After they crossed the street in a rush Sam quickly opened the door. He waved at Sophia as he leads Tyrone upstairs and to the room that was prepared for him a long while back.

"Alright this is your room you can get unpacked as you like but in an hour need you come downstairs so that we together with the lady downstairs can put together a plan on how we go about our time in the house during the emergency," seeing the question in Tyrone's eyes he answered it calmly "no you can't stay upstairs and send messages, you have to at least text her face to face, I know you won't like it but you have to do it causes the emergency is not going to end anytime soon not for at least two months, people who spend that much time together in a small space either get along, tolerant each other, or kill one another, and I would like to evade the third one if it's all the same to you." He stopped and let Tyrone consider this and Sam prepared the next part of his argument.

[alright]

"Alright? You'll come downstairs just like that, to talk with a stranger!, Really?" Sam asked disbelievingly. Tyrone nodded his head mostly firm. "Ok, I'll you downstairs in an hour so why don't you get unpacked."

Tyrone turned to his belongings while Sam left the room, it wasn't until he arrived at the stairs that Sam realized that he didn't see Tyrone open the travel capsule to retrieve his stuff. Such was impossible because he was standing next to him since he entered the house.

Sam narrowed his eyes as that felt familiar like it has happened to him before but he couldn't be sure where, too many strange things in his life, but he could look into it later, for now, he was gonna talk to Sophia get a better grasp of her personality and see if he could do something about her dress.

Descending the stairs Sam shot a quick message at his mother asking if he could borrow some of her clothes.

"So how are you doing?" Sam asked as he entered the living room. Sophia jumped before she snapped her head at him, Sam pushed down the urge to laugh at her he could guess how much she would hate that.

"Would you mind not doing that" her glare spoke of her feelings even the fear that had faded from her attack but she did a good job of hiding it.

"Sorry, didn't think I was walking that lightly I'll make sure to walk heavier next time" well he would try but that wasn't a habit he was able to break and he kind of didn't want to.

A habit of decreasing his presence as his feeling of danger increases. Never could tell if it was a good or bad one.

"So how did your call go"

"Fine I was able to contact everyone I needed to and take care of a few other things" the look she gave him clues Sam in.

He calmly stated "you looked me upright", the look changed " don't worry I haven't the slightest interest in harming you", his voice turned to sharpened steel "but I guess you don't buy that", he walked in front of her and bent to stare her in the eye " so let me tell you this, I came to this island to start fresh and leave my past behind me" he stood up straight before he continued " and I have no reason to open whatever tiny closet of my past you managed to find"

"Tiny closet?" she questioned worriedly

" my history contains much and there is no way you managed to find much of it, at most you probably found out what I was doing months before I came to the island and that was one of the more legal things I have done" his voice returns to normal "no I have a question would you like to borrow my mother's clothes or are you fine staying in that dress I sure don't mind the view " the smirk on his face was mostly playful.

Sophia, on the other hand, turned red in the ear and tried to move her torn dress to cover more of her skin not that it was doing much.

Raising an eyebrow she asked, "Yes I would like some intact cloths but are you sure your mother won't mind?"

" I just sent her a message to ask if I could borrow them" Sam answered

Sophia noted something strange about the way he said it, "You told her it was for me right".

"Wouldn't be the first time, I borrowed her clothes for myself so it doesn't really matter", Sophia opened her mouth to ask but Sam was faster " I was doing a favor for someone I had to be their fake girlfriend"

"Why?" Sophia felt there was a very interesting story here, but before he could answer his holo-bracelet rung, look at it he could see it was a reply from his mother.

[sure are you being a fake girlfriend again?] Sam could just feel her laughing.

[no it for a girl I let in the house she was attacked by a lost, her clothes are damaged and I know most females have this thing about wearing men's clothing] he replied

His mother text came back instantly [you should've gotten the cloths first and then asked, do you have any idea how she might be feeling]

[I know very well what she is feeling and these things you must take slow and calmly at the pace set by the victim] when he sent this message, Sam's brow were very wrinkled, Sam took pride in his empathy and emotional intelligence was it was born of experience and a side effect of his ability so he did not take well to it being insulted.

[first lower your turn, second your right you know more on this subject how you know we will be talking about later]

"Shit" Sam thought "she baited me" over the years since he moved to the island he has talked to his parents about the things he has done and learned during his time on the streets few by choice , but there were plenty of things he didn't tell them and his parents knew this and have tried various methods to get him to talk and quite a few have worked.

[side note make sure she doesn't go into the chest in the back of my closet okay]

[ if the fridge runs low let me know and I'll send money for groceries, Sam please don't hesitate to contact us if there is trouble I know you can handle yourself but it makes us feel better if you tell us yourself and we don't find out another way]

[okay, I'll tell her and I'll try my best for the second one]

"My mother day you can borrow but ask you don't open the chest in the closet and no I don't know exactly what's in it," Sam said to Sophia after he sent the message.

