MORNING
Diluc woke before the scream left his throat.
His breath was ragged. Cold.
For a few seconds, he didn't move.
Darkness.
Not smoke. Not fire.
Just the ceiling above his bed.
But he could still hear it.
The twisted metal.
The shriek of tearing steel.
The crackling flames devouring everything.
And that sound—
Not human.
Never human.
He closed his eyes tightly.
Twenty years.
And that night still hadn't released him.
He turned his head slightly.
Down the hallway, he could hear faint movement.
Cabinet doors opening.
A kettle being placed on the stove.
Bella.
He exhaled slowly.
Safe.
She was safe.
That was all that mattered.
The kitchen smelled like toast and brewed coffee.
Bella stood by the counter in an oversized university sweatshirt, her hair loosely tied back. She looked exactly like any other twenty-year-old girl preparing for class.
Bright.
Alive.
Unaffected by the shadows that haunted him.
"Morning," she said cheerfully when she noticed him. "You look like you fought a dragon in your sleep."
He gave a small smile. "Something like that."
She narrowed her eyes playfully.
"Nightmare again?"
He didn't answer directly.
Instead, he reached for a cup of coffee.
"You have that presentation today, right?"
She groaned dramatically. "Don't remind me. If my professor asks one more question about cellular response pathways, I might just fake fainting."
He almost laughed.
Almost.
Her normalcy grounded him.
She didn't feel broken.
She didn't feel cursed.
She didn't carry the weight of that night.
And he would do anything to keep it that way.
"Let's finish the breakfast then I'll drop you to the University" Diluc said.
"Yep" Bella replied while taking a morning selfie with Diluc.
ON THE RIDE
The city moved around them in the soft gold of early morning light.
Bella adjusted the music slightly.
"You're quiet today."
"Work," he replied.
She tilted her head. "Serious work voice. That means weird case?"
He glanced at her.
"You could say that, also i might not able to pick you up today."
She blinked. "Oh?"
The car slowed at a red light.
Bella glanced sideways at him. "So where exactly are you going?"
Diluc kept his eyes on the road.
"An old mansion on the outskirts. Locals say it's haunted."
She burst into laughter.
"Brother… you're FBI. Not a ghost hunter."
A faint smile tugged at his lips. "I'm aware."
"Next thing I know, you'll be carrying holy water instead of a service weapon."
He let the joke hang for a moment before his tone shifted.
"Regardless of the haunting stories… people have been going missing."
Her laughter softened.
"Missing?"
"Three in the last two months. Two bodies were recovered on the property. No clear cause of death. No signs of forced entry. No struggle."
She straightened in her seat.
"And they think it's… ghosts?"
"They think it's cursed."
Bella folded her arms dramatically. "Or maybe it's just a psycho using superstition to scare people away."
"That's what we're trying to determine."
She studied him quietly for a second.
"You don't sound like you think it's just superstition."
The light turned green.
Diluc didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he said calmly, "Just leave early today. Call me if anything feels off."
She rolled her eyes gently. "Aw big brother nothing's going to happen to me, you are always so worried."
The university gates came into view.
He glanced at her sideways.
"I'm more afraid you'll lose your way back home and end up crying somewhere."
She gasped.
"I do not cry!"
"You did when you were eight."
"That was one time!"
"You were lost for seven minutes."
"I was not lost. I was… exploring."
He chuckled softly. "Exploring. Right."
She crossed her arms, pouting in exaggerated offense.
"I am twenty years old."
"Of course," he nodded seriously. "A very mature twenty-year-old."
She narrowed her eyes at him, then leaned over suddenly and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"For your information," she said proudly while opening the door, "I can get home perfectly fine."
"Just don't explore too much."
She stuck her tongue out playfully before stepping out.
Sunlight caught her hair as she walked toward the entrance, blending into the crowd of students.
Diluc watched her.
Smiling.
Watching until she disappeared past the university doors.
Only then his smile faded.
The warmth in his eyes cooled into focus.
His jaw tightened slightly.
He started the engine.
And drove toward the village where the mansion is located.
VILLAGE ARRIVAL
The city skyline faded behind him as the road narrowed into cracked asphalt.
Fields replaced buildings.
Concrete turned to dust and gravel.
After nearly an hour's drive, Diluc reached the village.
It was small. Quiet. Uneasy.
A handful of old houses stood scattered near the base of a mountain ridge. Behind them, rising like a dark silhouette against the afternoon sky, stood the mansion.
Even from a distance, it felt separate.
Detached.
