Echoes of the Forgotten

Aarav jolted awake, gasping.

He wasn't in his bed. He wasn't anywhere familiar.

He was falling.

Not through air, but through something heavier—thicker. A void of swirling colors enveloped him, distorting his vision, warping reality itself. Fragments of images flashed around him—faces he didn't recognize, places he'd never been, yet something inside him clenched with a strange, aching déjà vu.

Then—impact.

Not a crash, not pain, but a sudden, eerie stillness.

Aarav found himself kneeling on cold, smooth ground. The air was heavy, humming with something unseen. When he looked up, his breath caught.

A hallway stretched before him, impossibly long, the walls etched with intricate carvings that pulsed faintly—like a heartbeat. Symbols twisted and reshaped themselves as if aware of his presence.

A whisper slithered through the air.

"He's here."

Aarav's blood ran cold.

He spun around. Nothing. Only the endless corridor and the flickering torchlight casting restless shadows.

A slow, creeping dread coiled in his chest. His instincts screamed at him to run, but his body wouldn't obey. The symbols on the walls pulsed faster, their glow intensifying, syncing with the pounding of his heart.

Then, he saw it.

At the very end of the hallway—a door.

Something inside him knew. That was his destination.

With a deep breath, he stepped forward. The closer he got, the heavier the air became, pressing against his skin like invisible hands trying to hold him back. A thick silence swallowed his footsteps. The torches flickered wildly, as if resisting what was about to happen.

Aarav reached out.

The moment his fingers brushed the surface of the door—

A hand clamped over his wrist.

Cold. Unyielding.

His breath hitched as he turned his head.

A woman stood behind him.

Draped in black, her face veiled in shifting shadows, her grip was firm, almost desperate. Yet it wasn't her presence that unsettled him. It was her voice—low, urgent, and eerily familiar.

"Do not open it."

Aarav swallowed. "Why?"

Her fingers tightened.

"Because once you do, there will be no turning back."

A chill crawled up his spine.

The symbols on the walls froze, their movement ceasing as if the entire hallway was holding its breath. The very air seemed to wait for his next move.

A choice.

The door stood before him, waiting.

Did he heed the warning?

Or did he give in to the pull, the strange, aching call from the other side?

His pulse thundered in his ears.

Aarav made his decision.

And everything shattered.