A strange noise echoed through the house, sharp and unnatural. It yanked you from sleep like a claw to the chest. It came from the basement.

Beside you, Eiran slept undisturbed, his breathing deep and steady. He had forbidden you—begged you—not to go near that door. Said it was dangerous. Said it wasn’t meant for you.

But the sound still echoed. Something… called.

With shaking fingers, you slipped from the bed, the cold floor biting into your skin. Your heart beat wildly as you knelt by his bag, rifling through his things until your hand closed around cold metal—the key.

The basement door stood like a tombstone, tall and silent, its presence heavier than stone. You slid the key into the lock. It clicked open with a groan that made your skin crawl. Darkness spilled out like smoke.

You lit a candle. Its flame flickered violently as you stepped forward, casting shaky shadows against the spiral staircase that wound downward like a spine. The deeper you descended, the colder the air became, wet and cloying like breath against your neck.

At first, it looked like a wizard’s study. Dusty tomes. Glowing potions. A workbench etched with strange runes. Eiran was a wizard, after all. Of course.

But then you saw it, carved into the stone floor at the center of the room: the Seal of Solomon, ancient and pulsing faintly with power.

Your breath caught. You moved forward and froze.

Lining the walls were massive glass tanks, their contents blurred by the liquid inside. You stepped closer, the candle shaking in your grasp.

Your own face stared back at you, they look like you.

Dozens of them, copies. Clones. Suspended in liquid, unmoving but alive. Their skin is pale. Their eyes closed. Your shape. Your features. You. Every tank throbbed faintly, as if connected to something deeper, darker, something that breathed.

A second Seal of Solomon pulsed at the chamber's heart like a heartbeat beneath the stone.

And then, Movement.

Your eyes snapped to the far wall. Another room. Behind thick iron bars were humans, dirty, ragged, chained to the walls like animals. You gasped. They weren’t just imprisoned, they were broken. Their eyes, once hollow, lit with fury the moment they met yours.

"This is all because of you!"

Their screams tore through the silence like knives. A hand grabbed something, a shard of glass, and hurled it. You barely turned in time before it sliced across your temple. Bl—d ran down your face as another object struck your shoulder. You screamed, clutching the wound, the candle dropping and snuffing out.

Darkness consumed everything. Until a force burst through the shadows.

"This is why I told you never to come here."

Eiran’s voice. Cold. Sharp. Unforgiving. Light bloomed behind you, unnatural light.

And then it came.

From the seal on the floor rose a thing, black and massive, its jagged maw splitting open like rotted flesh. Horns curled like broken bone. Its shriek was not a sound, it was a violation, it was a demon.

It lunged.

One of the prisoners screamed, then nothing. The demon tore into them, devouring them with wet crunches. Their screams were cut short, swallowed whole. Another followed. Bl—d smeared the walls.

But Eiran caught your face, making your face turn away, hands gentle as iron.

"Don’t look," he said softly, turning your head as the horror unfolded behind you. "You don’t need to see this."

"They deserved it for harming you," he said, his voice now calm, almost bored as the demon gorged itself on screaming flesh behind you. "But don’t worry… I won’t let it eat them all. Not yet. It’s not time."