"Stay right there."
The same man commanded with so much authority in his voice to the point that even the panic-stricken Syra was made to comply.
She heard footsteps and based on its sound, the other party was already getting near her, yet she remained frozen on the spot. She could not even move a finger at the moment, let alone her head to look at the direction of the man who was approaching her.
For some unknown reason, Syra was scared stiff as a stone.
"Who are you and who brought you here???"
The manly voice once again echoed within the darkness. His voice sounded psychedelic yet at the same time, it also had its own sense of appeal that could convince one to listen to his voice over and over again.
Even Syra found it hard to deny that if she would ever be given a chance to listen to the other party's voice, she would gladly do so.
'Snap out of it, Self! This is not the right time to think about such things!'
Syra gulped down her saliva before he gave him an answer.
"Sab. My name is Sab."
She said. Of course, there was no way she would simply give her name to a creeper like him, regardless of how handsome his voice may have sounded.
"I know you are lying, Sab."
The other party said flatly
"Huh?? How did he know??? Could it be that he could actually read minds??? No. no. no Syra. You have watched too many sci-fi movies. There is no way telepathy is for real."
Countless thoughts were running inside Syra's mind at that moment but she refused to say a word.
"I'll ask you one last time. Once you lie, I'll have your tongue cut."
Syra subconsciously covered her mouth when she heard the man's threat.
"Please, let me go, mister. I swear I did not see anything ad I won't tell anyone about any of this either. Please just let me go. I don't know anything."
"Well you do know that someone with the name of Clyde lived in this residence, didn't you? You said it yourself before coming over."
This time cold bids of sweat started to form on Syra's forehead.
'Did I thought it wrong??? What if the owner of the wallet is actually not my savior?? What if this guy was a serial killer instead? And that Clyde guy was one of his unlucky victims before? Shoot! I'm doomed!'
Goosebumps started to crawl on Syra's skin when she thought of that.
"Sabina."
"Sabina?"
The other party repeated her answer with a scoff.
"You are wearing my patience thin. Tell me your name or you'll be dead this instant!"
There was an obvious impatience in his voice when he said those words but Syra could only care less about it.
She was waiting for the right timing to make her move and escaped but for some inexplicable reason, she found her feet moving by itself as though it had gained its own consciousness.
Syra felt that her whole body was slowly getting stiff until it completely settled to the point that she could hardly move a single muscle.
At first, she thought that it was only due to her fright. However, she soon found out that something was amiss and it was as though she had turned into some sort of statue or something.
She had her eyes close as she was secretly praying that if all of it was a dream, she wished that someone would come and woke her up already.
"Look at me."
The other party instructed her, but rather than doing what she was told, Syra closed her eyes instead.
"Open your eyes this instant!"
And as if his words held some power, Syra was forced to open her eyes against her will. Syra watched in wide eyes as a handsome face slowly emerged out from the darkness.
The other party was rather tall, probably around 5'10 in height. He also had golden-brown hair which perfectly matched his fair complexion. A small black earring was pierced in his right ear and this gave him a typical bad boy look.
Meanwhile, when the other party finally had a good look at Syra, recognition soon dawned on his face.
"Oh? It's you"
He said then he used his long fingers to trace Syra's face. His hand caressed Syra's face starting from her forehead, down to her eyes and cheek, and further down to her neck.
"And this is mine."
He said before he snatched the necklace that Syra thought about wearing in the meantime
"Maybe fate was what brought you here."
He said more to himself but his face was devoid of any emotion when he said those words.
Meanwhile, Syra remained silent. Or more accurate to say, she was left with no other choice but to remain silent as she lost the ability to even move her lips.
The man waved his hand and at that same time, the invisible force that was sealing Syra's lips vanished.
"Speak up your name and I am warning you; I want your real name."
"S-Syra ... Syra Wright."
The other party smirked when he finally heard Syra speaking her real name.
"Who are you??? And most of all, what are you??? Why I can't move my body??? How were you able to do these tricks?"
Syra fired up her question one after another. She wanted to ask more but the other party waved his hand once more and after that, she found herself unable to speak again.
"Naomi, prepare the blood contract and the circle."
He instructed and the gravelly voice replied right away.
"Yes, master!"
After a short while, the owner of the other voice emerged out from the dark but rather than seeing another person, Syra saw a cat instead!
The cat could actually speak and that almost made Syra faint on the spot. But the series of inexplicable things around Syra that night did not only ended with that.
There was more!
Because when they started to walk deeper inside the old mansion, Syra found herself floating behind them!
"What the heck? Are they planning to use me as a virgin sacrifice or something?"
Syra's imagination started to run wild especially so when she heard the mention of circle and blood contract.
The young man took something that looked like a wand from his pocket then randomly tapped at the wall.
A blinding light assaulted them as soon as the other party was done tapping on the wall and to Syra's greatest surprise a doorway appeared from the previous solid and concrete wall and the two took her with them as they entered the mysterious room.
"Syra Wright."
He called out her name and Syra tried her best to resist looking up at him. He walked closer to her and lifted her head.
"Dispel"
He whispered and Syra collapsed and ended up falling into his arms as the invisible power holding her in the air vanished as soon as he said the magic word.