That same night at Aaron's, Sara and him decide to have a little indoors date night since Rob's busy at work. They spend time watching TV and doing some other 'fun' stuff till it gets late. Around 10:30, Sara orders an Uber to come take her home so she can get some rest before school tomorrow, and as Aaron's about to walk her out, his phone starts ringing. Mathéo is calling.

"I'll be right there Sara, I need to answer this," Aaron tells his girlfriend before he picks up the device and accepts the call. "What happened this time Mat-"

"Your friend isn't the one speaking," an eerie unfamiliar voice interrupts him from finishing his question. "Hello, Aaron. Do you remember me?"

"Who the fuck is this?"

"We told you that you'd regret ignoring us," the unknown caller says, but Aaron still has no idea who he is talking with. He doesn't recall ever receiving any threatening warnings, especially not from someone whose voice like he could be the slasher from a Scream movie. "Our messages are never to be overlooked."

'Our messages are never to be overlooked.' That particular line reverberates in the teenage boy's mind and he begins to wonder if the man on the phone is the one that left the creepy note that he found in class. If he is, why is he so interested in Aaron? How is he even calling from Mathéo's phone? The latino isn't usually the careless type.

"Are you calling just because I tore a piece of paper? If that's it, it really wasn't that deep."

"I paid a little visit to that friend of yours, the one that owns this number," the mysterious man continues, completely dismissing Aaron's statement. "I'm sure he can prove to you just how serious we really are."

The call immediately ends and Aaron just stands there bewildered. He doesn't understand a single thing he just heard and he can't tell if he should take that absurd conversation seriously or not. Then, a message suddenly drops in the boy's phone that pulls him out of his daze. He just received a picture from Mathéo's number, and when he looks at it, the shock and horror causes him to let go of the gadget. Brutal can't even begin to describe the inhumane nature of the image. In it, he sees Mathéo laying insentient on a field of grass with his body covered in his own blood.

'Is he dead?' the poor victim's closest friend wonders in horror.

Wait, there's more to the photo. It's an added caption. 'I wonder who I'll visit next. Can you guess?'

Sara hears the sound of the phone suddenly hitting the ground and goes back into Aaron's room from the living room to see what happened. She enters and sees her frightened boyfriend staring at the device on the floor. She helps him pick it up, and as soon as she does, she beholds the picture that triggered his reaction. It horrifies her so much that she has to put her hand over her now wide open mouth.

"Did someone..." Sara gulps before finishing, "kill him?"

"I don't know."

"Who sent it to you?"

"How the fuck am I supposed to know?!" Aaron cusses in agitation as his heart begins to beat faster and faster. "Could he really be dead? Maybe that's why he hasn't been answering his calls."

"We just need to calm down and stop rushing to conclusions. Maybe there's a reasonable explanation behind all of this. I'll just call Lyam and ask him." Sara rushes back to the parlor to collect her phone from her bag and calls Mathéo's big brother. It rings for some seconds before he picks up. "Hey, it's Sara. I just wanted to know if, by any chance, your brother's with you."

"No, but I'm in the hospital," Lyam responds with a very noticeable pain in his tone.

"Why are you in the hospital?" she asks him slowly as her heart sinks from hearing his previous reply.

"Mathéo was shot."

* * * *

The taxi doesn't waste time to get Sara and Aaron to Hôpital Albertyn-the hospital where their dear friend has been admitted. They hurry into the building and quickly spot Lyam and both his parents standing at the front desk, waiting for the nurse to come and update them on Mathéo's state. Joséphine (the mother) is visibly in tears, and although the other two aren't crying too, the melancholy in their faces is very evident.

"I'm so sorry about Mathéo," Aaron tries to console the family as Sara and him meet up with them. "Do you know what exactly happened to him?"

