Almost as soon as Shintaro's terror had come, it vanished again. Although the accent was exactly the same - which confused Shintaro - the voice didn't have the "rumble" behind the words, nor was the voice deep enough. It didn't have the same throatiness that Brethren's voice held, but it wasn't that the voice was super high. 

"I know you're out there," the man said sharply, but Shintaro could hear the tremor in his voice. Whatever this man was expecting, it was something he was afraid of. "What do you want?" 

Amy caught Shintaro's eye, giving him a frown that looked insulted, wary, and confused. She lifted her right arm in a shrug, then turned her head toward the door again; but she said nothing yet. 

"I know you're there," the man repeated firmly, and Shintaro saw his shadow under the door shift uncomfortably. "Tell me what you're doing here, and I won't come out there." The man took a deep breath, his shadow moving slightly again, as if he was switching his weight from one foot to the other. 

"Well," Amy said suddenly, turning all attention to her, "I kind of want to know what you're doing in my house." She stepped around Shintaro to stand in front of the door, her hands on her hips. "We're not here to start trouble, if that's what you're thinking. Open the door and let's talk." 

Shintaro sidestepped slightly to plant himself in between the rest of his friends the man on the other side of the door. If this man was a threat, Shintaro would not let him get to his friends. They'd already gone through enough, and he wouldn't let any more of them get hurt. 

The man inside was quiet for a few moments, but eventually, there was a soft clicking sound, the handle turned, and slowly, the door opened. 

A lean, pale man was standing in the doorway, a wooden bat clutched in his right hand and the doorknob in his other. For a fleeting moment, he looked almost exactly like Brethren, making Shintaro's heart jump again. But as Shintaro forced himself to get a closer look, he realized that the man only looked like Brethren. His facial features were only similar to Brethren's. His eyes were the same red color, but they were too wide and not as slanted. His jawline wasn't a sharp as Brethren's, but his mouth and lips were almost identical. His hair, down to his elbows and black, was like Brethren's; but it looked a bit thinner. He wasn't quite as tall as Shintaro - he was about up to Shintaro's nose - but he wasn't as tall as Brethren either. His eyebrows were knit together in wary curiosity as his red eyes traveled around the group standing on his doorstep. 

Shintaro narrowed his eyes in confusion and frustration, questions looping around in his mind. Why did this man live here, and how long had he been residing in Amy's house? Why did he look so similar to Brethren? He seemed like a Dark, but did all powerful Darks look that way? (Thorn had the same red eyes, and he was powerful.) Was he a threat? 

A sudden, small, and familiar wrench in Shintaro's stomach made his thoughts slam to a halt for a moment. As he blinked cautiously at the confused man, Shintaro realized that this man was a Dark - and a very powerful one, based on the twisting on Shintaro's stomach. 

Amy crossed her arms over her torso, looking the man up and down quicker than Shintaro could keep track of. He couldn't see her expression, but he could tell she was frowning at him in confusion and wonder. 

"Your house?" the man repeated in his thick accent, tipping his head slightly at Amy. He looked around him again, clearly very confused about why there was a whole group of campers standing outside of the lonely house. 

"Yes, my house," Amy said, and Shintaro could feel the rest of his friends stare at Amy's back in confusion and realization. "Well, it was my house. I grew up here, but we never sold it - so I'm not sure why you are living here." 

The man looked back to her and blinked in dumbfounded confusion. He seemed to be a little more docile than before, but he still held the baseball bat firmly in his right hand. "I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that anyone lived here. When I ... came here, the house looked abandoned." 

"Well, it kind of was," Amy said, cocking her hip to the side and tilting her head at him. "But my family never sold it. I thought that it would remain abandoned, since they died years ago. So tell me," she said in a lower voice, "why are you living in my house?" 

The man shrank slightly farther into the house, flinching a little at the hard look Amy had apparently given him. His left hand moved from the doorway, and Shintaro's eyes dropped to the bat - but the man's other hand rested at his side. "I'm sorry," he said again. "No one was here when I arrived. I... I needed a place to stay. I figured that this house was abandoned." 

