After the ape disappeared, Everly held her forehead, feeling a sudden wave of dizziness.
A series of “crackling” sounds ca to her ears, and in her vision, everything around her seed like shattered glass, with cracks forming everywhere.
As the cracks grew larger and finally fractured completely, a strong sense of weightlessness washed over her. Everly felt as if she were plunging into a bottomless abyss. Endless currents of water surrounded her, dragging her down, down, down… until, finally, amid an ever-intensifying vertigo, Everly closed her eyes and lost consciousness.
“Huff… huff huff…”
The next second, in a quiet bedroom, the sleeping girl suddenly opened her eyes, threw back the covers, and sat up abruptly in bed.
“I… what just—”
She reached out, first touching her left wrist. Her cold fingers were damp with sweat, and she finally felt the slender silver chain wrapped around her wrist, along with the shattered glass beads that now remained only half-intact.
Touching the “Evil Eye” bracelet, Everly finally relaxed. It seed she had successfully repelled the evil presence and erged from the nightmare.
Thinking of the terrifying ape in her dream, Everly quickly got out of bed, turned on the light, and took out all the self-defense tools from her nightstand, arranging them in a circle around her. Once she was certain she could stand her ground even if the monkey creature returned, she grabbed her phone and quickly called her old acquaintance, Rebecca.
“Hey there, young miss. What’s up? Calling in the middle of the night, how unusual.”
By now, Rebecca had already graduated from the “wild chicken school.” With Everly’s support, she had opened a small fortune-telling shop on a quiet street in Micano, specializing in luck readings and occasionally taking on cases of spirit communication or exorcism. Because Micano was a remote place with few talented individuals, the little shop was surprisingly successful.
When Everly called, Rebecca was just about to close her shop. After hearing from her longti client about the problem she had encountered, Rebecca didn’t hesitate and imdiately agreed to co over.
“Hang tight! I’m really close to the old town—five minutes by motorcycle!”
With Rebecca’s promise, Everly finally felt a bit more at ease.
Carrying all her protective tools, she walked to the bed, intending to sit down—but stopped when she noticed the bed was covered in shattered glass. The fragnts ca from her “Evil Eye” bracelet on her wrist. The “Evil Eye,” a traditional Turkish blue glass bead with protective properties, had a weak exorcising effect. When an evil presence appeared, the bead would shatter, giving its wearer an early warning.
This bracelet had been with Everly since fifth grade, supporting her through the turbulent years of middle school. It was almost a veteran heirloom—but now, barely into her first year of high school, it had completed its mission in her sleep and was now ruined. Everly sighed as she gathered the sheets and blanket, shaking off the glass fragnts over the trash can.
Once the bed was cleared, the hum of a motorcycle engine ca from the street outside. Everly walked to the window and saw Rebecca sitting on her bike, one foot on the ground, removing her helt and waving enthusiastically.
Everly signaled “just a mont” through the window, grabbed a few handy tools, and pushed open her bedroom door to head downstairs.
Since she was staying as a lodger, she tried to be quiet, intending not to wake Misha or her grandparents. But the elderly couple were light sleepers. By the ti Rebecca’s motorcycle pulled up outside, both grandparents were already awake. Hearing Everly’s footsteps, Misha’s grandmother, Marianne, thought there might be a burglar, grabbed a stick with her husband, and opened the door to check.
Although they quickly realized it was just a misunderstanding, Misha, who slept next to them, was inevitably woken up.
So in the end, five people ended up gathered in Everly’s bedroom.
When Rebecca arrived, she first took out her divination rod and walked around the bedroom, surveying the space.
The so-called divination rods were two L-shaped thin sticks made from a special tal, resembling antennas. When in use, one held a rod in each hand by the bottom end, letting the rods stand upright in a “7” shape. Then, walking back and forth over the area to be investigated, the rods would detect unique magnetic fields if spirits or supernatural presences were nearby, collectively pointing toward the entity’s location.
While Rebecca tested the rods, Everly stood outside the door, watching and simultaneously introducing Rebecca to Misha and her grandparents, while recounting her recent encounter.
“The room is very clean. That thing has already left.”
After a while, Rebecca finished her inspection and gestured for the four of them to enter the room.
“Miss, you bought so many of my tools—do you usually leave so by your bed?”
Everly nodded.
The bedroom and bed were, aside from school, the places where Everly spent the most ti, so it was naturally well-arranged. She had hidden many of the protective trinkets she bought from Rebecca around the room. The larger ones that didn’t fit on the bed went into the nightstand, while smaller ones were directly placed on the bed.
Strangely, in the dream, she hadn’t rembered that the bed already had tools; she had been entirely focused on retrieving items from the nightstand. Clearly, her thoughts had been manipulated by that ape…
Following Everly’s guidance, Rebecca first lifted the pillow to check the cross hidden beneath. It was an antique cross over 200 years old, with so protective power. However, after the ape left, the cross’s silver-white surface had beco covered in a thick layer of gray-black, as if it had been soaked in strong acid—pitted, warped, and no longer retaining its original pure and sacred appearance.
