"Aren't you glad we are leaving now?" Cana said as we entered the private elevator. "If we waited any longer, and the fire turned out to be real, then, according to you guys, building personnel would have grounded this elevator. And that means we would be forced to walk the rest of the 37 floors down."

  "That remains to be seen," Dr. Yap said.

  Once everyone was in, Dr. Yap pushed the "G" button. Suddenly, my body felt lighter as the elevator begins its descent.

  Since it was my first time riding a private elevator, curiosity took hold of me. I looked around. I don't even know what I was expecting. It wasn't any different from a regular or public elevator. Except for the camera pointing down at us at the top of the elevator button panel. They really weren't kidding about the security of the penthouse. Which begs the question...

  "How did you manage to get us up there?" I asked Rustia, who was beside me at the back. "Wouldn't they see you carrying unconscious children on your way up? I said as I point at the camera.

  He looked up to the camera. "We brought you up one at a time. Stuffed you in suitcases."

  I can't help but laugh. It was so unexpected. And he delivered it in a very serious way. I'm pretty sure he didn't mean that to be funny. "Wait, I fit in a suitcase?"

  "It was a big suitcase."

  Before I know it, the elevator doors slid open. We stepped out of the elevator and into the small and quite frankly, very modest?—lobby of the condominium. White walls. Wall tiles. Potted plants. And bright yellow lights that make the whole place glow. Seriously, it was beautiful. Just like what one would see in the pictures. But I don't know. Maybe my stay in Biringan made me become less impressed with other gorgeous places. I mean, Biringan's lobby had an imposing split stairway in the center. How can you top that?

  "Keep your head down," Dr. Yap said as we walked towards the exit.

  Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, I can see that it was still raining.

  Despite Dr. Yap's instructions, I couldn't help but look around. There were people here and there, but the place was basically empty. So much for using the crowd as cover.

  We walked by an area with black sofas. There was a guy sitting here. He was hunched down to his phone playing a game so I doubt he even noticed us walking by him. There's no way he's one of the Lucarians, right?

  We continued walking until we were under a very, expensive-looking chandelier. Coming up to our right was the front desk. A beautiful woman with a ponytail and a guy with a clean cut was on duty. They said hello and gave us a smile. Reina and the rest engaged in small talk about the fire alarm while Cana, Indigo, and I kept our mouths shut. The brief exchange passed and soon we were out of the building.

  Standing on the concrete stairs of the condo, they started to bring out umbrellas. Below us was the curb of the road. Well, not really the road. More like a curb space assigned for loading and unloading passengers because of all the white taxis and passengers here. Which was weird because I only see this in front of malls.

  Right across is a covered walkway with railings, with the main street behind. There was a lot of foot traffic here. Mostly students. I lift my chin up a bit higher. That's when I saw the eagle logo of a university.

  My attention turned back to my companions when an umbrella was being held over my head. My eyes followed the hand holding it to its body and saw Indigo standing on her tiptoes.

  "I know it was our idea to go out," Cana said. She was sharing an umbrella with Reina, the girl she threatened with a pair of scissors just a little while ago. "But where are we going?"

  "The mall," Dr. Yap said.

  "The mall?" I asked. I grabbed the umbrella from Indigo and held it over us instead. "What mall?"

  "This mall," Dr. Yap said. Then we started walking to our left. Not even 10 steps in, I can already see another set of concrete stairs leading up to the glass walls and door entrance. There were two guards on duty around the metal detector. Behind them. I saw a lot of neon signs of different colors and logos for the different stores inside.

  At this point, the building was shielding us from the rain so we closed our umbrellas. I walked up to Reina and Cana's side. "Your penthouse is on top of a freaking mall?" I said in a whisper.

  "Pretty cool, right?" she said. "That's why my dad bought this one. Aside from the fact that the owner of the condo and the mall is a long-time friend and loyal supporter."

  "I know you guys are rich," Cana said. "But wow."

  It was only past eight in the evening so I was expecting that there were still a lot of people here. But I didn't expect it to be this many. Walking further in gives me the answer as to why. There was a cosplay competition happening at the center. So we walked to the left wing, avoiding the stage, since no doubt a lot of eyes from all four floors of the mall would be drawn to the activity. There's no way that a cultist passing by would not turn their heads out of curiosity or even interest, because as I learned today, these cultists have a life outside of looking for children to sacrifice to their cosmic deity. Some could even be backstage, putting their foam Gundam armor on, waiting in line for their turn on the stage.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  There were fewer people here on this side so there was no way for us to blend into the crowd. So our pace picked up.

  We passed by multiple high-end clothing boutiques, some fast-food chains, and a popcorn stall, up the escalator and into a department store that only sells women's clothing and accessories.

  We weaved through the maze of clothes display racks from various brands, ignoring the smiling sales staff that greeted us with their high-pitched voice and asked us to look around. I swear these people are territorial, like sharks. The moment we leave a section and enter another, there was a new sales staff already walking toward us with the same smile plastered on her face. As it was already evening, the shoppers here are only sparse, in between sections.

