ROSE'S EYES POPPED OUT OF THEIR SOCKETS THE MOMENT SHE SET HER EYES upon the magnificent house looming up in front of them. She considered whether she should call that a castle or not. On the second thought, it bore no resemblance to a castle. It was massive, that's it.

Rose remembered The Blackwood Castle, standing for two hundred years, showing no signs of collapsing soon. It was the pride and soul of their city, grand and somehow inspiring.

She glanced at her companions who were gawking at the large gate in front of them along with her. George's house was one thing, this was another. While George's house somehow reminded of houses from Greek mythology, all pillars, intricate designs carved onto the surfaces, and the greenery, this one was very elegant.

In the case of George's house, Rose knew that something magical and magnificent was located behind those large gates as she roamed around the city. But Rose never expected what could be behind these gates, because it was a gated residential. Normal people couldn't enter the gates unless they had a permit.

She tore her eyes from the oddly elegant house, staring at the other oddly elegant houses lining the entire street. She sighed and glanced at Theo, "Call Beth."

Theo, who had been glaring at the house for some reason gladly took his phone and called his sister. "Damn it, Beth," he muttered into the phone. "You said that the house would catch you off guard but this much? Come out, will you?" Beth had warned them about the houses, warned them about the kids too, who were kind of arrogant. It's absolutely fine if you don't want to babysit them. I can totally imagine Kai losing his patience because of them, she had said.

Bethany McCallister's face emerged from the shadows, more like the opposite of shadows. She appeared from the light, walking over to them and throwing her arms around her little brother. She ushered them inside as she laughed at their awestruck expressions.

She ruffled her brother's hair, gave Kai a fist bump after which they made a 'whoosh' sound, gave Will a high five, gave Shay a warm hug, pulled Jade's cheek and came to Rose who was behind all of them. Rose held her arms out to hug her but stopped when Beth was still. Suddenly without a warning, Beth yelled out, "Boo!"

Even though she was right in front of her and there was no reason to be surprised, Rose flinched and put a hand on her heart. "How many times have I told you not to scare me like that Bethany?!?" The elder girl just laughed, "Seriously? How does that count as scaring?"

Rose opened her mouth to disagree but stopped when a pretty woman in a suit came walking towards them. She had a tired look on her face but managed a genuine smile when she looked at them. "Bethany told me about you guys," she said, smiling kindly at each of them. "So good to meet you guys. I'm Isabelle Carter, but please call me Isabelle. Mrs Carter makes me feel old." She told with a laugh.

Bethany excused herself after she got a call from her father, hugged Isabelle and her brother, wiggling her fingers in their eyebrow before leaving with a sarcastic bow and tipping of an imaginary hat. Siblings were so alike.

They followed Isabelle into the house, staring with open mouths for the second time in the same week. While George's house had statues with fountains outside the house, there were some statues inside this house, and Rose walked as far as she could from them. Even though she was distanced from those statues, she couldn't help but dread the prospect of breaking one of that priceless stuff. She would be indebted to them even after their death, her ghost hovering around to pay them money.

Or to haunt her best friends.

A girl who looked two years older than them passed them as she headed towards the main door, and Rose could say that she wasn't from Blackwood. They knew everyone in Blackwood. The girl stared longingly at Will, who didn't notice her. The girl paused to admire Will from afar.

She kept gazing at Will, her eyes lingering on his body. Will still didn't notice a stare which was burning holes into his body. He never noticed people who stared at him, girls and sometimes guys too. People flirted and winked at him, but Will never realized they were doing that. He was only focused on Shay, looking at her like she was the miracle in the world, someone who was too good to exist in this world.

While Will would never notice people staring at him, Kai definitely would catch any admiring glances his way. He would wink back at them too, causing girls to hide behind their hair and giggle.

