Demons Beside You

“I need to go in to investigate,” the police officer said.

Chen Zhao moved aside and allowed the officer to come in.

The officer still didn’t lower his guard. He walked into the living room and saw water everywhere. The wall had collapsed and the furniture was practically all damaged.

There was only a glass table unharmed. It had three small animals on it: a white fox, a Shar Pei dog, and a colorful poisonous snake. They seemed to be coexisting peacefully though and stared at the officer with strange eyes.

“They’re…”

“My pets.”

“It looks like a tornado just ripped through here,” the officer said, scanning the surroundings.

“When I rented this place, the agent said that it’s a bit paranormal,” Chen Zhao said earnestly. “I didn’t believe it then, but now I do…”

The officer shivered. The living room was kind of cold.

“Is this 13 Banana Street, Mountain Town?”

Thirteen was obviously an unlucky number. Anything that was related to 13 made people feel uncomfortable.

Chen Zhao nodded. “Yes, it’s 13 Banana Street, Mountain Town.”

“I will report your situation up and someone will come to check if it was caused by man or not.”

“Okay,” Chen Zhao said helplessly.

“Sir, I think it’s best if you move out for now. Think about your safety.”

“Thank you… I don’t have anywhere to go though. I can’t go to the police station, right?”

“If you don’t mind, I can bring you there. You won’t get ghosts there, at least.”

“Oh, it’s fine. It’ll be daybreak in a few hours. I’ll just sleep and it’ll be over.”

“Alright. If you run into trouble, call the police. Good luck.”

The officer was responsible for surveying the small town. There wasn’t actually a police station in the town. Mountain Town’s public security was under the responsibility of the Greater LA Area sub-bureau.

The officer had heard before that there was a house in the town where many people had died in. He just didn’t know which one it was.

When Chen Zhao said this house had paranormal instances, he accepted it quickly. He even thought that this might be paranormal activity too.

It wasn’t true that Americans wouldn’t believe in these things. They might even be more gullible than Chinese people.

In the morning, Chen Zhao contacted the renovation company and paid $1,000 to rebuild everything. It didn’t feel good to eat breakfast in the messy room at all.

Just then, someone charged in.

“Oh my god, what happened here? World War Three?” It was Manny, Zola’s daughter.

Chen Zhao put down his sandwich. “Why did you come?”

“To find you.”

“Are we close?”

“You might become my stepdad. I need to get to know my stepdad beforehand. Is there a problem?”

“I think you’ve made a mistake,” Chen Zhao said with a dark expression. “I’m not your stepdad and I’m not going to be.”

“Ooh, such a cute puppy.”

“Her name is Carrie. She’s a fox, not a dog.”

Carrie tried to escape from Manny’s clutches, but when she wasn’t using her abilities, she was Beelzebub’s size.

“Such soft fur. Be my stepdad and give me Carrie.”

“I refuse. And let me tell you again. I’m not your stepdad. I don’t plan on being anyone’s stepdad.”

“Is my mom not good enough?”

“No, she’s great.”

“Then why won’t you be my stepdad?”

“Your mother is your mother. I’m me. She’s great, but that doesn’t mean we need to get married.”

“But you guys have sex.”

“So? What does that mean?”

“It means that you need to take responsibility and marry my mom. Isn’t that what you Asians believe in?”

“You think that people who have sex need to get married?”

“Of course.”

“So if I rape you now, you’ll marry me?”

Manny turned and ran away. Chen Zhao rolled his eyes. A while later, Carrie, who’d been kidnapped by Manny, ran back.

“Carrie, come out,” Manny’s voice traveled in from the outside. “Don’t stay with that perv.”

Unlike with Daniel, Zola protected Manny more. At least, some of her thoughts were still very naïve.

A while later, Daniel’s voice sounded outside. “Manny, how come you’re here? You shouldn’t be here.”

“Daniel, that *sshole wants to rape me.”

“What? What happened?”

“He said it. He said he wants to rape me.”

Daniel broke through the door. “Chen, get this straight. Why does Manny say that you want to rape her?”

Chen Zhao rolled his eyes, not wanting to reply to Daniel. “If I wanted that, do you think you can still see her in one piece?”

“You want to, but you haven’t acted yet,” Manny said while hiding behind Daniel.

“Daniel, what do you need? If there’s nothing, then get out. I need to clean up.”

Daniel finally noticed Chen Zhao’s living room. “What happened here? World War Three?”

“You two really are siblings. You say the same things.”

“Chen, how about you move to Beverly Hills? I’ll borrow a house from Grandpa. We can live together.”

“No. People will think we’re gay. Even if I want to co-rent with someone, I’ll find a woman and not you.”

“We’re bros. We can get girls together, party together, go crazy together. No one will think we’re gay.”

“I don’t want to. We can go have fun together, but we don’t have to live together and go out together.” Chen Zhao rejected him without even thinking.

“Daniel, how can you be bros with someone like him? Let’s go. Take me home.” Manny tugged on Daniel.

“I’m busy today. Leave,” Chen Zhao said.

“Fine. I’ll go now, but there’s a party in a few days. Will you come?”

“What time?”

“Saturday night.”

“I’ll see.”

After Daniel left, Chen Zhao finally knocked on the basement door. “Blackie, how’s your renovation going?”

The door opened and Blackie floated out. “Come in. I’m mostly done. The last Soulbringer left many things behind. A lot of the collections were jumping around. It was hard for me to finally capture them all.”

“Are you sure humans can go in? There won’t be any danger, right?”

“I’m certain.”

Hearing that, Chen Zhao entered the basement. The first few steps were quite normal, but the further he went, the murkier his vision became. Then there was fog everywhere, but the environment somehow became vast and open.

He found himself standing in the center of a cemetery. There was a dark castle up ahead.

“That’s my home—”

“Ah!” Blackie had suddenly spoken behind Chen Zhao, which scared him. “Blackie, stop scaring people.”

“I thought that we’re familiar with each other and you should be used to it.”

“I’ll never be used to it.”

“My power recovered quite a lot,” Beelzebub suddenly said. He started enlarging.

“Me too,” Raymond said. He’d become a ten-meter-long cobra. “Seems like this isn’t the human world. I’m no longer restricted by the principles of the human world. My power has recovered 60%.”

Chen Zhao looked at Carrie. She was the only one who hadn’t changed.

Raymond and Beelzebub had been tormented by Carrie last night. Now, they all looked at her with dangerous expressions.