## **Chapter 7 - Bloodline**

 

The next day, no one spoke of what had happened in the apartment. Not because they wanted to ignore it, but because any word they uttered could make it seem more real. And everyone hoped – secretly – that the whispering in the night was just another "episode," not the beginning of a nightmare.

Zofia returned to the archives, this time not to search for the city's history, but for the history of… herself.

Marta arrived an hour later and placed an old birth registry from the 1930s in front of her.

"Look at this. I found lists of families who lived in Skalin at the time of my last awakening."

Zofia ran her finger over the yellowing names.

Most meant nothing to her. Until finally…

She stopped.

Her heart skipped a beat.

"The Zamelskis…" she whispered.

Marta looked at her.

"Do you know that name?"

Zofia swallowed.

"That's my great-grandmother's name."

Marta wordlessly handed her more documents—to a prepared person, they might have been just sheets of paper, but to Zofia, they were like death sentences.

"Your great-grandmother was one of the missing persons in the 1930s."

Zofia sat still.

As if someone had robbed her of the ability to move.

Klara, who had just arrived, froze in the doorway.

"Zofia... that means that..."

"That I'm not an accident," Zofia said calmly, though panic was evident in her eyes.

"What else did you find?" asked Lena, who arrived a moment later.

Marta opened another notebook.

"The Circle of the Awakened wasn't a group of scientists or mad occultists. They were... guardians. They passed down the knowledge of the 'power of the city' from generation to generation."

"But what... was this 'power' supposed to do?" asked Łukasz.

Marta looked at everyone seriously.

"Awaken. Pass. Teach them to speak."

Piotr narrowed his eyes.

"Speak?"

Marta nodded.

"The city was supposed to gain a voice. And consciousness."

Klara sat up.

"If they wanted Skalin to be alive..."

Zofia finished for her:

"Now it's starting to come alive."

Lena placed a hand on her shoulder:

"But you don't have to be part of this."

Zofia looked up at her.

"I have no choice."

Then the phone rang.

Piotr answered.

After a moment, he paled.

"Another death."

Marta whispered:

"Where this time?"

"Where your great-grandmother's house was, Zofia."

Silence fell.

Heavy. Uncomfortable.

As if all the air in the room had frozen.

Zofia took a deep breath.

—Let's go.

And for once, it wasn't about another case.

It was about her.

About her family.

About her past, which was waking up along with the city.

Or maybe the city was waking her up.

---

### If you want another chapter:

text **“Next”**

➡️ Chapter 8: **“Ancestral Home”** — In the abandoned place where Zofia's family once lived, symbols inscribed on them await… and they react to her presence.