“But I never died.”
That sentence froze the entire room.
I stared at Meraya.
My sister.
Or someone who had my sister’s face.
Her hair was still wet, even though there was no rain here. Water dripped from the hem of her dress and hit the floor without a sound. The analog camera in her hand looked old, its leather casing peeling in several places.
Elvar stood several steps away from me.
Seventh Savera didn’t move.
Taresa even seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.
I was the only one who finally managed to speak.
“What do you mean?”
Meraya looked at me.
Her smile changed.
It wasn’t as wide as before.
Softer.
More familiar.
And that was exactly what made my chest hurt even more.
Because I knew that smile.
A memory came in a flash.
Meraya sitting at the dining table, stealing crackers from my plate.
Meraya pinning my hair too tightly before school.
Meraya laughing when I cried after falling off my bike.
Meraya whispering before bed—
If there’s a monster under the bed, call me first. Don’t call Mom. Mom will just get mad that we’re not asleep yet.
I clutched my chest.
The memory was real.
Too real.
“Meraya?”
She nodded slowly.
I stepped forward.
Elvar immediately grabbed my arm.
“Don’t.”
I looked at his hand.
Then at his face.
“Let go.”
“Savera, we don’t know what she is yet.”
Meraya gave a quiet laugh.
“You’re still using that line?”
Elvar stiffened.
“I’m talking to her.”
“You always talk as if everyone but you is dangerous.”
“I know what this room can do.”
“And I know what you did to Savera.”
I looked between them.
“Stop.”
Meraya looked at me again.
I pulled my arm free from Elvar.
“You said you never died.”
“That’s right.”
“But I remember your funeral.”
“Because someone wanted you to remember it that way.”
A chill crept up the back of my neck.
“Who?”
Meraya turned toward Elvar.
Elvar didn’t react.
He was too calm.
I immediately hated him for it.
“Elvar?”
“Savera, don’t believe her right away.”
“Answer me first.”
“I didn’t create that memory.”
Meraya gave him a crooked smile.
“Technically, no.”
I stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
“He didn’t put a false memory in your head.”
“Then who did?”
Meraya raised her camera.
“The room.”
Silence.
I stared at the object.
“What does the camera have to do with it?”
“A lot.”
Taresa, who had been silent until then, suddenly stepped forward.
“Whose camera is that?”
Meraya looked at her.
Then at the camera in Taresa’s hand.
Her expression shifted slightly.
“Oh.”
Taresa swallowed.
“What?”
“Your camera.”
“Why?”
Meraya walked closer.
Taresa took a step back.
“Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to touch you.”
“Answer my question.”
Meraya examined Taresa’s analog camera.
“Same model.”
Taresa looked at her camera.
“So?”
“Because that camera isn’t a coincidence.”
I looked at Taresa.
She looked just as confused as I was.
Meraya lifted her own camera.
“This camera can photograph things that have already been erased.”
No one spoke.
Taresa gave a nervous little laugh.
“Sorry?”
“People. Rooms. Memories. Anything the world once considered real.”
She looked at Taresa’s camera.
“If your camera is really what I think it is, it can do the same thing.”
Taresa stared at the camera in her hand as if she had suddenly picked up something poisonous.
“I bought this at a flea market.”
“From whom?”
“I don’t know. An old man.”
“Was one of his eyes white?”
Taresa froze.
“You know him?”
Meraya didn’t answer.
Seventh Savera finally moved.
“Meraya.”
Meraya turned.
“We don’t have time.”
“That’s right.”
“Are you really Meraya?”
The question felt sharper than all the others.
Meraya looked at Seventh Savera.
“What number are you?”
“Seven.”
“Poor thing.”
Seventh Savera’s expression hardened.
“Answer me.”
Meraya stepped closer.
“If I say yes, will you believe me?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Meraya smiled.
“At least one Savera has learned.”
I clenched my fists.
“Could you stop talking as if I’m just a copy?”
Meraya looked straight at me.
Her smile disappeared.
“I never thought of you as a copy.”
“She said I’m the twelfth Savera.”
“She’s right.”
“That sounds like a copy.”
“No.”
Meraya moved toward me.
Elvar moved again.
I raised a hand.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Meraya was now only a few steps away.
Up close, I could see something strange.
There were no wounds on her body.
No rotting flesh.
Nothing that marked her as dead.
