The scream from upstairs sent ice through Deepika’s spine. She spun toward the basement stairs. “That was Ragini!”

Rajesh was already moving, but Guna didn’t follow.

He stood frozen before the bleeding symbol on the floor, his eyes fixed on the black words oozing from the cracks. “One of you already belongs to me.” The phrase echoed in his mind, over and over again.

Deepika turned back. “Guna—come on!”

But Guna didn’t move. His pupils dilated, his breath shallow. The darkness around him thickened, almost like it was wrapping around his body.

Then he spoke, but his voice wasn’t his.

“She chose me... long ago.”

Rajesh stopped dead. “What?”

Guna slowly lifted his head. His face looked the same—but his eyes were wrong. They were empty. Deep. As if they were no longer his own. A slow, eerie smile spread across his lips.

“She’s always been with me,” he said in that alien voice. “Since the first night I dreamed of the house.”

Deepika backed away. “Guna, this isn’t funny.”

Guna stepped toward her—and with every step, the lights dimmed. Shadows crept behind him like a second skin.

“I didn’t believe in her. But she believed in me.”

Rajesh raised the flashlight, but the beam flickered violently and died. The basement plunged into darkness.

There was a loud crack—and Guna screamed. Or... something inside him did.

Then silence.

Deepika fumbled for the stairs in pitch black, panic rising like bile in her throat. She grabbed Rajesh’s hand and yanked him upward. “We have to get out. He’s not Guna anymore.”

Behind them, a soft laugh echoed—Guna’s laugh, twisted and hollow. “She’s part of me now... and I’m part of her.”

***

Upstairs – Ragini and Rohan

The mirror’s surface rippled like water as Ragini stared into it. Rohan tried to pull her away, but her hand was frozen, fingertips brushing the cold glass.

“She’s showing me things,” Ragini whispered. “Pieces of her life. Her death. She was... sacrificed in this house. By five friends. Five lovers.”

Rohan’s grip tightened. “She’s manipulating you. Come back. Now.”

But Ragini’s eyes were wet with tears, her voice cracking. “She trusted them. And they gave her to this house. And now... she wants us to feel it.”

Suddenly, the mirror shimmered—and Guna appeared in the reflection.

His face twisted into a terrifying grin.

“She’s chosen me, Ragini,” he said from the glass. “Now I’ll help her finish what she started.”

Rohan pulled her away, and the mirror cracked—spiderweb lines racing across its surface. A shriek tore through the house—part woman, part something else. And it was coming from below.

***

The Group Reunites

Ragini and Rohan bolted down the stairs just as Deepika and Rajesh burst out from the basement door.

“Guna’s gone,” Deepika panted. “No—he’s taken. She’s inside him.”

Ragini nodded grimly. “We saw it in the mirror.”

A door slammed upstairs.

Then footsteps—his footsteps.

Slow. Deliberate.

Ragini’s eyes hardened. “She’s no longer trapped. She has a body now. Guna is hers.”

The air around them grew dense, the walls groaning once more.

“She’s not going to stop,” Rajesh said. “Not until we’re either dead… or hers.”

The lights flickered. Somewhere, Guna was laughing.

And the house was just getting started.

***