The city of New Hollow loomed before me as I sped down the road, my heart pounding with urgency. I should have felt relief at the sight of the familiar streets, but something gnawed at me—a creeping unease I couldn’t shake. The shadows seemed deeper than usual, flickering at the edges of my vision like they were alive. I blinked, and they vanished, leaving a faint ache in my temples.

As I rounded the corner and caught sight of the barricades, my stomach dropped. Brightly coloured banners announcing the Hollow’s Fall festival were strung across the road, their cheery messages mocking me.

"Damn it!" I shouted, slamming my hand against the steering wheel. The timing couldn’t have been worse. The festival, usually a spectacle of parades and celebrations, was now just another obstacle standing between me and Haverstead Manor. Every second I wasted here was another second the Aether could sink its claws deeper into Sarah and Richard.

The main route was completely cordoned off, blocked by a wall of barriers and equipment. I clenched the steering wheel, my fingers tingling with the same strange energy I’d felt earlier. The sensation was fleeting but left me rattled, my breath catching in my throat. The Aether… it was closer than I wanted to admit, like a shadow that lingered just beneath my skin.

I forced myself to focus, turning onto a narrow side street. The detour twisted through unfamiliar and dimly lit areas. The road was rough, every jolt of the tires feeding my growing anxiety. The route was longer, winding through the backstreets like some sadistic maze, and with each turn, I felt time slipping away.

"Of all the damn times…" I muttered under my breath. My voice sounded strange, distant, as though it was echoing back at me from somewhere deep in the city. I shook my head, trying to shake off the disorienting feeling. It was just nerves—had to be. But the Hollow’s Fall banners fluttering in the wind felt like they were laughing at me, mocking my desperation.

As I navigated the streets, the sensation of being watched grew stronger, a weight pressing down on me. The longer it took to reach the manor, the more frantic I became. Sarah was in danger, Richard was losing his mind, and I was stuck here, circling this cursed city like a fly caught in a web. My skin prickled, the air around me thick with something I couldn’t see but could feel—something ancient and hungry.

By the time I pulled up to Haverstead Manor, I was trembling. Not just from fear, but from the mounting pressure of the Aether, whispering at the edges of my mind. I shook it off, but the unease was harder to dismiss now.

The grand front doors, which once stood tall and imposing, were now splintered, as if something monstrous had smashed through them. My heart pounded as I threw the car into park and bolted out, the icy air hitting my face like a slap. The Aether felt like it was in the very air I breathed, as if it had seeped into my bones.

I didn’t have time to process the destruction. The moment my feet hit the ground, a piercing, blood-curdling shriek tore through the night. My breath caught in my throat as panic surged through me, but I forced myself to move, each step harder than the last, like the air was thickening around me, dragging me down. The garden was ahead, but it felt like a lifetime away.

When I finally reached the garden, the sight stopped me cold.

Richard stood there; his figure bathed in the flickering glow of flames. His face twisted into a grotesque mask of madness; eyes gleaming with a wild fervour. In the centre of the inferno, tied to a stake, was Sarah.

Her screams echoed through the night, a symphony of agony as the flames licked at her clothes, her hair. I froze, horror crashing over me as I realized I was too late.

“No!" The word tore from my throat, but it felt distant, like it wasn’t even my voice. I stumbled forward, but the heat from the fire kept me at bay, the flames a living barrier. I could feel the Aether pulsing around us, thick and suffocating, as if the very air was alive with its energy. Richard didn’t even turn to look at me, his lips moving in silent prayer or incantation.

The Aether was feeding on this, on him. On me.

“Richard, stop!" I shouted, my voice cracking with desperation. “Please, stop this!"

But he was lost, consumed by the same force that now whispered to me in the back of my mind. The flames roared, the smell of burning flesh filling the air, and I could feel the Aether creeping closer, wrapping around me like a vice. It was as if I could feel Richard’s madness, the same corruption seeping into my bones, and it terrified me.

My hands trembled as I reached for my revolver, the weight of the weapon a small comfort in the face of the chaos. If I couldn’t save Sarah, I would make damn sure Richard never hurt anyone again.

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Richard’s twisted form stood between me and the wreckage of Haverstead Manor, his silhouette no longer recognizable as the man I once knew. Behind him, the garden was a hellscape of flames, and Sarah’s agonized screams still clung to the air like a haunting memory. My revolver felt heavier in my hand than it should have, as if it had absorbed the weight of the violence, it was about to unleash. Three bullets left. I didn't need more than that.

His eyes, glowing orbs set in a face that was a grotesque mixture of shadow and decayed flesh, were locked onto mine. The man he had once been, long gone, replaced by a nightmare birthed from the Aether itself. A part of me should have felt fear—a rational, human instinct to run from this monstrosity. But the Ellie that might have hesitated in the face of such horror was gone. Something darker and more ruthless had taken her place, a shift that had begun long before this moment, as the Aether slowly wormed its way inside me.

