Night fell with no warning.
The sunset, brief and blood-red, vanished behind the trees. The house groaned again—long, low, and satisfied. Like it had been waiting for this moment.
They posted watches.
Joseph and Eric took the front room.
Karrie and Olivia the kitchen.
Derreck and Elli paced the upstairs hall.
Sophia and Mae curled together on the living room couch, eyes open, whispering comfort they didn't quite believe.
Mindy sat alone in the corner, hugging her knees. She hadn't spoken since the pact.
Midnight passed.
Then 1:13 AM.
Then—
A whisper.
It slipped down the stairs like a breeze through broken teeth.
"Slash me…"
Eric sat up straighter. "Did you hear that?"
Joseph nodded, heart hammering. "Where?"
They stood.
Another whisper. Softer now.
"…slash her…"
Joseph spun. The voice was coming from the basement door.
They hadn't assigned anyone down there.
He reached for the handle. It was ice cold.
"Don't," Eric said, stepping back.
"I have to," Joseph replied.
He opened it.
Nothing.
Just pitch black and the soft smell of damp wood and… copper.
Then—
A footstep.
A wet footstep.
And out of the shadows came Mindy.
But not Mindy.
Her eyes were wide, glassy, unfocused—but gleaming. Her mouth twitched into a smile that didn't belong to her face.
Her hands were at her sides. Fingers bent oddly, like they had too many joints. Her hair hung flat and dripping with something that wasn't water.
"Mindy?" Joseph whispered.
She raised her head slowly.
And in a voice that wasn't hers—it was thicker, layered, old—she said:
"Slash me…"
Then she lunged.
Joseph stumbled back. Eric screamed.
She tackled Eric to the floor, screaming in two voices. One high and human—hers. One guttural and ancient.
Derreck and Elli came running. Sophia and Mae shot up from the couch. Karrie and Olivia burst in from the kitchen.
Eric struggled beneath her. "It's not her—it's NOT her!"
Derreck grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back. Mindy flailed, shrieking, laughing, snarling.
Joseph stared in horror.
Mindy's face was cracking. Thin lines of black creeping across her skin like roots under ice.
"She's possessed," Elli said. "We have to tie her down. NOW."
They rushed into action.
Ropes. Belts. Cords from old lamps.
Mindy fought them with unnatural strength, but they managed to pin her to the support beam in the hallway. She laughed, even as her head lolled.
"Tonight…" she whispered, breath reeking of rot, "I get to play."
And then her eyes rolled back.
Out.
Silence.
Mindy was unconscious.
The black cracks faded.
But the air didn't calm.
Joseph turned to Elli. "How long does it last?"
Elli stared at Mindy.
Then said softly: "Until sunrise. Or until she kills someone."
They thought the ropes would hold.
They thought they'd have time.
They were wrong.
It started just before 4 A.M.
A creak.
A snap.
Then Mindy's eyes opened again.
No warning. No twitch. Just wide, black eyes like twin holes in her skull.
The ropes—knotted, tight—had loosened. Or maybe they were never really tight enough.
Eric was on watch again, sitting just a few feet from her, trying not to doze.
Mindy didn't scream this time.
She just moved.
Fast.
Her head jerked sideways, dislocating her neck with a sick crack. Her arms flexed unnaturally and slid from the ropes like she was boneless.
Eric turned too late.
She was already on him, whispering in that split-voice: "Slash… me…"
He screamed.
The others woke to the sound of it—wet and jagged.
By the time they reached the hallway, it was too late.
Eric was in pieces.
Mindy stood in the middle of the hall, drenched in red, holding a serrated kitchen knife in one hand—one of the ten they'd found earlier, now stained and glinting under the hallway light.
She smiled at them.
"This one broke so beautifully," she cooed, blood dripping from her chin. "I saw his insides dance."
Karrie let out a choking sound. Sophia pulled Mae back, shielding her eyes. Lorenz threw up against the wall.
Joseph was frozen.
Elli, pale and shaking, stepped forward. "She's too far gone. We have to knock her out. If she kills again, we lose two."
"She has a knife!" Olivia hissed.
"And we have more people," Derreck growled, eyes narrowed. "We don't let her take another."
Mindy tilted her head. "Oh, please try."
She darted forward, faster than anyone expected.
The next minute was chaos—shouts, crashing, scraping furniture.
Joseph grabbed a broomstick and cracked it across her back. She shrieked. Karrie threw a chair.
Lorenz, finally finding courage, tackled her to the floor.
Derreck wrestled the knife from her hand.
Blood soaked the carpet—some of it Mindy's, most of it Eric's.
Finally, they pinned her again, this time binding her with duct tape, a lamp cord, and Derreck's own belt. They locked her in the storage closet beneath the stairs, reinforced with chairs wedged tight.
Inside, she laughed and whispered.
"You're next. One by one. Slash by slash. Until the sun dies and the house forgets your names."
At dawn, the sun finally crept in—dim, weak, barely there.
Mindy passed out again, unconscious.
Her body returned to normal. The black cracks faded. Her breathing steadied.
But Eric didn't come back.
His blood stained the hallway.
And the knife—the first of ten—lay in the sink, waiting.
The sun rose like an apology.
Soft, gold light spilled through the cracked windows, painting bloodstains in warm hues that didn't belong. The house, so monstrous hours ago, looked still. Quiet. As if none of it had happened.
Mindy stirred.
Joseph stepped back as she blinked awake in the closet, her eyes returning to their normal hazel.
Her voice was hoarse. "W-what… what happened?"
No one answered.
They just looked at her—like she was a loaded gun in a child's hands.
Sophia finally spoke. "You killed Eric."
Mindy's breath hitched. "No. I didn't—I would never—"
"It wasn't you," Elli said. "But it was your body."
Mindy crumpled to the floor, sobbing, repeating his name like a prayer.
Eric.
Eric.
Eric.
No one tried to comfort her.
They all gathered in the living room. It was the first time since arrival that the whole group had been together in the daylight—and no one felt safe.
Elli stood near the fireplace. "Listen. The sun is up. But it won't last."
Joseph checked the time. 6:11 A.M.
Elli continued, "We get thirty minutes. That's all. Every day. That's what it gave the last group. Thirty minutes of clarity. To clean. To breathe. To make a plan."
Mae hugged Sophia tightly, whispering, "This isn't enough."
"It has to be," Sophia said, fierce and quiet.
Lorenz sat on the stairs, staring at nothing. Olivia stood beside him, one hand on his shoulder.
"We need to prepare," Karrie said. "If this happens every night, then we can't be caught off guard again."
"We need a system," Derreck added. "We rotate sleeping shifts. Pairs again, but smarter this time. No one alone. We take turns holding the knives. Keep track of all ten."
Joseph knelt by a scattered notebook on the floor—the one they'd found with the photos. He flipped to a blank page. "We log everything. Time of possession. Victim. Signs. Everything."
Elli nodded. "The curse chooses one each night. We won't know who until it's too late. But maybe—just maybe—if we spot something early…"
"We can stop it," Mindy whispered, still shaking.
No one responded.
The silence settled over them heavy and hopeless.
6:32 A.M.
The light dimmed again.
Like a hand reaching back over the sky, snuffing out the flame.
Elli looked up. "It's over."
Sophia took a breath. "Then we wait."
Derreck stood. "And we pray it isn't one of us."
Karrie glanced toward the hallway where Eric's blood had already dried dark. "Too late for prayer."