Days after the discovery in the basement, the air inside the house had grown heavier, damper. The walls seemed to exhale an invisible breath, filled with memories and something older still. The presence crept silently, stalking through shadows and cracks, making the nights longer and the hours unbearable.
Yuki had started having dreams that didn't feel like his own. In them, a boy with mirror-like eyes watched him from behind a rotting wooden door. He didn't speak. He only pointed. Yuki would wake with a dry throat and a guilt he couldn't explain.
Noah, meanwhile, had begun to notice a pattern in the house's signs. He scribbled notes in his notebook: ancient symbols, links between dates and historical events, and records of the abandoned orphanage that, he discovered, had been shut down due to negligence after several children disappeared. The basement, hidden beneath the building's roots, had once been part of that institution.
Rei watched them both with a mix of fascination and resignation. The bond between the house, Yuki, and Noah was becoming inevitable, as if something —or someone— had marked them long ago.
One morning, Yuki found a figure etched into his skin, right beneath his collarbone. It was a circular symbol he had no memory of getting. Rei saw it first. He recognized it.
—You're not supposed to have that —he said softly, touching the edge of the mark with his fingertips.
—What does it mean? —Yuki asked, tense.
—It's the Echo's mark. A sign that the house won't let you go.
Noah entered just then, holding a yellowed sheet of paper.
—I found a record from the orphanage… it mentions children with "ritual markings." Some were used in resonance experiments. This house, according to the reports, amplified their emotions. They were locked in the basement to "connect with the root."
—The root? —Yuki echoed.
Rei turned toward the window. Outside, the trees looked more twisted, closer to the house's structure.
—The root of all of this. Of the house. Of me.
There were no more words. A cold wind swept down the hallway, carrying a whisper. It came from nowhere, yet all of them heard it.
"It has awakened..."
Yuki shivered.
That night, the mark on his skin began to burn. Noah found him writhing on the hallway floor, eyes rolled back. Rei appeared seconds later, paler than ever.
—He's resonating with something —Rei said—. With someone.
—Who? —Noah asked.
Rei didn't answer. In his mind, he heard a child's laughter. An ancient echo.
And the house… the house smiled.