Under the sickly green moon, a taxi car drove into a familiar neighborhood, its tires stopping with a haunting screech, allowing Mr. Valen to step out, a faint smile on his face.

It was quiet, mind-numbingly so, but he did not mind; he enjoyed the stiff, evil silence of the night as there were no people, no pressure, just him and perhaps the shadowy humanoid who stood by his front door peering into the keyhole like it was searching for something.

"Nice neighborhood," the cab driver (a man of large proportions pertaining to his stomach region) hummed in acknowledgement before driving off into the night, his vehicle letting out a low hum.

Mr. Valen watched the car leave, and after it disappeared from sight, the smile he had maintained for all this while disappeared from his face, leaving only a deathly calm as he turned to face his house.

He could not see his father's truck anyway, leading him to believe that the man was not around, most likely having left to pursue his military career.

'He's a bit too old for that now, is it not?' Mr. Valen thought to himself, finally giving the issue some thought after so long, but his thoughts on his father soon ceased.

"He might be terrible at business, but he is resourceful," he muttered, finally taking a step towards the porch while ignoring the gnawing hunger that compelled him to rush into the home of his neighbors.

He could not give in to his urges so soon.

"Woof!" A sudden familiar bark tore through the night from behind the neighbor's fence, prompting Mr. Valen to slowly turn his gaze towards that general direction, his pupils dilating slightly.

In the next moment, his brows raised in surprise as he experienced something strange.

Since he awakened the statue of God's Mind, he had noticed a keen improvement in all his senses, one of which was his vision which already bore... strange abilities, abilities that he could not control.

But now, blocked by the wooden fence, he had felt the slightest desire to see the yappy terrier, and there it was in the form of a blob of orange-red heat from Mr. Valen's point of view.

He was now seeing in the infrared wavelength, and apart from things with heat, like the dog and the couple sleeping inside the apartment, everything else seemed to be a dull, transparent blue.

Meanwhile, as though sensing Mr. Valen's gaze, the dog whimpered slightly and ceased any further noise.

Curious as to the mechanics of this strange new ability, he directed his gaze up to the green moon, but the moment he laid eyes upon it, a horrid chill ran down his spine as his gaze blurred before turning back to normal.

"The moon has always been green," Mr. Valen muttered with a sigh before squatting, lifting up the foot carpet, and retrieving the single key placed beneath.

His form then rose once more to place the key inside the keyhole, but after twisting once and facing resistance, his eyes narrowed slightly.

The next thing he did was turn the door handle to open the door, and lo and behold, the door was never locked.

'Father never forgets to lock the door,' Mr. Valen thought as he stepped into the living room, his eyes adapting to the greater darkness almost instantaneously.

The moment he stepped into the house, his heightened senses seemed to take note of something as he suddenly felt a presence much like the gaze of the gods he had recently gotten familiar with, but this gaze was much weaker yet more sinister.

"Badump!"

"Badump!"

His heart suddenly began to race, goosebumps lining his skin as he turned to the shadowy humanoid which gazes at him unfeelingly, its head tilted.

Slowly, it then pointed upward, a small smile appearing on its face, revealing a sliver of its needle-like teeth.

"Hu, Hu," Mr. Valen's breath grew heavy as he gazed upward, despite every cell in his body telling him, screaming at him to run, to leave this place at once.

'Hmm?' he then hummed amid rapid breaths, his brows raised in confusion at the fact that there was nothing above him but the ceiling.

By his will, his pupils then dilated, granting him the ability to see infrared, yet there was nothing. It dilated again, granting him the ability to see ultraviolet, but there was still nothing.

His eyes then began to spin, rapidly changing spectrums by the microsecond, and Mr. Valen began to see shapes unknown to man, colors he could never put into words.

The feeling was mystical, almost like a good trip, but it was still nothing.

And yet the feeling remained, the one of impending doom, alerting him that something was wrong.

He then looked to the spot where the shadowy humanoid stood before and discovered that it had disappeared.

'Should I leave?' Mr. Valen thought to himself, his steps growing careful as he headed towards the stairs, his fist balled tightly.

If Mr. Valen was afraid, his expression did not reflect that; he simply walked into the hall, past his father's room, the guest room, and into his room.

