# 🩸 **CHAPTER 6 — THE HOUSE THAT DOESN'T EXIST**
The fog over Jezierzyce was thick as a sheepskin, suffocating, heavy. Alice marched along the deserted road, feeling the same sensation on the back of her neck that had woken her from nightmares since childhood—as if someone were walking right behind her, step by step, perfectly synchronized with her breathing.
But when she turned around, all she saw was milky white.
And the black, vertical lines of trees.
Finally, she reached the place where her family home should have stood.
But there was nothing there but a burnt, black circle.
Not ruins.
Not foundations.
Only coal.
As if the house had never existed.
Alice shivered. She knelt down and touched the ground—it was cold, surprisingly smooth. She found no shards of pottery, no metal nails, no remnants of plumbing. Nothing that should have been left behind by the fire.
Carefully swept.
Wiped.
“It's not… possible,” she whispered.
The wind shifted.
The fog began to recede, revealing the space before her—and then Alice saw them.
**Footprints.**
Burnt, perfectly symmetrical, as if the embers had left a path. A string of footprints led toward the forest, straight through the dark pines.
They were single.
Someone light.
Someone… familiar.
Alice held her breath when she noticed that the footprints were the same size as her mother.
But her mother was dead.
She took the first step.
Then she heard a voice emerging from the fog—soft, yet perfectly clear.
— **Alice… don't come back here.**
— **This isn't for you.**
For a second, she was sure she was hearing her mother.
But then the voice changed—hardened, became lower, more echoing.
— **You always go back too far.**
Alice felt an icy chill run down her spine.
And then something appeared beside her.
She didn't hear footsteps.
She didn't feel air.
It just suddenly *was*.
**Whispering.**
He wasn't looking at her. He was staring at the ground—at the tracks leading into the forest.
"This wasn't your story… until you opened it," he said, tilting his head. "And now it's too late."
Alice tried to find the voice.
"What does that mean?"
The Whisperer smiled—not with his lips, but with the same gesture she'd once seen in the reflection.
"That what crawled out of the hearts of the dead… returns to finish what was started."
He pointed to the tracks.
"They're coming for her."
"And you… you're coming for them."
Alice clenched her fists.
"I won't let you decide for me."
The Whisperer turned his head, like a cat curiously observing someone's recklessness.
"**But I don't decide…**" he said. "**I'm just showing you.**"
"**You're the one who always chooses the worst path."**
Alice felt her legs carry her forward.
Toward the forest.
Toward tracks that couldn't possibly exist.
---
# 🩸 **CHAPTER 7 — CLOSED FOREST**
The forest greeted her with dampness and a heavy air that smelled musty and metallic. Each footstep sounded unnaturally loud.
Her mother's footsteps went deeper, farther and farther from the paths' edges, until they finally reached a place where trees grew strangely, too close together, and branches intertwined like ribs.
The forest was unnaturally quiet here.
At the center of this silence was a clearing.
And in it…
Alice froze.
Because in the center of the clearing sat a **child**. Eight years old, maybe nine. With blond hair, a dirty T-shirt, and bare feet. It swayed slightly, as if listening to a melody no one else could hear.
Alice's heart began to pound.
Because she knew that face.
“Impossible…” she whispered.
The girl looked up.
Her eyes were exactly like her own.
Exactly like Alice’s… at the age of nine.
“You came back for me.”** said the girl.
Alice took a step forward.
“Who are you…”
“Who *was***,” the girl corrected her gently. “Not who am I.”
Alice felt the world shift beneath her feet like quicksand.
“It’s impossible. I… never…”
The girl smiled sadly.
“You always thought you escaped the forest on your own.”
Alice’s throat tightened.
“…didn’t you?”
The girl shook her head.
“Someone brought you back then. And took something in return.”
The forest began to rustle as if listening.
— **He took me.**
— **And you went on.**
Alice felt tears welling up in her eyes.
—“It’s not true… I don’t remember anything…”
“*You’re not supposed to remember anything.*” the girl replied. “He wanted it that way.”
Alice bit her lip.
“He… who is that?”
The girl slowly turned her head.
Her gaze settled on the trees behind Alice.
“The one who still stands behind you.”**
Alice didn’t want to, but she looked back.
And saw that the Whisperer wasn’t standing.
He’s **hanging** in the air.
Without a shadow.
Without a reflection.
“Don’t run away,” he said quietly. “Now we’re just getting started.”
---
# 🩸 **CHAPTER 8 — THE FIRST CRACK**
Alice drew back abruptly, but the girl grabbed her hand—cold, small, icy as stone.
“Don't leave me again.”
Alice felt her heart burst through her chest.
“Who are you…?” she whispered.
The girl She looked directly into her eyes, and then her face began to *dissolve* in a strange, disturbing way—as if it were painted with water, losing its contours.
— **I am you when you first died.**
Alice gasped.
—I… died?
The Whisperer snorted softly.
—Not all of it.
—Only the part you left here. In the forest.
—You left the girl. You took the woman.
The girl let go of Alice's hand.
She looked much older now—like the ghost of someone who had lived too short.
—And now you've come to take her.
The forest trembled.
The branches groaned.
The earth began to part like a cracking shell.
The girl looked at her pleadingly.
—It hurts me that you abandoned me.
Alice fell to her knees.
—I didn't abandon you! "Yes," the girl replied, her voice as hollow as a well. "Because otherwise... you wouldn't have come back."
The Whisperer approached slowly and placed a hand on Alice's shoulder.
"Now you understand," he whispered. "Why did you never belong entirely to the world of the living?"
Alice jerked her head up, eyes glittering with anger through tears.
"Don't touch me!"
The Whisperer smiled broadly.
"But of course, my dear Alice."
"But it was you... who came back *to me*."
---
# 🩸 **Want Part 3?**
I can continue from **Chapter 9**—it will be even darker, even more intense:
* Alice will discover the truth about the "second death."
* She will learn who really was the first murderer in Jezierzyce.
* The "Blood Contract" storyline will begin.
* The Whisperer will reveal his true form.
* The girl (her lost part) will become crucial to the ending.
**Should I continue with "Knife in the Heart II - Part 3"?**
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