BLOOD WAS GUSHING OUT FROM SHAY'S WOUND AT an alarming rate. Rose fished out her handkerchief and handed it to Will, who had always been good at mending wounds. Shay smiled at all of them to show that the wound didn't hurt, but Rose could tell that the smile was fake and that it didn't quite reach her eyes.

Rose glanced at the deep cut on Shay's open palm, blood dripping onto the ground like it was an offering. She glanced at the sharp knife again and could say by the look in Shay's eyes that it was hurting her.

Just when Will took the cloth and lifted Shay's hand gently to apply pressure on the wound, a voice stopped him. All of them froze and looked in the direction of the voice, finding an elderly man standing there. Rose looked around her. They had been standing in a completely deserted place where no one usually came and were alarmed by the sudden presence.

The elderly man standing in front of them fixed his spectacles and peered at all of them. He had a kind face, his eyes holding the wisdom of the world. He seemed eerily familiar, even though Rose knew she didn't meet him face to face. He chuckled when he realized no one heard him, and patiently repeated his question again with a smile.

"The wound looks really deep, is it okay if I help you with that?" He asked as he approached them, and close up Rose could see his eyes through the glass of the specs. They were grey, and Rose knew that she saw those eyes somewhere. She was sure of it. His eyes held a fair amount of sadness in them, contrasting the smile on his face.

Rose knew that it would be a very bad idea to accept help from strangers with everything happening in Blackwood, but had a feeling that they could trust him. Everybody stood stiffly, the gears in their minds rotating with blinding speed.

Everyone knew everyone in Blackwood. Rose knew that she would've met George's family at some point in her life, not George because he wasn't someone who was of their generation. He seemed really familiar to her, but Rose couldn't pinpoint when she saw him. Yet, she knew she never met him. Maybe she met his children or grandchildren.

When the man was met with complete silence, he laughed. "I'm not a threat to you guys," he said, waving his hand. "I just want to help your bleeding friend there." He said as he nodded at Shay and smiled at her, who smiled back.

Helping Shay back to her feet but not leaving her hand, Will smiled. "We are sorry for our behaviour, we were just shocked by your sudden presence. I'm Will, and this is Shay. Kai, Rose, Theo, and Jade."

"I'm George. You can call me by my name," he said as he approached Shay. "May I?" he asked, nodding to Shay's hand. After getting Shay's approval, he took her hand to observe the wound. "Is that the knife you hurt yourself with?"

Upon Shay's look of horror, he corrected his sentence, chuckling. "By mistake. The wound is pretty deep. You need to clean it carefully. My lab's nearby, and I'm a scientist, I've worked with doctors too. I could apply some antiseptics to your friend's cut."

Will smiled, nodding. "Sure. Thank you for your help." Kai and Theo looked at Will incredulously, their eyes widening. Jade looked like she was thinking but was okay with it. This shocked Rose. Jade had a very hard time trusting people and opening up to them, and she expected Jade to revolt against the idea of trusting someone to never met, going to their house. This went against everything their parents told them when they were young.

Rule One: Never trust a stranger. Don't take anything they offer, don't follow them anywhere.

Jade sensed Rose's eyes on her and shrugged, nodding to Will. Rose nodded back, understanding what she meant. Will would never agree to go to someone's house without recognizing them. That meant he remembered who George was. If Rose got to know his last name, she would recognize him almost immediately.

George walked a little ahead of them, giving them space as he led them towards his lab. Kai hissed at Will, "Dude. What is this? You can't trust someone you just met, Will. New people have been moving into Blackwood, people we've never met. He looks familiar to me, but I don't think this is a good idea."

Will looked sideways at Kai, his hands interlinked with Shay's. "I can't believe this. You didn't recognize him? He isn't someone who moved in recently, Kai. He's someone who lived here his entire life. Not only that, but he's an amazing scientist, someone who is not known by many people. But he's known in Blackwood. I'm surprised you didn't recognize him. He's constantly on newspapers."

Theo looked like he would interject to oppose Will's point but Will sighed. "Okay, let's just say we don't check newspapers, or we don't know about scientists. Doesn't he look familiar, at least? His black hair or grey eyes?" Will looked at his companion's blank faces and ran a hand through his hair.

