- Red Light -

By the time they finished their call, Charlotte kept her mirror back. It was the right time for Hockney to ask about her abilities.

"You could see the future as well?" Hockney asked her. Charlotte nodded her head and hummed.

"A bit" she replied. "Though it isn't really clear....but I could see them."

"Oh......"

After asking that, Hockney didn't start conversation with her again. Not that Charlotte minded about that. Right now, she can't wait to go and meet Grand De Jah.

The passage to his castle was quite, surrounded by some green leaves which were bigger than them. There didn't seem to be a single creature in the passage....until they encountered with the giant lizards. Those giant lizards were said to be docile but vicious and hostile towards intruders by Mata who dealt with them.

"They are scared of light. They may not be immortal like the leeches but they swarm you if you attack them so it would be the best to drive them away" Mata explained. "Let's go!"

"Thanks! We would have been in a big trouble if you weren't with us, Mata!" said Bam.

"Haha! Don't mention it!"

"But if Mata has been here before....does that mean you came with him, Hockney?" Bam asked Hockney while running.

Hockney looked rather unsure about that.

"I'm....not sure. I have almost no memories of my past" he answered.

"What?"

"I lost my memories somewhere....and came back to life when Mata found me. I've heard a bit from Mata about my past...but I don't remember exactly what caused me to lose my memories. What I know for sure is that someone named Hell Joe is hunting me down......and that for some reasons, part of my soul was absorbed by my picture, The Red Light. So I was able to leave this place."

"Your soul....in your picture?" Bam didn't expect that.

"Yeah. I don't know how my soul ended up in my picture...but because of that, my soul was able to escape from the spirit room. Having found out about that, Hell Joe thought that I was able to put people's souls in pictures. So he captured me and ordered me to draw his portrait but I refused. Angered by this, he sold the Red Light to the outside world" Hockney explained before he cursed Hell Joe. "That petty jerk....."

Well, Charlotte couldn't help that. Turned out right now he was busy looking for his picture since Hell Joe sold it out of anger and irritation.

"Why didn't you draw his portrait?" Bam curiously asked.

Hockney snorted.

"....I just...don't like drawing when someone forces me to...." he said and pouted. "It's an artist thing."

"Ah....."

Right, no one liked to be forced.

"Just so you know, I've never seen the completed version of that picture with my own eyes. The picture was already gone after I lost my memories and woke up again" Hockney continued as he put his hand on the chest. "But part of me feels empty after losing the picture. So if I find all of the pieces of that picture and complete it-- I feel like this empty sort in my heart will be filled and my memories will be back. And maybe these monstrous eyes--"

The red part on his eyes glowed red.

"--will go back to normal."

It was something that the others couldn't fail to notice.

Charlotte also hoped that Hockney could get what he wanted, to find the last part of his picture. But she was however afraid that Hockney might betray them in order to find the last part of his picture....since the fragment of the picture was said to be with Yura in the manhwa.

"Your eyes....?"

Hockney admitted to them that he could also see the past and the future. His ability was identical with Charlotte which was the reason why he was surprised to know that Charlotte could also read the future. But the difference was that he could only see few seconds ahead in the same area....while Charlotte could see further. Moreover, Charlotte wasn't really looking at the future while Hockney did see the future.

Rather than a blessing, he thought that this ability was a curse. A curse for an artist like him so that he couldn't see the present well, hindering him in drawing what he wanted.

Once, when he climbed the tower as a regular, he had a girl as his teammate. That girl treated him nice and well and one day she wanted him to draw her. Hockney agreed since at the time, he needed a model.

But when he was about to draw that girl, the curse was activated. Her beautiful smile was replaced with the painful expression of hers and there was a needle on her neck.

Hockney wanted to warn that girl but because he shouted, there was a needle flying to her neck. As it turned out, his teammates were playing to betray him and that girl was helping his teammates by using the picture was the bait. Because Hockney shouted, the aim of one of his teammates missed and hit the girl instead. At the end, the girl died and Hockney survived.

But he didn't find this happy at all. He would rather be killed by that flying needle in order to capture the present, even if it was for a moment and the smile was fake.

"Whether it's the past, present of the future-- I think that it's most valuable when you are standing in that moment. Living on the life based on the past me, without knowing the future me" he said. "That's what matters to me the most right now."

"........."

His thoughts were different from Charlotte.

She wouldn't agree that sometimes it was better to live on the present without knowing the future. Perhaps if she didn't know the future, she could take risks better without fearing death and knowing it. But in the same time, another part of her wanted to know about the future.....so that she could guarantee that everything will go smoothly for her.

"Then let's go looking for it together!" said Bam, distracting her from her thoughts.

"Hm?"

"Since you are helping me, Hockney, once we finish our business here, we'll help you find your picture" he said and looked at Charlotte with a smile. Charlotte smiled back as she couldn't agree more with that.

"Y....you don't need to do that!"

"It's alright. I'm actually at the same position to you.....so I'd like to help you....and I'm sure that our friends will also want to help you" said Bam. "Though Khun might grumble a bit."

Hockney lowered his head.

He didn't expect that one day he would have friends.

"T....thanks....."

"Don't mention it. You are helping us too, Hockney" said Bam.

"Y- yeah....."

Seeing Hockney made some friends, Mata who has been quiet watching them also felt touched.

"Oh right, you said that you are good in art right?" Charlotte asked Hockney with a smile.

"Yes?"

"Then after this, could you show me your drawings?" She asked, hoping that Hockney would agree. Hockney looked surprised at her request.

"You...want me to show my drawings.....?"

Charlotte awkwardly smiled. It didn't sound weird right to ask someone to show his drawings?

