Hunt

Darkness, moonlight, deathly silence, and a chilling night wind enveloped the first floor of the holiday home.

Time passed slowly. Catherine could even hear her own heartbeat and rapid breathing in the silence. She leaned against the cold island counter, her finger on the trigger, her gaze fixed on the area from the doorway to the living room.

Five minutes... ten minutes... twenty minutes...

Forty or fifty minutes passed, but the expected terror did not materialize. The silence itself became a form of torture, making Catherine restless. What chilled her even more was the small figure by the curtains—

Alessa! For a full forty or fifty minutes, Alessa remained completely still!

She stood like a sculpture beside the curtains, holding a Frankenstein doll in her arms, like a forgotten sculpture. The moonlight stingily outlined her figure but could not illuminate her body.

There was no rise and fall of breath, no subtle movements, and even its presence was as faint as a ghost.

She exuded an indescribable chill and deathly stillness, an aura that silently permeated the air, sending chills down Catherine's spine even further than the unknown possibilities outside the door.

Like a bottomless ancient well, calm and undisturbed, or like an abyss as black as ink!

The oppressive atmosphere was like a tightening noose, making it almost impossible for Catherine to breathe. She finally couldn't help but speak:

"Ah...Alessa?...There's no movement. Should we...go up and ask Qin?"

no respond.

The shadow beside the curtains remained perfectly still, not even the hem of the garment fluttered.

"Alessa?"

Catherine raised her voice slightly, her tone pleading.

It remained deathly silent.

The small figure seemed to blend into the dark background, becoming part of the shadows.

Catherine swallowed subconsciously. She mustered her courage and tentatively took a step, two steps, towards Alessa... Suddenly, her toe kicked something hard, making a slight knocking sound.

She jolted awake and instinctively looked down—

It was an inconspicuous little ornament on the ground.

When she looked up again, all the hairs on the back of Catherine's head stood on end!

The area next to the curtains... is empty!

Alessa is missing!

The moment she lowered her head, she vanished without a sound!

A chill instantly shot from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, and Catherine's heart nearly leaped out of her chest!

Her eyes widened, staring incredulously at the empty darkness, as if an invisible maw had opened there.

"No...it's impossible..." she muttered to herself, rubbing her eyes hard, wondering if it was a hallucination caused by extreme tension.

However, when she opened her eyes again and looked closely—

Aresa's figure was standing in the same spot again!

Exactly the same as before, not a single detail different!

It was as if her disappearance just a moment ago was merely an illusion caused by her blinking, or... a strange joke played by darkness itself.

Catherine felt her hands and feet go numb, and cold sweat uncontrollably seeped from her forehead and rolled down her cheeks...

This is not an illusion!

Aresa exudes a suffocating eeriness!

She was here, yet not here; she was familiar, yet utterly unfamiliar; she should be alive, yet not like one… An intense unease coiled around Catherine’s heart like a venomous snake, almost bringing her to a standstill!

"Qin... Qin Jin!"

Catherine's voice trembled with a tone she herself was unaware of, almost a whisper:

"I...I'm going to find...Qin Jin! I'm going to find him...You...be careful..."

Unable to endure the eerie standoff and the mental pressure from Alessa's silence any longer, she abruptly turned and rushed towards the second-floor staircase as if fleeing, the wooden steps creaking frantically beneath her feet.

Having just stepped onto two steps, a chilling sensation ran down her spine. Catherine almost instinctively turned her head to look into the depths of the living room—

It's back!

That dark, human-shaped shadow was standing at the junction of the living room and the dining room, only about ten meters away from the stairwell!

It was silent and indistinct, yet it exuded a more intense malice and coldness than before, and the damp stench was almost right next to you.

"Ah—!" Catherine's scream nearly burst from her throat as she pointed in terror at the thing:

"IT..."

Before the word "COME!" was even stuck in her throat, Alessa had already moved!

It wasn't movement or jumping; it was more like the scene was suddenly and abruptly switched by a single frame.

