Page 3

“Have you been inside?” Evan asked, already aware of the answer coming his way.

“No, no, no. But the workers, um, we hired for cleaning up, they…they had an incident.”

“Incident?” Aaron asked.

“A-Actually…an accident.”

Evan’s eyebrow twitched, patience fraying. “Elaborate.”

Mr. Greene blinked at Evan’s dry tone, and Aaron cleared his throat before offering them a pleasant smile. “We must know the situation in order to deal with it. So, could you please tell us more about this accident?”

When Mr. Greene simply opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water, unable to utter a word, his wife blew out a breath and stepped forward.

“One of the workers died,” she grimaced.

Aaron sucked in an audible gasp, the smile plastered on his face and wide eyes haunting Evan’s periphery. He looked like one of those theatrical masks, wearing an eerie, hollow smile with just as eerie, hollow eyes.

“Death is more common than rare. Why is that so strange?” Evan asked, briefly glancing at their driver, who was standing like a taut rubber band behind them. The man was close to combusting from the way his shoulders tensed and veins surfaced on his neck. He glanced at Evan and then quickly shrank back into himself.

“It was not…natural,” Mrs. Greene said, hunting for the last word.

And? What’s with the dramatic pause? How many times do I have to ask before you tell me everything?

Evan shot one impatient glance at Aaron, and he dipped his chin in understanding, urging the couple before Evan exploded, “Please go on. Tell us what exactly happened.”

The Greene couple glanced at each other, then at Evan, before Mrs. Greene gingerly explained, “Two days back we hired some people to tidy up the place. The same day, we got a call saying one of the workers had gone missing. We later found his body on the top floor, but it was…” She swallowed. “There was no b-blood in him. Or flesh.”

“Only a thin layer of skin over his skeleton,” Mr. Greene added, dazed. “If not for his uniform and name tag, we would’ve never identified the body.”

A body sucked dry of blood and flesh.

“Hm,” Evan squinted up at the mansion. “Absorption.”

Mrs. Greene shifted behind Evan, peeking at the mansion over his shoulder. “What is that?”

“When a ghost, demon, or dark entity absorbs spiritual energy from a living human body,” Evan dug into his backpack, fiddling with the contents inside as he casually explained, “It can be done by different methods. The quickest and most efficient is draining the spiritual energy directly through blood and flesh.”

Someone gagged behind them, sounding too much like Mr. Greene.

Thud.

Everyone turned around at the sound. The spot where the driver once stood was empty. Now he lay perfectly still on the ground, face-down in the dirt.

The poor driver had tried to be brave and stand his ground, but then the gory details of the worker’s death and then Evan’s confirmation that it was caused by something inhuman had snapped the last thread holding him upright.

“So, there are less cruel methods?” Mrs. Greene prodded, ignoring her driver as she scooted closer to Evan, and Aaron rushed to help the unconscious man.

Evan sighed. “There are. But hungry spirits aren’t exactly patient,” he fished out two black threads—each containing thirteen knots from one end to another—and handed them to the couple. “Tie these around your wrists and don’t take them off unless I say so.”

“For your safety,” Aaron quickly added as he returned after stuffing the driver into the car.

The couple glanced at the threads, and the wife was the first to quirk a skeptical brow. “Does this really work?”

Evan’s eyes snapped shut, a vein throbbing in his temple.

That fucking question... Sometimes people really proved how much they didn’t deserve to be helped, and Evan was contemplating whether these loose-tongued airheads were any different.

They weren’t.

Noticing the steam emanating from Evan’s ears, Aaron cleared his throat, patting him softly on the back. Pulling up the cuff of his blazer and shirt, Aaron flashed the identical black thread on his wrist. “It’s a protection talisman dipped in the water of the sacred Del. Every knot on the thread is tied by a spell. You should wear it inside—”

“Unless you’d rather end up like that worker,” Evan finished.

The couple flinched in sync, and a smidge of satisfaction swept past Evan’s chest. Skeptical rich folks were the reason he was more comfortable taking small cases. These people had money but no faith, time but no patience.

