The room was silent, cold as always. Elias hadn't eaten in a day. Time had lost all meaning, but the calendar in his head screamed: 4th of September.
Footsteps echoed from the hallway again.
The door creaked open.
Two men entered.
Elias's eyes widened as he recognized the first face.
"Kamran…?"
His voice broke. "Kamran, why?" he screamed, his voice full of betrayal, confusion, pain.
But before "Kamran" could say a word, the second man stepped forward. Elias recognized him too — the man who gave him the compact mirror at the train station. Calm, cruel eyes. A smirk on his lips.
> "The man you see isn't Kamran," he said coldly. "Kamran is dead. We killed him. The one standing before you is a shadow. A ghost, a servant of Shaitan (Lucifer). He just wears Kamran's face. It possesses the power to take on anyone's appearance".
Elias's breath caught.
> "We," he paused, smiling proudly, "are 'Keepers of the Fourth Seal.' A group that worships something older than your faith, darker than your fears. We worship Shaitan (Lucifer). The fourth seal unlocks death, and they await the day it opens".
Elias stared in disbelief.
> "We poisoned your sister… because she knew. And Kamran? We shot him. Because he knew too, and last month he decided to tell you everything — but we killed him before he could. And the more they tried to protect you, the more interested we became in you."
> "We warned them," he continued. "Told them: 'He will die on the 4th of September, 2001' That's why they left you clues. That's why they looked haunted."
Tears filled Elias's eyes. Every flashback now made sense. Rina's distant eyes. Kamran's fearful silence. The whispers. The strange looks.
They were trying to save him.
But it was too late.
He, the leader walked closer. Pulled out a gun.
> "You've learned too much, Elias. More than you were ever meant to. And as we told you before… anyone who learns our secret…"
He fired.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Bullets tore through Elias's chest.
He collapsed.
Blood spread across the floor. He blinked, slowly, as life slipped from his body. But his mind — his memories — began to rush in reverse.
Rina laughing in the rain.
Kamran smiling.
The mirror.
The grave.
The dream.
The warnings.
The fourth day.
And silence.
---
Three Months Later
A cloudy morning. Wind howled through the trees.
Two graves stood side by side.
One had the name "Rina" carved in it. Grave 22.
The other — "Elias" — newly added. Grave 23.
Visitors often said something was strange about Elias's grave. Cold even in sunlight.
---