Chapter 15
The house had never felt more alive.
Olivia could feel it now—the pulse, the thrum of its presence. It was as though the very walls were breathing with her, their ancient rhythm in tune with the erratic beat of her heart. She could no longer pretend that this was just a house. No, it was far more. It was something older, something vast and terrifying, and it was awake. It had been waiting for her, just as much as she had been waiting for the right moment to understand its power.
But that moment—when the veil had lifted—had come with a price. Lila. Her sister. The girl who had once been full of life, so vibrant and full of laughter, was no more. The entity wearing her face had been what brought Olivia to this point. The thing that wore her sister's body, twisted by dark forces, was the gateway. The key to understanding all that had been hidden, all that had been buried in the very foundation of this house.
Olivia's breath caught as she stood at the top of the staircase, staring down into the darkened corridor below. Her pulse echoed in her ears, a constant reminder that she was not alone. Henry and James stood behind her, both looking as shaken as she felt, but there was something else in their eyes—something deeper. Fear. Regret. Anger. Each emotion seemed to twist and churn as they moved through the house with her.
"We can't just keep running," Olivia murmured, her voice barely a whisper. "We need to know what happened. What we're dealing with."
James shot a quick glance at her, his brows furrowed. "Olivia, you're not listening. This place is… cursed. Whatever's here, it wants us gone. It's feeding on us."
"I know." Olivia turned to face him, her eyes hard. "But I'm not going to let it win. Not again."
Henry stepped forward, his expression softer than James's but equally troubled. "We're in this together. We'll figure it out. But we need to be smart. We need to plan."
Her gaze flicked to the shadows stretching down the hallway ahead. The air felt colder now, the chill creeping under her skin, making her limbs feel heavy. It wasn't just the house; something darker was closing in. Something that had always been here, waiting.
"Let's move," she said, the words leaving her mouth before she could even think them through.
They stepped forward, the floorboards creaking beneath their weight. The house groaned in protest, and the air seemed to grow denser as they made their way down the hall. Olivia could feel her skin tightening with every step, as if the very walls were reaching for her.
The hallway stretched on endlessly, a labyrinth of doors and windows, each more unsettling than the last. There were whispers now—soft murmurs that seemed to come from the walls themselves, from the very foundation of the house. They could not make out the words, but they could feel them. Could feel the hunger in them. The longing.
And then, Olivia stopped. Her hand, still gripping the edge of the banister, tightened until her knuckles turned white.
"Do you hear that?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Henry and James both froze. Their gazes snapped to her, the same unease creeping across their faces.
"What is it?" James asked, his voice low, almost a whisper.
Olivia's heart was pounding in her chest, but it wasn't just fear that gripped her. No, this was something far worse. This was an invitation.
"Down there," she whispered, pointing toward the far end of the hallway.
It was faint at first, but then it grew louder—so much louder. A steady rhythm, a beat, like footsteps coming closer. It wasn't human. It wasn't natural. It was a presence. One that had been here all along, waiting for her to find it.
"I think it's time we found out what's really in this house," Olivia said, her voice now cold, detached, as though it was no longer her own.
Before either Henry or James could respond, she was moving again, walking with purpose, drawn toward the darkness that awaited at the end of the hallway. She couldn't stop now. Not after everything they had already been through. They had come too far. The truth was here, hidden in the shadows.
With every step, the sounds grew louder. The murmurs, the footsteps. A thousand whispers brushed against her skin, caressing her, pulling her in. It was intoxicating, this pull, this force that seemed to have its grip on her very soul.
At the end of the hallway was a door—small, unassuming, but there was something about it that made her stop in her tracks. The door was cracked open, just a sliver of darkness beyond it.
"Olivia…" Henry's voice was tight with fear, but she couldn't bring herself to turn around.
She could hear him, feel his concern, but the weight of the house, the pressure, was too much to ignore. This was it. This was where everything would come together.
"Stay close," she ordered softly, her voice still holding that detached, almost foreign tone. "We're going inside."
She pushed the door open, the sound of it scraping across the wooden floor like nails on a chalkboard. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered except the truth.
The room beyond was cold, darker than the rest of the house. There was no furniture, only an altar. A stone altar, dark and slick with what seemed to be old blood, its surface worn from centuries of use. Olivia's heart skipped a beat as she approached it. There were symbols etched into the stone—strange, ancient runes, ones she couldn't understand but knew had power. The air around them seemed to thicken, and Olivia could feel the walls pushing in on them, drawing them toward this place.
In the center of the altar, there was something—someone. A body. Or what was left of it.
Lila.
Her sister's body lay there, cold and still, her once-bright eyes closed as if in eternal sleep. But Olivia knew better. She could feel the energy that had twisted around her sister, the dark power that had taken hold of her. The truth was clear now. Lila hadn't just been taken by the house. She had been chosen. Chosen to become part of something far darker, far more dangerous.
"No," Olivia whispered, her breath catching in her throat. "No…"
Henry's voice cracked behind her. "Olivia…"
But it was too late. The shadows shifted in the room, and the whispers grew louder, now turning into words. Words that could not be ignored.
"You're too late," they hissed. "She's already ours."
The ground beneath them seemed to tremble, the walls closing in faster than they could react. The altar pulsed with dark energy, and Olivia realized, with a sickening certainty, that there was no going back now.
They were in the heart of it. The center of the darkness. And there was only one way out.
But it wasn't the way they thought. The only escape would come at a cost far greater than any of them could imagine.
"Run," Olivia gasped. "Run!"