*** THIRD PERSON POV***

  Yue froze. Instead of seeing Peijin in the hallway, she saw a young, teenage girl was standing in the bathroom hall.

  Her hair was that same, familiar bob with bangs, and the small black mole was dotted right beneath her pink lips and left eye.

  It was Peijin, but she was significantly younger now.

  “Peijin, is that you? Oh, my sweet girl, you’ve finally come home.”

  The younger Peijin absentmindedly blinked into the room before taking a step closer, her hand grabbing the edge of the door as she peaked in.

  “Dad?” Her voice was feeble and shook unsteadily.

  “Peijin!” Yue screamed, darting forward with the spear, “Get away from there!”

  Yue thrust her spear forward, and the edge hooked onto the sleeve of Peijin’s hoodie. Yue dragged Peijin back down the hallway, and Peijin seemed to shift in front of her eyes, growing taller and her face maturing.

  Eyes widening in surprise, Peijin gripped onto Yue’s shoulder and steadied herself, blinking rapidly.

  “I…” Peijin trailed off, looking at the ground with an odd look of shame and embarrassment while Yue shook her shoulders violently.

  “The hell were you thinking? You can’t even take a piss without supervision!”

  Peijin’s face immediately hardened. “Nothing even happened! I wasn’t going to go in there,” Peijin insisted, pushing Yue’s hands off her shoulders.

  The party stared at the open bedroom door for a moment, faint light seeming to flow out of it and into the long hall, yet nothing else moved or made a sound.

  Wei was wiping Amelia’s mouth with a paper towel, since she had soup smeared all over her face. Yang was the one to intervene between Peijin and Yue again.

  “Peijin, what did you see in the room?” Yang asked softly, lowering his head to be on eye level with her.

  Biting her lower lip, Peijin averted her gaze again. “It was a ghost, so let’s just get to the end of the house,” Peijin replied again in her cold, firm tone. “Is Amelia done eating?”

  The change in subject was obvious to the party—Peijin had always done it anytime she felt uncomfortable with the progression of a conversation. In a way, it was her method of regaining control.

  It was difficult to press Peijin when she did such a thing. With her being so many steps ahead of the rest of the party, it was undeniable that the rest felt inferior standing beside her. As long as they believed Peijin knew what she was doing, they reluctantly accepted it.

  Amelia gave a vigorous nod at Peijin’s question, slurping up one last noodle before Wei wiped her face again.

  “Peijin, do you want any food?” Wei asked.

  “I’m not hungry.”

  Yang placed a hand tentatively on the small of her back. “You should eat something.”

  “I’m going to bite your hand off if you keep bothering me,” she growled.

  He rolled his eyes before he walked over to the pantry and grabbed a pack of mini chocolate sprinkle cupcakes.

  “Still think so?”

  Peijin stared hungrily at the cupcakes for a moment; at work events, he had often teased Peijin for having the diet of a fourth grader at a birthday party. A small glint in his eyes signaled their shared memory.

  “I should probably get some sugar in my system,” Peijin mumbled.

  Yang gave a slight smile before waving her over. Peijin stuffed her face with some of the cupcakes. After she finished, she opened her bag and dumped the entire pantry of food in after making sure Amelia was full.

  Amelia was now hoisted over Wei’s shoulders as the group got ready to head down the hall. Wei’s typically lighthearted voice seemed to fill with more and more anxiety as his room approached, but he kept his tone steady with Peijin.

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  “Do we need to worry about what’s in the room?”

  “Are you scared of old man ghosts like Yang is scared of women?”

  Yang’s jaw fell once more as Yue burst out laughing, reeling over.

  “I’m seriously not scared of women anymore!” Yang exclaimed, the atmosphere in the house finally starting to lighten up. It even seemed as if the lighting became brighter, and Peijin’s face lit with a familiar, cheeky smile.

  Yue grinned, leaning in closer and speaking to Yang in a mocking tone. “Aww, is that so? If I lean in closer to you, are you going to start shaking again?” She teased, “You should’ve seen how scared you were when we first met.”

  Even Wei was chuckling now as he spoke over their bickering to answer Peijin’s question. “I’m not scared of old men, but I am scared of ghosts.”

  “Then I’ll protect you, even if this is my room,” Peijin smiled.

  “You really don’t seem that scared or bothered. Do you have no fears?” Wei said, looking up at her with admiration.

  Peijin let out a boisterous laugh. “Me? Scared? Never.”

  Wei paused for a moment, giving her a questioning look. “You looked like you were going to cry a bit ago, just before this room.”

  “...”

  Peijin scoffed before pointing Zhige at the two arguing members and then at Amelia.

  Since Peijin had awakened after Yang’s room, she was off-balanced—every word and jarring act was a misstep in the views of everyone else.

  However, she seemed to finally regain her brash but cunning impulsiveness. It was familiar, and they found comfort in that.