  We kept moving till we walked under a sign bolted to the ceiling that reads: Young Fashion. I saw a group of friends checking out skirts. Cana and Indigo neck turned to the skirts too so maybe it was the trend.

  We moved along and walked through the shoes section. We only passed by a single customer here, a woman in business attire looking at high-heel shoes.

  So far, no one paid us any attention, with the exception of the staff. But they don't count since paying attention to us was literally their job. In short, I didn't see anyone I would suspect of being Lucarians. And since the adults in our group and Reina didn't react or anything, I can only assume that we were in the clear, that no one was following us or no Lucarians had spotted us.

  I saw Dr. Yap and the rest enter the fitting area. Inside the women's department store. I was reluctant to enter at first, thinking that maybe the staff would see us guys enter and call the police but the staff were engaged in conversation with each other. So I took a quick peek inside. It was just a long hallway. At our left were individual stalls for trying out clothes. The hallway isn't wide enough to accommodate a cluster of people so they ended up in a queue towards the last stall.

  I took a step forward. Still a bit awkward because you know, I'm a guy inside a women's fitting room. But then I realized that the doors are fully opened or slightly ajar, meaning that nobody is inside. Knowing that it's safe, that I wouldn't peep on someone accidentally, I walked over quickly.

  "There's a tunnel inside," Cana said, filling me in as soon as I got close.

  "A tunnel?" I repeated, still couldn't believe what I'd just heard. "Inside the fitting room? Where lots of strangers come and go?"

  "Apparently," Indigo said. "They are unscrewing something to open the entrance to the tunnel."

  So we had no choice but to wait. But it wasn't even that long of a wait. A minute or two after, the queue started moving. And soon enough I was able to see inside the stall. There was indeed an entrance. Another door was swung open. On the surface of that door is the mirror for this stall.

  One by one, people started disappearing down inside the secret room until it was finally my turn. The air inside was stale and smelled musty. And it was a tight squeeze too. Only a couple of people and the circular hatch at my feet could fit at a time. There was a lightbulb with a pull switch. The yellow light it gives out struggles through the cobwebs and layer of dust surrounding it. Clearly, this room was never opened in a long time.

  "A secret tunnel?" I asked Rustia.

  "Pretty sweet, right?" he said, gesturing for me to enter through the secret door.

  "Oh, you bet," I agreed.

  I peered down the hole below me. It was a long climb down towards my friends. Then again, we were on the second floor of the mall. But it doesn't look like it was the basement parking because of the lack of cars. And that there was a canal in the middle. On either side of the canal were concrete walkways. I saw our group split on either side, with flashlights beaming in their hands. Before I can ask myself why they were wearing facemasks, an unpleasant smell of rotten eggs suddenly assaulted my nose and made me gag.

  "Let's go, kid," Rustia said. He was holding screws and a screwdriver. I guess he was in charge of sealing the entrance back up from this side.

  I walked around the hatch until the red, metal stairs is in front of me and started my descent.

  My eyes were still watering from the foul smell so I started breathing through my mouth instead. Halfway down, I heard a door creaked close. I looked up, expecting Rustia on the way down too but apparently, he was still busy screwing the door back up. As soon as my black school shoe touch the narrow walkway, I was immediately handed a mask.

  I took the mask and gratefully put it on. Reina then showed me two flashlights.

  "This black one is ordinary," Reina said, sliding the switch up. The flashlight emits a regular white light. It looks ordinary too like one would get in any hardware. "This one," she continues, holding the other violet flashlight which is shorter and stubbier and also had a wider radius for its lens. "Emits black light."

  She tested it too and sure enough violet light beamed out of it. Seeing that everyone else had their regular flashlights on, I kept mine on as well and turned off the black light flashlight.

  The mask helps quite a bit but it doesn't block the smell completely. But with my eyes no longer watering from the putrid stench, I took a closed look around at my new surrounding as we wait for Rustia to come down.

  Now I've never been in or had seen the inside of a sewer before, but they didn't have to tell me that we were in one. The smell alone was proof already.

  We were inside an oval-shaped tunnel. There were pipes and wires running above us that branched out to the cross intersection in front of us. Even bigger and thicker pipes ran parallel to the floor on both sides. Lightbulbs were screwed to the sides of the arch of the tunnel equidistant to each other. I can't help but wonder why they bothered giving us our own regular flashlights when it was bright even to see.

  Near the ground, at ankle height, were mouth pipes protruding from the walls, vomiting the dark liquid that flows down the canal. I took a step towards the edge of the canal. The water is so dark that I literally have no idea if it was deep or shallow. The smell got stronger so I took a step back and breathe through my mouth again.

  I heard the clanking of boots on the metal stairs above me so I turned and look up. Rustia pulled the hatch door close with a loud thud. The place was narrow so the noise reverberated throughout. There was a metallic creaking as he twists the valve shut and proceeded to climb down.

  "All right," Dr. Yap said. "Follow me."