Rain splattered the motel windows like a warning. The four remaining survivors—Isabel, Valeria, Kai, and Cody—sat in silence around a flickering lamp. The air smelled of stale takeout and nervous sweat.
Valeria held her phone tightly, thumb hovering above the number on the screen.
"She was the only one who survived… right?" she whispered.
Kai nodded, eyes on the TV playing the news in the background—Pier Seven Rebuilt: Grand Reopening Ends in Tragedy.
"If anyone knows what's happening," he said, "it's Eva."
Isabel leaned forward. "Then what are we waiting for? Call her."
Valeria hit the dial icon.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
The line clicked.
"Hello?" The voice on the other end was rough, wary.
"Eva?" Valeria breathed. "It's Valeria—Pier Seven, the new one. We need your help."
There was a long pause. The kind that made everyone hold their breath.
"I told them not to rebuild it," Eva said. "I told them it was cursed. Death has a design."
Cody stood up. "What do you mean design? Are we part of it?"
"You escaped," Eva replied. "Just like we did. And now it's coming for you."
"But we're following the order!" Isabel said quickly. "Trey, Brooke, Nia, Omar—they all died just like you described."
"You don't understand." Eva's voice cracked. "There were more. In my vision, I only saw a few—but the list… it was longer. We didn't even know until it was too late."
Kai looked at the others. "Then what do we do?"
"Don't trust anything," Eva warned. "Death doesn't wait. It twists the world around you. It… it makes accidents look like fate."
Valeria began to shake. "Can you come? Please. We don't know how to stop this."
"I'm not coming out there," Eva snapped. "I locked myself in for a reason. I've been safe. I've stayed alive."
"But we're dying out here!" Cody shouted. "We're all going to die!"
Another long pause.
"I'll think about it," Eva finally said, her voice distant. "If I come, it won't be to save you. It'll be to end this."
Click.
The call dropped.
Silence hung like fog in the room.
"…That didn't feel like hope," Isabel whispered.
Kai looked at the phone in Valeria's hand. "No. That sounded like someone who's already seen the end."
The End of Chapter 24