Layer upon layer of doors, gloomy and mottled shadows of trees, silent corridors and courtyards. The old man, moving like a shadow ahead of them, led them into the depths of the labyrinthine old mansion, into a most peculiar courtyard.

The entire courtyard was shaped like a square with an open center, with four rooms on each side, and a smaller building standing alone in the very center. Unlike the ancient structures they had seen along the way, Ethan Clark felt that the building in the center looked more like an enlarged shrine—she and her younger sister had once seen this style of shrine in a folk museum, said to be the highest grade of shrine.

"You will each stay in one of these four rooms," an old woman said.

She stood there, her slightly clouded eyes gazing at them, her expression utterly devoid of emotion, as if she were looking at inanimate objects. That look made them uncomfortable to their core.

All four of them were frightened by this eerie place and, almost unconsciously, did as she said, obediently entering the four rooms of the square courtyard under her watchful gaze.

Ethan Clark entered the room on the right. The room was very empty, with nothing inside. The floor was smooth and clean, the walls painted red, and the beams above were layered with wood. Because the lighting was poor, she couldn't make out what was carved on them.

Footsteps sounded in the corridor outside—it was the two old women, moving along the corridor, closing the four doors one by one. The soft thud of the doors closing made Ethan Clark's heart skip a beat for no reason.

Night had completely fallen, and nothing could be seen inside the room. Only a faint glimmer of light filtered through the window lattice. Ethan Clark couldn't help but press up to the crack of the door to look outside, and saw two points of red light leaving the courtyard. It was the two old women carrying lanterns, leaving through the small door they had entered by. The door was probably locked again; she heard the sound of the lock. When she had entered the courtyard earlier, she had noticed the lock on that small door—two heavy, thick locks.

In the darkness, Ethan Clark hugged herself tightly. She looked around the empty, pitch-black room, always feeling as if something would silently emerge from the darkness—maybe a pair of hands, suddenly grabbing her foot, or maybe strands of hair, suddenly dangling down from the beams in front of her eyes. Ethan Clark couldn't control these imaginings, curling herself up into a ball.

After an unknown period of silence, she heard the sound of a door opening. One of the four had opened their door—it must have been the man, as his footsteps in the corridor were especially heavy, loud even when he tried to walk quietly.

He went to knock on the next door, speaking in a low voice: "Open up, everyone come out!"

"Hey! Hurry up and come out, what the hell is this place? You're not really planning to just hole up in your rooms all night, are you? Come out and let's talk about what to do!"

Through the crack in the door, Ethan Clark saw the man's blurry shadow standing in front of the next door. She pressed her lips together, recognizing him as the tallest of the four.

In such a strange environment, being together with the others did feel safer, but... this man was in prison for raping and murdering more than a dozen women. The man failed to get the next door open and, cursing under his breath, walked toward her. Ethan Clark quickly raised her hand and pressed her door tightly shut.

Just then, a red lantern glimmered eerily in the deep darkness—in the shrine-like building at the very center.

Chapter 3 02 Sacrifice

A point of red light flickered like a candle, glowing through the gauze curtain, casting an unusual crimson hue. The eye that Ethan Clark pressed to the crack in the door also reflected that red light, her pupils shrinking abruptly.

The man's footsteps outside the door suddenly stopped. He had just walked up to Ethan Clark's door, and now the two of them were separated by only a door. Ethan Clark could even clearly hear the sound of the man swallowing.

Fear—an invisible fear—stretched through the air like a tightening thread.

"What the hell is that?" The voice outside the door sounded weak, lacking confidence.

Suddenly, the single red lantern behind the curtain in the center became several, one after another lighting up and flooding the shrine with red. The shrine was surrounded by only a few layers of curtains, and now the red light shone through them. They could all clearly see a shadow swaying inside the shrine.

She—or perhaps he—stepped from the darkness into the red light, a thin, angular figure, moving in a strange way, the shadow seeming to drag a long garment behind.

The door gave a soft creak, and Ethan Clark's view was blocked, as the man outside unconsciously stepped back, just in time to block her line of sight.

Ethan Clark took a step back and looked up, noticing that the red light outside was even brighter, and she could see the man's shadow pressed against the door with perfect clarity.

"Someone? Who's playing tricks... guh... guh..." The man's curses were suddenly cut off, his throat making a muffled, gurgling sound. The sound conjured all sorts of images, and at the same time, sent chills down the spine. Ethan Clark's eyes stared blankly at the spreading wet stain on the door, almost able to imagine how that large patch had just been splashed there.