Sleep was no longer a refuge.It came in fragments — flashes of crimson light, murmured prayers in forgotten tongues, and the weight of something ancient pressing down on her chest. Every time her eyes closed, Lilith saw the church again, the way the air had rippled with Adam’s rage, how Jake’s voice had crawled like smoke through her veins.And now the words from the note pulsed in her skull: He remembers.She didn’t know who “he” was — Jake, Adam, or something deeper.But the unease followed her everywhere.By morning, she moved through the halls like a ghost. The students chattered around her about normal things — midterms, parties, rumors of expulsion — while the walls seemed to breathe in slow, rhythmic pulses only she could sense.The academy had changed since that night.Something old had been awakened.Every corner hummed faintly with energy, every reflection twitched like a warning.When she brushed her fingers against her locker door, it shuddered beneath her touch, as if re

The dream came first, as always.She was standing at the cathedral steps, but the world around her pulsed and twisted. Stone melted into smoke, and candles flickered with unnatural colors — violet, black, crimson. The hymn from the crypt echoed again, but this time it was layered, overlapping with whispers she didn’t recognize.A figure moved within the shadows. Not Jake, not Adam, but something older, its presence pressing on her chest with cold weight. Her heartbeat faltered.You hear it, a voice hissed inside her skull. You feel the pull.Lilith wanted to scream, but no sound came. The air thickened around her throat. Her body moved before her mind could protest, taking steps toward the dark figure, compelled by the threads she didn’t understand.Then Jake’s voice cut through, distant but distinct.“Do you think you can walk without me knowing?”She staggered, hands braced against a wall that wasn’t solid — just smoke and memory — and realized the floor beneath her was bleeding wit

The academy was quiet, unnaturally quiet, as though the walls themselves were holding their breath. Every step Adam took echoed too loudly in the corridors, each sound magnified by the tension coiling in the air. He could feel it — the entity. It was near. Closer than ever.Malrick stirred inside him, a faint pulse at the edges of his consciousness.> “Patience is over, Adam. It tests you now.”Adam clenched his fists, feeling the energy crackle beneath his skin. Then I will test it first.He moved toward the library courtyard, shadows rippling like liquid around his feet. The faint pulse he’d sensed earlier around Kaleb was stronger now, a heartbeat buried in darkness. The entity wasn’t invisible anymore — it was reacting to his presence, to the power coursing through him.And he knew the moment he unleashed even a fraction of Malrick’s strength, he could obliterate it. But he didn’t know if that would save Kaleb or destroy everything.He stopped at the edge of the courtyard and surv

The corridor was no longer just a hallway. The air had thickened, heavy with energy that prickled against Adam’s skin, pressing in from all sides. Every flicker of light, every creak of the floorboards, vibrated with anticipation. He could feel Malrick surging beneath his calm surface, coiling like a predator, ready to unleash destruction. > “It’s here. Strike.” Adam’s crimson eyes narrowed. The entity had fully emerged, humanoid and jagged, a living nightmare of shadows and smoke. Its tendrils whipped the air, shredding papers, dislodging ceiling panels, and twisting reality in a way that left the corridor unrecognizable. It was testing him, probing for weaknesses, feeding on the fear and emotional chaos around it. Elena’s psychic flare pulsed dangerously nearby. She had followed him again, drawn by the intensity of the supernatural forces, unaware that her emotional energy could amplify the entity’s attacks. Lilith’s threads wound subtly around her and Kaleb, protective but stra

Adam crouched behind a fractured pew, crimson energy pulsing faintly along his skin. The alternate reality of the church seemed to breathe, warping subtly around them, shadows stretching like living fingers. Every heartbeat resonated with tension; the entity was watching, learning, waiting for him to make a mistake. Sanchez remained at the altar, his form partially human, partially shadow, the entity coiling around him like a second skin. His gaze pierced Adam, but there was hesitation now, an internal struggle between his own will and the possession controlling him. That small crack was Adam’s only advantage. Malrick whispered insistently in his mind: > “Strike decisively. End this. Or be consumed.” Adam clenched his fists. Not yet, he thought. I need to know its plan first. --- Adam focused, extending his awareness through the warped space. The shadows around Sanchez seemed to pulse in a pattern, almost like a heartbeat. And then it became clear: the entity wasn’t atta