“I’ll do it,” Lisa said, her voice steady despite the storm of fear raging inside her. The figure’s eyes seemed to glow even brighter, and a slow, menacing smile crept across its shadowed face.
“Very well,” it hissed, its voice curling around her like tendrils of smoke. “But know this, mortal—you cannot walk away unscathed. The power you seek will cost more than you understand.”
The moment the figure spoke those words, the chamber seemed to constrict, the air thickening and warping as if reality itself was being swallowed by the dark energy. Lisa’s chest tightened, her lungs struggling to take in air as the atmosphere shifted around her. The walls pulsed and flickered, the dim light casting monstrous shadows that crawled across the floor and up the stone, stretching like claws reaching for her.
Lisa’s pulse quickened, her resolve wavering as the weight of her decision settled like a leaden cloak over her shoulders. Still, she didn’t flinch, forcing herself to stand firm. The promise of escape, of freedom, was too alluring. She had run for too long, feared Jungkook for too long. This was her only way out, no matter the price.
As she stared at the figure, something strange stirred in her chest—a deep suspicion. It had come on so suddenly, its offer too precise, too well-timed. But her thoughts were too clouded to piece it together fully.
The figure took a slow, deliberate step forward, its presence dominating the chamber. It raised a skeletal hand and pressed its cold, clammy fingers to Lisa’s forehead. The touch sent an icy jolt through her body, and the pain of the mark seared into her skin, a painful, invisible brand. She winced, biting back a cry as the sensation burned through her very soul. Something about it felt wrong, like the magic itself was twisted and tainted.
She blinked rapidly, her vision blurring as the chamber around her warped even further. For a moment, she saw something flicker in the figure’s eyes—something familiar, a glint that sent a strange, uneasy chill down her spine. Lisa’s heart skipped a beat, a quiet panic stirring within her. Why did this feel like something she'd known before?
The figure’s cold laughter filled the chamber again, deeper this time, more resonant. And yet, it didn’t sound like the same voice from before. It had a rough edge, something eerily recognizable that made Lisa’s blood run cold.
She staggered backward, her mind racing. Her instincts screamed at her that something wasn’t right. This wasn’t what she had thought. This wasn’t the dark entity from the book… but who—?
Suddenly, the figure stepped fully into the flickering light from the altar, and the shadows slipped away from its face, revealing features she hadn’t expected to see. The pale skin, the sharp jawline, the cold, menacing eyes…
It was Jungkook.
Her breath caught in her throat, shock freezing her in place as she stared into his face. He smirked, his lips curling in that familiar way, his eyes alight with a cruel satisfaction. The hooded cloak, the aura of dark power, everything about him had been a deception—a mask to make her believe he was something else. Something from the book. But it had been him all along.
“Surprised?” Jungkook’s voice was low and smooth, dripping with a chilling mockery. His tone held none of the desperation or anger it once had. Now, there was only cold control. He took a step closer, the air around him warping as the magic pulsed between them.
Lisa’s legs felt like they might give way beneath her. Her mind whirled as she tried to process what she was seeing, what she had just agreed to. “You… it was you all along?” she whispered, her voice shaky with betrayal.
Jungkook chuckled darkly, his eyes gleaming with triumph. “Did you really think you could run from me? That I’d let you slip away so easily? No, Lisa… I just needed you to choose me willingly. To bind yourself to me, body and soul. And now, you have.”
Lisa recoiled, her stomach twisting in horror. “No… no, this can’t be…”
But Jungkook only smiled wider, stepping forward again, his presence suffocating as he loomed over her. “Oh, but it is. You wanted power, didn’t you? Freedom? You wanted a way out of the cage I built for you. But now… you’ve only trapped yourself deeper. You’ve given yourself to me completely.”
The realization hit her like a crashing wave. She had played right into his hands. All this time, he had manipulated her, hunted her, driven her to desperation—and now, with this dark ritual, he had tricked her into giving him exactly what he wanted. Control. Absolute, unbreakable control.
Lisa staggered back, shaking her head, disbelief warring with the raw, helpless anger that was building inside her. “You’re a monster…”
Jungkook’s smirk faded into something colder, darker. “I’m what you made me,” he said softly, his voice devoid of emotion. “You ran. You tried to escape. You forced me to become this, Lisa. And now, I am everything you feared.”
She swallowed hard, fighting the bile that rose in her throat. She had to think, had to find a way out of this nightmare. But the power she had wanted, the book’s magic—it was bound to him now, a tether she could feel in the deepest recesses of her soul.
“I’ll never be yours,” Lisa spat, her voice shaking but defiant.
Jungkook laughed softly, his dark eyes gleaming with something dangerous. “Oh, Lisa, you already are. You just haven’t realized it yet.”
The air between them crackled with dark energy, the oppressive weight of the magic growing stronger with every passing second. Lisa could feel it constricting around her, wrapping tighter and tighter, as if she were being pulled into the very depths of the darkness she had tried to wield.
CONTINUE...
