My Roommate Keeps Fiddling With The Shoes

[What should I do now?]

[I suggest observing for now and see whether she does anything else unusual. If this is a real Guiding Ritual, she won’t just rearrange the shoes. She’ll definitely do something else. Also, you have to pay attention to tomorrow, since it’s the seventh day. By then, the guided entity will reach its goal. If you’re the goal, tomorrow night will be crucial to you.]

I put down the phone and felt that my entire world had become surreal.

The Guiding Ritual, the seventh day, the mysterious entity…

All of these sounded like they belonged in a novel, but they were happening to me! Even after hearing about Henry’s analysis, I still could not quite believe this. He said that something was being led to me, but aside from feeling like I was being followed, I did not feel anything strange.

In order to see whether he was telling the truth, I decided to observe my rented place.

The first thing that caught my attention was the temperature.

I noticed that whenever I returned to the room, I felt that the living room was slightly colder, especially around the bed. In the beginning, I thought that it was just a problem with the air con, but after taking a closer look, I found that even after turning the air con off, my bed remained colder than other places.

It was a strange cold. It was not a bone-chilling cold, but a ghastly chill, as if something I could not see was stuck to the bed.

In order to make sure that I was not imagining things, I snuck a thermometer into my room, only to find that I was right.

It was indeed around forty degrees Fahrenheit lower around my bed compared to the living room.

This difference in temperature was really stable too. No matter how the temperature outside changed, my bed would remain the coldest spot.

Aside from the temperature, I also noticed I was hearing things.

Sometimes, when I was alone in my room, even though it was really quiet, I could still hear some faint sounds, as if something was moving around quietly.

It was either this, or something was breathing silently.

It was hard detecting these sounds. I could only hear them occasionally during midnight.

I tried recording the sounds, but the effects were not clear. All I heard were some blurry sounds.

But what mostly attracted my attention was Yvonne’s reaction.

I noticed that she was rearranging the shoes according to my work-life schedule.

If I stayed for a longer period of time in the living room at night, the shoes would be directed toward the living room in the morning.

If I went back to my room to rest earlier, she would also adjust the shoes earlier.

It was as if she was plotting some sort of route according to my actions.

I told Henry all these things.

Henry soon replied, [The abnormal temperature means that something is right beside you, and your roommate adjusting the array according to your actions shows that you’re her goal.]

[What should I do now?]

[You can try asking her, but be careful of your words. Don’t let her figure out that you’ve realized something.]

When Yvonne came back at night, I found a chance to fish for answers.

“Yvonne, have you noticed something weird going on with the temperature lately? I’ve been feeling quite cold in my room.”

The last word gave her pause.

“When did you start having that kind of feeling?” She asked urgently, and there was a nervousness I had never seen before in her eyes.

“Around a week. It might be due to the season changing.”

Yvonne remained silent for a while.

“It’s okay. It’ll be over in a few more days.”

What did that mean?

What she said made it sound like she knew the reason behind why I was feeling this way, and she knew exactly when it would end.