42 Family P 13

Lia raised her feet and then kicked behind her, followed by her elbow yearning to hit Tom's face. Tom let go and quickly evaded. He ran behind a table and grinned at Lia. They were now face to face. No one said anything. They just stared at each other.

Seconds, minutes passed before Tom sighed.

"What's yer purpose coming here?"

"To the facility," he added after scratching his chin.

No one moved.

"Shouldn't you answer first?"

"Listen here, ya can't always return a question with another one."

"Why not?" Lia's hands gripped the daggers harder but she didn't dare to make a move. Tom might have something up his sleeve but he saw all the cards she had.

"Ya got a peculiar power."

"Do I?"

Tom sighed again and sat down. He motioned Lia to do the same, "Why not take a seat_"

Lia glanced at the chair before following suit. The one who was calm in a battle was the one who had the upper hand and was in control.

Tom was exceptionally calm and unfazed, even though he knew she could control corpses. His eyes rested on her before he pulled out the gaming device again and started playing.

Not a single care was given by him.

"Ah, damn died," he threw the gamepad onto the table after a while.

"Feel like talking now?" Tom bored watched her. Lia couldn't read him at all.

"You work for Elder P," Lia calmly stated.

"Oh," he perked his eyebrows, "Za finally figured out?"

"You barely wok and disappear. Apart from occasionally being outside, you must've been on the fifth floor here helping Elder P. When we first got assigned, no one assisted Elder P. We all thought it might be Claire and Mat but we were wrong. It was you. Who's the other one?"

"Wanna praise? Ya smart?" Tom laughed and then grinned, "Figure it out."

"You told Elder P about me and set free all the ghosts and Elder P shut down the whole facility. When I checked the floors, all the cages were open and the ghosts free to roam around."

"Bingo."

Lia could sense her corpses fighting outside.

"You are not afraid of the ghosts?"

"No need to worry," Tom was still relaxed.

"You always seem to keep a close eye on me. Every day after my shift, you would check my rooms."

"Oh, how ya noticed?" Tom seemed to be interested but his hands fumbled with the game device on the table.

"I put a piece of tape on the door after my shift, yet every morning it was on the ground."

"My bad. DIdn't realise ya were so crafty."

"Since when did you become suspicious of me?" Lia needed to know what she did wrong, so in the future she could avoid such mistakes.

"Hmm, when I wonder," Tom left the game device alone and folded his hands. It was quiet again and only from outside did noises intrude the eerie atmosphere between them.

"From before ya came. Like ya said, I work for Elder P and had the list of all stuff but then, guess what, a few days prior a sudden change appeared. My was that short notice. Ya know who came in last minute? A person called… Kim," he spun the device now.

"Kim came and replaced the previous staff I handpicked. Strange won't ya think so too? So, I decided to keep an eye on this Kim person by working with her on the same floor. On the day when we all met, Kim was even more suspicious, she didn't even know what she'd be doing," Tom threw the device to the ground,

"It made me think how could such an incompetent staff replace the one I picked without even my knowing? Won't ya lil alarm bells ring too, Kim?"

"Don't refer to me in third person," Lia's voice was cold but she understood why Tom had been hostile to her from the beginning. It was because before she even got here she was exposed and then she had to ask a stupid question that aroused more suspicion.

"If Kim's really ya name."

How much did Tom know? Just how much could he look through her?

"What does it matter, Tom?"

Tom rolled his eyes, "What ya here for?"

"Release the confinement."

"Nope."

"Where's Elder p?"

"Dunno."

"I saw him disappaear in one of the walls," Lia pointed at the walls behind Tom.

"Oh, that's interesting."

Lia's patience was getting thinner, she asked Tom again, "Remove the shutters."

Tom shrugged his shoulders.

"Do you want to die in here too?"

"What made ya think so?"

