Shading their faces from the sunlight peeking through the trees, Avery and Jamie reluctantly squeezed into Avery's car. Louise lingered on her doorstep, watching, waiting as if expecting them to change their minds and drive off towards the main road instead. Her galaxy gown drifted in the wind, and from a distance, she looked like some sage seer wishing them well on their journey to doom.

They didn't try to escape, knowing she'd find a way to stop them.

Avery ground his teeth and gripped the steering wheel, then turned the engine on.

They were quiet on the way, both glancing about the area as if seeing it for the first time. The fog had long since dissipated, and everything was tranquil and untouched, a typical forest on an early morning, with swaying leaves and flurrying bushes and sightings of birds flying from branch to branch. Avery drove slowly, anticipating someone or something to jump out in front of the car and prevent them from arriving at the clearance. A roaming traveler, a panther, a ghost, maybe? He hoped for it, in fact—anything to avoid the potential confrontation with a supernatural being he'd had a bad vibe about, and the recollection of what had happened that night after speaking with said being.

He wasn't hoping for Jessamine to be around, though. He wasn't ready to see her, if she was indeed alive. Possessed by demons, what would she look like? Feel like? Act like? Would she be her normal self on the outside, but like a bomb about to explode on the inside? Would she have red eyes and claws and daggers for teeth, and kill them on sight?

What do demons even look like? And more so when possessing a human?

Nothing stopped them, no one interfered. If Jessamine was lurking in the forest, she didn't show herself. If ghosts and Guides were watching them, they didn't get in Avery and Jamie's way.

The car glided into the clearing, and it was blasted with sunlight. It was a different atmosphere during the day, without the looming shadows and ominous silence. Instead, it looked like an empty expanse of flattened grass in the middle of a forest. Abandoned and innocent as could be. As if there hadn't been an insane amount of supernatural power concentrated there not a few hours ago. Whatever that power had been, it was now gone, having deserted the area and left it in ruins.

Actual ruins.

As Avery parked, he struggled to not let his jaw drop at the scene displayed before him. The house wasn't a house anymore. There was no proof whatsoever that it ever had been. Every bit of it was in tatters, every wall and portion of ceiling burnt to a crisp. A handful of pillars were still standing, but barely. Avery worried if he breathed in their direction they'd crumble, or dissolve into a cloud of dust.

The ground and debris from the explosion were covered in ash, and with the sunlight blaring into the area, Avery noticed a gloomy smoke still swirling over the remains. The fire itself appeared to be extinguished, but Avery wanted to be sure, so he turned parked the car at a distance before turning it off. He got out first, covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve.

Jamie did the same, but dared to take a whiff through his fingers, and nodded at Avery. "It's okay," he said, indicating the air around him. "Not too smoky. As long as we don't stay here for too long."

"Let's poke around, then," Avery gestured towards the ruins, "and see if we can find anything... useful."

"Useful for what?" Jamie scoffed. "Like a weapon, or something? To use on the Guide? Or on Jessamine?" He patted at his back pocket. "We have the gun, that's all we need. And in any case, I doubt that'll work."

Avery stuffed a hand into his own back pocket and grimaced towards the spot where the front door used to be. "I don't know, I just... I feel like we need to investigate this thoroughly before we try to talk to Ada. What if there's something here worth keeping? Something to use later? Or what if we opt to go public with all this?"

"Go public?" Jamie's eyes looked ready to roll out of their sockets. "Are you serious? We can't tell anyone about this. They don't even believe our ghost sessions and the proof that we've already gotten from our show. This?" He pointed at the house's remains. "A woman destined to eat up demons and then carry them around to probably destroy the world? A bunch of misty blue blobs who guide ghosts to a place called Afterlife? They'll lock us up."

