The lights drifted above the village, soft and golden as they floated through the air.
Laughter carried through the streets, blending with music and the steady hum of life that hadn't stopped since we arrived.
I moved through the crowd slower than before, keeping my head down, hoping to reach my room before anyone noticed me.
"Hey."
I turned.
Seraphina stood a few steps away, already smirking.
"I saw you with that lady earlier."
Maria. The river. Her voice. The way everything had gone quiet around her, like the world itself had stepped back just to let that moment exist. For a second, it pulled me back there, the warmth settling in my chest before I blinked and forced it away.
"…You talk too much."
She laughed, stepping forward and grabbing my hand before I could move, her grip light but firm as she pulled me along.
"Come on," she said, tugging me into the flow of people. "Don't freeze up now."
I didn't resist.
We moved through the crowd together, slipping between bodies and laughter, past glowing lanterns drifting overhead and butterflies that shimmered gold in the light.
Faces passed by in a blur of smiles and easy conversation, all of them relaxed, all of them… content.
The nights repeated. One after another. The same voices. The same songs. The same smiles that didn't seem to fade no matter how long the night lasted.
During those days I had met Maria by the same spot as before.
A meeting spot of ours, it was nice. Peaceful. And it made me question if I was wrong for enjoying it.
No one talked about the forest or what it took for us to get here. It was like those memories had been buried, pushed aside without effort. Like none of it mattered.
I laid in my bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling.
For the first time since arriving, the village was quiet. The usual chatter and laughter that bled through the walls were gone, replaced by a stillness that was different from the usual liveliness of the people here. Not even a faint hum of movement from the streets below.
Just silence, thick enough that I could hear my own breathing, slow and steady, filling the space around me.
I didn't move at first. Just stared upward, letting the silence settle.
Something felt off.
Not sharp. Not urgent. Not something I could name.
But it was there, lingering beneath the surface like a thought just out of reach.
I pushed myself up slowly, dragging a hand down my face.
Then it came again.
"I can stay here."
The thought slipped in quietly, the same way it had since that first night. Subtle. Natural. Like it belonged there.
My hand stopped. My jaw tightened as I tried to push it away.
That wasn't mine.
It didn't feel like mine.
And the fact that it almost did, that it didn't immediately feel wrong, made it worse.
I stood and moved to the window. Outside, the village was still. No music. No laughter. The lanterns hung dimmer now, their glow softer, like something had drained the life out of them.
My chest tightened.
"I need to talk to those two," I muttered, opening the door and stepping into the hallway.
It felt different out there.
My footsteps echoed louder than they should have, each step carrying farther than the last. The air was colder, heavier, pressing faintly against my skin as I moved forward, like the silence itself was watching me.
My steps slowed slightly, ears perking up, tending to its surroundings.
However, the only thing apparent was the silence.
No voices behind doors. No movement. No quiet conversations slipping through the walls like before.
Complete quiet.
Then a door creaked open ahead of me.
I stopped.
Mark stepped out.
He was a human, from a planet called Earth. I remembered him from yesterday after our talk during a card game with the other villagers.
His blonde hair hung from his shoulders as he made his way towards my direction.
But something about him felt… off.
He was smiling. Not wide, not exaggerated, just there, like it had been placed on his face and never meant to move. However, his eyes drifted past me without focus, dull and distant, like he was looking through everything in front of him instead of at it.
"…Mark," I said.
No response. Not even a flicker of recognition.
He kept walking, slow and steady, like nothing around him existed. He passed me without so much as a glance, and up close it was worse.
There was no awareness behind his expression, no shift in his posture, no reaction to my voice or my presence. It was like I wasn't there at all.
I turned slightly, watching him as he reached his door without hesitation, opened it, stepped inside, and closed it behind him.
The click echoed down the hallway, sharper than it should have been, lingering longer than the sound itself.
I stood there for a second longer, staring at the door. I turned, moving towards the direction of Seraphina's room.
When I arrived, Rai was already there.
We stopped a few feet from each other, eyes meeting.
"…What are you doing here?" he asked.
"I was going to ask you the same thing."
The door opened before either of us said anything else.