"The police believe it was an armed robbery gone wrong," Mrs Badi answers in between her tears. "They found a dead cashier and proof of struggle in a mini-mart close to where Mathéo was found. Fortunately, the girl that was with him was able to dial emergency services before the attacker got to her too. The woman that picked up the call reported hearing screaming and traced the location of the caller's number, but when the team arrived at the scene, the criminal was already gone without a trace and the two of them were on the brink of death." The parent stops as her sobbing intensifies. "If only I had been a better mom to Mathéo, this wouldn't have happened."

"It's not your fault, mom. You didn't do anything wrong," Lyam comforts his mother as he hugs her tightly. "He wouldn't be in this state if I had just driven him home instead of being such an asshole brother."

"But is he alright now? Can we see him?" Sara asks, still holding on to the hope that there's still some good news despite all that.

"No, he isn't alright," Aldéric responds to the question, shattering the girl's fate. "The last we heard from the doctor, his condition was still critical. He hasn't even regained consciousness."

A tall young dark-skinned female officer comes over and cuts the conversation short. She requests to ask the family some more questions in private, so Aaron and Sara move aside in order to give them some privacy. They go over to an empty bench where they both sit quietly for a longtime. They don't know how to react to the information they just heard. After all, they're still having a hard time processing it. But it's not over yet and they get an unexpected visitor.

Aaron and Sara both feel some kind of weapon pressed against the back of their heads all of a sudden. They think it's a gun, but they aren't sure. Sara tries to turn to catch a glimpse of the wielder's face, but he pushes the object harder as an indication that she shouldn't.

"Hello again. I see you came with a friend," a masculine voice whispers into their ears, sending chills down their spines. "It's good to finally meet you in person."

Aaron instantly recognizes the voice. It's the creepy guy that called him earlier tonight using Mathéo's number, there's no doubt about it. 'Why is he here?' the boy wonders.

"I don't know who you are, and frankly I don't care, but it seems you don't realize you're in a public building," Sara points out to the man while trying to sound as confident and poised as she can possibly be in this scenario. "If you kill us here and now, the security cameras will immediately capture your identity and you'll be in a cell in no time."

"So, she's gutsy," the psycho laughs. "It also seems that you don't realize I'm zegen like the both of you. My ability is currently preventing every person and device in this building from seeing and hearing me, apart from you two of course. Therefore, if I did decide to kill you guys, nobody would know it was me that did it. No one would even know I was ever here." Sara's feeling of security and self-assurance instantly vanishes after hearing that. "Don't worry. If I came here to murder you, I would have already done it by now."

"Then what do you fucking want?!" Aaron finally snaps, totally fed up with the ominous man's antics. "Just get to the point!"

"Finally, some character from you," he smiles maliciously. "I just want to have a little chat somewhere private, not here. Come to the abandoned mansion in Chausée de Stockel at nightfall tomorrow." The guy slowly pulls away his weapons and adds, "and I'd advise you not to tell the authorities about this, unless you want me to visit someone else. Maybe I'll meet your dear daddy next time, or even your chérie over here."

Aaron and Sara swiftly turn around in order to see the man threatening them before he escapes, but no one is behind them. 'Did he just disappear?' they both ponder in their heads. Exactly what type of trouble has Aaron somehow brought into his life and the lives of his friend?

* * * *

A few hours later and it's Tuesday, which means it's time to go back to school, but after all the strange events that took place last night, learning isn't exactly the most important matter on Aaron and Sara's minds. All they can think about is 'the stalker' (that's the name they've attributed to the psychotic criminal that seems to be following Aaron). When the two teenagers get to school, they find out the news of Mathéo's attack has circulated like wildfire, although not accurately-as expected. The versions of the story vary from class to class, with some saying he was shot during a bank robbery, and others being as insane as claiming that he was the robber and he was shot by a racist policeman. Some of Aaron and Sara's classmates come up to ask them if they know anything about it, but they deny. They're too afraid of accidentally saying something that'll trigger the stalker's wrath. There's no telling what he'd do if they did.

