Weeks passed, but the memory of that night clung to me like a shadow. The creature was gone, but the sense of dread never truly left. I had burned the necklace, yes, but something still felt… wrong. The whispers in the house had stopped, and yet, there was a silence that felt far too heavy, as though the house itself was holding its breath, waiting.
I tried to move on, but sleep eluded me. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Lily. Not as she was in life—warm and loving—but how she was the night I found her, broken and bloodied. It didn’t help that strange things kept happening around the house. Objects would shift slightly when I wasn’t looking. The lights would flicker, even though I had checked the wiring countless times. And sometimes, just sometimes, I swore I could smell her perfume.
One night, as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, I heard a noise. A faint rustling, like the sound of fabric brushing against the floor. I sat up, my heart pounding, and listened. It was coming from the hallway.
I grabbed a flashlight and stepped out of the bedroom, the beam cutting through the darkness. The hallway stretched before me, long and empty. But at the far end, I saw something that made my blood run cold.
The necklace.
It was lying there on the floor, its chain glinting in the faint light. I couldn’t believe it. I had burned it—watched it melt in the flames. And yet, here it was, as if nothing had happened.
My hands shook as I bent down to pick it up. The moment my fingers touched the metal, the room grew icy cold. The whispers returned, louder and more insistent this time, like a chorus of voices all around me. And then, I heard her voice—Lily’s voice.
“Why did you burn it?”
I spun around, and there she was, standing in the middle of the hallway. But it wasn’t Lily, not really. Her eyes were empty, hollow, and her skin was pale, almost translucent. She looked at me with a sadness that pierced through my heart.
“I didn’t want to,” I whispered, tears welling up in my eyes. “I had to. It was the only way to stop it.”
She stepped closer, her movements slow and deliberate. “You didn’t stop it. You just set it free.”
My breath caught in my throat. “What do you mean?”
“The necklace wasn’t cursed. It was a prison. A prison for the creature. By destroying it, you released it into the world. And now it’s looking for something new to bind itself to.”
I stared at her, horror dawning on me. “But why are you here?”
She smiled sadly. “Because I’m the one it’s bound to now.”
Before I could react, she vanished, dissolving into the shadows, leaving me alone with the necklace still in my hand. The whispers grew louder, more frantic, as if the creature was searching for its new host.
And I realized, with a sinking feeling in my gut, that it wouldn’t stop until it found someone else.
The necklace was never truly destroyed. It couldn’t be. The creature would live on, jumping from one soul to another, feeding on their fear, their pain, their memories.
And as long as it existed, so would Lily—trapped, forever bound to the creature’s will.
I dropped the necklace and ran, but deep down, I knew it wouldn’t be the last time I saw it.
Because no matter how far I went, it would always find me.