A few tugs. Some fumbling around with the rope.

  And then Gray finished untying the woman. "There you go." He tossed the gag off to the side and then pulled off the blindfold. "Now, mind telling me-" Gray's voice died in his throat.

  Startling ruby eyes. Delicate pink lips. And refined features that looked almost too perfect to be real. But they were.

  Gray froze. She was so beautiful that he was literally stunned speechless.

  Without a doubt, this woman was the most beautiful one that Gray had ever seen, whether in real life or online.

  But that wasn't what really made Gray speechless.

  No.

  What made Gray speechless was how *lifeless* those ruby eyes were.

  The woman tilted her head and then whispered, "Why?"

  Gray flinched, caught off guard by the sudden question. He quickly shook his head to regain his composure and then stepped back, running his hand through his blonde hair. "Argh... Don't ask me why. I really should know better than to do this..."

  Everything was pointing to a crazy trafficking incident. A woman this beautiful and with such a lifeless gaze painted a picture of the worst type of crime happening.

  And Gray was sure that he'd be completely wrapped up in whatever it was now. But he'd already gone this far... dammit. He had sworn to not risk his life anymore after-

  *Don't follow me. Okay?*

  Gray shoved the memory aside and then focused on the beautiful woman in front of him. "Anyway, can you move? I need to untie your hands, so it'd help if you turned around."

  The silver-haired woman was quiet for a moment. Then she gave a slow nod and turned around.

  Gray untied her hands and feet. "There." He chuckled. "Well, whoever tied you up won't be winning any boy scout badge for knots."

  Unlike how sturdy they appeared, the knots and rope fell apart at a touch, almost like they were crumbling apart. In fact, it was almost too easy...

  Gray frowned and said, "You... *were* tied up against your will, right...?"

  The knots were suspiciously easy to unravel. And the rope fell apart easily too. Then there was the fact that the woman was beautiful and retively untouched except for her tattered clothes and the grime on her pristine skin...

  ...Wait. Did Gray stumble onto one of 'those' sets instead? And not a trafficking incident?

  "I was restrained against my will, yes." The woman's soft and delicate voice echoed.

  Gray looked up in shock. He'd heard it once already, but even now it was startling in how it sounded.

  The silver-haired woman stared back at Gray, quiet. A bit of light had returned to her ruby eyes as she looked, observing.

  Gray swallowed, almost losing himself in her eyes. But he quickly shook his head and said, "Alright. Good to know, I guess."

  It wasn't an X-rated BDSM set, at least. But that meant that this was the real thing.

  'Great. Just a whole can of worms I opened, huh...?'

  A beautiful woman kept in a hidden underground room in a ruined building in a grassnd without any hint of civilization nearby.

  Even an idiot could imagine the sort of events that were supposed to happen here. And the sorts of people who would have tied this beautiful woman up.

  And Gray had just walked right smack into the middle of it before deciding to py hero. "Argh..." He ran his hand through his blonde hair, messing it up again. "What have I gotten myself into this time...?"

  The woman slowly rose, standing on her bare feet. She quietly stared at Gray with her ruby eyes, watching.

  Gray noticed and sighed. "Alright. Looks like you can still move, right?" He grabbed her hand and said, "Come on. Let's get out of here. Stay close and try not to make a sound."

  The silver-haired woman gnced at her hand, now entwined with Gray's. Then she shifted her gaze back to Gray's eyes.

  Gray frowned, wondering for a moment if she hadn't heard him. That, or she was in too much shock to comprehend.

  But then the silver-haired woman nodded and spoke in a soft voice. "As you wish."

  'Weird.' Something about the way that she was interacting with Gray felt off. But he didn't have time to think about it.

  "What the hell?!" A gruff male voice shouted from up above. "Who's the bastard that wrecked the front entrance?! Jerome!"

  Another voice echoed. Also male, but cold and smooth. "Silence, Ross. The floor was enchanted, idiot. Reinforced too. Whoever managed this..."

  Gray didn't stick around to listen to the rest of the conversation.

