Run: 2026-02-25-01KJ95QKJ8EXJJ311YA49MGXK0

The aroma of freshly ground coffee usually offered a comforting blanket in Alborn’s modest cafe, but for Selvi, today it did little to soothe the tremor running through her hands. She was tracing the edge of a photograph on her camera’s screen, a shot taken hastily in the near-darkness of the previous night. Blackwood Forest loomed in the background, and a dark, nondescript van was captured with unnerving clarity, parked just off the barely-there track, its engine ominously silent. She replayed the low, guttural sounds she’d heard, the frantic, muffled cries that had sent her heart leaping into her throat. Her fingers tightened on the cool metal of her camera. A shadow fell over her small table, startling her. Her head snapped up, camera instinctively clutched closer. A man stood there, imposing and solid, his gaze sharp and direct. He was Detective Hunter, she guessed from the understated authority he radiated. “Excuse me,” Hunter began, his voice a low, no-nonsense rumble. “I’m Detective Hunter. I’m investigating a few… unsettling incidents around town. Did you happen to see or hear anything unusual last night?” Selvi’s eyes widened, her breath catching. His words were a blur, but ‘detective’ and ‘unusual’ registered. What registered more strongly was the panic that surged from the memory of what she had witnessed. She pointed a trembling finger at the image on her camera's screen. <callback> Selvi: "Oh, bhagwan. Main… main dekha. Kal raat. Wahan… woh gaadi. Kuchh awazein thi. Daravni." (Oh, God. I... I saw. Last night. There... that vehicle. There were some sounds. Scary.) Hunter: "See? Anything? Last night? This Van? People? Gone?" Selvi: "Nahi! Nahi! Woh log… woh andar the! Aur woh awaaz! Meri jaan nikalti thi!" (No! No! Those people... they were inside! And that sound! I was terrified!) Hunter: "Look, I have to go. If you can find *anyone* who speaks English... or if you can write down what you saw... please. This is my card. Find help." </callback>