Silence clung to Vyom's ears like wet cloth.
His shoes skidded over the hallway floor as he ran, breath hitching, chest hammering. The sound of knocking pulsed behind him—not closer, not farther—just present. Like it wasn't following him through space…
but through time.
Tak.
…Tak. Tak.
Each knock landed with the same distance from his ears, whether he turned a corner or sprinted straight.
Vyom didn't understand that.
He just knew he couldn't stop.
His knees wobbled.
The walls blurred.
His lungs begged.
Run.
That was the only thought.
Run or be found.
Run or be replaced.
Run or—
Tak.
The single tap froze him mid-movement. His body jolted as if strings yanked tight. He stumbled, hitting the lockers with his shoulder, breath torn from him.
Tak… tak.
The second knock arrived like a whisper pressed against the back of his skull.
Vyom's hand trembled toward the sound—
before his mind screamed at him—
Don't respond.
Nara's final warning burned inside him:
"Don't answer when he knocks…"
Vyom squeezed his tear-blurry eyes and slapped both hands over his ears. His heart thudded—
but beneath it, the other heartbeat pulsed.
BOOM.
…BOOM.
The warmth beneath his ribs flickered with each beat. It wasn't painful—
not yet—
but too big for his tiny chest, like someone else's pulse lived inside him.
His feet faltered.
He collapsed to his knees.
The corridor in front of him wavered like a heat mirage. Floors flickered between old tile, polished stone, and something organic—veined wood that writhed beneath thin skin.
Vyom gasped—
crawling backward until the lockers stopped him.
He wanted Nara.
Even a flicker.
A shadow.
But nothing remained.
Only her last warmth faintly echoing.
He pressed a hand against his heart again.
"Please," he whispered.
"Don't leave me."
The warmth pulsed in answer—
as if listening.
But there was no reply.
Just the knocking.
Tak.
Vyom's body stiffened.
Something about that knock was different.
Closer.
He held his breath.
His gaze slid unwillingly—
toward the source.
A wall.
Just… ordinary school plaster.
The paint slightly cracked, peeling.
Nothing strange.
Except—
Beneath the surface…
a thin line bulged.
Like a finger dragging along from the other side.
It slid upward.
Paused.
Trembled.
Vyom swallowed a scream.
The line poked outward—
as if something beneath wanted to push through the wall's skin.
Tak.
The push flattened, retreated—
then began again—
this time further right.
Searching.
Sniffing.
Vyom pressed himself harder against the lockers, eyes wide enough to hurt.
"No…"
His voice cracked.
"Don't find me…"
But it had already found him.
Of course it had.
The thing was not following his steps.
It was following his heartbeat.
More importantly—
what pulsed beneath it.
The second heartbeat.
BOOM.
Tak.
The knocks aligned with the pulse.
Synchronizing.
BOOM.
Tak.
BOOM.
Tak.
Vyom whimpered.
His breath came in tiny bursts—
more like sobs than air.
"Dev… where are you…?"
He hadn't realized until now—
Dev wasn't with him.
He looked around frantically.
Hallway—empty.
Nothing but flickering tube lights and quiet.
Too quiet.
His trembling fingers dug into his palms.
He was alone— completely alone.
Tak.
The wall bulged again—
higher this time.
Vyom shook his head desperately.
"No… go away… go away…"
The heartbeat under his ribs grew louder.
BOOM.
…BOOM.
It didn't hurt—
but it felt like something inside him was moving.
Stretching.
Adjusting.
Like it heard the knocking…
and was knocking back.
A sharp nausea surged.
Vyom clutched his stomach.
His vision tunneled.
The hallway darkened at the edges.
He squeezed his eyes—
—and when he opened them…
The wall ahead was breathing.
Slow.
Steady.
Inhaling.
Exhaling.
Not expanding like lungs—
but rippling.
Like it was thin skin stretched over something liquid and alive.
Vyom crawled backward, fingernails scraping tile.
"No… no… no…"
The breathing wall paused.
Flattened.
Then—
In a single, violent motion—
something inside slammed against it.
B O O M.
The wall convulsed outward.
Dust rained down.
Light flickered.
Vyom screamed.
He scrambled to his feet and ran.
This time, the knocking did change—
following faster.
Tak-tak-tak-tak.
Like an excited tapping.
Hungry.
