The children stood silently behind Ammini.
Boys.
Girls.
Different ages.
All soaked in water.
All staring at Narayanan.
Some held broken toys.
One little girl clutched a cloth doll missing an eye.
Another boy had deep rope marks around his neck.
None of them blinked.
Narayanan began screaming uncontrollably.
“No… no… stay away from me!”
Ammini remained calm.
Almost gentle.
“You promised them safety,” she whispered.
The old man shook violently against the chains.
“I gave you everything!”
“You gave me hungry souls.”
Her voice changed suddenly.
Deeper.
Ancient.
The room darkened unnaturally around her.
Even Madhavi stepped backward.
The children slowly entered the room together.
Tiny wet footsteps echoed across the wooden floor.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Meenu buried her face against Devika’s shoulder, trembling.
“They’re sad…” she whispered.
One little boy stopped before Narayanan.
Arjun noticed half his skull was crushed inward.
The child tilted his head slowly.
“Why did you lock us down there?”
Narayanan broke completely.
“I didn’t kill you!”
The children spoke together now.
One voice.
Cold.
“You fed us to the water.”
The walls began shaking violently again.
Wood cracked.
Glass shattered.
Outside, thunder roared across the backwaters.
Arjun turned toward Ammini desperately.
“What are you?”
For the first time, sadness crossed her face.
“I was human once.”
The room fell silent.
Even the spirits stopped moving.
Ammini looked toward the rain outside.
“Long ago, during another flood, this village drowned my child.”
Her voice trembled slightly.
“I searched the waters for days.”
Behind her, the children watched silently.
“When grief consumed me… something answered from beneath the backwaters.”
The lamps reignited one by one.
Blue flames.
Not normal fire.
“It promised my son would never be alone again.”
Arjun’s blood turned cold.
“You made a deal…”
Ammini smiled faintly.
“A lonely mother will accept any darkness.”
Madhavi screamed suddenly—
“You stole innocent children!”
The spirits around the room cried loudly together.
Ammini looked broken now.
“I never touched them.”
Every eye turned toward Narayanan.
The old man started laughing weakly.
Mad laughter.
“She needed children to stay alive,” he whispered.
“So I gave them.”
Devika gasped in horror.
Narayanan looked proudly at Arjun.
“I protected this family!”
Madhavi lunged at him instantly.
The chains snapped violently.
Narayanan fell screaming onto the floor.
Ghostly hands burst upward from beneath the wooden planks.
Children pulling him downward.
Dragging him slowly toward the floor itself.
“No! NO!”
His fingers clawed desperately at the wood.
Arjun instinctively tried helping him.
But Meenu screamed loudly—
“Achaa, don’t touch him!”
Too late.
Narayanan grabbed Arjun’s wrist tightly.
And suddenly Arjun saw everything.
Children crying underground.
Narayanan locking doors.
Madhavi screaming.
Ammini standing near the water holding baby Arjun protectively.
And beneath the backwaters—
Something enormous opening its eyes.
Arjun jerked away in terror.
Narayanan’s body sank halfway into the floorboards now.
The children surrounded him silently.
Then Ammini looked directly at Arjun and whispered—
“It has awakened.”