Semua Bab JASMINE : Bab 11 - Bab 15

CHAPTER 12 The sound of the wall clicking shut was too final. We stood in the pitch dark, barely breathing. The air was stale, thick with dust and something harder to name—like the memory of rot. I reached out, instinctively, and found Beverly’s hand. Her fingers were ice cold, trembling. Neither of us spoke. Somewhere ahead, something groaned—a sound like settling wood, or the shifting of something long dormant. I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight. The beam cut through the dark like a knife, illuminating a narrow passage with warped wooden walls, slick with condensation in some places and cracked like dry skin in others. “This wasn’t on the blueprint,” Beverly whispered. “Of course it wasn’t,” I said. “This wasn’t built. It was hidden.” We moved slowly, careful with each step. The floorboards creaked underfoot, but not like old wood. The sound was… wet. Swollen. Like the house had been drinking its own secrets for years and was finally full. The walls o

CHAPTER 14 I started spending more time in crowded places—cafés, lecture halls, busy sidewalks—anywhere noise could drown out the quiet that had started pressing in again. There were moments when I caught my reflection in windows or mirrors and didn’t recognize the girl staring back. She looked too calm. Too composed. Like a mannequin that had learned to mimic breathing. Beverly called more often now. Not to talk about what happened—she never brought that up—but to check in. Sometimes she’d send a photo of her breakfast or a random meme she knew I’d laugh at. I appreciated it more than I could say. But I hadn’t asked her what happened in the passage. I was scared she’d say, what passage? Or worse—that she remembered something I didn’t. That she’d seen something behind that wall I was never meant to see. One night, I was alone in my apartment, lights dimmed, music humming low in the background.