⚫Chapter Eight: "The Return"

"The Final Sacrifice"

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Silence filled the attic as if time itself had stopped. No one dared to speak. The air in the room was unnaturally cold, as though something invisible was crawling through the shadows.

Ella stood there, staring at the open page of the black book, her eyes wide with horror.

"It wants me..."

Her voice barely escaped her lips before the house shook violently, as if struck by an earthquake. A strange wailing echoed through the walls, and the doors and windows began to open and slam shut on their own.

A strangled scream rose from nowhere.

Ethan gripped his sister's hand tightly. "I won't let it take you!"

But an unseen force yanked Ella backward, sending her crashing to her knees. A bone-chilling cold engulfed her, as though something was slipping inside her, pressing against her very soul.

"Ella!!"

Karen rushed toward her daughter, but an invisible force threw her back against the wall. She collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

David grabbed the book, flipping through its pages frantically, searching for a way to reverse the spell. But with each page he turned, the words faded away, as if someone—or something—was erasing them from another world.

Ella's breathing grew labored, her eyes darkened, and her body slowly lifted off the ground.

"Please... help me..."

The words left her lips in a weak, distorted voice—like two voices speaking at once.

"She's here..."

Suddenly, something materialized before them. A tall shadow... taking the shape of a woman.

Her face was disfigured, her eyes were two endless black voids, and her mouth stretched into a jagged grin full of razor-sharp teeth.

"At last..."

Her voice was a whisper, but it carried the echoes of countless tormented souls.

Then, without warning, she plunged her hand into Ella's chest—as if her body was made of air.

Ella gasped, her eyes widening in shock, but she didn't scream. She couldn't.

Her body began to wither before them, as if something was draining the life out of her, her soul being ripped away in a slow, gruesome process.

Ethan lunged toward her, but the invisible force slammed him to the floor.

Ella's vacant eyes met his, but she was no longer there.

Then, in a single, silent moment, her body collapsed onto the ground... lifeless.

The shadowy woman loomed over her, glanced at them one last time, then whispered coldly:

"She is mine now..."

And with that, she vanished.

Ella remained, her lifeless body sprawled on the floor, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

But the most terrifying thing... was the faint smile still lingering on her lips, as if a part of Mariana's soul had remained inside her.

Then... the lights went out.

Darkness swallowed the house, leaving only the sound of their ragged breathing mixed with the scent of death creeping into the air. The silence was thick, as though time had frozen at the moment of Ella's passing.

Ethan crawled toward his sister's body, shaking her desperately, his voice hoarse with terror and denial.

"Ella! Wake up! Please, don't do this to me!"

But she didn't move.

Karen, regaining consciousness after the impact, crawled toward her daughter, cupping her pale face in her trembling hands.

"No, no, you can't be dead... you can't!"

But the truth was clear to everyone.

Ella was gone.

David was still staring at the lifeless body, but something caught his attention... the smile.

It wasn't normal. It wasn't peaceful. It was twisted... unnatural.

"Something is wrong..."

Slowly, Ella's hand twitched. Her fingers wrapped around Ethan's wrist. A cold, deathly chill seeped into his bones as she lifted her head—slowly, heavily, as if awakening from a nightmare.

But when her eyes finally opened...

She was no longer Ella.

She stared at him with hollow, pitch-black eyes—empty, devoid of light, devoid of life.

Then, with an even wider smile, she whispered in a voice that was not her own:

"Ethan... I missed you."

Ethan's body trembled as he scrambled backward, watching in horror as something else took shape behind her.

The shadows stretched across the walls and ceiling, shifting and twisting, forming an open gateway to another world.

The lights flickered violently. The doors and windows slammed shut, trapping them inside.

Then, without warning, Karen was thrown backward by an unseen force, her head striking the floor as she lost consciousness once again.

David tried to move, but Ella—or what was left of her—gripped his throat, pulling him toward her. She whispered something in his ear that made his blood run cold.

"Dad... it's okay. You're next."

Then, his body lifted into the air before being hurled across the room, crashing against the wall. He fell still.

Ethan was alone now. Alone... with the new Ella.

She took slow, deliberate steps toward him, each movement accompanied by a sickening crack, as if her bones were breaking and reshaping with every step.

Ethan stared at her, paralyzed with fear.

But she only smiled.

Then, in a chilling whisper, she spoke her final words before the room was consumed by darkness:

"Our game has just begun..."

The darkness wasn't normal. It was thick—suffocating, as if they had drowned in a sea of nothingness. No light. No sound. Just Ethan's trembling breaths and... something else.

Another breath.

Close. Too close.

"Ethan..."

The voice was soft, but layered with something inhuman—like a hundred whispers speaking in unison.

He turned his head slowly.

And saw her.

Ella... or what remained of her.

She wasn't standing—she was floating. Her feet didn't touch the ground, and her eyes were empty voids, absorbing all light.

Then, suddenly, she opened her mouth.

But she didn't speak.

Instead, a choked scream erupted—a sound of countless souls trying to escape from within her.

The walls trembled. The windows shattered. The lights—though already off—exploded.

Ethan felt something being pulled from him. His soul? His breath? His mind? He didn't know. But something was slipping away.

He resisted, stumbling backward, but Ella moved unnaturally fast, gripping his face with her freezing hands—colder than ice, colder than death.

"Ethan... don't run... be with me."

Her face began to shift...

Her features melted, distorted, reshaping into something else—something ancient, something monstrous.

Then, suddenly, a hand grabbed Ethan from behind.

David.

His body trembled, but he pulled his son away, shoving him aside before raising the spellbook he had snatched from the floor.

"This isn't Ella!"

But Ethan couldn't hear him. He couldn't think. Everything was crumbling around him.

And then... the walls began to bleed.

Blood dripped from the ceiling, oozed through the cracks, pooling on the floor. The house itself seemed to be dying.

Ella smiled. Then she laughed.

A haunting, twisted laugh—not that of a child, but of something demonic. Something that had been imprisoned for centuries.

"Eight souls... that's all I needed."

David, who had been chanting the spell with a shaking voice, froze.

He stared at the book. Then at Ella. Then at the blood soaking the floor.

And he understood.

She never wanted to revive her son.

She wanted a new body for herself.

And Ella... had been the final sacrifice.

But now... she had won.

The entity that had murdered the children, that had been hanged and burned a century ago...

Had returned.

Inside his daughter.

"Goodbye, Dad."

Those were her last words before David was pulled into the abyss, swallowed by the darkness.

The house erupted into eerie blue flames, devouring everything in its wake.

Ethan, still sprawled on the floor, couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.

He only watched.

Watched as his sister—or what had become of her—turned to him, smiling, whispering:

"It's over."

Then...

Everything went black.

—THE END—