Chapter 16: The House of Howls

They entered through the blackened gate. And it closed behind them on its own—with a low, grinding groan like bones being crushed. The inside was not like any palace. There were no halls. No thrones. No sense of design. Only… madness made into architecture. The walls bled. Not blood, but memory—they rippled like muscle, showing glimpses of the past in flashes: mothers crying, cities burning, children lost in fire. Every step they took echoed not in sound, but in emotion—each footfall thudded with grief, betrayal, hunger, guilt. The air was heavy, thick like a scream trying to crawl down your throat. Lilu shivered. “This place is… wrong.” Kael touched the wall and yanked his hand back as it twitched under his fingers. Nyra drew her blade. “This palace... it’s alive.” Riven whispered, “It’s built from fear.” Zayn held his weapon up. “Then what feeds it?” The Chambers of Fear As they moved deeper, the rooms began to twist into individual nightmares. Each of them entered a different chamber, though they hadn’t noticed splitting paths. Kael’s Chamber Kael found himself in a quiet village. A door swung open. His father stood there, blood down his mouth, hands reaching for Kael. “You let me die, son. You punched a wall while I begged.” “No,” Kael breathed. “That’s not what happened—” But the sky cracked and fell on him like guilt itself. Lilu’s Chamber Lilu saw herself, small again, in a cold cage, hands reaching through bars toward shadows she thought were family. A voice: “You were left because you were weak.” She screamed and curled in on herself. Zayn’s Chamber Zayn stood on a mountain of corpses. His own arms were soaked in blood, his gun glowing hot. He stepped forward and found his mother’s face among the dead. “You were supposed to protect us, son.” “No, no—shut up—SHUT UP!” Riven’s Chamber Riven was strapped to a throne of ash. Below, an army of burning women screamed her name. “You inherited our curse. Now rule the flames.” She cried, but her tears turned to coals. Nyra’s Chamber Nyra stood in a mirror world, surrounded by versions of herself—each one stronger, faster, better. “You will never be enough,” they whispered. They closed in. And she let them. The Return And then… all five were pulled from their personal prisons, like threads yanked back into a single knot. They collapsed together in a central atrium of the palace—panting, shaking, bleeding from no wounds at all. Ravaa stood there, his face blank but eyes heavy. “This is what Raakaa built,” he said softly. “A palace made from the worst of your kind’s truths. It doesn't just scare you—it remembers you. It feeds on what you wish no one knew.” Zayn, still trembling, asked, “Why would someone build this?” “To remind the world,” Ravaa answered, “that fear is the greatest ruler of all.” They were too weak to reply. Only silence remained. And the sound of something awakening far, far above them.