"Someone was definitely here," Mr. Valen spoke when he saw the state of his room. The bed, which he had made before leaving, was scattered, 'It's almost like someone was jumping on it.'

The clothes in his closet were thrown everywhere on his hardwood floor. His laptop, which he had closed, was open, forcing him to go closer to the table where he tapped on it.

On the browser tab, there was the paused video of Carla moving from floor to floor with her tail on a website called DeminTube; the video was blurry.

The person who had been watching it seemed to have been interrupted or simply forgot to finish commenting, as on the typing bar were the words 'well done', punctuated by a blinking cursor.

"Amethyst," Mr. Valen muttered, his eyes narrowed in annoyance, but when he closed and opened them, he calmed down.

He could not be sure at the moment, so he simply turned off the device and picked it up, but at that moment a slip of paper fell down, most likely having been disturbed from its position under the laptop.

Looking to this paper, Mr. Valen slowly picked it up, observing its badly written contents, which read:

[Dear student, you have done well in your fight with Carla, that was certainly interesting to watch. You're one sly dog, aren't you? But that's not a bad thing. You need to be sly to survive. How did killing her feel?]

Mr. Valen narrowed his eyes at those words. If he wasn't sure before, he was now. She was the only one he knew who was this spontaneous.

The next part of the letter seemed a bit grimmer, the writing more refined, almost like she wanted him not to miss the next few words.

Or she might have handed it to another person to write for her; he couldn't really tell with her, it read:

[I wanted to write this on the DeminTube to create a more mysterious presence, but I was interrupted. I thought it was just a passing thing, so I waited outside for a while, but it did not leave. It also did not let me take anything from your home, which is why I'm writing this. There is something in your house, Valen, something as strong as I am. I'm not sure how long it has been there, but at your level and with the nature of your powers, you will never be able to sense it. The good thing is it doesn't seem malicious for now, though it tried to kill me.]

'Alright, I'm taking my leave?' Mr. Valen thought, his eyes narrowing as he crumpled the piece of paper and moved to his window, leaping from the frame to the tree outside.

"Shii!"

The sound of shaky leaves sounded out,, punctuated by the chilly wind of the night air.

The strange feeling disappeared the moment he left the house, prompting Mr. Valen to let out a breath, 'If what Amethyst says about this being is true, it is possible that it has been there for a very long time, and I was simply too weak to sense it before now.'

Uncrumpling the piece of paper, he then continued reading:

[I have tested you in many ways, and though you're on the weaker side, you seem dependable so I'll give you a reward, things you need to know if you wish to survive.]

[Rule One: Never expose your identity as a hellspawn. This includes your name. Certain Spawns of God's Voice can kill, curse, or enslave you by just knowing your name, and you are also too weak to defend yourself.]

[Rule Two: There are seven gods, and speaking, writing or even thinking too intensely of their names could spell your death. See how that guy's head exploded at the club, so...]

[Rule Three: Em... Let's see... stay away from churches, you're kind of a demon now sooo...]

[Rule Four: Watch the powerful. Their great works cast long shadows. If you see them acting directly, you are already in their way. If you are not sufficiently prepared, run.]

[Finally, Rule Five: I'm out of ideas, you'll find out if you survive, bye kid.]

The letter ended there, and after he was done reading, Mr. Valen simply balled up his fist, squeezing the letter, before throwing it away.

"Chi! Chi!"

A brief, nearly inaudible sound filled his ears, bringing Mr. Valen's immediate attention to the window.

The thing was closing by itself, until, with a quiet 'thud,' it shut.

The inside of the room turned foggy, and in that fog, a squeaking sound rang out as something began scribbling slowly, drawing a small circle, then another small circle opposite the first, and finally an upward curved line beneath both circles.

'A smiley face?' Mr. Valen thought as his heart skipped a beat, his eyes narrowing as the entity inside his room drew a single line from one eye, the drawing now resembling a crying smiley face.

That strange and sinister feeling still loomed; it had been greatly reduced, but it was still there, and Mr. Valen, resolving to sleep through it, made himself comfortable on the tree as he shut his eyes, 'if it wanted me dead, it would have killed me by now,' he thought.

The shadowy humanoid watched him from another branch, its eyes never blinking.

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