Chapter Summaries

Jeff broke into a house to steal while its family was out, but hid under the bed when the wife returned. After the family came home and the woman he had seen on the bed was nowhere to be found, Jeff realized something else was under the bed with him.

• Jeff used a copied key to enter the family’s house and search the master bedroom for valuables.
• When the wife returned unexpectedly, Jeff hid beneath the bed and listened as the radio described someone lying there with him.
• The wife nearly looked under the bed but withdrew, then appeared to fall asleep; Jeff spotted signs that she might still be watching him and retreated.
• The husband and child returned, and Jeff prepared to escape while the family went to wash up and make the child’s bed.
• Jeff realized the family had not seen the woman who had been lying on the bed, then turned and saw a face between a pair of legs behind him under the bed.

After recovering from a two-week illness, Zhou Xun accepted his new life as Kallen and joined his family at their funeral business. While helping Aunt Mary prepare a corpse, he encountered a horrifying giant woman as a strange voice warned that she hungered for his body.

• Zhou Xun resolved to live as Kallen and went downstairs to breakfast with his family.
• Kallen learned more about the Immerlis Family's funeral business and watched Aunt Mary receive the body of Jeff, a man who had frozen to death.
• Kallen followed Aunt Mary to the basement workshop and tried to straighten Jeff's oddly turned head.
• Jeff's head straightened by itself, his eyes opened, and he stared at Kallen.
• Kallen was struck and found himself beneath an enormous woman as a man's voice warned that she hungered for his body.

Kallen escaped a terrifying dream connected to Jeff’s corpse and woke in the Immerlis Family basement. Dis examined the body after Kallen left, then used spreading shadows to make Jeff sit up and demanded to know how he had died.

• Kallen was swallowed by a monstrous woman in a dream and sang until he woke from the nightmare.
• Aunt Mary explained that Kallen had collapsed, and Lunt led him upstairs to have his bleeding nose treated.
• Dis returned to the basement and questioned Mary about Kallen’s collapse and whether the black cat Paul had entered the workroom.
• Dis examined Jeff’s body, sent Mary to call Mason back, and asked the corpse how it had died.
• Dis spread shadows across the workroom, and Jeff began sitting up on the stretcher.

Kallen considered returning to school and helped with chores at home while his family handled funeral work. When Mr. Hoffen recognized that he was not the original Kallen, the old man fell, struck his head, and began bleeding as Kallen told Mina he had suffered a stroke.

• Kallen told Mina he was thinking about going back to school, then helped her with housework.
• Dis left dressed as a priest and carrying a black case, while Kallen compared him to a vampire-hunting priest from a play.
• Mason returned with the body of Mr. Mossan, and Aunt Mary shouted when she found it had not been cleaned.
• Ron explained that he had skipped cleaning the body because he hoped to date its caregiver, while Paul teased him.
• Mr. Hoffen grabbed Kallen's wrist and accused him of not being Kallen; he then fell, hit his head, and began bleeding.
• When Mina called from upstairs, Kallen said Mr. Hoffen had suffered a stroke and fallen.

Kallen nearly killed Mr. Hoffen but chose to save him, then returned home with Dis and witnessed his grandfather treating a badly burned arm. At the gate, Dis confronted Kallen, who sensed an overwhelming danger and answered that they were home.

• Kallen stayed his hand, helped Paul and Aunt Mary take the unconscious Mr. Hoffen to the hospital, and arranged for a caregiver.
• After Mr. Hoffen was declared out of danger, Dis arrived and asked Kallen when he had learned to smoke; Kallen said Uncle Mason had taught him.
• On the ride home, Dis used pliers to peel charred skin from his left arm, and Kallen helped remove it before Dis poured purple liquid over the wound.
• At the villa gate, Dis held the hollow sword hilt and asked Kallen where they were as Kallen sensed a terrifying threat.
• Kallen straightened his back and roared, “Home!”

After Grandpa nearly killed him, Kallen struggled with fear and considered whether to flee his family, but he chose to investigate the crying he heard from the basement. The chapter ended with Kallen preparing to go down the ramp and face whatever was weeping there.

• Kallen returned home shaken after Grandpa threatened his life, then accepted Grandpa’s summons to lunch rather than refusing him.
• At lunch, Kallen openly criticized the food and offered to make the next day’s meal, while Dis calmly agreed.
• Kallen counted the 6,000 Lu Coins he had found and weighed running away against staying with his family.
• At night, Kallen heard someone sobbing in the basement, fed the Golden Retriever warm milk, and brought a glass to Dis in his candlelit study.
• Kallen returned to the basement entrance, laughed at the crying, and began warming up before going down to investigate.

