When Haku and Ted were gone out of the girls' sight, Ted's presence shifted from a welcoming businessman into a serious person while Haku on the other hand became silent as they walked deeper in the establishment, across aisles of steel bars and supplies.

"Its been years since I have seen you," He said, "I thought you wouldn't recover after what happened at the bridge."

"I also thought of it. I hope my existence doesn't even matter anymore to me. Drowning myself in liquor, wasting every piece of my sanity day by day and letting the loneliness eat my hopes of facing the world without my partner." Haku gravely said, walking just behind Ted. "But when they saved me from the pain, the longing and my dying faith, the day I met them seems like the only final chance for me to pick myself up. They changed my perception of life and how to be strong whenever the challenges comes."

Ted casted a small smile. "You are indeed saved by the right persons Haku. I am just wondering, why have you decided to be an employee there? What is your business with them?"

"I've decided to work there because I need to fix my life. I need to put back the missing parts of my life, those lost time and opportunities that I should have done rather than drinking everyday and poisoning myself in sadness."

"That motivation you have seems promising to me." He said, looking far at the path.

Haku continued, "And most of all, I am returning back the favor of saving me that night. They made me realize: I can't let the incident years ago affect my whole life as a person. I believe I still have a purpose on living here. There should be a reason why he saves me."

"So, what we can all expect here from you then is to speculate your time of returning here,"

"I guess that would be the case." Haku answered in a low voice. Both of them stopped from walking any further.

Ted faced Haku and held her left shoulder."We will wait here for you. I am proud of you because of what you have decided to do with yourself even though we all know you are different than them. And, I also apologize with sincerity to you if we cannot help you out after the incident, we just can't comprise the group. It is too risky to take a chance."

"I know," Haku whispered, making a glance at the mallet she carry. "The group's safety is top priority. If the group couldn't survive, probably Vocesai would be a very chaotic city."

• • •

They stepped in an elevator similar to one found on mine shafts. After securing the vertical and horizontal gates, Ted pressed the red button at the right side of the elevator, and from above ground, they descended down the darkness. As the elevator was being eaten by dark, the silence creeps in with it.

Reaching the bottom most level, the elevator stopped and they removed the metal sliding gates then walked into a horizontal shaft.

The shaft was only lighted by an orange halogen lamp, both placed at both ends and nothing in between but pure abyssal darkness and the high humidity that lurks in it.

The narrowness of the shaft was only able to accommodate a single person to walk on a certain direction, thus having the difficulty of passing when the other persons were walking the other way.

"Is Oliver here? I've never seen him up there." Haku asked while both of them were walking. "I just wanted to say thanks to him and return the mallet he gave me. This is collecting dust in my unit and its been a while since I last used it."

Even though he heard Haku, Ted doesn't made a word, instead he continued to walk through.

When they reached the end, they stopped at a red metal door. The appearance of it was contrast to the conditions of the shaft and it was somewhat unique. Instead of a knob, it has an alphanumeric keypad and a scanner at the left side of the metal door frame. Ted removed his eyeglasses and placed it at the scanner.

"Authorization Confirmed. Identified..." the voice prompted, followed by a series of light pulses. "Access Granted For Red Rose."

Soon enough after the identification,  the metal door slides smoothly to the right, opening a room which was similar than that of a regular middle class individuals.

"Do you still remember these, Haku?" Ted asked to her while wearing back his glasses, walking in and gone to a desk full of papers and all sorts of materials.

Haku looked around, from the metal rafters up to the vast space of the room. Walking around, she then gone close to a curtained partition of the large room. "Of course, I do Ted." answered she, "Because I made this space for the group."

Ted slowly approached Haku carrying a piece of newspaper. Ted hand over the paper to Haku and before she could even read it, he sadly breaks the bad news to her. "We've lost Jasper last night. We have lost Oliver last night."

Shocked and in a state of confusion, Haku opened the newspaper and found the article, in the paper was written:

---------
...

Borealis Newspaper...
Thursday, seventh of September, Year 2014.

Attack of the Red Squad. Another victim by the said group was found dead just three miles off his residence on the northeast side of Vocesai. The dead body was found by a fruit dealer around three in the morning hanged up in a lamp post of the road. Investigators affirmed that it was done by the Red Squad because they have found a thick red playing card written with a "Miss Vermilion ~♥" embedded to his skull.

They have identified the victim as Oliver Steinfield, a 17 year old male and working as a driver in a car rental business.

Mr. Steinfield was described by his fellow workers as an activist against the monopolization of the city.

...
------------------

Haku was left speechless on what she have read on the paper and a strange surge of hate started to crawl all over her body.

The sensation of madness was reemerging within her, something unexplainable for her. She was shaking in great anger, closing her hands tightly, completely crumbling the paper. Ted then slowly pulled the curtain to the side where Haku was facing and found the casualty there; lied miserably, dismembered and killed like an animal. His skin above the head was partially stripped and partially exposing the skull behind it. Also, his arms and legs had multiple circle burn marks.

Feebly, she slowly reached for his hand and started to cry heavily over the corpse.

'I-Is this the price I have to pay for being a useless person!' Haku thought, 'Why...Why somebody close to me has to perish because of my faults! He doesn't deserve this!'

Still in shock of this unexpected bad news, she turned her raging eyes to the card, held it slowly and pulled it off of his skull. Having it close to her sight, she ran her fingers at the bevels while looking at it with deep rage."

"I —will not tolerate —this kind of brutality anymore. Killing two of my friends was already enough!" she heavily said while tears running down on both sides of her cheeks, trying to contain the madness she felt towards the killer.

Ted had nothing to say nor do to settle Haku's instability. Even though unbearable, he just silently standing behind  Haku like a ghost.

Silently. Helpless. Disturbed.