Echoes Shouldn't be
1063 Words
The air felt… wrong.
Lila knew it the second her feet hit the ground again. It wasn’t just the smell of damp earth or the cold brushing against her skin, it was the silence.
A heavy, unnatural silence.
Ethan stood beside her, breathing hard. “We’re back,” he said, though it sounded more like a question than a statement.
Lila didn’t answer immediately. She was staring ahead, her eyes locked on something through the trees.
“They’re here,” she whispered.
Ethan followed her gaze.
In the distance, just beyond the edge of the forest, three figures moved slowly along a dirt path.
Savannah.
And her friends.
Younger. Laughing. Alive.
For a moment, Lila forgot everything, the danger, the rules, the fact that they weren’t supposed to interfere.
“They look so normal,” she murmured.
Ethan nodded, his voice low. “Because they don’t know what’s about to happen.”
A chill ran through both of them.
They stayed hidden behind the trees, careful not to step on dry branches or make any noise. Every movement felt louder than it should, like the forest itself was listening.
Savannah was walking slightly ahead of the others, her ponytail swaying as she talked. She seemed confident, curious, exactly how the stories had described her.
“That’s her,” Lila said, almost breathless.
Ethan didn’t reply. He was watching everything carefully, his eyes scanning not just the kids, but the surroundings.
“Something’s off,” he said.
Lila frowned. “What do you mean?”
Ethan pointed toward the ground. “Look.”
At first, Lila didn’t see it. But then…
A flicker.
Like a glitch.
The dirt path beneath Savannah’s feet shimmered for a split second, like a reflection on water that wasn’t there.
Lila’s stomach dropped.
“Did you see that?” she whispered.
Ethan nodded slowly. “Yeah.”
Another flicker.
This time, it wasn’t just the ground.
Savannah herself seemed to blur for a fraction of a second, like she existed in two places at once.
Lila took a step back. “That’s not normal.”
“No,” Ethan said quietly. “It’s not.”
The laughter stopped.
All three kids froze.
Savannah turned suddenly, her eyes scanning the trees.
Lila’s heart slammed against her chest.
“She heard something,” she mouthed.
Ethan grabbed her arm gently. “Don’t move.”
Savannah took a step closer to the forest.
For one terrifying second, Lila thought their eyes were going to meet.
Then a voice.
“Savannah! Come on!”
One of her friends called out, breaking the moment.
Savannah hesitated, then turned back, jogging to catch up with them.
Lila exhaled shakily.
“That was too close.”
Ethan nodded. “Way too close.”
They followed from a distance, careful, silent.
The path led exactly where they expected, toward the abandoned building.
But something felt different this time.
The closer they got, the colder the air became.
Not just cold…
Heavy.
Like pressure.
Lila rubbed her arms. “Do you feel that?”
Ethan nodded. “Yeah. Like… something’s pushing back.”
The building came into view.
Old. Broken. Still.
But not empty.
Lila could feel it now, the same energy they’d felt in the basement. Only stronger.
Savannah and her friends slowed down as they approached it.
Even they could feel it.
“Maybe we shouldn’t go in,” one of them said nervously.
Savannah hesitated.
For a moment, Lila thought she might turn back.
But then Savannah shook her head.
“We came this far,” she said. “We’re not leaving now.”
Ethan closed his eyes briefly. “And that’s where everything changes.”
They watched as the three kids stepped inside.
The door creaked shut behind them.
Silence.
Lila turned to Ethan. “We have to follow them.”
Ethan hesitated. “If we go in now, we could mess something up.”
“But if we don’t...” Lila’s voice shook. “...this is where she disappears.”
Ethan looked back at the building.
Then at Lila.
“Okay,” he said finally. “But we stay careful. No sudden moves. No direct contact.”
Lila nodded quickly.
Together, they stepped forward.
The inside of the building felt worse than before.
Darker, colder, alive.
The air buzzed faintly, like electricity running through invisible wires.
Lila swallowed. “They went downstairs.”
Ethan nodded. “Yeah.”
They moved toward the basement door.
It was already open.
A faint glow seeped out from below.
Lila’s heart pounded.
“This is it,” she whispered.
Ethan didn’t reply.
He didn’t need to.
They both knew.
They descended slowly.
One step.
Two.
Three.
The glow grew stronger.
And then
Voices.
Savannah and her friends.
“They’re here,” Lila said softly.
Ethan held up a hand, signaling her to stop.
They crouched near the bottom of the stairs, just out of sight.
From there, they could see everything.
The chamber.
The markings.
And the capsule.
It pulsed faintly, like it was breathing.
Savannah stood closest to it, staring in awe.
“What is that?” one of her friends whispered.
“I don’t know,” Savannah said.
But she stepped closer anyway.
Lila’s chest tightened.
“Don’t,” she whispered under her breath. “Please don’t…”
Savannah reached out her hand.
The capsule reacted instantly.
The glow intensified.
The air shifted violently.
A deep, low hum filled the room.
Ethan grabbed Lila’s arm. “Something’s wrong.”
The symbols on the walls began to flicker.
Fast.
Unstable.
Like they were breaking.
Savannah stumbled back. “Guys...”
Too late.
The ground beneath her cracked open with a sharp, echoing sound.
A hidden opening.
A drop.
A pull.
Savannah screamed and vanished.
Just like that.
Gone.
The light snapped off.
Silence crashed down.
Lila couldn’t breathe.
She stared at the empty space where Savannah had been.
“No…”
Ethan’s grip tightened.
“Lila…”
But she wasn’t listening.
Because something else had changed.
The symbols on the wall
They weren’t flickering anymore.
They were… shifting.
Rewriting themselves.
Lila’s eyes widened.
“That didn’t happen like this before.”
Ethan went still.
“What do you mean?”
Lila’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“The story…”
Her heart began to race again.
“…this isn’t how it was supposed to go.”
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