The abandoned house stood in the middle of the distorted forest like something that had been forgotten by time itself. From a distance, it looked ordinary enough to be ignored a weathered wooden structure hidden between dark trees and dying grass, its slanted roof sagging slightly beneath years of decay. Moss crawled across the lower walls in uneven patches, and the faded paper windows hung torn at the corners, fluttering weakly whenever the strange forest wind shifted.
The masked figure stopped several steps away from the entrance. He did not move closer.He simply stood beneath the pale gray light filtering through the branches overhead, black chains loosely wrapped around his wrists and forearms like living shadows. "Go inside." he said quietly.
No one moved immediately.Xu Yang stood near the front of the group, dark hair shifting slightly across his forehead as cold wind brushed through the clearing. His expression remained calm on the surface, but his eyes had sharpened considerably since arriving at the house. Beside him, Lin Chen frowned deeply, exhaustion still visible beneath his eyes from days spent searching. His clothes were slightly wrinkled, sleeves dirt-stained from travel, but the moment he found Xu Yang earlier, and his gaze never strayed far from Xu Yang for long.
Chen Yu remained composed as always, standing with one hand resting lightly near the hilt of his weapon while his sharp gaze studied the structure carefully. Unlike the others, his attention wasn't emotional it was analytical. Calculating. Looking for patterns, weaknesses, inconsistencies.Yan Luo stood slightly behind them, dark blue robes embroidered with silver celestial markings catching faint traces of pale light beneath the trees. His expression remained unreadable, though his narrowed eyes betrayed clear suspicion. Beside him stood Zhao Ming, younger and seemingly calmer than everyone else, though his quiet gaze lingered too carefully on both the house and the masked figure.
Then Chen Yu finally stepped forward first.
"If this is a trap." he said evenly, his calm tone carrying quiet warning beneath it, "I hope you understand how unfortunate that decision would be."A faint laugh escaped the masked figure."You can try surviving it first."Lin Chen frowned immediately. "You say things in the most concerning way possible."The masked figure ignored him completely.Xu Yang's gaze remained fixed on the doorway.Something inside the house felt familiar.
Then the rose mark beneath his sleeve pulsed suddenly. It felt hot.Pain spread across the back of his hand like burning wire beneath skin.Xu Yang's fingers tightened instinctively.The masked figure noticed immediately.Though again he said nothing.
Chen Yu stepped through the doorway first.
The moment he crossed inside, his footsteps slowed.His eyes sharpened almost instantly.
Behind him, Xu Yang entered next, followed closely by Lin Chen, Yan Luo, and Zhao Ming.
The inside of the house smelled of damp wood, old dust, and something older beneath that like forgotten water trapped underground for decades. The floorboards creaked softly under their weight, thin layers of dust disturbed with every step. A broken lantern hung crookedly from one of the ceiling beams, swaying slightly despite the complete absence of wind. Cobwebs stretched across dark corners of the ceiling like abandoned silk, while faded wooden furniture sat untouched beneath layers of gray dust thick enough to erase color itself.
Somewhere deeper inside the house, water dripped slowly. One drop at a time.
Lin Chen rubbed his arm unconsciously as he looked around. "Why is it colder inside than outside?"No one answered immediately.Because everyone had already noticed something worse.The house was impossible.From outside, it should have contained only two or three rooms at most. But inside, the hallway stretched unnaturally far into darkness, branching into multiple corridors that should not have physically fit within the structure they entered. Shadows layered strangely along the walls, and every step forward made the interior feel larger instead of smaller.
Chen Yu slowly turned his head, studying the angles of the ceiling and walls with visible concentration."This structure feels off." he said quietly.Behind them, the masked figure remained standing outside the doorway.
"You noticed quickly."Yan Luo turned toward him immediately, silver-threaded sleeves shifting softly as his expression darkened. "What exactly is this place?"The masked figure leaned one shoulder lazily against the doorframe."A memory."Lin Chen blinked. "That explains absolutely nothing."
