Midnight comes too fast.
Arden stands outside the community center. Her team beside her. Five wounded survivors. Five god-killers. Five people about to enter hell again.
Olli's head is bandaged. Concussion. Shouldn't be here. Came anyway.
Jin-Hwa's nose is taped. Broken. Reset without anesthetic. Didn't make a sound.
Callum's ribs are wrapped. Maybe cracked. Maybe broken. Breathing hurts. Fighting will hurt more.
Kael's knee is swollen. Barely walking. Will have to fight anyway.
Arden's hands shake. Not from fear. From cost. From memory loss. From knowing the price keeps climbing.
"Last chance," she says. "Anyone wants out. Now's the time."
No one moves. No one speaks. They're in. All in.
"Okay." She pulls out her phone. Opens the forum. Finds the post.
Game 248 - Station One - HELP
Trapped in castle. Lady Crimson hunting us. People dying. Resurrecting. Losing themselves. Please. We need help.
Posted: 3 hours ago
Location: Castle of Blood
"They're still alive," Arden says. "Still fighting. We go in. Find them. Help them kill Lady Crimson. Then we all get out."
"How do we enter?" Callum asks. "We don't have a comatose player this time. No mirror doorway."
"We make one." Arden pulls out the Codebook. Opens it. "I write us in. Force entry. Break the rules."
"That'll cost you." Kael's voice. Worried.
"Everything costs me." She doesn't look at him. Can't. "But it's the only way."
Pen appears. She writes.
We enter Station One, Castle of Blood, Game 248.
The Codebook burns. Hotter than before. Painful. The words sink slowly. Struggling. Reality resisting.
But it works.
The air tears. Not dramatically. Just. Opens. A hole in the world. Leading somewhere else. Somewhere dark. Somewhere that smells like blood and roses.
"That's the castle," Arden says. Memories flooding back. Her first Game. Her first Station. Lady Crimson's domain.
"Together," Kael says. Takes her hand.
They step through. Five people. One doorway. Into gothic nightmare.
The castle swallows them.
They land in the entrance hall. Exactly as Arden remembers. Marble floors. Blood chandeliers. Portraits watching. Gargoyles perched.
But different now. Wrong. Broken.
The chandeliers flicker. The blood drips upward. The portraits glitch. Faces shifting. Corrupted.
"The Station's unstable," Jin-Hwa says. "Like Terminal Zero. Like the carnival. Fragments are breaking."
"Good." Callum unsheathes a knife. Took it from the community center. Better than nothing. "Broken things die easier."
A scream echoes. Distant. Female. Terrified.
"That way." Arden runs. Toward the sound. The others follow.
Through corridors. Past portraits that whisper. Past suits of armor that turn to watch. Past doors that breathe.
The screaming stops.
They reach a ballroom. Massive. Chandeliers dripping blood onto polished floors. Orchestra of corpses playing waltz music.
And in the center. Lady Crimson.
She's feeding. Draining a player. Young man. Maybe twenty. Struggling. Weakening. Dying.
Around her. Bodies. Five of them. Dead. Not resurrected yet. Just dead.
Three players hiding. Behind pillars. In corners. Watching. Too terrified to move.
Lady Crimson sees Arden. Smiles. Blood on her lips. On her teeth. Too many teeth.
"Architect." Her voice is honey over razors. "You came back. How delicious. I've been waiting. Dreaming. Imagining how I'd kill you this time."
She drops the young man. He hits the floor. Not moving. Dead or dying.
Arden doesn't hesitate. Doesn't count. Just acts.
She writes in the Codebook.
Lady Crimson cannot move.
The fragment freezes. Mid-step. Eyes wide. Furious.
"Now!" Arden shouts. "Kill her! Fast!"
The team attacks. Kael first. Despite his knee. Despite everything. Knife to Lady Crimson's throat.
But the blade passes through. No resistance. No damage.
"She's not physical," Jin-Hwa realizes. "She's manifestation. Pure fragment. You can't kill her with weapons."
