Antiseptic. Fear. The hospital was permeated by the smell of both.

Not only the sharp chemical sting that clung to polished floors, to counters scrubbed too clean. That was only the surface. Beneath, something heavier. Human. It pressed out from those who had seen too much, lost too much, survived what the mind could not hold. The hospital always carried that smell.

Jared passed through the double doors at Adrian’s side. Heavy glass swung shut behind. The hallway pressed in. Narrow. Patient rooms on either side. Monitors blinking in the half-dark. Early morning sunlight tried to filter through the blinds at the far end. Weak. Too thin. Too fragile. He preferred the dark. The sun at this hour did not belong here.

The Dark inside his chest stirred. Blood. Sweat. Terror. The smells tangled. A low vibration. Rumbling interest. Not predatory. Not yet. Awake. Alert. Listening.

Adrian led. Purposeful, but not calm. Not if you knew him. His grip on the strap of his medical bag was too tight, his fingers pale with strain. Their footsteps rang out, soft against the tile.

“You’re thinking too loudly,” Jared muttered.

Adrian didn’t slow. “I’m thinking normally. You’re just tuned too sharp right now.”

“Same difference.”

Adrian shot him a quick look. Concern, irritation, affection; tangled in his gaze. But something else beneath. Sharper. Urgent. Jared felt it, the pressure of silent fears, a countdown he could not name. "How’s the Dark?" Adrian asked, voice steady, but Jared heard the tremor beneath.

“Awake,” Jared said honestly. “It smells the fear.”

“Well,” Adrian said dryly, “this is a hospital trauma unit. Try not to inhale too deeply.”

Jared huffed a laugh despite himself.

They reached the security desk halfway down the hall. A uniformed officer looked up at them.

“Agents Blake and Korr?” he asked.

Adrian nodded. “We’re here to see Desmond Carter.”

The officer grimaced. “Room 214. Nurse says he’s stable but… jumpy. Keeps waking up shouting about monsters. You’ll have to proceed cautiously.”

Jared nodded once. “Understood.”

They moved on.

Room 214 was two doors down. A small, curtained space set half apart from the others, with a police officer stationed outside. The officer stepped aside when he saw their badges. Adrian paused at the threshold, inhaling slowly before pushing the curtain aside.

The room was shadowed, lit by the monitor’s pale green glow. A boy curled on the hospital bed. Knees to chest. Arms wrapped tight. His hair was a tangled mess, black curls stuck to his forehead. Bandages circled his upper arms. A bruised welt along his cheek. Deeper scars hidden beneath. His eyes moved, restless, flicking to every sound, every shift of light.

Desmond.

He didn’t notice them at first. His attention was fixed on the open doorway across from his bed, as though something might crawl through it at any moment. 

Adrian moved in slowly, careful not to make sudden movements. “Desmond?”

The boy flinched violently, back pressing against the raised bed rail. His breathing hitched. “Don’t come in.”

“We’re not here to hurt you,” Adrian said in a quiet voice. “I’m here to try to help.”

Desmond’s gaze flickered between them, settling on Jared. The Dark inside Jared lifted, stretching in his chest. It tasted Desmond’s fear. Curiosity. Hunger. He pressed it down. The Dark always grew with fear, drawn to it, moth to flame. Instinct. Jared remembered his responsibility: to hold the Dark back, to protect those who could not defend themselves. Desmond’s pupils widened. His breath quickened.

“He’s with me,” Adrian said quickly. “Jared’s safe. He’s here to help.”

That didn’t reassure Desmond. If anything, he shrank further into himself, pulling the fragile, worn hospital blanket up like it was armor.

Jared stayed still. Did not move closer. He knew what his presence did to those who could sense beyond the Veil. People like this: afraid, raw, defensive. The Dark pressed too close, oozing from his skin. It did not drown the room in gloom. Instead, it hushed the noise, deepening the silence until only Desmond’s shaky breaths and pounding heart remained. Shadows stretched across the room, softening the edges, making everything distant.

Adrian moved first, with hands in plain sight and a gentle posture. “Can I sit?” he asked, motioning toward the plastic chair beside the bed.

Desmond hesitated. The Dark leaned forward inside Jared, tasting the tension. Smoke on the tongue.

Finally, Desmond nodded.

Adrian lowered himself into the chair, slow and deliberate, like approaching an injured animal. The tone of his voice remained calm and level. “I know you don’t want to talk about what happened. I wouldn’t either. But we need to understand what you saw.”

Desmond bit his lip. His stare never left Jared.

Adrian noticed. He turned slightly, angling himself so he blocked some of Jared’s shape from the boy’s view. “Jared won’t come closer unless you say so. All right?”

Jared took the cue and took a step to the side so that he was standing behind Adrian.

Desmond’s voice emerged softly. “What’s wrong with him?”

Jared stiffened. Adrian didn’t flinch.

“There’s nothing wrong with him,” Adrian said firmly. “Jared’s… different. But he’s on your side. He’s helped a lot of people.”

Desmond didn’t look convinced. Jared couldn’t blame him; he wasn’t either.

Jared spoke quietly, keeping his tone as even and human as he could manage. “We don’t have to talk about me. You’re safe. That’s what matters right now.”

Desmond blinked rapidly, his breath speeding up again. His eyes shifted to the dim corners of the room where dim shapes gathered, as if anticipating something would emerge. “I’m not safe. It’s still out there. It knows about me. It looked at me like I was next.”

Adrian gave a slow nod. “I believe you. And we’re going to make sure it doesn’t get to anyone else. But to do that, we need to know what you saw.”

