Silence.
Heavy, smothering, alive.
Alex stood frozen, the echo of the cave's words still ringing in his ears:
"The debt has been awakened. One of you must pay."
Karen clung to his arm, trembling. Luca drew his blade again, scanning the chamber's curved walls. The blue flames flickered like a heartbeat...erratic, warning of something unseen.
"Is this a trap or a ritual?" Luca muttered.
Karen's voice was hoarse. "I… I heard them whispering. They called me a vessel."
Alex's brows furrowed. "For what?"
The ground trembled again. A jagged line split the stone beneath their feet, glowing red like a fresh wound. And from it rose something... not human.
It was a statue at first glance. Tall, horned, with a hollow chest but then it moved. Slowly, deliberately, its head turning towards them.
Karen gasped, Alex instinctively stepped in front of her. "Run."
"No!" Karen cried. "You can't fight that..."
But the creature didn't attack.
Instead, it spoke, its voice both male and female, ancient and childlike, terrifying and tender.
"The sins of the fathers must be paid by the blood of the heirs."
Alex's heart dropped. "This is about my family."
Karen gripped his arm tighter. "What sins?"
Luca took a step forward, face pale. "Alex… you don't think it has anything to do with the name your mother whispered in her sleep?"
Alex looked at him sharply. "You never told me she spoke."
"She did. The night she died. She kept saying: 'Avalon isn't just a place. It's a curse.'"
Karen's eyes widened. "What if we weren't brought here by chance?"
Before anyone could speak again, the horned creature raised a hand.
A wall of energy shoved Luca against the stone, knocking the blade from his hand. Karen screamed, Alex lunged, but the force field stopped him cold.
"Choose." The creature said.
"To leave, one must bleed."
Alex's fists clenched. "Take me."
Karen spun to him. "No!"
But he wasn't listening. "You want the Knight bloodline, right? Take it, just let her go."
The creature studied him silently.
Karen stepped forward. "No, if anyone's bleeding, it's all of us."
And that's when the creature laughed.
It pointed at Karen. "She is the vessel not you. She holds the key and you hold the lock."
The cave floor cracked wider. A pool of glowing water formed around them.
Suddenly, memories Alex never lived began rushing into his mind, his mother screaming in this same chamber… his father on his knees, blood pouring into the pool… the same creature standing over them, demanding the same payment.
Alex staggered.
Karen caught him. "Alex?"
He gritted his teeth. "They made a deal… years ago... My father... To save my mother."
Luca, bleeding from his shoulder, crawled closer. "What deal?"
Alex's voice was cold.
"A soul for a soul. One vessel… every generation."
The creature opened its hollow chest. Inside was a swirling orb of lightand Karen's reflection hovered in it.
And then it said, simply:
"The clock has started. 3 days. If the debt is not paid, the vessel is taken."
Then it disappeared.
The walls cracked open.
And they were alone again.