She had guessed right!

Recently, I had been feeling constant chills down my back, especially when I was at home.

Sometimes, I even felt as if someone was following me, but when I turned my head around, I saw nothing.

I had thought that I was tired from work. But could it actually be…?

[How did you know? I did feel someone watching me.]

[That about sounds right. Your roommate might have performed the Guiding Ritual because of you.]

[What do you mean?]

[I don’t know the details, but I suggest you ask an expert about this. I have a friend who has some knowledge about the occult. Do you want me to ask for you?]

I hesitated for a moment before agreeing to it. The situation had indeed surpassed my realm of understanding, and I needed a professional to give me answers.

After putting down my phone, I found Yvonne with her nose still buried in a book.

What was she doing?

Almost half an hour passed before the person sent me a contact number.

[This is my friend’s WhatsApp number. Henry has been studying the occult for years, so just ask him any questions you have.]

I added Henry and gave him a brief rundown of the situation before he replied.

[Send a few photos to me.]

While Yvonne was distracted, I took a few photos of the shoe cabinet, the shoes arranged neatly on the floor, and a discreet shot of her.

A long time passed before Henry replied, [According to folklore, you’re in quite the complicated situation. Your friend is indeed performing the Guiding Ritual.]

[What does it do?] I asked urgently.

[It’s an ancient ritual, and just as the name suggests, the Guiding Ritual is to guide the way for certain creatures. There are plenty of Guiding Rituals. Some guide good souls, and some guide bad ones. It all depends on the type of method she’s using.]

Upon seeing this, my heart leapt to my throat.

[Which type is my roommate using?]

[Based on the photos you sent, she used a shoe array to perform the Guiding Ritual. This is the first step of the Guiding Ritual. The tips of the shoes are pointed inward to form the array to guide the way for some entities. But it’s just pointing them in the right direction. She needs to perform other rituals to summon this entity.]

The more I read, the more my skin crawled.

[Usually, those who need guidance are some unique entities. They don’t have a set movement pattern, and they need people to guide their way.]

[Are you saying…?] I did not dare think further about this.

[I can only say that your roommate has her own reason for performing the ritual. Based on your description on how long it lasted, she hasn’t been doing this for just one day, has she?]

I recalled the exact date. [It has been about six days.]

[That’s troublesome. Guiding Rituals usually have a time limit that lasts for seven days. This means that the entity she has been guiding is close to its target. Your roommate has been adjusting the angle and location of the shoes every day. This is her way of drawing out the route for the entity. There’s a unique characteristic to the ritual too. The end of the route has a deep tie with the caster.]

When I saw this, I felt my blood turn cold.

[Are you saying that the entity might be going for my roommate?]

[It’s not necessarily her. It could be someone else in your house. The most complicated part of the Guiding Ritual is that only the caster knows the true target.]

I then remembered the feeling of being watched and asked, [If I’m the target, what sort of signs would I see?]

[The target usually experiences some unique signs, such as feeling cold often, feeling as if something is following them, or experiencing strange dreams. Are you experiencing any of these?]

My hands trembled as I typed, [Yes for the first two.]

[You might be the target of the ritual, then.]

[What do you mean? What’s being drawn to me?]

[There are plenty of reasons behind why a Guiding Ritual is cast. I can’t form conclusions rashly. But I can be certain of one thing. Since she has chosen to perform the ritual on you, there is some sort of special connection between you two. Or rather, you’re important to her.]

I was only normal roommates with Yvonne. We did not even speak to each other on a daily basis.

Why was she conducting this strange ritual on me?

According to Henry, this was even a complicated ritual that lasted seven days.

[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.

[I’m sure she knows the reason why you sense these anomalies. Based on her reaction, she has been observing your changes.] Henry replied after reading my description.

I put down the phone and felt that familiar chill.

That invisible entity seemed to be right beside me, and I could practically feel it.

In order to see whether Henry was telling the truth, I decided to investigate the anomalies in-depth. I hence checked the air-con again and found traces of the refrigerant leaking out, which explained why the temperature beside my bed was so cold. I also noticed the renovation notice my neighbors put out. They had been renovating their place at night, which explained the faint noises.

As for Yvonne adjusting the shoes according to my work-life schedule? It might really be due to her OCD.

She could only relax in a “perfect” environment.

I was beginning to think that the Guiding Ritual was just superstition, and I was overcomplicating a normal event.

Thus, I decided to not think about this anymore and continue with my life as normal. After all, I found a reasonable explanation for everything.

I was about to send Henry a message to tell him that I had found the source for all the anomalies and we were just overthinking when Yvonne came home.

“How are you today?” she asked me in great concern.

“Pretty good. I’ve figured some things out. I might have been too stressed lately, and that’s why I was overcomplicating some normal phenomenon.”

Yvonne’s expression was a little strange, as if she was relieved but also worried. “That’s good, then. You should go to sleep.”

It was just 9 p.m., but Yvonne said that she wanted to go to bed earlier and went back to her room.

I was about to go back to my room as well when I heard whispers coming from Yvonne’s room.

I walked on tiptoes to her room door.

“That’s right. She’s suspecting things. She believes my claim about me having OCD for the time being, but for some reason, she’s beginning to suspect other things,” Yvonne whispered.

I held my breath and stuck close to the door to listen in.

“I know. We need to speed up. If we drag this out, it’ll be troublesome.”

The person on the other end of the phone said something.

“It’s the seventh day tomorrow. We can’t wait any longer. I’ve prepared everything. We can proceed as planned.”

Then, she hung up.

Terrified, I quickly returned to my room with my heart hammering against my chest!

Yvonne’s OCD was fake?

Who was she colluding with? And what seventh day?

Original plan?

I then remembered what Henry had said. The seventh day was a crucial moment.

Had Henry been telling the truth?

A moment passed, and I heard Yvonne bathing.

I used the chance to open her door.

The medical book and medical report were both in her room, but aside from them, I also saw things I had never noticed before.

Under her desk was a small box, and in it were red bottles, strange talismans, and a notebook covered in weird runes.

I flipped through the notebook. Aside from complicated arrays, it also contained words I could not understand.

One page in particular made my heart go cold.

On it was a diagram of how to position the shoes, and written by its side were these words.

[The summoning is complete on the seventh day.]

I put the things back in their original position and fled to the living room.

Yvonne was using OCD as an excuse to cover up the mysterious ritual she was performing!

Tomorrow was the seventh day.

With trembling fingers, I picked up my phone and sent a message to Henry.

[Henry, I’m sorry. Yvonne is really performing the ritual, and tomorrow is the seventh day! Where are you now? I need help!]

Henry’s reply came soon. [I’m nearby. I’ll go over to your place tomorrow, but before that, you need to be careful and not let her know that you’ve figured out the truth.]

I put down the phone and sensed that familiar chill in the room.

I was certain at this point that the anomalies were not due to the air-con or renovations.

Something was really here.