Becoming A God In Another World With My Crush
Chapter 37: Like A Damn Horror Movie

Chapter 37: Like A Damn Horror Movie

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"W–what?" Iris asked. "It was really a ghost?"

Alyhana nodded, softly as Iris blinked. "You’re serious? Like dead-people-serious?"

Alyhana only smiled sheepishly at her terrified expression, "Yes."

Xander gave her a sideways look. "You didn’t see it, though. Can you see ghosts?"

"No," Alyhana said. "But when I walked into the manor, I felt it. A heavy feeling that wasn’t mine. It was fear and confusion...and something else... like someone wanted us to leave but come in all at the same time."

Iris’s eyes widened. "Wanted us to... leave?"

Alyhana looked around the hall slowly.

"Something is here."

Xander folded his arms. "You’re saying ghosts actually exist in this world?"

’Why am I not surprised?’ He thought as he released a tired sigh.

"They do," Alyhana said calmly. "When someone dies carrying strong emotions... anger, regret, sorrow... it doesn’t always let go. And when it doesn’t, a piece of them lingers on this world."

Iris stepped away from the wall instinctively, her hands clenched around her cloak as she suddenly went as pale as someone in her complexion would.

She stared at Alyhana for a moment longer, then muttered under her breath. "Great, just... great."

Xander frowned. "So... are ghosts dangerous?"

Alyhana turned her head slightly, her eyes still fixed on the dark hallway beyond them. "Depends," she said softly. "On how badly they want to be seen."

Iris shifted her weight. "Meaning?"

"Most spirits that linger... don’t want to hurt anyone," Alyhana continued. "But sometimes, when someone dies with strong emotions—rage, vengeance, grief...it motivates them."

She stepped closer to the wall, her voice barely louder than the rain outside.

"If someone dies in anger, they become aggressive and forceful. They show themselves more sometimes violently, they’ll take lives if it means being seen or understood."

Xander’s brow furrowed when she mentioned ghost taking lives. "A...and if it’s not anger?"

Alyhana nodded. "Then it’s regret. Or fear. Those spirits stay quiet or hidden. You don’t feel them unless you are very sensitive to aura or you really stop and listen."

Iris wrapped her arms around herself. "So ghosts can be sad or furious. That’s comforting."

"Emotions bind them to the Earthly realm," Alyhana murmured. "Not choice. The stronger their emotions, the stronger they are."

Xander rubbed the back of his neck, glancing around. "Fantastic. A ghost with emotional baggage. What could go wrong?"

Iris pressed her palm to her forehead. "I should have known, this house is obviously something out of a horror movie...I mean just look at it."

Xander went quiet as arms were still folded, his gaze now dropped to the floor. The glow from Alyhana’s orb flickered over his features, casting long shadows beneath his eyes.

He hesitated. Then..."What about Iasora?" he asked. "Were there... ghosts there too?"

Alyhana’s expression shifted. Her voice softened.

"Yes."

Iris looked at her, startled. "There were ghosts at Iasora?"

Alyhana nodded, slowly. "They didn’t show themselves. Not clearly, but they were there."

Xander’s jaw clenched. "Then why didn’t they do anything?"

"Because of the temple," Alyhana explained. "Places of worship are often protected, especially ones like Iasora. Maia would cast shields often—wards that kept spirits outside. They couldn’t pass through them."

She turned, her gaze drifting to a carved column at the edge of the hall. The dust clung to it like memory.

"But the spirits were nearby waiting for someone to avenge them, or someone to help them understand why they had to die. They always do."

Xander felt a wave a guilt wash over him again, he couldn’t imagine the amount of confused spirits wondering why they had to be killed.

Iris swallowed, her voice quieter now. "Even the peaceful places hold them?"

"Especially those," Alyhana said. "But not all ghosts form from anger. Sometimes... they just want to stay and watch over their loved ones...but those are very rare."

Xander shifted. "That’s a terrifying kind of loyalty."

Alyhana tilted her head. "I wonder if Maia is a ghost now, but I know she isn’t. She’d rather pass on to Eldaria...the world of the dead."

She turned back toward the center of the manor.

Iris hugged herself tightly, fingers gripping the soaked edges of her cloak. Her voice came out in a quiet breath.

"I hope the ghost’s weak."

No one answered, she glanced at Alyhana, then tilted her head slowly.

"...If ghosts exist, does that mean werewolves and vampires are real too?"

Alyhana blinked once, then giggled softly as if that was absurd.."No. Those are just stories."

Iris stared at her.

"You’re telling me... minotaurs exist. Hydra’s are real, we can literally use magic. But vampires and werewolves are where the universe draws the line?"

Alyhana’s shoulders lifted in a small shrug. "I...didn’t make the rules, we only see those as myths."

Xander raised a brow. "That’s great, two less scary creatures to worry about."

Iris shrugged, *I just wanted to know if they were as hot as those dumb romance novels said they were in real life."

Xander rolled his eyes as Alyhana chuckled under her breath, the soft light from her orb drifting above their heads.

"I read once that vampires stories were invented to explain fevers and mysterious deaths during moon phases," she said thoughtfully. "And also to scare children into doing their chores back when the world was free of beasts."

"So comforting," Iris muttered.

They kept walking, steps echoing through the abandoned manor, the atmosphere only slightly less terrifying with their voices breaking through it.

"Well it’s been cool learning about ghosts and vampires and whatever..." Xander said as he turned away from Alyhana’s lecture and walked toward the entrance with the kind of resolve usually reserved for war declarations and public executions.

"But I’d rather drown in the rain than get haunted," he muttered.

"Good call." Iris responded with a nod.

He grabbed the door handle, gave it a firm tug..nothing then he pulled harder the door also didn’t move.

Xander blinked, checked the hinges, then yanked again, but nothing. He took a step back and bumped his shoulder against it.

Iris wandered over, arms crossed. "So you’re losing a fight. With a door."

"It’s sealed," Xander grunted.

Iris raised a brow. "The fuck you mean sealed?"

Xander gave her a look, then kicked the bottom corner. It barely creaked.

"Oh, hell no!" Iris exclaimed, She joined him, both of them now pushing with every ounce of weight they had, the door didn’t even budge.

Alyhana stayed back, orb still hovering just over her shoulder. Her expression was one of fear now.

Iris huffed and leaned against the frame. "There’s no way this door locked itself!"

"Well," Xander muttered, glancing around, "guess we’re stuck here."

"You don’t say..."

They stood in front of the door, panting slightly as the rain beat against the windows behind them, a slow, rhythmic tapping like distant footsteps.

The manor stood shrouded in rain and mist. From the outside, a a tree without leaves silhouette carved a jagged shape against the sky.

Xander still stood near the door, one hand pressed against it like he thought it might change its mind. Iris shifted beside him, arms folded tight, gaze scanning the shadows with a stiffness that didn’t quite hide her nerves.

"Yeah..." He said, reaching for his sword. "we’ve got to get the fuck outta here, now."