My heart pounded and my body trembled as frantically as my hands which opened almost all the cabinets in the dark kitchen. Was the child patiently waiting behind me a Powered Human? Was he secretly waiting for the chance to ambush me? What could he even do? Set me on fire? Remove all the blood from my body? Squash my head with his mind? My mind kept on racing with these thoughts, and I didn't even have a weapon.

Do I even need a weapon? I thought at one point.

Oh my God. Am I prepared to kill a fucking child!?

My heart raced tenfold. This wasn't how the night was supposed to go, yet there I was playing caretaker for a potentially powerful being.

"Fwidge." The kid pointed

"What?" I yelped, more than asked.

"Milk. It's in the fwidge"

I'm such an idiot. I thought to myself as I opened the fridge and handed the kid a milk carton.

The kid looked at me, a tad bit incredulously, but then the shock turned into mild apathy as he accepted the milk carton and drank from it while leaving the kitchen.

I felt like i got off lucky there. I glanced at the kitchen window. I just had a close call, could I honestly be expected to go back in there? Or could i call it quits and leave. I couldn't even make it into the hallway, what more the third floor? I leaned on one of the counters and stared at the dark ceiling, weighing my options, pondering as to whether I should risk my life again or not.

Master.

The kid called me that. Did he mistake me for someone else? Still, master? That's a very weird way to address an elder regardless. Was the owner of this mansion forcing the child and all the other residents to call him that? Or perhaps they had a legitimate reason to call him that, such as him being the strongest Powered Human in here, or him being their teacher.

I took out a small note pad and wrote it down.

"Master."

I was already on to something. It would've been a waste for me to turn back. I took a deep breath and marched towards the door. That news headline wasn't gonna write itself. Besides, I'm a journalist. This is what I was made to do.

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I entered the hallway. It was huge. No, it was humongous. A large staircase stood in the centre of the hallway. None of the lights were on so it was hard to make out the details of the mansion. Doors with barely visible labels stretched across my side of the hallway, while the other side had way fewer doors, some of which were spread wide open. Seemed like even some rooms on the ground floor were unoccupied.

Not gonna let Reggie and the mole live this one down. I scowled.

Wrong information could literally land me to my death if I'm unlucky.

I approached the staircase and began heading to the first floor. Before I could even make it halfway up the steps, I saw white droplets on one of the steps.

Milk? I wondered.

Then it dawned on me. The kid went up these exact stairs. I guessed that he lived on one of these floors, perhaps on the third floor where his 'master' resided.

I trudged on, way more cautiously than before (not to say i hadn't already been cautious enough to begin with). I finally made it on to the first floor and this time it was more of a corridor than a hallway, riddled with doors side to side as if it were a 4 star motel. One of the doors was slightly open and a light permeated through the gaps. Same with a few other doors, although those were fully shut. Giggles came right from the semi-opened door.

Creepy.

I was never one to believe in ghosts but this... This made me more than unsettled to say the least. Although, I couldn't help but slowly approach the door to eavesdrop. Perhaps there were more children in this mansion.

A child's voice burst with laughter which almost made me jump. It wasn't the kid this time. I could tell.

"He's got so much milk on top of his lip! He looks like an old man with a beard." The voice laughed.

"Oh my God, Danelle." an older, more mature feminine voice said. "Shut up. You're making way too much noise right now."

I could tell the voice came from a teenager. No older than 16 I thought. She continued scolding the kids.

"If Master wakes up because of you, we're all in shit!"

"Language." Cut in a slightly more mature and calm male voice.

"I don't give a fuck." she retorted. "I don't want to get into trouble because of these shit-heads."

Her voice was beginning to grow louder, almost as loud as the kid who was laughing earlier.

"And you!" she began after a few deep breaths. "Who the hell goes to get milk, and comes back with a carton!?"

The kid she addressed paused for a few seconds and then answered.

"Master gave it to me."

There was a pause.

Shit.

I had to get out of here.

"Master is never up this late." The gentle male voice said, this time sounding slightly alarmed. There was an even longer pause.

I slowly backed away from the door. A room. I needed to find a room to hide in. I didn't think whether to go back down and escape or to go up the stairs and hide. My instincts simply kicked in and I dived into the nearest unoccupied room. Room 21, which was uncomfortably close to the room I just came from eavesdropping on, Room 19.