Chapter 1: Damned whispers

The sound of a lighter clicked through the dark in a living room. After a few flicks, a small flame caught on a candle glass, throwing soft light across two faces leaning too close to the fire.

“Belo, watch the flame!” an 18-year-old boy snapped, clutching his bathrobe tighter while heading to the kitchen. “And put Deby back in her seat!”

Belo sighed and stretched back in his chair obediently.

Right. I’m the servant here.

He stood up and grabbed his baby sister’s hand just before it reached the flame.

“Hey, hey—trying to turn us into barbecue?”

He poked her cheeks as she responded with a small giggle.

Then he moved carefully and put her back into her seat, and before he straightened his back, he found a pillow struck him in the face, but he caught it with a sharp move before it fell onto the candle like he was used to it.

Of course, the sleeping beauty couldn't handle it without air conditioning, so she woke up, and now I am going to be the reason for the blackout.

“Did you use my phone when I was sleeping?” an angry mid-teenage girl with messy, long hair shouted while crossing her arms, clearly waiting for an explanation.

Darn it, how did she know? I slipped in like a ninja. Everything went perfectly.

“No, I didn’t,” he said with a straight face.

She stormed over to him and shoved her phone in his face—a snapshot of his startled expression, caught mid-password fail, his nose was shining in the screen’s frame.

Damn these phones. I told Mom I need my own

He hesitated, trying to cover for what he did. “Okay, maybe I did. I am sorry, but Taylor’s phone was out of charge and I needed to call mom—.”

A crash of utensils and clattering metal erupted from the kitchen.

“Will you two shut up?” Taylor groaned, searching for a water bottle, since soap was stinging his eyes.

“You shut up!” she snapped, flopping onto the couch and scrolling through her phone.

Belo looked at his sister, and a smile curled on his face. “Ahm, Celia, do you realize that electricity is connected with the wifi?”

She paused and narrowed her eyes, then threw the phone to the end of the couch.

Belo turned his gaze back to the flickering candlelight and remembered the government announcement from the night before:

If the electricity cuts again, use the emergency lantern. It has a power bank feature. It should keep the lights on all night.

He opened the drawer, pulled out a black lantern, and set it on the table. Its shimmering surface reflected the candlelight, tiny doors visible along its sides.

Now, how do I make it work?

“Belo, come help me for a second.”

Belo sighed and headed toward the kitchen, not noticing Daby crawling back toward the table.

As he poured water over his brother’s soapy hair, he glanced back—just in time to see Daby pushing the black lantern toward the candle.

She giggled.

Oh, shit

Belo muttered before he hurried to catch the lantern from falling on the candle, but he slid from the soap on the floor and couldn’t reach out in time.

He rubbed his head and saw the black lantern door open.

“Pour more water!” Taylor shouted. But Belo didn’t move. He just stared and froze.

He didn’t obey for the first time in his life, not because he wanted to disobey, but from the shock he witnessed, and no one could see it in the current moment.

The lantern didn’t fall, but one of the doors opened, and he could see a gigantic hand with black nails clawing its way out.

Belo parted his lips to speak, but he couldn’t register what was happening; the words didn’t come out.

The hand was huge, but how did it fit the door? Something felt wrong and disorienting, no matter how hard you looked at it. The hand squeezed through that tiny door, like space itself was bending to let it in. The rules of physics seemed to pause at the current moment because the size didn’t add up, but he could still see it trying to catch its prey in the dark.

A soft giggle woke him up from his stupor. He glanced at his sister extending her hand to touch the monstrous, devilish hand.

“Noooo.”

He screamed and tried to reach out, then suddenly a white glow swallowed the whole room. No one dared to move because silence was the only thing left behind.

***

Belo opened his eyes and found white sand stretched endlessly beneath him. Above, a sky of bright lights shimmered with three suns burning overhead.

Where am I? What happened to us? Where are Daby and the others?

A jolt of panic crossed his face as his heartbeat began to rise.

He looked around him, but there was nothing, just sand, sky, and the three suns.

'Run.'

A whisper brushed over his ear as he heard a sound calling him to run.

Who is this? It spoke inside my head

Then another voice came in, there were whispers, not like the first voice, it felt like wicked whispers

'Come to us.

The damned jinn will save you.

Come to us, or will be trapped in the sky of deceptive lands.'

Jinn? Like the jinn that wants to hear three wishes?

“Please, I wish to come out of here, like now.”

Laughing sounds whispered again, their magical voices mixed.

'Run!'

A female voice whispered again, but this time her voice was firm, like demanding, her sound filled the air with pressure that made the other whispers vanish with screams into thin air.

He suddenly felt the ground shaking, and the sand was forming a hole ahead of him.

What’s happening??

As he was looking at it, the hole became bigger and swallowed everything around it.

I am scared. Is this a dream? Please wake up…wake up! Wake up!

He could still see the hole in the ground.

No, it's not a dream. If it were I would be peed myself

Turning to his side, he carefully tried to stand up, but his legs were shaking and he didn’t have much energy, so he fell down. He looked back at the huge hole and saw it becoming bigger, and drawing him closer inside it. The sand below him was being pulled along with him.

He looked back and tried to dig his fingers in the sand, crawling slowly, little by little.

“Please help me, I can’t stand. I can’t run.”

The sound didn’t respond to him.

He tried to crawl faster and faster, but the pulling was too strong until he was swallowed inside.

His hand stretched out and screamed, “Maamaaa!”