Darkness swallowed the chamber whole.
Not dimness.
Not a power flicker.
A complete, suffocating void—like every trace of light had been erased from existence.
Nora couldn't see her own hands. Couldn't see Rian or Kael. Could only hear their breaths, sharp and panicked.
And the whisper.
A low, broken rasp that slid through the darkness like cold fingers dragging across the floor.
"N…ora…"
She froze. Her heartbeat slammed painfully against her ribs.
Rian grabbed her arm blindly. "Tell me that was you."
"That wasn't me," Nora whispered.
A metallic groan echoed behind them—the sound of something large shifting its weight at the top of the shaft. The shadow-creature. It was coming.
But the whisper… the whisper had come from in front of them. From beyond the sealed door marked LEVEL ZERO.
Two dangers.
Two directions.
No escape.
The emergency lights flickered back to life—weak, red, trembling like they were struggling to stay alive. Enough to see outlines, shadows, and the giant reinforced door towering ahead of them.
Kael's face was pale. "Whatever whispered your name… it's inside that room."
"And whatever's chasing us is right above," Nora said. "We need to choose."
The vent opening shuddered. A long limb slid out, clawed and thin, tapping against the metal like a clock ticking down.
They didn't have time.
Nora slammed her palm against the access panel beside the LEVEL ZERO door. Unexpectedly, the panel lit up green.
Unlocked.
"Why is it open?" Rian asked, voice trembling.
Nora didn't answer. She wasn't sure she wanted to.
The door hissed and slowly parted, releasing a cold wave of air that smelled like old metal and something else—like a storm trapped underground for years.
The whisper came again.
Stronger this time.
"Nor…a."
Kael lifted his weapon. "If anything near that door moves, I shoot."
They stepped inside.
The Black Room
The chamber beyond was enormous and completely empty—no equipment, no machinery, no crates, no lights except the soft glow leaking from the opening behind them. The entire room was painted matte black, absorbing every flicker of red light from the shaft.
Their footsteps echoed unnaturally, stretching longer than they should, as if the sound bounced around corners that weren't there.
"This place isn't on the facility map," Nora murmured.
"It's not supposed to be," Kael said.
Rian pointed to the center of the room. "Wait… something's there."
A pedestal.
Simple.
Metal.
Barely visible until they approached.
On top of it lay a small rectangular device—no bigger than Nora's hand. It looked like an ID chip but older, scratched, dented.
The moment Nora reached out…
The chamber door behind them slammed shut.
Red lights cut off.
Total darkness again.
Rian cursed under his breath. Kael banged the door with his shoulder to no effect. The echo of the impact sounded wrong, swallowing itself instantly.
And then—
A second whisper.
But this one didn't say Nora's name.
It said all their names.
Nora. Kael. Rian.
As if something was standing inches behind each of them.
Nora couldn't breathe. "Don't move."
Rian let out a shaky breath. "I swear something's touching my shoulder."
Kael growled. "I'm going to shoot—"
"NO!" Nora barked. "We can't see what's in here. If you fire blindly, the bullet might—"
She didn't finish.
Because the lights came back on.
Not red this time.
White. Bright. Blinding.
The black room vanished.
They were standing in a hospital hallway.
White walls. Linoleum floors. Flickering fluorescent lights. A faint smell of antiseptic.
Rian staggered back. "What… what is this?"
Kael shook his head violently. "No. No, we didn't move. We didn't go anywhere."
Nora stared down at the floor beneath her feet.
Her shadow wasn't attached to her.
It stood one inch away.
And its head was turned toward her.
She jumped back. The shadow stayed in place for a beat… then slowly followed.
Rian gasped. "Look!"
All their shadows were wrong—detached slightly, lagging by fractions of seconds, moving just a little too late.
Kael's voice cracked. "We're not in a hospital. This place is inside that room. The room is showing us something."
"Or someone is," Nora whispered.
A gurney rolled silently down the hall toward them. No one pushed it.
The sheet covering the body on top began to rise.
Nora grabbed Kael's arm. "Back away. Now."
The sheet twitched, then whipped off.
There was no body.
Just three objects lined neatly where a body should be:
• A metal bracelet with an ID number scratched off
• A broken wristwatch, hands spinning backward
• A photograph—burnt around the edges
Nora picked it up.
It was her.
Standing in a forest.
A forest she didn't recognize.
Kael swallowed. "How is that even possible?"
Rian pointed down the hallway, voice breaking. "Because this place… it knows us."
At the far end of the hall, a door cracked open on its own.
A face peered out.
Not monstrous.
Not twisted.
Perfectly human.
But it was Nora's face.
Only older. Exhausted. Eyes hollow.
The identical figure stared at her… then mouthed a single word:
"Run."
The hospital illusion shattered.
White walls dissolved. Floor melted back into metal. Lights flickered and died. The black chamber returned—silent, massive, freezing.
The pedestal device beeped once.
The real Nora stumbled back, gasping.
Kael grabbed her shoulders. "What did you see?"
"The future," she whispered. "Or a warning."
The room began shaking.
A low growl rolled through the floor.
The sealed door behind them split open from the other side.
Shadow poured in.
Not one creature.
Many.
Dozens.
Their limbs crawling over the metal like spiders made of darkness.
Rian raised his weapon with trembling hands. "We're dead. We're actually dead."
Nora gripped the device from the pedestal, clutching it tightly. Something inside it pulsed warm.
"We're not dying," she said. "Not today."
Kael turned to her. "Then what's the plan?"
Nora inhaled slowly, eyes narrowing.
"We open the next door."
The shadows surged forward—
And the floor beneath their feet dropped away.
[To be continued...]