The first thing Wick noticed was the silence.
Not ordinary silence.
Not the quiet of an empty room.
This silence felt alive.
Heavy.
Ancient.
As if sound itself had been swallowed by the darkness surrounding him.
He slowly got to his feet.
The abandoned house was gone.
The storm was gone.
Everything was gone.
In their place stretched an endless shoreline of black sand.
An ocean darker than the night sky stood motionless before him.
No waves.
No wind.
No movement.
The water looked less like a sea and more like a mirror made from shadows.
Above him hung a sky without stars.
Without a moon.
Without anything.
Just darkness.
Endless darkness.
"So..."
Wick looked around.
"This is new."
No answer.
"Not gonna lie, I preferred the haunted hostel."
Still nothing.
The joke wasn't for anyone else.
It was for himself.
A way to keep moving.
A way to keep fear from settling in.
---
He began walking.
The necklace hung around his neck now.
Cold against his skin.
The same necklace he had given Shristi as gift believing it would protect her.
The same necklace that had protected her from nightmares.
And somehow...
It had brought him here.
The shoreline stretched endlessly in both directions.
At first, he saw nothing.
Then shapes slowly emerged through the darkness.
Ancient ruins.
Broken pillars.
Half-submerged stone structures.
Fragments of buildings that shouldn't have existed.
Some looked like temples.
Others resembled monuments swallowed by the sea centuries ago.
As he approached, strange carvings became visible on the stone.
Figures kneeling before something rising from the ocean.
People offering gifts.
Entire groups standing waist-deep in water.
Praying.
Worshipping.
Begging.
None of it felt human.
A voice suddenly drifted across the shoreline.
"Wick..."
He stopped.
The voice belonged to Shristi.
Or at least it sounded like her.
Slowly, he turned.
Nothing.
Only darkness.
---
"Wick..."
---
The voice came again.
This time from the ocean.
---
A lesser version of himself would've followed it.
Before he probably would've.
Now he simply kept walking.
"Nice try."
The voice laughed.
And the sound instantly became wrong.
Not Shristi.
Not human.
Something else.
Something pretending.
The ruins grew larger.
Closer.
More detailed.
The deeper he walked, the heavier the pressure became.
The feeling of being watched intensified.
Not from one direction.
From everywhere.
Then he saw it.
At the center of the ruins stood a massive circular platform of black stone.
Partially submerged beneath dark water.
Ancient.
Broken.
Waiting.
And standing upon it...
Was the spirit.
For a moment, Wick couldn't move.
Because his mind struggled to understand what he was seeing.
The creature didn't have a fixed form.
One second it resembled a woman standing in a white dress.
The next, something far larger.
Something with too many limbs.
Its shape shifted constantly.
Like reality couldn't decide what it truly looked like.
The spirit smiled.
Every version of its face smiled with it.
"You came."
The voice echoed through the ruins.
Not heard.
Felt.
Wick stopped a few meters away.
"You wanted me here."
The smile widened.
"No."
The spirit tilted its head.
"You weren't supposed to understand."
For several moments neither moved.
The black ocean remained perfectly still.
The ruins watched in silence.
Then the creature stepped forward.
Dark water rippled beneath its feet.
And suddenly the pressure doubled.
Wick clenched his fists.
The spirit studied him carefully.
Almost curiously.
Then it spoke again.
"You're different."
The words carried genuine confusion.
That bothered him.
Because this wasn't the first time he'd heard something like that.
The tarot woman.
The stranger on the road.
Everyone.
Now this thing.
All of them noticed something.
Something he couldn't see.
Wick sighed.
"Here we go again."
The spirit paused.
"I've heard that before."
A pause.
"Tarot readers. Strangers. Creepy old people who know things they shouldn't."
He folded his arms.
"Congratulations."
The spirit narrowed its eyes.
"You're officially the first ancient sea demon to join the list."
Wick rubbed his forehead.
"Everyone keeps saying I'm different."
A pause.
"At this point I'm starting to think it's a personality disorder."
The spirit didn't laugh.
Wick wasn't surprised.
The spirit slowly approached.
"I remember your kind."
Wick frowned.
"My kind?"
The creature's smile vanished.
The ruins trembled.
The ocean moved.
For the first time.
And suddenly the darkness surrounding them seemed to lean closer.
"That should be impossible."
For the first time since arriving...
The spirit looked unsettled.
Meanwhile, back in the abandoned house, things weren't going much better.
Deep sat near the doorway, keeping the others calm.
Or at least trying to.
Aryan paced constantly.
"I don't like this."
Nobody answered.
Five seconds passed.
"I really don't like this."
Still nobody answered.
Another ten seconds.
"What if they're dead?"
Varsha threw a stone at him.
"Shut up."