But her eyes—
her eyes looked like they belonged to someone who hadn’t seen the sun in far too long.
“You’re not a copy,” she said.
“Then what am I?”
“You’re a continuation.”
I frowned.
“What’s the difference?”
“A copy is made to replace something.”
Meraya looked deeply into my eyes.
“You were made so something would never truly end.”
I felt uncomfortable.
“What?”
“Love.”
I almost laughed.
But there was nothing funny about the way she said the word.
Meraya turned toward Elvar.
“Room 404 wasn’t born from death.”
She looked back at me.
“It was born from a promise.”
“Enough,” Elvar said immediately.
Meraya smiled.
“Afraid she’ll remember?”
“I don’t want the room to open.”
“You’re too late.”
Elvar tensed.
“What do you mean?”
Meraya raised her camera.
Click.
The flash went off.
I reflexively shut my eyes.
When I opened them, Meraya was looking at the photo slowly emerging from the bottom of the camera.
Taresa looked confused.
“Aren’t analog cameras supposed to take a while—”
“This one doesn’t.”
Meraya gently shook the photo.
The image began to appear.
Her expression changed.
“What?” I asked.
She didn’t answer.
I moved closer.
Meraya handed me the photo.
I looked at it.
Four people stood inside the room.
Me.
Elvar.
Taresa.
Seventh Savera.
Meraya wasn’t in it.
I looked at her.
“Why aren’t you there?”
“Because the world hasn’t decided whether I still exist.”
I looked at the photo again.
Then I realized something.
There was a fifth person.
In the back corner.
Almost completely covered by shadow.
A man stood behind Elvar.
Tall.
Wearing black clothes.
His face was invisible.
His hand rested on Elvar’s shoulder.
“Elvar.”
He came closer.
I showed him the photo.
The moment he saw it, his face changed.
He stepped back.
“No.”
I stared at him.
“You know him?”
“That’s impossible.”
“Elvar.”
He took the photo from my hand.
His hand trembled.
For the first time since I’d met him, I saw a fear greater than the fear he’d shown when Seventh Savera appeared.
Meraya watched him.
“There.”
Elvar looked at her.
“You did this on purpose.”
“So you’d stop pretending to forget.”
“She can’t know.”
I cut in immediately.
“I’m right here.”
Elvar closed his eyes.
I took the photo back.
“Who is this man?”
There was no answer.
“Elvar.”
Meraya leaned her shoulder against the wall.
“His name is Darven.”
The name meant nothing to me.
But Elvar looked as if he had just been stabbed.
“Who’s Darven?”
Meraya answered.
“The first tenant in Room 404.”
I looked at Elvar.
“But I thought you were the tenant of that room.”
“I am.”
“The first?”
Elvar was silent.
Meraya gave a faint smile.
“No.”
I felt the pieces of the puzzle starting to shift.
“So all this time—”
“Elvar wasn’t the beginning of 404,” Meraya continued.
“He’s the heir.”
I didn’t like that word.
“Heir to what?”
Meraya looked at the photo.
“A debt.”
No one spoke for several seconds.
I stared at the dark figure named Darven in the photo.
“Who is he?”
Meraya didn’t answer right away.
“Elvar?”
He stared at the floor.
I grew even more irritated.
“If you stay quiet again, I’m leaving.”
“You can’t.”
I pointed toward the hallway.
“I can try.”
Elvar raised his head.
“Savera.”
“I’m serious.”
He rubbed his face.
“Darven is my brother.”
I froze.
So did Taresa.
“What?”
“Your biological brother?”
“Yes.”
I looked at the figure in the photo again.
Elvar had never mentioned his family.
Even when I asked who he was, he always spoke as if his life had begun and ended in Room 404.
“Is he still alive?”
Elvar gave a small, hollow laugh.
“That’s a difficult question.”
Meraya chimed in.
“In this place, life and death are starting to become useless terms.”
I ignored her.
“What does Darven have to do with this room?”
Elvar sat on the edge of the bed.
For the first time, he looked tired.
Not physically.
Like someone who had been holding on to a story for too long.
“Darven found that room before we did.”
“Room 404?”
“It didn’t have a number back then.”
“Then what?”
“Darwanta Building wasn’t a boardinghouse back then.”
I was silent.
“My family lived here.”
I looked at the walls.
“This was your house?”
“Once.”
