The woman had natural dark circles under her eyes, so she always gave off the impression that she was exhausted, that combined with her flat hair further gave her that tired look. Gavin didn't do anything to push her away, he seemed to help her escalate it by using his free hand to brush some hair out of her face, tilting his head at her as he said nothing. He was enjoying this.  

They got to the apartment complex with the plentiful balconies for birds and dark walls, thanking and wishing the driver goodnight, and climbing the stairs to the woman's apartment number in silence. Unlike the other apartments, her building had stairs for the second floor so that tenants didn't have to go inside and use the hassle of the elevator, anything above the second floor required going inside to use the elevator.

She let go of his arm and rummaged through her purse for her keys, giving him a moment to look at the scenery from the second floor, he slowly turned his head to take in the view and look down at the area.

"You live in a nice location." He said as he looked over the rails. "But doesn't the nearby forest scare you?"

"I actually like it; I can hear crows from that place sometimes." she replied. 

"Crows?"

She found and turned her key inside the knob, they walked in and slowly closed the door, like they weren't in a hurry for the breeze from outside that was being let in to be cut off.

They walked away from the door after taking their shoes off; she dropped her purse onto the low table in front of the couch, he put his phone, wallet and keys down next to her purse, and they stood in awkward silence, not knowing what to do next. 

Noemie looked around awkwardly, then having a quick second spark in her eyes as she took his hand and led him to her bathroom, deciding to follow her usual routine. She gave Gavin a nod and then gestured with her finger, pointing from him to herself as she began to slowly unbutton her blouse, hands shaking a little as they walked to the bathroom. He nodded back, not breaking eye contact as he too, nervously began to slowly unbutton his shirt as well. 

When fully in the bathroom, Noemie reached to turn on her shower as Gavin closed the door, it made a slam sound due to his unintentional force, making the both of them flinch a bit and stare at each other with wide, slightly nervous eyes. When the shower was now very loud, pouring out cold water, the breaths that they were holding were let out. Gavin sighed as his body leaned against the door and slid, Noemie also let herself slip to the floor, her breathing accidentally becoming manual, and she counted her breaths. 

"So," Gavin began, resting his arm on one of his knees.

"Was there something you wanted to tell me in secret, or did you honestly want me to take a shower with you?" He asked in a tone mixed with teasing and awkwardness, tilting his head to her.

"I have something I need your help with, and if I have to take a shower with you in order to get you to say yes, then maybe both." Noemie replied in between breaths.

As the loudness of the shower drowned out every other sound, the two of them relaxed and stop trying to unbutton their clothes. Noemie leaned against the wall, careful to not let her head slide into the shower curtain and unleash the falling water, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around herself. Gavin sat leaned against the door, one knee pulled up to rest his arm on, he took off his glasses and folded up the arms of the glasses that would perch onto the ears.

"So, you want to quit, and you want to help me quit this bloody job too?" He asked, saying every word in this slow rhythm as he looked the tired woman up and down, and then shifting his eyes away to look at something else. 

She had her eyes on the ceiling, head barely tilted back. 

"Yes, I have photos of all the corpses in the freezer, and information on the manager, but I know those aren't enough. More or less, I'll likely end up in prison with her."

She pinched the top of the nose area between her eyes, exhaling deeply. Her hands shuffled behind her neck to unstick hair long hair from the back of her sweaty neck, holding it all in one hand as she had no band to tie it with. The man moved over to sit beside her, offering a hand to help deal with her hair, to which she didn't think much and tilted her head to him as he brushed his fingers through her brown hair.

"Are you sure you want to quit?" He asked her slowly. "I mean, I understand why you'd want to, it's grotesque, working for a serial killer, but you'd likely die sooner if you try."

"Are you sure you want to stay?" She retorted, looking at him point blank. 

He looked her in the eyes as he picked his words carefully, his eyes wandering away and staring down at the floor, unsure.

"The good thing, we are given money through a non-suspicious channel, so we don't have to worry about getting in trouble with IRS."

"But that only means that the one paying us knows about our information through that channel." Noemie told him.

