Not long ago, the stone necklace that had twisted into the shape of a figure "8" had now turned into a braided knot, just barely managing to wrap around the wrists of Wade, Haley, and Mabel.
Fortunately, all three of them were still young, with slender wrists, so the length of the stone necklace was just enough.
Wade looked at Haley, whose face had turned pale, and said gently, "Don't be afraid. No matter what you see later, just stay with me. If I say 'leave,' you must immediately will yourself to leave. Understand?"
Dumbledore had discovered during his experiments that the spiritual world was not a prison. Not only could its owner easily expel intruders, but for those like them—who entered someone else's spiritual world through the necklace—leaving was simply a matter of thought.
Haley nodded, then whispered, "I'm not scared... I just... I didn't know Mabel had become like this..."
The girl pursed her lips, and her heart ached so badly that she was almost in tears.
Wade said, "The Obscurus has been devouring her life, making her weaker and weaker, so we must drive it out of her body."
"I understand." Haley nodded firmly. "As long as I can help Mabel, I'll do anything!"
She was still very young, but even after enduring hardship, she hadn't given up hope. Like a blade of grass growing stubbornly out of a crack in the stone, her small body housed an extraordinarily strong and sensible soul.
Wade nodded as well and looked toward Dumbledore. As he listened to the headmaster chanting the spell, his eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and soon he fell into a deep sleep.
In the blink of an eye, Wade awoke to find the world around him completely changed.
This place looked like a village. On both sides of the road stood houses that were tall and narrow like book pages. Each house had a small window and a tightly shut front door.
It seemed this place had once been sealed off like a prison, but now it was almost in ruins. Most of the buildings had collapsed or were shrouded in pitch-black mist. Some had their doors and windows sealed shut with thick layers of soil.
A cold wind kept blowing through this world, chilling them to the bone.
"Wade," Haley whispered, and couldn't help but take a step closer and hold Wade's hand.
Wade steadied himself, held Haley's hand tightly, and led her away from the ominous black mist and walked forward along the concrete road.
The village didn't seem very large, but after walking for quite a while, the road ahead still stretched endlessly.
Suddenly, they heard a burst of clear, cheerful laughter. Wade turned sharply and spotted a collapsed house where the scene inside resembled a playground. A little girl holding a balloon ran by with a happy giggle.
She was laughing joyfully, but her figure was semi-transparent. Behind her, someone seemed to be running after her, but the figure was blurry, and the surrounding scenery looked like a low-quality holographic projection.
A second or two later, the little girl suddenly vanished, and the playground scene inside the room disappeared just as abruptly. In its place was an empty, dilapidated room—with nothing left but a deflated red balloon lying on the floor.
"Wade, are there ghosts in the spiritual world too?" Haley asked in a trembling voice, visibly shaken.
"No, that's not a ghost," Wade replied. "That was one of Mabel's memories."
But the girl had been hit with an Obliviate spell—her memories were fragmented and incomplete. Even the buildings in her spiritual world had turned into ruins. Now, all that remained were fleeting fragments like that vanishing scene.
Haley turned to look back and stared deeply at the collapsed house. Suddenly, she saw the same little girl running by again with the balloon—but her colors looked even fainter, and the whole image seemed to evaporate.
—Mabel is running out of time!
Haley realized it with painful clarity.
She had originally been following Wade, but now she took the lead, tugging him forward as she searched anxiously on both sides of the path.
Through broken windows laced with cobwebs, they caught glimpses of Mabel in various fragmented memories.
Some showed her reading, others showed her leaning on windowsills in thought, and some showed her crouched in corners crying. These versions of Mabel—older or younger—were all nothing more than flickering images, and these images would vanish if they so much as blinked.
Growing desperate, Haley couldn't help but shout: "Mabel—Mabel—come out! I'm here to find you!"
Suddenly, the entire spiritual world trembled violently, and the two of them struggled to stay on their feet. Wade quickly grabbed hold of Haley to keep steady, only to see the houses on both sides rapidly pulling away.
In the blink of an eye, they had traveled dozens of miles, and only then did the movement slow and eventually stop.
The houses here appeared much more intact and spacious, clearly part of Mabel's memories that had not been tampered with by wizards. However, more than half of them were already being devoured by black mist. The sinister mist crept like vines, inching toward the untouched buildings.