“So Mrs. Marjani—”
“She’s not my family.”
“Then how did she get this place?”
“After everything happened, the building was sold. It changed hands several times.”
“And Darven?”
Elvar drew a breath.
“My brother was obsessed with things that couldn’t be explained. Memories after death. People who felt they’d lived before. Houses that appeared in different people’s dreams.”
Meraya snorted.
“Don’t make him sound like a researcher.”
Elvar shot her a sharp look.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“He didn’t just research.”
I looked at Meraya.
“Then what did he do?”
“Darven conducted experiments.”
Elvar lowered his head.
Meraya continued.
“On humans.”
My blood ran cold.
“What kind of experiments?”
“He believed memories were something that could be transferred.”
I thought of the diary.
The room that consumed existence.
Meraya pointed to her own head.
“When a human body dies, memories are supposed to disappear with the brain. Darven didn’t believe that.”
“He believed memories could survive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Meraya tapped the wall.
“In a place.”
I froze.
Elvar spoke quietly. “He believed a room could hold enough emotion that it would develop a kind of consciousness.”
I looked around.
“Room 404.”
“Not yet.”
Elvar looked at me.
“All he found was an empty space.”
“Where?”
He pointed at the floor.
“Exactly where we’re standing.”
I swallowed.
“Then what did he do?”
Elvar didn’t answer.
Meraya did.
“He put the dead inside it.”
I shuddered.
“What?”
“Not their bodies.”
Meraya raised the camera.
“Their memories.”
I stared at the device.
“Through photos?”
“Photos. Voice recordings. Personal belongings. Handwriting. Blood.”
Taresa looked pale.
“Blood?”
Meraya nodded.
“Darven believed that the more traces of a person were put into one room, the more strongly that room could preserve their existence.”
“Did it work?”
“Yes,” Elvar said.
That answer frightened me far more than if he’d said no.
“Who did it work on?”
Elvar looked at the photo in my hand.
“Darven himself.”
I stared at him.
“He experimented on himself?”
“Not at first.”
Elvar rubbed both hands together.
“There was a fire.”
“When?”
“1987.”
“Darven died?”
“He should have.”
Meraya cut in.
“But he had already put too much of himself in that room.”
I slowly began to understand.
“So after he died…”
Elvar nodded.
“He came back.”
“Like you?”
“No.”
The way Elvar answered made the back of my neck go cold.
“What’s the difference?”
Elvar looked at the photo.
“Darven came back without a body.”
I imagined the shadowy figure behind him.
“So he’s a ghost?”
“No.”
Meraya answered.
“He is the room.”
I was silent.
“No.”
Seventh Savera, who had been quiet until then, suddenly spoke.
“Not just the room.”
Everyone turned toward her.
She stared at the wall.
“He’s the reason the room can choose.”
I felt my breath grow thin.
“Choose victims?”
Seventh Savera nodded.
“Elvar said the room chose on its own.”
She looked at Elvar.
“It wasn’t the room.”
Her gaze shifted to the photo.
“Darven.”
Elvar stood.
“We don’t know that for sure.”
Meraya laughed.
“Finally defending your brother.”
“I’m not defending him.”
“You always defend him.”
“Because you blame everything on someone who might not even be conscious anymore.”
Meraya stepped closer.
“Oh, he’s conscious.”
“Proof?”
Meraya took the photo from my hand.
She pointed at Darven’s hand on Elvar’s shoulder.
“This.”
Elvar fell silent.
“He’s never appeared in a photo for years,” Meraya continued. “Now he’s appeared again.”
“Why now?” I asked.
Meraya looked at me.
“Because you’re starting to remember.”
I frowned.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Your memory is the key.”
I almost laughed.
“Of course. Everything always comes back to me.”
Meraya didn’t laugh with me.
“Because the first Savera was the only person who knew how to destroy Darven.”
Elvar looked at her immediately.
“You can’t tell her.”
I was already out of patience.
“I’m seriously going to throw something at your head if you say that again.”
Elvar fell silent.
Meraya gave a small smile.
“I like this version of you.”
I ignored her.
“How?”
“Don’t know yet.”
“What?”
“I know the first Savera found a way. I don’t know what it was.”
“Why not?”
“Because someone erased that memory before she could do it.”
I looked at Elvar.
He quickly shook his head.
“Not me.”
“Who?”
Meraya lifted her chin toward the photo.
