As he leaned closer to the darkness within the wall, a frosty shudder trembled through his spine. Murat strained his ears, the silence around him seeming almost suffocating. But there was nothing. Perhaps it was merely his mind manufacturing sounds out of anxiety. He was certain he’d heard something, yet there was a growing possibility that he was slowly spiraling into paranoia.

Yet, the sight of the feather close to the gap stirred within him an eerie sense of wonder – could the mysterious vanishing of his chickens be linked to this dark gap? The idea was outlandish, but the evidence did suggest this unlikely connection.

Emboldened by a combination of fear and curiosity, Murat resolved to confront the odd phenomenon head-on. The house, his peaceful refuge for years, now concealed a secret that sparked a sense of dread he’d never known before. Clutching a hammer with determined grip, he steeled himself to tear down the wall hiding the enigmatic gap. He was prepared to expose whatever lay beyond it.