Damien opened his eyes slowly. His heart was pounding. The cold air in the room brushed across his skin like whispers from the underworld. He sat up, dazed, eyes darting around. He was in his room. The lights were dim, and Brian lay peacefully on his bed, his chest rising and falling. Damien rubbed his face and whispered, "Was it all a dream?". But as he turned his head, something pulled him, an instinct. His eyes landed on The Blood Prophecy book lying wide open on his table, its pages glowing faintly with red symbols.
He stood up carefully and walked towards it. The moment he touched the edge, the glow intensified, and a new sentence appeared across the page in bold, crimson letters:
"To rise, the demon requires three: the Host, the Protector, and the Betrayer."
His breath caught in his throat. "Brian," he said urgently, not loud, but enough to rattle the silence. "Brian, you need to come see this."
Brian stirred and rolled on his bed; he was a light sleeper. "What's up?" he asked, sitting up slowly.
Damien didn't wait. "Look at this page." He said as Brian walked over, eyes half-closed, but the moment he read the sentence, his face changed. Twisted. "Three roles?" he echoed, voice low.
"Wait, hold on, who the hell wrote this prophecy?" Brian flipped the pages. At the bottom, in tiny cursive writing, it read:
The Guardian of the Demon's Prison.
Damien's eyes sharpened. "I've seen that title before. It was written on a stone when we were under the statue. It wasn't just metaphorical. It's real."
They read further:
"The Host will carry the darkness,
The Protector will sacrifice to seal it,
And the Betrayer will break the seal to unleash it again upon itself."
Damien stepped back. His stomach twisted. "Elizabeth... she might be the Host. Maybe I am. But this... these changes everything."
Brian's hands trembled slightly as he whispered, "Wait… what if one of us is the Protector?" He froze. Damien turned to him slowly. "It has to be you," Damien said. Brian blinked, confused. "What?" "Your ancestor was the Guardian," Damien said. "The book confirmed it. You had that dream, chains, fire, raging voices. You said it yourself". Brian's eyes widened. "Oh my God… I thought it was just a nightmare." Damien's voice grew cold, serious. "It wasn't just a dream; you're the Protector of what is going to happen. And you have to be prepared!". "But what if I'm the betrayer?" Brian guessed. "I don't think so, someone else is the betrayer." Brian stumbled backward and leaned on the wall and let out a heavy sigh. "Then there's still one left... the Betrayer." Silence filled the room. The air seemed to grow colder. His thoughts were already racing fast, deep, and dark.
Suddenly, the book flipped on its own to a new page. A faint image began to draw itself in the paper, lines, eyes, a face slowly coming into view, it was a hint of the betrayer, or the host, or maybe the protector.
Damien's heart dropped. He saw it and recognized it instantly. But he said nothing. He looked at Brian, who stared at the forming image, confused.
"Who is that?" Brian asked.
Damien paused and looked. "It's just a face… maybe one of the witches", he lied, "but it could be a sign." Brian retaliated, "Trust me, it's not what you should be worried about!" Damien added quickly, before closing the book.
But deep down, he knew the person.
The person has been there all this time.
And it was wearing the Oscar name.