Beaver Harbor

Bird parked the car and glanced back suspiciously. The branches of the trees lining the forest path twisted like the withered hands of dying people reaching toward the sky.

Though the sun was shining, Bird felt deeply uneasy. Ghosts seemed to lurk in every shadow the trees cast. Please don't let Xia Lun have followed me. He looked away, picked up the Briefcase with nervous hands, then jumped out of the car and hurried into the seemingly abandoned warehouse in the woods.

The warehouse was pitch-black. A damp, musty smell rose from the wet floor. Following his memory, Bird walked a few steps deeper inside and found the Return Array he had drawn there in advance.

Under the Anomalous Phenomena Prevention and Control Committee's operational regulations, agents had to prepare a Return Array in a Safe House before every Alternate-Dimension Operation. Bird had chosen this forest warehouse as his Safe House.

Traveling to another world required sufficient Replacement Mass at the destination, but returning to one's original world did not. Bird rushed into the array with the Briefcase in his arms, hastily lit six candles at the Ritual's outer points, then cut his palm with a dagger and let a few drops of blood fall into the array.

Drip.

The moment the blood struck the array, Bird let out a long breath. At last, he was safe!

The thought had barely formed when his vision suddenly rose. His mind left his body and returned to the Other Dimension. Thud.

Bird's body fell stiffly onto the array, kicking up a little dust. The Briefcase beside him had vanished. Whoosh.

A wind suddenly stirred inside the sealed warehouse. The dim candle flames flickered, their wavering light giving the place an eerie, sinister air.

The next moment, several deathly pale fingers slipped soundlessly