Chapter 22: The Door That Remembers

Evelyn's fingers trembled on the rotted wood.

The images still burned in her mind—the ritual, the girl screaming, the shadows watching.

Her breath came in sharp, uneven gasps.

She had been here before.

She had touched this door before.

And something inside her was screaming, don't do it again.

"Evelyn."

Lillian's voice was closer now.

Soft. Persuasive.

"You need to remember."

Evelyn swallowed hard.

She had spent fifteen years searching for the truth.

Now it was right in front of her.

And she was afraid to open it.

Not because of what was inside.

But because of what she had done.

She exhaled shakily, then—

She turned the handle.

The Truth Buried in Blood

The door didn't open.

It collapsed inward.

Like the wood was never real, just a paper-thin veil between her and the nightmare waiting beyond it.

Darkness rushed forward, swallowing her whole.

And then—

She was standing in the woods.

Not just any woods.

The ones behind the old church.

The place where Lillian had vanished.

But this wasn't the past.

Not exactly.

The air smelled of rot. The trees were twisted, their branches stretching like skeletal fingers. The ground beneath her feet was soft, sinking, as if it was swallowing her whole.

And then she heard it.

The chanting.

Low voices, murmuring in unison, speaking words that made her stomach churn.

Her body moved on its own, stepping forward, deeper into the nightmare.

And then—

She saw them.

A circle of figures in black robes.

The same ones from her visions.

The same ones who had taken Lillian.

Evelyn's pulse pounded.

The leader of the group stood at the center, hands raised toward the sky.

And at his feet—

Lillian.

She was alive.

Struggling. Screaming.

Tears streaked her face as she fought against the hands holding her down.

"Please!" Lillian cried. "Evelyn! Please!"

And then Evelyn saw her own reflection in their eyes.

She was standing outside the circle.

Watching.

Frozen.

Not helping.

Not saving her.

She had been here.

She had seen everything.

And she had done nothing.

The air left her lungs in a sharp, strangled gasp.

"No—no, that's not—"

But the memory wouldn't let her go.

She had been afraid that night.

Too afraid to move.

Too afraid to stop them.

And so she had watched as the ritual began.

She had watched as Lillian's screams were swallowed by the shadows.

She had watched as her best friend was taken.

And then—

She had forgotten.

Something had made her forget.

Something had buried the memory so deep inside her that she never questioned why she couldn't remember that night.

Until now.

Until she came back.

Evelyn collapsed to her knees, her breath coming in ragged gasps.

"I left her."

The words tasted like ash in her mouth.

She had spent fifteen years searching for the truth.

And now that she had found it—

It was worse than she ever imagined.

The Forgotten Oath

Evelyn knelt in the twisted forest, gasping for air.

The memory burned inside her—Lillian's screams, the circle of robed figures, the moment she chose to do nothing.

Her stomach churned.

She had been searching for the truth, but she never expected to be the villain in it.

"You remember now."

Lillian's voice was soft, but there was no warmth in it.

Evelyn forced herself to look up.

Lillian stood at the edge of the trees, half-hidden in shadow, her once-bright eyes now black as voids.

"You let them take me."

Evelyn's throat tightened. "I didn't know what to do."

Lillian's expression didn't change. "You could have tried."

The words hit like a knife to the chest.

Evelyn hadn't tried.

She had watched.

She had stood in that cursed circle, heard Lillian's desperate cries, and turned away.

And then she had forgotten it all.

Someone—or something—had buried the memory deep inside her.

And now she knew why.

Because if she had remembered—

She never would have been able to live with herself.

"It wasn't my choice," Evelyn whispered. "Something took my memories."

Lillian tilted her head, her blackened eyes narrowing. "You really believe that?"

Evelyn swallowed. "I don't know."

Lillian stepped forward.

The forest seemed to shudder with each step.

The trees twisted. The air thickened. The ground pulsed like it was alive.

"Do you want to know what happened after you left?"

Evelyn didn't answer.

Because she already knew.

The robed figures had finished their ritual.

And Lillian had never been seen again.

But now—

Now she was here.

And she wasn't the same.

"I wasn't just taken, Evelyn." Lillian's voice sharpened, turning colder. "I was bound."

The air turned ice-cold.

"They didn't kill me. They made me into something else."

Evelyn's breath caught. "What do you mean?"

Lillian's lips curled into a bitter smile.

"You still don't get it, do you?"

She lifted a hand—

And Evelyn felt something seize her throat.

Her lungs locked.

Her body froze.

The air around them rippled as if reality itself was coming apart.

And then she saw it.

For the first time, she saw what Lillian had become.

The shadows behind her weren't just shadows.

They were moving. Watching.

They whispered in a language Evelyn couldn't understand.

They were alive.

"They gave me to something else that night," Lillian murmured. "And now it owns me."

Evelyn's pulse hammered in her skull.

The forest around her warped, the trees shifting, their bark splitting like open wounds.

The ground trembled.

And Lillian…

Lillian was no longer human.

The darkness at her back twisted into shape, forming a figure—a thing made of shadows, its limbs stretching unnaturally, its face hollow and empty.

And it was looking directly at Evelyn.

"She came back," Lillian whispered.

The shadow smiled.

"That means we can finish what we started."

And then—

The forest shattered.