“Darven.”
I rubbed my temples.
“So Elvar’s brother is something living as a room. He erases people so he can continue to exist. I’m apparently the twelfth version of someone who once knew how to kill him.”
“More or less.”
“And you’re my sister who supposedly never died.”
Meraya nodded.
“I hate this place.”
Taresa spoke softly. “Me too.”
For the first time since all this began, I almost laughed for real.
Almost.
Then Seventh Savera said,
“Meraya hasn’t explained the most important part.”
I turned.
Meraya’s smile vanished.
“What?”
Seventh Savera looked at her.
“If you never died, where have you been all this time?”
Silence.
Meraya gripped the camera more tightly.
I saw the change.
For the first time, she looked nervous.
“Meraya?”
“I can’t explain it quickly.”
I snorted.
“Great. Everyone here has the same disease.”
“Savera—”
“No. Explain.”
Meraya looked at me.
For a long time.
Then—
“I was outside.”
“Outside what?”
“Your reality.”
I frowned.
“Don’t start talking weird.”
“I’m serious.”
Meraya looked toward the hallway.
“When the first ritual was performed, Savera tried to pull me back.”
“Because she thought you were dead.”
“Yes.”
“But you weren’t?”
“No.”
“Then where did you go?”
Meraya swallowed.
“I entered Darven’s room before the ritual was complete.”
Elvar glared at her.
“What?”
Meraya gave a small laugh.
“You don’t remember?”
Elvar looked genuinely confused.
“I saw your corpse.”
“That wasn’t me.”
I froze.
“Then whose was it?”
Meraya looked at me.
“The first person who was erased.”
The room fell silent.
“What do you mean?”
“Darven needed a form.”
Meraya pointed at herself.
“He used my memories to create a body that looked like me.”
I felt sick.
“The body that was buried…”
“Wasn’t me.”
“Then whose body was it?”
Meraya closed her eyes.
“A woman named Alvena.”
The name was unfamiliar.
“Who?”
“The woman who lived next door.”
I said nothing.
“Darven erased Alvena,” she continued. “He removed her from everyone’s memories. Then he made her body look like me.”
I felt cold.
“Why?”
“So everyone would believe I was dead.”
“But what for?”
Meraya looked at Elvar.
“So Savera would become desperate enough to perform the ritual.”
I slowly looked at Elvar.
He looked devastated.
“So it was all planned.”
Meraya nodded.
“Darven needed Elvar.”
“Why?”
No one answered.
I stared at Elvar.
“Why did he need you?”
Elvar rubbed his face.
“Savera.”
“Don’t.”
I stepped closer.
“Answer me this time.”
He looked at me.
“I’m the only person who can still remember Darven after his death.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“Everyone else forgot him.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because we’re twin brothers.”
I froze.
Twins.
I looked at the photo again.
Darven’s figure was almost impossible to see.
But his build—
his height.
His shoulders.
There was something that resembled Elvar.
“Darven is your twin?”
“Yes.”
Meraya continued.
“And because Elvar kept remembering him, Darven could continue to exist.”
I understood something.
“So Elvar is the anchor.”
Elvar nodded.
“At first.”
“At first?”
“Now you are too.”
I stepped back.
“Of course.”
“Savera—”
“Why me?”
Meraya answered.
“Because you love Elvar.”
I stared at her.
“The first version.”
“All of them.”
The words pierced me.
“I’ve only known him for two days.”
Meraya smiled sadly.
“Your body is new.”
She pointed at my chest.
“What’s inside it isn’t entirely new.”
I wanted to argue.
Then I remembered the flashes of memory.
The ring.
The rain.
His hand.
The pain when he killed me.
I couldn’t.
Suddenly, Meraya’s camera clicked.
Click.
No one had touched it.
Everyone immediately fell silent.
Meraya looked at her camera.
Click.
Again.
She raised it.
The flash went off by itself.
A photo came out.
Meraya picked it up.
Her face went pale.
“What?” I asked.
She didn’t answer.
I snatched the photo.
The image slowly appeared.
We were all still in the room.
But this time, there was one difference.
Taresa was gone.
I looked to the side.
Taresa was still standing there.
“I’m… not there,” she whispered.
I looked at the photo again.
It was true.
Taresa wasn’t in it.
“Why?”
Meraya took the photo.
“She’s starting to be erased.”
