The world shattered into gold.
Light flooded every crack of the chapel, spilling over broken pews and fractured stone like a rising tide. Dust glittered in the glow as if time itself had been torn open revealing a brightness buried too long beneath the earth.
Lucas refused to release Elizabeth.
Even as her feet lifted another inch from the ground.
Even as something unseen coiled gently around her waist like a trembling hand.
Even as the ancient whisper echoed through the light
Elizabeth…
Come see.
"No!" Lucas shouted, pulling her toward him with everything he had. "YOU'RE NOT TAKING HER!"
But the light didn't wrench her away.
It simply held her.
As if recognizing her shape.
As if memorizing her heartbeat.
As if it had waited ages for someone who could finally hear its grief.
Elizabeth's fingers dug into Lucas's arms, clinging to him as the glow swelled around her. Her breath trembled, her eyes flooding with fear and awe.
"Lucas don't let go.."
"I won't!" His voice cracked. "I won't!"
The chapel groaned around them, the walls bending inward from the pressure of the rising force. Behind them, Elise shielded the children with her body, praying under her breath even as tears streaked her dusty face.
Another pulse shuddered up from the fissure.
The light brightened then dimmed
then brightened again, like a desperate heartbeat fighting to stay alive.
Elizabeth gasped, clutching her chest with her free hand.
"Lucas… it's calling again."
"Don't answer."
"I'm not."
Her voice quivered.
"It's answering me."
He stiffened.
"What are you talking about?"
She shook her head, tears falling.
"I can feel it following my breath. Every inhale… every exhale… it responds."
The glow trembled as if in agreement.
Lucas pulled her closer, refusing to give the presence even a centimeter more.
"You don't belong to it," he said fiercely. "You're not its bridge. You're not its path."
But her eyes wide, terrified betrayed a truth she didn't want to say.
"I think I am."
The fissure pulsed again.
This time the blast of light flared high enough to touch the ceiling, scorching patterns of gold across the cracked beams. Dust fell in thick sheets, drowning the air.
Elizabeth's feet rose another inch.
Lucas fought, muscles burning, refusing to yield to the glowing force.
"Lucas Lucas it's pulling.."
"It's not pulling. I'm holding you. You're safe."
"No listen.." Her voice broke. "It's not pulling my body. It's pulling my breath."
He froze.
"What?"
The glow around her brightened each pulse aligning unnervingly with the rhythm of her inhalations. When she breathed in, the light swelled. When she exhaled, it dimmed.
She wasn't being lifted physically.
She was being lifted because her breath was being mirrored.
Synced.
Claimed.
Elizabeth choked on a sob.
"Lucas… it's learning how to breathe through me."
A violent tremor tore through the chapel.
Pillars cracked.
The altar split completely in half.
Survivors screamed.
The fissure widened further, and the glowing force surged upward in a shimmering column no longer thin, no longer just light. It moved with purpose. With longing.
With memory.
Elizabeth pressed her forehead to Lucas's shoulder, shaking.
"I see it," she whispered. "Lucas I see what it was."
He clutched her tighter.
"Stop looking. Don't let it inside."
But she couldn't help it.
The light flickered, and images burst behind her eyes blinding, vast, ancient:
A cavern of impossible size.
Pillars taller than towers.
Walls carved with swirling patterns that glowed like dying embers.
A ceiling that once shimmered like stars now collapsed into rubble.
Light descending from cracks like waterfalls.
And beneath it all.
A presence.
Not a monster.
Not a creature.
A consciousness.
Buried alive by the weight of ages.
It reached upward through broken earth, pressing its sorrow into trembling stone.
It called.
It begged.
It suffered.
Elizabeth sobbed against Lucas.
"It was trapped. Lucas it wasn't meant to sleep beneath the city. It wasn't meant to be caged."
"That doesn't mean you have to free it!" he cried.
Another pulse surged upward, sending a wave of golden dust swirling around them.
The chapel bent under the pressure.
Stone popped.
Wood snapped.
The air wavered.
Then.
A soft, delicate whisper resonated through the glow:
Elizabeth…
not a command,
not a plea but a question.
Elizabeth's breath caught.
"It's asking if I can hear it."
Lucas's voice broke. "Then ignore it. Ignore it!"
"I can't," she whispered. "It's… it's terrified."
The light dimmed sharply, flickering with a panic so palpable that even Lucas felt it in his bones like a child reaching out in the dark.
Elise cried out from across the chapel, "Lucas! The ground LOOK!"
He turned.
The far end of the chapel floor was sinking.
Slowly at first then faster tilting downward toward the growing fissure as if the entire foundation were sliding into a vast hollow beneath it.
"We need to move!" Lucas shouted.
But Elizabeth didn't step.
Couldn't step.
The glow had tightened around her like a trembling cocoon of warmth and sorrow.
"Lucas…" she whispered, breath hitching. "It's choosing."
"NO." His voice thundered with fury he didn't know he had. "YOU choose. Not it."
But she shook her head, tears spilling freely.
"It's desperate, Lucas. It thinks… it thinks I'm the only way up."
Another blast of light erupted from the fissure.
The ground lurched violently.
Elizabeth's foot lifted.
Then the other.
"ELIZABETH!" Lucas roared, seizing her waist with both arms.
She clung to him, nails digging into his shoulders but the shimmering force held her too.
Two forces pulled her at once.
One ancient.
One human.
One buried in sorrow.
One made of love.
Her voice broke into a scream.
"Lucas it's pulling my heartbeat.."
He pulled harder, desperate, choking on dust and fear.
"I'M HERE! ELIZABETH I'M HERE! HOLD ON!"
The golden light surged a final, powerful pulse enough to shake the entire chapel to its core.
Elizabeth's body jerked upward.
Her grip slipped.
The glow wrapped around her ribs like a cradle.
The ancient whisper filled the room:
Elizabeth…
Come see what I remember.
And her fingers still reaching for Lucas
slipped through his grasp.
Lucas screamed her name.
The world fractured.
Elizabeth disappeared into the light.