Chapter 1
It was raining as if the sky itself had been torn apart.
The downpour was relentless. The time had crossed 11 PM.
In the middle of that dense forest road, there were no streetlights. Only the occasional flash of lightning split the darkness and revealed the path for a fleeting second.
Tearing through the silence, a police jeep sped forward.
Raindrops slammed against the windshield — "Tap… Tap…" — while the wipers screeched back and forth — "Kreech… Kreech…" — struggling against the storm.
Behind the steering wheel was Sub-Inspector Raghuraman. His face was tight, tense. Sitting beside him, Constable Velan was shivering — not just from the cold, but from an unexplainable unease.
Suddenly…
"Awooooo…"
From somewhere in the distance, a dog howled.
Even above the roar of the rain, the sound was terrifyingly clear.
"SCREECH!"
Raghuraman slammed the brakes.
The jeep's tires skidded along the rain-soaked road before coming to a halt.
Velan jolted forward, startled. He looked around frantically. Nothing. Only darkness… shadows of trees… and the pounding rain.
"Sir… what happened, sir? Why did you stop the vehicle? Did someone cross the road?" Velan asked nervously.
But Raghuraman didn't reply.
His eyes were frozen — staring intensely at the spot illuminated by the jeep's headlights.
"Velan… look there…" he said, pointing ahead.
Velan followed his finger.
At the edge of the road, in the middle of that merciless rain… stood a gigantic tree.
It was no ordinary tree.
Nearly fourteen feet tall, its leaves were unusually dense — almost like thick human hair. As the wind blew through them, the rustling sound resembled human whispers.
Its branches stretched toward the sky like long arms… as if waiting in the darkness to grab someone.
"Sir… it's just a tree, right?" Velan's voice trembled.
"No, Velan… it doesn't look like just a tree… Look closely. Doesn't it feel like… it's breathing?" said Raghuraman.
A chill ran down Velan's spine.
At that very moment, lightning struck again—
And within the dense cluster of leaves…
something seemed to move.