The Salt Circle in the Basement
When renovating his newly purchased Victorian home, Julian found a thick ring of grey salt poured meticulously across the dusty concrete basement floor. Dismissing it as harmless superstition from previous eccentric tenants, he swept the salt away into a single pile and threw it into the trash. Immediately, the temperature in the basement plummeted, and the heavy iron bulkhead doors slammed shut from the outside with a deafening crash. In the sudden pitch blackness, dozens of wet, barefoot footsteps began circling rapidly around him in the dark, accompanied by a chorus of whispers begging him to redraw the boundary before something wretched could finally touch him.
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