Chapter 20: The Voice Beneath the Skin
Elias sat bolt upright in bed, the motel room swimming in shadows. The locket still lay open beside him, the faces inside now a static blur. Static—as if a signal was trying to break through.
He grabbed it. The moment his fingers touched the cold metal, a voice echoed through the room—raspy, ancient, and crawling with malice.
"You're awake... good. It's almost time."
The shadows in the corners moved. Shifted. Watching.
Elias leapt up, backing toward the window, but outside wasn’t the parking lot. It was the forest. The cursed woods that had swallowed people whole. A full moon loomed overhead, but it was blood red—like the eye of something divine and monstrous.
The motel door creaked open by itself.
“Elias.”
He turned. Grayson stood in the doorway—pale, thin, and wrong. He looked alive but not present. His mouth moved, but the voice that came out belonged to something else.
“You’re the last piece. The final echo.”
Elias ran.
The hallway stretched longer with every step, warping like melted wax. Doors on either side slammed shut as he passed, their numbers changing wildly—17, 4, 404, 999. He stopped before one labeled only with a single word: Skin.
The door opened.
Beyond it was a room of mirrors. But this time, Elias didn’t see reflections. He saw scenes—moments from lives he’d never lived. A child crying at an open grave. A woman burning in a church. A man screaming as something peeled off his face.
And in each scene—Elias stood nearby, watching, always watching.
He turned to flee, but a hand gripped his shoulder.
“You already chose,” the voice said.
Elias spun and found himself staring into his own face—but older, darker. Eyes glowing faint red. His doppelgänger smiled, and the room dissolved into flesh—walls pulsing with veins, ceiling breathing like lungs.
“Let me show you what you’ve forgotten.”
Then came the pain—blinding, cracking his mind open. Visions, thousands of them, flooded in:
—The town’s foundation built atop a burial site. —Rituals held in secret to keep a being asleep beneath the land. —Elias, as a child, being taken into the woods for “the choosing.”
And finally—Elias standing in the middle of town, fire surrounding him, the shadow rising behind him like a god returning.
He collapsed.
When he woke again, he was standing at the edge of the town square.
And the sky was burning.
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First of all, I want to sincerely apologize for the long silence. Due to academic responsibilities and a packed exam schedule, I wasn’t able to continue updating the story as planned. But the good news is—I’ve officially finished my exams, and I’m back! 🎉14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuMmgisaFVA
Thank you all for your patience and support. From this point on, updates will resume regularly. I’m so excited to bring you the next dark, twisted turns of The Whispering Shadows.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Ov7SNgkdl
Stay with me. The real horror is just beginning. 🔥14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbvKAbbA8dG
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