Chapter 9 : Secrets in the Shadows
698 Words
The night was far from still. The cold air wrapped around the old mansion like a veil, thick with something unspeakable. At exactly 11:30 PM, as if on cue, the hounds outside started their howling long, mournful, and urgent.
In Zen’s room, Luca, Rosa, and Elise sat close. Their laughter had started to fade. They could feel the shift in the air. Zen’s ghost sensors blinked erratically, showing a glitch that hadn’t occurred before. Something was off.
Meanwhile, Nina and Yusuf moved silently through the mansion’s narrow corridors, heading toward the attic. Yusuf tried to focus on the possibility of hidden artifacts, but every gust of wind or flickering shadow made him clutch his flashlight tighter. Nina, calm and composed, carried her incense sticks, whispering old protection mantras. Her dreamcatchers swayed with her steps. Yusuf envied her composure.
But while everyone was preoccupied with the haunting, Dakota walked alone.
She clutched a small diary against her chest, its edges frayed, pages worn her secret keeper. In her other hand were her sleeping pills, too many this time. Her eyes were red, cheeks streaked with tears, and her steps were unsure as she climbed to the third floor the floor no one liked to speak about.
Unbeknown to her, Arjun was already there.
He had returned to the room where the strange death had occurred the one with bloodstains that never faded and windows that never fully shut. He was scanning the wall, noting tiny scratches that didn’t belong. Focused, alert. Unafraid.
The clock struck 11:30.
The dog’s howls returned, this time more guttural. Windows rattled violently. Arjun instinctively moved to the door. And then he saw it. A white figure. Not drifting, but walking fast. Too real for a ghost, too surreal for a person.
He gave chase.
Down the hall.
Turned left.
Gone.
He paused, unsure if his mind was playing tricks on him.
Then came a different sound, breathing. Rapid. Desperate. From behind a door down the hall. His instincts kicked in. Without hesitation, he rushed to it and slammed his shoulder against it.
Crash.
Inside Dakota.
The noose was around her neck.
Her body dangled in the air.
Her face was pale but not lifeless.
He grabbed her waist and lifted, holding her up. His arms trembled as he worked the knot with his other hand, breathing hard, not out of fear but desperation.
“Not today,” he muttered. “Not on my watch.”
He managed to free her and laid her gently on the floor. Her chest heaved. She was alive. Eyes dazed. Tears still flowing.
Without thinking, driven by pure panic and frustration, he slapped her.
The sound echoed. She gasped. He froze.
“I– I’m sorry,” he stammered. “I shouldn’t have, I panicked.”
She blinked slowly, not angry, not even surprised. “This wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” she whispered.
“You came here to die?” Arjun’s voice cracked, half anger, half heartbreak.
She sat up, hugged her knees to her chest. “I came to disappear.”
And then, slowly, she opened the diary. Pages of pain. Sketches of broken things. Words that hinted at trauma loss, betrayal, abandonment. Her younger brother. Gone. A suicide she had watched unfold in front of her eyes. She couldn’t save him.
She had carried the guilt ever since.
Arjun sat next to her. His silence was different now. Understanding. “I know what it’s like to watch someone fall,” he said. “I once saw my friend… take a bullet meant for me. I was frozen. I didn’t even scream.”
Their pain, different in form but equal in depth, formed a fragile bond.
A pact was made in that dim room
No more self-hate.
No more silence.
And absolutely no more giving up.
Dakota leaned her head against the wall. “I don’t want the others to know.”
“They won’t,” Arjun said firmly. “But you owe it to yourself to try again.”
She nodded faintly. In the flickering light, her tears glistened not just with sorrow, but with the slightest hint of relief. Someone saw her. Someone stayed.
- Writer
