Chapter 253

That was what scared John the most. They weren't dealing with enemies, they were dealing with the unknown. And the unknown wasn't bound by rules, fear, or logic.

They moved inside silently, each person lost in their thoughts. Mark sat heavily on a metal crate and started checking the cuts on his arm. Veronica immediately went to her tools, fiddling with the detector like its steady blinking would offer her answers. Gilbert removed the memory card from his recording device, already inserting it into a laptop. Naomi stood by the entrance for a long time, looking out into the darkness as if expecting the creature to have followed them back. John stood in the center, stone in hand, watching the way it pulsed with a rhythm eerily close to a heartbeat.

"We hurt it," Naomi finally said, breaking the silence. Her voice was low but firm. "Not enough to kill it. But it backed off."

"It feared the stone," John confirmed. "Whatever that thing is… it recognized the energy."