Zachary was on high alert for a while after the stranger left. He kept expecting others to show up. Something about the paper stuck to his front door had him on edge, but he couldn’t figure out what. What was the strange marking? What did this symbol mean? And why was the person sneaking around?

He felt groggy too. Groggy and uncomfortable and annoyed; even when he was human, he’d hated being awoken by other people's alarms, sounds his roommate made, or even cars honking aggressively outside. When he fell asleep as a house, his favorite thing was that nothing could wake him up. That might’ve been the biggest upside to his situation. He’d get to sleep blissfully until he was ready to wake. Until this stranger happened along. It seemed like magic could disturb his slumber, magic and suspicious intent. Did he pick up on that unconsciously? Was it because his Awareness was Silver?

At least it meant he’d see danger coming. And it was especially useful as that stranger had used magic to quiet their footsteps. Zachary would never have to worry about sleeping through danger.

He tried using Poltergeist on the sheet of paper. He could move pretty much anything in the yard, pull out the dead grass, or lift an ant, or get rid of litter, but he couldn't touch this sign. He couldn't budge it one bit. And the paper wouldn't wrinkle or crumple or anything; it was as though the stranger had magically infused it to the door, and after a futile hour of trying, Zachary relented. He'd wait for Sophronia and her parents to wake up and see what they made of this. Besides, the immediate threat was gone, and he remembered he had new things to think about.

He wasn't sure how many days it had been since he’d Ranked up to Silver and then fell asleep. But snow was drifting steadily as a cold wind blew, and oddly, it felt rather sweet. The snow melting on him felt gentler than rain, and the coldness was almost refreshing. Rain made him feel wet and bogged down, but snow made him feel like he was on the set of a cozy old holiday movie. He was the cozy holiday set. And then he remembered the last notification he’d gotten. Size update available. Zachary pulled up his stats:

Monstrous House

Class: Daemon

Size: Small Dwelling

Spirit Rank: Silver (1/5)

Essence: 0/1000

Durability: 1383/2883

Skills:

Awareness: Silver (3/5)

Ingestion: Bronze (5/5)

Poltergeist: Silver (2/5)

Size Update Available

He was happy with his stats. He was steadily progressing and getting stronger, and he wondered what Sophronia had thought when she'd noticed his new spirit rank. She was fast asleep under the covers. So were her parents. He wondered what they'd make of the paper on the door, but worrying about that right now wouldn't do anything, so he focused on his stats instead. Silver. But the size update thing... what could he do?

As if in response, a bunch of things appeared in his mind space:

Choose one from the following available updates:

1. Attic Expansion: unlock extra headroom and storage space by raising the attic ceiling.

2. Bedroom Closets: add spacious closets to both bedrooms for improved organization.

3. House Expansion: expand the living spaces for slightly larger rooms.

4. Cellar Enlargement: gain extra underground space for storage or new rooms

5. Outdoor Shed: build a handy storage shed in the backyard for tools and equipment.

He held the options in his mind for a while, surprised at how he got to choose. Somehow, he thought he'd just grow bigger due to the Size Update. He didn't think he'd get a choice as he hadn't had much of a choice this entire time, but this was a pleasant development. He was feeling more and more like House and less like Zachary trapped in the form of a house.

But which one should he pick? None of these changes would benefit him in any way. They were more for Sophronia and her family, so he had to figure out which one would be best for them. Immediately, Option 4: Cellar Enlargement was a no. What if a bigger cellar disrupted the bodies somehow and brought them closer to the surface? Their voices would have even more of an effect on Sophronia and, worse, they might no longer be six feet beneath the ground. Ms. Jezebel had said as long as they remained buried like that, the Restless Dead couldn’t do much.

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Option 1: Attic Expansion seemed interesting. A larger attic space could be used as storage. Or maybe it would be big enough to become a spare bedroom or something. Maybe a nice place for Sophronia to practice her magic?

Option 2: Bedroom Closets would be sweet for her parents. He hadn't really noticed till now, but none of the rooms had closets like he'd had in his world. Closets were usually cut into the walls, tiny extra rooms where people could hand clothes and shove boxes of shoes inside. But maybe that wasn’t a concept in this world or the house was too small.

Would a closet help Sophonia’s parents? Then again, they had a dresser and a wooden cabinet and still had more space than Sophronia who had wall-to-wall bookshelves. She kept her clothes in drawers beneath her bed, so she didn't have much use for a closet either. And to be honest, even though it was a little bit selfish, he thought it would suck to waste his Size Update on closets that would only reduce space inside the house.

Would Zachary get another Update once he hit gold? Would the size updates be more substantial? He couldn't wait to find out. The water heater in the basement rumbled to life, and he would’ve grinned if he could. He was excited.

