The Night That Never Ends*

** Chapter 4: The last tape **

The narrow service tunnel vibrated with each movement of the creature outside. Molly crawled over rusty pipes and peeled strands, the camera flashlight illuminating thick cobwebs like deceased veils. The memory card with Ayman's tests was dirty with blood in his hands -*his blood*. Vorstaan's black liquid throbbed into his veins, distorting his vision with flashes of nightmares: *hands coming out of the walls, voices whispering in dead tongues, the triangular eye pulsating in all shadows. *

A jet of viscous liquid exploded through the hatch bars behind her. Molly shouted when acid burned her leg, but didn't stop. The tunnel ended in a three -meter free drop for a hospital waste - decaying bodies, some still moving. She jumped, falling on broken limbs that crashed under her weight.

The smell was unbearable. *They were alive.*

Mutilated patients, without eyes or mouths, grabbed their boots. Molly kicked, running between them as the camera captured the horror: *A child with tentacles coming out of the torso, a man whose head had merged with that of a dog, a pregnant woman whose open belly revealed something bright and pulsating. *

A metal ladder led to a marked "generator" door. Molly broke her with a rusty screwdriver. Inside, the diesel generator still worked, feeding the hospital's flashing lights. On the walls, ancient diagrams showed the ventilation system attached to the *Devator's altar *.

* "You can't escape what's inside you,"* a voice has -** The same double voice as Ayman.* Molly turned, but only saw shadows. The black liquid in his blood was changing it. She felt. *Hunger.*

A monitor blinked above the control panel. Vorstaan appeared, his face now disfigured by tentacles that came out of his eye orbits. *"You are starting to understand, Molly. The devourer is not a god - it is a parasite. And he chose*you*."*

The screen showed underground images. The portal was open, and the dough of meat and eyes squirmed, pulling the bodies sewn inside it. *He was growing up.*

* "I killed Ayman,"* Vorstaan laughed, his distorted voice. *"But he still breathes within Him. Like all of us."*

Molly turned off the monitor with a punch. There was only one choice: destroying the hospital. She found stacked medical oxygen tanks near the generator. *Fuel.*

The way back underground was a sacred way. The anomalous pursued her, but retreated when the black liquid in Molly shone -* they recognized the touch of the devourer in it.* On the portal, the creature now had the shape of a skeletal deer with hundreds of horns, each ending in a human hand. Her eyes were black holes where red lights sparkled like agonizing stars.

* "Molly…"* Ayman's voice came out of the creature. *"He uses me to see… to feel…"*

She positioned the tanks around the portal, her hands shake. The devourer watched, curious. * "You can't starve,"* whispered through lips that sprang on your flank. *"I am the end of everything."*

Molly ignored the tears. He stuck a piece of his coat in a tank, creating a makeshift strand. He lit him with a lighter found in a pocket.

* "I won't escape,"* she said, pointing the camera to the portal. *"But you don't either."**

The explosion was first a silence. Then light.

The fire swallowed the altar, the bodies, the devouring. The creature shouted with voices from all he had consumed -*Ayman, the patients, vorstaan*. Molly ran, but a hand of black smoke grabbed her by the ankle.

* "You are mine now,"* The devourer roared through the flames.

She pulled out the knife and cut her own skin, tearing the black liquid trying to merge her. Blooded, but set free.

The hospital collapsed. Molly ran down the corridors on fire, anomalous screaming as they burned. He found an emergency output blocked by debris - and behind her, the abandoned car silhouette.

With the last force, he climbed the rubble. The cold air of the night hit her like a miracle. She staggered to the car, threw the camera and memory card into the bench, and turned on the engine.

Ravencroft Hospital exploded on a fireball behind her. Molly accelerated along the road, the dark blood dripping from her ears. In the mirror, figures stirred in smoke - no more solid, but they were no longer dead.

* "He is still there,"* she whispered to the camera, now broadcasting live to a cloud server. *"The Devator… is in me. See the recordings. See the…"*

The cough doubled it. In the rearview mirror, his eyes shone green.

The video ends with Molly disappearing on the night road, while the broadcast cuts into the images of Ayman's memory card: nine years of horrors, to the final scene-*Vorstaan, in a secret room, voluntarily merging with a black mass, repeating "I will be immortal"*.

In the last frame, static.

And then a voice whispers:

*"I will find new hospitals. New devotees. You just postponed the inevitable."*

*End of Chapter 4.*