The knock didn't come from the neighbors. It wasn't the type of knock that requested entry. It wasn't impatient or polite. It was intentional. Slow. As if whoever stood on the other side wasn't waiting for permission.
Ben turned slowly to gaze at the wall clock. It showed 12:14 a.m.—just past midnight.
He took a shaky step toward the door, but Adex shot out his arm to block him.
"Don't," Adex whispered. His voice had dropped to something almost primal.
Ben whispered back, "What if it's someone who needs help?"
Adex didn't blink. "Or it's someone who wants in."
The room suddenly felt smaller, as if the walls had moved a step closer. The air seemed to hold its breath. The bulb above them, the one that had flickered earlier, hummed even louder now. A low whine resonated, as if something was crawling through the wire itself.
Adex turned slowly toward the door, every muscle tense. Ben stood behind him, blood dried on his upper lip, fingers twitching at his side.
Another knock.
Then the handle jiggled.
Ben's breath caught. "It's locked, right?"
Adex didn't answer. He listened now, listening intently. Not just to the door, but to everything else—the street, the wind, the refrigerator motor clicking on and off as if it had a stutter.
He stepped closer to the door and pressed his ear to it.
Nothing.
No footsteps. No voices.
But then—softly, faint as dust—
He heard someone breathing right on the other side.
He stepped back and glanced at Ben.
"You hear that?"
Ben shook his head. "Hear what?"
"The Breathing. Someone's out there. Just... waiting."
Ben looked toward the window. "No one's there, the hallway's empty."
Adex clenched his jaw. "Are you sure?"
"I'm certain," Ben replied.
Ben turned and walked deliberately across the room. He reached under the kitchen sink and pulled out a rusted hammer.
Adex raised an eyebrow. "You planning to fix the door or fight a ghost?"
"I'm planning to survive the night."
Adex stepped into one of the rooms.
"Where are you going?" Ben asked, gripping the rusted hammer with steady confidence.
Adex didn't answer.
Another knock.
This one wasn't soft; it had weight.
Adex stepped back into the living room and nodded toward the hallway.
"Lights off," Adex said.
Ben looked puzzled.
"Why?" he whispered, his eyebrows drawn tight.
"If we leave them on, he'll know exactly where we are," Adex replied.
He flipped the switch, plunging the room back into darkness.
Only the hallway light outside the door stayed on, slipping through the gap at the bottom of the entrance and creating a thin golden line across the dark floor.
The knock didn't come again.
Minutes passed. The air got colder like something had opened somewhere nearby—a window, a mouth, a memory.
Adex and Ben stood on edge, tense and ready for a fight.
Then a whisper.
Low and dry. It slipped through the crevice in the door like smoke.
"Adex."
Ben was frightened.
Adex became utterly still.
The voice was not familiar. But it knew him. He said his name like it owned him.
Ben whispered, "Who the hell was that?"
Adex shook his head once. "I'm not sure, but not someone we're opening the door for."
Ben looked pale now. "You said earlier you thought Jill was lying—that she only said she had a crush on me to fool that thing."
Adex nodded slowly.
Ben licked his lips. "So who's the real target?"
Adex didn't speak.
"Adex?" Ben called out, his face full of fear.
Adex finally looked at Ben. His face was tense—not just with fear, but with guilt. And a dawning realization, like a puzzle snapping into place, only to reveal an image he wished he hadn't seen.
Adex said, "It's not you."
Ben tilted his head. "Then who?"
Adex's voice lowered. "It's me."
Ben was stunned. The air in the room thickened as he stared at Adex, his mouth slightly open in disbelief.
Meanwhile, Adex's gaze remained fixed on the door.
Ben swallowed. "You think Jill knew?"
"I think she's trying to protect me."
"And this thing… this demon, Larry… he won't stop until he finishes whatever he started with Jill?" Adex said.
His face tensed with fear. "He's coming for me," he went on. "He's closer than we thought. And he's using every name, every memory, every crevice he can get into."
Ben whispered, "So... what do we do now?"
Before Adex could answer, something slid under the door.
A folded piece of paper.
Ben stared at it like it was a snake.
Adex stepped forward slowly, crouched, and picked it up.
He unfolded it with careful hands.
One sentence.
Scrawled in handwriting he'd seen once before—in the margins of Linda Monroe's cursed book.
"It's already inside."
Adex looked up. Eyes wide. The paper slipped from his hand and drifted to the floor like ash.
Ben backed away. "Inside, where?"
Adex didn't answer.
He looked at Ben with a gaze that said it all—it was already too late.
Ben saw it. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Adex opened his mouth.
The lightbulb in the hallway outside exploded.
Glass rained down.
Total darkness.
Then a sound emerged, not from the door this time, but from inside the apartment.
A whisper.
"Adex…"
This time, it came from the hallway behind them.
Adex turned around, fear written all over his face.
Ben didn't move.
No one moved.
—End of Chapter Forty-Nine