Adex stood in the middle of the room, his hand still trembling from the punch. His eyes were fierce, and his mouth was tight. The air was thick with anxiety, and the room remained dim. Neither of them moved. Adex's expression revealed nothing. Ben stayed on the floor, stunned, pressing a bleeding napkin to his nose. When he finally spoke, his voice was shaky and hesitant, as if he were still processing what had happened.
"Why'd you hit me, man?" he asked, rising slowly. "You broke my nose?"
Adex didn't respond at first. His gaze swept across the room, noting the curtains that had swayed just minutes earlier, as if something had passed through them. Now they hung limp—no breeze, no sound. The eerie calm of a disturbed room settled in.
"Shh," Adex whispered. "Wait."
Ben frowned. "Wait for what?"
But before he could say more, the lights turned on. The air shifted, and Adex exhaled sharply, as if he had been holding his breath all along. He sat on the worn armchair with a groan and wiped his face.
Ben sniffed and stepped closer, now annoyed. "You smacked the hell outta me, and now you're just chilling like it's nothing?"
"I saved you," Adex said, his tone flat. "You're welcome."
Ben stared. "Saved me from what, exactly? Enlighten me."
Adex leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and speaking in a low voice.
"You were about to be possessed. By something evil. Something cruel. It needed your body. But it can't take control if there's a flaw—something broken or damaged." He nodded toward Ben's bleeding nose. "That's what saved you. The blood. It can't stand that."
Ben blinked, stepping back as if Adex had just grown horns. "That... what? Possessed? You think I was about to be possessed?"
"I read it in Monroe's book," Adex remarked, calming down. "She wrote about it in strange handwritten notes in the margins. If the vessel has a visible mark—an injury, a scar, or anything out of place—the devil can't attach. It requires symmetry. Wholeness."
Ben dropped onto the couch beside him more slowly, his breathing less defensive. "That book was full of weird crap... but this?" He glanced at the blood on his wrist. "This is real?"
Adex nodded. "Real enough."
They sat in silence for a minute, the humming appliances filling the quiet.
Then Ben asked, "But why me?"
Adex's expression shifted. The light of reason faded in his eyes as he turned to Ben, looking right through him.
"You're linked to Jill," he stated.
Ben blinked. "What does that mean?"
Adex didn't flinch. "Jill said she had a fantasy about you. You. Not me. You."
Ben froze. "Wait... Jill said that?"
"She told me during one of her episodes. Said she used to dream about you. And now I'm wondering..." Adex paused, his eyes narrowing. "Maybe that's why you kept warning me off Jill. Maybe you didn't want me with her because you had feelings for her."
Ben scoffed. "You're trippin'. That's not true."
"Is it?" Adex leaned closer. "You always had something to say when I was around her. Always looking at me like I was screwing up some plan you had."
Ben stood up. "No, man. That's not true."
"You sure?"
"Yes!" Ben's voice cracked, and a sharp edge rose in his throat. "I've never looked at Jill like that. I never thought of her in that way. And if she told you that, maybe she was playing with your mind."
Adex gave him a stern look, scanning his face for any signs of doubt. "You think she made that up?"
Ben threw up his hands. "I don't know anymore! Jill's not herself. And you? You're talking about demons and possession like it's a damn horror movie."
"It is a horror movie," Adex yelled. "It's real. And we're in it."
The tension swelled once more. This time, it was neither magical nor ghostly. It was human—two friends on opposite sides of a quiet war neither of them had volunteered for.
Ben turned away and paced, his jaw clenched, still pressing the napkin to his face. "I'm not lying to you, Adex. If you don't want to believe me, then fine. But don't come at me like I'm hiding something just 'cause Jill said something weird."
Adex sat back, thinking, letting Ben's words roll over him. Something wasn't sitting right. He didn't trust the way this night had turned.
Then a flicker—one of those unwelcome sparks of memory—slid through him. He recalled what Linda wrote in the book:
If there is no present victim available, the demon returns to the past. It uses someone the host once loved.
Adex whispered to himself, "What if it's a diversion?"
Ben turned. "What?"
He didn't answer.
Adex rose gently and approached the window. The street below seemed quiet, almost as if it were a warning. He peered out, his thoughts racing.
"What if Jill lied?" he said at last. "What if she told me she fantasized about you just to distract that thing?"
Ben stood still, confused. "You're not making sense."
Adex turned to face him. His voice dropped, almost like he didn't want the walls to hear.
"I think I know who the real victim is."
Ben stared. "Who?"
But Adex didn't speak. He just kept looking at Ben.
A long, burning silence stretched between them. Ben stepped closer, confused and wary. "Adex. You said you know who it is. Who?"
But Adex said nothing.
That look, calculated and distant, was as if he were trying to see something inside Ben. It felt as though he suddenly became unsure about whom he was talking to.
Ben took a step back. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Adex tilted his head slightly. "Because I think I've been wrong."
Ben frowned. "About what?"
Adex didn't blink.
The lights flickered again. This time, they stayed on.
But something in the room shifted. Not the air. Not the light.
Something deeper.
Ben whispered, "Adex... say something."
Adex opened his mouth—
But then a sound behind them made them both freeze.
A knock.
Once.
Twice.
Then silence.
It came from just outside the front door.
Neither of them moved.
Adex's eyes widened.
He whispered, "We're not alone."