When the Serial Killer Next Door Gained Harem System

We changed direction and started walking toward it. Bone took the lead, with me right behind him. Jugo followed close behind me, while the silent girl stayed at the far back. The old woman, Saka, stuck close to Bone’s side, almost clinging to him.

With every step, the Circle felt darker. The light seemed to fade faster than it should, the shadows growing longer and thicker.

"Gods, old hag, get away from me, will ya?" Bone grumbled, shrugging Saka off.

Jugo glanced back over his shoulder. "What is your name, girl?"

The silent girl stayed quiet for a long moment, then exhaled. "Mio."

We kept walking toward the hut.

A few minutes later we reached it. The building looked poorly handmade, crooked wooden walls, a sagging roof, the door completely missing, and the windows cracked and broken.

I glanced around and spotted the door a few meters away, ripped apart by something and thrown aside like it weighed nothing.

Jugo exhaled. "Buildings like this could contain loot. And today is Monday."

"People would surely take whatever was in there," I said. "This is the entrance of the Circle. It’s the very first building you see."

"Every Monday," Jugo explained, "The Circle heals itself. Taken loot comes back, though not always. Houses change places. Everything becomes randomized."

"It should be six o’clock now," Bone nodded. "The Circle healed itself today at 12 AM."

"Let’s head in there," Jugo said.

With no other choice, we walked inside.

The hut was old and dusty. A worn couch sat against one wall, a small fireplace with cold ashes in the corner, and a few broken shelves. Nothing out of the ordinary, just an abandoned, rundown shack.

They began looting immediately, checking drawers, closets, and every corner. There was also a small bedroom sectioned off by a torn curtain.

I just stood there for a moment, watching the four of them. Even Mio was looting quietly.

So I went at it as well. I checked under the couch, examined some broken paintings on the wall, checked the drawers that the others checked. It didn’t look good.

A few minutes passed. Nothing came up for me.

Bone suddenly laughed loudly. "Yeah! Should sell this bad boy for five silver!"

He held up a cracked shield and then hung it over his back with the strap.

Jugo slipped something into his pocket and hid it. Mio was holding something small in one hand.

The old woman found nothing. She looked devastated.

"We should look for more," Jugo said. "Come on."

"I have nothing... I’m going to die..." the woman muttered, her voice breaking. "Gods... please, I beg of mercy..."

"I’ll stay a bit." Mio muttered. "There’s some places I haven’t checked yet."

Jugo scoffed. "Whatever."

Bone and I stepped outside.

I squinted into the distance. Something was standing there, maybe thirty meters ahead, half-hidden by the thick fog.

"Huh..."

Bone walked in front, Saka beside him, both their backs turned toward me. Jugo and Mio were still inside, probably checking one last time before we headed out.

Suddenly, half of that... that thing’s body stretched out toward us in a grotesque, unnatural way, its torso and arm elongating like rubber across the distance in less than a second. The movement was wrong, distorted, like reality itself was bending.

A second later, the rest of its body snapped forward with a sickening, wet thud, the sound like a heavy brick dropping down a deep well.

The entity let out a strange, hollow click.

Before anyone could react, a dark red blur flashed right in front of my eyes. What... was that? It was only inches from my face. A... dark... red... thing.

Saka’s body jerked violently.

Then I realized.

The entity’s arm, ending in a long, razor-sharp blade of black bone, had punched straight through her chest and out her back, the jagged tip now impaling her still-beating heart... which was inches away from my face. The heart pulsed once... twice... blood spraying in weak arcs as it struggled in its final moments. Then it went still, hanging limply on the blade like a piece of meat on a skewer.

Saka’s eyes widened in pure shock and agony. Then less than a second... she died.

The monster looked like a person... but it wasn’t. It was fully black, as if made of living shadow. No clothes, no skin, just a smooth, humanoid shape. It had empty eye sockets with nothing inside them. No lips, no nose, no facial features at all. Its body constantly shifted and dripped thick black goo that sizzled when it hit the sickly grass.

Jugo burst out of the hut behind us.

"Shit, a Teleporter!" he yelled. "Run away! Take east, find a safe zone!"

"SAKA!" Bone screamed. "Fuck!"

Holy shit... holy fucking shit, holy shit. Holy shit...

The black entity ripped its bladed arm free with a wet squelch. Saka’s body collapsed like a broken doll, crumpling to the ground in a heap. Black goo dripped from its limb as it slowly straightened, empty eye sockets staring straight at us.

I couldn’t move. My mind was screaming. This thing wasn’t just a monster. It was something far worse.

Bone gritted his teeth. "Move, you idiot!"

I finally forced my thoughts into place and started running.

The group had already scattered, and now it was just me and Bone sprinting east, our footsteps pounding against the ground as fast as we could manage. I glanced over my shoulder and immediately regretted it, because the thing was already there, far too close for comfort.

Its body twisted and stretched in a way that made no sense, like it was being pulled forward by something unseen, and before I could even process what I was seeing, half of it appeared in front of us while the rest followed a split second later, dragging itself into place like it didn’t belong in one piece.

Bone reacted instantly. He slowed just enough to pivot and veer left at the last possible moment, while I kept my momentum and ran right without thinking.

Branches scraped against my arms as I pushed forward, my lungs burning and my vision shaking from the effort, and that was when I noticed the tree ahead. It stood alone in the middle of a circular clearing, and something about it immediately felt wrong. But I wasn’t able to focus on what was wrong with it.

Because I could feel that thing behind me.