Such a home, which is not actually a home, but still feels like one.
Aside from the crazy living room, the rest of the forest house was utterly urban. Five rooms and three bathrooms and one huge kitchen.
All faced the forest, which was as scary as usual.
What I was doing here again?
Just to make sure that Hero won't bring the name of this place again for as long as I can.
"Did you find what you need?"
"No." Hero shouted from somewhere. I couldn't bring myself to go to any place other than the living room, since that creature shadow was still living in my mind, even the map of the house was something Hero showed to me, aside with the photos he took with my phone.
"How much do you need?"
"Dad! It has been three minutes only!"
"Okay, I'm waiting."
Sitting in a place I have the memories of killing someone on it wasn't the best way to relax but I forced myself to.
Did I tell myself that it was fine to stay for three days? How foolish.
"Dad!Dad! Come here!"
"No! I'm not coming!"
"The closest is about to fall on me!"
"Agh—"
Somehow I forced myself to go to the room his voice came from. And he was there, hanging onto the cabinet like a monkey; one wrong move and they'd both fall.
"What are you doing?!" I helped him to get down. "What do you need from over there? Why don't you just ask?"
"My savings."
"Your savings?" I looked over the cabinet to find a large glass money jar. "Why do you need it?"
"To continue?" He took it from my hands and gave it a check to see if it was the same. "I need to save more."
"Why do you need the money?"
"Who doesn't need the money? Savings is something we have because we don't know what will happen in our lives."
"Right." He gave it back to me, and I put it in my bag, not my pocket this time. "Did you get the rest of the things also?"
"Yes, the clothes right there" he pointed at three sets of clothes, each one seemed new and luxury. "Am I allowed to take some of my books?"
"Yes."
I looked around the room, fetching for something unusual— but there was nothing. It was a normal boy's room, wide and full of toys and books.
And clean. Too clean, as the rest of the house.
"I wonder how they could leave a place like this without touching or taking everything on it."
It was a strange thing if I looked at it again. Even the very precious things here and there seemed untouched…
"Are you talking about the other people who came here the same way you did?"
"Yes."
"That's because this house could be a maze too. It has its own will."
…?
What?
"So this house is an anomaly itself?"
"Yes, somehow."
"Wait. You know what an anomaly means?"
"I'm eight dad, of course I know."
Eight?
I'm twenty eight and barely able to cope with all of this!
"No anomaly could be used without a consequence… Isn't that true about this house too?"
"Yes, maybe. But you knew this better, and you've told me that this house is a fully secured place."
"Okay…"
Things needed a lot of questions but I left it to another time.
"Do you need anything else?"
"What about staying here for a couple of days? Please?"
"I'm not very comfortable with being here— not yet at least. We will come from time to time as you want."
"But this place is more comfortable than that room."
"Of course it would be more comfortable, but no. not yet."
I'll have nightmares if I stay here longer.
"Okay…"
Now he started to sound like me, and that felt bitter than expected.
"Don't put on that face. Next time it will be longer."
"I understood."
I didn't look at the rest of the house before leaving the place, and I didn't even have any curiosity about it.
The scary thing was that I didn't feel the urge to run away from it, I was just uncomfortable— not scary nor frightening.
Me, dealing with Hero in the first place, must be the most chaotic crazy thing I've done in my life…and here we go.
I was losing my mind bit by bit and slowly realizing it.
"Are you sure that you don't need anything else?"
"Yes."
"Then let's go to eat something."
I used the key in some random building elevator, one without much security or cameras… so going back wasn't a big issue.
The big issue was actually how to convince Hero that I'm not that wealthy and I couldn't afford going into a good restaurant every time.
Otherwise, Hero just went to sleep as usual. Nothing happened, and there were still three hours before dusk.
Three hours that I didn't even think of spending them in the company's department so I wandered around the place, getting familiar with it.
"How didn't I even think of moving here before?"
I checked the Real Estate Office out of pure curiosity, not because I really planned to buy something, and the prices made me speechless.
Way cheaper than what I thought I would hear. Enough for me to start thinking seriously about a whole other plan.
If I started to hunt for a new job now in this city, then I would just leave my job without over thinking about money and how to survive… since that was the only reason for me to stay there.
"That will do, right?"
The only thing lifted was to find that job. Which was a tough topic by itself, but compared to what the current work was doing to me? Not that much.
"Woh—" a paper suddenly flew with the wind in front of me, as it did with many others. It fell in front of my shoes and I picked it up unconsciously.
"I was just thinking about where to find new luxurious sofas just like these!"
A woman from a distance said, overjoyed. Other just shouted after that he found where his missing identity card was. And the voices kept going… as if these papers did magic.
So, I took a look.
And it was there— the job I was thinking about moments before…
Terror crawled beneath my skin, and my pulse fluttered, uncertain and uneven.
That was something that should never exist!
I flung the paper away like it was something vile. The people around me seemed to be fully unconscious, no one listened when I told them to throw it.
And I saw it—
The way that tiny paper just swallowed a whole human in it.
One before the other, every one got swallowed… even me,
Since I failed to notice the one I was standing on.
"How lucky—"
A breath of relief filled my chest when I saw that I was still alive. The place was dark, no trace of light in it.
The only thing that returned my senses to me waere the screams. Those who had come with me were terrified in a way I wouldn't wish on anyone.
I was terrified too, but since it wasn't the first time, somehow I managed it.
"So that's why the real estate here is too cheap."
In the middle of the screamings and shouting, I found myself standing there, cursing the company and everything related to it.
Why did such things happen to people when it was barely sunset? And why was real estate this cheap?
The first and only conclusion that came to my mind was that Vessels tend to appear more in a small region, each affected by the other.
And hence there were places like our company here, which used the Vessels as some kind of diamond mine, so such accidents must happen on a regular basis.
"Cancel plan B then."
The temperature kept dropping, and with nothing to shield me from the cold, I pulled my suit's jacket out of my belt's pocket and wore it.
The company's watch wasn't with me, and to be fully prepared I put on the glove and wore the ring.
The surface of the street beneath my feet slowly formed in my perception—hard, unnaturally smooth in places, like polished stone that didn't quite belong to this world.
I tried to look around but nothing seemed visible aside from some phones flashing that didn't show much. People also became more and more quiet as if they recognized that they are in an extremely unusual situation.
There were still crying sounds but that's all.
"Think, think—"
Were there any Vessels that had this one property? Any one that took lots of people one time, or used papers as entry points?
Did I read anything related to this? Anything?
AAH!!!—
A sudden scream from beside me made me flinch in shock. When I turned to look there, the lights flashed in my eyes and the whole place came into view.
It was the city again…
Slightly different,
Midnight,
And full of life—
As if a festival were taking place. One whose music alone was enough to send a chill down my spine, almost as though a horror story were unfolding through sound alone.
"Nice. What a nice way to spend the last hours of the weekend!"
How beautiful, Nathan—
I'm dead already…