Kallen witnessed Mr. Mossan’s ghost merge with his corpse, triggering a violent transformation that nearly killed him. After Mr. Mossan collapsed, Dis and the speaking black cat Puer discussed Kallen’s final words in an unknown language.

• Kallen entered Aunt Mary’s workroom and waited beside Mr. Mossan’s corpse until he saw a sobbing figure that seemed to be his ghost.
• Kallen aligned the ghost with Mr. Mossan’s body, and the ghost merged with the corpse as Kallen suffered dizziness and a nosebleed.
• Mr. Mossan’s corpse sat up and pleaded against cremation, then attacked Kallen when its fear and anger escalated.
• Kallen struggled beneath Mr. Mossan until a sharp snapping sound preceded the corpse’s collapse, leaving Kallen injured and shaken.
• Dis asked Puer whether Kallen had spoken the language of otherworldly demons, and Puer replied that she had never heard of such demons or their own language.

Kallen helped his family run Mr. Mossan’s memorial service, cooked lunch, and accompanied Uncle Mason to take Jeff and Mr. Mossan to the crematorium. On the drive, Kallen noticed Mason’s connection to a woman nearby and suspected Jeff was involved, while a radio voice warned a mysterious woman to stay away from the powerful priest who had entered their consciousnesses.

• Aunt Mary discovered that Dis had performed a ritual on Mr. Mossan and quietly repaired the deceased man’s makeup.
• Malmö photographed Jeff and the memorial room for government records, then left with a tip from Uncle Mason.
• Kallen cooked a meal for the family, earning praise and an offer from Dis to raise his allowance if he kept cooking.
• Four elderly mourners, including Dingle, paid their respects to Mr. Mossan, and the family later prepared to take Jeff and Mr. Mossan to the crematorium.
• Mason slowed near a woman’s home, and Kallen learned she had recently asked Mason for help; Kallen suspected the incident was connected to Jeff and promised not to tell Aunt Mary.
• A radio voice warned a woman not to approach the powerful priest who had entered their consciousnesses, and said unusual presences had appeared near Rojia City.

Kallen accompanied Uncle Mason and Ron to Hughes Crematorium with Jeff and Mr. Mossan, where he comforted a grieving widower and earned a large counseling fee. After learning how Jeff had been found, Kallen realized that the disturbing vision he had associated with Jeff might be real and that a monster could be living in the home of Uncle Mason’s first love.

• Uncle Mason brought Kallen, Ron, Jeff, and Mr. Mossan to Hughes Crematorium, where Mrs. Hughes flirted with Kallen and Mason described the funeral business’s struggles against corporate chains.
• Kallen helped Piaget Adams overcome his reluctance to collect his wife Linda’s ashes, and Old Darcy carefully gathered her remains into an urn.
• Piaget paid Kallen 1,000 Lu Coins for the urn and gave him a large additional sum as a counseling fee; Kallen shared money with Old Darcy and Ron.
• Mason suggested adding psychological counseling to the family business after seeing how Kallen had helped Piaget.
• Ron told Kallen that Jeff had been found frozen beside a trash can on Mink Street, and Kallen connected this to Mason’s account of helping his first love’s household.
• Kallen recalled seeing legs and red high heels in that house and feared that a monster was living there.

On the way home from the funeral, Kallen learned more about the family business and shared a revolting dinner with Mason before finding an old notebook among Lunt’s things. Its disturbing drawings seemed to depict Kallen’s parents dead and a stranger holding a short sword like the one in Dis’s black case, leaving Kallen to call out to Dis.

• Mason explained the Funeral Society’s coffin profits and invited Kallen to try speaking with clients for the business.
• Mason, Kallen, and Ron discussed their funeral wishes, and Ron decided to donate his body to Luojia Medical College as a silent teacher.
• Mason served Kallen canned herring, and Kallen vomited after tasting it while Puer watched from the bathroom doorway.
• Kallen gave Lunt 300 Lu Coins and found an old notebook with increasingly frightening drawings of a family and a standing stranger.
• Kallen recognized the stranger’s short sword as resembling the hilt in Dis’s black case and called out to Dis.

Kallen hid a drawing suggesting Dis had killed his parents, then learned Dis would not allow him to leave the family for university. After visiting Mr. Hoffen, Kallen proved he could grasp the cross, but it burned his palm, leaving him wondering what he was.

