Chapter 22: The Slender Entity—Is Danny Still Human?
The bathroom was quiet.
Apart from the dazed and delirious Mike, everyone else slept peacefully.
Danny's fear when he was in the cave back then wasn't even this acute. Sometimes, the unknown can evoke more terror.
When Danny shook them awake, they all looked bewildered.
Brad's emotions were the most intense.
"Holy crap, didn't I already go home and have dinner?"
Jessie said incredulously, "If this is a dream, it's far too real. I've never had such a vivid dream..."
Jennifer didn't say what she dreamt, but her face was flushed, and the way she looked at Danny clearly showed what kind of dream she'd had.
"Danny, what should we do now?" Jessie remembered that in the dream, when they went out, the door suddenly closed. What if this time was the same as last time?
Were they dreaming, or had they truly woken up?
Danny wouldn't be affected this time, so he wanted to see what that thing was.
"It's simple. Open the door and walk out. I'll take the rear."
Jennifer whispered, "You alone isn't safe. Why don't we let Brad take the rear?"
Brad: "?"
Am I disposable? Brad really wanted to protest.
Danny shook his head, "No need. Brad can just carry Mike and leave. Actually, I'm trained in dealing with this stuff, so you don't need to worry."
This time, Danny walked at the very back.
As soon as everyone exited, the bathroom door slammed shut.
Everything was exactly the same, the only difference being that Jessie didn't scream.
Jessie, walking in front, tried to open the door but found it locked from the inside. The windows also seemed sealed and wouldn't open no matter what.
Danny observed and said, "It seems something doesn't want us to leave."
As if to confirm his words, the ceramic items in the living room and kitchen inexplicably fell to the floor, emitting a piercing shattering sound.
Jennifer, Brad, and Jessie all hid behind Danny.
Danny had lost patience with these petty tricks. He turned and directly kicked the front door off its hinges, and instantly, wind and rain surged in.
Brad's eyes widened. Oh my god, is this guy still human?
Jennifer and the others now truly believed Danny had special abilities. To kick a door flying—was he still human?
Danny spoke calmly.
"You all go first. I'll handle this."
The group didn't cause Danny any trouble and ran out, braving the wind and rain.
But as they left, they looked back.
That glance almost scared them to death. At the stairwell, there seemed to be a pitch-black elongated head with a pair of white pupils staring intently at them.
This eerie sight instantly made them sprint faster.
The moment they left,
the door Danny had kicked flying returned perfectly intact, like a coffin lid sealing shut.
The paranormal phenomena inside the house began to intensify.
The second floor was the most violent.
The sounds of various furniture breaking, mixed with chaotic static, like an old, malfunctioning television displaying snow.
At the stairwell, a black elongated head slowly emerged again, its face unclear.
Anyone else would be scared to tears if they saw this.
Danny wasn't particularly afraid, but his sanity was being tested.
He didn't know how to describe this thing. It didn't quite look like a demon—it was all black, only the white of its eyes exceptionally prominent in its dark sockets.
It stared at Danny and slowly crawled along the ceiling toward his position.
Danny suspected the brunette girl might have been taken by this thing. He suddenly felt Jennifer was quite lucky.
To have such an entity hidden in her house and still be alive now.
Or it could be something attracted by the Midnight Game.
Seeing it getting closer and closer, Danny stopped holding back and chose to completely transform into the alpha crawler, directly activating the terrorizing second stage. His entire body began to swell, and bone spurs broke through his skin, emerging with a crimson hue.
In the blink of an eye,
there was no trace of humans left in the small house.
Instead, there were two terrifying monsters confronting each other.
If he could, Danny also didn't want to turn into the alpha crawler, mainly because he had too few usable containment objects.
If he didn't merge, it would easily backfire on him, and the victim here referred to Danny.
Although he still had Three Finger, he didn't think the Hillicker could deal with the entity in front of him. It might even struggle to protect itself.
On the ceiling,
the slender entity paused, seemingly not expecting a perfectly normal human to suddenly turn into an evil spirit incarnate.
It was contemplating whether to continue.
Meanwhile, Danny had fully transformed. The bone spurs on his elbows extended along his arms, turning into crimson bone blades embedded in his forearms. He charged, leaped, and delivered a cross-slash.
The slender entity made a strange sound and didn't dodge. Instead, it lunged toward Danny in mid-air.
The bone blade cut into the entity's body. There was no imagined resistance—instead it was exceptionally smooth—but it was incredibly difficult to cut through.
The entity's sharp claws struck Danny's bone spurs. The rows of bone spurs were like needles meeting steel, and the pain drove Danny's spurs to grow again.
The two collided in mid-air and fell heavily to the ground, shattering the living room floor.
The slender entity opened its pitch-black mouth, emitting a hollow, terrifying sound.
Danny was pressed underneath by this thing, so one can imagine how much psychological trauma he was experiencing.
If viewed from another perspective, the slender black monster pounced on the other bone-covered monster, and the dark shadow slowly enveloped it, as if it was going to devour the creature beneath.
Rainy night.
Brad and the others who escaped were still shaken. Even from a distance, they could hear the commotion.
After Jennifer calmed down, she realized Danny hadn't lied to her. The series of events she experienced today had completely overturned her worldview.
No wonder Danny kept suggesting coming to her house to check...
Jennifer thought he was just interested in her, but she didn't expect he was truly trying to save her. Moved, she wanted to go back for Danny, even if there was an entity in the house.
Brad glanced at the delirious Mike and turned on the car radio.
Jessie was checking her phone for signal.
Perhaps due to the rain, there was still no signal at all.
If she wasn't scared, she'd want to get out of the car right now and smash this piece of crap phone!
"Static... static, static, static."
The old radio emitted a crackling sound.
Brad impatiently slapped the radio. The static disappeared, and it picked up a nearby emergency channel.
A steady male voice came from the radio, with a standard American accent.
"This is Salem Police Emergency Communication Channel. Repeat, this is Salem Police Emergency Communication Channel."
"Be advised, a multiple homicide occurred in the vicinity of the suburbs around midnight tonight. The victims are one male and two females. Residents are advised to lock their doors and windows and secure their personal belongings. If you see suspicious individuals or abnormal situations in the area... Repeat the above notice..."
The static grew stronger, eventually leaving only a rustling sound.
Jessie immediately realized this was about Chad and the others who drove away, wasn't it?
The number of people, genders, time, and location all matched up.
Brad was a beat slower in reacting, but once he did, his face showed the relief of having survived. If he'd gone with Chad, there might have been several more deaths by now.
Among other things, Brad, who originally didn't believe in God, now truly did.
"Click."
Jennifer suddenly pulled open the car door and ran out into the rain.
Seeing this, Jessie rolled down the car window and shouted.
"Hey, Jennifer, where are you going?"
"I'm going back for Danny."
Jennifer's figure slowly disappeared into the rainy night.
Jessie didn't dare go back for Danny. She was afraid, which was natural.
Jennifer dared because her attachment was intense, which was related to her upbringing and need for someone who'd protect her.
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