Seraphina stood there, brows already furrowed.
"Both of you," she said, stepping back, "get inside."
We followed, entering her room while she closed the door behind us.
The room felt smaller than it should have, like the walls had shifted inward without anyone noticing, the air tight and heavy.
Seraphina dropped onto the bed, her hair tied in a neat bun, leaving out two strands that rested over her face. Her posture was casual, but her eyes were sharp as they switched between us.
"What were you guys doing outside my room?" Her eyes bore into ours, reading them.
Rai didn't hesitate. "Have you been feeling strange?"
She paused, her expression tightening slightly, the question clearly landing somewhere deeper than expected. "What do you mean?"
"This feeling," I said. "Like… staying here doesn't seem so bad. Like it's not that important to leave."
Something changed in her face immediately. Not confusion. Recognition.
"You felt it too."
I nodded. "It's subtle," I continued, lowering my voice without meaning to. "But it's getting stronger. Every night. Like it's settling in… like it's becoming normal."
Rai crossed his arms, leaning back slightly, his gaze steady. " I noticed it after the first day," he said. " It gets worse after eating, almost like it's on cue."
Seraphina exhaled slowly, running a hand through her hair as she looked off to the side, her usual ease gone now, replaced by something more tense, more aware.
"…Yeah," she whispered. "Same."
Silence followed, heavy and suffocating, stretching just a little too long. No one spoke. No one moved. The weight of it sat between us, uncomfortable in a way that made it hard to ignore.
Seraphina's gaze lowered slightly before she muttered, almost under her breath.
"This place is off."
"No," Rai said quietly." I think it's controlled."
"We need to get out of here." I added, pulling my knife out.
Seraphina let out a short laugh, "With what? Your knife?"
My gaze darkened, staring at the knife in my hand. She wasn't wrong, that forest wasn't something you could just walk into unprepared.
Then she glanced at Rai.
"Didn't expect you to work with people like us. You know, non royal bloods." Said Seraphine, her posture resuming its usual casualness, a playful smirk clearly on her face.
Rai glanced back, " I don't adopt the same thinking other nobles have." He paused. "Still, don't get comfortable. I'm here to survive, not make friends."
Ahh!-
Before anything else could be said, a scream tore through the hallway. Sharp and panicked, it cut through the silence so suddenly it made my chest tighten, then it stopped just as fast, like something had forced it down mid-breath.
Silence followed.
Not natural. Not calm. It pressed in harder than before, heavier, like the sound had been swallowed whole.
We moved at the same time.
The door flew open as we stepped into the hallway, and others began doing the same. Doors cracked open along the corridor, faces peeking out, some stepping fully into the light. Confused. Uneasy. Afraid. Not many of them. Maybe eight at most.
I scanned the hallway quickly, my eyes moving from one end to the other, searching for anything out of place.
Then I saw it.
A closed door further down the hallway.
A thin line of light stretched from beneath it, faint but visible against the dim floor. I focused on it and then… it vanished.
Before I could think, my body moved on its own, dashing down the hallway towards the room.
The others followed behind me, footsteps echoing sharply through the corridor as the distance closed.
I reached the door first, grabbing the handle and twisting.
Locked.
I stepped back without hesitation and drove my foot into it. The impact cracked through the wood, the frame splintering under the force before giving way completely as the door burst open.
I stepped inside.
And stopped.
A pool of blood spread across the floor. My eyes scanned the room quickly, searching for any signs of clues.
However, the room was clean. Besides the blood, there was nothing. No signs of struggle. No overturned furniture. Nothing.
Not even the body.
People filtered in behind me.
One of them froze.
"…Mark?"
His voice cracked.
"Mark, where are you-"
I moved fast, covering his mouth.
"Quiet."
He shoved me off.
"That's my brother!"
His hand shot towards my collar, his movements slow in my eyes as I prepared to bring him down.
However, Rai moved before I could. His movement fast, catching his fingers, twisting hard as he followed up with a kick that left the man on his behind.
Rai crouched over him, gripping his jaw.
"Lower your voice," he said coldly. "Unless you want to disappear next ."
