Tamsin felt as though an invisible hand had clamped down around her heart. Cold sweat slid down her spine, dampening the thin fabric of her shirt. She looked instinctively at Glen—his eyes were wide, panic and helplessness swimming in their depths.
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They both knew it: if they failed this last question, what awaited them would not be mere failure but something far more final—
She shut her eyes tight, breath coming in short, shallow bursts. Images flickered behind her eyelids: fragments of nightmares, splintered memories.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNuz6wSfFox
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She had thought she feared insects. She had thought she feared death.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh7J7HIMWLZ
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But at this moment, something older, darker—something buried deep—rose and broke free.
Her voice trembled out of her chest, a raw whisper:71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpEVBh9Kh6h
“I… what I’m truly afraid of—71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQAOgebMWvS
is water.”
Glen’s head snapped toward her.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9o84bYAZml
She bit down hard on her lip, trying to steady herself, but even so the words shook as they left her mouth.
“I once fought for my life in the water. Ice-cold seawater swallowing me inch by inch. My body sinking, lungs splitting open as though cut by knives, the air crushed out of me. That despair—like the whole world had turned its back on me. I thought, I’m going to die…”
Her fingers dug into her palms until her nails broke skin. Even now she could feel the cold creeping up her arms, climbing her throat, pressing her chest shut.
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“I can’t swim anymore. I can’t even stay in a bath. It’s—too much. Too terrifying!”
Silence spread, heavy as iron. Then Glen’s voice came, low and unsteady, carrying a faint catch at the end, “I’m most afraid… of losing my family.”71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrWVh4X5yJL
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He paused, as if summoning courage to say the next words.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUOU0W2FuuF
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“Because I already have. My sister… she died in a shipwreck. I can still see the way she looked at me at the end. That pain—it’s worse than death. It never ends. It just… lives inside you.”
The chamber held its breath.
They faced one another, their breathing ragged. In that instant, something passed between them—two naked, unhidden fears, two souls laid open.
Then the words on the wall began to crumble like sand scattered by wind, and a new sound rose to fill the chamber:
“Correct.”
From above came a soft thud—71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGa92PnBR4X
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Two dolls drifted down, landing on the stone floor with a muted sound. Their crooked stitches still formed that same twisted smile, but now their button eyes seemed almost alive, fixed upon the two of them.
Tamsin and Glen stared at each other. Their terror had not ebbed, but it had changed—become a wordless bond. Without speaking, they reached for one another, a silent gesture of comfort.
They understood now. This question had not been a test of knowledge. It had been a knife, slicing open the deepest wounds of their hearts. Only by naming their truest fear could they earn the right to continue the game.
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The wall trembled once more, stone grinding against stone.
Boom—
The door swung inward.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXtRE4E2vuO
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Hand in hand, still shaking, they stepped across the threshold.
And at once the world changed.
Gone were the grey stone walls. In their place rose the bowels of a vast wooden ship.
The air was dim and yellow, the lamps flickering as the chandelier above swayed, casting restless shadows that crawled across the walls like silent ghosts. The timbers creaked as though they might give way at any moment; seawater seeped through the planks and pooled at their feet, reflecting their taut faces. The smell of rot and brine hung heavy, a scent from some graveyard beneath the sea.
From deep within the hull came a low, ceaseless rumble, and with it the faint sway of the floor beneath their boots—as though unseen waves were battering the ship, dragging it toward a black abyss.
Tamsin froze. The shadow from her memory tore wide open. Terror surged through her chest, setting off a frantic alarm in her skull. Her breath hitched, her face went white; she clutched Glen’s arm with both hands.
“Water…” she whispered.
That cold that had once drowned her was here again, as real as the boards beneath her feet.
Glen turned, his eyes unsettled, but his voice soft, “Don’t worry. I’m here.”
He hesitated, then added quietly, “Doesn’t this place… feel like…”
“Like what?” she asked, eyes darting nervously over the dripping walls.
His pupils darkened. His fists clenched. His voice was almost a growl, “…like the night of the shipwreck.”
A shudder went through her. His words ripped open the memory of what he’d confessed in the chamber—the sister he had lost.
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Her own fear of water, too, had been born in a shipwreck.
The scattered pieces in her mind snapped together at last, forming a single, terrible image.
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Her chest tightened, her fingers trembled, and her voice came out in a quivering thread:71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTYKDwAcoIU
“Glen… ten years ago—were you on that yacht? The one whose engine exploded… the flames… and then it sank?”
His pupils constricted, as if struck by a bolt of recognition.
“You mean— you were there too—?”
Her throat felt gripped by invisible hands. The words clawed out anyway, “Yes. I was on that ship.”
In the dim, swaying light his face went pale, disbelief flickering in his eyes.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Z7grIZ6GS
He whispered, almost to himself, “That night… the screaming… the fire… the sea swallowing everything…”
His voice trembled, like a nightmare dragged up from the deep,
“I ran from the explosion. I watched my sister burn. I didn’t—71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlDPsSNPaGU
I couldn’t go back for her…”
Tamsin’s chest ached. Her nails bit her palms. That memory struck her too, sharp and cold. Her breath turned uneven; tears welled behind her eyes.
“I was trapped in the cabin,” she said. “Water rising, inch by inch. I thought I would die. Until someone pushed me—helped me up. I barely made it. But that person… I never saw them again…”
The air between them thickened, heavy as seawater. The deck groaned beneath their feet, testifying to their memories.
Glen stared at her, something vast and nameless swirling in his gaze.
“So… we’re both survivors of that night.”
Tamsin could only stare back, breathless.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpAs0dqD9O1
All the fragments inside her had finally aligned. Now she understood why fate had brought her and this boy together in this accursed castle.
They had escaped death once.71Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVoAP9yfgYY
And now, once again, they were being dragged back into the same abyss.
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To be continued...
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