Wade then witnessed an entire devouring process unfold before him—
Mabel, with a lifeless and numb expression, lay on an experimental operating table. A man dressed as a doctor was inserting a long, thin syringe into her arm, while three or four others watched with interest and engaged in discussion.
Suddenly, the glass window shattered with a sharp crack, and black mist surged in.
The doctor and the others vanished like punctured balloons. Moments later, Mabel reappeared at the window—but now, she seemed to be an embodiment of the black mist itself.
With those dull, dead eyes, she stared outside—as if looking straight at Wade and Haley, or perhaps eyeing the other still-intact houses with hunger.
Then, with a surge of black mist, this version of Mabel disappeared too.
Wade took a deep breath, and suddenly spotted something unusual in one of the rooms. He quickly called out, "This way!"
Pulling Haley along, he approached and saw that in a room just about to be engulfed by the black mist, there were two Mabels.
And not just Mabel—there was also a version of Haley, along with several other children who had been captured for experiments. They sat together in a circle and played a game of rock-paper-scissors.
"Mabel! Mabel!"
Haley shouted loudly. She stood on her tiptoes and knocked on the window several times, but neither of the two Mabels inside the room seemed to hear her at all.
Wade reached for the doorknob and gave it a strong push. With a click, the door surprisingly opened.
Haley was momentarily stunned, then immediately ran inside.
Both Mabels were dressed in the same robes, but one of them was holding a pitch-black rag doll. Looking closely, the doll's facial features even bore some resemblance to Mabel herself.
As Wade and Haley entered the room, the doll's eyes suddenly shifted and its pupils locked onto them with an eerie intensity that sent chills down their spines.
In the spiritual world, Wade still had his wand with him. He waved it gently, and the doll yawned and slowly closed its eyes.
Haley didn't notice any of this. She walked straight up to Mabel, who was holding the doll, and suddenly threw her arms around her, hugging her tightly.
Mabel, who had seemed completely absorbed in the game moments ago, was jolted out of her trance. She stared at the two of them in astonishment and exclaimed, "—Haley?!"
…
"So, this is my spiritual world?"
After a round of explanations, Mabel finally understood the situation. She looked at the group of children still playing rock-paper-scissors nearby, hesitated for a moment, and then stepped out of the room.
In one hand, she held tightly onto Haley, and in the other, she still clutched the black rag doll.
"My world… how could it be like this?" Mabel murmured.
"The Obscurus is eating away at everything inside you, Mabel," Wade said as he walked up beside her. "You have to let go of it, or you'll die very soon."
"…Let go?" Mabel looked confused. "But Mr. Scamander… and Professor Dumbledore, aren't they using magic to separate the Obscurus from me?"
"They are," Wade replied, "but their magic is failing because, deep down, you're not willing to let the Obscurus go."
Mabel was silent for a moment before asking, "So how do I cooperate?" She looked around and shouted, "Get out of my world, Obscurus!"
"—Is that good enough?" she asked afterward.
Wade shook his head. "I need you to let go of the doll, Mabel."
"The doll? But… my mom gave this to me… What is this thing?!"
It seemed Mabel was only now seeing the true appearance of the rag doll. She jumped slightly in fright, but even then, she didn't throw it away.
"I think this is what the Obscurus looks like in your spiritual world," Wade explained. "It's tricking you, keeping you from letting go."
Mabel looked at the black mist blanketing the buildings and asked,
"But… what are those things?"
"Those are also part of the Obscurus," Wade said. "It's on the verge of taking over your entire world—but the key lies in this one part that you just can't let go of."
Wade spoke patiently: "As long as you're still holding that doll, the Obscurus will stay tightly bound to your soul. Mr. Scamander and the others won't be able to separate it from you."
"Please, throw it away, Mabel," Haley said with tears brimming in her eyes. "I don't want to see you die."
"O…okay." Mabel responded, but when she tried to throw away the doll, her arm began to tremble, and she couldn't bring herself to let go.
Haley lost patience and snatched the rag doll from her hands, hurling it as far as she could.
The very next second, the doll reappeared in Mabel's arms, its eyes were now open and it was grinning eerily at Haley, who stared back in shock.