"No." the masked figure agreed calmly. "It doesn't."
Xu Yang stepped further inside slowly, his dark eyes fixed ahead on the endless hallway. The deeper sections of the house looked wrong somehow, the darkness there heavier than ordinary shadow. It almost looked layered, as though multiple spaces occupied the same place at once.Then pain shot across his hand again.Xu Yang inhaled sharply before he could stop himself.
The rose mark burned violently beneath his sleeve, red light flickering faintly through the fabric like something alive beneath skin.
Lin Chen noticed immediately."Xiao Ye…"
Xu Yang lowered his hand quickly. "…It's nothing."But Lin Chen had already seen the glow vanish beneath his sleeve.His expression tightened instantly with worry. "Your hand again?" "I said it's nothing."
Chen Yu's gaze flickered briefly toward Xu Yang's hidden hand before shifting back toward the hallway. Yan Luo, however, caught every detail."That mark appeared during the Thread attack." he said quietly, eyes narrowing. "What exactly is it?" Xu Yang's jaw tightened faintly. "I don't know."The masked figure finally spoke again from the doorway.
"That's not entirely true."Everyone turned toward him.Xu Yang's gaze sharpened. "What does that mean?"The masked figure's hidden eyes lingered briefly on Xu Yang's sleeve."You already know it reacts to the Threads."
Lin Chen stepped slightly closer to Xu Yang unconsciously. "How do you know about the mark?"The masked figure ignored the question completely.Instead, he looked deeper into the house and said "Be careful what this place shows you."Chen Yu's expression hardened immediately. "Shows us?" Masked figure didn't answer.Then another drop of water echoed somewhere inside the house.Zhao Ming's eyes slowly shifted toward the deeper hallway."We're not alone here."Lin Chen frowned immediately. "Someone else is inside?" "No." Zhao Ming replied softly.A pause followed then quietly
"Something."
The broken lantern overhead creaked softly.
Then suddenly the hallway flickered.For half a second, Xu Yang saw another version of the room layered over reality itself. Warmer light spilled across polished wooden floors untouched by dust. The broken walls appeared whole again, paper windows unbroken, soft golden lanterns glowing gently against clean wooden beams. The suffocating cold vanished entirely, replaced by faint warmth and the distant murmur of voices somewhere deeper inside the house.
The deeper they walked into the house, the quieter it became.Their footsteps creaked softly against old wooden floorboards as they moved down the endless hallway, dust shifting faintly beneath each step. The air smelled older the further inward they went rotting wood, damp walls, cold ash, and something strangely metallic lingering underneath it all. The dripping water continued somewhere in the distance, slow and uneven, echoing through the darkness in a way that made it impossible to tell how far away it truly was.
At the end of the first corridor, Chen Yu pushed open another wooden door carefully. The hinges groaned softly as the room beyond revealed itself beneath weak gray light filtering through torn paper windows. At first glance, it looked ordinary. A small wooden table sat near the center of the room surrounded by three worn chairs coated in dust. Shelves lined one side of the wall, most of them empty except for broken pottery and faded scraps of cloth. Dust drifted lazily through the cold air, illuminated by pale strands of light from outside, while every surface carried the untouched stillness of abandonment.
Lin Chen stepped inside slowly, his eyes moving carefully across the room. "This place gives me a bad feeling." "That's because your survival instincts still function." Yan Luo replied calmly while examining faded markings carved faintly into the wooden walls.Lin Chen frowned immediately. "You always say comforting things."Yan Luo didn't even glance toward him. "I try."Zhao Ming wandered quietly toward the nearby corridor entrance, peering into the darkness stretching deeper into the structure.
Meanwhile, Xu Yang stood silently near the center of the room.Something about it bothered him.Like he had stepped into a place he wasn't supposed to recognize.
His fingers brushed lightly against the edge of the dusty table, and the instant his skin touched the cold wood, the rose mark beneath his sleeve pulsed faintly again. Heat spread briefly beneath his skin before fading, leaving behind an uncomfortable ache that tightened through his wrist. Xu Yang lowered his gaze slightly toward his hidden hand.
