Chapter 41: Teeth (End)

Everly had come to find Rebecca.

Though she was young, Everly believed she had already weathered quite a few storms. But an experience like the recent “teeth incident” was a first for her. Because of hypnosis or some other unknown cause, she had clearly sensed danger—yet even that very sense of foreboding had been erased. As if brainwashed, she had thrown herself wholeheartedly into a morbid obsession with teeth and nearly lost her life in the process.

The experience filled Everly with a powerful sense of crisis.

It turned out that in the world of horror films, danger did not only come from physical threats—it could also strike on a mental level. And quite obviously, the latter was far more insidious and far more dangerous than the former.

After the cockroach incident, Everly had been training under Old John’s guidance. While improving her combat abilities, she had also been studying various survival skills and knowledge, successfully avoiding several crises as a result. That had made her somewhat complacent. After all, given her current condition, she figured she could probably dodge or overcome most physical dangers with enough effort. But only after this incident erupted did she suddenly realize that she had absolutely no resistance to attacks targeting the mind.

This couldn’t continue. She needed to consult someone knowledgeable.

Everly thought that since the dried toad that saved her had been given by Rebecca, there was no need to trouble a second person over the same matter. The most convenient consultant right now was naturally the mysterious fortune teller herself.

Thinking of Rebecca, Everly felt a twinge of regret. Because of Rebecca’s appearance and her school, Everly had looked down on her somewhat at the time. So before they parted, she had insisted on not exchanging contact information. If they had traded phone numbers back then, she wouldn’t now be trudging around the enormous campus with Old John, asking everyone they ran into whether they knew a female fortune teller with a wolf-tail haircut.

After asking around for quite some time, no one seemed to recognize Rebecca when described as “a wolf-tail-haired fortune teller.” But once Everly changed the description to “a Latina with two very prominent canine teeth,” someone quickly reacted and pointed the grandfather and granddaughter in the right direction.

Following the directions they were given, Everly and Old John went through quite a bit of trouble before finally finding Rebecca in a secluded classroom on campus, fast asleep at a desk with a coat draped over her.

“Oh my~ little lady, and this distinguished gentleman too, hello.” After being nudged awake by Everly, Rebecca let out a charming yawn. Her sleepy eyes were half-lidded as she smiled brightly at the two of them. “Judging by your complexion, little lady, the trouble that was bothering you has already been resolved. That’s wonderful news.”

“You can tell?”

“Mhm, I can see a little.” Rebecca tilted her head slightly. “Earlier, you formed a connection with something… very unpleasant.”

“So that’s why you said I was surrounded by bad luck…” Everly felt extremely speechless at the thought.

Influenced by certain films and TV shows from her previous life, she had always assumed that lines like ‘I see darkness on your forehead—you’re about to have a run of bad luck’ were just standard sales tactics fortune tellers used to drum up business, something that would work on foreigners too. So when Rebecca said she was plagued by misfortune, Everly hadn’t taken it seriously at all…

And it turned out to be true.

Rebecca gave Everly’s shoulder an understanding pat. “I was a bit vague, too… You understand, with certain entities, even merely speaking their names can draw their attention and bring disaster upon oneself. So in our line of work, we usually avoid being too explicit.”

Everly nodded.

Horror films were always full of cryptic speakers, but when there were too many of them, it felt strange. To maintain internal logic, this world seemed to operate under a rule like ‘speaking a name invites calamity,’ one that applied no matter which ‘movie set’ you were in. That made the abundance of evasive, riddle-speaking people suddenly seem perfectly reasonable.

“Then, Rebecca, do you know why I suddenly forgot about the video recording? I only remembered after drinking the toad-ash water you gave me. That was really strange. And what exactly was that bad thing you said was clinging to me?”

Rebecca shook her head honestly. “I don’t know about the recording.”

“You don’t?”

Rebecca shrugged, sounding perfectly justified. “I really don’t know why you lost your memory. Maybe some kind of hypnosis. I haven’t studied that field much. All I can say is that you were lucky, little lady. The dried toad just happens to have properties that dispel evil and illness. The ‘illness’ that was obscuring your memory was driven away, so naturally you were able to recall what you had forgotten.”

“As for the entity clinging to you, I do have a guess—did you bring the tooth?”

Everly nodded and took out the tooth sealed in a plastic bag from her handbag. Ever since it had emitted black smoke under the sunlight that day, the enamel’s sheen had completely faded. Now it looked dull and ashen, as though it had been buried underground for hundreds of years.

Rebecca took the tooth, opened the bag, and placed her fingers on it, closing her eyes.

After only a short while, Everly saw her break out in a cold sweat. Rebecca abruptly opened her eyes and jerked her hand away from the tooth as if she had been burned.

“I saw a ritual…” Rebecca panted heavily, pressing her fingers against her brow. “A very ancient ritual. The offerings were the flesh and blood of living people, and a large number of teeth pulled from captives’ mouths. This tooth was one of those offerings.”

A wave of disgust rose in Everly’s chest. She had been mentally prepared that the tooth might have belonged to a dead person, but she hadn’t expected it to be that ancient. The thought made her skin crawl.

“I specialize more in divination; my clairvoyance isn’t particularly strong,” Rebecca continued. “But judging by their attire, they were likely the Aztecs. You know, because of those damned Spanish colonizers, the Aztec civilization was destroyed as early as the 16th century, and many related texts and records were lost. So I can’t tell you exactly which deity they were worshipping. I can only say that this god’s domain was related to ‘teeth.’”

Everly blinked in surprise. “There’s actually a god like that?”

“Of course. Teeth are very important—especially in ancient times, when medicine wasn’t so advanced. A healthy set of teeth often meant a strong body and better chances of survival. In fact, since aging is usually accompanied by tooth loss, some cultures associated teeth with death, believing that control over teeth was also within the domain of a death god.”

