Hey, there, my readers !

I'm back with the fourth chapter !

Hope you enjoy reading it !

Disclaimer : All rights goes to Jonathan Stroud

I'm cold.

I stopped. Lockwood and George noticed it and they stopped too.

"What's wrong, Lucy?" Lockwood asked.

I'm cold.

"I can hear it," I said. "she's back, Lockwood."

Lockwood looked at me confusedly. "Who's back?"

"Duh, the visitor, obviously." George said.

Lockwood looked at me. "You can hear its voice?" he asked.

I nodded.

I'm cold.

"What's she saying?" George asked.

"She said she's cold."

George shared a stare with Lockwood and then the both of them looked at me. "It's not Annie, right? She's a goner for all I know." George said.

"It's not her, George," I said. "Annie doesn't have a broken neck."

"But saying she's cold is her favorite." George shrugged.

"From where is her voice coming?" Lockwood asked.

I pointed to the trees. "From somewhere inside there." I said. "It's faint, but I can hear it."

George looked at the thermometer. "Well, it's not that much dropping, but the temperature is indeed dropping."

"I can't see a thing." Lockwood said. "Let's go and check it anyway."

The three of us slowly entered the trees. Cold breeze said hello to us and we could feel the presence of a visitor.

"Dropping," George said. "pretty fast too."

"We must be getting close." Lockwood said. "I still can't see a thing."

"Not even glows?" George asked.

"No." Lockwood said. "Something is strange about this place."

"I think the visitor is way stranger." I said. "Her voice is getting louder."

"Lead us the way, Lucy." Lockwood said.

I nodded and I walked at the most front. George behind me, and Lockwood behind him.

I'm cold.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I mumbled. "I'm cold too."

"Don't talk to the visitor like that," George grumbled. "it's creepy."

I'm cold.

Then I stopped. George bumped into my back and Lockwood to his.

"What's your problem, Lucy?" George asked.

"It stops." I said, muttered actually.

"What?"

"The voice stops." I repeated.

"Does that mean we're close?" George asked.

"I can see a faint glow there." Lockwood pointed.

"Any voice, Lucy?" George asked.

I shook my head. "I heard something else, though."

"What?"

"Sighs."

"What?"

"And some ruffling sounds."

"Are you hearing right?"

I turned my head a bit to face George. "Of course I'm hearing right."

Suddenly, Lockwood tapped both of our shoulders and pointed forward. "Is that a house?" he asked.

We followed his hand and we saw a small house up ahead. It wasn't a house, actually, more like a cottage. It was made of woods, and definitely it was abandoned long ago. I perked up my ears, and I could definitely hear lots of sighs and ruffling sounds came from the cottage. Still, no voices from the visitor, though.

"Let's go in and check." Lockwood said and the three of us started to walk closer to the cottage. "I'm pretty sure there's a source inside. The glow is getting brighter."

George checked the thermometer. "Yeah, probably you're right. It's dropping too."

"You still can't hear anything from our visitor, Lucy?" Lockwood asked.

I shook my head. Honestly, right now, I thought it would be much better if I heard our visitor's voice, and not this sighs and ruffling sounds.

Especially the sighs. They were so depressing, and just by hearing them, felt like my soul was being dragged away. Undoubtedly, these sighs belonged to other visitors around the cottage. They were first types and hardly had any presences, but their sighs were something else.

I didn't know since when, but as we got closer to the cottage, Lockwood suddenly took my spot and he was walking at the most front. George settled himself at the middle, and I was walking behind him. Not that I complained, though. As we got closer to the cottage, the sighs were getting louder. If I settled my place at the most front, I would get the first seat on hearing those sighs. And if I could choose, I'd rather decline that first seat.

"Keep dropping." George informed. "Any death glows, Lockwood?"

Lockwood nodded. "There are more, too. And getting brighter."

Right now, the three of us were standing right in front of the cottage. Now that we were so close, I could see just how badly the cottage was. There were holes on the wall, and the roof was covered by moss. Some kind of unknown mushrooms grew at the corners of the cottage, too. The cottage still got its door, with two broken windows. I could feel intense malice coming from the inside, and it was dark in there.

To my surprise, the moment we stepped our feet in front of the cottage, the sighs and the ruffling sounds abruptly stopped.

"More death glows inside." Lockwood said after stretching his neck to take a glance from the broken window. "Hear anything, Lucy?"

"Nothing." I said.

"The temperature isn't dropping." George said.

Lockwood took a minute of silence, thinking. "Let's go in and check, just in case." he said.

Both me and Lockwood readied our daggers. George took some salt bombs to protect himself. Lockwood took two flashlights from our bag and handed one over to me. We clicked them on, and we stepped inside the cottage after opening the rusty door.

Me and Lockwood swung our flashlights around, and we saw completely nothing. This cottage was incredibly abandoned, there wasn't any furniture inside.

"So, where's the source possibly be?" George asked.

"Let's set up a barrier, first." Lockwood suddenly said. "I have a bad feeling, somehow."

Though we were absolutely confused, we did as Lockwood said. Thank goodness, Lockwood didn't forget to bring iron chains with us. The three of use stood closely to each other, and we circled the chains around our feet.

