Jennifer’s intense attachment wasn’t difficult to understand.
Her parents had divorced when she was young, and growing up without much emotional stability had made her desperate for someone she considered dependable.
Watching weakness repeatedly disappoint her had also left Jennifer with a strong attraction to confidence and strength.
Alaric Thomas happened to fit almost everything she wanted.
He was handsome, wealthy, physically powerful, and had just revealed himself as someone connected to the Church who willingly stayed behind to confront a supernatural entity while everyone else escaped.
From Jennifer’s perspective, it wasn’t difficult to convince herself that Alaric had risked his life specifically for her.
After all, the haunted house belonged to Jennifer.
Alaric had insisted on investigating because she had reported strange activity, and when the danger finally appeared, he remained behind instead of abandoning her.
Once someone became emotionally invested in that interpretation, minor contradictions no longer seemed important.
People could develop this kind of intense attachment regardless of gender.
For Jennifer, however, her unstable childhood and strong attraction to powerful personalities made the effect particularly extreme.
By the time she jumped from the car and ran back through the storm, concern for Alaric had already overwhelmed her fear.
…
The rain continued pouring over Round Clam.
Jennifer wasn’t reckless enough to charge straight through the front entrance after seeing what had been inside the house.
She carefully circled toward the backyard instead, intending to look through a window first and determine whether Alaric was still fighting.
What she found made her stop completely.
Her house was gone.
The familiar two-story home had been reduced to broken lumber, shattered bricks, and scattered debris soaked beneath the rain.
It looked less like the aftermath of a haunting and more like a demolition crew had driven heavy machinery straight through the building.
Jennifer could only stare at the wreckage in disbelief.
“What kind of exorcism does this?” She cautiously moved through the debris and searched around the ruined foundation.
There was no sign of the black creature she had seen earlier, and Alaric had vanished as well.
Only rain continued falling over what remained of her home.
…
At the Round Clam Bar, colorful lights flashed while loud music filled the crowded room.
Chief Peter sat at one booth drinking with three of his longtime friends—Old Joe, Quincy, and Cleveland—apparently unconcerned by the recent string of strange incidents around town.
The fact that Peter could still relax here despite multiple deaths probably said more about his connections than his work ethic.
A short distance away, Alaric was slumped inside another booth.
He looked exhausted.
The exorcism had failed.
The Ghost Card had finally confirmed that the pitch-black creature was indeed the Midnight Man, but knowing its identity hadn’t made defeating it any easier.
Physical attacks were nearly useless against the entity, and no matter how badly Alaric damaged its form, it simply pulled itself together again.
His Evil-Spirit Incarnation Crawler had been strong enough to fight it.
Not strong enough to destroy it.
During the final part of the battle, the Midnight Man had nearly swallowed Alaric’s transformed body entirely.
Their struggle became violent enough to tear apart Jennifer’s house, yet not a single neighbor came outside to investigate.
In a town filled with people who normally rushed toward anything remotely interesting, that silence had been far more suspicious than the destruction itself.
Alaric eventually realized they weren’t completely inside normal reality.
The experience reminded him of Silent Hill, where ordinary locations could shift into a darker supernatural layer separated from the normal world.
Jennifer’s house had apparently been swallowed into something similar, creating a distorted space where the Midnight Man controlled most of what happened.
That also explained why the storm, darkness, and surrounding neighborhood had felt unnaturally isolated.
Once Alaric understood that, fighting became secondary.
Escaping became the priority.
At the worst point, he released Saw-Tooth from the Two of Spades and ordered the cannibal mutant to attack.
The subordinate immediately obeyed, throwing himself at the Midnight Man and buying Alaric a few crucial seconds.
Alaric used that opening to strike at the strange boundary surrounding the house.
For a moment, reality seemed to split.
Alaric broke through.
Just before escaping, he looked back.
Saw-Tooth was still struggling violently against the slender black entity, but ordinary physical strength meant almost nothing against something like the Midnight Man.
Darkness wrapped around the cannibal’s body until he disappeared completely.
Saw-Tooth was gone.
Another subordinate permanently lost.
Alaric exhaled slowly and looked at the Four of Diamonds resting between his fingers.
After everything he had built, he had almost returned to square one.
Only the Evil-Spirit Incarnation Crawler remained.
Even that powerful creature had limitations.
