After a long, heavy silence, Mousa finally spoke.
"You're from the Teresia family? The one tied to that… possible vampire?"
"That's right," Emilia confirmed. "After Vetan's death and the kingdom's defeat a defeat everyone remembers our family became hunted. The few who survived had to flee. We changed our name from Teresia to Theodore, just to disappear."
She hesitated before adding, "I'm sorry I never told you. It's… a sensitive subject."
Mousa took a moment, weighing his words carefully.
"It's okay. I understand. I don't care if you're from a family of demons even then, we're still friends."
'But… if the story's real, maybe my suspicions were right. Maybe Emilia really does have some kind of power…'
He kept the thought to himself, then asked,
"I get now why this house matters to you. But why are you the only one from your family still interested?"
"I'm not the only one," Emilia answered, her voice quieter now. "The whole family's interested. Most of the disappearances inside that mansion? They were family. People from our bloodline. Some of the survivors who made it back… they told us who vanished with them."
Her voice wavered as she continued.
"I was told… one of them was my younger brother. But none of us remember him. It's like someone wiped every trace of them from our minds."
A shadow passed over her face. The weight of her words showed in her expression.
"But no one dares go back in. Not anymore. After so many incidents, fear got the better of everyone."
Before Mousa could say anything, she pressed on.
"We even tried to demolish the place once. But the moment the demolition began… everyone involved started suffocating. Dying. One by one."
Mousa went silent. He didn't know what to say, or how to comfort her.
To him, Emilia had always been just a girl from a powerful, well-off family smart, cheerful, endlessly curious. Never in his life had he imagined she was descended from one of the ancient ruling houses.
To him, she was the bright spot in his days. The one who never failed to smile. The idea that she was carrying something this heavy, this dark… was almost too much to process.
A family haunted. Members vanishing inside a cursed estate. Mysterious deaths. Fear. Silence.
And worst of all… no explanation.
Mousa could feel the heaviness in her heart. A heaviness tied to powers and curses he'd long tried to deny or at least, ignore.
But Emilia's story pulled something out of him. It reminded him of his own curse.
His eye.
The one he believed caused his parents' deaths.
The one he had tried to remove.
He was just seven years old at the time.
Kept locked inside the house, always watched, always warned. "Don't go out," they'd say. "If someone sees that eye…"
His strange eye bluish green, shaped like an old Latin clock had always marked him as something different.
They'd promised he could go outside one day. When he was older. When the curse was lifted. Or when he'd learned to hide it well enough that no one would ask to see it.
He had spent most of those years alone. Except for one saving grace: his older sister, Bethil. She was his playmate, his comfort, his anchor.
Without her, he might've gone mad from the loneliness.
That's what helped him endure that life.
That strange, silent life.
One day, little Mousa's patience ran out.
He hated being trapped inside the house, treated like livestock.
He longed for freedom.
He wanted to see the outside world any way, any how.
So the seven-year-old made a decision.
He would remove the one thing standing between him and his freedom: his left eye.
That day, Mousa locked the door to his room and, without hesitation, pressed his small hand against his eye, trying to tear it out.
It was an act far beyond the innocence of a child. Brutal. Unthinkable.
But the years of isolation, the fear, the hatred for the cursed eye
They gave him strength no child should have.
He pressed harder.
Blood spilled down his face. The pain was sharp, unbearable. His mouth opened in a silent scream. But still, he didn't stop.
Just as he was moments away from ripping the eye out completely, everything changed.
Time stopped.
For a few long seconds, everyone in the house his sister Bethil, his mother, his grandparents felt a piercing, unbearable ringing in their heads.
Everyone except Mousa, who had fainted from the agony.
When he awoke, his family had surrounded him, voices full of panic and fear, blood still staining the floor.
But he ignored their questions.
The first thing he did… was reach for his left eye.
It was still there.
Perfectly intact. Not a scratch on it.
No sign he'd ever touched it at all.
---
Mousa blinked and returned from the memory.
He turned toward Emilia, sitting beside him.
Her gaze was fixed on the mansion ahead staring into the void with a silent sadness.
:How painful… how cruel it is to want to help, to want answers yet have nothing in your hands to offer.'
'Even if we enter now, he thought to himself, we won't stand a chance. Ghosts, vampires, ancient curses if any of that's real, one of us will vanish. The cycle will start again.'
He wanted to help her. Truly.
But he knew just how dangerous that mansion was.
'We have no powers. No strength. We're just normal people.'
After a few seconds of silence, Emilia finally turned to face him.
She looked into his eyes.
Then, she smiled.
That soft smile he loved so much.
"I understand your fear," she said gently. "Even the strongest members of our family are terrified. They refuse to dig deeper, to continue searching for answers.
And maybe… I shouldn't drag you into this.
No matter how badly I want to know the truth."
Her sadness faded just slightly.
Mousa's emotions swirled.
Part of him felt relief if she wasn't going to investigate, he'd be safe.
But another part of him knew better.
What if she tries to go in alone?
She could snap. She might actually do it.
His instincts told him to take her and leave right now, even by force if necessary. To follow her every step in the coming days. Make sure she didn't try anything reckless.
But for now… he calmed himself.
"…Can I ask you something?" Mousa said at last, eyes fixed on her.
"Of course," Emilia replied, without hesitation.
She had been staring at the bandage over his left eye but now, she shifted her gaze to his right eye. His serious eye.
"You said there were around 254 incidents in the last ten years.
What about before that? I mean, from the beginning of… the curse?"
"I like that you call it a curse," Emilia said with a faint smile. But the smile didn't last. Her face darkened.
"If we assume about 250 incidents every ten years…
And this curse has been around for nearly a thousand years…
That's about 25,000 incidents total."
Mousa blinked.
"And assuming three people went in each time, that's… at least 50,000 people gone. Forgotten."
"At least," Emilia repeated.
The number stunned Mousa, even though he'd been expecting something massive.
After a moment of stillness, he asked again.
"Have any other members of your family had supernatural powers over the centuries? Or… anyone today?"
"I don't know for sure," Emilia replied. "But all signs say yes."
She sighed.
"But if those powers were truly strong…
We'd have solved the mystery of the mansion long ago."