When they stepped into the house, Millie felt a shiver run over her body.

“What was that?”

“We just crossed into the genius loci,” Dara said. “It’s a small one, so the border is defined. Back home, some of the more natural loci don’t even really feel any different when you enter them.”

“Oh. Good to know.” Millie looked around and swallowed. The wallpaper was old and peeling, an ancient grandfather clock set directly in front of the entryway.

Its hands were running backwards, the clockface streaked with what looked like blood.

Or maybe it was just rust.

But it sure looks like blood. Millie clutched her broom to her.

“This way,” Dara said. “I think the center is this way.” She advanced, the globe of light on the top of her staff sending out its illumination and beating the darkness back. They passed doors, oddly proportioned doors. Some too narrow for people to get into them, others tiny, like doll-sized doors. Millie heard incomprehensible whispers behind them.

“What are those for?” she asked.

“The genius loci is going from dreams and belief, not written plans,” Dara said. “Remember, something like this isn’t sapient. It doesn’t know that this isn’t what a real house is like.”

Millie nodded. “And if the kids were scared, they’d probably also be seeing things sort of warped.”

“Yes. Like a nightmare.”

“Why can’t you just wreck it in here?”

“Can’t. Have to find the kids first.”

“Why?”

“What if it’s holding them on the second floor? When I disrupt the spirit, all this is going to vanish.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Sorry, judge, we freed the kids and then they fell and broke their necks.

They came to a human-sized door at the end of a long corridor. Millie glanced at the paintings on each side, then looked away. It wasn’t the scenes of butchery, but the way every human figure was subtly… off.

“In the name of Satan, grant me the power of revenge!” the voice seemed to make the very air shiver.

“That’s the villain from Satan’s Apartment!” Millie said. “It was the most popular of the House of the Devil franchise!” Then she paused. “Dara?”

“Yeah?”

“The villain said that just as the heroes were coming into the apartment.”

“Good, it’s playing to the story,” Dara said.

“The heroes all died!”

Dara glanced back at Millie and smiled. “I didn’t say we were playing to the story. But the closer it sticks to the story, or at least what the people who helped form this think the story is, the less independent it will be. That’s good.” She reached out and tried to turn the doorknob. “Huh. Locked. Hold on.” Dara stepped back, and then jabbed the tip of the staff into the door, shouting a single, sharp word.

Suddenly the light turned to blue flames that seemed to cling to the door, the material of the door shivering, before it exploded into dust, leaving the way clear.

“Ectoplasm,” Dara said. “And not even reinforced. Let’s go. It knows we’re dangerous to it, now.”

“Right, that makes me feel so much better.” Millie shook her head. But she didn’t hesitate as Dara walked in through the open door.

Dara shivered as she walked through the house. Things like this were actually pretty common back home. Not genius loci, but the use of ectoplasm to create objects. She’d seen mages use it to shore up damaged structures after the Big Quake, and of course every festival had some apprentices putting together mazes or fun houses out of ectoplasm.

But this was the first time she was going into the domain of a spirit that wanted to hurt her. One that would hurt some kids if Dara wasn’t able to stop it. This wasn’t something a student was supposed to handle herself.

But then it’s not a powerful spirit, nor a sapient one. Dara bit her lip under her mask. I can do this.

Now the walls were bleeding, moans and cries emerging from the closed door.

“Kid?” Millie asked.

Dara shook her head. “It’s just playing the role.”

“Ain’t never gonna see a rerun in the same way,” Millie muttered. “How do we get to the kids?”

“If you’re right about the story, the spirit wants us to go there so we can try to ‘rescue’ them.”

“And then?”

“It’ll try to kill us.” Dara shook her head. “But it’s never fought a mage before.” And I’ve never fought a spirit like this before.

Millie probably didn’t need to know that.

As they moved forward, the corridor started to twist. Doors were on each side, but when Millie tried them, they were locked. She lightly rapped one with the broom, and a shower of blue sparks rewarded her.

“Not as good as your staff?”

“You’re not a mage, so you can’t pump more power into it.” Dara shook her head. “I’ll have to make foci to deal with spirits if this keeps up.”

“Sounds good. But…”

“Yes?”

“Shouldn’t we be on the other side of the property by now?”

“Remember, the spirit can change how this looks,” Dara said. “It may look like a straight walk, but I bet it’s curving, the house changing around us. That’s probably how it trapped the children.” Turning the corner, she paused, looking down a narrow flight of stairs. “Or we could have been walking on a rising slope—so that it can pretend to have a basement. Did any of the movies…”

“Satan’s Apartment 3, the Return of Satan’s Mistress,” Millie said. “They found a temple under the apartment building where Satan’s wife was gonna be resurrected by a…sacrifice.”

