CHAPTER 5(CHAPTER 4 PART II)
At that point, I didn't bother to care about what their conversation was going to be about.
When I seen all 3 of them go upstairs it made me think what would happen to us in the end.
I stayed behind after everyone else left.
Not because I wanted to—but because my legs wouldn't move.
Hashim noticed.
He hovered by the doorway for a second, then sighed and dropped back onto the couch beside me. "You look like somebody unplugged you."
I didn't answer right away.
The room felt empty in that echoing way, like it remembered the conversation better than we did.
"We put everything together," I said finally. "Every clue. Every pattern."
"Yeah," he said. "That's good, right?"
I shook my head. "What will it matter in the end?"
Hashim frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means," I said quietly, "that knowing something is there doesn't mean we can stop it. Or even understand it. We're just… aware now."
He leaned back, arms crossed. "Awareness is step one."
"Is it?" I asked. "Or is it just the part where it gets worse?"
He didn't joke this time.
We sat in silence for a bit. Then he said, "You remember a lot about the cave."
I looked at him. "What?"
"Details," he said. "More than any of us."
I hesitated, then nodded. "Rusted metal. Like old railings or something snapped in half. A piece of cloth caught on a rock—blue. A cracked phone screen buried in the dirt. And the ground itself looked wrong. Like it had been dug up and paved over again."
Hashim stared at me. "How do you even remember that?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "It's just… there. Like it wants me to remember."
That was when his voice dropped.
"I think we should try to find the cave again."
I didn't react. Not the way he probably expected.
"It disappears," I said. "We already know that. It's pointless."
"I don't think it does," he said. "Not completely."
I turned to him.
"Everything that's happening to us," he continued, "leads back to that place. The voice. The timing. The thing that chased us now watching you. Either we're all losing our minds together—like a quintuple hallucination, major mind-fuck—or the cave is still there."
I exhaled slowly.
"And if it is," he added, "it's the only place we have answers."
I rubbed my face. "Even if you're right… how do we find something that doesn't want to be found?"
Hashim looked up, seemingly thinking. "We figure that out next."
⸻
upstairs, the conversation looked very different.
Sia sat cross-legged on her bedroom floor, staring at the ceiling like it might crack open and answer her questions.
"You said Jamal sees it every three nights," she said. "Same time. Same spot."
Neems nodded. "Yeah. That's what he said."
Samiya paced. "So what, we just… wait for it?"
"No," Sia said. "We use it."
Neems blinked. "Use it how?"
Sia sat up. "If it's watching him, that means it can be predicted. Which means it can be tracked."
"Ambush it?" Neems asked, half-joking.
Samiya stopped pacing. "How exactly do you ambush something twelve feet tall with no weapons?"
Sia didn't smile.
"Maybe we don't have no weapons."
Both of them looked at her.
"My mom keeps a handgun," Sia said. "And a rifle. Downstairs. For intruders."
Neems' eyes widened. "You're serious?"
"I am," Sia said. "Getting them is the hard part."
Samiya swallowed. "This is insane."
"But it's worth a shot," Sia replied. "Literally."
Neems hugged her arms. "I've never even held a gun before."
"Neither have I," Sia said. "But we're running out of things we haven't tried."
———————
There's a difference between knowing something is wrong
and agreeing to sit down and talk about it.
We didn't meet yesterday because we were brave.
We met because pretending stopped working.
It was Sia's idea again—her place, late afternoon, curtains half-drawn even though the sun was still out. Not dramatic, not intentional. Just… instinct. Like part of her already knew light mattered, even if she didn't know why yet.
Yesterday didn't feel real. So we had to restart. Her living room felt smaller than usual. Almost as if she changed the atmosphere. Five people, five phones face-down on the table like they were contagious. Nobody turned on the TV. Nobody put music on. The quiet wasn't comfortable, but it was honest.
Hashim broke it first. He always did.
"So," he said, leaning back into the couch cushions. "We're really doing this, huh?"
"Doing what?" Neems asked.
He shrugged. "Admitting we're haunted."
Samiya snapped her head toward him. "Don't."
"What? I'm just calling it what it—"
"I said don't." Her voice wasn't loud, but it cut. "If you're gonna joke, do it somewhere else."
That shut him up.
Sia watched the exchange without interrupting. She waited until the room settled again before speaking.
