There was no sound when the door opened this time. No light either. Only a cold sensation crept across my skin, as if I had passed through an invisible layer — a thin boundary separating something I knew from something I was never meant to see.
I paused for a second. Not because I was afraid, but because I felt the place itself watching me — as though my presence here was unwelcome… or perhaps expected from the very beginning.
I took a step forward.
The ground wasn't solid as I had imagined. Instead, it stretched endlessly into darkness — black, polished, reflecting my shadow in an unnatural way. My reflection didn't match me exactly. It moved slowly, lagging behind, as though it thought before imitating me. I ignored it at first, yet my eyes kept drifting back to it against my will.
My reflection lifted its head.
I hadn't done that.
I froze.
Then everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened. But I was no longer the same after that moment. Something behind the veil had stopped merely watching… it had begun to respond.
"You're finally here."
The voice.
This time it wasn't only inside my head. It came from everywhere — the ground, the air, the empty space itself. I turned slowly, but I saw no one.
"Where are you?"
My voice came out calm, despite the unease creeping into my chest.
"Closer than you think."
Then the darkness began to move.
It wasn't a clear motion, but a subtle ripple, as though the place itself were breathing. With each pulse, vague shapes began to emerge — tall shadows standing far apart. They didn't move, yet they were there… watching.
"You…"
I didn't finish the sentence.
"We are not what you think."
The voice said.
"Then what are you?"
There was a brief silence. Then came the answer:
"We are what remains."
I didn't understand. But I felt the answer wasn't meant only for me — it reached something deeper inside me, something beginning to remember what I couldn't fully grasp.
I took another step forward. The shadows didn't move. Yet they seemed closer.
"Are you behind the project?"
No one answered.
But the ground beneath my feet began to change.
Lines appeared.
Circles.
Symbols.
The same ones I had seen before, but now larger, stretching outward — as if the entire place were a massive blueprint. And at the center, a number appeared:
31
I stepped back instinctively.
"Why this number… every time?"
The voice answered:
"Because you were not thirty."
Something tightened in my chest.
"Thirty-one…"
"Yes."
Then the images appeared.
One after another.
Faces.
Children.
The same faces I had seen before, but clearer now. More real. I saw Sarah among them, smiling, standing close to me. I saw myself — younger, calmer. There was nothing in my eyes that hinted at what I had become.
Then the images began to fade.
One by one.
Until only two remained.
Me.
And Sarah.
"Why us?"
The silence lingered.
Then the voice finally answered:
"Because you saw."
"Saw what?"
The answer didn't come in words.
It came in memories.
Water.
The river near Oxford.
Children laughing.
Then silence.
The water moved.
Deeper than it should have been.
Black.
Not like water.
Something beneath the surface.
An eye.
Or something like one.
Then the current.
The children screaming.
The water swallowing them.
But I didn't scream.
I was watching.
I was seeing the thing below.
And it was looking at me.
The memory shattered.
I fell to my knees.
"This… this wasn't drowning…"
"No."
The voice said.
"It was a choice."
I slowly lifted my head.
"A choice?"
"It chose you."
The air grew heavier.
"It?"
This time, the shadows moved.
One step.
Slowly.
"What lies beyond the veil… is not a place."
"Then what is it?"
"A door."
My body trembled before I realized it.
"A door to what?"
No one answered.
But the darkness behind them began to open slowly, as though another layer were being pulled away. And behind it… something moved.
I couldn't see it clearly.
But I felt it.
I felt its gaze passing through me.
As if I were transparent.
As if I were nothing more than an experiment.
"Is… is it watching me?"
"Since the beginning."
I froze.
"Why now?"
The voice came slower this time.
"Because you remember."
Something shifted inside my mind. A sharp pain. Fragmented images. The laboratory. Sarah. The screens. Me writing the files. Me approving. Me watching.
"No…"
I whispered.
But the images didn't stop.
I saw myself opening a file.
**Project Veil – Phase Two**
I saw my signature.
I saw Sarah entering the room.
I saw myself hesitating.
Then pressing execute.
The memory ended.
I fell backward.
"I… I did this…"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Silence.
Then:
"Because you saw it once."
My heart seemed to stop.
"Saw what?"
The shadows stepped back.
And the darkness behind them moved.
Closer.
"What lies beyond the veil."
Then I felt something touch my awareness.
Not my body.
My thoughts.
As if an inner door were slowly opening.
"No…"
But I didn't resist.
I couldn't.
The voice became quieter.
Closer.
"You've returned now."
I opened my eyes.
The shadows were gone.
But I was no longer alone.
I felt it.
In the background.
Waiting.
Watching.
I wasn't afraid anymore.
I felt something else.
Curiosity.
A pull.
