Ayaan didn't move for a while. The name tag rested in his hand like it weighed more than it should.
Sameer.
He imagined him here—standing in this very spot. Setting up this tent, writing those frantic words. Being hunted, or haunted, or... maybe both.
Rehan was crouched beside the circle of bones. He didn't speak, but his fingers hovered just above the dirt. Not touching. Just feeling.
"I think…" he started, voice thin, "I think this place marks people."
Ayaan turned. "What?"
Rehan stood slowly. "It chooses who stays. Who disappears. It's not random."
There was a tremble in his hand as he pointed toward the trees.
"Look at them."
Ayaan did. The bark was stripped in strange patches. Carvings—symbols, maybe, or just scratches from wild animals—but they weren't new. They were familiar.
"I've seen these before," Rehan whispered.
Ayaan frowned. "Where?"
Rehan didn't answer right away. His eyes darkened.
"In my dreams."
A gust of wind swept through the clearing then, sharp and sudden, making the tent flap violently. Pages of Sameer's notebook scattered into the air.
One of them hit Ayaan's chest and fell at his feet.
He picked it up.
"My name is Sameer. If someone finds this, tell my mother I didn't run away."
"The forest is a loop. I saw my own footprints three days ago."
"I saw myself… walking. But I wasn't alone."
His chest tightened.
"Rehan," Ayaan whispered, "we need to get out of here."
But Rehan was already walking toward the trees again—slow, drawn like something was calling him.
"Stop!" Ayaan called. "We're not here to lose you too!"
Rehan didn't look back. His voice was calm, almost numb.
"I think I came here before"
Ayaan's heart skipped. "What are you talking about?"
"I think... I crossed the border once. A long time ago. I just don't remember when."
---
Meanwhile, in the city...
Naira sat on her bed, Sameer's notebook open on her lap—well, a scanned copy she managed to recover from a deleted file folder on her old Google Drive.
Her fingers hovered above her keyboard as she reread the line:
You don't die here. You loop.
Then, her phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
"He's not missing. He's trapped. You're next."
She dropped the phone.
It buzzed again.
This time, an image.
A blurry photo.
Of the exact same clearing Rehan and Ayaan were in—right now.
---
Back in the forest…
Ayaan chased after Rehan, heart pounding harder now—not just from fear, but from something heavier. A feeling of being watched, measured.
He grabbed Rehan's shoulder.
But Rehan turned slowly—and his eyes…
They weren't his.
For just a flash—just a single, terrifying heartbeat—Ayaan saw someone else staring back at him.
Sameer.
Ayaan stumbled back.
Rehan blinked—and gasped.
"W-What just happened?" he asked, gripping his head.
Ayaan swallowed hard. "We need to go. Now."
But the forest… didn't let them.
The path behind them—gone.
The tent—gone.
Even the trees looked different now.
And the compass?
Spinning again.
A loop.
They were inside it now.
---