Chapter Text
When light lit the dark for the first time in many years, the Entity stirred against the grip of slumber and opened its hollow eyes.
It was not within reach, this light. Far away, a mere flicker in the night, cold with time and distance — but getting closer, and closer, and closer still. Only a matter of time before it arrived, bringing with it daylit warmth. The Entity flexed, shaking loose the rust of dormancy. Its awareness poured outward, spreading back into the mortal body it had gained when its Master first summoned the Entity from the void.
The body. The house. The Entity’s prison and its freedom forged of ribcage rafters and a heart of hand-carved eaves. Skin of shingles and bones of brick, eyes of glass and teeth of masonry. The old bones of the house creaked as the Entity stretched within its walls. Pushing at them. Pulsing. Finding its heartbeat in the settling of the stones.
In the yard, the ancient oak swayed upon the wind. The Entity filled its branches, felt moonlight on its face for the first time in decades, and reached for the iron fence. Sleep-dulled awareness brushed cool metal, then stretched past, grasping for the glimmer of light flickering on the lost horizon —
Leaves lurched back; bark balked; roots recoiled. Cold iron etched with symbols of restraint bound the Entity in place within the house and its sprawling grounds. It could not go past the fence. It had never been allowed past the fence. Nothing had changed since it last awoke. Nothing had changed since it traded its Master for silence and sleep, all those years before.
But that light...
The Entity withdrew from the tree. It crept through the house and into the uppermost tower. Slowly it gathered the pieces of itself until it could stand upright before the window. Hollow eyes, cicada-shell skull, all teeth and bones that rattled in the dark — an unholy thing with a terrifying smile, empty chest aching, torn open with agony...and hope.
Because that light promised many things, and chief among them: change.
The Entity bared its teeth in a smile. It kept watch and giddy vigil as the light drew near — and, anticipating, it laughed, long and loud into the night.
