The moment I stepped through the entrance, the doors closed behind me.
I stopped with one hand still wrapped around the pipe, listening as the locks slid into place with a quiet metallic click. I turned and tried the handle, first normally and then with enough force to make my injured shoulder complain, but the doors refused to move.
"Of course."
I looked through the glass. The street outside was still there, but it already felt strangely distant. The crowd had disappeared, the abandoned cars stood motionless beneath the gray daylight, and even the smoke seemed thinner than it had been minutes earlier.
I looked back into the lobby.
Every light was on.
The reception desk had been pushed sideways, several chairs lay overturned, and one of the security monitors had been smashed so completely that wires hung from the wall. Dark stains stretched across the tiles beneath it.
Something caught my eye near my feet.
A faint silver line ran through the tile.
I crouched.
It wasn’t paint. The light was coming from underneath the tile, disappearing beneath the grout before reappearing a few inches away.
I touched it with the end of the pipe.
The silver glow pulsed once.
Warmth spread through my right arm.
I immediately pulled the pipe back.
The sensation traveled from my fingers toward my wrist before settling beneath my skin.
I stared at my hand.
The veins looked normal.
For now.
My phone vibrated.
I nearly dropped it.
I pulled it out.
Nothing.
No message.
The vibration had come from somewhere inside the building.
A heavy object shifted above me.
Nyelle.
The thought pushed everything else aside.
I turned toward the elevators.
The doors opened.
I stopped.
I hadn’t pressed the button.
The elevator stood empty, its interior lights glowing brightly.
"No."
I walked past.
If something wanted me to take the elevator, I had no intention of making its job easier.
The stairwell door was already open.
That stopped me.
I was almost certain it had been closed when I entered.
I pushed through.
The moment I entered, the noise from the lobby disappeared.
The silence was thicker here.
Beneath my breathing was another sound—a low vibration that came at slow, regular intervals, almost like a pulse traveling through the building.
I placed my hand against the wall.
Warm.
The warmth in my right arm answered.
Not randomly.
In the same rhythm.
I stared at the wall.
The vibration came again.
My arm warmed again.
"The hell..."
I climbed.
The first and second floors passed without anything happening. By the third, my ribs hurt badly enough that I had to stop and catch my breath.
The silver warmth beneath my skin remained.
Waiting.
One more floor.
I climbed the final flight.
The fourth-floor corridor was empty.
Every apartment door was closed.
Every light was on.
Then I saw the blood.
A thin trail crossed the floor from the far end of the corridor.
My stomach tightened.
I followed it.
The trail stopped outside apartment 4B.
Nyelle’s apartment.
I raised the pipe.
The door was slightly open.
"Nyelle?"
No answer.
I pushed it wider.
The living room was dark.
The furniture had been pushed against the walls. The television was shattered, one window was cracked from the inside, and a lamp lay on the floor with its cord torn from the wall.
I looked toward the kitchen.
Empty.
"Nyelle?"
Nothing.
Then I saw something on the floor.
Her phone.
I knew it immediately.
I crouched and picked it up.
The screen was still on.
One message was open.
From me.
Where are you?
No response.
My fingers tightened around the phone.
"Nyelle."
Three slow taps came from the bedroom.
I froze.
Three taps.
A pause.
Then nothing.
I raised the pipe and approached the door.
A scrape came from the other side.
Something had moved.
I pushed the door open.
The bedroom was empty.
The curtains shifted beside the window.
I stepped inside.
The window was open.
Four floors above the street.
I approached carefully and looked outside.
No fire escape.
No balcony.
Nothing.
Then I noticed the mark beside the window.
I had seen it before.
In the street.
The same ancient-looking symbol that had appeared beneath the pavement.
Only this one was incomplete.
A section had been deliberately scratched away.
I stepped closer.
The silver warmth in my arm intensified.
The symbol pulsed once.
My right hand trembled.
Not from fear.
From recognition.
I didn’t know why I knew that, but the sensation was unmistakable.
The System appeared.
[ANOMALOUS ENERGY RESPONSE DETECTED.]
I stared at the words.
Another line formed.
[USER COMPATIBILITY: INCREASING.]
My stomach tightened.
"Compatibility with what?"
The System gave me no answer.
Another message appeared.
[ADAPTATION EVENT DETECTED.]
Warmth moved from my palm into my wrist, then higher, passing my elbow before stopping near my injured shoulder.
Pain flashed through the joint.
I clenched my teeth.
The symbol brightened.
[ANALYSIS AVAILABLE.]
I waited.
Nothing happened.
Then:
[ANALYSIS: INCOMPLETE.]
