44 Family P 15

"It's me, Kim, "Lia repeated then she took the bat and yanked it forward, causing the person who was holding it to fall towards her.

Lia caught the person and they looked at each other. Their noses touched.

"Oh," Lia couldn't help but let out.

"I'm sorry," Barn removed himself from Lia's embrace and apparently embarrassed moved behind the emerging figure.

"No time for you to be lovey-dovey."

"Shut up!" Lia could never not recognise his voice.

Noel got quickly serious and asked, "What's the status?"

"Tom's dead but Elder P escaped. I came here after hearing that help arrived from Tom."

"So…" Noel thought for a second before briefing Lia. She saw behind him Nessa and Phil but Noel pulled her away and whispered,

"Fourth P, Claire, Mat and Nita got killed by the intruders. Sera went missing."

"Sera?" Lia briefly thought about the silhouette she saw on the fifth floor when she fought with Tom but shook her head, "Do you know who they are?"

Noel nodded and his next words caused Lia to freeze on the spot, "The C family."

"What?" Lia's voice got agitated but Noel stopped her.

"Shh, the bigger problem is that both Elder C and his son Kil are here. Elder C might not have power but he went to look for Elder P. Kil's the problem. He's an exorcist but I don't know what's his power."

Lia worked her brain. The C family was the help Tom spoke of. Kil was the biggest obstacle. He had power and on top of that was one of the captains in Min's private army.

As much as she wanted to know about the army, she had to let Kil go.

"You deal with Kil, I'll go after Elder P and C," to Lia her revenge, her priority was to kill both elders. If they both appeared now in this situation, then this was the best opportunity she had to get rid of both of them.

"Yea, plan's changed. We gotta take care of 'em all."

"You…" Lia started off, "are you going to be alright? You don't have powers, no?"

"I'm fine, what about you?"

"The elders don't have powers either, so I have a better chance than you. Here," Lia gave Noel a knife.

Noel's eyes widened and he hesitated, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I still have one."

Both of them didn't say anything but it was clear that at the moment they trusted each other.

"Your arm?"

"It's fine," Lia pulled herself away from Noel and walked to the others.

Nessa jumped at Lia but immediately stopped when she noticed Lia being in pain.

"Kim, your arm."

"It's fine," Lia repeated. It really was no big deal for her. It was a nuisance but still manageable.

Lia told them that she was going to leave to find Elder P and C while Noel would take care of them, however, Nessa shook her head, "Let me go with you."

"No," Lia decisively declined.

"I need to! They killed Nita! I… I!" Nessa broke down and Lia was torn. She patted Nessa's head and then took a deep breath, "Alright."

Her soft voice stunned Noel.

"We'll be going," Lia turned to Noel, then she hesitated and put her hand over Noel's holding the knife.

"Be careful," then she grabbed Nessa and immediately left the hallway.

She didn't know either why she did that but her face started to heat up. She was afraid that something might happen to Noel and she did loathe the idea of it.

She grew accustomed to his presence and might've taken him for granted but now that things escalated and their lives were on the line, she couldn't help worrying about him.

Even though she didn't want to get close to anyone anymore. Even though she promised. Even though-

"Kim?" Nessa squeezed Lia's hand, "You ok?"

Lia nodded and wiped the little tears in the corner of her eyes away.

They almost reached the end of the hallway and Lia realised her corpse was still there. With a quick command, she sent it away.

Lia squeezed back. Nessa also grew on her. How damned feelings were. How they could bring one down and expose them to their most vulnerable and soft core.

When they came out of the hallway behind the cinema, Lia stopped Nessa with her arm. They listened to the footsteps of the intruders searching around for them and saw the hungry ghosts lurking behind every corner.

Lia only had a knife and couldn't use her power in front of Nessa and Nessa also had no means of protecting herself.

Suddenly, Lia didn't know why she agreed. Maybe the hatred and desire for revenge on Nessa's face reminded her of herself. Was she getting softer? Was she going to falter at any decision?

Lia started doubting herself, she was aware of how she was changing during this 'mission'. For better or worse, she could only find out at the end and for that, she had to reach it first.

"Kim do you have a plan?"

Lia bit her lips, seeing the situation before them she had no clue how to get through the ground floor much less find where both Elders were.

"No," Lia spoke truthfully, "w should search each floor."

That was the best option they had at the moment.

When Lia was still an exorcist she had come across situations like this many times. Being surrounded by ghosts with no escape in sight, required to find a way, no matter how narrow, to evade and pass the ghosts without them catching one.

