Chapter 38: Unfinished Business

The factory was a distant memory now, but its mark lingered beneath Nathan's skin. Days had passed since he walked out of that cursed place, but the echoes of its torment followed him. The whispers may have been silenced, but the weight of what he carried—the darkness now fused with his very being—remained.

Nathan sat at the edge of his bed, the moonlight filtering through the cracked blinds of his small apartment. His veins still pulsed with that eerie blue light, barely visible but always there, a constant reminder that he was no longer the same. Sleep had become a luxury he could no longer afford. Every time he closed his eyes, he was dragged back into that place—the factory, the void, the whispers.

But tonight was different.

Tonight, the silence was… heavy.

It pressed down on him, suffocating, as if the darkness he carried was stirring—anticipating.

Nathan's fingers brushed against the worn leather of the diary his mother had left behind. Her words had guided him through the nightmare of the factory, but something about them felt incomplete. As if her final message had been cut short.

"Unfinished…" he murmured, his brow furrowing.

The factory was gone. The darkness was contained. So why did it still feel like something was left undone?

Nathan's dreams were different that night.

No longer the chaotic flashes of memories and distorted voices. This time, the darkness was patient, almost… expectant.

He stood in the center of an endless void, the air thick with an unsettling stillness. But there was something else—something just beyond the edges of perception.

A voice.

Faint. Distant.

"Nathan…"

His head snapped toward the sound. It was barely louder than a whisper, but it cut through the silence like a knife.

"Mom?"

The figure emerged from the shadows, her form barely distinguishable from the darkness that surrounded her.

"Nathan…" Her voice echoed through the void, laced with something he hadn't heard before.

Regret.

"Mom, what's happening? I stopped it. I—"

"Not everything…"

Nathan's heart pounded as her figure grew closer, her eyes filled with sorrow.

"You closed the door, Nathan… but you left something behind."

His breath caught in his throat. "What do you mean?"

"A part of it still lingers…" Her voice was a mere whisper now, her form beginning to fade. "And if you don't end it…"

Nathan's surroundings shifted, the darkness giving way to a vision—one that chilled him to his core.

A city.

His city.

Consumed by shadows, tendrils of darkness spreading like a plague. People screamed, their voices lost in the oppressive void. Buildings crumbled as the sky turned a sickly shade of black.

And at the center of it all…

Nathan.

His veins pulsed with the same eerie blue glow, but his eyes—his eyes were no longer his own. They were hollow, consumed by the same darkness he had fought so hard to escape.

"If you don't stop it… you become it."

The vision shattered, and Nathan's eyes flew open. His breath was ragged, his heart pounding in his chest.

"No…" he whispered, his hands trembling.

The battle wasn't over.

Nathan didn't waste any time.

The next morning, he was on the move, following the only lead he had left—the diary. He flipped through the worn pages, scanning for anything he might have missed. His mother's words were clear, but there was something subtle, something hidden beneath the ink.

His eyes narrowed as he caught a faint impression on the final page, barely visible but there.

"Beneath where it all began."

Nathan's blood ran cold.

The basement.

The factory's remains were little more than a skeletal husk, its walls crumbling and overtaken by nature. But the air was still heavy with the weight of what had once been.

Nathan's footsteps echoed as he walked through the ruins, the silence pressing down on him like a suffocating shroud. But this time, he wasn't afraid.

He was ready.

The basement was worse than he remembered. The stench of decay lingered, and the air was colder, almost as if the place itself resented his return. But Nathan pressed on, his steps steady, his resolve unwavering.

The whispers were gone.

But something else remained.

At the far end of the basement, where the machinery had once stood, there was a crack in the wall—barely noticeable, but pulsing with a faint, sickly glow.

"This is it…" Nathan's voice was barely above a whisper.

He knelt, running his fingers along the jagged edges of the crack. It was warm to the touch, the faint pulse of energy vibrating beneath his skin.

"What are you?"

The darkness stirred.

A sudden surge of energy coursed through him, and Nathan's vision blurred as memories flooded his mind—visions of the workers, his parents, the factory's relentless hunger. But there was something else now.

Something new.

A fragment of the factory's essence.

Left behind.

Nathan's jaw clenched. He could feel it—an ember of the darkness, waiting to be reignited.

"Not this time."

He stood, the power surging through him like a tempest. His veins pulsed with the familiar blue light, but this time, it didn't control him.

He controlled it.

Nathan closed his eyes, focusing on the crack, feeling the pulse of energy resonating from within. The darkness pushed against him, but he pushed back.

"I ended you once. I'll end you again."

The pulse grew stronger, the walls vibrating as the darkness fought to resist. But Nathan's will was stronger.

The power within him surged, and with one final push, he sent a wave of energy crashing into the crack.

The factory trembled.

The walls groaned.

And then—

Silence.

The glow faded, the crack sealing shut as the last remnant of the factory's evil was snuffed out.

Nathan staggered back, his breath coming in ragged gasps. But this time, the silence was different.

It was… peaceful.

As Nathan emerged from the ruins, the weight that had pressed on him for so long was finally gone. The whispers had been silenced. The darkness had been extinguished.

But the mark it left on him?

That would never truly fade.

Nathan looked down at his hands, the faint glow beneath his skin barely perceptible now.

"Unfinished business…" he murmured.

It was done.

But deep down, Nathan knew the echoes of the past had a way of lingering.

And some doors…

Were never meant to be closed forever.