Desmond’s fingers twisted into the blanket, bunching it. He shook his head. “You don’t understand. It wasn’t an animal. It wasn’t anything.”

The Dark coiled behind Jared’s ribs. Listening. Knowing.

Adrian reached out but didn’t touch him yet. “Desmond… breathe with me, okay? You’re safe here. The police are outside. We’re here. Nothing can get to you.”

“It found us in the warehouse,” Desmond whispered. “We heard it first. Rico said it was probably rats. But rats don’t make the whole place go quiet. Not like that. It was like everything stopped breathing.”

A chill skated over Jared’s skin.

Adrian kept the sound of his voice composed. “What happened next?”

“We went to check it out. Rico said we should just run, but... we were stupid. And then... It grabbed him. No warning. No scream. Faster than thought, faster than sound. Just gone.” Desmond's eyes unfocused, staring at the wall as though it played the memory back.

His voice faltered slightly. Adrian reached out, touching his shoulder lightly.

Desmond kept talking, words rushing out now that the dam had cracked. “I ran. I didn’t look back. I hid behind the drums. I could hear it… breathing. Sniffing. Like it was smelling the air. It stepped so quietly, like it knew how to be sneaky. It wasn’t behaving like an animal.”

“How did it move?” Jared asked quietly before he could stop himself.

Desmond shuddered. “Wrong.”

Adrian shot Jared a quick, warning look. Slow down.

Jared nodded.

Desmond closed his eyes, shaking. "Its head jerked up. Like it sensed me. I held my breath. I tried not to cry. And then it made this sound. A clicking sound, like claws tapping metal. It was talking to something."

Adrian leaned forward. “Talking?”

Desmond shrugged. “It just sounded like something answering itself. Echoes. Or voices.” He swallowed. “Or more than one.”

Jared’s pulse kicked hard. Adrian’s jaw tensed.

Desmond kept going. “I hid. But I swear… I swear it knew I was there. And it let me live.”

Jared stiffened. “Why would it do that?”

Desmond looked at him again, his gaze keen despite his terror. "I don't know, but it looked at me the way you do."

The room became motionless.

Adrian shot Jared a look that was half warning, half worry.

The Dark spread through his chest. Ink blooming in water. Not angry. Not hungry. Intrigued. Acknowledgment sparked inside it.

Jared stepped back, putting more distance between himself and Desmond. “I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Desmond’s breath trembled. “You both don’t know how lucky you are. You didn’t see what it did to Rico. You didn’t see its eyes.”

“Can you describe them?” Adrian asked.

Desmond nodded shakily. “They were… reptile eyes. But wrong. Wrong colors. Wrong shape. Like a machine tried to copy them but didn’t know how.”

Adrian gave Jared a tight look.

Desmond’s trembling intensified, fear mounting again. “I can’t talk about it anymore. Please. Please don’t make me.”

Adrian stood slowly. “We won’t push you. You’ve done more than enough.”

He looked toward Jared. A gesture: come here, but slowly.

Jared moved one step closer. Deliberate. Calm. Underneath, the Dark pulled at him, leash-tight, hungry for the fear in the room. Wanting to taste it. He kept his breathing steady. A hitch, almost hidden, as he resisted the Dark’s push. Shoulders relaxed, but a twitch ran through them, betraying the struggle inside.

Desmond stared, caught between fascination and terror. “What are you?”

Jared knelt down. Not close, but enough to feel a little less like a towering shade. “I’m someone who understands monsters,” he said. “And who stops them.”

Desmond swallowed. “You didn’t stop it.”

“Not yet,” Jared said.

Something softened in Desmond’s expression. Not trust, not exactly, but a loosening of the frantic edge. “It talked,” he uttered. “It looked at Rico, and it looked like it was thinking. Like it knew what it was doing.”

Jared felt Adrian stiffen behind him.

“Desmond,” Adrian said in a soothing tone, “did it look like me? Did it have the darkness coming out of it?”

Desmond nodded. “Yes.”

Jared’s insides twisted.

Adrian put a hand on the back of Jared’s shoulder. Steady, grounding. “We will take it from here,” he told Desmond. “You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

Desmond shook his head weakly. “I’m always going to be afraid.”

“No,” Adrian said, tone unshaken. “Not always.”

Footsteps echoed in the hallway. A nurse passed, voices shifting behind her. The air stirred. The curtain trembled. Desmond’s shoulders tensed, his body recoiling from the disturbance at the room’s edge.

Adrian moved in front of the curtain, subtly blocking the opening again. “I’m going to get the doctor and make sure you get something to help you sleep. Jared will stay right outside. You’ve done enough for today.”

Desmond stared at Jared. “You won’t let it get me, right?”

Jared swallowed. The Dark answered before he did. Coiling tight, focused, predatory.

He forced the sound of his voice to remain steady. “Right.”

Desmond sagged back into the pillows, exhausted tears tracking down his cheeks.

Adrian squeezed Jared’s arm once and walked toward the door to alert the doctor.

Jared lingered one moment longer.

He had not asked the Dark to stay quiet. But it did. Watching. Thinking. Considering.

The Dark breathed through him. Cold. Silken. “He recognized us,” the dark whispered. The words lingered. Whatever haunted Desmond was real. Connected to the darkness inside Jared. Their path would be shaped by this recognition.

When Jared turned to follow Adrian, a question lingered. What if Desmond was right? The thought stayed. An echo. Shadows longer and darker than they had imagined.