By 6:30, the house no longer felt like a place to live.
It felt like a fortress under siege.
They turned over the couches to build barricades at every door. Dragged the dining table across the stairs. Nailed shut the windows. Every drawer, every shelf was searched—anything sharp, anything heavy, anything that could be turned into a weapon was collected and logged.
Derreck created the list: Knives: 9. Broomstick. Shovel. Fire poker. Scissors. Hammer.
"One knife's still missing," Karrie noted, her voice tight.
"Eric's," Joseph muttered. "Mindy used it. It's gone."
They kept two people awake at all times.
Elli stayed busy, sketching in her father's journal. "He wrote about signs," she said. "Subtle changes. Tremors. Smells. Something behind the eyes. The game hides it well, but not perfectly."
They posted shifts:
7–10 PM: Derreck and Lorenz.
10–1 AM: Sophia and Karrie.
1–4 AM: Joseph and Mindy.
4–sunrise: Mae and Olivia.
Elli stayed out of the rotation.
"I need to observe," she said. "I'll keep notes. Look for it before it happens."
No one questioned her. Not after what she'd survived before.
That night felt colder than the last.
As if the house knew the game had begun.
Joseph and Mindy sat back to back in the hallway near the locked kitchen.
"I'm scared," Mindy whispered. "Not just of the game. Of me. I don't know what I'm capable of anymore."
"You're not the one who did that," Joseph said, but it sounded more like hope than truth.
He looked over at her, and for a moment—just a flicker—he thought he saw something ripple across her face.
But it was gone.
2:45 A.M.
Lorenz woke up.
Something felt wrong.
His head ached. His fingers were numb. There was a buzzing in the back of his teeth, like electricity in bone.
He tried to sit up quietly, not wanting to wake Olivia.
But when he looked down, she was already staring at him.
Not blinking.
Not breathing.
Just staring.
Her lips were moving, but no sound came out.
"Olivia?" he whispered.
She blinked once. Then slowly smiled.
Her voice came out like a broken speaker—layered, flickering: "You dream so loud, Lorenz."
He stumbled back. "Oh god—oh god—"
She stood.
Too straight. Too smooth.
From the shadows behind her, she pulled the missing knife.
Not Mindy this time.
Olivia.
She lunged.
The house exploded into chaos again.
Lorenz's scream cracked through every room. Doors slammed open. Footsteps pounded the hall.
By the time Derreck tackled her, Olivia had already slashed Lorenz across the chest. He was bleeding, but alive.
Karrie grabbed the fire poker and smacked the knife out of her hand. Joseph wrapped a cord around her wrists.
Sophia, crying, kicked the knife across the floor.
Mae screamed, "Get her in the damn closet!"
They dragged her—snarling, laughing, whispering curses in a language no one knew.
Elli stared as they locked her in. "It's not her anymore," she whispered.
The door shook once.
Twice.
Then silence.
Outside, the sun began to rise.
The clock struck 6:01 A.M.
Lorenz groaned, blood soaking through his shirt, breath shallow but steady.
They had survived the second night.
But barely.
And now one of their own was bleeding out—and the possessed one hadn't even tried to hide it.
6:01 A.M.
The sun cracked over the treeline, washing the blood-streaked floor in a pale, winter light. Everyone was shaking, gasping, exhausted—but alive.
Lorenz lay wrapped in blankets on the living room floor. Karrie and Derreck had done their best to clean the wound, bandaging his chest with a torn hoodie and gauze from the emergency kit. He'd lost too much blood. Still conscious, but slipping in and out.
Mindy sat catatonic near the stairs, refusing to look at the closet where Olivia thrashed in silence behind the barricade.
Sophia pressed a trembling kiss to Mae's temple.
"We need to stay together," she whispered. "No more wandering."
Mae nodded.
But didn't speak.
6:11 A.M.
The third day of the curse. Eleven minutes after sunrise.
The light flickered.
Once.
Then the house groaned—longer than usual. A low, rumbling sound like a yawn or something… waking up.
Joseph looked toward the ceiling. "That wasn't—"
CRACK.
The upstairs window shattered. A rope ladder dropped from the second floor.
"What the hell?" Karrie sprinted up the stairs.
The window hadn't just broken.
It had been cut—from the inside.
Sophia arrived behind her, eyes wide. "There's something outside…"
They looked.
It was a long cord, tied off securely to the window beam—dangling down to the ground below.
And footsteps.
In the muddy grass outside, faint but clear: boot prints.
Someone had gone outside.
Joseph's voice came from the stairs: "Everyone get down here. Now."
Mae stood at the bottom of the staircase, arms folded.
"Isn't it obvious?" she said quietly. "I made the rope."
The room froze.
Sophia's mouth fell open. "What?"
"I tied it last night," Mae said. "While everyone else was fighting. I found the nylon cord in the garage. It wasn't hard. The window latch was already loose."
Elli stepped forward. "You opened the house?"
Mae nodded. "Just a little. Just enough to breathe."
Derreck's voice was cold. "You endangered all of us."
"No. I tried to save us," she snapped. "I thought… maybe if I could sneak out in the daylight, find help. Maybe there's a way to break the curse from outside."
Joseph shook his head. "You knew the rule."
Mae looked at him. "And you believe it? Some cursed game says we can't leave and you all just go along with it?"
Sophia was pale. "Mae… why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you wouldn't have let me try," Mae whispered.
"You could have died," Sophia said, voice breaking. "Or worse—what if it followed you back in?"
"I had to know," Mae whispered. "I had to try something. Just waiting here—one by one—it's suicide."
They argued.
Yelled.
Everyone turned on each other—accusations, mistrust, desperation boiling over.
"You opened the window," Olivia's voice suddenly called from the closet—low and sing-song.
Everyone froze.
Mae turned toward the door.
"You opened the window, Mae," the possessed voice repeated. "You let something in. Or maybe… let something out."
Elli pushed past them and pressed her ear to the wood.
Silence now.
Complete silence.
And then a knock.
Three slow knocks from the inside.
Joseph took a step back. "She's not even supposed to know what happened up here…"
"Unless something was watching," Elli said.
6:30 A.M.
The light began to dim again.
The last few golden rays shrank across the wooden floor.
Mae tried to approach Sophia, but Sophia stepped away, her eyes full of confusion and betrayal.
"No one's alone tonight," Derreck said. "Not even for a second."
"I'll take Lorenz," Karrie said, kneeling beside him. "He won't make it through the night without help."
"We split into pairs again," Elli said, her voice tight. "But new ones. No romantic attachments. No favors. We need clear eyes. Clean judgment."
Sophia and Joseph.
Derreck and Mindy.
Elli and Karrie.
Lorenz with Olivia in the closet—bound, unconscious now.
And Mae… alone.
"She needs to be watched," Sophia said, not meeting her eyes.
"I agree," Elli said, quiet but firm. "She broke the trust. That means one of us shadows her all night."
"I'll do it," Joseph said after a moment.
"No," Sophia said. "I will."
Their eyes met.
For a moment, the room was still.
Then the groaning started again.
Low.
Hungry.
Elli looked at the clock.
6:32 P.M.
"The sun's gone," she said.
The third night had begun.
Somewhere in the house, one of them started to change.
But this time, no one would be caught off guard.
Because now, the rules were fraying.
The house knew their names.
And trust had already been broken.