Evelyn stood at the edge of the cavern, lantern flickering weakly.The Heart loomed before her—a colossal, writhing mass of flesh, shadow, and memories, pulsing in rhythm with its monstrous, omnipresent heartbeat.
The mirror-Evelyn floated ahead, fog swirling, eyes glowing.The shadow-Evelyn slithered along the cavern walls, limbs twisting like broken puppets, waiting.
The Heart's voice thundered inside her mind—not words, but feelings, visions, memories colliding like fire and ice:
"I remember you. Every fear. Every regret. Every hidden thought. Every scream. You are mine."
Evelyn's pulse raced.Her lantern flickered violently, struggling against the darkness.
From the mass of flesh, hundreds of faces swiveled toward her.Eyes that had once been human now stared empty and endless, mouths whispering words she didn't remember hearing.
Her chest tightened.Her heartbeat raced—every thud matched the Heart's rhythm, feeding it, synchronizing with it.
The shadow-Evelyn hissed from the ceiling:"You cannot run. You are part of it."
The mirror-Evelyn's voice echoed in her skull:"And the Heart remembers… everything. Even you."
Evelyn gritted her teeth.She raised the lantern high. Its light flared—pushing back the shadows slightly, carving a small bubble of clarity in the writhing darkness.
The Heart pulsed violently.The cavern walls shifted.Limbs of flesh lunged for her.The floor trembled, trying to pull her down into its living mass.
She ran.
Through tunnels of pulsing, twisting flesh.Past faces screaming silently, mouths opening wider than possible.Through walls that bent around her, trying to trap her.
Her lantern's flame pulsed with her heartbeat.Faster. Faster.The Heart felt it.It reacted.
From the mirrored eyes of the Heart's mass, Evelyn saw visions—herself failing, screaming, trapped.The shadow-Evelyn lunged at her from above, snapping its jaw, jerking like a marionette on broken strings.The mirror-Evelyn drifted in front of her, fog swirling, hands reaching, twisting, distorting the tunnel ahead.
Evelyn stumbled.The voices of the consumed screamed in her mind:"You are ours… you belong to it…"
She gritted her teeth, forcing herself to breathe.She lifted the lantern, and for the first time…The Heart recoiled slightly.
The light didn't hurt it.It didn't burn it.
It acknowledged her.
And that was enough.
Her pulse slowed—slightly.The walls quivered.The whispering faces faltered.
Evelyn knew the truth:
The Heart could feed on fear.On memories.On despair.
But her mind was still her own—barely.
And if she could just hold on long enough, just focus her fear into control, she might… just might survive this layer.
The Heart pulsed, louder.The cavern stretched impossibly.The mirror-Evelyn's eyes flared.The shadow-Evelyn's jaw split wide.
And Evelyn ran deeper.
Into the Heart's mind.Into the belly of the train.Into the nightmare itself.
Because the fight had just begun.