Arjun lunges for the ladder, nearly tripping over the recorder. He pulls himself up like a man out of a nightmare and bursts through the hatch into the living room. The lights are on again. In the radio silence, he hears… nothing.
On trembling knees, he flips through old blueprints. There's no mention of any hidden basement – it shouldn't exist. Then he notices something tucked under the rug by the basement door: a yellowed photo of a smiling Arjun with a woman he doesn't recognize. On the back: "Together forever." He drops it.
His phone rings again. No caller ID. He answers automatically. Static. Then a garbled whisper: "End it. End it." The radio flickers to life on its own, broadcasting the same voice in reverse: ".deno nuj ytlaer U". Heart pounding, Arjun backs into the basement door. It SLAMS shut behind him, plunging him back into darkness.
Lightning flashes, illuminating the scene for a split second. Arjun is kneeling now at the bottom of the hatch. Across from him lies a body wrapped in old cloth. Slowly peeling it open, his flashlight reveals the face of the corpse – and he chokes back a scream. The face is his own. A pale, lifeless duplicate. Beneath that, a faint pulse in the corpse's neck. Arjun fumbles for a pulse…
Suddenly the body's hand snaps up, clawing at air. It wasn't dead. Arjun reels back, vomits. The body-otherself tries to speak, whispering "Last chance." Arjun falls against the wall, eyes wide. Every song of defeat he felt races through his veins.
The light bulb flickers above. This time, the basement phone rings. It's the missed call – again, in a loop. Over the crackle of static, the radio voice whispers, "Your next choice."