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*Chapter 26: The Quiet Before the Ruin*
The morning sun did not bring peace. It brought questions.
They gathered in silence, surrounding the strange offering left at the temple gate—blood, hair, and that chilling message.
*"He already chose wrong."*
No one spoke, but the silence buzzed with implication. The threat wasn't random. It was *personal*.
Jun stared at the lock of hair. "It's mine," he whispered.
Mark turned sharply. "What?"
Jun touched his own hair, then reached down. The strand in the bowl was unmistakably his—same dark brown, same length. "Someone got close enough to take it."
Mark's jaw clenched. "That means they've been near. *Inside.*"
Dao stepped away from the group, scanning the temple walls with sharp, restless eyes. "This place is compromised. We're not safe here anymore."
"But it's sacred ground," Lek said quietly. "Spirits shouldn't be able to—"
"They didn't send a spirit," Jun interrupted. "This was done by *someone human.* Someone watching us. Someone who hates us."
Mark's stomach twisted. "The villain."
Taiwan stood near the steps, eyes narrowed. "Or one of us being controlled."
Jun turned to face him. "You mean *possessed*?"
"No," Taiwan said. "I mean manipulated. Like a game piece moved without realizing it."
A heavy pause fell over them.
---
The rest of the day passed under a growing weight. Paranoia seeped into their routines. They no longer spoke in open spaces. They ate in silence. No one trusted the shadows.
That night, Mark couldn't sleep. He lay beside Jun, listening to his slow, rhythmic breathing—proof he was still there. Still real. But the silence between them was heavier than it had been in weeks.
Mark finally whispered, "Do you ever regret this?"
Jun turned his head slowly. "Regret what?"
"Choosing me."
Jun stared at him for a long moment, and then his voice broke softly through the dark. "No. But I fear it."
"Why?"
Jun didn't answer right away. "Because everything I love disappears."
Mark reached for his hand beneath the blankets and held it tightly.
"I won't disappear," he said.
But outside, something was already watching.
---
Sometime after midnight, Dao jolted awake.
He hadn't meant to sleep. He'd only meant to rest his eyes. But something cold had slithered into his dream—something whispering in a voice that didn't belong to him.
He grabbed his dagger and slipped from his room. Lek was still asleep across the hall, the door slightly ajar. Dao paused, watching him for a moment, just breathing. Something fragile stirred in his chest.
It scared him more than the dream.
He turned down the hallway toward the temple's inner sanctum. Every step felt heavier than the last.
When he reached the threshold, he saw it: the seal they'd placed after the spirit attack was gone. Not broken. *Gone.* As if it had never been there at all.
And at the center of the sanctum stood Jun—barefoot, back facing Dao, eyes glassy in the moonlight.
"Jun?" Dao's voice was low, cautious.
Jun didn't move.
Dao approached slowly, fingers tightening around his blade. "What are you doing here?"
"I heard it calling me," Jun said, his voice hollow. "From the walls. From the floor. From the cracks in this place."
Dao was beside him now. Up close, Jun's pupils were wide, too wide, like he was trapped in a trance.
"What did it say?" Dao asked, even though he already feared the answer.
Jun turned slowly, his smile too soft. "It said *Mark lied to me.* It said *Taiwan never left.* It said *I was a fool to trust love.*"
Dao's grip tightened. "Jun, wake up. This isn't you."
But Jun only smiled, and then whispered, "It wants me to remember."
---
Meanwhile, Taiwan sat on the roof, eyes closed, breath shallow.
He felt it—the pull of the darkness inside the temple. He knew that feeling. He had lived in it for too long.
Mark found him there, quiet and still under the stars.
"He's dreaming again, isn't he?" Mark asked.
Taiwan opened his eyes. "Not dreaming. Remembering."
"What does that mean?"
"It means the villain isn't just playing us. He's *using us.* Feeding off every hidden truth, every broken promise."
Mark sat beside him. "You said someone's already being used."
"I think it's Jun," Taiwan said carefully.
Mark went still. "No."
"I'm not saying he's the villain," Taiwan added. "I'm saying... someone's inside his fear. That's the door."
Mark's voice turned cold. "Then we shut the door."
But deep down, part of him was already afraid they were too late.
---
Jun woke with a gasp, seated on the temple floor, his hands cold and damp with sweat. Dao knelt in front of him, his brows furrowed with concern.
"What... what happened?" Jun whispered.
"You walked here in your sleep," Dao said. "Said something was calling you."
Jun's heart pounded. "I don't remember."
"You talked about Mark. Taiwan. Lies." Dao hesitated, then added, "And you said something wants you to remember."
Jun closed his eyes. A memory flickered behind the darkness. Not one of his own—but one that felt *planted*. A flash of fire. A scream. Mark, standing above a broken seal. Taiwan behind him, bleeding.
"I think something's trying to rewrite me," Jun said hoarsely.
Dao offered his hand. "Then we'll stop it. Together."
---
Elsewhere, Lek paced outside the temple, anxiety knotting his stomach. He hadn't told Dao yet, but he had been waking up with scratches on his arms. Marks he didn't remember getting. And sometimes, he dreamed in someone else's voice.
He paused near the tree line, the early morning fog curling at his feet.
