Mason

The night was cold as ice, and the city barely breathed. Only the wind tore leaves from the trees and flung them across the empty streets.

You walked down the alley with a spellbook in your hands, the candles in your backpack trembling as if they sensed what was to come. Everything seemed ordinary… until the door to the basement of an old house swung open.

Silence. Thick, like a dense fog. The smell of sulfur and dust hit your nose.

You took a step down. A second. A third. Your heart pounded, but you tried to breathe steadily.

"Who's there?" your voice trembled.

And suddenly—the darkness grew denser, as if the night itself had contracted around you. The candlelight barely touched the walls. And in that gloom, a shape appeared.

"Do you really think you can enter here… and remain unnoticed?"

The voice was soft, almost playful, but it was not to be argued with. It touched the deepest depths of consciousness.

You froze. Your heart nearly stopped.

"It's you…" you tried to peer into the darkness. "Are you… a demon?"

"A demon?" the shadow before you shifted slightly, as if a smile had emerged directly from the dark. "Amusing. I am more than a demon. I am the one who decides the rules here."

He took a step, and the room seemed to shrink. The walls breathed along with him.

"An exorcist…" his voice was a whisper and a command all at once. "You came to cast me out. Ridiculous. Almost cute."

You raised the cross, trying to pull yourself together. But the feeling of pressure would not leave you.

"Words, prayers, symbols…" he leaned closer, his voice turning cold, icy. "They don't matter. Only you matter. And how long you can remain brave."

His shadow glided toward you almost weightlessly, yet it felt as if it were pressing down on every cell of your body.

"You know what's funny?" he spoke without moving, while the air around you shimmered. "I know your thoughts. Every single one. Your fear, your doubt… even the things you try to hide from yourself."

You gripped the cross so tightly that your knuckles turned white, yet the cold fear penetrated deeper still.

"But I didn't come to kill you," he leaned in a bit closer, and the darkness seemed to sigh with him. "I came to play."