Page 77 of Presence

His smile is a cold, cruel thing.

“From the very beginning, Little Soul.” My heart clenches as he uses the voice he once spoke with as Echo the guardian spirit, not Echo the demon. “Pain was always the point.”

The worst part? Hearing him speak like that, I realize a bitter truth. I was in love with him back then. I truly, deeply fell. And now I can’t even stand. I’m still kneeling before him.

The other Claire’s eyes narrow, her lips curling into a sneer.

“So fucking pathetic,” she spits. “I could take your place and no one would ever miss you.”

I open my mouth to retort, to say something cruel, but nothing comes. There’s nothing I can say that would hurt her. But I don’t have to. Echo, groaning dangerously, slams his hand against her neck, lifting her into the air with a vicious grip.

“You forget your place,” he growls, his voice dripping with a mixture of rage and dark amusement. “I told you to be quiet.”

The other Claire’s eyes widen in shock and terror as she claws at Echo’s hand, struggling to breathe. “Please, Echo… I was only…” she gasps. “I only wanted to hurt her with you. I could replace her.”

“You?” Echo laughs darkly. “You think you could replace her? You’re nothing but a tool, and you should remember that.”

He tightens his grip, and Claire’s face turns a ghastly shade of blue. Then, in a swift, brutal motion, he squeezes so hard her head is severed. Instead of blood, shadows seep from her, and soon she’s just another tendril of darkness swirling around him.

I gasp. “What just… What just happened?” My voice trembles.

Echo turns to me, raising an eyebrow. Even now, in this horrific moment, I can’t help but notice how striking he is. His beauty is different in this form, more sinister, but captivating nonetheless.

“Surprised?” he chuckles, a dark, mocking sound.

“Why did she turn into a shadow?”

“Oh, Clarity… She was never real. Don’t you get it? In this place, nothing is. She was just a figment of my imagination, created to mess with you. And she served her purpose.”

“Purpose?” I ask, feeling overwhelmed, on the verge of breaking. My brain is shutting down. I just want peace.

“She made you so damn jealous,” he replies.

I slump further, my spirit nearly broken. I can taste his amusement in the air.

Thinking about everything he’s done to my life, I want to hate him. I want to make him suffer. But I’m just so damn tired, so damn powerless.

“You’re the best girl a demon could want,” he whispers, his voice barely more than a breath. I know he doesn’t really mean it, but my heart still flutters. “No shadow could ever replace you.”

Led by a shadow pressing against my back, I navigate a maze of pitch-black corridors, their walls cold and unyielding. The countless twists and turns blur together, and I’ve lost track of how many lefts and rights we’ve taken since Echo told me to follow him.

The air is heavy with the scent of damp stone and something metallic, like blood. I like to believe that when Echo said nothing here in the dreamscape is real, he wasn’t lying. That way, this smell sticks around just to freak me out, not because there are actual bodies lying around.

When we exited the haunted house through the main door, I expected to step out onto the plaza where I had entered. But we didn’t. Instead of the plaza, we found ourselves in this seemingly endless maze.

It just shows how much power Echo has over the dreamscape. He can build it, bend it, and probably destroy it too. He’s the king here.

The shadow shoves me again, harder this time, and I stumble forward, catching myself against the cold, slick, sharp wall. The darkness is so complete that I can barely see my hand in front of my face. I know Echo is somewhere ahead, but I can’t see him.

“Keep moving,” Echo’s voice commands, low and menacing. “We’re almost there.”

Almost where? I want to ask, but the words die in my throat. Fear claws at my mind, and I push it down, focusing on the feel of the wall beneath my fingertips.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Echo wanted to torment me again. Back in the real world, he haunted me with breaks, giving me doses of fear now and then. Here, I don’t know what else he wants from me. How much of my endless existence does he want to fill with torture? Or with... sex.

That’s what we were doing in the dreamscape before I found out he’s a demon after all.

Finally, the path up ahead opens. It leads to a cavernous space filled with a faint light filtering in from a hole in the ceiling. Moonlight casts a pale glow on the rough stone walls. Echo is already there, his silhouette sharp in the cool light.

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