Chapter 25 — The Hollow Passage
The corridors had stopped making sense.
There were no doors now, only endless stone halls.
Each step they took echoed unnaturally, like sound trapped in a tomb.
The air was colder here, heavier, as if soaked in shadow.
Arjun's breath came in sharp bursts.
Riya moved ahead with quiet determination, her torch barely cutting through the darkness.
Her face was pale under the glow, her eyes sharp with fear and resolve.
> "This way," she murmured.
Her voice was steady, but there was something in her tone — a tremor that Arjun could not ignore.
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The Hollow Passage
They entered a hallway unlike any they had seen before.
The air was thick with silence, so heavy it pressed against Arjun's chest.
The walls were smooth stone, but they pulsed faintly, as though breathing.
The torchlight bent strangely, curving inward, as if the passage itself was closing in.
> "This place…" Arjun said quietly.
"It's not a corridor anymore."
Riya glanced back at him.
> "It's the Hollow Passage. It's what the fort uses to rewrite you. To make you forget what's real."
Her voice trembled.
Arjun stared ahead.
The hallway seemed to stretch endlessly.
No matter how fast they walked, the end never came.
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Visions in the Darkness
Shadows gathered along the walls.
They moved slowly, shaping into forms — faces of their dead companions flickering into view: Riya herself, Sid, Kabir, and even Ananya.
They stared without moving, mouths opening in silent screams.
Arjun's heart pounded.
He stumbled, clutching his head.
Whispers filled his mind.
> "You cannot leave… you belong here… you are already part of the fort."
He looked at Riya.
She was silent, her face pale.
> "Do you hear it too?" he asked.
She nodded without turning.
> "It's the fort… calling us. It knows we want to escape. That's why it's showing us… this."
Arjun felt a wave of nausea.
The hallway seemed to pulse, bending and stretching like living flesh.
They walked on, the whispers growing louder.
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A Glimpse of Their Fate
They came to a space where the walls were mirrors.
But their reflections were wrong.
Riya saw herself bleeding from her mouth.
Arjun saw his own face twisted in agony, eyes hollow and dark.
Behind them in the mirrors, shadows moved that did not belong to them.
Riya's voice broke the silence.
> "This is the fort's trap. It shows us what we fear most… so we won't leave."
Arjun swallowed hard.
> "So we keep walking?"
> "We have no choice," she said.
Her voice was low but certain.
She stepped forward into the dark ahead.
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End of Chapter 25