“Ah, as expected. No matter how old, without a blessing from a holy practitioner, it’s still hardly effective.” Rebecca held the cross for a mont, sighed, and without the slightest regret, tossed it into the trash can.
The second item was the wolf pelt Everly had spread at the foot of her bed, which also contained several wolf teeth.
Wolves are nocturnal animals, and so shamans believe that a wolf’s eyes can see what humans cannot, its teeth can pierce evil, and its pelt can protect people from malevolent spirits. However, to craft such protective items, one must use the pelt and teeth of a naturally deceased snow wolf—killing one artificially would backfire. Therefore, even a simple pelt and a few teeth had cost Everly several thousand US dollars.
In hindsight, it had been money well spent. When Rebecca lifted the mattress, she saw that the wolf pelt at the bottom was torn and scratched all over, and the once-pristine white wolf teeth were broken into pieces, as if bitten against sothing hard.
“The snow wolf spirits did protect you, but unfortunately, they couldn’t fend off that ape creature.” Rebecca patted the pelt and carefully rolled it up, planning to bury it later.
Everly recalled that at the very start of the dream, she had heard a long, mournful howl. Perhaps that had been the wolf spirit warning her. The long claw marks on the ape’s arms might even have been the work of the wolf spirit.
She reached out and touched the now-dull pelt, murmuring a quiet word of thanks.
The last protective item on the bed was the dreamcatcher hanging by the headboard.
Rebecca had purchased it from a Native Arican priest. The wooden fra of the circular web was made from willow, symbolizing vitality and tenderness; the leather woven around the circle ca from a white bison, and the feathers hanging beneath the circle were eagle tail feathers—all materials imbued with good intentions. Naturally, such craftsmanship ca with a hefty price.
The net in the center, stretched with sinew, was designed to filter dreams. It was said that only good dreams could pass through the holes in the web and flow down along the feathers to the bed, while nightmares would be trapped in the web and disintegrate under the sunlight the next day.
Rebecca stepped up to the bed and reached for the dreamcatcher, lifting it down. The once-intact dreamcatcher had sohow beco tattered. The sinew lines at the center of the willow fra were snapped and frayed, with traces of blood and a few black monkey hairs clinging to them. It seed that when the ape had tried to enter Everly’s dream, it hadn’t only been the wolf spirit—the dreamcatcher had also quietly blocked so attacks in places that went unseen.
Rebecca pinched a strand of the monkey hair between her fingers, closed her eyes, and activated her spiritual sight.
A mont later, she opened her eyes and told Everly that the entity that attacked her in the dream was a monkey spirit originating from the “Monkey’s Paw.” The reason? Soone harbored ill will toward Everly and wanted her disfigured.
“Monkey’s Paw?”
“That’s right. The ‘Monkey’s Paw’—a magical object that grants its owner three wishes. Records of the Monkey’s Paw date back to dieval Europe. During the Hundred Years’ War between Brittany and France, a farr accidentally obtained one. Tempted by it, he made two wishes: that his son would return from the war, and that he would receive a large sum of money.”
“And then?”
“The farr’s son did return—but not alive. He ca back as a dead body. Along with him ca a large sum of compensation. In a sense, the farr’s wishes were granted, but not in the way he wanted. So he made a third wish: that the first two wishes had never happened.”
“And the result?”
Rebecca shook her head. “Nobody knows. The story doesn’t record it. Many of these legends are like that—start and stop abruptly, no continuation. The main thing you need to know is that the Monkey’s Paw is not sothing good. Making wishes on it usually ends in disaster.”
“I can tell.”
This Monkey’s Paw fit the usual horror-movie trope perfectly: seemingly a limitless wish-granting device, but in reality, it carries endless consequences. By the end, the user almost always regrets having used it.
Anyway, she was absolutely never going to use it—after all, as the “Horror Movie Survival Rule #26” says: Never make wishes lightly!
But who could be so malicious as to waste one of the Monkey’s Paw’s wishes just to disfigure her?
Rebecca, being a diviner with only ordinary spiritual sight, couldn’t see who had made the wish. Everly could only call Misha over, and together they began to rack their brains, thinking through possible suspects.
To be honest, Everly actually had pretty good relations at school. Although she maintained the sa behavior patterns from elentary and middle school—keeping a cold, aloof persona—her high appearance and impressive athletic abilities more than made up for any minor shortcomings. Her classmates felt that a girl as exceptional as her should be a little arrogant, a little distant—it made her more normal, more charismatic.
So for Everly’s cold personality, most people were tolerant.
Moreover, she kept a low profile, rarely spoke to anyone, never caused trouble, and usually helped anyone who asked. Honestly, even after thinking hard, she couldn’t figure out who could hate her that much…
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