"Will do," she said as she stood off the couch and headed for the stairs and stopped at them and turned around and asked Sam "where is your parent's bedroom and what do you mean you don't exactly know what is in the chest?"

"their room is at the end of the hall on the right, and I what type of thing is in it but no clue what exactly,"

"What type of thing?"

"The type of thing … you know what it's better if you don't know and I don't want to talk about" he had no intention of talking to a stranger about his parents night time bed activates or at all if he could help it, ever.

Sophia for a moment look as if she was going to press but decided not to, this Sam thought was not strange as from what little he knew about her sam could tell she was a stubborn one very much so, but he could be wrong.

After Sophia moved up the stairs Sam entered the kitchen to get started on dinner. Opening the cabinet containing all the pots and pans sam thought about what he could make he knew that Tyrone would eat anything if it was homemade and had no spinach, well not any he could see or taste, for Sophia he had no clue and really he just hoped she was not a super picky person, he just couldn't cook for those who were too picky with what they eat it got on his nerves real quick but as long as he wasn't cooking they could be as picky as they licked.

After a bit of thought Sam decided to make something that no one ever complained about a plate of three meat spaghetti taking a look in the fridge sam decided to use beef, chicken, and a bit of pork, all artificial meats, of course, few people actually eat real meat anymore of most of them end up in straight jackets in a white padded room.

This is because of the evolution all animals went through the one that gave the human level intelligence and self-awareness, not the one that gave some of the animal's powers and abilities. Less than twenty years after this evolution animal had made significant progress in their equal rights movement one of these major successes was making it illegal to keep barn animal against their will and killing them for them to be food, not that it was very difficult to do seeing as many animals were learning human languages and it felt really wrong to do so. But they did agree to sell there byproducts like eggs and milk at reasonable prices, around that time the human-animal alliance was born like its name it was an alliance between humans and animals with the mission of helping humans and animals solve their differences and help bring peace between the two groups. This alliance still exists to this day and it has grown greatly to the point that it was one of the world's top ten organizations. Many people were passive level members of this group like Sam.

Artificial meats were the main source of revenue for the alliance. Artificial meats looked, tasted, smelled, felt, and even sounded like the real thing. There were many types for sale ranging from common barn animals to things like dinosaur meat (when dinosaur meat came out people were shocked and curious how they got a sample the tear didn't receive the dinosaurs, the alliance never told how they did it). The making of artificial meat was similar to artificial organs, skins and limb it all used stem cells with the help of 3-D laser printer. But there were a few main differences between the real and artificial meats, one was nutrition Artificial meats had less nutritional value and this caused people to eat more of leading to weight gain and appetite increase world round (thankfully staying fit became a life or death matter years before the creation of artificial meats), another difference was Artificial meats kept longer even when they aren't refrigerated but when they went bad you would know as they began to rapidly rot in to a foul-smelling sludge. One more was the price artificial meat was surprisingly cheap considering how it was made but that mostly had to do with the advances of technology over the years than anything else.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Sam turned off the heat for the pot of noodles so he could drain the water from it. Then after rinsing the noodles, he added them to the large pan that contained the meats, sauce and a few other things for flavor.

He turned the heat for the pan to low it would stay warm until it was time to eat.

After that same began to clean up, during this time Sophia came back downstairs wearing some of him moms old sweats and from the moisture on her skin and less tense she appeared she probably took a nice hot shower.

"Something smells nice, what did you make?" She asked when she walked into the kitchen

"Three meat spaghetti, I used beef, chicken, and pork." Sam answered before he turned to face her "if don't want that there are a few frozen meals in the freezer but that's all cause I'm not cooking any more today" he told her as he grabbed a plate and some tongs so she could make her plate, "so do you want to eat now or after we make a plan"

"A plan for what?"

"A plan for our time in this house during the in my house, you would be surprised the difference having one makes," Sam told her grabbing two more plates and three forks.

"Do really think a plan will make a difference?" She asked as she walked to the stove and looked at the spaghetti.

"Yes, it's more about how having a plan makes one feel then really using it" Sam had decided to be truthful with her on this matter, if he was going to stay with her he needed to build a little trust or at least convince her that he wasn't going to kill her (without good reason(not that there was ever a truly good reason)). " plus you never know what can happen and you need to learn about my house defenses."

"Defenses?" She questioned, a fork in her mouth as she tasted the food, Sam was curious how much the surprise was at the fact his house had defenses or how the spaghetti tasted.

"Of course you saw a bit of my history I have plenty of enemies who would use this emergency as a chance to get back at me if they could." He told her as she reached into the fridge and pulled out the Parmesan (made with real cow milk(he didn't like it on his spaghetti it bothers him more then he liked)), " so back to my original question do you want to eat beforehand or afterward?"

