Julia is pulled into a secret meeting in an abandoned villa, where a box, a storm, and a series of confessions force her to face what she has never said out loud.
Rain hammered the gutters of the old house on South Street so hard it sounded like something trying to get in. Julia hesitated on the threshold, one hand still on the warped front door, the smell of damp wood and dust pressing out to meet her. The villa had been empty for years, the kind of place people crossed the street to avoid. Maks had chosen it anyway.
Inside, four torches threw pale, restless light across the sitting room. Maks was waiting with Lena, who looked like she wanted to disappear into the floorboards, and Bartek and Maja, huddled on a threadbare carpet in a rough circle. Lightning flashed through the broken blinds, turning their faces sharp for a second, then strange again.
Maks looked up when he saw her. 'You made it.'
Julia stepped closer, trying not to show how uneasy she felt. She was new to this group, new to whatever had brought them here, but the air between them was thick with things unsaid. Not friendship, exactly. Not yet. Something tighter.
Maks reached into his backpack and drew out a small box wrapped in black tape, careful as if it might break in his hands. 'We each say one thing first,' he said. 'The thing we're most afraid of. The thing we've never told anyone. Then we open this.'
No one laughed. Bartek, usually so loud at school, stared at the window. Maja rubbed her palms against her jeans. Lena kept her gaze fixed on the carpet, breathing too fast. Julia felt the words catch in her throat before she had even opened her mouth.
Outside, the storm deepened. The house creaked around them, every sound sharpened by the rain. One by one, the confessions came, raw and halting, each one landing harder than the last. Julia listened, feeling her own secret inch closer to the surface, too dangerous to keep buried much longer.
Then, just as it was her turn, every light in the house went out.
Darkness swallowed the room. Someone gasped. Thunder cracked overhead so close it seemed to split the walls apart. And from somewhere down the corridor came a soft, deliberate rustle, like something moving in the dark with purpose.
The box in the centre of the circle shifted against the carpet.