"I once learnt a bit about art....and find it interesting.....since you are good in art, then do you mind teaching me drawing as well?" Charlotte asked, scratching her cheek.

Bam's lips curled into a smile.

How could he forget about that? When his sister drew them and their friends in the Floor of Test, he remembered how happy she was.

After Charlotte lost both of her legs, she couldn't play sports anymore. Therefore, she decided to find something else to do to spend her time which was art. Charlotte believed that in the terms of drawings, Hockney was the master.

Hockney smiled and agreed.

"Alright."

That made Charlotte smile even wider.

The four of them continued to run and run until they reached a place. At the edge of the cliff, high on the wall above, there was a door....or more like a gate. Charlotte's golden eyes looked carefully at the cliff before she noticed something. On the gate, there was the drawing of the waterfall.

Bam's heart was beating fast right now as he heard the sound of waterfall. He could feel it. He could feel that his next thorn fragment was inside there.

"H....hey!" Mata called them. "C...can we stay behind now?!"

Charlotte wasn't really sure what made Mata felt this uncomfortable and scared. Could it be because there were Grand De Jah and Grand De Lee inside that he was afraid? After all, the strengths of those two could be considered as strong as rankers, even the high rankers.

"What?" Bam asked in disbelief. Who agreed to come with him and his younger sister few minutes ago?

"Well...I'm actually kind of scared~ Grand De Jah is terrifying to lowly creatures like us~ plus, we've finished showing the way...isn't that right, Hockney?" Mata asked and turned his head around at Hockney who also looked confused with Mata's sudden behavior.

"Well, it's not like he's going to eat you right?" Charlotte asked, raised one of her eyebrows at his strange behavior and crossed her arms.

"Besides, you've come all this way...." said Hockney.

"T....that's right!" Mata agreed with that. "So I'd like to stop here~"

Charlotte's smile turned into a teasing smile as she put her hands on her back and took steps closer to Mata.

"Could it be that.....you ever offended the Great Leader Grand De Jah and Grand De Lee? You ever pissed them off before?"

"W- what?!"

"If not, then why are you afraid of them?" She asked, tilting her head in an innocent and playful way.

"Charlotte, don't tease Mata already" Bam ordered. Though it was a pity, Charlotte pouted a bit and took few steps backward away from the anxious Mata. "This part up ahead.....is definitely going to be dangerous, so there's no need for you guys to go....."

"T...that's right!!" Mata instantly agreed.

"Mata" Hockney called. There was definitely something off with this man. "What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

Just right at that moment, they heard another voice.

"Give up, Bam, Charlotte."

That female voice sounded clear and familiar for them. Charlotte glanced at the direction of the voice which came from the path that they took before. That voice and figure of a person who walked closer and closer to them was familiar. That person was extremely familiar to the twins.

Charlotte couldn't forget the owner of the voice, the owner of the yellow lighthouse. That person was the only person she ever hated this much and the only person she wished to die in the most cruel death.

"W....who is that?!" Mata asked, stuttering again.

"Soon.....White...and Karaka will be here....." said that female voice again with the sound of huffing coming from her. "Forget about....obtaining the second thorn fragment..."

But however, the one who suffered the most from that person, her brother, will never allow her to end that person's life. The plot will not allow her as well. By the time her brother saw that person, his eyes widened immediately.

"Ra....Rachel!"

Rachel was that person. And judging from her condition right now, she looked like she has been running for more than ten miles just to get that place and meet them.

Charlotte silently snorted and smiled.

Believe it or not, for some reasons, seeing Rachel this exhausted and tired was a little bit....satisfying.

It wasn't a lie that Rachel had just run from a far place just to get there.

Before, as what we knew, she and her friends were taken by Karaka into the Floor of Death. Karaka seemed to know the passage so they didn't have to sacrifice their souls in order to enter the Floor of Death. Moreover, Karaka knew Hell Joe, the ruler of the South City.

Hell Joe's announcement spread through the whole floor that he had the last thorn. At the same time, Rachel received an important information from Emily that Hockney was in the spirit room along with the twins. Therefore, Rachel believed that she had to go to the spirit room but it wasn't easy with two slayers with them. Karaka and White also heard her good news.

Karaka's priority was to return White's power. White also can't wait to return to his peak. Moreover, the two of them had grudge with the twins. It would have been their happiness to get rid of the two slayer candidates after all the things and problems that the twins caused.

After tricking Karaka and White, saying that she twisted her ankle and pretended to enter Yura's suitcase, she ran away to catch up with the twins and Hockney. With Emily, she knew the route and arrived right there just in time.

Charlotte seriously admired her persistence running that far just to meet them. She didn't even stop to rest even for a minute. What was even worth of admiration was that Rachel could make up such an obvious lie just to get them away from that place.

"Right now, Yura may be able to buy some time by lying to them about your position, but Karaka will be here soon!" said Rachel in panic. "If he catches you, you'll even lose the thorn fragment!"

The thorn fragment....Mata and Hockney knew that it was what Hell Joe was searching for now.

"If you retreat from here, they won't be able to get the thorn fragment!" said Rachel again. "So run away!"

"Rachel....." Bam muttered her name.

They knew precisely that Rachel wasn't worried about them. She was worried that Karaka might steal the thorn!

If this was before, Bam might have listened to her. What he wanted the most was return to the past, instead of going ahead to the future. But his dream and desire to get back with Rachel to that dark cave with Rachel as his light has been destroyed. As he climbed the tower, he realized lots of things.

Not only he learnt how to get something...he also learnt how to let something go.

The first betrayal was in the Floor of Tests where she pushed him away.

The second betrayal was at the Train City where she also pushed him away.

How many times he should suffer from betrayal to be awake and to find a new goal?

He took a deep breath before he gave her his answer.

"Rachel, I'm going."