i know i said i wouldn't but i couldn't stop myself. i keep thinking that you will all forget about this story if i go missing for about a month.

do comment and tell me your thoughts or leave questions regarding characters and i will make sure to explain everything in future chapters

Maybe he was dead and that was how afterlife looked like. Actually, no. Why would there be vampires and demons and werewolves in his afterlife where he was human? Neah. It made more sense for him to be crazy and locked up in a mental institution, in full deliration and creating all sort of scenarios and people that could help him out. The other option was that everything was indeed real and he was sitting in a house that was alive, changed rooms at 13:00 and locked them in place at 13:13, shaking a bit at each hour and 13, housing creatures he had only heard in stories or seen in movies or in painting, preparing to enter his new room as a tenant. And to top everything off, the house... no... The House had a room of its own.

“Don’t give me that look.” Sia crossed her arms again. “I thought we were getting along.” She let out a small sigh.

“How can the House have a room when it is the House?” he asked, feeling the need to get an answer about that or he was not going to be feeling at piece any time soon.

“Your parents’ house...” Sia thought about it for a bit. “If they moved out... and someone else moved in... would it still be your parents’ house or not?”

“Of course it will no longer be my parents’ house but it’s not the same.” Kyuhyun reasoned. “My parents are not a part of the house.” He explained, although he was not so sure about it himself.

“They actually are. You parents need to own the house to be their house. Just like the House needs a room of its own for it to belong to the House.” Sia insisted. “If it makes you feel better... take it as the heart of the house. The main room. The core.” She tried to find out several different ways.

“Alright. The House is 13.” Kyuhyun nodded, easily persuaded into accepting that.

Even if everything was real and demons and vampires and everything existed, even if the House was a special house, he was still supposed to be panicking and having an extremely hard job at believing everything. Anyone else would have freaked out, ran out, called the cops or talk to a priest or something, maybe even turned paranoid and wonder if the people around him where even people and yet there he was, about to get inside his room, agreeing with everything as if it was just any other day, nothing really special about it.

“So...the room? Does it have everything it needs?” he questioned, needing to change the subject because it was getting really weird.

“Well... for now it will just have the bed.” She moved towards him, finally opening the door to his room. “And the bathroom. To that side.” She peeked inside and pointed to the left of the room.

“Just....” Kyuhyun stepped inside as well. “The bed.” He noticed.

He was looking around the room with his mouth partially opened, eyes wide in surprise, wondering how in God’s name could a living House that had creatures in it have only a bed and a bathroom inside. For a House that had demons and angels and vampires and people that could do mind control and other, with the ability of changing its rooms, he had expected rooms with floating candles and ancient looking items and light controlled by the power of the mind or something not just a plain looking bed and a bathroom. It was quite disappointing if he were to be honest. Shaking his head, he tried to put aside the bad thoughts and his disappointment because he was pretty sure it was not normal to be disappointed that the room was not as magical as the House and those living inside of it.

“It should take only a few hours. It usually depends on the tenant’s personality but the most it ever took was 5 hours.” Sia commented as she moved towards the middle of the room, finally turning to look at Kyuhyun as if she was some real estate agent that was introducing a building to a potential buyer.

“What should happen in a few hours?” Kyuhyun frowned again, having this feeling that once again there was something he did not know and he would do better to ask instead of waiting and risking looking like a fool.

“Right...” she nodded her head, remembering he was not knowledgeable of things like this. “Depending on how complex your personality is, the House provided each room with items befitting of it. The simpler your personality is, the faster it gives you what you need.”

“So... items...like...” Kyuhyun gulped again. “Appear all by themselves?” he almost chocked on his own saliva, now starting to feel rather excited yet again.

“Yes.” She nodded her head, smiling once again brightly. “The House has its own storage room and is connected to other Houses so whenever there is need for an item, one the House does not have in storage, they exchange items. Sometimes they are taken in possession from other supernatural places.” She explained.

“So... if I go to sleep now, by the time I wake up.... the room can look completely different?” he sketched a smile, thinking it was surely the coolest thing he had ever heard of.

“Yes. If there is something you need or do not like, if the thought it strong enough, it will change it. But it usually gets it right. The House is strong enough to asses’ brain waves. That’s how it minimizes powers. Well... with my help as well.” Sia spoke again as she moved towards the exit of the room.

“How exactly do you fit in all of this?” Kyuhyun made sure to ask before she could leave the room.

“What do you mean?” she stopped and turned to look at him.

“If the House is for creatures and people with special abilities and you are the caretaker of the house, what special ability do you have?” Kyuhyun mentioned.

