Chapter 3 Chapter

Alya Cobb POV:

My eyes snapped open. A primal scream lodged in my throat. I fumbled for the lamp switch on the nightstand, my fingers trembling so badly it took three tries.

The light flooded the room, and the scream tore from my lungs, raw and ragged.

The floor seemed to writhe with living shadows. A tapestry of silent, fluid movement coiled on the plush carpet and draped over the armchair in the corner. Scales glittered like obsidian chips in the lamplight, and the air itself felt heavy, ancient.

Panic, cold and absolute, seized me. I scrambled off the bed, stumbling backward until my back hit the wall. I reached for the door handle. It was unyielding, the mechanism silent and dead.

"Genesis!" I shrieked, pounding on the heavy wood with my fists. "Genesis, you psycho, let me out! Let me out of here!"

My desperate cries were met with silence. I pounded again, my knuckles screaming in protest. "Let me out! Please, somebody help me!"

A soft, calm voice came from the other side of the door. "Alya, you're disturbing the peace of the house. Jason is meditating."

It was her. Genesis.

"You did this!" I screamed, my voice cracking with hysteria. "You sick monster, get them out of here!"

"I did this for you, Alya," she said, her tone infuriatingly gentle. "Fear is a blockage of energy. You must confront it to release it. Embrace this connection to the earth. They are here to heal you."

My mind fractured. I couldn't form words anymore, only desperate, animal sounds of terror. "Jason! Jason, help me! Please, Jason!"

I heard his footsteps approaching in the hall. A sliver of hope, sharp and painful, pierced through my panic. He would stop this. He had to. He wouldn't let this happen.

"What's going on?" His voice was heavy with sleep and irritation.

"Jason, thank God!" I sobbed, pressing my face against the door. "It's Genesis! The room... she filled the room with... please, make her let me out!"

I heard Genesis's soft murmur. "Darling, I was only trying to help. Her aura is so clouded by grief and anger. I thought a natural immersion would help purge the negativity."

"She's trying to hurt me!" I shrieked. "I'm terrified, you know that!"

There was a long pause. I could hear my own ragged breathing, the soft, sinister whisper of movement on the carpet. I held my breath, waiting for Jason to order the door open. Waiting for him to save me.

His voice, when it came, was cold and distant, filtered through the thick wood of the door.

"Alya, your distress is creating a disturbance. Genesis believes this is necessary for the harmony of the house. Do not fight it."

The world stopped. The air left my lungs in a rush.

"What?" I whispered, my voice barely audible.

"Her methods are unconventional," he said, his voice gaining a chilling conviction. "But her intuition is powerful. You need to trust the process."

Trust the process.

The words echoed in the terrifying silence of the room. Trust the process.

I heard him put his arm around Genesis. I heard their footsteps retreating down the hall.

He was leaving me. He was leaving me in here.

A despair so profound it felt like drowning pulled me under. I slid down the door, my legs giving out, and curled into a tight ball on the floor. I was sobbing, but no sound came out. My body was wracked with silent, agonizing convulsions of terror.

One of the dark shapes slithered slowly towards me. It coiled near my leg, its presence a cold weight in the air. I squeezed my eyes shut, my entire body rigid with fear.

Then I felt a sudden, sharp pressure bloom on my calf, hot as a needle.

The world tilted, the edges of my vision turning grey and fuzzy. My last coherent thought was of Jason. Of the man who had pulled me from a burning car, who had sworn to protect me.

Who had just abandoned me to my deepest nightmare.

I woke up in the infirmary in the west wing of the house. My head was pounding, and my calf was bandaged and throbbing.

Jason was sitting in a chair by the bed, scrolling through his phone. He looked up when I stirred.

"You're awake," he said, his tone neutral. "The doctor said it was non-venomous. You just fainted from the shock."

I stared at him, my throat raw. "You left me in there."

He sighed, a flash of annoyance crossing his face. "Don't be dramatic, Alya. I knew you weren't in any real danger. Genesis would never allow that."

He stood up and walked to the window, his back to me. "I need you to understand something. Genesis is going to be a permanent part of my life. Of our lives. I need you to accept that. I need you to stop making things so difficult."

I just stared at his back, a cold, hard knot of something new forming in my chest. It wasn't love. It wasn't even hate. It was a chilling, absolute certainty.

I had to get out. But first, I had to survive.