The dolls crowded the tunnel mouth. Cracked faces. Stitched smiles. Tiny fingers scraping stone. Giggling. Always giggling.
Yug tightened his grip on the knife.
"We're trapped."
Astha's eyes moved over the swarm. Calculating.
One doll crawled up his arm and tried to bite him. Without expression, he pulled it off and patted its head.
"Stop."
It hissed. Bit him anyway.
Astha looked mildly offended.
"You were warned."
He flung it into a wall. It shattered.
The others shrieked.
And attacked.
A screaming swarm rushed them.
Yug swung the knife wildly. One doll split open. Another leapt onto his back, its tiny fingers digging into his neck.
Yug slammed backward into a pillar and crushed it.
More came. Too many.
They moved like spiders. Climbing walls. Dropping from the ceiling. Laughing.
Astha caught one flying at his face. Another bit his sleeve. He flicked it away. A third climbed his shoulder. He grabbed it by the head and patted it.
"You are misbehaving."
It bit his hand.
Astha stared at it. Then threw it hard into three others.
Yug shouted while fighting.
"Stop disciplining the demon dolls!"
One doll sank tiny teeth into Yug's wrist. He stabbed through its skull. Another wrapped thread around his throat. He tore it free.
The chamber filled with shrieks and giggles.
The dolls were no longer playing.
They were hunting.
Then suddenly—
All of them froze.
Mid attack.Silence.
Yug panted, blood on his cheek.
"What now?"
Astha looked around.
"That is worse."
The dolls slowly turned. Not toward them.
Toward the altar.
Then they began giggling again.
Soft. Excited.
Something in the dark.
The little ghost girl pointed frantically toward the tunnel.
Run.
Then every doll screamed.
And lunged again.
Harder. More violent.
A wave of porcelain claws.
Yug slashed through two and grabbed Astha's arm.
"Let's go from here—NOW!"
This time Astha nodded at once.
That terrified Yug more than the dolls.
Because Astha did not run. Unless something worse was near.
They charged the tunnel.
The dolls swarmed after them. Crawling over each other. Scratching at their legs.
Astha kicked one off the stairs. Yug stabbed another.
They ran upward. Stone steps echoing. Giggles chasing them.
Then—
Something grabbed Yug's ankle.
A doll. Its jaw unhinged, trying to bite through bone.
Astha bent, calmly peeled it off, patted its cracked forehead.
"No."
And threw it down the stairwell.
It vanished into darkness, laughing.
They reached the stone door. Half open. Closing.
Yug shoved. It would not move.
The dolls were almost on them.
Astha looked around. Saw the iron ring. Grabbed it.
Pulled with brutal force.
The mechanism groaned.
The slab lifted enough.
Yug crawled through first. Astha followed—
just as dozens of tiny hands reached from below, clawing for them.
They slammed the stone shut.
DURUMMMM.
Silence.
Only their breathing.
The forest above felt impossibly quiet. Only their breathing. Only the dark forest listening.
Mist drifted low through the roots as if nothing had happened, as if the screaming dolls and the hidden chamber belonged to another world now sealed beneath stone.
The little girl stood a few steps away.
Watching.
No longer hollow. No longer pleading.
Then slowly—
she smiled.
Faint. Fragile. Almost real.
And in the next breath—
she vanished.
Like moonlight dissolving in water.
At once the pressure in the forest lifted. The suffocating weight that had pressed against their skin since entering seemed to loosen. Even the air felt warmer.
Yug felt it too. He looked around uneasily.
"…It let us leave."
Astha turned once toward the unseen depths of the forest. Toward the hidden tree. Toward whatever remained buried there.
"She wanted to be found."
Nothing more. Nothing less.
No grand revelation. Only a truth unearthed.
And far too many questions left in darkness.
Then they walked out of the forest. Through wet grass and shadow. Neither speaking. Only the sound of their steps.
By the time the village edge appeared—night had fallen.
The villa lights burned ahead like a beacon.
And chaos waited.