The man's breathing was heavy, uneven, like he was trying to keep himself from breaking apart.
His anger didn't disappear.
But something else surfaced beneath it.
Fear.
Rai let go and stepped back, giving him space.
The man pushed himself up slowly, gritting his teeth as he cradled his twisted fingers against his chest, his eyes flicking between all of us like he didn't know who to trust.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"…Joseph."
I nodded once.
"When did you last see him?"
He swallowed hard, his throat moving visibly.
"…We were in the room. Drinking."
"What?"
"The wine," he said, his voice unsteady. "From the festival."
Seraphina stepped forward slightly, her eyes narrowing.
"Did he act strange?"
Joseph hesitated.
His gaze dropped for a moment, his grip tightening around his injured hand as if grounding himself.
"…Yeah."
We waited.
He exhaled slowly before continuing, like forcing the memory out.
"At first, it was normal," he said. "We were talking. Laughing. Same as we always did…" His voice faltered slightly. "Then he just… stopped."
The room went quiet.
"Stopped?" I asked.
Joseph nodded, his brows pulling together as he tried to piece it together.
"Yeah. Like mid-conversation. He just went quiet. Staring at nothing." His eyes lifted slightly, unfocused for a second, like he was seeing it again. "I thought he was messing with me at first, but then… his expression changed."
"How?" Seraphina asked.
"…He smiled."
The words sat wrong.
Joseph's jaw tightened.
"Not like before. Not like a normal smile. It just… stayed there. Like it didn't belong to him."
A cold weight settled in my chest.
"…His eyes," Joseph continued, his voice lower now. "They weren't right. Like he wasn't really there anymore. Like something else was… looking through him."
No one spoke.
"He started talking again," Joseph said. "But it wasn't the same. He kept saying we didn't need to leave. That everything outside didn't matter. That this place was better." His breathing picked up slightly. "That we should stay."
Heavy silence followed.
Pressing.
Then another voice cut through it, this time deeper.
A large man stepped forward, his four arms shifting slightly as his single eye focused on us.
"I had that thought too," he said. "After the first festival. After eating."
The words landed, and the shift was immediate. People around us straightened or pulled back slightly, low murmurs spreading through the room as the realization settled in.
Agreement. Recognition. No one said it outright, but it was there. The room felt tighter, like the walls had drawn in just enough to make the air heavier.
"Hey."
We turned.
A woman stood near the blood, her posture low as she crouched beside it. Her eyes were insect-like, red with a faint golden iris that caught the dim light, and two thin antennae rose from her head, glowing softly as they twitched in slow, deliberate movements.
"I found something."
Her fingers hovered just above the surface before lightly brushing against the blood. The moment she touched it, the glow from her antennae intensified, faint at first, then pulsing in a slow rhythm, like it was responding to something beneath the surface.
She stilled for a second, as if listening, then rose to her feet.
Without another word, she began to move.
Slow. Controlled. Certain.
We followed.
Each step felt heavier than the last, the silence pressing in again as we watched her. She stopped near the center of the room, her gaze lowering toward the floor.
"The body didn't disappear," she said quietly, her voice thinner now, more focused.
She paused.
"…It moved."
Her foot pressed down.
There was a subtle movement beneath us, almost too slight to notice, followed by a faint click that echoed through the room. Then the ground gave way, the floor separating just enough to reveal what had been hidden beneath it.
A dark narrow opening.
Cold air rushed upward, brushing against my face and slipping beneath my clothes, carrying with it a smell that didn't belong here. Metal. Rot. Something deeper beneath it. Something old.
No one spoke.
We just stared.
The opening stretched downward, revealing a staircase, swallowing the light from above, the darkness thick enough that it felt like it was pushing back against it.
I stepped closer, my grip tightening around the knife as I looked into it.
That feeling came back. Stronger this time.
Not subtle. Not quiet.
It pressed against me, heavy and aware, like something below knew we were there.
Watching.
Waiting.
Behind me, someone fidgeted, their voice barely steady.
"…We're not going down there, right?"
No one answered.
Because we all knew. We had to.
I exhaled slowly, steadying myself as I stepped forward.