Joshua and Jacob were dead. Joshua laid motionless on the floor, his head caved in from the heavy brass candlestick. His skull was cracked like an egg with the yolk of his brain matter spilling out across the floor. Blood poured from Joshua’s nose and ears due to the blunt force trauma that ended him. Jacob laid beside him, the color of his skin already grayed, drained of his life’s ichor. His blood pooled on the floor where Illyana and Ulysses could see their own reflections. In a brief, fleeting moment the house had murdered them. It frightened them with abominations from the pit of man's fears and twisted them to the point of madness. The two brothers were turned against one another through fear and jealousy. What hope did Illyana and Ulysses have?

They sat in that room not knowing what to do. Their hope had run like an hourglass with only a few grains of sand left. The fragile minute moments of their lives were forfeit. There was no way out of the house. Everyone in the town outside was right. They should never have come here. Death was all that awaited them. What could they do now? Wait here to die? Was that it? Was that how their lives ended? Huddled up in a corner waiting for the inevitable?

Ulysses stood up, nursing his headache from the recent punch and looked down at the bodies that were once his companions. He closed his eyes and contemplated his life leading up to this moment. Ever since his failure at the town where two innocents had died by his hand, he had been beating himself bloody. Broken promises and regrets filled his mind. He thought of what could have been with Tabitha. If he had not wallowed in his own self pity, he could have gotten a life with her. He would have truly lived instead of pretending to live. Maybe he would have a family by now. Maybe he would be happier.

Whatever the case may be, he would not ever know what future he could have had, now as he understands that he will die here. All roads to his life were closed the moment he stepped through the seemingly innocent wooden door. He might as well have been a mouse that willingly wandered into a cat’s ambush, or a fly unknowingly landing in a fly trap. He began to cry.

Illyana was in the same situation. She had tortured herself over the death of her brother. It was purely an accident. She couldn’t control it. What use did she have in blaming herself, especially here and now at the end of it? Her life had been so consumed by this that she never truly lived. She hid, exiling herself from men and her own elfen kind. There were simple joys she would never experience now. She never knew what it was like to relax with a group of friends and laugh over a joke. She never experienced what the world had to offer her. She never even experienced her first kiss, let alone a passionate night with a lover. Who could love her in this way anyway? She had no time for it. Oh, but surely now she realized that there might have been someone out there that cared for her if she only opened up.

She looked at Ulysses with tears in her eyes. A thought came to her mind. In her sad, fleeting moment of a life, she had many regrets. Yet out of all of the regrets she had, none stung more than not knowing more about Ulysses, who had become her only friend in these final days. What use would be regretting now? He turned to her, and they looked in eachothers eyes. It was strange; as all things were said and done, the thought of death didn’t seem to bother them anymore. There was a strange kind of peace about it. Knowing one was about to die would make things easier. It was comforting. A certainty was there. Security. To know that one was going to die, there was an acceptance.

And yet, if death was so assured, then why not make it memorable? If this house was akin to a predator, and they were the prey, then why not go down the beast’s gullet fighting? Why not hook and claw in its throat or at the very least give it some sort of crippling stomach ache if not full scale food poisoning? Why not make this evil regret swallowing them?

What would their plan be now? Did they even have a plan? Ah, but what simpler plan would there be if not to go out in a blaze of glory. Kill everything that stood before them in one last stand. To burn everything they could and create a fire so large that not even the house could stop it. That was their mission. That was their last stand. To fight valiantly and then fall.

Illyana and Ulysses stared at one another and realized they had both come to the same conclusion. If this be their end, let it be one that Hawthorn house remembers and thinks twice about. If fortune favored them, then let their deaths also be the harbinger for the house’s destruction.

Ulysses pressed himself against the door with his ear against the wood as Illyana stood beside him, her back against the wall as she prepared a fire spell in her hand. They took a deep breath and closed their eyes as they readied themselves to make this last stand.

Three…

Two…

One…

They exhaled and Ulysses threw open the door to face down toward the hall while Illyana pressed her back against his towards the opposite side, her hands ignited in flame, outstretched towards what seemed like endless darkness. They stood there for a moment, anticipating the oncoming horde of nightmarish creatures just waiting to butcher them like cattle. Instead, they were met with the all powerful deafening noise of silence. The house was playing a game of cat and mouse. Ulysses and Illyana looked at each other and would silently nod. Illyana couldn’t waste her energy on casting spells at nothing. She would be drained like water in a bathtub if she simply chose to unleash her power on the house itself. They moved forward, Ulysses keeping his blade out in front of him while Illyana walked behind him, pressing her back and staying at the same pace to avoid losing him.

