The corridor stretched endlessly ahead of him.
Dim lights flickered overhead, casting pale strips across the narrow walls. The air felt cold and stale, heavy enough to make each breath uncomfortable. Somewhere in the silence, footsteps echoed softly.
Hakiten kept walking.
One slow step after another.
Something rested in his hand, though he could no longer remember picking it up. His fingers held onto it tightly, as if letting go would cause something terrible to happen.
The corridor seemed familiar.
Not familiar like a place he remembered clearly, but familiar in the way nightmares repeated themselves.
Ahead of him, a door stood.
Hakiten walked past it at first. His tired legs carried him forward automatically, his eyes fixed on the darkness ahead. But then voices drifted through the corridor.
Low.
Muffled.
Familiar.
Hakiten slowed.
The sound crawled into his ears again, clearer this time.
He stopped walking completely.
For several seconds he stood still in the middle of the corridor, listening quietly. His heartbeat grew heavier with every passing moment.
He knew those voices.
Slowly, Hakiten turned around.
The corridor behind him looked darker now.
The door remained half open.
He stepped toward it carefully.
One step.
Then another.
The lights above the room flickered weakly, making it difficult to see inside. A narrow glass panel ran vertically along the center of the door.
Hakiten leaned closer toward it.
At first, the figures inside looked blurred.
Then his eyes adjusted.
His breath stopped.
Inside the room were two men.
One of them was Juson.
The second man stood beside a long chair under the dim light. Someone had been laid across it.
Hakiten froze as recognition struck him.
It was Juson.
His body rested motionless on the chair while the stranger leaned over him, doing something near his head.
Fear exploded inside Hakiten instantly.
He grabbed the handle and tried to force the door open.
Locked.
Hakiten slammed his shoulder against it.
Nothing moved.
Again.
Again.
The loud banging echoed through the corridor as panic spread across his face.
"OPEN THE DOOR!"
His voice came out unevenly.
Juson did not react.
Neither of them looked toward the door.
Hakiten pounded harder.
Something about the scene felt horribly familiar, like a memory buried deep inside him had suddenly clawed its way back to the surface.
His breathing became unstable.
Fear spilled out of his mouth with every shout.
And then his voice stretched unnaturally, becoming louder and more distorted with every scream until the sound itself no longer felt human.
And then--
Juson opened his eyes.
The corridor vanished instantly.
For several seconds, he remained motionless on the cold floor.
Morning light spilled weakly across Hakiten's living room, replacing the nightmare with dull silence. Juson's vision blurred before slowly stabilizing.
His entire body felt numb.
Not painful.
Disconnected.
As if every nerve inside him had shut down during the night and only now had begun returning one by one.
He inhaled slowly.
The air smelled stale.
His fingers twitched first.
Then his shoulders.
Gradually, sensation returned to the rest of his body.
Juson pressed his palm against the floor and tried to move. Even that simple action felt exhausting. His muscles tightened painfully as he pushed himself upright.
For a moment he failed.
He remained sitting there silently, breathing heavily.
Then, after gathering enough strength, he finally stood.
The room around him looked strangely normal.
Too normal.
The flashlight still rested nearby. The table remained untouched. Yet the memories of the night before felt distant now, almost unreal.
Juson stepped out into the lobby slowly.
Unlike last night, sunlight now entered through the main door, washing away most of the darkness inside the house. Dust floated quietly through the pale light.
Everything should have felt safer during the day.
It didn't.
A faint sound suddenly reached him from the kitchen.
Soft.
Repeated.
Juson stopped walking.
He recognized it immediately.
The cat.
Without speaking, he turned toward the kitchen entrance.
The same black cat sat near the window quietly eating scraps left on the floor. Morning light reflected faintly in her eyes as she chewed slowly, completely unafraid of his presence.
Juson remained standing at the doorway.
He did not enter.
For several seconds neither of them moved.
Then the cat suddenly lifted her head.
She sensed him.
Without making a sound, she abandoned the food and leaped out through the open window, disappearing outside exactly the same way she had entered during the night.
Juson walked toward the window after a short pause.
He looked down.
The cat landed softly beneath it before disappearing somewhere behind the wall.
But the ground below the window looked different now.
Something was missing.
The disturbed dirt remained there.
But whatever had been there during the night had vanished completely.
And somehow, that frightened him more than if it had remained.
Juson left the house minutes later.
He locked the door silently and walked toward his car parked outside the colony road. Before entering, he glanced back once more at Hakiten's house.
The sunlight touched its walls normally.
Nothing looked wrong.
That made it worse.
Without waiting any longer, he entered the car and drove away.
---