We looked behind and saw no one . The sudden touch that I felt on my knees made me look down and I shrieked because of the sudden realization of a small man's presence near me . He looked at me and shrugged his shoulders , giving me a welcoming yet mischievous smile .
The man looked like a child but his deep voice was what made me realize that he was actually a grown man . He was bald , had pure white skin , and dressed in all orange , just like a monk . He took us back inside and made us sit on one of the sofa's . He mumbled , "Hoc solum videt homo et quae sunt remota ab ipsa mundi." Ben gasped in shock as soon as he finished chanting this a few more times . "So this was why you told this place looked like a palace! " A huge smile grew on his face .
I looked back at the monk - like dwarf man . " I'm Lucas Dominic . Your friend's eyes were revealed the wonders that were hidden from people like him . Humans will see this very unapproachable and creepy but only supernatural creatures can see it's true form once they enter the house ."
I finally breathed knowing that he had a good intention for it and it was not making us see illusions . "ghare snnjsnn sujbs sjhsn?" Both me and Ben slightly jumped from our seats because of the language we heard . It was something other than what we heard, probably chineae ."YOUR CHINESE?" We asked simultaneously .
"No kids . I have lived for more than 300 years and I found your father during my 167th year , if that's correct . We met each other in China , which is where I had stayed for almost half my life . " There was way too much to take in . Where had dad visited from around the world ?
"Because of my routine in China , Chinese came naturally . I just asked whether you father had sent you here ." He had a bright smile on when he mentioned my father , so I had a feeling that they were on really good terms right now .
"Uhh.. Luke .." I didn't know how to call him because I didn't know where he came from originally .
"You can call me Luke seonsaengnim . I'm originally from Korea . "
I bowed slightly to show my respect . His eyes wrinkled into an even brighter smile when I bowed . After that , I continued talking to know one last thing before coming to the reason why we were there . " Luke seonsaengnim , How did you know that I was my father's daughter ?"
I was really curious because I didn't have much closeness with dad right now and I wanted to know what he did when he was free . " He came here when he was free . All he cold talk about was you and I'm sorry but it was annoying ." He laughed at his own reply and we joined him . It was good to know that my father had such a warmhearted friend . Not letting me to distract myself from the topic again , I took out the carving we found .
"A group of heavily trained and armed men had tried framing us for Ben , my friend's murder . Thankfully , he was saved . We tried finding those men but they were quite careful with what they did . Except , we found this at the place where we saw them last . We have a feeling that they are also supernatural creatures so we wanted you to help us find out more about this carving . Do you have anything that might help us find those men ? "
The moment he saw the carving , he grabbed it from my hand and hid it from us . "YOU , MY CHILD , are playing a very dangerous game . You back down now , you can live a good life . I won't help you to put your head on the train track . "
He started walking away from us , taking big strides but we caught up to him . "At least let us fight ourselves then ! Don't take the carving ! We might need it . " He moved it away from us but we refused to stop trying . Finally , he kept in his pocket and Ben held his hands high . It was easy to get the carving . We ran back to the door but then heard a shout from behind , "Affer mihi, inquit vetiti diversitate!" The carving was moving back like iron following a magnet . I couldn't let it go like that so I used my power to stop it from moving . The force from both sides made a slight crack in between . "It's cracking ! Stop it Luke !"
As soon as he heard the word 'cracking' , he let go of the carving and I did too . But that was the wring move because then the carving fell to the ground and completely broke into half . I was about to cry out "Luke ! Now how am I supposed to find any use for it ! " But I had no time to react because dark shadows started growing from between the crack of the cracking .
"Stand back ! Rene ! Ben ! Neither of you will be able to stop it ! " We ran behind Luke and watched what he did , unable to help him .
"Interrogabo vos et ego daemonium, redi ad lacum Non hic te pertinent! Et dabunt scelus, si increduli fuerunt!" I didn't know what that chant meant but the shadows seemed to have slowed down it's growth and hissed at Luke . He continued chanting the same thing again and again . The shadow started growing smaller and smaller , until it was the same height as Luke .
We thought that he was going to solve this is no time but we were wrong . The shadow slowly took Luke's body shape , and then a few seconds later , his other features were copied as well . Luke looked back at us when he saw his exact duplicate and said , with tears in his eyes , "I'm sorry . II ca-" He was grabbed by a long tentacle from his replica's mouth . Ben screamed when he saw the blood flowing from his mouth and he smirked at us , now slowly walking towards us .