Chapter 20: The Awakening

Lillian's eyes snapped open.

Not slowly.

Not like someone waking from a deep sleep.

They jerked open.

Wide. Unblinking.

And they weren't right.

Evelyn had seen Lillian's eyes a thousand times warm, hazel, full of life.

These were black.

Hollow.

Like something was inside her, looking out.

The chamber groaned around her, the walls of bones shifting, like they were breathing.

Lillian's lips parted.

A whisper hoarse and brittle.

"You finally came back."

Evelyn's throat tightened. "Lillian?"

A slow, painful smile stretched across Lillian's face.

"Did you miss me?"

Nathaniel's Descent

Above, Nathaniel shouted Evelyn's name.

She looked up.

The ceiling was nothing but black void.

No opening. No way back up.

Then

A thud.

Nathaniel dropped down beside her, landing in a crouch, knife still in hand. His face was tense, his breathing heavy. He had jumped.

Evelyn turned back toward the slab

But Lillian was gone.

The Shadows Move

Something moved in the darkness.

Not just one thing.

Many.

Shapes stirred in the shadows, slithering along the walls, shifting between the bones.

Nathaniel grabbed Evelyn's wrist. "We're not alone."

A whisper slid through the air.

"She never left, Evelyn."

"She never left."

Nathaniel raised the knife. But the shadows moved faster.

The air turned freezing.

And before Evelyn could react

Hands burst from the ground, grabbing her ankles.

Cold, skeletal fingers, dragging her down.

She screamed—

And the floor swallowed her whole.

The Other Side

Evelyn hit the ground.

But it wasn't stone.

It was dirt.

Soft. Wet.

Like a grave.

The air was different here.

Heavy.

Pressing against her skin, against her lungs like the weight of something unseen.

She stood slowly, her fingers digging into the damp earth.

The whispering was louder now.

Everywhere.

Then

She saw her.

Lillian.

Standing in front of an open doorway.

A doorway leading into blackness.

"Come inside, Evelyn."

Lillian smiled.

"It's time to remember everything."

The Doorway to the Past

Evelyn's breath came in shallow gasps.

The doorway gaped open before her, nothing but an abyss waiting on the other side.

Lillian stood just beyond it, her unnatural smile frozen in place.

"Come inside, Evelyn."

Nathaniel was gone.

The chamber, the bones, the underground crypt all of it had vanished.

Evelyn was somewhere else now.

Or rather… somewhen else.

She clenched her fists, the black marks on her arms spreading further. They pulsed, as if something inside her veins was waking up.

Something that had been dormant for too long.

Lillian took a step back, into the darkness.

"You want answers, don't you?"

Evelyn's stomach twisted. "I just want to know what happened to you."

Lillian tilted her head.

"Then step through, and you'll see."

The whispers grew louder.

The shadows moved.

And before Evelyn could turn away

She was pulled inside.

Lost in the Past

The darkness swallowed her whole.

There was no sensation of falling.

No time to react.

One second she was outside the doorway the next, she was somewhere else entirely.

A place she hadn't seen in fifteen years.

She stood in the middle of a dense forest.

But not just any forest.

Black Hollow Woods.

The place where Lillian vanished.

The place where Evelyn had left her behind.

The Night of the Disappearance

The trees stood twisted and gnarled, their skeletal branches reaching toward the sky.

But the most disturbing thing

It was raining.

Just like that night, fifteen years ago.

The scent of damp earth filled Evelyn's lungs, and as she turned

She saw them.

Two younger girls running through the trees.

Herself.

And Lillian.

A perfect recreation of the past.

Except something was wrong.

This wasn't just a memory.

It was alive.

Evelyn felt the cold drops of rain hitting her skin.

She could hear the laughter.

The breathless gasps of two girls running deeper into the woods.

And then

The laughter stopped.

Younger Evelyn turned.

Lillian had vanished between the trees.

A voice echoed through the woods.

"Evelyn?"

Older Evelyn's blood ran cold.

Because she remembered what came next.

The moment when she had turned her back and walked away.

The moment when Lillian had begged her to stay.

But in this living nightmare of the past

The moment didn't happen the way she remembered it.

Because now

Lillian was looking straight at her.

Not at younger Evelyn.

Not at the past.

At her.

Her present-day self.

And she smiled.

"You let me go."

The Truth in the Rain

Evelyn's breath caught in her throat.

Lillian wasn't looking at the past version of her she was staring straight at her present self.

Her unnatural smile never wavered.

The rain pounded against the trees, washing away the world around them.

"You let me go."

The words cut through Evelyn like a blade.

Because she had.

She had left Lillian behind.

That night… she had heard the fear in Lillian's voice. She had heard her scream.

And she had run away.

But this wasn't right.

Lillian wasn't supposed to remember.

This was a memory wasn't it?

So how was Lillian looking at her now?

Evelyn took a slow step forward, her boots sinking into the wet earth. "Lillian, I"

Lillian's smile widened.

Her eyes those endless black voids never left Evelyn's face.

"Do you want to see what happened after you left me?"

The trees shuddered.

The wind howled.

And suddenly

Evelyn wasn't standing in the woods anymore.

The Abyss Beneath Black Hollow Woods

The rain vanished.

The sky was gone.

The trees had twisted into gnarled, blackened roots stretching over a vast abyss.

And at the very edge of it

A single stone altar.

Evelyn stood frozen as she saw Lillian's past self.

Not the version that had spoken to her now.

But the version from that night.

The real Lillian.

Fifteen years ago.

She was on her knees.

Her hands tied with vines.

Her mouth forced open.

And behind her

A figure.

A shadowed being with no face.

Only eyes.

Too many eyes.

Watching.

Waiting.

And then

The ritual began.

The Sacrifice

Evelyn tried to move.

Tried to scream.

But her body was paralyzed.

She could only watch.

The air shimmered with whispers.

The dark figure raised a hand, and the vines around Lillian tightened.

Lillian's younger self struggled.

Tears mixed with the blood running down her face.

"Please" she gasped. "I don't want this"

But the figure ignored her.

It pressed a hand against Lillian's chest.

A deep, guttural sound filled the air something not human.

The ground beneath the altar split open.

And Lillian

Screamed.

Not in pain.

Not in fear.

But in rage.

In defiance.

In hatred.

The shadowed figure vanished into the darkness below.

And Lillian

Stopped moving.

For a moment, Evelyn thought she was dead.

But then

Lillian's head snapped back.

Her body went rigid.

And when she lifted her face

Her eyes were black.

Just like they were now.

The transformation was complete.

Lillian wasn't just a victim.

She had become something else.

Something worse.

And now

She was waiting for Evelyn to join her.