Vyom tore through the corridor, vision shaking, the breath punched from his lungs. His small shoes slipped, squeaking.
He turned a corner—
—and froze.
The hallway had changed.
It wasn't the school.
The walls were wooden—
dark, swollen grain twisting like veins.
The tiles were gone.
In their place—
wet stone.
Greenish, cold.
As if underground.
A chill clamped around his ribs.
"No…"
He whispered.
"I didn't go here… I didn't…"
He backed away—
but the hallway behind him rippled—
and became the same.
Wooden.
Stone-floored.
Choked by darkness.
He was already inside.
The school was gone.
His heart raced—
but the other pulse remained slow.
BOOM… …BOOM…
Calm.
Patient.
As if this was where it belonged.
"Help…"
Vyom whispered.
"Help me…"
His voice died in the corridor—
absorbed by the walls.
Nothing echoed.
Not a single sound returned to him.
Even his own breathing felt muffled—
distant.
He looked up.
At the far end of the corridor…
a door stood.
Tall.
Black.
Carved.
No light leaked from its edges.
Vyom shuddered.
Not again.
Not another door.
He took a step back—
—and felt his heel press into something soft.
His breath caught.
Slowly—
he turned.
Dev stood behind him.
Head tilted.
Button eyes emotionless.
Porcelain face cracked slightly at the jaw.
Vyom's knees buckled.
He fell to the floor and grabbed the doll, sobbing.
"Dev—Dev—Dev—please—take me home—please—"
The doll's stitched smile didn't change.
But its head rotated—
fully—
until facing the far door.
Its arm jerked upward.
Pointed.
Vyom's tears froze.
"No."
He shook his head.
"No—I don't want to—"
Dev's body jerked—
once—
like a marionette tugged.
Then its voice whispered—
not from its mouth
but from the air:
"Look."
Vyom clutched Dev desperately.
"No—no—"
The doll's porcelain head flicked—
this time pointing behind Vyom.
He didn't want to look.
He knew what waited.
But instinct forced him.
Slowly—
he turned.
A figure stood at the other end of the corridor.
Long-limbed.
Head bowed.
Shadowed.
No features.
Only outline—
like a man drowned in ink.
It didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
But Vyom felt its gaze.
Like fingers inside his skull.
It raised one arm—
slowly—
The arm stretched too far—
bones bending, skin thinning until nearly transparent—
And a long, black finger tapped the wall beside it.
Tak.
Vyom flinched.
Dev's body went rigid—
as if bracing.
The figure tapped again.
Tak.
Tak.
Each tap vibrated through the walls—
through Vyom's chest—
through the heartbeat beneath.
BOOM.
…BOOM.
Then—
the wall behind Vyom tapped back.
Tak.
Tak.
Vyom's breath shattered.
He stared at the wall behind him.
A bulge formed there—
Not a fist.
A face.
Pressed beneath the wood grain.
Featureless—
only the impression of mouth and hollow eyes.
The mouth stretched—
Tak.
The same knock.
Vyom trembled uncontrollably.
Two knocks.
Two walls.
Talking.
With him trapped between.
Dev's body twisted—
pointing toward the black door again.
"Go."
"No…"
Vyom sobbed.
"No—Dev—I'm scared—"
The doll turned its head to face him fully.
Its button eyes were no longer black.
They were red.
Red like coals.
Like embers.
The stitched smile widened—
a thread snapping.
The voice—
deeper now—
echoed through Vyom's bones:
> "If you stay, you will open."
Vyom froze.
Open?
The reflection's voice crawled up his memory—
"It wants continuity."
The thing in the wall— the thing knocking— wanted him to open.
To choose.
To let it in.
He looked at the door again.
Black.
Still.
Waiting.
Vyom wiped tears with his sleeve.
He didn't want to choose either.
But Dev— Dev never forced him before.
If Dev said to go…
Maybe that meant…
It was safer.
Vyom stumbled forward, hugging the doll to his chest. The wooden walls pulsed—
as if following his movement.
Ten steps.
The knocking grew quieter—
regretful.
Five steps.
The heartbeat beneath his ribs calmed.
BOOM…
...…BOOM…
One step.
He reached the door.
Dev stopped pointing.
Vyom reached out with a trembling hand—
and paused.
He remembered Nara's words:
"You don't need to open it. You only need to listen."
Vyom hesitated.
