The tunnels stretched ahead like a throat, breathing in rhythm with the pulse beneath my skin. Every drip of water echoed too loud, every vibration felt alive. The light that had burst from me still shimmered faintly across the walls, running in thin veins through the rock like blood under skin.
Another howl rolled through the dark.
It wasn't Mason.
It was older. Hungrier.
I followed it.
Each step sent blue sparks from my boots. The stone responded, almost aware of me now. My reflection flashed in the puddles I passed: eyes glowing, veins lit like threads of lightning. The System whispered at the edge of hearing, less mechanical now, more… instinct.
System Notice:
Something is ahead.
Feels familiar.
The air thickened with heat and the smell of rusted metal. When I reached the next chamber, the ceiling opened high above, a cathedral of stone and glowing lines. Symbols carved into the walls mirrored the marks on my artifact. My fingertips tingled just looking at them.
"Show me what you are," I muttered.
The hum deepened.
System Notice:
You're connected to this place.
Blood match confirmed.
Blood.
Connection.
It made no sense, yet every word felt right inside my chest.
Somewhere behind me, faint footsteps approached.
———————————————————
Clara
Her flashlight beam trembled through the dust. The collapse had split the tunnels; she'd clawed through a break in the wall to find him. Every instinct told her to call out, but the light from ahead,his light, froze her in place.
He wasn't just Terry anymore.
She forced herself to keep moving, clutching the cracked datapad she'd found buried under the wreckage of Vargas's command tent. Its screen still flickered.
PROJECT RECORD 47-B: SUBJECT HALE, T.
Artifact sync: 92%
Keep watch until Phase Two.
Extraction: optional.
Her stomach turned. Optional.
Another file loaded automatically:
Agent Clara Wynn – Field Oversight Authorization.
"Stay close to the subject. Do not reveal mission orders."
Her name. Her face. Her betrayal in black and white.
She shut the device off, pressing it against her chest. The sound of her own heartbeat felt deafening. After everything he'd done; saving Mason and shielding her from the collapse. How could she ever face him?
————————————————————
Back to Terry
The walls around me pulsed brighter. The light formed patterns; lines converging toward the chamber's center where a stone pillar jutted from the ground. Something moved inside it, shadow shifting under the crystal.
The howl returned, closer now, reverberating inside my bones.
System Alert:
It's waking up.
You are part of it.
"Part of it?" I whispered. "Of what?"
"Of you," a voice said behind me.
Clara stepped into the light. Dust covered her, blood on her sleeve. Her flashlight wavered over the carvings and then to me. Her eyes widened, half in awe, half in fear.
"Terry… what have you done?"
I looked down at my hands. Blue light still poured from them like smoke. "I think I found out what I am."
She hesitated. "You shouldn't touch anything else down here."
"I already did."
For a heartbeat, silence. Then the pillar cracked, splitting along the same lines that glowed across my arms. A low rumble shook the floor.
I turned toward it, instinct flaring, ready to face whatever came next.
The pillar split fully open, and a wave of heat rolled through the cavern. From within came shapes; bones of creatures I didn't recognize, half-formed and flickering with the same light that ran through me. They weren't solid, not yet, like memories clawing their way into the present.
The hum turned into a voice. Deep. Wordless. Felt more than heard.
System Notice:
The link's growing stronger.
Hold steady.
I could barely breathe. The same power that had torn through me before now pulled at everything around us: stone, water, light; bending them toward the opening in the center of the room.
I stepped forward. I couldn't stop myself.
"Terry!" Clara's voice broke through, desperate. "Don't go near it!"
I stopped, but not because she told me to. I stopped because I recognized what I was feeling.
The presence inside that light wasn't just familiar. It actually knew me.
The hum synced with my heartbeat.
The light brightened as if answering a call.
I wasn't afraid of it. I was afraid of how right it felt.
Her tone hit like a spark in the dark. She wasn't just afraid of what was happening; she was afraid of me. And I could tell she knew more than she should.
Behind me, Clara took a slow step closer.
"Back in the tunnels," she said quietly, "you were talking to it. To the system."
I turned slightly, the light catching her face. "You heard that?"
"You weren't exactly whispering."
Her tone wasn't accusing, more… frightened. Like she'd finally admitted to seeing something she'd been trying to ignore.
"It's not really a voice," I said, eyes fixed on the glow ahead. "It's something else."
"Then why is it calling you?"
"Because," I said, feeling the words rise on their own, "it remembers me."
———————————————————-
Clara
The words didn't sound human when he said them.
They vibrated through the air, low and heavy, like the walls themselves were listening.
I wanted to ask him what that meant. Who was remembering him, but the light from the cracked pillar made it hard to think. It wasn't just light. It moved, pulsing in time with the rhythm of his heartbeat.
He stepped closer, and for a moment, I couldn't tell where his glow ended and the cavern's began.
My pulse hammered. The datapad in my hand felt like poison. His name: Subject Hale, Terrance still burned in my mind. The file had said this might happen.
It had warned about "Phase Two manifestation."
Containment protocol. Extraction optional.
Optional.
Like his life was a checkbox to tick or delete.
He didn't know.
And standing here, watching that thing inside the pillar stir because of him, I wasn't sure I wanted him to.
The chamber floor began to tremble. Dust fell from the ceiling in soft, steady trails. The glowing veins running through the walls all converged on the pillar. The cracks widened, light spilling out in blue-white rivers.
"Terry, we need to go," I said, though my voice barely carried over the rising hum.
He didn't look back.
There was something in his stance, calm, unyielding. Like he'd stopped fighting whatever he was becoming.
The air grew hotter. My ears popped as pressure built, and a low sound rose from the pillar. A sound that wasn't quite a roar, not quite a voice.
It was answering him.