Why does it keep reacting here?
(...)
Behind them, the masked figure remained near the doorway.Chen Yu slowly circled the room once before stopping near the far wall. His sharp gaze swept across every corner carefully before he spoke. "No spiritual formations."Yan Luo glanced sideways slightly. "That should make you feel better."
"It doesn't." And everyone agreed.Lin Chen eventually walked toward another doorway near the back of the room. "There's another room here." "Careful." Chen Yu said immediately. "I know." Lin Chen pushed the door open slowly. Then froze. "Wait."
Everyone turned toward him immediately.
Xu Yang stepped closer first then stopped too.It was the same room exactly the same.
The same wooden table, shelves and same torn paper windows.Dust covered the floor more thickly here, enough to leave visible footprints behind them. One of the chairs had fallen sideways beside the table, its broken leg cracked further than before. Even the lighting looked dimmer somehow, as though more time had passed inside this version of the room.
Lin Chen stared silently for several long seconds before speaking quietly." Wasn't the table closer before?"The room fell silent immediately.Chen Yu's expression sharpened at once.This time, even Yan Luo stopped examining the walls.Xu Yang slowly walked toward the table without answering.
Something cold slid slowly down Lin Chen's spine because xu yang suddenly looked calm and focused.As though part of him already expected this.
Xu Yang stopped beside the wall near the doorway and narrowed his eyes slightly.
"There's dust missing here."Everyone turned immediately.Across the wooden surface beside the doorway, faint finger marks stretched visibly through the dust.It looks like fresh.Lin Chen stared at them. "We didn't touch that." "No." Chen Yu said quietly.
His tone had changed completely now.
Yan Luo stepped closer, silver-threaded sleeves brushing lightly against the dusty wall as he examined the marks carefully. "They're recent."Zhao Ming tilted his head slightly. "So someone else is inside the house." "No!" the masked figure said quietly from behind them.Everyone turned again.
The masked figure stood leaning against the doorway, arms loosely folded beneath his dark robes. The faint flicker of black chains shifted once beneath his sleeve before disappearing again. "There is no one else here."Lin Chen frowned immediately. "Then whose handprints are those?"
The masked figure's gaze shifted slowly toward the marks.Then calmly "Depends."
A brief pause followed."Which version of the room you're standing in."Lin Chen blinked slowly. " I'm beginning to hate the way you answer questions."A faint laugh escaped beneath the mask."You'll hate this house more."Xu Yang barely heard them anymore.
His attention remained fixed on the finger marks.Something about them felt familiar.
Chen Yu noticed the movement instantly. "Xu Yang?" "I'm fine."The answer came automatically.Yan Luo's gaze lingered on him for one brief second longer than necessary.
Then another sound echoed somewhere deeper inside the house.It was drip sound except this time it sounded directly above them.Everyone looked upward instinctively.
Only darkness stretching silently across old ceiling beams.Lin Chen folded his arms tightly across his chest. "This place seriously needs to stop doing that."Zhao Ming suddenly smiled faintly. "Too late."Lin Chen looked at him suspiciously. "Why do you sound entertained?"
"I'm coping differently than you."
"That's concerning."Chen Yu moved carefully toward the next doorway. "We continue moving."Yan Luo frowned slightly. "Forward?"
"There's no guarantee backward still exists."
They moved again.The next hallway felt colder.The lantern light behind them faded too quickly, swallowed by darkness after only a few steps. Even the walls looked older here, wood warped unevenly as though decades had passed between one corridor and the next.Xu Yang's rose mark burned again
stronger this time.He clenched his hand tightly beneath his sleeve.Lin Chen noticed again immediately.His expression tightened further each time it happened.He wanted to ask.Wanted to force Xu Yang to explain.
But every time he looked at Xu yang lately, he saw exhaustion hidden beneath calmness and guilt.
