The walls of the tunnel pulsed violently.The flesh under her hands shifted as if alive, reacting to every heartbeat, every breath.
Evelyn staggered forward, lantern trembling, sweat running down her face.Ahead, the tunnel opened into a vast cavern—the true core of the Heart.
It was immense.A writhing mass of flesh, muscle, and shadow.Hundreds of eyes blinked in every direction, mouths opening and closing without sound.Veins like black rivers snaked across the walls and ceiling.And at its center… a single, horrifying form began to emerge.
Not just a shadow.Not just a reflection.Not just a body.
A living amalgamation of everything the Heart had ever consumed.Passengers, crew, victims, even shadowed memories of Evelyn's friends—all fused together in one colossal, writhing body.
It rose slowly, limbs bending at impossible angles.Heads sprouted from shoulders that shouldn't exist.Eyes blinked in the wrong directions, and mouths smiled with teeth too sharp, too many.
And at the center of this mass… the eye of the Heart itself.A single, massive orb, black and reflective, like a void staring back into Evelyn's soul.
The mirror-Evelyn drifted toward the Heart's center, fog swirling around her, merging with the massive mass of flesh.The shadow-Evelyn slithered along the edges, limbs twisting, cracking, forming grotesque shapes that mirrored the Heart's endless limbs.
The Heart pulsed, and Evelyn felt it inside her mind—a memory-consuming, fear-devouring force.It wasn't just alive.It knew her.It remembered every scream she had ever heard. Every whisper she had ever ignored. Every shadow she had ever feared.
And it spoke.Not with words, but inside her mind:
"You… cannot escape. You are what I consume. And what I remember… is all that you are."
Evelyn stumbled, lantern shaking violently.The floor—alive, pulsing—tried to pull her down into the writhing mass.The walls groaned, echoing the whispers of hundreds of trapped souls.
She realized then…
The Heart was every passenger, every shadow, every fear, every reflection combined.It wasn't just a train.It wasn't just a monster.It was a living, remembering world, and she had stepped inside its mind.
The mirror-Evelyn's eyes flared white.The shadow-Evelyn's jaw split impossibly wide.
And together, in unison, they hissed inside her mind:
"And now… it remembers you."
The Heart pulsed violently.The cavern trembled.The air thickened with suffocating heat and the smell of iron, sweat, and decay.
Evelyn gritted her teeth, gripping the lantern until her hands bled.She took a step forward—into the abyss, into the mass, into the Heart itself.
Because she knew…
The Heart wasn't going to stop.It never stopped.And if she didn't face it here,it would consume everything she had ever loved,everything she had ever been,and leave nothing behind.
She was the only spark in an ocean of darkness.
And the Heart…was about to fight for its life.