Blood dripped from Clay's knife as he walked through the door. His ambush of the elves had gone better than he expected, though he wasn’t happy that the last one got away. But still, he was alive, Uriana was safe, and he had given those elves what they deserved.

“Clay?”

Clay was lost in thought and hadn’t registered that a person was in the room with him.

“Oh, Rose, I didn’t see you there.” Another good outcome, with Uriana safe Rose wouldn’t run away like she did last time around.

Rose looked down at the bloody knife in his hand and observed the blood and dirt soaked into his clothing.

“Are you ok? What happened?” She asked with concern.

“Don’t worry, it's not my blood.” Clay motioned at himself. “It’s a long story, but we’re safe now. I made sure of it.”

Rose slowly approached Clay, wrapping her hands around the knife.

“Clay, let me take this.” Clay loosened his grip, letting her slide it from his hand. “Where is Uriana?” She asked.

“In her bedroom, I told her to wait there so I could go deal with the attackers.” Clay turned away from Rose, going to the kitchen sink to wash the blood from his hands.

“Attackers?” Rose repeated.

“Yeah, they wanted to kidnap Uriana, because of her powers” Clay answered as he scrubbed his palms.

“Did you kill all the Elves?” Rose inched closer to Clays turned back.

“Yeah.” Clay slowly turned off the faucet to the sink. “But how did you know they were elves?”

As Clay turned towards Rose he felt the cold steel of a knife pierce his stomach. He grabbed at the hand holding the blade, but he couldn’t pull it out.

“Well, thank you for that, it makes my job a lot easier this time around,” Rose said as she pushed the knife deeper into him, her strength far beyond what Clay thought she was capable of.

“Rose, what are you doing?” Clay grunted in pain.

“Those elves were a real pain, even if they died easy enough, I was making no progress in finding her. I don’t know how you turned back time like that, but it’s made everything easier for me” Rose explained. “But now that I’ve found her, I can’t have you just going around turning back time. So I need you to die here.”

She’s being possessed.

Clay came to the same conclusion as Sephtis, abandoning his attempt to pull the knife back out, he grabbed Rose’s face on both sides, attempting to pull out the energy of whatever entity was invading his sister's body. “Sorry Rose, but this will hurt.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

This power, it’s just like your sisters.

Clay felt the immense power inside Rose. In the back of his mind, the thought that he was never going to be able to remove this entity emerged, but he didn’t have any other options. He began pulling on the invasive energy in his sister.

Rose responded by raising her free hand, grabbing Clay by the throat. For a moment it felt like she was going to crush his windpipe, but then her grip loosened, and let go entirely. In her hand, instead of Clay’s throat, was the vague outline of… something.

She’s… pulling me out.

Clay felt it now, the specter's presence he had grown accustomed to, he was feeling it getting weaker.

Do something Clay.

Clay abandoned the attempt to pull the entity out of Rose, letting go of her as he wound his arm back. He hesitated for a moment as he and Rose made eye contact, but then he punched her.

Despite Clay putting as much strength into it as he could, the punch didn’t seem to have much effect, though it was enough for her to loosen her grip on both Sephtis, who quickly returned to Clay, and the knife, allowing Clay to pry it from her and specter step to the other side of the room.

Rose chuckled “Honestly, didn’t expect you to throw a haymaker like that, humans in this world are a lot weaker than from where I come from.” Clay was confused by her words, but he didn’t have the time to contemplate their implications. Instead, he was wracking his mind to come up with a way out of the situation he found himself in.

“Clay, Rose?” A small voice squeaked out timidly. Both Clay and Rose turned towards Uriana, as she entered the room.

“Hey Uriana, I’m happy to see you.” Rose approached her.

“Stay away from her!” Clay shouted, causing Rose to freeze in her movement. She looked at Clay for a moment, before looking back to Uriana. “Can you go back to your room and pack for me? When Clay and I are done talking, we're going to be leaving.”

“Where are we going?” Uriana asked. Rose smiled down at her “It’s going to be an adventure, you and I are going to become heroes.”

“I’m home everyone” Clay heard his dad announce, their front door swinging open as he walked in. Rose sighed as he climbed up the stairs and into the room they were in. He turned to each of them in turn, first looking at Uriana, then at Rose, then at Clay. “What's going on? Have you been stabbed?!”

“Dad” Clay shouted out “Take Uriana and run.” Rose rushed forward with incredible speed, her foot connecting hard enough to crush Clay’s skull, killing him immediately.

…

Clay awoke to the smell of smoke, the crackle of fire, and an incredible heat bearing down on him. All around him the walls of his sister's room were aflame, the damage already making it unrecognizable.

He began coughing uncontrollably as his lungs filled with smoke, he rushed to exit the room and try to get out of the house.

He stumbled out of his sister's door, scrambling towards their front door when he tripped over something large. Looking back at what he had tripped over, his heart sank. Flipping him over, he looked down at the face of his father, motionless and still. “Dad!” He yelled, trying to pick up his father, but the smoke had made him too weak, he couldn’t even drag him a couple of inches before collapsing.

“This can’t be happening,” Clay said to himself over and over again. This was supposed to be his second chance, his one shot to make everything right again. How could things have gone so wrong?

Clay wrapped his arms around his father as he began to grieve. He no longer made any attempts to get out of the house. Instead, Clay hoped that the fire would consume him this time, ending the nightmare he found himself in.

As his consciousness began to fade, Clay prayed that he wouldn’t wake back up this time.