-They all wound, but the last one kills.
Vulnerant omnes, ultima necat.
Jace’s question hung in the stale, heavy air of the foyer, but Tyler didn’t have an answer. His smug grin had finally faltered, replaced by a look of genuine confusion I don't ..I don't know he said while staring at the heavy brass handle of the oak doors.
As the last of them, Ben, stepped inside the manor, the foyer’s temperature plummeted. Unknown to them a faint, rhythmic sound began to bleed into the silence—a soft, melodic chanting in a language that felt older than the house itself. It was barely a whisper at first, rising from the walls like a collective, rhythmic exhaling of spirits.
Ben stared ahead inside the foyer of the manor along with Mia the light beams of both their flashlights was barely enough to illuminate the foyer, the beams kept flickering at the strangest intervals like the battery were dying for some reason, and the interior of the manor seemed off for some reason, glancing at mia and seeing the way she absolutely refused to stray any further from the group was enough to confirm what he felt or in this case what they both felt, turning around to speak with both Jace and Tyler he froze and he wasn't the only one Mia had instinctly looked at where his flashlight beam was pointing at, behind the two bickering idiots, jace and Tyler, towards the entrance along the path they came through there seemed to be a something or a figure moving within the shadows of the forest, and it seemed to noticed that they were staring because it stopped moving completely enough that Mia, almost convinced herself,that it had just been a trick of the light, an owl, or a raccoon like ben had said earlier, after all she could not quite make out the shape of whatever it was other than it had glowing red eyes and wait what?......."Mia swung her flashlight back to the spot. Nothing. Just an endless, inky darkness swallowing everything. Get a grip, girl, she told herself. She turned to Ben, only to find him frozen—shaken, his face twisted into an expression she couldn't name. 'Ben? Ben!!'
He jolted, blinking as if waking from a nightmare.
'Di... did... did you see it?' he whispered.
See what she thought while trying not to jump to conclusions, Ben looked like he was trying really hard not to freak out or scare her and he said nothing which did the opposite of what he was clearly hoping for based on her reaction her blood ran cold. She tried to dismiss it, to stay rational, but seeing the genuine terror in Ben's eyes—the very thing he was trying so hard to hide—confirmed her worst fear. They weren't just in a house; they were being hunted.".
Outside, the forest had fallen into an unnatural, absolute silence. In that profound quiet, a shifting mass of shadow tracked the four teenagers until they vanished into the manor. Only then did it leave its perch. A solitary owl, perched high above, twisted its head a full 360 degrees to stare at the entrance of Hollow Ridge—before falling, limp and lifeless, from the branch.
SLAM.
The oak doors didn't just close; they shuddered shut with the force of a thunderclap, sealing the entrance. The sudden, violent vibration knocked the flashlights in their hands off-balance, sending erratic beams dancing wildly across the grand, dust-covered entryway.
"Okay," Tyler’s voice cracked, the bravado completely stripped away. "That definitely wasn't the wind."