I stared at the words.
"Incomplete?"
The message disappeared.
A new one replaced it.
[WARNING.]
[THE ENERGY CURRENT IS NOT STABLE.]
My eyes moved toward the symbol.
The final message appeared.
[DO NOT ATTEMPT DIRECT ABSORPTION.]
Then the System vanished.
I lowered my hand.
I didn’t know what direct absorption meant, but I understood the warning.
Whatever this energy was, my body could interact with it.
That didn’t mean my body could survive taking it in.
I stepped backward.
The floor creaked.
I looked down.
A thin silver line had appeared beneath my shoe.
It moved across the floor.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
I followed it with my eyes.
It continued beneath the bedroom door.
Another line appeared.
Then another.
Within seconds, several silver veins were spreading across the apartment floor.
They weren’t moving randomly.
They were all heading toward the hallway.
I stepped out of their path.
The building groaned.
Not the pipes.
Not the walls.
Something deeper.
Something beneath us.
The floor shifted beneath my feet, and I caught myself against the wall.
Then I heard a voice.
Very faint.
From somewhere below.
"Veyric."
I stopped breathing.
Nobody should have known I was here.
Except Nyelle.
And whoever had been sending those messages.
"Nyelle?"
Silence.
Then the voice came again.
"Veyric."
It sounded like her.
That was the problem.
It sounded exactly like her.
My chest tightened as I stepped into the hallway.
"Nyelle!"
No answer.
I moved toward the stairwell, but something caught my attention at the opposite end.
A figure stood there.
Tall.
Motionless.
Its face was hidden in shadow.
The hallway lights flickered.
The figure didn’t move.
I raised the pipe.
"Who are you?"
Nothing.
I took one step toward it.
The figure took one step backward.
It was moving toward the elevator.
The elevator doors opened behind it.
I tightened my grip.
"Wait!"
The figure stepped inside.
I ran.
The doors were closing when I reached them.
I jammed the pipe between them.
The doors stopped.
I forced them apart and stepped inside.
Empty.
The figure was gone.
I looked at the control panel.
Every normal floor button was illuminated.
Ground.
First.
Second.
Third.
Fourth.
Then I noticed something beneath them.
A button I had never seen before.
There was no floor number.
Only the same incomplete symbol from Nyelle’s bedroom.
I stared at it.
The elevator doors closed.
My hand moved toward the emergency stop.
I stopped.
If the figure had disappeared into this elevator, there was only one place it could have gone.
Down.
I pressed the symbol.
The elevator moved.
My stomach dropped.
The floor indicator changed.
4.
5.
6.
7.
I stared at the display.
Those floors didn’t exist.
The numbers continued upward before suddenly changing.
6.
7.
8.
Then:
0.
The number remained for several seconds before disappearing completely.
The elevator kept moving.
There was no basement.
I knew this building.
There had never been a basement.
The lights flickered.
The pressure inside the elevator changed.
My ears popped.
Warmth spread through my right arm, stronger than before, and the silver beneath my skin pulsed once in response.
I almost pressed the emergency stop.
Then I remembered Nyelle’s phone lying alone in her apartment.
I remembered the blood on the corridor floor.
I remembered the voice calling my name.
Whatever was down there might be dangerous.
But if Nyelle had been taken there, stopping now would accomplish nothing.
I kept my hand away from the emergency button.
The elevator continued downward.
Then it stopped.
The doors opened.
Darkness waited beyond them.
Not ordinary darkness.
A deep blue glow pulsed somewhere in the distance, illuminating what looked like stone walls far beyond the elevator.
Stone.
Underground.
Inside a building that had never had a basement.
I stepped out.
The air was colder here, but beneath the cold was the same pressure I had felt beneath the street.
Except down here, it was stronger.
Close enough to feel.
My phone vibrated.
I pulled it from my pocket.
One new message.
Unknown number.
YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE COME.
Another message appeared.
IT KNOWS YOU’RE HERE.
My eyes lifted toward the darkness.
Then a third message appeared.
DON’T LET IT FIND YOUR SISTER.
My breathing stopped.
I looked back at the elevator.
"Who are you?"
For several seconds, there was no response.
Then the phone vibrated again.
One final message appeared.
I’M TRYING TO KEEP YOU ALIVE.
The screen went black.
I lowered the phone.
Something moved in the darkness ahead.
Not a creature.
Something larger.
Something slow.
The blue glow shifted.
I tightened my grip around the pipe and took one step forward.
Then I heard it.
A scream.
"Veyric!"
Nyelle.
There was no hesitation this time.
I ran toward the darkness.