Chapter 11 – A Restless Night
That sentence sounded... odd—almost like a challenge.
As if he were questioning: Why are you afraid to come inside?
Josh realized he'd misspoken and quickly added another warning,
"Don't take a single step into my house."
Then he turned and went back inside.
---
Dustin stared at his retreating figure and muttered,
"So if I cut ties with you right now, does that mean I won't be sleeping on the streets tonight?"
After everything that had happened during the day, even he had started to doubt Gideon Black a little.
But he had seen Gideon perform an exorcism back at the theater...
Was that... just a hallucination? Dustin wondered.
Gideon didn't seem bothered at all.
After all, this was standard horror movie fare—
The wife who bears everything alone, and the husband who refuses to believe anything until it's too late.
And honestly, Gideon could understand the guy's attitude.
Just imagine: you're a man who's recently had a fight with your wife.
You come home from work to find she's invited a priest over.
The priest then claims your son's soul has been taken by an evil spirit...
And it'll cost $1000 to bring him back.
Seriously—
Who the hell would believe that?!
But on the other hand...
From the moment Gideon saw Josh, he noticed a strange force coiled around his brain—
A sign that his memories had been sealed. Definitely the work of a spirit medium.
And now that he thought about it, Josh didn't look exactly like he had in Gideon's memory either...
---
That night, Renai finally managed to convince Josh to let Gideon and Dustin spend the night in the house.
But when the lady of the house extended the invitation, Gideon just smiled politely and pulled a compact tent from his travel bag.
Moments later, he had it set up neatly on the front lawn.
It was clear: he intended to sleep out here.
Dustin gawked at him, stunned.
"Don't look at me like that," Gideon said casually. "I didn't bring a second one for you."
In the end, only Dustin followed Renai into the house.
---
Midnight.
The moon glowed coldly. A faint mist clung to the ground.
This was the hour of the dead.
From the earth… the rooftops… the windows outside...
The spirits of the dead began to stir.
A woman in a wedding veil slowly lifted her gown.
Two girls in white dresses stood silently, shoulder to shoulder.
A middle-class couple leaned on one another as they moved forward.
A long-haired man in a leather jacket glared menacingly.
...
They raised their heads and breathed deeply—greedily inhaling the scent of the living.
Then they began their hunt.
But—
To their surprise, they found they couldn't set foot inside the house.
The entire home was surrounded by a soft white glow—a sacred light—emitting divine energy that repelled them like poison.
The spirits exchanged looks of disbelief.
The man in the leather jacket snarled and tried to force his way in.
But the moment he crossed the threshold, his spirit body nearly ignited in flames.
Seeing this, the others all turned their attention toward the front lawn.
They'd noticed earlier that a new guest had arrived during the day—
A priest.
They'd originally planned to scare him off,
But after observing how cowardly he seemed, they let him be.
Who would've thought...
That cowardly priest had dared to defile their territory?!
Unforgivable.
As one, the spirits turned and advanced on the tent.
Thump. Thump.
But the moment they drew close, they were all repelled by an invisible barrier.
The spirits were stunned.
They were spirits, after all—
They could pass through solid matter at will.
Yet here they were, stuck outside a tent.
Their gazes turned darker, filled with hatred and malice.
But truthfully...
The tent was empty.
Not far away, beneath the shadow of a large tree—
"How lively," Gideon muttered.
A telescope extended from the bushes. He crouched low behind the foliage, watching calmly.
This was his real hiding spot.
It was right by the main road—
Clear paths on both sides for a quick getaway.
Well-hidden by flowers and greenery, giving him plenty of room to lay traps and defenses.
Why not sleep in the tent?
Come on.
That house was crawling with ghosts, and you want him sleeping right at the doorstep?
No, thanks.
---
Back at the house, the spirits were furious, unable to touch the tent.
Just then, one of the ghostly girls turned her head—and noticed something.
One of the windows didn't have any holy light around it.
Her face lit up with wicked joy, and she slipped inside.
The other spirits immediately followed.
Once inside, they turned their rage toward the unsuspecting family.
Under the bed. Behind doors. Inside electronics...
They went for their favorite tricks.
But something was wrong.
The moment they tried to attack—
They were struck hard by a backlash of power. Their spiritual forms were forced into visibility, knocking over furniture and electronics in the process.
The noise startled Renai awake.
Trembling, she stepped into the living room—
Just in time to see it all.
"AAAAHHH—!!!"
Renai couldn't hold back her scream.
But moments later, she realized something strange—
The spirits couldn't get near her. It was as if an invisible force was keeping them at bay.
A sudden realization struck her.
She reached into her blouse and pulled out the glowing crucifix she had tucked away earlier.
---
Josh was jolted awake by her scream.
He rushed out of the bedroom—only to find the living room swarming with spirits.
His mind went blank. The sight shattered everything he thought he knew about the world.
Before he could even react, the ghosts, seeing that they couldn't touch their prey, retreated back outside.
---
Up until tonight, these spirits had roamed freely.
They drifted among the treetops, occasionally scaring unlucky souls who got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.
If they were lucky, maybe they'd stumble upon a chance to reincarnate.
(Though... they never were very lucky.)
But now even that little bit of freedom was gone.
And if things continued like this—
Would they be trapped here forever?
You have to understand: the Otherworld has no concept of time.
The endless, suffocating night can drive even the dead to madness.
---
"This can't go on. We have to do something!"
The spirits reached a collective conclusion:
As long as that priest lives, they'll never be free.
So they began to try every trick they could to lure him out of the tent.
Two little girls in white dresses collapsed to the ground, writhing in mock pain, pretending to cry for help.
A middle-class couple tossed a stack of cash into the air, hoping to appeal to his greed.
The woman in the wedding dress lifted her gown, revealing smooth, pale legs beneath the lace.
The muscular guy in the leather jacket had no clever tricks—
So when he saw what the woman was doing, his eyes lit up with an idea.
He ripped open his shirt and struck a dramatic pose, flexing his chest toward the tent flap.
---
Inside the house.
The family huddled together in Dalton's room, each of them clutching a holy artifact that Gideon had given them.
They could hear the commotion outside—the loud banging, the whispers, the muffled groans.
They assumed the priest was fighting the spirits...
And quietly offered a prayer for his safety.
Meanwhile, Dustin was sound asleep upstairs, snoring away, oblivious to everything.
As for Gideon?
He had long since retreated to the edge of his third demon-trapping array.
"Spirits really do understand human nature... good thing I prepared ahead of time."
---
The chaos lasted well into the night.
But eventually, the ghosts had to face the truth:
They couldn't do anything to the priest.
And if that was the case—
Were they really doomed to stay here forever?
Unless...
A new thought began to spread among them.
Why was the priest even here?
To save the boy.
And the boy's soul... had been captured by the Red-Faced Demon—
The most twisted, malevolent spirit among them.
The others just wanted to borrow a body and come back to life.
But he? He found joy in tormenting the living.
If the boy's soul returned to his body, the priest would have no reason to stay.
And once the priest left, the barrier would vanish.
They would be free again.
Sure, it would mean giving up one potential reincarnation...
But if they didn't act, they might never get another chance.
The choice was clear.
One by one, the ghosts looked at each other—
And silently reached an agreement.
---
The next morning.
Josh appeared in front of Gideon's tent just after sunrise.
His voice was low, almost ashamed.
"Father... I was wrong."