The door to my condo slammed shut. Without delay, I stood at the tops of the stairs I climbed earlier. With a quick glance, I saw nothing off with either wall.

"Maybe the other one?" I said to myself while crossing the small landing on the opposite staircase. I kneeled down and moved about to watch the lights reflect off the paint when I noticed a spot that was dull. My hand ran over the wall and I felt the difference in texture from the painted drywall to where the plaster had been fixed.

With a glance down at the carpeted stairs, the blue carpet gave way to a mass of yellow, beige, and brown mosaic tiles at the landing that stuck out as the remaining part of the building's original color scheme.

The stairs let out small creaks as I made my way down. In my approach, I noticed a section of grout was notably darker than the rest, as if something had spilled and only to get a quick mop over and left for time to hide the rest.

Greta fell down this staircase, poor woman. I'll give this all a  deeper look over later, but I need to get moving before she realizes something.

I made my way down the stairs, peered out the windowed door, and saw outside. The courtyard was as picturesque as the parking lot's side. A patterned sidewalk ran along the courtyard and connected the other building entrances I could see from where I stood. People had gathered at the grills formed in a circle and the picnic tables dotted along the grass. 

Looks like no one heard the screaming. That's good. Despite the nosy people, this seems like a calm community. Blending in should be easy enough, at least once I've dealt with Cassie and Harold.

In my people watching, I noticed my reflection in the glass. Despite no longer being covered in the inky ghost blood, I was a sweaty, dusty mess from moving about my condo as I chased Alexander down.

"Guess I can find my storage unit and get cleaned up in there." With my thoughts said in a whisper, I moved through the hallway until I saw a pair of doors on opposing walls, exactly like upstairs, except the unit below Greta's had a staircase leading down to the right of it.

With no other business left in this building, I made my way down the basement stairs. As I took the first, I heard a door shaking in its frame, followed by the pained gasp of a certain elderly woman.

"Oh, dear." The sound of the door rattling came from above. "Vincent? I wanted to go talk to Cassie, but I'm... stuck?" I remained silent. "Vincent?" She went quiet for a moment, waiting for an answer that would never come. "Hello? Vincent? Is this supposed to happen?" As she struggled, I made my way slowly down the stairs and kept the creaks to a minimum as to not give away my presence.

Greta, I already had you trapped in my condo when I grabbed your wrists. The hug was just a nice way to earn some bonus points with you while I lied to your face. It's not like I want her stuck in my condo. I just can't have Greta hearing my conversation. This is the only way I can protect her.

As I made my slow descent down the stairs, a stale scent filled the air. The carpeted stairs lead to a concrete floor. Across from the staircase was another door leading outside. Wood paneling surrounded the immediate area of the door, another hint at the original look of the building. The walls beyond the paneling were a dingier shade of white that the exposed bulbs in the ceiling did little to flatter.

"Building four is to the right, so building six is this way." I turned to the left and made my way through the hallway. As I ventured deeper, I passed a few doors with numbers.

Sixteen, seventeen... The key has a twenty-two on it. Seems I'm getting close.

The end of the basement hallway had a metal door with a wall made of concrete and brick. Small scatches covered the lower part of the door, likely from years of being kicked and bumped open. Faded red letters completed the image for the weathered door.

Close me, I am your fire protection!

The stale scent on the air was more present in the now room. The left half of the room was an open space with beat up and damaged drywall and to the right walls made of perforated wood hardboard to form storage units. Walking through the open part of the room, I scanned the set of doors when I stopped at door twenty-two.

"Sweet, found it." I approached the door, and the key went in with no resistance. The door creaked open and inside was an empty unit. The lack of lighting within the unit left it in near darkness, save for the light that came in from the open door. With no time to waste, I entered and pulled the door shut and plunged the space into darkness with only a few slivers of light coming from the edges of the door. As the seconds passed, the darkness took on a green hue and the walls of the unit came into view.

Thank god I got night vision as a power that came with this deal. Let's clean up, then I should be good to get some info out of Cassie.

My backpack let out a thud as it hit the floor. I rustled through the backpack and grabbed the clean set of clothing, my cleanup kit, and a few other things to help me look good for my upcoming visit with Cassie.

At least I'm not covered in blood... this time. I won't have to bag and burn these clothes. Though Cassie wouldn't care at this point.

I felt my clothes peel off of my skin. All the sweat that had soaked into them from being out in the heat and rooms without air conditioning. With everything off, I got the grime and dust off with the shower on the go wipes. A quick air dry and the fresh clothes were on. I opened the door to let some light in and used my phone as a mirror to fix my espresso brown hair back into its proper soft and spiky taper cut. 

As I locked up the storage unit, I remembered something. I pulled out my phone and opened Twitch, a livestream showed with the title: Yu-Lu is a Farmer?! Clicking the stream I heard Eunie's energetic voice as her colorful character model moved and emoted with her words while Sammy's remained still and neutral.

"D-D! Look, the parsnips are ready! We're finally gonna have money again! How much longer do you think the cauliflower needs? People said they're worth a lot!" Her chat began to spam the number twelve and versions of that. Sammy's model moved as he glanced at something.

