Sarah's POV
The rift was no longer just a place of shadows and monsters. It had become a labyrinth, shifting and warping around me with each step I took. The walls—if they could even be called that—seemed to close in, changing their shape, twisting into impossible angles. There was no time, no sense of direction, no ground to stand on. The stone in my hand, now faintly pulsing, was the only thing tethering me to reality.
I wiped the sweat from my brow, trying to calm the erratic beat of my heart. My breaths came in ragged gasps, the weight of the rift pressing down on me like a hundred unseen hands. I had to focus. Axel was here somewhere, trapped between life and death, and I had to find him. I couldn't think of anything else, not even the suffocating darkness around me.
But how could I find him when I was barely able to keep my own sanity intact? The rift was a maze, a living nightmare where nothing made sense.
The whispers came again, louder this time. They were no longer just words—they were thoughts, memories that weren't mine. Faces flashed in my mind, strangers, people I didn't recognize, their eyes empty, pleading. They reached out to me, their voices overlapping, drowning me in a chorus of pain.
"Sarah…"
The voice was unmistakable.
I froze, heart leaping in my chest. That voice—it was Axel's. It was soft, distant, but unmistakably his.
"Axel?" I whispered, stepping forward into the darkness. My voice cracked, like I was speaking through water, the sound vanishing into the overwhelming silence.
There was no answer, only silence, thick and suffocating. Was it really him? The rift distorted everything—sounds, time, space. Maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me.
The shadows seemed to shift, as if moving to block my path. I turned around, but the way I had come was already gone, replaced by an expanse of blackness so deep I could barely see my own hands in front of me. The stone's light flickered once more, casting long, eerie shadows across the shifting rift.
"Axel, please!" I shouted, my voice trembling. "Where are you?"
The ground beneath me shifted, pulling me forward. I stumbled, my legs weak, and fell to my knees. My palms hit the cold, slick surface, and I gasped in horror when I felt the ground give way beneath me.
I was falling.
I screamed, reaching for anything to hold onto, but there was nothing. The rift had torn open beneath me, pulling me down, deeper and deeper. My body twisted in the air as I plummeted, and I felt like I was drowning in darkness. Panic surged through me, my heart pounding so loudly that I couldn't hear anything else.
Before I could do anything, a sharp, sudden jolt stopped me.
I was caught.
A pair of hands gripped my arms, pulling me back to solid ground with inhuman strength. My vision swam, and I blinked hard to clear the spots before my eyes. When I looked up, I was met with a face that was at once familiar and utterly foreign.
It was Axel.
But it wasn't.
His face was gaunt, his eyes hollow, and the air around him seemed to ripple with dark energy, like a storm waiting to burst. His lips curled into a twisted smile, but it wasn't the smile I remembered. It was empty, haunted.
"Axel…" My voice cracked as I reached out to him. My heart thudded painfully in my chest. "What's happening? What's going on?"
He took a step back, his eyes still locked onto mine, but there was no warmth there. Only a cold emptiness. "You shouldn't have come," he said, his voice now devoid of the warmth I once knew. It was flat, devoid of emotion. "It's too late, Sarah. You can't save me."
"No." I shook my head, stumbling to my feet. "No, you're wrong. I can't leave you here. I won't."
But as I reached for him, Axel's form seemed to waver, his image blurring like smoke. He stepped further away, his face darkened. "You don't understand," he whispered, his voice lowering to a haunting murmur. "The curse was never just about breaking the spell. It was never just about freedom. I…" His words faltered, and for a brief moment, I saw a flicker of the man I once knew.
"I couldn't let you live with it. I couldn't let you carry that burden. So I did what I had to do."
Tears welled in my eyes as I stared at him. "What do you mean? What did you do? What's happening to you?"
His eyes darkened, and the air around us seemed to grow heavier. His form wavered again, like a ghost trapped between worlds. Then, with an almost imperceptible sigh, he looked away.
"You have to leave," he said, his voice barely audible now. "You shouldn't have come for me. I'm not the man I was anymore."
The air around us seemed to grow cold, the oppressive silence pressing in. My breath hitched in my throat as I realized something had changed in the rift—it was no longer just an oppressive space. It was alive. Alive in a way that made the very ground beneath my feet feel unstable, like it might collapse at any moment.
Then, I heard it. A screech—low and guttural, shaking the very bones of the rift. It was unholy, its sound reverberating through me like a physical force. I whipped around, my heart racing. From the darkness, something monstrous emerged.
It was a beast—twisted and horrifying. Its body was a grotesque amalgamation of shadows and sinew, limbs stretching unnaturally long, and eyes glowing with malice. The air around it reeked of decay, and its presence filled the rift with a suffocating pressure. The ground beneath me trembled as it stalked toward me, its claws scraping against the surface, each step a promise of death.
I froze, terror freezing me in place, every instinct in my body screaming to flee. But I couldn't tear my gaze away from Axel, whose face had gone pale. His eyes locked onto the beast, and for a fleeting second, I saw fear there. A flicker of humanity in his eyes—before it was gone.
"It's too late," Axel whispered, his voice hoarse. "Sarah, you have to get out of here. Now."
The creature howled again, a deafening roar that sent vibrations through my very soul. I took a step back, my heart racing, every inch of me screaming to run. But I couldn't leave him, not now. Not after everything we had been through.
But Axel was already retreating into the shadows, his form fading into the blackness like a wisp of smoke. "I'm sorry," his voice echoed, growing fainter with each passing second. "I'm sorry for everything."
And then he was gone.
I gasped, stumbling as the rift seemed to close in around me. The creature lunged, its jaws snapping, and in an instant, I was thrown back. The force of the impact sent me sprawling to the ground, the world spinning as my body hit the cold stone. The beast was on top of me, its breath foul and hot against my skin, its claws slashing toward me.
"Sarah!" Axel's voice screamed in my mind, distant but clear, a call that only made the fear claw deeper into my chest. It was him, calling to me—but it was too late. The creature's claws were upon me, and as they raked down toward my chest, everything went black.