"Oh shit. Shit!" Gideon panicked when he finally recognized who they were. "Damn it. What excuse can I give them?!"
His gaze dropped to the scattered corpses near the barrier, and a slow smile spread across his face.
'Yes. That's it. Why am I panicking? Calm down and act naturally.'
Gideon broke into a run toward the vehicles, waving both hands wildly. His expression looked like someone who had gone a week without water as he shouted at the top of his lungs.
"I'M HERE! AND SUMMER TOO!!!"
The three vehicles screeched to a halt in front of him. Doors opened, and the passengers rushed out.
"Where is my daughter?!" Delilah shouted, her voice sharp with panic. "What happened?! You didn't hurt her, did you?!"
"Of course not. Why would I?"
Gideon lifted his brow, clearly offended by the accusation, but he forced himself to stay calm as he explained.
"We got trapped here and had to fight off aberrants."
He pointed toward the corpses littering the ground nearby. "They surrounded this place, so we couldn't leave."
Delilah gasped. "Oh my god. Is Summer alright? Why are you here alone? Where is she?!"
She grabbed his collar, her grip tight with fear, until he gently eased her hands away.
"Please calm down, Mrs. Miller. She's safe," Gideon said firmly. "She's inside the house. We fought through the night, and she passed out from exhaustion."
"Really?" Delilah exhaled deeply, relief flooding her face.
However, her wariness did not disappear completely. She narrowed her eyes at him and spoke coldly.
"If you ever put her in danger again and disappear without telling me, I will cut your dick off."
With that, she sprinted straight toward the house. Gideon stood frozen for a moment before grinning helplessly.
"That woman is serious," he murmured. "Guess I'll make you fall in love with me first before that happens."
He then turned and led the others toward the house.
His grin widened when he noticed Elaine, Freya, and the red-haired woman standing together. The scene would have been perfect if Kilian had not been there too.
Still, the man turned out to be surprisingly easygoing. The two of them ended up joking while prying open aberrant carcasses to extract their cores.
"You're either extremely lucky or extremely unlucky to spend the night fighting these things with Summer," Kilian said, shaking his head.
"Lucky?" Gideon scoffed. "She used me as bait."
"That's nothing, she's brutally rude. I nearly cried working with her."
"Really?" Gideon chuckled while placing another core into the basket Elaine had handed him. "I don't think she is that rude."
Kilian stared at him for a moment, brows knitting together.
"Have you ever looked at your face in the mirror?"
Gideon blinked, didn't understand what he meant but when he did, both of them burst out laughing.
When everything was finally done, they washed themselves outside in the small garden where a water faucet had been installed.
Their arms were smeared with aberrant blood, and none of them wanted to bring that mess inside the house.
As expected, no one questioned the existence of the mansion at all. When Gideon casually asked Kilian whether it felt strange to find a house standing in the middle of nowhere, the man only shrugged.
"Not really. We've found houses like this before, this place probably used to be a residential area before everything went to hell."
Gideon simply nodded and headed upstairs.
Inside the bedroom, Delilah and Freya were sitting beside Summer's bed. Their expressions were tense as they watched Summer, who looked utterly exhausted, dark circles forming beneath her eyes.
Summer continued playing along with Gideon's story, vividly describing their desperate battle through the night against nocturnal and flying aberrants known as Glowbats.
She explained how they were mutated creatures, a mix of bats and ghost fungus, their bodies as wide as coffee tables.
Their wings were thin and brittle like dried leaves, while their backs were covered in glowing fungi that shimmered faintly in the dark.
"At least you're safe," Delilah said with a heavy sigh.
She pulled Summer into a tight hug. "You're not injured anywhere, are you? Do you want some soup? I'll make it for you."
"Yeah," Summer replied weakly. "I'm hungry. I miss your cooking."
"Good. After that, we're going back to the bunker," Delilah said firmly as she pulled away. "It's not safe here."
Both Summer and Gideon froze.
Just earlier, Summer had promised him they would stay here. She had even sworn she would convince her mother and sister to move in.
Now, because of the story they had fabricated, Delilah clearly had no intention of letting her daughters remain in this place.
Summer acts quickly. She suddenly collapsed back onto the bed, her body going limp. Her voice trembled as she spoke.
"I… I don't think I can go now, Mom. I'm too tired to even move…"
She let out a weak groan and closed her eyes.
"Summer?" Delilah panicked instantly. "What's wrong with her? Why did she faint again? Call Elaine!"
Freya jumped to her feet to look for Elaine, and Gideon followed behind. He had no intention of staying within reach of Delilah's rising panic, or her anger.
"You two weren't really fighting aberrants, were you?" Freya suddenly whispered. "You were doing that, weren't you?"
Gideon laughed softly. "So what if we were? You want to join too?"
"That's not what I meant!" Freya protested, her cheeks turning red. "But… I don't mind either."
"Don't worry," Gideon said with a grin. "You will."
They soon found Elaine resting in the living room, seated across from the Pathmadre. Only now did Gideon learn that her name was Jade, and that she did not use a surname.
Up close, Jade was striking. Even more so without her mask. Gideon noticed the small mole beneath her eye, her sharp nose, and her delicate mouth. When she smiled, her teeth were neat and perfectly aligned.
"Elaine, Summer fainted again," Freya said.
Elaine stood immediately and followed her upstairs. As Gideon turned to leave as well, a voice stopped him.
"Come here, boy. We haven't properly met yet, have we?"
"Boy?" Gideon chuckled. "I'm not that young."
He walked over and sat across from her.
"You're still younger than me," Jade replied coolly, crossing her arms.
"Let's skip the nonsense. Elaine told me this area wasn't fertile the last time she passed through here."
Her gaze locked onto his. "Do you know something about that?"