Elain.

It moved.

Not fast. Not threatening. Just forward. One foot, then the other.

He looked like us. That was the worst part.

Too human. Until you stared long enough, then he wasn't.

Pale skin. Tall frame. Hair the color of snow. Ears- pointed, sharp, but subtle enough to pass in a crowd. Not quite Human. Not quite Hollowed. 

Just wrong. 

Red fabric draped around his waist. Nothing covered the upper body. Barefoot. No visible weapon.

And then the eyes- Gold. Bright. Pupil-less. 

He smiled. Or something like it. A twitch of lips that carried no joy.

Hollowed?

No.

This wasn’t one of them. Not like the ones I’d seen. Not like the ones that run loose and split people in half. He wasn’t feral. He was sane. Strong. Just his presence - kills. 

He was something else.

Something worse.

My boots didn’t move. Locked to the floor. Blood soaked through my uniform and ran down my chest. Still warm. 

Kalen was still breathing beside me. Barely. Slumped forward. Shoulders twitching. Whispering something over and over. A name? A prayer? I couldn’t tell.

The thing moved closer. Its head tilted just slightly. Like it was studying me. 

“Brother” Its voice came. Low. Raspy. 

My knees nearly gave out. I gritted my jaw and stood my ground, though every part of me wanted to run.

Brother?

Brother what?

I should have run. Should’ve screamed. Should’ve done something.

Didn’t. Couldn’t. 

A second pulse trembled through the floor.

Kalen gasped- no, choked. He was shaking, clutching his head. His cigar crushed in his hand. Teeth gritted hard enough to bleed.

Then the sound came. Metal locking. A slow hum from the walls. Sector lockdown. Quarantine protocol.

Everything sealed.

No one in. No one out.

Just me. And it.

“Time is thin” the thing said. Not aloud. But I heard it. Deep. Like it was spoken from inside my own head.

My hands twitched. Useless. Finally ready. Too late.

It  raised one arm.

A red light surged outward. Fast and Violent, and then stopped. A dome. Something similar. Surrounding us. Locking the rest of the world out. Just me and him inside it. 

Symbols spiraled through the air - Letters I couldn’t read. 

It pressed its hands together - almost. Between them, a gold arc bloomed. Glowing. Curved like part of a ring.

Not whole.

At the same time, a red arc shimmered into existence before me. In the air. Together, they would've formed a circle.

But they didn’t. Not yet.

A weapon? Something like a ritual.

I staggered. My breath caught. My vision blurred. It wasn’t pain. It’s not physical. 

I gasped. I felt like something was being pulled. My soul. My life. My everything.

And I saw it.

Not in front of me. Behind my eyes. In the back of my head.

A figure. Not me. Someone else. 

Left side. Divine. Marble skin. Hair like snow, suspended mid-fall. A single golden eye. Still. Quiet. Almost... kind.

Right side. Corrupt. Demonic. Eye leaking red like the soul itself was bleeding out. Hair like smoke on fire. I stared into the eyes of the thing in front of me. 

Behind it, something like…a clock. Split clean down the middle, its hands frozen at midnight. One side gleamed gold. The other bled red.

Familiar.

“Remember me?” the voice came again. From the demon. From inside me.