Sophronia ran along the outside of the house, tapping on the walls and the windows and shouting. Zachary couldn’t see her as she did this, but he saw a rippling light every time she touched a part of a wall. It was like she’d thrown a rock into a pond. Everything rippled in his mind, giving him more sense of how tall he was. How wide he was. And concentrating on the sound of her voice outside, the difference in volume, the lack of echo, gave him more understanding of the air around him. It was like a meditation exercise where he was focusing on individual parts of his body.

Then she tossed something up. It was a little pebble that bounced off his roof before clattering back to the ground.

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

With that notification, he had a much clearer image of his outside. He could see himself as a house, a little squat building with a triangular roof. He saw that the sun was setting, judging by how the air around him was cooling. He could see Sophronia too, though she wasn’t as clear as she was indoors. She was wispy, fading in and out of clarity like she was made of mist. He realized there was a bit of space in front of him and behind him, though the back area wasn’t visible at all as Sophronia hadn’t gone around. But in front of him, there was a cobblestone path that led away from the front door. On either side of the path were little patches of gardening where tall grass and flowers grew. He could feel every single blade of grass. The tickle of them. Though when the wind blew, they too seemed to lose clarity, leaving behind ghostly green trails like afterimages.

Ants were crawling over the ground. Bees and other bugs flew between the plants. And on the cusp of his consciousness was a metal gate that opened onto a road where he could just about feel the bustle of other people. Footsteps reverberated through the ground. Voices carried, blurred and muffled.

Other houses sat to his left and right with narrow alleyways between him and them. Behind him was more empty space, and he figured it was a backyard. Sophronia said it led to some woods and she wasn’t allowed to go back there because it wasn’t safe. There was even a separate fence on Zachary’s either side that sectioned off the backyard.

She didn’t want to go into the cellar either. “Not yet,” she said, and he got the sense she was afraid despite how many times she insisted she wasn’t and that she’d grown so much since they’d met. But she decided that was enough for the day, and if she stayed outside past dark, her parents would get upset.

“You can practice on your own,” she told him, patting the front door before going back inside. It was nearing her bedtime, and after she’d washed up and gone to sleep, after she’d wished him goodnight, Zachary spent the evening focusing outside the house. All the while, he was aware of Haden and Mona talking quietly in their bedroom, but he wanted to give them privacy, and he wanted to work on his Awareness. He even messed around with Poltergeist, opening and shutting some windows. And that helped with Awareness as he could more easily feel the breeze coming into the living room.

After a few hours, several of those hours spent freaking out about how he no longer slept like a normal person, he learned how to lock and unlock the front door, how to turn the knob and secure the bolt. That could be useful, he told himself. If anyone ever locked themselves out, he could let them in. Or if someone tried to break into Sophronia’s home, he could keep them out.

Sophronia started to bring him little things to eat. Usually, it was portions from her dinner, what looked like chicken or fish. “I like the vegetables more anyway,” she’d say while munching on some broccoli, and Zachary thought about how no kid from his world would ever say that.

She brought him the food in secret because her parents still didn’t readily believe her. And after Ingestion, which he’d also use on the bugs and critters throughout him, Zachary would fall into a deep slumber. In the beginning, his naps lasted weeks at a time, but with each meal, he found himself needing less rest. He’d wake up within a few days.

Like that, he brought his Spirit Rank up to Bronze 4. It required 400 Essence to advance, but he found it curious how his excess Essence didn’t really count. It looked like every time he ranked up, his total potential Durability went up, and all the excess Essence he had during that rank-up got converted into it. He wasn’t sure what Durability meant yet as he felt as steady and as solid as ever, but the numbers did go up and down. He figured it would be important if there was ever trouble. Maybe it had to do with withstanding storms?

When Sophronia got bored of sneaking him some of her meals, she started using spells to attract frogs and squirrels and other creatures to the front garden. Her hand radiated yellow light and she screwed up her face, focusing hard. She’d only do this during the early morning; she didn’t want others to see, and she didn’t want her parents to know.

Zachary found that he could use Ingestion as soon as something passed through the gate and landed in the front yard. That was a part of him now, and eating frogs and rabbits was much less gross compared to roaches and spiders. The animals would sit there frozen in shock, their eyes bulging, and something from the ground would come up and latch onto them. He wasn’t sure how he was doing it yet. It was almost like he could grow mouths when he needed them and they would extend out of his body. But just like with the bugs, he’d suck out the larger animal’s... well, it wasn’t really their insides. He wasn’t slurping up guts or bones or anything. It was more like... their blood and their souls. And their fur and skin and things would crumble into dust. They tasted even better than the bugs, like big slices of pie, bursting with sweetness and fullness, and he would feel the warmth radiating through his entire body. After a few times, Zachary’s Ingestion ranked up to Silver.

Sophronia thought it was super gross, and she felt bad for the creatures, but she’d say, “We need to eat and grow strong,” and leave it at that.

He’d even tried using Ingestion on the mailman. The mailman was a kind portly guy who brought letters and parcels to their doorstep, and Zachary would try to eat him. Not wholeheartedly as he didn’t want to actually eat a person, but he’d just try. Even though his skill was Silver 1, it still wouldn’t work on something as large as a human, but he figured it was worth trying, maybe he’d rank it up with these attempts. But the mailman would notice. He’d get a strange expression on his face and walk away apprehensively, glancing nervously over his shoulder until he made it past the gate. And in the mornings, he’d hesitated before entering the yard, looking up at Zachary as though he wasn’t just a house.