• Kallen tore out and hid the drawing before meeting Dis, who questioned his plans to help the family and refused to let him study far away unless Dis died.
• Kallen gave Lunt 1,300 Lu Coins and destroyed the drawing, while Dis used Order Cage to torment Puer for questioning his judgment.
• Kallen went to the hospital on Dis's behalf and told Mr. Hoffen he was Kallen, despite Hoffen's suspicion that he was an Otherworldly Demon.
• Kallen grasped Mr. Hoffen's cross without his soul being annihilated, but afterward discovered a cross-shaped burn on his palm and wondered what he was.

Kallen joined Uncle Mason and the Immerlis Family at the Crown Ballroom after its elevated glass stage collapsed, helping with the chaotic rescue and body recovery. Beneath the stage, they discovered a corpse arranged in a grotesque display, and Kallen concluded that the killer had caused the collapse to reveal this “work of art.”

• Aunt Winnie received word that the Crown Ballroom stage had collapsed, and Uncle Mason took Kallen, Ron, and Paul to the scene.
• Chief Duke asked Uncle Mason and his crew to help maintain order and assist the injured while the ambulances were delayed.
• Uncle Mason and Ron recovered a dead victim and helped carry a critically injured man outside for medical care.
• Chief Duke discovered a naked corpse hidden beneath the stage, decorated with a potted flower, makeup, and a Berry Church Bible.
• Kallen told Chief Duke that the killer had deliberately caused the accident to display the corpse as a work of art.

Kallen helped Chief Duke interpret the staged corpse beneath the dance hall, leading him to suspect the killer identified with the victim and treated the murder as art. As Kallen left for home, a woman’s mention of an Otherworldly Demon made him fear that the world beyond his family was not as safe as he had hoped.

• Kallen explained to Chief Duke that the killer had deliberately staged the corpse to reveal it as a work of art, not to conceal evidence.
• Kallen guided Chief Duke through an imagined view of the dance hall, and Duke realized the killer saw himself standing above the dancers while they lay beneath him.
• Kallen and Duke concluded that the killer might have been close to the deceased and identified with him, and Duke ordered officers to secure the body and request more police.
• Chief Duke learned Kallen was fifteen and an Immerlis Family nephew, then said he would return to speak with him about the case.
• Kallen found the family hearse gone and took a taxi, where he overheard a woman dismiss an Otherworldly Demon theory before noticing the cross-shaped burn scar on his hand.

After returning home from the Crown Ballroom, Kallen told Dis and Aunt Mary about the murders and the strange officials he had encountered, while carefully avoiding questions that might expose him as an Otherworldly Demon. A gift from Mrs. Hughes led him to call the crematorium, where an unexpected voice answered that he had interrupted an artistic creation.

• Kallen returned home, found Dis, and recounted the bodies discovered beneath the Crown Ballroom stage and his deductions about the killer.
• Aunt Mary reported that the injured man had died and that Mason was waiting at the hospital to secure another funeral arrangement.
• Dis questioned whether Kallen was afraid of the crime scene, but Kallen chose not to ask him about Otherworldly Demons or the pair he had met.
• Kallen considered whether his mysterious ability could make victims speak, then wondered whether using it to help police would put him in danger.
• Aunt Mary gave Kallen a watch sent by Mrs. Hughes and warned him not to get involved with her; Kallen called the Hughes Crematorium to thank her.
• Someone answered Kallen's second call and said he had interrupted an artistic creation.

Kallen recognized the caller from the Crown Ballroom as a killer who had been creating an artwork at the Hughes Crematorium, then went there with Dis to investigate. They found Old Darcy dismembered and arranged in urns, and Kallen realized the killer’s phone conversation had taken place at the crime scene.

• Kallen provoked the man on the phone by criticizing his art until the caller hung up.
• Kallen told Dis about the call and asked to visit the Hughes Crematorium, and Dis agreed to accompany him.
• Kallen and Dis found the crematorium gates locked and met Mrs. Hughes, who arrived to reopen them.
• Kallen discovered Old Darcy’s body parts arranged in urns, with price tags attached.
• Kallen picked up the phone at the crematorium and saw the killer’s figure in his mind, answering the call that had interrupted the killer’s creation.

Kallen and Dis investigated Old Darcy’s gruesome murder at Hughes Crematorium, where Kallen identified the killer’s failed tableau as a reference to the Abyss God Church. Back at Mink Street, Kallen counseled the widowed Mrs. Seymour and learned she lived next door to Piaget, whose wife Linda had supposedly died the previous week but had brought Mrs. Seymour an apple pie that morning.

