09:05
The darkness wraps around her like a suffocating shroud, both smothering and seductive. She can no longer tell where she ends and it begins. Every breath is thick, oppressive, and treacherous. A low hum breaks the silence – not comforting, but sinister, as though the dark itself is singing her closer to destruction.
09:10
She stirs, the supply cupboard a fragile sanctuary. The faint sounds of the hospital outside are distorted, distant, like they’re bleeding through water. But this peace is a cruel mockery. The shadows around her are alive, twisting and coiling into grotesque shapes, whispering accusations she no longer knows how to silence.
09:15
Emily’s voice cuts through the chaos, sharp and accusing:
“You can’t hide from yourself, Elena. You think this darkness protects you?” “Shut up!”
she snaps, clutching her head, her fingers digging into her scalp. But the voice persists, growing louder, her words swallowed by the relentless torment in her mind.
09:20
The walls begin to shift, throbbing with a sinister energy that feels almost sentient. They swell and contract as if they are aware of her fear, inching closer, constricting around her. The cupboard narrows, warping into a claustrophobic tomb, while the insatiable hunger of the darkness presses in, consuming the air around her. Her heart races violently, pounding in her chest like a warning bell tolling for her impending fate.
“Help me,”
she whispers brokenly, her voice shaking, filling the suffocating space with despair.
09:25
A polite, almost hesitant knock at the door startles her, the sound ricocheting in the claustrophobic cupboard. She jerks upright, her breath faltering.
“Elena?”
Dr. Marquez’s voice is muffled but insistent.
“We need to talk.”
“Leave me alone!”
she screams, the force of her words tearing her throat raw.
09:30
“Please,”
he pleads, soft and steady.
“You’re not alone in this. Let me help you.”
The word
"help"
feels like a cruel irony, twisting itself against her. What could he possibly do for her? She is what lies at the bottom of the abyss now, and there is no climbing back. The thought sends bile rising up her throat.
09:35
“Open the door,”
he says again, but this time there’s an edge to his voice, a crack of fear. She presses herself further into the corner, her fingers trembling as they clutch the cold wall. She can’t let him see her like this. The thing inside her is pushing through, clawing at the surface.
09:40
Before she can reply, another knock comes – sharper, more insistent. The rattle of the door jolts her body.
“Elena?!”
Anna’s voice, taut and panicked.
“Are you in there? We can’t find Emily. She’s gone.”
09:45
The name strikes her like a whip, and her head jerks upwards. Emily. The shadows swirl violently, tightening their hold on her.
“No,”
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she mutters, shaking as the cupboard walls seem to breathe and close in.
“She’s not real!”
the words burst out of her, but the truth feels slippery, uncertain.
09:50
Something shifts in the dark. A figure begins to form, indistinct at first, an amorphous presence. And then, slowly, it steps into focus, a shape that moves fluidly, almost seductively.
“She’s closer than you think,”
it murmurs, the voice low and venomous.
“You can’t outrun her, Elena. You brought her here. You keep her alive.”
09:55
“Get away!”
she rasps, scrambling back, her whole body trembling as her breath shudders. It steps forward, and for the first time, the dim light outlines its features. It’s her. Yet it isn’t. Its face wears hers but twisted into something monstrous. Her own features distorted into a cruel, bloodless mask; her eyes hollow sockets, black as night.
10:00
“Let it in,”
it coaxes, grinning wide enough to reveal rows of jagged, glistening teeth.
“This is what you are. This is freedom. You are home.”
The words slam into her like a tidal wave, and she feels herself spiralling.
She is not the doctor.
She is not the saviour.
She is the damned.
10:05
With what remains of her strength, she throws herself against the cupboard door, a raw scream tearing from her throat.
“Go back! Leave me!”
The door bursts open, and she stumbles into the harsh fluorescent light, flickering ominously above her.
10:10
“Elena?”
Dr. Marquez gasps, his face pale with shock.
“What is—”
She doesn’t wait for him to finish. She pushes past him, her feet carrying her through a corridor that shouldn’t be so long, shouldn’t be stretching like this.
10:15
The walls seem to constrict and twist as she stumbles forward, her breath coming in panicked gasps. The air is heavy with despair, accusations whispering just beyond the periphery of her hearing.
“Where is she?!”
she screams, her voice wild and cracking.
“Where’s Emily?”
10:20
Dr. Marquez catches up to her, his face etched with worry.
“Elena,”
he says gently,
“there is no Emily.”
His words fall into the void, meaningless. Emily is here. She is in the shadows, in the heartbeat of the walls, in the suffocating pulse of the hospital.
10:25
“Don’t follow me!”
Elena snarls, shoving him away. Her steps quicken, the corridors tightening around her as if trying to trap her, dragging her deeper into madness.
10:30
She rounds a corner and freezes. The walls glisten with dark streams of blood, viscous and slow, pooling at her feet. The metallic tang of iron fills her nose, thick and suffocating.
“Welcome back,”
the distorted figure says, stepping from the shadows. Its voice is low and sweet, dripping with malice.
“You thought you could leave me behind?”
10:35
“No!”
she howls, clutching the sides of her head as her nails dig into her skull, drawing blood. The warmth trickles down her fingers, but part of her wonders,
“Am I really bleeding? Or is this just another illusion?”
She knows the truth is there, buried beneath the guilt, but she cannot face it.
10:40
“Ah, but you know I’m real.”
The figure steps closer, its sickening smile widening.
“You made me. You shaped me. You love me, don’t you? After all... I am you.”
10:45
The darkness rises around her like claws, wrapping around her arms, her neck. The hospital warps and fades. All that remains is her and... it.
10:50
She screams until her throat feels torn, her voice drowning out the laughter that taunts her. And as she collapses to her knees, the truth begins to take root. There is only one way out: to face the thing she fears most—herself.
10:55
The shadows drag her towards the abyss, but she doesn’t stop fighting.
“I won’t let you win,”
she whimpers, her voice trembling, barely audible.
11:00
But as the laughter dies, the truth remains. The darkness was never outside her.
It was inside.
It was always waiting.
“I am becoming,”
she murmurs, the words shivering across her lips like a dying prayer. And as the world tilts and plunges her deeper, she understands that becoming means surrendering to the thing she once feared. The monster that no longer waits in the shadows.
It has always been her.