The darkness wasn't just dark—it was alive.
Ellie could feel it wrapping around her, thick and suffocating, like invisible hands pressing against her skin. She tried to move, but the air itself felt heavy, rooting her in place.
A slow, mocking giggle rippled through the room.
"You don't belong here, Ellie."
Ellie's breath hitched.
Victoria's voice wasn't coming from a corner of the room—it was inside her mind, dripping into her thoughts like poison.
"You don't scare me," Ellie forced out, even though her body betrayed her—shivering, weak.
Another laugh, closer this time.
"Oh, sweetheart." The whisper curled around her ear. "You should be terrified."
Suddenly—pressure.
Ellie gasped as something icy wrapped around her wrists, pinning them above her head. She thrashed, but the hold was unyielding.
"Ben!" she choked out.
But Ben wasn't moving.
He stood just inches away, frozen, his eyes wide, lips slightly parted—like he could see what was happening, but something kept him from stepping in.
His fingers twitched, his body stiff, helpless. "Ellie—"
"He won't save you," Victoria purred.
A force pressed against Ellie's chest, pinning her to the mattress. Cold fingers traced a path up her throat, featherlight, taunting.
It felt wrong.
Violating.
"You sick—" Ellie started, but the invisible fingers tightened, cutting off her words.
"I had him first."
Victoria's presence wrapped around her like an unwanted embrace, suffocating, possessive.
"He used to whisper my name the way he whispers yours now. He used to hold me the way he holds you. Do you really think you can replace me, Ellie?"
Ellie's nails dug into the sheets, fury battling the terror rising inside her.
"You're dead, Victoria," she spat. "You don't get to own him anymore."
The room shook.
The air grew colder, angrier.
"And yet, here I am," Victoria sneered. "Inside his home. Inside you. He let me in, Ellie. He wants me here."
Ellie refused to believe it.
She struggled against the force holding her down, her heart slamming against her ribs. "You're pathetic," she hissed. "Haunting a man who doesn't love you anymore. Crawling back like some desperate, obsessed—"
A sharp jolt of cold slammed into her body.
Ellie cried out.
It was unlike anything she had ever felt—like ice surging through her veins, like she was being invaded from the inside out.
She couldn't move.
She couldn't breathe.
And then—
The weight on her shifted.
A sudden, awful sensation wrapped around her spine, creeping into her limbs, curling into her fingers.
Ben's voice pierced through the darkness. "Ellie!"
Her head snapped toward him.
But something was wrong.
Her own body felt foreign. Like she wasn't inside it anymore. Like something else was sharing it.
Victoria's laugh bubbled up from Ellie's lips.
Ben staggered backward, his face going pale. "No…"
Ellie's own mouth curled into a cruel smirk.
"Now this… this is interesting," Victoria purred.
Ellie's mind screamed from inside, trapped, powerless.
Victoria wasn't just haunting her anymore.
She was inside her.