CHAPTER 112: IT’S NOWHERE BUT EVERYWHERE!

Author’s POV

Lucien tilted his head slightly, a cold smirk tugging at his lips. "Or by letting the same people hurt her again and pretending you didn’t know?" His voice was mockingly calm, but it could easily make the person in front of him vomit blood.

Asher’s jaw clenched. "Do you think I’ve done nothing?" he hissed through gritted teeth. "You think you’re the only one digging into that hellhole of a room? I’ve been chasing that place long before you even showed up."

Lucien’s expression shifted a bit as silence spread between the three of them.

"Wait..." Alistair cut in, confusion and unease lacing his voice. "What room are you two even talking about?" He then added, glancing toward Lucien. "Don’t tell me he is talking about the same place that I had just mentioned?"

The attention shifted from Sera to the room, and they once again at the same topic they were discussing before Asher arrived.

Lucien and Asher both turned to him, exchanging a heavy glance.

Lucien’s tone dropped low. There was no trace of sarcasm in his voice now. "How do you know about that room?" His eyes locked onto Asher again. "And where the hell are you looking for it?"

"Do you really think that tiny bit of intel you got was because you’re some kind of genius?" Asher let out a low and bitter laugh. "I let those clues slip on purpose. I didn’t want your people poking around and screwing things up for me.

Lucien’s eyes narrowed as his jaw tightened. He wasn’t used to being played.

But Asher was not just anyone. He was a soldier and had the best intel and spies around him that he couldn’t match, no matter what.

"Hold on!" Alistair’s voice cut through the intense conversation. His head was already spinning from what Lucien had revealed, but now this... How was his own brother tangled up with some nightmare he had a few times?

He stepped back, fingers brushing through his hair as a strange chill ran down his spine.

That horrendous room... That same goddamn room that kept haunting his dreams, again and again... wasn’t just a dream? It was real?

His stomach churned at the thought, as only he knew what kind of thing he had seen inside.

"Did you find something?" Lucien didn’t even glance at Alistair. His eyes locked onto Asher. "Why the hell did you stop my people from digging deeper?"

"It’s not that I stopped you," Asher replied in a cold and clipped manner. "It’s just... that place... As if it doesn’t exist on any goddamn map. But it’s there, just like that hotel where we rescued Sera that day."

He looked away for a second, inhaling deeply. "I just wanted to find that room... and thrash it in front of Sera. So she’d stop being afraid of it after she’d see it, and wouldn’t have any nightmares regarding this."

Alistair stilled. "Nightmares?" He stepped in closer and gazed between the two. "She had seen it too?" Alistair cut in again, clenching his fist. But neither of them looked at him as if he had been excluded from this conversation.

"Why not work together to find it?" Lucien said quietly, eyes locked on Asher. "We both want the same thing in the end."

But Asher didn’t even hesitate before declining him. "No thanks," he muttered firmly in a dry voice. "I’ve always worked solo. I don’t get involved with—"

Smack.

The sound echoed before the words finished. Asher’s head jerked forward, and he turned slowly, glaring at the person who just dared to lay hands on him.

"You little bastard," Alistair snapped, rubbing his own stinging palm like he was the one who had been beaten. "If you’re that desperate to find it, just ask me! I might know something. But no, you had to play cold and broody like you’re in some tragic drama."

Asher blinked, confused for a second. "Did you just hit me?"

"You’re lucky I didn’t throw you across the yard!" Alistair growled. "You think that attitude’s gonna help anyone? This isn’t your solo mission."

Asher scoffed, rubbing the side of his head. "You could’ve just said you had clues, idiot! Why smack me!"

But Alistair wasn’t done. "And how the hell are you gonna survive out there as an idol with this aloof crap? Huh? You’ll be eaten alive! You wanna get canceled before you even debut?"

He muttered to himself. "Damn it. I’ll have to fix his image or they’ll tear him apart."

Lucien blinked, almost amused for a second at the bizarre shift in mood.

Asher didn’t say anything. His mouth pressed into a line, eyes lowered, as he rubbed the place where he was smacked.

"So, what do you know?" Lucien asked. As they both glanced at Alistair, waiting for his answer.

"Room 402... is not a room," Alistair muttered.

His voice had dropped and turned serious, as his heart trembled. His eyes weren’t sharp anymore; they were cold and distant.

Asher narrowed his brows, suspicious. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

"Don’t ask," Lucien cut in quietly. "Just listen."

Alistair’s jaw clenched, and he nodded once. "It’s not a place. It’s nowhere but... somehow, it’s everywhere. I don’t know how to describe, but..."

His voice wasn’t steady anymore. This wasn’t his usual commanding tone. He sounded as if there was a lump in his throat, and it was getting harder for him to speak.

"I had a dream," he continued. "It was in bits and pieces but was always the same, over and over again... where I’d just returned from overseas. And I couldn’t find Sera. She had just vanished. They told me she’d been sent to some mental hospital. I stormed in and demanded answers."

He paused, swallowing hard and trying to control his emotions, which were evident in his eyes, voice, and trembling, clenched fist.

"And they told me she escaped. They’d informed the family, but..."

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So... What is it? Any clues then?