Chapter 8

The room fell silent.

Saria stared at the photograph of the gravestone.

In Loving Memory of Adria

Her fingers crossed tightened around the edge of the desk until her knuckles turned pale.

“They buried her”

The words dropped from her lips before she could stop them.

Detective Noah frowned sharply.

“What did you say?”

Saria blinked, as if waking from a dream.

“I..I don’t know.”

“It just… came out.”

Lucas exchanged a glance with detective Noah

Both of them noticed it immediately.

She hadn’t said I.

She had said her.

As if Adria was someone separate from herself.

As if Saria was remembering a life that did not belong to her.

Noah carefully gathered the photographs back into a sealed folder.lf

“I need to get this to the station,” he said firmly.

“We are outlining where this portrait came from.”

“And those flowers someone left there intentionally.

That means this is not random.”

Lucas stepped forward.

“I will stay with Saria.”

Dan immediately moved as well.

“So will I.”

The tension between the two men was instant and sharp.

Noah breathed out through his nose.

“Fine…

But listen carefully.”

His eyes solidified.

“Neither of you leaves this house until I return.”

He pointed toward the officers stationed outside the property.

“If anything moves near this place”

“They have orders to shoot first and ask questions later.”

The warning hung in the air like a sword.

Then Noah turned and left.

The front door shut with a heavy final sound.

Silence returned to the house.

Too deep.

Too still.

That night, the rain did not stop.

It fell in steady sheets against the windows, washing the world outside into blurred shadows.

The old house grunted under the wind, its wooden bones creaking like something alive.

Saria couldn’t sleep.

Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the gravestone.

So she got up peacefully.

She dropped out of her room and moved down the dim hallway.

The floorboards whispered beneath her steps.

Downstairs, the fireplace had nearly died.

Only faint embers glowed like dying stars.

She covered a blanket around her shoulders and stood near the window.

Outside, the forest was a wall of darkness.

No shapes.

No movement.

Only unlimited black trees wiped out by rain.

Then something twinkled.

A faint light far between the trees.

Saria leaned closer; it looked like a lantern.

Slow.

Deliberate.

It moved, then paused and then vanished.

And reappeared again deeper in the forest.

Her breath caught.

Is someone out there?

She didn’t think she had just moved.

The back door screeched as she unlocked it.

Cold air rushed in instantly, biting at her skin.

She stepped outside.

The rain soaked her hair within seconds.

The light moved again.

Distant away.

Calling her or leading her.

Saria followed it.

Inside the house…

Lucas walked past the hallway.

He stopped.

Saria’s door was open.

The bed was untouched.

His stomach tightened.

Saria?

No answer.

He moved faster.

Saria!

He checked the bathroom.

Empty.

The kitchen.

Empty.

The study.

Nothing.

His breathing grew sharper.

Then he saw it.

The back door was slightly open.

Rain blowing inside.

Oh no…

He ran.

The forest was bad.

That was the first thing Saria felt.

Too quiet.

No insects, no birds.

Even the wind felt muted, as if the world itself was holding its breath.

The only sound was rain dripping from leaves above her.

The light ahead stopped.

Saria slowed.

It stood beside something large.

A structure.

Half-swallowed by vines and moss.

Rock walls with broken carvings.

A mausoleum.

Ancient and forgotten.

The lantern light suddenly went out.

Darkness swallowed everything.

Saria froze.

Hello…?

No answer.

Only silence.

Then a whisper.

Soft.

Close.

“Saria…”

Her body turned instantly.

Who’s there?

Nobody, only the rain.

Her heart pounded harder.

She stepped forward anyway.

The mausoleum door was already open.

As if it had been waiting.

Inside, the air was colder.

Heavier.

Moonlight dropped through breaks in the ceiling, cutting pale lines across the stone floor.

At the center stood a coffin.

A single stone casket.

Its top had been pushed aside.

Opened.

Saria approached slowly.

Each step felt louder than the last.

Her breath shook.

She reached the coffin.

Looked inside.

Empty.

No body.

Only dust and something else.

A sapphire pendant.

Resting at the bottom.

It glowed faintly in the moonlight.

The same deep blue as Lucas’s necklace.

Her fingers trembled as she picked it up.

The moment she touched it, pain exploded in her head.

A memory forced itself open.

Rain.

Cold and heavy.

A coffin lowered into the ground.

Black umbrellas.

Mourners standing in silence.

A woman in elegant black gloves watching from a distance.

Smiling.

You will mourn,” the woman said softly.

“But the truth will remain buried.”

The coffin was sealed.

Lowered, covered in earth.

But Saria saw it clearly now.

There was no body inside.

The coffin had been empty.

A staged death.

A lie.

The memory shattered violently.

Saria breathed in and struggled backward.

“It was all a lie…”

Her voice broke.

“It was all a lie!”

A branch snapped behind her.

Lucas stood at the entrance of the mausoleum, soaked from the rain, breathing hard.

“There you are.”

Relief flooded his face for a brief second.

“You scared me.”

Saria held up the sapphire pendant with shaking hands.

“They buried an empty coffin.”

Lucas froze.

“What?”

“They faked Adria’s death.”

His expression changed instantly.

The relief vanished.

Replaced by something darker.

“Who told you that?”

“I remembered.”

Lucas looked toward the coffin.

Then at the pendant.

His face went pale.

Completely drained of color.

Before he could respond

A slow, deliberate clap echoed through the mausoleum.

Once.

Twice.

Then again.

Someone stepped out of the shadows.

An older man.

Tall, but slightly bent with age.

A dark coat hung from his shoulders.

A polished wooden cane tapped softly against the stone floor.

His silver hair was perfectly combed.

His eyes, however, were sharp.

Too sharp.

They locked onto Saria.

And did not move.

For a long moment, he said nothing.

Then he bowed deeply.

“Your Highness.”

Lucas immediately stepped in front of Saria.

“Who are you?”

The man ignored him completely.

His voice trembled with emotion.

“I have waited for years”

He swallowed hard.

“I have waited for you

Saria’s hold tightened on the pendant.

“I don’t understand”

But before she could finish

A faint red dot appeared on the man’s chest.

Then another.

Then several more.

Far from the forest.

Hidden and waiting.

The older man’s eyes widened in horror.

“No”

He turned sharply.

“Run!”

A gunshot tore through the night.

The sound exploded inside the mausoleum like thunder.

And everything changed.