the word."

  "No. You will not," Reina said to Limpy. She said it with such authority that Rustia took a step back. "We are going with them."

  "Very well," Dr. Yap said. She turned to the rest. "Grab the bug-out bags."

  They all scattered in different directions. My eyes followed Wispy Moustache Guy who went to the L-shaped sofa. He knelt down the L seat and pushed the cushion up. I didn't know there was storage there. He brought out a black, heavy-duty, backpack. It looks full and heavy but the guy didn't seem to have any problem slinging it to his shoulder.

  It took them less than a minute until they are all gathered in the middle of the room, where we still are, with the backpacks on them. They all started to open the backpacks and hand out caps and shirts. Dr. Yap came back with our shoes.

  "Here you go," Rustia said to me as he handed me one. It wasn't anything special. Just your ordinary and boring grey, black and blue baseball caps and even plainer jackets and sweaters. No special designs. No flashy colors. All were picked intentionally for their inherent plainness that will help us blend in public.

  We didn't wait for any more instructions. We put on our shoes back. The socks we were given were too big for us that it leaves a lot of fabric at the toes. Obviously, this is not meant for us but for the adults. Since we we'll doing a lot of walking, and most definitely a whole lot more of running, the excess fabric will make it hard or at least awkward to run in so I pulled it up as high as I can until my toes touch the end of the socks. My only problem is the neck of the socks are sagging down from my calves. But I fail to see how this would affect my running later on so I paid no extra attention to it and just put on my shoes. My black school shoes, the only remaining item from our student disguise this morning.

  Everyone then put on their baseball caps, jackets, and sweaters.

  "All right, let's go," Dr. Yap said. "Before they ground the elevators."

  "I hope you kids are right about this," Rustia said.

  Me too, I thought.