"You needed a place to stay?" Amy echoed back to him curiously. "Do you not have your own place to go back to?" 

She didn't say it rudely, but the man flinched, his shoulders tensing and his gaze falling away from her. He hesitated before answering, "No, I didn't." 

"Are you hiding from something?" Linda suddenly asked from behind Shintaro - no, beside him. He hadn't realized that she'd moved to his side, standing alertly on his right side. Shintaro wasn't sure if she'd already gotten that information from the man's mind and was asking to make her seem less suspicious; or if she simply wanted to know.

The man's red eyes, which reminded him way too much of Brethren, darted over to Linda. He stared at her with an expression that Shintaro couldn't read - fear, confusion, wariness, or wonder? - for almost a minute before speaking. "Y-Yes, actually. Who wouldn't be? There are thousands of Darks on the loose, under the control of The Dark Lord." 

Shintaro wasn't sure if anyone else caught it, but there was a slight hesitation in the man's word before he said The Dark Lord. Shintaro wasn't sure what it meant - whether it meant that the man hated The Dark Lord just as much as everyone else, or he was working for him and had gone to the house because he'd known where the group was heading, or he knew The Dark Lord's name - but he told himself to be wary around this man. 

Beside him, Linda narrowed her eyes curiously at the man. Her expression betrayed the fact that she wanted to question further because she'd found from his mind that he was a Dark; but she didn't say anything else.

The man looked back to Amy. "I truly am sorry for moving in without your permission," he said softly with a small dip of his upper body. "If you'd like, I can leave." He hid the wistfulness well, but his expression showed the gnawing anxiety that was tearing at his mind if he were to leave. 

He really was hiding from the Darks. 

But why? 

He was one of them, and a very powerful one. He probably would be a high ranking if he lived with the Darks. 

He probably does, Shintaro reminded himself. He's very likely to be a spy, sent here by Brethren. Do not trust him. 

Amy uncrossed her arms. "No, that's alright," she said graciously, and Shintaro directed his frown to the back of her head. "We're actually hiding from the Darks as well." 

Shintaro tensed, cursing himself for not stopping Amy from saying that sooner. Even Linda looked alarmed and regretful after Amy had said this. 

The man perked up a little. "I can help you with that," he said, his accented voice changing from weary almost to something that sounded cheerful, but it wasn't quite that. "No one has found me here so far, and I've lived here for years. I think you'd be safe here." 

Shintaro scowled at Amy's head, wanting to strangle her for giving away too much information. 

"Come in," the man said, stepping backward into the house and waving them forward with his free hand. "I believe this house has enough room for all of you." 

Shintaro wasn't sure why they were suddenly trusting this man; but he remembered that the others couldn't tell that he was a Dark. Only Linda and Shintaro knew, and they couldn't talk about it right now. 

Which meant their only choice was to believe him, for now. They would investigate while they were staying with him. 

But Shintaro wouldn't trust him.

"Well, we should probably know you're name if we're going to stay here," Amy said cheerfully as she stepped into the doorway, shrugging off her backpack carefully.

"Ozai," the man said politely, giving Amy a small smile.

Something about that name made Shintaro's skin prickle, but he wasn't sure why. As he cautiously stepped into the doorway, he racked his brain for the mention of the name. Linda seemed to recognize it as well, because she gave him a wary look.

Suddenly, Shintaro remembered where he'd heard that name before. 

It had been mentioned almost four months prior. 

Shintaro had been on his knees in front of his father when Brethren had asked for a man by the name of Ozai. 

Brethren was looking for this man. 

But why? 

What did that make Ozai?

~

ANOTHER CHAPTER! I'm sorry that took so long to write. It's kind of a long chapter, and I had to eat dinner and do some quick chores.

BUT IT'S OUT NOW!!!

AND THERE'S A NEW CHARACTER!!

But who IS he? 

Brethren mentioned him before, in Escape, remember? 

But what does he want with Ozai?? 

WHO IS OZAI?!?!

Welp, thanks for reading fwens!!

LOVE Y'ALL LOTS!! :)

P3ac3!!~~