"Guys, he is—" Will stopped when they passed through large gates.

Rose knew Blackwood like the back of her hand, she knew everyone else did too. They would never get lost in Blackwood. Deposit them into the darkest and deepest, twisting alleys, and they would find their way back into their houses.

Rose remembered passing by these large gates, always curious what would lie beneath them. Even though there were no guards securing the area, Rose didn't want to go into someone's property without their knowledge. It was looking as majestic as always.

Trees had always obscured the view of whatever lay beneath those large gates, but as Rose walked through she could see there was a large house somewhere away in the distance. There were wooden fences bordering the entire property, wire fences beneath it. One could only see the gates, but trees had always blocked the view.

It was gorgeous. A vast variety of flora and fauna greeted them, it was a scenery seen in animated movies. The house looming in front of them looked like it was out of Greek mythology. Statues located in front of them, pillars laced with wines, impressive designs etched onto the surface of the walls.

George opened the door, and they stepped in. All of them let out a breath, taking in everything with wide eyes. Huge staircases went in different directions, intricate designs and breathtaking artworks covering every inch of the house.

"Holy shit," Jade and Theo muttered in fascination, their eyes glued to the modern tech. Will was openly gawking at the paintings on the wall, his eyes shining with appreciation towards whoever the artist was. Shay was looking at the greenery seen through the floor to ceiling windows, it almost provided an illusion that there was no glass between them. Kai was looking longingly at the grand piano located on the side, whereas Rose was taking in every detail.

She looked up to find crystal chandeliers hanging from the high roofs, the floor was a gorgeous black marble with gold veins. George's footsteps echoed as he led them towards another room, and threw it open. Distractedly, Rose thought how amazing it would be to play hide-and-seek inside the massive house they were in.

Rose sucked in a deep breath when she looked at the room they were in. The nerd inside Rose was screaming in delight. It was a lab. An amazing lab. It was a large area, and Rose knew it was enough to conduct their school's prom if all the equipment was put aside.

With shining eyes, Rose looked around her. George led Shay to a chair, and Rose smiled when she saw Will and Shay were still holding hands. She wanted their friends to get together, she shipped them very badly. Will had always looked at Shay like she was the first star in the whole world, a star burning brightly which was the first one he ever saw. Shay had always looked at Will like he was a miracle, the kind which you keep close to one's heart.

Shay sucked in a breath as George cleaned the wound, whimpering slightly, but her expression was blank. After cleaning the wound, George looked at Shay. "This is gonna sting. But I think I know that you can bear the pain because you smiled at your friends to show that it didn't hurt, even though I know the wound is deep enough to send burning aches through your palm."

Shay's mouth twitched into a small smile at that, but it disappeared when George applied the antiseptic on her palm. She didn't jerk her hand away or make a sound, instead, she put on her blank face. A blank face that would've made Jade proud.

Leo had moved away from Jade's tight grasp and sat by Shay's leg, licking her leg to comfort her. Shay smiled down at Leo, but couldn't pat his head because her hand was tightly grasping Will's.

George tied a tourniquet and admired his handiwork, "Done." He said as he smiled at everyone. They smiled in return with gratitude, thanking George. George laughed and waved their apologies away. Leo sniffed George, and after having an internal war, he finally licked him. George chuckled as he crouched down, patting his head and scratching the back of Leo's ear. Leo falls on George, licking his face as George laughed and fended Leo off.

"Aren't you guys hungry?" He asked, smiling at them. That smile was almost constantly on his face.

Will shook his head, "Oh, no. We wouldn't want to cause you more trouble." George waved his hand dismissively, "Nonsense. Teenagers need to eat. Kids these days are giving more importance to their beauty than their health, not eating properly. It is pure luck that I just baked a very large cake this morning, and now I can share it."

Ignoring their joint protests, George walked out of the room and was back very quickly, returning with a very massive chocolate cake. He cut it into multiple slices, and they ate them. Everyone ended up getting two or three slices, and Rose stared at the last slice on the plate. She reached for it, Kai simultaneously reaching for it.

Both of them froze and shared a glance, challenging each other. They glared at each other, their hands reaching to seize the plate. Rose's hand was on one side of the plate, Kai's on the other side. Both of them were snatching the plate furiously, now it was a competition rather than for the cake.