"Yeah, okay." Avery rubbed his scalp and winced. "You're right, it would be a lot for the world to handle, but..." He bent down and plucked a blade of grass, bringing it up to his face to analyze it. It was green on the top, but its root had blackened, and there was a hint of blue sparkles on it. "See, look at this—what happened here, that supernatural energy, it affected the grass. It affected the entire area! We should collect some samples or something, and bring them to a lab. I'm not saying we expose any of this now, but down the road... if we survive this... who knows?"

Jamie spun away from him and stormed towards the wreckage. "Whatever, man. Amy's dead, there are demons on the loose, you lost your girlfriend, and all you're thinking of is future fame, aren't you? Ugh," he waved at Avery before he had a chance to protest, "it's fine. Let's investigate. Waste time, or some shit. But quickly, because I'd rather get out of here before Jessamine shows up."

Avery bit his tongue, avoiding responding to Jamie's accusations. Was he thinking of future fame? His stomach was upset because of all the other things Jamie had listed—Amy, demons, and Jessamine—but he never stopped thinking of his YouTube channel and the new and fresh content he could provide.

This event, this catastrophe that he'd unwillingly caused, was content. It was what his viewers thrived on, what they craved—drama and secrets and surprises, sudden twists and jump-scares. Though he hadn't gotten much on camera from their meeting of Ada in the attic—which he realized he needed to analyze, at some point—it'd be enough to entice his subscribers, and gain more.

Paranormal Chasers was his life. Had he put it above everything else in terms of importance in recent years? Sure, but with reason. The more the channel grew, the higher his hopes of getting a network deal, which meant he could quit his side job and focus on his true passion—ghosts and the afterlife. And revealing them to the world.

Well, he now had proof that both existed. Why wouldn't he want to share that with viewers?

He waded through the bottom half of the front door's frame, some of its wood still standing. Beyond it were piles and piles of burnt furniture, debris, wooden pillars, and ash, ash, ash. A bit of soot still floated in the air, zigzagging down to the ground. It was a war-zone; at least, what Avery had seen war-zones look like in movies and TV shows.

In truth, there had been a war here. A short-lived one, between humans and an unknown, spirit-like species. A battle to decide who would live, who would open long-sealed doors, and who would make sacrifices they might not be able to swallow, later.

A war Avery had lost.

Seeing the remains up close was something of a nightmare. The night before, he and Jamie had been protected from the worst of the fire, with that big bubble-like wall blocking all flames and sparks and detritus from reaching them. But now, that bubble was gone, allowing them free access to whatever was left of the house, of the portal. And there wasn't much.

Who had conjured up that bubble, if that's what it had been? And had that individual perished, explaining why the bubble was no more? Or was the danger sufficiently under the radar that the bubble had disappeared on its own?

Avery wandered from pile to pile, from room to room, until coming up to a large hole in the ground, showing a set of old stone steps going downward—into a basement. The basement.

"Fuck," he spat, then snapped for Jamie's attention. "Dude, come here. Check this out."

Jamie hurried over, doing a double take as he noticed what Avery had noticed. "What the—" He kneeled down, eyebrows raised as he peeked down into the hole. "That's it? The basement? The location where the demon door is?"

Avery lifted his shoulders. "I guess so, but why is it intact?"

The walls surrounding the stairs were gone, but the hole itself was a perfect rectangle, with no scorch marks or debris to suggest it had been a part of the explosion. It was as if this area had been swept over by a tornado, but anything below ground had escaped the damage.

A faint red glow emanated from one side of the hole, coming from the bottom left of the stairs. Was that it? The demon door, active and untouched? Open, or closed?

And the biggest question of all—was it possible that Jessamine's body was down there, contrary to what Louise had predicted?

She's never been wrong before, but there's a first time for everything.

He wouldn't believe it until he knew for sure. There'd been no bodies anywhere else amidst the debris he'd inspected. If Jessamine had died, it would have been downstairs.

"I'm gonna go down there," said Avery, taking a tentative step towards the stairs.