Options 2 and 4 were out. Option 5 might've been cool, but the family didn't really have a need for outdoor storage. They didn't use any tools or do any gardening or wood carving. That would be a waste too. And though an attic might be nice, he settled on Option 3: House Expansion, reasoning that if everyone had a bit more space, it would be an overall benefit rather than anything specific. Okay, he decided. Let's do that.

Silver light shimmered to life across every bit of his surface area. He wanted to whoop with excitement. He'd always been a little jealous of how light glowed around Sophronia and Ms. Jezebel. And now here he was. With light of his own. And as the light shimmered and brightened, as it illuminated the snowflakes and the ground around him, he realized the light was an expression of his Essence. He'd ingested enough to get to this state, and that potential was what formed the glow, and he thought he better understood now how magic worked in this world. Everything was Essence, and he was changing and growing because of it.

Wood creaked through his body. There was a light rumbling, like the earth was shaking, like the house was shivering in the cold, and then came the pulling sensation. It was almost as though a force was pushing against every one of his walls, trying to stretch him as far as he could go. With another rumble, his floor expanded in every direction. His street-facing wall shifted forward, bringing the front door and the doorstep closer to the gate. His back wall slid nearly to the fence, but silver light glistened across that as well, making the mushrooms he'd been saving glow brightly in the dark. The fence raked through the soil and the grass before coming to a stop further up the hill, breaking the pattern of the fences from the other houses. A part of the hill was now his backyard. He was slightly closer to the forest above.

His sides expanded as well. His left wall moved over the cellar doors, and he felt a shifting inside. Near the bathroom, a new opening formed in the wall. Hinges emerged out of silver light, and a brand-new wooden door took shape. This one opened to the crumbling steps that led down into the cellar. A bolt appeared on its side, sliding across to keep the cellar door firmly closed. Zachary wasn’t sure if he’d done that consciously or not; he just didn’t want anyone or any thing to come out of the cellar by surprise.

With a final shudder, a cursory shimmer of light spread through him like a silvery wind. Glowing gently and fading, the that patched up the wood and the tiles that had stretched. It made sure all the doors were still functional on their hinges, opening them quietly so as not to disturb Sophronia or her parents. The light shimmered over the windows, the concealed piping, and even the bricks that made up his frame. He felt like a surgeon vitally aware of all his inners. He felt like a handyman who knew his way around home repairs. He felt bigger and stronger. His walls now came nearly up to the fencing on the sides, and his windows were closer to the neighbors.

Awareness: Silver 3/5 -> Silver 4/5

As Zachary settled, as his new space and new size settled, just as he felt really good about his decision and his growth, something burning hot, piercing hot, unbearable, as though he'd been struck by a knife, burned through the front door. He wanted to scream.

He thrust his conscious to the front of the house and found that strange symbol on the paper glowing a vibrant red. It was an evil, bloody red glow, as though someone had branded Zachary with it. Magic like he’d never felt before radiated from the symbol. It was equal parts powerful and revolting. The triangles came to life around the octagon, flickering like tendrils of fire, and the red light went through the door and splashed the now larger dining room with its eerie, crimson color.

Zachary felt Sophronia and her parents jolt awake. They jumped from their beds and rushed out of their rooms, all of them in flowing nightgowns and various states of messy. Sophronia and Mona’s hair was all over the place. Haden squinted at the walls of the dining room and then at the red light.

“What’s going on?” said Sophronia in a sleepy voice. She rubbed her eyes. “House? Is that you?”

Mona glanced back at her. She looked frightened. “Go back inside, sweetie.”

Zachary was bristling. The house started to shake. On his doorstep, shadows crawled across the yard in the red light. They rose out of the ground, little dark bubbles that smushed into one another, forming a large, writhing mass of red and black darkness. He didn’t have to know what it was to know it was something wrong. He wished he could scream for Sophronia and them to run. He wished he could fight. He even tried to use Ingestion, but it had no effect.

And then, just as Haden was reaching for the door, the shadows coalesced. Four powerful limbs jutted out and made contact with the floor. Again, Zachary felt that burning, crawling sensation, as though someone had pressed a burning iron to his bare skin.

The front door swung open with a violent burst of red light. The bolt snapped off the frame. Wood cracked and splintered, and Mona threw herself around Sophronia as Haden turned to shield both of them.

A shadowy creature the size of a small car took shape. It bared its teeth. Its ears flicked back, and a canine snout emerged from the red and black mess. Its eyes were red and furious, and it raised its head, completely blocking the doorway, and howled.

Daemonic Hound (Silver 5/5)