-Edie. .Ed...Edi..wa...wake.....wake..up....I...b...beg....you....Edie!!!!
The same nightmare again.... Edie snaped out of it with a sharp gasp-choked by the rope knotted cruelly across his mouth.
"What...What is this?!" He wondered...
His lungs seized, heart pounding like a hammer in his chest. Cold, raw fear lit every nerve as his body twisted violently against the restraints.
His arms were pulled back behind the chair, wrists aching from the tight, unyielding rope. His legs were bound to the legs of the chair, skin bruising against the splintered wood. He thrashed, but nothing gave. The chair groaned beneath him with every motion.
His breath came shallow and fast, fogging the air around his face. It was dim. The only light came in jagged slats through what looked like cracked windowpanes. Oil stains bloomed across the concrete floor. Tools and metal scraps lay scattered around, untouched and rusting. The place stank of gasoline, mildew, and something faintly iron.
A garage. Or what was left of one.
His head ached. The last memory was murky-shadows, motion, and then a face. Her face. For one fleeting second before the dark swallowed him, he thought it was Edna. His sister. But now, in the pale slivers of light and the pulse of terror in his veins, he wasn't sure. Yet he felt so uneasy... that scream... what if it really was Edna?!
He didn't know anything, She was lost a long time ago...Why would she appear in the town again all of the sudden?
Edie's head spins insanely with possibilities...with assumptions...
Maybe he'd only wanted it to be her.
No... he Definitely want her to be Edna...
He prayed it was Edna... but...
He strained against the ropes again, letting out a guttural, muffled growl.
That's when he heard them.
Footsteps. One pair, cautious, echoing faintly against the hollow concrete floor.
Then another.
And another.
Three figures stepped into view, their shadows stretching ahead of them.
The first was a boy-young, maybe his age-lean and sharp-eyed, holding a long iron rod in both hands. He didn't approach immediately. He stood, scanning Edie with the intensity of someone inspecting a live wire.
"He's conscious," the boy said, voice clipped, precise. "Still restrained. Breathing hard. Could be fear. Could be the onset."
A girl followed behind him, her boots scuffing the ground. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Edie, her hand resting on a weapon at her hip-a small axe, worn and sharpened down to the bone.
"You're too calm," she said, frowning. "That's always how it starts. Before the change. They look afraid. They act normal. And then it's in the eyes. Always the eyes."
A third boy joined them, taller, broader, with an air of quiet authority. He said nothing. Just observed. Like he was measuring something.
Edie's gaze jumped between them, panic thick in his chest. He didn't understand what they were saying-but he felt it. They were assessing him. Judging him. Like a specimen.
"His pupils are normal," the first boy said, moving a step closer. "No signs of bloom. No bruising behind the ears. No skin breakdown. If he's possessed, it hasn't manifested yet."
The girl shook her head. "It can hide. You know that. Some of them stay normal for hours. Days, even. Then the ears blacken, the pupils swell like oil, and it's over. No mind left. Just hunger."
"He's not showing any of that."
"Neither did the last one," she snapped, voice trembling. "You remember what happened to Mara? We waited. We watched. And by the time her skin started to rot, it was too late. She was already feeding."
That silence returned, heavy and choking. The third boy finally spoke, his voice even.
"We don't act out of fear. Not anymore. Observation first. Then containment. If symptoms emerge-he dies."
Edie shook his head wildly, eyes wide, a muffled scream burning against the gag. He tried to plead with them, to beg, to be seen. But all they saw was the possibility of a monster in a human shell.
Then-she stepped closer.
The girl.
The girl he had seen.
Edie froze, recognition slamming into him like a blow to the chest. It was her. Not Edna. Not the sister he'd ached for all these years. But the one who'd stood over him before everything went black.
Her features were sharp, guarded. Her eyes flicked over him with a look that wasn't quite cold-but not gentle, either.
The second boy noticed. "You know him?"
She didn't answer at first.
"Why would I know him?" she said at last. "He was... running like crazy, like a wild animal... I thought it was the dead end for me... How lucky that beasts can be clumsy, too..." The girl bitterly laughed.
The second boy's voice dropped low. "Why would he run like that? His eyes are still normal. Running wild like that and attacking people... are the last symptoms, the ones after getting rotten. Maybe... he was just running out of fear?"
"I...I... I don't know!... now that you say this... I'm not sure..."
"You told us to tie him! Are you joking now, right?! We don't have time to fool around! he's clean!" shouted the first boy... his face scared and angry.
"If he is clean!" she cut in anger, "If he's clean, then he'll stay that way. If he's not, we'll know by nightfall." she said calmly then.
Her eyes locked on Edie's one last time, and something flickered in them.
Fear. Maybe guilt.
He stared back at her, trembling, gagged, bound to a chair in a place that reeked of rust and old death. Not understanding why he was here. Not understanding what was happening to him.
All he knew was that they were waiting.
Watching.
And praying that he didn't turn into something they'd have to burn.
Time flew by...Edie could tell... he didn't move. There was no use.
His wrists were raw beneath the rope. The gag in his mouth was tight and tasted like rust and dirt. His breathing was shallow, controlled. He didn't dare flinch.
