Megan's eyes fluttered open slowly. The first thing she saw was the light fixture above her bed. She raised her arm weakly, shielding her tired eyes from the blinding light above her. She groaned as she found it hard to sit up.

"Whoa, whoa. Megan, don't get up," Matthew said as he stopped the injured detective from causing more unnecessary harm to herself.

"W-what happened?" she said, rolling her stiff shoulders. She rubbed her head in a circular motion before realising that a bandage was wrapped around her scalp.

"Jake left a bomb in the museum as a last resort to kill us, remember?" Matthew reminded her. "The building exploded, and the back of it collapsed. You were the last to get out, so some debris had fallen on you. Thank goodness you're okay."

Emma, who had gone to get coffee for herself and Matthew, rushed over as soon as she saw Megan conscious. "Megan! I was so worried about you! You... you didn't wake up for the past five days..."

Megan smiled. "Don't worry about me. I feel all right now," she reassured Emma. "By the way," she added. "Where's Daniel?"

"Oh. He went back to the precinct to settle some things regarding... you know. I mean, with the captain dead and all, not to mention his suspicions regarding the unknown organisation that seems to have something to do with the assassination attempts on us. Apparently, The organisation is 'Yael Technologies Corporation', which specialises in digitalisation and all that stuff," Matthew answered.

"So how does an enterprise like that got to do with this... attempt to assassinate us?" Megan questioned, puzzled.

"That's what I'm not sure about. They're known for their advancement in technology, and they have a subsidiary called 'Yael Biology', Matthew continued.

"And..." Megan trailed off, trying to connect 'Yael Biology' with their situation.

"And Daniel suspects that they may be the cause of those creatures that we've encountered," Matthew sighed. "He found that they do have tests in their off-limit laboratories, but he doesn't have any solid evidence that they are the ones responsible for releasing the creatures. Plus, we need evidence for a search warrant to investigate their headquarters.

"For now, Yael has denied all the claims in a press conference. Not to mention, the public is just siding with them rather than the police," Emma said, entering the lengthy conversation once more.

"Okay, I know this is going to be shocking, but... in a few weeks, we'll be heading to court," Matthew sighed.

Megan pushed herself up from the bed, sitting up as her eyes widened instantaneously. "C-court? For what?"

"As you know, Daniel is one persistent man," Matthew continued. "He won't stop at anything if he's going to serve justice. And he actually recorded everything Jake had said while and after he dragged me up the staircase. It's on his phone,"

"Anyway, the trial will take place on June 14. I'm not confident we'll win, though," Emma said, staring at the floor hopelessly.

"We're not even ready, and many of our colleagues are doubtful of the evidence and testimony we have," Matthew added to the bad news. "We'll have to prepare to lose this one."

"One more thing..." Emma trailed off, sweating nervously as she was about to announce what she was going to say. "Once you're discharged, we'll be placed in the Witness Protection Programme."

Megan gasped softly. She couldn't believe they were risking their lives at that moment just by being in the hospital, in a public ward.

"We won't talk too much about this for now. We can discuss this when you feel better and are more ready," Emma stopped the dismaying conversation from going on.

"This will be my way of repaying your kindness in looking after me while I was in the same state as you are now," Matthew smiled as he stayed beside her with his friends. "Get well soon."

* * *

The car stopped. As usual, Emma was still on her phone, despite the fact that she had to delete all her social media apps. Meanwhile, she and other detectives arrived at a group of huts in the middle of a forest.

"We're here. Rest Meadow Manor," Mason, one of the officers in charge of the detectives, announced.

"What kind of forest is this?" Emma shrieked, taking her eyes away from her phone for once and taking in the unsettling ambience of the foggy forest surrounding her.

"Oakley Corners State Forest," Madison, the other officer, who happened to be Mason's sister, responded.

"Come on, out of the car, everyone," Mason told them. Hence, they all left the car and took in the fresh and earthy smell of the forest.

"Okay, so these are your cabins," Madison told them, pointing to four cabins, one assigned to each of them.

"We will provide you with three meals each day. Feel free to roam around the area within the manor boundary, but at all costs, do not leave the area. Many wild animals are roaming around out there," Mason warned.

"I'll get dinner soon. Enjoy your time," Madison added before heading away to get their food.

They walked into their cabins and familiarised themselves with the appliances and amenities. They were pretty basic but good enough for them. Soon, Madison walked over to their cabins with freshly-prepared meals on a tray each.

"Thanks," Matthew said as Madison handed the tray over to him.

The detectives all took a seat at an al fresco dining table near Matthew's cabin. The air was cold and chilly, and Matthew preferred to stay in his cabin and eat in peace. Fortunately, the food provided warmth to help him cope with the cold. In addition, he noticed that his colleagues seemed eager to discuss something, especially Megan, who had missed out on a lot.

