The heartbeat came from the earth's core. It had always been there, thumping below the surface, a quiet pulse of something ancient and uncaring. But now, it grew louder. A steady rhythm that vibrated through the ground and rattled in bones.
Ellis first noticed it three days ago, when he was digging behind his house to plant a garden. The ground was soft, easier to break through than he expected. He had hit a pocket of rock, then heard it. A deep, resonant thud that made his chest ache, like something alive in the earth. At first, he thought it was just a passing tremor, maybe some kind of underground movement, like an aftershock.
But that night, he lay in bed, listening to the hum of the world outside his window, and he felt it again. The sound was faint, but undeniable. A heartbeat. Something beneath the soil, beneath the concrete and wood of his house, pulsing in time with his own. It was too regular, too rhythmic to be natural. Too deliberate.
The next morning, Ellis went to work. He tried to tell himself it was nothing. Maybe some old pipes under the street, or the shifting of tectonic plates, or even a trick of the mind. But when he reached the office, he couldn't shake the feeling. That thrum, that deep and steady pulse, was still there, in the back of his skull.
Days passed, and it didn't stop. At work, he couldn't focus. He'd hear the pounding while on calls, during meetings, during the hum of his computer. It was there, just below the surface of everything, a constant reminder that something was wrong.
On the fourth day, he couldn't take it anymore. The sound was louder now, reverberating in the walls of his apartment. He went outside to get some air, but it was no use. The ground beneath his feet trembled with each beat, like something inside it was trying to break free.
The trees didn't sway in the wind. The air was still. People passed by without noticing, their faces tired, eyes on the ground. No one else heard it. No one else could feel it. But Ellis could. And it was getting worse.
The heartbeat sounded like it was in his chest now, as if it were his own heart trying to pound its way out of his body. He felt the pressure of it in his throat, in his skull. He could feel it deep in his stomach, a gnawing, pulling sensation that grew stronger every day.
He spent the night at his desk, too jittery to sleep. His computer screen flickered in front of him, and in the silence of the dark apartment, the heartbeat sounded so loud he thought his ears might bleed. Thud. Thud. Thud. Each beat was a drum, a reminder of something terrible.
He stood up suddenly, feeling the pull of it beneath his feet. He grabbed his jacket and left the apartment, determined to find the source of the sound. The street was quiet. No one seemed to notice him, or the way the ground seemed to tremble underfoot. The heartbeat was everywhere, like it was in the very soil, in the concrete beneath the pavement.
He found himself walking toward the park. The trees swayed slightly in the evening breeze, the only movement around him. His footsteps echoed off the ground, but there was something else beneath it. That pulse, louder now, pulling him forward. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
When he reached the center of the park, he stopped. The trees had thinned, and there was a small, unmarked patch of earth in front of him. He didn't know why, but he knelt down and pressed his hands into the soil. The heartbeat was louder here, close, thumping beneath his palms, rattling his bones.
And then he heard something else. A low, guttural whisper. It wasn't words, not really, but something just as real. It was like the earth itself was speaking to him. Calling to him.
"Ellis."
He jerked back, his heart racing. His hands were shaking, but the pulse was still there, still hammering through the ground. He wasn't sure if it was in his head, if he was imagining things, or if the earth itself was alive somehow. Alive in a way that was wrong. Alive in a way that wanted something from him.
He stood, his mind racing. The park was empty. He looked around, but there was nothing, no one. Yet, the heartbeat was everywhere. It rattled through the earth, through the air, through his thoughts.
Suddenly, the ground shifted beneath him, a tremor that sent him stumbling back. He fell to his knees, his breath coming fast, and the earth seemed to answer, the beat growing louder, more insistent.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
He couldn't escape it. The pulse of the earth wrapped around him, squeezing the air from his lungs. His fingers dug into the soil, trying to hold on to something, anything, to stop the overwhelming sensation.
It wasn't just sound. The beat was becoming physical, pushing against him from all sides. He pressed his palms to the earth, but it felt like it was moving beneath him. Like the ground itself was a living thing, breathing with each beat. A thing that was desperate. Hungry.
"Ellis," the voice whispered again, and this time it was louder. Closer. It was coming from the ground, from the heart of the earth itself. He could feel it deep in his bones.
He gasped, his body trembling with the force of it. He had to leave, had to get away, but the earth wouldn't let him. The heartbeat throbbed like a drum in his chest, louder, faster. Thud. Thud. Thud.
He staggered to his feet, stumbling backward, but the ground cracked open beneath him. He fell into the gaping hole, his hands scrabbling at the dirt, but there was nothing to hold on to. The darkness swallowed him, and the heartbeat was all he could hear now, all he could feel.
It was everywhere. It was inside him.
The ground closed over him, and the heartbeat stopped.
Then, something inside him began to pulse. Thud. Thud. Thud.
He gasped, his chest aching with the weight of it. He tried to scream, but the sound was smothered by the earth around him. His hands moved to his chest, feeling the steady rhythm of his own heartbeat, but it didn't feel like his anymore. It was something else, something ancient, something that belonged to the earth itself.
It was the earth's heartbeat, now inside him. The pulse of the world, coursing through his veins. He could feel it in his throat, in his head. It was taking him over, filling him with the hunger that had been buried in the soil. The earth wanted him. It wanted him to become part of it.
Ellis tried to scream again, but all that came out was a wet rasp. His vision blurred, and the world around him dissolved. He couldn't breathe. The pulse was in him, taking over, drowning him in the rhythm of the earth.
The last thing he heard before everything went silent was the heartbeat, the thrum of the earth's pulse, the rhythm that had started it all. But now, it wasn't just the earth that was alive. It was him, too. Alive in a way that wasn't human. Alive in a way that wasn't right.
And the world would keep beating, just as it always had.