What stood in front of looked exactly like .
At first, I thought it was a mirror. But it wasn’t. It was a wax figure, crafted so perfectly that my stomach turned. The height, the shape of the shoulders, the curve of the lips, even the faint lines on the hands everything was mine. The skin didn’t look like wax. It looked real. Too real. Whoever made it had copied every detail with frightening precision.
But it was the eyes that froze in place.
They weren’t dull or glassy like fake display models. They looked alive. Warm. Aware. They stared back at the sa way I would stare at my own reflection.
No artist could create eyes like that.
Then the realization hit like a blade to the chest.
Those were my eyes.
Rage exploded inside so fast my jaw tightened painfully. My hands trembled as I stared at that grotesque version of myself. How could they be so cruel? What had I done to deserve this? It wasn’t enough that they killed . They couldn’t even let rest. Instead of a burial, instead of dignity, they turned into a display. A twisted art piece.
Tears blurred my vision as I slowly lifted my hand and reached toward the figure. My fingertips hovered over the eyes my eyes and dread crept into my chest.
If they took my eyes... what else had they taken?
My organs?
Had they carved up and turned the rest of into those disgusting decorations I had seen earlier? The beads made of intestines. The cold, lifeless pieces of soone’s body treated like objects.
My breathing beca shallow as my fingers brushed lightly against the wax eyelids.
And then the voices ca.
"Hurry, she’s not dead yet. Take her heart."
"The surgery went well."
"She’s gone? What a pity. Silas didn’t hold back. Such a beautiful face, ruined."
"Peel off her skin. We can make a book from it. The rest will do for a drum."
"Her eyes are beautiful. Let’s preserve them for a wax figure."
"Send the remaining organs back to her family."
The words echoed inside my head like distorted mories underwater. I didn’t recognize the voices, but they felt familiar in a way that terrified . Like the final sounds I heard before everything went dark the first ti I died.
The pain in my head grew sharper, drilling into my skull. The voices overlapped, louder and louder, until it felt like my mind was splitting apart. I clutched my head with both hands, shaking.
"No..." I whispered weakly.
"Riley! What’s wrong?"
Lewis’s voice cut through the noise, and suddenly I was pulled into his arms. I buried my face in his chest, crying uncontrollably. My tears soaked through his shirt, but I couldn’t stop. The ringing in my ears beca unbearable. It felt like sothing invisible was tugging at , dragging sowhere I didn’t want to go.
Like my soul was being pulled away again.
"Carl... it hurts. Please... let’s go..." I tried to say, but before I could finish, darkness swallowed whole.
When I opened my eyes again, I was looking down.
Lewis was beneath , holding my body tightly in his arms.
If he was holding ... then who was I?
I lifted my hands slowly. They looked translucent, familiar in a different way. This was how I had looked before when I was nothing but a wandering spirit. I had separated again. I wasn’t inside Riley’s body anymore.
Panic exploded inside .
"No... no, no, no." I rushed toward my own body. I had fought so hard to return. I refused to go back to being nothing. I tried to push myself back into Riley’s body, but it was like hitting a wall. Sothing blocked . I couldn’t get in.
Lewis had already placed my body in the car. His face was pale, his hands trembling as he held . Julian stood nearby, still calm, still unaware of what was really happening.
"Don’t worry," Julian said lightly. "Elena just fainted. She’ll wake up."
But Lewis wasn’t calm. He rembered. He had seen my soul leave before. He knew this wasn’t normal. His fear was written all over his face.
"Elena, don’t leave ," he whispered desperately. "Please... don’t go."
I tried to touch his face, to wipe away the panic in his eyes. My hand passed straight through him. I scread his na, but my voice didn’t reach him.
I tried again and again to return to my body, but nothing worked.
If I couldn’t go back... Riley’s body would eventually beco nothing more than an empty shell.
How did it end up like this?
If I had known that going there would cause this, I would never have stepped foot in that place. I paced frantically around the car, around my own unconscious body, searching for answers. There had to be a way back.
At the hospital, doctors rushed around . Machines beeped steadily. They ran tests, scanned my brain, checked my heart.
"She’s only unconscious," one doctor said, confused. "Her heart rate is stable. Everything looks normal."
"Then why won’t she wake up?" another muttered.
They had no explanation.
Julian began to look uneasy, but he still believed it was stress. Lewis didn’t. He never left my side that night. He sat beside the hospital bed, holding my hand, brushing his thumb gently across my cheek.
"Elena... can you hear ?" he whispered.
"I can hear you," I cried desperately. "I’m right here."
But I was invisible. Untouchable. Alone.
The loneliness crushed . I had felt warmth again. I had known Lewis’s arms, his voice, his presence. Now I was trapped outside of it. The cold felt unbearable.
Suddenly, Lewis lifted his head slightly, his eyes scanning the empty space in the room.
"Elena... are you here?"
My heart if I even had one tightened. I moved closer to him.
"I’m here," I whispered.
He stood up abruptly. "Theo, bring candles."
Julian looked confused. "Uncle, what are you doing?"
Lewis didn’t answer. He lit three candles and told Theo to turn off the lights. The hospital room fell into darkness, illuminated only by the soft glow of flickering flas. Shadows danced across his face.
"Elena," he said firmly, staring into the empty air. "If you’re here, blow out the candle."
Julian stared at him like he had lost his mind. "You think her soul left Riley’s body?"
Lewis’s eyes didn’t move. He was looking straight at .
"I have a feeling," he said quietly. "She’s here."
I felt sothing inside break and nd at the sa ti. He knew. Sohow, he knew.
I focused with everything I had. I gathered every ounce of strength, pushing it toward the small flas.
The first candle flickered wildly.
Then it went out.
The second followed.
And then the third.
Darkness filled the room.
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