The staircase groaned beneath their weight, every step a countdown. Sarah moved ahead of Ace, dagger in hand, her breath steady now—not because she wasn't afraid, but because fear had become familiar. Like the sound of Hal's voice when it turned cruel.
At the bottom of the stairs, the living room was dark, but not empty.
Something was waiting.
Ace held his flashlight like a weapon, the beam slicing across overturned furniture, broken glass, and—
There. Standing in front of the fireplace.
Hal.
Or what was left of him.
His skin was ash-pale, stretched too tight across bones that didn't move quite right. His eyes were no longer human—just endless black, like the void between stars. His mouth split into a smile too wide, too knowing.
"Sarah," he rasped, voice echoing with the rot of the grave. "You came home."
Ace stepped in front of her, but Sarah put a hand on his shoulder. "No," she whispered. "I have to do this."
Hal tilted his head, gaze locked on her. "You left me in the dark. Buried me in silence. But I remembered everything. Every kiss. Every promise."
"You tried to own me," she said. "That's not love."
His smile didn't waver. "And yet your heart still remembers."
Sarah stepped forward. "I brought something that belongs to you."
Hal's smile faltered as she raised the dagger, its silver edge glowing faintly in the darkness.
His voice dropped, low and broken. "You can't kill what you still love."
"I don't love you," she said.
She turned to Ace.
"I love him."
The moment she spoke it, the air shifted. The bond between her and Hal snapped like a cord yanked too tight for too long. The house trembled. Hal screamed—not with fear, but with fury and heartbreak.
Ace moved then, fast, grabbing Hal from behind and pinning him.
"Do it, Sarah!" he shouted.
She didn't hesitate.
The dagger slid deep, straight into Hal's chest—right where her love used to live.
He let out one last, strangled sound—a mix of sorrow, rage, and relief—and then his body collapsed into dust, the wind scattering him across the floor like forgotten ash.
Silence.
The storm outside stopped as if it, too, had been waiting for an ending.
Sarah dropped the dagger and fell into Ace's arms.
He caught her, held her like something precious, something breakable. Something he'd been waiting years to hold again.
"It's over," he whispered.
"No," she breathed against his neck. "It's just beginning."