  “Let’s get out of here.”

  Peijin led them out, still avoiding the creaky floorboard as they progressed down the long hallway. The rest trailed closely behind her or just to her side, ensuring that nothing could happen.

  Since Yue was standing just beside Peijin, the small changes in her appearance grew all the more apparent.

  “Peijin?”

  Peijin had shrunk considerably once more, her cheeks widening and long lashes batting above big brown eyes. With every step, it was like watching her backward in a timeline, turning younger and younger until she looked only a few years older than Amelia.

  “Peijin!”

  She continued walking, not seeming to hear Yue until Yue firmly grabbed onto her shoulder, spinning her around.

  Peijin looked just like Amelia had on the first day they met—her eyes were large and watery, her brows furrowed, and her lips quivering from immense fright.

  “Oh, fuck me,” Yue mumbled, gripping onto Peijin’s hand and pulling her further down the hall. Kneeling down, she looked at Peijin, staring at her.

  “Who am I?” Yue quizzed, her hand raised at the rest of the party members behind her to silence them.

  Peijin gulped, her eyes rapidly darting around. “Where’s Feiyu?”

  “The hell are you calling out to him for?”

  “Where is he?” Peijin pleaded, virtually sobbing now as snot dripped down from her face, and she quickly wiped it away while looking up at the ceiling, as if anticipating something to pop out. Despite her shaky voice and red eyes, tears never once spilled. “He’s the only one that can help me escape!”

  Peijin tried to scramble away from Yue, but Yue easily held Peijin’s little body in place. Peijin’s eyes darted around until they locked onto Wei.

  “Wei! Wei!” Peijin cried. She was hyperventilating now as she clung onto Yue’s pant legs. “Where is Feiyu? He’s your party leader, so where is he?!”

  Yue took a step back, looking down with a mixture of both disgust and pity. Yue was stunned to see her idol reduced to such a weak state, but she quickly regathered her composure and lifted Peijin up.

  “I’ll bring you to Feiyu, alright? Come with me.” Yue carried her back toward the kitchen. “Do you recognize this man with the orange eyes?”

  Peijin’s eyes glossed right over Yang and remained locked on Wei; Peijin was a few years older now but still young.

  “Wei, your fate is black,” she choked out, her face drawn into many worried lines.

  It looked as if Wei had seen a ghost. Even though Peijin kept the source of her knowledge a secret, often dodging Yue’s questions, Wei viewed Peijin’s words as truth.

  “You’re lucky you always have that angel with you. I wouldn’t have added him if—”Peijin was just before the kitchen again, and she finally became aware of how she was wrapped in Yue’s arms bridal style.

  “Eh?”

  Yue immediately let go, causing Peijin to slam into the ground with a sharp yelp.

  “The fuck was that for?! Why’d you carry me back here!” Peijin shouted, glaring at her “Weren’t we heading down the hall?”

  Wei blankly stared at her before he finally gained the courage to speak. “Do you not… remember anything you just said?”

  “What are you talking about?” Peijin said, looking around at everyone for some kind of explanation.

  Yang let out a frustrated sound. He walked over to the granite kitchen island, burying his face in his hands. “We can’t just walk out. When we do, you turn into a kid.”

  Peijin burst out laughing, wiping away tears from her eyes. “Are you playing some joke on me? We were talking the entire way.”

  “We weren’t, Peijin. You rambled about Feiyu ‘saving you.’”

  Peijin’s expression had never dropped so fast, her cold expression immediately present. “I wasn’t.”

  “You were. And you said Wei’s fate was black, and he was lucky to have an angel.”

  “Consider it a prophecy. Maybe a moment of fortune telling came over me,” Peijin replied snarkily, turning to head back down the hall again.

  [Disciple Yue has activated Lie Detector!]

  [Lie Detector confirms Disciple Peijin’s words as false.]

  Peijin’s expression flared with rage. “How many times do I need to tell you not to use that on me?”

  “Then explain this goddamn room to us, Peijin!” Yue retorted, “None of us know what to do when you start regressing in age!”

  “I-I can’t!” Peijin stammered, wild. “I can’t even explain this place to myself! This isn’t real—I buried it long ago!”

  “Are you a fucking riddler now, too?”

  The tension was quickly growing between the two, which was nothing out of the ordinary, until they heard a small squeak from behind them.

  Whipping their heads around, they noticed Amelia wide-eyed, staring at the ceiling of the kitchen.

  A warped, smiling face was pressing against the ceiling, pushing further and farther out until it was finally low enough to press its nose against Amelia. The gray ceiling warped around it like a thin skin getting ready to burst.

  “No…” Peijin whispered, her shoulders slumping. “No, no, no! Amelia!”

  At once, countless faces and arms shot out from all over the room, grabbing onto Amelia and tugging.

  [Scathing Reviewer activated!]