Isabelle led them to the basement, which made the girl lose sight of Will much to her disappointment. The room downstairs was impressive and looked like it was the game room of the house. The first things Rose caught sight of was a large air hockey table, comfortable sofas, all sorts of games around them, and a large flat-screen television.

After bidding a farewell, Isabelle closed the door behind her gently. Rose stared at the kids whom they were supposed to babysit. She had been too busy observing the room around them that she didn't notice the loud shouts from the kids. They didn't bother to look at Rose and her companion's presence continued yelling at each other. She had now understood why Isabelle had whispered 'Good luck with that' before leaving.

Their shouting was too loud for Rose's liking, and she got annoyed. They tried stopping the kid's shouting, but their yelling got even louder. Kai finally lost it as Beth predicted, and banged his open palm on the table in front of them. He winced at his effort to look dramatic but yelled in frustration, "Would you guys shut the—"

Kai gulped with alarm after seeing the stern look on Rose's face.

The kids had stopped yelling much to Rose's relief, one of them stood up. Rose identified him as Josh Carter. He glared at the strangers, "How dare you enter the house without any supervision? Then you further sneak into this room and dare to shout at us? My father shall hear about this." Rose stifled a chuckle, as the last part of the dialogue reminded her of a fictional character.

While Will calmly explained about their presence there, Rose busied herself by observing the shelf full of books in the corner of the room. The room was so beautifully furnished, in fact, the entire house had been furnished beautifully. Nothing felt out of space. Everything fit perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle.

Her attention was drawn back as Josh raised his voice, "Babysit? We are not kids, and we don't need you people to look after us, we are seven years old okay? We can definitely look after ourselves."

"Seven years?! My, you guys are pretty old aren't you? Well, we would go back but your parents were certainly under the impression that you wouldn't be able to look after yourselves, that's why they asked us to do the job." Kai smiled at them revealing his teeth as he ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up more.

The kids shrugged simultaneously, to which Rose and her friends shrugged. Josh fell onto one of the soft-looking couches, scrolling through his iPhone. Which looked like the latest version.

Rose's eyebrows rose and stayed there.

Josh issued an open challenge to beat him in a video game. Rose chuckled when she heard Kai mutter under his breath, "Dammit. I suck at video games."

Theo glanced sideways at Kai with a relieved expression, "Baby steps, baby steps," he reminded himself. Upon his friend's confused glances, except Jade's smile, he explained, "Baby steps at admitting he sucks at everything."

Kai looked at Theo with a raised eyebrow and a look which was meant to intimidate Theo, "What did you say?"

Theo giggled, "Oh, look. He sucks at hearing too."

Josh cleared his throat, "Will any of you play it with me?" Theo and Kai were glaring at each other, Theo's expression challenging Kai to play it. If Theo or Jade were to play with him, they would definitely win the game no matter how amazing the other person was.

Kai huffed and smirked, his head held high. "I will." Rose shook her head. She could see him crawling on the ground with despair after losing the game. Kai and Josh were soon sitting in front of the TV, engrossed in playing the game.

Rose sighed as she heard another argument breaking out behind her. Will and Jade were quarrelling with each other, wearing matching glares on their faces. Rose stepped in the middle, glaring at both of them. "Stop. Stop! You want the kids to learn to fight with each other?"

Will and Jade stopped, not wanting to face the wrath of Rose's anger. Rose smiled with satisfaction, "Good. Now hug."

"What?"

"You heard me." When she looked at their horrified faces, she added sternly. "Hug. Now."

"But, mom!" Both of them whined. That would usually make Rose mad and make her forget about it, but she stood her ground. "Don't make me repeat it. Now!"

Will and Jade eyed each other warily as they stepped closer to hug. They hugged each other stiffly as if the touch was burning them. They broke off quickly and looked at Rose, but she was too busy laughing with Shay.

"I didn't think they would actually do it!" She said as she laughed, clutching her stomach.