Jamie grabbed his arm, holding him back. "Dude, don't. It's," he shook his head, "it's still active, isn't it? Doesn't it feel like it is? If she went down there, if she opened it..." Avery tugged at his arm, but Jamie gripped harder, yanking him away from the top step. "No, don't go down there. You'll get hurt, killed, possessed, all of the above. It's not safe."

"He's right," said a swift, sudden female voice coming from behind Avery. He veered around and came face to face with a blue, near-transparent, womanly figure levitating. As their gazes met, she lowered closer to the ground. "That would be a foolish idea considering you have no clue what awaits you."

Ada's spirit was powerful, and though her exterior was blue, it was hard to discern her features with sun rays dripping their glow over her. Her form was lady-like, with curves in the hips and shoulders, but a lighter blue haze radiated around her like a halo. When he'd first met her, he hadn't paid much attention to her body—now he noticed it was covered by a sheer-like shift that might have been a dress.

Almost as quickly as she'd showed up—Avery could have sworn she popped up by magic, because he hadn't seen her before focusing on the basement's stairs—Ada lost power, as if shutting down, operated by a switch that slowly dimmed her iridescence. Her gaze narrowed, and she winced, hovering backwards a few feet and bending forward, like someone with a stomach cramp would.

"You okay?" Jamie, who'd been concealing himself behind Avery, tipped sideways. "Ada, is it?"

The blue being's chin was dipped. "Ada, correct. I sensed you trespassing, and thought it best to come to you in person, instead of sending a few ghosts over to persuade you away from here. They wouldn't get you to leave—you'd want to investigate them, wouldn't you?"

Avery snickered at her, and Jamie huffed. "Trespass?" said the latter, moving to stand beside Avery. "There isn't anything to trespass on. This place is fucked."

Ada's head whipped up in time to show her flinch. "Such language," she flicked the tip of her nose, "but you are human, after all. You don't know better." The blue around her was fading to a silvery gray, though her eyes were prominent, a deep, navy blue that focused on Avery with destabilizing scrutiny.

What the fuck—Jamie's the one who talked back to her, not me!

"We didn't mean to offend," said Avery, raising his hands, and nudging Jamie to imply he should do the same. "We ran off last night, out of fear. But we didn't get far before realizing we needed to come back. Needed to see... what happened, what we can do next."

"You?" Ada blinked at him, her lips pursing. As if she were gauging the likelihood that a string attached between two rooftops would be strong enough to support her weight as she crossed over it.

Then again, she was weightless.

"You," she repeated, "can do nothing. The aftermath of this catastrophe, it's on me and my peers, not you. Myself and the other Guides must protect the escaped spirits, and the newcomers on their way to us. They flock here on instinct, but the portal... it can't open. It's broken." She gazed towards something behind Avery, but he wouldn't turn around to check, not with her floating in front of him. Weakened or not—that was the vibe he was getting from her and her continuously diminishing glow—he didn't trust her.

"The portal is still here? It's not... exploded?" Jamie hadn't raised his hands like Avery, and instead left them swaying at his sides.

"Portals don't explode, young man," said Ada, a pinch of impatience in her tone. She spoke softly, not quite a whisper, but not with the power Avery had heard her speak in before. She was weak—whether from the demons getting out or from the house bursting into flames, he wasn't sure she'd tell them. "Portals deactivate or break, but they're never gone, not completely. Ours is here, it's frail, and you being here prevents me from keeping it safe."

Avery scratched at his cheek. "We didn't come here to start anything."

"Then what do you want?" Ada blew out a breath that billowed through her wavy locks of hair. They were a lighter hue, prompting Avery to think they might have been blonde were she human. Was she human, somehow? A former human? The residual energy of a human? "I don't have time to chit-chat with you. That basement that you almost descended into is exposed, its demon door accessible to the souls. They risk being drawn to it, and we must ensure they don't find their way to it. You being here is impeding our progress."

