Author's POV
The RV was too small for five chaotic people and one stressed ghost. Within thirty minutes of leaving Maajaan, the space already looked like a college dorm after exam season-chips crushed into the carpet, tangled wires mixed with hair ties, and five Maggi packets sacrificed to Shiva's endless hunger. The air felt both cold from the AC and hot from collective anxiety. Outside, the landscape blurred into streaks of green and brown as the highway stretched ahead, but inside the RV, it felt like they were dragging fear and confusion along with them. This wasn't vacation energy. This was we-might-fight-a-ghost-king energy-still chaotic, but with dread sprinkled on top. Shiva had claimed the driver's seat, Hari hovered behind her like a stressed parent in a school carpool line, and the rest of them were either bracing for death or unpacking snacks like they were moving in permanently. Someone's brilliant plan was: drive, don't die, get to the mansion, try not to fight supernatural royalty halfway there. But nothing about these girls had ever fit the word simple.
Shiva's POV
I drove like the highway owed me rent. Both hands locked on the wheel, sunglasses still on even though the sun was basically dead. Call it "Fast and Furious: Paranormal Detectives edition." Hari kept mumbling instructions behind me, but I ignored all of it. Someone honked at me from behind, and I leaned out of the window, yelling, "LEARN HOW TO DRIVE, GRANDPA!" The honking increased-apparently I was inspiring rage. Hari said I couldn't kill ghosts with speed, but I disagreed. If I drove fast enough, maybe the ghosts would give up. The truth was simple: speeding stopped me from thinking. If I thought, I'd start spiraling-about the mansion, about Varkash, about the fact that we were driving straight into the unknown. I wasn't hyped. I was terrified. So I acted like a chaotic stunt woman instead.
Sita's POV
I sat curled in the corner seat, hugging my knees, staring at my cracked necklace like it owed me answers. I tapped the stones hoping for a glow, a spark-anything to tell me I still mattered-but nothing happened. I felt useless. Everyone else was buzzing with weapons, plans, wires, ghosts, while I was literally holding jewelry that didn't work. "What if I slow everyone down?" I whispered to myself. The RV bounced and I almost face-planted into potato chips-humiliating. Aravali nudged me and reminded me I was still part of the chaos family, necklace or not. I tried to smile, but it felt forced. Still, hearing that helped. I tapped the necklace again and a tiny sting rushed through my fingers-not power, just a reminder that something was broken. And that hurt more than I wanted to admit.
Iaa's POV
My hand was flickering like a faulty lightbulb, so I kept it hidden. The more we drove east, the sharper the flicker grew. It wasn't random. I raised my fingers toward the window and the glow brightened, almost pointing outward-like a compass trying to show me a direction. I realized my power reacted to distance and location, not just ghosts. The closer we got to the mansion area, the stronger the flicker became. I didn't want to tell anyone yet. What if I wasn't helpful? What if I became a weapon instead of a person? I swallowed hard, tucked my hand under my thigh, and told myself I'd figure it out before anyone panicked.
Aravali's POV
I sat buried in wires, tools, my laptop, and a box of cookies-my natural habitat. I was determined to build something strong enough to track organized ghosts. So far, I'd burnt two wires and caused one smoke cloud, which made Hari act like death was happening again. "Burning wires is part of the creative process," I told him. He disagreed. I tried focusing, but my brain kept drifting to Kartikya. His hair. His voice. The astronomy quote. His hands fixing my bandage. Ugh--annoying. I shook myself and muttered, "Focus on ghosts, not boys with curly hair." But when I looked down, my pencil was automatically sketching the sigil we'd seen in the records. Over and over. I froze. Something-or someone-was nudging my hand. And I wasn't sure if that was comforting or terrifying.
Hari's POV
Chaos. Pure chaos. I tried briefing them; they ignored me. I tried being authoritative; Shiva honked at cows. I spread the chart, hoping visuals would help. "LISTEN. This mansion isn't a normal haunted house. It has structure. Ranks. Someone controlling them." For once, silence. Sita leaned closer, fear creeping into her face. Iaa looked like she wanted to solve the entire universe in one go. Aravali might as well have been cuddling astronomy thoughts. I inhaled and added, "There is another presence. Someone living." That froze the room. Shiva even turned the music down. They didn't understand that this scared me. Varkash wasn't working alone. Someone breathing, thinking, and walking was helping him. And I feared what that meant.
Author's POV
The RV rolled deeper into a stretch of empty highway. The sky turned charcoal, wind rattling the vehicle. Inside, everyone braced themselves. Then something slammed against the RV-loud and heavy. Shiva braked hard. They jerked forward. Sita panicked. Hari pressed against the windshield and whispered, "No animal. No human." Shiva guessed trees, but Hari reminded them the wind was still-too still. They kept moving, but suddenly the temperature inside dropped. Breath turned visible. The walls felt coated in ice. Iaa's hand glowed. Sita shivered. Hari straightened, voice tight: "Something is watching us."
Sita's POV
My teeth chattered and the cracked necklace vibrated like it wanted to scream. Colors inside the stone flickered in unstable bursts-a physical reminder of what I couldn't do. "What if this thing breaks more?" I whispered. Hari didn't answer. His silence scared me more than the cold.
Iaa's POV
The glow from my hand surged, matching the icy dread swirling in the RV. It was like something outside was calling, reaching. I pressed into the wall, breathing fast. Not now. Not while everyone was watching. The light refused to stop.
Aravali's POV
Shiva pulled over, and we all stepped outside. The sky looked wrong-too stretched, too thin. Shadows moved where no shadows should. A shape drifted past the windshield, slow and deliberate. Watching, not attacking. "That's not haunting," I whispered. "That's surveillance." Hari nodded. Surveillance meant planning. Planning meant someone expected us. Expectation meant danger.
