Elora stepped into the room. Her feet didn't quite touch the floor.
Clara backed up instinctively, putting herself between Emmanuel and… whatever this was.
"Elora," Emmanuel said again, softer this time, like saying it right might fix it.
"I remember you," Elora said, smiling. But her voice was layered like two tones speaking at once. "I remember the lake. The cold. And the choice."
"What choice?" Clara asked, voice shaking.
Elora looked at her like she was remembering something funny. "It offered me a way out. I took it."
Emmanuel stepped forward. "What offered you a way out?"
Elora's face twitched. "The thing you left me with."
The lights flickered. The air went cold.
"I was dying," she whispered. "Alone. Afraid. You turned and ran. And when the darkness asked if I wanted to live I said yes. I said I'd do anything to make it back."
Clara gasped, realization blooming. "You let it in."
Elora grinned. "I invited it."
And then her voice changed completely. Low. Not hers.
"And now I'm here to stay."
The walls groaned. Shadows slithered along the floor.
Emmanuel looked at Elora really looked and something inside him shattered. This wasn't the girl he loved. This was a shell wearing her face.
"Elora…" he whispered. "I'm sorry."
Something flickered behind her eyes.
A memory? A crack?
Clara grabbed Emmanuel's hand. "We can't save her," she said gently. "But we can stop it."
He looked at her her eyes filled with fear, but also strength. She was grounded. Real. Alive.
They turned to run but the door slammed shut. Elora's body lifted off the floor, head tilting unnaturally.
"You brought me back," the voice snarled. "Now you'll never leave."
The shadows lunged.