Watching.
A police jeep was parked near the village square. Two local officers and a small investigation team waited beside it.
One of the officers stepped forward.
"Agent Diluc. Glad you could make it."
Diluc shook his hand briefly. "Status?"
The officer sighed. "No new bodies. But yesterday… another disappearance."
"Name?"
"Jose Alvarez. Sixty-eight. Lifelong resident."
Diluc nodded. "Last seen?"
"Yesterday morning. He went to cut wood in the mountain forest."
The officer pointed subtly behind the village.
The forest stretched upward behind the mansion grounds — thick, dense, older than the settlement itself.
"And?"
"He never came back."
"Search party?"
"We went in at nightfall. Found his axe near the tree line. No blood. No struggle."
Diluc's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Locals?"
"They're saying the mansion took him."
A faint murmur rose from a group of villagers gathered nearby. Most of them avoided looking at the mountain.
Fear spreads fast in small places.
Diluc glanced toward the mansion again.
Its windows were dark.
Too dark for mid-afternoon.
"How many total disappearances?" he asked.
"Four now. Two confirmed dead. One missing prior to Jose. And now him."
Diluc crouched briefly, examining photographs laid across the hood of a jeep.
Bodies recovered near the east wing.
No visible trauma.
Expressions frozen in terror.
No fingerprints. No signs of forced entry.
He stood slowly.
"We'll search the forest first."
The local officer hesitated.
"Agent… villagers say the mountain trail behind the mansion hasn't felt right since the first body was found."
Diluc gave him a steady look.
"Mountains don't feel. People do."
But even as he said it—
A faint wind passed through the village.
The trees behind the mansion shifted.
And for a split second—
Diluc thought he saw movement near one of the upper windows.
When he blinked, it was gone.
FOREST SEARCH
The forest swallowed sound.
The moment they crossed the tree line, the air shifted.
Cooler.
Denser.
Sunlight filtered through thick branches in fractured beams, barely touching the forest floor.
Leaves crunched under boots.
No one spoke for the first few minutes.
Then one of the local officers cleared his throat.
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"Just so we're clear," he muttered, forcing a chuckle, "it's not ghosts that make this place uncomfortable."
Another officer nodded quickly. "Yeah. It's just… recent events."
"People disappearing tends to do that," someone added.
The laughter that followed was thin. Nervous.
Not convincing.
Diluc walked ahead, eyes scanning tree bark, disturbed soil, broken branches.
Patterns.
He was always looking for patterns.
Behind him, Beth adjusted the strap of her rifle.
She had been quiet since they entered.
Too quiet.
After another few minutes, she spoke.
"Agent."
Diluc didn't stop walking. "Yes?"
"Do you… feel that?"
He glanced back slightly. "Feel what?"
She hesitated.
"Like we're being watched."
The team slowed.
A few of them exchanged uneasy looks.
"It's probably just adrenaline," one of the officers muttered.
"Or imagination," another added.
Beth shook her head faintly. "No. This is different."
Diluc finally stopped walking.
He studied the trees.
The canopy.
The unnatural stillness between gusts of wind.
Then he said calmly,
"My coach used to tell us something during field training."
Everyone listened now.
"If you feel like you're being watched… there's a high chance you probably are."
Silence.
Not joking.
Not dramatic.
Just matter-of-fact.
One of the officers swallowed. "That's not reassuring."
"It's not meant to be," Diluc replied.
He stepped off the path slightly, kneeling near disturbed earth.
Boot prints.
Older.
Not from their team.
"Stay sharp," he said quietly.
Behind them—
A branch snapped.
Everyone spun around.
Weapons half-raised.
Nothing.
Just trees.
Just wind.
Just forest.
Too much time passed and the team found nothing.
The forest had grown quieter.
Too quiet.
Even the wind seemed hesitant to move through the branches.
Beth slowed her pace.
There.
Again.
A faint rustling.
Not leaves.
Not wind.
Something deliberate.
She turned her head slightly, scanning the trees to her right.
"Agent—" she began—
Then the sound came again.
Closer.
She raised her voice sharply.
"Movement! Over here!"
The team reacted instantly.
Diluc pivoted, hand already near his weapon.
"Direction?"
"Behind those bushes—"
The team shifted formation and began moving toward her position.
The rustling continued.
Wet.
Unsettling.
Diluc pushed through a thin layer of branches.
"Beth, stay back—"
But she had already stepped forward.
The bushes parted.
And there—
Crouched near a fallen log—
Was Jose.
