The Marked Path

The cold night air hit them like a wave as Gean, Lora, and Orin stumbled out of the tunnels. Their breaths came in ragged gasps, their bodies aching from the frantic escape. The heavy stone entrance behind them was sealed once more, yet the silence outside felt no safer than the darkness they had left behind.

"Something is wrong", Leah said under breath.

The town of Brebosas wasn't as they had left it. The streets, usually dimly lit by flickering lanterns, now lay drenched in unnatural darkness. The moon above was blurred, its light struggling to penetrate the eerie mist curling through the air. Shadows stretched in unnatural directions, twisting like silent, watching figures.

Lora wiped the cold sweat from her brow, her pulse still racing from what they had encountered underground.

"Something followed us. "The thought crept into her mind unbidden, a gnawing certainty she couldn't shake.

Gean scanned the surroundings, his grip tightening on his weapon. "Where are the others?"

The other Enforcers, the ones who had been waiting at the tunnel entrance before they descended, were gone. No signs of struggle. No footprints leading away. Just empty space where people should have been.

Orin exhaled sharply. "This isn't right."

Then, they saw a single lantern, flickering at the town's edge. And beside it was a trail of symbols carved into the dirt.

The Enforcer's Trail;

They approached cautiously; weapons drawn. The symbols in the ground were unlike anything they had seen before.

Some were circles interwoven with jagged lines, others resembled eyes, their forms stretching as though watching from the earth itself. Lora knelt down, tracing one with her gloved fingers. "These weren't made in a hurry. Someone took their time."

Gean's expression darkened. "Someone's leading us somewhere."

Orin examined the flickering lantern. Its wax had barely melted, meaning it had been placed there recently.

Then, a gust of wind whispered through the trees, carrying a voice. Not a real voice, more like a breath of sound, a suggestion of words.

"Follow, follow, follow,"

Lora's stomach twisted. "Did you hear that?"

Gean gave a slow nod, his face unreadable. "Yeah."

The message was clear. Whoever/ whatever left this trail wanted them to follow.

But was it a warning? Or a trap?

They followed the trail through the deserted streets of Brebosas. The town felt emptier than before, as if it had been drained of life.

Every few steps, they found more symbols carved into walls, scratched into wooden doors, even burned into the cobblestone streets.

The eerie silence pressed against them, suffocating in its weight. Even the wind had stilled, as if the town itself was holding its breath.

Then they reached the town centre and stopped.

A shape had been formed in the middle of the plaza, created from bones, tattered cloth, and dark stains that looked disturbingly like dried blood.

It was a spiral, with a symbol they recognized at its core. The same one from the underground chamber.

Lora felt her pulse quicken. "This… isn't random. Someone's trying to show us something."

Orin's face was pale. "Or someone's already been taken."

Gean scanned the area, his jaw clenched. "We need to find the others. Now."

Then a low whisper rose from the spiral. It wasn't from the wind this time. It was coming from the ground beneath them.

Lora took an uneasy step forward, her boots crunching on the dirt. The whispering grew louder, like dozens of voices speaking just below the surface.

Then, just beside the spiral, they spotted something—a torn piece of an Enforcer's uniform.

Gean picked it up, his face hardening. "This belonged to Verran."

Verran was one of their own—an Enforcer known for his precision and skill with puzzles. If anyone was capable of leaving behind a trail of cryptic symbols, it was him.

"Then he's trying to communicate," Lora said, gripping the piece of cloth. "Or he left this behind before something took him."

Gean replied, "I don't think this may be understandable, did he know much that he didn't tell us about."

Orin eyed the spiral warily. "We need to be careful. What if whatever was underground is already here?"

Another gust of wind swept through the plaza. The lanterns hanging from doorways swayed violently—yet the flame of the single lantern that led them here did not flicker.

Gean gestured toward the next set of symbols leading down the narrow alleyway. "We keep moving. If Verran's out there, we find him."

Lora hesitated. The unease in her gut refused to fade.

Something was watching them.

The shadows lining the alley felt wrong. Too long. Too still.

Lora grabbed Gean's arm. "Did you see that?"

Gean turned, scanning the alley. "See what?"

She swallowed hard. The shadow had been human-shaped, but it moved independently of the light sources.

Then it shifted again.

This time, they all saw it.

A figure or rather, its silhouette slid along the wall without a source to cast it. It was flat, like a smudged ink stain that refused to settle.

Orin took a step back. "What in the…"

The shadow twisted, peeling itself away from the wall.

And then it ran toward them.

Lora barely had time to react before it reached them. A cold, suffocating force wrapped around her wrist, dragging her toward the spiral.

She gasped, trying to pull away, but it was like fighting the weight of the entire town pressing against her.

Gean lunged forward, slicing at the shadow with his blade. The weapon passed through it as if through smoke, yet the force gripping Lora weakened just enough for her to stumble free.

Orin tossed a vial of cleansing dust from his satchel. The moment it scattered in the air; the shadow shrieked, a sound not meant for human ears, before vanishing into the ground.

The silence that followed was almost worse than the attack.

Lora clutched her wrist. "That wasn't normal."

Gean exhaled slowly. "No. It wasn't."

Orin looked back at the spiral. "If Verran's alive… he's in more danger than we thought."

They had escaped the tunnels only to find the surface was just as cursed, if not worse.

And somewhere in Brebosas, their missing comrade was leaving a trail of puzzles.

But was he leading them to safety? Or straight into the abyss?