"Do the plan right, or else I wi—"
Ethan's words cut off abruptly, his frustration evident, but Lila wasn’t fazed. She rolled her eyes in response, her patience clearly wearing thin.
"You always irritate me," she muttered, folding her arms.
Dylan, ever the actor, let his body go limp, crashing to the floor with a thud.
"Hey! Someone fainted here!" Lila shouted, but the empty silence that followed was like a losing hope. No footsteps, no voices. Nothing.
Lila and Ethan exchanged a quick, knowing glance. Plan B.
Dylan suddenly groaned, rolling on the ground, his voice cracking, "Damn you, traitor! Just die already!"
"Help!" Lila screamed dramatically, locking eyes with Dylan and giving a quick, subtle signal. 
Dylan hesitated but then grabbed a knife, slicing shallowly across her arm. The blood trickled, adding to the realism.
Finally, the door creaked open.
Ethan sprang into action, aiming a swift blow at the figure stepping in but his hand passed through thin air. The figure blurred, shimmering out of existence. It was an illusion.
Then she appeared... Aria... her form solidifying in front of Ethan. She smirked, folding her arms casually.
"Unbelievable, isn't it? Power is... intoxicating," Aria said, her voice dripping with amusement.
Ethan's teeth clenched. "Tsk, you lunatic!"
Aria’s laughter filled the room, cold and mocking. "You think you’re in control? Threaten me all you want, but it's laughable."
"Free us, or I’ll cut her—" Dylan’s threat hung in the air, but Aria’s laughter grew louder, echoing ominously around them.
Ethan suddenly collapsed to his knees, a crushing weight pressing down on him. His limbs refused to move, trapped by Aria’s invisible force.
"You think you can cut anyone?" Aria sneered, stepping closer. "The only person at risk here is you, Dylan."
Ivy, standing still, her eyes narrowed in focus, stared Aria down. Aria turned toward her, raising an eyebrow.
"Why the look, Ivy?" Aria asked mockingly.
Lila, without warning, shoved Dylan aside, causing him to stumble and crash into a chair. She strode confidently toward Aria.
"You know," Lila said coolly, "Mother would be ashamed to see me siding with these fools."
The room grew tense.
"Aria," Lila’s voice dropped, her tone authoritative. "You’re new here. Me? I’ve been in this game longer than you think."
A flash of anger passed over Aria's face, but before she could respond, a voice came from the doorway.
"Let her be," a figure dressed in black commanded. Their eyes glinted sharply, a dangerous presence filling the space.
Lila smirked, rolling her eyes as she walked out past the figure.
The figure dropped food and drinks on the floor, their gaze unflinching. "For later."
Dylan cursed under his breath, but Ivy caught a glimpse of something in Aria’s eyes, was that... softness? But just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. Aria left with the stranger, the door slamming behind them.
Ethan, regaining his composure, picked up a piece of fruit from the floor and handed it to Ivy.
"Can we really trust Lila?" he asked, his voice low and uncertain. "She’s one of them."
Ivy stared at the fruit, then up at her brother. "We have no other choice. She’s our last hope."
Ethan handed a piece of fruit to Dylan, catching the look in his friend's eyes. An unmistakable sadness, heavy and raw.
It brought back memories of when he saw Aria, who betrayed them all, leading to Sadie's death.
Dylan bit into the fruit silently, his gaze distant.
Ivy, on the other hand, had already started eating. But after just a few bites, her face became a little bit red, and she began coughing violently, the sound sharp and alarming in the quiet room.
"Ivy!" Ethan shouted, rushing to her side. His mind immediately jumped to the worst. "Had the fruit been poisoned?" 
Her face flushed red, her hands gripping her throat as her coughing grew harsher, more desperate. 
Ethan’s heart hammered in his chest, his hands trembling as he grabbed her arm, terrified.
"What's happening? Are you okay?" His voice cracked with fear.
Dylan, calmer than him, grabbed a nearby flask and handed it to her. "She just needs water," he muttered.
She snatched the flask from his hand and drank greedily. After a moment, her coughing subsided. Her breaths slowed, and her face returned to its normal color.
"You scared the hell out of me!" Ethan exclaimed.
Ivy wiped her mouth, giving him a weak smile. "I’m fine. I just... swallowed wrong," she said, though her voice was still hoarse. She tried to play it off.
Dylan crossed his arms, watching them both with a raised eyebrow. 
"We can’t afford to lose our heads over nothing," he said, his tone cold but not unkind. "There are bigger threats than choking on fruit."