The courtyard was full. People pacing. Voices raised. Fear thick in the air.
Then someone spotted them.
And everything froze.
Sian. Xingxing. James.
Zoya gripping the railing so tightly her knuckles had whitened. Sreyan pacing like a storm.
Everyone turned at once.
For one suspended moment—nobody breathed.
Then Sreyan exploded.
"YOU IDIOTS!"
He stormed toward them and nearly crashed into Yug.
"You vanished into Death Forest for half a day!" His voice cracked between fury and relief. "I was one second away from organizing a rescue party and strangling both of you afterward!"
Yug muttered, "That seems fair."
Xingxing looked ready to commit murder.
Sian stepped forward sharply.
"What happened in there?"
Zoya's eyes went to the dirt, blood, and claw marks on them. Her voice lowered.
"What did you see?"
Astha looked at all of them. Expression calm as ever.
"First…"
He brushed dirt from his sleeve.
"Let us go see the old man."
Everyone went silent.
Even that answer was enough to chill them.
Because Astha did not sound shaken.
He sounded certain.
And that was worse.
They found the old man in his hut at the village edge. Oil lamp burning. Herbs hanging from the ceiling. Ancient shadows crawling on the walls.
The old man looked up—
and froze.
His eyes widened. Disbelief. Fear.
"You…"
His voice trembled.
"You came back…"
Astha tilted his head.
"What?"
A faint dry smile touched his face.
"You thought I'd be dead already?"
The old man said nothing.
Yug stepped forward and slammed the knife onto the wooden table.
CLANG.
The sound made the old man flinch.
His hands began shaking. His face drained.
Astha noticed.
Astha stepped closer.
His voice remained almost casual. Too calm. Which somehow made it worse.
"Now…"
He leaned one hand on the table.
"Tell us everything."
The old man backed away. Sweat gathered on his brow.
"I—I…"
Astha's eyes hardened. A rare thing.
"Why did you lie to us?"
Silence.
The old man's breathing became ragged.
"Why send us into that forest?"
Yug lifted the knife. Not threatening. Just enough.
The old man stared at the knife. Then at Astha.
And for the first time—
he looked truly afraid.
Because Astha had returned alive from a place people did not return from.
And something about that terrified him.
The old man's hands trembled over the table. The lamplight flickered across his lined face.
For a long while he said nothing.
Then slowly he whispered,
"I wanted you all to go into that forest… so you could feel the fear we live with."
Silence settled over the hut. Heavy. No one moved.
His voice shook.
"We wake every day afraid our children will vanish next."
Sreyan stepped forward, anger burning.
"But that does not give you the right to lie to us."
"You sent them into death."
The old man flinched. His shoulders sagged.
"We villagers live in fear every day," he whispered.
"Our children disappear…"
"And we hear nothing."
Then Astha spoke. Calm. Steady.
"We can give you news."
Everyone turned.
His voice carried quiet certainty.
"Give us time."
"And tell us everything you know."
The old man nodded weakly.
And began.
"It started with Mia."
"She was the elder's daughter."
"Bright. Adorable."
"She laughed all day."
"Then one day…"
"She was simply… gone."
He told them how the elder had claimed she was sick. How weeks passed. How Mia was suddenly declared missing. How after her disappearance other children began vanishing one by one.
The old man folded his hands together, trembling.
"Please… search for them."
His voice cracked with years of helplessness.
The room fell silent.
Only the oil lamp hissed.
Astha reached into his pocket.
Slowly he pulled out the silver bracelet.
Its metal caught the light.
Cold. Strange.
He stared at it for a long moment, thumb brushing the worn symbol inside.
Then he closed his fist around it.
His voice came low.
Certain.
"We will."
Not comfort. A vow.
And something shifted in Astha's expression.
His gaze sharpened.
Thoughts locking together.
Mia. The disappearances. The elder's lie. The hidden chamber. The bracelet.
Then suddenly he looked up.
"Let's go to the elder."
And for the first time—
even the old man looked afraid of what they might find.