The air in the Babcock kitchen was thick with the smell of gunpowder, oil, and unspoken dread. Outside, the sky over Blithe Hollow had turned the color of bruised lead, and the afternoon light was replaced by a premature, unnatural darkness. The rain hadn't started yet, but the distant growl of thunder signaled that nature itself was bracing for an impact.
Courtney sat at the table, tightening the straps of a black tactical vest. Her movements were mechanical and precise. She checked a 9mm pistol, the metallic slide clicking into place with a sound sharper than any word. Ken sat at the opposite end, his knuckles white as he gripped the cover of the Nyota ya Uhai.
"Are you sure about this?" Ken asked softly. "Alvin said this thing isn't just an animal. He said it looked at him like it was making a decision."
"That's exactly why we're going to meet it,"
Courtney replied. "If we let this 'thing' pick its next target, someone is going to die. I'm not losing anyone else to this town."
Norman stood by the kitchen window, watching the edge of the dark woods.
"The weight is increasing," Norman said without turning around. "I don't feel a ghost, Ken. No aura at all. Just a massive, dark void that moves. It's as if the fabric of the world stretches wherever that creature walks."
Deep in the Woods
As they stepped into the forest, the first raindrops hit their faces like cold needles. Ken went to work immediately. He closed his eyes, summoning the lines from the first chapter of the "Star of Life." He felt the energy radiating from his core, wrapping around Courtney and Norman.
"Aura Concealment," Ken whispered.
For a moment, their outlines seemed to blur into the curtain of rain. Norman led them. He didn't see with his eyes, but with that strange sense developed by the Shinku no Kōri. The tracks—those massive, strangely asymmetrical paw prints—led toward the southwestern gorge.
"Why would a bear walk like this?" Courtney whispered, eyeing the prints. "It's stepping like it's just learning where to put its weight."
"It's not learning," Norman noted darkly. "It's experimenting."
The Gambit
The mud at the bottom of the gorge was knee-deep. The rain had turned into a downpour. The cave entrance was a gaping, black mouth in the hillside.
"It's inside," Norman pointed into the darkness.
They stepped cautiously forward. Inside the cave, the sound of dripping water was magnified. Suddenly, Norman stopped and shone his light on the ground. The tracks in the mud didn't lead inward. Fresh prints started from deep inside the cave and led outward, bypassing the path they had taken.
"It circled us..." Ken's voice cracked.
At that moment, a massive shadow dropped from the rocky ledge above the cave entrance. The ground shook as the grizzly landed in the mud, cutting off their only escape route.
The bear didn't roar. It just stood there, its head tilted slightly. Its eyes weren't red, and they didn't glow. They watched with a dull, intelligent, human coldness. For a heartbeat, Ken had the gut-wrenching feeling that the creature was smiling, though a beast's face is incapable of it.
The Clash
"Now, Norman!" Courtney screamed and opened fire.
The gunshots echoed like thunderclaps between the rocks. The bullets buried themselves into the bear's thick shoulder, but the animal didn't even flinch. It didn't move like a wounded beast; it moved like a machine.
Norman stepped forward, his hands vibrating with a crimson light.
"Shinku no Kōri!"
The water beneath the bear's feet froze instantly. Red ice crystals, like blood-colored thorns, crawled up the grizzly's legs, anchoring it to the ground up to its knees. The creature let out a low groan, and then something horrific happened: the sound that tore from its throat wasn't a growl. It was a distorted, gurgling noise that sounded hauntingly like a man trying to speak through water.
"We have five minutes!" Norman shouted, but his face went pale. "Something... something is pushing against the ice from the inside!"
Courtney seized the moment, lunging at the bear's throat with her tactical knife. But the creature—despite its legs being frozen—moved its paw with supernatural speed. With a single blow, it sent Courtney flying into the rock wall.
"COURTNEY!" Ken roared.
The red ice began to crack with a terrifying sound. Norman wiped blood from his nose. The freeze, which should have lasted five minutes, was collapsing in seconds under the creature's sheer willpower.
The Realization
Ken scrambled to Courtney. She was unconscious, her shoulder at a sickening angle. Ken opened the "Star of Life" with trembling hands.
"Uhai na Mwanga!"
He felt the book drain his strength to mend her. But as he channeled the energy, he felt the "void" coming from the bear. He released an aura-harmonizing pulse to disrupt the creature.
The bear's head jerked. Its eyes locked onto Ken's. In that moment of spiritual contact, the veil dropped. Ken didn't see an animal. He saw a familiar, twisted pattern of thought. A specific, arrogant flicker of cruelty.
"Martin?" Ken whispered, his voice trembling with a sudden, horrifying clarity. "Martin... is that you?"
The bear stopped. It didn't attack. It leaned its head back and let out a series of short, huffing breaths—a mockery of Martin Hale's distinct, parodic chuckle.
Courtney regained consciousness just in time to see the bear lunging again. She grabbed a flare from Ken's bag, ignited it, and the blinding red light exploded in the bear's face. As it recoiled, she fired at the unstable rock overhang above the cave.
A rockslide sealed the entrance, trapping the creature in the darkness.
The Truth Revealed
The gorge fell silent. Only the rain drummed on the stones. Ken and Courtney lay in the mud, while Norman limped over to them.
"We need to go," Norman panted. "The rocks won't hold it forever."
"It was him," Ken said, staring at the rubble. His voice was hollow. "It was Martin."
Norman froze. "Ken, you're in shock. Martin is dead. We saw the succubus... we saw what she did."
"I felt him, Norman!" Ken stood up, his eyes blazing with a mix of terror and certainty. "When I used the aura pulse, I touched what was inside that body. It wasn't an 'empty void.' It was Martin's mind. He's not a ghost anymore... he's that."
Courtney wiped the blood from her lip, looking at Ken with a mix of skepticism and worry. "Ken, Martin was a jerk, but he was a person. That thing... that thing is a monster."
"He's playing with us!" Ken insisted, grabbing Norman's arm. "Think about it! Why didn't he kill Alvin? Why did he circle us and wait for us to see him? It's exactly what Martin would do. He wants us to be afraid. He's 'performing' for us!"
Norman looked back at the fallen rocks. He thought about the red ice shattering so quickly. He thought about the sound—that distorted, human-like groan.
"If a ghost possesses an animal," Norman mused slowly, "the aura might be muffled by the animal's own physical weight. It would explain why I couldn't sense him. And the logic... the way it moved... it wasn't animal instinct."
Courtney looked from Norman to Ken. She saw the absolute conviction in Ken's eyes. The sarcasm she usually used as a shield failed her.
"If you're right..." Courtney whispered, her voice finally breaking. "If that's really Martin... then he knows everything about us. Our homes, our weaknesses... he knows how to hurt us better than anyone."
Norman nodded grimly. "And he's in a body that can rip a door off its hinges."
Ken looked at his hands, still glowing faintly from the healing magic. "He thinks he's the master of this game. But now we know he's there. That's his first mistake."
They turned away from the gorge, disappearing into the rain. They had gone into the woods to hunt a beast, but they were leaving with the knowledge that they were being hunted by a friend from the grave.