Ivy, now fully recovered, glanced toward the flickering candles in the corner.
"What if we blow out the candles?" she suggested, her voice almost hopeful. "Maybe that would break the mark."
Ethan, still on edge, shot her a glare. Without warning, he flicked her forehead.
"Ow!" Ivy yelped, rubbing the spot.
"Stupid!" Ethan scolded, frustration boiling over. "You don’t just mess with things we don’t understand. What if something worse happens?"
Ivy rolled her eyes, but behind her defiant look was a flicker of doubt. She didn’t argue, though.
But with the way things were going, the risks were too high, and even she knew that.
“Wait, where’s the old journal?” Dylan interrupted. “There might be something in there that we missed.”
Ethan reached behind him, pulling out the worn, leather-bound journal that had seen far too many horrors. “Here,” he muttered, handing it over.
Dylan took it carefully, as though it were made of glass. The edges of the pages were frayed and yellowed, and that familiar scent of decaying paper as he opened it.
His brow furrowed, scanning the faded, scribbled handwriting, flipping through the fragile pages.
He stopped on a page marked by a faint, almost invisible crease.
"The only missing page..." Dylan began. "Is the one that explains how to stop the ritual during the full moon.”
Ethan cursed under his breath. “Of course, the part we need the most.”
Ivy, standing beside them, bit her lip nervously. “Wait, Lila knows everything. We’ll just wait for her, right?”
Dylan’s eyes narrowed, his fingers tracing over the text. “Maybe... but we can’t just wait here. There might be something we can do now.”
Ethan leaned in, desperate to see what Dylan had found. “What does it say?”
Dylan's expression darkened as he read. “In darkness, only the light of truth shall free those bound. To extinguish the flame without truth is to invite shadows darker than death.”
The room fell silent as the words settled over them. 
“What does that even mean?” Ivy whispered, afraid to hear the answer.
Ethan ran a hand through his hair, his mind working furiously to piece it together. 
“It means... we can’t just blow out the candles and hope for the best. Whatever’s binding us here, whatever the mark is, it’s tied to something much deeper. If we mess up, we might unleash something worse than death.”
Dylan nodded grimly. “The journal isn’t clear about what happens if we do that, but it sounds like whatever's in the shadows is waiting for us to make a mistake.”
He stared at the journal for a moment longer before closing it with a sharp thud. 
Ivy swallowed hard, her eyes darting to the flickering candles that circled the mark on the floor.
“So, what do we do now?” she asked.
Ethan turned to Ivy, his expression hard. “Ivy, you’re not seriously thinking about trying to break the mark, are you? We have no idea what this ritual is meant for, but I know it’s bad. We all saw what happened when you first stepped outside it.”
“I know,” Ivy whispered, fear creeping into her voice. “But what choice do we have? I don’t want to be used in some sick ritual.”
Dylan knelt beside the journal, flipping more again frantically through the pages with renewed desperation. 
“There has to be something here. Something about the ritual, about why they need you, Ivy.”
Ethan paced back and forth, his fists clenched in frustration. “Lila knew something. She wouldn’t have told us to wait until the full moon unless it was important. But if they’re planning to use you... then we’re running out of time.”
Ivy’s voice cracked as she spoke. “It’s obvious... they need me as a sacrifice.”
The truth she’d been dreading finally slipped from her lips.
Ethan stopped in his tracks, his heart pounding as the word "sacrifice" echoed in his mind.
Dylan, his gaze fixed on the journal, read once more. “The candles burn until the first light of moonlight. If the ritual isn’t completed, the shadows will consume all within this place. Ivy’s part in this isn’t something we can stop.”
Ethan, frustration boiling over, snatched the journal from Dylan’s hands. “There has to be another way! The journal—”
“The journal speaks of truth,” Dylan interrupted, his voice measured. “Only truth can release the bound. But Ethan, do you even know the truth? Why we’re really here? Why Ivy was chosen?”
Ethan’s mind raced, his expression growing darker by the second. 
He slammed the journal shut, glaring at the flickering candles as if they held all the answers. “Damn this fate... They gave us no real choice. But I won’t let them take her. Not her.”
Dylan’s confusion broke the silence. “What? What are you talking about?”
Ethan’s eyes lingered on Ivy, the weight of his words crashing down. “The mark... recognizes her as a vessel. It's because of what happened in the past. If the ritual is completed, she’ll become the key... opening the door to whatever’s been trapped for centuries.”
Ivy’s voice was barely audible as she asked, “And it’s...?”
Ethan’s gaze didn’t falter. “Yes. It’s Lila's mother.”