The silence stretched long after the phone call ended.
Karen sat on the edge of the bed, staring at her reflection in the cracked mirror. Her face looked different, older, sharper. Like Avalon had aged her from the inside out.
Alex stood near the door, one hand braced against the frame, the other clenching the blood-stained paper.
Luca leaned against the wall, arms folded tightly, but there was a shadow in his eyes now a ghost of something he wasn't saying.
"We don't know what's in that East Wing," Luca said finally. "It could be a trap, a hallucination, a memory loop or worse."
Karen's voice was quiet. "Or it could be the truth."
Alex turned around and walked over to her. He crouched so they were eye level. She met his gaze.
"If we go in there," he said, "we might not come out the same or at all."
Karen reached for his hand. "I'd rather vanish fighting for who I really am… than live pretending to be who they made me."
He kissed her knuckles, then her wrist where the rope mark still lingered. "I don't care what they did to you. You're still you. You're still mine."
She smiled faintly, then pulled him close and rested her forehead against his.
"I'm scared," she whispered.
"Me too," he whispered back. "But I'd rather be scared with you than fearless alone."
Luca cleared his throat softly. "Before we go… there's something you should know."
They both looked at him.
"I wasn't just assigned to watch Karen," he said slowly. "Years ago, I was a patient here, briefly before it was a resort."
Karen blinked. "What?"
Luca's mouth twisted. "They called it a 'rehabilitation program' back then. But I remember the halls, the red doors, the voices, the experiments i never forgot. That's why I knew something was wrong the moment we arrived."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Alex asked.
Luca's eyes dropped. "Because I didn't think I'd ever have to walk into that wing again."
A beat passed.
Karen stood, tugging her coat around her.
"Well," she said softly, "you're not walking in alone this time."
They moved as one Karen, Alex, and Luca down the hallway of the main building.
When they reached the junction where the hallway split, the East Wing loomed ahead.
Long, dim, cold.
A red glow pulsed faintly beneath the door at the end.
Alex reached for Karen's hand. She squeezed it tightly.
Luca moved ahead, flashlight in hand. "Let's finish what they started."
And together, they stepped into the red.