The school day goes by in a flash, and soon after, it's 6pm-the time the stalker instructed them to meet him. Chausée de Stockel is relatively close to where they live, so they decide to just walk there. Aaron and Sara heed the man's command and don't inform anyone about their destination before leaving. The mansion isn't hard for them to locate 'cause of how infamous it is. The roughly 6000 square feet home whose inhabitants mysteriously vanished about fifty years back, with faded red paint which children rumor was made from 'the blood of the innocent'. The two teens sneak into the premises by climbing over the fence, and as Aaron's about to open the front door, Sara stops him for a moment to ask him a question.

"Are you sure about this?" she asks him concerned. She's starting to have second thoughts about meeting a murderer/ potential psychopath in a gigantic deserted building in the evening.

"Of course, I'm sure. Mathéo almost died 'cause of the stalker's obsession with me. What kind of friend would I be if I neglected an opportunity to stop him before he hurts someone else?" Aaron responds. It's clear in the tone of his voice that he blames himself for his best friend's assault. "You don't have to come with me. You can leave if you're convinced it's too dangerous."

Sara can't dispute Aaron's logic. She knows he's right, and thus she wouldn't feel comfortable abandoning him right now. Mathéo is her friend too and the person who got him hospitalized doesn't deserve to roam around freely.

The both of them pass through the entrance and enter the massive living room. To their surprise, the place isn't in a mess. There isn't even a tint of dust anywhere, almost like someone is still living here. Maybe it's the spirits of the missing occupants. They call out for the stalker to come out, but their voices just echo without a response. Could this be a trap?

The two teens decide to split up in order to find the stalker faster, with Aaron taking the left wing of the house and Sara taking the right. The further they search, the bigger the residence appears to become. After walking around for almost half an hour, Sara starts noticing footprints on the floor. The sizes are too big to belong to her or Aaron, so she chooses to follow them and they lead her to a ballroom. The room is almost large enough to serve as an event hall. She looks around closely but doesn't find anyone, and as she's about to move on to another room, she hears him.

"Sara! I found him!" Aaron yells from afar.

Sara races for the door, but before she can reach it, a strong supernatural force slams it shut.

'Was that wind?' she wonders. She stretches out her hand to grab the door knob, but then the same mystical force pulls her whole body backwards, sending her to the floor. She rises back up despite the pain from falling on concrete ground and turns around to see someone literally emerging from the giant mirror attached to the wall. It's a guy, with chocolate colored skin like Sara. He's young, not much older than the girl standing in front of him (probably in his early 20s). Sara doesn't trust him. She can almost sense a sinister omen from him.

"Hi there. You can call me M," he introduces himself almost joyfully as he approaches her. "What should I call you?"

"Don't come any closer!" Sara extends her right hand and a rapier made entirely of ice materializes in her palm, with the blade pointing directly at M. "I demand that you let me out of here right now."

"There's no need for violence. My boss told me to keep you in here, so I can't fulfill that request, but we can still have some fun together." M stomps his left foot and the force of his power flings Sara against the locked door behind her. "Let's play a little game of 'who can hit the hardest'."

"He's as insane as the stalker," Sara says to herself as she forces herself up to one knee and plunges her icy sword into the floor, causing the whole ground beneath her to freeze over. "If you want a game, I'll give you a game," she says to him before ramparts of ice begin growing out from the floor around M, entrapping him in a makeshift ice prison.

"Now you're getting it," he smiles as he stretches out both hands and releases a strong wind that bursts the cage open. To his astonishment, Sara appears to have vanished. "Are we playing hide and seek now?"

With M's guard down, Sara runs out from behind the shelf where she's hiding and thrusts her blade right through her opponent's back. Her grace and execution are flawless, she's a trained fencer after all, but her target doesn't react. It's as if the pain is non-existent for him, like he wasn't just stabbed.

'Is he even human?' the young girl asks herself in horror before another sudden burst of air sends her flying into the mirror. She falls to the ground, blood slowly flowing out of the cuts the broken glass shards have left on her back, barely holding on to consciousness.

