I continue **“Knife in the Heart II — Part 3”**, starting **CHAPTER 9**.We now enter the darkest, most psychological part of the story.--

# 🩸 **CHAPTER 9 — BLOOD CONTRACT**

The earth trembled beneath Alice's feet, as if something large and hungry was stirring beneath the surface. The girl—her nine-year-old self—took a step back, her feet leaving no footprints.

She was present, but unreal.

The Whisperer crouched beside Alice, fixing her with a gaze that felt like a razor blade sliding across her skin.

“Do you know why I brought you here?” he asked.

Alice clenched her fists.

“You didn’t bring me. I came myself.”

“Oh, Alice,” he whispered, his tone almost paternal. “If you were free… you wouldn’t follow traces that shouldn’t be there.”

“Your heart remembers the truth faster than your mind.”

The Whisperer held out his hand.

Something small, metallic appeared in his palm.

Alice froze.

**A knife.**

Short, thin, with a blade as sharp as a hair—identical to the ones used to murder people in Jezierzyce.

“Do you recognize it?” the Whisperer asked.

“No…” she whispered, though a sharp knot of fear formed in her stomach.

“Never…”

“Oh, but yes,” he interrupted gently. “You’ve held it in your hands more times than you can remember.”

The girl looked at Alice with a strange mixture of regret and understanding.

“It’s part of you.”

The Whisperer twisted the knife, and the blade reflected the faint light of the fog as if it were alive.

“Do you want to find out who really started these murders?” “Do you want to know the first stab? The first heart that was cut open?”

Alice nodded slowly, even though her whole soul screamed for her to stop.

The Whisperer placed the knife in her hand.

It was surprisingly warm.

“**It was a gift.**” he said. “And you… you were the first to accept it.”

Alice dropped it reflexively, as if it had burned.

The girl gasped.

“You were afraid then, just as you are now.”

“When?!” Alice screamed. “When did I do this? When… any of this happened?!

The Whisperer leaned closer, the whisper hitting her like a blast of ice.

“**The night you died for the first time.”**

Alice gasped.

The world began to spin.

“You closed your eyes,” he continued. “You froze.” And when you were found in the forest, you were dead for fourteen minutes.

"But he gave you back. He let you go."

"For a price."

The girl looked at Alice gently.

"**For me."

"I stayed here. With him."

"And you went on and remembered nothing, because that's how it was supposed to be."

Alice felt her knees give out.

"But now," the Whisperer spread his arms, "you've come back to complete the deal."

"What… deal…?"

The Whisperer smiled broadly, too broad for a human face.

"**That you'll give back what you took.

And you took… your own life."

"And your other half is waiting to get it back."

The girl stepped forward.

"I want to go back," she said softly. "I want to be whole."

"And you… you have to give it back."

Alice opened her mouth, but found no words.

The girl began to approach.

With every step she took, the forest darkened.

The branches twisted as if trying to escape.

Alice knew that if her younger self touched her, something would happen. Something irreversible.

"Don't come any closer," she whispered.

"Please…"

The girl stopped a meter away from her.

Her eyes flashed with golden light.

"You always did this to me."

"You asked me not to come any closer."

"You left me here… alone."

The first tear rolled down Alice's cheek.

The girl raised her hand.

The fingers gleamed palely, as if made of reflection.

— **Time to join.**

---

# 🩸 **CHAPTER 10 — RIPPING**

Alice jumped to her feet and threw herself backward, but the Whisperer moved his hand through the air—lightly, lazily. Something invisible grabbed her chest.

And **held her.**

She couldn't breathe.

She couldn't move.

She couldn't scream.

The girl stepped closer.

"You came to take me," she said gently. "So take me."

The Whisperer leaned over Alice, his voice ringing like bells from the bottom of a lake.

"You tore your soul in two, Alice."

"I'm just helping you sew it back together."

The girl touched Alice's chest.

Not her skin.

Just the place where her heart beat.

Alice felt a searing pain.

A pain so deep, it felt like someone was reaching right into her.

"Stop..." she gasped.

"We're finishing what we started," the girl said.

The world went white.

And then silence.

A silence that felt like death.

--

# 🩸 **CHAPTER 11 - A RETURN THAT IS NOT A RETURN**

Alice opened her eyes.

She was lying on the floor of some room—a cold, stone one.

The walls were covered with mirrors.

In each reflection, she saw herself.

But not this self.

A thousand versions of herself: younger, older, dead, bleeding, smiling, crying, pale as wax.

All were looking at her.

And in the center of the room—the girl stood.

No longer nine.

Now she was perhaps sixteen.

Taller. Paler. Empty.

The evolution of her lost part.

"I am connecting," she said melodically. "I am returning to be whole."

Whispering He stood beside her, indistinct, hazy, as if he were only a reflection instead of a real being.

"Alice, Alice," he sang softly. "You will finally understand what you are when all your reflections become one."

The girl took a step.

"Don't run away."

"It's only... a return to wholeness."

Alice backed away from the mirrored wall.

In the reflection behind her, her own eyes were black as wells.

"No," she whispered. "I won't let you. I won't give you my life."

The Whisperer laughed.

"Oh, but Alice."

"But IT doesn't belong to you."

The girl held out her hand, and the mirrors around them began to tremble.

"The moment is coming."

"The final connection."

---

## 🩸 **Want a sequel (CHAPTERS 12–15)?**

In the next installment:

* Reflections will begin to emerge from the mirrors.

* Alice will discover the *true form* of the Whisperer.

* The girl will attempt to take over her body.

* A "heart sculpture," the key to breaking the blood contract, will appear.

* And Alice—or her reflections—will face her first real "knife in the heart."

**Continue?**