**Chapter 13 - Beneath the World**

**Chapter 13 - Beneath the World**

The fall felt endless.

Ethan's stomach lurched as the darkness swallowed them whole, the sensation of freefall stretching far longer than it should have. His arms wrapped tightly around Ash as the wind howled past him, a rush of stale, suffocating air blasting upward as if they had disturbed something ancient. His ears popped from the pressure shift, and just as he braced for impact—

They hit the ground.

The landing was jarring but not fatal. Ethan rolled instinctively, absorbing the impact, his body crashing into damp stone. Pain flared through his limbs, but he was alive. Somewhere nearby, Brent let out a pained groan, while Kayla cursed under her breath. The echo of their fall carried for what felt like miles before it faded into nothingness.

Ethan forced himself to sit up, every muscle protesting. His flashlight had been torn from his grip during the fall, but Ash's leaves emitted a faint, golden glow, casting eerie shadows against the cavern walls.

"Everyone still breathing?" Ethan asked, his voice hoarse.

"Barely," Brent grumbled, coughing. "Pretty sure I cracked a rib."

Kayla exhaled sharply, shaking her head. "That was too far of a drop. We should be dead."

Ethan agreed. Something wasn't right about this place.

The cavern stretched far beyond the reach of their lights, its vastness oppressive and unnatural. The walls weren't just stone—they were layered with something resembling petrified roots, veins of luminescent blue light pulsing faintly through them like a heartbeat.

Ash trembled against Ethan's grip, its roots twitching wildly. It sensed something. Something vast. Something watching.

A noise reverberated through the cavern—a deep, thrumming sound, almost like breathing. It wasn't human. It wasn't mechanical. It was something else entirely.

Kayla stood slowly, wiping dust from her rifle. "I don't like this. We need to find a way out. Now."

Ethan nodded, scanning their surroundings. His flashlight was about ten feet away, cracked but still functioning. He retrieved it, its weak beam cutting through the gloom just enough to reveal a pathway ahead—a tunnel leading deeper underground.

Brent groaned as he pushed himself up. "Great. Deeper into hell. Just what I wanted."

Kayla shot him a glare. "Would you rather go back up the way we came?"

Brent looked up, grimacing at the impossible height. "Point taken."

Ethan took the lead, Ash coiled around his arm. The tunnel was unnervingly smooth, as if something had carved it deliberately. The further they walked, the more unnatural the environment became. The walls weren't just rock—they had patterns, almost like symbols, carved into them, though some had been eroded by time.

The air was thick and humid, carrying an earthy scent mixed with something metallic. The deeper they went, the stronger that strange humming sound became, reverberating through their bones.

Then, the tunnel opened into a vast chamber.

And they weren't alone.

Shadows shifted against the cavern walls, figures standing unnaturally still. At first, Ethan thought they were statues, remnants of some ancient civilization lost beneath the earth. But then one moved, ever so slightly, its head tilting at an unnatural angle.

Brent muttered a curse, raising his shotgun. "Oh, hell no."

The figures stood at the edges of the chamber, partially fused into the cavern walls. Their skin was stretched and hardened, their eyes hollow pits that faintly glowed with the same blue luminescence running through the roots.

Ethan took a cautious step forward, his heart pounding. "They're not attacking."

"Yet," Kayla whispered.

One of the figures twitched. Then another. Their bodies cracked and shifted as if waking from centuries of slumber. A low, guttural sound emanated from deep within the chamber, a voice—or something close to one.

Ash recoiled suddenly, its roots tightening around Ethan's arm in alarm.

Then, as one, the figures turned their heads toward them.

A whisper, ancient and broken, slithered through the air:

"Outsiders... should not... be here."

The cavern trembled.

And then the figures lunged.