Lian Zhen's arms loosened.
Ren barely registered it at first. His ears were still ringing from the creature's scream. The house had gone unnaturally quiet, like a throat held shut by a giant hand. The shadows no longer writhed. They waited.
Ren lifted his head, eyes wet and unfocused, searching Lian Zhen's face for the comfort he had been promised.
That was when Lian Zhen smiled.
It was not the gentle curve Ren had trusted. Not the tired softness that had followed him through kitchens and hallways and quiet nights. This smile was slow. Intentional. It crept across Lian Zhen's face like a crack spreading through glass.
Ren felt it before he understood it.
Something was wrong.
"Zhen…?" Ren whispered.
Lian Zhen's fingers tightened at Ren's shoulders. His eyes were bright now. Too bright. There was a feverish shine in them, like someone standing too close to a fire.
"I told you I committed a sin," Lian Zhen said softly. "I just never said who would pay for it."
Before Ren could step back, before his mind could catch up to the shift in the room, Lian Zhen shoved him forward.
Hard.
Ren stumbled, his bare feet slipping on the floorboards. He fell straight into the cold waiting arms of the creature.
Its grip closed around him instantly.
Ren screamed.
The creature's hands were no longer jerky or clumsy. They were sure. Possessive. Its fingers dug into Ren's sides with bruising strength, pulling him against a chest that did not rise or fall. The stench of rot flooded his lungs.
Behind him, Lian Zhen spoke calmly.
"Now you will pay off my sin. This is why I bought you here."
Ren thrashed, sobbing, clawing at the creature's arms. "No. No. Zhen please. You said you cared. You said you protected me."
Lian Zhen laughed quietly. It echoed wrong in the room.
"I did. In another life."
The creature pressed its face against Ren's neck. Its skin was slick and cold, like something pulled from a river. It inhaled deeply, shuddering.
"He remembers," it whispered. "He still smells like you."
Ren's vision blurred. "What are you talking about? I do not understand. Please."
Lian Zhen walked closer, his shoes clicking against the floor. Each step sounded final.
"You begged me once," he said. "In a palace garden full of white rabbits. You begged me to stay when the world was already burning. I stayed. That was my sin."
The creature's grip tightened as if savoring every word.
Ren shook his head violently. "That was not me. That was a dream. A story."
Lian Zhen crouched in front of him, eye level now. The shadows clung to his shoulders like loyal servants.
"No," he said. "That was you. And this is the end of what we started."
The creature laughed again, a wet sound full of hunger. "He was so beautiful then. So untouched. You ruined him for me."
Lian Zhen's jaw clenched. "I saved him from you."
"And condemned him to me now," the creature hissed. "Fair trade."
Ren's chest burned. He felt something deep inside him stirring, something old and terrified and furious. His birthmark began to throb, heat blooming beneath his skin. Gold light flickered faintly along its edges.
The creature noticed.
Its smile faltered.
"You feel it too," it whispered. "The seal is thinning."
Lian Zhen's eyes widened. "No. It is too soon."
Ren cried out as pain tore through him, sharp and spiraling. Images slammed into his mind without mercy.
Stone halls soaked in blood. A throne room filled with screams. Chains around a man's wrists as a blade rose and fell. A prince on his knees, begging until his voice broke.
Lian Zhen standing beside the execution block, armor heavy with guilt.
"I did not stop it," Lian Zhen said hoarsely. "I could have. I chose loyalty over love. And when you died screaming my name, something answered."
The room darkened further. The walls peeled back like rotting skin. Beneath them was not wood or stone, but a vast black void pulsing like a living organ.
The creature straightened, its form growing taller, more monstrous. Its skin split open in places, revealing writhing shadows beneath.
"I came when you called," it said. "I offered him power. I offered him time. I offered him you."
Ren gasped as the truth crushed down on him.
"You made a deal," he whispered to Lian Zhen.
"Yes," Lian Zhen said. Tears slid down his face now, real and burning. "I bound myself to it. I fed it memories. I fed it years. I fed it blood. But it wanted more. It always wants more."
The creature's mouth stretched impossibly wide.
"And now it wants its prince back."
The house shook violently. The ceiling cracked open, revealing a sky that was not a sky at all. It was filled with watching eyes.
Ren felt himself being pulled apart. Not physically. Something deeper. His memories. His identity. His soul being peeled open layer by layer.
"I do not want this," Ren sobbed. "I do not want to die again."
Lian Zhen rose to his feet, trembling. "You will not."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a small object wrapped in cloth. He unfolded it with shaking hands.
A dagger.
Its blade glowed faintly, etched with ancient symbols that matched the mark on Ren's skin.
The creature recoiled, shrieking. "You would kill him twice?"
Lian Zhen shook his head. "No."
He turned the blade toward himself.
"I will end the debt."
Ren screamed. "No. Do not."
Lian Zhen smiled at him then. Not cruel. Not broken. Just unbearably sad.
"I loved you in every life," he said. "That part was never a lie."
The creature lunged, howling in fury, shadows exploding outward.
Lian Zhen drove the blade into his own chest.
Light erupted.
The house screamed.
The creature shrieked as cracks spread through its body, golden light ripping it apart from the inside. It clawed at Ren desperately, but its grip weakened, dissolving into ash and smoke.
Ren collapsed to the floor, choking, sobbing, clutching his chest as the birthmark burned white hot.
The void closed.
The walls snapped back into place.
The room fell silent.
Lian Zhen lay on the floor, blood spreading beneath him, eyes half open.
Ren crawled to him, hands shaking. "Zhen. Please. Stay with me."
Lian Zhen's lips moved. Barely.
"I am sorry," he whispered. "For everything."
His eyes closed.
The light faded.
And somewhere deep within the house, something laughed softly.
Because debts like this are never paid so easily.