I reached out toward Amelia as she let out a loud scream, her limbs being tugged in every direction.

“Stop it! Stop!” I flung Zhige forward, but Amelia summoned the dire wolf—with a bright white flash, it appeared and quickly snapped at the ghost's hands.

As soon the grotesque hands were approached, they quickly vanished back into the walls, meshing with the wallpaper and melting into it.

The house completely stilled for a moment, and Amelia dropped onto the back of the dire wolf. The beast looked over her shoulder and licked her face, saliva coating her skin, and she wiped it away with a grossed out expression.

Zhige flying back into my hand, I rushed up toward Amelia and quickly held onto her.

“Are you alright? Did it get you?” My hand brushed off the saliva from her face, flicking it onto the ground.

She nodded, her eyes wide.

“P-Peijin, I’m really scared.”

Amelia’s voice quivered, wavering up and down as she clung onto the back of the wolf’s fur.

“I’m sorry,” I quickly ushered the words out before pulling back, staring at her for a moment.

Hindsight activated!

The entire house tilted, rotating and causing furniture to fly everywhere. With a loud screech, Amelia hung onto the dire wolf as it slid down the old wood floor and tried to claw its way up.

Yang extended his staff and hung onto it, gripping tightly onto Yue as she hung, awkwardly bumping into the rod with each rotation.

“Peijin!”

Wei’s firm arms grabbed me and he jumped around the walls of the house with me in tow. When we first met, I had felt significantly bigger than him thanks to my confidence, but now I only felt small in his grasp.

He was slightly panting, and his long hair was tied into a thick bun on the back of his head.

“Are you alright?”

I blinked at him for a moment, dodging the swinging lights as glass shattered all across the floor and spun wildly. It was as if I were running on a treadmill full of obstacles.

“Wei… I…”

What could I even say to him? I was feeling something indescribable—a part of me wanted to reach out and embrace him, even if it were just for a moment.

But another part of me quivered from disgust at the thought of his very existence.

How could I, someone of no redeeming qualities, be worthy of protection?

My entire body tensed up as I looked at the front door, and my head involuntarily shook as I stepped back, tripping on the leg of a chair.

A grotesque figure, a smile contorted and stretched violently. Its lips were pulled up all the way to its ears, two dimples just beside its squinted and beady eyes.

Its crescent eyes seemed to thin even more as it extended its neck into the ceiling, expanding like wallpaper.

“No, no, no,” I repeated, my voice getting stuck in my throat like a thick ball of spit. I immediately whipped around, trying to run forward before tripping on a chair, sliding against the ground as small pieces of glass cut into me.

Normally such wounds wouldn’t have left an impact, but with my already vulnerable arms, they sliced right through, but I couldn’t sense any of the pain. I couldn’t sense anything but the bubbling fear, seismic and volcanic.

“Peijin! Stop!” Wei shouted, grabbing onto me and throwing me over his shoulder like a ragdoll.

“He’s here! He’s here!” I screeched, pounding on Wei’s wide back as my entire body heaved with every breath.

Yang reached down and swung Wei forward down the hall. I could already feel my body beginning to shrink, and I couldn’t do anything but tightly grip onto his white robes.

“Feiyu…” I quietly croaked, holding on even tighter. My nails almost tore through the thick, enchanted fabric of his robes.

The house titled again, and the ceiling was slowly spinning around until it became the floor under Wei’s feet.

I perked up instantly, hindsight causing my eyes to glow a bright blue.

“Wei! Get off the floor! He only lives on the ceiling!”

The distorted, wicked smiley face appeared just before his feet, and everything froze. Wei’s panicked face remained staring at me, Yue was still dangling on Yang, and Amelia was buried in the dire wolf’s fur.

And the smiley face stared at me, its face twisting as if it were breathing.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I desperately tried moving my body, but I remained frozen. Even Zhige’s bright red eye wouldn’t blink up at me.

“Please, please, please,” I whined, my voice high-pitched.

Not a sound filled the house, nothing but an increasingly eerie buzzing that slowly filled my mind.

“You’re not real,” I asserted firmly. “You’re not. You can’t do anything to me.” I glared at its twisted eyes, the wrinkles looking like indent on the rough ceiling.

It opened its mouth, its dry, cracked lips morphing grotesquely.

“Be quiet.”

Hoarse and cracking like a radio.

“You’re not real,” I repeated.

Its smile grew, its lips squeezing together to shush me. “Be quiet!” Its voice boomed louder now, like a harsh whisper.

“No! Someone’s home!”

I shook my head again, feeling my nose burn as tears came again.

“Someone’s home! You can’t do anything! They’re here right now, you mother fucker!”

“Be quiet! Be quiet!” Its voice grew louder and louder until the entire house shook around me, any remaining glass exploding all throughout the house.

“Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet!”

“Stop it! Someone’s home!” I screeched, desperately wanting to cover my ears or shut my eyes but my body refused to comply.

“Stop it! Stop it! Fuck you!”

“Peijin!”

