It was July 9th, 2010.
The sky over the forgotten town of Darnwood bled red.
It didn't happen like a storm. No thunder, no lightning.
Just silence. And then, drop by drop — blood.
Not rainwater. Blood.
Thick. Warm. Sticky. Falling on the rooftops, splashing on the sidewalks, soaking into the earth like it belonged there.
People called it a scientific anomaly. A joke. A mass hallucination.
But they were wrong.
Because that night, the first body was found.
---
Room 12, Darnwood Motel.
A lone traveler, Vinay Chauhan, lay on the bed — or what was left of him.
His face was gone.
Not torn, not eaten. Just… erased.
No nose. No eyes. No mouth.
Just smooth skin like wax.
And written in blood on the wall behind him:
> "I REMEMBER YOU."
The police sealed the room. No answers. No prints.
The CCTV cameras glitched from 2:03 AM to 2:16 AM — exactly when the murder occurred.
And there was something worse…
Vinay had checked in alone. But the reception log — written in his own handwriting — said:
> "Room 12. Two guests."
The town went silent. Again.
---
The story was covered in one local newspaper.
Back page. Black and white. No photos.
A week later, the reporter, Manisha Deshmukh, was found dead in her bathtub.
No water.
Only blood.
Not hers.
---
And then came the files.
Whispers in the police station spoke of a case from 1994. A boy. A murder. A mistake.
A name scratched out of every file.
No digital record.
No photo.
Only a word left on the burnt folder:
> "Aayansh."
Nobody remembered him.
Except someone.
And he had come back.
---
July 10th.
Rain fell again. Redder. Warmer.
Darnwood stood still, like prey sensing a predator.
In the distance, a silhouette moved between trees — tall, lean, dragging something heavy.
A scream tore through the night.
It didn't come from the throat.
It came from the soul.
And then…
Silence.
---
Somewhere under Darnwood, a voice whispered:
> "You buried me once.
Let's see how deep I can dig you now."
---
🔴 To be continued... 🔴