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Sometimes, he slept for a few days and he'd wake up to find Sophronia at the dining room table with a stern-looking old woman called Ms. Jezebel. Her wrinkled face was always scowling, and she kept her gray hair tied back neatly. She would insist on no magic, that they had to keep to the books, and Sophronia would write essay after essay on topics ranging from daemons to warlocks to werewolves. Sometimes they did crafting. They made potions for sleeping, mixing herbs with some kind of blue fluid to create a soothing aromatic drink. Some potions were for strength and speed, using ginger root and slivers of cooked rabbit. Sophronia would practice levitating and show off how she could summon things to her, and Ms. Jezebel would shake her head.

“Too much strength is dangerous for a child. Hold it in, okay? You don't want to get in trouble.”

Sophronia would huff, hanging upside down midair, shoving her nose into another book, and taking notes about magic she clearly wanted to try. "What’s the point of just reading about this stuff? I don’t care about smelly old sorcerers!”

“History teaches us how to move forward,” said her teacher. “One day, you will understand.”

Sophronia didn't seem convinced, and she’d practice her magic on her own: changing the sizes of things, like leaves and paper, or spiders and birds, or the bowls in her kitchen. She’d shrink some things. Make other things too big. One time a spider she’d grown dashed across the dining room like an enormous dog, and Zachary fled, wrenching his mind from inside the house to the roof where he focused on the sun heating his tiles to keep his mind off things. Sophronia would only laugh, and she’d shrink the orange spider back down into a tiny little thing that fits inside her jar. “I didn’t know daemons could be afraid of things.”

I thought you weren't allowed to use magic on living things, Zachary wanted to say. But it seemed that now she was older and more responsible, she was allowed to practice more things. The only rule now was that she couldn't harm them.

Weeks passed by like this. A large cat snuck into the yard once, and though Zachary found that he could use Ingestion on it, he felt bad and held back. The black and white cat was too cute, and it was just sunbathing in the grass. Just because he was a monstrous house didn’t mean he had to be a monster, though he did note his hypocrisy. It was okay to eat certain creatures but not others because of how his mind was wired. Sophronia approved, as she sat beside the cat and scratched its back.

He skipped over the bees too, because bees pollinated the flowers and things. But the field mice and the occasional bird that landed on his grass were fair game, and they tasted so much better. Like biting into chocolate crackers.

He thought it was funny how he used to be sent from house to house, building to building, delivering fancy sandwiches, large dinners, coffee and milkshakes, and other nice things that he couldn’t afford for himself. He’d been so envious of the people who’d open the door to his knocking, smile and accept the food, and then vanish into their perfect little lives while he waited outside in the cold, tapping that his delivery was complete, then heading back into city traffic on his bike. How badly he’d once wanted to live in a house, a small, quiet house. And now here he was, a house.

At least I don’t have a mortgage or anything, Zachary told himself. He didn’t have to pay bills. And maintenance was easy. He even had his own exterminator built in. And his new roommates... or, housemates? He wasn’t sure what to call them since they were inside him, but they were good people. Haden worked at a bank. Apparently, he was good at numbers. He was ranked Silver 2 but he hated using magic. Mona was Silver 5. She worked at a clothing factory, doing the washing and maintenance of wealthy people's clothes. She’d come home exhausted and sit at the dining room table, staring blankly at the ceiling for a while before fetching a book with her magic. She’d snatch it out of thin air and start reading until Haden came home and it was time to make dinner.

But when she wasn’t exhausted, she was very upbeat and loving to her husband and daughter. Mona would make jokes sometimes before going to the bathroom, announcing in a loud and annoying voice that she needed to bathe or freshen up and that House better not be watching. Haden would join in as well, making little jokes or suggesting House needed to behave whenever Haden dropped or spilled something. Zachary thought it was funny. Sophronia was never amused; she always saw through their act.

Sometimes, Zachary would respond. He’d push something, like a spoon or an empty cup, off the table. Or he’d open the front door without warning. Haden would look curiously at these things, glance around, and then skeptically stare at the ceiling. But whenever Zachary thought he’d gotten through to the man, Haden would yell for Sophronia and tell her to stop playing around.

Why were they so dense? Clearly, they knew their daughter was uniquely gifted. Why couldn’t they accept that he was here? Eventually, he stopped messing around with them and instead tried to be helpful. Whenever Mona needed to reach a jar on the higher shelf and Haden wasn’t around, Zachary would slide the jar forward so that it would fall right into her hand. He found that he could control the fall too, levitating things as needed, holding them in the air with his mind. She’d get a strange look on her face, blink several times, then smile shyly and say, “Thank you, House.” But then she’d look around, embarrassed, and pretend that never happened. Poltergeist ranked up to Silver 3.

His Awareness was struggling to advance past Bronze 5, especially because Sophronia's parents forbid her from leaving the gate. They didn’t even allow her to accompany them onto the road. Zachary felt sorry for her. She was a cooped-up little girl with not enough space. He didn’t think it was fair, but Haden and Mona didn’t seem like unreasonable people, so he imagined they had a good reason for their strictness.

But one day, in late Fall when the weather was chilly and the wind seemed to bite his walls, Sophronia got up before her parents and whispered for House. “Today’s my birthday,” she said quietly, sitting on her bed, blankets up to her neck. It was chilly inside the house too, and her parents had opted to keep the heating off to save on bills. "You have to say 'Happy Birthday' to me."

Zachary wished he could wish her a 'Happy Birthday'. He’d grown so accustomed to being a house these past few months, that his previous life felt like a fading dream, and no one had ever really celebrated his own birthday before. He didn't even remember when his birthday was. But he rattled the shelves gently and shook her bed before opening the window and sliding it shut after a cold wind climbed inside.

She smiled and then rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes. “I’m eight now, House,” she said, still whispering. “So, I have to be a big girl. Let’s go downstairs and maybe we can finally get your Awareness up to Silver! But don’t tell my parents, okay? They told me not to go down there because...” She dropped her voice even lower, cupping her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide. “Because there’s dead people.”