ꜰᴇᴀʀꜱ (ᴸᵉᵒⁿ ᴷᵉⁿⁿᵉᵈʸ ˣ ᴿᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ)

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 19

2 hours later

*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Leon opened another spint door. Nothing. He grunted in annoyance and turned back around. He had been gone for a long time. Maybe he should have a look for Nikola. He turned around and took a quick step back the way he had walked. He had found a way out of here, so let's get away from here.

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

Nikola lay still on the bed, her breathing shallow and labored, her body aching from the injuries she had suffered. The room was dimly lit, the shadows dancing eerily on the walls. She tossed and turned, trapped in the clutches of a nightmare.
In her dream, Nikola found herself back in the cold, sterile corridors of the Christian orphanage. The memories flooded back, each step echoing with the ghosts of her past.

Suddenly, a piercing scream shattered the silence, sending chills down her spine. It was her own voice, calling out for someone long gone. "Leon!" she cried out, her voice desperate and pleading.

As if in response, the figure of Leon emerged from the darkness, his features obscured by shadows. He approached her slowly, his gaze unreadable. Nikola reached out to him, her fingers trembling, but he merely watched her with a curious detachment. "Leon please", she cried out and tried to reach him. Leon's eyes flickered towards something behind her, and Nikola followed his gaze, only to find herself staring at her own reflection in a cracked mirror. Her image was distorted, twisted into a grotesque caricature of herself. She recoiled in horror, but when she turned back to Leon, he was gone.

In a panic, Nikola searched frantically for him, her heart pounding in her chest. But no matter how hard she looked, he was nowhere to be found. "Leon? Please don't leave me alone", she cried out and sank to her knees. "Leon please", she started but suddenly a cold hand with long fingernails laid on her shoulder.

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

In the waking world, Leon stood by Nikola's bedside, his heart heavy with guilt as he watched her thrash and turn in the throes of her nightmare. He could hear her cries for help, each one a dagger to his soul, but he didn't wake her up.

Instead, he reached into his pocket and withdrew the leather-bound notebook she had entrusted to him, a silent plea for him to uncover the truths hidden within its pages. "Let's see why you're so dear to her", he whispered, knowing what he was about to do was wrong. But he was only human after all. And he wanted to know what it could be that appeared to her in those terrible nightmares.

'No! What are you doing... You can't just read that, she trusts you.' He thought to himself, and again he looked over to Nikola, whose face was distored by fear she had in her dreams. 'Just one quick look' With trembling hands, he reached out for the Notebook and flipped it open, revealing a world of darkness and despair.

The pages were filled with twisted drawings of inhuman faces, accompanied by haunting poems and prose. Nikola's words leapt off the page, painting a picture of her innermost fears and horrors. She wrote of beautiful yet blurry summer days, of towering willows swaying in the breeze. "What the fuck", he breathed barly audible and shuffled a page. The next page was even more horrible. Torn faces of men. Old men. Hands, red handprints all over the pages. He read:

13.02.1995

I haven't slept in two days. I took the pills that they gave me but I have a feeling, that it just keeps getting worse. Luis said I should lock up the bathroom at Night so I wont...
I didn't lock it up. I woke up I could feel their hands. I scrubbed my body until it bled. I'm so tired.
My skin hurts.