Hari's POV
They think this is a road trip with snacks. They don't see that they're already on the battlefield. Varkash knows we're coming, and someone living is helping him build something organized. When I looked at them-these girls with questionable plans, broken jewelry, malfunctioning powers, and Maggi addictions-I felt fear. Not for myself. For them. "Get inside," I said. "We're not alone on this road."
Author's POV
They got back in the RV. Shiva gripped the steering wheel harder. The engine rumbled and the road swallowed them again. Hari stared at the back window, eyes darkening. "We're not hunting a kingdom," he muttered. "It's waiting for us." The RV rolled forward into the dark-and something rolled with it.
The road narrowed as the RV pushed deeper into unfamiliar territory. City lights vanished, replaced by long stripes of darkness and the occasional flicker of distant houses. Civilization thinned until the only company they had left were shadows and the low hum of the engine. The farther they drove, the more the atmosphere seemed to sink downward, thickening the air like invisible fog. Even the GPS signal began to glitch-one moment snapping forward, the next freezing as though refusing to guide them.
Inside, nobody spoke. It wasn't fear exactly-it was tension that settled into them like a weight. A shared understanding: whatever had touched the RV wasn't random. Whatever watched them wasn't done.
Hari stayed near the window, eyes narrowed, tracking something none of the girls could see. Every now and then, he flinched in a way he tried to hide-like whispers were brushing against his ears, like something was calling him by a name he didn't want to hear again.
Finally, when the silence was becoming unbearable, Shiva cleared her throat. "Okay. When we get rich from this job, I'm buying myself a car. An actual car. Not this ghost magnet."
No one laughed, but somehow, the sentence cracked the tension enough for them to breathe again.
Shiva's POV
I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. Every shadow looked suspicious. Every tree looked like it wanted to sprint into the road. I kept imagining some phantom street racer ghost dragging us off the highway. Dumb, but the brain does what it does.
I wasn't scared of ghosts-I was scared of the unknown. At least when you fight something physical, you know what you're punching. But how do you fight a ghost you can't see? How do you punch a kingdom of the dead? I drove slower-not because Hari begged, but because I realized if something hit us again, I didn't want to be the idiot responsible for launching all of us into a ditch.
Behind me, no one spoke for a while. I hated that. Silence meant thinking. Thinking meant fear.
So I finally muttered, "We're not dying in this RV. I refuse. I didn't even get dessert."
Sita's POV
The cold seeped into my bones like memory. My fingers hovered over the cracked stones of my necklace. It wasn't just broken-it was unstable, like something inside it wanted out but didn't know how. Every time I thought about using it, my stomach curled. What if it shattered completely? What if the little sliver of security we still had disappeared?
But worse than all that was the idea of standing behind while the others fought. What was my role now-moral support? Group cheerleader? I pressed my forehead against the cold window and breathed softly. I didn't want anyone to see how scared I was, so I stayed quiet.
Iaa's POV
The glow finally faded, but the ghost of that sensation crawled under my skin like static. I wanted to tell them. At least Hari. But if I said out loud that my hand was reacting like a radar, everything would change. They would depend on me. And if I failed, the entire group would collapse.
Pressure is loud. Responsibility is louder.
Shiva muttering about dessert almost made me laugh-but not quite. I kept staring out the window. I didn't know what scared me more-the ghosts ahead or the power inside my hand.
Aravali's POV
My laptop screen reflected my face-exhausted, confused, annoyed. I forced myself to stop sketching that sigil and slammed the laptop shut. If destiny wanted to guide me, it could send an email instead of hijacking my unconscious doodles.
But my brain kept looping one detail--surveillance. Someone out there was collecting data about us-our powers, our weaknesses, our distance, our panic. That wasn't supernatural instinct. That was strategy. And strategy meant a mastermind.
A living one.
I forced myself to look at Hari. He wasn't just tense. He was scared. Real fear-quiet and controlled. The kind adults get when they know something bad is coming but can't stop it.
Hari's POV
The truth is, I could feel the spirit watching us-moving alongside the RV like a shadow glued to the metal. It wasn't trying to cross. It wasn't trying to communicate. It was studying.
Varkash had never been patient. He was rage and power. Chaos. But this new presence? It was calm. Purposeful. Efficient. That terrified me in a way Varkash never did.
Because patience means planning.Planning means structure.Structure means a future.
And any future for them involved danger.
I didn't tell the girls that my afterlife sense picked up something else too-a pulse buried under the ghostly trail. A human signature. Someone alive was amplifying the supernatural.
So I said nothing.
Because if I spoke too early, panic would swallow them whole.
Author's POV
Eventually, the RV reached a fork in the road-a split between a highway and a smaller, narrower path winding into forest. The GPS blinked in and out, trying its hardest not to cooperate. Shiva slowed, waiting for instructions that refused to appear.
Hari pointed without hesitation, his voice low. "Left."
Nobody questioned it. Nobody wanted to. The RV rolled onto the narrow path, swallowed by trees and shadow. The further they went, the more the night thickened, like the world around them didn't want witnesses.
Inside, everyone stayed quiet. They weren't breathing freely anymore-they were bracing. For the spirits. For the living traitor. For Varkash.
Mostly, for themselves.
The trees pressed closer, branches scraping along the sides of the RV like fingernails. The lights blinked once-just once-but enough to freeze every muscle in every body.
Nobody said a word.
Not even Shiva.
When the RV finally pushed through the overgrown path and into open land again, the road ahead curved out of sight. Whatever waited at the end of that road wasn't a case.
It was confrontation.
And something in the dark already knew their names.