Bizam wakes.
Cold air.
Purple light.
Bones.
Bones everywhere.
The cave again.
The same cave.
The same skeleton graveyard.
For a second my brain refused to move.
Then memory hit me.
The nest.
The monster.
My body being swallowed.
I slowly looked up.
The nest was there.
High above.
Dark.
Moving.
And then—
I saw it.
My body.
Torn.
Pieces of flesh hanging.
My arm inside its mouth.
My chest already gone.
The creature chewing.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Like bones.
Like meat meant to be eaten.
My own body.
I screamed.
And woke up again.
Same cave.
Same bones.
Same purple glow.
My heart racing like it would explode.
"No… no… no…"
I didn't look up this time.
I ran.
Straight forward.
Through the bone swamp.
Crunch.
Crack.
Bones breaking under my feet.
I didn't care.
Just run.
Just get out.
Then suddenly—
Something grabbed my legs.
Cold.
Slimy.
I fell face first into the bones.
I turned my head slowly.
And saw it.
That long neck.
Those blue eyes.
The monster.
Its mouth opening wider than humanly possible.
Then—
Pain.
A tearing sound.
My legs gone.
Just like that.
Blood flooding the bones.
I screamed.
My throat burning.
I crawled.
Using my hands.
Pulling my broken body across the bones.
"Move… move… MOVE!"
But the bones swallowed my arms.
Crunching under me.
Slowing me down.
The monster watched.
Almost curious.
Then it leaned down again.
Another bite.
Darkness swallowed my body.
Everything disappeared.
Only my head remained.
Rolling inside the bones.
Still alive.
Still feeling everything.
My mouth screaming.
My eyes crying.
But no one to hear.
Then the monster picked my head up.
Between its teeth.
And crushed.
Bizam wakes again.
Same place.
Same cave.
Same bones.
Same purple light.
His body shaking.
His breath broken.
Tears falling before he even understands why.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
He touched his face.
Still there.
His legs.
Still there.
But the pain…
The pain felt real.
Like his body remembered dying.
"What… the hell… is happening to me…?"
Meanwhile…
Jakeson and AJ were asked by the senior to search different rooms on the first floor.
It was also to confuse the guard.
AJ and Jakeson entered a large hall.
The lights were off.
It looked like some Halloween place.
Darkness everywhere.
Only thin rays of light coming through tall windows.
Dust floating slowly in the air.
They turned on the torchlights of their phones.
White beams cutting through the dark.
"Bizam!" Jakeson shouted.
His voice echoed through the hall.
AJ looked at him.
"What if that Tajik guard catches us?"
Jakeson shrugged.
"He won't. With that belly he definitely won't."
AJ smirked.
"You're right."
They searched the whole hall.
Under benches.
Behind curtains.
Near the cabinets.
Nothing.
Then AJ stopped walking.
His torchlight pointing at the wall.
Paintings.
Huge ones.
Very old.
He kept staring.
Jakeson walked back.
"What are you looking at?"
AJ pointed.
"This painting… whose painting is it?"
The figure looked strange.
Not a king.
Not a saint.
Something else.
Jakeson shrugged.
"I don't know. Come on. He's not here. Let's check another room."
AJ nodded.
They left the hall.
The next rooms—
Locked.
Another—
Locked.
Just then the senior appeared.
"Did you find him?"
"No."
"I checked the second floor too," the senior said.
"He wasn't there."
"Then where the hell did he go…" Jakeson muttered.
"Come," the senior said.
"Let's check the third floor."
They ran up the staircase.
The stairs were filled with paintings and strange artifacts.
Old masks.
Broken statues.
Portraits of unknown people.
Everything looked incredible.
But strange.
Almost surreal.
Then they reached the third floor.
They searched the whole floor.
Room after room.
Nothing.
The senior finally said,
"We should leave."
But AJ suddenly stopped.
"Wait."
"What?" Jakeson asked.
AJ raised his hand.
"Shhh."
"I heard something."
"What?"
"A scream."
AJ slowly pointed toward the wall.
"From there."
Jakeson frowned.
"AJ… that's a wall."
"Behind it is outside. Sky."
"We're on the third floor."
But the senior stared at the wall.
"No…"
"He might be right."
"What?" Jakeson asked.
The senior suddenly ran down the corridor.
He stopped at the emergency kit station.
Fire extinguisher.
Sand bucket.
And a large hammer.
He grabbed the hammer.
"What are you doing?" AJ shouted.
But the senior swung.
BANG!
The wall cracked.
Another hit.
BANG!
More cracks.
Then—
CRACK!
The wall broke open.
They froze.
Inside the wall—
Darkness.
That made no sense.
That wall should open to sunlight.
But instead—
There was a passage going down.
Deep underground.
Then suddenly—
A scream.
Clear this time.
Human.
From deep inside the passage.
The senior grabbed a rope from the emergency kit.
Tied one end around his waist.
The other end to a pillar.
He took a deep breath.
Then jumped.
Straight into the darkness.
The rope stretched tight.
Silence.
Jakeson looked at AJ.
"What the hell is happening here?"
AJ stared at the hole.
"I knew something was wrong since we landed."
"You remember the crow hitting the plane window?"
Jakeson nodded.
"Yeah."
"The blood on the glass…"
"It looked like it wrote something."
Jakeson's face changed.
"And that Tajik guy at the airport," AJ continued.
"He fell down the stairs."
"Then stood up like nothing happened."
Jakeson nodded slowly.
"And the blood in the public washroom," AJ added quietly.
The corridor suddenly felt colder.
Down below…
The senior reached the ground.
He turned on his phone torch.
The light revealed an old bunker.
Brick walls.
Broken crates.
Rusty metal.
Rats running everywhere.
The air smelled damp.
Then—
A cry.
Weak.
Painful.
He followed the sound.
And found a girl.
Lying on the ground.
Her leg bleeding badly.
"It's you…"
He quickly tied the rope around his vest and her body.
Then shouted,
"PULL THE ROPE!"
Above, AJ and Jakeson pulled with all their strength.
Slowly lifting them.
Up.
Up through the dark shaft.
For a moment the senior thought he saw something moving in the bunker shadows.
Tall.
Watching.
But when he pointed the light—
Nothing.
Only rats.
They rushed her to a clinic near the hostel.
By the time everything finished—
It was almost 7:00 PM.
They returned to the hostel.
Exhausted.
Sad.
The warden stood outside the gate.
"I heard about the incident," he said.
"God's fate… that's all."
"Now go rest."
"I informed her parents."
"She is safe."
The senior hesitated.
"But that boy… Bizam…"
The warden interrupted casually.
"Oh."
"He came back a few hours ago."
All three froze.
"He's here?" Jakeson asked.
"Yes," the warden said.
"He said he got lost during the tour."
Before they could speak—
A Tajik guard shouted something from the gate.
The warden waved them inside.
"It's time to close the gate."
They walked into the hostel slowly.
The gate shut behind them.
And somewhere inside the building—
Bizam was already waiting.