The place was silent except for distant wind rattling loose metal above him. It could have been a garage-some forgotten space. Cold concrete. Rotting wood. Oil stains turned to shadows. He hadn't seen the outside since waking.
Edie could hear their voices... whispers at first... then they got louder, as if the three of them couldn't endure the silence anymore.
"They always do this," said a boy-young, nervous, pacing somewhere behind Edie. "The quiet ones. You think they're okay, and then-boom. Blood on your face. You don't even get to say goodbye." he laughed silently to himself
"Would you shut up?" the girl snapped. Her voice was sharper than her words, like someone who hadn't slept in days.
"I'm serious," the boy hissed. "He hasn't said a word since he woke up. He was scareming at first, wasn't he?"
"He can't talk idiot," the girl said. "You gagged him, remember?"
"No-I mean-why isn't him growling anymore?! He was trying to break free at first! Now he is as still as a dead!"
"I said shut up!" The girl snapped again.
After a while, from the far corner, another voice cut through. Calm. Cold.
"Mel, you said we should tie him up... you think dragging him here was a good idea?"
"I didn't drag him," the girl muttered. "He was the one running to me. Then he fell before me. I thought he was possessed. It was for the best to tie him."
"Still stupid," the cold voice said.
Edie stayed still. Eyes half-lowered. Listening.
"I don't like this," the calm boy said again. "It feels like that damn thing is going to happen again."
There was a pause.
The girl exhaled. "You think he's one of them?"
"You saw how fast it spread. Everyone we knew-just... gone. We were lucky we didn't go insane." Said the first boy.
The calm boy talked again: "It doesn't start fast. It rots first. The eyes change. Then the skin... They lose their voice."
"We should've checked his ears," the boy muttered. "If we checked it sooner, maybe... we could've helped him survive... John... could've survived."
"Stop it Cas... we can't change the past." the girl said sharply, yet a flicker of sadness has appeared in her voice.
Again... after what felt like hours, the voices echoed.
"I don't see anything," the first boy said. "His eyes look normal."
"For now."
The cold voice moved closer. Edie could feel the steps vibrating on the floor. "We'll know soon. One way or another."
The first boy sighed: "This is messed up. We're not soldiers. We don't know what we're doing."
"You didn't think that when you left the camp, Cas."
Cas. The nervous one. Edie remembered the voice-he'd been the first to approach when Edie woke up here.
Cas didn't answer.
"You were the one yelling to get out. That it wasn't safe anymore."
"Because it wasn't," Cas snapped. "You saw it too. Everyone was getting sick-fast. We couldn't stay. Not after... not after what happened to our friends."
The silence that followed was heavy.
"I told her I'd come back," The calm boy whispered. "But she was already gone, wasn't she? When her mouth opened, it wasn't her voice anymore."
The girl finally sat down, her back against the wall, arms wrapped around her knees.
"I'm sorry, Liam." she said.
Liam, the calm one, now sounded desperate. He sniffed, wiped at his face. "She smiled when I ran. Like she knew I'd live. Like that was enough."
Edie swallowed hard behind the gag. He knew that pain way too well.
"I miss her," Liam said.
"Don't talk about her, " Cas said while looking suspiciously at Edie. "Not in front of him."
The girl turned sharply. "So what?! It's not like He knows us! It doesn't matter!"
"They said it was some ancient thing," Liam mumbled in sorrow, almost to himself. "Older than the dark. It feeds off the mind, makes people... forget themselves. First the eyes, then the ears, then they're just... gone."
"Stop talking about that fucking Story again!" Mel warned.
"Isn't starnge?! That everything happening to us was written ages ago?!" Liam snapped suddenly.
Cas stared at him. "Liam just shut your mouth! You weren't the guy to believe in those things, what wrong with our Hitler?!" he said mockingly.
Liam growled "Im saying maybe the solution to this hell is hidden in that damn book."
Mel looked at Liam. "There you go again. Every time you remember Mara, you start saying stupid things about that book... When are you going to realize that Mara was mentally sick from the start!"
Liam shouted in rage "DON'T YOU DARE TALKING ABOUT HER LIKE THAT AGIAN!!!!"
Mel raged too "OR WHAT MR.LOVER?! GONNA CHOKE ME LIKE THE LAST TIME?!!"
Cas middled in by pushing them apart "IDIOTS! SNAP OUT OF IT, FUCK!"
a long silence danced again... no one talked...
Finally Liam stepped into Edies view again. His eyes were sharp, hard and cold. Edie knew that look... a broken yet cruel look... like the one his father had.
"I'm sorry Melissa... you... you're right... I was stupid for hoping that things might get better... Mara was stupid too... that's why I loved her." he sobbed silently before Edie.
"Hope gets you killed after all..." he said lastly before wiping his tears and walking away, leaning to the wall.
Then silence again. The kind that makes your bones feel hollow.
Edie watched them. Every breath slow. Every heartbeat a question.
And they watched him back-three strangers clinging to fear, grief, and the broken pieces of their hearts... just like Edie.