The safe house was as desolate as the road that led to it—a place forgotten, tucked away in the creases of the world. Ava exited the car, the gravel crunching in her boots, the noise too jarring in the silence. The air was colder here, the wind biting, with an undertone of something unpleasant.
Rohit was already at the door, his stance rigid, his every step calculated. He glanced over his shoulder, catching Ava's eye, before nodding for her to come along.
"Stay close," he instructed, his tone low, but insistent.
Ava didn't ask him anything. She trailed behind him, entering a room that hardly seemed to have been occupied. The walls were empty, the furniture meager, and the light came solely from a flickering bulb suspended above their heads.
The door closed with a click behind them, and at once, Ava sensed the crushing weight of the world upon her breast. The silence here was unlike anything else—thicker, more oppressive. It was as if the house were holding its breath, waiting for. waiting for them.
Rohit stepped into the corner, produced something from a bag—maps, files, loose papers. He laid them out on the table, his hands flying, tracing paths, taking notes.
"You're not going to tell me what's happening?" Ava snapped, her voice cutting.
Rohit gazed up, his face an unreadable mask. "I don't know everything yet."
"Then tell me what you do know," she insisted, moving closer.
He rubbed his jaw, a muscle spasming beneath his skin. "It's more than we imagined, Ava. This—whatever this is—it's not about us. We're involved in something much more sinister."
Ava's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"There's a pattern to all of this. The fires, the messages, the people we've crossed paths with. It's all connected. And it's not going to stop until we figure out who's behind it."
Her heart hammered in her chest, but she forced herself to remain calm. "So, who's behind it?"
Rohit shook his head. "I don't know. But I'm getting closer. I've been tracing back the connections, the people who might have had a reason to—"
A loud bang interrupted him. It echoed through the room like a gunshot. Ava froze, her eyes wide, her breath catching in her throat.
Rohit was already at the door, moving quickly, but with caution. Ava trailed after him, her heart pounding in her chest. They moved stealthily down the short hallway, their feet quiet on the old, creaky wooden boards. The noise had originated from the back of the house—the one area they hadn't ventured into.
Ava's brain was reeling with possibilities. Was it a trap? Were they observed? Or had someone tracked them down?
Rohit paused before the door, his muscles tense, each muscle poised to spring into action. He looked back at Ava, his expression unyielding. "Stay behind me," he breathed.
Ava nodded, her heartbeat accelerating. The last thing she wanted was to be ambushed.
Rohit pushed the door open, and the dark hallway light only penetrated as far as the threshold. The room was cold, vacant, except for one chair in the middle. A chair bound with leather straps.
Ava's stomach lurched.
"What the fuck is going on here?" she breathed.
Rohit didn't respond. He moved into the room, his eyes sweeping the darkness, searching for something. Anything.
The wind screamed outside, shaking the windows, but within, the air was quiet. Too quiet.
Ava got a shiver up her spine, one that had nothing to do with the cold. Something was off here.
And then she saw it.
A piece of paper. Torn, crumpled, and nearly lost in the darkness. She picked it up, her fingers shaking, and slowly unrolled it.
The note was brief—too brief.
"They know."
Ava's breath caught in her throat. The handwriting was jagged, frantic. It didn't make sense. Who was it from? And what did it say?
"Who knows?" she asked, turning to Rohit.
He didn't answer immediately. Instead, he went to the opposite side of the room, where a small, hidden door was slightly ajar.
Ava trailed behind him, her eyes on the door. It was smaller than the others, hardly noticeable.
Without a word, Rohit pushed it open, and the air was filled with the smell of old wood and dust. A staircase descended into the blackness below, inside.
Ava's heart missed a beat. "Where does that go?"
Rohit paused, his hand resting on the doorframe. "I don't know. But I'm not taking any chances. We have to see what's down there."
Their weight creaked the stairs as they made their way down into the darkness, the only noise their breathing, the only illumination the dim light from the hall behind them.
The further down, the chillier it was. Walls appeared to draw in, and air clung heavy with something inexplicable. Something amiss.
Downstairs, the darkness closed in around them like a wall, engulfing them whole. Ava could hardly see the shapes around them—metal racks, ancient crates, and boxes piled chaotically. But down in the middle of the room, there was a table.
A table littered with ancient, yellowed papers. Photos. Files.
And in the midst of it all, something that made Ava's gut plummet.
A picture.
Her uncle. Alive. Smiling. But behind him, a shadow—too tall, too dark, standing just beyond the reach of the light. A figure she didn't know.
Ava's breath was frozen in her throat. "Who is that?" she whispered, hardly able to speak.
Rohit moved forward, his face white. "We need to leave now. Right away."
But already too late.
In the shadows, a soft noise. Footsteps.
Ava's eyes flew wide. "There's someone there."
And then—nothing.
A deafening silence.
The room was silent. The kind that crawled up your skin and caught in your throat. Ava's heart pounded in her chest, and her eyes scanned the room, looking for the sound of the footsteps. But the darkness gave nothing away—only shadows that seemed to lengthen with each ticking second.
