Darius Kane forced himself upright despite the pain still radiating through his back, preparing to charge Ozhin again before the demon could recover.
He barely managed one step before an invisible force wrapped around his throat and lifted him more than three feet off the floor.
The pressure felt like steel clamps closing around his neck, instantly cutting off his air while Ozhin simultaneously regained control over the water pouring through the house.
Darius clawed uselessly at empty space, his face rapidly turning red as the veins in his neck stood out.
“Fuck…” escaped from his throat as little more than a strangled rasp, and for the first time that night, he genuinely felt he might black out before finding another countermeasure.
Ozhin might be forbidden from deliberately killing an unrelated person, but apparently choking Darius unconscious was perfectly acceptable under the rules.
Quinn panicked the instant she saw him rise into the air.
She remained inside the protected ward with Jordan in her arms, desperately trying to think of some way to help without stepping directly into Ozhin’s reach.
Leaving the circle would give the demon exactly what it wanted, yet doing nothing might allow Darius to suffocate before the curse’s rules forced Ozhin to stop.
Just as Quinn was about to risk everything, the glow stick lying on the floor suddenly brightened again, and her phone screen flickered back to life beside it.
For half a second she simply stared, confused by the sudden change.
Then she understood.
Ozhin was dividing its attention.
The demon was simultaneously holding Darius, manipulating the broken plumbing, and maintaining its interference with the electronics around them.
Apparently, that was too much to sustain at once, and the moment its concentration shifted, the phone and backup lights began functioning again.
Quinn grabbed the device so quickly that she nearly dropped it, opened the saved exorcism prayer, and raised the crucifix with her free hand.
“Regna terrae, cantate Deo…” she shouted, forcing the words out despite her trembling voice.
Holy force immediately struck Ozhin, sending its dark body staggering backward and breaking the invisible grip around Darius’s throat.
Darius hit the floor hard and rolled onto one side, coughing violently as air finally returned to his lungs.
His throat burned with every breath, but underneath the pain was a surge of satisfaction.
They had discovered another weakness by accident: Ozhin’s supernatural control wasn’t limitless.
The more things it manipulated simultaneously, the less effectively it could suppress everything else.
More importantly, Quinn had recognized the opportunity without needing him to explain it, proving she was no longer the terrified nurse who had barely believed him two days earlier.
Good teammate.
Darius had suffered through enough horror movies where supposedly intelligent protagonists froze at the worst possible moment, screamed instead of acting, or dropped the only useful weapon they had.
Quinn was doing the opposite.
She had adapted, remembered the plan, and used the first opening she saw.
His decision to risk himself outside the ward hadn’t been wasted.
While Quinn continued reciting the prayer, Darius pushed himself upright and followed the direction she was staring.
A side table suddenly shot across the floor and crashed against the wall, clearly knocked away by Ozhin’s retreating body.
Darius didn’t hesitate.
“Now!” He lunged forward and wrapped both arms around the empty space where Quinn’s gaze was fixed.
Instead of passing through nothing, his hands closed around something impossibly cold and solid.
The sensation sent a shock through his entire body.
Ozhin screamed.
The sound was so unnatural that Darius couldn’t compare it to any human or animal noise he’d ever heard.
Quinn kept the crucifix raised and continued the prayer while Darius held on, his salt-coated clothes, crosses, rooster blood, and improvised protective layers pressing directly against the demon.
Sparks erupted through the darkness, and Ozhin’s body distorted like corrupted video on a damaged screen.
Darius couldn’t see any of it, but he could feel the thing twisting violently inside his arms.
Then it vanished.
His arms suddenly closed around empty air, throwing him off balance and nearly sending him face-first onto the floor.
Darius caught himself at the last second and immediately looked toward Quinn.
“What happened?
Did we get it?” Quinn stared at the place where Ozhin had been, breathing hard as she tried to process what she’d just witnessed.
“Its body started twisting, then it broke apart like smoke.
It’s gone.” Neither of them had time to celebrate before every light in the house suddenly came back on.
The brightness hit their dark-adjusted eyes so harshly that both instinctively shielded their faces.
At the same moment, the violent rush of water stopped throughout the house.
The broken pipes fell silent, the outside hydrant stopped spraying, and the supernatural pressure that had hung over the living room seemed to disappear completely.
Within seconds, the chaos of the previous hour had been replaced by the ordinary silence of late night.
Quinn slowly lowered her hand.
“It’s really gone…” Darius wasn’t ready to make that assumption yet.
“Maybe.
But we don’t celebrate until the timer is finished.” Quinn looked at him, then suddenly burst out laughing.
Darius frowned.
“What?” She pointed at him.
Only then did he look down.
Both of them were covered in dried rooster blood, patches of glue, salt, and layers of plastic wrap that had shifted and torn during the fight.
Darius’s hair was a mess, his shirt looked as though someone had dipped it in a craft project from hell, and Quinn looked equally ridiculous.
