Contractbound

Because of the tall trees outside the mansion, sunlight couldn"t fully penetrate into the house. The dark and gloomy inside intensified the sense of dread that the house gave off. His boosted hearing didn"t pick up any sound from inside the house; there was only deathly silence. Valentine hadn"t activated his night vision because it was still possible to see for now.

He knew exactly where to go because Graham had divined the spot where the book was the night before. Valentine walked straight to the doors ahead of him. He didn"t actually know the layout of the house, only the location of the book, which was in the room on the furthest right corner of the mansion, so he chose the right door. He grabbed the door handle and twisted it, but it wouldn"t open.

"Locked..." he muttered.

He crouched to pick the lock but was surprised to see that there was no keyhole in the door.

"Bolted from the other side?"

He tried opening the door again and pushing it with his shoulder, but it still wouldn"t open. He tried the door on the left and it was the same; the door was bolted shut from the other side. He didn"t think even Graham would be able to open it because he couldn"t see the latch from this side.

Since he couldn"t use the doors to the room across the main door, Valentine walked to the door on his right, by the staircase. He grabbed the handle and twisted it, and felt that he now could push open the door. He carefully opened it and entered the room on the right.

The room looked like a living room, with broken sofas and chairs. There was a fireplace at the other end of the big room. There was a damaged deer mount on the wall above a giant cupboard with a broken gla.s.s door. There was nothing left inside the cupboard for him to take. The two barred windows, that were on the wall on his right, only barely got enough sunshine to make the room at least not pitch black. There were two other doors in the room besides the one he had just come from; one opposite him and one more near the fireplace.

Valentine went to the door ahead of him and when he got close to it, there was a yellow marking that glowed on the door. He tried to touch the door handle but his hand was stopped midair; something was preventing him from doing so.

"Is this some kind of seal? G, If I cannot find out what it is, I"ll need you to use your divination," he said.

He then walked away from the sealed door and came to the other one at the other end of the big room. He walked nimbly across the room, past the floorboards that were missing some panels without creating any noise at all. When he tried to open the door, the same thing happened; his hand stopped midair because of some force field, and now a red marking glowed on the door.

"A different kind of seal. Let me just memorize them,"

Since all the doors were sealed in that room, Valentine came back to where he entered and returned to the main hall. There were still two doors on his left that he hadn"t tried, and the whole upper floor as well, although going up would take some skill.

Valentine approached the doors ahead of him, on the other side of the door that led to the living room. He opened the door on the left first and it was not locked or sealed, so he could finally enter. It was a very dark toilet, so he had to activate his night vision.

The toilet room was big, probably almost half the size of the living room. There were only a washbasin and a toilet in that big room, and the mirror above the sink was cracked. Valentine came closer to the sink and noticed a black liquid pooled in there. He didn"t want to touch it because it triggered his sense of danger. He moved away and looked at the toilet. He put up the lid and saw inside the dried toilet bowl. It was stained brown and smelled very bad, so he closed the lid back and exited the room since there was nothing else there.

After getting out of the toilet room, he went to the door next to it. He grabbed the door handle and twisted the cold metal to open it. It was also not locked, so Valentine entered the room that turned out to be a bathroom. There was a bathtub adjacent to the wall across from him with a torn curtain and another washbasin. The mirror above it was also cracked, and there was a faint red stain on it.

Valentine got closer to the mirror and noticed that the stain was forming words. He read it carefully and with some difficulty, he finally could make out what it was saying.

"Blood seal... is that the name of the seal?" he thought out loud, then added, "Maybe I can use my blood to open it."

He then walked over to the bathtub to check if there was something in it. The bathtub was empty, and there was indeed something there. It was a very old-looking piece of paper with some writing on it. Valentine picked it up carefully and read what was written there.

"It"s been five hours since I"m locked up in this d.a.m.n house. Those creatures can appear from anywhere. I don"t think I can last until tomorrow."

He finished reading what seemed to be a part of a journal. The handwriting was messy; it seemed to have been written in a hurry.

"Why is there a journal page here. Is someone scattering them around the house?" asked Valentine. The more he explored the mansion, the more questions he got.

Valentine checked the back of the paper, but there was nothing written there, so he put it back down.

Drip drip...