Rohit's face was a mask, but she noticed the rigidity of his shoulders. He was also listening, as she was, trying to identify the direction from which the sound came. The footsteps had ceased, but that merely amplified the deafening quiet.
"Ava," he whispered urgently, his voice constricted. "Stay by me.
She nodded, not daring to speak. Her head spun, trying to make sense of all that had occurred in the last few days. The fire, the notes, the unshakeable feeling that something much larger was at work than either of them had known. And now, here they were in this dark secret room, surrounded by proof of something that did not compute.
Rohit stepped forward slowly, his hand resting close to the gun holstered at his waist. Ava felt the tension of it in the air, like the quiet before a storm. She trailed behind him, every step creaking loudly on the wooden floorboards beneath them, her senses on high alert.
The room looked like it went on and on, but everything in it, every inch, was off. The crates. The boxes. The papers spilled across the tabletop. Every one of them, out of place, wrong. As if they had designed the room to get under their skin. Make them feel vulnerable. Exposed.
Ava's foot suddenly snagged on something, and she stumbled forward, bracing herself against the metal shelf. The ringing clang of her body on the chilly metal echoed unnaturally loudly in the quiet of the room.
Her own breath froze in her throat as she waited for an answer. Was anyone answering?
Rohit's hand flashed out, grasping her arm, his hold hard enough to bruise. "Shh," he breathed.
They froze, listening once more. But this time, there was nothing. No footsteps.
Only a low hum. A muffled sound, barely perceptible, from further in the room. A machine? Or something else?
Ava's gut knotted. She needed to know what was down here. What they had walked into.
"Rohit," she whispered, her voice shaking despite herself. "What is this place?"
He didn't respond right away. His gaze darted to the darkness, his posture tense, as if he was attempting to hold something back—some sort of fear, perhaps, or rage. Ava had no idea. She had no idea about anything anymore.
But as she could get out a further word, the hum increased in volume. The sound appeared to throb, a rhythmic thud that resonated through the air itself, like the pulse of some thing too large to comprehend.
"Back off," Rohit exclaimed suddenly, his voice low and strained.
Ava hardly had a chance to respond before he yanked her behind him, the gun clutched in his hand now out completely, the barrel glinting in the faint light. She felt the tension in his body, the rigidity of his muscles as they tensed for movement at a second's notice.
"What's going on?" Ava asked, her voice barely above a whisper. She wanted answers. Needed answers. But the fear was making it hard to think clearly.
"Stay behind me," Rohit repeated, his eyes scanning the shadows, darting from one corner of the room to the next. "There's something here—something we're not supposed to see."
Abruptly, a thunderous crash sounded from the back of the room, followed by a menacing growl—a sound that was more bestial.
Ava's blood turned cold.
In a split second, she picked up the first thing she saw—a rusty metal pipe from one of the boxes—and held it extended in front of her. Her heart pounded within her chest, her breathing in rapid, shallow gasps.
"Rohit, we have to go," she whispered urgently. But her words stuck in her throat as she saw it. A shadow. A figure. Standing at the far end of the room.
The shape shifted, and with it came the unmistakable sound of metal on floor.
"Who is there?" Rohit shouted out, his voice now crisp, demanding a response.
The figure stood still.
Then, it shifted again.
But this time, it was quicker. Much quicker. The figure flashed towards them, a blur in the darkness. Ava hardly had a chance to respond before it crashed into Rohit, slamming him to the ground with such force that it rattled the floor.
Ava screamed and flailed the pipe with every ounce of force she had. But the figure had already vanished, dashing back into the darkness with an unnatural quickness, leaving only the slightest echo of movement behind.
Rohit struggled to his feet, his eyes crazed, his face smudged with dirt and grime. "Get out of here!" he cried, his voice urgent.
No," Ava snapped, not budging. She was afraid, but she wasn't going anywhere. Not now. "We're not going anywhere until we sort this out."
But before they could even take another step, the hum from before intensified, louder, more insistent, vibrating through the walls. The lights flashed. The floor trembled beneath their feet.
The walls closed in.
Ava's breath came in ragged gasps as she tried to make sense of what was happening. The air was thick with tension, with something malevolent. The walls themselves seemed to be pulsating, alive with an energy that made her skin crawl.
And then, as if on cue, the sound stopped. The lights flickered one last time before plunging the room into complete darkness.
Ava's heart pounded, but she wouldn't panic. She wouldn't give in. She wouldn't be scared.
"Rohit?" she whispered, her voice shaking in the darkness.
There was no reply.
"Rohit?" she called once more, this time loudly. Her voice was tense, but there was silence.
She stretched out, her fingers grazing the cold, hard walls, seeking something—anything—to grasp. But the room went on and on, the shadows drawing in.
And then, without warning, a pair of cold hands wrapped around her wrist.
........
𝑬𝑵𝑱𝑶𝒀𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀? 𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑫𝑳𝒀 𝑫𝑶 𝑺𝑶𝑴𝑬 𝑹𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑮. 𝑰𝑻 𝑯𝑬𝑳𝑷𝑺 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀 𝑻𝑶 𝑮𝑹𝑶𝑾...!
𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙨𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨.