The curtain was swaying in the cold wind, revealing a sliver of the dazzling city lights outside.

In the end, there was still nothing behind him at all. Clearly, he should have felt fortunate, yet for some reason, Silvanus felt an even stronger sense of regret welling up in his heart.

Impossible. It must be an illusion, definitely an illusion.

Thinking this, Silvanus stood up from his chair and walked toward the window to close it.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

At that moment, a loud crashing sound suddenly came from the door, as if something were repeatedly slamming against it, carrying an urgency that could not be concealed.

Silvanus froze. His hand gripping the window handle tightened so much that the knuckles of his fingers turned pale.

He let out a breath and then walked over to open the door.

"Click."

The moment the door opened, a dark blur flapped straight into the room, followed closely by a red plastic ball.

Silvanus curled his lips slightly, his expression a mix of helplessness and indulgence. "Matt, go outside."

But the moment he turned his head, Silvanus's expression turned serious, along with his tone.

The black swan, only about the size of a duck—Matt—opened its beak and let out two cries. Then it directly flapped its wings onto the bed, curling itself up and looking like a pitch-black seat cushion.

Although it was called a black swan, Silvanus had never actually seen any black swan as dark as Matt. Matt's eyes were also rather unusual. Sometimes they looked brown, and other times they gleamed like amber. Perhaps it was just a matter of lighting. In any case, Silvanus didn't care much about it.

He bent down and used his index finger to poke Matt on the forehead, warning, "You'd better stay this quiet the entire time I'm working."

After saying that, he turned around and returned to his work.

Matt was unusually obedient today. It truly didn't run around everywhere or constantly pester Silvanus to play ball with it.

Every time Silvanus snapped out of his working state, he couldn't help but wonder whether his tone and expression earlier had been too frightening.

"Ring ring ring!"

At that moment, the timer on the side suddenly rang. It was eleven at night. Silvanus glanced at the unfinished ending he had been writing.

The MC would be killed by the invisible monster he had created in his own story. As for the ending of the character in the story the MC was writing—

There were still another thousand words left for that part, but the deadline was two days away. Silvanus felt that he should spend some time with the sulking swan.

But after he finished tidying everything up and got into bed, Silvanus realized that Matt had already fallen fast asleep.

Silvanus couldn't help frowning slightly. Matt had indeed been rather strange today.

Darkness enveloped the entire room. The curtains were drawn tightly, preventing even a sliver of moonlight from shining in.

The clock ticked steadily, a sound so faint that only in the stillness of such a night did it seem clearer than ever.

Finally, the hour hand struck midnight.

Silvanus, who had been lying on the bed, suddenly opened his eyes. His heart was pounding so fast that it seemed his eardrums were trembling along with it, his chest shaking as if that lump of flesh constantly contracting inside could burst out at any moment.

Instinctively, Silvanus raised a hand to press against his chest.

"Thud… thud…"

Just then, the sound of a ball dropping and rolling across the floor suddenly echoed out. In the darkness of the night, the abrupt noise startled Silvanus. The hand on his chest clenched tightly, wrinkling the fabric of his clothes.

His heart constricted painfully. His eyes kept blinking, his pupils shrinking, some indescribable emotion beginning to spread.

"Matt… Matt?"

In the darkness, Silvanus called out tentatively.

But Matt, who would normally become lively the moment he heard Silvanus's voice, was strangely silent now.

Silvanus finally groped his way up and searched for the light switch. For some reason, the series of actions suddenly felt oddly familiar to him.

"Click!"

The switch was turned on, but the light didn't come on.

At that moment, the sound of water dripping suddenly echoed again, and the bathroom light abruptly flared to life.

"Matt, are you playing with water at this hour? Haha…"

Silvanus himself wasn't sure how forced his tone sounded.

Everything was clearly strange, wasn't it? Anyone could see that something was very strange. Perhaps some monster, some ghost, or some extraterrestrial creature had finally appeared…

No!

Silvanus shook his head violently, quickly straightening out his thoughts. In a situation like this, it was far more likely that some murderer had sneaked into his house, killed Matt, and was now preparing to kill him as well.

Yet that line of thought somehow made Silvanus feel even more like running away.

But thinking about it again, what if it wasn't a murderer? What if… it was something else?

The moment that thought crossed his mind, Silvanus suddenly realized why the scene felt so familiar. It was because it had already existed in his mind before.

This was exactly the ending he had prepared for his MC. In the end, his MC would open the bathroom door and be killed by that invisible monster…

As Silvanus thought this, his hand had already reached the doorknob.

Just a quick look. He would really only take a quick look. What if Matt was actually just playing with water? 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

As if he had finally found a clear excuse for himself, the bathroom door was ultimately pulled open.

"Honk! Honk!"

Matt's characteristic cries rang out, accompanied by sharp flapping sounds that stirred the water in the bathtub.

Silvanus stared blankly at the scene before him. It wasn't until Matt let out a confused honk that he came back to his senses.

"Matt, how many times have I told you not to bathe at night!"

He truly couldn't understand how a swan could turn on the water and even know to shut it off once the bathtub was full.

He threatened, "If you don't behave, I'll send you to the research institute's operating table. Scared?"

"Whooopp—!"

Matt suddenly let out a loud cry and began struggling violently. Silvanus couldn't help being startled.

"Hey, I was just joking. Don't be scared, hey…"

But Matt, who was usually obedient, kept struggling nonstop. It even seemed to be trying to run behind Silvanus. Under the bathroom light, Silvanus seemed to see something reflected in those clear amber eyes.

He abruptly turned his head back. Before he could clearly see the shape of that creature, everything in Silvanus's vision fell into darkness.

Ah… so I was right after all… strange things really do exist in this world!

Silvanus almost cried out in excitement before realizing there was nothing to be happy about at all. Both he and Matt had become prey for that creature.

Yes, it should have been like that. But then why was he still able to think?

Just as Silvanus thought this, a sound like a whistle echoed out. Then Matt threw itself straight into his chest. Already too used to this, Silvanus simply wrapped his arms around Matt and quickly looked around.

This place was pitch black. The ground could not be seen beyond a meter, and the surrounding space was an extremely dark and gloomy void.

Only a tiny beam of light shone down from above, illuminating the lone figure of Silvanus within this endless darkness.