Death Knell
When the lights flickered back to life, the yellow bulbs above them buzzed with a faint electric hum. Lily’s face twisted in fury, her voice shrieking through the room like broken glass.
“Get out!” she screamed, pointing a trembling finger at Alisha, Joel, and Sam. “Leave my house and never come back! I told you already—I don’t want anything to do with Allan. I don’t care if he’s dying, I don’t care if he’s crawling, I don’t care if he’s begging—I will never want him again. So stop bothering me!”
Her chest rose and fell violently as though the very air was poisonous in her lungs.
Alisha tried to stay calm, though the sudden return of light had revealed more than Lily’s anger. The wallpaper behind her was peeling in long strips, almost as though claw marks had raked down the walls. The air smelled faintly of smoke, though there was no fire. Alisha’s stomach twisted, but she steadied herself.
“Lily,” she said quietly, “we’re not here to force you back to him. We just need answers. That’s all. Nothing else.”
“I already gave you answers!” Lily hissed, her voice cracking under the pressure of her own fury. “I blocked his number, I erased him from my life. I told you—I hate him.”
Joel glanced around uneasily. “Then why does it feel like he’s still here?” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. His words fell heavier than the silence that followed, because all of them could feel it too—that suffocating weight pressing against their ribs.
Sam, ever the brash one, stepped forward. “Look, Lily, maybe you don’t want to admit it, but people say Allan’s been seen near here. If you’re hiding something, you should just tell us now. It’ll be easier than waiting for him to show up at your door.”
At that, Lily’s expression twisted, shifting from fury to something colder, something darker. Her lips curled into a smile that did not belong to her. “If Allan shows up at my door,” she said in a low, almost growling tone, “he won’t leave alive.”
Alisha’s heart skipped. For a moment, she didn’t recognize the woman before her. It wasn’t just Lily’s voice, but her eyes—blackened with something hollow, something void of life.
“Lily…” Alisha whispered, taking a cautious step closer. “You sound… different. What’s happening to you?”
But Lily snapped her head toward her so quickly it was like her bones cracked with the motion. “Nothing is happening to me!” she snarled. “What’s happening is you refuse to listen. You people keep digging, and digging, and digging. Do you want to end up like the others?”
“The others?” Joel asked sharply. His hands clenched at his sides. “What others, Lily? What are you talking about?”
For a second, Lily’s mouth opened as though she would speak. Her eyes darted to the corner of the room, where the shadows pooled thicker than anywhere else, almost breathing. Her lips trembled, then closed again.
“You should go,” she said flatly, her voice almost robotic.
But Alisha refused to back down. “Lily, listen to me. We know Allan has been with Adelia Murray. We know about the other women. Are you saying you didn’t know? Are you saying you never—”
“I don’t care!” Lily screamed, her voice breaking into a guttural echo that did not belong to her. “Do you hear me? I don’t care who Allan sleeps with, who Allan lies to, who Allan destroys! He destroyed me long ago. He ripped something out of me, and it’s never coming back. And if you keep standing here, you’ll lose it too.”
The bulbs above them flickered again, humming louder. Shadows stretched across the walls, reaching out with long, bony fingers.
Sam swore under his breath. “What the hell is wrong with this place?”
Alisha tightened her grip on her bag, her skin prickling with goosebumps. “Lily, if you know something—if Allan did something worse than the affairs—we need to know. Please. This isn’t just about him anymore. Something’s not right.”
Lily shook her head violently, clutching at her own hair, pulling at it until strands tore loose. “You don’t understand!” she shrieked. “He doesn’t just hurt women. He feeds on them.”
The room froze. Even the buzzing of the bulbs seemed to quiet.
“What do you mean, feeds?” Joel asked slowly, his voice tight.
Lily’s laughter broke out suddenly—sharp, manic, jagged. “You’ll find out soon enough. You think you came here to talk to me, but no… no, you came here because you’re being drawn. Pulled. He doesn’t need me anymore. He needs you.”
Her eyes locked on Alisha.
Alisha’s chest tightened. The weight of those words, the way Lily’s gaze pierced her, made her want to turn and run. But she couldn’t—not yet.
“Lily,” she whispered. “Please, you have to tell us the truth. What do you mean Allan feeds?”
But Lily didn’t answer. Instead, she tilted her head slowly, like an animal listening to something far away. Her lips curved into that unnatural smile again.
“Do you hear it?” she asked softly.
“Hear what?” Sam demanded.
“The car,” Lily whispered. “The wheels on the gravel. He’s coming. He knows you’re here.”
The air dropped cold. Joel’s breath misted in front of him.
“That’s impossible,” Joel muttered, shaking his head. “Allan’s in the hospital. He had a car accident. He can’t just—”
The sound came then. Outside, faint at first, then louder—the crunch of gravel beneath heavy tires. A car rolling slowly, deliberately, as though circling the house.
Alisha’s stomach turned to ice.
“No,” Joel whispered. “No, no, no…”
Lily stepped back into the shadowed corner, her smile widening. “You shouldn’t have come here. Now you’ll never leave.”
The lights flickered once more, then went out.
Total darkness swallowed them.
And in that darkness, the sound of a car door opening outside echoed like a death knell.