"So, I think it's a good time to explain what exactly happened in the past five days while you were in a coma, Megan," Matthew got the ball rolling.

Megan raised an eyebrow in reaction to his careless statement. Matthew thought that he had said something inappropriate at first. However, he quickly realised that he was supposed to address the others with their altered names under the Witness Protection Programme, despite the fact that they were under the protection of two officers and that they themselves were officers. It was all for their own good, after all.

"Sorry, I meant Brooke," he corrected himself quickly. "Anyway, I think that Ian should elaborate on this himself since he, well, kind of put us here."

Daniel shifted in his seat minimally, slightly uneasy. He cleared his throat, trying to prepare his voice. "Well," he started. "I'm sure Julian and Jessica have updated you about this situation a little, but let me enlighten you more."

Megan nodded slowly, and her eyebrow raised once again. "Drop the formalities. This conversation is getting really awkward," Megan waved her hand, gesturing for him to change his manner of speaking, which was rather strange.

"Okay, then. So, here's the audio recording that I submitted to the NYPD four days ago," Daniel said as he pulled out his phone and played the recording.

After about a minute or two, the recording ended. Daniel then continued with the conversation. "This was good enough to be handed to the NYPD as evidence against Yael. The problem is that it's quite weak."

"Weak? As in, like..." Matthew paused to think. "Contextually?" he asked.

"Yes, Jules," Daniel snapped as soon as Matthew understood what he had meant.

Jules? Really, Daniel? Jules? Matthew thought. He wanted to blurt it out, but he kept it to himself for the sake of security and also to keep on track with the discussion.

"If you see, Jake doesn't actually make any direct confession that can paint him as a criminal," Daniel elaborated. "He never said things like "I'm going to have to kill you" or "if I take you guys down, I will get paid". Here are some examples of what he stated."

As such, Daniel toggled through the recording to find Jake's statements.

"Y-you won't understand! She... she isn't my girlfriend at all! She's just an accomplice. This whole thing, it's... it's a competition for the "prize money"," the audio played before Daniel scrubbed his finger across the screen again.

"H-how would you know about that? Oh, Jamie told you? Well, I can't say anything about it," the audio ran this time.

"You get what I mean? He doesn't directly mention Yael, and he indirectly responded when Meg—I mean, Brooke asked if he was hired by that organisation," Daniel said after pausing the audio. "Which is why I'm so worried that the trial won't go well. Even I myself am not sure whether we got the right organisation or not."

"So, you're saying we'll have to prepare to lose? No way..." Megan shook her head in dismay.

"For now, we'll have to spend the next 11 nights here in the manor," Daniel sighed as he exited the audio recordings application and placed his phone back in his pocket.

"In Witness Protection just for a useless trial," Megan shook her head continuously.

"It's the hard truth, but we'll have to accept it," Matthew exhaled.

The conversation ended with them concluding their meal, prompting Mason and Madison to collect their trays.

"What great timing," Daniel chuckled, handing Madison his empty tray of plates. "Thank you."

"I think you guys really need some rest," Mason suggested. "Your eyes are all... baggy. Especially yours, Julian."

Matthew touched his eyebags. They were noticeably puffy and swollen; for an insomniac like him, that wasn't good. He got up, rubbing his eyes before looking back down at the seated detectives. "I'll make a move first, then. Good night, guys," he said as he grabbed his pouch and headed back towards his cabin.

He opened the door and stepped into the warm and comfortable cottage. It was a relief after the cold that he had stayed in, despite the fact that he was wearing a thin jacket. He then removed his coat and hung it on one of the clothes hangers.

Before getting onto the bed, he removed his shoes but left his socks on in case the night got colder. He sat on the bed for a moment and gave himself some time to process his awful situation.

After idling around for around, Matthew decided that it was really time to get some sleep. He walked over to his bedside lamp and turned it off before walking over to the curtains to draw them. Just as he was about the close the blinds entirely, he noticed someone staring at him.

Something. He quivered nervously, stepping backwards in fear as he mumbled two words.

"Oh, shit."

* * *

After many torturous hours in the cabin, Matthew was happy to roll out of his bed. He was delighted to see the sun finally up, in which any more horrors he would be unfortunate to witness would be less frightening in broad daylight. He had failed to get even a wink of sleep ever since he came across what seemed to be a boar creature standing about a hundred feet away from his cabin.

He scratched his head as he opened his cottage door and walked towards Emma's cabin. The hollow sound reverberating from his knocking caught Emma's attention. She then opened her door to stare at an exhausted Matthew.