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Both were alert. They knew that these creatures could be simply hiding under the floorboards and lying in wait like hungry sharks in the water, waiting for the first drop of blood before diving into a frenzy. Cautiously, they walked down the hallway and kept their eyes peeled for any sign of movement. Their ears were trained for the slightest noise or vibration. They were focused, more than they had ever been in their entire lives.

Then, with the speed of lightning, a monstrous hooked claw came down from the ceiling to try to swipe at Ulysses. He let out a sharp alert.

“Duck!”

They dodged out of the way in time, narrowly being pierced by the claw. Before the creature could pull the claw back, Ulysses would swing his blade with all of his might and sever the claw from the creature's arm. It fell from the ceiling and kicked and clawed at the air. Illyana quickly used her power to burn the creature to embers. Another creature came from behind her as she faced the burning abomination in front of Ulysses, yet he was there to spot the danger and pierced its misshapen head, sending it crawling backwards in pain before Illyana finished it with flame.

The creature let out a loud shrill screech before flame consumed the last shreds of the thing. Down the hall, more skittering, chittering noises were heard in the dark, drawing ever closer as they duo pushed on. More of the abominations arrived as they made their way down the seemingly endless hallway. Ulysses would notice the wood buckling on the side of the wall and would duck moments before a large claw would swipe. Had he been a few moments slower, he would have lost his head, but instead he received a large gash across his back. He gritted his teeth in pain as the creature raised another talon to try to finish Ulysses off before his final stand could even truly begin.

Yet Illyana was there to use her magic to freeze the creature with a powerful gust of frosty wind from her fingertips. Ulysses trudged through the pain and swung his blade at the creature and shattered it into thousands of glass like shards. They would fight through the seven hells themselves as they struggled through, creating as much chaos as possible. Ulysses would get another claw to his chest while Illyana suffered slashes on her legs and back. Yet for every slash they earned, they returned the assault to the beasts tenfold.

The fight would leave both of them Bloodied and beaten, but they pressed on. The creatures piled on top of one another just to reach the duo. Their bodies burn from Illyana’s magic. It was more than the house could take, and they would be able to hear the creaking and moaning of the wood as the house buckled around them. The crack of wood and mortar was that of an angry beast that, for the first time of its long life being the apex predator, had now finally met its match.

They fought tirelessly until they saw it, the final door in the end of this hallway. They pushed through the beasts, slaying them as the beasts carved them up like a butcher at work. Ulysses tried to open the door, but it was locked. He used his full strength to slam into the door with his elbow. Illyana was forced to spray the oncoming hordes of abominations with fire as he persisted. For Ulysses it was like trying to open a solid brick wall, but with more fire, the house groaned and creaked. The abominations would continue to try to attack while Ulysses pounded the door with all of his might.

Then, at long last, something gave way. The door opened and he made it to the other side. He looks over to Illyana and yells at her.

“Get in!!!”

She turned and was about to enter the room when suddenly she felt a sharp pain through her back. Her eyes widened as she felt the incredible pain. She looked down and saw a burnt, bloodied hand stabbing through her body. She turned to see the image of her brother.

“You can’t leave me again, Illyana…”

Ulysses stared in shock and horror as blood poured from her lips. Her eyes grew cold with determination and a quick realization of what needed to be done. She would cast the most powerful spell her body was capable of. Her body would begin to ignite in flame. Bright enough to burn her clothes off in the ensuing blaze. Ulysses had an idea on what she was doing, but could do no more than scream.

“Illyana! No!!!”

She looked at Ulysses, coughing up blood as she charged her magic. The image of her brother tried to pull himself off of her, but she held his burnt hand tightly, even as her brother began to shift and deform into yet another one of those abominations. The flames would burn away her mask and reveal her face for the final time. She looked at Ulysses and smiled.

For the long black terrible skid mark that she believed her life was, she saw that Ulysses had been her only true friend, and that was the brightest light in the shadow. She would thank him if she wouldn’t need to focus the last bits of her remaining strength on the coming spell. She wished that things had been different, but if this is how she must die, then what could be sweeter than dying for a friend?

Her eyes would begin to glow bright red with flame as she forced the door to close as she turned herself into a mighty funeral pyre. Flames poured from the slits in the door as she would engulf the hallway and much of the house in flame. A bright flame that could even be seen outside to the shock of the townspeople below.

Ulysses yelled and went to the door to pound on it with his fist.

“Illyana!!!”

He tried to pull the door open, yet its touch burned his hand. He fell to his knees and lowered his head. He sobbed, mourning the death of his friend. The only friend he had in this accursed place. And now, he had made it to the final obstacle of the house. If Illyana’s actions proved anything, it's that the house was able to be wounded. If the house could be wounded, it could also be killed.