So instead, Lin Chen stayed close enough that their sleeves brushed occasionally while walking beside each other through the darkness.At the end of the corridor, another door waited.Chen Yu opened it slowly.
Silence fell instantly same room again.But this time something had changed.Faint blood stains marked part of the wooden wall near the table, old enough to darken brown against the wood. A cracked ceramic bowl rested overturned across the floor beside one chair. Above them, the hanging lantern swayed slowly back and forth.No wind touched it and no one had moved near it yet it continued swinging gently through the still air.Lin Chen's expression visibly changed now."No. What is this now?!"
Yan Luo stepped further into the room carefully, eyes narrowing toward the blood marks. "This isn't illusion."Chen Yu nodded slowly. "No, It's layered perception." "Not perception."Everyone turned immediately toward the masked figure again.He stood motionless near the doorway, dark robes blending almost completely into surrounding shadow.Then quietly he said "Memory."Xu Yang's breathing slowed slightly.
The lantern above them creaked softly again.
Then suddenly stopped.Zhao Ming's eyes slowly shifted toward the far corner of the room."Did anyone place that chair there?"
Everyone looked instantly.One of the chairs now faced the wall.No one had touched it.
Lin Chen stepped backward immediately. "Absolutely not."Even Chen Yu's expression darkened visibly now.Because none of them
not even him had noticed when it moved.
The room remained completely still after the chair moved.The cold inside the house grew heavier with every passing second, pressing into their skin and lungs, while dust drifted slowly through the dim lantern light. Somewhere beyond the endless corridors, the steady sound of dripping water continued like a clock counting down toward something no one could see.
Lin Chen stood rigid near Xu Yang, his unease no longer something he tried to hide. His fingers were tense at his sides, eyes shifting constantly between the chair, the table, and the surrounding darkness.Only the masked figure remained calm, standing near the doorway, watching everything without a word.Xu Yang slowly turned his gaze back toward the table.And then the room changed.
In room warm light suddenly flooded the wooden walls, soft and golden like lantern light from a memory rather than reality.The cold vanished instantly and dust disappeared. The broken furniture reformed silently, becoming whole again as if time had reversed itself. For a brief moment, the abandoned room looked lived in, alive.
Xu Yang's breathing caught slightly.Someone was sitting beside the table.Only a silhouette.
It was blurred.But there was laughter soft, warm, and close enough that it felt real. It was familiar.
Xu Yang didn't move. His dark eyes stayed locked on the figure as something tightened sharply in his chest. Faint conversation drifted through the air, too distorted to understand, yet emotionally recognizable in a way that made it worse instead of better.
Then the lantern flickered and everything vanished.Cold air slammed back into the room. Dust returned,darkness returned and broken furniture returned.
Xu Yang blinked once and forced his breathing under control within seconds, but the rose mark beneath his sleeve burned violently, sending sharp pain through his hand. His fingers tightened into a fist."Why does this place feel familiar?"
Familiarity meant memory. (....)
Why does this place feel familiar?What is this place? (...)
His eyes slowly lifted toward the empty table again, but now even the silence around it felt wrong.
Lately, too many things had stopped making sense. The Threads reacted to me.The rose mark appeared without explanation.People looked at me like they expected him to remember something I had never known in the first place. (....)
Xu Yang's jaw tightened faintly.
What is all this about? (...)
Why does everyone else seem to understand pieces of this except me? (...)
His gaze darkened slightly as another pulse of pain spread sharply through the mark.
Why am I here?Why do the Threads keep responding to me?And why does it feel like this house knows me better than I know myself? He was in deep thought.
"Xu Yang?"Lin Chen's voice pulled him back.
Xu Yang turned slightly. "What is it?"Lin Chen hesitated. "You were just standing there without moving. Did you see something?"
Xu Yang lowered his hand slightly beneath his sleeve, hiding the faint red pulse of the mark."No."The answer came too quickly.