"Chat says twelve days, also they're saying the potatoes will be ready next." His voice lived up to the name he set for himself; Deadpan Dan.

"Yay! I can't wait for those!" Eunie's character model threw her hands up in the air and waved her arms around. A smile formed on my face as I set up a donation in the code amount for this stream.

|Silver_Eyed_Psycho:

-Hey Yu-Lu, things are going well with the new place! Can't wait to show you the place once it's all set! Also, which villager are you gonna marry first?

As the donation sounded off, she lit up.

"Seppy! Glad it's going good! I can't wait to see the new condo! Also, I'm not sure yet, but I'll text you when I figure it out!" She paused a moment to address the chat, spamming my name and her nickname for me. "I think we can read some more donations!" I closed out Twitch, then made my way through the door at the end of the storage room.

The new room was much easier to breathe in, like my building. It had the same blue carpet and trim. Across from me was a condo with a thirty-eight on the door. Looking around, I found the staircase and took them up to the first floor. At the top, a similar layout with two units, two doors to lead outside, and a set of mailboxes by the courtyard door caught my attention. 

I looked over the blue mailbox doors when the name plate for unit forty-two caught my eyes and a smile formed on my face.

C&S Pines

I made my way to the second floor and the door to unit 42 was to the right of me.

So Greta's unit is right between mine and Cassie's? Glad I trapped her in mine. She won't be able to listen to our conversation.

I knocked on the door when I heard Cassie's voice come from the other side.

"Just a moment." Her footsteps approached the door when a moment of silence passed before she let out an excited gasp. "Vincent!" The lock clicked, and the door flew open. Cassie stepped out and pulled me into a hug.

"You're okay!" Cassie's embrace was tight, if not crushing. Time dragged until she finally released me. I put my hand to the side of her face and looked into her eyes, that were slightly red.

Was she crying over me? I can use this, remember technical truths. Her delusions will fill in the gaps. You need her to tell you about the job and keep her brother from figuring out he could probably kill me if he wanted to.

"Were you worried about me?" She nodded. My face warmed up as I gave an embarrassed smile. "I was thinking about you on the way over here... well, a few things about you, actually." Her face was ecstatic. "Would it be okay if I came in? You could show me around-" A man's voice interrupted me. 

"No! Don't let him in here!" The voice tried to sound stern but had a hint of fear in it. I looked behind Cassie to see a man similar to her. His hair was short and in a buzz cut. The man's equally amber eyes looked at me with scorn and anxiety. Remaining quiet, Sean crossed his arms and watched me. "What did you do to my sister?" 

He asked when Cassie turned to face him. "He has been a gentleman!" Sean shook his head when she stepped towards him with her fists balled. Sean let out a sigh and shook his head.

"You came home and started crying about how worried you are about a guy you've known for less than thirty minutes!" Sean watched as Cassie stared him down. She turned back to me.

"Sorry about my brother. I don't know why he's being like this. Come in!" Her tone was apologetic. Cassie's smile grew as I stepped in and shut the door. I passed by her and Sean and watched them from the living room.

Cassie turned back to him when her voice took on a sharp edge. "I've never talked about your past choices, have I?" 

Sean stepped towards her with his teeth bared. He raised his hand and pointed at her. "Yes, you have!" His voice seemed to become increasingly aggravated while Cassie scoffed in response.

"Not in front of anyone else!" Despite their age, the sibling bickering seemed to withstand the test of time as the two threw vague references to their past relationships at one another. As they went at one another, I took a seat on the couch and dug my tome out of my backpack.

While they yell at each other, might as well figure out what Alexander was worth.

I glanced at my book. Its cover was the same shade of silver as my eyes. Woven into the leather cover were the intricate lines and patterns that made up my pentagram. I opened the book and flipped through until I reached the page that outlined my current totals.

I always get video game vibes reading this part.

Souls Collected: 97.24/500

Souls Consumed: 72.30/97.24

Current Remaining Souls (months): 24.94

Next Ability Unlock: 72.30/75.00

Onset of Override (Days): 20.99/21.00

Override (Days): 27.99/28.00

Death Reset (Hours until ready): 0/24.00

Maturity Date (months*): 427.12

He was worth about 5.1 souls, that lines up with his time as a ghost. I got a decent soul buffer, maybe I should go nuclear for the level up?

"What are you reading?" Sean asked. He leaned in to get a look. I slammed the book shut, causing him to jerk back. I gave him a wicked smile.

"Careful, there! If you read this without my permission, it could blind you, drive you mad, or something worse." With each horrifying possibility, I watched him tense up further at how close he came to death or destruction. He stood there silently. I added in one other story I heard from Samara. "Oh, I don't know if it's exaggerated, but I have it on good authority that one person's head exploded from reading one of these." Terror filled Sean's face as he realized I wasn't lying. I leaned back on the couch and continued.

"When I say exploded, I was told that room was reddd." As I dragged out the last part. I saw his face sink in despair. "So do you want to thank me for saving your life?" Sean stared me down, panicked noises escaped him. He was struggling to decide what to say first.

"What are you!?" Is what finally came out. My smile grew.

I guess it's time for that revelation.