For several seconds they simply stared at one another.
Then Darius laughed too.
Quinn’s laughter quickly turned into tears.
She crossed the room and hugged him tightly, this time with none of the panic from before.
The fear, exhaustion, and pressure of expecting to die had finally found somewhere to escape, and she cried against his shoulder while still laughing between breaths.
Darius let her remain there for a short while before gently guiding her back inside the ward.
“Don’t get careless.” Quinn wiped at her eyes.
“You really think it’s coming back?” “I think horror movies love killing people during the celebration.” That was enough to make her immediately serious again.
Darius had learned long ago that victory was often most dangerous in the moment when everyone assumed the threat was finished.
Ozhin appeared destroyed or at least driven away, but Quinn’s countdown hadn’t ended yet.
Until the app itself proved otherwise, Darius wanted them inside the surviving ward with every remaining protection close at hand.
“Check the timer.” Quinn quickly unlocked her phone.
58 minutes remaining.
Darius nodded.
“Then we wait.” Quinn sat beside Jordan again while Darius lowered himself onto the opposite end of the sofa, every muscle in his body complaining after the beating he’d taken.
Water still covered parts of the floor and continued dripping from damaged sections deeper in the house, making the repair bill obvious even before daylight arrived.
Darius glanced toward the flooded hallway and said, “Your house is going to need serious work after this.” Quinn laughed weakly.
“Probably.” “Expensive work.” “I don’t care.” She looked at Jordan sleeping peacefully beside her.
“Compared to being alive, it’s nothing.” Neither said much after that.
They were both exhausted from staying awake all night, and adrenaline had finally begun wearing off now that Ozhin was gone.
Quinn repeatedly rubbed her irritated eyes while checking the timer every few minutes.
Darius kept scanning the windows and hallways, unwilling to fully relax despite how quiet everything had become.
Fifty minutes.
Forty-five.
Forty.
Thirty-five.
Thirty.
Time had never moved so slowly.
Twenty-five minutes.
Twenty.
Fifteen.
Ten.
Five.
Still nothing happened.
No shadows appeared and lights failed.
No dead relatives called from the hallway.
Ozhin did not return.
When the timer finally dropped below one minute, Quinn moved closer to Darius and grabbed his hand.
Her palm was damp with sweat despite the cold room, and her eyes remained locked on the screen as the final seconds disappeared one by one.
“Please,” she whispered repeatedly.
“Please let this be over.” Her heartbeat seemed loud enough for Darius to hear.
00:00:05.
00:00:04.
00:00:03.
00:00:02.
00:00:01.
00:00:00.
The moment the countdown reached zero, the black interface began dissolving across the screen like ice melting beneath sunlight.
Quinn stared in disbelief as the numbers vanished, followed by the app itself closing without input.
She returned to the home screen and froze.
The Countdown icon was gone.
Not disabled.
Not hidden.
Gone.
Quinn slowly turned toward Darius.
“Darius…?” Before he could answer, the familiar Horror Town interface appeared across his vision.
[Official Trial: COUNTDOWN — Completed.] [Main Mission Complete.] [Return Options: Return Immediately / Return in One Hour.] Darius stared at the message for a second.
Then smiled.
A real, exhausted smile.
“We did it.” Quinn’s eyes widened.
“What?” “It’s over.” She still looked afraid to believe him.
Darius nodded firmly.
“Ozhin’s gone.
The curse is broken.
You’re safe.” Quinn screamed.
Not in fear this time.
She threw herself against him with enough force to nearly knock him backward, wrapping both arms around his chest while laughing uncontrollably.
Darius winced as the hug pressed against every bruise Ozhin had given him.
“Easy.
I just got thrown into a wall twice.” “Sorry!” She loosened her grip for half a second.
Then hugged him again.
Darius laughed and patted the back of her head.
“Apparently ‘sorry’ doesn’t mean much to you.” Quinn buried her face against his chest, still laughing through tears.
Outside the windows, the first light of dawn had begun appearing along the horizon, slowly pushing away the darkness that had surrounded the house all night.
For Quinn, it probably felt like the first sunrise she’d genuinely expected never to see.
She remained there for several minutes before finally stepping back and wiping her face.
“Darius…” Her expression became serious despite the tearful smile.
“I don’t know how I’m ever supposed to repay you.
You saved me, you protected Jordan, and you almost got killed doing it.” She swallowed before adding, “If there’s ever anything I can do for you, anything at all, just ask.” Darius looked down at himself.
Blood.
Salt.
Glue.
Plastic wrap.
Then he looked at Quinn, who appeared just as disastrous.
“We can discuss gratitude later.” She blinked.
“Right now, we need showers.” Quinn looked down at herself.
Then laughed again.
“Yeah.” Darius glanced toward the ruined living room.
“That should probably come before explaining any of this to Jordan.” For the first time since entering Countdown, neither of them had to wonder whether they’d still be alive an hour later.
The trial was over.
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