The world returned in fragments—a dull ache in my head, the echo of that blinding light fading into suffocating darkness. I blinked, trying to focus, but the blackness around me was absolute. The ground beneath me was hard and cold, like stone, and the air felt thick and cloying, as though it were alive.
"Is everyone okay?" Ava's voice cut through the quiet, sharp and breathless.
"I think so," Cole groaned from somewhere nearby.
"I'm here," Will added softly, though her voice wavered. I could hear the faint sound of her crying, but I couldn't blame her. My own hands were trembling.
I forced myself to sit up, my limbs heavy. "What happened? Did we… did we get away?"
Ava's silhouette moved in the dark. "I don't know. The light—" she paused, as though unwilling to finish the thought. "It did something. It stopped them."
"For now," Cole muttered, his voice low. "But look around. Wherever we are, it's not the same place."
I reached out blindly, my fingertips brushing cold stone. The faint pulse of that strange hum was gone, replaced by a silence so deep it felt like the air itself was holding its breath.
Then, from the darkness, a voice echoed—soft and raspy, carrying a familiar edge that froze me in place.
"Hello… friends."
I turned sharply toward the sound, my blood running cold. Ava's flashlight flickered to life just as Cole managed to get his working again. The twin beams of light cut through the blackness, illuminating the chamber we were in—a smaller, circular room, the walls covered in more of those strange, spiraling symbols. But it wasn't the symbols that made my stomach twist.
It was him.
Freddie.
Or what was left of him.
He stood at the far edge of the room, his form grotesquely stretched and wrong. His body was draped in shadows that seemed to ripple like liquid, his limbs unnaturally long and thin. His face was barely recognizable, pale and twisted, as though something had hollowed him out from the inside. His eyes—once familiar—were now pits of blackness that glistened faintly like oil.
Will choked out a cry. "No. No, it can't be—Freddie's dead!"
Freddie tilted his head, the movement jerky and unnatural. A smile split his face—a too-wide, too-sharp grin that looked as though it would tear his skin apart. "Am I? It doesn't feel like it. Not anymore."
"Stay back!" Ava barked, stepping forward with her knife raised, though her hand trembled.
Freddie took a slow, shuffling step toward us, the shadows around him spilling across the floor like tar. "Why are you afraid?" His voice was soft, mocking. "It's still me. Don't you recognize your friend?"
"You're not Freddie," I said, forcing the words out through gritted teeth. "You're something else. Something twisted."
Freddie let out a low, rattling laugh that seemed to echo from the walls. "Twisted? Maybe. But I'm not alone."
As if on cue, the shadows on the far wall shifted. Another figure stepped forward, emerging from the blackness with the same unnatural movements.
Billy.
Or rather, what used to be Billy. He was smaller than Freddie, hunched and warped, his limbs twitching with spasms as though he couldn't fully control them. Like Freddie, his eyes were empty, gleaming pools of black, and his skin looked stretched and waxy, patches of it melding with the darkness that clung to him.
Will staggered back, covering her mouth. "Billy… oh my god."
"He brought us here," Freddie said, his grin widening as he gestured to Billy. "Poor Billy didn't want to come at first, but the shadows showed us. They welcomed us. And now… we're part of them."
Billy twitched, his mouth opening and closing as though trying to speak. A hoarse, gurgling sound escaped him, like a half-formed scream caught in his throat.
Cole swore under his breath. "This isn't happening."
Ava grabbed my arm, her voice sharp. "We need to move. Now."
Freddie's grin faltered. "Leaving so soon? But you've only just arrived. There's so much more to see. So much more to become."
The shadows around them started to move again, rippling outward like a living tide. Freddie and Billy stepped forward, the blackness trailing them like ink, their forms beginning to dissolve and reform with each step.
"Run!" Ava shouted.
We bolted for the nearest gap in the wall, a narrow opening barely big enough to squeeze through. I didn't dare look back as we stumbled into the darkness, but I could hear the shadows behind us, slithering across the stone like a thousand skittering insects.
Freddie's voice followed us, echoing through the tunnels. "You can't run forever! The darkness knows you now! It's inside you!"
We sprinted down the tunnel, Cole leading with his flickering flashlight. The shadows were close behind, and the ground beneath us seemed to vibrate, as though the entire place was waking up.
Will sobbed as she ran. "They're not supposed to be here. They're not supposed to be here!"
"They're part of this place now," I said, barely able to get the words out. "The shadows—this thing—it changed them."
Cole stumbled to a stop as the tunnel split into two paths. "Which way?"
Ava spun, her face pale as she glanced between the tunnels and the darkness swelling behind us. "We don't have time to think. Left!"
We turned sharply, the tunnel narrowing as we ran. My lungs burned, but I forced myself to keep moving. Behind us, I could hear Freddie's laughter—low and distorted, echoing off the walls like it was coming from everywhere at once.
Finally, the tunnel widened again, spilling us into another chamber. This one was smaller, but at its center stood something new—a pedestal carved from dark stone. On its surface sat an object: a black sphere, its surface smooth and gleaming like polished glass. It pulsed faintly, a soft rhythm that matched the hum I felt deep in my bones.
Ava pointed at it, her voice sharp. "That's it! It's connected to this place. To them."
Cole staggered forward, panting. "What are we supposed to do? Destroy it?"
Before Ava could answer, the shadows poured into the room behind us, Freddie and Billy emerging from the darkness like living nightmares. Freddie's voice was a rasping whisper. "Too late."
I didn't think. I ran to the pedestal, grabbing the sphere with both hands. The moment I touched it, a searing pain shot through me, as though the shadows themselves were trying to pull me apart.
The chamber shook, the walls splitting as light erupted from the sphere, cutting through the darkness like a blade. Freddie and Billy screamed, their forms unraveling into smoke as the light consumed them.
"HOLD ON!" Ava shouted.
I gritted my teeth, holding the sphere tighter as the room exploded with light. The shadows shrieked one final time before everything was swallowed in brilliance.
And then—silence.
I opened my eyes slowly, the light fading. The chamber was gone. The shadows were gone. Ava, Cole, and Will were lying beside me, alive but battered.
The sphere was gone, too. Only a black mark remained where it had sat.
Will pushed herself up, her face streaked with tears. "Is it… over?"
I looked around, my heart still pounding. "For now."
But I knew better. The shadows might be gone, but Freddie's final words lingered in my mind:
The darkness knows you now.
And I wasn't sure it would ever let us go.