Silence sat between them like a third presence, heavy and suffocating.
Mattias didn't know what to say, as he just admitted it. His eyes flicked toward Miras, who was grinning again, that same grin that had been there just moments before while watching him get torn apart.
"Just like that, you're admitting it?" Mattias repeated flatly. "If you're joking, you can drop it."
Miras chuckled lowly, spreading his arms in mock innocence. "No, I'm serious this time."
Mattias tilted his head. "You talk too much for someone who could've planned this far."
That actually made Miras pause for half a second, then he laughed, the sound sharp enough to echo across the still air.
"You're quite amusing," Miras said, his grin widening.
Mattias didn't smile. "Alright, say I buy that. What's the catch to this?"
Miras crouched again, eyes glinting gold, as the air began to shift. The darkness around them quivered, taking vague shapes: walls, shadows, echoes of movement in the distance could be heard.
"The catch," Miras said softly, "is that I don't plan to die right now." He looked in the direction of the movements. "And if we both don't get out of here, neither of us will live to dread the next day."
Mattias felt a shiver run down his spine. "You're making this sound like we are really trapped."
"Because we are," Miras said with a grin. "You just don't see it yet, for better or worse."
Mattias frowned while standing up. "I can't see? What is this?"
Miras's grin didn't waver, but his tone changed to a more serious one.
Miras looked straight into Mattias' eyes. "You think death is the worst thing that can happen to you here, don't you? But you will live long enough to come to appreciate death."
The air around them shifted. It wasn't sound, not exactly. It was a step, like something was moving under them.
Mattias glanced around, but that sense of death gripping his heart was lingering. "Miras, what exactly is that?"
Miras, giving a smirk as he looked even more alert now, "That's genuine fear."
A deep, low hum began to rise from them.
Miras's grin faltered for the first time since Mattias met him. "If you value that borrowed existence of yours… on my signal, hold my hand."
Mattias hesitated, staring at him. "You look like a dead man already. Just tell me, what exactly is that thing under us?"
Miras, already running, turned back to Mattias. "Oh, good. You can tell tone. You must want a round of applause for that. Start running now, you fool."
The hum sharpened into a frequency that made Mattias's teeth ache. The ground beneath him started to sink downwards, and suddenly, the air that had felt still and weightless pressed in, heavy, choking.
Mattias felt like he would get crushed inward at this rate.
He could feel it. Whatever was beneath them wasn't something he could even begin imagining.