"Yeah, that's bad. So, if we want to quit, we'd have to figure out a way to make them lose our information, so they don't use it against us." He held his chin as he looked down as he stopped combing through her hair.

".... But then again, I have to admit, money is good. I wouldn't have left my shower on for so long if I didn't have this night job."

"Then, let's discuss the rest inside the shower."

He stroked the side of her face with the back of his hand, slowly messing with the top buttons of his shirt again as he gave her a look, the kind with the smirk on the face.

She gave him a side-eyed look, raising one eyebrow and staring silently, her mouth cracked a smile, and she suddenly whipping her head away, covering her hand with her face as they both broke out in light laughter.

The tall man stood up, putting his glasses back on and walking to the door with a grin he couldn't wipe away.

"Joking, joking. You take your shower; we'll figure out what to do after." 

"Alright, and," The woman said with a grin as she stood up, reaching for a large towel from a hook on the bathroom wall she leaned against. "If you hear a knock on the door, don't open it please, I rarely have visitors." 

"Of course." He nodded his head, turning the doorknob. "I'll only open it for someone asking for me then." 

"Don't." She firmly said, unable to hide her grin as she rolled her eyes at him, who was returning her smile as he went out.

She was still grinning, slowly bringing up her hand to touch the tips of hair that he brushed his fingers against, it's been a while since she allowed herself to be this close to anyone, in years. The lady fully unbuttoned her top and slipped out of her pants, ripping off her uncomfortable under garments as she slipped into the shower at last. She then proceeded to give a light and short shriek as she forgot the water was cold, her high note was followed by footsteps and urgent knocks to the door from the outside.

"Everything ok?" Gavin's muffled voice asked from behind the door.

"Yes, just need to adjust the water."

His sigh could be heard even through the water, as his footsteps slowly left. 

After the woman had finished her shower, her skin scrubbed red and marks barely touching the center of her back as she washed all the sweat away, she opened the door wrapped in a towel and walked out into the living room. Her clothes carried in one arm.

Gavin was standing casually and staring at all the picture frames on the wall, he had his arms folded. 

Unlike other people's homes, Noemie really didn't have much for someone to entertain themselves with, no signs with pleasant words, no posters to tell guests more about her likes, no large screen to watch sports on, not even books. When he wasn't staring at his phone, the pictures on the wall were the only other thing he looked at to pass the time until she got out. 

"This your family?" He asked as he pointed at one photo.

It was of a group of seven people, the mother who looked a little bit like the lady, holding a baby dressed in green and red, holding a tiny bell, next to her stood a man who shared Noemie's hair color, his arms were around the mother and an elderly looking man, next to the elderly man stood an equally aged lady, she had the same eye color as Noemie, and held a small child by her side. The child was dressed in a red dress with white fur lining the bottom rim of it, and to the right of the child was a boy who was taller than her, he looked like a child dressed as a miniature adult with his suit.

Noemie made a little smile at the photo as she walked over. 

"That was the first and only Christmas photo we ever took."

"Why's that?" 

"It wasn't as magical as my parents expected and they thought it wasn't worth the money. It took hours to get my brother into his outfit."

Gavin breathed out a laugh and smirked at her reply. 

Noemie went to sit over on the couch, carefully putting her folded clothes on the armrest, and opening up the laptop on the low table, lifting it up to her lap, Gavin moved to sit beside her. She did some clicking before showing him an array of photos that she had taken from inside the restaurant and more. 

"I've been doing research on the motel, and I've always found nothing aside from photos of the building in the same location as ours, only dilapidated and the photos old." 

"So, basically there's no new records of the place?" 

"No, on the maps and everything else, it's depicted as abandoned, which is possible, and someone took the motel and secretly brought it back to life again."

Gavin clicked his tongue as he moved an arm to rest on the top edge of the couch behind her head. "That definitely sounds like something a serial killer would do." 

She sifted through her computer to show him the photos of an older version of the motel, abandoned like an old ruin, and comparing it to a more recent photo of the motel as it was now; hidden in plain sight through the trees, lights shining through the glass doors as the building was refreshed and looked new, except all the windows were still black and blocked from view as before.

