Watcher in the Dark

Chapter 20: The Awakening

Ethan's breath came in shallow, rapid gasps as he stood at the edge of madness, his body trembling with exhaustion, his mind screaming at him to stop, to fight, to do something. But there was nothing left to do. The demon loomed in front of him, its two twisted faces-Gregory and his captor-grinning down at him with wide, sharp-toothed smiles, their black eyes gleaming with the promise of his destruction.

"You belong to us," they hissed in unison, their voices low, guttural, like a song sung from the deepest pit of hell. "You always have."

Ethan stumbled backward, his legs weak, barely able to support his weight. His chest heaved, his pulse thundering in his ears as the world spun violently around him, the fog closing in, suffocating him, dragging him down into the depths of his worst nightmares. His body screamed for him to fight, to resist, but his mind was unraveling, piece by piece, slipping away into the darkness.

The demon took a step forward, its two heads swaying in eerie synchronization, their grins widening as they loomed closer. Ethan's breath hitched in his throat, his eyes wide with terror as he pressed his back against the wall, his hands shaking violently at his sides. He could feel the cold, damp air of the basement again, the tightness of the ropes around his wrists, the burn of the fear that had consumed him so completely.

He was trapped. Just like he had been all those years ago.

The chains rattled in his ears, the sound growing louder, more insistent, as the demon approached. He could hear the soft, mocking voice of his captor, whispering in his ear, telling him there was no escape, that there never had been. He was back in the basement, the place where the nightmare had begun. And this time, there was no way out.

His body shook with violent tremors, his heart pounding so hard he thought it might burst from his chest. The demon's faces filled his vision, their dark eyes boring into his soul, pulling at the deepest parts of him, the parts he had tried so hard to bury, to forget.

"You'll never leave," they whispered, their voices wrapping around him like a suffocating fog. "You'll never escape."

Ethan's vision blurred, his breath coming in shallow, frantic bursts as the world tilted and spun around him. The demon's grinning faces stretched impossibly long, their mouths filled with sharp, gleaming teeth, their eyes glinting with a sick, twisted joy.

And then, everything went black.

---

Ethan jolted awake, his heart slamming against his chest as he gasped for air, his body slick with sweat, his hands shaking uncontrollably. His eyes darted around, wild, frantic, searching for the faces, the fog, the demon, but there was nothing. No fog. No two-headed monster. No chains, no basement, no shadows creeping at the edge of his vision.

He was in the guardhouse.

The monitors in front of him flickered softly, the camera feeds showing nothing but empty streets and still houses. The hum of the equipment buzzed quietly in the background, and outside, the faint glow of the streetlights cut through the calm night.

For a long moment, Ethan didn't move. His body was frozen, his mind racing, trying to make sense of what had just happened. The nightmare-the faces, the voices, the demons-it had felt so real, so vivid, but now, sitting here in the cold light of the real world, it felt distant, like a shadow of something half-remembered.

He ran a trembling hand over his face, his breath still coming in shallow bursts as he tried to steady himself. His heart thudded in his chest, but it was slowing now, the panic fading as the reality of the situation began to settle over him.

It wasn't real.

The thought came slowly, cautiously, as if his mind was afraid to accept it, but as the minutes ticked by and the quiet of the guardhouse wrapped around him, the truth began to sink in. None of it had been real. The fog, the faces, Gregory's twisted form, the two-headed demon-it had all been in his mind, a horrifying hallucination crafted by his own fear, his own trauma.