She raised her eyelids, enlarging his eyes. "Whoa, Julian. Your eyes rims are all black, and your hair is like super fussy. It's worse than it was last night. What happened?"

Matthew gulped. "Okay, I couldn't sleep yesterday. When I went back to my cabin, I went to draw the curtains, but I saw something I couldn't believe I was seeing again."

"What did you see?" Emma questioned.

"The... the creature," Matthew replied. "It was standing within the boundary of the manor."

Emma thought for a while. "Are you sure? The officers said there were lots of wild creatures outside the manor. And you seem to be lacking a lot of sleep. You could have been hallucinating," she responded.

"No, it was inside. And it was the creature. I'm sure of that," he clarified. "I was very sure that I saw it."

"If that's the case, then there's another creature within the manor here to... kill us?" Emma shivered. "We have to tell Ian and Brooke now. Let's go—," she said before there was a knock on the door.

Matthew opened it, and conveniently, Daniel appeared right at the right time. "Hey. I heard you guys discussing something as I passed by your cabin after coming back from my morning walk. What's going on?" he asked.

"Well, Julian spotted one of those boar creatures today. We think it's here to try to kill us—again," Emma responded.

"There's something off about this situation," Matthew added. "Either we have a mole, or someone is tracking us down."

"Anyway, these creatures can work independently to eradicate us. They will harm anyone in their path, even if no one put them here," Daniel said.

"But how would they get here? We're really quite far from Allentown right now. Someone must have driven them into this place," Emma debated.

"I think we can have another discussion after breakfast and when Brooke joins us," Matthew suggested.

They returned to their cabins to see Mason and Madison holding their meals. As such, they stopped conversing momentarily and reached for their meal trays.

"Thankfully, the food's still hot! Where did you guys go?" Madison asked curiously.

"Oh..." Emma stammered. "We were discussing something that... we'll tell you later."

After grabbing their meal trays, the detectives and the officers walked back to the al fresco dining table again. The group all took their seats as Matthew prepared to speak. Emma reached out for a breadstick, but he stopped her to allow the discussion to flow more smoothly before they started eating.

"Intense discussion, part two," Matthew said as he slammed his plate down on the wooden table.

"Again?" Daniel questioned as he sighed tiredly.

"Yes, again," Matthew said as he leaned forward, moving closer towards the rest.

"Give me a break, please. My head still hurts, and I didn't sleep well yesterday. I kept hearing this weird animal groaning all over the manor. While you all were blissfully snoring away in "La La Land", I was suffering," Megan pleaded.

Matthew smirked for a moment, finding Megan's exaggerated ranting humorous. However, the grin quickly wiped off his face as he processed what she had just said. "Wait... what animal groaning?" he inquired.

"I... I don't know. I was exhausted, but I kept hearing this eerie growling. It reminded me of the boar creature, and I really didn't enjoy it," she responded, squeezing her eyes as the pain in her head flooded in together with her recollection of the previous night's events.

"Well, you weren't the only one after all," Matthew corrected. "I also heard those awful noises. And, even worse, I saw the creature standing about a hundred feet from my cabin, staring at me as I was closing the curtains."

Emma, who was about to get a bite of a grilled cheese toast, dropped her fork together with the toast. "Did... did you just say that there was a creature in here?" she said, beginning to panic.

"Now, don't panic. But... I suspect that someone had brought it here. And it was for a reason," Matthew explained his suspicions.

"What reason?" Emma questioned.

"I think it's another attempt to assassinate us," Matthew revealed his opinion.

"Will that organisation leave us alone? Just hearing how they are playing all these games with us angers me," Daniel puffed.

"Now, we still don't know if it was that organisation. For all we know, Jake and Jamie could have been lying to us. They could have just used Yael Technologies as a corporation to take the blame for their actions." Matthew added.

"It doesn't matter. Whoever is behind this has the nerve to mess with us. And we'll have to turn the tables on them," Daniel raged.

The discussion stopped there, and they returned their plates before heading back to their cabins.

Hours passed, and before long, it was nightfall. Matthew turned off his bedside lamp and slipped into his bed before tucking his blanket in properly and resting his head against the soft pillow. It had been a long week. His eyes shut close as he was ready to get some good sleep.

Unfortunately, loud whacking sounds began resonating around the manor. Matthew's eyes flashed right open after getting just a few winks of sleep. Soon, drilling noises also sounded. He looked out of the windows in his cabin but couldn't see what was causing the racket.

Thus, he stepped out of his bed and pushed his door open. He took careful tiptoes as he quietly walked out of his cabin. He moved towards the sound, towards the entrance of the manor. And just like he had expected, there was an intruder.

Placing locks on the exit fence.