The trapdoor didn't creak.
It opened too smoothly — like it had been oiled by silence and memory.
Sameer pulled it back slowly. The smell hit first.
Dust.
Wood.
But beneath that… something damp. Like a place that hadn't seen air in decades.
A narrow staircase dropped into darkness.
Rehan held the flashlight.
Its beam disappeared down the steps like it was being swallowed.
Ayaan leaned closer. "We go down?"
Sameer didn't answer.
He was already climbing in.
---
The stairs groaned only once — under Ayaan's weight.
But then even they fell silent, as if afraid to disturb what lived below.
They reached the bottom.
The space was small. Not a basement — not really a room. More like a hollow. Carved out, hand-dug. The walls weren't built. They were clawed.
Sameer's voice broke the silence. "It's… writing."
All along the walls — scratched with nails, knives, anything sharp — were names.
Dozens. Hundreds.
Ayaan turned in a slow circle, his breath caught.
"These are real."
"Some of them are first names," Rehan said quietly. "Some… just numbers."
Ayaan stepped closer to one set, partially buried under dirt and mold.
His name.
AYAAN.
Scratched three times.
Like someone had tried to remember him.
Then forget.
Then remember again.
Sameer found his too.
And Rehan's.
And under theirs — one more.
Written upside down. Small. Almost hidden in the corner.
Naira.
Ayaan's breath stilled. "She's not even here."
Sameer backed away from the wall. "This place doesn't care who entered the forest."
Rehan finished the thought. "It remembers everyone who saw something they weren't supposed to."
---
Back in the city…
Naira took a photo of the document and slipped the file back quietly.
Her hands were still shaking.
Rehan's name — listed in a case that predated their trip by more than a decade.
It didn't make sense.
Unless…
Unless this wasn't just about them.
Unless it had started before they were even born.
As she left the archives, her phone buzzed.
A message.
Sameer's number.
But it wasn't a message.
It was a photo.
Of the trapdoor.
Captioned:
"We found it."
She stared at the timestamp.
It was marked three hours ago.
She hadn't gotten it until now.
And the worst part?
She was holding Sameer's phone in her hand.
---
Back in the forest…
Rehan knelt beside the carved names.
He traced the edge of one.
It shimmered under his touch — faint, like heat haze.
"I think this is a record," he said. "Of everyone the forest touched."
Ayaan looked around. "Then why us? What did we do?"
The answer came from behind them.
"You forgot."
They turned sharply.
There, standing in the trapdoor opening, was the girl.
The one Rehan had seen before.
Pale. Still. Watching.
"You weren't just chosen," she said. "You were already here."
Rehan stepped forward, voice tight. "What is this place?"
She didn't answer.
She just raised a hand.
And pointed to the far corner of the hollow.
There, half-buried in dust, was a mirror.
Cracked. Smudged. But intact enough to reflect their shapes.
Only…
Sameer wasn't in it.
Neither was Ayaan.
Only Rehan.
Alone.
Staring back at himself.
But not himself.
The boy in the reflection was younger.
Maybe eight.
Covered in dirt.
Eyes wide.
Mouth stitched shut with red thread.
---
Sameer stepped back.
Ayaan whispered, "Is that…?"
Rehan didn't speak.
The girl looked at him. "You brought the others here before. A long time ago."
Rehan shook his head. "I didn't—"
"You don't remember yet."
The reflection smiled.
And from behind them, the sound of dirt shifting.
Not loud.
Not sudden.
But close.
Like something else just woke up underground.
---