"Valid response."
Despite the joke, everyone felt the tension.
Time passed.
Nobody knew how much.
Ten minutes.
Twenty.
Maybe longer.
Inside the room, the storm continued raging outside while silence ruled everything else.
Wick hadn't moved.
Shristi hadn't moved.
Both remained exactly where they had been.
Motionless.
Breathing.
Alive.
But somewhere else.
Dipanshu paced across the room for what felt like the hundredth time.
"I hate this."
Prishka sat beside Shristi, watching for any sign of change.
There wasn't one.
Not a twitch.
Not a reaction.
Nothing.
"I really, really hate this."
Still nothing.
Dipanshu stopped pacing.
"How long does this usually take?"
Prishka looked up.
"Usually?"
A pause.
"There is no usually."
"Fantastic."
He rubbed his face.
"We're officially making history."
The joke failed.
Neither of them laughed.
Because the truth was becoming harder to ignore.
Nothing was happening.
Prishka looked toward Wick.
His face remained calm.
Peaceful.
Far too peaceful.
And somehow that worried her more.
Because Wick never stayed still.
Never.
If he wasn't back by now...
Something was wrong.
A thought slowly formed in her mind.
Dangerous.
Stupid.
Probably necessary.
She looked toward the silver necklace resting against Wick's chest.
Then looked away.
Then looked back again.
Dipanshu immediately noticed.
"No."
Prishka blinked.
"What?"
"No."
"You don't even know what I'm about to say."
"Yes I do."
Dipanshu pointed at the necklace.
"You're thinking about going after him."
Silence.
"See?"
Prishka sighed.
"I can't just sit here."
"And I can't stop you."
"Correct."
"I hate when you're right."
A faint smile appeared on her face.
The first in a while.
Then it vanished.
Because the situation wasn't funny.
"Wick's been gone too long."
Dipanshu looked toward the unconscious bodies.
Toward Shristi.
Toward Wick.
Then finally nodded.
Slowly.
Reluctantly.
He hated it.
But he understood.
"If you go..."
He paused.
"...bring both idiots back."
Prishka smiled.
"I'll try."
"You better."
For a moment neither spoke.
The storm crashed against the building.
Thunder rolled overhead.
Then Prishka reached forward.
Carefully.
Gently.
And lifted the necklace from around Wick's neck.
The instant her fingers touched it, a strange sensation ran through her body.
Cold.
Ancient.
Familiar.
As though the necklace remembered her.
Dipanshu noticed her expression immediately.
"You okay?"
"No."
"Good."
"Good?"
"If you said yes, I'd be more worried."
That finally earned a laugh.
A small one.
Then Prishka put on the necklace.
The room immediately felt different.
The pressure returned.
The same pressure from before.
Only stronger.
Much stronger.
Dipanshu took an instinctive step backward.
"Yeah."
He pointed at her.
"That's definitely doing something."
Prishka closed her eyes.
Took a slow breath.
And began chanting.
The words came easier this time.
More naturally.
As though she had spoken them before.
The air inside the room vibrated.
The shadows deepened.
The pressure increased.
Thunder exploded outside.
The necklace grew colder.
Colder.
Colder.
Until it almost burned against her skin.
Then suddenly—
Everything vanished.
The room.
The storm.
The abandoned site.
Dipanshu.
The world.
Prishka opened her eyes.
Black water stretched endlessly in every direction.
Ancient ruins stood beneath a dead sky.
And somewhere beyond the darkness...
She could feel Wick.
She wasn't alone anymore.
She was on the Other Side.
Now Dipanshu sat with 3 unconscious people.
Wick.
Prishka.
And Shristi.
Meanwhile, on the Other Side, something changed.
Wick felt a change now his Necklace vanished.
And.
A familiar sensation.
A presence.
Wick turned.
And several meters away stood someone he didn't expect.
Prishka.
With his Necklace.
She looked around at the impossible landscape.
Then at Wick.
Then at the giant nightmare standing on the platform.
A long silence followed.
Finally she sighed.
"Arigato."
Wick blinked.
"What are you doing here?"
"What does it look like?"
The spirit's attention immediately shifted toward her.
And for the first time...
Its expression changed.
The amusement disappeared.
The confidence vanished.
Something else replaced it.
Concern.
Prishka noticed.
Wick noticed.
And neither of them liked what that meant.
The spirit took a slow step backward.
Not from Wick.
From her.
Prishka folded her arms.
"Well."
A pause.
"That's either really good news."
She looked at the towering creature.
"Or we're both about to die."
Wick considered it.
"Probably both."
"Fantastic."
The spirit's gaze moved between them.
Calculating.
Thinking.
Watching.
And for the first time since arriving...
The hunters no longer felt like prey.
To be continued…