Part I: The Return to Bhangarh. The Forbidden Haunts: A Dare into the Darkness – Paranormal Adventure Thriller | Chapter 1: Unraveling the Mystery of Rajasthan’s Bhangarh Fort | The Best Thriller Novel

The night was a breathing, shifting monster that swallowed them whole. The taxi’s headlights cut through the darkness like twin blades, but the road to Bhangarh was still drowned in shadows. Trees loomed on either side, their twisted limbs clawing at the sky. The wind carried a whisper, something just beneath the surface of hearing. A word? A name? Alan didn’t know, and he didn’t want to.

Adib broke the silence.

Adib (voice tight, like a rubber band ready to snap): “This is stupid. This is beyond stupid. We barely got out alive, and now we’re heading back? Are we brain-dead? Did we all suffer concussions back there?”

Alan didn't answer. He sat by the window, his fingers twitching on his knee. The Tantrik’s words still played on a loop in his head: You must finish what you started. Or she will never let you go.

Ava turned to him.

Ava (soft, but firm): “Alan, say something. Please.”

He finally looked at her. The glow from the dashboard turned her face into a chiaroscuro painting—half-lit, half-swallowed by the dark.

Alan (low, distant): “We have no choice.”

Adib let out a sharp laugh.

Adib: “Oh yeah? ‘Cause I distinctly remember having the choice to NOT go back to the demon-infested hellhole. The ghost chick tried to carve Ava like a Thanksgiving turkey. And you slapped a ghost, Alan. You SLAPPED a ghost.”

Alan exhaled through his nose. Yeah. He had. And she had smiled at him—grinning like she had all the time in the world to rip his soul apart.

The driver cleared his throat. An older man, leathery-skinned, with the kind of face that had seen things it didn’t want to talk about.

Driver: “You all sure about this?”

Alan nodded. “Yeah.”

The driver sighed, gripping the wheel tighter. “I’ve been driving these roads for twenty years. You know how many people I’ve taken near Bhangarh at night?”

Nobody answered.

Driver (grimly): “None.”

Ava shivered. Alan glanced at her, but she quickly looked away.

Driver: “That fort… It doesn’t let go of people easy. And when it does, they don’t come back the same.”

Alan stared out at the road. He wasn’t sure they had come back the same the first time.

The taxi rolled to a stop near the same battered path they had taken before. The fort loomed ahead, hunched against the black sky, as if it had been waiting for them.

Alan stepped out first. The air was wrong—thicker, heavier. Something curled in his lungs, pressing against his ribs.

Ava hesitated, gripping the car door like it was the last thing tethering her to the world.

Ava (whispering): “I don’t want to do this.”

Alan turned to her, his expression unreadable. “Neither do I.”

But they had to. Because somewhere, deep inside those cursed ruins, the ghost woman was waiting.

They moved forward. The Tantrik’s protective paste was still smeared on their skin, though Alan wasn’t sure how much protection it offered. A part of him felt like a walking target, as if the moment he crossed the threshold, something would pounce.

The entrance was just as they had left it—except for one thing.

The boundary wall was fixed.

Adib stopped so fast that Alan nearly bumped into him.

Adib: “Nope. No. That’s not right.”

Ava (breathless, wide-eyed): “We… we saw it break.”

Alan stepped closer, running his hand over the stone. It was solid as if it had never crumbled in the first place.

A slow, bone-deep chill crawled up his spine.

Alan (muttering): “She knows we’re here.”

Ava let out a shaky breath. “Let’s just get this over with.”

They slipped inside, their footsteps too loud on the ancient ground. The fort’s corridors seemed narrower, the walls pressing in on them. Every sound—the whisper of wind, the creak of stone—felt like breathing.

Then, somewhere deep within the ruins, a voice echoed.

Ghost Woman (sing-song, eerie): “You came back… you shouldn’t have.”

The torches they carried flickered violently. Shadows danced along the walls. Alan felt ice drip down his spine.

Ava grabbed his arm. Hard.

Ava (whispering, terrified): “Alan… what if we’re walking into a trap?”

Alan swallowed.

Alan (steady, but barely): “Then we fight our way out.”

A sudden gust of wind roared through the fort, slamming against them like invisible hands. The torches snuffed out, plunging them into suffocating darkness.

Adib (panicked, voice sharp): “SHIT! What was that?!”

Alan’s heart hammered in his chest.

Then, out of the blackness, came the soft, deliberate sound of footsteps.

Coming closer.

And closer.

Ava squeezed Alan’s hand.

Ava (whispering, shaking): “Alan… she’s here.”

The shadows shifted.

And something stepped forward.

To Be Continued…

Part H: The Tantrik’s Warning - https://storylinespectrum.blogspot.com/2025/03/part-h-tantriks-warning-forbidden.html

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