No one moved.
Not even the house.
After Tara's admission—'yes, I can walk'—the attic fell into a strange silence. Not empty, but watchful. The kind of hush that made you feel like something just stepped out of sight, just behind you, just behind the curved corners.
Sofi stared down at her hands. "How long?" she asked.
Tara didn't answer immediately.
"Since I got here," she said at last.
"You lied to us the whole time?" Reya asked, more confused than angry.
"I didn't know how else to survive," Tara replied. "You don't understand what it's like. When everyone expects you to be weak. When it becomes the only thing keeping you safe."
Lina looked away. "We all came here broken. But we didn't lie about it."
Mina didn't say anything. She just stood and walked slowly to the edge of the room, where the wall's corner should've been. She traced the curved edge with her fingers.
"The house chose you," she murmured. "That's what the voice said, right?"
Tara nodded. "It talks to me."
"And no one else?"
"Not that I know of."
Mina turned back. "Then it doesn't matter whether you lied. You're connected to this place. Whether you wanted to be or not."
Aria spoke up. "It said you're almost ready. For what?"
"I don't know," Tara said. "But I think… it wants me to stay. No matter what happens to the rest of you."
--------
The next morning, Grinbridge House was darker than usual.
The sky outside was grey, but inside, the shadows clung to walls like oil. The lights were dimmer. The halls longer.
They didn't go to breakfast.
They didn't go to the study room. Or the lounge. Or the garden.
They stayed close together in Mina's room, curtains drawn, chairs pulled in tight.
"We need to make a plan," Reya said.
"What kind?" Sofi asked.
"The kind that gets us out."
"We tried that already," Aria muttered. "The doors loop. The garden's alive. The attic just gave us a warning. We're not just trapped here — we're being held here."
Reya unrolled one of her maps. It had red lines curling over the original sketch.
"This one's stopped changing," she said. "Since yesterday."
Lina raised her eyebrows. "You sure?"
"Look." Reya tapped a circle drawn near the left wing. "This showed up after the attic. It wasn't there before. A sealed room. No label. No entrance. But it's… new."
"Maybe that's where we're supposed to go next," Mina said.
"Or maybe it's a trap," Aria said.
Reya's voice lowered. "It's under the house."
A long silence followed.
-------
They waited until nightfall to go.
The room wasn't on any of the original maps, and the location Reya identified would be under the servant stairwell. They passed two locked doors and a storage room filled with dolls that hadn't been there before.
And then they found it.
A wall that didn't match the others. Slightly too smooth. Too clean.
Reya pressed her palm against it.
Nothing.
Tara stepped forward.
The wall… breathed. Just once. Inward.
Then it opened like a mouth.
Behind it was a stairwell that spiraled down, deeper than the basement, deeper than the foundation.
Tara stepped through first.
The others followed without speaking.
-------
The stairs were warm.
They pulsed faintly underfoot, as if they weren't made of stone but something living. There were no lights, only a dull red glow that came from the walls themselves.
Sofi began to cry, but softly, like she didn't want to bother anyone.
Lina held her hand. "Almost there," she whispered, though she had no idea where "there" was.
At the bottom of the stairwell, they reached the room.
It was the inverse of the attic.
Same shape, same size. Same table. Same six chairs.
But it was all black — walls, floor, ceiling, even the table.
And the corners? This room had too many.
The walls jutted in unnatural ways, folding into themselves, like a paper shape bent too many times. Some corners pointed inward. Others vanished altogether. It hurt to look at them.
On the table was another note.
Mina picked it up this time.
"The house is not a place. It is a memory that never lets go. And one of you belongs to it. To leave, the others must let her go. Do not speak her name."
The paper burst into flame in Mina's hands, crumbling before she could drop it.
Tara flinched.
Aria looked at her. "You think it means you?"
Tara shook her head. "I don't know anymore."
The shadows in the corners pulsed.
Sofi stepped closer to Tara. "I don't want to leave you behind."
"You might not have a choice," Tara whispered.
Suddenly, the door behind them slammed shut.
The room went dark.
For thirty seconds, no one moved.
Then someone screamed.
Not from pain — from confusion.
Lina shouted, "Where's the door?!"
Mina's voice was cold and level. "Count off!"
"One!"
"Two!"
"Three!"
"Four!"
"Five!"
Silence.
"Tara?" Sofi whispered.
"I'm here," Tara said, but her voice came from the wrong side of the room.
It echoed unnaturally, like it came through water.
The lights returned.
The chairs were still there.
But Tara wasn't sitting in hers.
She stood in the far corner — or what should've been a corner — alone. Her body slightly blurred, like an image out of focus.
"I didn't move," she said. "I swear."
They all stared.
And then Sofi took a step toward her.
The wall between them stretched.
Not a wall, actually — the space did. Like the room was pulling back from itself, stretching her further away.
"She's not in the room anymore," Reya whispered. "She's somewhere else. But we're still seeing her."
Mina reached forward. "Tara—!"
"Don't speak her name," Aria reminded sharply. "That's what the note said."
Mina pulled her hand back.
Tara was crying now.
"I'm not gone," she said. "Please. Don't leave me."
"We won't," Sofi whispered.
But even as she said it, the space pulled further, and Tara's form flickered once, then twice.
The room shook.
They ran.
Back in Mina's room, no one said much.
Reya curled up in a blanket and stared at her own hands.
Aria paced, muttering to herself.
Lina drew spirals in the air, like she was trying to remember how time moved.
Sofi sat on the floor beside Tara, who was now back — as if nothing had happened.
She looked real.
Felt real.
But the girls didn't trust what their senses told them anymore.
"I'm still me," Tara said softly.
Mina said nothing.
Aria watched her carefully and whispered to Reya, "What if that wasn't her?"