The night outside felt colder than it should have been. Ethan's breath fogged in the air, his limbs still trembling from the encounter in the basement. He tried to focus on the present—the cracked pavement beneath his feet, the distant hum of the streetlights—but his mind kept pulling him back.
Back to that voice.
Back to the thing in the circle.
Back to the hand that had grabbed him.
Noah was pacing a few feet away, his hands running through his hair, his breath unsteady. He stopped suddenly and turned to Ethan.
"Okay," he said, voice tight, barely containing the panic simmering beneath the surface. "You need to start talking. Now."
Ethan swallowed, his throat raw. "I don't even know what to say."
Noah let out a humorless laugh. "Try explaining why the hell your basement is full of cursed symbols and a demon wearing your mother's face."
Ethan exhaled sharply. "I didn't put them there."
"Yeah? Then who did?"
Ethan shook his head, his mind racing. The symbols, the whispers, the thing in the circle—none of it made sense. But he knew one thing for sure.
"It was already there," he said slowly. "Before my family moved in. Before I was even born."
Noah narrowed his eyes. "How do you know that?"
"Because…" Ethan hesitated, his heart pounding. "Because I've seen them before. When I was a kid."
The memory slammed into him like a freight train. He had buried it for years, forced himself to forget. But now it came rushing back with terrifying clarity.
He was six.
It was late at night.
He had woken up to a noise—a whispering sound coming from below.
Curious, he had climbed out of bed, his tiny feet padding against the cold floor. The house had been silent, his parents fast asleep.
But the whispering continued.
Drawn by something he couldn't understand, he had made his way to the basement door. It had been slightly open, just like tonight. The air had been thick with something heavy, something unseen.
And then, he had heard it.
"Ethan… sweetheart, where are you?"
His mother's voice.
But his mother had been asleep upstairs.
Something had moved in the darkness beyond the stairs. A shadow that shouldn't have been there.
And then—
A hand had reached for him.
Cold. Wet. Wrong.
Ethan had screamed, stumbling backward. The basement door had slammed shut on its own.
He had told his parents the next morning, but they had brushed it off as a nightmare. His mother had smiled, ruffled his hair, and said:
"Sweetie, there's nothing in the basement."
He had wanted to believe her.
So he had forced himself to forget.
Until now.
Now, standing outside his house with Noah staring at him, that memory felt like a warning.
Like a message from something that had been waiting all these years.
"Ethan." Noah's voice pulled him back to the present. "What the hell is in your basement?"
Ethan hesitated.
Then, finally, he said it out loud.
"I think it's been here longer than us."
Noah exhaled, dragging a hand down his face. "Fantastic. That's just what I needed to hear."
Silence stretched between them, thick and uneasy.
Noah broke it first. "We need to go back in."
Ethan snapped his head toward him. "Are you insane?"
"We need to know what we're dealing with."
"We already know—it's something that can imitate my mother and tried to grab me!"
Noah crossed his arms. "Exactly. Which means it's not just some random ghost. It's something else. And if we don't figure out what, it's gonna keep coming after you."
Ethan clenched his fists. He knew Noah was right. Ignoring it wouldn't make it go away.
But going back inside?
He wasn't sure he could do that.
A chill ran down his spine. It felt like something was watching them.
And then—
His phone vibrated.
Ethan pulled it out with shaky fingers. The screen was dimly lit, displaying an unknown number.
A single text message blinked on the screen.
COME BACK INSIDE.
Ethan's stomach twisted. His pulse pounded in his ears.
Noah saw the look on his face. "What is it?"
Wordlessly, Ethan turned the phone toward him.
Noah's face paled. "Yeah. Nope. Hell no."
Ethan didn't respond.
Because at that moment—
The front door creaked open on its own.
The house was inviting them back in.
And something deep inside Ethan whispered that if he walked through that door…
He might never come back out.