A distant dripping noise echoed through the void.

His body felt cold.

Not just from the damp air pressing against his skin, but from something deeper—like his very existence had been drained.

Slowly, his fingers twitched against the ground beneath him. Rough. Uneven. Stone?

A slow, burning sensation crept up his spine as he shifted. Every muscle protested. His head was pounding, a dull ringing buzzing in his ears, drowning out his thoughts.

"Where… am I?" The Guy said.

His eyes snapped open.

Darkness.

Not total—there was something. A faint glow pulsed within the cavern, veins of dim blue light running along the walls like dying embers. It wasn't much, but enough for him to make out the jagged stone, the towering walls that stretched into endless blackness above him.

His breath quickened. This place… it wasn't right.

He tried to recall how he got here. Nothing. No memories, no familiar thoughts—just a vast, suffocating emptiness.

"Think… just think." His own voice sounded strange, hoarse, as if he hadn't spoken in ages.

What's the last thing I remember?

Silence. Nothing came.

His chest tightened.

Panic clawed at the edges of his mind, but he forced it down. No use losing control. He needed to move, to find something—anything—that would make sense of this.

He pressed his palms against the cold stone and pushed himself upright. His limbs felt wrong. Lighter? No, not quite. Like something was missing.

That was when he noticed it.

A faint sound.

Shuffling.

Not from him.

Something else.

He froze, breath hitching. His eyes darted toward the far edge of the cavern.

In the dim glow, a figure stood at the threshold of the darkness.

Twisted. Unnatural.

Its torso was stretched too thin, bones pressing against a membrane-like skin. Its head twitched at an odd angle, a gaping, vertical slit where its face should have been.

It took a slow, jerking step forward.

A raspy, guttural breath clicked from deep within its throat.

His heart slammed against his ribs.

Not human. Not even close.

For a single second, neither of them moved.

Then, the thing screeched.

A high-pitched, unnatural wail—like tearing metal, like a thousand voices screaming at once.

It lunged.