fifteen

A few days ago -

Dan hesitated for a moment before pushing open the broken door of the old house at Doll's head trail. The hinges shrieked as the door swung open, revealing a yawning darkness beyond.

A gust of stale air drifted past him, carrying the scent of damp wood, mildew, and something faintly metallic.

Dan stepped inside. Dust swirled in the dim light that filtered through the cracked and grime-covered windows. The fractured glass distorted the outside world, making it feel even more detached from reality.

Inside, it was silent. Too silent.

His breath echoed in the vast emptiness.

The place was stripped bare—no furniture, just emptiness. Hollow and abandoned.

His footsteps were the only sound, the floorboards creaking beneath his weight, whispering secrets of those who had walked before him. He ran his fingers along the faded wallpaper, feeling how it had peeled away from the walls in long, curling strips.

A rotting wooden staircase stood at the far end of the hallway, leading upward into the shadows. The railing was broken in places, splinters jutting out like jagged teeth. A faded handprint stained the wall beside it—too old to tell if it was paint, dirt… or something else.

Dan shuddered and turned away, walking deeper into the house.

He peered into what must have once been the living room. A grand fireplace sat cold and dead against the far wall, its bricks cracked and crumbling. The wooden floor was warped as if something heavy had been dragged across it repeatedly.

Something about this house felt wrong.

His eyes drifted to the ceiling. Dark water stains bled across it like ink, the wooden beams above groaning softly. Something scratched faintly within the walls—rats, maybe. Or just his imagination?

A doorway on the left led him into what should have been the kitchen. Rusted pipes stuck out from the walls where a sink had once been. The cabinet doors hung open, yawning like empty mouths. Claw marks marred the wooden counters.

He didn't want to think about what might have made them.

Dan swallowed hard. He turned back toward the entrance, intending to leave—

Then his foot landed on something hollow.

Creak.

A sharp, unnatural sound beneath his step.

His heart skipped. He lifted his foot and pressed down again.

Creak.

His stomach twisted. He knelt, pressing his palm against the wooden slab. It shifted. It was loose.

Someone had moved it before.

Dan's breath came faster. His fingers curled around the edges, and he pried it up.

Beneath the floor, concealed under a layer of dust and rotting wood—

Was a metal-framed hole.

A ladder led down into the dark.

Dan stared, his mind screaming at him to turn back.

But he gripped the ladder and began to descend.

Down into the unknown.

Dan kept descending, his hands gripping the cold metal rungs of the ladder. The deeper he went, the stronger the faint glow beneath him became. It wasn't natural light—it was artificial, sterile.

His breath quickened. The air down here was different—cooler, clinical, laced with the faint scent of chemicals.

Finally, his feet touched solid ground.

He looked around, adjusting to the brightness. White tiles stretched beneath him, spotless and sterile, reflecting the overhead fluorescent lights. The contrast between this underground space and the decayed house above sent a chill down his spine.

Then he heard it—voices.

Muffled at first, then clearer as he walked forward.

Dan took slow, careful steps, keeping close to the wall. He reached the edge of a hallway and peered around the corner.

His breath caught.

A vast laboratory stretched before him, bustling with people in crisp white lab coats. They moved with purpose, working at stations filled with complex machinery, glowing monitors, and glass tubes filled with strange, swirling liquids.

The sound of clinking glass, beeping monitors, and hurried conversation filled the air.

His eyes darted across the room— a hidden lab, buried beneath an abandoned house.

Then his gaze settled on a figure standing near the center of the lab.

A man in a white coat, tall, composed, exuding authority. He was speaking to a woman — his father.

Dan's breath hitched as his mind reeled, struggling to process what he was seeing.

His dad. Standing right there in the middle of this underground lab.

For years, Dan knew his father was a scientist, but he had never known where he worked, never questioned it. Now, standing in the middle of this sterile, hidden facility, surrounded by strange equipment.

For some reason, though, he felt safe.

He swallowed hard and took a shaky step forward.

'Dad?'

The lab grew silent.

Mr. Smith turned toward him, his expression unreadable at first. Then, his eyes widened in surprise.

'Dan? What are you doing here?' His voice was sharp, laced with something Dan couldn't quite place—concern? Alarm?

Dan hesitated but then spoke. 'I was exploring the old house… and I found the ladder.' His voice came out steadier than he expected.

His father's brows furrowed. 'What?'

A murmur spread across the lab. A few people exchanged glances, whispering.

A man standing nearby—one of the scientists—spoke up. 'Trevor… he must have climbed down from that old entrance.'

Mr. Smith exhaled sharply, rubbing his forehead. 'I told you guys to close that properly.' His tone held frustration, but there was something deeper in it—something Dan didn't like.

Dan shifted his gaze around, finally taking in the details. The lab was… different. Not like the normal research facilities he had seen in movies.

Glass chambers filled with murky liquid lined the walls, bubbling softly. Large screens displayed complex data and strange body scans. Scientists moved with urgency, some adjusting controls, others examining sealed metallic cases that looked like they belonged in some high-security military lab.

His gut twisted.

He turned back to his father. 'So… you work here?' His voice was quieter now, his curiosity battling a growing unease.

Mr. Smith sighed, his lips curving into something resembling a smile—but it didn't reach his eyes.

'Yes, son. I do. And now that you're here…' He placed a hand on Dan's shoulder, gripping it just a little too firmly. '...let's have a little tour'.

They walked past rows of workstations where scientists murmured among themselves, too focused on their work to notice him. The lab had a cold, clinical feel—white walls, bright lights, the steady hum of machines filling the silence.

Dan's eyes darted around, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Glass chambers filled with thick, swirling liquid lined one side of the room. Each one had monitors attached, displaying strange symbols and data he couldn't understand.

