19 Noon.
Jennifer was still worked up from what had happened between them earlier and clearly had no interest in leaving Alaric Thomas’s house.
She didn’t even want to go home anymore and had started suggesting that maybe they should simply live together.
Alaric gave her a light smack on the hip and told her to behave because before discussing anything else, he wanted to inspect her house and determine exactly what was following her.
If something demonic had really targeted Jennifer, Alaric suspected it would follow her regardless of where she slept.
There was no point hiding inside his villa and pretending the problem had disappeared.
So the two finally headed outside beneath the blazing Florida sun.
The warmth immediately gave Alaric a strange sense of security after everything he had experienced recently.
He and Jennifer had barely stepped onto the street when they stopped for a moment because an alligator was casually crawling along the sidewalk nearby.
Whether it belonged to somebody or had wandered over from a nearby pond was impossible to tell.
A local guy wearing several ridiculous layers of baggy pants happened to walk past at exactly the wrong moment.
The alligator’s tail knocked him onto the pavement, and instead of running, the guy jumped up and started yelling at the animal like they were about to settle the problem through a rap battle.
The alligator naturally had no appreciation for freestyle lyrics and grabbed one of the outer layers of his pants before attempting a death roll.
Fortunately, they weren’t in the water, and the absurd number of pants probably saved him from something much worse.
The fabric tore loose halfway through the roll, leaving the alligator sitting there with a mouthful of denim while the man finally decided that continuing the argument was a bad idea.
Jennifer barely even looked surprised.
Across the street, another guy burst out of a convenience store clutching several stolen energy drinks while two officers chased him through the parking lot.
Their shirtless neighbor was doing push-ups beside a public drinking fountain, apparently unconcerned with everything happening around him.
A few yards farther away, some unfortunate person had stolen a manhole cover, and Sheriff Old Joe had managed to roll his wheelchair directly into the opening before anyone warned him.
“Somebody get me out of this damn hole!” Old Joe shouted from below.
A man in a white T-shirt stood near the corner jogging in place without actually going anywhere, looking almost exactly like an idle NPC from Grand Theft Auto.
Anyone unfamiliar with the neighborhood might have wondered whether reality had glitched.
Alaric simply walked past without giving the scene another thought.
To outsiders, all of this probably looked insane.
To Alaric, it was Florida.
Round Clam had always attracted its own special collection of characters, so unusual behavior barely counted as unusual anymore.
When Alaric first arrived in this world, the town had confused him constantly, but by now he was starting to consider this level of chaos normal.
Round Clam itself wasn’t particularly large or small.
It was an old-fashioned Florida town filled with older homes, local businesses, churches, schools, and streets that had changed surprisingly little over the years.
Alaric’s villa was only a few minutes from campus, while Jennifer lived farther out toward the quieter suburban edge of town.
Jennifer became increasingly reluctant as they approached her neighborhood.
Compared with Alaric’s large family villa, her home was just a modest single-family house, and she clearly cared about the difference more than he did.
Alaric never mentioned it because he genuinely didn’t see anything embarrassing about where she lived.
The neighborhood was much quieter than downtown Round Clam.
Only a handful of houses stood nearby, with most belonging to older residents who preferred living away from the busier streets.
A small tree grew in Jennifer’s front yard, and nothing about the property looked remotely threatening from outside.
Inside, the living room had a beige fabric couch and dark wooden furniture with a decorative clock hanging on the wall.
The bedrooms contained older furniture and patterned wall hangings, while the kitchen had off-white cabinets and a wooden island counter.
It looked like countless ordinary middle-class homes Alaric had seen around American suburbs.
After Alaric finished looking around, he sat on the couch.
Jennifer headed toward the kitchen and asked, “What do you want to drink?” “Tea’s fine.” While she prepared it, a Ghost Card quietly appeared between Alaric’s fingers.
Demons and malicious spirits rarely stood around waiting to be discovered, especially during the earliest stages of an infestation.
The card was therefore far more useful than his eyes.
Blood-red lettering appeared.
[Traces of Containment Target: Demon Detected] [True Name: Unknown] Alaric frowned slightly.
Many demons were associated with true names, and in occult traditions or exorcism stories, discovering that name could provide power over the entity or help force it away.
The fact that his Ghost Card couldn’t identify this one’s name meant there wasn’t enough information yet.
He slowly looked around the house again.
Nothing seemed abnormal.
No strange shadows, unexplained cold spots, disturbing smells, or obvious supernatural activity appeared while Jennifer was downstairs with him.
That left Alaric with one likely conclusion: whatever had noticed Jennifer was still in the early stages of approaching her.
That actually made the situation harder.
Different supernatural entities followed completely different patterns.
Some preferred isolated victims and became active only when a person was alone, while others had no problem attacking entire families at once.
Movies like The Conjuring had already proven that simply surrounding yourself with people didn’t guarantee safety.
Early supernatural activity was particularly dangerous because ordinary people could easily explain it away.
