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Avery's POV
A scraping sound echoed, and when I opened my eyes, everything was darkness.
The air around me felt heavy, almost liquid, and every breath seemed foreign, suffocating. I stayed still for a few seconds, trying to sort through my memories—the key… the strange voice… the dream… and the stranger. Everything blended together in a fog I couldn't grasp.
I slowly sat up, my muscles still numb. Ahead of me, a white light cut through the darkness like a solitary beacon. I took one step, then another, and a shiver ran through me—the ground beneath my feet rippled, as if I were walking on water. Each step sent out small waves of light that vanished almost instantly.
The light grew brighter, until it revealed a door.
The same one I had seen the night before.
But this time, it wasn't closed.
It was waiting for me, slightly open, as if ready to swallow me whole.
I hesitated, but my legs carried me forward on their own, across the threshold.
Everything changed at once.
The darkness vanished, replaced by a corridor I knew by heart—the hospital hallway where my mother worked. I looked down, and a detail made my blood run cold: I was wearing a patient's gown, the one I hated so much.
The corridor was silent, yet strangely alive. Patients and visitors walked around me, but none of them looked my way. They brushed past me, almost through me, as if I were invisible.
"Hey!" I called out, my voice breaking. "Can you hear me?"
Nothing.
No movement. No response.
My heart began to race as I moved forward, my footsteps echoing too loudly in the emptiness.
That's when I saw her.
The little girl.
The same one I had seen when I arrived at the hospital. She stood in the middle of the corridor, perfectly still. Her eyes—my blood froze the moment I met them. They were empty, dull, stripped of all life. She stared at me without blinking, as if she could see straight through me.
I swallowed hard and, despite the fear crushing my chest, I stepped closer.
"Who are you?" I whispered, my throat tight.
She stayed silent, frozen, until her lips finally moved. A rough, icy voice escaped them.
"You shouldn't be here."
My heart skipped a beat. I stepped back, but her face suddenly changed. Her features twisted, her mouth opening in an inhuman way—and then she screamed.
A sharp, tearing, unbearable scream that made the entire corridor vibrate.
I pressed my hands over my ears, but the sound didn't come from outside—it echoed inside my head, crushing my skull. The neon lights above me flickered, bursting into flashes of violet light. The silhouettes of the patients vanished one by one.
I stood there, frozen, incapable of moving.
And that scream… that scream…
It was the same one.
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Then it stopped—abruptly.
I gasped for air, my ears still ringing. The silence that fell over the corridor was so dense it crushed me. I lifted my eyes—the little girl was gone.
In her place, the hospital began to crumble.
The white walls blackened, cracked, oozing a sticky dampness. The floor warped as if it were breathing, and the lights went out one by one, swallowed by the shadows. Within seconds, I was plunged into suffocating darkness.
An icy breath brushed against the back of my neck. I turned instinctively, but behind me the corridor had transformed into a bottomless abyss. Vertigo seized me.
There was no way back.
So I walked.
Or rather… I let myself be guided by that dark force pulling me farther and farther away.
My footsteps echoed on a slick, soggy ground. I looked down—black water had already risen to my ankles, freezing cold. Each step sent out ripples that vanished immediately into the darkness.
Whispers bloomed all around me. Countless voices murmuring my name, repeating fragments I couldn't understand. The farther I went, the louder they grew, until they merged into a suffocating cacophony.
Suddenly, a silhouette detached itself from the shadows.
Tall. Blurred. Motionless.
I stopped dead, unable to move forward. Its edges vibrated like smoke driven by a will of its own. I could make out its face—or rather, the absence of one. A black mask, featureless, eyeless. A freezing presence that pierced straight through me.
I tried to scream, but no sound came out. My legs shook, my lungs burned.
The silhouette slowly raised a hand.
At the center of its palm glowed a luminous seal—the same one I had seen on the key. But this time, it had changed. At its center stood a phoenix. It pulsed like an open wound, glowing red, and each pulse made the air around me tremble.
"Avery… remember."
The voice wasn't unfamiliar.
It was Dad's.
And in that impossible blend of light and darkness, my strength abandoned me. Something was dragging me toward nothingness.
Then a gentle touch brushed my cheek.
Another voice, distant but familiar, reached me.
Jackson.
I caught fragments of words, muffled, before other voices joined in—Claire's, Calvin's, Dani's… and Mom's. They were all calling my name.
And then everything lit up around me.
The light burned my eyes. The sharp smell of disinfectant filled my senses. The steady beeping of machines invaded my ears. When I finally opened my eyes for real, I felt a weight on top of me—a warm presence, dark brown hair I knew all too well.
I gently ran my fingers through those strands. They moved. Sleep-clouded eyes slowly opened.
"Hey… careful," I murmured with a teasing smile.
"You're going to flatten me."
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