2|| Whispers in the Wind

2|| a month earlier

Kalyani

"YES!" a voice yelled from Kalyani's parents' study. She groaned and sat up from her slouch. Math homework was getting harder day by day. Which was depressing, considering she'd never gotten a grade below an A in her life. She figured the shout couldn't be from Aria, because Aria was banned from the study.

Thankfully, the door to the study was just across from her room, so Kalyani took a short hike, knocking. "Mom? Dad? What happened?"

Her mother opened the door. Although her hair was messy and she had bags under her eyes, her gray-blue irises were shining with excitement. "Tell your sister she's allowed in just this once- not that we need this place anymore..."

Not sure what she was getting at, Kalyani grabbed a mask from their usual supply hanging from the doors, put it on, and headed for Aria's room. The reason for this was simple: Aria's room could take people from zero to OCD from either state of condition or state of smell. Kalyani stopped in front and opened the door without knocking.

Just as usual, Aria lay sprawled on the bed with her phone, disregarding the sandwich lying near her or the belongings scattered across the floor. "Aria, mom and dad want to see you in their study," Kalyani said.

She looked up from her phone. "Oh hey Kaly. Can't it wait, I'm doing something important!"

Kalyani snorted. "Wattpad is less important than an important family discussion, especially when you have an account without permission."

"But I'm starting a story based on our liiives. Maybe you could help?"

Just to keep her sister happy, Kalyani reluctantly agreed. "Now c'mon."

By the time they had arrived, their parents were impatiently waiting. Mom beamed at the sight of them and practically pushed the girls into the room.

She looked slightly awkward. "So, I haven't told you girls yet, but your father and I have gotten an opportunity for a bigger house. Today the letter arrived, saying we had the highest bid and we could move in! Well, we were the only bid..."

Kalyani knitted her brows. The aspect of a new home appealed to her, but she wanted to see Aria's reaction.

Aria looked interested as well. "But it's in this neighborhood, right?"

Mom looked slightly more nervous. "Well... no."

This statement was met with two vastly different reactions. Kalyani excitedly started questioning her about the place, its name, the residents who lived there, and what it was like, while Aria's smile faded completely.

"Well, the place is called Fir Hills, and its not exactly a town. It's actually much smaller."

Kalyani's grin faded as well. "Wait, but I've never heard of it. We've lived her for ten years, and I know all the places in Pennsylvania by heart."

Dad, who was silent until now, shrugged and responded, "Well, you learn something new every day!"

This disturbed her far more then she'd liked to admit. Fir Hills seemed like a real town, but it still sounded completely wrong.

Aria had been a ticking bomb. "But you can't! My whole life is here! I can't just throw everything away and move to some random place in the deep dark woods! You should have talked to us and explained! This is ridiculous."

Raising voices at the parents was not tolerated at all in the Chopra house. Compared to some of Kalyani's friends, who always argued with their parents, the twins had it way hard.

"ENOUGH! Not one more word from either of you. The move is in three weeks- buck up and deal with it. And get packing." Mom folded her arms, the sign of her final stand.

--------------------

Back at her room, Kalyani opened up a new tab on her laptop. She typed in: Fir Hills, PA. There was Fair Hills, and Hill Farm, but no Fir Hills. She tried a couple more keywords, but nothing was working. Frustrated, she slammed the lid down.

The textbooks she had from school wouldn't help much either. They only talked about the history of Pennsylvania.

There was one final option, however. Kalyani knew it was shattering one of the family rules into pieces, but she had to try. So, she reopened her laptop and opened the browser that led to the dark web. She had done it once and regretted it horribly. Doing it again would probably lead to a severe stomachache for lying, but Kalyani probably deserved it.

Packing would be easy for her, since she had the rest of the night. So, she searched up: Fir Hills, PA, and hoped for the best.

The first result itself had a chain discussing it. The contents chilled Kalyani to the core.

Apparently it was a real town where people lived, but people said terrible things happened. Sooner or later, people died. Basically, it was a place nobody could come back from alive. What was worse, there was a user supposedly experiencing these things who lived there. One day, they just stopped chatting, and it was right after they confessed.

She regretted opening this up at bedtime. Now she was terrified, and at the age of sixteen, would get no sympathy from her parents.

To take her mind off of things, she settled on her bed and tried to open discord on chrome,  but google chrome refused to open. She kept on clicking, it kept on buzzing. Thirteen clicks later, it gave a loud buzz.

A hideous, ragged, bleeding face popped up, and whispered. "Don't go..."

Kalyani screamed and shot up in her bed. She checked the alarm clock. It read 10:30 PM. Her laptop lay on her desk. So the face hadn't been real. Maybe none of it had!

With infinite caution, she tipped back the lid. All the proof of her going on the dark web was no longer there. So it had been fake! She was alright.

Dealing with Aria was fine. It would be fun to move to Fir Hills. And if there really were Fir trees, they would be so pretty in the winter! Kalyani convinced herself after a few more sharp, ragged breaths. This house itself was creepy. Mom and Dad were right to let them move.

Besides, after ten years, you would want a change.

And with that, Kalyani forced herself to never think of that moment again. Convinced herself that it had all been a nightmare.

But even as they loaded the boxes into the U-Haul three weeks later, somewhere deep down, she knew what she had convinced herself had been a lie.