Then a voice came softly from behind Lin Chen. "Lin Chen."Lin Chen froze instantly.It was xu yang's voice.
His heart jumped painfully as he turned
but there was nothing behind him.Only the empty corridor stretching into darkness.
"Xu Yang?" Lin Chen called again, his voice lower now.No answer came.Instead, faint movement flickered at the far end of the corridor. He saw figure and that figure was Xu yang.He was walking away.Disappearing into the deeper part of the house.Lin Chen's body reacted before his mind did."Xu Yang!"He stepped forward quickly and grabbed the figure's wrist.But the moment he did, he froze because Xu Yang was still standing right beside him.
Lin Chen's grip tightened unintentionally before he immediately let go. "Sorry…"His voice sounded strained.Xu Yang looked down at his wrist silently, then at Lin Chen.
"What did you see?" Xu Yang asked.
Lin Chen swallowed once. "I heard your voice. Then I turned… and saw you walking away." Xu Yang glanced toward the corridor where Lin Chen had seen the figure.It was
empty.But something about Lin Chen's panic felt real enough that Xu Yang didn't dismiss it.
Lin Chen rubbed his face. "This house is seriously cursed."
Zhao Ming exhaled softly. "I think 'cursed' might be an understatement." "That's not comforting." Lin Chen muttered."I know." Zhao Ming replied.Chen Yu, who had been silent until now, spoke."This isn't random."
Everyone turned toward him.He continued, eyes scanning the room. "The distortions follow structure,delays,echoes, duplications. It's reconstructing movement after it happens."Lin Chen frowned."Reconstructing what, exactly?"Chen Yu didn't look at him. And said "People."
Then Chen Yu stepped toward the doorway again. His footsteps echoed onceand then again several seconds later its delayed.
He stopped immediately, eyes narrowing.
"The sound didn't match." he said quietly.
Before anyone could respond, his gaze shifted.Xu Yang was standing near the far wall.He was watching him.Chen Yu's expression sharpened because Xu Yang was also standing across the room and talking quietly with Lin Chen.Slowly, Chen Yu turned his head toward the real xu yang then back again.The second Xu Yang remained where he was.He was motionless,same face and same presence but something about it felt hollow.
Then it flickered and disappeared. "Something here is reconstructing people." Chen Yu said quietly.Everyone looked at him.
Yan Luo frowned. "Reconstructing?"Chen Yu nodded. "Not illusions but patterns."Xu Yang's eyes narrowed slightly. "You saw it too?""Yes." Chen Yu replied.Lin Chen rubbed his arm. "I don't like that everyone is seeing different versions of the same thing.""You shouldn't." the masked figure said softly.
Everyone turned toward him.He still hadn't entered fully into the room. He stood in the doorway, half-swallowed by shadow, black chains shifting faintly beneath his sleeves.
Yan Luo narrowed his eyes. "You knew this would happen."The masked figure tilted his head slightly. "It reacts to everyone." "That's not an answer.""No." he admitted calmly. "It isn't."Yan Luo's expression tightened."You've been here before."
The masked figure did not deny it.Xu Yang spoke. "Who are you?"A pause followed then
"Someone who survived this house."Silence fell again.Lin Chen exhaled. "That's somehow worse than not answering."Zhao Ming looked down the corridor. "I think I understand why."A creak echoed through the house.It was slow and long like something heavy shifting deep within wood.Everyone turned toward the darkness.
The lantern above flickered once then twice then steadied.Chen Yu narrowed his eyes."Something moved.""I know." Yan Luo said quietly.Xu Yang stared into the corridor.
For just a moment he saw silhouettes.
Standing far away and watching then gone.
The rose mark burned sharply again.Xu Yang's breath tightened as pain spread through his hand.Lin Chen noticed immediately. "Xu Yang…" "I'm fine."xu yang replied.Lin Chen shot back."You keep saying that."Xu Yang didn't respond.
Then somewhere deep inside the structure
a door slowly opened.Everyone went completely still and faint laughter echoed through the darkness.