Chapter 63: The Fear of Being Forgotten

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For the first time since her death, Victoria felt fear.

Not the fear of losing Ben. Not the fear of never getting her revenge.

This was something deeper. A cold, creeping terror that slithered up her spine, twisting into her very essence.

She was fading.

Something inside Ellie—this nameless, ancient soul—was erasing her.

Victoria clutched her own chest, staring at her hands in horror as they flickered like a dying candle. Her once-powerful form, once so full of rage and vengeance, was growing thin, transparent.

"No... No, this isn't happening!" she shrieked, her voice tinged with panic.

Ben could only watch in frozen terror. He had never seen Victoria afraid—not even in death.

But whatever had taken over Ellie's body, it was stronger than her.

Ellie—or the thing inside her—tilted her head, those foreign eyes gleaming with an unnatural amusement. It had no fear. No desperation. It knew exactly what it was doing.

"I see you now, Victoria," the entity murmured, taking a slow step forward.

Victoria stumbled back. She had never stumbled before.

"You are nothing but a memory… a whisper in the dark. And memories?" The entity grinned, cruel and knowing. "They fade."

Victoria screamed in fury, lunging at the body that should have been hers.

But the moment she touched Ellie's skin—

She felt it.

The pull.

Like something was dragging her into the abyss.

"No! I won't be erased!"

She fought, clawed, tried to break free—but her own strength was slipping. The anger that had fueled her, the pain that had kept her alive even in death—it was dissolving.

Ben saw it too.

Saw the way Victoria's form was beginning to lose shape, becoming nothing but mist in the air.

"Victoria—!" he called out, but she barely heard him.

Her mind was consumed with one thought.

I'm disappearing.

Like I never existed in the first place.

And that… that was more terrifying than death itself.