We ran.
The ground trembled beneath us, cracks spider-webbing out from the altar where Freddie still lay laughing, his voice echoing unnaturally in the night air. The wind roared in our ears, but beneath it was something worse—a sound, deep and droning, as if the island itself was alive and groaning in response to our presence.
Ava led the way, pulling Will and me across the uneven terrain, her injured shoulder slowing her but not stopping her. I risked one last glance back. The altar where Freddie knelt was splitting apart, a jagged fissure yawning open in the earth like the island itself was trying to swallow him. But Freddie didn't resist. He just knelt there, smiling, his arms raised toward the void above.
Then the shadows began to rise.
From the fissure, it was coming. Black tendrils slithered out of the ground, writhing like a nest of serpents, each one spreading and twisting in unnatural directions. The thing that had pursued us earlier—whatever this nightmare entity was—had found us again. Only now, it was waking up.
"Ava!" I shouted, the panic rising in my throat. "It's coming up—fast!"
"I know!" she snapped, her voice straining against the wind. "We need to get off this plateau before it collapses!"
Will stumbled, nearly falling behind, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her forward. Her breathing was ragged, and her small frame was trembling, but she didn't slow. Somehow, even in her fragile state, she pushed through.
"Where do we go?!" I yelled, my voice barely audible over the chaos.
"There!" Ava pointed toward a dark, jagged cleft in the rocks ahead. "It's a tunnel. I saw it earlier—if we can get inside, we might lose it!"
I didn't ask questions. We ran harder, the sound of the monster rising behind us. It was close—too close. I didn't dare look back, but I could feel it. The air felt heavier, pressing down on my shoulders, and the shadows seemed to stretch and pulse around us, as if the island itself had become part of the creature.
We reached the entrance to the tunnel just as the ground buckled beneath our feet. Rocks splintered and tumbled into the abyss, and the monster let out a noise—a low, reverberating roar that wasn't like anything I'd ever heard. It wasn't alive. It wasn't dead. It was something else.
Ava shoved me and Will into the tunnel first. "Go! Keep moving!"
I didn't stop to argue. The tunnel was narrow and jagged, forcing us to move in single file. Ava was right behind us, her knife still clutched tightly in her good hand, the rusted crowbar gripped in my own feeling like a useless toy against something so vast.
The darkness swallowed us whole as we moved deeper into the rock. The air was damp and stale, and each step echoed ominously ahead of us. The only sounds were our harsh breathing and the occasional rumble of the earth shifting behind us.
Eventually, the roaring and shaking began to fade. We slowed our pace, the urgency of escape giving way to exhaustion. My legs burned, my chest heaved, and Will leaned heavily against the tunnel wall, her face pale and streaked with dirt.
"I think… we lost it," I gasped, leaning against the rock, trying to catch my breath.
"Don't count on it," Ava muttered. She was crouched a few steps ahead, peering into the darkness. "It's out there. Watching. Waiting."
Will looked up, her eyes wide. "Freddie… we left him."
I swallowed hard, guilt twisting in my stomach. Freddie—who had been our friend, a fellow survivor—hadn't been himself. That thing, whatever it was, had taken him. It had twisted his mind and body into something else, something unrecognizable.
"He's gone," Ava said flatly. "If we went back, we'd be dead, too."
Will opened her mouth to argue, but the words died on her lips. There was no point in denying it. Whatever Freddie was now, he wasn't ours.
"Where does this tunnel lead?" I asked, forcing my thoughts away from Freddie. "Does it get us off the island?"
Ava hesitated. "I don't know. I was only up here once before. There might be a way down if we follow it far enough, but…" She trailed off, her gaze flickering toward the darkness ahead.
"But what?" I pressed.
"There's something in these tunnels," she said quietly. "I don't know what, but we're not alone here."
The words sent an icy chill through me, and Will visibly shrank back against the wall.
"Then what do we do?" I asked.
Ava stood, wincing as she shifted her injured shoulder. "We keep moving. Staying here isn't an option. We find the other side, and we figure out what's next."
I nodded, gripping the crowbar tighter. Will said nothing, but she fell in line behind Ava as we began to move again.
The tunnel twisted and turned in strange ways, like it wasn't built so much as grown. The air grew colder the deeper we went, and the faint sound of dripping water echoed from somewhere in the distance. Every now and then, I swore I heard something else—a faint scuttling, the scrape of something on stone—but whenever I looked, there was nothing there.
Ava led us with unwavering determination, but I could see the strain on her face, the sweat beading at her brow. Her shoulder wasn't doing well, and we had no way to treat it.
After what felt like hours, the tunnel opened into a larger chamber. It was a massive cavern, the ceiling so high it disappeared into darkness. Stalagmites rose like jagged teeth from the floor, and in the center of the room, there was a small pool of water that shimmered faintly.
Ava paused, scanning the chamber warily. "Rest here," she said finally, her voice low. "Not long, though."
We collapsed to the ground near the pool, too tired to argue.
Will cupped some water in her hands, staring at it warily before taking a small sip. "Do you think we'll get out of here?" she whispered.
I looked at Ava, who didn't answer. She just stared into the dark, her knife resting loosely on her lap.
"I don't know," I said finally, the words barely audible. "But we're still alive. That has to mean something."
Will nodded slowly, but there was no relief in her expression.
Ava suddenly tensed, her gaze snapping toward one of the tunnels leading out of the cavern. "Something's coming."
I froze, gripping the crowbar, my heart pounding in my chest. Will's breath hitched as we all listened.
The faint sound of footsteps echoed toward us—slow, deliberate.
"Not again," Will whispered, trembling.
But I knew, deep in my gut, that this wasn't the monster. It wasn't Freddie either.
This was something new.
And it was getting closer.