The words clung to Emily's skin like frost. I was human once.
They repeated in her skull long after Breckt's footsteps had vanished down the corridor, echoing off the stones, dragging shadows across her mind. Her body shook, though she wasn't cold. She wrapped her arms around herself and pressed into the corner of the cell, trying to make herself smaller, to escape the weight of what he had just said.
If he spoke the truth, then every nightmare became possible. Elena wasn't lost in some faceless void. She was walking the same path. And maybe, once, Breckt had screamed the way Kimberly had screamed. Maybe he had begged. And now he was here, one of them, twisted, feeding.
Her chest ached, and she buried her face in her knees.
Time blurred. It could have been minutes or hours before footsteps returned, lighter this time, slower. She stiffened. A figure appeared at the edge of her vision, clutching the bars.
"Elena…" Emily's heart lurched.
Her best friend's face hovered in the gloom, pale and otherworldly, lips stained faintly crimson as though painted with wine. The firelight behind her flickered, illuminating her eyes. No, not her eyes. Emily recoiled at the glow buried there, faint but unmistakable.
"Elena, it's me," Emily whispered, pleading. "Please, please say it's still you down there."
Elena smiled, a soft, chilling curve. "Of course it's me. Why wouldn't it be?"
But the words were wrong. Elena had never spoken like that.
"You let them do this to you," Emily choked out, gripping the bars until her knuckles turned white. "You chose it."
Elena tilted her head, regarding her almost tenderly. "I was given a gift. You'll see, Em. The hunger, the strength, it's freedom. I don't feel small anymore. I don't feel afraid."
Emily's stomach twisted. The Elena she knew, who was awkward, nervous, and always clutching her sleeve, was gone. In her place stood something polished and predatory.
"Elena…" Emily's voice cracked. "They'll kill me."
Her friend's smile faltered for a moment, eyes flickering as though a storm passed behind them. "Maybe," Elena said quietly. "Or maybe they'll keep you, like they kept me."
Emily pressed her forehead against the bars. "Then help me. If you're still in there, please help me!"
The silence between them stretched. Elena's fingers tightened around the metal. For one fleeting second, her expression softened into something Emily recognized, something human, but just as quickly, it hardened.
"They're watching," Elena whispered, leaning close enough that Emily could feel her breath. "Don't trust Breckt. Don't trust anyone. Don't even trust me."
Then she was gone, footsteps fading into the dark.
Emily remained frozen, her body trembling with a mix of despair and hope, clinging to that single fracture in Elena's mask.
But above her, a deep, resonant, unmistakable voice echoed down the stone passage.
"Bring her to me."