Furious, Haley rolled up her sleeves, snatched the doll again, slammed it onto the ground, stomped on it, and shouted, "Wade, help me! Burn this creepy thing with your magic!"
Wade hesitated, and saw Haley clenching her fists tightly with an expression full of fury. He finally raised his wand and pointed it at the doll.
With a bang, the rag doll caught fire. Haley leapt aside and watched with glee as it turned to ashes.
But when she turned back around, her smile froze—the doll was once again perfectly intact in Mabel's hands.
"What's going on?" she asked in a panic as she looked helplessly at Wade.
Wade was staring at Mabel. He noticed that although she didn't stop Haley, she also didn't look disturbed or scared when the doll returned to her arms. In fact, there was even a faint hint of relief on her face.
"Haley," Wade said, "the rag doll is just the Obscurus's manifestation in this spiritual world. It exists everywhere, so no matter how many times you destroy it, it will reappear."
He looked into Mabel's eyes and added, "Unless you choose to let it go yourself, Mabel… But it seems like you don't want to?"
"I…"
Mabel looked frantically between Wade and Haley. She seemed to want to let go of the doll, but her fingers refused to release it.
"Mabel!" Haley cried out in disbelief.
Wade remained calm and said, "I understand—the Obscurus holds great power. That sense of invincibility can be seductive. But Mabel, if you die, all of that becomes meaningless."
"Maybe over time, you began to see the Obscurus as a protector… a friend. But that's not the truth."
"It's just a parasite born of pain and darkness. It constantly scorches your soul just to release its terrifying power."
"Let go, Mabel," Wade urged gently. "Stop clinging to the pain of the past. Life is a long journey—you still have so much future ahead of you. You still have Haley and us. Don't stop here."
"Yeah," Haley said, hugging Mabel's arm. "I still want to go to the movies with you, travel with you, try delicious food with you, stay up late in bed talking… Please don't leave me, Mabel. Don't leave me alone."
Mabel's hand trembled as she clutched the doll. She tried several times to let it go, but couldn't. Then, suddenly, she began to cry.
"But Haley… if I don't have the Obscurus… if it's gone… how will I protect you? I can't bear to watch you suffer again…"
She sobbed, her whole body shook, and she choked out, "Wade… I know you've been pushing yourself to get stronger… You must be scared of something too, that's why you work so hard, right? I… I just wanted to help too…"
"I... I'm really scared..."
"I'm afraid I'll become weak like before... afraid that I won't be able to protect anyone, and just watch everyone around me disappear, one by one..."
"I'd rather die than become like that again..."
She broke down into sobs—loud, messy crying—so intense that even the rag doll in her arms seemed to wear a pained expression.
But at that moment, Haley suddenly opened her arms and hugged Mabel tightly.
"I know, Mabel. I know. Because I used to be really scared too. But later, I became braver… Do you know why I'm not afraid anymore?"
Mabel looked at her with tears streaming down her face.
Haley lifted her head and her own eyes were filled with tears, but she forced a bright smile onto her face.
"Because I know you love me! I know that even if we're apart, I still have you. I'm not alone. And that's why I'm not afraid anymore."
"Whether it was blood tests or getting cut open with knives, it all hurt—really, really hurt—but it's over now. As long as you're by my side, I can get through anything."
"You've always been protecting me, Mabel—not just when you turned into a black mist monster or fought off bad guys. But from the moment you first reached out your hand to me, you've been protecting me."
Wade smiled too and said, "You're already amazing, Mabel. You don't need to do something big to be helpful. Your very existence means the world to us."
"So… trust me. Trust that we can protect you too. And believe that your value isn't tied to the Obscurus. Let go, okay? No matter what the future holds, we have to face it with courage."
Mabel gazed at the two of them with eyes full of tears. After a long moment, her fingers finally began to relax.
The black rag doll slipped silently from her hands and fell to the ground.
In the next second, Scamander's magic aura surged into this world without restraint. A radiant light spilled down from the sky, and Wade faintly heard the rag doll let out a sharp, shrill screech.
Then—he opened his eyes in the room, just in time to see a dark mass being violently pulled from Mabel's chest and sealed inside a translucent magic energy field.
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