Doors opening, electronics turning on, strange dreams, or unusual noises could all be blamed on forgetfulness or mechanical problems.
By the time the haunting or possession became impossible to deny, the victim might already need a priest or experienced exorcist.
Still, early detection wasn’t impossible.
One of the simplest warning systems was a dog.
Animals in horror movies often noticed supernatural presences long before humans did.
Alaric immediately remembered the Perrons’ dog, Sadie, from The Conjuring.
When Roger and Carolyn Perron moved their family into the farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island, Sadie refused to enter the house and was later found dead outside.
The dog had sensed that something was wrong before the family understood anything.
Alaric had actually considered getting a dog himself.
Dogs were loyal, good company, and far more sensitive to certain supernatural disturbances than ordinary humans.
The problem was that sensing a demon didn’t give an animal any ability to defend itself from one.
Against something genuinely powerful, a dog was frighteningly fragile.
Alaric didn’t like the idea of raising an animal, becoming attached to it, and eventually watching some demon kill it simply because supernatural trouble kept finding him.
He wasn’t cold enough to treat a pet as disposable detection equipment.
Unfortunately, the Ghost Cards couldn’t fuse their contained abilities into animals either.
“Darling, do you want to watch TV or play something?” Jennifer returned carrying the tea and sat beside him.
“TV’s fine.” Alaric couldn’t spend the entire afternoon staring at the walls while waiting for a demon to appear.
Jennifer turned on the television, and after scrolling through several channels, they eventually settled on Tom and Jerry.
Despite all the horror movies Alaric had watched in his previous life, the cartoon remained one of his favorite things to put on when he wanted his brain to relax.
The two sat close together on the couch while the afternoon passed.
Nothing happened.
By the time dusk approached, the temperature inside the house had gradually begun to drop.
Alaric noticed the change but couldn’t tell whether it was supernatural or simply the air conditioning and evening weather.
They had spent almost the entire day together without seeing anything truly abnormal.
That strengthened one possibility.
Perhaps the demon preferred approaching Jennifer when she was alone.
Around eight that evening, Jennifer leaned over and kissed Alaric before standing.
“I’m going upstairs to shower.
I’ll be back in a few minutes.” “Okay.” Alaric barely looked away from the television.
Jennifer disappeared upstairs while he continued watching.
He eventually changed channels and found a late-night reality show built around testing couples’ loyalty, with contestants behaving more shamelessly every few minutes.
Alaric had to admit that American television occasionally provided entertainment no horror movie could match.
Then a scream erupted upstairs.
“Ah!” Alaric moved instantly.
He activated Fusion with the Evil-Spirit Incarnation Crawler, and power flooded through his body as he rushed up the stairs.
Jennifer came running from the hallway in a thin nightgown and immediately threw herself against him, gripping his shirt while pointing toward the bathroom.
“The door opened by itself!” Jennifer said breathlessly.
“Every window is closed, so there wasn’t any wind.
Then when I came out, I swear I saw somebody behind the shower curtain.” Her confidence from earlier was completely gone.
Jennifer had watched the curtain suddenly billow outward even though nothing should have moved it.
For one brief second, the fabric had formed the unmistakable outline of a human figure standing behind it.
By the time she screamed and looked again, the shape had vanished.
Now she finally understood what Alaric meant by fear of the unknown.
Alaric carefully entered the bedroom and checked the bathroom.
He searched behind the curtain, inside the closet, beneath the bed, and anywhere else a person could realistically hide.
Nothing was there.
The Ghost Card gave no new information either.
Whatever had appeared was gone.
Alaric looked toward Jennifer.
“It seems to have left for now.” Jennifer immediately grabbed his arm.
“Then let’s leave too.
We can get a hotel room, or I can stay at your place tonight.” Alaric shook his head.
Leaving wouldn’t necessarily solve anything.
Jennifer was the target, not the house.
If the entity was following her personally, changing buildings would simply move the haunting somewhere else.
Alaric needed another method to test whether the demon preferred isolated victims.
“We’re staying,” he said.
“Call some friends and invite them over.
I’ll call a few people too, and we’ll have a party.” Jennifer stared at him.
“A party?” “The house will be full of people.
If whatever is following you only acts when you’re alone, we’ll know.” Alaric had used essentially the same strategy after first detecting traces connected to Valak.
Back then, he had spent as much time as possible in crowded bars, parties, and busy public places because being surrounded by people made him feel safer than sitting alone inside an empty house.
Whether the strategy genuinely protected him or simply made him feel better didn’t matter at the time.
A supernatural entity couldn’t possibly keep targeting one person through an entire crowd without revealing itself.
At least, Alaric hoped not.
Jennifer’s fear eased noticeably once she imagined the house filled with people instead of dark, empty rooms.
A party meant noise, friends, lights, and enough activity that she wouldn’t have to wonder whether something was standing behind her every time she turned around.
She immediately nodded.
“Okay.
I’ll call everyone.” [Chapter Rewards]