The payphone went dead.
No more ringing. No more voices. Just the buzz of silence lingering in the air.
Ethan and Maya stared at each other, neither daring to speak.
Then—
Drip.
A soft, wet sound.
Ethan's eyes flicked downward.
A drop of red hit the pavement.
Then another.
Then another.
Maya took a step back. "Where is that coming from?"
Ethan followed the drops with his eyes. They led away from the payphone, curving down the sidewalk in uneven splatters. The blood looked fresh. Too fresh.
Maya shook her head immediately. "No. Absolutely not. We are not following the creepy blood trail in the middle of a haunted city."
Ethan was already moving.
"Ethan!" Maya hissed, jogging to catch up. "Are you serious?"
He didn't answer.
Because he already knew.
This was leading to Jax.
Every instinct in his body screamed that this was a bad idea, that normal people didn't follow blood trails through a city that had already tried to erase time itself.
But Jax was still out there.
And he wasn't alone.
Maya sighed, falling into step beside him. "We're gonna die."
The blood led them down an alleyway. Narrow. Too dark. The brick walls closed in on them, pressing tighter the further they walked.
More blood now. Streaked on the ground. Smears on the walls.
Maya whispered, "It's like something was—dragging someone."
Ethan didn't respond.
Because the air was changing.
It was thicker now, heavier, like they were pushing through something invisible. The silence wasn't just quiet—it was wrong.
Then—
A sound ahead.
A wet, scraping noise.
Maya grabbed Ethan's arm. "We should leave."
Ethan stepped forward.
The alley opened into a small courtyard, surrounded by high brick walls.
And in the middle of it—
Something was there.
A figure crouched low, its back to them.
Jax.
His hoodie was soaked in blood.
The dragging noise didn't stop.
Because he was still moving.
Something was in his hands.
Ethan's stomach lurched. "Jax?"
Jax froze.
For a moment, he didn't turn.
Then—slowly—his head twisted toward them.
Maya inhaled sharply.
Because Jax's eyes were gone.
Two empty sockets stared back.
His face was too pale, his lips cracked, but he was smiling.
And the blood in his hands—
It wasn't his.
Jax's voice came out ragged, hoarse.
"You should've stayed asleep."
Then the lights above them burst.
And everything went dark.
The darkness swallowed them whole.
For a second, there was nothing—just the sharp, choking black.
Then—
A voice.
Faint. Fragile.
"…Hello?"
Maya clutched Ethan's wrist, nails digging into his skin. "Who was that?"
The voice came again. Closer this time.
"…Ethan?"
It was a girl's voice. Soft. Familiar.
Maya whispered, "Lucy?"
Ethan's breath caught.
Then—light.
Not normal light. A dim, flickering glow.
Like candlelight—but wrong.
Shapes formed around them.
Walls. A hallway. Old, stretching far in both directions, lined with wooden doors. The wallpaper was peeling, its patterns twisting in ways that didn't make sense. The floor creaked beneath their feet, but Ethan couldn't tell if it was from them—
Or from something else moving.
Maya turned in a slow circle. "Where the hell are we?"
The House.
Ethan didn't know how he knew, but he did.
This place—it wasn't New York anymore.
It was something else.
And Lucy was here.
"…Ethan?"
Her voice came from somewhere down the hall.
Echoing.
But the sound wasn't normal. It bounced wrong, shifting from one side of the hall to the other.
Maya shook her head. "Nope. No. We are not going toward the creepy, disembodied voice."
But Ethan was already walking.
Because Lucy was in here.
And she was trapped.
The hallway stretched too far. The doors whispered as they passed. The wallpaper shifted, like it was watching them.
Then—
They reached the end.
One door stood slightly open.
Beyond it—nothing but black.
Ethan swallowed hard.
Then he stepped inside.
Inside the House
The moment they crossed the threshold—
The door slammed shut behind them.
Maya spun. "No, no, no—"
The light flickered, revealing—
A room.
A dining room.
Long, wooden table. Velvet chairs. A chandelier hanging too low, its crystals swaying slightly like they had just been disturbed.
At the head of the table—
Lucy.
Sitting perfectly still.
Her hair was longer than before, spilling over her shoulders. Her eyes were too wide, too dark.
But she was smiling.
Too much.
Ethan whispered, "Lucy?"
She blinked—slow, mechanical.
Then her mouth opened.
And a second voice spoke from inside her.
"You found me."
Maya grabbed Ethan's hand. "We need to leave."
But Lucy's head snapped toward them.
And suddenly—
All the doors around them burst open at once.
Shadows spilled out.
And the House began to wake up.