"During" she answered blunt like, this caused Sam to smile, and think" You may be more interesting than I first thought".

"Then let me call down Tyrone, I must warn he can be a little weird with strangers so I ask for your patience with him" then the boy turned around, took a deep breath and shouted "TYRONE" causing Sophia to jump at just how loud he got when he was quite soft spoken.

Immediately there was the sound of something falling on the ground.

Then a few moments later when the sound of movement died, Sam got a message

[I'll be down in a minute]

(Again Sam couldn't help but think that it was too easy.)

Not long after the sound of footsteps could be heard on the stairs

When Tyrone reached the bottom of the stairs he walked over and sat at the table. An awkward silence draped over them.

"This will be a trying time won't it" Sam groaned in his head before he spoke to them "let's start with introductions alright" neither one moved to say anything, " introduce yourselves" this time his voice had an edge to it.

[tyrone] he respected Sam

"Sophia" she was terrified of Sam

"Good, now we need a plan, so any ideas" again they said nothing " okay then, may some higher being give me strength" the latter part of that was said under his breath.

"One of the major problems we might face is supplies such as food, water won't be a problem unless they shut off the plumbing, there is enough food in the fridge to last one person a month but-," Sam was cut off by Sophia

"Hold up why is there a month's worth of food in there and how" her confusion was kind of reasonable.

'I dislike shopping in general so I find ways to avoid it and I use shrinking and expansion rune to make more room I would have made even more but my parents forbid that something about me being on the path to becoming a recluse, but moving the food in the fridge may last us the entire emergency if we are careful.

[do you really think that the emergency will last so long that we will have to worry about food]

"Yes causes they don't know what is causing people to become lost much less how to help them, so unless they find out all this before the sun rises tomorrow we will have to worry about food."

"Well I can help with the food problem by bringing the number of people down to two"

"And how do you plan to do that Sophia," Sam asked he drawing on his mana in case she tried something.

"My ride will be here soon to take me home," she said looking at a screen in front of her.

"That won't work," he told her plainly

"What," her head snapped towards him "why wouldn't it"

"When the island enters emergency mode they closed down all rode so the police and military vehicles can move quickly and freely so unless your ride is one of those it isn't coming."

she slightly deflated before asking" so what do you suggest we do about the food?"

"We ration as much as we can and make use of my mother's garden to grow there are seed somewhere in her gardening supplies," he paused to let them digest this " another problem is the sleeping arrangements, I can not let you sleep in my parents room or on the coach Tyrone has the only guest room and I don't think you would like sleeping in my room" Sam told them and at once they asked.

[can't she just share a room with one of us]

"What's wrong with your room?"

This is one of the times Sam can see just what effects being a recluse has had on Tyrone as he had no clue about the interactions between the male and female gender or with people in their teens and up for that matter.

"Were to old to share a room Tyrone it would be inappropriate," he said staring the younger boy in the eyes her hen turn to the female in the room "and my room is haunted" Sam ignored the surprised looks on the other two faces "now I think we may have air mattress somewh-" at that moment cut off again

"Your house is haunted!?" Sophia screamed her hands on the table lick she was ready to bolt out the house.

"No, just my room now would you like to see if we can find the ai-"

"Hold boy we need to talk about the ghost, they could kill us in our sleep" She demanded fear lacing her voice.

"There is nothing to fear the ghost won't hurt anyone there my friends and they fear me too much to try anyway" all of what he said was true but he hated the second part but it was necessary to tell them as it would put them at ease for now at least.

"So we have nothing to worry about," Sophia asked with understandable suspicion.

" Yes, no harm will come to you from the ghost in my room" he wholeheartedly meant that.

"Okay so about the air mattress-" they talked more about there plans like about what they should do if someone broke into the house or if one of them became a lost way to go about their eventual food problem, Sophia' clothing. After that Sam started a conversation about a lighter topic to deal with the tense atmosphere that had settled over them while they ate the food he had made.

As soon as they were done eating Tyrone retreated back to his room the small smile on his face told Sam that he was in a pretty good mood and knew exactly why just because he was now more cautious did not mean he stopped his favorite activity.

While washing the dishes by hand Sophia returned to the couch and pulled up her phone to talk to someone and it didn't seem like it was a happy one.

By the time Sam was done the call was getting a little intense as Sophia was getting quite upset with the person on the other side after he dried Sam walked over into the living room. When she saw him coming Sophia ended her call.

"Should we get started looking for the air mattress" Sam asked her as cheerful as he could (it wasn't much, he wasn't a cheerful person he has seen to much) she nodded her head and they got to work looking for it and ten or so minutes later they found it, but not the cord that went to it.

