The silence that followed was not peace. It was the silence of a wound still bleeding, of a storm's breath before it broke again. Sophie leaned heavily against Marcus, her body trembling as though every bone inside her had turned to glass. Her chest burned, raw where Ethan's grip had torn at her heart.
But she was alive.
Marcus held her as though he was afraid she would dissolve in his arms, his cheek pressed to her hair. "I thought I lost you," he whispered.
"You almost did," Sophie admitted, her voice ragged. "But I'm still here. I cut him out."
Marcus pulled back enough to look at her, his eyes wet with relief and fear. "Not all of him. Look."
Sophie forced herself to focus. The attic walls still pulsed faintly, the hundreds of names glowing like embers in the dark. She could hear them now, clearer than before. Whispers layered over one another—pleading, crying, begging for release.
"Help us.""Free us.""Don't leave us here."
Each voice was jagged with pain, but what cut deeper was the desperation. Sophie staggered forward, reaching out to touch the nearest name, a carved "Eliza" that shone with wetness like an open wound. The instant her fingertips brushed the grooves, a vision slammed into her mind.
A young woman, gasping in the dark. Hands clawing at unseen walls. A scream that went unheard until it broke into silence.
Sophie jerked back, tears spilling down her face. "They're trapped. He wasn't lying about that. These aren't just scars—they're people."
Marcus's jaw clenched, his fists tightening at his sides. "Then we have to free them too."
She stared at him in shock. "Marcus, there are hundreds. If cutting one almost killed me, how—"
He caught her hand, gripping it with steady force. "Then we don't do it the same way. If carving them out takes pieces of you, we find another way. A bigger way. Something that severs all of them at once."
The house groaned violently, as though hearing the threat. Dust rained from the rafters, the air thickening until it was hard to breathe. Ethan's voice slithered through the dark, sharper than before.
Fools. Do you think you can untangle them all? Every name is a vein, every soul a thread in my flesh. Tear them loose, and the house collapses. Tear them loose, and so do you.
Sophie glared at the shadows, her fear giving way to fury. "Then let it collapse. Let it all fall."
The walls shuddered. Ethan's laugh was jagged, furious. You won't do it. You can't. Not when you hear them scream.
And as if on command, the whispers rose. The names cried out, not just in pain but in terror. "Don't kill us! Please—don't kill us!"
The sound split Sophie's chest open. She clutched her head, shaking, as though the voices were knives pressed into her skull. Marcus caught her, holding her upright, his voice a raw growl.
"They're not real, Sophie. They're echoes. He's twisting them."
But Sophie's tears spilled harder. "What if they're not? What if they are still here, begging us to stop? What if freeing them kills them too?"
Marcus's voice cracked with desperation. "And what if leaving them means they're trapped forever? What if that's worse?"
Her heart clenched. She didn't know the answer. Every path felt like blood on her hands.
They stayed in the attic until dawn broke, the gray light seeping through cracks in the roof. Sophie sat with her back against the wall, Marcus's arm around her shoulders. Neither of them had slept.
She traced her fingers over the handle of the knife, now caked with tar and blood. Her name was gone from the wall, but the ache in her chest remained, like a phantom wound.
Marcus finally spoke, his voice low. "There's one thing I can't stop thinking about. If the names are veins… there must be a heart. A core where he bound them all together. If we find that—"
"We can cut all of them free at once," Sophie finished, her pulse quickening.
He nodded. "We have to try."
She leaned into him, exhaustion etched into her bones, but determination burning brighter than fear. "Then we find the heart of this house."
They searched for days, combing every floor, every hidden passage the house grudgingly revealed. The building fought them, twisting its halls, closing doors, bleeding black tar across their path. But they pressed on.
In the basement, they found remnants of rituals: candles melted into skeletal forms, circles of salt smeared with blood. In the dining room, the table was scarred with symbols, knives still buried in its surface. And in every corner, whispers. The voices of the bound, swelling louder the closer they drew to something unseen.
Finally, behind a rotting door at the very bottom of the cellar, they found it.
The chamber was small, carved into stone. The air was suffocating, thick with the stench of iron and mold. And in the center stood a mass.
It wasn't wood. It wasn't stone. It was flesh.
A pulsing, writhing heart the size of a man, its surface slick and black, veins snaking into the walls. The names from the attic glowed faintly across its surface, hundreds of them seared into the flesh like brands.
Sophie gagged, bile rising in her throat. "God."
Marcus's face hardened, but his hand tightened around hers. "This is it. This is him."
The heart throbbed violently, shadows spewing from its surface. Ethan's voice shook the chamber, deeper than ever before.
Strike me, and you strike them all. Do you want to hear them die, Sophie? Do you want to feel their last breath in your lungs?
The names burned brighter, the chamber filling with screams. Sophie fell to her knees, her hands over her ears, but the cries still pierced her skull. Marcus dropped beside her, pulling her close, shouting above the noise.
"This is his last trick! He wants you paralyzed! Don't let him win!"
She sobbed against him, torn apart by the choice. To destroy the heart was to risk killing every soul bound inside. To leave it was to let Ethan live forever.
Marcus cupped her face, forcing her to meet his eyes. His voice was hoarse but unyielding. "Sophie—you cut your name out. You survived. That means they can too. If we destroy it, we set them free. All of them."
Her tears blurred his face, but she saw the truth in his eyes. Not certainty, not safety—but faith. Faith in her.
She gripped the knife. Her hands shook, but her voice was steady. "Then we finish this. Together."
Marcus nodded, his eyes burning. "Together."
They rose to their feet, facing the writhing heart. The chamber shook, the walls bleeding, Ethan's voice erupting in fury.
Do it, and you kill them all. Do it, and you kill yourselves. Do it—and I drag you screaming into the dark with me.
Sophie lifted the knife, her hand wrapped tight in Marcus's.
And together, they struck.