The air grew colder the deeper they went.
Karen's flashlight wavered as she, Alex, and Luca stepped through the narrow opening behind the wine crates. The passage beyond was narrower, tighter, as though it had been carved in secret. The walls were no longer smooth stone they were jagged, clawed, like something had dragged through them long ago.
The humming had stopped.
Now, only silence pressed in around them.
Karen's breathing was shallow. Every few steps, she felt the hair on her neck rise, as if invisible fingers were brushing past her. Her hand tightened around Alex's, he didn't let go.
Behind them, Luca scanned the corridor with sharp eyes, but his steps slowed. He lingered, his gaze caught on something scratched deep into the wall:
"Let her choose."
He blinked.
The words were pulsing faintly, no light source, no reflection. Just… glowing..for him.
He didn't tell the others.
Ahead, the corridor opened into a small chamber.
It was circular like the last, but older...far older. Dust blanketed every surface, and thick cobwebs draped from the ceiling like veils. In the center was a broken chair, rusted chains scattered around it. A second altar stood nearby, this one blackened, as if something had once burned upon it...something alive.
Karen froze, her eyes locked on a corner of the room.
A mirror...but it was fractured, jagged and unnatural. And in its broken reflection Karen saw herself standing alone. Bleeding and laughing.
She gasped and stumbled backward.
Alex caught her. "What? What did you see?"
Karen looked again. The mirror only showed their real reflections now.
"I… I saw myself," she whispered "But it wasn't me, it was wrong."
Luca moved toward an old metal cabinet tucked behind a crumbled pillar. Its door creaked open slowly. Inside, he found dusty folders and a shattered screen. He dug through until his fingers brushed a thick file marked:
> PROPERTY HISTORY – AVALON RESORT (Confidential)
He handed it to Alex.
Alex flipped it open. Inside were photos, some of the same ones from the cottage and a typed report from someone named David Falmouth, dated over twenty years ago.
Alex read aloud:
"The resort sits on ancestral grounds once believed to be sacred. Rituals were performed during seasonal shifts to 'balance the land.' We revived these for the experience but something began responding. Lights flickered, guests disappeared, one staff member claimed to hear voices calling her into the woods. We shut it down, burned the records, but the land… it remembers."
Karen's heart pounded. "So this whole place… it's been part of something twisted since the beginning."
Alex flipped to the last page. It was a photo of a girl standing outside the resort entrance. She was smiling, maybe twenty years old. The back was scribbled with the words:
"First offering. She smiled before she vanished."
Suddenly a whisper filled the room.
Karen stiffened.
The voice was right in her ear.
"We remember you."
She spun around...nothing there.
Alex and Luca heard it too.
The ground vibrated again. A rumble echoed through the corridor they had just come from.
"We need to get out of here," Luca muttered "Now."
Alex grabbed the file and mirror-shard, and they turned back but the tunnel had shifted.
The walls had closed in. The passage was no longer the same.
"It's changing," Karen said, her voice trembling.
Alex pulled her closer. "Then we find another way and fast."