Lia's eyes had gotten accustomed to the darkness and she scanned the area before her. Her gaze swept to the right and left, assessing the best route from the cinema, where they stood, to the stairs that would lead them up. The space between the ghosts could barely fit a person. They had to be nimble, flexible and quick.

Lia took Nessa's hands in hers and whispered in her ear, "Stay close to me. Don't let go of my hand."

Lia gripped Nessa's hand tightly and Nessa returned the squeeze. She looked at Lia and at this moment she felt at ease. As if there weren't any ghosts or intruders, as if the facility didn't keep them captured, as if no one had died and they weren't going to die.

Nessa's eyes were glued to Lia and a sense of safety welled up inside of her and made her feel warm and tingling. The confidence, the calmness and the strength Lia radiated, made Nessa blindly follow and trust Lia.

Even when on the 'go ' Lia pulled her with full force and speed into the slaughter ground full of ghosts, even when they narrowly avoided the ghosts and she could feel their slimy substance gracing her skin wanting to claw her body and feast on her.

Even when she accidentally stomped with her feet too loud as they jumped over a ghost who was crouching, her eyes never left Lia and her warm hand never let hers go.

Even when because of her, the intruders caught sight of them and chased them relentlessly, Lia evaded, spun Nessa around, into her arms, behind her.

At this moment Nessa was sure of the feeling that caused streams of tears to spill from her eyes, her heart to ache, her fingers to tremble under the firm and reassuring grip of Lia, she was sure this was what it felt like to be protected, to be cared for and to be treasured.

Nessa had the vague awareness that Lia could've easily gotten away and found the elders, if it weren't for her being a burden and she regretted asking to join but now…

Right now, with her whole heart and being, she was happy she made the decision. She was happy, she got to experience this wonderful and rare feeling.

So, so happy. To the point where nothing else mattered.

If she had someone like Lia previously in her life, would things have turned out differently? Would she have not chosen this wretched work? Would she have learnt to share this feeling with someone else? Become a person like Lia?

But the truth and reality always ripped apart the wonderful façade dreams provided and relentlessly tore them down to the tiniest part, core, that revealed the true hopelessness.

The hopelessness and despair 'What Ifs' provided. It was nothing more than another beautiful and devastating lie that could only be shortlived.

The truth was different. Lia was none of the amazing and strong person Nessa made her out to be. Lia, in reality, was afraid yet she couldn't show it. She was barely able to pinpoint a way and successfully escaped any harm.

If she was alone, her racing heart would be hard to calm but she felt the warmth, the beating pulse of a living person in her hand and was reassured.

Reassured that she needed to do this and reassured that there was something she had to protect. It took two to feel safe.

They reached the stairs and hastily made their way up. Since Lia's healthy arm was used to lead Nessa, she couldn't use her knife but Nessa seemed to have noticed it and let go of Lia.

"It's ok, don't worry about me."

Lia nodded and took out the knife. Once they reached the first floor, Lia commanded all of her corpses to go and kill any of the C family and ghosts on the ground floor.

Nessa ran into the first floor while Lia was briefly lost in thoughts. When Lia realised she cursed and wanted to run after her but Nessa strolled out and said, "No one's in there."

"Didn't I say you shouldn't leave my side?"

Nessa giggled lightly, her eyes were exceptionally bright, "You sound like a husband! Don't forget I'm older than you!"

Lia was visibly taken aback and Nessa giggled again. It was nice to be lighthearted in tense times.

"Sorry, I just want to help you," Nessa meekly added.

"You can help me by staying with me and-" Lia wanted to add something when she realised that her words really sounded like the male lead in cliché romance stories she used to secretly read when she fantasised about her and Min.

Lia pursed her lips before breaking out a small smile. Nessa might be older than her but she was childisher. Nessa's eyes lightened up when she saw Lia smile and they headed to the second floor.

However, it was also empty apart from the few ghosts that swirled around.

The third floor told a different story. Even before they set a foot past the door, Lia's ears picked up noises and stopped Nessa, signalling her to get behind her.

There were faint gurgling sounds, low voices carried through the air and faint begging.

Lia held her breath and drew closer to the door. She could see inside the third floor partly and only recognised the back of a male in a white robe.

His arm was stretched out and he seemed to be holding something which was covered by a wall and stopped Lia from seeing.

Behind Lia, Nessa was also curious and moved forward a bit however her eyes couldn't see that well as Lia's and as a result she fell on Lia's back and they both tumbled forwards through the door.

The voices stopped and the man turned around but before he could say anything, Nessa's worried voice rang out," Sera!"

In Elder C's grip was Sera struggling to free herself from being strangled.