  That wasn't just asking for trouble, that was waiting for it.

  Gray quickly pulled the silver-haired woman along and whispered, "Let's go!"

  The silver-haired woman nodded and followed after Gray.

  Gray remembered that the woman was barefoot and was a little concerned about her injuring herself. But they didn't have time, so just ignored it and ran through the door. Hopefully there wasn't much shrapnel or debris around...

  Dark halls, lit only by the occasional crack in the ceiling allowing light to filter through. Crumbled drywall, discarded furniture...

  Gray scooped up a rusty pipe on the ground in his left hand as he ran through the halls, clutching the silver-haired woman's hand with his right.

  The building had already seemed to be in disrepair from above, but it was even more clear down here.

  Instead of looking like a proper basement or lower level, if Gray didn't know any better, he would have thought it was a dungeon from an RPG or something. But he didn't dwell on that fact. There were more important things at hand.

  Like finding a way out to get this beautiful woman following him to safety.

  But even as he raced across the cracked cement halls and decrepit rooms, Gray couldn't help but wonder. 'Just what the hell are these people doing so close to campus? And what the hell is up with this building?'

  All things considered, although unfamiliar, this pce HAD to be close to campus.

  Even if Gray was completely zoned out when he was walking this morning, there wasn't any way that he just walked hundreds of miles to the grassnds. So this was probably just the back area of the campus... maybe the older buildings from before the recent campus renovations.

  But if so, then this was ballsy. There had been plenty of campus incidents recently, and cops routinely patrolled. Even if this pce was in the middle of nowhere and sketchy as hell, it would surely be on their radar.

  And especially since Gray went to one of the top schools for Computer Science. So... what the hell?

  Nothing added up. This pce, these people, and especially...

  'This woman.' Gray gnced at the silver-haired woman running beside him.

  She was fine. Completely unfazed by the sprinting, even though she was barefoot. Not only that, but she didn't look like she was hurt at all despite running along rubble.

  In contrast, it was taking everything Gray had to not pant like a dog or colpse. Seriously, it was only the adrenaline keeping him going at this point, so how was this dy-

  "Dammit!" A gruff male voice echoed from far behind.

  Gray's eyes widened and he quickly ducked into a side room, pulling the silver-haired woman with him.

  "You hear that? Someone's running around!" The gruff male voice continued.

  A suave and cold male voice answered him. "It appears so. But they can't have gone far."

  Footsteps echoed in the distance, drawing closer.

  Gray carefully pulled the silver-haired woman with him into the far corner of the room, ducking out of sight of the doorway.

  The silver-haired woman followed without protest. But the entire time, her ruby eyes stayed locked on Gray, observing.

  Gray wanted to yell at her and ask how the hell she was so calm. But he bit his tongue and waited, doing his best to control his breathing instead.

  A tense silence. The footsteps echoed, drawing closer along with the men's grumblings. But then they passed, moving away into the distance.

  After waiting until he couldn't hear them anymore, Gray let out a long sigh and whispered, "That was close."

  It was two people. In numbers, they were equal...

  But Gray wasn't sure he could rely on this woman to help him if push came to shove. Ideally, that meant he had to ambush them... or just run.

  But this pce was complex. And there were a lot of passages that seemed to lead into each other, crisscrossing like a maze with countless dead ends.

  It wouldn't be safe to just try and escape. No, the safest thing would be to take the men out. But... this wasn't some TV show or movie. To Gray, these were 'bad men.' But he knew more than enough about the legal system that money could spin bck to white. And bad guys like this usually had enough to do that. So if Gray wanted to take them out, he'd have to do it permanently. In a way that there couldn't be a chance for them to protest in court.

  Gray swallowed.

  It would be tough. Not the murder. But the attempt itself.

  Gray was just a scrawny computer programmer. He wasn't like his younger brother John who actually enjoyed working out despite being an otaku. Even if Gray managed to get the drop on one of those guys, he probably wouldn't be able to take them out in one hit. Even with this metal pipe...

  So that begged the question.

  What now...?