"What now?"
I asked quietly.
The answer came:
"Now… the real phase begins."
And deep within the darkness behind the veil… something moved for the first time — not because it had awakened… but because it realized I was finally ready to see it.
I didn't know whether what I felt was anger or emptiness. From the moment the voice spoke Sarah's name again, something dark began forming inside me — something that wasn't merely the pain of loss, but a cold desire to understand… and perhaps to take revenge.
The darkness around me was no longer still as it had been moments ago. It began to shift slowly, as though the place itself were guiding me toward something specific. I didn't hesitate. I stepped forward, and with each step, I felt myself nearing the end of one phase… and the beginning of another, far darker one.
A long corridor appeared ahead of me, but this time it wasn't like the ones before. The walls were covered in strange carvings — twisted symbols similar to those I had seen in the laboratory, yet older… harsher. Some seemed carved deep into the surface, others looked as if they had been written in dried blood.
I stopped.
I didn't need to touch them to understand.
"Magic…"
I whispered.
This time, the reply didn't come from the voice inside my head.
It came from somewhere nearby.
"Not just magic."
I turned quickly.
A man stood at the far end of the corridor. I couldn't see his face clearly, but there was something familiar about the way he stood. He was perfectly still, as if he had been waiting for me for a very long time.
He took a step forward.
Then another.
Until the faint light began revealing his features.
My breath caught.
"This…"
I couldn't finish the sentence.
His face resembled Sarah's.
The same eyes.
The same features.
But with a coldness that didn't belong to her.
"I knew you'd make it here."
He said calmly.
"You…"
I stepped closer.
"You're her brother."
A cold smile formed on his lips.
"Yes."
My body trembled before I realized it.
"You… you lured them?"
He didn't deny it.
Didn't hesitate.
"Yes."
The air seemed to vanish around me.
"Why?!"
My voice rose without my control.
He looked at me with unsettling calm.
"Because it was the beginning."
"The beginning of what?!"
He stepped closer.
"The Order of the Devil's Offering."
A sharp chill ran down my spine.
"You… you killed them?"
He slowly shook his head.
"We didn't just kill them… we chose them."
"Chose…?"
He smiled.
"Yes."
Then he gestured toward the walls.
"All from the same village."
Images began appearing around us.
Faces.
Women.
Girls.
Sarah among them.
Something inside me shattered.
"Why women?"
He fell silent for a moment.
Then he said,
"Because they're… closer."
"Closer to what?"
He looked at me with cold eyes.
"To what lies beyond the veil."
Anger flared inside me.
"You're sick."
He laughed softly.
"No… we're believers."
I stepped toward him.
"Sarah… she wasn't part of you."
His expression shifted slightly.
"She was the best of us."
I froze.
"What?"
"She could see."
Something echoed inside me.
The same words.
The same idea.
"But she refused."
He said quietly.
"She refused to become an offering."
My fists clenched.
"So you killed her."
He didn't answer immediately.
Then he said,
"It had to happen."
I snapped.
I lunged at him without thinking.
But before I could reach him, something stopped me. Not a body — it was as if the air itself had frozen.
He smiled.
"You still don't understand."
"I understand that you killed her."
He looked at me for a long moment.
"I didn't kill her."
I stopped.
"What?"
He stepped closer.
"You did."
The ground seemed to vanish beneath me.
"Liar."
"You allowed it."
Memories flooded in suddenly.
The laboratory.
Sarah running.
Me standing at the door.
Her screaming.
Me not opening it.
I staggered back.
"No…"
"You were part of the phase."
His voice grew closer.
"We chose… but you executed."
My head felt like it was splitting apart.
"Why…?"
He smiled.
"Because you saw what lies beyond the veil before any of us."
The darkness around us began to shift.
The symbols on the walls started to glow.
The air grew heavier.
"What is this…?"
"The ritual."
He said calmly.
"The offering ritual."
A sense of danger crawled through me.
"Who…?"
He looked directly at me.
"You."
I stepped back.
"That's not going to happen."
He smiled.
"It already has."
The ground beneath my feet began to crack.
The shadows moved.
Whispers echoed around us.
"Offering… offering…"
They rose from every direction.
"What do you want?!"
I shouted.
He moved closer until he stood right before me.
"To open the door… completely."
Something touched my mind.
The pain returned.
Memories flooded again.
Sarah.
The village.
The women.
Disappearances.
Rituals.
Me watching.
Me writing.
Me approving.
"No…"
But I wasn't resisting anymore.
The darkness around me began swallowing everything.
The last thing I saw…
Was his smile.
And the last thing I heard…
"Welcome… to the Devil's Offering."
Then…
The door behind the veil opened completely.
And something else…
Began to emerge.