Chapter 15: The Voice in the Dark

Lena's feet carried her further into the heart of the forgotten town, each step heavier than the last. The air felt thick, pressing down on her chest as if the very world itself was holding its breath. The street, once full of life, was now nothing more than an empty shell. The buildings were hollow, their stone facades crumbling under the weight of time, their windows shattered like the remnants of memories that had been long lost. It was a ghost town, but not in the way she had expected. It was more than just abandoned. It was erased—an afterthought, a place that had once been, now condemned to fade into oblivion.

Lena's hand brushed against the cold, rough stone of one of the houses as she passed by. The touch sent a shiver through her, as though the building itself was alive, aware of her presence. She paused, her breath shallow. There was something off about the town. The way the silence settled around her, the stillness in the air—it wasn't just the absence of life. It was as if the place itself had been caught in a moment of stasis, frozen in time, waiting.

She took another step forward, feeling the weight of a thousand unseen eyes on her, eyes that weren't there but might have once been. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw it—movement. A shadow, barely a flicker, slipping between the ruins, vanishing into the darkness. Lena's heart skipped a beat, her pulse quickening.

She wasn't alone.

Her hand instinctively went to the hilt of her blade, but the familiar weight of it brought little comfort now. The blade, the one she had carried through countless battles, seemed suddenly inadequate against the dark presence lurking just beyond her reach. It wasn't the kind of enemy that could be fought with steel.

Another flicker. The shadow had moved again, this time farther down the road, just beyond the range of her sight. Lena hesitated, the hairs on the back of her neck standing at attention. The silence around her seemed to grow thicker, more oppressive. She was no longer just walking through an empty town. She was trespassing in a place that had forgotten itself—forgotten its past, its people, and its purpose. But something else still lingered here. Something ancient. Something that remembered.

Lena's feet moved of their own accord, her curiosity driving her forward, though every instinct screamed for her to run. The shadow moved again, this time closer, and the unmistakable feeling of being watched settled over her like a weight. She could almost feel its eyes on her, cold and malevolent, waiting for her to make a move.

Then, as if summoned by her thoughts, a voice broke the silence. A whisper, at first, then louder—louder still. It was low, guttural, a voice that seemed to echo from all directions at once. It was as though the sound wasn't coming from a person but from the very walls, from the earth beneath her feet, from the sky above. The voice felt older than time itself, stretching across the fabric of reality, worming its way into her mind.

"You should not be here."

The words were soft, barely audible, but they carried an undeniable weight, a presence that made Lena's blood run cold. She froze in place, every muscle in her body tensed, but she didn't turn around. She couldn't. The voice was everywhere, the sound crawling into her ears, coiling into her thoughts like a serpent.

"You should not have come to this place. It was never meant for you. The Hollow Sky watches, and it will claim you as it claimed all who came before."

Lena's hand tightened on the hilt of her blade, but she couldn't bring herself to unsheathe it. The voice, the words, they weren't threats. They weren't even warnings. They were truths, deep and unfathomable, truths she wasn't ready to face. The air around her seemed to shimmer, and for a moment, she thought she saw a figure in the distance—tall and gaunt, shrouded in the darkness that had settled over the town.

Her breath came in shallow gasps, her heart thundering in her chest. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice shaking but defiant. She had come this far. She had faced horrors before. She wasn't going to falter now.

The figure didn't respond. Instead, the voice continued, growing louder, its resonance vibrating through the very core of the town, as though it were the heartbeat of the land itself.

"I am the Voice of the Dark. I am the memory that remains after the Hollow Sky has taken all. I am the echo of those who have been consumed, their souls caught between the worlds. You think you know the truth, but you are merely standing on the precipice of something far greater than you can imagine. The stars have moved, yes. But they will not save you. The end is already written, and you are part of it. The Hollow Sky will come for you, as it came for them."

Lena's mind raced. She had come to understand that the Hollow Sky was not just a force. It was a cycle. It came, devoured, and then moved on, leaving nothing but whispers in its wake. But she had not known the full extent of its power—how it erased history itself, how it rewrote everything it touched, until nothing remained. And now, standing in this forgotten place, Lena understood. The town had not been abandoned. It had been erased. The people had vanished, their very existence obliterated, as though they had never been.

"The town that forgot itself," Lena whispered, her voice barely a breath. "It wasn't abandoned. It was erased."

The voice laughed, a sound like rustling leaves, hollow and distant. "Yes, child. The town forgot itself because it was never meant to be remembered. And soon, you will forget too. The Hollow Sky will claim you, and your name will be lost to time. You will become one with the darkness, a shadow of what once was. You will be forgotten."

Lena's pulse raced. The Voice's words gnawed at her, threatening to unravel the fragile hold she had on her own sanity. The town, the people—all forgotten. No record, no trace. The Hollow Sky didn't just destroy lives; it erased them from the very fabric of existence. But Lena was not just going to vanish. She would not let herself be another name on the wind, another ghost in the dark.

Her eyes narrowed, her breath steadying as she forced the fear back. "I won't let you have me," she said, her voice low and determined. "I won't let the Hollow Sky take me. I will fight. I will remember."

The darkness seemed to recoil, as though the very concept of defiance had startled it. The voice faltered, then grew quiet, a long, tense silence stretching between them.

"Then you are foolish. But your fight is futile. No one can escape the Hollow Sky. You will learn that soon enough."

The voice, once so overwhelming, now seemed to dissipate, fading into the air like smoke, leaving only the hollow echo of its words behind. Lena stood in the center of the street, alone once more, but the oppressive silence lingered. The weight of the voice's warning hung over her like a shroud. The Hollow Sky was coming, and no matter how hard she fought, the truth remained unchanged: she was already part of its story. The cycle would not be broken.

But she wasn't ready to give in. Not yet.

She turned away, her resolve firm, the weight of the unknown pressing heavily on her shoulders. The fight was far from over. And now, more than ever, Lena knew one thing for sure: She would not be forgotten.