The dagger hovered over the trembling boy’s chest, the man’s breath quick and ragged, his eyes wide and unblinking. His humming broke, cracking into manic laughter before sinking into silence. The captives whimpered in the circle, bound and bleeding, their eyes fixed on the blade.

And then

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Three sharp raps echoed from above, rattling through the house like gunshots. The man froze, twitching violently, his head jerking toward the ceiling. The sound wasn’t frantic like before. It was steady. Confident.

“Not now…” he hissed, clenching his teeth, his grip tightening on the dagger. “Not when the stars are almost here.”

But then a voice cut through the silence, soft, trembling yet unmistakably familiar.

“Elias…”

His mother.

The man staggered back a step, his chest heaving. Her voice came again, closer, as if she had already stepped inside the house.

“Please… open the door. I don’t want to leave again.”

His knuckles whitened around the dagger. His lips curled into a snarl. “Liar,” he whispered. “You always leave.”

Then, another voice. Deeper, steadier.

“Brother.”

The word struck him like a blow. He turned his head sharply, neck twitching so hard it sent a jolt down his spine. His breathing hitched, his dagger dropped to the floor.

“No…” His eyes widened, glistening with sudden, wild tears. “No. You’re dead. You’re dead!”

But the voice came again, closer, firmer.

“I’m here, Elias. I never left.”

His knees buckled. His head snapped toward the cabinet, toward the trinket box, toward the circle drawn in blood and chalk. His trophies blurred before him, suddenly meaningless. He stumbled backward, hands clutching his temples.

The children in the circle froze, their sobs caught in their throats. Even in their terror, they felt the shift in the room.

Footsteps descended the basement stairs.

The candlelight revealed her first, his mother, face pale, eyes red but steady. Behind her, a figure emerged from the shadows. Taller, leaner, familiar in a way that tore through Elias’s mind like a blade. The brother he had mourned, the brother he had hated fate for stealing from him is alive. His presence was real, undeniable.

Elias trembled, his whole body shaking. “No… no, I buried you in my head. I saw you die. I saw you die!”

His brother’s eyes softened with a grief Elias couldn’t bear to meet. “You buried me because it was easier than facing the truth.” He stepped forward, his voice calm but weighted. “But I’m here now. And I need you to stop.”

The captives whimpered behind Elias, but the room had narrowed into this moment. Mother, brother, and the broken man at the center.

His mother’s voice broke through, gentler now, as though speaking to the boy he once was. “Let them go, Elias. Please. You don’t need to keep them. You don’t need to bleed them to hold on.”

Elias’s twitching slowed. His eyes darted between them, the brother he thought gone, the mother he thought had abandoned him. His chest heaved, his face changing, torn between rage and despair.

The dagger lay on the floor at his feet, its point glinting red in the candlelight.