Sam knew that it was probably in the box of loose cords that was deep in the attic when he told this to Sophia she had this to say, " know what" throw her hands up " I'll just share your room it is much less trouble and I am ready to fall asleep on my feet so please point me to bathroom so I can have a relaxing soak and then sleep for a month" her tone made it clear that if he didn't he would feel pain, so he told her where she could find a towel, a sponge, and his bath salts if she wanted some.

After she entered the bathroom, Sam went downstairs and set the house alarm and put up the leftovers, with those things done, he walked into his room he walked to the middle of the room and knelt down placing his left hand on the ground in front of him.

Closing his eyes his hair turned pure ash white like it did in gym class and began to slightly float as an aura the same color as his hair began to emerge from him.

"Hello I know i don't usually talk to you while the sun is up but I need to ask that none of you come out tonight, I have guest I promise to introduce you later but today one of them had a very horrible day and she is staying in my room tonight and she didn't react positively when I told her about you"

"&@&-/:$&$Wink [https://www.royalroadcdn.com/public/smilies/wink.png]$/@-);((;,.)(/&"

No, I didn't tell her anything specific just that there were ghosts in my room nothing and they were harmless"

"—/Sad [https://www.royalroadcdn.com/public/smilies/sad.png]/;(&@($@$(;:/&@$@&;:/(&@"

"I know you all are the farthest thing from harmless but I was trying to make her feel better, not worse and I meant you wouldn't attack or anything"

"@&/)Wink [https://www.royalroadcdn.com/public/smilies/wink.png]/@$);!?$):"

" don't sass me,"

"$:$Confused [https://www.royalroadcdn.com/public/smilies/confused.png].)/$&.&!($,&/"

" you wanna go, cause I will fight you"

"@-$&/"

" then it is on"

"&/$;-"

"€*€|*\_•£~+=*_%#|<~}€~%+{\£~"

"Alright fine but we will finish this later, Toby"

"&Wink [https://www.royalroadcdn.com/public/smilies/wink.png](/$)-/$;@$);"

Getting off the ground Sam grabbed his towel and washcloth along with under a t-shirt and a pair of old shorts to sleep in to take a shower in his parent bathroom. When he was done he saw Sophia standing in front of his room.

'Let's get this over with shall we?" she asked to witch Sam just nodded his head and opened his room door.

When Sophia enter the room the sight of it made her regret her choice not enough to change her mind but regret it nonetheless.

Sam's room had a certain theme to it scary, his bed sheets had a blood splatter design to them, his walls were covered in posters for horror movies and monster celebrities some terrifying well done drawing of monsters, on the center of the dresser was a few skulls of different animals and two human all of them had faint lights in their eyes there was a small collection knives on the wall behind the skull on the left were books they were a mix of survival guide, horror stories, cookbook, books .. on how to start your own business. To the right of the skull were a few potted plants no of them look friends heel Sophia got the feeling that they were looking at her, past the plants were trinket like gift shop trinket from many places across the world. His desk was a bit more normal as it was covered with common school supplies but the supplies were in certain like black, red, and grey. The walls and ceiling weren't so bad when you first looked at them just pure black, but a closer look showed that slightly different shades of black were used to create very detailed predators all looking at the bed. When she took all this in Sophia could not help but feel a chill go down her spine.

"You can have the bed," Sam said bringing her out of her thoughts on his room.

'What huh? no thanks, I wouldn't want to impose more than I already have" that was half true she didn't think she could sleep in that bed without nightmares.

"No it's fine you need it more than I do, I have slept on worse and sometimes I don't even sleep in the bed so it's fine," he told her as he rummaged through his closet and pulled out another comforter this one had police tape and skeletons on it.

He wasted no time walking over to the center of the room before cocooning himself in the comforter and then dropping on the ground. "Goodnight"

Sophia had nothing to say, she just shook her head and climbed into the bed but her eyes didn't close she stares at the ceiling until she found the predator directly above the bed and then she turned on her side closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep.

In his cocoon Sam was wide awake which his hearing raised to the point he could hear Sophia heartbeat, he stayed awake until he heard her heartbeats slow to its sleeping rate.

Sam let out a sigh of relief seeing that she was able to fall asleep, he then raised his hearing to see what Sam what Tyrone was doing and he could hear the clicking of keys so that meant he was on his computer that he set up soon then Sam thought he could.

"I guess he faster at it then I thought" he whispered before he drawled on his mana to draw a rune, the sleeping rune ύπνος, just like he did on nights like this. Nights he knew he needed all the sleep he could get but wasn't likely to get it.

When the rune was finished it turned to beautiful golden sand that Sam let fall on his face, when the first grain hit his face he felt he eyelids gain a mountain with of weight and by the time the last grain hit him he was already on his way to the kingdom of dreams.

{he is doing better than I thought he would I guess I will have to speed things up a bit} a voice rung out from everywhere at once.