After tying the talismans, Mr. Greene turned to Evan, his eyes sunken behind the glasses. “Do we have to go inside too?”

His wife stuck to his side. “We could just wait here.”

“No,” Handing the backpack to Aaron, Evan took out dried Noctis, glancing at his ring. It had turned muddy brown. “Staying outside is barely safer than inside. And if you’re attacked here while I’m not around…”

Leaving the sentence and the couple hanging at the gate, Evan stepped into the boundary.

One step, and the temperature dropped like a pin, somehow chillier than before. Confirming that, Aaron grunted, his breath turning into a white cloud before his face.

Evan walked up the short flight of curved stairs, spinning the bundle of Noctis between his fingers. Dry leaves scattered out of his way with each step. He’d not been this close to the mansion before, but a strange familiarity in the air propelled him forward, like he did know the place.

The rest quietly followed after him.

As soon as Evan stepped onto the porch, a gust of wind whipped past his side, blowing his bangs out of his face. A warning.

Okay Evan, don’t die.

Evan’s lashes lowered, fingertips brushing together as a blue spark crackled to life between them.

As he summoned his spiritual energy, light coursed through his veins, setting alight the skin of his fingers, then spreading upward, covering the entirety of his right hand in a soft blue radiance.

The ring warmed against his finger, gleaming black against his glowing skin. For foreign eyes, it looked like an LED had switched on inside his palm.

With the light barrier gloved over his right hand as protection, Evan pushed the massive wooden door open. It groaned into submission.

“I-Is his hand g-glowing?” Mrs. Greene whisper-yelled behind them. Her husband blabbered back something incoherent.

“Stay close, everyone,” Aaron’s voice dropped to a serious tone, Evan’s backpack dangling from his right hand, the other…holding onto the belt of Evan’s long coat. Evan glared at him, and Aaron smiled back sweetly. “Just keeping a close eye on you.”

Biting his tongue over a few unpleasant retorts, Evan waved the dried Noctis at Aaron, and he lit the end.

The Noctis was a flower that only bloomed under the full moon. When dried and burnt, it released a cleansing white mist that could dispel negative energies and repel spirits.

The lot made their way to the center of the huge hall, stopping near two staircases that swirled up leading to the first floor. Old furniture was draped in dust-laced white cloths, cobwebs latched onto every corner. The walls seemed to have been of a light shade once upon a time, but the color had faded into greys and browns now. The tall windows were smudged with something black, restricting light inside.

However, the eerie interior was nothing compared to the dark energy wafting like black smoke from the floors and walls. Some floorboards groaned ominously on the first floor.

As Evan’s eyes trailed up, another gust of breeze grazed past his boots, fluttering his coat. Second warning.

His temple throbbed, and more spiritual energy flowed into his palm with force, brightening the blue glow.

Leave before I send you where you belong.

Just like that, the ball of breeze—or spirit—disappeared.

One of the first things Evan had learned in the book of Exorcism and Spirituality was that malevolent spirits fed off of fear and doubt, two of the strongest emotions humans possessed. Not being afraid in front of something sinister and invisible would be impossible for a normal person. So instead of forcing himself to not feel those two emotions, Evan replaced them with another stronger emotion: anger.

If he voiced out his immense distaste of something with enough fury to suppress his fear, it was sure to leave him alone.

“Evan?” Aaron’s voice seemed distant even though he was right beside Evan, like an invisible curtain had befallen between them. The heaviness in the air was drowning out their voices. If they lost sight of each other, it wouldn’t be long before someone went missing.

“Stay close to me,” Evan murmured. With senses on alert, the glow on his hand radiated brighter as he circled the dried Noctis overhead, cleansing the dense air. “Don’t touch anything.”

His voice too was muffled to his ears.

The couple behind huddled together, Mr. Greene’s sunken eyes ready to disappear into his eye sockets and Mrs. Greene’s trembling fingers clawing at her husband’s arm.