Lia was right. He was hiding something up his sleeve. She had to be careful but at the same time, time was running out. It was good that Elder P and Tom were also stuck here, so Elder P coudn~t escape but the more they dragged things out, the more it'd get complicated for Noel and the others.

Lia had to make another decision. If Tom wasn't going to say anything, she would need to take care of him first, then move to Elder P.

The ghosts could be taken care of with her corpses and they could figure out later how to get out of this building. There was no need to keep Elder P and Tom alive.

She made a choice and stood up. But the moment she raised herself out of the chair, Tom kicked the table towards her and jumped up.

Lia nimble evaded the table and barely caught Tom rushing into the laboratory. She ran after him.

The laboratory had the same layout as the one on her floor. Three doors on each side, the only difference was that at the end there was another door.

All the rooms were open and from the last Tom came out. Once he stepped into the hallways and stood opposite to Lia, he grinned again.

Then the next second, out of every room, several ghosts came out. Tom moved forward, halfways closing the distance between him and Lia, and the ghosts flew behind him to form a small army.

Lia's eyes widened at this event and quickly called out her corpses. She sized Tom up and finally saw a cube in his hand that emitted green light. He was controlling the ghosts. This was his ace, she finally understood.

"It was you who Third P saw. What did you say to him?"

"With ya help, I could just smile at him and he gon piss his pants," Tom cocked his head back and moved his hand with the cube up.

Then he pointed at Lia. Lia avoided the first few ghosts and slashed them with her daggers but more and more came and she had to retreat from the laboratory.

Just when a ghost was about to grab her hair, her corpses arrived. There were four of them and without hesitations, they started to tear through the ghosts.

Lia could barely see inside the laboratory through the glass doors but she witnessed Tom saying something to the cube and instantly more ghosts from downstairs rushed towards her.

Tom, inside, was watching her amused while she and her corpses fought the oncoming wave of ghosts.

And Lia realised that Tom took advantage of the fact, she tried to make Third P suspicious of him. But what was the point of him getting rid of Third P? Was it to get to Lia? Weren't there better options? Lia didn't understand his motives and his thoughts at all.

The ghosts surrounded her and her corpses. She raised the daggers and jumped onto the tables over the ghosts and landed in front of the laboratory's doors.

Tom didn't anticipate her escaping them so quickly and held up the cube but the moment he did so, Lia rolled through the door, threw a dagger at him that got stuck in his cube and made him involuntarily throw it out of his hands.

When he bowed down to grab the cube, she used the short time to close the distance and moved behind him. She kicked him in the legs and he fell to his knees.

Quickly, she held a knife to his throat and cut into his skin as blood dripped down his body. With her feet, she kicked the cube away from him. Tom held his hands in the air.

"What is the purpose of the facility"

"Who knows?"

"Are you sure these should be your last words?"

"Why not?"

"Annoyed?" Tom added as Lia didn't say anything, "Ya get a taste of yer own medicine, answering a question wi-"

The knife dug deeper into his skin, "How did you choose the staff?"

Tom started to whistle.

"Why did Elder P suggest this competition between him and his siblings?"

Tom laughed, "Ya attach me too much credit. Tho I'm glad, ya see me as someone who knows a lot."

Lia briefly looked up and almost rubbed her eyes. She looked outside the laboratory again but the silhouette she saw wasn't there anymore. Tom moved under her grip and she kept the knife on him. More of his blood flooded.

Lia briefly threw a glance outside again and was sure she was just seeing things.

However, outside the laboratory, away from the ghosts and corpses, a person hid against the wall and held their chest. Their heart beat fast as next to the wall where they stood the light of the laboratory shone.

They were almost discovered, after regaining their breath, the person entered a wall opposite to them.

While Lia and Tom were fighting and were distracted, they used the chance to sneak in.

They disappeared from the wall and found themselves in a spacious room.

"Elder Z," they said as they saw the imposing figure of him.

"What are you doing here, Sera?"

"I came to help you, Elder Z!"