“What did you hear?” Kevin whispered as he followed Keryn out of their bedroom, holding the handheld radio connected to a pair of headphones in his ears.

 

“I don’t know - just some voices - I think it just went through the walls, like echoes or vibrations.” Keryn shook her head: “Did the captain say anything?.”

 

“No.” Kevin shook his head in response: “And neither did Mick, I think he might be asleep as well - it’s been a really long day - ”

 

“Let’s go take a look first. If somebody really comes in then we need to call the captain and wake him up.” Keryn sighed: “Follow me.”

 

Kevin lightened his footsteps and tried to tread as carefully as possible. But no matter how hard he tried, he could never move as quietly as Keryn did.

 

“Wait - here it comes.” Keryn made another “shush” gesture and pointed at the wall to her left.

 

Kevin did not notice anything at first, but as he held his left ear close to the wall, he could hear a faint voice emanating from the wall and the embedded wooden beams themselves. After only a short moment of hesitation, he put his ear directly against the wall.

 

Soft cries, moans and weeps. It was as if a sick woman in pain was whispering right at his ears. He almost jumped straight away from the wall. Keryn caught him by his back, without letting him make any more noise.

 

“Holy shit - this is - this is not people coming in! It’s in the walls of this house.” Kevin almost lost control of his voice: “This is an entity inhabiting this house!”

 

“An entity? What entity?” Keryn put her right ear against the wall, the left ear: “What - what the hell is it? Some kind of ghost? Or spirit?”

 

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this, or heard about it.” Kevin sighed: “But I think I know what the containment artifacts are for - it must be to contain this - this entity, or these entities, I’m not sure.”

 

“My god, what is Captain Ko up to?” Keryn spoke through her teeth.

 

Just this moment, the sound of cars approached. Neither Kevin or Keryn paid it much mind at first, until several men got out of their cars and headed straight towards the house. Some of them started working on the doors and windows.

 

“Shit!” Keryn cursed: “Call captain, and Mick. But make sure not too loud. Can’t have them hear us.”

 

“Captain? Captain Ko?” Kevin spoke into the radio with a low voice: “Mick? Are you up? We have people incoming! Captain Ko? Mick? Wake up!”

 

There was no response. All he could hear from the radio was static.

 

“Fucking hell.” Keryn cursed: “In the kitchen, now. At least we’ll have some more weapons.” She checked her gun and handed Kevin her taser: “I have four shots left. So, we need knives, anything we can use as a weapon.”

 

“Mick? Captain? Wake up please!” Kevin raised his voice a little as he followed Keryn downstairs and into the kitchen.

 

The captain’s kitchen was simple but well modeled and very clean, almost too clean for a kitchen - clear indication that it was rarely used, if at all. Keryn began searching through the drawers and shelves. She found three knives, one small steak knife, one multi-use kitchen knife with a pointed tip, and one cleaver with a thick spine. There was also a small tenderizer, but only with a plastic head instead of a metal one.

 

Kevin turned on the faucet behind Keryn, then turned something on over the kitchen counter. Keryn looked back at Kevin, and saw the water boiler flashing its light.

 

“Hot water? Really?”

 

“I can’t find anything else.” Kevin shrugged: “Captain doesn’t even have a lot of throwable plates.”

 

“Okay, keep trying them. I’ll see what I can do.” Keryn sighed and held the kitchen knife in her hand, while keeping the other weapons close to Kevin: “Don’t rush over and fight, be careful.”

 

“Hey, Keryn.” Kevin reminded Keryn from behind: “I think - I think if they enter, we need to keep them here.”

 

Keryn’s body shivered, then she nodded at Kevin: “Fuck! Yeah. Thanks for that - I almost forgot. Then I’ll probably need your help - ”

 

Before she could finish, the back window just around the corner of the kitchen opened. Kevin and Keryn lowered the body at the first sound of the locks being picked open and hid behind the marble kitchen island.

 

“Motherfucker. How fucking easy is it to pick that lock?” Keryn sighed, shaking her head.

 

Light footsteps approached. Keryn inched her head out from behind the island to take a peek at the incoming men - there were three of them, all in dark cloaks, and all seemed to be holding handguns.

 

“Three men. ” Keryn whispered to Kevin: “Okay, let’s wait for them to come in closer, I’ll shoot them first, then you use your taser and see if we can stop one of them, okay?”

 

“Okay.” Kevin took a deep breath, then nodded.

 

Keryn also took a deep breath, then shot up from behind the island and opened fire on the shadows of three men walking in.

 

The man in the middle got hit with three shots and was put down in an instant. Kevin leapt out from the other angle and shot the taser in his hands at the man closest to him. The two prongs struck the man on his lower waist. His target cried as he twitched and fell on the ground.

 

The last man opened fire back at Keryn. Keryn was forced back to behind the island, but not before throwing the kitchen knife at the last man standing.