That voice pierced through, and my eyes flicked up immediately, tears having welled in them but not yet falling down my face.

Before me it looked as if Yue were tearing her way through an invisible barrier, her upper body squeezing through. Her eyes were glowing a deep purple, and her black hair was billowing all around her.

“Peijin, get out of here! It’s an illusion!”

I blinked up at her, finally regaining minimal control over my body.

“Yue?”

So this was what the power of the magician's hand looked like.

“Don’t just blink at me, you idiot!” She shouted, her voice a rush of fury. “Get out!”

Gritting her teeth, she pushed her way through the illusion, tearing it with her bare hands before she extended out a pale palm before me.

“You’re so pathetic sometimes, and it really pisses me off!”

I laughed, looking down at the ground to find that the face had contorted into one of wild anger, its eyes wide and brown pupils quivering with rage.

My hand slowly moved forward before I finally gained the strength to grab onto Yue.

“You’re really a bitch, Yue.” She tugged firmly on my arm and sent me flying through the illusion until I eventually landed on the ground in the house.

“Humph!”

My body had aged backward quite a bit—I was maybe 19 or 20 now. Looking up at the group, I apprehensively met their gaze.

I was shaking like a wet dog from my nervousness, but I attempted to quell it before them. To my surprise, despite the arguably horrifying event that just transpired, they didn’t even look remotely phased.

Were they even human?

Yue crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at me. “For a god, you’re awfully weak.”

“I was the one who told you to pick ‘Magician’s Hand,’ wasn’t I? At least I’m not stupid.”

Yue’s jaw gawked as she looked stunned by my callout.

“I should’ve left you with Mr. Smiley.”

“Is that what you’ve named him?”

She raised her hand like a hand puppet and made it look like it was babbling nonsense.

Laughing lightly, I shook my head before I grabbed her sleeve and pulled myself up. “You really do get on my nerves. Thank you.”

Suddenly, I heard a deep snarling from behind me, and I turned to face the dire wolf. Its massive lips were peeled back, revealing a terrifying array of menacing teeth. It snapped blindly down the hall, shackles raised.

“Peijin,” Amelia’s small voice called out, “there’s something wrong here. I mean it.”

Out of all of us, Amelia looked the most scared, her hands shaking violently in front of her.

“Do you have some kind of animalistic instinct now?” I teased her, ruffling her hair.

She furrowed her brows and her voice hardened, much to my surprise. “No, I’m serious. There’s something wrong down the hall.”

I pulled my hand back slightly, surprised by her reaction. “Let’s get down quickly.”

“We can’t,” Yang immediately interrupted, stepping forward to face me head on. “You can’t just turn into a baby during the dungeon room.”

“Once we get out, I’ll be normal.”

“If we get out,” Yang said flatly, his orange eyes piercing my soul.

I pursed my lips, looking around the group. Since when did they start arguing with me?

“As the god of fate, I’m telling you I’ll be fine.”

I knew that would hardly slide with Yang. It might work with the observers or the characters, but he knew me for far too long.

“I don’t care what you are, Peijin.”

“Rude. You seem to care if I’m a baby. The pervert you are.”

“...”

Yue snickered from beside him, but he quickly silenced her with a look.

Finally, the crackling noise in the house came to a still, and the house no longer shook. I paused for a moment, hesitant to trust my senses given the past illusion, but when I met Yue’s gaze, she gave me a reassuring nod.

“Let’s go now. You guys can drag me back here if I turn into a whiny, gross baby, alright?”

Yang furrowed his brow but relented, standing beside me with his staff prepared. Wei flanked me as well, and Amelia rode in front atop the dire wolf. Yue walked behind, stepping on the back of my worn-down shoes in an attempt to trip me.

We passed the bathroom door. Was I seventeen now?

I wondered if Feiyu would have done this.

Wait, what the hell was I doing thinking of a brute like him?

Bedroom door. Fourteen.

“Peijin, you can’t cross this,” Amelia turned back, her wide blue eyes looking dark and foggy.

I was barely taller than her at this point, part of it being because I had always been short.

“We’re almost out. The exit is just after this hall.”

I pushed her aside, standing by the slightly opened door.

“See? Don’t worry, Amelia. I trust you guys to protect me, not that I’d need it,” I replied cockily.

Amelia winced and moved to cover her ears for a moment, the dire wolf shifting uncomfortably.

“Peijin-”

Suddenly, a massive sound exploded from the front of the house causing Amelia to shriek in pain— debris flew forward, straight toward us. Yang whipped his staff forward and whirled it in the air, knocking back the majority of the debris as Wei caught the rest.

“Peijin, are you alright?” Yang said, looking over his shoulder where I was standing.

Or where I should have been standing.

Countless hands had erupted from the wall unnoticed, their long blue fingers gripping onto my skin with overwhelming power. They were slick and sickening, forcing their way all over my face and even into my mouth, stopping me from crying out.

Before I could let out my muffled scream, they sucked me through the open bedroom door as it slammed shut behind me.

Bang!