The figure that was standing by the curtains a second ago suddenly appeared in front of the shadowy figure, without any warning or hesitation!

Aresa's free little hand shot out with lightning speed, her five fingers spread wide, and she precisely gripped the indistinct neck of the dark figure!

A voice even colder than the monster before them, yet it was Alessa's childlike voice:

"Got you!"

The sound was like a signal, and Catherine screamed desperately:

"Qin! Jack! We caught it! It's here!!!"

In fact, the moment she screamed, there was already a commotion upstairs. Before she could even finish saying those words, Qin Jin and Kang Shidanding had already appeared at the top of the stairs!

At that moment, the dark figure whose neck was being choked by Aresa suddenly changed!

Its body suddenly began to convulse violently!

On that "face" without features, only a deep darkness, where the mouth should have been, it suddenly opened as if torn open, and a writhing liquid spurted out!

It looked like a large swarm of snakes had spewed out, or a large cluster of writhing ropes...

No! It's hair!

A torrent formed by countless wet, tangled, and twisted black hairs!

They surged wildly toward Aretha's arm that was gripping the shadowy figure, like countless greedy black venomous snakes, instantly coiling, enveloping, and spreading upwards!

In the blink of an eye, it covered Alessa's entire forearm and tried to climb up her shoulder!

However, Aresa simply looked down at this disgusting invasion, and a flash of blackish-red suddenly appeared in her gray-blue eyes...

A sudden change has occurred!

The strands of hair that covered Alessa's arms, wrapped around, spread, climbed and rose up, suddenly lost their vitality at a speed visible to the naked eye, becoming dry and gray!

It then turned into fine ash, which began to rise from the arm, drifted towards the ceiling of the living room, and then quickly dissipated, disappearing without a trace into the air.

However, these signs of decay, decay, and annihilation did not stop; instead, they reversed along Aresa's arm and rapidly traveled back towards the direction of her hand that was gripping the shadowy figure!

It seemed that her displeasure, and a powerful destructive force, were spreading...

"Alessa! Stop!!!"

Qin Jin's angry shout rang out, his voice filled with tension and severity.

Suddenly, the annihilated, gray aura on Aretha's arm abruptly stopped, as if it had been forcibly suppressed and severed by an invisible force!

The dark figure that was being choked seemed to have seized this critical opportunity!

Its gripped "neck" snapped shut, and its torn "mouth" opened wide once more—

"puff!!!"

This time, what gushed out was no longer a torrent of condensed hair, but a large pool of viscous, writhing black liquid composed entirely of countless fine hair strands!

It was as heavy as asphalt, and twisted like a living thing, crashing heavily onto the floor!

Instead of scattering and splashing, it spread out rapidly as if it had life and consciousness, forming a layer of constantly rolling and surging black tide that rushed madly toward the tightly closed side door crack!

The strands of hair wriggled and scrambled through the narrow gaps, escaping the holiday home!

As the pool of black water escaped, the dark figure that Alessa had been holding in her hand, like a skeleton stripped from its body, slumped softly onto the floor, completely motionless.

"Snapped!"

Qin Jin, who had rushed down, turned on the lamp, while Constanze stood to the side holding his sacred hunting rifle.

All eyes were on the dark figure. Alessa had already released her grip, letting the mess fall to the ground.

It was the body of a curled-up girl, motionless, breathing weakly, her clothes stained, her pale face covered with congealed scabs and fresh blood, but the most terrifying thing was the top of her head...

It was completely bald, with not a blade of grass growing on it. The scalp was covered with countless tiny, blood-red holes, as if they had been brutally pierced by a multitude of needles. The skin and flesh around the edges of those holes had collapsed inward, as if something had crawled in from there!

Her mouth was torn open, and blood was flowing freely.

"It's hair!" Constantin quickly determined the source of the small blood-red hole on the top of his head after a brief examination. He stood up, his expression somewhat unnatural.

"These hairs burrowed backwards under the scalp, piercing the scalp and even the skull... and gathered inside the body..."