(A/N):
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Jojo didn't say another word to the entity.
He simply turned around and walked toward the bedroom door.
The creature laughed behind him.
"You think walking away changes anything?"
"You've already lost."
"I've tasted their despair."
"I'll have the boy before sunrise."
Jojo paused only long enough to raise two fingers.
A faint spark appeared at his fingertips.
It drifted lazily through the air before falling onto the floor beside the bed.
The instant it touched the wooden floorboards...
WHOOM!
A circle of crimson hellfire erupted around the reinforced bed.
Ancient infernal runes blazed to life one after another, spreading across the floor like molten veins before locking themselves into a perfect circle.
The flames rose only waist high.
They didn't burn the room.
They didn't scorch the furniture.
They simply formed a prison.
The creature's expression changed immediately.
It lunged toward the edge of the bed.
The moment its hand crossed the circle...
SSSSSS!
Its flesh ignited.
The infernal flames burned straight through the dead skin, producing a scream so shrill that every window in the apartment vibrated violently.
The creature recoiled instantly, clutching its smoking arm.
Its amused smile had vanished.
"What...?"
Jojo didn't even look back.
"That circle isn't for hurting you."
He opened the bedroom door.
"It's there to remind you that your world ends at that line."
The entity snarled, throwing itself against the chains in frustration.
The restraints rattled violently.
The hellfire circle merely burned brighter.
No matter how violently the corpse struggled...
It couldn't cross.
It was trapped.
For now.
Jojo calmly stepped into the hallway.
"Leah."
The werewolf immediately understood.
"I'll keep an eye on Sleeping Ugly."
The creature screamed another insult from inside the room.
Leah smirked.
"See? It even talks like one."
Lorraine shook her head with an amused sigh before following Jojo.
Beth remained beside Danny, trying to comfort the sobbing boy while Bruce and Mr. Fonda stayed near the bedroom, making absolutely certain the possessed corpse remained exactly where it was.
"Show me."
Jojo's voice was calm.
Danny slowly wiped his eyes.
He looked utterly defeated.
Without arguing, he silently led everyone down the hallway toward his bedroom.
The room looked exactly like any ordinary teenager's bedroom.
Comic books.
School assignments.
A gaming console.
Clothes scattered across a chair.
Nothing unusual.
At least...
Until Danny walked toward the bottom drawer of his desk.
His hands trembled.
For a long moment, he couldn't bring himself to open it.
Finally, Bridget quietly stepped beside him.
She gently pulled the drawer open herself.
Hidden beneath several old notebooks...
Lay a thick leather-bound book.
Beside it rested an old cassette recorder.
Not a modern recorder.
An old portable tape player from decades ago, its plastic casing yellowed with age.
Danny looked at both objects with obvious guilt.
"That's... where I found them."
Jojo picked up neither.
Instead, he observed them carefully.
"Tell me everything."
Danny swallowed hard.
"I found the book in an old antique shop."
"The owner said it came from an abandoned estate."
"I thought it looked... cool."
He laughed bitterly at himself.
"So I bought it."
"It wouldn't open."
"No matter what I tried."
Bridget folded her arms.
"Because it wasn't supposed to."
Danny lowered his head.
"I know..."
His fingers pointed toward the cassette recorder.
"There was already a tape inside."
"I thought..."
He hesitated.
"...I thought maybe it explained how to open the book."
Bridget let out an irritated sigh.
"I told you not to play it."
Danny nodded weakly.
"You did."
"I even promised."
His voice became quieter.
"But..."
"...I got curious."
Nobody interrupted him.
Because curiosity had been enough to destroy countless lives throughout history.
Danny looked at the recorder.
"I waited until everyone was asleep."
"I closed my bedroom door."
"I pressed play."
The room fell silent.
"The recording wasn't in English."
"It sounded..."
"...wrong."
"I couldn't understand any of it."
"But after a while..."
He looked toward the book.
"...the words started making sense."
Lorraine's expression became serious.
"Translation through exposure."
Jojo nodded once.
Danny continued.
"The recording told me to read the first page."
"I tried."
"The book still wouldn't open."
He clenched his fists.
"I almost gave up."
Bridget suddenly spoke.
"No."
Everyone turned toward her.
She looked directly at Jojo.
"That's not what happened."
Danny froze.
His face slowly lost its remaining color.
Bridget continued quietly.
"I was watching from the hallway."
"I couldn't sleep."
"I saw everything."
She pointed toward the book.
"Danny kept pulling on the cover."
"It wouldn't move."
"Then..."
Her eyes narrowed as she remembered.
"...he cut himself."
Danny immediately looked up.
"I didn't..."
Bridget shook her head.
"You didn't mean to."
She walked closer to the desk.
"There."
She pointed toward the edge of the ancient cover.
"Those weren't decorations."
"They looked like little teeth."
Everyone leaned closer.
Now that she mentioned it...
The metal clasps securing the cover did resemble rows of tiny fangs.
Bridget continued.
"When Danny pulled harder..."
"...one of those teeth pierced his finger."
Danny instinctively looked at the faint scar that still remained.
"I forgot about that..."
"A single drop of blood fell onto the cover."
Bridget slowly looked toward Jojo.
"And then..."
"...the book opened by itself."
Silence settled over the room.
Jojo finally reached toward the desk.
Not to touch the book.
Simply to look at it more closely.
To ordinary eyes...
It appeared ancient.
Nothing more.
Old leather.
Cracked pages.
Faded symbols.
But to Jojo...
To Leah...
To Lorraine...
It looked horrifying.
The leather cover expanded and contracted with slow, rhythmic movements.
Like lungs breathing.
Thin black veins pulsed beneath the surface.
The pages twitched ever so slightly.
And every few seconds...
Something underneath the cover seemed to blink.
Watching. Waiting.
Alive.
Leah grimaced.
"I officially hate books now."
Lorraine didn't respond.
She was staring at the object with narrowed eyes.
"It isn't just cursed."
"No."
Jojo quietly activated his X-ray vision.
The world around him shifted into its familiar negative spectrum.
The walls faded.
The furniture became transparent.
The book...
Changed completely.
Dozens of crimson veins spread throughout its pages like a circulatory system.
At its center beat a tiny, black heart.
But that wasn't what caught Jojo's attention.
A single silver thread extended from the heart of the book.
It stretched through the room...
And disappeared directly into Danny's chest.
Jojo slowly deactivated his vision.
The room returned to normal.
He looked at Danny for a long moment before speaking.
"Danny."
The boy nervously looked up.
"When the book accepted your blood..."
Jojo's voice remained calm.
"...it formed a connection with you."
Danny frowned.
"A connection?"
Jojo nodded calmly.
"It chose an owner."
The words made Danny's stomach sink.
He instinctively took a step backward.
"I... I didn't agree to anything."
"No."
Jojo looked back at the breathing book.
"You didn't."
"It agreed to you."
The room became deathly silent.
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(Author's POV)
(A/N):
Check my new Fan fic: Karuppan: King of Openings
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