Watcher in the Dark

Chapter 19: The Abyss

Ethan stood over Gregory's body, his chest heaving with ragged breaths. The world around him was silent, but inside his head, the noise was deafening. The fog swirled at his feet, thick and alive, as if it was watching him, waiting for him to act. He tightened his grip on the flashlight, its weight heavy in his trembling hand. Gregory lay at his feet, motionless but still breathing-a shallow rise and fall of his chest in the dim light.

I didn't kill him, Ethan thought, the words a cold comfort as the adrenaline coursed through his veins. But I could have.

The realization sent a tremor through him. The swing of the flashlight, the way Gregory had crumpled to the ground, it had all felt so final in that brief, chaotic moment. He had expected blood, expected the end, but now there was only silence, the unsettling stillness of a man lying on the verge of unconsciousness, possibly slipping in and out of it.

His mind spun, trying to make sense of it all. The faces in the fog, the voices, the shadows that had haunted him-they were gone now. Disappeared the moment Gregory had hit the ground. But the damage had already been done. The lines between what was real and what was in his mind had blurred so completely that Ethan wasn't sure where one began and the other ended.

Gregory had been a demon. At least, that's what he had seen. That's what he had believed. But as he looked down at him now, lying there, his face pale and unmarked, it was clear that he had been wrong. Gregory wasn't a monster. He wasn't a demon. He was just a man-a man who had been standing too close, who had said the wrong thing at the wrong time.

The guilt hit Ethan like a wave, crashing over him, pulling him down. He stumbled back, his legs weak, his body trembling with the weight of what he had done. I nearly killed him. The thought clung to him, heavy and suffocating. If he had swung just a little harder, if he hadn't stopped himself in time, Gregory would be dead. The blood on his hands would have been real.

But the blood wasn't there, not this time. Only the faint, shallow breaths of a man who had almost become his victim.

It wasn't real, Ethan thought again, his heart pounding. None of it was real.

He had seen demons, monsters lurking in the fog. He had been so sure, so convinced that they were coming for him, that they were hunting him down, waiting to drag him back into the nightmare he had fought so hard to escape. But now, standing over Gregory's unconscious form, the truth settled in.

It had all been in his head.

The fog wasn't alive. The faces weren't real. The whispers, the twisted voices-they had all come from inside him, from the darkest corners of his mind. The hallucinogens, the fear, the trauma-they had warped everything, turning the world into a nightmare that wasn't real.

But it felt real, Ethan thought, his stomach twisting. It felt so real.

His breath came in short, shallow gasps, his vision swimming as the weight of it all pressed down on him. The fog still curled around his feet, swirling at the edges of his vision, but it didn't seem threatening anymore. It was just fog, thick and heavy, like it had always been. There were no faces in the mist, no eyes watching him from the shadows. The street was empty. Quiet.

Gregory stirred slightly, a faint groan escaping his lips, but he didn't wake. His body lay limp, the only sign of life the slow rise and fall of his chest. Ethan's heart pounded in his ears, the sound of it deafening, drowning out the silence that surrounded him. He had come so close-too close-to losing control completely.

I almost killed him. The thought repeated in his mind, a mantra of guilt and fear. I almost killed him.

He stumbled back again, his legs shaky, barely able to hold him up. His hands trembled as he wiped the sweat from his brow, his body slick with it, his heart still racing. He had nearly crossed a line, one that he wasn't sure he could ever come back from. And the worst part was that, in the moment, it had felt right. He had been so certain, so sure that Gregory was a threat, that he had to be destroyed.