Horror Game Developer: My games aren't that scary!

Chapter 821: The House [4]

BANG!

Another plank broke away from the window.

It struck the fence beside my shoulder, and for a moment, I could only stare at the split wood.

Then my mind cleared a little.

‘Right. Run.’

I pushed the bracelet into my pocket and turned, keeping one hand against the fence as I hurried towards the back of the house.

Behind me, something scraped across the window frame.

I didn’t look.

I was quite certain that looking wasn’t going to help.

BANG!

‘How is she so strong?’

Fuck, she was supposed to be an old lady!

My foot caught against a root as I reached the trees. I stumbled, caught myself against a trunk, and continued running. It wasn’t that I was being clumsy, but my head was still buzzing, the tip of my nose feeling even more itchy than before. I was feeling drowsier and drowsier by the minute.

Crunch! Crunch!

Leaves broke beneath my shoes.

Branches brushed against my face.

I pushed through them, occasionally looking back towards the house.

A light appeared behind me.

My steps quickened as the light moved between the trees, catching the branches before sweeping towards the ground.

“…..”

I turned between two trees and kept moving, trying to stay out of the beam of the flashlight. My breathing was growing louder, and the weakness in my legs made it difficult to keep a steady pace.

At one point, I reached for my nodes again.

Nothing happened.

‘Of course.’

I kept running, my hand fiddling with the pills in my pocket. But then, I gave up. Right… it wasn’t because my nodes were acting up this time. I could tell.

Something was fundamentally eating at me from the inside.

The light appeared over my shoulder once more, stretching across a tree ahead of me.

I moved behind it before the beam reached my back.

Then I changed direction.

For a while, there was nothing besides the sound of my shoes against the leaves and my own breath catching in my throat. I could feel a burn at the back of my throat.

Eventually, I looked back.

This time, I was met with darkness.

I continued a little farther before stopping behind a thick tree.

“Ha… Haa…”

Pressing my back against the bark, I covered my mouth and tried to quieten my breathing.

My chest hurt, and so did my legs.

I waited until I could properly hear the surroundings before lowering my hand.

“…..”

The silence embraced me from all sides. Thinking back to everything that had happened, I couldn’t help but curse to myself.

“…Lovely hospitality.”

I wiped the side of my face.

“I should’ve brought a gift.”

Maybe then she wouldn’t have been so mean.

I looked around the tree once more.

The space between the trunks remained dark, and I couldn’t see the house from here. That should’ve made me feel a little better.

But it didn’t.

I still couldn’t understand what happened.

One moment, I was looking through a window.

The next, my body stopped listening to me, and my nodes—

I paused.

A familiar pressure stirred behind my eyes.

“…..”

Slowly, I lowered my hand.

‘Wait, hold on…’

I reached towards my nodes.

“…!?”

I could feel them again.

Not clearly, and certainly not without the usual discomfort. But there was a response.

I remained still for several seconds before trying once more.

The same faint pressure returned.

‘They work.’

My gaze moved towards the direction of the house.

‘…Now that I’m further away from the house, I also feel less lightheaded.’

I knew it.

Taking another deep breath, I took out my phone. The driver’s number was near the top of the screen.

He was the first person I called.

Not wanting to make too much noise, I put it next to my ear as I waited, keeping the phone close while watching the darkness between the trees.

But..

Du. Du.

There was no response.

“…..”

I tried again.

The call rang until it stopped.

‘Why is he not responding?’

The connection was there.

After sending him a message, I forwarded the photographs to Joanna with the address of the house.

For a little while, I stared at the screen, but the usually responsive Joanna didn’t answer me.

My thumb moved down the list before stopping over Kyle’s name.

I considered calling him.

Then I looked back towards the trees and gave up.

‘Right, I guess there’s no point.’

Not just him, but even Joanna. There wasn’t much time. Especially since the old woman was now wary of me. If I left now, there was no telling what I would find when I could find a clue regarding VILE – 1048.

It would be too late if I waited for reinforcements.

I looked at the photographs again.

The photographs of the drawings were still there, but they didn’t tell me enough.

‘I can’t return like this.’

This was the first useful lead I found in quite some time.

And judging by what just happened to my body, I couldn’t afford to wait much longer. The influence of VILE – 1048 had grown to the point where I couldn’t ignore it.

I put the phone on silent and slipped it back into my pocket.

Then I pushed away from the tree.

*

Crunch!

Finding my way back took a little longer than I expected.

But it was also because I stopped often, listening before moving between the trees. Whenever I could, I stepped on the bare ground beside the roots rather than the leaves gathered around them.

Even then, there were sounds.

A twig breaking beneath my foot. My sleeve catching against a branch…

Each sound made me stop.

Thankfully, the flashlight never appeared again.

That bothered me too.

Honestly, I didn’t fear what I saw. I only feared what I couldn’t see.

Eventually, the trees thinned, and the familiar house appeared in the distance.

All the lights were off.

I crouched beside a trunk and watched it for a while.

Nothing moved behind the windows. The front of the house was out of sight, but I could see part of the fence and the slope leading towards Roy’s room.

I couldn’t see the old woman.

“…..”

‘Where did you go?’

I stayed there a little longer.

Then I moved.

The grass near the fence was damp, soaking the edges of my trousers as I kept low and worked my way towards the back of the house.

I avoided the boarded window.

For now, I was quite happy not to look through it again.

The house was a little hard to reach without making much noise. Despite my best attempts, the soft crunching of the leaves still resounded from time to time as my heart raced with each sound. Thankfully, it was subtle enough where one would need to be really close to hear.

I continued until I reached the wall beside Roy’s window.

The curtains were still drawn.

I leaned towards the same gap, but without the light inside, it was difficult to see much beyond the edge of the desk.

There was no movement inside as I looked over my shoulder once before placing my hand against the wall.

My nodes were still working.

‘Just for a moment.’

[Trait Transfer]

A sharp sting spread down the back of my neck.

I pressed my lips together and moved forward.

My hand passed through first.

Then my arm.

For a brief moment, I couldn’t see anything at all. I kept moving until the wall was behind me, only letting the ability fade once my shoulder was clear.

My shoes pressed against the carpet of the room as I held my breath.

The room remained quiet.

Slowly, I turned my head.

The bed was to my left. A blanket lay gathered across the mattress, but from where I stood, the wardrobe blocked my view of the pillow.

Ahead of me was a small desk, filled with countless drawings.

They looked even more numerous from inside.

Several sheets slipped beneath the chair, while others were pushed between books on the shelf. A drawing pinned near the window was torn at one corner.

I moved closer to get a better look.

Looking closely, I could tell.

‘Right, it must be them.’

I already guessed before, but I was now certain. The two people inside were the boy’s parents. The old woman said they died in an accident, but it was clear that she was full of shit.

Creeaaaaak.

“….!?”

My hand stopped.

The bedroom door moved.

Only a little.

A narrow gap opened beside the frame, and something dark moved beyond it.

I immediately stepped back towards the wardrobe.

My shoulder brushed its side, making me freeze before I could reach the wall behind it.

The door continued opening slowly. I couldn’t hear any footsteps.

My fingers pressed against the back of the wall as I reached towards my nodes again, my figure hidden by the large wardrobe.

‘Come on!’

I was about to move through the wall when something caught my attention as I turned my head. The moment I did, my entire body froze as a pair of dark eyes looked back at me from the bed.

Watching.

“….!?”