“You have very strange ideas of entertainment,” Dara said. She held up the staff and suddenly the blue light was bright enough to cause Millie’s eyes to water.

Around them, the walls seemed to shiver in response, and a soft groan ran through the structure.

“Let’s go.” Dara said, moving swiftly down the stairwell, Millie behind her. At the bottom, the door was open, flickering light emerging from it.

Dara strode through it, trying not to breathe the scent of rot and old blood. Inside, there was a fire burning in an elaborate fireplace, leering faces carved into every brick. Two tables were in front of it, two children were tied to the tables.

Tim and Shelly, Dara figured. Both of them were unconscious, and surrounding them were four cloaked figures.

Waiting for us. “Millie, did the rescuers get killed before or after the captives were killed?”

“Before. The last scene was them waking up to see their dead friends.”

“Good.”

“You have a strange definition of good.”

“You have come to Satan’s temple, and now you will participate… in his Wedding!” one of the cloaked figures said. It pulled back its hood to reveal a woman’s face, framed with wild locks of white hair. “I have waited, and now you shall—“

Dara brought the staff down and struck the ground with it, as the light redoubled in intensity and the figures froze for a second, and then a loud shriek echoed through the room.

“Blasphemer!” With that, the woman charged Dara, a knife just appearing in her left arm, but her right arm remained at her side, as if she didn’t care about it.

Or as if it wasn’t a real human, with a real human body, charging Dara. Dara snapped the staff down and then stabbed the woman in her belly. The blazing tip of the staff slid into her like a knife into butter, her ‘flesh’ boiling away from the staff. Moments later, she dissolved into ash that soon vanished.

But now the other figures were moving towards them, sprouting arms, eyes, and mouths all over their bodies.

“It’s decided to stop playing!” Dara shouted.

“I noticed!” Millie said. She smacked one critter with too many teeth across its face and there was a flash of blue, the end of the broom acting more like a sledgehammer as the thing’s head flew off. The rest of the body staggered back, but then an arm grew out of the stump, holding a butcher’s knife in its hand.

“Dara!”

“Just hold them!” Dara swept the legs of another creature out from under it, then brought the staff down on its head. Unlike Millie’s enemy, this one didn’t get back up.

Dara started to draw the symbols she’d need on the floor, but then “Satan’s Wife” grabbed the staff, wrecking the half-completed ritual.

“Let-go!” Dara snarled, running a surge of energy through the staff. The figure staggered back, inhuman sounds coming from its mouth as the face lost definition, oozing ectoplasm covering the eyes.

It’s not playing now. A genius loci like this generally had issues if those inside it weren’t acting according to its nature. Thank the spirits it’s young. If Mike hadn’t alerted them, Dara didn’t want to think what it might have eventually become, feasting off of the imagination and belief of those around it. It might have even awakened to full sapience.

But right now, Dara didn’t care. She sent another surge of energy through the staff and now the figure staggered back, looking like half-melted wax, stumps where its hands had been. Then a mouth opened in its torso.

Dara leveled the staff at it and sent a bolt of fire, so bright her eyes watered. The mixture of magery and natural heat carved through the ectoplasm like it wasn’t even there, continuing on and slashing into the wall.

The entire house heaved, a groaning sound echoing through the air.

“What are you doing?” Millie shouted. She’d finished beating her opponent into a shapeless mass, the broom somewhat the worse for wear.

Dara sent another bolt of fire into the ceiling. “It’s too active for me to do the ritual. It’d take me at least five minutes. So I have to disrupt it physically!”

“Kid, we’re inside the building you’re burning down!”

“Don’t worry!” Dara said. “When it is disrupted, all of this will vanish.”

Millie coughed, then shook her head. “Before or after we die of smoke inhalation!”

“Before, I hope. Get the kids!” Dara said, whirling the staff over her head, spraying more fire in the room. Now there were arms coming out of the walls, clawed hands trying to grab them.

“Oh, come on!” Millie shouted. “That wasn’t even part of the film series! This thing is getting that from that crappy cartoon!” She made her way to the two kids and started to undo their bonds, then blinked as the leather just dissolved in her hands. “I think it’s working, Kid!” Millie grabbed the first kid, the girl, and pulled her to her feet. She blinked her eyes, once, twice, then looked around and started screaming.

“No!” Millie shouted. “No screaming! Running! Then screaming!” Millie dropped the broom to the ground and turned the girl in the direction of the stairs. Then she blinked. “The stairs are gone.”