"Ellie," Richard’s voice was a guttural rasp, thick with the unnatural resonance of his transformation. "You can’t stop this. You’re too late."

I said nothing, my gaze fixed on him, cold and unflinching. Somewhere deep inside, I felt the Aether stirring, its corruptive tendrils already rooted in my soul, feeding off the fear, the pain, the rage. It had been slow, subtle at first—barely a whisper in the back of my mind—but now it surged with each passing second, intertwining with my very being. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach, in the unnatural calm that blanketed my thoughts. The pain in my arm from the wolves was dull now, muted by the dark energy coursing through me. It wasn’t just adrenaline—it was something far more insidious.

I squeezed the trigger, and the bullet struck Richard square in the shoulder. His flesh rippled, and for a moment, I saw a flicker of pain in his glowing eyes. But instead of retreating, he let out a chilling, distorted laugh, the sound more monstrous than human. His body twisted, bones breaking and warped as if the boundaries of his physical form were unravelling, the Aether breaking him down and reassembling him into something beyond comprehension.

I fired again, hitting him in the chest. This time, his laughter turned into a howl that threatened to burst my eardrums. His transformation accelerated, his form shifting into an abomination of writhing shadows and postulated flesh. Tendrils erupted from his body, pulsating and wriggling like grotesque limbs, as his face stretched into a maw lined with countless fanged rows. He was no longer a man—he was the embodiment of the Aether’s madness.

And yet, I felt no fear. If anything, I felt an exhilaration, a twisted sense of purpose. My body moved with a precision and speed that didn’t feel entirely my own. It was as though the Aether was guiding me, heightening my senses, sharpening my instincts. The Ellie that once feared losing control was gone—replaced by something relentless, something just as inhuman as Richard.

Richard lunged at me, his newly formed claws cutting through the air with terrifying speed. I dodged effortlessly, my movements fluid, almost unnatural. The pain from the wolves’ attack, distant. The bullets left in my revolver, irrelevant. All that mattered now was the battle in front of me. A battle not just against Richard, but against the part of me that still clung to some semblance of who I had been.

I fired the last shot, and the bullet sank into his gut. He doubled over, roaring in pain, but even as his body convulsed, it continued to shift and mutate, growing larger, more grotesque. The Aether twisted him into something unrecognizable, an abomination of writhing mass and flesh. His eyes, once wild with rage, now glowed with a terrifying, otherworldly light, but I met his gaze, unfazed. The darkness within me was deeper, colder, and more relentless than anything Richard had become.

“You think this will stop me?” he rasped, his voice a distorted whisper of fury and despair. He lunged at me again, but this time, I didn’t dodge. I slammed my elbow into his side, sending him crashing into the manor’s wall, the impact splintering the wood around him.

His movements grew more erratic, more frenzied as the Aether devoured what was left of his humanity. He slashed at me again, claws raking across my shoulder, tearing through my coat and into my flesh. The pain should have been unbearable, but I barely registered it. It was nothing more than a reminder that I was still here, still fighting, still alive.

We crashed into the manor, the dim light casting long shadows as Richard’s monstrous form loomed over me. I grabbed the iron poker from the hearth, its weight solid in my hand. I didn’t think—I acted. The Aether within me urged me forward, guiding my every move. I drove the poker into his chest with a force that should have been beyond human, the metal piercing through his thrashing form.

Richard howled, his body resisting, but I didn’t let go. I pushed the poker deeper, driven by a fury that was no longer entirely my own. The Aether surged inside me, intertwining with my every thought, every action. I wasn’t just fighting Richard—I was surpassing him, becoming something darker, something stronger.

"Die," I whispered, my voice cold, almost inhuman. I twisted the poker, the grinding of metal against his bones and flesh a twisted symphony. His claws slashed at me in a final, desperate attempt to break free, but I held on, ignoring the searing pain as his talons tore through my side.

As Richard’s body convulsed and finally went limp, I stood over him, my breath coming in ragged gasps. The poker fell from my hand, clattering to the floor. The Aether coursed through me, no longer a distant presence but a part of me now suffused into my biology. The Ellie that had entered this manor was gone, consumed by the dark power I had been fighting against all night. What remained was something… else. Something tainted.

I looked down at Richard’s broken, twisted form. He had been devoured by the Aether, but in the end, so had I. The difference was, I had survived. But the cost… the cost was yet to be fully realized.

As I staggered back, the wounds on my body screaming for attention, I understood with a cold clarity that I would never be the same again. The Aether had claimed Richard. It had claimed Hollow Town. And now… it had claimed me too.

And this time, there was no turning back.