From the mist, a whisper slipped through:
*"He won't love you if he knows the truth."*
Lek turned sharply. "Who's there?"
Only silence.
And then—a shadow, far off, moving fast.
He backed away toward the temple, hands shaking. The whisper had sounded like *his own voice.*
---
Inside, Mark tended to Jun, wrapping a protective ward around his wrist. "We'll strengthen your defenses. You're not alone."
Jun hesitated, eyes searching his. "If I lose control... you'll stop me, right?"
Mark flinched. "I'll protect you."
"That's not what I asked."
Mark's throat tightened. "I don't want to choose between you and survival."
"You won't have to," Jun said, softer. "I'll choose for you."
Taiwan watched from the doorway, expression unreadable.
And far below the temple, in a cavern none of them had yet found, the true villain placed anothew offering on an altar carved in bone. A new piece of the puzzle.
This time, it wasn't hair.
It was a memory.
---
By nightfall, the temple no longer felt like shelter.
The air hung thick with static—like a storm waiting to break. Mark sat beside Jun, who had been quiet all evening. He hadn't spoken about the trance. About the voice. About the things he'd said while possessed. It scared Mark more than the spirits did.
"You're different," Mark said gently.
Jun stared at the wall. "I feel hollow."
"You're not," Mark whispered, taking his hand. "You're still you."
"I saw something," Jun said after a long pause. "In the trance. It didn't feel like a dream—it felt like *a memory that doesn't belong to me.*"
Mark's heartbeat slowed. "Tell me."
Jun turned to him, eyes wide. "It was you. And Taiwan. Fighting. Blood everywhere. And… I was screaming."
Mark froze. "That never happened."
Jun didn't blink. "Not yet."
---
Down the hall, Dao ran his fingers along a new seal Lek had etched into the wood. "You've been quiet," he said.
Lek hesitated. "I've been... scared."
"Of what?" Dao asked, then added, "Of me?"
"No," Lek said quickly. "Of myself."
Dao turned toward him.
Lek bit his lip. "There's something I haven't told you. I've been dreaming of a place I've never been. And when I wake up, I have bruises. Scratches. My shirt torn."
Dao stepped forward. "Are you saying you're being used?"
"I don't know," Lek said. "But what if I'm being *sent out* while I sleep?"
Dao's expression darkened. "We'll lock you down at night. Chains. Wards. I'll watch you myself."
Lek gave a shaky smile. "That's romantic in a terrifying way."
"I'm not losing you," Dao said, deadly serious. "Not to this. Not to *them.*"
---
As the group gathered before bed, a soft knock echoed through the temple.
One. Two. Three.
Then silence.
Mark's skin crawled.
Taiwan opened the door—and saw no one.
Only a shadow moving across the stone path. No footsteps. No wind.
And on the floor: a sealed envelope with Mark's name.
He picked it up with trembling fingers, broke the wax.
Inside: a photo.
Of Jun. Standing in the temple. Alone.
And behind him—something Mark didn't recognize.
But it looked like *Mark's face*, twisted, grinning, dead-eyed.
On the back of the photo were the words:
*"He remembers you differently."
Mark didn't sleep.
He stared at the photo long after the others drifted into restless dreams. That distorted face behind Jun—his face, but not—dug into his mind like a thorn.
"Is this what Jun saw in his vision?" he whispered to himself. "A twisted version of me?"
He traced the edge of the image, fingers trembling. "Or is this what I'm becoming?"
---
Jun, too, lay awake, staring at the ceiling, replaying the trance over and over. The voice that whispered to him in that half-conscious state hadn't just been darkness. It had known things.
It had *spoken in Mark's voice.*
"Jun," it had said, soft and mocking.
*"I only protect you because I pity you."*
*"You think love makes you strong. It makes you weak."*
He pressed his hands to his ears, trying to block it out, but the echo clung to him like a curse.
He didn't want to doubt Mark. He *loved* Mark.
But what if the darkness was showing him something *real*?
Elsewhere, Dao sat beside Lek, wrapping leather cords around his wrists and ankles. Wards stitched into the bindings shimmered faintly.
Lek looked at him, voice barely above a whisper. "What if I hurt you?"
"You won't," Dao replied.
"You don't know that."
Dao cupped his chin, forcing him to look him in the eye. "If you do, I'll survive it. What I won't survive is letting you go."
Lek swallowed hard. "You're not afraid?"
"I am. I just love you more than I fear you."
Those words—so simple, so raw—broke something in Lek. He leaned forward, pressed his forehead to Dao's, and whispered, "Then don't let me go. Even if I beg."
Dao nodded once. "Never."
---
That night, every single one of them dreamed.
But this time, it wasn't individual.
It was shared.
They all stood in the same black field, under a rotting moon. Each turned slowly to see the others, confused, terrified. They tried to speak—no sound came.
And then a figure appeared in the distance.
Cloaked in shadow. Familiar and wrong. Their villain.
But just before it reached them, its form shifted.
Into Jun. Into Mark. Into Dao. Into Lek. Into *all of them*—cycling through their faces like masks.
And when it finally stopped, it smiled.
*"You've already lost."*
They woke together—screaming.
---
To be continued.
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