One Step Across

Sameer stepped back like he'd been slapped.

"No," he whispered. "We didn't mean to start anything. We were just—"

"Kids?" Zoya finished.

She didn't raise her voice. She didn't have to.

"We didn't come here to fight with you."-Rehan.

Zoya blinked slowly. Her arms hung by her side, still and cold.

"You think this is about me?"

She looked up at the ceiling of the tunnel.

"This place was never mine."

Behind her, the walls shivered again.

Hairline cracks spread across the stone like veins.

A sound crept in — like something scratching from the inside.

Ayaan took a step forward.

"Then who is it about?"

Zoya looked at him. Not angry. Not broken.

Just honest.

"It's about you."

---

The air grew heavier.

Not hot. Not smoky.

Just dense. Like guilt made solid.

Zoya continued, "This place… it doesn't punish. It remembers."

A sudden flash pulsed behind her — not light, not fire — more like a memory igniting.

And suddenly, they weren't in the tunnel anymore.

They were in the clearing, years ago.

Sameer gasped.

It was night. A campfire flickered weakly in the center.

A younger Rehan laughed.

A younger Sameer was teasing someone just off-frame.

Zoya.

"I don't want to go," her voice echoed, sharp and small.

And Sameer's younger voice:

"Then stay here and sulk. We'll be back before midnight."

The fire cracked.

And they left.

Just like that.

---

Then it snapped back.

Tunnel walls. Cold air. Present time.

Sameer stumbled. "No. No, I didn't remember it like that."

Zoya tilted her head.

"You chose not to."

---

In the city…

Naira burst into Sameer's room — not the house, not the memory.

His real room.

And on his shelf, tucked behind a row of old books:

A photo.

Four kids. All younger.

Sameer. Rehan. Ayaan. And Zoya.

Her face wasn't scratched out here.

But something else stood out.

The backdrop.

Trees. The same twisted ones from the forest now.

She traced her finger across the glass.

"You really did go back, didn't you…" she whispered.

And as she turned — something shifted in the air behind her.

---

Back in the forest…

The boys stood silent as Zoya's voice came one last time.

"I didn't call you here for revenge," she said.

"I called you because it's time."

Ayaan spoke, his voice calm.

"Time for what?"

Zoya walked to the side of the room. Placed her palm flat on the wall.

It cracked cleanly — silently — like it had always been waiting for her.

Behind it: another tunnel. Narrower. Darker. And deeper.

"Whatever woke up," she said, without turning around, "it's not finished with us."

Rehan stepped forward.

"We're going in there, are we?"

Zoya nodded.

Sameer exhaled.

"Together?"

She looked at them finally.

This time, her eyes were lighter. Clearer.

"Yes."

Then she stepped into the dark.