"That ought to do it." George said and stood up after fixing the chains a bit. "Now, why did you tell us to set this up?"

"I just have a bad feeling," Lockwood said. "I can see lots of death glows here, but no visitors. Not even first types."

"And the temperature's not dropping," George added. "do you think there's something out of the place, here?"

"Definitely, though I don't know what yet." Lockwood said.

The three of us fell into silence. None of us wanted to speak, or we just didn't know what to speak about. Lockwood kept glancing around, George kept staring still on his thermometer, and I perked up my ears to catch some noises.

I still heard nothing.

"These glows are so bright," Lockwood said while wincing a bit. "means there are some recent deaths here."

"Seriously? In an abandoned cottage?" George asked.

"Probably just some wild cat or something." Lockwood mumbled.

"Maybe," George nodded. "that explains why the temperature's isn't dropping. Cat souls can't be count as visitors."

"Sometimes I'm so envious of animals." Lockwood sighed.

"Why?" I asked.

"They always died in peace," Lockwood said. "no will of coming back to haunt or anything like that. Even if they died without them wanting it, they just accepted it."

"How did you know that?" I asked sarcastically.

Lockwood sent me a glance, which oddly made my heart jolted a bit, and I could feel my face got hot a bit. I groaned inside. Seriously, Lucy? You were chasing a source, okay, did you actually have time to feel that way?

"Have you ever heard any cases about dead cats' souls went berserk and haunting people's lives?" Lockwood asked back with a slight amusement.

I cleared my throat. "Right."

Lockwood smiled, like smiled at me, and my heart was doing some funny jumps by itself. Gosh, what was wrong with me?

This time, George cleared his throat. A bit louder than mine. "I'm not transparent." he mumbled.

Lockwood let out a soft chuckle. "Of course not, George. You're too hard to not be noticed."

George sent Lockwood a glare, though Lockwood didn't bother to see it. "I take that as a compliment."

Lockwood shrugged. "I didn't mean it to become something else, though."

And again, silence fell upon us. George mumbled something incoherent, but then he stopped doing it. I let out a soft sight, as my eyes started to feel droopy. Great, I was getting sleepy.

I blinked several times to shake away the sleepiness. Honestly, why did I feel so sleepy? I was pretty sure I got lots of rest, and none lack of sleep.

...

Okay, maybe I did get lack of sleep these past few days. Now, why did I get it? Right, blamed it to my own brain.

Ever since that Tuesday, I found it hard to sleep peacefully without remembering our client. Who was her name? Right, Jennifer Harbel.

I didn't know what made me kept thinking about her—trust me, I'm straight—but she kept occupying my brain. There was something about her that kept bugging me, but I couldn't put my finger around it. I thought there was something wrong about her, but I honestly didn't know what was wrong about her.

I blinked my eyes again as a yawn threatened to slip out. The last thing I wanted was Lockwood caught me yawning, and he decided to cut the night off. I wouldn't want to fail my duty as an agent. Not now. Not ever. I took pride in being an agent, and I took a greater pride in working with Lockwood as an agent.

I wouldn't let some fine lady ruined my consciousness and thus ruined my pride as an agent.

But seriously, this night was getting more dull and boring.

I'm cold.

Instantly, my eyes snapped open and I could feel the hair on the back of my neck standing. I could hear George's gasp, most likely because he noticed the sudden drop of the temperature.

"She's here," I muttered. "she's back."

The three of us became more alerted as we clicked off our flashlights. We focused on our Talents. The cold breeze was getting stronger, I could feel it against my face.

I'm cold.

Now, I stood dead on my spot. The voice was awfully close, and it took me few seconds before I realized that the visitor was most likely somewhere around me.

Okay, I'm an agent, and I wouldn't let some visitor made me scared. I must be brave, I'm an agent. I took a deep breath and I turned my head to my left, where I knew only darkness resided.

Unless, it wasn't a complete darkness.

She was there.

With her broken neck, impossibly wide smile, and her empty sockets.

She was staring deep into my eyes, while smiling very very wide.

She was standing right next to me, being so close to the chains.

I grabbed George's elbow who was standing beside me. I knew I should say something, but my voice had ran away somewhere.

I was too stunned, too surprised to see her that close to me.

She twisted her neck—and it was getting more frightening, seeing she had a broken neck—and her smile got wider. Her empty sockets bore into my own eyes.

I'm cold.

I gulped down harshly. I could hear George's voice calling me, but it sounded so far away. The visitor raised her hand up, and slowly closing in, as if she wanted to touch me.

Which was impossible because the iron chains made some invisible barrier and she hissed upon the contact.

George was still calling me, but I just grabbed on his elbow harder. I couldn't hear his voice, it sounded like he was miles away. His elbow was the only reminder that he was actually standing beside me.

The visitor opened her mouth slowly, and what I heard next had my heart stopped beating. My head was pounding crazily, and the last thing I remembered was the sound she produced before everything went black.

She was screaming. Really really really loud.

Done !

Finally, it's done !

It took me nights to dream about the idea, and it took me days to write it down .

Honestly, when I wrote this chapter down, I could imagine the scenes and it sent me shivers. I am honestly glad I'm not an agent .

I'll be waiting for your reviews, my lovely readers !