Two weeks had passed. Adrian arrived at work, composed as ever. It was morning.
He greeted no one. Walked directly toward the secure wing.
The staff no longer questioned his movements they had come to accept his presence, his authority, his results.
"Two weeks. Fifteen sessions. She's ready."
Internally, Adrian sharpened his focus. Today, he expected Olivia to finally speak about her awakening. The details. The truth. Not the hints or vague descriptions the full story.
He stepped into her room. Olivia was already sitting up in bed, a pillow tucked behind her back, a paperback book resting on her lap.
She looked up and smiled slightly. "You're on time."
No shaking in her fingers. No glazed expression. Her eyes were alert. Grounded.
Adrian returned a calm nod and took the chair near the bed.
"We've talked around it long enough," he said evenly. "I think today we stop circling. I want to hear everything."
Olivia hesitated. Not out of fear. Just to collect her thoughts. Then she nodded.
"Okay."
She started from the beginning.
"I was in school. A normal public high school, just another literature class. The teacher was explaining something, and I remember thinking it was boring. Then—"
She pressed her fingers to her temple.
"A sharp pain. Not like a headache. It felt like my mind split open all at once. I didn't scream. I didn't fall. I just… disappeared."
Adrian listened, silent.
"I blacked out. But it wasn't unconscious like sleep. It was something else. It was dark, but it wasn't empty. It had weight, like something pressing in from all sides."
Her fingers curled slightly in her lap.
"It was hard to breathe, but I wasn't really breathing either. Then something floated toward me."
She looked up.
"It was a book."
Her voice lowered.
"Red. Completely red. Not like it was dyed. It looked soaked. Wet and sticky. Like someone had dunked it in a bucket of blood."
Adrian kept his expression neutral. But his thoughts sharpened.
"The title wasn't printed. It was carved in deep grooves. You could feel it just by looking. It said"
Scripture of Scarlet Agony
The room was quiet for a moment.
"It didn't speak in words. It filled my head with sound. Screams. Laughter. Whispering. Thousands of voices. Or maybe one."
Adrian spoke quietly. "What did it say?"
"That pain is the door. That suffering is truth. And truth will make me whole."
She blinked. Her tone was steady.
"I understood it. Even though it made no sense. It told me to hurt myself. To break everything in me that wanted comfort."
Adrian didn't interrupt. She continued.
"It didn't speak in words. It filled my head with sound. Screams. Laughter. Whispering. Thousands of voices. Or maybe more than that"
"That pain is the door. That suffering is truth. And truth will make me whole."
She blinked. Her tone was steady.
"I understood it. Even though it made no sense. It told me to hurt myself. To break everything in me that wanted comfort."
Adrian didn't interrupt. She continued.
"I didn't wake up in a hospital or on the classroom floor. I was somewhere else. Still in the dark. Still unconscious. But I wasn't dreaming either. It felt more real than waking."
She paused. Her eyes were focused somewhere far away now, beyond the room.
"I was standing in a room that looked like mine but it wasn't. No furniture. No windows. Only walls and floor made of something too smooth. Almost like glass, but warm."
She shifted slightly. "There was no sound except my breath. Then I started moving. I didn't think about it. I just did it."
"What did you do?" Adrian asked.
"I gathered things. They were just… there. Black candles. A metal basin. Nails. A jagged blade. I didn't question it. I didn't even think. I just placed them one by one."
"I lit the last candle. The air in the room changed. It got heavy. Thick. Like the air had weight. And then…"
She looked down at her chest.
"Something entered."
Her next words were precise.
"It wasn't smoke or shadow. It was a figure made of blood. Not flowing blood thick blood. Dark. Clotted. Like the kind that sticks to your skin after an injury."
Adrian said nothing. He let her pace hold.
"It had arms. Legs. But the shape kept shifting. Every step it took made a sound like tearing. Like something wet being pulled apart."
Her voice was calm, but her body was tense.
