Rule Investigator

My name is Lu Chen. I test haunted houses by sleeping in them.

At three in the morning, words of blood seeped through the wall: [Rule One: Never turn your back on a mirror.]

I didn’t run or call the police. I looked back at the mirror

My reflection didn’t turn around with me.

Only later did I learn that rule-bound monsters were everywhere in this world. Trapped at sites of anomalies, they waited for people to make a mistake so they could devour them.

And I was the only one who could see the rules written out.

The National Bureau of Anomaly Investigation recruited me. I thought I’d found a place where I belonged, until I discovered

Every time I solved a rule, I disappeared a little more from this world.

First my landlord forgot who I was. Then my name began to blur in the files.

The last person who remembered me was my partner, Su Mian.

“If even you forget me… did I ever exist at all?”