Every single one of us froze.
The voice sounded like something out of an old movie, all precise pronunciation and formal diction. Sophisticated. Educated. Completely out of place in this nightmare.
A man stepped out of the shadows—literally stepped out, like he'd been part of the darkness itself. He was dressed like he'd walked straight out of the 1920s: three-piece suit, suspenders, bow tie, and a pocket watch chain hanging from his vest. His hair was slicked back with what looked like actual pomade, and he wore round glasses that reflected the lamp light in a way that made his eyes completely invisible behind them.
'Another one', I thought with sick dread. 'Another monster. We're trapped in here with another monster.'
"Holy shit!" Zara jumped back, grabbing Amara's arm. "Who the fuck are you?"
Before the man could answer, the woman-thing started attacking the door. The sound was inhuman—screeching, clawing, like she was trying to tear through the wood with her bare hands. Or claws. Whatever the hell she had now.
The shelf shook with each impact, dust raining down from the ceiling. It was holding, but barely. Wood was already starting to splinter.
"And it looks like you brought company with you too," the strange man said, putting a hand in his pocket and raising an eyebrow. His tone was conversational, like this was a normal social situation. "Looks like you've barely been here for a minute and you've already stirred up trouble."
'He's not afraid', I realized through the haze of pain. 'That thing is trying to break down the door to eat us alive, and he's not afraid at all. Which means…'
"Oh god, oh god, we're all going to die," Amara whispered, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. She was clutching her hair with both hands, rocking back and forth. "Kai's dead and we're all going to die and oh god, oh god..."
"Please," Priya said, looking at the man with desperate eyes. Her composed mask had completely cracked. "Please don't hurt us."
The man adjusted his glasses and smiled. It was an oddly charming smile, the kind that belonged in a different century, at a fancy party or social gathering. "Now, now. There's no need for such alarm. Even though I do wish I could, I assure you, I mean you no harm whatsoever."
CRASH. The shelf lurched forward an inch. Splinters of wood flew across the room.
"You wish to hurt us?" I said aloud, my voice coming out weaker than I intended. Blood loss was making it hard to think straight. "What the hell does that mean?"
"I can't hurt humans without their permission," the man continued conversationally, as if a monster wasn't literally trying to break down the door to eat us. "I made a contract centuries ago. Consent binds me, as rules bind us all. It's... complicated."
"What kind of contract?" Diego demanded, sweat dripping down his face as he braced against the shelf.
CRASH. Another inch. The door frame was starting to crack.
"None of your questions fucking matter!" Zara interrupted, her voice raw and desperate. Spittle flew from her mouth as she practically roared at the man: "You don't seem scared. Does that mean you can do something to help us?"
"Only if whatever's on the other side of that door is a low-level spirit," the man said, straightening his bow tie with maddening calm. "You see, I can assist you with your current predicament. But assistance always comes with a price."
"What kind of price?" I asked, though I was pretty sure I didn't want to know the answer.
CRASH. The wood was definitely splintering now. I could see one of her claws pierce through the door, white and sharp as a blade.
"A soul," the man said simply, like he was discussing the weather. "One soul, freely given, and I can dispose of the creature hunting you. It's quite reasonable, really. One life to spare five others."
'Five', I thought numbly. We started with seven. Kai's dead. That leaves six of us. So he's saying...
The room went dead silent except for Amara's quiet sobbing and the continued assault on the door.
"You want us to sacrifice someone?" Priya's voice was barely a whisper, but it cut through the noise like a knife.
"I prefer to think of it as a practical exchange," the man replied, adjusting his glasses. "One volunteer steps forward, and the rest of you live to see another day. Quite generous terms, considering your alternatives."
CRASH. The shelf was definitely moving now. The door frame cracked with a sound like breaking bones.
'What does he even mean by soul?' I thought frantically, pressing harder against my bleeding arm. 'Does that mean he wants to kill one of us? We've already lost Kai. Isn't that enough? How is this fair? How is any of this fair?'
We all looked at each other, the horrible mathematics of survival playing out in our minds. Six of us left. One had to die so the others could live.
My eyes went to Levi without meaning to. He was pressed against the far wall, trembling, his pants dark with urine. He wasn't even trying to help hold the door anymore. Just standing there, useless, while the rest of us fought for our lives.
'He's the weakest', part of my mind whispered. 'He's always been the weakest. We barely even know him. Priya invited him and we all went along with it but none of us really wanted him here. If someone has to die…'
I hated myself for thinking it, but I couldn't stop.
"This is fucked up," Zara said, but her voice was shaking. Her eyes kept darting to Levi too. "This is completely fucked up."
"We don't have time to debate ethics," Diego said grimly, still bracing against the shelf. His voice had gone flat, emotionless—the tone of someone making a terrible calculation. "That thing is going to break through in seconds."