Aaron quietly surveyed the surroundings, part curious and part wary, his fingers still latched onto Evan’s coat belt. Whether he was afraid of getting lost or losing Evan was debatable.

Evan’s eyes charted the hall, the wooden doors lining the walls, the stairs, stopping at the cloud of smoke bellowing past the corridors on the first floor. He snapped his gaze around, then up again.

Interesting.

All the wandering dark energies and resentful spirits were moving into a single direction: upstairs.

Other than the one spirit that had tried to scare Evan, there were no other creatures wandering the hall, despite a group of humans with warm bodies and fresh blood in their veins standing so close.

There was most likely a cursed object or something containing a powerful dark energy up there, strong enough that it was attracting all sorts of creatures and spirits in the area. If Evan could find the object, or the main source of this concentrated darkness, maybe he would be able to rid this place of it.

But such a strong source of energy would be just as dangerous.

Evan glanced over his shoulder at the Greene couple, then at Aaron, who was curiously gazing at the old paintings hanging from the walls.

“I think it’s upstairs,” Evan said, waving the burning Noctis around, keeping the smoke swirling around them.

Aaron’s attention instantly shot towards the first floor. “What is?”

“The main source of this...evil. Probably a cursed object or some tool used in a ritual that still retains power,” Evan glanced at the couple’s ashen faces. “But I need to check it out alone.”

Aaron opened his mouth to argue, but the couple rushed towards Evan, cutting him off.

“Can you help us?” Mrs. Greene whisper-yelled again, her doe eyes widening into two huge saucers. Their fear was so palpable, eyes hopeful and desperate, that naturally...Evan wanted to use it to his advantage.

With his free hand Evan scratched his chin, feigning a look of doubt even though there was a direct solution to their problem. One of his tactics for milking out rich clients, something he wasn’t the least bit ashamed of. Perhaps he was a rip-off like the townspeople accused him of being.

Aaron’s lips twitched.

Evan sighed. “My ability to help depends on the severity of the situation and the dangers surrounding it.”

And the generosity of your pockets .

Although he didn’t explicitly state that, it didn’t take a genius to guess the implication.

Upon hearing such a vague response, the couple’s faces froze in sync, anxiousness and dread radiating off their stiff bodies. All they wanted was to get rid of whatever was stuck to this place so they could sell it off for good.

Hitting the iron right when it was hot, Aaron elbowed Mr. Greene, chinning into Evan’s direction. Evan pretended to not notice.

Clearing his throat, Mr. Greene straightened his drooping shoulders. “Just…help us get rid of this place. It’s been tied to our bloodline for generations and has somehow cursed every successor who becomes the head of the family.”

“Which would now be Mr. Greene here after his father’s demise,” Aaron added with an arch of his eyebrow.

Oh. No wonder they were so desperately trying to cleanse this place. It was his own life Mr. Greene was trying to save.

Even though the revelation sparked Evan’s interest anew, his face remained solemn and unsure. Adding gas to the fire.

With another shove from Aaron, Mr. Greene coughed, “If you can help us, just name the price.”

There it is.

Evan’s lips twitched. “I’ll need some men and materials for the exorcism. Until the exorcism is over, I’ll suggest you keep the talismans on.”

The couple nodded fervently, clutching their wrists where the black threads warmed their cold skin. “Sure. Whatever you say.”

Aaron cleared his throat, trying very hard to suppress a grin. The cunning bastard was thinking about doubling the initial deal price now that the couple had been frightened enough.

But just as a flicker of ease stirred in Evan’s chest, his gaze drifted to the first floor—where thick, saturated black smoke coiled through the corridor. Unease quickly returned to stir his guts. If he stared long enough, he could decipher different shapes and forms within smoke, clawing and rushing towards…somewhere.

They were restless, anxiously chasing after something.

Whatever was up there, it wasn’t anything good.

The ring burned on Evan’s finger, a warning as the last of the Noctis smoke blew before dissolving into the air. The herb could only keep the air clean for so long before they would start suffocating in here.

