It Dies With You

The fog thickened as Jessica stepped out of the car, the air carrying the damp scent of moss and old stone. The monastery loomed before them, its pale walls softened by centuries of erosion, the arched entrance yawning open like a mouth that had waited too long to speak.

Jessica ran a hand over the cold surface of the outer wall. She had been here before. Not in this life. Not in any way that made sense. But she had walked these halls, heard footsteps echo through the corridors, felt the weight of the stone beneath her fingers. And something inside her, something ancient, knew exactly where to go.

The interior was dim, the high ceilings broken in places where time had carved through the structure, letting shafts of weak light spill through. The floor was uneven beneath their boots, cracked stone and old wood beneath layers of dust.

Jessica walked ahead, following something deeper than instinct. A pull, a memory, a ghost of a past that didn’t belong to her.

Leanna and Olivia followed without question. They had been with her long enough to know that this wasn’t just a hunch. This was something buried waking up.

Jessica’s footsteps slowed as they entered what had once been the main chapel. The remnants of an altar still stood at the far end, its carvings weathered but not forgotten. And at the center of it there was a stone slab, untouched by time.

Jessica stepped closer, her breath shallow. There were markings on the surface. Faint, nearly erased by centuries. But she could read them. She shouldn’t have been able to. But she could.

Leanna shifted beside her. “What does it say?”

Jessica traced the letters with her fingertips.

Her voice came out quiet, “The vessel will remember.”

A chill ran down her spine. She took a step back. She heard a quiet creak from somewhere deeper inside the ruins. The sound of a door opening.

Jessica’s hand went to her gun. Leanna and Olivia moved in sync, slipping into position, bodies tense. From the darkness beyond the altar, a figure stepped forward.

The man was tall, his face lined with age but his posture straight, controlled. He wore a dark cassock, the hem brushing the dust-covered stone, but the presence he carried was anything but that of a simple monk. He stopped at the edge of the altar, studying them in the silence.

Then his eyes settled on Jessica. There was no surprise in them. Only recognition.

“You found your way home,” he said.

Jessica’s grip on her gun tightened. “Who are you?”

The man exhaled, the faintest trace of a smile on his lips. “A keeper.”

Jessica’s pulse quickened. She had heard that word before. Not in this life. In the fragments. The memories she had been forced to forget.

She squared her shoulders. “What are you keeping?”

The man studied her carefully. Then, slowly, deliberately, he placed a hand on the stone slab. And replied like the answer was too obvious, “You.”

The word hit her like a blow to the ribs. Jessica’s breath caught. She glanced at Leanna and Olivia, saw the flicker of unease in their eyes.

She turned back to the man. “Explain.”

The keeper’s voice was calm, steady. “You are the last. The final vessel. The memory lives in you now.”

Jessica swallowed hard, “And if I don’t want it?”

The man tilted his head slightly. “Then the past dies with you.”

The words echoed in her skull.

“Then it dies with you.”

She had heard them before. In the dream. In the memory.

Jessica exhaled. “What happens if I remember?”

The keeper’s eyes darkened, “Then everything changes.”

Jessica stared at him, the weight of centuries pressing down on her. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. But she had come too far to turn back now.