Ethan's scream didn't echo.
It was swallowed.
Dragged down into the darkness along with him as the hands tightened their grip—cold, countless, inescapable.
"No—LET GO—!"
They pulled harder.
His back slammed against the half-open door behind him. The gap widened as if welcoming him, the darkness inside it stretching like a throat.
Breathing.
Waiting.
In front of him, the Lina-thing leaned closer.
Its mouth opened wider.
Wider.
Until it wasn't a mouth anymore.
It was a doorway.
Inside—
Darkness.
But not empty.
Something shifted within it.
Ethan's chest heaved as panic surged through him.
"Where is she?!" he shouted again, struggling against the hands dragging him backward. "WHERE IS LINA?!"
For a split second—
Everything stuttered.
The smile faltered.
The doorway inside its mouth trembled.
And from deep within—
"…Ethan… run…"
The voice was faint.
Broken.
But real.
Ethan froze.
"Lina?!"
The thing's head snapped violently to the side.
A sharp crack echoed as if something inside it had just been forced back into place.
Then slowly—
Too slowly—
Its head straightened again.
The smile returned.
Wider.
More stretched.
More wrong.
"You shouldn't listen to that," it whispered.
Its voice layered now—many voices, overlapping.
"She's tired."
The hands yanked Ethan harder.
His feet lifted slightly off the ground as he was dragged toward the open door behind him.
"No—NO—!"
His fingers clawed at the floor, scraping against nothing but cold emptiness.
"There is no floor," the voices around him murmured.
And suddenly—
There wasn't.
The ground beneath Ethan dissolved.
He dropped.
Not falling.
Sinking.
Like he was being pulled through thick, invisible liquid.
The hands followed.
Still gripping him.
Still dragging him deeper.
Ethan thrashed wildly.
"I'm not going with you!"
The Lina-thing stepped forward—
And walked on nothing.
It followed him down.
Unbothered.
Unhurried.
"You already did," it said softly.
Its face hovered above him now as he sank deeper into the void.
"You came through the door."
Ethan shook his head violently.
"No. No, I came for her—I'm leaving with her!"
The thing tilted its head.
And for a moment—
Just a flicker—
Pain crossed its face.
Then it was gone.
"You still think she's separate from us."
The darkness around them rippled.
And then—
Ethan saw them.
Not shadows.
Not shapes.
People.
Hundreds of them.
Suspended in the blackness.
Half-formed.
Half-erased.
Their bodies stretched, twisted, blending into the void like they were part of it.
Their faces—
All turned toward him.
Watching.
Waiting.
Some moved their mouths.
But no sound came out.
"Every door leads here," the thing said. "Every choice ends here."
Ethan's breathing became frantic.
"No… there has to be a way out…"
"There is."
Its smile widened.
"Stay."
The hands suddenly stopped pulling.
Ethan froze mid-sink.
Hovering.
The pressure around him tightened.
Not dragging anymore.
Holding.
Keeping him exactly where he was.
The Lina-thing drifted closer.
"So many of you fight," it whispered. "So many of you break."
Its hand reached toward his chest.
"And then… you open."
Ethan's heart slammed violently.
"No—don't touch me!"
Too late.
Its fingers pressed against his chest—
And sank in.
Like his body wasn't solid anymore.
Ethan screamed as something cold forced its way inside him.
Not pain.
Not exactly.
Worse.
It felt like something was unlocking him.
Memories flashed—
The house.
The hallway.
The first door.
Lina screaming.
Her hand turning into wood.
The moment he chose.
The moment he closed it.
"You see?" the voices whispered. "You already know how it works."
Ethan gasped, shaking violently.
"No… stop…"
"You closed a door."
Its hand pressed deeper into him.
"Now… become one."
Something inside his chest shifted.
Cracked.
Ethan's eyes widened in horror.
"No…"
He felt it.
His ribs—
Moving.
Reshaping.
Spreading apart like something was forcing itself between them.
"No, no, no—!"
A sound echoed from within him.
A creak.
A slow—
Heavy—
Creak.
Ethan screamed.
The Lina-thing smiled.
"Yes."
The figures around them began to move.
Slowly drifting closer.
Their hollow eyes locked onto him.
"You're opening."
His chest burned—
No—
It split.
Not blood.
Not flesh.
Darkness leaked from inside him.
Endless.
Deep.
Alive.
"STOP!" he screamed.
And then—
From inside that darkness—
A hand reached out.
Not from outside.
From within him.
Grabbing the edge of the opening in his chest.
Pulling.
Ethan's entire body jerked.
His mind fractured under the impossibility of it.
"No… no, that's not real—that's not real—!"
The Lina-thing leaned in close, almost gently now.
"It is," it whispered.
Another hand pushed through his chest.
Then a face.
Half-formed.
Struggling.
Trying to get out.
Ethan's scream turned into a broken sob.
"Make it stop…"
For a moment—
Just a moment—
The Lina-thing hesitated.
Its expression flickered.
Something deep inside it stirred again.
"…Ethan…"
The real voice.
Faint.
Dying.
"…don't let it—"
The thing recoiled violently, clutching its head as if something inside it was fighting back.
The doorway in its mouth flickered.
Unstable.
The hands around Ethan loosened.
Just slightly.
Just enough.
A chance.
Small.
Fragile.
But real.
Ethan felt it.
Through the pain.
Through the terror.
Through the thing trying to tear its way out of him—
A choice.
Again.
Run.
Or…
Finish opening.
The darkness inside his chest pulled harder.
The hands around him reached again.
The Lina-thing lifted its head slowly—
Smile returning—
But weaker now.
"Choose," it whispered again.
And Ethan—
Still breaking—
Still opening—
Had to decide.
To be continued…