“Wow, why am I friends with you, you little criminal?” Bayla laughed with amusement, and I couldn’t help but look at her with mock annoyance.

“Come on, without me, you would have grown up like a little princess in a glass castle.”

I pushed down the handle and indeed, it worked. The wooden door opened, and a dark room lay in front of us, bathed in the moonlight that shone through the huge windows.

I turned to look at Bay, who only now seemed to realize that she had volunteered to do this.

“Do I have to go in there alone?” She looked at me in remorse.

“We can’t both go in. One of us has to keep watch.”

She looked around the corridor for a moment, as if there was a lot left to think about, but I simply pushed her into the room.

“You’ll manage.”

“But...”

Then I just closed the door and looked around carefully.

It was even scarier here alone than together. The wind had picked up. A storm was raging outside. The weather here took me some time to get used to, and I was struggling hard with the cold. I wouldn’t survive here on the streets.

But why was I still even thinking about it? I was here now, and I had somewhere to stay.

Clack.

The sound of a stone echoing in the corridors snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked around frantically, but there was no one to be seen.

Larissa, relax. The wind is just too strong.

I leaned against one of the columns in the corridor.

The office was in the middle of the building, right in the large tower that connected the east and west wings, so it was in a good position to get caught.

Then there was a scratching sound on the stone floor.

Creak.

I looked around, but it was too dark.

The wind, Larissa. Relax.

I could just go in to Bay, but the aim wasn’t to rot in there, but to disappear again along with what we were looking for.

I suddenly became impatient.

For fuck’s sake! How long did it take to find a piece of paper?

A howl sounded in the distance and I got goosebumps again.

It definitely hadn’t been the wind. I wondered if it had been one of the wild wolves in the Blairville woods.

I heard a sharp gust of wind from one side of the corridor and spun around. I suddenly felt like I was being watched, as if I wasn’t alone.

In a hurry, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and shone the flashlight in the direction where the noise had come from.

Nothing.

I turned around to check the other direction, but something was blocking my way.

Someone.

I wanted to scream, but this someone put his cold hand over my mouth so that only a soft whimper escaped.

He looked around to the right and left and then dragged me into a side corridor where the moon was shining directly on us through the side windows.

This made me realize who I was dealing with.

My heartbeat slowed down a little, only to speed up again.

It was fucking Adrian DeLoughrey, standing here in front of me, slowly taking his hand away from my mouth and indicating with his finger in front of his mouth that I should be quiet.

When I nodded, still a little shaken, he walked to the corner of the hallway, looked both ways and came back.

I had absolutely no idea what was going on.

“What are you still doing out here at this hour?” he asked me searchingly.

His brown eyes literally pierced me. Then they began to glow dark red. I staggered back, startled.

“What the...”

Adrian turned away from me and looked into the corridor. When he looked back at me, his eyes were back to normal.

It could well be that my subconscious was playing tricks on me again, perhaps because I was so excited. Or he was really on drugs.

He came closer.

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

He sounded impatient, almost demanding.

I swallowed, thinking about Bay, who was still in there, but I couldn’t tell Adrian about that. We had a mission and the guy would snitch on us, no doubt about it.

“I wanted to take pictures.”

He looked down at me.

“Without your camera?”