"And…" A piece of memory suddenly appeared in Juin"s mind, and he mumbled as he ran his fingers across the name "Mack". "I heard that Ashton called Director Wu about this issue as well, although I didn"t know why. He never told me anything." Lucifer knew about the neighbor, since Mrs. Martin told him about the neighbor when he took over Juin"s body. However, he decided to keep quiet about this for now. He did not want Juin to know that he had the ability to take over his body without his knowledge yet.
"Well, it"s time for us to find out what really happened that day…" Lucifer muttered as he looked down the pathway. He could feel something sinister brewing within. There was an unnatural aura that was coming from deep within the forest; one that was bothering him.
Juin nodded, and he took the first step in the pathway. Five minutes later, he came into a clearing with three pathways, and on the front of each pathway was a signboard. Dense trees lined both sides of each pathway, thus giving the inhabitants of each house some privacy.
Juin stepped closer to the clearing and looked around. The left had a green arrow wooden signboard with the name "The Westerleys" carved clearly onto it and a green wooden mailbox underneath it, while the right only had a broken blue wooden signboard with the name "The Macks" on the left side of the path and a broken blue mailbox that was full of mails on the right side.
"Ashton, David, and I made the signboard for the Westerleys during spring that year. They were an old couple who have been living here for more than forty years. They didn"t have any children, so we used to go there to hang with them."
He looked at the Westerleys" signboard wistfully as he murmured, "I wonder if they are well…"
"We don"t have time for you to be sentimental," Lucifer said coldly as he nudged Juin toward the pathway with the red mailbox that had a red arrow wooden signboard with the words "The Smithsons" on it.
Juin sighed and walked toward the Smithsons" house. When he was about 30 meters from the Colonial house with black rooftop and dark blue window frames, he stopped and looked up at one of the windows on the second floor.
"What are you looking at?" Lucifer asked when Juin stopped for a long time.
"Ashton and I used to stay in that room…" Juin explained as he looked at the middle window, which was third from the right and left. The Smithsons provided them with their own rooms, but Ashton wanted to stay with Juin, and honestly, Juin wasn"t comfortable enough to stay in his own room at the time.
"That"s a huge house…" Lucifer nodded as he appreciated the style of the house. He had never seen this kind of style before since they did not exist in Alercane.
"10 rooms…" Juin chuckled. "Rich people are weird… There"s only three of them and a butler, but they need such a huge place."
Similar to the first time he arrived here, he found it ridiculous for them to live in such a huge house. Sure, it was beautiful and elegant, but it was also empty and quiet… And for an only child like David, it was a lonely place to grow up in.
"Let"s go?" Lucifer asked impatiently as he floated toward the house. He was eager to find another piece of this puzzle that could help him unravel the truth behind Juin"s ident.i.ty.
"Wait a second…" Juin said, and Lucifer turned to look at him.
Lucifer watched as Juin took in a deep breath before slowly taking a step toward the house.
When he got to the front door, he hesitated for a moment before reaching up with his right hand to press the doorbell.
When he pressed the modern doorbell, which was a contrast to the old school design of the house, a "ding dong" sound repeated a couple of times with an echo-like effect, with the previous tone sounding sharper than the ones after. He then took a step backward, adjusting his backpack with an uncertain expression on his face.
He hadn"t seen them for three years, and he wondered what they would think of him, coming here uninvited.
A few seconds later, he heard someone behind the door, and soon, the door was opened. It was a middle-aged butler who opened the door; one whom Juin was quite fond of.
"Hi, sir, how may I--" The butler"s words were trapped in his throat when he recognized his visitor. He gulped and said, "Young Master Juin?"
Juin smiled and nodded. "Hi, Mr. Om. I"m no longer a young master, so you can just call me Juin."
"How have you been doing lately?" Mr. Om asked as he looked at Juin from top to toe. He then frowned. "You didn"t grow at all. Have you been eating well? They didn"t mistreat you at the orphanage, did they? Or did you get adopted by someone?"
Before Juin could reply to the barrage of questions, he could hear a youthful voice asking in a calm voice, "Mr. Om, who"s that?"
Upon hearing the question, Mr. Om stepped aside to look at the person, who was wearing a white polo s.h.i.+rt and grey slack and was holding a book. Hung around the person"s neck was a silver cross. "Young Master David… This…"
He could not finish his words because the moment David saw Juin, the novel he was holding fell onto the floor, and he started screaming his head off, "NOOO!!! It"s the DEVIL! MUM!!! He"s back! He"s back for me!"
He then slowly moved backward, but in his fear, he clumsily tripped on the carpet and fell down on his b*tt. With his eyes that were clearly displaying fear, he kept mumbling, "Don"t hurt me… Don"t hurt me…", as he slowly moved back.
"Huh?" Juin and Lucifer glanced at each other while pointing at themselves. "Me?"
"Could he see me?" Lucifer asked. He then shook his head and paid attention to David"s eyes. "He"s looking at you!"
Juin looked at David, and he moved slightly to the left, upon which David"s eyes moved accordingly, and when Juin moved to the right, David"s eyes moved as well.
"You"re right!" Juin gasped. He then looked at Mr. Om, who was fl.u.s.tered, and asked, "Why is he so afraid of me?"
A woman suddenly ran out and tried to help David up. "What happened now?"
She then looked at Juin, and her eyes went wide as she gasped, "It"s you!"
"Why are they all so afraid of you? I thought you are the one who"s afraid of everybody else…" Lucifer asked curiously as he floated to David and looked at the boy"s face. He could tell that the fear was genuine; for some reason, the boy was absolutely terrified.
"Beats me…" Juin muttered under his breath. He walked into the house and tried to help David, but the boy just turned around and tried to crawl away. David"s legs seemed to be devoid of any strength, and he had to crawl on his arms to get further away from Juin.
"Get away from me!" David roared as he crawled. "Dad! Save me! DAAAD!!!"
Loud footsteps could be heard coming from the second floor, and soon, a middle-aged man could be seen running down the stairs nervously. When the man saw Juin, he gasped and stopped a few steps from the bottom of the stairs. "J-Juin?" he asked, unsure if he was seeing correctly. "Is that really you?"
"Mr. Smithson," Juin greeted politely. He then looked at David and asked, "I-I didn"t do anything…"
Mr. Smithson"s attention was brought back to his son, and he immediately ran down to his son, and with his wife"s help, he lifted his son up in his arms. Even though David was already 14 years old, Mr. Smithson could still lift his son as if he weighed nothing.
The moment he felt his father"s protection, David immediately hid his face in Mr. Smithson"s chest as he grabbed onto his father"s s.h.i.+rt with a trembling hand.
"D-don"t let him get me, Dad… Please…" David begged tearfully as he tried to hide his face in his father"s chest. "I"m scared…"
"Sshh… It"s alright," Mr. Smithson said as he brought his son up the stairs. When he got to the top, he said sternly, "I"ll talk to you later, Juin."
With that said, he brought his son back to his bedroom.
"I can"t believe someone is actually that afraid of you," Lucifer said with a chuckle. "Looks like my vessel is not that useless after all…"