“But I don’t understand…” Everly frowned. “I don’t even know who that god is. Why would They bewitch me like that?”

She had originally assumed that whatever influenced her was some kind of evil spirit—at worst, maybe a demon. She had never imagined it could be something more serious, something like a “god.” The strangest part was that she had no idea when or how she might have provoked such a being.

“It was probably because of that video you watched,” Rebecca guessed. “Though this is the first time I’ve heard of someone forming a connection with an unknown deity just by watching a recording. As expected of America—even the methods of spreading faith are at the forefront of the world!”

“Faith?”

“You could also call it ‘contamination.’ It depends entirely on your attitude toward that deity. If you are devout and sincerely believe, regarding Them as your sovereign, then what the video transmits to you is the power of faith. But if you don’t worship that god and still watch the recording, then you’ll be contaminated—unknowingly becoming that deity’s follower. By the way, the latter is extremely dangerous. Aside from those widely recognized orthodox gods, the vast majority of deities require offerings from their believers. A god’s gifts are never without cost. If you receive but do not repay, you will inevitably suffer that god’s backlash.”

The more Everly listened, the more something felt off. She raised her hand like a student in class. “But I didn’t ask that… whatever god for anything.”

“Are you sure?”

“?”

“Are you absolutely sure you didn’t ask anything of that god?” Rebecca’s smile faded. She fixed Everly with an intense, unwavering stare, her expression completely serious as she repeated the question.

Everly fell silent.

She thought of the canine tooth that had grown in. It had emerged suddenly the day after she returned from the clinic, and once it broke through the gum, it grew at an astonishing speed. At the time, she had been mentally clouded—like a veil had been draped over her mind—and hadn’t felt anything strange about it. But now that she thought about it, the whole thing had been abnormal from the very beginning.

She couldn’t remember clearly whether she had made a wish for a new tooth—but she suspected she had. Ever since losing the upper-left canine, she had been distressed about the damage to her appearance, staring at herself in the mirror almost every night. The evening she came back from the clinic, she had probably prayed for a new tooth while looking at her reflection.

That must have been why a new tooth had grown from her gum. It was the god’s response to her.

“Judging by your expression, you’ve realized it?” Rebecca asked.

“…Yes. But I was only thinking about it! I swear I never intentionally asked a god to give me a tooth!”

Rebecca spread her hands. “But you watched the recording. That was no ordinary thing. After seeing it, you passively became a potential follower of that deity and formed a connection. When you wished for a new tooth, the god linked to you received that prayer and responded. From Their perspective, since you accepted the gift, you should offer tribute in return. But you didn’t. That’s the root of everything that followed.”

“T-That’s completely unreasonable!”

Rebecca let out a soft snort. “Little lady, that’s a god. How can you expect Them to reason with ants?”

Wow. Her tongue is sharp…

Even though Everly knew Rebecca was right, she couldn’t help feeling choked by the words. She puffed out her cheeks and bit her lower lip in frustration before pressing on.

“Then if I’ve already pulled the tooth out, does that mean it’s over?”

“It shouldn’t have been that simple,” Rebecca said. “After all, pulling out the tooth doesn’t change the fact that you once enjoyed the grace granted by a god. However, the way you formed that connection was… irregular. The bond between you was inherently fragile. So when you forcefully rejected the gift at the cost of your own blood, the link naturally broke.”

She tilted her head, thinking for a moment. “It’s kind of like counterfeit money. If both parties accept it, even fake bills can circulate smoothly. But the moment one side objects, it stops being money and becomes nothing more than a piece of scrap paper.”

The analogy wasn’t perfect, but Everly understood—and let out a long breath of relief.

As long as the connection was severed, that was all that mattered… She still had several baby teeth left to lose. If that god still considered her a “pseudo-believer” and decided to gift her a few more oversized yellow teeth, what then? She never wanted to experience the agony of pulling out a tooth again for the rest of her life.

Now that she had finally clarified the whole situation, Everly set the past aside and moved on to business.

She lowered her head and rummaged around, pulling a green frog-shaped wallet from her pocket. From it, she took out a thick stack of hundred-dollar bills and placed them in front of Rebecca.

Rebecca’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets at the sight of the hefty pile of cash. She glanced at Everly, then at Old John. Seeing that the old man showed no objection whatsoever to his granddaughter casually pulling out such a large sum of money, Rebecca immediately turned back to Everly, her expression eager and sycophantic as she rubbed her hands together.

“Little lady, this is…?”

Everly got straight to the point. “Do you have any more of that dried toad from last time? I’d like to buy some.”

Rebecca looked disappointed. “That… was something my mother gave me before she left. There was only one. I don’t have any more.” She brightened quickly, though. “But I do have other things. Interested, little lady?”

“What kind of things?”

“They’re all in my dorm… Please wait here. It’s nearby—I’ll go get them right now. Make sure you wait for me! You have to!”

After saying that, Rebecca looked at Everly with intense conviction. Everly understood and nodded at her. The woman then turned to Old John.

Left with no choice, Old John imitated Everly and gave the wolf-tail-haired girl a solemn nod as well.

Only then did Rebecca shout, “Oh yeah!” She sprang up from her chair, slung her flat, tattered backpack over her shoulders, and dashed out like a gust of wind.

Ten minutes later, she returned, panting heavily. She was still the same person—but the backpack on her back had transformed. What had been thin as a stray dog now looked like it was suffering from obesity.

“Crystal ball, spirit board, obsidian cross, exorcism bell…” she rattled off. “I brought everything I had with me. Little lady, take your pick!”

As she spoke, she grabbed the straps of her backpack and, like someone dumping out trash, lifted and shook it—spilling the entire contents across the desk in one heap.