Taresa stepped back.
“What?”
“No.”
I immediately took Taresa’s hand.
“We’re getting out now.”
Meraya stared at the camera.
“It’s begun.”
“What do we have to do?”
“Find something that proves she exists.”
“What kind of thing?”
“A memory the room can’t change.”
“For example?”
Meraya looked at Taresa’s camera.
“A photograph.”
Taresa immediately raised her camera.
“But the film is gone.”
“Find it.”
“Where?”
Meraya looked toward the hallway.
“Maybe in your time.”
I let out a harsh breath.
“We don’t even know how to get home.”
Elvar suddenly spoke. “I do.”
I looked at him.
“You said you didn’t know.”
“I remember.”
Meraya immediately looked at him.
“What do you remember?”
Elvar didn’t answer.
Meraya’s expression grew tense.
“Elvar.”
He clutched his head.
“It hurts.”
I moved closer without thinking.
“Elvar?”
He fell to his knees.
I reflexively caught him.
The moment I touched his skin—
images exploded in my head.
Rain.
Stairs.
Blood.
A man with Elvar’s face.
No.
Not Elvar.
Darven.
He smiled.
I heard the first Savera’s voice.
Don’t listen to him!
Elvar screamed.
Someone fell from the Fourth Floor.
Then—
a black door opened.
For the first time.
I saw an incomplete number.
Not 404.
Just—
4
Then a man’s voice whispered.
If you want her to live, give me something harder to kill than a body.
I jolted back to reality.
My hand slipped from Elvar.
He was gasping for breath.
I stared at him.
“You remember.”
Elvar didn’t answer.
“Darven offered you something.”
Meraya went pale.
“Don’t continue.”
I looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because if you remember the entire sentence—”
Too late.
The voice appeared in my head again.
Give me a love that can never end.
The piano sounded.
One loud note.
All the lights went out.
The walls trembled.
Seventh Savera screamed,
“Run!”
Cracks appeared in the floor.
Red light spilled out from behind them.
The voices of the other Saveras began shrieking from the walls.
Elvar got to his feet.
“The door!”
At the end of the hallway, a black door appeared.
But the number changed.
As if the room couldn’t hold its shape.
We ran.
I pulled Taresa along.
Meraya was behind us.
Seventh Savera stopped.
I looked back.
“Come on!”
She shook her head.
“I can’t.”
“What?”
“I’m part of this place.”
I ran back one step.
Elvar held me back.
“Savera!”
“I’m not leaving her!”
Seventh Savera smiled.
For the first time, that smile looked like mine.
“Enough.”
“What?”
“Stop trying to save every version of us.”
The wall behind her began to turn black.
Her body began to fade with it.
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Savera.”
Tears ran down her face.
“If you make it out, find the old version of Room 401.”
“What?”
“Under the floor.”
“What’s there?”
She began to disappear.
“The answer.”
“Savera!”
“And don’t completely trust Meraya.”
I froze.
Meraya, standing behind me, stopped too.
Seventh Savera looked at her.
“She says she never died.”
Her body was almost transparent.
“She’s telling the truth.”
I looked at Meraya.
Seventh Savera continued.
“But she didn’t say who kept her alive.”
Meraya shouted, “SHUT UP!”
Too late.
Seventh Savera smiled.
“Darven.”
Then her body vanished.
The wall closed.
“SAVERA!”
I tried to go back.
Elvar pulled me away.
“Go!”
Meraya stood rigidly still.
I looked at her.
“You’re bound to Darven?”
“Not now!”
“Answer me!”
The hallway began to collapse.
Taresa screamed.
“If you want to fight, do it later!”
She was right.
We ran.
Room 404 was several yards ahead.
I grabbed the doorknob.
Elvar shouted,
“Don’t open it!”
Too late.
My hand pressed down on the knob.
The door opened.
Room 404 wasn’t on the other side.
It was my Room 403.
Normal.
The lights were on.
The bed.
The desk.
My suitcase.
I pulled Taresa inside.
Elvar followed.
Meraya stopped in the doorway.
I looked at her.
“Come on!”
She didn’t move.
“Meraya!”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
Her face turned sad.
“Because if I enter your time, Darven comes with me.”
I froze.
Behind Meraya—
a man appeared.
His face was visible now.
And I finally understood why the photo had felt familiar.
