The Enemy in the Shadows

The city hummed in the distance, a low, constant vibration that rattled through the bones of the abandoned hall. Its crumbling marble pillars loomed overhead, casting jagged shadows that stretched across the cold stone floor. Anastasia crouched behind one of them, her pulse steady but her mind already calculating a hundred different scenarios. Every detail mattered now—the cracks in the walls, the distance between the pillars, the exit barely visible through the half-light filtering in from outside. They were running out of time, and the clock was ticking loudly in her head.

"We have to move quickly," she whispered, her voice taut, barely audible above the distant hum. "If they know what we're onto, we've already lost."