Against slashers, cannibals, Crawlers, and other physical monsters, the Four of Diamonds was terrifyingly effective.
Against high-level ghosts and entities whose bodies didn’t obey normal physical rules, it was much less reliable.
Alaric needed more supernatural Containment Targets.
Preferably soon.
Once the Evil-Spirit Incarnation recovered enough from the battle, Alaric finally left the bar.
He stepped onto the sidewalk and pulled out his phone, immediately noticing something that almost felt miraculous after the night’s events.
Full signal.
“Finally.” His phone suddenly vibrated with a familiar classic-rock ringtone.
Jennifer.
Alaric answered.
“Where are you?” Jennifer demanded immediately.
“I went back and my entire house is destroyed.
Are you hurt?” “The house got wrecked during the exorcism.” “I don’t care about the house,” Jennifer snapped.
“I’m asking about you.” “I’m fine.” Jennifer’s voice softened instantly.
“Where are you?
Tell me, please.” Alaric glanced toward the bar behind him.
“Outside the Round Clam Bar.” “Stay there.
I’m coming.” The call ended.
Alaric slipped the phone back into his pocket and looked toward the dark sky.
The earlier storm had vanished almost completely, confirming another suspicion—the torrential rain had probably been part of the Midnight Man’s distorted supernatural space rather than ordinary weather.
That left one other question.
Where had Jennifer’s original demon gone?
In this world, powerful supernatural entities often behaved territorially.
Demons, evil spirits, witches, cursed creatures, and other monsters rarely tolerated another predator interfering with something they already considered theirs.
Unless one side was significantly stronger or the two had some unusual relationship, coexistence usually ended with one creature driving away, enslaving, or destroying the other.
The Midnight Man might have consumed the demon.
Or the demon might have fled the moment something stronger invaded Jennifer’s home.
Either possibility made sense.
“Al!” Alaric turned.
Jennifer had spotted him from the corner and was already running toward him.
Most of the people close to Alaric shortened his name to Al, and Jennifer had adopted the nickname almost immediately after becoming interested in him.
Seeing her approaching at full speed, Alaric sighed and reluctantly pulled his hands from his pockets.
Jennifer jumped.
Alaric caught her automatically.
She wrapped both arms around his neck and clung to him tightly, looking more relieved than embarrassed.
Two single guys standing across the street watched the reunion with expressions suggesting they had just taken emotional damage and silently reconsidered their life choices.
Alaric looked at Jennifer.
“Why are you this excited?” She didn’t answer.
Jennifer kissed him instead.
The sudden affection lasted several moments before she finally pulled away and stared into his face as if confirming he was genuinely unharmed.
Alaric noticed she seemed surprisingly cheerful considering her house had been reduced to rubble.
Jennifer smiled.
“Hotel or your place?” “Let’s get something to eat first.” Alaric rubbed his stomach.
“I’m starving.” He wasn’t rejecting her.
He was genuinely hungry.
Jennifer immediately brightened.
“Fine.
I’m paying this time.” The only place still serving food nearby was the all-night Round Clam Diner, a small restaurant that survived mainly because it seemed determined never to close.
At this hour, it was practically the town’s unofficial refuge for bartenders, night-shift workers, drunk college students, and anyone else searching for food after midnight.
They started walking.
Jennifer never complained about losing her house.
Instead, every few minutes she found some new way to imply that she now had nowhere to stay.
“You know, all my clothes are probably buried under half the building,” she said casually.
“I might need somewhere safe for a while.” Alaric glanced at her.
Jennifer immediately gave him an innocent expression.
He reached over and lightly pinched her cheek.
“You can stay with me.
I still owe you that tour of the family estate anyway.” Jennifer’s expression instantly softened.
She leaned into his hand like an affectionate cat, which would have shocked half the people who knew her from campus.
Around everyone else, Jennifer was sharp-tongued, competitive, and perfectly willing to humiliate anyone who annoyed her.
With Alaric, she acted completely differently.
That didn’t mean her temper had disappeared.
It simply meant he wasn’t currently the target.
The Round Clam Diner was mostly empty when they arrived.
Two women dressed for a night out were sitting near the window, probably having come straight from the bar.
Alaric and Jennifer chose a booth and had barely sat down when the entrance opened again.
Another customer walked inside.
Alaric looked over.
The newcomer was dressed like a clown.
And over one shoulder, he carried a large rough sack.