“Good!” Dara shouted back. Something was rising in front of her, an indistinct form with at least four heads and a dozen arms coming out of it. Dara brought her staff down on it, shoving the tip into its flesh, and unleashed another bolt of fire that saw globs of ectoplasm flying through the air. “Remember, the stairs were just something it created. We’re already on the ground!” Dara turned around and charged the wall, whacking the arms out of the way. “Get ready!” Please be ready. Dara didn’t know what would happen if they were inside when the spirit died. Why couldn’t I have come here after I graduated?

Millie grabbed the other kid, and like the girl, the boy started screaming as he took a look at their surroundings.

“Yeah, I know, everything’s on fire!” Millie said. “Get ready to follow—“ She shrieked as something grabbed her hair and pulled her back.

Dara spun around to see something rising up behind Millie, one long, inhuman arm reaching out and grabbing her. It was bigger and seemed more real than the other creations.

It’s the center of the genius loci. A smart spirit would have kept that away from them, but this wasn’t a smart spirit.

“Millie! Get down!” Dara shouted, and Millie threw herself to the ground, the two children under her body. Then Dara unleashed all she had left, the column of fire nearly as bright as the sun. She felt the backwash of heat against her face as the fire, and more importantly, the sorcery that created it struck the creature. Struck and clung to it, fire running up and down its body.

The shriek was so loud that Dara was surprised her eardrums hadn’t burst. It rose up… then burst, the backlash staggering Dara as the complex magical matrix that made up the creature collapsed.

And then the house was falling apart around them. Dara ran to the others, dodging fragments of the ceiling that dissolved into ectoplasm as they hit the floor.

But getting crushed by something that vanished a second later was as bad as getting crushed by a natural stone.

Parts of Millie’s hair had been charred by the passing fire, and her exposed skin was red. Dara patted her smoldering hair out as Millie staggered to her feet, pulling the two, thankfully, unharmed kids with her.

“That way!” Dara said. At least there wasn’t much smoke. Ectoplasm just vanished when burned, instead of turning into a lethal cloud. Millie pushed the kids forward, the girl shrieking as an organ fell through the ceiling, directly in front of them.

Even dying, it’s still trying to kill us. Stupid spirit! Dara used her staff to slash through the dissolving mass and then just started carving through the walls. Now that the spirit was dying, the power maintaining its form was rapidly fading. She slashed and pushed. Millie behind her with the kids, and then with one last thrust, Dara staggered out into the night air.

“Go!” Millie shouted, pushing the kids out behind Dara before she emerged herself.

They all fell in an untidy heap. The house shuddered, and then started collapsing on itself, the wood and plaster turning transparent and vanishing into clouds of motes.

As the crashing sounds faded into the evening, the only thing that was left was a concrete slab.

“Well,” Millie said. “That wasn’t fun.”

The two kids were holding each other, sniffling. Dara turned to them and then blinked.

They can see Millie’s face! She got in between them and Millie, bending down, the two flinching back at her masked face.

“Getting involved with magical entities can be very dangerous,” Dara said. “Next time, if you see a house where there shouldn’t be one, don’t go inside. I might not be around.”

“Are you a superhero?”

“Um…”

“Yap, that’s her.”

Dara shot a betrayed look at Millie.

The boy’s eyes widened. “You’re the person who fought that monster in Fullerton! That was so cool!”

“I, um, yes, it was…” Dara stuttered. “Look, we need to get you home and…”

“I’ve got service!” the girl said, pulling her phone out and looking at it. “Can I get a selfie?”

“A what?” Dara asked. You were almost sacrificed a few minutes ago!

“A picture! So people know we were telling the truth!”

“I, um, that might not be good.” Dara shook her head, backing off.

“Oh, I know, you have enemies!” the boy said.

“Right,” Millie said. “Look, can I ask you to not give any descriptions? Also, if you saw the license plate on the car over there, can you forget it?”

“Sure!” The boy paused. “We can wait until you’re gone before we call 911.”

“That’s, um…” Dara shook her head, feeling like a horse had just run her over. “That’s great. We need to be going now!” She backed off and smiled at Millie. “Right?”

“Sure. Don’t forget to make that call, kids,” Millie said. As she and Dara headed for the car, Millie whispered. “They gonna be okay?”

“Yes. It wasn’t that kind of spirit,” Dara said. “If they weren’t hurt physically, they’ll be okay, but what was all that about?”

“Hey, when you’re a knight in shining armor, expect some hero worship.” Millie paused. “But I think we’ll wait at the gas station down below to make certain they do call 911. If nobody shows up, we’ll come back up and check.”

“Right.”

But almost before they’d stopped at the gas station, filling the car up like normal people, Dara saw a helicopter go overhead, as a small army of police cars when zipping by the gas station.

I guess they did call. But now all Dara wanted to do was go home and go to sleep.