"It didn't speak. But I knew what it wanted. It didn't need to explain."
She touched her head.
"I shaved off my hair. First thing."
Then she touched the center of her chest.
"I took the blade and carved into my chest. A spiral with an eye in the center. It hurt. But I didn't scream."
She stared at her hands, then turned them over.
"Then I took the nails. One by one, I pushed them through my palms. Then the soles of my feet. I didn't scream."
Her voice dropped.
"I spread my arms. Stayed like that. Letting the blood drip into the basin. It took hours. Maybe six. I didn't move. I just… spoke."
Adrian's tone was calm. "Spoke what?"
"Things I never wanted to say. Secrets. Regrets. Lies I told myself. Every drop had to carry something real. Something I was ashamed of."
She looked at him directly.
"It made me say all of it. Until I was empty."
Adrian leaned back slightly. His mind was already moving through what this meant.
She had undergone a half awakening. No training. No ritual guidance. She had almost been claimed by a wild Scripture and survived.
"You didn't fight it?" Adrian asked.
"No," she answered. "Because it wasn't just asking me to suffer. It was asking me to be honest."
Adrian sat in silence, absorbing every word.
She was already further along than anyone realized. Not just a victim but an unrecognized Realizer. The Scripture hadn't just chosen her. It had transformed her.
This wasn't the end of the case.
It was the beginning of something much larger.
Adrian sat still, eyes focused on Olivia as she continued.
Her voice had changed steadier, lower. Not calm, exactly. But resolved.
"I kept confessing. One truth after another. The more I bled, the more I said."
"And the book?" Adrian asked.
"It glowed," she said. "Not with light. With heat. Like it was feeding on it."
"And when you finished?"
"When the last truth came out," she said
She stopped talking.
Adrian waited.
She didn't speak again.
He gave her a moment more, then leaned forward.
"What was the final truth?"
Olivia's lips moved, but no sound came.
Adrian's voice dropped lower. "You remember it."
"I do."
"Then say it."
She shook her head.
Olivia's voice trembled for the first time.
"I wasn't afraid while it was happening," she said.
"Not really. I didn't have space to be afraid. It was like something else was living through me."
Her fingers tightened over the blanket.
"I couldn't stop thinking about it. The blood. The pressure. The way it wanted me to suffer. I wasn't even sure if I had done it to myself or if it had… made me do it. It's like part of me isn't mine anymore."
Adrian didn't speak. He let her breathe.
"Sometimes, I feel it again," she continued quietly. "At night. Just for a second. Like something brushing the edge of my thoughts. Like the book is still nearby, watching. Waiting."
She looked up at him. Her eyes weren't just alert now. They were scared.
"Is it going to happen again?"
Adrian leaned forward slightly, his voice low but certain.
"If it does," he said, "I'll be there."
Olivia blinked.
"If the pressure returns. If the voices come back. If you feel like you're slipping into that space again I'll pull you back."
His gaze didn't waver.
"I won't let you fall."
She watched him for a long moment.
"Do you promise that because you believe I'm still in control?" she asked. "Or because you think you can handle me if I'm not?"
Adrian didn't smile. He didn't flinch.
"Both."
That answer seemed to steady her. She lowered her shoulders, just slightly, and nodded.
"I don't want to go back there," she said. "I don't want to see it again. That place. That thing. I know it gave me something… but it felt like it took something, too."
"It probably did," Adrian said honestly. "But what it left behind is stronger."
He stood slowly, the chair sliding back with the faintest sound.
"You survived a direct awakening. With no training. No guidance. And you're still here. That's not weakness, Olivia. That's a kind of power most Realizers never find."
Olivia didn't look proud. She just looked tired.
"But what if I break again?"
Adrian paused at the door.
"Then I'll put you back together."
For the first time in weeks, Olivia smiled. Not wide. Not bright. But real.
"Thank you, Doctor Vale."