Unbreakble Chain

The silence within the farmhouse was thick and oppressive, broken only by the faint, labored sound of Ethan's breathing. His body felt alien to him—an unfamiliar vessel straining under a growing weight he could neither control nor understand.

He sat alone on the edge of the old couch, his hand resting lightly on his abdomen. The surface was still flat, but beneath it, something moved—a faint ripple, like the brush of a fingertip against glass from the other side. His chest tightened, and he fought the urge to recoil.

He wasn't alone inside himself.

The realization chilled him to his marrow.

Anna's voice cut through the air from across the room. "Elias is gone."

Ethan looked up sharply, his eyes meeting hers. She stood by the window, her silhouette tense, outlined by the pale moonlight that streamed through the broken blinds.

"What do you mean, gone?" Ethan's voice was hoarse, his throat raw from screaming during the ritual.

Anna turned, her expression tight. "I woke up, and he wasn't here. No note. No sound. Just… vanished."

Ethan's stomach twisted. "He wouldn't just leave us. Not without saying something."

Anna's eyes flashed with restrained fury. "Unless he saw something he didn't want to be part of."

The unspoken truth hung in the air like smoke—Elias knew.

Knew what was growing inside Ethan.

And he ran.

The room felt colder, the shadows longer than they should have been. The air itself seemed to vibrate, carrying a familiar pulse—a heartbeat that wasn't Ethan's own.

Suddenly, a sharp, searing pain tore through his abdomen. Ethan gasped, his body curling forward as he clutched his stomach, fingers digging into the fabric of his shirt. His vision blurred, and a voice—soft, lilting, and unmistakably hers—slid into his mind.

"Poor thing… does it hurt?"

Victoria.

The pain spiked, and Ethan collapsed onto his side, his breath ragged and shallow.

"Shhh…" Her voice was a whisper in his ear, cold and intimate. "It's only growing. You should be proud. You're carrying my greatest creation."

Ethan's teeth clenched, and he forced out a bitter growl. "Get out of my head."

A soft, amused laugh echoed through his skull. "Oh, my dear Ethan… I never left."

The air around him shifted, the shadows pooling and twisting until they coalesced into a familiar, towering figure. Victoria stood before him—not a dream, not a vision, but truly there. Her presence was both suffocating and magnetic, her form radiating an unholy beauty.

Anna reacted instantly, pulling her sidearm and aiming it squarely at Victoria. "Step back."

Victoria's gaze flicked to Anna, and for a fleeting moment, there was something ancient and cold in her eyes—a predator briefly curious about a weaker creature. She didn't move.

"You won't shoot," Victoria said softly, her voice dripping with certainty. "Because you know it won't change anything."

Anna's grip tightened, her finger on the trigger. "You don't know me."

Victoria's lips curved into a faint smirk. "But I know him." She glanced down at Ethan, her expression softening into something dangerously close to affection. "And if you pull that trigger… you'll only hurt what's mine."

The words were gentle, but the power behind them was absolute.

Ethan, still gasping, managed to push himself up slightly, his voice raw but defiant. "I'm not… yours."

Victoria's eyes flashed with something unreadable, and she crouched beside him, her fingers brushing his cheek with the kind of tenderness that made his skin crawl. "You've never been anything else."

The child within him stirred in response to her touch, and a wave of warmth—unnatural, foreign—spread through his body. His breath hitched as his muscles relaxed against his will, his body yielding to her presence.

Victoria's voice dropped to a whisper, meant only for him. "You think this is a curse. But it's a bond—one deeper than love, deeper than death." She leaned in, her lips grazing his ear. "You're part of me now. And soon… you'll understand that there's nothing more beautiful than belonging."

A tear, hot and unbidden, slipped down Ethan's cheek. "You destroyed me."

Victoria's lips brushed his temple in a mockery of comfort. "No, my love. I made you."

The air thickened, and shadows began to swallow her form. She was leaving—because she chose to, not because they could make her. As her presence started to dissolve, her voice lingered one final time in the room:

"Take care of yourself, Ethan. And… of us."

And then she was gone.

The silence that followed felt deafening.

Anna rushed to Ethan's side, her hands trembling as she touched his face. "Ethan. Ethan, look at me."

His eyes, glassy and dazed, met hers. His lips trembled, and in a voice that barely sounded like his own, he whispered:

"She's inside me."

His hand, weak but deliberate, moved to his abdomen. "And I can't tell… where she ends… and I begin."