Sebastian meets Anima, a ghostly giantess, while exploring Union. Anima's episodes reinforce the harmful aspects of the player/character bond explored at 345 Cedar Avenue. Sebastian and the player can only survive by re-enacting The Evil Within's stalker gameplay using evasion and stealth, the strategies that fortified Sebastian's unhealthy coping during the interlude.

Anima's character design signals Sebastian's fear of Beacon. She is a collage of impressions from The Evil Within, many of which are drawn from Laura, his old nemesis. Anima wears her hair over her face, Onryō-style, as Laura had. Torn fabric encircles her body, mimicking Laura's nimbus of arms. Anima shifts between a slow gait and a dash, suggesting Laura's erratic movements while giving chase, and she kills on contact just as Laura had.

Her acoustics reinforce her symbolic meaning as well. The feedback that marked Sebastian's entrance into STEM whines in the background when her laughter first plays from the PlayStation4's controller. She sings an etherized version of Debussy's "Clare de Lune," the song that alerted Sebastian to nearby mirrors, which gave him access to his save room in The Evil Within. She mocks his memories of safety.

She stalks areas decked in Beacon's aesthetic. The spaces reflect more than Beacon's look and feel. They demand that the player and Sebastian perform the winning strategies from The Evil Within — run and hide — reuniting them on familiar terms.