Time to get the fuck out.

After exiting the mansion, Evan shut the door and dissolved the light barrier, his skin returning to its usual fair tone.

“What was that?” Mrs. Greene pointed at Evan’s hand. “That…light.”

Evan considered brushing off that unnecessary question like he did every time. What they didn’t understand would naturally make them curious. Unfortunately, it would also make them keep asking until they understood.

But then he remembered the amount they were offering, which could possibly go up now that he’d scared them shitless, and concluded that answering a few of their questions was barely a trouble.

“A light barrier,” Evan glanced down at his hand, curling his stiff fingers. “Objects in haunted places possess traces of dark energy on them. Touching them can be dangerous, sometimes fatal. The barrier protects direct contact while still allowing me to touch and feel things.”

In normal terms, a light barrier mimicked the purpose of a rubber glove while handling open electricity wires. The more area the barrier had to cover, the more spiritual energy Evan would burn.

Mrs. Greene’s eyes gleamed with renewed interest as Evan explained how spiritual energy fueled the strength of the light barrier and the different variations of barriers. But before she could prod more, her husband asked, “Can you break the curse?”

“No,” Evan shoved his hands inside his coat pockets. “There are only two ways to break a curse. Either by the person who placed the curse or by the overpowering will of the person who’s cursed. You can imagine how often either of those happens.”

There was a third option. Breaking the curse through an external, much more powerful force. But Evan left that out.

Just as the couple paled in panic, he added. “But this mansion is not cursed. Curses don’t attach to places. It latches onto people, a being, or an object.”

What that place needed was a thorough cleansing, and that cursed object had to be destroyed.

Mrs. Greene grabbed Evan’s hand, her fingers ice cold as she pleaded, “Help us. You have to help us, please.”

For the first time since meeting her, Evan physically sensed the desperation inside her. The fear and unease brewing in her heart crept up Evan’s hand that she was holding, crawling into his skin. But there was something else…something tiny buried under all that chaos.

Hope.

Maybe if he tried, Evan would have been able to take that hope in their eyes and use it to fuel some goodness in him or spark a genuine desire to help those people. But all he could think about was the debt on his shoulders, the excessive baggage in the couple’s bank accounts, and his need to relieve them of that burden a little.

Evan patted Mrs. Greene’s hand before withdrawing from the unnecessary touch. “I’ll do what I can to help.” And that wasn’t a lie.

Aaron quickly took over the conversation, discussing the materials required and restricting access to the area until the exorcism was over.

A sigh escaped Evan’s lips.

Whatever was haunting the mansion—an object or entity—had to have a strong spiritual presence to attract so many malicious energies from the area. Exorcising it might take a toll on him considering the method of exorcism Evan used. But it wasn’t as dangerous as he’d initially expected.

It could’ve been worse, like a demon or something.

Strolling down the porch and outside the mansion boundary, Evan took out a cigarette and searched his pockets for the lighter.

Tsk, where did I keep it—

A rustle in his periphery made Evan’s eyes snap in the direction, catching a glimpse of a shadow before it disappeared into the thick woods beyond.

His brows furrowed. Some animal?

People of the town didn’t usually wander into this side of the woods because of the restrictions, and hunting was forbidden in Emberlyn. So, most of these woods were still undiscovered, making it difficult to anticipate what kind of beasts might be lurking within.

Evan could eradicate a horde of ghosts, but he couldn’t take down a fucking bear. At least he thought that's what he’d seen, considering how tall that shadow was.

He did not get much time to ponder as Aaron and the rest joined him, and they parted ways outside the Greene Mansion’s gate.

A look of relief washed over the couple’s faces as they merrily distanced themselves from the mansion, and the scared driver looked all too eager to take off without the pair.

Aaron flung a hand over Evan’s shoulder, almost sending his feet burrowing into the ground. “As I said, jackpot.”

Evan snorted as they walked back to their car. But even as they left the old mansion and all that it contained behind, two things kept bugging Evan. The twitch in his left eye.

And something in the forest, watching him.