Her phone buzzed again inside her pocket, a low, persistent tremor against her hip.

She froze, every muscle tensed, as if answering it might shatter the fragile, uneasy air hanging between them.

Across the room, Kane hadn't moved but something in his eyes had.

"I think you should check that," he said, his voice a shade too calm to be comforting.

She stared at him and her hand hovered over her pocket, hesitating.

The buzzing stopped. A breath of silence. Then started again, more frantic this time, as if whoever was on the other end knew she was teetering on the edge.

Kane tilted his head slightly, watching her with a kind of quiet intensity that made her skin crawl.

"I won't stop you," he said.

But it sounded less like permission and more like a warning.

Slowly, she pulled the phone free.

Ten-plus new messages. And her phone kept on buzzing continuously.

No name.

Just a number she didn't recognize.

Her thumb paused above the screen, heart hammering against her ribs, when Kane's voice slid through the silence.

"You might not like what you find."

She opened the chat, heart pounding so hard it hurt.

One message blinked on the screen.

I'm watching you.

Another.

I'm watching you.

And another.

The same words, over and over again, stacking like a suffocating weight on her chest.

Her fingers fumbled over the screen, scrolling through the endless repetition, her breath hitching.

Each new message felt louder than the last, as if the sender wasn't just texting.

They were right there, just beyond sight, pulling the strings.

A sudden, sick feeling churned in her stomach.

She yanked her gaze to the top corner of the screen, praying for a signal, anything...

But there was nothing.

No bars.

No cellular data.

Nothing.

Yet the messages kept coming.

She looked up sharply, her pulse screaming in her ears.

Kane was now standing across the room, still as a statue.

But his eyes—

His eyes told a different story.

Not fear.

Not confusion.

Something worse.

Recognition.

"I'm guessing you're thinking how you're getting messages amidst this storm?" Kane's voice cut through the silence, and the words hung in the air like smoke.

His tone was too casual, like he was reading from a script he'd rehearsed.

Her breath caught in her throat.

She looked back down at the screen, willing herself to focus, to make sense of it. But her hands were shaking too much. The phone buzzed again, violently this time, as if demanding her attention, as if the very device was alive and clawing for her.

She looked up at Kane. His eyes were locked onto her. Too calm, too knowing.

He hadn't moved, but there was something darker about him now.

Something not entirely human, something that gnawed at her insides.

Her finger hovered over the screen once more.

Should she just throw the phone out the window and forget about it?

The next message blinked on her screen.

I'm always watching. I see everything.

Her stomach twisted violently, a cold sweat breaking out across her skin.

She glanced up again, desperation flooding her. "How... how are you doing this? Why—" Her voice cracked.

Kane took a slow, deliberate step forward, his shadow stretching long across the floor.

His eyes never left hers. "They have been watching you long before you got here," he said, his voice low and almost tender.

Her heart hammered in her chest, the walls of the cabin suddenly feeling smaller, suffocating.

"But they're not the ones you should be worried about," Kane continued, his voice now dropping to a dangerous whisper. "You're not alone in this room, you know."

Her stomach dropped.

"What do you mean?" she whispered, her voice barely audible, but the fear clawing its way up her throat felt all too real.

He didn't answer right away. He just stepped closer, his gaze never leaving hers. It was like he could see into her very soul, pulling at the strands of her sanity, unraveling her, piece by piece.

And in that silence, her phone buzzed again.

But this time, it wasn't the same message.

It was something worse.

Are you scared yet?

She gasped loudly her and the silence was unbearable.

Her pulse roared in her ears, each thundering beat a reminder that she wasn't alone. Kane's eyes held her captive, and the words he'd just spoken and the message she just got reverberated in her mind, wrapping around her like a suffocating noose.

The air in the room seemed to thin, heavy and thick, pressing in on her from all sides. Then, as if the storm outside was answering some silent cue, a blinding flash of lightning lit up the night sky, slashing through the cabin's grim interior.

For a split second, the world outside was exposed in stark, white light.

In that fleeting moment, she saw it. A silhouette standing just beyond the window, outlined against the storm's fury.

A person, tall and indistinct, yet undeniably present. The figure was unnervingly still, as if it was waiting for her to notice.

Her heart skipped a beat.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Before she could scream, before her mind could even process the terrifying thought that someone was watching her through the storm something hit the back of her head. A sharp, sickening thud.

Her vision spun wildly, the room tilting dangerously. The world blurred and fragmented, her body sagging as if every muscle had just been drained of strength.

She tried to call out, but her throat was tight, her limbs numb.

Another flash of lightning, and in that split second of light, she saw another silhouette. This time, standing next to Kane. The figure was cloaked in shadow, too close to him, too close to her. Their presence felt like a tangible weight pressing down on her chest.

Then everything went dark.

⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯

She awoke with a jolt, gasping for air, her mind struggling to piece together what had just happened.

Her head throbbed, a dull, insistent pain that only worsened when she tried to move.

The room around her was dim, far too dim, like someone had deliberately kept it submerged in shadows. She blinked rapidly, trying to focus, but everything was blurry, distorted. Her vision like a fogged-up window.

