51 Family P & C 23

Rushed footsteps echoed from the concrete walls and bounced back to the stairs. With no regards for herself, Lia flew down the stairs, hoping to reach Noel in time. She didn't want to see anyone else die. It was worse than letting a chance for her revenge slip.

The shock made her feet stop as she arrived on the ground floor. Most of the ghosts have been purged, only a handful roamed around, but soon the corpses got ahold of them.

The ground was covered with corpses. Lia's lips trembled. She prayed none of them would be Noel. Her injured arm seemed to slowly heal itself and recover.

Quickly, her feet moved her from corpse to corpse, checking each of them. Then finally, she let out a relieved sigh. None of them were Noel. Her body relaxed and she continued to search for him on the ground floor.

Noel was alive yet that also meant Kil was alive. Chances were, they were still fighting. No sounds caught her attention. The only reasonable conclusion was that they took the fight somewhere else.

However, coming from the stairs until now, she hasn't heard anything. Figuring out that they must be on another floor, Lia rushed back to the stairs. Not even half-way there to the first floor loud BANGS made her flinch subconsciously.

They were on the first floor. In her rush, she didn't notice it. She cautiously watched from the door and held her breath. Amid the floor, Noel was down to his knees, panting heavily. His head wobbled and a large wound covered his forehead. The blood flowed over his face into his right eye.

Lia, in an instant, noticed he was at a disadvantage. It was a cold shock to see him in such a state. The Noel she knew was always teasing, mocking with a smile on his face, he was also strong but to see him in this vulnerable state, she didn't know what she felt towards him at this moment.

The urge to help him filled her mind but she was also clear, she couldn't jump in. It would interrupt their flow. It was a double-edged sword, it might be good but it also might be bad. It could aid Noel but also put him in an even tougher spot.

Lia adjusted her position hiding behind the door. Kil stood away from the entrance, close to the laboratory while Noel was in the field of sight from the door.

This was an incredible opportunity, if Lia could grab Noel's attention for a split second, he could give her a signal to either help or leave.

Lia agonised over how to make him aware of her presence when his head raised and he seemingly looked at Kil. Lia waved with her hand, hoping he would find something unusual in the corner of his vision and move his gaze to her.

Indeed, Noel noticed that something was to his right. He wobbly stood up and faced Kil who arrogantly threw words at him he couldn't hear. Noel remained still, rendering others to think he had lost his consciousness when he, with an insane speed, grabbed the documents from the table and threw them at Kil.

While Kil was distracted, Noel averted his gaze and met Lia's. His eyes widened briefly but he instantly came to a decision. He shook his head decisively before charging at Kil.

What happened afterwards, Lia couldn't see. Her ears perked up at various sounds when her body carried her up the stairs. In her mind, she ordered the corpses to aid Noel, "Protect the male with the knife in his hand."

From the second floor, she watched her corpses running up the stairs, they were lost. Lia pointed at the first floor and told them, "Inside there."

The corpses vanished and Lia rushed up the stairs. The sixth floor, she needed to get to Elder P's office. There was a sixth floor, even the news of it surprised her. She had to use the stairs in the hidden place.

Meanwhile, cowering underneath a table, Phil held his stomach missing a large chunk of flesh. Sweat formed on his forehead and he prayed to heal quickly.

His body was numb and lumped together on the floor with no intention to move. No sound came out of his mouth as he desperately sought to cry for help.

He shouldn't have run away. He shouldn't have left Noel's and Barn's side! Yet how could he knew he would be chased by a ghost relentlessly until it got a taste of him? Then it was torn apart by an even vicious thing!

A walking corpse! He thought he was a goner and silently wrote a will in his mind that no one got to see. However, the corpse left him alone and walked away.

So, Phil crawled through the floor not seeing all the corpses and when he leaned against a wall, suddenly he fell backwards. Surprised he crawled up the stairs inside the hidden room.

Then he hid in this office under the table.

He had family waiting at home but his hands were already defiled with mortal blood and tears. How could he face his daughter and wife? Maybe it was for the best he was going to die here. Hopefully, his death would mend the sorrows and anguish of the mortal souls he sent to the afterlife.

Just when he came to terms with leaving the world, a loud banging made him rip his eyes open. Fear gripped his body and refused to leave him. He didn't want to die after all! He was an immortal and immortals weren't supposed to die!

He silently shook under the table, leaning against its leg and intensively stared at the door. Chants circled his brain hoping no one would enter. He even turned off the lights, enduring in the darkness all this time.

However, his prayers have been answered by hell and the door opened. It was dark outside and the table already blocked half of his view, so the identity of the intruder remained a mystery.