Rain poured relentlessly as they drove back toward the town. Eva's old pickup truck groaned with every mile, protesting the stormy night. Inside, Kane silently wiped the blood from his palm using a worn-out cloth. Eva's blood—offered in exchange for a moment of survival and a glimpse through a gate neither of them had wished to open.
"Do you think that thing… was really Ashrem?" Eva asked, eyes fixed on the blurry road ahead.
"It wasn't Ashrem," Kane said, his voice rough as gravel. "Just a fragment of him… or something wearing his name like a mask. But it gave a warning. Someone is ahead of us."
Eva's grip on the steering wheel tightened. "You mean another Seeker?"
Kane looked out into the darkness. "Maybe. Or maybe someone worse."
They drove in silence. The forest on either side of the road whispered with unseen things—branches swaying in unnatural patterns, shadows that lingered too long in the headlights. Eva exhaled sharply.
"I saw something... in that place. When the blood touched the altar," she said, her voice low. "A glimpse. A ruined temple, buried beneath sand and bones. And someone standing at the center, cloaked in red flame."
Kane turned to her. "Did it look at you?"
She nodded slowly. "Not just looked. It smiled."
His hand tightened around the cloth. "Then we need to move fast. That thing knows we're watching."
Eva swerved slightly to avoid a pothole, then whispered, "Why us, Kane? Why are we being pulled into this?"
Kane didn't answer immediately. He opened the glove box, took out a small, worn notebook, and handed it to her.
"It's not just us. It never was. Look at the last name in the ledger."
Eva flipped through the brittle pages, eyes widening. There it was—written in crimson ink.
E. Marlowe – Chosen Witness
Her breath caught. "They marked me."
Kane leaned back, rain still tapping against the windshield. "That temple isn't just rising from the sands. It's calling its own."
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