​A NOD TO DANGEROUS MOUNTAIN CH 4

The hunt for furniture turned out to be a dead end. Every shop we visited either carried pieces far beyond our tight budget or offered water-damaged timber that wouldn't survive a single season in the damp hills. With the sky turning a bruised, heavy grey and a violent mountain downpour beginning to lash against the i20's windshield, we had no choice but to call it quits and head back. We would have to try again tomorrow.
By the time we pulled up to the bungalow, the rain was coming down in sheets, blurring the edges of the estate into a wall of gray mist.
Inside, the house felt colder, heavier. After washing up and changing into dry clothes, I sat down on the living room sofa, the bone-deep exhaustion from the drive weighing heavily on my limbs. Maya sat right beside me.
 At first, I didn't think much of it. But then, a low, mesmerizing tune began to drift from her lips. It wasn't a children's nursery rhyme, nor anything I had ever heard before. It was a strange, ancient melody that seemed to vibrate right through the floorboards. The rhythm of her voice, matched with the relentless drumming of the rain outside, acted like a drug. My eyelids grew impossibly heavy, my thoughts dissolved into static, and despite every instinct warning me to stay awake, I slipped into a dark, dead sleep.
When I finally woke up, the room was pitch black. The rain had stopped, leaving an unnatural, suffocating silence in its place.
I sat up, rubbing my eyes. Across the room, illuminated only by the pale moonlight cutting through the window, sat Gauri.
She was frozen on the edge of the chair, staring into the dark corner of the room. Her face was entirely drained of color, her eyes wide with a deep, frozen terror.
"Gauri?" I asked, my voice cracking in the quiet. "What's wrong? Why do you look so scared?"
She didn't move. She didn't even blink.
She said nothing at all.