Your Guise Is Slipping, Miss Pearl

Esther turned to Finnegan, her eyes full of hope, waiting for him to share his plan.

But Finnegan just snorted. "Don't poke your nose into it. All you need to know is that you'll be saved." Then, he walked away back to his study, not wanting to talk more. Esther watched him go, feeling something wasn't right. She couldn't figure out why he suddenly became angry.

He was just as weird as he was back when they were younger.

Pearl and Richard drove along and found lots of strange things blocking the road.

Richard thought it over and said, "I think the people from the nearby village put these here to prevent people from coming and going easily."

Since it was dark, they didn't dare drive fast. They moved slowly, worried they might run into something dangerous.

But inside, Pearl was getting more and more anxious. "I think they've taken Esther to the village. Something bad might happen if we take too long to get there." Richard looked serious. "If that's the case, Esther might already..."

"I believe in her," Pearl said, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "She'll try to protect herself."

Richard remained silent but feared the worst.

After three or four more hours, they finally reached a small village hidden deep in the mountains, following a rough mountain road.

parked the car in a forest outside the village to keep it hidden. They covered it up to

a few villagers with farming tools since it was still early. Luckily Pearl

BUMS

managed to stay

each house," Pearl said, feeling overwhelmed by the similar-looking houses. "If we search this way, we don't know what might happen to her by the

don't we split up? Maybe we can get

buildings and found them familiar. "I feel like I've

serious look. "Have you

never. But these houses look familiar. Wait, I remember

had read a story about a college girl being kidnapped

"You read that?"

wrote it and asked me to

still remember the

around, Richard

started, "The village had low houses with odd, Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh

writing on

like