"How did you manage to take that photo?" 

"This photo is a piece from a video I took actually. The glasses were made more for recording, not pictures." She answered, making him look at her in surprise, waiting for more information.

The lady put the laptop on his lap as she got up and went to retrieve something from her bedroom, coming back with a pair of glasses that had a very thick rim around the eyes, something shiny could be seem on the corner of the frames. She gave it to him to observe as she took back her computer while he was distracted by them. 

"Once, I was working and bumped into one of the journalists for my company, he was in a hurry to leave work, so I didn't say anything to him, but he dropped these."

Gavin unfolded the arms and rotated the thickly rimmed glasses in his hands, until he noticed the very small camera lens on the corner of the frame and looked closer at it.

"I never saw that journalist at work again, I'm guessing he must've been in trouble. The glasses are a clever way to sneak videos, so I brought it with me on my first night, but they were such a hassle to use, I only took one and never used it again."

He hummed as he set them down on the low table, and looking at the screen as she showed him the only video she took with the glasses. It was edited with the screen rotated as the glasses were hanging vertically at the time.

"It's only a video of her giving me a tour of the place, I deleted the parts where she said my name, so,,," She whispered back as she quickly clicked out of the screen to the default background and closed the laptop. 

"I know it's not enough, so I was wondering if you could help me." She hesitantly looked up at him from her computer.

Gavin's arm which was around her shoulder slipped down, rubbing against her as he recoiled, interlocking his hands together as he sat, pondering with brows knitted together. 

"I mean, if I had a choice of course I would want to leave that place and never go back, but, I also don't want to get tortured if we're caught." 

"I won't let you get caught." She put both of her hands onto his forearm, making him look up to meet her eyes. He had been avoiding trying to look at her ever since she left the shower.

"I know her, it may sound hard to believe but I do. She won't feel the need to torture you unless you have information she wants. which none of us do."

Her hands moved up to plant on both sides of his shoulders. "I promise I won't let her hurt you. I just need you to help me with some small things, that's it. She won't even notice."

The tall man didn't respond, but he nodded and let out a sigh as he leaned his head back, one hand following up to pinch underneath the rim of the glasses. 

"I really, really do want to leave. If I don't get killed, I might end up arrested and that's kind of worse." He muffled the last part as both his hands went up to rub his whole face, leaning his head all the way to the headspace of the couch. 

"I studied for far too long to go to jail."

Noemie stayed silent for a bit as she retracted her hands, putting the laptop back down on the table.

"So how should we go about this?" 

"We need to explore more of the motel if we want better blackmail, or evidence to get her arrested, find her office, her files and computer, that's all I've got." He massaged his temple as his eyes were closed.

Noemie hummed, probably feeling overwhelmed at the idea, her hand gripped at the edge of the towel area by her legs like it was the hem of a shirt skirt. Mind you, it was quite nostalgic to see that, she hadn't worn a short skirt or dress in a long time, not like she enjoyed wearing them anyway. 

"You can stay here for the night, if you'd like."

Gavin snickered to himself as he lazily crossed a leg over the other, leaning his elbow the side of the knew as he held his head in his hand.

"You're getting too comfortable with me." He smiled as he observed her better.

"I get letting me come to your place so we could talk in private," He leaned closer to her ear and laid a hand on her shoulder. "But letting me stay the night? Weren't you being so cautious earlier of anyone following us?" 

"You were the one who trusted me with coming over and listening to my baseless plan, so I thought I should return it." Noemie shrugged; her eyes stared back at his without wavering. "I could've been one of the manager's closer underlings, spying on anyone who might betray her." She leaned her face closer to his.

Gavin gave her a playful look, his other hand reached down to brush against the part of her towel that was tucked in and keeping it wrapped around her, essentially very close to her breasts.

"And if you are? Would you be trying to distract me with your naked body before killing me?"

"I'd still want to quit and leave, no matter my relationship with her." The unamused woman replied, a blank face unwavering underneath his gaze.