Aria's POV
I woke up screaming.
My apartment. I was in my apartment. In my bed. Like nothing happened.
I jumped up, checking my wrists. No blood. No marks from where the curse grabbed me.
Had I dreamed it all? The hospital? My mother possessed? Being dragged into darkness?
My phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number.
"You're awake. Good. Stay inside. Lock your doors. I'm coming to you. - Damien"
So it was real. All of it.
I ran to my door. Checked the locks. Then the windows. Everything was secure.
How did I get here? Last thing I remembered was darkness swallowing me whole in that hospital room.
Another text.
"The curse sent you home. It's playing with you. Testing your fear. Don't let it win. - D"
My hands shook as I typed back.
"How did you know I was home?"
"Marcus tracked your phone. I'm five minutes away. Don't open the door for anyone except me."
I sat on my couch, hugging my knees. My mother was possessed by a three-hundred-year-old curse. I was trapped in a cycle of death. Damien was stuck in a time loop.
This was insane. All of it.
A knock on my door made me jump.
"Aria? It's me. Damien."
I looked through the peephole. It was him. Arm in a sling from the bullet wound. Marcus standing behind him with a briefcase.
I opened the door.
Damien walked in and immediately checked every room. The bathroom. The closet. Under the bed.
"What are you doing?"
"Making sure nothing followed you home." He finished his search and nodded. "Clear. For now."
Marcus set his briefcase on my coffee table. "Miss Chen, we need to discuss your contract."
"My what?"
"Your contract with Apex Entertainment." Marcus pulled out papers. "You passed your audition. Mr. Cross wants to sign you immediately."
I stared at them both. "We just escaped from a curse entity that possessed my mother, and you want to talk about a record deal?"
"Yes," Damien said simply. "The curse feeds on your suffering and failure. So we're going to make you successful. Famous. Happy. Take away its power source."
"That's your plan? Make me a pop star to fight a curse?"
"It's one of our plans." Damien sat on my couch, wincing from his shoulder. "The curse wants you trapped and miserable. In your first life, you failed the audition. Became a nobody. Died alone and forgotten. That pain fed the curse for years."
"But now you passed the audition," Marcus continued. "You're going viral. Victor's scandal made you sympathetic. Everyone wants to know the girl the CEO took a bullet for."
He showed me his phone. My name was trending. "Aria Chen" had millions of searches.
"You're famous already," Marcus said. "Now we make you a superstar. Give you everything the curse tried to take away. That weakens it."
I looked at the contract. It was thick. Lots of legal words I didn't understand.
"What are the terms?" I asked.
"Five year exclusive contract with Apex Entertainment," Marcus explained. "Mr. Cross as your personal manager. Full creative control. Seventy-thirty split on profits in your favor. Housing provided. Security provided. Everything you need to succeed."
"Seventy-thirty? That's... that's way more than normal."
"You're not a normal case," Damien said. "You saved my life by exposing Victor. You changed my loop by existing differently. You're valuable."
I flipped through the pages. Something felt wrong. This was too good. Too generous.
Then I saw it. Buried in the middle. Clause 47.
"Artist agrees to maintain close personal proximity to Manager for duration of contract. Minimum contact: daily check-ins, weekly in-person meetings, emergency access granted 24/7."
I looked up at Damien. "You're putting yourself in my contract?"
"The curse wants to separate us. Keep us isolated so we're easier to control." His grey eyes were intense. "If we're bound by a legal contract, it's harder for the curse to pull us apart. We stay connected. We fight together."
"You're using a business contract to fight magic?"
"I'm using every weapon I have." He leaned forward. "In my loops, I watched you disappear. I never found you again until you were dying thirteen years later. This time, I'm making sure I know where you are. Every single day."
It was smart. Manipulative. But smart.
"What if I say no?" I asked.
"Then you walk away. I won't force you." Damien's voice was serious. "But the curse will find you eventually. And you'll be alone when it does."
I looked at the contract again. At the clause binding us together.
Then I laughed.
I laughed so hard I had to sit down.
"What's funny?" Marcus asked nervously.
"This whole thing. The most powerful CEO in entertainment wants to babysit me because of a curse. This is insane."
I picked up the contract and tore it in half.
Both men stared at me in shock.
"Nobody refuses Mr. Cross," Marcus whispered. "Nobody."
"I just did." I stood up. "Because this contract is garbage."
"Excuse me?" Damien's voice went cold.
"Clause 47 makes me your property. Daily check-ins? Emergency access? You basically own me." I threw the torn papers at him. "I didn't escape one trap just to walk into another. If we're fighting this curse together, we do it as equals. Not as CEO and desperate singer."
Damien stared at me. Then slowly, he smiled. Really smiled. Not his cold business smile. A real one.
"You're right." He stood up. "Marcus, redraft it. Equal partnership. Fifty-fifty split. Joint decision making. No ownership clauses."
"Sir, that's not—"
"Do it." Damien looked at me. "Anything else you want to change?"
"Yes. I want you to teach me everything about your loops. Every death. Every reset. Every detail. No secrets."
"Deal."
"And I want access to my mother. The real her. We find a way to get that curse out of her body."
"Agreed."
We stared at each other. The air felt electric.
Marcus cleared his throat. "I'll... go draft the new contract. Give you two a moment."
He left quickly.
Alone, Damien stepped closer. "You're not what I expected."
"What did you expect?"
"In every loop, every version of events, you were soft. Easily broken. I thought I'd be protecting a fragile girl."
"I'm not that girl anymore. I died once already. I came back harder."
"Good." His voice was quiet. "Because what's coming is going to be brutal. The curse won't let us go without a fight."
As if on cue, my apartment went freezing cold.
The lights flickered.
My breath came out in white clouds.
"It's here," Damien said.
My front door swung open on its own.
Standing in the doorway was my mother. But her eyes... her eyes were black. Completely black.
"Did you really think a contract would save you?" The curse spoke through her mouth. "How adorable."
She stepped inside. The door slammed shut behind her. All the windows locked themselves.
We were trapped.
"I've decided," the curse said, smiling with my mother's face. "You've become too troublesome. So I'm changing the rules. No more loops. No more rebirths. Just death. Final. Permanent. For both of you."
She raised my mother's hand. Dark energy crackled around her fingers.
"Starting now."