"Levi," I said quietly. The word came out before I could stop it.
"No." His voice cracked, and tears started streaming down his face. "No, please. I know what you're thinking, but please—"
"You're the weakest," Diego said bluntly, and I could hear the guilt and desperation warring in his voice. "You can barely help push the shelf. If we're going to lose someone..."
"That's not fair!" Levi's eyes filled with tears, his whole body shaking. "I'm trying! I'm trying as hard as I can! I have a little sister! She's only twelve! She needs me! I promised her I'd—"
"Actually," Priya spoke up, her voice cold and clinical. She was chewing her lip again, but her eyes were calculating. "Maybe it should be Ethan."
Everyone stared at her. My blood went cold.
"What?" I managed to say.
"You froze," she said, looking directly at me with those analytical eyes. "When that thing attacked Kai, you just stood there. You didn't move. You didn't fight. You didn't run. Zara had to throw the plate. I had to drag you away. You would have died if we hadn't saved you. And you're injured now—you're bleeding, you're slow, you're a liability. At least Levi is trying to help, even if he's weak. You're dead weight."
"Are you fucking serious right now?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My arm was on fire, blood was still seeping through my fingers, and she was throwing me under the bus. "I got fucking clawed! I'm bleeding out!"
"Because you froze instead of running!" Her voice was sharp, practical, the voice of someone who'd probably already calculated survival odds. "You panicked. You're going to slow us down trying to escape."
'She's right, part of me thought with sick certainty. I did freeze. I was useless. Kai died right in front of me and I just stood there like an idiot. Maybe I deserve—'
No. Fuck that. I want to live. I don't care if I froze. I want to fucking live.
CRASH. The wood was definitely starting to crack, splitting down the middle.
"We don't have time for this," Diego snapped, his voice rising with panic. "Someone has to go! Now!"
"Please!" Levi collapsed to his knees, actual tears and snot streaming down his face. His hands were clasped together like he was praying. "Please don't let me die! Please, I'll do anything, I'll be better, I'll—"
Levi's begging almost made me reconsider. But I wanted to live more than I wanted to be a good person.
"I'm sorry," Zara said, and she actually sounded like she meant it. Tears were running down her face too. "I'm so sorry, but we don't have a choice."
The vote was quick and brutal. Diego raised his hand for Levi. Then Zara, wiping tears from her face. Then Amara, who couldn't even look at him. Then me.
Only Priya voted for me, her expression cold and practical.
Levi didn't vote. He just sobbed and begged and pleaded until the very end, his voice breaking over and over: "Please, please, Maya needs me, please don't do this, please—"
"Excellent choice," the man said, stepping forward with that same charming smile. "Now, if you'd be so kind as to step away from your friend."
We all backed away from Levi like he had the plague. He looked at us with such betrayal, such raw terror, that I had to look away. I couldn't meet his eyes.
"Wait," Diego said, his voice hoarse. "What exactly are you going to—"
The man raised his hand and began speaking in a language I'd never heard before, but somehow the meaning resonated directly in my skull, bypassing my ears entirely. The words felt ancient, powerful, wrong:
"Mother of Many. Grant me this. This mortal soul..."
Then his voice shifted into something else, syllables that made no sense, sounds that I ha never heard of before. The air in the room grew heavy, oppressive, like the atmosphere before a lightning strike.
Below Levi's feet, light began forming—white lines drawing themselves on the floorboards, creating a symbol like a seven-pointed star, each point perfectly symmetrical.
Levi screamed, a sound of pure animal terror, and tried to run. His feet moved but he wasn't going anywhere, like he was rooted to the spot. "NO! PLEASE! MAYA! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY, MAYA! I LOVE YOU! I—"
Then he simply... vanished.
One moment he was there, crying and screaming for his sister. The next moment, empty air. The seven-pointed star vanished with him, and even the wet stain where he'd pissed himself was gone, like Levi had never existed at all.
The silence was deafening.
'We killed him', I thought numbly. 'Just as that monster killed Kai.'
"There we are," the man said pleasantly, adjusting his glasses like he'd just completed a simple transaction. "Now then, about your monster problem."
The screeching and clawing stopped abruptly. The sudden silence was almost worse than the noise.
Then the door exploded inward.
Wood splinters flew across the room like shrapnel. The shelf toppled over with a crash that shook the entire space. I threw my good arm up to protect my face as debris rained down.
What came through the doorway wasn't the woman anymore.
The thing was massive, easily seven feet tall, with pale white skin that looked wet and translucent, like something that had never seen sunlight. Its body was elongated and serpentine, covered in flowing white robes that seemed to move independently of any wind, the fabric rippling and writhing like it was alive. Four wings sprouted from its back—not feathered like a bird's, but membranous and veined like a bat's, stretched over bone frames that looked sharp enough to slice through steel.
