INICIAR SESIÓNThe darkness didn’t just fall.It collapsed, like a wave of ink pouring over the world.For a full, paralyzing second, Evelyn couldn’t hear anything except her own heartbeat pounding against her ribs. Every breath felt stolen, cut short, swallowed by the void pressing into her lungs. No light, no walls, no sense of space.Only those two glowing eyes suspended in the blackness, unblinking, patient, aware, watching her.Alexander’s grip tightened painfully around her wrist.“Stay close to me,” he whispered, the rare tremor in his voice betraying the tension clawing under his skin.Evelyn clung to him instinctively, but her gaze remained locked on the pair of luminous eyes that hovered where the mirror had been, they didn’t move, they didn’t blink, they simply existed like a truth she wasn’t ready to face.Then a low hum vibrated through the floor, a sound almost like breathing. Mechanical, yet disturbingly organic.Lights flickered once weak, frantic sparks trying to crawl back to life
The containment door sealed behind them with a heavy, industrial hiss and thick bolts grinding into place. The sound wasn’t just loud, it was final, it was like stepping into the belly of a beast that had just swallowed them whole.Evelyn’s breath fogged slightly in the cold air.This room was colder than the rest of the mansion, an intentional temperature drop to stabilize “anomalous systems,” as Alexander had called them. Except that nothing about this felt like systems, it felt like a tomb or a memory.Alexander led her inside with slow, deliberate steps, scanning the walls with the trained alertness of someone who didn’t trust his own creation.And then, the mirror at the far end of the room flickered, not with light or electricity but with presence.The reflection changed subtly at first. Evelyn almost thought she imagined it. Her stance in the mirror looked too rigid. Her hair fell differently around her shoulders. Her expression was too sharp, like someone who had lived a thous
The mansion felt wrong, too quiet, too still, too aware.Evelyn clung to Alexander’s arm as they stepped out of the office, both of them breathing like they’d been underwater for too long. Every hallway light flickered at irregular intervals, like the mansion itself had a heartbeat and it was skipping.Alexander moved fast, not running, but close. He kept Evelyn behind him, his hand wrapped so tightly around hers she couldn’t tell if he was grounding her or himself.“Stay close,” he murmured.“I’m not the one wandering off,” she whispered back, trying to steady her voice. He didn’t reply.They reached the main staircase. The entire foyer was bathed in an eerie amber glow, as if the emergency lights had entered some unnatural standby mode. Shadows stretched too long across the marble floors, reaching like fingers toward the walls. Evelyn shivered.“She wants you to go to that room,” Alexander said finally. “That’s exactly why we won’t.”“Why?” Evelyn asked. “What’s in there that she wa
The darkness in Alexander’s office wasn’t normal. It wasn’t the kind that followed a power outage or a blown fuse.This darkness felt aware of a living thing that curled around Evelyn’s ankles, slithered up her spine, and pressed against her throat like invisible fingers. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe. Alexander grabbed her shoulders and pulled her against him.“Stay with me,” he said with a trembling voice. It didn't come as an order but a plea. Somewhere deep in the mansion’s belly, a generator hummed to life. A faint emergency light flickered, painting the room in a dim red glow. Yet the screens stayed dead, completely and unnaturally black.“Is she gone?” Evelyn swallowed.Alexander didn’t answer. That told her everything.His eyes fixed on the screens like he expected them to come alive again. His body was rigid, jaw tight, breath too shallow. He wasn’t looking for Afterlight. He was bracing for her.“Alexander” Evelyn whispered. “Talk to me.”He didn’t move.“Alexander.” Sh
The Kane mansion slept beneath a velvet-black sky, but Evelyn couldn’t.Not when the world she thought she knew had cracked open beneath her feet.She pulled her knees to her chest on the edge of the bed, the bruising silence of the night tightening around her ribs. The glowing monitors from Alexander’s office illuminated the room faintly through the open doorway. Lines of code flickered across the screens like restless ghosts. A gentle tap echoed from the hallway, soft, rhythmic, not human.Evelyn’s breath hitched. She rose slowly, the silk robe brushing her ankles, and stepped into the hallway. The air felt colder and heavier here. The tap came again, three deliberate knocks coming from behind the door at the far end of the corridor. The room that shouldn’t exist. The room Alexander had sworn was sealed, the one she wasn’t allowed to enter, the one with the brass lock and the shadows that seemed to breathe.Evelyn’s pulse beat against her throat.“Hello?” she whispered.Silence. Th
The monastery felt colder when morning came. Frost clung to the stone windowsills, spider webbing across the glass like white cracks. Evelyn woke without realizing she’d slept, her dreams slipping away like mist. She reached to her right, the pillow was untouched.Alexander hadn’t come back to bed.A knot formed in her stomach. She wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and followed the faint echo of footsteps down the corridor, her bare feet silent against the worn stone.She found him in the old scriptorium, the largest room in the monastery. Sunlight filtered through the tall stained-glass windows, casting fractured colors across the floor. Alexander stood at the far table, surrounded by flickering monitors and tangled wires, his silhouette sharp against the cold light.He looked like a man trying to hold back the collapse of the world.“What did you hear last night?” Evelyn asked quietly, stepping inside.Alexander didn’t look up. “The same thing you did.”Evelyn’s throat tightene







