By the time the bus came to a halt, the night had settled thick and heavy over the town. Leena stepped out, pulling her jacket closer as the cold air wrapped around her. The headlights of the bus cast long shadows across the empty road before the driver gave her a nod and drove off, leaving her standing alone in the dim glow of an old streetlamp.
She pulled out her phone, trying to check the map, but the screen only showed "No Service". Perfect.
The town was eerily silent. No cars, no people—just rows of old buildings standing like forgotten sentinels. She wasn't scared, but there was something unsettling about the stillness.
She spotted an old man sitting on a wooden bench near what looked like a closed convenience store. His wrinkled hands rested on a cane, his gaze fixed on her like he had been expecting her.
"Excuse me," she said, approaching cautiously. "Do you know where the company guest house is?"
The man didn't answer right away. He just stared at her with pale, cloudy eyes, his expression unreadable. Then, in a low, rasping voice, he said, "You shouldn't have come here."
Leena's stomach twisted. "Excuse me?"
He blinked slowly. "The guest house is down that road. But it ain't a place for outsiders."
She didn't have the patience for cryptic warnings. "Thanks," she muttered and hurried down the road he had pointed to.
The guest house stood at the end of a narrow lane, a large, old building with faded paint and a single dim light glowing above the entrance. It looked abandoned. The air smelled damp, and the wooden porch creaked under her steps.
When she pushed the door open, the inside was just as unsettling. The lobby was empty, the reception desk covered in a thin layer of dust. A key sat on the counter with her name on a tag. No sign of a staff member. No sound except for the faint creaking of the old ceiling.
As she picked up the key, a gust of wind blew through the room, making a nearby chair scrape against the floor as if it had moved on its own.
Leena froze.
Just the wind.
Or at least, that's what she told herself as she took a deep breath and walked toward her room, ignoring the feeling that something—or someone—was watching her from the shadows.