Her limbs were bound. Tied. Her wrists ached, and the ropes dug into her skin with each desperate pull she made.

Panic clawed at her chest, but she forced herself to take a slow, shallow breath, trying to stave off the rising tide of terror.

When her eyes finally adjusted to the low lighting, she saw them. Several figures. Dark silhouettes against the darkness, like shadows that didn't belong.

They were watching her. She could feel their gaze, cold and assessing, but they didn't move, didn't speak. The silence in the room was thick, oppressive.

The fear seeped into her bones as she realized she didn't know who they were.

She couldn't see their faces. Only their shapes, their silhouettes, lingering in the darkness.

And then, like a slow ripple in a pond, the fear began to creep upward again.

After for what felt like an eternity, they just stood there silent, unblinking as if savoring her fear.

Natalya's breathing grew ragged, the pounding of her heart echoing in her ears. Her body screamed to run, to fight, to do anything but the ropes held her captive.

Then, without a word, the figures moved.

One by one, they stepped out of the shadows, the dim light catching their faces.

Natalya stared, her pulse hammering so hard she thought her ribs might break.

Her eyes darted from one face to the next. Searching, pleading for some kind of answer.

And that's when the ground seemed to tilt beneath her.

Some of the faces...

She knew them.

Her stomach twisted violently.

Familiar eyes. Familiar mouths.

People she had trusted.

People she had started to love.

A betrayal so deep it made her blood run cold bloomed in her chest, spreading like a poison.

Her mind reeled, trying to understand, trying to find some explanation that didn't exist.

Why were they here?

What did they want from her?

And more importantly who were they?

And most chilling of all

How long had they been part of this?

A bitter taste coated her tongue as the truth slithered into her mind.

They had been watching her too.

Maybe from the very beginning.

One of them, a woman with sharp eyes and a cruel smile took a step closer.

"Missed us, Natalya?" she said, her voice a knife wrapped in silk.

Natalya recoiled instinctively, the chair scraping weakly against the floor.

There was no escape.

Not from them.

Not now.

"Did you miss us?" she crooned. "We heard you were looking for us. After all... we're a one big family."

The woman turned slightly, flashing a wicked smile at the others lurking in the shadows.

"Go on," she said, almost playfully. "Say hello to our dear Natalya."

One by one, the figures stepped closer, their faces peeling away from the dark like something from a nightmare.

"Hello, Natalya," they chimed in low, uneven voices, a grotesque chorus that made her blood run cold.

Natalya's heart hammered against her ribs.

This wasn't real. It couldn't be real.

Yet the ropes digging into her wrists, the aching throb in her skull, and the icy certainty sinking into her bones told her otherwise.

Still crouched before her, the woman reached out, her fingers grazing Natalya's cheek with a mockery of tenderness.

"I suppose introductions are overdue," she murmured, her smile widening into something feral.

"I'm your mother."

Natalya flinched as if struck, the word slicing deeper than any blade.

"Family," she rasped again, but this time it tasted like betrayal, like blood in her mouth.

"Yes, family..." the woman purred, savoring the word like it was some cruel joke.

"And you, dear, are our sweet Natalya. You always were."

She straightened, her voice carrying easily through the heavy air.

"I think you recognize a few faces here already," she added with a sly smile, casting a glance at the others who lingered just out of reach, their gazes sharp and unblinking.

Natalya's chest heaved, panic and rage battling beneath her skin.

The woman clapped her hands once, softly.

"Alright, everyone," she said, a singsong edge to her tone. "I think we're quite done with introductions."

She turned back to Natalya, her smile sharpening.

"Let's get on with it shall we?"

A man she didn't recognize stepped forward from the shadows, carrying something wrapped in dark cloth.

Natalya's heart stuttered as her so-called mother took it from him with a reverent kind of care.

Slowly, almost lovingly, she unwrapped the cloth.

Inside was a dagger.

Its blade was thin, curved, and gleamed wickedly even in the dim light. A weapon made for pain, not mercy.

Natalya recoiled as the woman crouched in front of her again, brandishing the dagger with a twisted smile.

"You could've made it easy," she murmured, almost affectionately. "You could've just died before."

Without warning, the woman pressed the blade lightly against Natalya's cheek.

A sharp sting bloomed along her skin as a thin, hot line of blood trickled down her face.

Natalya gasped, her body straining against the ropes, but it was useless. The ropes only dug deeper into her raw wrists.

"Why did you have to survive and cause us all this trouble," she said and the woman's hand rose higher, dagger poised against Natalya's throat, her smile sharpening into something monstrous.

"And now," she whispered, "we'll have to do this the hard way."

She raised the dagger for the final strike—
But just as the blade began to descend, a gunshot shattered the heavy silence.

The blast echoed in the room like a crack of thunder.

Natalya barely registered the flash of chaos. The shouting, the scrambling before a wave of darkness crashed over her.

Her body went limp.

The last thing she saw before her world faded into black was her mother's eyes, wide and furious.

And then—

Nothing.

Word count- 1875