Chapter 02: The Pact’s Shadow
The hours that followed were a blur of terror and confusion, a fevered whirl in which Evelyn struggled to make sense of the impossible. The moonlight that had once bathed the room in a soft, silvery glow now felt oppressive, as though the heavens themselves had turned a dark eye upon the house, watching their every move.
David had retired to the far corner of the room, his back to her, his figure a silhouette against the window as he stared out into the night. His posture was rigid, as though something unseen was holding him in place. Evelyn’s breath was shallow, and her mind raced with the questions that pressed upon her, desperate to understand what had been unleashed upon them.
The words from earlier echoed in her ears—a pact. What kind of pact? And why had he never told her? Her gaze lingered on David’s form, the man she had once thought she knew so well, the man she had married with all her love and trust. Now, he seemed like a stranger, a broken shell of the man who had courted her with such tenderness, whose touch had once felt like a promise of warmth and protection.
But that warmth was gone now, replaced by the cold, implacable presence of something far darker.
“David,” she finally whispered, her voice trembling as she approached him cautiously, the sound of her footsteps muffled by the thick carpet beneath her feet. “What happened? What did you do?”
His shoulders tensed, but he did not turn to face her. “You don’t understand,” he replied, his voice hoarse, brittle with an edge of despair. “You can’t.”
Her heart twisted at the words. The helplessness in his tone sent a chill through her, one that seeped into her bones. “Then make me understand. Please.”
He exhaled sharply, his head dropping as though weighed down by some invisible burden. When he spoke again, his voice was barely above a whisper. “When I was young, I… I made a choice. I sought power—something to change my fate. Something to protect the ones I loved.”
Evelyn’s pulse quickened. “What kind of power? What did you do?”
David turned to face her at last, and the look in his eyes nearly broke her heart. There was nothing of the man she had married in those eyes—only a hollow, haunted reflection of someone who had long since lost himself.
“I made a pact with the Shadow Court,” he said, his voice low and heavy with dread. “A pact sealed in blood, bound by an ancient and terrible force. The price was steep—too steep to comprehend fully. I was young, and I thought I could control it, use it to my advantage.”
Evelyn’s stomach churned as she absorbed his words, her mind struggling to grasp the enormity of what he had just revealed. “The Shadow Court? What is that? Who are they?”
“They are… not of this world,” David said, his voice trembling as though the very mention of their name struck fear into him. “They are ancient, older than time itself. Creatures of darkness and shadow, and they deal in bargains that no mortal should ever seek.”
Evelyn stepped back, her hand instinctively clutching the edge of the bed as the room seemed to close in around her. “And the price? What was the price, David?”
David’s face contorted with regret, and for a moment, he looked as if he might break. “The price was my soul. The price was everything. But they wanted more. I thought I could control it, but… I was wrong.”
Evelyn’s throat tightened, and the room seemed to tilt, the air pressing in on her from all sides. “And now?” she whispered. “What do they want now?”
David’s eyes locked onto hers, a flicker of pain flashing across his features. “They want you.”
The words struck her like a blow to the chest. Her breath caught in her throat as she stumbled back, her mind reeling. “Me?”
His voice broke, the sound ragged with despair. “They will come for you, Evelyn. The pact—it has bound you to them, just as it bound me. And if we don’t find a way to break it…”
The weight of his words hung heavy in the air, suffocating her. “How do we break it?” she asked, her voice shaking with the desperate hope that there was a way out, a way to escape this nightmare.
David’s face darkened, his eyes clouded with the shadow of a terrible truth. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “The Shadow Court is elusive, merciless. The only thing I know for certain is that if we don’t act quickly, we will both be consumed by it—by them.”
The room seemed to grow colder still, the shadows stretching unnaturally across the walls, as if the darkness itself was closing in around them. Evelyn could feel the air grow thick with something otherworldly, a presence that seemed to press against her skin, making it hard to breathe.
David looked away, his gaze drifting toward the door as if he were listening for something. “It’s already begun,” he murmured, barely audible. “They’ve found us.”
Evelyn’s heart skipped a beat, her eyes darting to the door. The sound of something—footsteps, perhaps—drifted from the hallway beyond, a slow, deliberate rhythm that made her blood run cold. She turned to David, her voice a frantic whisper. “What is that? Who’s out there?”
David’s face was ashen, his lips pale with terror. “It’s them,” he said, his voice shaking with fear. “They’ve come.”
The walls of the room seemed to close in on her, the shadows deepening, stretching across the floor like grasping fingers. Evelyn’s breath quickened, her pulse hammering in her throat. “What do we do?”
David took a step back, his eyes wild with panic. “We run. We find a way to escape this place, this… this curse. Before it’s too late.”
But even as he spoke, the sound of footsteps grew louder, closer. And then, a cold, bone-chilling voice echoed from beyond the door, low and rasping, like a whisper from the grave.
“We’ve come for her.”