His father gestured toward a circular machine in the center of the lab, its core pulsing faintly with blue light.

'This is our energy stabilizer,' he explained. 'It controls the power flow for the entire facility. Without it, we'd be in complete darkness.'

Dan nodded slowly, taking it all in. His father moved on, showing him advanced computers running simulations, metallic capsules with biohazard warnings, and locked storage units that he wasn't allowed to ask about.

Then, they stopped in front of something different.

A large glass container, filled with a shimmering, silver liquid. The substance moved in slow, eerie waves, almost as if it were alive.

Mr. Smith exhaled, placing a hand on the glass. 'This,' he said, his voice carrying a weight Dan couldn't quite place, 'is our most important discovery.'

Dan stared at the shimmering liquid, its surface shifting in slow, hypnotic waves, almost as if it were breathing. 'What is it?'

His father's gaze darkened slightly. 'Deep in the caves of India, researchers uncovered something extraordinary—an organic liquid, composed of living cells, capable of predicting danger before it happens.'

Dan's eyes widened. 'Predicting danger? How?'

'The cells react to the very presence of fatal threats,' Mr. Smith explained, his fingers lightly tapping the glass. 'They don't just sense immediate danger—they respond to patterns, changes in the environment, shifts in human behavior. They can detect the conditions that lead to death…before it even occurs.'

Dan felt a chill run down his spine. The liquid pulsed slightly as if responding to their conversation.

His father continued, his voice lowering. 'With the data gathered from this substance, we've developed technology that could change everything—understanding death before it strikes, preventing disasters before they happen. We here are trying to see what happens if we got this liquid a brain.'

Dan's breath hitched. His body stiffened.

'What?' His voice came out quieter than he intended. His father's words echoed in his head, twisting around his thoughts like vines, suffocating them.

Trevor Smith sighed, rubbing his temple as if bracing himself. 'Son… I never wanted you to find out like this.' He looked away for a moment before meeting Dan's gaze again. 'But it's the truth.'

Dan took a step back, his heart pounding against his ribs. 'You—what do you mean you put it in my brain?'

Trevor exhaled, as if this was just another experiment, just another scientific fact. 'That liquid… the one you just saw? It's already inside you. One day I mixed our refined formula of this liquid in your drink… because the Government doesn't allow us to experiment on human'

'So you experienced on your son?' there was disbelief in Dan's expression 

The world around Dan seemed to tilt. 'No… No, that doesn't make any sense! Why would you—' His breathing turned ragged. A memory flashed through his mind—those dreams. The ones that had haunted him for the past two weeks. Could this liquid in him be the reason for those death dreams…so they are real?

In each one, he saw himself die. Firstly by a car then a building going up…it could be he falling down a building.

He thought they were just nightmares. But what if they weren't?

He pressed a hand against his forehead, a sharp ache blooming behind his eyes. 'No… no, that's impossible…'

Trevor took a step toward him, voice steady, almost cold. 'Son, I know you are having strange dreams…those dreams you've been having? They're not dreams.'

Dan's breath caught in his throat.

'They're warnings.'

'You are my success…my son' 

The room suddenly felt too small, too bright, too suffocating. His skin crawled with the weight of something he couldn't see.

Trevor's voice softened, but his words cut deeper. 'The cells… They predict danger before it happens. They detect death before it arrives.' He hesitated, watching his son's reaction. 'And Dan… you've been seeing your own.'

Dan felt his stomach drop.

'I'm… going to die?'

Trevor's expression remained calm and clinical. 'Yes… but we can save you. That's the purpose of this experiment.'

Dan's breath came in shallow gasps. His mind replayed the visions—the horrifying flashes that had plagued his dreams for weeks.

'First, I saw…a car crashed into me and-and then I-I saw that I am falling from a building' Dan was so sacred, his doubt was real now…he was about to die. 

Dan's hands curled into fists. 'It's real, isn't it? I keep seeing it… and now, you're telling me it's real?'

Trevor took a step closer. 'We'll try to stop it, son. But for that, I need to run some tests on you.'

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Present -

Trevor Smith's voice was eerily calm as he recounted the past. His cold, calculated gaze locked onto Adi, who stood frozen in shock.

'That was the end of Dan's story.'

Trevor let out a slow breath as if recalling an unfortunate inconvenience. 'When he found out the truth, he panicked. He ran. I don't what was he thinking when he started to run. I had no choice but to send my guards after him. It was too dangerous for him to be out in public, not when his death was so close.'

Adi's chest tightened. 'And then?'

Trevor tilted his head, his voice devoid of remorse. 'He ran until there was nowhere left to run. My men chased him through the city, and in the end… in the chase, he fell.' A pause. 'From a building. Just like in his dreams.'

A suffocating silence filled the room.

Adi felt ice creeping into his veins. His mind reeled, desperate for an explanation—for a way this wasn't real.

Trevor continued, his tone disturbingly thoughtful. 'The police ruled it a suicide. But I knew the truth. Dan's death proved one thing.'

He took a step closer, his voice barely above a whisper.

'The liquid warns you. It can save you from danger… but not from death.'

Adi's stomach twisted into knots.

That's how Dan died.

Dan kept seeing his own death over and over again. In doubt, he made puzzles for three of them to follow.

And then Trevor smiled—that cold, detached smile.

'After Dan's death, I needed another test subject'

Adi felt his breath hitch.

Trevor's next words shattered whatever hope he had left.

'And guess who I chose?' He leaned in, his voice chilling. 'You, Aditya. Remember I gave you some medicine at my home earlier…It was my new formula of those liquid cells'

'You have those liquid cells working in your brain' Trevor's evil smile and sparkling eyes on sacred and shocked Adi.