The sound ripped through the corridors, raw and filled with terror.


    Sienna Vale was the first to move. Her instincts screamed at her to run, but something inside held her still. Instead, she scanned the others, heart racing. Kai, Ezra, Nova, Jace, Aria—each one looked just as shaken, just as lost.


    “We need to move,” she said, her voice surprisingly steady. “We stay here, we die.”


    Ezra clenched his fists. “And go where? Into that?” He gestured at the dark corridors, lined with flickering lights and shifting walls.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    “We don’t have a choice,” Nova said, her gaze flickering with something—recognition? No, impossible. “This place isn’t stable.”


    A deep, reverberating boom shook the ground.


    Then a voice, different this time. Human. Desperate.


    “Please! Someone, help me!”


    Aria’s breath hitched. “Someone else is here.”


    Jace took a step back. “Or something.”


    The words hung between them like a noose. Then, without warning, the lights surged bright white, illuminating the hallway ahead.


    A figure stood there. Bloody. Barely human.


    Its mouth twisted open, and it charged.