She seemed to be very knowledgeable about the things that were happening and the creatures and people like him and even more knowledgeable about the Hous and that meant she was perhaps the one person that could explain anything or maybe everything to him. Maybe she was the only person that could properly explain to him what exactly his ability was and how it worked and how he could stop it and why she was the one person that he couldn’t get a read from. She had to have something special of her own if she was in charge of a house so mysterious and magical and full of supernatural things. With a House like that and residents like those, it would have been pretty strange to have a caretaker without any ability at all.

“Oh, right. Remember how I said my name comes from Cassius ...and that means empty?” she began smiling again, looking happy to explain things to him and talk about it.

“Yes.” He agreed.

“Empty.” She repeated. “I am a negative. A child born on Friday 13. Some have tendencies to be a negative or a plus while some are a definite negative or a plus. By negative, I mean... “she hummed a bit, her eyes narrowing as she began thinking how to explain it to him.

Kyuhyun waited, still holding his backpack between his arms, looking like a lost college student or something that was not still in his element and felt slightly uncomfortable and in need of getting direction. He was also standing in the middle of  room where there were just four walls, two doors, and a bed and it surely enforced the image of a lonely guy lost and perhaps defenseless. He was already too confused with all the information he had received and he had to make peace with the idea he was going to see an incubus and a werewolf and would have to be careful of some dude doing mind control, now he had to make peace with the idea his room was going to change and while he absolutely had to see that with his own eyes, it was still rather strange.

“Let’s say your power is +10.” She tried, pursing her lips together. “Then my power is -10.” She added, knowing how weird it all sounded. “And that rends your ability null.”

“What if the power is ...100+?” he asked, seriously curious.

He did not have the chance to meet people that were different, as he was, and it were rather interesting and it made him feel fascinated and it felt like a small gathering of people that could talk at peace about the things that were happening to them. He was discovering a completely new side to the world as he knew it and it was as if he was opening a new chapter of history or studying some mythological creature or something and it was making him extremely curious, about everything.

“I reflect the amount of power in the negatives. It does not matter how strong someone is. Maybe calling it a negative mirror would be better. Since the House allows a certain amount of power usage, my ability is also diminished a bit but it is still strong enough. “She thought over it for a bit, wondering if it was indeed the right way to go about things since for her it was as natural as if she was talking about her name, mother or father.

Now that she thought about it, she had no reason to explain the nature of her abilities because she had been surrounded by the House and the creatures for almost all of her life. No one asked her who she was or what she could do because everyone around her already knew what she was and what she could do so this was actually the first time she had to explain about herself to others.  For her it made all the sense in the world. She had been born on Friday 13, 13:00, and that had made her a candidate to be a plus or a negative. Since her mother had the same ability, she had grown knowing that it didn’t matter what powers others had, her being within a 10 m radius of them turned them into nothing. The House made even her own ability waver a bit and that meant some things escaped past her reach but only those allowed by the House. Outside of it, it was back to turning anything into nothing. She could still remember a moment she encountered a shape shifter and was about to get too close but managed to back out on time right before the dude could show his horns and fangs.

“Alright then.” She clapped her hands, thinking it was about her cue to leave. “The House has a small tradition once it is completed. The guys probably already got the message to return to so you should either bring the rest of your stuff or take a nap until then.” She suggested.

Kyuhyun nodded, his thoughts still wrapped around everything she had told him and the amount of information he had to dig with and make peace with. He had a room and a bathroom and he could stay there for three months and then the rest of the year if he paid the rest of the amount on time so maybe it made no difference that the House changed rooms once a day. He wasn’t all that sure how it was going to be living at the same floor with an incubus and a werewolf or someone that could control the mind but he felt somewhat reassured about the wizard and the shade. He still wasn’t sure what a shade was but it couldn’t have been more shocking that demons, vampires and his two creature floor mates. Lost in his thoughts, he was about to let her leave without asking her what exactly was that tradition was about.

“Wait... the tradition?” he spoke right as she was about to close the door.

“Oh, that. The House demands that all residents meet in the main room and introduce themselves to each other, going through the main rules before actually celebrating the completion so everyone will be there. You’ll get to meet the gang.” She peeked her head inside his room, slowly explaining to him about the event that was going to take place soon, smiling as she finished talking before finally leaving and closing the door behind her.

“Right....” Kyuhyun talked to himself as he was left alone in an empty room that was going to change itself at any given moment.

According to Sia, the room provisioned itself with items based on the personality of the resident, making a few exceptions here and there if his desire was strong enough. How was the House going to do that if he was not so sure himself what his complex personality was? Sure, he liked games and wine and eating but it wasn’t like the room was going to get bigger, suddenly transforming into a kitchen and a bar or an arcade room or something like that. Plus, he liked singing too so what where the chances of his room suddenly looking like a half karaoke half video arcade room with kitchen and bar? What if some weird items appeared inside the room? The idea scared him. What if there was a side to his personality that he knew nothing about and the room was going to reveal t