"How can you stop them from being drawn to it?" Jamie's voice implied curiosity, and Avery wished he'd quit asking questions.

He'll get her pissed off, and then we'll never get out of here. We'll never know what's going on, and what we should be doing to help fix it.

He tried to subtly motion at Jamie to shut up, but Jamie was too absorbed by Ada's presence to pay attention.

"We can't," she said, her voice a breathy whisper as she seemed to deflate, popped by an invisible needle into her radiance. She shriveled, bending forward again in apparent pain. "We have to... rebuild the house, put as many wall-shaped obstacles in their way as possible... distractions. Facades."

"Seriously, are you okay?" Jamie stepped forward, but Avery whipped his arm out to stop him from approaching her. "What, I can't get closer to help her?"

"She doesn't need your help," muttered Avery, barely parting his lips to speak. "She's a Guide, for fucks' sake, what did you think you could do for her?"

"What you could do," Ada straightened up again, a bit more color infusing her silhouette now, "is leave. I'm not sure what your purpose is here, but us Guides have much work to do. Building a house is no easy feat, and we haven't had to do so in centuries."

"You..." Avery's mouth popped open, then closed, then opened once more. It was his turn to feel curiosity rippling through him and stripping him of his common sense. "You built the original house? But you... you're... you don't have palpable arms or legs. You can't pick up or touch anything, can you?"

Ada smirked. "We have powers and energy, young man. And yes, we built the house, but it wasn't the original. The original was centuries and centuries ago, many moons before most humans even existed. We've had to change the building over the years, to continue upholding its mystery, to divert curious onlookers, and men like you who tried to dig too deep." Her gaze glossed over them both, but rested on Avery the longest. Accusing, implying—it was him she was speaking about.

"Well, we'll get out of your hair soon enough. If there's nothing we can do, then tell me this: is Jessamine alive?" He threw his thumb behind him, towards the basement's stairs. "Or is her body down there, rotting? Because if there is a body, I need to take it with me. I need to bury it, cremate it. Honor the proper traditions according to her beliefs... fuck," he seethed, "I don't know what her beliefs were."

Ada cocked her head slightly. "She was an atheist. Is, as far as I'm aware. That was... it was part of the prophecy. A non-believer is mentioned, if I remember correctly."

"Is?" Avery wrung his hands before they started to visibly tremble, to show his distress. "So you're saying she's not dead, then? The fire didn't get to her? She didn't try to off herself before the demons got to her?"

Ada hunched, and there was an air of sorrow about her, almost of sympathy. "I'm sorry, Avery, but you failed to fulfill your part. Jessamine is indeed alive. She didn't kill herself, nor did she succumb from absorbing all the demons."

"Fuck," whispered Jamie, dropping his chin.

"All the demons? So she," Avery gulped, "she did it, then? She fulfilled the prophecy?"

Ada sent a quick glance at the basement and grimaced. "Well, no, not all of them. I still detect a malicious energy from down there—that's why I stopped you from going towards the door. It's closed, but there are demons behind it still. Waiting. Wailing, for some of them. I'm unaware how much Jessamine swallowed up, but it must have been a considerable amount if the house exploded." She swept a hand over her forehead. "That's why I'm not at my best, right now. Their presence, their exposure, their proximity to our world weakens me, which is why we must hurry to rebuild."

"Where is she, then?" Avery dug his heels in. "I'm not leaving until you tell me where she took all those demons. You say the aftermath is on you, but I disagree. I failed, like you also said—you should let me do something to redeem myself."

"Redeem yourself?" Ada unleashed a heartless chuckle. "There's no redeeming yourself, boy. The demons have been released, and as we speak they're on their way to the other portals. Every house portal has a demon door, and behind every demon door is another group of demons waiting for Jessamine to free them. That's what she'll be after; opening every single demon door in the country until every monstrous being is contained within her and ready to rage against the world."

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