Was this another door like the one before?
Would touching it show him visions again?
He didn't want more.
But the walls behind him whispered—
soft, urgent—
Vyom…
Vyom…
He pressed both hands over his ears—
shaking—
tears streaming.
"Stop… please stop…"
The knocking grew sharper.
Desperate.
Dev's head snapped up.
It stared directly at the door.
Then—
quietly—
"I will listen.
You just stay."
The doll placed its tiny porcelain palm on the wood.
Vyom felt nothing change.
No beat.
No light.
But Dev's head tilted—
as if listening to an immense voice speaking from behind the wood.
Its body stiffened.
Trembled.
Then—
A deeper voice spilled into the air—
not from the door
not from Dev
but from everywhere—
A voice so vast
it did not speak words…
but meaning.
"He is early."
The corridor dimmed.
The walls quieted.
The thing behind the wood…
knew him.
Vyom felt the warmth beneath his ribs flare—
like a spark answering back.
Dev's arm jerked—
as if fighting something.
Then the voice spoke again—
closer.
"Sixteen hours remain."
Vyom's heart stilled.
Sixteen.
Just like before.
Seventeen.
Now sixteen.
Counting down.
To what?
Inside his ribs—
the warmth spiraled—
as if acknowledging the countdown.
Dev stumbled back, porcelain body cracking down the shoulder.
Vyom reached for him—
"Dev—!"
Before he could touch—
the corridor shuddered.
The breathing walls
stopped.
Everything froze.
Like someone held the entire space between fingers.
Dev's body turned slowly—
face toward Vyom.
Its voice was faint—
strained—
"He is looking now.
We must go."
"Where—?"
Vyom gasped.
Dev jerked its head downward—
toward the floor.
The stone tiles parted.
Gashes opening like wounds.
Darkness yawned beneath.
Vyom stumbled back—
but the ground shifted—
tilting—
He fell—
Dev leapt after him—
doll-arms wrapping his tiny wrist—
They dropped—
not through space—
but through a second.
Reality peeled away—
and the wooden hallway dissolved like dust.
The knocking ended.
Everything went—
Black.
Falling.
Falling.
Falling—
Dev's grip tightened.
For a moment—
a flicker of Nara's warmth wrapped his chest.
Then—
Light
exploded—
and Vyom struck ground.
Hard.
Air ripped from his lungs.
He coughed—
gasping—
Dev landed beside him, cracking more.
Vyom forced his stinging eyes open.
And froze.
He wasn't underground.
He wasn't in school.
He was in…
His house.
The clockmaker's shop.
Silent.
Dark.
Empty.
The old watches hung on the wall—
their hands spinning backward.
Ticking.
Slowly.
Mocking.
Vyom dragged himself up—
shaking.
"Dad…?"
His voice cracked.
"Baba…?"
No answer.
Only the clocks.
Tick…
Tick…
Tick…
Dev's broken head lifted—
button eyes staring toward the workbench.
Vyom followed its gaze.
On the dusty tabletop—
sat the old forbidden watch.
Open.
Still ticking.
Its hands moved backward—
but one component glowed faintly…
Golden.
Same as the light beneath Vyom's skin.
Vyom took one tiny step toward it.
The warmth pulsed—
BOOM.
The watch answered—
Tak.
Vyom froze.
The knocks had followed.
Not in walls.
Not in stairs.
But inside the gears.
Inside the hour.
He clutched Dev—
voice cracking—
"What do I do…?"
Dev's head finally moved.
It turned toward him—
the cracked smile splitting wider.
The doll whispered—
"You wake up."
Vyom blinked—
"What—?"
The room flickered.
As if transparency replaced wood.
The floor blurred—
the clocks dissolved—
Dev's grip loosened—
"No—wait—Dev—!"
Darkness burst.
Vyom's consciousness snapped—
And he woke on his bed.
Gasping.
Sweating.
Crying.
The house was quiet.
Morning light seeped in.
Normal.
Too normal.
He sat frozen.
It was a dream.
It had to be.
He touched his chest.
Warmth pulsed beneath his skin.
BOOM.
…BOOM.
A whisper leaked from somewhere beneath the floorboards—
Tak.
Vyom didn't scream.
He didn't run.
He simply closed his eyes—
—and whispered what he already knew:
"Sixteen hours remain."
—END OF CHAPTER 16—