Chapter 12 — Even If You Weren’t
Content Warning:Graphic gore, body horror, distorted intimacy, and psychological horror.
The room pulsed softly around them.
Warm candlelight flickered across blood-soaked sheets while Seren struggled weakly beneath the weight pinning her down.
Blood dripped endlessly from her ruined mouth.
The thing wearing Liora’s face stared down at her silently.
Those familiar golden eyes still remained.
But now Seren could finally see what lived behind them.
Something starving.
Something that had learned affection only by watching it from afar.
“I wish there was some way to prove it to you…”
Seren’s breathing shook violently.
“To show you my love was real…”
A wet cough interrupted the words.
Dark blood spilled over her lips.
“…even if I wasn’t.”
For a moment, neither of them moved.
The tunnel itself had gone silent.
As if listening.
Seren stared upward through blurred vision.
She understood now.
This thing was never truly Liora.
And yet -
the warmth it gave her had still felt real.
The comfort had been fake.
But the relief she felt inside it wasn’t.
That was the cruelest part.
The creature lowered itself slowly.
Its forehead rested weakly against Seren’s.
Almost apologetically.
“I tried so hard to stay her,” it whispered.
Its voice trembled unnaturally.
“Every time you smiled at me…”
A pause.
“…I wanted to become real.”
Seren’s eyes trembled.
The room around them no longer felt violent.
Only unbearably sad.
The creature’s hands slowly loosened around her throat.
“You looked happy beside me.”
Its expression twisted faintly.
Not monstrous now.
Wounded.
“I didn’t want that warmth to disappear.”
Seren’s body shook weakly.
Then slowly -
her trembling hand rose toward her own chest.
The creature froze immediately.
Sharp nails pressed against pale skin.
Then sank in.
Seren gasped violently as blood burst across her body.
Pain exploded through every nerve she had left.
Still -
she continued.
Her fingers dug deeper into flesh with horrifying determination.
The creature stared in confusion.
Then horror.
A wet cracking sound echoed softly through the room.
Seren’s hand emerged slowly from her chest.
Holding her own heart.
Still beating.
Weakly.
Blood streamed endlessly down her trembling arm onto the sheets below.
The tunnel fell completely silent.
Even the walls stopped pulsing.
The creature wearing Liora’s face stared down at the heart with widened eyes.
Like it could not understand what it was seeing.
Seren smiled weakly despite the agony destroying her body.
“I couldn’t give you much…”
Her voice barely existed anymore.
“But this…”
She slowly pressed the trembling heart into its hands.
“…is my way of thanking you.”
The creature flinched.
Its fingers shook violently around the warmth resting in its palms.
“For all the happy moments you gave me…”
Blood slipped slowly down Seren’s chin.
“…even if you weren’t the real one.”
The creature’s expression broke completely.
Not rage.
Not hunger.
Something painfully human.
Its entire body trembled.
And then-
a single tear rolled slowly down its cheek.
Seren stared at it silently.
For the first time since the nightmare began—
the thing truly looked alive.
Sadness twisted painfully through Seren’s chest.
But alongside it-
relief.
The guilt she carried inside herself no longer felt unbearable.
At least not completely.
The creature reached toward her weakly now.
Almost desperately.
As if it had finally realized what it was losing.
But Seren’s body had already begun fading.
The room blurred softly around the edges.
The warmth disappeared.
The candlelight dimmed.
And darkness swallowed everything whole.
Cold stone greeted her first.
Then dripping water.
Then shaking hands.
Seren’s eyes slowly opened.
Her vision returned in fragments.
Glowing pillars.
Ancient stone.
The checkpoint chamber.
Reality.
Someone was holding her tightly.
Not gently.
Desperately.
Seren turned her head weakly.
Clara.
Tears poured endlessly down her face while she clung to Seren like she was terrified to let go.
“…Idiot…”
Her voice shattered immediately.
“You wouldn’t wake up…”
Seren stared at her silently.
For several long seconds, she still couldn’t fully separate the dream from reality.
Warm tears soaked slowly into her shoulder.
Real tears.
Real warmth.
And somehow -
that frightened her more than the illusion ever did.
Because this time…
the person holding her was real.