Autophagy

"That woman appeared on our door," Isabel said. Her face was sour like she had remembered some bad things. She curled into a fetal position on the bed, putting her head on Song Lei's lap.

"And then? Who was that woman?" Song Lei urged her to continue. He got up from the bed and tried to open the window to see whether he could leave the mansion through there or not.

"Her name was Amber, just like the color of her hair." Isabel sighed. She got up from her fetal position and started fidgeting. "She was oozing with confidence when she first came to our door. And I can say that she deserved to have that confidence. She was one of the most beautiful women that I had seen to that day," she praised.

She gulped and said, "but being beautiful wasn't her only skill. She was much more than that. She had the ability to manipulate other people to her will. She slowly mind-washed my wimp of a husband and took the mansion over, slowly laying her roots, every person in this mansion was serving her."

"So? What did you do in response?" Song Lei asked. One of his eyebrows arched upwards as he was still trying to open the window.

"Nothing, that was the problem," Isabel started talking. "I was fed up with it. Seeing a woman so much more mature than me made me lose my confidence. I acted like a teenager even though I had Mia. I sulked at everything. Basically, I gave up in my anger and grief, not wanting to do anything about the hardships life threw at me," she said while gnawing on her nail.

"This made Amber's job much easier, eventually, all the maids, my husband, were all under her control. She made my husband divorce me just like his parents wanted. She had three children from him," Isabel said.

Song Lei frowned and finally realized that the window didn't budge, he turned around rested on it instead of trying to open it. "What happened to you then? You didn't leave the house?" He asked. Isabel looked at him for some time without saying anything.

"I didn't. I didn't know how to work and I was too scared to do anything at that moment. Not having the power to stand up for myself and my daughter, I gave up," she continued. "Amber was happy with that too. She separated my room from hers and put us on this floor. Right opposite to each other."

"That shouldn't have been that much of a problem. One of you could've walked across the corridor and you would've met," Song Lei said while tapping his fingers on the window.

"It would've been great if it was like that," Isabel said. "But that wasn't the case. Eventually, I fell sick too, just like my daughter. I sat on this bed, waiting to die. Fading away, day by day..."

"And Amber just kept you in her home? What did she gain from that?" Song Lei asked curiously. He was trying to keep his emotions out of this conversation. Although he was feeling plenty of anger and sadness, Isabel didn't need his pity.

"Practically? Nothing. She was keeping me there as a trophy. She would come to my room from time to time, looking at me without saying anything. I still remember that condescending smile on her face," Isabel said.

"That's bad," Song Lei commented with his arms crossed.

"Yes, it is. I eventually died with Mia and don't know what happened after..." Isabel finished explaining her story while letting out a huge breath.

"I see... So now? What are we supposed to do now?" Song Lei asked. Although he had some stuff to say, he wanted to focus on getting out of the dream space.

"As I've said. We will have to defeat the main villain," Isabel said while stroking her chin.

"So we have to fight Amber... Is Amber the flute monster?" Song Lei asked while pinching his nose. Isabel nodded. "How do we fight her? She controls every entity in this mansion, right? She has a lot of cards she can use and she must be very strong herself," Song Lei said.

"I've regained a lot of my power thanks to you. You've seen those flesh in the corridor, right? Those represented my powers. When you made me regain my motivation, I managed to get them back."

"Hmm... What about those tentacles? Are they a part of your power too?" Song Lei asked.

"What tentacles? There were tentacles in the corridor?" Isabel asked.

"Yes... Now that I think of it, they might belong to Amber right?" Song Lei answered back with a question.

"That's probably right... Anyways, as long as you can make it a one versus one for me against Amber, I can win it," Isabel said while clasping her arms behind her body.

Song Lei grinned and glanced at a random place. "That will be easy," he said. There were a few lines of words floating on the place he glanced at. They were system notifications.

[You've been pulled into a dream space!]

[You've managed to break the dream space's restrictions! System properties are back! You're back to your body! Your items are with you!]

[You've managed to befriend Earth-Bound Spirits Isabel Fraser and Mia Fraser. As they have high levels of intelligence, their relationships aren't dependent on a certain set of actions.]

[As you've managed to break the dream space's restrictions, you now have to defeat the main villain of the dream space to break free.]

Song Lei swiped off the notifications and took off his backpack to search it thoroughly. Both Mia and Isabel were looking at him without saying a word.

"Found it!" Song Lei shouted to himself. His grin was getting wider and wider.

"You're a weird person and that thing looks incredibly dangerous to my eyes," Isabel exclaimed.

Song Lei turned towards her while holding the cursed knife up. "Well, I will be going on hunting so...."