Sameer dropped to his knees and coughing.
Smoke from the burning photos made his eyes burn, but the room didn't fill with it. The flames rose and died without ash, without heat.
Just… intent.
A message written in fire.
Ayaan turned in slow circles. "Where did he go?"
No answer.
Just the trapdoor creaking shut above them — even though no one had touched it.
Rehan whispered, "He said we have until morning."
Sameer looked up, eyes bloodshot. "Until what?"
Rehan didn't reply.
Because he was still staring at the final photograph that hadn't burned.
One that had fallen under the table. One they hadn't seen yet.
He picked it up.
The image was dark — a silhouette of four teenagers standing at the edge of a clearing.
One of them was unmistakably Rehan.
Another — Sameer.
A third — Ayaan.
And the fourth?
A girl.
But her face was scratched out.
---
Sameer leaned closer. "That's not us. That can't be us. We've never been here before this year."
Ayaan shook his head. "We were kids. It's probably just a trick — something meant to get in our heads."
Rehan didn't speak.
Because he suddenly remembered something.
A trip. A camping dare. Years ago. Not the border trip. Something older.
A friend of a friend. A forgotten fire.
And a girl who never came back.
He stepped away, hand trembling.
Sameer looked at him.
"You okay?"
Rehan whispered, "We didn't just find this place…"
"…We returned to it."
---
Above ground, the cabin's windows darkened.
Outside, the forest bent subtly...as if it was listening.
The door to the cabin cracked open.
Someone — or something — slipped inside.
But it didn't make a sound.
---
Back in the city…
Naira stood outside Sameer's old house again.
She clutched the audio file on her phone like it could burst into flames.
That girl… who was she?
And why did Sameer mention her like she was a secret kept between them?
She pushed open the gate. The wind groaned against the hinges.
As she stepped inside, the power flickered.
And on the wall — something new.
Another mirror.
This time, with a sentence scratched into the silver backing from the inside:
"She remembers."
---
Back under the cabin, the three boys stared at the unburned photo.
Ayaan finally said what no one wanted to say:
"If that's really us… then someone erased her."
Sameer's voice dropped. "And now the forest wants her back."
A deep, low creak echoed around them.
The table moved — on its own — sliding to the side.
Revealing a tunnel entrance, narrow and dark.
A cold draft rose from it.
Not wind.
Breath.
Rehan looked at the others.
"She's down there, isn't she?"
No one answered.
But something in the tunnel exhaled again.
And this time, it whispered a name.
Sameer turned white.
"That's her," he said.
"She's calling us."
---