The silence hit harder once we stepped out of the carriages.
It wasn't just the absence of people — it was the way the air itself felt thick, like sound didn't want to travel here. No dogs barking, no children yelling, no creak of cart wheels. Just… nothing.
Lie Jun shuffled closer to me. "This is creepy."
"Understatement of the year," I muttered, glancing around.
The others spread out automatically. Amir moved toward the nearest house, eyes sharp and scanning like he expected an ambush. Shahib stayed by the well, peering into the water with his usual calculating frown, muttering numbers under his breath.
Lucian twirled his flashy sword like he was showing off for an invisible audience. "Maybe they're all hiding from danger. Which means they'll come running out to thank us when we save them."
Selena smirked. "Or maybe they ran away from you."
Lucian shot her a wounded look. "You wound me, Selena."
"No, but I might." She tapped her sword hilt for emphasis.
Mie Lin ignored them both, stepping into the nearest doorway. "Everything is untouched," she called back. "Even the tea on the table hasn't been cleared."
I walked over to peek inside. She was right. A half-full teapot sat there, still capped, cups neatly arranged. Chairs pushed in, beds made.
It was like the entire village had gotten up in the middle of life and just… walked away.
Selena bent down to pick up a child's doll lying in the dirt, its painted eyes staring up at nothing. "This doesn't feel right," she murmured.
"No signs of struggle," Amir added, reappearing from another house. "No footprints leaving the village either. It's like they disappeared into thin air."
Lie Jun swallowed hard. "You think it's… you know…"
I raised an eyebrow. "No, I don't know. Please enlighten me."
He glanced around and whispered, "Ghosts."
Shahib straightened from the well. "Statistically improbable."
"Yeah," I said, "because ghosts are the problem with this situation."
Lucian pointed his sword toward the center of the village. "Let's search the whole area. If something happened here, there's a clue somewhere."
The others nodded and began to move, but I lingered for a second, my hand resting on the hilt of my old, plain sword.
I didn't know what had happened here — but the quiet was starting to feel less like "empty" and more like… watching.
And whatever it was, we'd just walked right into it.
Lucian, naturally, took charge before anyone could object.
"Alright, we'll cover more ground if we split into pairs," he announced like he'd just been crowned king.
Selena leaned on her sword. "And who made you the leader?"
"I'm handsome and confident. That's leadership," Lucian replied without missing a beat.
I groaned. "Fine, split us up before I freeze to death standing here."
Amir paired himself with Shahib — probably because Shahib wouldn't waste time talking. Lucian immediately claimed Selena, because of course he did. That left me with Lie Jun… and Mie Lin, who somehow joined us too.
Lie Jun gave me a sympathetic smile. "We're the leftovers."
"Speak for yourself," Mie Lin said calmly, already walking ahead.
We moved down the main street. The houses here were smaller, the doors slightly ajar. Inside one, a bowl of porridge sat on the table, the surface frozen over. Another house had laundry half-folded on the bed.
"This is like they just… stopped," I whispered.
"Or like something made them stop," Mie Lin corrected, her voice even.
Lie Jun shivered, not entirely from the cold. "Still betting on ghosts."
"Still betting on you screaming first," I said.
In the distance, Selena's laugh rang out, followed by Lucian's exaggerated "Ow!" I tried not to picture what she'd hit him with.
We kept moving until we reached the edge of the village. That's when I noticed something odd. Behind one of the houses, carved into the wooden wall, was a symbol — a circle with jagged lines bursting from it, almost like a crude sun.
"Hey," I called.
Mie Lin joined me, eyes narrowing. "I've seen this before."
"Where?"
"In an old text about… disappearances." She didn't elaborate, which wasn't exactly comforting.
Lie Jun stepped back. "Yep. Definitely ghosts. Or a curse. Or cursed ghosts."
Before I could respond, Amir's voice called from across the village. "You all need to see this."
We regrouped in front of the well where he and Shahib had been searching. At the bottom of the well, faintly visible in the dim light, something pale moved.
It wasn't water.
It looked like… fabric. A white sleeve.
And it was slowly rising toward the surface.
We all leaned over the well.
The sleeve drifted just below the surface, pale and limp. For a moment, I thought it was attached to nothing — just cloth floating in the water.
Then it twitched.
Lie Jun made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a squeak. Selena actually stopped smirking. Lucian gripped his sword tighter, eyes darting between the water and Amir like he wasn't sure which was more dangerous.
"What is that?" I whispered.
Shahib didn't answer right away. He was crouched by the well, fingers drumming against the stone rim in that odd, rhythmic way he always did when thinking. His gaze didn't waver from the movement below.
The sleeve began to rise — not like it was floating, but like something was pulling it upward from beneath. Slowly, painfully slowly, a pale hand broke the surface, fingers stiff and claw-like. Water streamed down in dark rivulets, and the air suddenly felt heavier.
Selena stepped back. "That's not—"
"Don't move," Shahib cut in, his voice sharper than I'd ever heard it.
We all froze.
He reached into his coat and pulled out… chalk? White chalk, worn from use. Without explanation, he began sketching a strange pattern on the stone around the well's rim, his hands steady despite the thing slowly emerging from the water.
"What are you doing?" Lucian demanded.
"Marking boundaries," Shahib replied, still focused. "If it's what I think, it can't cross these."
The arm was now fully visible, the skin deathly pale and stretched too thin over the bones. The hand gripped the stone lip of the well with an unnatural strength, nails scraping. Beneath the surface, something larger shifted.
Shahib finished the last symbol and stood, his voice lowering. "It's not human."
The temperature seemed to drop another degree. The figure pulled itself up further, revealing wet, matted hair covering its face. A slow, rasping breath echoed up from the well.
Lie Jun whimpered. Selena's grip on her sword tightened. Mie Lin's serene mask cracked just slightly.
Shahib stepped forward, blocking the edge of the well with his body. "Back away," he ordered, calm but unyielding.
Lucian scoffed. "What, you're going to fight it with chalk?"
Shahib glanced at him — and for the first time, I saw something in his eyes. Not fear. Not arrogance. But an unsettling certainty.
"If it comes out," he said quietly, "you'll wish it was just chalk."
The thing hissed — a wet, gurgling sound — and its other hand slammed onto the rim. Water splashed, soaking Shahib's boots.
For a tense, endless moment, no one moved. Then, without warning, the creature lunged upward—