"Then how?" Callum's already at the frozen vampire. Trying. Failing.
"Paradox." Arden thinks. Fast. Desperate. "She feeds on fear. On blood. On gothic horror. The contradiction is. Is what? What breaks a vampire?"
"Sunlight," Olli says. Concussed but thinking. "Vampires burn in sunlight."
"There is no sun here." Jin-Hwa looks up. Just castle ceiling. Just darkness.
"Then we make one." Arden opens the Codebook. Writes again.
The sun rises in the ballroom.
The Codebook screams. Not sound. Just feeling. Wrongness. Too many uses too fast. Too much cost too soon.
But it works.
Light explodes. Bright. Blinding. Impossible sunlight in a castle that shouldn't exist.
Lady Crimson unfreezes. Starts to scream.
Her skin burns. Blisters. Blackens. She tries to run. Can't. The sunlight is everywhere. No shadows. No escape.
She explodes. Not violently. Just. Dissolves. Ash and light and fragments scattering.
The ballroom shakes. Cracks. The castle is collapsing.
"Everyone out!" Arden grabs the nearest player. The young man Lady Crimson was feeding on. Still breathing. Barely. "We get them all out! Now!"
The three hiding players emerge. Terrified. Shaking. But moving.
Kael grabs two. Jin-Hwa one. They run.
The dead bodies on the floor start to glow. Resurrecting. Coming back.
But there's no time. The castle's falling. Walls crumbling. Floor breaking.
They run through corridors. The entrance hall ahead.
Behind them. The ballroom collapses completely. Crushing. Burying.
They dive through the entrance. Out. Back to reality.
Hit pavement. Boston street. Outside the community center. Safe.
The doorway closes. Gone. The castle gone. Station One destroyed.
Arden counts. Her team. Five. The rescued players. Four. Nine total.
But five died in the ballroom. Resurrected but buried. Lost.
"Did they make it out?" One of the rescued players asks. Woman. Maybe thirty. "The others. The ones who died. Did they escape?"
"I don't know." Arden can't lie. Can't promise. "The Station collapsed. If they resurrected before the collapse finished. Maybe. If not."
If not they're dead. Permanently. Buried in a Station that no longer exists.
The rescued players sit. Processing. Surviving. One starts crying. Relief. Trauma. Both.
Arden's team collapses. Exhausted. Wounded. Victorious.
"Three down." Callum laughs. Wrong sound. Broken. "Three fragments in four days. We're actually doing it."
"At what cost?" Jin-Hwa looks at Arden. Concerned. "You used the Codebook three times tonight. Three entries. Three commands. That's. That's too much."
"It's what we needed." Arden's hands won't stop shaking. "We won. That's what matters."
"What did you lose?" Kael asks. Quiet. Knowing.
Arden searches her memory. Tries to find the gaps. The missing pieces.
She knows she had a mother. Died in a car accident. But. But what did her mother look like? What was her name?
Gone. Both gone. Face and name. Just knowledge that she existed. Nothing more.
She knows she had a sister. Lost her. Saved her. Lost her name after. But. But what did her sister's voice sound like? How did she laugh?
Gone. The sound. The memory. Just silence where sound should be.
She knows she writes. Horror novels. Three published. But. But what were they about? What were the titles?
Gone. All of it. Her work. Her art. Her identity as writer.
"I lost." Her voice cracks. "I lost a lot."
"What specifically?"
"My mother's face. My sister's voice. My novels." She looks at her hands. At the Codebook. At the weapon that's killing her slowly. "Pieces of who I was. Who I loved. What I created."
"We need to stop," Kael says. "You're losing too much. Too fast. We find another way."
"There is no other way." She stands. Shaking. Breaking. But standing. "We have forty-four fragments left. Forty-four more uses minimum. I'll be Empty long before we finish. Will forget everything. Become nothing. But that's the cost. That's the price. And I'm paying it."
"Arden—"
"No." She cuts him off. "I know what you're going to say. That I matter. That I'm worth more than this. That there has to be another way. But you're wrong. This is the only way. Fast. Brutal. Effective. We kill fragments faster than the Entity can adapt. Faster than Margaret can stop us. Faster than I can forget why I'm fighting."