"We're not here to panic," she said calmly. "We're here to put things together. Everything. Even the stuff that sounds stupid."
Hashim raised an eyebrow. "You just said not to panic, and now you're inviting the stupid stuff?"
"I'm inviting the honest stuff," she corrected.
That was her gift. Making people feel like telling the truth was safer than hiding it.
I cleared my throat. It felt like stepping onto thin ice.
"Okay," I said. "Then let's start with this—whatever came out of the cave didn't stay there."
Neems nodded immediately. "Yeah. No argument."
Hashim opened his mouth, then closed it again. That alone told me more than words would have.
Samiya folded her arms tight across her chest. "It's not just one thing either," she said. "It's like… two."
That got everyone's attention.
"Explain," Sia said.
"There's the voice," Samiya continued. "And then there's the thing we saw."
"The tall one," Neems said quietly.
Hashim shifted in his seat. "The… thing that didn't chase us."
"Exactly," Samiya said. "Which is messed up on its own."
I leaned forward slightly. "The voice started first."
Everyone looked at me.
"In the cave," I said. "Before we ran. Before we even knew something was wrong."
Sia nodded slowly. "And after?"
"After," I said, "it shows up wherever we're alone. Or quiet. Or tired."
Neems swallowed. "It sounds like people we trust."
That landed heavier than anything else so far.
Hashim rubbed his hands together. "Okay, but voices aren't monsters. That's just… auditory hallucinations. Stress does that."
Samiya turned toward him slowly. "Then why does it respond?"
He frowned. "Respond how?"
"When I tell it to stop," she said. "It stops. For a second."
Nobody spoke.
I felt something cold crawl up my spine.
"That's not how hallucinations work," Sia said quietly.
Neems hugged her knees closer. "It's like it wants acknowledgment."
The room went still.
I stared at the floor, gears turning whether I wanted them to or not. "That would explain why it doesn't yell," I said. "Why it doesn't threaten."
"Because it doesn't need to," Sia said.
Hashim scoffed weakly. "So what, it feeds on fear? Like Pennywise or something?"
"But the Monster can come into our dreams like Freddy Krueger" Neems Added.
I winced. Samiya snapped instantly.
"Okay! So we're dealing with a supernatural clown and a burned-face dream killer now?" she said sharply. "NONE of this is connected, so can we please get back on topic?"
Hashim raised both hands. "Alright, alright. I'm done."
The air shifted again—not dramatically. Just enough to feel it.
I hated that my next words came out anyway.
"It reacts when we focus on it."
Sia looked at me. "You're sure?"
I nodded. "Every time we replay the cave. Every time we talk about it in detail. It gets… closer."
Neems frowned. "Then why are we doing this?"
"Because ignoring it didn't make it go away," Samiya said.
That was the truth none of us wanted.
Sia exhaled slowly. "Okay. Then we do this carefully. We don't dramatize it. We don't spiral. We treat it like a problem."
Hashim tilted his head. "Problems usually have names."
No one answered him.
The silence stretched. Thick. Pressurized.
Then Neems spoke, almost absentmindedly.
"It listens."
The word slipped out like an accident.
The Listener.
I felt it immediately.
Not fear.
Not a sound.
A shift.
Like a room realizing you'd said its name.
Samiya's breath caught. "Why did that feel… bad?"
Hashim swallowed. "Yeah. Didn't like that."
Sia's jaw tightened. "We don't say that again."
I nodded. My heart was pounding, and I hated that part of me was already filing the reaction away.
"It's getting late." Hashim said with his eyes barely opened. "Let's pick this up some other time."
Samiya turned her head. "Late? While it's that bright outside?"
Hashim picked up his bag, "You know we barely have any sun a lot these days. plus I can't be out for too long. See' ya."
Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room felt dry. I knew I wasn't the only one who sensed it as we saw Hashim walk though that door.
"He's right." Neems said as everyone looked in her direction. "Let's just pick this up another day."
We all left Sia's house. We knew what we had to do now. Even if it was something we didn't truly understand, we'd get our answers one way or another.
Outside, a streetlight buzzed.
And somewhere not far away, something tall shifted its weight—patient, unseen, and listening.
But that was the least of our worries, because we were now split up to two dangerous missions.
We didn't stay much longer.
Outside, the wind felt heavier than usual.
Made me wonder if it was an omen.
————
NEXT WEDNESDAY:
CHAPTER 6 – "Only At Night."