"It's mine!"

"Mine!"

Both of them stood at a time, whining and grabbing the plate. George raised his hands in a surrendering manner, "I can bake another..."

"No!" Both of them roared at a time. "I don't want another cake, I want this one!" Finally, Kai stopped struggling, making Rose wonder if it was a trick. In a flash, Kai huffed and took the cake into his hands. Just when Rose was about to yell that it was cheating, Kai surprised her by stuffing the large slice into her mouth. "Fine," he said, pouting as she almost choked, struggling to chew the large piece.

Her mouth hurt because of the enormous cake piece Kai stuffed into her mouth, and her eyes watered. George watched them amusedly, and he looked kind of happy.

Rose knew why he was happy in a second when he asked his question.

"Are you both together? You guys are so cute!" George said, a wild amount of excitement in his voice. "Damn, I totally ship you guys! How did you guys meet? I need the details!"

Rose's eyes widened, and unfortunately, she couldn't open her mouth and tell George that it wasn't the truth because of the cake in her mouth. If she opened her mouth, the cake would come out.

So she looked at Kai and gestured for him to correct George, but he had a weird look on his face. Rose knew what he was going to do even before a lightbulb practically appeared above his head and lit up brightly, even before he got a smug look on his face and he smirked.

Rose groaned inwardly.

"Yes," Kai drawled his answer and watched with amusement as Rose shook her head wildly. He threw a hand over her shoulder, leaning slightly on her but not that much that it was throwing her off balance. "George says that we are cute, Rose! Isn't that great! Thank you, George!" Kai beamed at George, who beamed right back.

Rose tried to shove Kai, but he just leaned in more closely. She looked back at her friends and gestured wildly at them to do something, but two of them whistled and two of them smirked.

Traitors.

Rose glared at Kai, trying to chew the cake quickly. She scowled at Kai as he chuckled. He pouted, "Babe, come on. I sacrificed my piece of cake for you!" He said as he hugged her, but pulled away slightly alarmed when she hit his chest with her fists.

"Rose, you know I'd give anything for you. The cake was nothing, I'd give my—" He stopped as she pushed him, and he laughed. Kai hugged her again, this time tightly. Rose chewed the piece of the cake quickly, as it was impossible to gobble the whole thing.

Kai pulled away but had his hand over her shoulder as George asked, "You guys are so cute! Where did you meet?" George was almost squealing. Rose scowled at the smirking boy beside her, and she heard her friends chuckling behind them.

She whirled and gave them a look that shut them up. Then she turned to look at Kai, lifting her palm up. Kai's eyes widened. Rose's lips slightly twitched up into a smirk.

She had slapped him that day, she would slap him now if he wouldn't stop.

Kai gulped, "Okay! Okay! There's no need to slap me, goddammit woman! I'll tell him, I'll tell him!" Kai turned to George, his expression serious.

"We met in a grocery store."

Rose growled, stepping towards Kai. His eyes widened in alarm as she glared at him, and he put out his hands in front of him with mock surrender. "Okay, okay." He turned to George. "I was just kidding, we aren't dating. She's my best friend. I did that because I like to mess with her."

George nodded sadly, "That's sad." He said, but there was a very small smirk on his face. Rose was frustrated with herself. She couldn't believe that she isn't able to recall George. If only she knew his last name...

Will had clearly recognized him, Shay too. Theo and Kai didn't, and if Jade did, she didn't show it on her face. But Jade was good at hiding emotions.

Rose looked at George closely, recalling what Will had said earlier.

Doesn't he look familiar, at least? His black hair or grey eyes?

His grey eyes do look familiar. There was a defeated look in his eyes, but there was also determination in them. They were tormented as if he lost something precious in his life. But he looked like he wouldn't give up. Rose chewed the last small piece of cake thoughtfully.

Rose could swear she saw those eyes somewhere, including the emotions going on in them. A memory flashed suddenly, a memory of lifeless grey eyes staring up at the sky.

"You are Anthony's grandfather, aren't you?"

The words left Rose's mouth before she could even stop herself, and she regretted those words as soon as they came out.

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