Volume One: First Steps in the City Chapter Ten: The Dark Figure

"Knock, knock, knock." Lu Yi stepped forward and rapped on the door of the black house. Soon, a slightly hunched old woman opened the door. Lu Yi smiled politely and explained the reason for their visit.

The old woman glanced at Li Xinran, then fixed her gaze on Lu Yi, her eyes gradually narrowing.

Lu Yi felt an unexpected sharpness in her gaze, a prickling discomfort crawling down his spine. Under that scrutiny, he could not help but speak again, "We were hoping to stay for the night, if it's convenient for you?"

Only then did the old woman's expression soften. "You're both from out of town?" After receiving their confirmation, she stepped aside and said, "Come in."

Once both of them were inside, the old woman looked at Lu Yi again and slowly said, "Let’s be clear, staying here isn’t free. I charge for accommodation."

Lu Yi and Li Xinran quickly nodded in agreement.

Leading them upstairs, the old woman explained, "There are rules here. The lights must be off and it must be quiet by eleven twenty. All doors and windows must be closed before bed. No matter what happens at night, you are not to make any noise, and under no circumstances are you to open the windows."

She turned to look at them. "I’ll come by to check. Also, if anything is damaged during your stay, you will have to pay for it."

"That’s fine," Lu Yi agreed readily.

She brought them to two adjacent rooms and then turned to go downstairs.

After a refreshing shower, Lu Yi collapsed onto his bed and quickly drifted into sleep.

"Lu Yi, Lu Yi." Half-awake, Lu Yi sensed a woman’s voice calling near his ear.

"Hm? Hm?" He shifted, muttering, "Lu Yi? That can't be for me, I only have a younger male cousin."

"Hey." The woman's voice sounded again, and Lu Yi felt himself being shaken. He shuddered and sat up abruptly.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and as he shook his hand, his fingers brushed something cool and silky. Lu Yi froze, glancing sideways to see a woman with loose hair sitting beside him.

His throat went dry. What was happening? Had he stumbled into a horror film?

"Lu Yi." The woman grabbed his shoulder and shook him again.

Hearing the familiar voice, Lu Yi finally relaxed. Turning his head, he saw it was indeed Li Xinran.

"What’s wrong? Why are you here?" Lu Yi noticed her hands were trembling. He grasped her hands and asked with concern.

"I—I feel like there’s something here. I was so scared," Li Xinran said in terror. "So I came to find you. I called for you at the door, but you didn’t hear me. I was afraid to shout, so I just came in."

"Don’t be afraid. What did you sense?" Lu Yi patted her back and asked softly.

Li Xinran was about to reply when she suddenly pointed at the wall behind him, her face pale with fright.

Lu Yi spun around quickly, glancing at the window. The inside of the window was covered with paper, so in the moonlight and glow of the streetlamps, it should have been a hazy sheet of light. But now, a dark shadow loomed in the upper right corner.

The shadow looked like an animal’s paw, surrounded by fading black fur.

Suppressing his fear, Lu Yi turned to see Li Xinran’s mouth open, about to scream. He lunged at her, clamping his hand over her mouth.

He gasped for breath, but before they could calm down, the paw print outside began sliding down the glass, accompanied by a piercing scraping sound in the silent room.

With a bang, the window shuddered, and another paw print appeared, swaying left and right as if greeting them. Then it too joined the first in scratching at the glass.

Leaning close to Li Xinran’s ear, Lu Yi whispered, "When I let go, don’t scream." He glanced at the window and silently hoped it would hold until six thirty in the morning. Wait—windows, window shops.

"I get it," he continued in her ear. "Remember those nearly adjoining window shops by the roadside? This town must have frequent glass damage from these things outside. Yet people don’t flee, so they must have found ways to live safely here."

Hearing him, Li Xinran gradually calmed, nodding to show she understood.

Lu Yi released her. "Try to sleep. After six thirty, we’ll return to the human world."

"But this noise is really nerve-wracking," he muttered as he adjusted his position.

Soon, both drifted back into a hazy sleep. Faintly, Lu Yi seemed to hear children playing, the thump of a ball hitting the ground.

"Yi, come eat, Yi." A gentle female voice called from beyond the 'door.'

"Yi, eat first, then study. Dad made your favorite hotpot today," a man’s voice followed.

"I...I know." Lu Yi, swaying, climbed up in the dark room. His feet touched the cold floor as he stepped toward the window, his hand reaching forward. Behind him, Li Xinran also rose, sleepwalking toward the window.

"Dear, why are you eating by yourself like a child?" the gentle female voice complained from outside the door.

"Hurry, or there’ll only be scraps left," a thought flashed through Lu Yi’s mind as he reached for the door handle.

In reality, his hand grasped the window latch. One twist and pull, and the window would open.

At that moment, a red dot appeared in his left eye, then expanded outward in a swirling red vortex until a six-pointed star with rounded corners appeared again.

Simultaneously, Lu Yi’s vision pierced through the wooden door, showing a wolf’s face swathed in black fur. Sensing his gaze, the wolf turned, its greedy green eyes locking onto him.

Lu Yi jolted violently, snapping out of the illusion. He found himself standing right by the window, not realizing how he’d gotten there.

As he prepared to back away, someone bumped into him from behind—Li Xinran, also in a daze, reaching for the window. Alarmed, Lu Yi clamped his hand over her mouth and wrapped an arm around her waist, dragging her back.

He wasn’t used to such actions, and his grip was awkward; Li Xinran nearly fell but the jolt snapped her out of the trance.

Seeing her wide-eyed and shaken, Lu Yi whispered, "Don’t speak. Look at where you are. We were bewitched—we almost opened the window."

Li Xinran nodded, moving his hand away, and they retreated further. The scratching at the glass abruptly stopped, and the two paw prints vanished.

"Did they leave?" Li Xinran asked cautiously.

"Maybe," Lu Yi replied, uncertain. "This town isn’t that small. If those things roamed everywhere at night, people would have noticed by now. There must be several of them wandering about."

Li Xinran’s eyes brightened. "Then maybe they went somewhere else."

But Lu Yi’s unease grew. Remembering the face in the illusion, he was sure he’d never seen its like before. And he felt sure it had seen him, too.

As if to validate his fears, a black shadow, ape-like, suddenly loomed large at the window, slamming into the glass with a crash. Another shadow crashed in right after.

Lu Yi hissed in pain as Li Xinran’s nails dug into his flesh. She quavered, "They’re still here?"

As if things couldn’t get worse, with every impact the glass webbed with cracks.

"Run," Lu Yi commanded in a low voice, pulling her back.

Another crash—the glass bulged inward, outlining the monster beyond, and shards of glass clattered to the floor.

"Aah!" Li Xinran finally screamed.

Just as Lu Yi thought the creature would burst in and seize them, lines of white appeared in the glass, weaving into a resilient net that ensnared the monster.

Lu Yi understood at last. There really were monsters in this town. All those window and door shops existed because of them; the grating sound on the glass had a power. While awake, its magic was dormant, but once someone fell asleep, the sound would drag them into an illusion, making them open a window to death.

That explained the earplugs at the convenience store—the oddities he’d noticed were the town’s adaptations for survival.

But now, understanding all this was already too late.

"Go," Lu Yi urged, dragging a weak-kneed Li Xinran toward the door.

Looking back, she saw some of the white threads had already begun to snap under the monster’s assault.

Lu Yi flung open the door and shoved her into the corridor. Just as he did, the white net finally gave way and shattered, its glow extinguished in an instant.

The monster roared, slashing with claws twice the length of a human finger, aiming straight for Lu Yi’s back.