THE THING IN THE HALL
Evelyn’s POV
I didn’t hear it break in.
There was no glass shatter. No slam. No alarm.
Just silence.
A quiet so deep, it made my ears ring.
I sat frozen in the chair, heart beating hard. The rose still in the trash beside me. The window locked.
Still, I felt it.
That shift in the air.
Heavy.
Wrong.
Then the lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
And then—
Darkness.
The entire healer’s wing went out. Just like that.
Gone.
I stood up fast, almost slipping on the stone floor.
“Hello?” I whispered.
No answer.
No buzz of magic.
No sound at all.
Except—
Click.
A soft sound. Like claws on tile.
No. Not claws.
Something… wet.
Dripping.
Close.
Too close.
I backed toward the bed, hand reaching for the emergency bell beside it—but it wasn’t glowing. It was dead.
I turned to grab my phone from the nightstand.
Gone.
The phone was gone.
Then I smelled it.
Rot.
Old blood. Wet earth. Burnt hair.
I turned—and saw it.
At the door.
A shape.
Tall. Thin. Too long. Too still.
Eyes black as tar.
Mouth twisted into something between a grin and a scream.
It didn’t breathe.
It didn’t blink.
But it moved.
Fast.
Straight at me.
I screamed and grabbed the chair, swinging it hard.
It shattered on impact—splinters flying.
But the thing didn’t fall.
It kept coming.
Its arm hit me in the side, sharp and cold, like ice laced with metal.
I flew backward, hit the wall hard, pain flaring through my ribs.
I couldn’t scream again.
Couldn’t even breathe.
I fell to the floor.
Blood filled my mouth.
Footsteps. Shouts.
The guards.
Too late.
The door burst open, and three guards charged in.
The thing turned to them.
It didn’t hesitate.
It tore through the first man like paper.
The second guard fired a bolt of light—straight to its chest.
It staggered.
But didn’t stop.
Its hand—if you could call it that—sliced across the second guard’s neck.
He dropped, gasping.
The third tried to run.
It grabbed him by the leg and dragged him into the hallway.
I forced myself up.
Pain screamed through my whole body.
But I was alive.
Still breathing.
Barely.
The thing turned back to me.
Its face... changed.
Morphed.
Flickered.
Lucas’s smile.
Then Layla’s sneer.
Then my own face, twisted with rage.
“You never left,” it hissed in a voice like broken glass. “You think you’re free?”
I crawled backward, nails scraping the stone.
It reached for me again—
A wall of flame hit it from the side.
Bright.
Blinding.
Hot.
The thing howled.
Sebastian.
He stood in the hallway, shirt half-buttoned, fury in his eyes.
“Get away from her,” he growled.
The thing lunged.
Sebastian didn’t move.
But the air around him did.
Magic twisted—fast, sharp, like wind with teeth.
A blade of light exploded from his palm and sliced straight across the creature’s chest.
It shrieked again.
This time, louder.
More human.
More real.
The walls cracked.
The lights flickered again.
Reyna appeared behind him, sword drawn, eyes glowing blue.
“Out of the way!” she shouted.
The creature turned to flee.
Too late.
Reyna's blade found its neck.
The scream it gave didn’t sound like any animal.
Or person.
It sounded like death.
Cold and hollow and endless.
The body fell to the floor.
Twisted.
Shrinking.
Melting into smoke.
Then it was gone.
Silence fell again.
Thick and deep.
I lay on the floor, shaking, blood in my mouth.
Sebastian dropped beside me, hands already glowing.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered, voice tight.
I grabbed his shirt weakly. “That wasn’t from the trial.”
“I know,” he said.
Reyna crouched beside us, face pale.
“What the hell was that?” she asked.
Neither of us had the answer.
But something told me—
That was only the beginning.
I don’t remember the walk back to Sebastian’s room.
I barely remember anything.
I must’ve blacked out for a bit, because the next time I opened my eyes, I was in his bed. The big one in his quarters. The dark blue sheets smelled like him—cedar, pine, and something clean.
The lights were low.
Sebastian sat at the edge of the mattress, pressing a cool cloth against my cheek. His hands were gentler than I’d ever seen them.
“Hey,” he said when he noticed I was awake. “Don’t move. You’re okay.”
wd
I blinked, throat dry.
My ribs hurt worse than before. My lip was cut. My shoulder burned.
But I was alive.
Barely.
He reached for a water bottle on the table and helped me sip.
Every swallow felt like swallowing glass.
“What... what was that thing?” I asked quietly.
His jaw tightened. “We don’t know yet.”
“But it wasn’t from the gate.”
“No.”
That one word carried too much weight.
I swallowed again, slower this time.
“Are the guards...?”
He hesitated. “Two made it. One didn’t.”
Guilt twisted deep in my stomach.
That thing had come for me—and they’d paid the price.
I shut my eyes, breathing through the pain.
“You’re not safe in the healer’s wing anymore,” Sebastian said. “I don’t care what the council or healer says. You stay here now. With me.”
I didn’t argue.
For once, I was too tired to fight it.
And I needed to feel safe again.
Even if it was just a lie.
Even if I knew safety didn’t exist for people like me.
Not anymore.
Unknown POV – Elsewhere
“She survived.”
The woman’s voice was flat, but her hand shook where it gripped the blood charm.
Smoke curled around the edges of the mirror in front of her. It showed only mist now. No room. No bed. No blood.
No girl.
“She shouldn’t have made it,” the man said behind her. “It ripped through half the guard.”
“She did,” the woman snapped. “Because they interfered.”
“The alpha.”
“And the sword witch,” she added bitterly. “Reyna.”
The man stepped forward. “Then we try again.”
“No,” the woman said, eyes narrowing. “There won’t be another opening until the third gate.”
“She’ll be ready by then.”
“She won’t be.”
“She’s healing.”
The woman finally turned to him.
“She’s remembering,” she said, voice sharp like a blade. “The illusion gate pulled it out of her. Now she sees shadows in everything. And if she keeps looking... she’ll start to recognize them.”
The man frowned. “Then what?”
She held up the charm.
It pulsed once. Dark red. Almost black.
“Then we stop playing.”
He stilled. “You’ll do it? The final curse?”
The woman smiled—but there was no warmth in it.
“She wanted to walk through the Forest of Fear. So let her. Let her see what she’s buried. Let her see what we did.”
She turned back to the mirror.
“And this time… no one gets to pull her out.”