• Kallen and Dis found that Old Darcy had been divided in half, with one half on a furnace tray and the other arranged beside tools and glue as a failed cremation scene.
• Dis connected the killer’s imagery to the Abyss God Church’s legend of its god dividing himself between heaven and hell, and Chief Duke arrived to investigate.
• Mrs. Hughes asked Dis to arrange Old Darcy’s funeral and offered to sell him Hughes Crematorium; Kallen also received an invitation from Piaget at 45 Rhine Street.
• Mrs. Seymour arrived with Uncle Mason for counseling, and Kallen helped her confront her grief and her husband’s betrayal.
• Kallen learned that Mrs. Seymour lived at 46 Rhine Street and knew Piaget, then noticed her odd smile when she said Piaget’s supposedly deceased wife Linda had brought her apple pie that morning.

Kallen told Dis that Linda Piaget, whose ashes he had delivered to her husband, had apparently visited Mrs. Seymour, and he suspected Mr. Piaget might be connected to the deaths. Dis sent Puer to accompany Kallen on a visit to Piaget, and Kallen arrived at 45 Rhine Street with the cat, a golden retriever, and a box of macarons.

• Kallen described the strange connection between the Seymours and the Piagets, including Mrs. Seymour's claim that Linda had brought her apple pie after Linda's cremation.
• Dis declined to accompany Kallen to Piaget's home but ordered Puer to watch over him because he considered Kallen an otherworldly demon.
• Kallen woke late, ate noodles, and read that the Crown Ballroom accident had been reported without mention of murder or Old Darcy's death.
• Kallen visited Aunt Mary in the basement, where she was restoring Mr. Seymour's body, then prepared to visit Piaget.
• Kallen took Puer and a golden retriever with him, negotiated a taxi fare, and arrived at 45 Rhine Street with macarons.
• Linda Adams answered the door, and Kallen introduced himself as a friend of her husband.

Kallen visited Piaget and learned that Piaget had impersonated his dead wife Linda, believing he had created a second personality to cope with her loss. After Kallen left, a strange paper-thin figure emerged and merged with Piaget, whose face became Linda’s.

• Kallen visited Piaget’s home, where Mrs. Seymour recognized him and invited him to stop by afterward to receive her late husband’s watch.
• Piaget insisted Linda was dead even though Kallen had just seen her, then showed him paintings depicting three religious deaths, including Ankara’s destruction under the God of Order.
• Kallen grew nauseated and heard imagined sounds of someone chopping bones, then spotted Linda’s clothes beneath Piaget’s bed.
• Piaget realized he had dressed as Linda and served Kallen coffee, and said he had deliberately created a second personality to keep his wife close.
• Kallen left Piaget’s house and went next door to Mrs. Seymour, while Piaget wept alone in his bedroom.
• A flesh-colored, paper-thin figure emerged from a drawer and merged into Piaget, whose face gradually became Linda’s.

Kallen continued investigating the murders while helping his family prepare Old Darcy’s remains, and he accompanied Aunt Mary and Mrs. Hughes to Friday Winery. After police discovered that Cole had worked there and claimed to be Mrs. Hughes’s lover, Chief Duke realized she was targeting people close to her.

• Mrs. Seymour gave Kallen a valuable watch as an advance payment for regular counseling sessions, and Kallen accepted it.
• Kallen learned from Chief Duke that police had identified the body beneath the Crown Ballroom stage as Cole and were tracing his connections.
• Aunt Mary learned that Old Darcy had been chopped into dozens of pieces and complained about the difficult restoration work.
• Mrs. Hughes drove Kallen and Aunt Mary past No. 128 on Mink Street, where Uncle Mason’s first love’s family was moving out, before they went to Friday Winery.
• Kallen drove the drunken women home, then took Mrs. Hughes back to her house in her car.
• Police told Chief Duke that Cole had worked at Friday Winery and claimed he was Mrs. Hughes’s lover, leading Duke to suspect that she had killed Cole and Old Darcy.

Kallen was forced at gunpoint by Mrs. Hughes to go to No. 128, where she planned to kill and eat him as part of an artwork. As Mrs. Hughes began acting possessed, Kallen tried to buy time with a request to turn on the radio, which began playing Rojia Story Hour.

• Mrs. Hughes confronted Kallen in the car, revealed a revolver, and forced him to drive to No. 128.
• Mrs. Hughes made Kallen carry her pack into the empty house and ordered him to lie on the master bedroom bed.
• Mrs. Hughes explained that she had planned to use Mary for her artwork but chose Kallen, intending to recreate a religious painting by chopping him up and eating him.
• A black patch spread across Mrs. Hughes's face, and her voice changed to the masculine voice Kallen had heard before.
• Kallen asked Mrs. Hughes to turn on the radio for musical accompaniment, and it began broadcasting Rojia Story Hour.