Lance nodded at both of them and stepped back inside the room next door where Sophie was waiting with her arms crossed and a grim expression on her face; she didn't look like she was happy about him bringing strangers in uninvited though, so he stopped in the doorway instead of moving further into the space with them. Grace and Jacob were still standing there, staring in awe into his eyes; he wondered what he looked like to them right now: a monster? A weirdo? Maybe he was just an oddball that was being driven insane by the influence of the System?

"They're normal, Sophie," Lance said, and the ice-wielding girl's expression softened at that.

Sophie walked up beside him then, looking over at the young man who had introduced himself as Jacob. She narrowed her gaze suspiciously for a moment and shook her head. "I'm sorry," she said quietly after glancing at her companion again, "but I can't trust you."

Lance's heart sank when he heard those words come out of her mouth, but he knew why she felt that way—he did too—and he couldn't blame her for it.

he thought with despair.

Jacob held his hands up defensively though, like he was trying to convince them not to attack them or anything like that; he stared straight into Lance's eyes as though they were staring into each other's souls rather than their own physical bodies. The blonde girl took his hand in hers again; Lance watched them with trepidation while hoping that maybe these two were just confused like they were; if so, then everything might turn out all right yet. They weren't armed either: only a few guns and knives here and there in the room and nothing else besides Lance and Sophie's own arms.

"Hey," Jacob said softly after a moment. "Are you really going to kill us?"

Sophie glared at him before turning her glare towards Grace, but then she looked away. "No. I'm sorry, it's just..."

"It's hard, I know," Grace said. She nodded at her boyfriend and stepped forward—she didn't look like she was planning on attacking them or anything like that but she also wasn't holding her hands up defensively anymore like he had been either. She reached out her hand towards Sophie as well. "My name is Grace."

"Sophie," she said carefully, shaking her hand.

Lance opened his mouth to say something, and then he detected presences.

"Monsters," he said. "Coming from where we just met."

he thought with dismay as his heart skipped a beat and he glanced around the room for a place to hide behind. His eyes landed on the far corner where there was a large wardrobe against the wall with the door open slightly, and then he saw the room beyond it: there were two monsters standing in there, foaming at the mouth while staring straight at him through the small gap between the doorway and the frame.