The voice was nearer than it should have been.
Ava slowly turned her head, as if even that could set something off. But the corridor was empty. The door was closed. The wind outside had ceased.
But she had heard it.
Distinct. Deliberate. Poisonous.
Rohit did not budge. His body froze, eyes scanning the room like a combat-trained soldier. His hand went instinctively to his side—the gun still holstered from before.
"Ava," he murmured, "move away from the window."
Her feet failed to obey.
"Ava," he said again, more firmly this time.
She blinked away from the trance state and backed off, slowly, her heart racing behind her ribs. All her instincts were screaming that something was wrong.
Something had been altered.
And then they heard it.
Three faint knocks.
Not on the door.
On the window.
But they were on the second floor.
Ava's breath stopped.
She spun around, and Rohit moved forward, pulling in the curtain in a smooth motion, gun up—only to see.
Nothing.
Just his own face staring back at him from the broken windowpane.
"Is this some sort of joke to them?" Ava breathed.
Rohit's tone was strained. "No. It's a hunt."
She retreated into the wall. "This can't be real."
"It is," he said. "And we have to be prepared."
But before either of them could speak again, the lights went out.
Total darkness engulfed the room.
No flicker. No warning.
Just extinguished.
Ava's fingers were clenched on Rohit's jacket. "This isn't a power cut, is it?"
He shook his head. "They cut it. They want us in the dark."
Outside the motel, a low creak. The sound of footsteps.
But not panicked. Not frightened.
Calculating.
Rohit dragged Ava into the bathroom and closed the door softly. He whispered, "No noise. Don't even breathe loudly."
She nodded, her body shaking.
Down the hallway, the door to their room creaked open.
They heard it.
Both of them heard it.
Then. slow footsteps on wood.
A floorboard creaked.
Ava bit down on her lip so hard it bled.
The steps went across the room, paused. right outside the bathroom.
Her lungs pleaded for air.
The handle turned once.
Stopped.
Then—
Bang.
A loud, sharp bang on the bathroom door caused Ava to gasp, hard as she tried not to. Rohit caught her hand, finger on the trigger of the gun, breath caught.
Then silence.
Long.
Drawn out.
Agonizing.
And then. laughter.
Soft.
Mocking.
The front door creaked once more.
The footsteps receded.
Gone.
Rohit didn't stir for another five minutes.
Only when the lights flickered back on did he cautiously open the bathroom door and sweep the room.
Empty.
No forced entry signs. No indication anyone had ever been there.
Except.
One new thing.
On the mirror, in black marker:
"𝗥𝗨𝗡 𝗙𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥."
Ava gazed at the words.
Shaking.
Breaking.
And below it, drawn with the same ink, a symbol.
One she knew.
Faintly. From a dream.
No. not a dream.
A memory.
Her uncle's pendant.
She had seen that symbol before—just before the fire.
Her voice was little more than a whisper. "He was there that night…"
Rohit glanced at her. "Who?"
She looked into his eyes.
"The man with the voice."
...
𝗦𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗘𝗟𝗦𝗘:
A phone vibrated on a mahogany desk.
The man sitting in the chair answered it.
"She remembers something," said the voice on the other end.
The man smiled.
"Good."
"Should we cut them off now?"
He laughed.
"No. Let them go a little farther."
He leaned back, resting his hands behind his head.
"They're close. But not close enough."
He turned to the projector screen where Ava's face froze mid-breath in a freeze frame.
"Let her think she's winning. It makes the fall more lovely."
.....
𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐋:
Ava sat on the ground, butt against the bed, hands knotted in her hair.
"I can't do this," she whispered. "I can't keep running."
"You won't," Rohit said softly, sitting down beside her. "But you will have to keep fighting."
She glared up at him, her voice shaking. "Even if I don't know what I'm fighting?"
He smiled grimly. "You will. Soon."
She met his gaze.
And for the first time in all the horrors, she did not simply feel frightened.
She felt angry.
The image of his face in the broken window was creepy, a twisted reflection of himself that didn't fit. Rohit froze for an instant, eyes squinted, gazing out into the darkness beyond. The quiet was oppressive, stifling. Ava's breath hitched in her throat, the air between them thick with tension that went unspoken. The room, now plunged into darkness, seemed like a trap they couldn't get out of.
We have to go," Rohit told him, his voice low, but tinged with urgency.
But Ava couldn't look away from the mirror. Her hand strayed to the pendant at her throat, the same mark she had seen cut into the glass. It belonged to her uncle. Her heart racing in her chest as the truth slowly dawned on her—there was more to this than she ever realized. That mark had been linked to the fire. Her uncle's death was never an accident.
