Chapter 8 — The Hollowed Camp
By the morning after the possession, the camp felt… wrong.
Not ruined wrong — wrong wrong.
The air tasted metallic. The stones of Bhangarh felt colder. Even the fire was subdued, as if afraid to burn.
No one slept. No one laughed.
Everyone was watching everyone else.
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A Camp in Silence
Arjun sat in silence beside the dying fire, staring at the recorder in his hands.
Riya was absent. Kabir sharpened his knife with slow, deliberate strokes. Sid sat hunched, his camera pointed at nothing, muttering under his breath. Ananya stood at the edge of camp, staring into the darkness.
> "Where's Riya?" Kabir finally said.
"She left before dawn," Sid replied softly, still staring into his camera's screen.
"Alone?" Kabir asked sharply. Sid didn't answer.
Arjun looked toward the east corridor where they'd split the night before.
A faint chanting drifted from somewhere deeper inside the fort. Not loud — but constant.
The sound made his skin crawl.
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Signs of Collapse
By midday, Kabir and Sid had gone to search for Riya. Ananya and Arjun stayed behind. The wind began to whisper — faint voices in Sanskrit layered beneath the air itself.
Ananya knelt and touched the earth. Her bracelet chimed softly.
> "He's calling again," she murmured.
"He?" Arjun asked.
"Singhia Nath. He's waking fully."
Arjun's jaw clenched.
> "We can't stop this without leaving. We need to go."
Ananya's gaze was fixed.
> "Leaving will kill you all. This fort doesn't let go of its debt."
The air shifted. A low, hollow sound echoed through the ruins — footsteps that didn't belong to any of them.
---
The Vanishing
Kabir and Sid returned hours later. They were pale. Sid's camera was broken, the lens cracked.
Riya was not with them.
Kabir's voice was strained.
> "She's gone. No sign of her anywhere."
Arjun's heart tightened.
> "No footprints?"
Kabir shook his head.
> "Nothing. It's like she evaporated."
Ananya stepped forward quietly.
> "She was chosen."
The group stared at her.
> "Chosen?" Kabir repeated.
"He calls by name. She answered," Ananya said softly.
The chanting rose again — low, deep, all around them.
---
The Hollowed Camp
That night, the fort felt alive in a new way.
Every step the group took echoed too long. Shadows pooled unnaturally. Lantern light flickered without wind. The air was thick with breathing — slow and deep.
They kept the fire alive, but it was dim. Sid whispered into his camera:
> "It's watching us… we're being hunted."
Kabir's laugh was brittle.
> "We're not hunters anymore. We're the prey."
The first possession showed itself clearly at midnight.
Ananya suddenly screamed — a sound that wasn't hers. Her voice was layered with others: a chorus of pain and longing. Her eyes glowed gold, veins dark beneath her skin.
She fell to the ground, clutching her head.
> "It… wants me to open the seal."
Arjun grabbed her.
> "Ananya! Fight it!"
She looked up with a face not her own.
> "You can't stop me. You can't stop him."
Then, she was still.
But her eyes were gone. Only darkness remained.
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The Aftermath
By morning, the camp was hollowed.
Riya was gone, replaced by silence.
Ananya was silent, her gaze empty.
Kabir and Sid were withdrawn.
And Arjun… knew it was no longer a matter of if they'd die, but when.
He spoke quietly, almost to himself:
> "One is gone. The rest are marked. And the fort… it hungers."
The walls whispered in agreement.
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End of Chapter 8