Chapter 4 Broken Pieces

• The room they entered was colder. Not just the temperature, but the feeling like the walls themselves were watching.
• Zara stumbled to a stop, her breath ragged. “Ivy’s gone. Just like that. What kind of sick game is this?”
• No one answered. The loss hung heavy, thickening the silence. Elijah clenched his fists, jaw tight. Niko watched him carefully too angry, too impulsive. That could be dangerous.
• The door behind them had sealed completely. No way back.
• This new room looked like an abandoned living room. A cracked leather couch, torn curtains, a flickering lamp in the corner. But it was all wrong off balanced furniture, mirrors too high to reflect anything but the ceiling. In the center was a circular rug, beneath it, a square outline scratched into the floorboards.
• Marcus crouched, pulling it up. A trapdoor.
• Zara hissed. “Don’t touch it. We don’t even know what’s down there.”
• Liana moved beside her. “Do we have a choice?”
• A screen crackled to life on the far wall, static clearing into bold white text:
• GAME TWO: BROKEN PIECES
• Beneath your feet lies the next path. But only one of you can open it. The one who breaks first… wins.
• “What the hell does that mean?” Theo asked, voice tight.
• Another message followed.
• Find the object that doesn’t belong.
• Use it.
• Make it count.
• They scanned the room. Everyone moved more cautiously this time, afraid the wrong touch could trigger another loss. Elijah knocked over a stack of books, pages falling like feathers.
• “This chair has five legs,” Liana muttered, pointing at a stool balanced unevenly. “One too many.”
• “Here,” Zara said, pulling something from behind a broken frame. A hammer. Heavy. Rusted.
• The message echoed again.
• Break. First. Win.
• Niko’s voice was a whisper now. “It wants us to turn on each other.”
• “No,” Marcus said calmly, “it said break. That doesn’t have to mean someone. It could mean something.”
• Elijah grabbed the hammer. “What if I break the mirror?” Without waiting, he hurled the hammer at it.
• The glass exploded into shards but nothing happened. No beep. No voice.
• Theo backed away from the shattered mirror, face pale. “Okay. Not that.”
• Liana looked at the chair again. Five legs. Odd. “Try breaking the chair.”
• Marcus nodded, still watching the group’s reactions more than the room. “Go ahead.”
• Elijah smashed the chair apart wood splintered, a sharp crack echoed but still, nothing.
• Zara was breathing fast. “We’re missing something. The thing that doesn’t belong… it’s not an object. It’s a person. That’s what this is.”
• Silence.
• Everyone turned slowly.
• “No,” Niko said. “That’s what it wants us to think.”
• Zara backed away. “Then explain what ‘only one can open it’ means.”
• Liana knelt beside the trapdoor, running her fingers along the edge. “Wait. There’s a panel here. A pressure plate.” She pressed down. Nothing.
• “Try with weight,” Marcus said. “It may need a person.”
• Theo approached. “I’ll do it.” He stood on the plate click.
• The trapdoor opened. A short ladder led downward into shadows.
• Niko frowned. “So no one had to break.”
• Elijah threw up his hands. “Then what was the point of all that?”
• “To see if we would turn on each other,” Liana said softly. “To see who’d crack first.”
• One by one, they descended into the dark.
• Zara went last. As she climbed down, she glanced back at the room.
• She could’ve sworn she saw something in the mirror’s reflection just a flicker. A shape standing behind them. Watching.
• And when she blinked it was gone.