007 -

The sun has just set, with a small part of the sky on the western horizon still bright with a rosy orange thick cloud. Meanwhile, the dense woods around the cemetery are already so dark.

She walks hurriedly, no longer caring about the snake venom in her blood. Even so, she still drags her left leg because of the burning pain in her left thigh.

“What kind of liquid did he give me?”

Over time, the pain has subsided, but not with her irritation. She continues to grumble, until she sees a man in the distance.

It’s a tough looking guy with a barren head in his mid 40s. The man is also noticing her presence, and raises one of his hands.

“Young lady!” He calls with a hoarse voice.

“Alfred! What are you doing there?” asks the girl.

Soon, she also notices another man, lying face down on the ground near the tough looking guy she called Alfred. As she gets closer, she realizes that it is actually Thomas.

“This guy? What did you do to him?” she asks.

She intends to check on Thomas’s condition, but Alfred prevents her. Carefully, he pushes the katana away from Thomas' hand using his right foot.

“Was this your doing?” the girl frowns.

“What? No! He was already like this when I found him a few minutes ago,” Alfred explains.

“Is he still alive?”

“I guess so!”

Now the girl understands what makes Thomas not come back to her with help. She didn't know that Thomas himself was not in a very good condition, and she is still oblivious why Thomas came to her crawling like an undead coming out from the grave.

“I tried to call your phone earlier,” says Alfred. “But it wouldn't connect. So I decided to look for you and found him lying here.”

“Ah? My phone?”

The girl just remembers she dropped her broken phone near her mother's grave. She hurriedly goes to that place to pick her phone back.

“Naomi, where are you going?” The tough looking guy catches up to her.

“I dropped my phone at my mother’s grave,” she informs.

“Did something happen?”

“I was just bitten by a snake earlier.”

“What?” Alfred holds her hand, looking awry. “What kind of snake? Where did it bite you?”

“It’s okay! I’m fine,” the girl named Naomi ceases Alfred’s concern, and keeps walking.

But then, she suddenly stops. She checks that injured part on her left thigh, expecting to find some burn scar because of the previous green liquid. But no, it looks so smooth.

“Eh?”

“What’s wrong?” asks Alfred.

“The snake’s bite wounds?” the girl mumbles.

“Did it bite your thigh?”

Alfred wants to check her left thigh, but the girl immediately slaps his head.

Plak!

“Aw! What was that?” Alfred rubs his barren head.

Naomi ignores the man, and hurries back to her mother's grave. As a businesswoman, the contact list on the phone is much more valuable to her than the phone itself.

She runs a property business, with client mostly wealthy people in Iodrana. No one knows when someone will contact her to make a deal.

On their way to the cemetery gate, Naomi and Alfred still find Thomas lying on the ground. Alfred, who is walking in front, doesn’t really care about Thomas' condition. He only glances briefly in passing.

“It’s getting dark here,” he says as he keeps walking in a hurry. “I might get in trouble if your father finds out that you got bitten by a snake in a place like this.

But then, when he looks behind a little, he realizes that he has been walking by himself for a while. He turns back, and finds the young lady standing near the unconscious Thomas.

The girl is still looking upset. But she can’t get rid of all her confusion and curiosity about Thomas' identity, as well as the strange liquid that Thomas gave her.

“Hey, Naomi!” Alfred calls.

“Alfred! Come here and pick up this guy,” says Naomi in half shouting.

Alfred comes to her. Confusion is clearly seen in his face. “What did you say?”

“Take this guy to the car,” she exclaims.

“What? Why? Do you know him?”

“Just do as I say!”

“Hey, Naomi! Look! Your father hired me as a driver, not to be your lackey. After all…”

“Shut up, and take this guy to my car!” the girl snaps. “And never call me by my name! I admit I’m not the one who pays you. But you still need to treat me with more respect.”

“Or what?” Alfred rebukes coldly. “Your father pays me as a driver, and being your driver is my job, no more than that. If you don’t like it, feel free to tell it to your father.”

Irritated, the girl rummages her purse, and takes out some dollar bills. She then gives the money to Alfred without counting them.

“Sigh!” Alfred looks so uninterested. “It is not about money. It’s about your safety. Do you even know who this guy is? I bet you don’t!”

“He… He is my boyfriend!” The girl looks hot and rather blushed.

She doesn’t know who Thomas is. But she has a strong believe, based on her prayer in front of her mother’s gravestone, that it was her fate to meet Thomas.

“I didn’t know you had such a low taste on a man,” Alfred sneers. “He looks too humble to your liking. Well, I know you lie! You didn’t look like you knew him earlier. Now I’m curious, what are you going to do to him after this? Are you going to turn him into your slave after saving his life?”

Naomi’s eyes are widened, glaring with a deadly stare. She looks so offended by his words, and starts pressuring him.

“Now, I’m giving you a one-time payment for one job, to take this guy to my car! Is it that hard to do, or is the money not enough?”

After taking a long sigh, Alfred lifts Thomas up and carries him on his shoulder. And the girl, God knows what’s inside her mind, picks Thomas’ katana and follows Alfred from behind.

“Are you going to bring him home and introduce the guy to your father as your boyfriend?”

“Shut up!”

  

“Just saying, there’s no way your father will let this man enter his house. Why don’t we take him to the hospital?”

Naomi glances at Thomas for a moment. She remembers how scared Thomas was when she tried to call the police before.

“No! Just take me to Strugist Hill!”