Hidden between the frozen cliffs of Ebonridge and the ruins of an abandoned mining village stood the entrance to Crimson Wake — a forgotten asylum erased from every map.
No road signs.
No postal records.
Only rumors of screams that echoed past midnight.
Aria and Frederick arrived before dawn, bundled in dark coats, faces tight with fear and determination.
> "Are you sure about this?" Aria whispered as they stood before the rusted iron gates.
Frederick didn't answer. He just pushed the gate open.
And the wind wailed like the dead.
The asylum looked like a cathedral from hell — stone walls wrapped in black ivy, broken glass like jagged teeth, and a rotting sign above the door:
> Crimson Wake Psychiatric Research Ward — Closed 2002
But it was not abandoned.
Lights flickered deep within.
Voices whispered.
Somewhere inside… Ivy waited.
They moved in silence, past empty rooms with broken beds, wheelchairs covered in dust, and file cabinets that hadn't been touched in decades.
Then — they heard it.
A voice humming.
Soft.
Female.
Aria grabbed Frederick's hand.
> "That song…"
> "She used to hum it to me when she couldn't speak," he said.
They followed the sound.
Down in the lower level — Room 14B — they found her.
Ivy Vale.
She sat on the edge of a metal bed, her long hair tangled around her shoulders like a veil. Her skin was pale, her lips cracked, but her eyes—still bright and calculating.
When she looked up, time stopped.
> "Frederick," she said, barely a whisper. "You came."
> "You're alive," he murmured, stepping closer.
She smiled faintly.
> "Not quite."
Aria stayed by the door, watching Ivy carefully.
> "How long have you been here?" she asked.
> "Since the day he left me," Ivy replied, eyes never leaving Frederick. "Lucia didn't kill me. That would've been kind."
Frederick knelt beside her.
> "I thought—"
> "I know what you thought. And I forgave you long ago, Frederick."
She reached out and stroked his cheek.
And then—like lightning—she pulled a syringe from under the bed.
Injected him.
Frederick gasped, falling back, eyes wide.
> "What did you—"
> "You were always too soft," Ivy whispered.
Aria screamed and rushed forward, slamming Ivy against the wall.
> "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
> "He left me to rot," Ivy hissed, eyes wild. "Now I've returned the favor. You want the truth? He didn't just listen to me back then. He manipulated me too. Just slower. Softer. Until I forgot I was human."
Frederick groaned on the floor, paralyzed but conscious.
Tears streamed down Aria's face as she aimed her pistol at Ivy.
> "You said you wanted saving."
> "No," Ivy whispered. "I wanted revenge."
Aria's hands shook.
She could end this.
Now.
Pull the trigger.
But Ivy didn't flinch.
Instead, she smiled again.
> "He's not the monster you think he is. But he's not your salvation either. He's just a broken man… who breaks others."
Silence stretched.
Then Aria stepped back.
> "I'm not like either of you."
She grabbed Frederick, dragging his half-conscious body toward the door.
> "You'll never see us again," Aria said.
> "I hope you do," Ivy called after them, her voice suddenly soft. "Because monsters like us? We always find each other again."
Frederick's body convulsed in the back seat of the car as Aria sped through the mountain roads, one hand on the wheel, the other clenched around his.
> "Stay with me—Frederick! Look at me!"
His eyes fluttered, barely able to focus.
> "She… Ivy… she lied… or maybe she didn't…"
His voice slurred. The drug was eating at him like acid through glass.
Aria had tied his arm off with her scarf, injected an adrenaline shot she'd stolen from Crimson Wake's abandoned infirmary, and kept whispering the only thing she could think of:
> "You are not your past."
But even she wasn't sure if it was true.
Hours later, she dragged his barely-conscious body into the motel and laid him on the floor.
She ran the bath and placed cool towels across his chest.
His body trembled with cold sweat.
His mind burned with nightmares.
She stayed by his side, whispering until dawn.
Until the shaking stopped.
Until the silence returned.
When he finally woke, it was with a gasp.
Aria was there, eyes hollow but awake.
Frederick blinked at her, throat dry.
> "You came back."
She nodded once.
> "You were poisoned."
> "No. I was reminded."
He sat up slowly, groaning.
> "She didn't lie, Aria. Not completely."
> "Then tell me the truth."
> "All of it?"
> "Yes," she said, voice cracking. "Or I walk."
Frederick leaned against the headboard, eyes haunted.
> "Lucia built me to be a seducer. A handler. I thought I could save people through pleasure… but I was still under her leash."
> "And Ivy?"
> "I cared for her. But I crossed lines. Subtle ones. Emotional ones. I made her depend on me. And when I ran, I left her in a cage."
Aria's voice trembled.
> "Have you done that to me?"
He looked up, wounded.
> "I don't know."
Silence.
Then:
> "I wanted to control you. At first. But now… I just want to deserve you."
Tears welled in Aria's eyes.
> "I don't want to be a savior."
> "Then don't be," Frederick said. "Just be the person who reminds me what it means to choose something other than pain."
Later that night, Aria found a letter in her coat pocket.
From Ivy.
Written in scrawled ink on a napkin:
> "I'm sorry I hurt him. But I had to. He doesn't change unless he bleeds. Neither do I. We are what Lucia made us. The question is… who are you without us?"
No return address.
No threat.
Just a challenge.
Aria sat beside Frederick as he slept.
She studied his face — peaceful for the first time in days.
Maybe for the first time in years.
And she whispered to the dark room:
> "I'm not leaving."
> "But if you ever become the monster again… I'll be the one who puts you down."
She kissed his forehead.
Laid beside him.
And finally, finally—
Closed her eyes.