Beneath the City

The air grew colder as Gean, Lora, and Orin stepped into the passageway beneath Brebos. The weight of the earth above pressed down on them, and the silence was thick—not empty, but expectant.

Lora held her lantern high, casting flickering light along the crumbling stone walls. Strange symbols were etched into the surface, worn down by time but still faintly visible. They weren't from any known language of the Circle.

"These ruins are ancient," Gean murmured. "Older than the city."

Orin nodded. "Brebos wasn't built here by accident. It was built to cover this."

Lora exchanged a glance with Gean. If the city was hiding something this deep beneath its foundations—then what had the builders feared?

They pressed on. The tunnel twisted downward, the air growing heavy with moisture. The deeper they went, the more unnatural the place felt.

Then—a sound.

A slow, scraping noise.

Lora stopped, raising a hand to silence the others. She held her breath.

Silence.

Then, again—the scraping.

Not from ahead. From behind.

Orin stiffened. "It's following us."

Gean drew his weapon, his knuckles white. "Keep moving. We're not staying to find out what it is."

They hurried forward, the passageway widening into a vast underground chamber. Massive stone pillars loomed in the dark, their tops vanishing into shadow. The walls were lined with doorways, leading deeper into the unknown.

At the center of the chamber stood a broken statue, its face long since crumbled away. But the words carved into its base remained intact.

Lora stepped closer, brushing dust from the stone. The inscription was written in an archaic script, but she could still make out a few words.

"It waits below."

A chill ran through her. "What does that mean?"

Orin's voice was barely a whisper. "I told you. The city isn't empty."

Gean scanned the chamber. No bodies. No bones. If the people of Brebos came down here—where had they gone?

Then—a sharp exhale.

Not theirs.

Something was breathing in the dark.

Lora turned sharply, her lantern sweeping across the chamber.

At first, she saw nothing.

Then—movement.

From one of the doorways, a figure stepped forward.

It was human-shaped, but wrong. Its limbs were too thin, too long, its skin pale and stretched over sharp bones. Its head twitched slightly, as if struggling to hold itself upright.

And then—it turned its face toward them.

Or what was left of it.

Where eyes should have been, there were only hollow pits, gaping like open wounds. Its mouth stretched too wide, as if frozen in an eternal scream.

Orin stumbled back in horror. "No… no, no, no…"

The thing took a step forward.

Then another.

And then—it ran.

Lora didn't hesitate. "MOVE!"

They bolted, rushing toward one of the other passageways as the creature lurched after them, its movements unnatural and jerking, but fast.

They didn't stop running until they reached another tunnel, turning sharply and slamming a heavy iron gate closed behind them.

The creature crashed into it a second later, shrieking—a sound that wasn't human. It clawed at the bars, its hollow sockets fixed on them.

Lora's chest heaved. "What—what was that?"

Orin wiped sweat from his brow, his face pale as death. His voice was hollow.

"That was one of the people of Brebos."

Silence fell.

Gean's stomach turned. "That can't be possible. The city fell thousands of years ago."

Orin's haunted eyes met his. "Exactly."

The realization settled over them like ice.

The people of Brebos had never left.

They had become something else.

And whatever was waiting below—it wasn't done with them yet.