We're Being Watched

The hallway was irritatingly long. It felt like they were really going through an infinite maze.

Not only that, the atmosphere was also so uncanny.

She could no longer smell the incense and it was because of the concoction that Ren made her drink earlier.

However, the place was still oddly chilly. The tiny hairs on her skin were raising up.

For someone who had been used to the cold of the night, she thought of how ironic it was for her to be currently bothered by the cold atmosphere.

'Have I gotten weak?' she thought to herself.

While she was walking silently, she was unaware that Ren was studying her from behind.

"Are you cold?" he suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

"No."

She lied. Of course she was cold. But her pride couldn't admit the truth. She hated showing weakness and vulnerability.

She was grateful that Ren saved her ass earlier but deep inside, she was also disappointed at herself. She was mad that she needed help and saving, and to make things worse, she got it from the man she said she didn't like.

There was silence again. Akira wondered why he suddenly asked the question to her.

Did he notice that she was actually cold?

"Are you cold?" she suddenly asked without looking at him.

"No. I never get cold", Ren replied as he continued to follow her from behind.

Akira wanted to face him to see the expression on his face. She didn't believe him and in fact, his response came off as arrogant to her.

Sure, she lied about not feeling cold. But to say that you never get cold was extremely an overstatement.

Despite all of these, Akira chose to not turn around and say anything. She kept silent and just focused on walking.

They turned for the fifth time to the right and finally, they could see a door at the end of what seemed to be their endless tunnel.

"That must be the room", Akira remarked as they got closer to the door.

"I think so too", Ren said.

They stopped right in front of the door. Akira gave Ren a glance. Ren nodded, signaling her it was time to open the door.

Akira held the cold doorknob and twisted it. A clicking sound came from it, indicating that the door wasn't locked. She slowly pushed the door, careful not to create loud noise.

As the door was fully opened, they were greeted with another dim room. The only light source was a lamp situated on a small table at the corner.

The atmosphere had just gotten more eerie. It was dark in the room, but Akira felt as if they were being watched.

Akira thought that there was really no end to Tomo Ogawa's tricks. The man appeared to have an obsession with mazes and dark rooms.

"There must be some light switch here", she said, suggesting that they look for it.

"You go and try look for it. I'll take the lamp and search for the diary. That way we're hitting two birds with one stone. I don't know about you, but something feels off here. It would be better if we leave this place right away."

Akira agreed with Ren's statement. Her instinct was telling her that something wasn't right about the place.

She pulled out her phone from her pocket and turned its flashlight once again. The light first hit the floor. She realized that the floor had the same red carpet that they saw earlier in the hallway.

She changed the direction of her phone and pointed the light higher. This time, she could see the wall of the room. The wall was painted with beige. She moved sideway, to her right as she tried to look for a possible light switch in the room. However, all she could she was a plain wall.

She couldn't see the entire room, but based on what her eyes had access to and how the room felt, she could tell that the room was enormous.

As she continued to move around, she couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't seen any painting, shelf, or any furniture inside the room, aside from the mini table where the lamp was placed at.

If the room was indeed a secret chamber for his priced possessions, wouldn't it make sense that the room would be filled with different things. But so far, Akira felt like the room was actually empty.

"Something doesn't really feel right", she mumbled.

"Akira...", Ren suddenly said. There was urgency and shock in his tone. "Look at this."

Sensing the distress in Ren's voice, she quickly walked to where Ren was. He was standing near the wall, holding the lamp at the level of his head.

As she got closer to Ren, she caught the shadows of what seemed like letters on the wall.

'What's going on?' she asked on her mind as her heart started racing.

She froze on her feet when she finally got a full and clear view of what Ren wanted her to see.

On the beautiful wall were huge letters painted in red that said: YOU CANNOT FIND ME UNLESS I LET YOU FIND ME.

The words came out of her lips as he read them, and right after that, the room was no longer covered with darkness.

One after another, light bulbs in the ceiling started to light up quickly. It was very sudden that Akira and Ren had to cover their eyes as they felt like they were being blinded. Their eyes couldn't keep up with the sudden adjustment from darkness to brightness.

"What on earth is this?" Akira muttered.

When all the lights were already on, the two quickly took notice of the numerous cameras scattered in the room. Then the sound of buzzer went off in the entire house.

"We're being watched all this time. Let's get moving", Ren declared as he immediately ran to get out of the room, grabbing Akira by her hand.

His action completely caught her off guard. She was about to complain and pull her hand away from him, but she immediately set aside the thought when she saw a thick and huge metal door starting to move down and cover the entrance of the room.

"Crap. We need to move faster!" he exclaimed nervously, afraid that they wouldn't make it in time.

"Just keep running, and don't close your eyes", Akira said to him.

Two huge pillars of ice suddenly emerged on the ground, blocking the metal door to keep going down.

The remaining space was just enough for them to pass through.

As they ran in the hallway, they heard the sound of something heavy moving again. It was the same sound they heard when the wall at the dead end of the stairs was moving.

"We won't make it in time at this point. We'll be trapped here", Akira declared. "Continue to hold onto me, but get behind me", she added.

Ren let her to go first and lead the way, then out of nowhere, ice started to appear below them. They were no longer running. The ice carried them and pushed them forward in lightning speed. It was like as if they were snowboarding, but this was ten times faster.

"Bend down!" Akira yelled as they were already neared the wall that was closing.

Ren followed her instruction, and they were able to get out just in time. They ran up the stairs quickly, their breathings very heavy.

When they finally got out of the passageway, the two frozen guards were still on their same spots.

"Akira!"

Kaito, his brother and the couple suddenly appeared in the room. They were out of breath as well because they were running frantically.

"We need to get out of here. The alarm system is going off in the entire property. Even the neighbors could hear it. I think they called the police", Sato announced.