Darven’s face was almost exactly the same as Elvar’s.
Only his eyes were different.
Elvar tensed beside me.
“Brother.”
Darven smiled.
“Been a long time.”
Meraya tried to close the door from her side.
But Darven’s hand clamped down on her shoulder.
She screamed.
“MERAYA!”
I grabbed her hand.
Our fingers met.
Cold.
Darven laughed.
“So this is the new Savera.”
I pulled Meraya with all my strength.
Elvar helped me.
Darven held her from the other side.
“You can’t take her.”
“Let go!”
“Savera.”
Darven looked at me.
His smile was gentle.
Almost like Elvar’s.
“That isn’t your sister anymore.”
I stopped.
Meraya looked at me in panic.
“Don’t listen to him!”
Darven continued.
“The real Meraya has been gone since 1987.”
“Liar!”
Meraya screamed.
Darven laughed.
“If I’m lying, ask her one thing.”
I didn’t want to.
But my mouth moved anyway.
“What?”
Darven looked at Meraya.
“Why can’t she remember her mother’s face?”
Meraya froze.
My hand was still wrapped around hers.
“Meraya?”
There was no answer.
“Do you remember Mom?”
Her lips parted.
No sound came out.
Darven smiled.
“See?”
Meraya began to cry.
“I’m still Meraya.”
Darven moved closer to the doorway.
“Partially.”
I felt Meraya’s fingers beginning to slip from my grasp.
“Elvar!”
He pulled.
The door began to close by itself.
Darven said,
“If you want to know where your real sister is, find Room 401.”
Seventh Savera had said the same thing.
I stared at Darven.
“Why are you helping us?”
He smiled.
“Who said I’m helping?”
The door slammed.
BANG!
Meraya slipped from my hand.
“MERAYA!”
The black door vanished.
I fell onto the floor of Room 403.
Elvar was beside me.
Taresa was gasping for breath near the bed.
We were back.
I immediately stood.
“Open it again!”
Elvar grabbed my shoulders.
“I can’t.”
“MERAYA IS STILL IN THERE!”
“Savera!”
I punched him in the chest.
“Open it!”
“I can’t!”
I hit him again.
Then again.
Until I ran out of strength.
Elvar let me.
I finally stopped.
I was breathing hard.
Tears ran down my face before I even realized they were there.
“Everyone keeps disappearing.”
Elvar looked at me.
I stepped back.
“Don’t touch me.”
He gave a small nod.
Taresa suddenly spoke.
“Guys.”
I wiped my face.
“What?”
She stood in front of the mirror.
Staring at her reflection.
“There’s a problem.”
I moved closer.
My reflection was there.
Elvar’s was there.
Taresa’s—
wasn’t.
Her body stood in front of us.
But in the mirror, the spot where Taresa should have been was empty.
The color drained from her face.
“I’m really starting to disappear.”
I took her hand.
“We’ll stop it.”
“How?”
I remembered Seventh Savera’s message.
The old version of Room 401.
Under the floor.
I looked at the bedroom door.
“401.”
Elvar immediately understood.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“I wasn’t asking.”
“Savera, Jaresta is in there.”
“Good. We’ll ask her.”
“Elvar?”
I stared at him.
He looked uncertain.
“What?”
“If Seventh Savera was right… Room 401 might not just be Jaresta’s room.”
“Then what is it?”
Elvar drew a breath.
“It used to be Darven’s room.”
Silence.
I looked at Taresa.
Then at the door.
And before any of us could move—
we heard something heavy being dragged from Room 401.
Once.
Twice.
Then—
Knock.
I froze.
Knock.
Taresa looked at me.
Knock.
Elvar immediately said,
“Don’t answer.”
A fourth knock sounded.
Knock.
Then Jaresta’s voice came from behind the wall.
“Savera.”
I approached the door.
Elvar caught my arm.
“Don’t.”
Jaresta’s voice came again.
This time, it was panicked.
“Savera, get over here. Hurry.”
I looked at Elvar.
“What’s wrong?” I shouted.
Elvar’s face changed immediately.
I had just answered the fourth knock.
From Room 401—
silence.
Then something laughed.
Jaresta’s voice.
But it wasn’t Jaresta.
At the same time, my phone vibrated.
Number 404 sent one message.
It’s too late.
A second message appeared.
Jaresta opened the floor.
Then a third message.
Darven has come home.