Chapter 2

Sarah and I were terrified, our faces pale as ghosts, not daring even to breathe loudly. We gripped each other's hands tightly, trembling nonstop.

That voice circled around the house several times, sometimes near, sometimes far, but I refused to answer. After a while, the voice disappeared.

Sarah and I breathed a sigh of relief, but we still didn't dare move a step. We could only hope Nutty would quickly bring his uncle.

Nutty's uncle, Peter Walters, was the village's folk healer. Whenever a child in the village got frightened by spirits, families would seek Peter to perform cleansing rituals.

When Sarah and I first arrived, Nutty would tell us stories about his uncle's encounters with ghosts and spirits after finishing work in the evenings. We had always listened to them as mere stories. Now that we had encountered a ghost ourselves, we realized those tales were probably true.

Time seemed frozen, unable to flow. In our terror, Sarah and I stared at the door, enduring each minute and second, hoping to hear Nutty's voice outside.

As if answering our prayers, two knocks sounded on the door. Nutty called from outside, "Alex, open the door!"

His voice sounded hoarse and seemed very weak.

"What happened?" Sarah hurried forward, preparing to open the door.

For some reason, I felt an uneasy sensation in my heart. I rushed forward and pressed down on Sarah's hand as she reached for the latch.

"Nutty, where's your Uncle Pete? Did he come?"

Nutty seemed injured. He was breathing heavily as he said, "I... I didn't make it to Uncle Pete's house. The Temptress attacked me halfway.

"Cut the amulet in half and give me a piece. I still have a protective charm on me, so the Temptress won't dare to come close. Open the door quickly!"

He was getting a bit irritated. This wasn't like Nutty at all. I had been here for half a year and had never seen Nutty lose his temper with anyone.

Doubts clouded my mind. I quietly moved to the door and peered out through the crack. My heart couldn't help but skip a beat.

The Nutty outside had a very stiff expression and looked extremely strange. Sarah was still urging me from the side. "Open the door, Alex. Do you want to get Nutty killed?"

She reached out to take the amulet from the door, but I pressed down on her hand and put my finger to my lips, signaling her to look through the door crack. She brought her head close to the crack. After just one glance, her body immediately trembled.

She bit her lip and slowly turned around, too frightened to even breathe. When the Nutty outside heard no movement from us, he became even more agitated and started pounding on the door with his hands.

"Alex, Alex… Open the door. Open it…"

His voice was like that of a dead person, with stiff intonation and long, drawn-out tones. Every hair on my body stood on end.

Outside the door, there was no sound for a good while. But this silence was only more terrifying, like the calm before the storm.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the Nutty outside began violently kicking the door. Even though Sarah and I were terrified and shaking, we still worked together to block the door.

Dust fell from the ceiling beams under Nutty's impacts. The old wooden door, which looked fragile, somehow withstood Nutty's violent attacks. It would spring open a crack, then close again, but never broke.

After Nutty futilely battered the door for several minutes, he finally gave up. The house became quiet once again.

In the tense silence, Sarah's face was pale, her eyes filled with despair. The Nutty outside certainly wasn't the real Nutty.

Where was the real Nutty? Could something have happened to him?

I shook my head, trying not to think about that worst possibility. Nutty must have already found Peter and was on his way back.

As I prayed wholeheartedly for Nutty, I suddenly felt a strange crawling sensation on my hand. Looking down, I saw a black spider perched on my hand.

Its body was round and plump, covered in fine hair. Its eight fuzzy, long legs crawled across my skin, immediately causing a burning pain.