The team continued their descent into the cavernous depths, leaving behind the altar and the unsettling carvings. The narrow tunnels twisted and turned, forcing them to crawl through tight spaces and climb over jagged rocks. The deeper they went, the more disorienting the passageways became, as though the cave itself was shifting and changing around them.
Sarah couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. Every time she glanced over her shoulder, she caught fleeting glimpses of movement in the shadows, but whenever she focused her flashlight, there was nothing there.
"Do you feel that?" she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. "It's like... something's here with us."
Marcus nodded, his expression grim. "Yeah. I've been feeling it too. Like we're not alone."
Emily, leading the group, pressed forward, undeterred. "It's just your imagination. This cave has been sealed off for centuries. There's nothing down here but us."
But even as she spoke, a strange pressure began to build in the air, a low hum that seemed to vibrate through their bones. It wasn't loud, but it was constant—an eerie, droning sound that filled the silence.
The tunnel opened into another chamber, this one even larger than the last. Stalactites hung from the ceiling like jagged teeth, and the floor was uneven, covered in loose stones and debris. In the center of the chamber was another structure, this one resembling an archway made of the same strange stone as the altar.
"What is this?" Marcus asked, stepping closer to the archway. "Some kind of doorway?"
As they approached, the droning hum grew louder, almost unbearable. Sarah pressed her hands to her ears, trying to block out the sound, but it seemed to come from within her own skull, reverberating through her thoughts.
"This place is wrong," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the hum. "We need to leave."
But Emily was already examining the archway, her eyes alight with curiosity. "It's a portal of some kind. I think it was used in their rituals. Maybe they believed it could connect them to their gods."
Tommy stood at the edge of the chamber, his back against the wall, his face pale. "We're not supposed to be here. This place is cursed. We have to get out before—"
His voice was cut off by a sudden, sharp crack. The ground beneath them shook violently, and a fissure split the floor of the chamber. Marcus stumbled backward as the rocks beneath his feet crumbled away, sending him sprawling to the ground.
"What the hell is happening?" he shouted, scrambling to his feet.
Emily backed away from the archway, her face pale. "I don't know! It must be some kind of natural phenomenon—an earthquake or—"
Before she could finish her sentence, a blinding flash of light erupted from the archway, and the air around them seemed to ripple like water. For a brief moment, the world tilted, and they were plunged into darkness.
When the light returned, everything had changed.