Kim woke to silence.
The candlelight from the table in the shadow's room was gone. The air smelled damp, metallic… and faintly sweet.He was alone.
Or so he thought.
A whisper tickled the edges of his mind:"You're late."
Kim froze. The voice was soft, almost a murmur, yet unmistakable.It sounded inside his head.
He spun around. The corridor was empty.Nothing moved.
Shaking, he bent over to find the stone again.
It was there.Glowing faintly, pulsing like a heartbeat.
And now… there were markings. Faint letters etched into its surface:
"I see you. I wait."
Kim's pulse raced. The shadow's warning came back to him:"DeathLaugh waits for those who do not see the truth."
What truth?
Suddenly, the candlelight flared violently, and shadows stretched across the walls, bending unnaturally.Something moved just beyond his vision, retreating when he looked directly.
Kim's hands shook.Had he imagined everything—the taxi, the house, the hanging bodies?Or was DeathLaugh already inside him, shaping reality itself?
He reached for the stone again.
The room transformed. Walls melted into darkness. The floor stretched endlessly. Kim's reflection appeared in the black void—but it wasn't his face.
It was smiling.Eyes glinting, a grin he didn't recognize.
"Do you like your life, Kim?" whispered the voice again."No… no…" he stammered.
The laughter returned—soft, chilling, inhuman.
And then—he heard it.The faint cry of a child, the same one from Chapter 1, echoing far and near at the same time.Beneath it… laughter.
Was it coming from the house? The town? Or his own mind?
The stone pulsed violently in his hand.Kim's surroundings vanished completely.
He was falling… into darkness… and the whispers followed:
"Some doors, once opened… never close."
Kim screamed.