"Rohit," she whispered, her voice trembling, "I—I saw it again. The symbol. It was on my uncle's pendant. I remember now."
Rohit's eyes darted to hers, his face impassive. "I know," he said softly, but there was an edge to his voice. "I saw it too."
Ava blinked. "What do you mean you saw it too?"
Rohit didn't reply right away. He walked, his boots thudding on the floor with each step. The shadows cast by the window appeared to reach out longer, as if they were descending, smothering them beneath their weight. He stopped beside the door, his hand resting over the knob.
"There's a great deal you don't know, Ava," he replied, his tone tense. "And I haven't been telling you everything. But now. now there's no alternative."
Ava jumped to her feet, her heart pounding. "What do you mean? What do you know?"
He stood to turn to her, his eyes black, with a secret hurt. "That symbol. it's attached to something so much larger than your uncle. So much larger than anything that either of us could have conceived. It's a mark, a warning, and it's been passed down for generations. Your uncle wasn't doing something risky. he was part of something."
Ava's head was reeling, trying to fit the pieces together. "Part of what?"
Rohit didn't respond immediately. His eyes wandered to the window, the moonlight creating long shadows on the floor. His jaw clenched. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again, as if considering the cost of his words.
"Rohit!" Ava's voice was urgent. "Tell me."
He looked at her eyes, and in a moment, things changed. He let out his breath hard. "There's a group. A secret organization. They've been working secretly for decades, and they govern everything—everything that's happening to you, to me. to us. They're responsible for the fire that killed your uncle. And they're what's making us hunted now.
Ava felt the ground slip out from beneath her, her body swaying as the weight of his words hit her. "You're telling me that. they killed my uncle?"
"Yes," Rohit said, his voice grim. "But that's not all. They knew your uncle was getting too close to the truth. He was going to expose them. And when he did, they made sure he paid the price."
Ava's chest constricted. She couldn't catch her breath. Her uncle. her rock, the one being she had trusted completely. He had been fighting them all along, and she'd had no clue.
"Why didn't you tell me beforehand?" she breathed softly, her voice cracking. "Why keep this secret from me?
Rohit turned away, the hurt in his eyes intensifying. "Because I wasn't supposed to. I wasn't supposed to get involved. But now it's too late to leave."
There was a silence, heavy with pain and rage. Ava moved forward, her hands trembling. "You knew the whole time. You knew what happened to him. And you never told me?
"I was trying to keep you safe," he whispered. "From the truth. From them. But I failed."
Ava shook her head, tears brimming in her eyes. "You should've told me, Rohit. I had the right to know."
He gritted his teeth, a look of agony on his face as he struggled to reconcile guilt and frustration. "I didn't want you to get hurt. I didn't want to involve you in this. But now. you're already involved. And there's no escape.
Ava closed her eyes, attempting to soothe the tempest brewing within her. The betrayal cut deep, but she was aware of no time for that. There were greater forces at stake here—forces that could disintegrate her if she wasn't watchful.
"I don't care about keeping me safe anymore," she asserted, her words firm amidst the terror clutching her heart. "I want to know it all. And I want to see them pay."
Rohit's eyes softened for an instant, then he shifted toward the door. "We have to move on. If we linger here any longer, they'll track us.
Ava didn't waste any time. She picked up her bag and trailed behind him out of the room. They moved through the back door, just as the tires squealing on the asphalt resounded in the night. The noise was familiar now, too familiar. They were coming for them once again.
We will find a way to prevent this," Rohit asserted, his voice firm. "But we have to reach the truth. The truth is the solution."
Ava's heart was racing. She had no idea what truth he was referring to. But one thing was certain—whatever it was, it was bad. And she was willing to confront it.
As they walked down the black alley, the shadows seemed to close in behind them, with each step growing tighter. Ava's head was spinning, but there was one thought that kept cycling through, over and over:
Her uncle had been protecting her. And now she had to protect him.
But how? How could she defend herself against an enemy she couldn't even see?
They arrived at the car, and Rohit flung open the door, inviting Ava to enter. The engine growled to life, and they took off into the darkness, the rumble of their tires slicing through the quiet.
The question hung between them, unspoken.
For how long could they keep running before the truth overtook them?
Ava had no idea. But she was going to try to discover that.
And somewhere, in the back of her mind, the voice whispered again, "You think you'll survive?"
.......
𝑬𝑵𝑱𝑶𝒀𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀? 𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑫𝑳𝒀 𝑫𝑶 𝑺𝑶𝑴𝑬 𝑹𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑮. 𝑰𝑻 𝑯𝑬𝑳𝑷𝑺 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑹𝒀 𝑻𝑶 𝑮𝑹𝑶𝑾...!