Chapter 30 – The House That Bleeds

I didn't sleep after the last mission. I couldn't.

The whispers hadn't stopped.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her.

Maria.

Her face—half-burned, half-beautiful—hovered in the dark, mouthing words I couldn't understand.

But something had changed. I didn't wake up screaming this time.

I woke up smiling.

The system noticed. It always did.

> [System Notice: Emotional instability detected. Updating alignment metrics.]

[Sanity Threshold: 57% → 44%]

[You are Treading the Line.]

Whatever that meant.

I sat up in the motel bed, shirt soaked in cold sweat. The mirror across the room reflected my face—pale, gaunt, and older than I remembered. The eyes weren't mine anymore. They were... sharper. Hungrier.

The screen blinked to life on its own.

> Mission Unlocked: "The House That Bleeds"

Location: West Hollow, Pennsylvania

Type: Cleansing / Survival / Memory Conflict

Duration: Until task completion

Failure Consequence: Permanent mental corruption

Reward: 1x Sin Purge Token | +2 Attribute Points | Unlock Tier 2 Ability

Tier 2?

This was a step up. Or a step down.

Either way, I had no choice.

---

West Hollow was a ghost town.

Not the metaphorical kind—the literal kind. Population signs had been scratched out. Houses boarded up. Gas stations gutted. The air felt wrong here. Thicker. Greasier. Like every breath came through someone else's lungs.

And there it was.

The house.

Old colonial style, twisted with rot.

Vines like black veins clung to the walls.

A front door that looked like it had been chewed open from the inside.

> [System Alert: This house is Alive. It does not want you here.]

[System Warning: Sanity Drain begins upon entry.]

[Timer: 00:00:00 → ∞]

I stepped inside.

The smell hit first—blood, mold, regret.

Then the sound: dripping, steady, like a leaking IV bag in an abandoned hospital.

And then the memories.

Not mine.

Children laughing.

A man screaming.

A woman praying.

And then silence.

Crushing, heavy silence.

I looked at the wallpaper—peeling like skin.

Every room I entered, the walls bled behind me.

And the worst part?

My footsteps left no mark.

But something else's did.

Long, barefoot impressions tracked ahead of me. Moving when I moved.

Stopping when I stopped.

I followed them. I had to.

---

The nursery.

Of course it had a nursery.

Rocking chair in the corner, swaying by itself.

Mobile above the crib still spinning, despite the air being dead still.

And the smell...

Burnt milk. Old flesh. Something sweet rotting underneath it all.

In the crib, there was a doll.

Porcelain. Cracked.

Its eyes followed me.

I blinked.

It smiled.

> [System Trigger: Memory Conflict Event – "The Lost Mother"]

Objective: Relive. Resist. Redeem.

Reward: +1 Mental Fortitude | Unlock Memory Fragment

Suddenly, I wasn't in my body anymore.

---

Flashback. Someone else's memory. A woman's.

I was her.

Hands trembling. Voice cracking.

I held a crying baby while the walls wept red around me.

"Shh, it's okay, baby. Mommy's here. Daddy's just… sick. He didn't mean it."

But the banging didn't stop.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

He was coming.

The door cracked. A scream tore from my throat.

Then the fire started.

And everything went black.

---

I gasped as I snapped back into my own skin, dropping to my knees, chest heaving.

> [System Alert: Memory Fragment Recovered – "Mother's Final Moment"]

[Mental Fortitude +1]

[Current Sanity: 44% → 46%]

[System Note: Empathy is a weapon.]

I stood up, trembling.

The house groaned.

And then it spoke.

Not in words, but in feelings.

Guilt. Anger. Hunger.

It wanted me to relive everything.

---

Room by room, I walked through horrors that didn't belong to me.

A boy locked in a freezer until he stopped moving.

A girl whispering secrets to something inside the walls.

A priest nailing pages of the Bible into his own flesh to keep the voices out.

I could feel the house feeding on me—my fear, my confusion. My doubt.

I started to question things.

Was this a mission… or a punishment?

---

Finally, I reached the basement.

Of course it ended in a basement.

The door was wrapped in chains. But the moment I touched the handle, the chains melted away, hissing like snakes.

> [Final Challenge Initiated: The Root Sin – "Self-Destruction"]

Survive the Reflection.

Escape is Impossible Until the Sin is Faced.

Inside was... me.

A perfect mirror image, but smiling like he enjoyed the pain.

"You're the monster," he said, stepping closer. "You keep doing this because part of you likes it. Don't you?"

I shook my head. "I don't have a choice."

He laughed. "You always have a choice. But you chose to keep going. Chose to become this."

The mirror version lifted his hand. In it was a knife.

"Prove me wrong."

---

I fought him.

Not just physically.

I fought the part of me that wanted to burn it all down. The part that enjoyed watching others suffer if it meant surviving another day.

He knew all my moves.

Because he was me.

And just when he had me pinned, blade at my throat—

I whispered, "I forgive you."

And the blade crumbled.

The doppelgänger stared at me, eyes wide.

Then, slowly, he vanished into mist.

And the house... exhaled.

---

I staggered outside, covered in bruises, memories that weren't mine, and blood I couldn't explain.

But I was still standing.

> [Mission Complete: "The House That Bleeds"]

+2 Attribute Points

+1 Sin Purge Token

New Ability Unlocked: Tier 2 – "Sorrowbound Sight"

(Passive: See emotional residues left by traumatic events. Allows navigation through haunted zones and corruption zones.)

> [Warning: Tier 2 content unlocked. The veil thins.]

I stood at the edge of the porch, watching the house collapse into itself like it had never been there.

But it had.

And I carried it with me now.

Another scar.

Another step.

And somewhere deep inside...

I wondered how many more of these I could survive before the version of me in the basement became the only version left.