His clothes were torn.
Covered in dirt.
His gray hair matted against his forehead.
He didn't look up.
Didn't react.
He was hunched over something.
At first, it looked like an animal carcass.
Then Beth's breath caught in her throat.
It was a beaver.
Its body torn open.
And Jose—
Was eating.
Raw.
Hands digging into flesh like it was nothing more than bread.
For a moment, no one moved.
No one spoke.
Beth took a step back, horror flooding her face.
"Sir…?"
Jose froze.
Slowly—
Very slowly—
He lifted his head.
His mouth was stained dark.
But that wasn't what made Diluc's stomach tighten.
It was his eyes.
They were open.
Too open.
Unblinking.
And unfocused.
As if something else was looking out from behind them.
"Jose," Diluc said firmly. "Step away from the animal."
No response.
Jose tilted his head slightly.
The movement wasn't natural.
Too stiff.
Too measured.
A low sound escaped his throat.
Not quite a growl.
Not quite a breath.
The forest temperature seemed to drop.
Jose's smile stretched unnaturally.
Then—
He moved.
Not like a sixty-eight-year-old man.
Not stiff.
Not weak.
Fast.
He lunged toward Beth with animalistic force.
Beth barely had time to react before—
CRACK.
Diluc's boot connected with Jose's side mid-air.
The impact echoed through the forest.
The sound of ribs breaking was unmistakable.
Jose's body flew sideways and slammed against a tree trunk before collapsing to the ground.
Silence.
No one breathed.
"That… that broke something," one officer muttered.
Jose lay still for two seconds.
Three.
Then—
He began to rise.
Slowly.
As if bones meant nothing.
As if pain did not exist.
Beth stumbled back in disbelief. "That's not possible—"
Jose straightened.
His posture wrong.
Bent slightly.
One shoulder lower than the other.
But standing.
Completely unaffected.
Diluc drew his handgun smoothly, aiming center mass before adjusting to the head.
"Freeze."
Jose kept walking.
Step.
Step.
His movements jerky but relentless.
"I said freeze!"
Jose tilted his head sharply—
And then launched forward.
This time, toward Diluc.
No hesitation.
No fear.
Just raw, unnatural aggression.
Diluc fired.
The gunshot shattered the silence.
The bullet struck Jose cleanly in the forehead.
His body snapped backward violently—
And hit the ground.
Still.
Completely still.
Smoke lingered faintly in the air.
No one moved.
Birds erupted from distant trees.
Beth's voice trembled. "Tell me he's not getting up again."
Diluc didn't lower the gun.
He approached slowly.
Carefully.
Jose's body lay on its back.
A dark mark at his forehead.
Eyes open.
Unblinking.
For several long seconds—
Nothing happened.
Then something changed.
Not in Jose.
In the forest.
The wind died.
Every sound vanished.
And Diluc felt it.
That same feeling from twenty years ago.
Watching.
Waiting.
Studying him.
Jose's lips moved faintly.
A whisper barely audible.
"You survived once…"
Diluc's blood ran cold.
"…but she won't."
And then—
Jose's body went completely limp.
This time—
Truly dead.
No one spoke for several seconds.
The forest slowly allowed sound to return.
Wind through leaves.
Distant birds.
The faint rustle of branches.
But something had changed.
Beth finally exhaled shakily. "That wasn't normal."
No one disagreed.
Two officers carefully approached Jose's body.
This time, he did not rise.
He did not twitch.
He did not whisper.
He was just an old man again.
Broken ribs.
Gunshot wound.
Empty eyes staring at the sky.
"Bag him," Diluc said quietly.
His voice was steady.
Too steady.
The team moved mechanically.
Evidence photos.
Body secured.
Scene marked.
Officially, it would be written as:
Hostile suspect.
Unstable mental condition.
Agent discharged firearm in self-defense.
Clean.
Logical.
Contained.
But nothing about what just happened felt clean.
As they carried Jose's body back toward the village path, Diluc lingered behind for a moment.
He turned slowly.
The mansion stood beyond the trees.
Silent.
Unmoving.
Windows dark as hollow eyes.
Watching.
He didn't know how he knew.
But he knew.
Whatever had been inside Jose…
Had not died with him.
And for the first time in twenty years—
The past no longer felt buried.
It felt awake.
Diluc's jaw tightened.
Then he turned and followed his team out of the forest.
Behind him—
One of the upper windows of the mansion reflected a brief flicker of movement.
Like someone stepping away from the glass.
END OF THE CHAPTER