"Rose," Both of them growled. But she and Shay were too busy laughing, even Kai broke off from playing to laugh with them and give Rose a high five. Another giggle was added to her laughing fit when she heard a— "Why you sneaky little bast—" Kai stopped and mended his sentence. "That is so cheating."

Kai and Josh were still playing the game. Judging by Kai's glare and Josh's smirk, Rose could say what was happening. Kai was letting out a string of curses, only to stop halfway when he caught the look of death on Rose's face. "Why you little ass—" He flinched when Rose threw a ball at him.

Josh took advantage of Kai's distraction. "I won, I won, I won..." The little guy kept chanting. Kai was flapping his hands, but Josh swatted them away. Kai interrupted Josh's victory chant, "Hey! You saw that she threw a ball at me, and I was distracted," he said, pointing an accusatory finger at Rose, "and you didn't bother to pause the game."

Rose whipped her head in the direction when she heard a shrill scream. Two boys were fighting with each other again, screaming at the top of their lungs. Rose was surprised that blood didn't flow out of her ears yet.

He let out a breath of relief when Will stepped in between them, separating the two boys who wore identical scowls on their faces. One of the boys tugged at Will's shirt, "He started it."

The other one glared, "No. He started it."

Their argument continued as if Will hadn't interrupted it. Will spoke to both of them calmly, kneeling to their heights. "Now, he's what we are going to do..." he said, looking into the angry eyes of the boys.

Both the guys nodded but still glared at each other. Will sighed with a frown, "If you promise to you won't start fighting again, I will give both of you a chocolate."

"A chocolate?" One of them asked incredulously. Will frowned as he shook his head, "Maybe a big one?"

"Seriously? We are not kids, we don't like chocolates any more." Will smiled patiently, "What do you want then?"

The kid looked into Will's eyes as he counted off his fingers, "A new PlayStation, a Lamborghini GT, a house in Beverly Hills beside Beyoncé's, a trip to Europe..." he trailed off. Theo looked at the kid with wide eyes, "Woah, woah, woah. What makes you think we can afford those? Why wouldn't we buy them if we could afford them? Kids these days..."

Both the kids glared at Theo, mimicking and muttering under their breath simultaneously, "Adults these days..." They then looked at each other surprised, then shrugged and apologized.

"So," Will nudged Kai as he gloomily sat beside Will, "how was it, losing to a seven-year-old?" Theo snickered. Kai smacked both Will and Theo, but knowing them, they weren't gonna let go of it easily.

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Shay stared at her cell phone screen with barely contained disbelief. She read the entire thing again, then again. What had happened would definitely affect Blackwood's well-being. Negatively.

"Will!" Shay called out loudly. He had to know about this. All her friends came rushing near the dining table, Will was the first one to come. "What is it?" He asked worriedly, scanning her anxiously for any signs of sadness. Shay shook her head as she motioned towards the phone.

Shay turned to give him the phone but was soon aware of his presence behind her. Will leaned over the dining chair she had been sitting on, both his hands resting on the dining table on either side of her. Her breath hitched. He was so close to her, his head right beside hers as he read the contents of the report of the journalists. His tousled brown hair was tickling the side of her face. Will leaned away, much to her disappointment after reading the entire thing. Shay didn't know she had been holding on a breath.

"I—I don't know what to say," Will said, covering his eyes with his hands. "What is it?" All her best friends asked at a time, which was creepy. Will sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, "The cops wanted to interrogate Samuel about Bennett Garcia's behaviour because Sam was the last one who saw him. They gave him time before approaching his house because Sam needed time to process his friends' death. But, Sam's missing."

"What?"

"There's more. You know he doesn't live with his family so there was no one to report this."

"Go on," They all urged him to continue.

"Things were written on his living room's wall with what loos like black paint." Will paused again, referring to the report and looking back again.

Will grimaced and said, "Most of it was undecipherable but there's this. It's from the lyrics of a song: 'Count my cards, watch them fall. Blood on a marble wall, I like the way they all, scream.'"

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