Rain whispered against the old roof as Ren stepped into Lian Zhen's childhood home. The place breathed like something asleep but dreaming. Shadows clung to the corners with a hunger that felt personal. Every room looked like it had been frozen at the moment someone abandoned it. Dust floated in shafts of moonlight like quiet ghosts waiting for a cue.
Real life Lian Zhen walked ahead with an easy confidence that didn't match the trembling of the floorboards. Ren followed him, his fingers brushing over the peeling wallpaper, the ruined photographs curled with age. The house felt wrong. Not haunted. Worse. It felt attentive. Like it was leaning closer to listen.
Behind them, the door sighed shut as if sealing a pact.
Lian Zhen turned toward Ren with a small, melancholic smile, the kind lovers give when they're trying to hide a wound. The shadows under his eyes looked like bruises. His voice was soft.
"You can sleep in my room tonight. I'll stay with you if you want."
Ren nodded, because something in the air felt hostile without him. The house creaked. A sound like a throat clearing.
The room Lian Zhen led him to was steeped in memories too old to be harmless. There was an unmade bed, sheets yellow with time. A desk with a cracked lamp. A row of childhood books that seemed to sag like dying animals. The smell of damp wood and something metallic hung thick in the air.
Ren sat on the bed and tried to steady his breathing.
"Zhen… this place…"
"I know," Lian Zhen murmured. "I never liked being alone here either."
He brushed Ren's hair. His hand was warm and steady and real. It calmed Ren just enough to lie down.
Lian Zhen turned off the light.
Darkness fell like a curtain soaked in ink.
Ren lay staring into it, listening to the rain. His body felt heavy. The silence after the rain softened was worse, like something was holding its breath right beside him. The mattress dipped gently. He felt weight settle behind him. A body, warm. Familiar. Safe.
He exhaled in a shaky whisper.
"Zhen…?"
There was no answer, but he knew the warmth of the man he trusted. He relaxed into it, letting exhaustion pull him toward sleep.
Then something cold brushed the back of his neck.
Not chilly. Not accidental.
Cold like a morgue drawer.
Cold like fingers that had never been alive.
Ren froze.
The weight behind him changed. What had been warm turned still. Too still. Heavy in the wrong way, like a carcass rather than a companion. A faint sound filled the darkness. A soft breathing rhythm that didn't match Lian Zhen's. It was shallow, almost delicate, but each inhale had a slight rattle, like wet lungs trying to mimic the living.
Ren's chest tightened.
"Zhen…? Are you awake…?"
The mattress groaned. Slowly. Painfully. As if whoever was on it was shifting with bones that didn't quite fit together. Ren swallowed hard. He didn't want to turn around. Every instinct screamed not to. But the cold breath continued. It brushed the curve of his ear with a tenderness that felt obscene.
Something touched his hair.
A hand.
But not a human hand.
It dragged through his strands with a jerky motion, fingers catching on knots, as if they were too stiff to bend naturally. Ren felt nails tap lightly against his scalp. Nails that were too long.
His lungs burned. His heartbeat thrashed.
He forced himself to roll over.
Slowly.
Agonizingly.
The darkness shifted, shapes sharpening.
He came face to face with something that wore the shape of a man only as a mockery.
The creature lay inches from him. Its skin was the color of drowned flesh, pallid and stretched too tightly over high cheekbones, as if pulled by invisible hooks. Its eyes were huge, round, reflecting no light. Just bottomless pits where something old and starving looked back at him. Its smile was the worst part, wide, splitting cracked lips that leaked a tar like blackness, teeth small and numerous, like a row of needles carved from bone.
Its neck was bent at an unnatural angle, the head lolling like it was still broken from something violent.
It stared at Ren as if it had been waiting.
Then it grinned wider. Too wide. Its jaw creaked like broken wood.
A tiny drop of black drool slid down onto the pillow.
Ren couldn't scream.
The creature's fingers lifted, trembling in a spasmed rhythm, brushing Ren's cheek with a tenderness meant to mimic affection. The nails scraped his skin lightly, leaving thin pale lines. Its head jerked closer in small, twitching movements, like a puppet guided by strings pulled by careless hands.
Its voice came out like rot sliding down a wall.
"He called for me."
Ren gasped.
"What… what are you…?"
The creature tilted its head so violently it cracked, but the smile never changed.
"I used to be Lian Zhen."
Ren shook his head desperately.
"No… no, he's alive. He's here. He brought me here."
The creature laughed. A low, rattling sound that scraped the inside of the dark.
"That one is wearing his face."
Ren felt his veins turn to ice.
It continued, voice trembling with delight.
"You came so willingly. He always had good taste."
Ren pushed back, scrambling against the wall. The creature rose with him, unfolding itself in jerks. Its limbs were longer than they should be. Its shoulders jutted like broken wings. It leaned closer until Ren could smell the heavy stench of earth and decay.
"You sleep in my room, little heartbeat. You lie in my bed."
Its grin widened again.
"You belong to me."
Ren's breath hitched.
"Zhen… please… someone… help…"
The creature's hand shot out, impossibly fast, gripping his wrist with a strength that felt like iron wrapped in cold cloth. Its fingers tightened, bones grinding.
A ripple of something moved under the creature's skin, like worms writhing beneath plastic.
"You came here because he wanted you to know."
Its voice softened.
"You wanted the truth."
Ren's heart hammered.
"What truth?"
Suddenly the door burst open.
Light spilled into the room.
Real life Lian Zhen stood there, chest rising and falling with frantic breaths, eyes wide with horror as he stared at the thing beside Ren.
The creature hissed. Its smile collapsed into a snarl, revealing even more needlelike teeth. It whipped its head toward Lian Zhen, body twisting grotesquely.
Lian Zhen didn't look scared of it.
He looked devastated.
"Ren…" His voice cracked. "Don't move."
The creature lunged. Ren screamed. Lian Zhen rushed forward. The entire room exploded into shadows that thrashed and writhed like living smoke. Wind slammed against the walls. The floorboards shook beneath their feet.
Ren felt something yank him backward. Another presence. Another hand. But this one was warm.
Lian Zhen pulled him into his arms.
The creature screamed a sound that peeled layers off the dark.
"YOU PROMISED" it shrieked.
The walls trembled. The ceiling groaned. Something old in the house woke.
Ren clung to Lian Zhen, trembling uncontrollably.
"Zhen… what is that… what is happening…"
Lian Zhen held him tight, but his voice was hollow.
"Ren… I didn't want you to see this. I never wanted you to come here."
The creature thrashed, its form unraveling into a storm of shadow and bone splinters.
It shrieked again, voice wracked with rage.
"TELL HIM"
Lian Zhen shut his eyes, jaw tight.
Rain slammed the windows like fists.
"Ren…" he whispered, voice breaking.
"I need to tell you what I did."
The wind died.
The shadows froze.
The creature stopped moving.
The house held its breath.
Lian Zhen opened his eyes.
"Ren… I committed a sin. A sin so heavy that even death wasn't enough to bury it."
He inhaled.
And then he spoke the first word of his confession.
END OF THE CHAPTER.