SIGN

With a second strike he blasted the remaining part of the grave stone as well.

Silence filled the air, nobody said a word.

The rain slowed down and eventually stopped. The man dropped the sledgehammer to the ground, making a dull thud.

The man slowly turned to look at the old lady, one last time. The rain stopped long before, yet still he could see the droplets of water stream down the bench she sat on. But wait, the next thing he saw wasn't something he ever expected in the slightest.

The old lady had tears hovering her eyelids, yet down she had the brightest smile he had seen in the last few centuries of his travels.

Afterall finally she was able to see the face she longed to see in her whole lifespan.

"You-u Laier…"

Were the only two words heard by his ears there after.

*

No-No-No, why does this always has to turn out this way, she thought to herself, as she bit her fingernails, annoyed.

"Hey Trace..! Please open up…!"

"Please, I'm serious..." Nate called out to him but he just kept on denying from inside, saying.

"Leave me alone, I don't wanna be in tomorrow's news headlines" pleaded Trace..

"Why 'u even after me, I don't even have that sort of money. Please just leave me alone, I beg you.."

He was thereby determined not to open the door at any cost…

In a few moments he noticed that her calls from outside suddenly stopped. Finding it strange, he slowly walked to the door and placed his eyes through the keyhole. On sight, his eyes could see no one. As he tried looking more closely. At once a sole sound caught his ears, the sound of the door unlocking. He instantly knew what was coming next but before he could pull himself back, the door smashed open with a BANG!, giving him a nice old hit on his face. He was almost thrown to the ground…

"I'm coming in?" Nate moved in with a cheerful voice…

That sort of strength, is she a monster or something, trace thought, holding his bleeding nose.

"How did you get inside? I was positive the door was locked."

"Come on, Gimme a break…" she said, looking around his room. "You thought something like that would ever work!?"

"Please just take what you want and leave me out of this…!" Trace continued, backing himself from her. "I'm just a regular worker, I don't even have anything of value in my room…"

"Oh My, look at yourself, where did chu get that from?" she asked, looking at his face as droplets of blood rolled out of his nose. Both knew the reason for that at least.. "Come on, lemme see…" she insisted, walking near him.

"Don't come any closer…!!" he objected, using one of his arms to cover his bleeding nose and the other one to move away from her. Nate then quickly closed in on him and took out what seemed like a spray from her pouch and sprayed it on his nose, putting a few bandages on it as well.

Up close he was finally able to see her face from below her hat. Now he knew why she looked so familiar to him. Her brown eyes, auburn hair looked almost the same as his own mother's. On seeing that, at once he felt a lot better. As their eyes met at some point with one another's gaze, she kindly smiled at him and asked.

"So.. you think I'm pretty..?" she asked him, in an almost sarcastic way.

On hearing that, Trace quickly backed away, taking his eyes away from her face.

"I-I'm sorry for anything I did wrong, and thanks for that nosebleed an'all, but…"

"Aww.. How red of you to say that…" she said, grinning at his blushing face. She truly was enjoying the whole fun of the situation although Trace on the other hand looked embarrassed and terrified.

"Please just leave me alone, I don't want to mix myself into something dangerous again…!"

"I suppose it's no help this way, well nevermind, can you please show me the invitation you got…" said Nate, moving away from him, letting him have some fresh air to breathe.

Trace looked confused and asked what the invitation was about, to which she asked him if he had received any sort of letter recently. It reminded him of the envelope he got from Jean today. He quickly turned to his bag and showed it to her. She quickly tore the envelope and a white red-stamped letter came out of it. That letter instantly brought another smile to her face.

"I knew, I wasn't wrong after all…"

Strangely yet slowly Trace was starting to believe that Nate wasn't hostile after all.

"Well, is it the thing you're after, you can keep it, I don't care what it is, just take it and leave me alone…" cried Trace, being a bit optimistic.

Up close, the letter looked rather old and was even torned at a few places. Before she could see through what was written on it, the silence of the room was disturbed yet again. Only this time by a hard thumping sound of the wooden pathway. The thumping sound was followed by nothing but a single knock that was heard at the front door.

Trace could clearly see the expression on her face suddenly change, it went pale. Silence filled the air. The air even got denser as whoever it was outside kept on knocking there after…

Thinking of it as the neighbor next door, Trace stood up to check. She quickly held his hand and gestured to him, not to move a single step. She then pulled him near and whispered…

"We gotta move out…! Now..!!" she said in a serious voice. He could feel that the atmosphere of the place suddenly rose up. Everything that felt like a prank just a minute ago, didn't seem like easyplay anymore.

"I never thought they would catch up that soon…" she uttered, looking worried…

"H-Hey, Now-Now, don't make it sound all dangerous and scary. It's just the old woman next door, she keeps checking on me once in a while…" continued Trace,

"She'z a kind lady… Just lemme talk to her, it will be all fine…" Trace insisted. Hearing that she gripped him even tighter…

"Don't you dare move a muscle, you go there, open that door and they won't think twice before disposing of you…"

Hearing that, his face went pale as well…

"Then what should we do…?"

"We can't just keep on waiting here" He asked in a murmuring voice…

"Have faith in me Boi, we'll just have to think of something." replied Nate, in an optimistic tone.

She then gazed around Trace's room, staring in search of something of a use. That's when her air changed again, only this time she had a sinister grin herself.

Then looking at something specific at the corner of his room, she stood up uttering…

"Hey boi, Do you like fireworks…?!"

"Y-Yeah-h-h…"

"Then I suppose we'll just have to go out with a BANG..!!"

"A Bang…"

Ya, a BANG….

***

A little knowledge never hurts…

# How so disappointing, looks like we don't have anything this week.