She looks at the rescued players. At the four people who'd been trapped. Dying. Resurrecting. Losing themselves.
"We saved them. That's real. That matters. And I'll save more. Save all of them. Even if I forget why. Even if I forget who. Even if I forget me."
Silence. Heavy. Heartbreaking.
Then one of the rescued players stands. The woman who asked about the others. She moves to Arden. Kneels. Takes her hand.
"Thank you." Simple words. Pure gratitude. "You saved me. Saved us. I don't know who you are. But thank you."
Arden's chest tightens. "I'm no one. Just a survivor."
"You're a hero." The woman squeezes her hand. "And I'll remember you. Even if you forget yourself. I'll remember."
The other rescued players nod. Agreement. Promise.
"We all will," one says. Young man. The one Lady Crimson was draining. Still weak but alive. "We'll tell everyone. About you. About what you did. You'll be remembered."
"I don't want to be remembered." Arden pulls her hand away. "I want the Entity dead. That's all. That's everything."
She walks. Away from the community center. Away from her team. Away from the rescued players.
Kael follows. Always follows.
"Where are you going?" he asks.
"I don't know. Away. Somewhere. Anywhere." She's walking faster. Almost running. "I need to. I need to not be there. Not be me. Not be—"
She stops. Middle of the sidewalk. Just stops.
"I'm forgetting." Her voice breaks completely. "I'm forgetting everything that matters. My mother. My sister. My work. Soon I'll forget you. Forget why I'm fighting. Forget why I started this. And I'll still be killing fragments. Still using the Codebook. Still paying the price. But I won't know why. Won't remember. Will just be Empty. Walking. Fighting. Dying."
Kael pulls her close. Holds her. Lets her break.
"Then I'll remember for you," he whispers. "I'll remember who you were. What you fought for. Why you started. And when you forget. When you're Empty. I'll tell you. Every day. Every moment. I'll remind you."
"What if you forget too?"
"Then someone else will remember. The players we save. The survivors we help. They'll carry the memory. Carry the truth. You won't be forgotten. Even if you forget yourself."
She wants to believe him. Wants to trust. Wants to hope.
But she knows the truth. Knows the math. Forty-four fragments. Forty-four uses minimum. Probably more. She'll be Empty long before the war ends. Will become nothing. Will exist without self.
But she'll still fight. Still kill. Still win.
Because that's what survivors do.
They survive. Even when surviving means losing everything.
Even when winning means becoming nothing.
Even when the cost is self.
Her phone buzzes. Text. Jin-Hwa.
Kael's binding. Check it. Now.
She looks at Kael. "Your binding. Does it feel different?"
He closes his eyes. Checks. Searches.
Opens them. Tears forming.
"It's gone." His voice breaks. "The binding. It's completely gone. I'm free."
Three fragments dead. Three links broken. The chain shattered.
Kael Draven. Former Conductor. Former bound soldier. Former hunter.
Free.
"Then it was worth it," Arden says. "Your freedom. Worth the cost."
"No." He touches her face. "You were worth more. Are worth more. Will always be worth more."
"Maybe." She pulls away. Starts walking back. "But it's done. Three fragments dead. Forty-four to go. And I'm still here. Still fighting. Still me. For now."
They return to the community center. To the team. To the war.
Three fragments in four days. Forty-four remaining. Six weeks of war ahead.
And Arden Vale isn't counting seconds anymore. Isn't counting victories.
She's counting fragments. Counting costs. Counting what's left of herself.
Every use of the Codebook. Every memory lost. Every piece forgotten.
But she's not stopping. Won't stop. Can't stop.
Because the Entity feeds. Because players die. Because the cycle continues.
Until someone ends it. Until someone pays the price. Until someone becomes nothing so everyone else can be something.
And that someone is her.
Three down. Forty-four to go. Whatever it costs.
Whatever it takes.
Even if the cost is everything.