"This is such a disappointment. I expected you to be more thrilling than this," M frowns as he pulls the weapon out of his back and the hole in his body immediately closes up. "What do I do with you now?" he scratches his head.

'How is this even possible? A zegen can't have more than one ability, it isn't natural. What sort of monstrosity is this guy?' Those are the thoughts going through Sara's mind as she helplessly looks at M in pure fear.

* * * *

Sometime after Aaron and Sara separate in order to cover more ground more swiftly, Aaron hears some kind of noise from nowhere in the mansion. He traces the source of the sound and finds himself in front of a wooden door that has gotten more than its fair share of termite visits.

"Sara! I found him!" he shouts to notify his girlfriend before opening the door and entering what he believes is supposed to be a game room. There are a lot of old school indoor gaming equipment inside-like a chess and ping pong board-and then he spots him. Over at the pool table, a burly middle-aged white man is playing a game with himself. So, that's what the stalker looks like without the hoodie.

"So you've finally found me. I was starting to think I was going to wait here forever," the stalker says as he drops the pool stick on the table. He takes a step towards Aaron before multiple spikes as black as pure darkness protrude all of a sudden out of his shadow, stopping barely an inch away from the criminal's neck, forcing him to halt his movement.

"This sick game of yours has gone on long enough. You don't get to hurt my friend and then pretend everything's good," Aaron tells the man, his eyes burning with hatred and anger, but the guy just laughs.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you. In case you didn't know, one of my associates is with that girl of yours-I believe her name is Sara-right this moment. If he doesn't hear even a single word from me within the next ten minutes, he has orders to kill her. So, for her sake, I'd strongly advise that you lay down the theatrics, except if you want to go ahead and test my honesty."

So, that's why Sara hasn't caught up with Aaron. Oh fuck! Our protagonist has once again been cornered by the stalker and he has no other choice than to do as he says and dispel his shadow weapons, which he does.

"Okay, fine," the teen surrenders and all the shadow spikes fade away. "You said you wanted to talk about something. What is it?"

"Your origin. Considering you are adopted, I imagine you're somewhat curious about where you came from, are you not?" the stalker responds as a sinister smile forms on his face. "Have you heard of the Zomer clan?"

"Is that from an anime?"

"I'm not surprised you don't know about them. The negative forces in your life are trying to hide the truth from you."

"What are you talking about? Which 'negative forces'?" Aaron asks, even more confused.

"It's too much to explain by mouth, I'd rather you see it for yourself," the man says as he approaches the boy and places something resembling a business card in his chest pocket. "Follow the directions and you'll discover what I'm talking about."

Aaron pulls out the card and sees a code written on it. 4 01.2128. It looks like GPS coordinates, but to where? At the bottom of the piece of paper, there's a phone number. Does the stalker really expect him to be dumb enough to actually contact him, or is it just another trap? At this point, nothing that man does makes any sense to him.

"One last counsel before I leave you." The malevolent man stops as he's about to leave through the door and adds, "it's best you stay wary of that boy you call your best friend. In the end, normals can never truly be trustworthy, at least not when it concerns powerful zegens like us."

The stalker walks out the door and Aaron immediately runs after him to demand an explanation for his statement, but he's gone. Vanished like a ghost. The boy stands there, trying to comprehend any part of the exchange he just had, but then he remembers Sara is in trouble.

"Sara! Sara! Are you there?!" he shouts at the top of his lungs as he searches from room to room for his darling until he hears a response.

"I'm here!"

Aaron follows her voice and eventually arrives in the ballroom. Sara's on the floor, on top of pieces of shattered glass and too weak to stand. The sicko responsible for her current state is nowhere to be seen. Aaron rushes to her aid and helps carry her out of the mansion. Thankfully, she didn't sustain any grave injuries that would take too long nor be impossible to hide from her parents. As Aaron piggybacks Sara back to his house, he can't help but think about his conversation with the stalker and what he's going to do next about the issue at hand.