4338.209 · July 28, 2018 AD
Light Against the Dark
Bleeding. Bound. Hunted. Beatrix crashes through Luke's sliding door with a Shadow Panther on her heels and truths spilling faster than blood. The creature followed her from Clivilius—black fur, dead eyes, claws that carved her flesh. It circles the house. It tests the light. Luke finds her trembling behind the kitchen bench, knife in hand, every bulb blazing. The Portal Key between them. Jarod still captive. And something inhuman clawing at the front door.
Beatrix stumbles into Luke's house covered in blood and flex-cuffs, a Portal Key clutched in shaking hands, and a nightmare from another world stalking the perimeter. The Shadow Panther—pure muscle wrapped in darkness, eyes like empty voids—followed her through the portal and won't stop hunting.
Luke finds her behind the island bench, brandishing a kitchen knife, every light in the house burning like a ward against what she brought back. The wounds aren't from the casino. The terror isn't from Blake or Charlie or handcuffs.
It's from Clivilius. And it's still here.
As Luke cuts her free and demands answers, the revelations tumble out: Leigh gave her the Portal Key. Jarod's been arrested. She's cursed. And the creature that mauled her in absolute darkness now circles Luke's house, testing the boundaries of light, growing bolder with each pass.
When the growl erupts from the front porch, when Luke peers through the peephole and sees those dead eyes staring back, the truth becomes unavoidable: doors and walls mean nothing. Light is the only weapon. And dawn feels impossibly far away.
