Lucky

Somewhere on the second floor, Drew walked at a measured pace, holding a small flashlight and cursing under his breath.

Suddenly, there was a ruffling sound, and he sharply turned his flashlight to the source.

A big rat stood among some piled-up broken furniture and stared at him, unafraid.

Drew's forehead wrinkled a bit, and he stared back, using up all his masculinity to stand in place and perform a staring contest with the big rat.

Three seconds in, the rat turned and ran. Drew, a bit traumatized by the size of that rat, drew in a heavy breath and shook his head.

He raised his flashlight and saw blackened writing on the wall of the room that said, "PLEASE, JUST LET ME DIE! PLEASE! PLEASE! PLE—"

The writing ended abruptly.

Drew gulped and turned away, hastening his pace and muttering in a frigid tone, "Fuckin' shitheads. How does it make sense to split up in this kind of place?"

Walking alone in the darkness and looking around, as Drew beheld the ancient eeriness of the corridors, halls, and rooms, he couldn't help but feel a deep chill run down his spine accompanied by a rising frustration.

Drew hissed and cursed.

He decided not to look about the rooms anymore and just face forward. Mentally, he had checked out on finding Nick.

'I can't do this anymore. I'll go wait by the car and tell them I was expecting him to slip past us. That's actually not a bad idea.'

However, Drew suddenly froze. 

Right before him, about 10 meters away and standing in the middle of the hall… was a figure. The flashlight wasn't bright enough to expel the darkness at such a distance, so all Drew could see was a dark and blurry human shape.

"Who's there?!" Drew called out.

He waited for a response, but there was none.

"Tommy? Jun?"

The human-shaped figure just stood there, unresponsive.

'That's not them.' Drew felt his throat run dry. "Nick Lewis? Is that you?"

Still, no response.

"H-Hey, man. I know you might be confused and angry about… all this, but Boss just wanted us to keep an eye on you; y'know, make sure you don't hurt yourself." 

Drew dry laughed and took a few short steps forward, trying his best to be confident. "And he was worried for good reason, wasn't he?"

The human-shaped figure remained stagnant, but now he could see them better. It had masculine features, wearing an overcoat too, with their hands seemingly in their pockets.

Drew halted, swallowed hard, and gripped harder on his gun. "Nick?"

Suddenly, he began hearing the sound of fluttering wings and consecutive chirps from behind him.

'What's that noise?' 

He quickly turned around to point at the source, but his vision was flooded with countless black birds flying past him!

Caught in their midst, Drew wailed, curled his back, and flailed his arms around to shield his face.

After a few seconds, all the birds had flown past him. 

Drew apprehensively looked about the area and saw the human-shaped figure was no longer there.

'This place is really haunted!' 

Just as Drew was about to beeline back to where he was coming from, he took a step and saw a rat climb his leg.

"Fuck!" He kicked it away, but it had companions. Another rat climbed his other leg. Before he could kick it away, two climbed his initial leg, and another joined the other rat.

"No! Get off me! Fuck!" Drew screamed, jumping about and grabbing and throwing rats off his body.

To his horror, he saw a horde of rats all ahead of him, running down to him.

Almost covered entirely by rats, he threw the flashlight to the ground and gunshots rang in the air.

With a thud and an agonized scream, Drew was pushed back by the rat horde and fell.

…

At the sound of footsteps, Nick quickly pressed his phone screen on his body to prevent its dim light from exposing his location and held his breath, controlling his labored breathing.

The footsteps grew louder as the person drew closer to the restroom where Nick was hiding. Then, abruptly, the steps came to a halt.

A light beam was directed at the restroom floor, revealing faint footprints leading up to the front of the stall Nick was in.

Nick's eyes widened in terror. 'Oh God, please…'

Even worse, he had reached his limit of holding his breath and began to cautiously but frigidly breathe in and out.

The light beam drew nearer and brightened the immediate area. Nick scanned his stall for anything that could be used as a weapon, but there was nothing. 

Suddenly, he heard one of the stall doors swing open. Then, the light beam drew closer, becoming more intense, accompanied by another swing of a stall door.

'I don't want to die. Oh God, oh God, oh God. Please, just leave me alone…' Nick was panicking but he repeatedly told himself to calm down.

The towering goon with the scar moved at a measured pace, and the light beam grew more intense. He stopped in front of the stall right before the one he occupied.

Nick felt his heart pound violently in his chest, and cold sweat dripped from his forehead. He controlled the urge to just scream and beeline out of there.

'Please… Please…' he inwardly repeated.

Suddenly, gunshots resounded from a distance, breaking the eerie silence of the abandoned structure, followed by a shrill cry, which made Nick shiver.

The feet right behind the door of the stall he occupied sharply pivoted and hastily moved away.

After thirty seconds of remaining still, Nick let out a trembling sigh of relief.

'What was that?' Nick wanted to know and suspected one of Boss Falco's men ran into Mr. Stranger. For reasonable reason, he was more worried about the goon than the mysterious Mr. Stranger.

However, he remembered the task he had just been assigned and rubbed his temples.

He knew what he had to do, despite the current situation not being the most favorable for him. If he missed today's v-points, he wouldn't be able to attempt any of his plans soon, considering he may not have a 'later.' And if he did escape this predicament without completing the task, this surely wouldn't be the last of Boss Falco's 'attempts.'

Nick didn't want to submit his life to Boss Falco, but he wasn't also planning to keep running for the rest of his life. 

'Every v-point is needed.' 

Immediately, he took out his phone and entered the Top Idol app, specifically stopping at the Attributes tab.