When sleep comes, it doesn't bring peace. It brings memories… and the monsters waiting behind them.
Ava didn't mean to fall asleep.
One minute she was curled on the worn velvet couch in Maya's safehouse, staring blankly at the cursed contract…
The next, darkness swallowed her whole.
But this time, the dream didn't feel like a memory.
It felt like a summons.
She stood in a grand ballroom opulent, candlelit, and abandoned.
The chandeliers above flickered. A haunting waltz played in the background, though no musicians were in sight.
Ava's bare feet tapped softly on the marble floor as she turned in slow circles.
She knew this place.
This was where the masquerade had been held the night before she died.
Where Vincent had leaned in and whispered,
"You're more dangerous than you realize, Isabella."
Suddenly, a soft clap echoed through the silence.
And from the shadows, he emerged.
Vincent.
Looking exactly as he had in her fragmented memories tall, composed, dressed in black that shimmered like shadows.
His silver eyes locked onto hers.
"Well, well," he said, his voice silk over ice. "The dead do dream after all."
Ava's fists clenched. "You're not real. This is just a memory."
He chuckled. "Oh, sweetheart. I'm more real than your precious Liam."
She flinched.
Vincent strolled forward. "Do you remember why you came to me that night? Why you were so desperate?"
"I was tricked. I didn't know "
"You knew exactly what you were doing." He stopped inches from her. "You asked me to give you the power to protect him. But power always demands payment."
Ava's voice broke. "I didn't mean for him to be part of the deal."
"You didn't read the fine print." Vincent smirked. "That's not my fault."
The music stopped abruptly.
Silence fell like a blade.
Ava took a step back.
"What do you want from me?"
Vincent's expression shifted almost soft. "To finish what you started."
"What I started…?"
He raised a hand, and the ballroom melted away.
Suddenly, they stood in a forest under a crimson sky.
The trees were twisted. The air thick with whispers.
In front of Ava, a mirror floated midair.
Inside it her reflection shimmered but it wasn't just Ava.
It was Isabella, layered beneath her. Crying.
"She remembers everything now," Vincent said, circling her slowly. "The betrayal. The contract. The poison. The night you died."
Ava stared at the reflection. "I tried to break free."
"You tried to cheat death."
His voice dropped lower.
"And now, it wants what it's owed."
Behind him, a black fog slithered through the trees.
A presence. A hunger.
"You feel it, don't you?" he whispered. "The thing that followed your soul across lifetimes. You didn't just make a deal with me. You made a deal with something older."
Ava's knees buckled.
Her throat was dry, and her heart beat like a war drum.
"Why are you showing me this?" she asked.
"Because I'm offering you a choice."
Vincent knelt in front of her, tilting her chin up.
"You can fight this. Spend the rest of this life running from what you are… what you owe…"
A pause.
"Or you can finish the pact. Join me again. Embrace what you were always meant to be."
He opened his hand.
In it a single rose.
But the petals were black, and the thorns dripped blood.
"Take it," he whispered, "and you'll never have to be powerless again."
Ava stared at the rose.
Her hand trembled.
But then… Liam's voice echoed in her mind.
"We'll find out. Together."
She closed her eyes.
And shoved the rose back into Vincent's chest.
"Burn in hell," she said.
He didn't flinch. He just smiled.
"I already have. I've been waiting there… for you."
She woke up screaming.
Maya rushed in, clutching an ancient dagger.
Liam behind her, shirtless and breathless, ready to fight.
Ava was drenched in sweat, gasping for air.
She looked up, eyes wide with fear.
"He offered me the deal again," she whispered. "He's real. He's coming. And I think… I think he's already found his next vessel."
Liam knelt beside her. "What do you mean?"
Ava grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly.
"There's someone close to us who's already compromised. Maybe not willingly. Maybe they don't even know."
Maya's eyes narrowed. "Who?"
Ava's gaze slowly turned toward the only unopened box in the corner of the room one she had brought from her old apartment and forgotten.
Inside… lay a second dress.
The exact same one from her death.
Still untouched. Still bloodstained.
And beneath it…
A note.
Scrawled in Vincent's elegant handwriting:
"I told you, my love
If you won't wear it, someone else will."