Its jaw was completely unhinged, hanging open to reveal rows upon rows of needle-sharp teeth spiraling back into a throat that seemed to go on forever. And its face... god, its face was covered in eyes. Dozens of them, all different sizes, all blinking independently—some human-like, some completely outside nature's laws.
Looking at them made my brain hurt, like trying to process something that violated the basic laws of reality.
Blood and pieces of flesh—Kai's flesh—dripped from its maw.
'That was the woman', I realized with sick horror. 'That beautiful young woman who offered us tea. This is what she really is.'
"Oh, a fallen angel," the man said, his voice suddenly carrying more weight, more authority. He laughed lightly, like he'd just encountered an old acquaintance at a party. "You folk still come to the first floor? I thought you'd grown bored of this level."
"Oh, a fallen king," the monstrosity replied, and its voice was wrong in every conceivable way. It was a warped harmony, multiple throats speaking at once, the sound of a choir all singing different notes. The vibration made my teeth ache and my injured arm throb with fresh pain. "You still have the courage to show your face here? After everything?"
They know each other, I thought, my mind struggling to process this new information through the haze of pain and terror. 'The man called it a fallen angel. What the fuck is going on?'
The man's well-shaped eyebrows drew together in a frown, like he was genuinely offended. "Now, now," he said, straightening his bowtie again like it was some sort of tic. "These children are under my protection now. They've paid the price, made the sacrifice. You cannot touch them."
The angel-thing circled us like a shark, its multiple eyes focusing on each of us in turn. I could feel its gaze on me, dozens of eyes all tracking my movement, and it made my skin crawl. Blood and chunks of meat dripped from its maw with each movement.
"Such young flesh," it said, and the hunger in its voice was palpable. "So sweet. So warm. So full of life and fear. Surely one more wouldn't hurt? One more to savor?"
"You haven't even finished the one in your mouth," the man said, and I heard actual amusement in his voice. He pointed to what looked like a dismembered forearm—Kai's arm—lodged between the creature's razor-sharp teeth. "Isn't that a little too gluttonous? Even for you?"
"But I'm so hungry!" The creature's voice rose to a whine, like a child denied a treat. Its wings fluttered, and the movement sent a gust of air that smelled like rotting meat and old blood across the room. "We haven't had humans in years! Who knows when another group will fall right into my lap like this? Fresh meat just walking through the door? And you're taking them from me? Why are you even helping them?!"
"I already made a contract with the children," the man replied, his voice firm. He didn't answer her other questions. "Touch them, and face the consequences."
For a moment, they stared at each other—the dapper man in his 1920s suit and the nightmarish angel-thing with its impossible anatomy. I could feel the tension in the air like electricity before a lightning strike, a charge that made all the hair on my arms stand up.
The creature's dozens of eyes blinked in sequence, creating a wave of movement across its grotesque face. Its clawed hands flexed, and I could see muscles bunching under that translucent skin.
Then it lunged.
The man sighed, almost disappointed, like a parent dealing with a particularly unruly child.
Time seemed to slow as he raised his hand and began chanting, his voice resonating with power that made the walls shake:
"Oh, all mighty creator, I beseech you, and by the authority of the King of Jupiter against this corrupted divine soul..."
His voice shifted again into that strange, ancient language, syllables that felt like they were being carved into the air itself.
The angel-thing let out a shriek that made my ears bleed—I felt warm liquid trickling down the sides of my neck—and its multiple eyes widened in what looked like genuine fear. Its enormous form began to unravel, the white flesh turning to smoke, the wings dissolving like mist in sunlight. The robes writhed and twisted before evaporating completely.
Within seconds, there was nothing left but a faint sulfurous smell and the echo of that inhuman scream still ringing in my damaged ears.
The room fell silent except for our ragged breathing and Amara's quiet sobbing.
The man turned around, smoothing down his hair with practiced ease, dusting his hands against each other like he'd just completed a minor chore. He adjusted his glasses once more, and when he smiled this time, I noticed his teeth were far too white, far too perfectly aligned, far too sharp.
"Now let's get to business," he said, putting his hands on his hips as he surveyed our terrified group. His smile widened. "What are you young lads and ladies going to do now? More importantly, what am I going to do with you, and..."
He paused, as if suddenly remembering something important, then clapped his hands together. His grin grew impossibly wide, revealing even more of those too-sharp teeth.
"Oh, I forgot. Where are my manners?"
He gave us a small, theatrical bow, one hand across his chest like a performer taking his curtain call.
"I'm Zadkiel," he said, his voice carrying that strange accent and odd formality. "And welcome to Enoch's mansion."