Episode 24:
Alok didn't sleep that night. His room felt smaller somehow, the walls pressing in, shadows twisting unnaturally across the ceiling. The pendant on his chest throbbed, faintly glowing, as if it was alive breathing, waiting.
You are mine....
The words echoed in his mind, replaying like a broken record. He shivered. Not the ghost. Not the pendant. Something else something darker.
He sat up. His hands hovered over the bedside table, trembling. Sparks of fire leapt from his fingertips, flickering weakly. It wasn't the pendant this time it was him. Himself.
A faint whisper called from the corner of the room, soft and chilling:
"Soon… your chains will bind more than your enemies…"
Alok froze. He knew that voice. Not human. Not ghost. A shadow of the masked creature, or perhaps something far worse, had found him again.
By morning, his nerves were frayed. School had never felt so dangerous. Every hallway, every laugh, every glance seemed loaded with hidden eyes watching, waiting. Rihan walked beside him, still glaring from the festival incident.
"You're hiding something," Rihan said, voice low. "And I'm not letting it go."
Alok swallowed hard. How could he explain what was happening? Fire in his hands, a ghost protecting him, shadows moving on their own?
He didn't answer. Instead, he felt it an invisible weight pressing on his chest, urging him forward. His pendant pulsed stronger, chains of light flickering faintly around him.
"Survive… until…"
The ghost's words from the last night replayed, fragmented and haunting.
During lunch, Alok wandered to the school rooftop. He needed air. He needed space. He needed to think.
The city sprawled below him, ordinary, peaceful. But he could feel it
something in the air, unseen but alive.
A rustle behind him. He spun around. A figure, cloaked in black smoke, feathered mask glinting in the sunlight, appeared without sound.
"Not again…" he whispered.
The creature lunged. Fast. Silent. Merciless.
Alok barely had time to react. Sparks flared from his hands, chains of light erupted from the ground but this time, the ghost didn't intervene. It wasn't here.
He was alone.
Heart pounding, Alok clenched his fists. Flames shot out again, uncontrolled, scorching the tiles beneath him. The creature hissed, recoiling but it wasn't enough.
"You are mine…"
The words echoed again not in his ears, but in his bones.
Then, a flicker at the edge of his vision. The ghost. Armor gleaming, eyes burning with sorrow, stepping forward just far enough to guide, not to fight.
Alok realized something. This wasn't just protection. This was training.
"Your chains… control them. You are stronger than you think."
The creature lunged once more. Alok gritted his teeth. Heat surged through his veins. Flames and chains intertwined, wrapping around the masked figure like binding threads. The creature screamed, smoke curling from its mask.
And then, in a voice barely audible even to him:
"Soon… you'll stop running… and start becoming what you were meant to be."
Alok's stomach twisted. The words were not a threat they were a promise.
His eyes met the ghost's, for the first time really seeing her. Behind the sorrow, a flicker of hope. Behind the chains, a purpose.
Alok swallowed hard, gripping the pendant.
"…I'm not running anymore."
And somewhere in the unseen shadows beyond the city, eyes glowed. Watching. Waiting.
This time, the game had changed.