The silence didn't last long.Outside, that guttural sound echoed again, closer — as if the hotel itself was being devoured by an invisible presence. Kalel stood up immediately, senses on alert. Alara didn't move. She simply watched the boy, curiosity painted across her face as she observed his actions.
"What happened?" she asked, her voice low, almost a whisper.Silence. She got no audible answer, only a narrowed gaze, which made her sigh and lie back on the hard hotel mattress, not understanding what was going on.
"What is it now?" she whispered.A shiver ran down her spine. She felt as though something was watching her, even though no eyes could be seen in the darkness.
Kalel walked to the door, pressing his ear against the wood. The sound stopped, leaving only the muffled noise of wind against the dirty windows.But something was wrong. The air felt dense, charged with electricity. As if time had frozen for an instant.
"It's not the same thing as before…" Kalel said, looking back directly into Alara's eyes."It's something else. And it's searching for something."
"Or someone."She didn't need confirmation. She could feel it. That thing was after her.
Kalel moved toward the backpack, pulling out a small object wrapped in dark cloth.When he unfolded it, he revealed an old amulet, corroded by time, with inscriptions that seemed to faintly pulse under the dim light of the lamp.
"This… repels entities for a while. But it's not permanent. If it is what I think it is, it's just testing the limits."
Alara approached, her gaze fixed on the object, and she felt a chill crawl up her spine.The air around them seemed to vibrate, as if the very room reacted to the talisman's presence.
"You said that thing wasn't from this world... But also not from another." She spoke with a caught breath."So... what is it?"
Kalel hesitated before answering."It's an echo. A fragment of what was once called 'the Unnameable.'Something that has no shape or name, because to name it would be to call it... and to call it would be to allow its existence."He looked at her, his voice now overtaken by a fear he didn't try to hide."But you… somehow, you've already called it."
A chill swept through Alara's entire body.Outside, the sound returned — now longer, like a distorted cry, both animal and human.The window glass quivered slightly.
"We have to get out of here." She spoke, almost breathless.
"If we leave now, we run straight into the darkness. And it's waiting for that. Inside this room, we're still protected."
But the protection was fragile.The amulet seemed weaker by the second, its glow vibrating erratically.
Alara sat on the floor, her back against the wall, knees bent and arms wrapped around them.She was exhausted, confused, and with each passing moment, she felt her sanity slipping like sand through her fingers.
Then she heard something impossible.A voice… whispering her name."Alara..."Low, drawn out, sibilant.She looked up in panic.Kalel had turned pale.He had heard it too.
"Don't answer," he ordered, lowering his tone."If you answer, it finds you. That's how it connects."
"But… how does it know my name?"
He didn't reply.Instead, he took a piece of black chalk from his bag and began drawing something on the floor of the room: a circle full of symbols, like a protective seal.
"You have to stay inside this. The whole time. No matter what you hear. No matter what you see."
His words echoed in Alara's mind as the room's light flickered.Once… twice…Then went out completely.
Darkness.Silence.And suddenly, the sound of wood tearing.Something was scratching at the door.
Alara held her breath.Her heart pounded in her chest like it wanted to escape her body.Kalel sat beside her within the circle, eyes closed, murmuring words she couldn't understand.An ancient, living language… that seemed to irritate the entity outside even more.
A bang.Another.The doorknob turned.It was entering.
And then…Nothing.Silence returned, but it wasn't the same.It was a forced silence, as if time had stopped.As if the room was suspended between worlds.
Kalel stopped murmuring.He opened his eyes.But now… something in them had changed.For a moment, Alara saw a dark reflection in his pupils.A shadow that didn't belong to him.
"Kalel?" she called, her voice nearly choked.
He didn't respond.He smiled.But that smile… wasn't human.
Alara backed away from the boy, her heart racing as if it were about to explode.Her breathing shallow, her eyes fixed on the expression that didn't belong to Kalel.The darkness, though total, seemed to bend around him — as if the entire room was being warped.
"You're not him…"
The being tilted its head, still wearing Kalel's face.Its lips moved slowly, making no sound — but Alara heard it inside her own mind:
"His soul faltered… and I entered. But he can still be saved. If… you pay the price."
She felt the temperature drop brutally.The floor under her knees now ice-cold, the air too heavy to breathe.The walls of the room seemed to bleed a living darkness, and the voice, now clearer, whispered:
"The bearer approaches.""She is broken too…""But unlike you… she accepted."
Suddenly, a loud knock echoed on the hotel door — but it wasn't like the previous ones.This one came from something… human.Or at least, it seemed that way.
The presence in the room ceased for a moment.The shadow that had taken over Kalel dissipated like mist pulled by the wind.He collapsed to his knees, gasping, eyes wide with absolute terror.
Alara moved toward him, but before she could touch him, a new female voice cut through the hotel corridor's darkness.Cold, serene. Almost hypnotic.
"You played with the veil, without understanding what you were touching…"
The doorknob turned slowly, sounding louder than any scream.The door began to open.A pair of black boots crossed the boundary of darkness.Steady, rhythmic steps.
The figure stopped at the entrance.Her face concealed by shadows.Yet even so, Alara felt a primal fear — the kind one only feels in the presence of predators greater than reality itself.
The woman snapped her fingers.The light came back, flicker—
"You need me," she said. "Before the abyss remembers... what you are."