Suddenly, with his boosted hearing, he could hear the sound of water dripping from outside the room. He remembered Graham"s encounter with a Leyak and it had blood dripping from its body. Valentine dropped his briefcase and readied his gun while chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the existence of my presence no longer a secret!"

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the existence of the sound of this gunshot a secret!"

A thin yellowish mist descended and enveloped his .31 caliber revolver. He had four more bullets inside the cylinder and a lot of spares inside his coat. He waited in antic.i.p.ation while controlling his heartbeat. One second, two seconds. Time seemed to pa.s.s very slowly.

Drip drip...

The sound of liquid dripping got closer and closer until he could feel its presence from behind the door. He saw the door handle being twisted and the door being opened slowly.

Creak...

The gap between the door and the wall got bigger and bigger, and at that moment, a pair of bulging, bloodshot eyeb.a.l.l.s stared right into his eyes. It was another Leyak! Once it saw Valentine inside the bathroom, it quickly opened the door and charged at him like a bullet.

Growl!

Valentine had shot his gun, but the sound of his gunshot was concealed. The Leyak stood frozen in its track with a bullet hole in its head. From the hole, blood veins quickly enveloped its whole body and blood burst out, melting the Leyak completely. On its spot, there was now a small crystal fragment lying on the ceramic floor.

He came closer and picked up the purple fragment and stuffed it inside his briefcase, along with the other one that Graham had picked up earlier when he was attacked in the forest.

"I wonder what these are. G, don"t forget to do divination. In fact, you have a lot of homework to do,"

Valentine didn"t reconceal his presence. For now, he felt safer with the sound of his gunshot kept a secret because that way, he wouldn"t attract the attention of anything in the mansion even if he shot his gun. He would just walk with lighter steps to avoid detection.

He exited the bathroom and went back to the living room, walking carefully across the main hall. According to the journal page, those Leyaks could show up from anywhere, and he didn"t fancy being caught by surprise.

"At least they still need to open doors, so I know they won"t come from behind those sealed ones," he muttered under his breath.

Inside the living room, we approached the door with the yellow marking, which was closer to him. He took out his knife and slit his palm to let the blood out. He then splashed the blood on the door.

"What the f.u.c.k!" he cursed.

His blood stopped midair, just like his hand was, and then got splashed back at him, right at his face. He took a piece of cloth from his briefcase and wiped his face clean.

After failing with the yellow seal, he walked across the room to the door with the red seal. He slit his palm again and splashed the blood at the door while getting ready to move out of the way should it be splattered back at him.

His blood stopped midair, and strangely, it slowly spread to its surrounding, forming the same pattern as the marking on the door. The blood marking them combined with the one on the door and disappeared.

"That did the trick?" he asked in doubt while trying to reach the door handle.

His hand successfully touched the door handle, which meant his blood trick had worked. He twisted it and pulled it open, but failed. He then pushed it open and the door moved. He entered the next room which seemed to be a kind of display room that was as big as the living room.

In the display room, there were a lot of paintings that had seen better days, and some broken statuettes on pedestals. There were three doors there including the one he had just opened. There was no window at all, and no source of light. His night vision really helped him in this situation.

Valentine walked to the door that was on the same side as the one leading to the living room and saw the latch bolt locking it. He unlatched it and opened the door; it was right-side the door in the main hall that he couldn"t open before. He kept it open and tried the other door that was directly opposite it.

"Another blood seal..."

His hand was stopped midair again by the red marking on the door. Valentine slit his wrist and splashed it on the door, unsealing it. Once the seal was broken he reach the door handle and tried to open it, but pushing or pulling didn"t work.

"And locked. Of course..." he said in annoyance.

Drip... drip...

Click!

Suddenly, the door was unlocked from the other side and a pair of bloodshot eyes were staring at him. Those eyes were full of greed and gluttony, as if eyeing for his very soul. Valentine suddenly felt very weak. His spirituality told him to get away as soon as he could, so he mustered his power and stepped back some distance.

The Leyak opened the door and quickly darted at him.

"Die!" said Valentine as he shot the thing right in its head.

The thing died just centimeters from Valentine and its body was melted by the blood bullet. Valentine picked up the purple fragment that it dropped and put it inside his briefcase.

"At least I should thank you kindly for unlocking the door for me," he said politely while cleaning the dust on his coat.